Seattle Trip

We just got back from our short jaunt to Seattle this morning. We were only there for 2 days, but made the most of the short time.


We stayed with Shawn and Heather who were terrific hosts as usual. They took us hiking at a couple of different places and to several really good restaurants.



The impetus for the trip was the Notre Dame-Washington game, which Jessica got tickets to through her alumni association.


Head coach Tyrone Willingham appears to be doing about as well at Washington as he did at Notre Dame... there were quite a few UW fans calling for his termination (note that several members of "Team FIRE __R_ME WI_LIN_HAM" appear to have been on a beer and/or pee break when this picture was taken). This game didn't do much to salvage his reputation either. Looks like T-Dub's days at U-Dub are probably numbered.


It wasn't much of a game, but it was still fun, and the views of the mountains and the Puget Sound from the stadium were great. Getting to the game via the city "Park and Ride" buses was absurdly easy. Every time I go west, I'm always amazed at how much easier it is to get around and how much more courteous and friendly people are on the "left coast" than in Boston.




Our redeye flight back on JetBlue was half empty, so we were actually able to get a few hours of sleep. The flight was a little bit late to leave because the plane, which just flies back and forth between Boston and Seattle, arrived in Seattle about 20 minutes late. I can't be sure, but this may be the reason.

Dad's Visit

Dad drove all the way from IN just to visit for the weekend. He was only here for 2 days, so we tried to make the most of it. Friday night, we went and had some seafood (crab to be specific) at the Barking Crab restaurant in Boston's "seaport district". After that, we went and walked around Harvard Square for a few minutes before driving back to Revere and calling it an evening.

Saturday, we went to the Franconia Notch in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The first part of the drive was awful, because there are just way too many people in the Northeast and it was even worse this weekend since Columbus Day is still a bona-fide holiday in New England. It was worth the long ride, though. The trees in the White Mountains were pretty much at peak color.

Sunday, we mostly just relaxed at home. We tried to fly a kite at the beach, but it was unusually wind-free, so we gave up after about 3 tries.

Our Trip to China

We're both back from China now (although Jessica is still dealing with jetlag). I'm going to post some pictures of the trip here.

I've added some descriptions to the pictures since this was first posted.

Here's the summary:
We flew in to Shanghai on Sep. 11th (I'd highly recommend flying on Sep. 11th, as the plane was 2/3 empty)! From there, we took a bus to Jessica's home city of Hangzhou. The next day, we got on a bus headed for J's dad's hometown of Sui Chang in the southern Zhejiang province. There, we had a dinner to announce that we are getting married to this side of the family. The next day, they took us on a tour of the rural area around the small town of Sui Chang. After this, we went back to Hangzhou for a few days before returning to Shanghai on Wednesday evening. This wasn't a particularly picturesque trip, as September is fairly hot and hazy in southern China, but we had a good time nonetheless.

KFC is probably the most popular American fast-food chain in China.  I'd never eaten at one until this trip, but I'd always heard that the chicken at the Chinese KFC tastes different.  After trying it, I guess I'd agree.

Hangzhou is a fairly affluent city.  This area of town has Rolls Royce and Ferrari/Maserati dealerships.

The chinese writing system is complicated, and the etymology is even an order or two of magnitude more complex.  The modern character in the middle at the top means "healthy long life".   The array of 100+ characters below are different versions of that character that have been used throughout the history of the language. 

This is an "ancient villiage" that we stopped in during our trip to the countryside.  Neither of us can remember what it was called.

Jessica and her sister-like cousin QiMing.

Jessica's dad's extended family after our dinner in Sui Chang.

Some of the cousins and 2nd cousins.

Mountains in the countryside (a national park called Nan Jing Yan).

We stayed at Jessica's aunt and uncle's house outside of Sui Chang.  This is their front yard, which has a garden with all sorts of stuff, a small goldfish pond, and a chicken coop.   

The Xu family sorting through chestnuts grown by Mr. Xu's sister (on the right).

They've built a nice walkway along the Hangzhou Grand Canal.  The canal itself is fairly amazing in that it was built over 1000 years ago and goes all the way to Beijing (about 1000 miles away).  It's still very much a working canal.  As we were walking along, we'd see a boat pass by about once every minute.

The Xu family.