I used to just love running towards my dad as fast as I could and having him catch me and swing me around. I did it for as long as I could at every opportunity, I remember almost knocking my dad over because I was too big already...sigh...it's one of those things that characterizes childhood for me. I'm glad I get to do that with Eli now.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Monday, November 5, 2007
Xi'an trip
Guess what!? We got a chance to go on a week-long trip to Xi'an with our school. I sure appreciated having everything arranged for us, from the train (a 19-hour overnight ride) to the charter tour bus as well as the hotel and most meals. What really made it great in my mind, was the fact that there were two other familes that went along so Eli had some friends to play with. There was about 30 of us in total, including teachers, students, kids and tour-guides.
As Xi'an has a sizable Muslim population, we visited an old mosque and walked through the Muslim Quarter. We had dinner there once and bought this delicious bread on our free day. It tasted like a big soft pretzel or something similar.
Eli loved riding the bus, we were often the first ones back on the bus after a stop at whatever tourist attraction. Eli loved turning the steering wheel and moving the gear shifter. I love how small he looks in this picture because the steering wheel looks so big in comparison!
Dana did really well on the trip too, she slept in our suitcase in our hotel (not closed of course!) and continues to like it when Eli pushes her in the stroller. At times she got tired of sitting in it and wanted to be held. We can't blame her for that, she probably just wanted to see the sights too!
Here is a picture of Xi'an's city wall. It is about 14 km around, we walked about half of it when we were there. It was built during the Ming Dynasty which began in 1368. Most of it is restored and you can rent bikes to ride around the whole thing. We didn't do that because we had both slugs in tow.
It was a full week for Eli, he was either on full-blast, or off sleeping, he seems to have only two speeds. So when Eli wasn't pushing Dana in the stroller, he would climb in himself and have a nap:
There was this great apple orchard by another tourist attraction: the Qian Ling tomb where the Tang Emperor Gaozong and his wife Empress Wu Zetian rest. The Empress died around 705 AD to give you an idea of how old this tomb is. We were more interested in picking apples than in the history of the place (sad, but true). The apples were a little small, but tasted great! Here's Eli walking through the orchard:
One of Scott's favourite memories was going to another tomb (the tomb of Qin Shi Huang), this guy only ruled for 15 years, but accomplished so much (mostly due to his ruthlessness). One good thing he did was making the Chinese writing system standardized and uniform. We got to see the terra-cotta warriors that supposedly protect his tomb. This tomb actually hasn't been excavated yet because the Chinese want to wait for advanced technology in order to do so. They do not want to aid in its deterioration when the artifacts come into contact with air and/or light as has happened with the terra cotta warriors somewhat. We took in a performance by these dancers. They did flips and danced beautifully, and their fight scenes were well-choreographed too.
Here are three of the performers. They came to see Eli and Dana as I had to change Eli's diaper on the grass there, and they wanted pictures with them. Kinda funny, we thought they were the attraction and they thought we were...
That should give you some idea of what we saw and did. Would we do it again? Absolutely! We are already planning to go there next summer when Scott's family comes to visit.
As Xi'an has a sizable Muslim population, we visited an old mosque and walked through the Muslim Quarter. We had dinner there once and bought this delicious bread on our free day. It tasted like a big soft pretzel or something similar.
Eli loved riding the bus, we were often the first ones back on the bus after a stop at whatever tourist attraction. Eli loved turning the steering wheel and moving the gear shifter. I love how small he looks in this picture because the steering wheel looks so big in comparison!
Dana did really well on the trip too, she slept in our suitcase in our hotel (not closed of course!) and continues to like it when Eli pushes her in the stroller. At times she got tired of sitting in it and wanted to be held. We can't blame her for that, she probably just wanted to see the sights too!
Here is a picture of Xi'an's city wall. It is about 14 km around, we walked about half of it when we were there. It was built during the Ming Dynasty which began in 1368. Most of it is restored and you can rent bikes to ride around the whole thing. We didn't do that because we had both slugs in tow.
It was a full week for Eli, he was either on full-blast, or off sleeping, he seems to have only two speeds. So when Eli wasn't pushing Dana in the stroller, he would climb in himself and have a nap:
There was this great apple orchard by another tourist attraction: the Qian Ling tomb where the Tang Emperor Gaozong and his wife Empress Wu Zetian rest. The Empress died around 705 AD to give you an idea of how old this tomb is. We were more interested in picking apples than in the history of the place (sad, but true). The apples were a little small, but tasted great! Here's Eli walking through the orchard:
One of Scott's favourite memories was going to another tomb (the tomb of Qin Shi Huang), this guy only ruled for 15 years, but accomplished so much (mostly due to his ruthlessness). One good thing he did was making the Chinese writing system standardized and uniform. We got to see the terra-cotta warriors that supposedly protect his tomb. This tomb actually hasn't been excavated yet because the Chinese want to wait for advanced technology in order to do so. They do not want to aid in its deterioration when the artifacts come into contact with air and/or light as has happened with the terra cotta warriors somewhat. We took in a performance by these dancers. They did flips and danced beautifully, and their fight scenes were well-choreographed too.
Here are three of the performers. They came to see Eli and Dana as I had to change Eli's diaper on the grass there, and they wanted pictures with them. Kinda funny, we thought they were the attraction and they thought we were...
That should give you some idea of what we saw and did. Would we do it again? Absolutely! We are already planning to go there next summer when Scott's family comes to visit.
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