A Few Days With Brady

 

 

 

 

Kathy called us Saturday looking for help! She dislocated her knee and needed Brady assistance. Sharon was there until Kevin made it home on Sunday. Then I went to Davenport on Monday. I've had a good time spending time with Brady during the day and Kathy and Brady in the evenings. Brady has worn me out though! She and I both had a long nap today!

Above are some pictures from our adventures in Davenport parks - Vander Veer and Centennial. We also visited a Wal Mart and have been to the HyVee grocery several times. She draws attention where ever she goes with her easy smile.

China Photos Now on Picasa

While drinking green tea we bought in China I have gone through our photos and uploaded a large selection to Picasa. Take a look at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/102526380860843893580/2012China?authuser=0&feat=directlink

By the way, after sitting through what was effectively an infomercial at the green tea factory I now firmly believe that green tea can cure all ailments! It's the tea polyphenol you know. I'm drinking mine, and you can reuse the leaves five times. :)

And another note on China. Our best weather and clearest skies were in Beijing and we were very lucky to have that. And, as hot as it was there, the humidity was much lower than what we endured the rest of our trip.

Thank you China Highlights for putting together a great tour and to each of our guides and drivers for getting us here and there while helping us undertand what we were experiening and seeing.

China Tour 2012 - Heading Home

People's Park Shanghai

I've got to say that flying first class is the only way to go. I started with Champagne, then water, then Bourbon, and then one of my favorite white Burgundies. On the way to Beijing I had my favorite Australian sauvingnon blanc and plenty of Champagne. The seats are big and fully recline, dinner is pretty good, and for a 13+ hour flight all of this is good. I watched Hunger Games and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. I enjoyed the second and was disturbed by the first.

Enough of that. We are done with our tour of China, Wednesday night we all got umbrellas from the hotel and headed out to a neighboring hotel for dinner in an Italian restaurant. We had a fine time wrapping up our trip and planning for each of us to depart. Other than that, our Wednesday was quite sedate because the rain and the wind from the typhoon kept us inside. The mall adjoining the hotel kept us occupied for a while and we all ate KFC for lunch. I have no idea why, but KFC is all over China and very popular.

Larry's Throne and Crown

Thursday morning Larry and Dave took the Maglev to the airport and Dave saw Larry off and came back to the hotel, one of the few westerners on the subway. After breakfast the remaining bunch of us went for a walk to the Bund. It was quite hot and muggy but the rain is gone! It was good to have the typhoon move on during the night.

Back to the hotel we said our goodbyes and grabbed a taxi for the trip to the Maglev station and then rode the Maglev to the airport. That was impressive. 300 kilometers per hour in smooth comfort. I doubt we will see anything like this in the U.S. in the next 25 years. We checked in and then went to the Cathay Pacific lounge to await our flight and soon we were on our way home.

We had a wonderful 13 days in China with Claire, Audra, Ginger, Larry, and Dave. We travel well together and have a lot of fun. It is good to be able to share with friends while traveling. If we were to do it over we would change a few things, but we are happy with what we saw and did. China is a fascinating, huge country filled with many good people. In some ways they are just like us in the U.S. People were generally happy and eager to share with us. We took a lot of pictures of them and them of us. We posed with many of them.

This trip opened our eyes to China and I saw how intertwined our countries really are. Today we need each other, our economies are linked and co-dependent. We have a lot to learn from each other and people like Claire studying Chinese at The University in Hangzhou will help build that understanding. I doubt that Sharon or I will ever go back to China, but we feel this was an exceptional trip and are very glad we did it.

China Tour 2012 - Shanghai

Typhoon Haikui had a lot to say about our stay in Shanghai - but we will cover that on Wednesday!

We arrived by high speed train on Monday afternoon and were met by Pan and our driver who delivered us downtown and the Radison Blu Hotel. This is a very modern city with a European feel, even more than Hangzhou. There are 3,000 buildings over 30 stories tall in the city of 23 million and they are building more.

Tuesday included a visit to the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall. Very nicely done overview of Shanghai including scale models of the whole city. Next stop Yuyuan Garden which was very pretty and filled with hungry koi! Then a tea house where we tried many different teas. After dropping Colby off at the hotel (not feeling my best) the crew went to the Shanghai World Financial Center and then lunch. In the afternoon Colby rejoined the bunch and we went to visit friends of the Dunivans, Cindy and Rusty McLagan in their lovely apartment and then to dinner. While at the McLagan's Larry got a call from our tour guide who told us that the government had ordered all tours to be cancelled on Wednesday because of the typhoon.

Cindy took us for a walk through the antique market where I bought a cool fabric bag made of handwoven fabric. We the went to the fish and bird and cricket and dog and cat market. All sorts of animals are for sale here - as pets. We did a little car shopping but did not make a decision, And we strolled through the French Concession. Then back to the McLagen's for wine and the. off to dinner where we had some of the best Chinese food we have had. We also drank Chinese wine which was pretty good!

Sharon and I taxied back to the hotel and crashed. Claire and Audra headed to the Bund to party with Grace and here boyfriend Tom 'till the wee hours of the morning!

In the antique market

Need so e luggage?

Crickets

Hangzhou

Walking by West Lake, visiting the wetlands, visiting an old home, walking the streets, visiting the University where Claire starts in just a few days, and then riding the high speed train to Shanghai. That was our Monday!

We were celebrities. People wanted pictures with us.

Lotus

China Tour 2012 - Hangzhou

Our guide, Tony

Self Portrait - Happy Buddha, Happy Colby

Cute!

Green tea bushes

Green Tea

Green Tea

This city has such a different feel from the others we have visited. More western, almost European. We had a wonderful day here.

The western breakfast in the hotel was great and then Tony picked us up at 9:00am. We were off to a tour of the West Lake including a boat ride to the garden island in the middle. It was lovely. Pictures below! Then we were off to look at pagodas and Buddhas. they were beautiful and interestig

After lunch we headed to the tea village and a tour of a government owned tea factory and another well rehearsed infomercial. Needless to say, we bought tea. It IS very good quality green tea but it was not cheap. But, if I drink it daily I will lose weight, lower my cholesterol, become more beautiful, avoid cancer. and have clearer pee.

Finally, cocktails in the Sofitel lounge then pizza and wine for dinner in an Italian restaurant with a Filipino 50's to 80's cover band. A wonderful day!