#352 Island B

The boys and I took the canoe to "Island B", the smaller of two islands on Jinji Lake. The other island (Peach Blossom Island), is now inundated with tourists who are brought on boats from the new Ferris Wheel amusement park. We packed a picnic lunch and had a very interesting tour of the island. We saw a peacock (no picture) and we climbed down to the subway tunnel that is being built underneath Jinji Lake.

You can see Joseph and Marco peering down the shaft, then our descent, and the tracks in the subway tunnel. The subway is supposed to open in 2012. The two random guys we met on the island stayed and watched us as we ate our sandwiches by the shore. What an adventure !

#351 Dumplings

Kathleen has been teaching Marco's first communion class on Sundays after mass. This left Joseph and I free this week to find something to do for an hour while waiting. We took a walk across the street to Carrefour, a French-owned grocery store that is like another Chinese Super Walmart.

Check some of the sights above. First, a very colorful dumpling display and then some live snakes and bullfrogs in the deli section. Finally, Joseph poses with some of the fresh seafood. Wow !

#350 Bali, Indonesia

It has been since over three months since my last blog entry. Thanks to my friend Greg for encouraging me to post an update ! By way of excuses, the internet in China has been excessively slow in recent months which makes it difficult to upload pictures.

We just returned from a spring break trip to Bali, Indonesia. Our original plans were to go to Koh Samui, Thailand, but Thailand was hit by a wet weather emergency. On the day we were scheduled to travel, Koh Samui was flooded and tourists were being evacuated by the Thai Navy ! It was stressful for a time as we figured out an alternative and fought with Expedia for a refund on the first tickets.

In the end, Bali was perhaps a much better vacation that we would have had in Thailand. We did a lot of fun things. The boys and I tried to teach ourselves how to surf, Maria got a swimming lesson at the hotel pool, I bungy jumped for the first time, and we all went horseback riding along a remote beach and through the countryside.

On our last day, Joseph and I hiked up Mt. Batur, a semi-active volcano at the north end of Bali. We did started hiking at 4 AM to reach the top before sunrise. The guide cooked us breakfast on the hot rocks at the volcano summit.

In the final picture, Kathleen and I are enjoying happy hour during sunset at the beach resort. Bali is a beautiful place and we really enjoyed this location in the beach town of Seminyak.

#349 Christmas

The biggest Christmas present of course is the dog. A total surprise that made for a very exciting Christmas morning - maybe even the best Christmas ever. Additionally, Maria got a new pink bicycle, Joseph a guitar, Marco a Nintendo DS handheld videogame, and Juliana a custom tailored wool coat.

#348 New Dog

We got a new puppy for Christmas. The kids have been asking for a dog for a long time. Kathleen joined the chorus last month when a neighbor was looking for a home for a rescued puppy. That puppy got adopted though before Kathleen could convince me to adopt. However, after reading Maria's letter to Santa, I also was convinced that it was time for a Christmas surprise.

Nash, our driver, was my local contact to find a dog. I wanted a good family dog with short hair and large enough to take running with me. I downloaded a collection of pictures of breeds in which I was interested and showed Nash. He said that the labrador was the only breed that he thought we could find in Suzhou. He made a call and located a source. On Christmas eve, Nash and I picked up the dog and stashed him for the night with our new neighbors, Leon and Autumn.

Christmas morning, Autumn brought the dog to our house at 8 AM and surprised the kids. It took a moment for them to realize that the dog was theirs, then there was an outbreak of major excitement. The name Patrick was proposed by Joseph and quickly endorsed by the rest of the kids and Kathleen. Patrick is the Chinese Yellow Lab with the Irish name.

#347 Sanya Vacation

We spent the week before Christmas in the city of Sanya on Hainan Island in southern China. Hainan is supposed to be the Hawaii of China and was pretty enough to live up to that name. We had wonderful weather and stayed at a waterfront resort on a very nice beach on the South China Sea. The ocean was not terribly warm, but it did not stop the kids from swimming eight or more hours every day. Kathleen and I logged less than a couple hours all week because of the initial chill of getting in the water.

We stayed at the Aegean Conifer Resort on Yalong Bay and while it was a beautiful location at an attractive 5 star resort, the level of service was quite bad. For example, each day we had to ask the cleaning staff to stay out of the room until we left. One day, one of the maids kept asking me what we did with the fourth washcloth that was left for us in the bathroom. We had not removed any washcloths from the room and even if we did, for $600 per night, I think they could afford to let it slide if we did. We did have a nice two bedroom suite with a view of the ocean, but would not recommend the hotel to others.

Activities for the week were primarily sitting on the beach, watching the kids swim, reading books, and taking walks. The kids took a whirl one day in the inflatable cylinders pictured above. All through the week, our kids drew the attention of many curious onlookers. They will play prominently in the vacation pictures of dozens of Chinese tourists.

#346 Ducks Xmas Assy

Maria's pre-school presented the Duck's musical rendition of the nativity story. Maria had a lead role as the innkeeper and narrator. She had many lines to memorize and a solo to sing. You can see she was the only kid to wear a headset microphone.

The show was very well done and Maria was terrific. We were very proud of Maria and very impressed with the caliber of the performance of this young group - only first graders.

#344 Thanksgiving

We had a big group of people to our house for Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday after Thanksgiving. Invited were three Caterpillar families, three "bachelor" collegues, and one neighbor family. Kathleen did a terrific job of cooking for 12 adults and 10 children. Pulling off a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in China is no simple task. In fact, a turkey has to be special ordered from an import grocery store and cost about $4/lb !

#345 Shanghai Half

This weekend I ran the Shanghai half marathon along with two of my co-workers and three neighbors. You can see me posing above with the three neighbors - Mike, Anthony, and Anthony. The race had an enormous number of people - over 20,000. You can see the picture above of the crammed starting line area. In fact, the crowd of runners remained dense throughout the 13 mile course.

I ran much of the way with my friend and co-worker, Paul - you can see him and I above standing on The Bund along the historic riverfront financial district of old Shanghai. The course was quite nice and we had wonderful weather for the entire race. The course starting on the west side of the river (Puxi) and proceeding through one of the tunnels to the east side of the river (Pudong). The tunnel was probably the worst part of the run. We were underground for at least 10 minutes. It was extremely hot and filled with the smell of thousands of sweaty runners. It was a glorious relief to emerge from the tunnel into the fresh (?) air and sunshine.

One highlight, as I neared the end of the half marathon, I was passed by the leader of the full marathon - a Kenyan running a two hour marathon pace. He ran more than twice as fast as I did for twice the distance ! Nonetheless, I met my goal of finishing in less than two hours. My final time was 1:58.

#343 Bauma Shanghai

I spent Thanksgiving Day this year at the International construction equipment show in Shanghai called "Bauma". Thanksgiving, of course, in China is not a holiday and thus is a normal workday. It was, though, that this year it was a bit of a field trip to this equipment trade show. I don't know where the name Bauma comes from, but it is certainly a major event in the world of Chinese, Asian, and other equipment makers. We took a busload of engineers from Wuxi and Suzhou to Bauma to spend the day studying competitor products.

Since I am the Asia Motor Grader guy, I spent the day looking at Chinese-made Motor Graders. There are a remarkable number of competitive machines. In all world outside of China, there are about five motor grader manufacturers. China alone has about 10 companies that make motor graders - some of them manufacture less than a hundred motor graders per year.

#342 Cowboy Birthday

Saturday marked a return to the Taihu Lake Cowboy Club, this time for Joseph's birthday party. Joseph invited four classmates to spend the day at the club. We had a barbecue and birthday cake followed by horseback riding, go karts, and paddleboats.

Maria has talked for ages about wanting to ride a horse and she was very happy when she got her chance. You can see her huge smile above. Unfortunately, some of the activities were off limits to children such as rock climbing, zip lines, and kayaking. For this we felt a little ripped off because we paid full price of $24 entrance fee per kid. It seemed they should have offered half price for the children. Nonetheless, everyone had a good time, and Joseph was a happy birthday boy.