Across the Pond

Joseph was reading a paper at a conference in Edinburgh, which gave us the perfect excuse to visit Dave and Georgia in London! Joseph had to catch a train up to Scotland almost as soon as we got in, but Evangeline and I were able to relax and enjoy their hospitality. Oh yeah, we saw a few things, too. :)

Parliament and Big Ben

It's been renamed the Elizabeth Tower, but we refused to comply

Yay, Westminster Abbey!

The view in St. James's Park--Whitehall, Horse Guards, The Eye

Evangeline just loved all the ducks and geese (not pictured)...

...and all the green space!

Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards

They successfully changed :)

So excited!

Fish and Chips with Chip Butties for the non-fish eaters

Happy face

Every night after dinner, Dave and E treated us to a concert

The Diana Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens, the most fabulous playground ever!

The theme is Peter Pan, with a huge wooden pirate ship surrounded by sand...

...teepees, water play, and Neverland-esque trails and hideaways

Boarding the pirate ship

Below decks

Making music in the "woods"

At the water pump

It was hard to tear her away

The formal garden by Kensington Palace

Lovely ladies

The nice gardener who let us in as long as we promised to leave with the tour group

Victoria's memorial was nice and understated...

...compared with Albert's in Hyde Park. Yikes!

A beautiful day

The Diana Memorial Fountain, which was more a place for wading

If E hadn't been sleeping in her stroller at this point, I'm sure we'd have been in there, too

The Serpentine - fun to see Olympic events here a few weeks later

We checked out the Museum of Childhood

Great sandbox

Tea party

Our little wizard!

Quite pleased with her babyccino (yes, that's a thing)

Making pizzas at home

Borough Market, south of the Thames

Now THAT'S some cheese!

Tower of brownies

Meat pies

G getting our grilled cheese--seriously the best ever!

Chilling by the Thames

The Globe

Tate Modern

Letting off some steam by running up and down the ramp

Millennium Bridge and St Paul's

View from the bridge

London Bridge looking festive

St Paul's, where I resisted the urge to sing "Feed the Birds"

This one could not resist an open piano, though

Bus stop fun

Conference over, Joseph rejoined us and we went to the Hackney City Farm

A nice rural feeling in the middle of East London

This fancy fellow was positive he was pecking a rival

More playground time, of course!

At Dave and Georgia's local

Covent Garden

Big smiles

Trafalgar Square, which she loved, obviously!

We had a hard time getting her away from those lions

Jones Fam

Horse Guards

10 Downing Street, what we could see of it

Pub lunch! So much delicious cheese on the sandwiches...

Hanging around the Barbican, a very unique housing development

Quality time :)

Making friends on Hampstead Heath

Fortifications at a tea shop--my lavender cake was awesome, by the way

Naturally, the cow creamer was irresistible

A few summarizing thoughts about London:

• We were surprised by how multicultural it was. I always think of London as being more homogeneous, but that was definitely not the case. I think it helped that we were based out of East London, but it was still very impressive.
• Another surprising thing was that it made us more appreciative of Hong Kong public transit. London's was so much more expensive, especially the tube. And the stops seemed to be further apart; we had to do a lot more walking to get to the stations. And they don't all run as often. By where Dave and Georgia lived, there was ten minutes between trains during non-rush hours. In Hong Kong, you practically throw a fit when the trains are four minutes apart! I guess we are just spoiled.
• We loved, loved, loved the playgrounds in London. There was so much variety, space for creativity, and potential for risk. You couldn't help but draw some (unflattering) comparisons about cultural values when you contrasted London and Hong Kong.
• People were generally very friendly and helpful. Every time we were struggling with the stroller or luggage, someone immediately stopped to offer to help. Another pleasant change from Hong Kong!

It was a wonderful trip in every way. Great to spend time with family, great sights, great food. We didn't even come close to seeing everything, which gives us another reason to go back!

Chicago!

We were so happy to start our summer travels back in the good ol' US of A. It was lovely to be able to eat our favorite things and, more importantly, see friends and family. We started off in NW Arkansas, got over our jet lag there, and then drove up to Chicago with an all-too-brief stop in our old stomping grounds of Champaign. Unfortunately, we lost all the pictures we took in Champaign, so if someone could share theirs, we'd be most appreciative! Cliche or not, we were robbery victims in Chicago. Someone broke into the place we were staying in Wicker Park (while we were sleeping!) and snatched Joseph's computer, where we had recently transferred pictures from the camera. But luckily that was the only thing stolen, and more importantly, no one was hurt.

Our Chicago trip started out with Joseph's dad and step-mom, Tom and Darlene. We ate pizza, went to the zoo, tooled around, and enjoyed being together.

The seal being put through her paces

In the bleachers after the show

The rhinos were a big hit with Evangeline

We were also thrilled to get to see old friends Andy and Sarah, who made the trek even though they were about to be new parents. Awesome! Friends and brunch at Lula--a winning combination.

Very grateful to the lady who took this picture, but I wish she had moved a few steps closer...

The climax of our trip was my cousin Mason's wedding to his fabulous bride, Shirley. It was so special to be able to be at the event, to see more family then we would have otherwise, and to meet Shirley's family, too.

A beautiful ceremony

Cousin Tom doing the reading

The big moment!

I don't know why we didn't take any pictures of the reception at the Bristol, but the food was amazing and a great time was had by all. Evangeline decided that the hors d'oeuvres were too fancy for her, so the staff brought out a giant bowl of apple slices and cheese wedges for her. Score!

The following day we rehashed all the wedding highlights, bought a new computer for Joseph, packed up, and headed to the airport to jet off to our next destination, London!

Three

I've been silent on the blog front, but that was because we've been travelling all summer. Five countries in seven weeks--it was epic! Now that we're back in Hong Kong and over our nasty jetlag (it was the worst we've ever had!), I'll try to catch you up on our summer travels.

It started off with a bang because a certain someone turned THREE.

This was a very important birthday for her, because it meant that she could go to school AND she would finally have to pay for public transportation in HK (she has been longing to have her own card to beep on the readers). We have been talking about her turning three for months and months and months.

Of course, it was my birthday too!

Chocolate fudge cake, white chocolate mousse filling, sour cream chocolate icing

Is she my daughter or what?

We are so blessed to have her in our lives and we just can't wait to see what this new year brings. I realize I'm slightly biased, but she is such a delightful little person. I love the fact that she just has a blast no matter what we're doing. I love how talkative and expressive she is, and her vivid imagination.

It's going to be a great year!

Beijing, Part Two

The most popular tourist destination in Beijing is, by far, Tiananmen Square, the largest public space on Earth. We arrived early in the morning and there were already a lot of people milling about. Almost everyone we saw were Chinese tourists who come to see Chairman Mao's mausoleum and the Great Hall of the People. And as can be expected, there was heavy police and military presence.

This is the only public display of Mao

Monument to the People's Heroes, for the victims of the revolution

Posing with Tiananmen Gate in the background

You can see how disgusting the air is. The other days, we were really lucky with the weather; the winds must have carried the pollution away to make it relatively clear. But the day we went to Tiananmen and the Forbidden City, the smog was oppressive.

Past Tiananmen Gate is Wumen, the gateway to the Forbidden City

Once inside, there are five marble bridges, one for each Confucian virtue

Wumen and the five bridges from the other side

E runs where the imperial audiences were held

The first of three ceremonial halls, Hall of Supreme Harmony

The interior, where the most important state occasions were held

Being inside the Forbidden City was probably the most uncomfortable we were on the trip. The further we went, the more crowded it got. Evangeline and I didn't even attempt to get close enough to the halls to be able to see inside because of how much pushing and jostling there was. Evangeline was getting mobbed by people wanting to touch her and take pictures of her (many rural Chinese people have never seen a white person in real life). But the best moment by far was when a young man approached the three of us with his camera. We thought for sure he wanted to take a picture with Evangeline, but no, he wanted a picture with only Joseph! So Evangeline and I stood by and watched him gleefully take a picture with his arm around Joseph. It happened too fast for me to get the camera on my phone out, unfortunately. Definitely a first!

The moat around the City. And yes, that's smog, not mist.

The weather was much better when we were at the Temple of Heaven, supposedly the prime meeting point between earth and heaven. It is regarded to be the pinnacle of Ming design, and is surrounded by a lovely public park.

Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, made without a single nail

A close-up of the gorgeous interior of the Hall

Beijingers in the park enjoying a game

We ate very well on the trip, and on the whole, liked the food a lot better than here in Hong Kong. We find Cantonese cooking to be pretty bland; Hong Kongers seem to be more concerned with the freshness and texture of the food than the flavor. Beijing had a lot of diversity and more Sichuan and Taiwanese influence. And as an added bonus, even though we ate at nice places, the prices were a lot lower than in Hong Kong.

Our favorite meal was probably at this hot pot place. The broth on the left was spicy, the other  mushroom-based for E.

At the hot pot restaurant, if you ordered noodles, a guy would come out and hand-pull them right in front of you by doing some dance moves. We were too surprised to get a video of him at our table, but when he came to the booth next door, Joseph managed to get most of it. See above.

E was very excited about her "lemonlade"

These dragon beans with ginkgo were outstanding!

Our craziest dessert: Taiwanese shave ice with beans and fruit

The street food in Beijing was really good, too, and I'm sure we missed out on a lot by being vegetarian. In the morning there were these omelet-roll-things, and all day there was a ton of fresh fruit and sweet potatoes. 

Hot baked sweet potatoes when you're starving = yum! This dude saved our lives.

One thing that really stood out was that at Western chains, the sign wasn't in English, even though the logo was there. Very different from Hong Kong!

I guess that's "Starbucks" in Chinese!

Another big surprise was seeing major road signs with spelling or grammatical errors in the English version. You'd think that the Chinese government would have a fluent English speaker take a quick look before they put them on display...right. :)

And because no trip to China would be complete without a funny "translation," here's our favorite:

This was above the urinals in a men's bathroom

All in all, it was a wonderful trip. And we easily could have stayed much longer, there was so much to do and see. Thank you, Beijing!