Solar Eclipse

Today we woke up to a very cloudy sky. We could only see peeks of the eclipse at the early stages through small openings in the clouds. It is now about 9: 40am and the sun is just now coming back "on". This was truly a cool experience. The total eclipse was at 9:32 and it was totally dark outside. Bummer for the cloudy day.....oh well....there will be another eclipse like this in about 300 years.

Tibet - Day 2 more market pictures

A few more sights from the market

Rest time - taking a break from their prayer walk

Photo title -Man with Bike

toddler with a ball

Making prayer flags.
We found a small shop in the back of the market where they were making prayer flags

The block is covered with black ink, the fabric is placed on the block
and then rolled with a large brayer

Tucker and Hattie eating dinner

It has taken me over an hour to post six pictures today....I think I will stop for now and try it again tomorrow.

Summer in Shanghai

Gooooooood Morning Shanghai. The weather will be very pleasant today with a heat index of just 105 degrees. Ah....the lovely days of summer in the big city.

Big news on this side of the world. Tomorrow will be a total eclipse of the sun and they say Shanghai is the perfect place to view this amazing event. It will be the longest full eclipse in 2000 years. It will start at 8:30am and finish 11:00ish.

The sky continues to be very clear today....this has been the case for several days now. It is a three + bridge day.

Construction continues all over the city as they prepare for the World Expo that will start in May. They are building tunnels, subway lines, elevated highways, and of course all the Expo buildings. We can actually see the Expo site from our apartment. The China building is perfectly framed by the Nanpu bridge. How nice of them to do that for us!

I was downtown last week (usually a place I try to avoid) doing some shopping. AND.....I was pleasantly surprised by the new civilized manner in which people were behaving. The city has been educating people on "world manners" and it seems to be working. This is what I noticed....people queueing for the taxi stand...not even kidding! And....everyone waited at the cross walk until the light turned green.....AND...the cars waited for the pedestrians....that is a miracle! In the past I felt is was safer to j-walk then to be a moving target in the crosswalk. I have to say I was really impressed by the change.

On a different subject....We have very limited TV options here so we are a bit "out of the loop" on what's new in the TV world. When we do watch TV it is usually an older US TV series on DVD. We just discovered "The big bang theory". Oh my gosh I think it is hilarious.

Stay tuned for more Tibet/Mt Everest....

Shanghai Today

The rain and wind have blown away the smog that usually lingers over Shanghai. As you can see from the photos....the sky is blue and it is a very clear day.

Sharing our view with these photos

Puxi

Nanpu Bridge

Nanpu and Lupu (the white arch on the right) Bridges

It is Friday morning...the weather is hot and muggy. SURPRISE!

We had six cameras with us while we were in Tibet. So....I am sorting through hundreds of pictures to find the most interesting ones to post on the blog.

If you look below to July 2 you will find "day two" in Tibet. I just finished it this morning.

Tim is in ChongQing today for a full day of meetings and is hoping to return to Shanghai tomorrow afternoon.

Lighting Storm

WOW!!! Major lighting storm in Shanghai last night. Our front windows are perfect for viewing storms and this one was amazing. Lighting strikes came straight down from the sky into the city. Thunder was rolling almost before the flash of lighting was gone. YIKES!!! As I watched the storm......two huge lighting bolts hit the right pillar of the Nanpu bridge. I guess it is a good thing there are lighting rods on the bridge. This happened during rush hour so the bridge was very busy. I think I would have peed my pants if I had been sitting in a car on the bridge at that time.

And then it was quite....

We shuttled the kids to the airport this morning. Tucker and Hattie's flight was at 9:55 and Abi's was at 12:25. So....Tim and I took Tucker and Hattie on the Mag Lev train so we could help with their luggage.....then raced back to the house to get Abi and her luggage. We stopped at East West for breakfast (a tradition before traveling long distances) and then Mr. Zheng drove the three of us to the airport.

I talked a mile a minute through breakfast. It felt like I only had a few more minutes to give Abi all the wisdomly advice for life that I had to offer. Then she said "Mom, I know".

And now.....the house is very quite and the kids are somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. Abi on her way to Portland via San Francisco and Tucker and Hattie on their way to Seattle via Tokyo.

Wow....it seems like yesterday they were playing with legos and building forts with blankets. And so goes the "Days of our lives". The close of one chapter and the beginning of another.

Tim and I have a hot date tonight....we are eating in and watching a movie on TV.....watch out world...we have joined the "empty nesters" club!

Tibet - Day 2

Our second day in Tibet was spent touring the city of Lhasa and acclimating to the altitude. The recommended altitude sickness medication was not available in Shanghai. The pharmacy suggested a Chinese substitute but it required taking 3 pills, 4 times a day...that's 12 pills per day. Lets be realistic....that is just not going to happen in the Spofford family. Lucky for us....Tucker and Hattie brought some from the US and had enough to share. We all tried it with differing results. Tim and Hattie and I stopped taking it because it made us feel worse. All in all .....you just have to be "in the climate" to acclimate and it take several days.


Tim, Abi, and I had been in Tibet in 2007 and were anxious to share it with Tucker and Hattie. We started at the rug factory. Our main objective was to show T and H how the rugs were made (all by hand) and to order two rugs for my friends in Shanghai.

We were greeted by this little girl....she is the daughter of one of the weavers.

She showed us a little rubber ball that she was playing with

She was very curious...

Weavers at work

This guy was really really fast....

They sang songs while they worked......it was very beautiful

Rug showroom

The owner of the shop took us to his roof top so we could see the view from there

Hattie with the kids.... roof top viewing

Then...we went to city center to see the Palace.....

Potala Place

We climbed up a little stairway to view the Palace....Oh my gosh...such little effort required so much energy and "air".....

touring the city

After this we had lunch and went back to our hotel to rest....and wait for the weather to cool before we went to the market....

- - - - - - - - - -

After several Advil and a good nap....everyone was refreshed

We went to the temple in the center of the city.

The temple

The temple has three "street like" rings around it....the inner, middle, and outer. Everyday hundreds of people walk these rings as they pray. I am awed by their faith and discipline.

In the inner ring of the temple there is a large market....

photos from the market

The market place

more market

Hmmm....these might be good for climbing the mountain....

birdman glasses
Market produce

veggies

spices

more veggies
brooms for sale

hat store

new hat

Hanging out in the market

Lots of prayer flags

Cute babies...

Cute Seniors

Tibet - Day 1

Day 1 was a travel day from Shanghai to Lhasa by way of ChengDu.

We left the house at 6:00am.

Backpacks, daypacks, boots, hiking poles, sleeping bags, sun glasses, sun screen, and suitcases for all the "extra stuff".

Time to go!!! Hmmmmm.....I wonder if all this will fit in the elevator?

Checking in at the airport

Going through security....

Notice Tucker being scanned by the security lady....tippy toes...now reach!!!

13 hours later we arrived in Lhasa

We checked in to our hotel and then went to dinner at the Tibet Steakhouse. We ate Yak burgers, Yak steak, Yak dumplings, butter naan, and Abi had pizza..go figure!

Arrive at our Lhasa hotel

Hotel dining room

Flowers in the hotel lobby

Fun Facts

The distance between Shanghai and Lhasa is about the same as Seattle to New York.

We went from Shanghai elevation 13 ft to Lhasa elevation 12,000 ft.

Base camp of Mt. Everest in Tibet is 17,000 ft.

Ten days in Tibet

We are home!!! After 10 days in Tibet we are all happy to be back in Shanghai. This trip was definitely an "adventure" type vacation. I think it was the hardest and easiest backpacking trip I have ever taken. It was the "easiest" because we had an entire group of people taking care of our needs.....almost one to one ratio.....they made and tore down camp every day, set up our tents, cooked for us, and delivered a cup of hot tea and a basin of hot water to our tents every morning. The "hardest" part of the trip was the high altitude and all the issues that come with that.

Here are a few highlights from our trip

We saw Mt. Everest many times (this is always a bit iffy...our guide said he has been there many times with groups that never get to actually see the mountain)

Tim celebrated his 50th birthday on the mountain

We met Nomads and played with their children

We saw Yak, we ate Yak, we stepped in Yak, and then we smelled like Yak

The kids will be leaving in two day and then I will have time to upload some of the many many pictures we took.