The Canton Trade Fair

Because of extremely poor planning, our family enjoyed an excursion to Guangzhou this past weekend. I had planned to visit Guangzhou in the near future anyway, as it is a 1-hour fast train from Shenzhen and one of China's main cities, and so the trip itself was welcome. But the timing had many unwelcome challenges.

We went because Lilly's passport becomes unusable in a few weeks. Although it does not expire until the beginning of May 2011, China will not allow entry into the country with a passport 6 months away from its expiration date. Were we more responsible parents, we would have noticed this over the summer. The summer where we lived around the corner from the consulate, rather than a journey away. The summer where we obtained a new passport, social security card and birth certificate from the consulate, each in different visits. So, this trip should not have been necessary.

I had hoped the quick timing could guarantee us a quick jaunt to Hanoi over the fall holiday. The girls have a week off at the beginning of November, which is a lovely time to travel in Southeast Asia. I expect it will also be a lovely time to stay home in Southeast Asia. Because not only will our Residence Permits still be in limbo, but Dave will have begun the big consulting job for the big client for which we moved to Shenzhen. He begins on Monday. In UAE. That's the UAE located in the Middle East. So no Hanoi.

But all of these timing issues simply forced the trip last weekend. They did not make it bad timing, but simply quick timing. The Canton Trade Fair made last weekend bad timing.

The Canton Trade Fair takes place twice annually in Guangzhou. It occurs over 3 successive weekends, last weekend being the first of the fall session. It invites over 23,000 exhibitors to hawk their wares to 204,000 overseas buyers and sees $34.3 million US dollars in business turnover. This is the largest trade fair in China by far, and one of the largest in the world.

That means that every room in Guangzhou was booked for the weekend. And although we live a quick 1-hour fast train ride away, it took us an hour on the bus and an hour on the metro just to reach the train station from our home. With 3 kids in tow and an appointment for bureacracy at the consulate, this was definitely an overnighter. We paid nearly $300 for our hotel room, making it the most expensive hotel room we have ever used. Scratch that - I believe we paid slightly more when Dave and I spent a week on a private island in Fiji.

I find the trade fair fascinating, and am mildly disappointed that we did not find a way to sneak in. Here's why. The Canton Trade Fair has been in existence continually since 1957. That's less than 10 years after the founding of The People's Republic of China. That's under Mao Zedong's rule, and before the Cultural Revolution. While China maintained a strictly isolationist policy, the Canton Trade Fair continued. When people in China were being tortured and killed for their capitalist background and their international associations, the Canton Trade Fair continued. And when Deng Xiaoping opened China's economy to the world in the early 1980s, the Canton Trade Fair had already established trading patterns which quickly soared and helped China's economic growth tremendously.

I did a brief google search for more history of the Canton Trade Fair, and found precious little. Had I the time, I would embark on a research project and write y'all a truly fantastic book about it. At this point in my life, I think I'll have to settle with having been in town concurrent to the show.

Photojournalism

As promised, a few photos from our trip. Beginning in Macau, this is the ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral in the beautiful, pedestrian-friendly, Portugese old-town.



Exploring the market streets surrounding the old cathedral, we found this temple surrounded by paper lanterns. We thought the Lantern Festival was on the 15th day of the 1st Lunar month, so we're not sure of the occasion they mark in October. But awesome, all the same!



This is the Macau Tower. Although you can also climb to the top of the cathedral, the top of this one offers better views... and bungee jumping.



Looking down onto Macau, you can see what a strange piece of land it is. A skinny peninsula off of China, with the mainland visible there on the far left. It is also a few islands, directly behind the photographer.


Moving onto Hong Kong, we spent a morning wandering the flower markets and bird gardens and markets of Kowloon.




And another day hiking on Lantau Island. After a long ride up the cable car, we were on nearly equal footing with this Buddha, and ended up hiking a little ways past him, deeper into the forests.


Our deeper into the forests led us to The Wisdom Path, a great viewpoint and a lovely spot for photos.

Our Journey Ends - Macau and Hong Kong

We received our passports back this afternoon, each with a full-page devoted to allowing us back into China for another month. If we are lucky, we will get our residence permits early enough within that month that we can also trade Lilly's in for a new one and still travel over the November school holiday. The new passport will happen either way - the trip in November may not, but I'd sure love to see Hanoi while we're in the neighborhood. At least we'll get one or two trips to Guangzhou in, as that is where the U.S. Consulate is located.

We've passed the last few days enjoying Macau and Hong Kong, as we were not allowed on mainland China. I haven't taken many photos, as we didn't really go anywhere visually striking. But the entire family has enjoyed both destinations.

In Macau, we stayed at the Mandarin Oriental - Grand Lapa Hotel, which I happily recommend for family travel. The room was small, but the location and resort in the center of town made up for it. The bed was wildly comfortable, and the breakfast buffet was tasty and vast. I must admit that I've always stuck my nose up at family resorts, but I may be sold on them. The girls love swimming in the outdoor pool, mainly because it was built with children in mind. They enjoyed the playground and the Kids' Club as well, and we even took advantage of it enough to have a lunch date (with a baby in tow, but who can complain about Annika's presence?) Mandarin Oriental has apparently just opened another hotel on the peninsula, within easy walking distance of the first. I am not surprised, as the Grand Lapa certainly feels dated. But it is so luxurious that the out-dated feel almost seems on purpose, like they're calling back another time. But the price was good, the service was tremendous, the location was great, and the resort was loads of fun so I'd happily return here.

Macau takes its cues directly from Las Vegas, and so along with enjoying the hotel, we also explored The Venetian, Fisherman's Wharf The Grand Prix, and the market area around the Ruins of St. Paul. If I've got any good photos, I'll post them soon. The girls and I watched Cirque du Soleil, and Dave gambled at Sands Casino. We found loads of playgrounds, ate loads of egg tarts, and generally enjoyed our time. And then we hopped the ferry to Hong Kong.

Now, we've been to Hong Kong before. We've come as tourists, so we've already climbed The Peak. We've come for the doctor and for the shopping, so we know our bearings around Central. This time, we just came to hang out and enjoy each other's company. Uncle H-- put us up for this round, as they take care of our visa issues, and they've quite comfortably set us up at the South Pacific Hotel near Causeway Bay. Near to the office, its also close to the Metro and loads of shopping - and the girls enjoy the view from the 21st floor room.

We took a day in Kowloon, where we acted like the family tourists that having children makes us. Together, we explored the flower markets, the bird garden, a sunny playground, the space museum and a restaurant with great burgers and milkshakes.

We took a day on Lantau Island, past Disneyland and the airport to ride a cable car up the green hills of the island to a small, wildly touristy village called Ngong Ping. After filling our bellies, we headed away from the crowds as quickly as possible and found some lovely hiking and beautiful green vistas. We ended this day back on Hong Kong Island, with more American food - this time BBQ chicken and fries.

We took a day for shopping, in which Dave and the girls both held up remarkably well. In Central, we filled bags with jeans and Halloween costumes for the girls, a few groceries, a few books, and a few baby items. Moving up to the Mid-Levels, we lunched in Soho over organic dahl and sweet potato fries. On our way back down the hill, Sophia fell right into a fountain and soaked herself. I warn my kids about these type of accidents all the time - I never expected one to happen! Our poor drenched Sophia stripped her clothes in the middle of the street, and put on Lilly's new school clothes. She looked like a rather fashionable hobo, with her hair a crazy mess and her clothes all baggy. Burgers for dinner, and then I hit Causeway Bay solo. Grabbed some home items and a few pieces of clothes for me, as well as the incentive to drop that last baby weight before I need to wear jeans.

We head back tomorrow, so the hum-drum of life in the expat ghetto. The girls return to school on Thursday, but Dave still has the day off. So he and I will spend the morning seeking out something exciting in Shekou. Will let you know if we find it!

Huangshan

Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) is actually a group of mountains in southern Anhui province. Anhui is just on the other side of Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces from Shanghai, but feels much farther - especially on the night train. This is a slow train, stopping almost as frequently as a local subway and taking a circuitous route to Tunxi, also known as Huangshan City. Luckily we had hard sleepers, enabling us to sleep away much of the 15 hour ride.



Arriving in Tunxi, we got off the train and hopped on one of the dozens of minibuses ready to cart us off on the hour ride up to Tongkou, the village at the base of the mountains. Dropped off at some random hotel where most of the others on the minibus (a tour group) were staying, we puzzled over how to begin the actual hiking. The minibus driver interrupted his smoking break to try to help us out with his scattered English and my scattered Chinese. He called his friend Mr. Cheng who took us to his restaurant (Mr. Cheng's Restaurant and English Tourist Information). Deciding we'd be happy to start our hike with a good meal, we tucked in to a great dish of bamboo, mushroom and chicken and some scrambled eggs and tomatoes. Mr. Cheng gave us advice on our hiking route, told us we paid too much for our pre-booked hotel on the top of the mountains, and got us a ride to the trailhead.

We walked through tea plantations (Huangshan is famous for its tea) until we reached a view of a waterfall working its way down the cliffs. From there it was climbing, now through bamboo forests. Snow began to fall, making for a very pleasant hike.

After about an hour and a half, we reached the main trailhead for Huangshan. Skipping the cable cars, we started the hike up more stairs. We climbed for nearly 3 hours, and my city legs only persisted because our efforts were constantly rewarded by spectacular views of the mountain cliffs poking through fog among the snow. We eventually reached the top, where a number of paths crisscross among hotels and shops. Every brick and bedframe making up these hotel complexes and shops had been carted up by hand at one point. In fact, the only people we saw that first day were a steady stream of stick stick men carrying their well-balanced loads of hotel refuse down the mountain on bamboo poles. This certainly made my pack seem simple and my steps light. I generally prefer to enjoy nature on its own terms, but this night I enjoyed a buffet dinner and a hot shower before crashing for a well-earned night's sleep.










The next morning, we spent a few hours putzing around the various peaks in this top section of Huangshan. We clambered across rocks and kept trying to "get to that next peak". We reached some rather precarious looking bridges, decided they were worth testing, and then decided to cross them despite their failing of our various tests (first step crashed through.... well how about the second step?). We survived a few bridges, and eventually reached the last peak in the line. The only thing marring the sense of adventure and accomplishment was the cable car support planted on the edge of this peak. It had ladders going part of the way up to the top of the peak, but we looked over them and chose to scale the short-ish (maybe 30 feet) open face cliff. It had plenty of ridges so seemed doable without equipment. And it was, for Adam; but he had to haul me up a couple sections, bless his Army soul.

It was worth the effort. That was the constant theme: every time, our efforts were rewarded with amazing views. Still, but we opted for the ladder on the way back down. Finding the trail, we came to a gate and realized we had been on a closed section most of the time. No wonder we had it to ourselves!

After a bit more wandering, we found the trail back down via a new route. Today we had a harder time avoiding crowds, and the views were not quite as spectacular. Still, it was pleasant enough, and we eventually made it back to Mr. Cheng's restaurant for another hearty meal. He got us on a minibus heading back to Tunxi, where we wandered their "Old Street" trying the local snacks (don't bother) before heading to the airport for my flight home and Adam's flight to Beijing.

The scenery on Huangshan was some of the best I have seen anywhere in the world, and it really makes those Chinese scroll paintings of mountains in the clouds seem a whole lot less abstract. Every view in every direction on the top section was phenomenal, and ever changing as the clouds and fog rolled through and up and around.

A Little Jealous

My younger brother arrived in Shanghai Tuesday night, right on time. We've been enjoying his company around the house, and the girls have especially been enjoying such a rigorous playmate. But last night, the girls and I bid him and Dave farewell. The pair took an overnight train to Huang Shan, where they spent the day today climbing the mountain. Tomorrow morning, they'll watch the sun rising over the peaks and then climb down again. Dave plans to catch a plane back home, arriving late tomorrow night. I look forward to posting some of his photos. Adam will catch a plane to Beijing, and begin a week of lone traveling through China. His path is simplified by the plans we've made - he has plan tickets and hostel reservations, as well as directions on how to reach each one. He will go to Beijing and Yangshuo, and then return to Shanghai after a week.

I set up the trip for Adam. Dave did most of the legwork for Huang Shan, but I was involved in the details. And the further involved I became, the more my jealousy grew. Such a trip I can not take with 2 such young children. Such a trip involves sleeping on trains, figuring it out as you go, and walking a lot. Such a trip involves dorm beds and midnight arrivals. Such a trip involves waiting until you can figure out the right answers, or seeking out someone who speaks enough English to point you in the right direction. Such a trip involves some trial and error. My goodness, such a description grows my jealousy all the more.

The backpacker days may well return again, although probably only after the youngest child has reached elementary school age, at least. For now, living vicariously through my brother, and tag-teaming weekend outings will have to suffice. As travel becomes more limited, I relish the life we have chosen - a new destination every few years. Not exactly backpacking, but no less an adventure.

Impressively, This is a First

My brother is coming to visit. He forwarded me his itinerary, which had the date January 18th written on the top. I checked the flight information. I checked the time. I put it all on my calendar. I told the girls - we counted down every day for the last week. I told Dave - he moved his schedule around, and pushed everything forward yesterday.

Dave got home right on time. The girls had their shoes and coats on. We've got our passes in our pockets, ready to take the Metro out to the airport and meet Uncle Adam. And then Dave says,

Do you wanna make sure his flight will arrive on time?

Good idea, I says.

So I log onto Northwest Airlines' website, and put in his flight number.

It says there is no such flight number today.

So then I start to get mad. Its time for us to be rushing out the door, and this stupid website won't process a simple flight number.

I move back to the itinerary Adam emailed to me. I find the flight number. I don't look at the date - why would I? I copy the flight number, and paste it into Northwest's website.

It still says there is no such flight number today.

Okay, now I'm getting really mad. This is ridiculous - an obvious next failure of the airline industry. They can't even run a simple website to track incoming flights?

I search for the flight by city. I say he's flying from Chicago to Shanghai.

The website says he would fly from Chicago to Detroit today, and then fly from Detroit to Shanghai - landing tomorrow.

Still not processing a date error, I see that I've entered the wrong city. But I had the right flight number! So, I now search for the flight by the correct city. I say he's flying from Detroit to Shanghai.

And this is where my heart skipped a beat.

Without any dispute, his flight would not be arriving that evening.

I checked his itinerary.

True enough. He left Kansas City on January 18th, to arrive in Shanghai on January 19th.

And the interesting question here is,

Had we not checked the flight information, we would not have known his flight would not arrive today.
How long would we have waited at the airport for him to walk through the customs doors?

Family Jet Lag

Dave and I once visited his sister in Vienna. After sitting awake on the airplane all night, we gamely stayed awake all day and laid our heads on our pillows around 8pm that night. Exhausted and sleeping in a dark basement, we both fell sound asleep. And with no clock and no sunlight filtering in, we slept until 4:00 the following afternoon - 8am in our home timezone. We struggled to adjust to Austrian time the rest of the week.

Learning our lessons well, Dave and I have always strive to put ourselves immediately on local time when we travel. However, traveling across 14 hours with young children made this approach impossible. We quickly learned that the way to adjust very young children to jet lag is simply to follow their schedule. When a young child wakes up, wake up with them. When a young child gets sleepy, go to bed with them. The family will have adjusted to local time within 3 days, guaranteed.

It seems we have outgrown this strategy.

We arrived in Chicago the evening before Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving in the midst of a wonderful family gathering, and didn't allow anyone naps. We all fell asleep in the car on the way home that evening, and slept soundly through the night, exhausted. With earlier than average mornings, we had adjusted the local time as quickly as that. We should have followed that example this time, but instead sent everyone to nap yesterday when Sophia got sleepy. We all managed to fall asleep by 3:00 in the afternoon, and could each have kept going well past 5:30 when I woke up.

So, here's the new rule:

For children still napping, and too young to understand that darkness means sleepytime, parents need to follow their lead. As with newborns, sleep when the baby sleeps.

For anyone old enough to push through naptime, place yourself on local time immediately. No naps on that first day back.

Luggage Arrival

The whole house was sound asleep, as well we should have been. Lilly tucked into her bed downstairs, and a sick Sophia snuggled between Dave and I in our bed. So sound asleep that when the doorbell rang, we all panicked. The doorbell rings in our bedroom, with a song that fills the entire house. And so when that song began to play at 1:15 this morning, Dave and I began running around like chickens with our heads cut off. What was that song? Why was it playing so loudly? Why wouldn't it stop?

We finally realized that someone was pressing our doorbell repeatedly, causing the loud music in our sleeping chamber. Dave threw a T-shirt over his boxer shorts and raced downstairs, hoping to stop the noise before it woke the children.

A man stood at the darkened door, and beckoned Dave out into the lane with a luggage tag. In only a T-shirt, boxer shorts, and now tennis shoes, Dave walked down the lane and to the truck sent by the airport which sat parked on the street. The nightime delivery man apparently does not physically carry luggage, but only transports luggage. So, half awake, Dave carried three 50 pound bags down the lane. And then collapsed back in bed, for another 3 hours of sleep.

All of our dirty laundry has arrived, safe and sound.

The Family Returns

After a ridiculously long day yesterday, our family has returned to Shanghai and all managed to stay in bed until 5:30 this morning. Just for fun, allow me to provide you with a run-down of our day yesterday.

7:00am - left Dave's parents' house, right on time
8:00am - Entered the expedited line at O'Hare Airport
Dave has enough frequent flyer miles to be in their Premier Executive class, and supposedly not have to wait in line at the airport. But yesterday, as most of the airports on the East Coast were sitting quietly closed, O'Hare was a mess and we stood in line for an hour.
9:00am - Moving from one line to the next, we stood in line at security for another half an hour.
9:30am - After grabbing a quick few snacks in lieu of breakfast, we boarded the plane immediately.
10:01am - The time the plane was supposed to take off for Shanghai
12:30pm - The time they announced we would be using a different plane for our flight to Shanghai, and asked everyone to deboard.
12:40pm - The time they changed their minds, and decided that this faulty plane would do.
1:00pm - The approximate time we actually left Shanghai, after sitting on the plane for an additional 3 hours. Lucky we had bought those snacks, because this pregnant Mama would have really been a mess by then! Luckily, the girls played like little angels and everything went smoothly.

In fact, most of the flight went smoothly from that point. The girls received children's meals, and they came early each time. The girls played well, although they only slept for about 2 hours each. They spent a lot of time in front of movies, and remained surprisingly happy. I ate well enough, and didn't really begin to feel bad until the last few hours of the flight.

However, something hit Dave about 7 hours into the flight, and he spent the remaining 6.5 hours as curled up in a ball as a 6 foot 3 inch man can manage in Economy Plus. He threw up as the plane was landing, and so felt better as we pulled out children and multitude of stuff through customs and on to baggage claim. Where we only retrieved 5 of our 8 bags. The boxes with Christmas gifts all arrived, so that's good. But all of our clothes presumably stayed in Chicago while we sat on the tarmac for hours. Here's to hoping they arrive in Shanghai this afternoon.

The family went to bed at 6:30 last night, 36 hours by calendar from when our family awoke. Actually, only 22 hours later - but that's an awfully long time for a 3 year old to stay awake. We all crashed until about 1am this morning. But my wonderful children saw the darkness outside, and each managed to fall back asleep with me until 5:30am. Running on a good 11 hours of sleep, the three of us are feeling good. Dave's still upstairs feeling crummy, but the hard part is over. I can abide with a sick husband when we're at home.

All things considered, this time was perfect. We made it to Chicago in time for a huge family Christmas around Dave's grandmother. The girls and I spent the bulk of advent in St. Louis with my family, going to our home church, shopping for Christmas trees and making holiday cookies. We spent time with every aunt and uncle (minus only 1), and we returned to Chicago on the day that Great-Grandma passed away. The entire family was blessfully able to participate in her funeral and burial, and to spend more time with Dave's extended family. The time was a wonderful blessing for our girls, for Dave, and for his mother and family.

And to be honest, I'm glad to be home just now. We've got a few quiet days to adjust to Shanghai time before diving into our own, small Christmas festivities. This will be a year for creating our own family traditions, and enjoying Christmas in our own cozy home. As much as I love a large Christmas, I'm really looking forward to our quiet event.

Talking Plane Trips

We haven't been home in a long time.

Our family traveled to the states for Christmas last year, and stayed for a lovely 6 weeks. We returned at the end of January, and have not returned again since. Dave and I each made quick trips home, but the girls have been consecutively in Asia. Grammy and Grandpa came to visit in May, as did Nana and Poppa. Now we're coming upon 6 months without any family. That's a long time - especially for the under 5 set.

Here's the trouble.

We're really hoping that the State Department will ask Dave to begin training for his new job in either February or March. Really hoping. We'd rather deliver the baby in the states, near family and in a more comfortable environment. We'd love to attend Dave's family reunion in May. Dave's sick of his current job, and excited to begin the new one. So many reasons.

Trouble is, we just don't know what will happen.

So, here's the travel plans:

We will stay in Shanghai for Christmas.
Sad to not spend Christmas surrounded by family and old friends, together in the grandparents' homes, with snow on the ground and Christmas movies cycling through the cable stations. But pretty exciting to have Christmas in our own home, under our own tree, at our local church, on a schedule completely surrounding our sugarplum-envisioning children.

We will be in the states in either February or March.
Ideally, we will be moving to DC for Dave to begin training on March 29th (or Feb. 14th - even better!). By mid-January, it should become clear whether or not this will happen. If not, we will book a trip home for a few weeks surrounding Chinese New Year (Feb. 14). This decision would coincide with placing Dave on the Do Not Call List, a decision to stay in Shanghai until summer.

We promise not to keep our kids away from their family for any longer - a potential 14 months is too long already! But please join us in rooting for the March class, and keeping those international flights to a minimum!

**Clarification
Dave has NOT received his security clearance.
His investigation is finished - this is a good milestone. No one will be making phone calls or digging up anymore dirt.
But he has not received his security clearance. He has entered a nasty little purgatory called adjudication. As far as I can tell, Adjudication is where people keep putting off making a decision on whether or not they trust you. It can take months for them to look over the already collected information and decide whether or not to offer Security Clearance.
He has cleared a milestone, but only a minor one. Once he receives Security Clearance, we expect life to intensify mighty quickly.

Guest Blog: Grandpa and Grandma

Lynne invited us to write a guest blog about our time in China with them. We are very happy to do so...even if it has taken us forever to actually do it!!!

We left for China on Tuesday, April 21 and returned home on Tuesday, May 5. To be honest, Jenny was pretty intimidated by the idea of China. It seemed so far away and like a "difficult" place to visit. But she was in for quite a surprise. Yes, it was far away, but both flights were uneventful and even pleasant (six total movies for Jenny; five for Doug). To be greeted at the airport by Lynne and our granddaughters made it seem more like coming home than arriving in a "far country." We were driven through the streets of a very modern city by the friendly driver, Zhang (the gentleman that regularly drives for Dave and Lynne). Cars whizzed past and we gulped a bit at the "no rules" driving of everyone around us. We were very glad for the fact that WE were not driving (this was true for the whole of our time in China!). When we arrived at our B&B, we were delighted by the lovely home Lynne and Dave have. They provided a beautiful suite for us and we quickly settled in. It was absolutely wonderful to have our two dear little granddaughters around and to be able to spend quality (as well as quantity) time with them!

We visited several restaurants in Shanghai and really enjoyed the food. This was another surprise. We rather expected that we would lose weight (even secretly hoped that the food would put us on a "forced" diet, so to speak). Unfortunately, between the delicious meals prepared by Dave & Lynne and the meals at fantastic restaurants – well, let's just say we didn't lose any pounds. Most of the time at restaurants serving Chinese food, we asked Dave to order for us and he did a splendid job of choosing a great variety of foods so there was always plenty to eat and plenty to like! It was also surprising that there were many restaurants offering Western style food (Italian, etc.) that was excellent, and we enjoyed these as well.

Lynne took us to the Fabric Market and we had fun ordering some clothes (after the requisite haggling . . . Lynne is good at it, so Jenny let her do that for her! Doug was a bit more adept, except for Jenny making him back down too quickly!). We also saw L--'s school -- which was really amazing . . . when we walked in we were struck with just how "happy" and whimsical an atmosphere was created by the teachers there. We can well understand now the disappointment Dave & Lynne have that the school may be closed in the Fall.

The first Saturday in Shanghai, Dave took us on a walking (and, to be honest, "cabbing" also) tour of the city. Lynne and the girls met up with us for lunch and we had such a great time. Shanghai was amazing to see . . . the construction and productivity of the city were mindboggling. On Sunday we all went together to the World Financial Center, one of the tallest buildings in the world. It was quite awesome to see the city stretched out below us and to get even more of a perspective on the size and growth of Shanghai – and the Lord even gave us a relatively clear (by Shanghai standards!) day.

For the next week we had the joy of traveling with Dave & Lynne and the girls to Beijing and to Yangshuo – a great mixture of contrasts. If Shanghai is like a combination of our New York and Los Angeles multiplied by two, Beijing is like our Washington, D.C. – with historic buildings, wide avenues, and public squares. Lynne proved again her prowess as a travel agent by arranging our stay in a two-bedroom suite right downtown. We visited the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Temple of Heaven, as well as a traditional area which we saw from the seat of a rickshaw (the drivers were given a full week off after hauling us around!). We also took a day trip to see the Great Wall – where we will have lasting memories of grandchildren taking their tiny steps on that huge edifice. We really felt like pinching ourselves at times to be sure that this all wasn't a dream. To actually be in China, with our loved ones, and seeing such amazing sights -- it was a gift from the Lord to us.

Yangshuo, by contrast, was the China of traditional post cards: foreground of rice paddies with waterbuffalo and women wearing cone-shaped straw hats and with background of steep Karst hills. We stayed at an eco-resort right on a river. We also managed to get in some shopping on a Yangshuo market street, ruthlessly driving for some tremendous bargains (only triple the "Chinese" price). We varied our town time with walks through villages amid the Karst Hills.

We enjoyed the people we met along the way in China. Although most did not speak English, they were friendly. The pressure to buy from street merchants was somewhat intimidating; but, in the end, it just added to the atmosphere.

Leaving our loved ones on Tuesday morning, back in Shanghai, was not easy – especially since we do not know when we will all be together again.

Dave & Lynne are sure great tour guides! They made our time in China so much fun—we got to see so much and do so much—and yet it was restful too. Thanks, you guys, for all you did to give us such a wonderful visit. We love you all and miss you greatly.

Relaxing in Singapore

Time, she does slip quickly past.

Today I relax alone in Singapore, as Dave attends business meetings and the girls entertain Nana and Poppa in Shanghai. But these 2 days of relaxation lie in the middle of a wildly busy 8 weeks.

Already, we have seen the arrival and departure of Grammy and Grandpa. Their itinerary included revisits to Beijing, the Great Wall and Yangshuo, plus plenty of visits to the playground in Shanghai. We have also seen the arrival of Nana and Poppa, Dave's and my journey to Borneo in Malaysia, and our arrival in Singapore for a few days. These few langorous days end for me as we land in Shanghai on Thursday afternoon, diving headlong into the craziness that is the end of the spring term.

It surprises me that so much of life follows a semester schedule, but it seems that none of us easily escape the school year cycle. So much current business stems from the ending of the spring semester and the beginning of the summer. The Wonder Center will close in a few weeks, likely forever. Close friends will leave for the summer, and other close friends will leave Shanghai for good. A term of Music Together will end, and my first term as a teacher will begin. My role in leadership of the Women's Ministry has begun, and Bible Study has stepped into its summer hibernation. But most interestingly, together with Nana and Poppa we will travel as a family to Yunnan province, and then enjoy 1 more week in Shanghai before splitting again.

With only minimal internet and computer access, I found today wildly relaxing. Dave's meetings didn't start until 10 this morning, and so we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast together before I headed to the gym and swimming pool. With nothing planned for the day, a morning spent at the gym and swimming pool felt beautifully luxurious and by the time I felt prepared to leave the hotel and begin my day in proper, I was well rested and full of energy. I lunched alone, shopped along Orchard Road, and made it back in time to join Dave for dinner in Little India. As I've spent most of my budget, tomorrow will include more time at the pool and less time at the shops. But as its my last day of relaxation for days, weeks, probably months, I have no fears of boredom.

Weekend in Guizhou - Monday

The nicest hotel in Anshun also happens to be the only hotel in Anshun. And being such, it does not offer many of the amenities that we are used to. For instance, this particular hotel did not offer a clean bathtub, functioning air conditioning, or an outdoor view through the window. But it did offer a clean bed in a dark and quiet space, so we all eventually slept.

Up early to stop at a village on our way to the airport for our noon flight, we were all a bit groggy from our frontier village dinner the night before and our sticky hotel room sleep. There was plenty of minor fighting and groaning over whose turn it was at the toilet.

And then L-- retched on the bed. Dave and I turned our parent mode to full gear, caring for a sick child, quickly facing dehydration as no liquids would remain in her body, while trying to keep everyone in good spirits and guided toward the door for check-out.

At the hotel's buffet breakfast, we stocked up on white bread and clean water for the backseat of the car where L-- slept and I served as caretaker. S-- and Dave grabbed steamed buns and boiled eggs as well, making a nice picnic for themselves in the front of the van. As L-- rested and began to hold down her fluids, we made some quick decisions. Were we to head straight to the airport, we would arrive 1 hour early. A few phone calls learned that we could not change our flight, and so could not arrive home any earlier. The airport had no useful amenities - nowhere to lie down, no Pedialyte or even Gatorade for sale, and certainly no fresh air. So, we thought, why rush? The last stop on our itinerary was only a few miles off the road to the airport, and so we stopped at 8:30am to tour Tunbao Ancient Village.

L-- spent her time snuggled into the stroller, holding her water bottle close and never more than a step away from one of her parents. We hit the village at a wonderful time, when the shops had yet to open and the children were making their way to school. Rather than being hassled by pushy trinket hawkers, we received simple smiles as shopkeepers set up their wares. Rather than being pushed by other tourists, we were the only guests in town and simply watched as people readied themselves for the day.

This made the perfect setting for me to hang back from Dave and the tour guide, and focus my lens on the town and its people. As I skipped most of the tour, I don't have much narration to provide for the pictures. The location was beautiful - Tunbao is a very small village located among the karst hills and rapeseed fields of Guizhou. The stone village with slate roofs has a lovely green backdrop in many directions. And for your interest, the people of Tunbao are not a minority. They were originally a group of families who moved to Guizhou from Nanjing during a wartime hundreds of years ago. These families kept close to each other, maintaining their close family ties and their way of life inside the walls of their village.

Weekend in Guizhou - Sunday

The quintessential form of American travel is the roadtrip.  I spent many childhood hours sitting on the red vinyl back seat, next to my brother in my parents' station wagon as we drove across hours across the states.  We would sleep in the car, eat meals as picnics on the side of the road, and spend hours watching the rural landscape fly past our windows - staring at tractors pulling combines, watching crowds of cows calmly munching grass, and feeling mildly jealous of a life lived far away from everything.

As expatriates living in China, we miss the opportunity to offer our children many of our 

own childhood experiences.  And although I have yet to offer my girls a drive across the flat state of Kansas, I found a lovely substitute in the southern Chinese province of Guizhou.

We spent much of Sunday in a rented van with our bag of books and stickers, our music blaring from the CD player, and our peanut butter and jelly picnic lunches stowed in the back.

The drive from Guiyang to Huangguoshu Waterfall took us two and a half hours and 

worlds away from the congested and dirty cities of China.  While the portable DVD player kept 

the girls entertained, my husband and I spent the drive with our eyes glued out the windows at the pastoral landscape.  A far cry from the agricultural scenes driving across Kansas, we watched small villages clinging to the sides of sudden karst hills.  We saw land split into small plots, being worked by hand by individuals carrying buckets of water or following a single water buffalo.  The seasonal crop was rapeseed for making rapeseed oil - also known as canola oil.  The plants were in full bloom, filling the scenery with a patchwork of bright yellow flowers.

The scenery only began more dramatic as we drove further and neared the waterfall.  Hills terraced with yellows flowers quickly rising and falling again into river valleys.  Thin stone paths winding in between plots of land, wading through streams and guiding up and over hilltops.  Babies snuggled close to their mothers, tied tightly to their backs in brightly embroidered handmade carriers.  Children racing on their bikes down country roads; children walking alongside grandpa and a water buffalo; rows of little explorers navigating the hills and valleys of their world.

We reached the parking lot for Huangguoshu Waterfall and prepared ourselves for a few hour hike.  The path to the waterfall is a simple trail with some steps and hills, and the walk out to the waterfall itself took us over an hour.  We threw our lunches and our children into our backpacks and started down the path.

Huangguoshu Waterfall is a popular destination for Chinese tourists, but although plenty of people shared the walk with us, we rarely felt crowded or mobbed.  We never saw another westerner, and our girls' blue eyes and blonde hair turned plenty of heads.  But most people had come to see the waterfall, which everyone viewed as more dramatic than our children.  People would wave and say hello, but otherwise left my girls alone.

At 2- and 3-years-old, my city girls love the chance to walk on their own, stopping to investigate a spider and its habitat, or picking it sticks and leaves.  The simple path kept them happy the entire walk, and the waterfall left them breathless with excitement.  This jawdropper falls 77.8 meters and is 101 meters wide.  Apparently the river flows strongest and falls most dramatically in July and August, but it still looked mighty impressive from our spring vantage point.

But the best was yet to come, from our children's perspective.  The path continues straight on through a water curtain cave, taking each walker directly behind the waterfall.  The cave dripped with water and stalagtite, with low ceilings and crooked walls.  Our girls became convinced that a monster lurked just around the corner, and spent the entire walk in a combination of giddy excitement and tortured fear.

On the way out, we stopped for a picnic and for a few colorful photos.  Chinese tourists visit Guizhou province both to see this waterfall and to explore minority cultures.  Although the waterfall does not fall in or near any minority villages, the locals saw a place to make a buck and offered costumed young ladies to pose for pictures.  They found our kids so interesting and lovely that we got our photos for free!

Back in the van to continue our roadtrip, and the girls 

immediately fell asleep.  Just as planned, we all spent the next hour in serious nap time.  Everyone awoke feeling refreshed, and ready to hike to the next destination.  Another shorter hike took us to the bottom of The Dragon's Mouth, a waterfall dropping out of Tian Chi Lake where it has just left the Dragon Palace Caves.  This waterfall may have been less picturesque than Huangguoshu, but the power in the tons of water barreling through this small mouth still left us astounded.  

A breathless climb to the top of this waterfall led us to the most enchanting part of our trip.  We climbed onto boats with an adult life jacket on each seat.  The girls wrapped them around their bodies like warm blankets and we entered the Dragon Palace caves, named because the caves look like the crystal palace where the dragon lives.  No longer did we fear the monster around the corner - now we worried that our crew would awaken the dragon in his home!  The majesty and wonder of the caves frequently allowed the girls to forget the fearful dragon.  The curators of the cave and the river had cleverly named many of the outcroppings of rocks with whimsical names like Monkeys Watching the Moon and Groves of Grapes.  But while the rocks had names livening our imaginations, and sometimes red or green lights dimly illuminating them, they were left otherwise untouched and the natural beauty of the place worked with the girls' imaginations to create an amazing world of monkeys and dragons while we rode through the quiet caves on our simple boat.

After a beautiful and exhausting day, we overnighted in the nearest town.  Anshun has a population of 2.6 million people - the population of our hometown in America, St. Louis, Missouri.  Or Orlando, Florida;  Lisbon, Portugal; Manchester, England.  But this city had no downtown, no highrise buildings, and no theme parks.  It felt like a frontier town, with the roads still being paved, goods sold under tents in the street, and rarely a concrete building rising higher than 2 stories.  There were no sidewalks and few trees, and our guide advised us to stay in the hotel.  So tired from our day exploring the Guizhou countryside, we had no trouble following her instructions.

Weekend in Guizhou - Saturday

We had a great itinerary - of that much I felt confident.  Having worked with many agents, and taken many short trips with children, I had some idea what type of schedule would fly for our family.  This agent had worked with us to create something my children could do.  And room for naps bodes well for a happy traveling family.

We arrived on Friday night after a simple 2.5 hour flight.  The lovely Vivian, our guide for the weekend, met us at the airport and directed us straight to the car.  Dressed for a chilly Shanghai evening, we began peeling off layers immediately as the late evening weather in Guizhou was humid and warm.  The van was comfortable, the driver was friendly, and so we entered Guiyang traffic for the 30 minute drive to the hotel.  We were settled in our spacious and clean room at the Royal Hotel by 11:00pm and each of us drifted quickly to sleep.

Saturday began with the hotel's buffet breakfast.  Guizhou province is a center for tourism, but very few Western tourists ever delve this deeply into rural China and so we were worried about the spread.  Even the most adventurous eater rarely feels up to something new over their breakfast.  Our worries were for naught, as each of us found plenty to enjoy at the breakfast buffet.  A full Chinese breakfast buffet, they served fresh noodles and dumplings, corn cakes and boiled eggs, loads of fresh fruit and plenty of cooked vegetables, and (of course) fried rice.  We feasted before entering the car for the first leg of our weekend road trip.

This evening we would be spending back at the same hotel, so our first road trip day would be more of a day trip.  The traffic in Guiyang made this the only error in our otherwise immaculately planned weekend.  Cars inched out of town, and our centrally located hotel now seemed like an unwise choice.  The drive to a small, local minority village should have taken 40-60 minutes and instead lasted closer to 2 hours.  However, with children's music CDs and bright eyes we took advantage of the time to study the passing scenery.

Hardly beautiful, Guiyang is the capital city of Guizhou province.  It is known as the mountain city because steep hills rise up all over the city, bringing welcome spots of green where buildings could no longer cling to the steep ground.  The trees notwithstanding, Guiyang is not a beautiful city.  Industrial, grey, dirty and less than modern, the city would have felt depressing had it not been for the bright rays of sunshine that cheerful spring day.  

With a population of 3.5 million people in a rather small area, buildings go straight up and life occurs on the street.  We passed simple shops without storefronts, selling industrial sized coils of wire, baskets holding live chickens, shining displays of shoes, and eventually plots of strawberries and decorative plants.

As the buildings diminished, the highway began to parallel a river winding along the hills.  At the edge of the road people sold baskets filled with bright red strawberries.  Behind the stands were fields with rows and rows of little red spots growing on the ground, the rows pointing straight to the winding river which hugged the sudden hills on the other side.  The further from the grey of the city, the more beautiful the scenery became.  Simple and agrarian, it felt peaceful next to the grime of Guiyang and Shanghai.

We arrived in Qingyan with two kids ready to run and two adults ready for something new.  

Dating back to the 1300s, this villae was originally built as preparation for war and has an intact city wall surrounding the village.  The stone buildings within the walls match the exterior, giving the town a unique grey stone feeling.  Although many people still live in the town, most seem to make their incomes off of selling gadgets and snacks on the main path.  Lanes made up of steps were lined with stalls selling trinkets and cheap toys, beautiful minority dolls, batiks and simple dresses, bone combs and loads of snacks.  We couldn't find anything sweeter than a gummy sweet potato for the girls, but we found a profusion of hot chilis.

Minorities dressed in rented costumes stood photographing themselves on the city wall.  And although most people had come to see these Chinese minorities, our girls became quick attractions as well.  The town felt overly touristed and crowded to us, and the girls were bored and intimidated by their celebrity status.

On the long ride back to town, we stopped at a noodle stand near our guide's university and ate beef noodles - one of the local specialties.  We each enjoyed slurping our noodles and Coke, and then piled back in the car with hopes for returning to the hotel for naps.

We returned to the hotel late.  After riding in the car for too long, the girls had no interest in sleeping.  Really, neither did Dave and I.  We rested for as long as we could, and then packed ourselves up for a walk around town.  One of Dave's co-workers had recommended a place for dinner, and since we had seen enough of Guiyang traffic we decided to walk.  The route we chose kept us off of the busy streets, instead walking down a food street which precious few cars and plenty of stands piled high with brightly colored fruits and vegetables, butcher stalls with meat

standing pre-cut in the open air, and gatherings of small wooden tables with propane tanks connected to large metal bowls dropped in the center for hot pot.

The "Snack Street" we had sought may have had its name lost in translation - maybe the name Jin Lusheng doesn't mean snack street at all, for that matter.  Hardly a street, this indoor space more resembled a Singaporean hawker center.  It was clean and bright, well organized and easy to follow.  No one spoke or posted in English.  In fact, we never saw another Caucasian family our entire stay in Guizhou.  Smooth brown wooden tables stood in clean lines filling the space in the middle.  Each table had chopsticks, salt and 3 types of chilis in the condiment tray.  We had a ball, sampling our old favorites like steamed buns, fried dumplings and freshly pressed watermelon juice.  A co-worker of Dave's hails from Guiyang and recommended the restaurant and his favorite local snack - chang wang noodles.  The noodles compared to ramen and the sauce was oily and full of chillis.  It had a tasty flavor, but the oil was too much for me.  I enjoyed the simpler fried rice full of fresh chilis.  Those Guizhou chili have a great flavor - and now I'm wishing I'd stocked up to bring some home!

On our walk home, we choose a different route.  This time we stuck to the major roads, finding them covered with food as well.  These stands held formica tables in bright orange and white, simple bulbs hanging from the metal awnings above.  The food displayed directly to the street, pushing pedestrians into traffic as the sidewalk was covered with tables and display cases.  The stands kept our interest, as people grilled and boiled beautiful arrays of bright vegetables, fish coated in chili sauce, and lovely piles of meat, chicken and beef.  The aromas of each items hitting the grill filled our noses and made us begin to regret our choice for dinner.  

That is, until we realized what the 4th meat was.

Many stands would display a long tail as one of their delicacies, right next to a pile of leg bones.  They say that people in south China will eat anything with four legs except the table, and we did not see many stray dogs in town.  Once we realized we were studying dog carcasses, we sped quickly home, having lost our appetites entirely.

Moganshan

I returned from our weekend away feeling refreshed, and able to face another 6 weeks of life in crowded and filthy Shanghai.

Both of my girls returned feeling exhausted, but a bit rosier around the cheeks, having tested their balance on old, rocky staircases and pushed their lungs running around a hilly yard in a higher altitude.

Dave returned feeling dread that he had to go back to the office. He has begun putting out resumes and fielding phone calls, especially for jobs in international development. He's looking primarily in Africa and Asia at this point, although open to other positions. If you have any connections, please email us privately and we'll share more details.

Even through a thicky, rainy haze, Moganshan was beautiful this weekend. The girls and I piled into the car with plenty of gear on Thursday afternoon, expecting to arrive around 6pm. Our friends would beat us to the cabin, and they would have hot pasta on the table and a warm fire in the wood stove. Our driver took a wrong turn and went an hour out of our way, so after a long 5 and a half hours of driving we arrived in the wet, dark night at the bottom of 250 stone stairs. The rain continued, blotting out the light from the moon or the stars, so the girls and I plodded up the wet stairs with no idea of the beauty that surrounded us. The staff at Naked Retreats, where we stayed, were fantastic. An old man from the village carried our luggage on a pole over his shoulders. My phone contact spoke perfect English and Chinese, and directed our driver at multiple different crosses in the road. Finally, one of their staff drove a van down the hill to lead our way back up. I told them that our gas tank was dangerously low after our 2 hour detour, and they promised to rescue us with reserves if the need arose.

We reached the top of the stairs, and saw a warm cottage with a small yard in front. The windows blazed with warm yellow light, evidencing a fire had been started long ago. We walked in, and the air warmed us immediately. The girls and I sat by the fire while our friends piled our plates with warm pasta, fresh fruit and glasses of milk. We filled our bellies and the girls went straight to sleep in a perfectly dark room upstairs.

We all woke Friday morning to a slow rain and a chill in the air. The warmth of the fire hadn't made its way upstairs, so the girls and I dressed quickly and raced down into the common room. The two ayis on staff to serve our house had started a fire in the woodstove hours before, and the room was cozy. Our friends were already down with their little ones - two 2 year olds, and 1 4 month old. We feasted on fresh eggs and local bacon, milk, juice and toast, and piles of fruit, all provided with our payment. The fridge was stocked, and the kitchen was so pleasant. An island in the middle of a common room, so the chef could talk to the other grown-ups and interact with running and playing children. The American concept that the kitchen is the heart of the home applied well to this cottage, and not at all to our home. I was the Friday chef, and enjoyed my time at the stove.

A break in the rain came around 11, so we quickly bundled our little ones and brought them outside to explore. As the Daddies had stayed in Shanghai to finish the work week, we were 3 Mamas to 4 toddlers and an infant. For playing in a warm cabin, our odds were good. For climbing stone stairs in the rain, our toddlers lacked confidence and our numbers were low. The rain began in earnest as we were a few steps away from the house, but we still followed the stone staircase to a very Chinese chicken yard at a barn up the hill. The girls loved running in the rain and chasing the hens, while the moms fretted over muddy fingers and wet hair. Our outting was quick, but gave us a taste of the fun that the outdoors held for our families. We feasted on a warm pot of chili and piping hot corn bread that night, the men meeting us around 9pm, and then everyone slept well in the dark, moonless night.

With families complete, Saturday took on a different flavor. We all shared a large breakfast, and then each family took off in a different direction. We climbed up and down stone stairways through the bamboo forest in search of great panoramas. We found quite a few, and once we had climbed too low, we dug bag into the forest and wandered along a stream until our bellies began growling. Along the stream we worked to keep our shoes dry, watched people harvesting bamboo, and avoided amazingly large spiders with bright yellow bodies hanging right in our path.

After a walk with the girls, we wanted a walk without them. All of the children went down to nap around 2:30, and our friend Jim joined Dave and I on a search for old hotel ruins. Moganshan is an interesting area - perched on a mountaintop, this little village was once a hedonistic getaway for Shanghai's elite. In the early part of the century, expatriates would escape the heat of Shanghai by taking the train to Moganshan, where the temperatures average 7 degrees lower than the city. The small mountain is dotted with European country homes and hotels. But with the turmoil of China in the middle of the century, expatriates expatriated China and the area did not become Chinese. Rather, it stood vacant for decades, only now slowly receiving reinvestment.

Jim, Dave and I headed up the hill to explore the ruins of an old hotel. The small building sat hidden off of a small path, with no road nearby. It perched the top of the hill, and had amazing panoramic views. We only caught glimpses of these views, because although the rain had stopped, Saturday maintained the thick haze of the days before. Having been an easier hike than we imagined, we next headed off to find the old convent. It seems that missionaries as well as wealthy expatriates enjoyed relaxing in old Moganshan. We climbed hundreds of steps, up and down. We passed construction workers with their bamboo scaffolding, their walls full of old rocks, and their concrete laid clumsily and quickly. Jim is an engineer from the Bay Area of California, and knew that these buildings would fall immediately in an earthquake.

We passed old hotels with all of the shutters drawn, old yards now homes to ducks and chickens. We walked through fields of tea, where lean-tos had been created with a stick and an old tarp, straw hats still hanging neatly inside. We walked an amazing number of stairs, got ourselves fairly lost, and became worried as the sun fell in the sky. Without daylight savings time, the falls falls by 5:00 in eastern China. On a dark mountain, we would have been in trouble without flashlights or a good sense of direction. Feeling a bit hurried and nervous, we pushed on through the bamboo forest. We took a left turn, feeling confident that we headed toward our cabin. As the path became less obvious, we became worried again. Jim hurried ahead, and Dave and I sloshed through as mountain springs poured over the stone steps and right through my running shoes.

Suddenly, we reached a clearing. The bamboo forest had been clear-cut for this small field growing low bushes of tea. A shack sat neatly in the middle of the field, and the hill fell away steeply so that we could see for miles. Even though the sun was quickly falling, even though we could not decipher our direction, even though our shoes were wet, we stood and gazed at the view. It was amazing, and made the entire adventure worthwhile.

We soon regained our direction and found our familiar path as the sun began to fall in earnest. It was dark as we climbed the steps to our cabin, and our ayis began grilling an amazing dinner of chicken and pork, burgers and sausage, potatos and corn, and vegetables marinated in simple Chinese sauces. We ate for hours, poured bottles of wine, and enjoyed another warm evening in. Before we sent the girls to bed, we pulled out a special treat. Three marshmallows were placed on skewers and pushed into the flames of the woodstove. The girls watched wide-eyed. Once removed, each marshmallow was squeezed onto a graham cracker with one piece of chocolate. The girls sat and ate their snacks quite seriously, and in complete silence. The s'mores were a hit on the young crowd. After they were all asleep, the adults took our bottles of wine outside and roasted our marshmallows over an open fire under a sky full of stars and a bright moon. This was the camping trip we had all envisioned.

The morning came quickly and with a bright sun that allowed little girls to run around in the yard of the cabin while the adults packed their bags and prepared lunch. The same tottering old man carried our luggage back down the few hundred steps, where our drivers were waiting. We all climbed in and headed down the mountain. We drove in autumn's golden light through an agricultural scene which could have been anywhere, uniquely Chinese by the people hand-scything their fields and the pavilions dotting the landscape with the frequency of gas stations in rural America. I kept my camera in its bag, as I didn't want to lengthen the journey any for our girls. But the orange tinted images of fall in rural China are seared into my mind - the autumn sun shining its late afternoon gold over a large reservoir surrounded by bamboo forest and with a simple pagoda sitting serenly in the center; the men and women working their fields with no machinery, wearing warm sweaters and basking in the sunlight.

For camping, the price was steep (about $1,500USD for a 3-bedroom cabin for 3 nights). For S'mores, the price was outrageous (about $25USD for 1 box of graham crackers, 1 bag of large marshmallows, and a few bars of chocolate). But for a weekend out of the city with our close friends, Naked Retreats and Moganshan were perfect and we are already talking about returning next spring.