Visitors!

People actually got on a plane a flew for 14 hours + 2 hours in a car to come visit us! YAY!

 In May my friend Stacy came to visit for a week. I think Stacy's favorite part was how relaxing it is to ride in a cab to Old Town. We took her to the Suzhou Zoo. That was an experience...

Yep, feeding the bear. People brought food just for the purpose of feeding the animals.

We chose not to let M feed the animals that day. We wanted to take our baby home with us.

I know why this little guy is sad. There was one tree in one of the cages, but it was in its own cage so the monkeys could not climb on it.

Cover eyes, what is this little fellow up to?

The next day I took Stacy to a garden I hadn't yet visited. I had heard it was one of the best. It turned out to a bit of a rocky maze. At least we worked our glutes!

Just a leisurely stroll!

Girls day out

There are 13 lines on the Shanghai metro, I braved them for the first time for Stacy. For the most part we were successful. Our first stop was the fabric market. I really thought I knew what stop to get off at, but when we came out of the metro I did not recognize a thing, so I decided we should get in a cab. After a ten minute cab ride we arrived, though in hindsight I am pretty sure we were real close and the guy just drove us around knowing I was clueless. Anyway, Stacy had a lovely cashmere coat made. We were then off to lunch at a tasty Thai restaurant and our last stop was Pearl Tower.

Just another picture perfect day!

Stacy never actually stepped foot on the glass floor.

When the building under construction is finished it will be the tallest in China and second tallest in the world.

Miriam was a bit embarrassed to be caught in Pearl Tower wearing the same outfit as her previous visit.

 A few days after we said good-bye to Stacy, Marijane landed. I felt very popular for a couple weeks.

While Marijane was in Suzhou we visited a water town called TongLi, which you can read more about on a previous blog post if interested and also went to the City Wall.

Lunch at TongLi. It was a little Mom and Pop place, very good.

I can't post anymore pictures of TongLi because they are all inappropriate pictures Marijane insisted on taking at the Sex Culture Museum.
 
Panmen Gate and the City Wall. I was pleasantly surprised. I was under the impression we were just going to see an old wall that maybe we could walk along, but was greeted with a beautiful garden.

 A nice family photo other than M's serious widow's peak, or maybe she was going for the count from Sesame Street.

Ah...here is the wall. Which we did walk along until some man would not stop trying to get a picture taken with us.

I also took Marijane in Shanghai for a day. My sister, brother-in-law, and nephew were also there on a layover to Bali.

L thinking, "What the heck is cousin Mimi doing in China???"

Getting a closer look at each other.

We also went to Yu Garden. Since I had already been once, this was the only picture I took.

The morning stop was Yu Garden. I offered to take Marijiane on more sight-seeing, but she decided she would rather spend the afternoon at a copy market. She enjoyed it so much we missed our train back to Suzhou.

Oh, she also tried a China flavored Starbucks, I think she really misses her green tea and red bean frappucinno.

Even though my blog is about 5 months late, I am very thankful anyone made the trek to come see us.  It was great having them and I hope they enjoyed it just a little.