Night hiking

On Tuesday we'd planned to go on an afternoon hike with our friends Brian & Julie ... we got a bit of a late start and the sun had already set by the time we set out. We still had a great time together. Julie and I turned back once my shoes started sliding down the icy path, but Brian & Jason (& Maddy the boxer) made it to the top!

Oh the beauty!

Re-entry into the US has left us filling our lungs as full as possible with the beautifully clean air ... and that was when we arrived into Los Angeles! Never has LA air seems so pristine!

We were fortunate enough to have a long lay-over and got to spend a couple hours at Venice beach in the 75 degree weather, munching on In-N-Out burgers and visiting with my good friend, Christy. What a way to come back!



















Arriving in Spokane at Jason's parents always feels like I am going on a retreat ... their house is situated on a lovely hill and is surrounded by trees. I dfon't think we could get more opposite than Shanghai if we tried! A special treat for us is that we had snow on Monday evening and it's stayed cold enough for it to stick the past few days. So completely beautiful!

Barn Sour

This is a term I grew up hearing in reference to whenever we were homeward bound and moving perhaps a bit faster than we should have been. I think it's original reference was used to describe a horse who could sense the moment you turned it back toward home and would move at an incredible fast (and sometimes uncontrollable) pace. I got to experience this first hand and can say it was not a good experience ... it ended with me flying off of the horse :)

Anyhow...we are homeward bound for Christmas and are most definitely feeling barn sour. We've got about 15 flight hours in our future and another 8-10 hours of hanging out in airports, but what's important is that we're heading to family! Whoo-hoo!!

We woke up this morning to this beautiful icicle outside.

M50

Last week, we decided to take some time to do some exploring with some new friends of ours. Pankaj & Chandra are both very artsy, so I thought a trip to Moganshan Lane 50 was in order. It's an enormous warehouse which has been converted into many small art galleries and has created a sort of art district in the surrounding area.

We had a great time exploring together ... and agreed that probably the best "art" we saw all day was the graffiti we enjoyed on the way there!

Chandra & I were also fascinated by the old style Shanghai homes which are being razed in order to build high-rise apartment complexes. Although the new apartments are probably needed, it seems so sad to see these beautifully, historic homes destroyed.

Street Potatoes

There is a never-ending variety of street food for sale in Shanghai. As the weather has cooled down, I've noticed people selling roasted sweet potatoes. Last week while out with friends, I decided to capture the purchase process of these delicious smelling treats!

Plants are Cheap!

We went to our nearby flower market this week to get some plants for decorations...I had heard plants were inexpensive, but I had NO idea I would walk away with 6 beautiful plants for the equivalent of $10!! We didn't even try to bargain at all since it already felt overly cheap. It made me want to go back and deck out the entire house in poinsettias.