Spring Festival Memories Pt. 1

Hello again. Please keep reading - I promise this isn't another blog talking about inflation and the exchange rate. I must have been drugged up to write that. Last week we finally received two DVDs full of my dad's pictures from their trip to China - if you're wondering, that's over 2,000 pictures! We want to take the time right now to post a few pictures and fun memories of our parents' visit here to China. For additional interesting stories, please contact Joe and Debby or see the link to their website here on our blog.

FOOD Memories:

** Upon exiting the airport in Beijing, where is the first place we dared to venture at 11pm at night? McDonald's, of course! Wouldn't want to spoil the entrance into a new and distant country with anything else! Their website says that the trip to McDonald's was for our benefit, but I think it's safe to say that our parents were relieved to see the yellow arches as well! Proof: we ate at McDonalds at least 7-8 times.

**We spent one day in Beijing traveling around with old family friends from Japan. During that one day which consisted of two meals, we spent more money on food (or rather the Japanese friend treated us) than we spent for the next 6 day's meals combined.

** Watching mom's face when Tiff pulled a duck's head out of the meal we were eating in the Muslim quarter in Xi'an. In that same plate we also pulled out a chicken foot - which is considered quite delicious here. Quite honestly we are used to that and totally forgot that it might be considered gross by my parents. I think my mom was a bit queasy that night.

**Mom insisted on visiting the snack street where she was determined to eat a grasshopper on a stick. I think she was jealous of last year's picture of Tiff eating a scorpion and wanted one of her own. Well, she got it. Did she actually eat it? My lips are sealed, but you can ask her if you want.

**Pretty much our favorite memory is the "Quest for the Banana". Beginning in Beijing at the request of mom, we spent an entire week searching for those wonderful packets of potassium. Everywhere we stopped we would search for a banana - every fruit stand, grocery store, and snack shop. Plenty of apples, nice looking oranges, but NO bananas. The search ended one night in Xi'an when I asked the vendor of a hole-in-the-wall shop if he happened to have any bananas. He ducked into the back where he fished out a box and presented me with a nice bunch of bananas. The night was spent gorging ourselves with bananas. Ok, maybe not gorging, but we did have a good laugh at how hard it was to get a banana!

More memories to come...