Qingdao Beer Festival!

This past week I traveled to Thailand again and then "toured" (business trips) several cities in China - Qingdao (where they make Tsing Tao beer) and Wuhu (home of the Rice Porridge museum - yes, I toured it as well).  Below are a few shots of the Qingdao Beer Festival which happened to be going on that week (really, it was a complete coincidence).

All hail the mighty beer mermaid.

First, beer nuts (really more like granola).  This stuff is awesome, even Rebecca likes it!  That little wedge he is cutting off weighed about 4 lbs.  It's made of a mixture of nuts and fruit suspended in a caramel / honey base...

Just inside the gates and within sight of the first beer tent.

Dancing BBQ men.  The guy on the right has "King of BBQ" tattooed on his chest.

Chips - a spiral cut potato deep fried on a stick.  The fashion show going on in the background was repeated at each tent we stopped at.  Apparently stick figure "fashion models" are universally sought after for these types of shows.

Mmm, beer!

HUH???  They were actually pretty good, served with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.

Ads from the weekly circular

Call it what it is.

I almost feel bad putting this in.  Funny thing is that on the package itself they spelled it "jelly fish".  Someone must have dictated the ad.  The Chinese have a great sense of humor around how they and other Asians speak English (and, I have found, how I speak Mandarin!) for more go to:

www.engrish.com

Speed? I am speed...

With Cars 2 out in theaters (and in most of the copy DVD stores in China), the McLains have seen a resurgence in our household of all things McQueen.  Rowan in particular, who loved Cars stuff anyway, has taken to imitating Lightening on his Cars scooter (stopping, crouching down for better aerodynamics, saying "Speed?  I am speed", and then scooting around the house as fast as he can go).

One day he went up to Rebecca and said "Lightening McQueen makes a face like this":

Rebecca immediately thought of Owen Wilson's iconic squint:

She asked him where he saw that, and he showed her:

The toy is actually pursing it's lips.

Finally, I leave you with the below candid shots as Rowan quickly grew tired of doing that particular pose and instead decided to ad lib.  After a month and a half with grandparents he has turned into a total ham.

I call this one "We share a secret."

"I'm dead serious".



Back to the Good Ol' P.R. of C.

Last Friday we headed back to China.  The boys were awesome on the plane; one lady commented that she could tell it wasn't our first time.  Rowan has now been on almost 10 planes, so he is becoming quite the seasoned traveler.  Alas, the joy of a great flight was short lived as yesterday we began paying the dues to jet lag.  Reid kept us awake until about midnight and then the other two started waking up close to 3 a.m.  Good times.

Rowan all nestled in with his Delta blanket and neck pillow.

Riley in good spirits.  There was a little girl across the aisle that he shared his stuffed animals with, it was very sweet.

Reid and mom.

The day after - 5 p.m.

Riley actually went upstairs and got his pillow, stuffed animals and blanket at 4 p.m. in order to set himself up for a nap on the couch.  Yes, that is a Lego guy in his hand.

A disappointing event

My nook took a nose dive when it had to download 3 months of updates that can't be done while in China.  B&N did a great job, eventually replacing it for me.  However, while I waited I was shocked and appalled at the below selection of "classics".

I mean really, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?  That's embarrassing to America.  I wonder if when they sandwiched it between Gray's Anatomy and The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes they even thought twice about it.

Cousins!

This past week has been especially fun for us as Rebecca's family is all in town to enjoy time together.  The McLains made it out with only a bloody lip (flying elbow from one cousin to Riley), a busted foot (Rowan falling down while running, twice - he's still on day two of limping) and exhaustion all around.  In other words, it was an absolute blast!

Electronics were a big draw, with everyone gathered around the soft glow of a DS, Ipad or TV. 

While the big boys were playing video games, Rowan was playing dolls with the ladies.  I'm sure it's because he is a ladies man, or a one-time thing.

This was taken the next day, same thing though with everyone crowded onto one bean bag.

What the!?!?!  At least it's crafts this time.

Everyone in their Chinese jammies.

Birthday lunch at Bubba's

Today we celebrated my birthday (actually the 11th) with lunch at one of my favorite VA Beach restaurants - Bubba's.  The boys and I went Chinese style (order many different things and stick it all in the middle of the table) and split crabs, shrimp, french fries, hush puppies and cole slaw.  Below are a few pics.

The spread.

Me showing Reid how to pull off the shell of the crab.

Riley took a crab down himself, then ate some of mine.

Getting all the meat.

Shrimp lollipop, yum!

Reid made an awesome "Happy Birthday Dad" sign, and then we got shrimp tails, crab brains and ketchup all over it. 

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh my!

Yesterday we hit the Norfolk zoo.  Below are a few select pictures, but overall it was an interesting experience because they had an Asiatic section.  It was pretty cool to think that once we get back to China, most of those locations will be within a short plane ride from us...

Ready to go after lunch.

Me and Gramma Mac looking bad-ass in our sun glasses.

Rowan wanted to pet one, thankfully in Thailand there is a temple with free range tigers.  Let's see if we can convince mom to let us go.

Warning:  Dangerous Animals

Man Time Va Beach

The boys wanted to have a little man time - which to them means football, chicken wings and Sprite.  Other than football being out of season, sounds like a pretty good time to me!  So, the five of us (me, ReRiRo and Daddy Mac) all headed off to Buffalo Wild Wings the other day where we feasted on chicken wings, nachos, fried cheese, and fried pickles (maybe a Bizarre Foods - USA in the making?).   Oh yeah, everything fried except for the lettuce on the nachos...

Everything was great, although I must say that so far the best fried pickles are at Scotties in Bloomington, IN!