Tianjin Trip

The Wallace's and the Carrasco's set out for Panshan Mountain at 9:00 in the morning.  We arrived around 10:30.  We thought we had been to Panshan before but neither Todd nor I thought anything looked familiar.  We realized we hadn't been there yet. It looked pretty cool.  Some of us decided to eat some of our lunch.  We finally were ready to head up the mountain by 11:00.  We all hit the bathroom.  When we came out of the bathroom Fredy said he forgot the passports.  Seriously?  We have to have passports in order to check into hotels in Asia.  I even sent Ileana a text last night telling her not to forget the passports.  She said she told Fredy to get them.  Oops...that didn't work.  We decided we would figure that problem out later.

We bought our tickets and walked to the cable car to take it to the top.  We had to buy different tickets to ride.  It took the lady forever to figure out how much we owed.  She measured the kids and then would get confused as to how many Fredy was paying for and how many Todd was paying for.  We even had our families separated to make it obvious. 

Alejandro, Alfredo, and Cameron waiting for their tickets.

We finally got the ticket issues worked out and were waiting to get on the cable car.  Cars kept passing by but they wouldn't let us get in any of them for some reason.  After about 5 minutes we were finally making our way up the mountain.  We could only go up the first section.  The cable car to the clear top was not running.  It might have been because it was still pretty cold and there was still a little snow on the ground.  We unloaded and started walking.

Still waiting to get on the cable car.

Finally making our way to the top.

It would be much prettier once everything blooms and
turns green.

We were counting on Fredy and Ileana to be our guides but they couldn't quite remember how to start making our way down the mountain.  We found a path and went with it.  It was correct.  The walk down was pretty cool.  There were all kinds of funky statues to look at.  The walk was steep in spots with all different size steps.  The 3 big kids hiked everywhere but the path.  They were having fun.  Along the way we passed some ladies trying to sell souvenirs.  There was nothing any of us needed.

Of course the kids headed right to the snow.

Cameron looks the same size as the pagoda.

Cameron looking guilty about something.

Pretty cool.

The Carrasco's and the Wallace's enyoing a day hiking.

Cameron banged on the drum.

Cameron and Alfredo tried to ring the bell but the pole was
locked up.

From far away this looked like a chess game.

This shows where the kids hiked instead of the path.

Taking a break for another picture.

This guy was kind of creepy looking.

Buddha looks comfy.

This angel was freaky looking.

Taking a break.

We were all hoping we didn't slide off this rock because
it was a big drop.

It was pretty chilly.

This was the last picture ever taken with Fredy's tripod.



Cameron fits in well.

Neat doorway.

We took all kinds of pictures during our hike.  Fredy had his tripod so several different times we took group shots.  Then the boys decided to hit the bathroom.  We continued our way to the bottom.  We were at the last 5 steps or so when all of a sudden Fredy said "Where is the tripod?"  Ileana just shook her head.  Fredy has a habit of losing things.  He remembered he sat it down when he was in the bathroom and then didn't grab it again.  Oh man, what a bummer.  Fredy didn't seem to mind too much.  He said he didn't really like it and was going to get a new one anyway.  Silly Fredy.

We hung out at the van eating our lunches and having some drinks.  It was a pretty chilly day.  Around 2:00 we decided to head to our hotel in Tianjin.  It was about an hour and half drive.  When we pulled into the driveway at the hotel there were a HUGE amount of fireworks on the ground in the shape of hearts.  There were Chinese people standing around.  When we got out of our vans they began staring at us.  Finally one of the hotel workers told our drivers we needed to get out of the way because the wedding couple was on their way and they were going to light the fireworks.  Our vans were moved and we stood around waiting for the show.  Todd ran in to check in. 

Todd, Me, Cameron, Alfredo, and Marcela were right in front waiting for the fireworks.  The camera man took a picture of us.  We are pretty sure that picture will be in the wedding album with all the rest with a caption "Can you spot who doesn't belong?"  The couple arrived and they lit the fireworks.  OH MY GOODNESS.  It was so loud and smokey.  We were being hit with pieces from the fireworks.  It only lasted about a minute but the mess afterwards was huge.  It was incredible. 

How sweet.  Fireworks in the shape of hearts.

And the lighting begins.

The boys couldn't take the sound.  About 10 seconds later
we were smoked out too.

The poor ayis' had a gigantic mess to clean up.  We ran up to the rooms to check them out.  We weren't sure if they would be big enough for us to stay.  The rooms were free so it didn't matter one way or the other.  We walked in and saw 2 twin beds.  We all kind of laughed.  Carrasco's said it would be ok and we figured if they can fit with 5 we could fit with 3.  Back down to the vans to unload our stuff.  I showed our drivers the text with our dinner restaurants name.  Leo gave each of us a word to remember because the whole name was too hard for all of us (except Todd of course).  Leo thought he was really funny giving each of us our word. 

Look at the mess.

Most of the people had these poppers too.

We hung out in Carrasco's room.  The kids played hide and seek with Cameron's hat.  Who knew they could have so much fun and occupy a couple of hours playing that.  They would take little breaks to stare at the tv every once in awhile.  Karate Kid was on.

6:10 we walked across the street to dinner.  In the  building and up to the 4th floor.  We found the restaurant.  The girl took us to our private room.  It was the kind of room that had one big table with the spinning table on top. I had Febe, our Chinese instructor, make the reservations for us.  We sat down and started looking at the menu.  Thank goodness there were pictures or we would have never been able to order.  It was hard enough trying to figure out what the picture was.  And obviously our Chinese wasn't good enough because our server had no clue what we were asking most of the time.  We ordered several different things.    Surprisingly, we all found food we would eat.  Todd made Alejandro's whole night by ordering cucumbers.  He saw those being put on the table and his eye lit up like it was Christmas.  The Kung Pow Chicken was good and the Chinese green beans were really good.  We also had a shrimp dish, peanut dish, lamb dish, veggie dish, and a tortilla pizza sort of thing.  Overall, it was a good dinner.  Ileana and I were nervous because neither of us like to eat real Chinese food.

The boys enjoyed dinner.

Our round table dinner.

Leaving the Chinese Restaurant.

We started walking back to the hotel but stopped in McDonald's to get all the kids an ice cream treat.  The Carrasco's had a coffee treat too.  Some guy from California started talking to us.  He was with a Chinese couple and they made Cameron talk to them in Chinese.  It was a very short conversation but it was funny.  Cameron was a trooper.  He hates doing things like that. 

The boys might have enjoyed their McFlurry's and shakes better.

Back to the hotel.  We said goodnight and went to our own rooms.  We watched a couple shows on the Ipad.  At 8:58 there were fireworks again right outside our windows.  We were assuming that meant the wedding was over.  Off to sleep in the tiny bed.

More fireworks.

It was kind of funny to spend the night in Tianjin but it was free.  We were so glad Carrasco's made this trip with us.  We had a lot of laughs as usual.