My favorite pictures today

We are back....

Here is a quick little recap and a few pictures...

This was the best trip I have taken so far. Henry was really excited about going and VERY happy and excited to be there. He kept an amazing journal! It may have been a little ambitious to take him because the schedule on these trips can be so grueling but he really, really loved it. And he was fantastic. He never once complained about anything... too hot, too cold, too tired, 10 days of carrying luggage, food with eyeballs and/or bones, up at 6AM most days, back to the hotel at midnight or later, trudging on and off 6 airplanes, 2 boats, a train and many, many busses!

In fact, each night he would shower and get in bed and while I took my long awaited shower he would put little notes written on the hotel stationary under the blankets of my bed saying things like… “Mummy, this was the best day of my life.” Or “Mummy, today was worth $400000000. I love you.“

It was AMAZING how much he LOVED it there! ME too! I want to go to Tibet now and Henry wants to go to Egypt.

All the Asians were FASCINATED by Henry and kept trying to touch him and take pictures of him. They were flocking around him constantly (He didn’t like that but he didn’t complain… he would just whisper “Muummmmy they’re doing it again”
Kids of all ages came up and said hello, hello. Business men begged to have a picture with him. Families pushed their children next to him and snapped away. Poor Henry, they all thought he was a girl, because his hair is so long, I guess.

One day we climbed the Great Wall which was harder to do than I expected. We set a goal for how far we were going to climb and when we got to our goal, there was a camel ON the wall. He got to ride a 2 humped camel ON the Great Wall.

We visited 4 cities in 10 days. We took the Maglev train in Shanghai ... went 268 mph to the airport! - World's fastest supposedly, although I do think the Shinkansen in Japan is the same. An hour ride to the airport on a bus took us only 7 minutes and 20 seconds!

In addition to all the other places we PLANNED to go, we also unexpectedly (luckily) got to add a few stops. Besides the many museums, tombs, temples, walls and soldiers, we toured a jade factory, a cloisonné factory, a pottery factory, a silk factory and a furniture factory and we went to a school where they demonstrated the art of ink drawing. We took a 4 hour cruise down the Li River in Guilin. It is supposed to be one of the prettiest places in the world, I think I agree.
Coming home our plane in Shanghai was WAY overbooked so we took a bump and went 1st class to Vancouver, then to LA and we got $500 bucks in compensation for "our trouble". It was fabulous. The only bad part was we got back about 4 hours later than we had planned to, so we couldn't get our dog from the kennel or go to bed as early as we wanted to.
The entire trip was REALLY fantastic and I was VERY proud of Henry. He was an angel and very interested in everything we went to see.
Here are a couple pictures.

Where in the world is Henry San Diego?

Are you wondering where we are?

Read below to see where we will be based on our travel brochure. I had the best intentions of adding links to every sight mentioned but I am exhausted and need to go to bed. We have 6 planes, several buses and a high speed train to make in the next 10 days!

Friday the 13th we leave from LAX for Shangahi. We arrive in Shanghai, the largest city in China with and the 8th largest city in the world. We will have been on the plane for 14 hours or so and arrive on Saturday evening the 14th. Even though we will be carrying tooth brushes and no more than 3 oz. of toothpaste, I will look forward to a shower, dinner and a nice soft bed at our hotel.

Sunday the 15th - Tour of Shanghai including Old Town, The Bund, walk along the Huangpu River and top of the Tower of the Eastern Pearl.

Shanghai, once a tranquil but busy fishing village, and long known as a paradise for adventurers in the years before 1949, is now the largest commercial and financial center of China. Sightseeing includes the Old Town, a finely designed maze of elegant pavilions and ponds in the old part of this city. Then stroll along the Bund, China’s most famous waterfront stretching about one mile along the Huangpu River. Then ascend the Tower of the East Pearl (The highest TV Tower in Asia) in the newly developed Pudong District. In the evening we grab a flight to Bejing.

Monday the 16th - we will be in Beijing visiting the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven.

Beijing served as the capital for 5 dynasties over a period of 800 years with each emperor identified as a dragon sent from heaven. Begin your city tour with a visit to the Summer Palace, whose construction was completed in 1750 as a royal recreational resort. Among its famous features are the nearly half-a-mile-long covered corridor with its painted ceiling gallery, the Marble Boat, and several magnificently painted pavilions and pagodas. The next stop is the Palace Museum, more commonly known as the Forbidden City. It used to be open only to the emperor’s family. This complex, the largest imperial palace ever built in the world, features more than 800 buildings with over 9,000 rooms, all with golden-glazed roofs, red lacquered pillars, and vermilion walls. See the high-walled “Inner City” with its government buildings. Sightseeing continues at the Temple of Heaven where the Ming and Qing emperors conducted the annual ceremony to pray to the Heaven for a good harvest. This evening you will enjoy a special imperial cuisine served at Fangshan Restaurant.

Tuesday the 17th - Beijing, visit the Great Wall of China and Ming Tombs with an acrobatic performance at a dinner of Peking Duck.

Here is your chance to climb the Great Wall of China! This wonder of the world, built more than 2,000 years ago. Then visit the Ming Tombs, the burial place of thirteen emperors of the MingDynasty. Yearlong excavations have uncovered many rare treasures such as gold crowns and silk robes. Tonight’s special dinner gives you a real taste of Peking Duck. After dinner, you will enjoy an acrobatic performance.

Wednesday the 18th - Beijing’s Tiananmen Square Fly to Xi’an to see the Wild Goose Pagoda, Ancient City Walls and a Tang Dynasty Stage Show

In the morning, take a stroll around Tiananmen Square (the Gate of Heavenly Peace), the largest square in the world and also known for many historical and contemporary events in China.
Then fly to Xian. Visit the Wild Goose Pagoda and the Ancient City Walls. In the evening, you will see a wonderful stage show of the Tang Dynasty and stay in Xian.

Thursday the 19th - Xi’an, visiting Qing Tomb Park and The Terra Cotta Warriors. Dinner of Chinese dumplings.

Xian was the capital of China for 73 emperors in 11 dynasties extending over 1,100 years. Following a visit to the Qing Tomb Park, you will visit another wonder of the ancient China–the Terra Cotta Warriors. Concealed under earth, the thousands of life-size clay warriors, horses and chariots, were part of the tomb of Emperor Qinshihuang, the first emperor of China who initiated the Great Wall. They were accidentally discovered by a farmer in 1974 while he was digging a well. You might chance upon some archaeologists still working on site to uncover the rest of the vast tomb complex. For dinner, feast on numerous varieties of dumplings.

Friday the 20th - Leave Xi’an for Guilin to see the beautiful Reed Flute Caves and Elephant Trunk Hill. In the evening we will see an ethnic song and dance performance.

Take a morning flight to Guilin, a southwest city famous for its fabulous natural scenery. The features fantastic natural stalactite and stalagmite formations which are now artfully illuminated by multicolored lights. Another magnificent view is Elephant Trunk Hill which stands along Li River. This evening you will watch an ethnic song and dance performance.

Saturday the 21st - Guilin, taking a cruise down the Li River to see the most beautiful landscape in the world. Stop for shopping at a colorful local market then off to Shanghai to enjoy the night-life...with Henry!

Cruising down the Li River, you will be fascinated by a living gallery. Cormorant fishing on the Li River, limestone spires rising out of the flat ground in the distance, with some peaks rounds and others sharply pointed, with often perpendicular cliffs and trees sprouting from the cracks to bend skyward—definitely a surreal landscape you never see anywhere else in the world. Disembark at Yangshuo to experience a colorful local market. Return to Guilin. Then Fly to Shanghai Enjoy your night in Shanghai.

Sunday the 22nd - Shangahi Museum, Maglev speed train to the airport

Finally we will will visit Shanghai Museum, one of the best museums in China. Then it’s time to pack the mementos and memories, take the Maglev, a fast speed train to the airport and fly home.

We look forward to seeing you all when we return! XOXO

If I still have any readers after this long radio silence, I am writing to inform you that we are leaving Friday the 13th... on a Chinese adventure. Henry hopes to unite the fire nation and the earth nation and bring honor to his family. Maybe he has been watching too much Avatar the last Airbender and Mulan, but it seemed like a good way to get him jazzed about going on this trip.

I want to wallow in the history and culture and spiritualty of China with my new little travel buddy. And I hope to come back with a new view of being citizen of the world.

Come back after October 23rd if you will.

Avoiding bedtime...

Seriously?! What 6 year old kid (besides Laura) is THIS interested in math?
Henry is lying on the floor with his new "briefcase" open, doing MATH, voluntarily, at 9:30 at night to avoid going to bed. He says he is doing "IMPORTANT MATH" and he "can't go to bed now...this is big number math I am doing Mummy." "I am working on, like 56 x 2 = 112 or 99 x 33 = 3267 and 87 times a trillion = 87 trillion and that's the amount of our national debt under george w stink-bomb!" He got a new calculator today. And he might be a little brainwashed.