Wallace's Wonderful Adventure: Lots of Friend Time

Cameron was pretty bummed Friday night that Ryley, Tobias, and Alfredo couldn't spend the night. He was having a hard time because the Hindman's go home on Tuesday and Cameron knows he won't see them anymore (until they move back to Iowa). He just keeps saying how much he is going to miss these 3 boys. He wants to spend every minute with them. Today, things were looking up.

We were out the door and in the van at 7:35 a.m. Alfredo was with us. We headed to Tianjin to go watch the Dragon Boat Races. Most people had to work this weekend because they had Monday - Wednesday off for the Dragon Boat holiday but not Todd. We arrived at the Jin Wan Plaza at 8:30.

We parked the van and walked to the Plaza part opposite the River. There we saw people dancing with snake ribbon things, ladies dressed in green dancing to a band, and people trying their luck at some of the activities they had. We then walked to the river side.

Checking out the entertainment on the Plaza.

Dancing ladies in green.

Cameron and Alfredo with a dragon boat.

There was quite a celebration going on. Lots of noise and brightly dressed people. There was more dancing going on too. We could see the teams in their Dragon Boats waiting to race and watching what was going on on shore. We found a spot close to the starting line and sat down so we could hold our ground. Chinese people immediately started staring at us, taking pictures, and trying to talk to the boys. One guy kept touching the boys...rubbing Cameron's hair and giving Alfredo a back massage. The boys were pretty annoyed but were still nice about it. This guy just hung on them until he finally got bored with them. One guy put is tripod leg between Todd and I, hitting me twice with it. He then realized his camera couldn't see around Todd. He moved the tripod between me and Cameron. Seriously guy. Another group on the other side of Todd was being just as annoying. Todd said "this guy is going to have a lot of video of the side of my head". Next thing I heard Todd talking to them. Well, actually, I heard Todd say in Chinese he didn't understand. Then they said something that Todd understood so I then heard him say "right, I have a camera too". They were trying to get him to move because they had a camera and wanted to take pictures. Needless to say Todd didn't move.

Bands, dancers, and lots of people.

The Dragon Boats were lined up facing shore.

Some of the boats in the background.

This guy was so excited to get his picture with the boys.

This entertainment was on the other side of the river.

One butt...

Two butts...butts, butts, butts.

Dragon dancers were cool.

Rule number one: never take your head off in
public. Oops, must be an American rule.

Security was all over this lady. She was in a restricted area and
she didn't want to leave.

Is your tripod where you want it now?

Here is the stalker guy. A little space please.

The races started. Cameron and Alfredo were placing bets with each other. We watched 7 races and then it was over. We were close to the starting line so it was kind of hard to see which boat actually won. One boat had a bunch of foreigners in it. They were not very good and they lost. The boat races were kind of cool to see and at least we can say we have seen Dragon Boat races.

A boat full of foreigners going to the starting line.

Races are starting.

Great action shot.

Cool front on the Dragon Boat.

See my white shirt. That's me sitting on the ground with people
literally on top of me. No personal space in China.

And then I stood up. No one behind me could see. You should
have seen the looks I got for being tall...looking me up and down.

Fire truck on hand in case something went wrong.

Back in the van and off to find the Harley Davidson store. It was brand new in Tianjin. We arrived and started looking for a shirt for my Dad. A nice salesman, who spoke English, started talking to us. He told us they didn't have any shirts that had Tianjin on them but they were waiting for them to arrive from the United States. Hopefully by the end of June they will arrive.

Tianjin Harley store.

Back in the van. We stopped at Shine City which is a mall. We found a Subway to get lunch. After we ate our sandwiches we were back in the van and headed towards TEDA. We stopped by cold food warehouse then home.

The kids played outside for awhile. At 4:30 we walked over to Ashanti. Our friend, Dexter, was having a world premiere for his movie he made. Dexter is 9. His movie, Ninjago: Ninjas vs. snakes. was 1 minute and 17 seconds long. Dexter introduced his movie and thanked all of us for participating. He then told Anthony to play the movie. As it was playing, Joey (Dexter's 13 year old sister) played the Ukulele for background music. Dexter too hundreds of pictures to make his movie and it took him 6 months. It was pretty cute.

Dexter giving his welcome speech.

A scene from the movie.

Joey playing some background music.

Cameron and Dexter.

After the movie Anthony provided pizza and wings for everyone to enjoy. We also watched the movie at least 10 times. Dexter was pretty proud of himself. I asked him when the DVD was going to come out so I could buy it. He looked at me weird and said "there won't be a DVD. I am not famous".

Enjoying pizza and wings.

Dexter and Alfredo. Then Tobias, Ryley, Cameron,
Manuel, Alejandro, Joey, Marcela, and Ainsley.
Anthony with his broken hand is in back.

Back to our apartment. About 15 minutes later Alfredo, Ryley, and Tobias were over. We were having a sleepover. They immediately started playing. They then ate pizza that Todd made, played Aquity, watched The Avengers, played some more, watched Puss and Boots, and then went to bed. It was 12:30. There was a ton of laughing. I actually said to the boys "boy, there sure was a lot of giggling going on in the other room". Ryley said "I do not giggle I laugh but these 3 do". Around 11:30 we heard NERF guns cocking and being shot. Todd yelled out for Cameron. He came in our room and Todd said "How about putting the guns away?" They did.