Shanghai'd in Shanghai

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Well, 23 celebrations ago, we dined on stale wedding cake wearing blue jeans and scruffy hair amid the pines of northern Michigan. Accompanied by my parents and camping in the great outdoors, it couldn’t get much sweeter than that.

Fast forward to last Saturday night when we celebrated our marriage once again, only this time China style. Wearing our new China garb, we cruised aboard the Captain 2 on the “lovely” Huangpu river - eating and dancing the night away. There was champagne, wine, western and Asian fare, numerous friends, and of course, lots of cake! Perhaps the best part was boogieing to the 70’s style music as we watched the nighttime river scenery pass by. There were buildings lit up like Las Vegas, boats lit up like Las Vegas and dirty barges loaded down with who knows what. While we did not specially arrange this event, the timing was perfect to take advantage of this unique opportunity.

The end of the eve, friends query if we’d like to join them for a drink at the top of one of the many tall Shanghai buildings. We think leaving 2 teens home alone for so long was probably not such a great idea and reluctantly turn down the offer. Hmmmm - 24 years of wisdom gained must have given us a 6th sense about these things. Take a look at our last photo to see what Ty was up to as we innocently enjoyed an evening out.

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Photos

China style
When in China.... I in my qipao and Matt in his China jacket, off we head to join many other ex-pats wearing similar garb for this 1930's Shanghai themed evening.

Shanghai waterfront
The pearl tower, by night, uniquely represents the Shanghai waterfront.

Friends
New friends from many areas of the globe, including Turkey, Belgium, and Singapore. These ladies and I have shared many meals and adventurous explorations around Shanghai over the last few months.

Oldies but goodies
The dance deck was a hoopin place with a bunch of us older (but not old!) folk enjoying songs from such big names as "The Bee Gees", "Donna Summer", and even "Michael Jackson"! Why not just dance!?!

Puxi waterfront
The Puxi riverfront, known as "the Bund", features many varied buildings which once housed the embassies of foreign countries. Look closely on the river, and you'll see the famed "TV boat", another river pleasure cruiser, and several barges. This river is a busy waterway 24/7 and is always interesting to gaze upon while listening to numerous fog horns and trying to figure out where they are all going!

Happily ever after.......
O'k, for richer/for poorer, for better/for worse, in sickness/in health....but where did we promise in America/in China????

Our evening surprise
Just because it sounded like fun, Ty uses our old clippers to self style his new "do". "Aren't you proud of me" he boasts, "I cleaned everything up! I think I'm pretty responsible!" Yah, and tonight, after I'm done with him, he's going to look like a responsible marine!