Busy Weekend

Last weekend was beautiful. The weather was nice and so it was finally time to get out and see some of Shanghai. The morning started off with none other than a visit to the Dr. with Saria. I thought it was another case of pink eye, but they think she may have blocked tear ducts. Phew!! I had our day planned. We were going to go to a famous park in the middle of downtown called People's Square/People's Park and then to the Shanghai Railway Museum. I showed Mr. Chao (our driver) where we wanted to go and he initially dropped us off in front of some Urban Planning Museum. Surely we couldn't be in the right place, so I had him drop us off at the park that I saw across the street. There was a huge fountain there with kids running around in it. Shortly after we got to the fountain they turned it off so the kids could splash around in the water. Brycen thought this was very cool, because you could see the holes where the water came out. After walking around a little I was confused about what all the excitement was about in this so called "famous" park. Sure it was pretty, but where were all the people doing tai chi and water calligraphy? We decided to go to lunch and as we were leaving I looked behind the Urban Planning Museum (where we were originally dropped off) and sure enough there was a HUGE park with amusement rides and lots of people. Whoops. Next time I will leave it up to the local to know where to drop us off. The Railway Museum was pretty cool. The trains outside were fun to climb on, even though the signs said "no climbing". All the other kids were climbing on them so when in China do as the Chinese kids do:)

On Sunday morning Brycen and I "walked" in the Jinqaio 2K Fun Run with some friends of ours. There were two things that really amazed me on this morning.

1. This 2K was held in an area that is very popular with expats. It is very common to see mostly westerners when you are in Jinqaio and sometimes when you are there you forget you live in China. So I was very surprised when Brycen and I showed up to sign in and we were two of very few westerners there.

2. The paparazzi like photographers. These people had long lens cameras and were in our faces most of the morning. It is amazing how enamoured Chinese people are with westerners, especially the children. It got so bad that at one point Brycen's friend Brady pulled the shade down on his stroller just so they couldn't take his picture anymore:)

I think next time this happens I am going to start taking pictures of them taking pictures of us.

Brycen's friends Brady and Rilynn

The 8K about to start. Notice I am taking the pictures... NOT running

His first 2K!