Falling in the Mud

After a morning home of kids and lesson planning for next week, we headed out to the Maya Bar for lunch.  We ordered a beer and a margarita with lunch, and we received a very LARGE beer and a PITCHER of margaritas with 5 glasses (since there are 5 in our family?)  Maybe that's why Sue and Sophie are smiling so big!

 

Jack and Sue at the Maya Bar...


Aah, the best parental aid known to mankind...


We had decided to go on a little hike, and on our walk to the start of the hike, we ran into our friends, Tim and Fang. 

Sue and Fang in the park near Yellow Dragon Cave.


Jack saw some crawdads in the water and decided to reach for one and... FELL IN!  He lost his shoe in knee-deep mud, so he had to plunge his arms in to search for the missing shoe.


Sue tried to help Jack with the aftermath.  It would be a long walk home and no cab would take him like this!


Pulling off the muddy clothes...  Jack said, "well, at least this will be good blogging material!"


"Hey Daddy, look at that muddy American boy over there..."


Peter with our friends Tim and Fang...


A beautiful old tree in the park...


... and a beautiful young girl in the park :)


At the start of our hike, at the park entrance.


Some of the bamboo on the hike...


A worker in the field, harvesting some tea leaves.  Now is the best time of the year for tea harvesting; especially the famous Long Jing (Dragon's Well) Tea.


We were walking down the sidewalk and heard lots of honking.  We turned to find that the traffic had consumed the sidewalk!  Most of the sidewalks have planter boxes on them so that cars aren't able to drive on them.  These ones, sadly, were lacking.


We stopped at a gorgeous tea-house and had some tea, chicken soup, and other snacks.
 

Jack's 11th Birthday

We went to one of Jack's favorite restaurants for lunch, and then walked along West Lake and enjoyed the Spring weather.  Here's 11 year old Jack!  After I took this picture, he informed me he had a loose tooth.  We numbed his mouth with Haagen-Das ice cream and then I yanked it out of his mouth.  Even though he's 11 now, he's not above believing in the Tooth Fairy if it turns into a cash generation opportunity!

Jack and Peter at the park...

I told the waiter that it was Jack's birthday, and they brought us this beautiful fruit plate with whipped cream and a candle on top...

Some of Jack's presents, which were wrapped with paper that Sue painted.


Peter got Jack this rabbit, "Blackjack" for his birthday, which I showed in a previous blog, however Jack's not the only one that loves Blackjack!


Sophie's toys tend to expand all available space - which in this apartment, isn't much!
    

Sophie, Jack and I all had a bad chest-cold the past few days and we've been hacking like crazy, but I'm happy to report that the hacking has subsided and we're getting healthy again! Poor Sue had to take care of 3 of us at once, AND she kept Sophie home from school while I was teaching those days, so she gets extra kudos!

Looking for Critters

Jack wasn't feeling well so Sue took Peter out to explore China while I taught.  Jack was perfectly happy to stay home and play with his new rabbit! 

Peter and Sue found this little stand where a candy artist was creating critters out of spun sugar.

Peter bought this beautifully sculpted bird for about 80 cents, US.  It took the artist over a minute to create it!


There's our laundry, up on the top floor getting dry in the warm afternoon sun - it was about 75 degrees today - so nice!


They also stopped by the park to check out the local aquatic life again.  Peter now has an extension net about 12" in diameter that works well to catch critters.

A New Addition to the Family

The weather is getting warmer, and this week the Plum blossoms are in bloom - it's so nice to see flowers and greenery again!


At Wushan square there was a huge festival going on.  We stopped by to do a few rides and look in all of the stalls to see what wares were for sale.

Peter and Sue, checking out the rides on this warm, sunny day.
 

The latest Spring fashion - short shorts with thigh high stockings and high-heels.  Provocative!


Some kind of bakery item for sale with different fillings...
 

... and dried, salted fish also available!


This man was also making some kind of bread and putting on quite a show of pounding it.  The pounding was drawing quite a crowd.


Raisins for sale!


The crowd was enormous and we were the only white faces in a sea of Chinese.  Many people stopped to stare at us!


There's Sophie, surveying the crowd.  "Hi Dad!"


Sweets for sale!  The boys didn't see these but were bummed out when I showed them this picture later.  "I can't believe we missed those!"


The boys did however stop at the knife stall to look over all of the dangerous weapons.  Cool!


We stopped at the pet/bird/fish/flower market, which is always good gawking.  One thing that is big here, for a pet, are crickets.  Here's a giant cricket available for about $10 US!  Why anyone would want such a noisemaker in their home is beyond me, but it is BIG business here!
 

This shop sold cricket houses, cricket water dishes, cricket baskets, and all manner of other things cricket.  Some parts of China I will never understand!


BIG NEWS - we have a new family member, "Blackjack".  Jack's 11th birthday is coming up in a few days, and he REALLY wanted a pet.  Since we've been through the salamander fiasco, the rat fiasco, the hamster fiasco, the bird fiasco and the hermit crab fiasco with Jack, we thought it would be about time for a rabbit fiasco.  Usually Jack has done a great job taking care of his various pets for about a week, and then I end up having to complain endlessly about the smell, which falls on deaf ears.  Then I end up cleaning up the mess of whatever the critter of the day is.  Now that Jack is 11 however and so much the more RESPONSIBLE, we thought we'd try it again!


The rabbit is quite lucky to have us, I must say, because we bought him a huge cage, by Chinese standards.  Most cages for a rabbit this size would be slightly bigger in volume than the rabbit's body itself, so our rabbit has a veritable mansion.  However, he does have three children to contend with, so life isn't all roses.


Of course Sue is a big kid too, and she LOVES that little rabbit!  Here's "Blackjack", saying, "HELP!"


Here's Blackjack saying, "Don't EAT ME!"


We went down to the lake with some friends today, where Jack looked for more critters with his net.  I guess 1 rabbit and 800 tadpoles just isn't enough!


(LEFT) Jack and "Blackjack", and (RIGHT) Sophie levitating over a patch of green grass, squirt bottle in hand.
 

There's a small aquarium here, that's actually pretty good.  We were looking at the fish exhibits, when this guy went by with a bowl of 4" square cubes of meat and some fruit.  We followed him and found this polar bear in a cage. See what I mean about cage sizes?


A seal getting his dinner...


Another end to a relaxing weekend, as we prepare to introduce "Blackjack" to his new home.