So yes, that was a rather underwhelming blogfest.
A month ago, I got back from another trip to visit my family (yes, once again without Kenny--I am a horrible wife) that took me to China! (although in my defense, when I told Kenny about the option to visit my parents, he snobbishly replied, "yeah, sure, go ahead. I've already been to China.") Although we remained mostly in Shanghai, we walked around enough to have Colton asking "do you even really like sightseeing?!" by the end of the week.
After arriving on Saturday night and an appropriately uneventful Sunday (although the visit to the Shanghai branch was intriguing), we set out to explore one of the most modern places in China.
Our first stop was the Shanghai Bowuguan (museum) filled with plenty of cultural relics and surprisingly free! Since most of the other visitors in the museum were taking copious amounts of pictures, we decided to follow suit. Here is a small sampling.
The pictures are refusing to go where I want them to, so just enjoy the spontaneity.
The jade(example above) was probably my favorite. Although there was a surprising lack of green jade.
I thought this exhibit was also interesting, although for different reasons. For China's take on the "Tibet situation", see here.
By the end of the museum, as so often happens with priceless cultural artifacts, we were so artifacted out that we were setting time limits for each floor. Our record was the last floor, which we completed in a swift fifteen minutes. We were not the only ones in need of a break, however, as we saw plenty of people enjoying naptime.
Our break came a little later out on the street, when my dad managed to find a booth demonstrating head massagers.
Our final activity for the day was a long hunt for a giant jade buddha at a temple in the middle of the city. The buddha was okay--after a while, all of the temples in Asia start to look the same--but we did enjoy trying to win ourselves some luck by throwing coins in the top of an incense tower. I know this is a horrible picture of myself, but mom caught me in the air!
Yes, my left hand looks like it's been crushed and my face isn't much better, but check out my levitation!
My coins had pretty good aim, but I couldn't quite master the force. At one point my coin went straight through the opening at the top and flew into the shrine on the other side. Never to be recovered.
Stay tuned for more from China: The Bizzare, and Paparazzi galore: Colton's Claim to Fame.
