http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/covemom/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from covemom en-us Sun, 03 Jan 2010 00:15:20 +0000 Sun, 03 Jan 2010 00:15:20 +0000 On Sunday November 8th we went to the Museum of Science and Technology in Shanghai. Overall I was impressed by the size of this museum. It had an extremely large variety of exhibits which were mostly marked well in English. The building itself was what impressed me the most. The central area is a large geodesic dome. There are also 4 different types of movie theatres Imax Dome 3D Ima http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/Pudong/blog-453007.html The Super Brand Mall is definitely bigger than any mall I've ever been to Now for those of you who know me well I'm not really much of a shopper so that doesn't say a lot but it is 10 stories high and even has an ice skating rink on the 8th floor The Chinese call it Zhengda Guangchang.After almost 2 hrs traveling time a taxi to the metro station nearest our apt then 3 different metro li http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/Pudong/blog-452424.html We went with some friends to the Shanghai Zoo on Halloween Saturday October 31st. I told Leah that since she couldn't go trick or treating this year that maybe the animals would do some tricks for her which some did and she got a couple treats a stuffed panda and an ice cream barWe rode what they call the subway not like our subways for the first time it's actually elevated n http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-450405.html Finally after having spent about 9 weeks total time in China we got to go to the ocean It really was close like Jim said We left after lunch on Saturday and took a taxi. I timed it and we got there in 22 minutes It cost us 57RMB or a little over 7USD to get there. We had reservations at the Howard Johnson's Palm Beach Resort where Jim stayed on his first trip here. After checking in we he http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/Fengxian/blog-448564.html Jim has had to work 8 days straight after the Chinese Holiday so we have just done some local things. The last day of his vacation time we went out with a couple of new friends Julie and Tina. We went to Guhua Park which I have written about a couple of times before. Leah wanted to go back and rent a boat. This time Julie and Tina sat in the front with Leah while Jim and I relaxed in the b http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/Fengxian/Nanqiao/blog-445412.html This will be the last entry for our stay in Suzhou. After our visit to The Lingering Garden we had planned to go to the Suzhou Museum but upon arrival found an extremely long line which wasn't even moving and we decided to just go back to Jin Ji Lake.We went back to Zapata's and this time got to sit on the outdoor balcony since it wasn't crowded. While looking around from the balcony I saw an http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Suzhou/blog-444357.html There were a few directions we hadn't walked from the hotel we took one on our way to the Lingering Garden. We found there was a very nice pedestrian shopping area with nice fountains and displays. At one end of it was a children's amusement area which Leah will eventually post about. It supposedly wasn't very far to the garden but we weren't exactly sure which street to turn down so we decid http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Suzhou/blog-443981.html We were ready for a simpler day so after having lunch at TGIFriday's we walked behind it towards Guan Qian Jie which I wrote about last time we were in Suzhou and called it Walking Street. We found a fun little store which Leah liked and found some treasures to buy. At the end of the little street with this store was a Christian Church. We knew that there were some around but didn't know whe http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Suzhou/blog-443421.html Jin Ji Lake is a fairly modern area in Suzhou. Ten years ago the lake was surrounded by farmland and fishermen. The area around the lake has now been developed with business areas beautiful parks residence areas and a 9 mile walkway around the entire lake. The Lake is inside of the Suzhou Industrial Park or SIP which was developed with the help of Singapore. There are eight neighborhoods wit http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Suzhou/blog-443064.html There are many gardens in Suzhou and The Master of the Nets is one of the smaller ones but we decided to visit it because of their special night party. We saw eight different performances of various types of ancient Chinese arts including Chinese opera singing instrumental solos and dancing. Each performance was introduced in both Chinese and English and lasted about 10 minutes. It was kind o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Suzhou/blog-442626.html Shantang Street is the most famous ancient street in Suzhou said to be almost 1200 years old built in the Tang Dynasty in 825AD. The founder was Bai JuYi a famous poet of the time. The canal along the back of the shops and houses is called the Shantang River. The area has been home to many famous Chinese people in the past. It was and still is an important business center. There were some http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Suzhou/blog-442161.html Jim has time off for the Chinese holidays so we are spending some time in Suzhou which is a couple of hours from Nanqiao. Although with the holiday traffic it took us almost 3 hours to get here The Chinese are celebrating their National Holiday and this year marks 60 years since the People's Republic of China was established so it's a big deal to them. They also have time off for their http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Suzhou/blog-441856.html It was a LONG trip but we made it It took 26 hrs from the time we left home until we arrived at our Chinese home. Our flight in Chicago was delayed because they had to do some repairs but I won't complain I'm always thankful that they find these problems and fix them while we are on the groundThe plane wasn't full so the seat next to us was empty and we were able to sprawl out and relax a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/Fengxian/Nanqiao/blog-441115.html On June 28 in the afternoon we went to the zoo. It is a small zoo with limited animals but we enjoyed it and would certainly go again. Being afternoon we missed some of the animals like the polar bear who were sleeping.My favorite was the snow leopards they cooperated so nicely for pictures We also got to see a baby musk ox but the pictures didn't turn out because they were in the shade. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Alaska/Anchorage/blog-416966.html On Sunday June 28 we went to Powerline Pass in the morning. We parked in the Flattop Mountain parking area and Deb Mark Mandy Katie the dogs Leah and I all went for a walk. The weather was perfect I guess this is a good place to spot moose but we didn't see any. There were people hiking up many of the mountains. I guess hiking up Flattop is one of the most popular hikes in Anchorage. Th http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Alaska/Anchorage/blog-416945.html We've been so busy that I've gotten behind writing about our adventures so I'm just going to go back and pick up what I haven't written about. On June 27 was that really not even a week ago we took the Alaska Railroad train from Anchorage to Whittier. This was about a 2 hr drive the train only went 25 mph much of the time. We rode on the upper level and had a table to sit at. We saw a m http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Alaska/Whittier/blog-414548.html Our first place to explore in Alaska was the Alaska Native Heritage Center. There was a loop trail around a pond where there were examples of different tribal homes. Inside of each was someone representing the people who would have lived there and explaining there lifestyle. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Alaska/Anchorage/blog-412639.html We have returned from China and are actually now in Alaska I decided to post one last bunch of pics from China before moving on to the Alaska pics Before leaving China we took Leah back to the Tea House where Jim had taken me for my birthday. We sat in the main part at an upper level table where we could look over most of the tea house. It was great we just relaxed and chatted. Leah walked ar http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/Fengxian/Nanqiao/blog-412626.html Meet Haibao Hibow rhymes with cow. We have been seeing him just about everywhere we go statues signs flags banners plush toys keychains etc for sale he has definitely overrun the Shanghai area of China Plus every time we look out our front window towards Ace he's on the billboard we see We've seen him from one inch high to probably ten feet highWe read online that their was a st http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-407531.html This past weekend we went back to Guhua Park which I wrote about earlier both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we caught a cab showed the taxi driver a picture of the park sign from when we were there before and it worked we got there We first had lunch at the restaurant next to the park which we now know is called U.N.D.C. Coffee in English. After lunch we walked through some areas of the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/Fengxian/Nanqiao/blog-407159.html