Shanghai (the end)

Thanks to all those who have followed the blog. This is unfortunately the end of the journey. We spent our last three days in Shanghai. We've both been back now for a few weeks (we actually are meeting up tonight halfway between our hometowns!), and we do miss Asia a little (maybe a lot). We plan to go back as soon as life permits. Johnna will be going back for her last year in Hong Kong in August. Josh will be working all summer. They will be married sometime next year! We look forward to blogging about our next adventure!

Baby squids on a stick...yummy...well-seasoned and cooked.

We got to meet up with one of Josh's former students and her father in Shanghai. What a great pic, eh?

Hand-made noodles for $2? Yes...three nights in a row actually.

Johnna would probably trade Josh for some soup dumplings. Josh respects their brilliance enough to not be offended by this hypothetical situation.

Birthplace of the communist party in Shanghai. Don't let McCarthy see this one.

Love and peace!

Josh and Johnna

Ningbo

Ningbo is not a city that would make most travel books. An old high school friend lives there with his wife, so we visited them. It was nice to see "an average Chinese city." Average not being non-exceptional in any way...just not a tourist trap by any means. We didn't take many or very good pictures in this city apparently.

When a city expands, the government builds condos and gives them to the folks who have land being claimed by the expansion. Many times these will be sub-leased multiple times. This leads to a couple of interesting situations. Some buildings only have a few occupants. Most buildings have a wide array of incomes and finishes. Our friends have a nicely furnished apartment while the one next door is still cinder block.

My friend had always wanted to try the arcade but felt odd doing so alone. Johnna and I joined him, and we both won little dinosaurs from the claw machine. I don't know if I've been that excited in awhile.

A view of the apartment.

The view from the kitchen (which is kind of screened/glass off). The pic above is looking out of the kitchen towards the apartment. The pic below is looking the opposite direction. With high rises like that, it's obvious how you can fit a lot of people into a small space. This city also has a population similar to Chicago, but you can walk from one end to the other in about an hour. Take that urban sprawl.

Huangzhou, China

Still working on catching this blog up-to-speed. I'm not sure if anyone is reading at this point, but it will at least be our little online record of the trip.

I just realized I am a little out-of-order, but I don't feel like re-doing the image upload.
We spent time in Ningbo with my friend and his wife before moving on to Huangzhou, but Hangzhou will be posted first.

Hangzhou is a moderately sized Chinese city with a population close to Chicago but a size much smaller (they build up not out). It is known for its tea fields and beautiful lakes.

First up, we have a picture of the tea we drank from a balcony overlooking the tea fields. Not iced unfortunately, but everyone else enjoyed it. I'm not a fan of hot liquids.

My friend's wife. They met while he was studying in China. You can see the pretty mountains and tea fields in the background.

Pretty lakes, eh?

So beautiful...oh the landscape is nice too : )

For whatever reason, we tended to feast when with my friend and his wife. Here you can see potatoes with chilies (not spicy, though), bak choi, and small snails.

The ring that will be on my future wife's finger.

The ring is getting re-sized right now, so I thought I would post a pic. It was made by an artist in Nashville, TN especially for us. My ring matches the wedding band. It is the smaller band...just wider with plain silver on the outsides of the floral design.

Some pics from Thailand

Now that the good 'ole internet will allow us to access Blogger and post pics, we figured it was time to get the blog all caught up. I'll start with Thailand and post some more each day.

The small but mighty cook at our favorite restaurant on the island. Could be responsible for some of my favorite meals ever...

Beautiful...too bad the beach, water, and island are a little dirty.

The view from where I proposed on the beach.

Our boat trip around the island.

Beautiful place to be.