Hot Pot

This has been my favorite place to eat in China. Its not sweet and sour chicken and spring rolls....I have not actually seen ANY since I got here. Nope this place is called Little Sheep restaurant and its the famous hot pot chain in China. Hot pot is a type of cookings, its very close to a fondue. There is a pot in the middle of the table with a gas stove top under it. The pot is full of whatever spices or flavor you like in a broth. Then you pick the ingredients you want to boil in the pot. So you cook it yourself at the table and everyone eats out of the same pot. You can also order different types of sauces to dip your food in. I get the peanut sauce or garlic sauce.

Here are some of our ingredients:
The menu is completely in Chinese so we just kept going and going to figure out what was what. They let us keep one right on menu and we write in English what is what, and then bring that back with us next time to order again.

Here is the hot pot itself in the middle of the table.

Chinese women

These are some faces with years of laughter and friendship.

And then ones with wisdom and heartache.

Mount Putuo (3/15/08 trip)

Again a China trip we took before the blog. A day trip to Mount Putuo, via ferry boat. Here are the main two sites to see.

Puji Temple
Guan Yin Statue

Shanghai (4/11-4/13/08)

Since I didn't have this page when we did some tourist stuff I am going to do a little catch up. These pictures are from one of our days in Shanghai.

The Yu Garden. It was a great place to walk around, very relaxing and it only took them about 400 years to make it that beautiful.

Longhua Temple and Pagoda (Pagoda is the tall thing in the background) is the oldest and largest monastery in Shanghai. 247 AD

Nanjing Rd at night. This the golden mile of shopping.

Brunette?!

Always wondered what i would look like. I think it makes me look old.

Murals

Some of the local artwork on the walls near our hotel.

Royal Hotel-Home in China

Here is the hotel we are currently living at in China. Its hands down the least nicest place we have been, but not bad now that the hot water has been fixed. (if someone knows a blogger trick to turn my photo the right way PLEASE leave a comment and tell me).

China Canals

Zhoushan, China is an island just a little south-west of Shanghai. This island has tons of canals all threw it, like Venice and Amsterdam. This island however has tons of trash just flying around, so most of it ends up in these canals. To try to keep the canals clean they have people who are on little small engine wood boats scoping it up with a little net (like the kind you see people cleaning pools with but handmade versions). And then dumping it at the proper dump sites. These are pictures of some guys cleaning up.

Flowers for me?!

I have a wonderful husband as most of you know. Today he surprised me with some flowers! Roses/Gerber daisies and some filler ones. (Huh wonder how I can turn that picture up right...I'll work on it LOL)-FIGURED IT OUT!

Sandman

Today it rained all day. So there was not much outside stuff to do. However I did get an email that my little man-Sandy (Jack Russell Terrier who turned 5 yrs old on April 1st) did get his teeth cleaned and everything looks good. So in honor of my little Sandman, here a few photos of him!

This was one of his first photos-8 weeks old.My Little Broncos Fan-the jersey was a gift from his oma Rabenberg (oma is Grandma in German in case you were wondering)

This last one is the last time we saw him. May 2007-we took him for a hike up the Rockies. He loves to hike.

We really hope to get back to CO and see our babies (Sandy and Belle) again soon. Its by far the hardest part of traveling-leaving your kids at "camp".

Lets go fly a kite!

Not much to do today so we decided to just walk around town. There is a park near a port that we like to go and watch the ships go by and watch the kids play. Today someone was selling kites! I haven't flown a kite in years. Troy has only flown a kite once in his life (not that it was to obvious LOL). Also I would like to point out i have never in my life had braided pigtails LOL. I just watched a movie last night with someone wearing them and i thought to myself..."hey my bangs are finally long enough to do that". So this was my first attempt at it LOL!

Ronald!!!

Every Saturday that we have been in Zhoushan we have made a trip to the only McDonalds on the island. It is a 30 min drive, one way, to get there. It is a 40 RMB taxi ride ($6). Today while there we had a celebrity sighting...thats right Ronald McDonald in the flesh people!