Our Evening in Shanghai

(recap of late afternoon/early evening of Thursday the 18th)

**One note for my bloggy friends.  The anonymizer that we installed and tested before we left home to allow me access to blogger is not working.  That means that one of my dear friends is taking my emails and posting them for me (except for the ones with either no pictures or just one or two that show up in the middle of your night).  That also means that I can't get to your blogs (which would be entertaining during nap time) to see what is going on in your world.  If I've missed anything big, please email me!**

It didn't take us long that Thursday to realize that the very limited time we were going to have in Shanghai wasn't going to be enough.  For a while I couldn't figure it out because we were left the states on Tuesday which was two days earlier than when we left to meet Kylie and Caleb.  Then it occurred to me that the difference was we were meeting Darcy on Saturday instead of the Monday.  And then I didn't care so much that we were going to miss a lot of Shanghai.  It is close to Darcy's home city and could easily be a "gateway" city when we come back on a heritage tour in a few years.

One thing that is quintessential to China in my mind is the street vendors.

 

I wasn't quite brave enough to try the meat skewers, but man did they smell good!  We also saw many roasted chestnuts, roasted corn on the cob, roasted yams, dumplings, and fresh cut fruit on a stick.  Due to the limited time we had, Ian and I made the choice to push through nap time, letting the kids catch a few zzz's in the stroller.  There is one decided disadvantage to the sit and stand vs. the double jogger...

 

Poor Caleb had a tough time while he was in the back.

Another absolutely amazing thing about this country is the green space in the middle of the cities.  Somehow they can create a quiet park in the size of less than a city block.  It still baffles me how the noise level disappears and things can be so quiet and serene in a city of over 20 million in such a small park.

 

 

The quietness of the garden did Kylie in too. 

  

Thank goodness for the strap for Kylie to lean on.

And of course at that point we found ourselves at a pedestrian bridge that was two stories high with no ramp.  With two kids sacked out in the stroller.  So I scooped Kylie out of the back and Ian managed to carry the stroller with Caleb in it up the stairs on one side and back down on the other.  Who knew I married such a super hero?  Our final destination for the day was the Crystal Jade restaurant which came highly recommended in our guide book.  Along the way we admired lots of lights that were up for CNY.

  

 

It took us a while to find the restaurant in the little shopping district, but we finally managed to find it and wheeled our stroller up to the hostess.  And she asks if we have a reservation.  Ugh.  I was so tired that I nearly cried, but for whatever reason she took compassion on us and told us to wait a few minutes.  Apparently one of the banquet rooms wasn't booked that night and so we ended up with the room to ourselves.  Not bad for a date night when you consider that our kids were both out cold and no amount of coaxing could rouse them to eat.

Kylie "sat" beside me.

So Ian and I had no choice but to do our best on the delicious dishes that we ordered

We enjoyed fried sticky noodles with beef, pork dumplings in chili sauce, stir fried green beans, BBQ pork buns, and scallion cake.  Oh, do you see Caleb beside Ian?  He'd be under the jackets...

It was a delightful meal.  We even got to enjoy a fireworks display right out our window.  Literally the fireworks were being shot off from the other side of the street.  Funny thing is that no one else seemed to notice they were going off.  I guess around here they just become background noise. 

And while I'm guessing, I'd say the day wore our kids out...

 

Kylie managed to stay sitting up long enough for me to assist her into her pajamas but was back out within milliseconds.  Caleb didn't even notice being taken out of the stroller.