Culinary website

My friend's daughter who happens to live in Boston started the neatest website.

http://www.plummelo.com/

It is dedicated to cooking and recipies and all things culinary.  You can find recipies and then you can keep your own recipies on "file" on your own space.  She also has a blog that is pretty entertaining.  I should have had something like this years ago when I actually did some cooking and entertaining!  I do look up recipies on line rather than dig through my cook books but I end up printing them out and then I still end up with a drawer full of recipies and can't find the one I want anyway.  This is better. 

Christmas in Alamos

The three of us just spent Christmas in the sunny, old Spanish colonial city of Alamos in Sonora in Mexico!  Was a fun 4 day get-away.  Stayed at our favorite B&B and just enjoyed walking the old streets, showing Stephanie the sites and eating lots of local Mexican food!  Went birding one rainy morning on the Cachahuaca River, checked out the old silver mining town of Aduana.  Then spent one last night on the Sea of Cortez at San Carlos on our drive back.  Made Steph homesick for the California coast!  Lovely quiet, family Christmas.  (Miss you Doug and Tammy)

Stephanie is finally here!

She's here!  We drove up to Phoenix last night to pick her up at the airport.  We have her all to ourselves for a whole week.  Going to be a good Christmas!

Lights are up, tree decorated

Our street is really looking festive.  Lots of lights and fun Christmas decorations.  Our house looks pretty good also, if I do say so myself.  Will did the outside with ladders and up on the roof while I did the inside.  He had the hardest job but mine took longer to finish.

El Tour de Tucson 2009

Today was El Tour de Tucson.  Will did the 80 mile portion and finished in 4 hours 49 minutes!  Not bad for a senior citizen!!  He had a great time, was a fun ride, good weather, great day for a bike ride.  That is our friend, Kevin as the two of them bike across the starting line.

Now this is the lead pack of the big guys.  They went 109 miles.  They mean business!

Latest kiln fire

This is a commission for Stephanie.  She needed a kitchen tool holder.

I should make one for myself.

I had a really good "fire" this time.  Got some good pots.

The last three pics were done on a wheel, including the lids.

Puerto Penasco

A couple more pictures of Puerto Penasco.  The luxury high rises on Sandy Beach in the distance across the Bay.  Popular place for Arizonans to come, its only 4 hours from Tucson to the shores of the Sea of Cortez.  April and John Ritchie stayed an extra day with us after we finished working in the barrio.

  The story of the week.  Apparently, when the work crew foreman got the list of his crew from St Andrews, he got really worried because the average age of our group was pretty high!  He even complained about it to the organizers, he didn't think we could do the work!  I don't know if he expected us to come off the van in wheel chairs, or what, but we had a good laugh over it.  I have to tell you that our "old" crew finished our house and were back in camp at least an hour before anyone else!

Building a house for Maria and Francisco

We are home, tired and humbled and very blessed by the experience in Mexico.  We worked really hard for 3 days and built a home for Maria and Francisco.  They shared a marvelous testamony about thier faith journey.  We had a great work crew, it all came together nicely.  Seemed like chaos at times but we all found our gifts and learned some new skills in the mean time--we became a great team.  It was hard but so worth it.  We received as much as we gave in so many ways.

Mexico mission trip

Not a whole lot going on since we got home from China a week and half ago.  Took us a good long while to recover from jet lag.  Must be our age.  Will came home with a cold also which did not help but he is back to health and we are ready to go again.  So. . .

Can't let those suitcases get cold.  We leave bright and early tomorrow morning on a mission trip to Puerto Penasco in Mexico to build houses for some people who are in desparate need of help.  Our church, St Andrews Presbyterian has a team on 16 people going.  We will be joining Pantano Christian also from Tucson to make up a group of maybe 150 people going to serve in a variety of capacities.  We partner with "Amor" which is a Christian organization that supplies all the materials and plans for a 11 x 22 structure, 2 windows, 2 doors, 2 rooms, that to us would be a good utility shed but to these people it is a welcome new home.  We provide the labor.  We will be working in the barrio with no electricity and no running water so we will be mixing cement in wheel barrows, building framing with hand saws, and doing a lot of hand labor.  I think I feel tired already.

pictures to missed the blog

 As far as I can remember these are the only pictures that I sent to the blog from China that did not make it through and those were from Hainan Island.  This is our Cactus Resort--was a bit of a surprise to find a central american-Mayan themed hotel in China--with a saguaro cactus logo--but why not!!  It was quite nice and swimming in the warm South China Sea was pretty fun. Doug remembers being here maybe 15 years ago and there were no hotels or resorts.  Now it is a major tourist destination and the coast of YaLong Bay is lined with destination resorts--China's Hawaii.

   Laundry is done, all unpacked, just memories left.  Missing the kids.

We got back to Tucson in time for a cold snap but now is warming up again to mid to upper 80's.  In fact I think I need to take my cup of green tea out on the patio right now and read my book!

Home again

This is a nearby park where all the grandparents take the toddlers.

 Anyway, we are home in Tucson now--little tired, a little disoriented, but feeling good.  Time went by so fast, now I will get all my pictures in order so I can savor the memories.  We flew out of Shanghai airport about 11 am Friday morning and arrived in Los Angeles at 9:45 Friday morning--over an hour before we left!  I don't get it.  We got the day  back that we lost going over. 

last day in China

Our last day in Shanghai.  We spent it walking the streets again--our favorite thing to do.  Went to an area of town that use to be warehouses and a cotton mill but now is turned into artist studios, galleries and art space.  It is really an interesting place to spend a few hours..  One tends to think of Chinese painting as classical brush strokes and silk scrolls but the new Chinese artist is as avant guard as anyone..  Saw some delightful and interesting exhibitions.

  Our last dinner out tonight, Tammy took us across town to a Korean neighborhood for some Korean Bar-B-Q.  Up late packing as we have an early flight home in the morning.  I'm going to feel bad leaving--I always do. 

Thoughts on China

picture of Renmin park from 38th floor lobby lounge of Marriott--where I walked away and left my camera.  Paniced 15 minutes later and came back and found it laying on ledge right where I left it!

Observations of China

Chinese beds are very firm—actually, hard!

Most taxis now have meters which makes traveling much less stressful.  There were cab drivers that wanted to bargain on Hainan so thinking that outside of the cities you still have to negotiate taxi fares.

Trains and subways are dependable and relatively easy to navigate and mostly quite comfortable.

Renmin subway station in shanghai is NOT the place to be during rush hour—a crush of people.  We found that out the hard way.  However, I would say people were not purposely rude or obnoxious, it was just a lot of people trying to make their way where they needed to be.

One needs to "stay aware" when crossing the street, even when light is green. Pedestrians do not have the right-of-way. Buses trump cars, cars trump bikes, bikes trump people.

China has the biggest billboards ever!

Lots of smokers although we have seen non-smoking sections in restaurants which I don't remember the last time we were here.

We have been surprised at the number of restaurants that have at least some English on menus and street signs.  Guessing its not that way where there are fewer foreigners.  Hainan had Russian signage also.

Shanghai is quite ethnically diverse.  Many  Japanese, Taiwanese, Koreans, Germans, Africans. Tammy has found Korean restaurants that pass her high standards. Also architecturally diverse as from its consessionary days during the turn of the century.  Many of these old buildings are being restored now but many are just remnants of what once was.

If we have been approached once, we have been approached 300 times by people trying to sell us a "very good price" Rolex (knock off?) watch. You can get rid of these people much quicker with a smile and a wave of hand and a no-thank-you than to try to ignore them or get angry.  They will follow you down the street if they sense a glimmer of interest.  Showing anger during any kind of negotiation will get you nowhere..  This only happens in touristy areas so I am sure all foreigners are besieged.

Clean bathrooms are a challenge to find when we are out for the day.  Although, I would say they are easier to find now than 9 years ago.  Never leave the house without a pack of tissues for obvious reasons.

Shanghai is hosting the 2010 Expo which is the next World's Fair and the city is rising to the occasion.  It is a very big deal here. Advertising for the event is everywhere, "Better City, Better Life" is the logo and shows up in most unlikely places.  The city is putting its best foot forward and sprucing everything up for it, much like Beijing did for the 2008 Olympics.  Construction scheduled to be completed by the beginning of Expo in May of 2010 is all around.  The financial crisis is hard to determine here. 

You can get chicken prepared a myriad of ways here, but most likely it will still have bones in it.  We lovingly call it "smashed chicken"; they just don't debone chicken in China.

The Chinese are light years ahead as far as the average guy on the street and technology.  Everyone uses their cell phones to access internet instead of being tied to a laptop like we are.  Texting is a national pastime.

We are on sensory-overload all the time here.  The cacophony of sights, smells and sound is amazing.  It is all so different than our quiet life in Tucson.  Some things seem so bazaar to us while others  are so impressive—like how slick the Asian airlines work in comparison to flying in the US.  Sometimes we look at each other with bewildered looks as we have no clue what is going on.  It is all very interesting.  We are not so uncommon here but we had a couple of occasions outside of Shanghai where we got stared at, and a couple of times people wanted to have their picture taken with us (the foreigners.) We got pointed at a lot more when we were here 9 years ago

Tammy does not have a dryer and thinking it is not uncommon to not have one.  Most people still have clothes hanging on balcony or on a pole out of their window.  Tammy does have a little room off her kitchen that is inside the apartment but has full opening to outside and that is where she hangs her clothes to air dry.  Actually that is where the kid's maid hangs their clothes to dry.  But it is so humid that it takes a long time to get anything really dry.

 

 

 

 

resending seafood pictures

Got word that maybe these two pictures didn't make it through from Hainan Island so am resending them.  Too good to miss.  Doug negotiated a price and they cooked up the fish and clams Hainan style and we had a feast.  Mostly steamed with a little ginger and soy and then made a soup with the fish head and some goodies added like greens and tofu.  This was a restaurant along the street in the little neighboring town from our resort.  Southern Chinese food is not spicy at all, although the hotel restaurant was Sichuan food which is very spicy.  Tammy loves it, Will can't do it, I can handle some of it but true Sichuan spicy here is fire hot.

We found this Baptist church not so far from our neighborhood.  Nice well kept building.  We peeked inside the large modern sanctuary but no one around that spoke any English to ask any questions. 

Will is buying bananas and Asian pears.

more Shanghai

Subway is the way to go. 

Strolling down Nanjing Lu, the famous pedestrian shopping street

Shanghai at work

This is the street in front of the kid's apartment.  Sidewalk goes right under scaffolding--pedestrian beware! During rush hour the streets are jammed with cars, motor bikes, bicycles and pedestrians.

last day at Yalong Bay

Tammy left for home late last night, Doug caught an early morning flight this morning to Shenzhen on business and we spent one more day here on Hainan island just enjoying the resort and walking to a couple of local sites, like a butterfly garden, a small shell museum and this tall oblisk which is close to the shell museum and close to the shore of Yalong Bay.  Lots of shopping and tourist markets around it. We'll catch an 8pm flight back to Shanghai and Doug's company driver will pick us up at the airport.  How's that for service.

the kiddos

These kids are great!

seafood

This. . . .became this. . .in just a few minutes and it was delicious.

rain forest

Chinese tour

Will and I joined a tour from the hotel to a rain forest.  Doug helped us book it and the bus left from this hotel so we thought we could do this.  We muddled through and ended up having a good day.  We were the only non Chinese on the tour, and the tour guide did not speak English so we didn't get any of her narration.  What we did have was an automatic recorded guide in English that worked great--once we figured out how it worked.  Was ingenious really--as we walked along the paths and would come to a plant of interest, or an area with a story it would automatically come on and tell us about it through the ear phones.  This rain forest park had board-walk trails all through it and we saw all manner of tropical plants, water falls, thousand year old banyon trees, and lots and lots of people also out enjoying the trek.  We were hoping we would see some birds but it was mid day, hot, and too busy for wildlife to show themselves.  Doug and Tammy relaxed and enjoyed the resort while we went off by ourselves.

Hainan weekend

We fought stop and go traffic to get to the airport during rush hour so that the four of us could catch a plane to Sanya on Hainan Island for a long weekend holiday together.  Hainan is located south and west of Hong Kong, actually very near VietNam.  Is a tropical resort island for the Chinese, also noticing a lot of Russians vacationing here.  We checked into the Cactus Hotel on Yalong Bay.  Somehow we didn't expect to see a Mayan temple-themed hotel in Asia but all quite nice and certainly tropical.  China's Hawaii.  We swam in the very warm, clear waters of Yalong Bay, relaxed by the huge hotel pool and I even had a "fish message."  I climbed into a small heated pool with thousands of tiny fish who immediately begin to nibble away as they exfoliate the skin. Made me giggle.

port city

We took a three hour river cruise down the Huang Pu river to the bay where Yangze begins.  They told us that this is the busiest/biggest shipping port in the world.  I don't know if that is true but it is certainly an interesting site with all manner of boats from ocean going container ships to barges to family junks.