Terracotta Warriors

As I look back I see these pictures only got partial uploads.  So here are some repeats for ya....

Last Night in Shanghai

We are finishing up our trip here in Shanghai.  We spent the day at the museum and after lunch we visited a very busy shopping area.  Tonight we will have a simple dinner with our group and then pack for that short flight back home.  I think we had a very good heritage tour and learned much about China and where our children are from.

yesterday was hot and muggy: today was cold and damp. There was a neat thunder storm last night.  Tomorrow is going to be warm again.  Our tour guide calls it baby-face weather. 

See you at home!

Shanghai: 100 floors

Today was a good day of site seeing.  We saw the buhdist temple.  It was very interesting.  After a good lunch we headed to the 4Th tallest building in the world. 

Ever been to the 100th floor and look down?  What a view that is!  I loved it. Next door is the nearly complete 2nd tallest building.  To look down on all the other tall buildings was amazing.

After the vertigo visit our guide took us to a "cheap" shopping area where we looked at some interesting item for cheap!  we did buy Linda a couple new dresses since she is outgrowing her others we bought 8 your ago.

A good day we did have.  Our guide is very nice and helpful here.

Shanghai

We safely arrived in Shanghai after an hour delay.  Thick fog was the culprit.  We didn't get to bed until after midnight!  Yeah, I'm cursed.  Woke up at 6!

Here was my view from floor 16 of the hotel.  Let's see what the day brings. 

Various pics from around

Here are a few pictures from various activities.  Pandas!  Shadow Puppets.

The puppet Linda is holding is very old. 

Pics from Nanchang

The Tengwang Pagoda. 

Pictures!

I had to transfer from the tablet to phone to get the pictures up.  Here are a couple. 
Old orphanage sign and finding spot.  Linda standing in new orphanage under sign with her Chinese name.

Nanchang & Suichuan

The whirlwind portion of our trip is going strong.  We split from Chengdu and landed in Nanchang.  This is very important to us as this is were we first met our daughter, Linda.  We stayed in the the Gloria Hotel, the same one we stayed when we traveled here before.  It has changed a bit, but not much.  We enjoyed a nice lunch and then we headed to the Tengwang Pagoda.  Unfortunately we were unable to duplicate a picture with Mel and Linda in front of a rooster statue.  The area is under renovation.  We headed down the shopping street we liked so much.  Well, guess what was under construction.  New subway and renovation of the shopping street.  Still brought back memories. 

We decided to purchase a gift fruit basket for the orphanage director.  Very nice.  We hit the market to get some munchies for the 5 hour bus ride and water.  Once back to the hotel we crashed. 

Five hours to Suichuan!  Yes sir.  A long bus ride and it was wonderful to see the country side.  Rice patties were being prepared.  It is warm and humid as we head south.  We saw huge bamboo forests, too. 

I'll elaborate on the significance of Suichuan in the next post.  It is time for dinner.  This should be quite interesting.  More soon!

Xi'An

I've had very little time to post.  Since Beijing we've done a bunch.  I will have to see what I've posted, but we took the overnight train from Beijing to Xi'An.  I thought it was very nice. I actually slept!

Here in Xi'an we've seen a museum and had a traditional hot pot.  We also went for authentic dumplings and a show.  Very long day just like we had in Beijing.  Today we took a trip to a terracotta factory to see how they make terracotta warrior replicas.  They are made just like they did in the past using the special clay found in this region and a kiln similar to what was used.  From there we visited a "local" school so the kids can see how they spend their day.  In my opinion this school was more what I imagined than when we saw a school in Guangzhou.  Poor kids had a decent school, but no heat!  They had their jackets on, but it did not phase them. 

Of course the big part of the day was visiting the Terracotta Warriors.  As one would expect it is amazing.  Simply amazing.  Such history.  To see it in person lacks in words.  Walking into Pit 1 and seeing the rows.  Seeing the details on the warriors is amazing.  Meeting the farmer who found the first piece while digging a well is cool.  We even have a picture with him.  We had a wonderful noodle lunch at the museum. 

The site seeing ended today on the ancient wall of Xi'an.  The top was resurfaced in 1984, but the wall has been in tact for about 300 years.  It even has  a mote around it!   Very cool.  You can rent bikes and ride the wall, but my doctor would not approve with my arm.  At least we got to walk around a bit. 

I'll post when I can.  We tour another museum here tomorrow, then we fly to Chengdu tomorrow! 

The Summer Palace Garden

Yesterday, which is your today's now, we visited the Summer Palace Garden.  We learned a bit about the Dragon Lady.  Not a very nice operation, but very smart.  The Garden is amazing. 

Now I need to figure out how to attach a couple photos with this app!

Photos are courtesy of Linda, except with her attempting calligraphy. 

We also visited a Hutong and had an awesome lunch with a family.  Finished the day with a show.  Congress Acrobats!  They finished the show with 8 motorcycles in a steel ball!  This team hills the world`s record with 11.  Kids thought it was awesome!  And it was.

Today we see some of the Great Wall.

Arrived in China!

What an adventurous flight!  All in San Francisco! 

Flight from San Diego to San Fran was totally uneventful.    Event the layover.  Then came time to load up the 747-400 to Beijing.  We all got on board and settled down.  Just  bit late when they closed the door.  Then the wait.  No one really noticed, but soon an announcement stating "we are having a mechanical discrepancy with one of the engines."  OK, what the hell is a "mechanical discrepancy?"  We were scheduled to depart 1:08pm and they said a decision would be made by 2pm. 

Next announcement:  "We will de-plane and get another one!"  Yup, we all had to get off and head for another gate, wait for a new 747, load up, and split.  All the people were all cooperative and the 3 hour delay was not too bad.  All I can say is at least they found an issue BEFORE we even moved.  The flight itself was LONG as you can imagine.

We arrived all tired and a bit after 8pm Beijing time.  The immigration line was long.  We met our guide and piled on the bus to the hotel.  Traffic?  San Diego you have NOTHING to complain about.  Sunday night 9pm and it was stop and go!  Crazy. 

Well, we are up.  We are getting ready for our day.  Today we visit the Imperial Summer Garden and some other things.  This trip is going to be very touristy, so be prepared for all the touristy posting. The Great Wall is tomorrow!

Oh, if you are reading this post, I am through the GFW.

Nerves

<b>Trying out the Blogger app.</b>
I want to see if html code works. 
<p>So we have a little case of the nerves.  Yeah, it happens every time I travel, but this is a big trip.  Looking forward to it.  <br>
Unfortunately one family has to drop out of the trip.  I've sad about it.  Let's just say a "family life change" has occurred.  I wish them the best. <br>
</p>
<p>Next is our flight.  All packed except those things we need.  This is going to be great! </p>

<b>Cheers!</b>

Our Journey Back

The last few months have been hectic.  We are going back!  We are going on a heritage tour to visit the land where Linda was born.  It will be an adventure and a thrill.  We get to retrace some of our steps before receiving Linda so she can see what we have seen.  We are going to see places and things we all have never seen before.  And we get to go to where she was "found". 

We look forward to a safe trip.  A fun trip.  And to cap it off we get to travel with seven of the original families we traveled with 8 years ago.  :-)

I cannot wait to update this for you all!

Wow! Has it been 8 Years?

Gotcha Day is coming.  A revelation hit me.  8 years!  Our "little" girl has been with us for 8 years!  How they have grown.

We plan on a heritage tour coming up next year.  I want to record our travels.  Most will be a vacation and fun.  We will visit Suichuan, Jiangxi.  How cool this will be.

What does Linda do now?  Just started 3rd grade!  She loves school.  She loves to swim!  This is a capture from a video of her in last month's swim meet doing the butterfly during her IM, or Individual Medley.  The Summer Championships are coming up this weekend. Go Tiger Sharks!

RIP Amber

I am very sad to blog this but I know we have friends that new Amber very well. Today we had to put Amber to sleep. Since April she has gone blind, lost her sense of smell and starting to loose her hearing. She was often confused about where she was and how to get to places. But even through that she would still wag her tail when we pet her and would eat like a pig.

Amber was a great dog. She loved to go to Lake Havasu and chase bunnies. She caught a bird once. That was not pretty. Bill lost a toe nail over that.

Bill took her this morning. When he came home he told Linda and I that she was at peace. He could tell that Amber knew what was going on and was very relaxed in his arms.

We miss her so much already. But I know she is in a good place with her dog friends, Princess and Annie and she is looking over us and still barking at strangers from up above.

God bless Amber!

5 Years!

Five years ago today we had a wonderful addition to our family.  It is still emotional to think about it, and I am not one for emotions.  ;-)  How time flies.  How fast our little ones grow up.  Five years!  Let's compare:

Taken yesterday, 9/17/11 at baseball game

Padre Family Day, 2007

We love Linda so much.  She is fun, intelligent, and very sweet.  She started Kindergarten this fall.  She loves school.  And, she loves to swim. 

And now to have more fun with my little one! 

Birthday Boy Zadie

Hello Everyone:

This weekend we were up in L.A. celebrating Zadie's birthday. It was a very nice weekend. Bubbe hung out with Linda Saturday night while Bill and I went to see Source Code at Century City. Do you know that you can actually reserve a seat now when you purchase your movie tickets? Then we had a nice Italian dinner at Tuscana in Century City. It was very nice. Linda had a great time with her Bubbe and she went to sleep pretty quickly.

Sunday was Zadie's birthday brunch. It was a beautiful day so we ate outside. Zadie made some great lox.. ah heck he made a great meal with it too. :-)

My mom bought a wonderful cake. The "note" part of it was made with marzipan.

Bill and Linda decided to take a little walk around the neighborhood and Linda took some great pictures. Check them out.

It was nice to come back to warm weather. We can now eat dinner outside.

Have a great week.

A Great Busy Weekend

We had a great weekend. Saturday we were at Legoland with our friends the Clancys. Caitlin and Linda had a great time. We even went through the aquarium. They have updated it since we were last there and it was fun to see the sharks and the octopus.

Legoland also has a new Star Wars exhibit. I really enjoyed it but I thought they would have more from the older movies than the newer ones.

Sunday was the Padres vs. Phillies game. As soon as I heard the starting line-up and that Holaday was pitching for the Phillies I knew it was going to be a bad day for the Pads. I was right. Although the pitcher for the Pads did pretty well until about the six inning. It was a pitchers duel for awhile and the first six innings were done in about an hour... not bad.

I'm looking forward to some more games in our future this season.

That's it for now.

Hello Out There!

I know it's been waaaaaaaaaaaay too long since we posted. Time goes by and the blog has been the last thing on our minds.

It's still fun to read other people's blogs, we just haven't made an effort to update ours. So here I am to update y'all.

Linda is now 5-years old. She is starting kindergarten in the Fall. I can't believe the time is almost here. She is definitely ready for it. I'm not sure I am.

Linda's favorite extra-curricular activity is swimming. She's pretty good at it too. Let's see if it sticks and she joins a swim team.

Things are pretty much still the same for Bill and myself. Bill is still working hard and I'm in my third year of being President of Families with Children from China - San Diego.

Our dog Amber is now 13-years old and blind. She's learning to adjust.

Other than that we have our annual trip to spring training in Phoenix, visits to grandparents in Lake Havasu City and Los Angeles.

So please enjoy these pictures and we will try to post more often.

Fair Day

There is only one place you will see Swifty the Swimming Pig! Yessiree, we went to the Fair on Tuesday!

Linda and Mel taking a break not more than 1/2 hour into the Fair. Why? It took that long just to get in! We arrived at opening and sure enough 1/4 of San Diego showed, too.

We had a good time. We watched a couple of horsed do their thing during a horse jumping event. We saw the goats and cows. We walked the main drag and saw everything fried on a stick. We wandered the wares warehouses. Linda got a new toy and Mel a new duster. We all will benefit form the food screen when we do our backyard BBQs. Funnel cake and hot dogs. We did good. Then we ran out of time and energy, so we split.

Happy summer! (When will it warm up?)