Adios Amigos

Well, Rebecca and the boys are off to the U.S. for a few months of fun in the sun (the bright, clear sun).  Below are a few random pictures of their last few weeks here.  They've already spent a few days in the pool at my parents house and have now headed down to Hilton Head to spend a week with Rebecca's brother.

First step, haircuts of course.  Here's Ro laid out for the washing.

Last Sunday in Suzhou.  Yes, that incredibly cut girl with pigtails is knawing on a cucumber.  Random.

We then headed to a buffet lunch at an Indian restaurant.  The boys (myself included) were captivated by the tandoori oven.  I'm still trying to figure out how to justify this for the backyard once we move back.

On the way to a friends house for dinner, we thought everyone might find the neighborhood recycling bike interesting...

Mom and Ro (and a creepy guy in the background) ready for takeoff!

Reid and Riley were pretty excited upon seeing that the refurbished 777 had power for the ipods.  It's the little things.

Final BSA meeting of the school year

This past Sunday was the last Boy Scouts meeting for the year.  Both Reid and Riley achieved their rank advancements this year, so there was a lot of suppressed smiles from both of them as they received their final badges, honors, etc.

This was most of the den.  Although, I did notice that attendance for the pine wood derby was maybe twice that of the above picture.

Reid got to take part in the flag ceremony.

Riley led us in a cheer.

Riley earning his stripes in the rank advancement ceremony.

He really enjoyed this part!

Not sure what to call this face, it's definitely not "Blue Steel", so it's good to see he has a few faces in his bag of tricks.  I'm thinking: "Yeah, that just happened" as a name for this one.

Reid and Rebecca both got some paint while Riley and I were upstairs for the secret portion of the ceremony.

The clock is ticking

The countdown has begun for the second annual trip to the U.S. (home???) for Rebecca and the boys.  This means that Rebecca scheduled a "let's spend some time together but really just shop the whole time" trip to Shanghai for her and I.  We actually had a great time picking up some gifts, eating some great food and actually spend time together!

Both Ro and Ri had field trips Friday, the day we headed out.  Rowan got to dress in street clothes to go visit a farm.  It's almost evil how cute he can be.

To counterbalance the cuteness, he's been working on his "scary eyes" (his words).  Just in case cute doesn't work, he wants to be sure you know things will get ugly in a hurry.  I've decided it's best to just give him what he wants.  Always.

First stop on our date weekend was to the orphanage.  It was children's day, so there was a celebration of the hard work put into the orphanage.  Overall, the orphanage was impressive.  Above is one of our friends giving a speech.

I was holding her foster child, who I'm pretty sure won't end up a colts fan.

Who's that in the back row?  That's right, we didn't know that Riley's field trip was to go to the orphanage and perform.  That's how I roll. 



Finally, we made it to the JW Marriott in Shanghai after lunch and round one of shopping.  Here is the view from our room on the 54th floor.

In the morning, we headed out to the park in front of the hotel.  The next few shots are of a massive match making event held in the park on Saturdays.

Thousands of parents and prospective mates were in attendance.

Here's some closer shots of the postings, which listed annual salary, age, cost of apartment, etc.

This is the hotel we stayed in.  A side note:  Above the 59th floor lounge is the highest library in the world (echo, echo, echo).  Unfortunately, upon making the climb up to it, it was closed for renovations.

11 people, 750 kg???  I'll let you do the math on the per person average weight.

View from just off the bund (see below).

We decided to hit a restaurant we had heard quite a bit about - M on the Bund.  Nice food with great views.  Above is the old banking district before all of the foreigners were kicked out of Shanghai.

View of the bund to the right.

My view, best in the house.

View of the iconic Shanghai skyline, Pudong.  Perspective - the bottle opener building on the right is about 30% (too lazy to look it up) taller than anything else in the city...

Thanks to my lovely wife, who noticed it on the menu, I was able to check Pavlova off of the Facebook "100 things to Eat Before You Die" list.  Don't see many with dragon fruit, I bet.

Nothing caps off a fine dining experience like the discovery of a trough (a very nice trough, mind you) in the restroom.

Upon returning home, we ended the weekend with a water based birthday party at a friends house.

After all the rich food, this was the best we could do for dinner...

Wuhu, Bangkok, Home

I recently did a mini tour with a colleague in from the US.  We started in wild, wonderful Wuhu, China.  From there we hit Bangkok, spending time at a food exhibition, and I made it back just in time for the church picnic weekend.  I did, of course have a crazy flight schedule and series of meetings, which I will digress from sharing.

Wuhu from the hotel room.  Pretty nice park right in the middle of town.

Sadly, I don't think you can see all of the boats on the Yangze river behind the high rises.  I counted about 50 barges total!

Wandering around a mall in Bangkok, we stumbled on about $1.5 million in cars.

Chinese food, Thai style.  It was excellent!

The classic Thai dessert - mangoes and sticky rice.  OK, so this was mango ice cream and sticky rice in a waffle cone...

At the food expo. Note the ratio of pretty ladies to booth workers.  What's that you say, you don't see any booth workers?  Well, I'm sure they're in there somewhere.

Bird's nest soup and shark fin soup in a microwave bowl.  So that's what they pack the rich kids for school lunch.

That's an expensive booth for popcorn.  I showed Rebecca and she said "duh, it's like a drive in movie!"  And that's why I'm not in marketing.

Fast food at the expo.  In Asia fast food doesn't mean bad food.  It typically means the food is cooked in front of you, quickly.

Collagen snow?  Sold out?

At the expo they had a chef competition for carving fruits and veggies - Awesome!

Now this is what look for in a booth (contrasted with the above few displays) - actual cooks and actual food.  What a novel idea; I bet their sales suck.

Poor, poor meat girl.  Yes, that's bacon around her waist.

Woohoo!  Party!

The guy in the booth in the background was neither pretty nor did he have much food.  Apparently he was just here to get caught up on emails.

Angry Birds fish cakes.

The tag line on the billboard behind the Angry Bird Fish Cake Spirit Team:  "Yummy and Trendy".

Family picnic at SIF, great food!

Rowan headed straight for the dessert table.