Last Day of Shanghai Sightseeing

Friday evening, August 5th

We've had another good day in Shanghai, and of course we have lots of pictures to share!  But first, lest you think that everything is perfect here, let me share a few of the less-than-ideal moments we've had.  :-)

When we first checked into our rooms here on Wednesday afternoon, we learned that not only were our 2 rooms not connecting rooms, but they're also about 3 doors down from each other.  That certainly complicated things when I've packed things for one room really.   Then I used an adapter to plug in a power strip.  I've read of tons of families that do this for their electronics charging needs and have no problem.  However, the minute I plugged it in it blew out the power in Adam's room.  No lights, no ac.  Lovely way to start our first day here!  Maintenance came up quickly and fixed it, but of course we had to rule out using the power strips, at least at this hotel.

On Thursday, our first full day in Shanghai, we had such a nice time sightseeing.  But by the second half of the day my stomach was really starting to bother me.  Lovely.  I'm still praying that I will not get sick on this trip, but my record is not good!  Stomach is better today, thankfully!

Adam had a terrible end to his Thursday ~ let's just say that it ended with his dad and someone on the hotel staff having to help him get rid of a woman-of-ill-repute that had followed him into the hotel, and even up to our floor.  Crazy.

After all that craziness, I once again did a load of laundry in the tub and finally got my hair washed.  After I dried it, I did my very-necessary hair straightening with a Chinese straightener.  It took quite a while for it to work on my thick hair, and just as I thought I was straightening the last piece, . . . you guessed it.  Loud pop.  Blew the power in our room.  No tv.  No lights.  No clock. and NO AC.   A little much for me to handle at 12:30 in the morning.  We called maintenance 1st thing in the morning and all was quickly fixed.

Then this afternoon our hotel delivered a notice warning us of coming typhoon Muifa.  It could hit Shanghai tomorrow night.  We're supposed to be leaving Shanghai tomorrow afternoon around 3:00 and arriving in Hangzhou around 3:45.  Hopefully we will stay safe and be moving away from the typhoon as we move west toward Hangzhou.  I know of several BAAS families that are arriving in China this weekend, and we are praying for each of them to arrive safely.

Obviously all is not quite as perfect as it seems when you're reading along with our highlights from our trip!  Even so, we have really enjoyed our time here and so far we've been successful in our goal of just "soaking it in".

Today our sightseeing included walking along the Bund where we got some great shots of the Pearl TV Tower and visiting a silk museum where the girls were fascinated with learning about the silkworms and the process to make the silk.  We really enjoyed walking the French Concession area and admiring the architecture of that time period.  The whole area is now only a few blocks long but it has such a nice atmosphere there.  Quiet strolling along the walks and stone gated buildings with their outdoor cafes left such a peaceful feeling.  We strolled over to the neighboring park, spying turtles sunbathing on rocks while we enjoyed the loud "summer song" of the cicadas.  A very nice day.  The weather was actually so nice, warm and quite breezy, and Leon explained that the weather before and after a typhoon is always very nice.  Great.  While we were there, we enjoyed another delicious lunch (the girls chose Chinese again today!).  We ate at a famous dumpling restaurant and once again had the special steamed pork dumplings with the "soup" inside, spicy noodles and other noodles seasoned with scallions and soy sauce, spicy pork chops and rice, and everything was delicious.  So very good!

Here's some of our favorite pictures from last night and today, along with a picture of our bathroom sink.  :-)

 We always slip socks over the faucets to serve as a constant reminder NOT to drink the water or use it for toothbrushing!

 Ashlie took this adorable baby's picture.  He was just learning to walk and his parents must save a lot of money in diapers 'cause he wasn't wearing any!

Dumpling makers


As we prepare to leave Shanghai tomorrow, please pray about the typhoon risk for us, for the other traveling adoptive families, and for the people that live here that will be threatened by it.