Bev's birthday in Shenzhen

Happy Birthday Bev.

We all helped Bev celebrate at a Dim Sum restaurant.

Special thanks to Sabrina for organizing not a birthday cake but a large lucky peach bun with a bunch of little peach buns.

Here are a couple of forbidden pictures we took at the restaurant.

We headed to a local shopping complex near the local train station in Shenzhen. There were about six floors filled with hundreds of small shops selling various goods. I think Kayla is getting a bunch of loot from here.

Then off to the Cultural Park in Shenzhen.

We witnessed a grand battle scene recreated before our very eyes. The historic significance of the battle was lost on most of our party.

Bev visited the Lamastery.

There was a section of the park with miniatures of several different areas throughout the country.

We then had dinner at a restaurant in the Park, complete with fried fish heads, which actually turned out to be quite tasty.

See, even non normal fish head eating people were partaking in the tasty treats.

Our evening at the Cultural Park was capped off by a grand performance in the main theater in the Park. Yes, there were plate twirlers.

And a Video.

Auto Mah Jong

Automatic shuffle and stacking.

A time saver yes.

More Shenzhen

Capping off our first night in China with a quick game of mah-jong.
Many restaurants are equipped with private rooms for a single serving per night. You can stay after you eat and play mah-jong or watch television all night.
We only tried mah-jong because of the automatic shuffler/stacker.

A group of tourists outside our hotel, the Vienna Hotel (not in Vienna).

The Petrified forrest in Fairyland. All the petrified wood was taken from another area in China and assembled here.

Arrival in China, First Stop Shenzhen

On our arrival in Hong Kong, after a 14+ hour flight, we are met by Sabrina, who wisked us off to Shenzhen.

After crossing the Hong Kong / China boarder, we headed into Shenzhen and checked into the Vienna Hotel in the downtown area.

Our first stop was lunch at a hot-pot restaurant.

We then proceeded to a park called the Fairyland Park.

Bev with Sabrina in Temple in Fairyland Park.

Our first night's dinner in a private room.

Sabrina treated us and we could not refuse, even if we wanted to .

Dina was of course looking for birds.

A visit with Grandma

I went to visit Poh (a.k.a. L.A. Grandma) on Sunday afternoon.
Mom asked me to walk in and see if she knew who I was.
So I walked in, and there she was laying on her room 22B bed.
It was 3:45 pm and she was awake so she looked up at me. I asked her if she knew who I was. She didn't. I told her and she seemed surprised.

Then we started chatting.
After about twenty minutes, she sat up on the side of the bed and asked me to sit on the bed.
We chatted some more. Mostly her, as I listened. She knew mom was going back to China and I told her I was going too. She spent about twenty minutes recalling her days back in the village and specifically the three story building there.

I think she's mostly bored there but there are plenty of people around.
She got up and walked me to the door when I left.

Happy 60th James

Happy 60th James.
Here's to the next 60.

Here's Kayla looking a little hung over from her birthday party the day before.

I do believe that I had more than all I can eat.

Happy Birthday Kaya (The Video)

The Card (video)

Kayla turns two

Happy Birthday Kayla.

The UnWrapping.

The terror of the inflatable monster cake.

Not sure who those people are behind Ken.

The Gifts.

The Car.

The Chow Line.

The 1 2 3s.