View from the top of the JinMao Tower...

One of the taller buildings in Shanghai is called the JinMao Tower.  It has 88 stories, and the observation deck is on the 88th floor.  The boys took a trip to the top to see how far you could see on a fairly clear day...
  This is Pearl Tower...

  and a view of the river.  The area on the other bank is called the Bund.

The boys took turns using the binoculars to look at different buildings around the JinMao Tower.
   

Derek pretended to touch the top of the antenna on top of the Pearl Tower...

 

This is a close-up view of the Shanghai World Financial Center, which is 101 stories and is located right next to JinMao Tower.  It's commonly referred to as the "bottle opener", for obvious reasons, and we've been to the top of that one already as well!  It was considered the tallest building in the world in 2009, but I believe another taller building has been built since then so it's now #2.
 

Inside the JinMao Tower is a hotel.  This is a view from the top of the JinMao Tower down through the middle of the tower, where the hotel rooms are around the outside.  The boys both thought it was dizzying to look down...


A view from the bottom of the tower looking up...


Very impressive, two tall towers...SWFC on the left, and JinMao on the right.  Soon enough, that base of a structure in the lower right of the picture will be 1/3 taller than the SWFC and will be the tallest building in the world.  We'll continue to watch progress on that one, though we're pretty sure it won't be completed by 2014.  Then again, things go up very quickly here in Shanghai, so it's possible...


Next building we need to visit is Pearl Tower, which has either 2 or 3 observation areas and a ride inside...

and the adventure continues...

Century Park

On one of the Mom and Boys days off before home leave, we decided to check out what there was to do at Century Park.  Century Park is 140 hectares right in the Pudong-Jinqiao area, about 1 mile down the street from our apartment.  The boys and I were excited to find that they had bikes -- both the 2-wheel and 4-wheel variety -- for rent as well as paddle boats, an amusement park area with rides and a little roller coaster, and plenty of open space for playing frisbee and flying a kite.

First thing we did was rent one of the 4-wheel bikes to ride around for an hour.  There were 2 sets of pedals, so the boys alternated helping peddle and steer...though it was a stretch for Derek to reach, so most of the work was done by myself and Alex.

   

Next, we found a little Bonsai Tree farm.  The boys thought some of the trees weren't small enough to be part of the farm, but it was interesting to see all of the different sizes, shapes, and varieties of trees in the farm.
     

Our final stop at Century Park was at the Amusement Park area.  They had this elevated track around the entire outside of the Amusement Park, and the boys were excited to get the bird's eye view of the area.  We also went on the small rollercoaster...SO proud of Derek for going on it with us even though he was freaked out, and he found he even enjoyed it (except for bumping his head when we got off).
   
   

The paths in the park were quite empty when we were there, most likely since it was during the week.  As we drive by on the weekend, there are always lots of people there enjoying the biking, wide open green areas, and touch of nature in the middle of 20 million people.
     

With this being so close we can ride our bikes there, we look forward to another visit to try out the paddle boats...

and the adventure continues...

Long weekend in Sanya, Hainan Island

At the end of June, we took our second vacation since moving to Shanghai. There is an island in southern China called Hainan Island, and the resort area is called Sanya. It is known as the "Hawaii of China", and it was very beautiful! We travelled with a group of about 20 people from Dow Corning as a group tour arranged by DC.

We arrived on a sunny Wednesday at the Marriott Sanya. The greeting committee gave us each a shell necklace with a star-shaped emblem imprinted with "Marriott Sanya". We got all checked in to our room, and what a beautiful view we had of the greenery and the beach.


The boys got a little goofy after the travel, so we snapped a picture of them before we headed off to the beach and the 3-level pool (complete with 2 waterfalls).


The beach was spectacular! There was quite a nice breeze while we were there, which always makes for good wave-jumping. The waves kept trying to pull down Derek's trunks, but no loss of trunks or sneak-peeks of his backside (thank goodness!).





All around the grounds, they had these warrior statues. The boys humored Mom with a couple of pictures...


Most of the time was spent in the pool.


There were limited restaurants in the hotel (one Chinese, one Japanese, and one "Western" that wasn't so great), so we ventured out to a restaurant plaza about a mile from the hotel. The walk was quite warm (average temp while we were there was about 95!), but we found a good restaurant for pizza as well as a small grocery store to get some chips and pop for snacking throughout the day. Another visit found us at a Japanese restaurant getting noodles, shrimp tempura (which Alex LOVED and ate 3 plates of himself!), and soup. We always made sure to get dessert at a local ice cream parlor to keep us cool on the walk back to the hotel.

The only downer of the vacation was Derek getting sick on Saturday. Poor little dude was so worried about not making it to the bathroom that he curled up on the floor and slept!


Luckily, he only got sick a couple of times, slept for 14 hours straight, and woke up on Sunday morning feeling better than ever! Mark and Derek decided to do a little balcony dancing to celebrate feeling better on our last day at Sanya.


After a few last-minute pictures, we took off for home.


Sanya was beautiful...I can see why it's such a popular vacation place! With it only being about a 2-hour flight from Shanghai, it's highly possible that we might be repeat visitors in the future...

and the adventure continues...

Visiting friends in Midland...

In late July, we had our first home leave back to Midland. The boys (and the parents too) were so excited to see family and friends while we were back for our 2.5-week visit.

The day after we arrived, we were thrilled to go to a barbeque hosted by Jen and Tim Beach (THANKS SO MUCH!). We got a chance to catch up with Beachs, Gunns, Fordneys, Southmayds, McDonalds, and Beeckmans. Unfortunately, I was so busy talking and watching kids that I forgot to snap any pictures. Regardless, the kids had fun swimming until dark, followed by playing hide-and-seek after dark.

The funniest thing was, as we got ready to leave, Alex noticed the stars...and commented about how the big dipper was in the Beach's front yard. Jen's comment was, "I didn't know my front yard was THAT big!". The sad reality of it is, you don't really see many stars in Shanghai because of the smog and all the lights. We all made sure to make a wish on one of the stars.

On the first Monday back, we met up with some friends (Andrew, Jacob, G-ho for Alex, Ben for Derek) at the Plymouth Pool for an afternoon swim. It was great to stay cool and visit with even more friends...



Alex, Andrew, Jacob and G-Ho...


Ben and Derek hit the slides...


Staying cool on the side of the pool...


Derek takes a flying leap into the deep...


CANNONBALL!!!!!


Alex loves the water slides!

The boys were sad to have to leave, but they had such fun with their friends. Perhaps this will have to be an annual thing...

and the adventure continues...