"Just when you think you have seen it all!" is now the family motto! While we were in Nepal hiking through the mountainsides full of blossoming rhododendrons, Emilia came out with this. How true it is. Nine months of seeing so much and doing so many different things and there seems to be endless more to do.
In Nepal we reached new heights, hiking to a peak of 4780m...in the beautiful sun - only to be socked in the next day and hiked out in 15cm of freshy. Timing was everything on summit day. Eating delicious Yak cheese made in the village at 3500m that we stayed in for 3 days, playing with the local villager children and stunning the other hikers and porters alike with our kids hiking 10 days with no porters or guides were just a few of the things we did in the Langtang valley. The kids felt proud and confident after that. We were proud of them.
Hong Kong was not new for Bernie or me, but it was fun to share our favorite haunts and to find a new one - HK Disneyland! What a blast and really we just got there in the nick of time for both kids to still appreciate the cheesy little kid stuff. It is a small venue so we did spend a lot of time on Space Mountain (see Mima's blog). And thanks to Dave and Shelley for putting up with us for so long. Our rushed one day visa only took 7 days!
On to China where we became more the attraction than the attraction we were at. The kids tire of it at times but have been in lots of photos too. Hanging out at Blu's place was great, the kids are ready to move in...good food, comfy bean bag enormous chair, pools, soccer fields, kids-this is a life of the rich and famous.
We volunteered at the panda research and breeding centre - yet another highlight for all of us ( see Mattias' blog). We battled 1.4 billion Chinese to see the terra-cotta warriors, hiked nature's stair master up one of China's 4 sacred mountains- the best part was getting high enough to be above the smog ( seriously), and then.....just when we thought life was good and we started to get a bit cocky about how easy travel was.... Our flight to Beijing went sideways. Really, we landed two hours west of Beijing for some unknown reason. We were held on board for three hours, fed dinner and then told the flight would get to Beijing, but perhaps not for another 3 hours or so, maybe.....so a new adventure of busses, fast trains, subways and taxi to get to Donna's. We have a few unknown 20 something helpfuls to thank for getting us here. First on the plane, then at the train station and then at the taxi stand in the middle of nowhere at midnight! Our Chinese is non existent and we were hooped without their help.
And now after the Great Wall excursion - yet another icon on the world list checked off.... Mima has decided to go to school. She is joining a grade 2 class tomorrow at Western Academy Beijing. Who knows what she will see in the classroom?! She is converted and is trying to talk us into moving abroad to teach internationally. The three schools we have toured are state of the art, and all top notch in all they do, and our friends who work at them all live in pretty swanky places. But not to worry, though she is sold, we are not. We love the fresh air life at home and think our schools are pretty good too, not to mention our home.
We had the luxury of traveling with some new friends for half our China visit - the Rahals: Daren, Cynthia, Molly and Marcus are on a very similar trip. We were sorry to say goodbye to them;) but hope to see them in Vancouver when we get back!
Who knows what is left on our "just when you think you have seen it all" list, but we can't wait to see. And we will let you know as we see it!
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| Hiking at 3000m |
In Nepal we reached new heights, hiking to a peak of 4780m...in the beautiful sun - only to be socked in the next day and hiked out in 15cm of freshy. Timing was everything on summit day. Eating delicious Yak cheese made in the village at 3500m that we stayed in for 3 days, playing with the local villager children and stunning the other hikers and porters alike with our kids hiking 10 days with no porters or guides were just a few of the things we did in the Langtang valley. The kids felt proud and confident after that. We were proud of them.
Hong Kong was not new for Bernie or me, but it was fun to share our favorite haunts and to find a new one - HK Disneyland! What a blast and really we just got there in the nick of time for both kids to still appreciate the cheesy little kid stuff. It is a small venue so we did spend a lot of time on Space Mountain (see Mima's blog). And thanks to Dave and Shelley for putting up with us for so long. Our rushed one day visa only took 7 days!
On to China where we became more the attraction than the attraction we were at. The kids tire of it at times but have been in lots of photos too. Hanging out at Blu's place was great, the kids are ready to move in...good food, comfy bean bag enormous chair, pools, soccer fields, kids-this is a life of the rich and famous.
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| Sightseeing with Blu Man Chu |
We volunteered at the panda research and breeding centre - yet another highlight for all of us ( see Mattias' blog). We battled 1.4 billion Chinese to see the terra-cotta warriors, hiked nature's stair master up one of China's 4 sacred mountains- the best part was getting high enough to be above the smog ( seriously), and then.....just when we thought life was good and we started to get a bit cocky about how easy travel was.... Our flight to Beijing went sideways. Really, we landed two hours west of Beijing for some unknown reason. We were held on board for three hours, fed dinner and then told the flight would get to Beijing, but perhaps not for another 3 hours or so, maybe.....so a new adventure of busses, fast trains, subways and taxi to get to Donna's. We have a few unknown 20 something helpfuls to thank for getting us here. First on the plane, then at the train station and then at the taxi stand in the middle of nowhere at midnight! Our Chinese is non existent and we were hooped without their help.
And now after the Great Wall excursion - yet another icon on the world list checked off.... Mima has decided to go to school. She is joining a grade 2 class tomorrow at Western Academy Beijing. Who knows what she will see in the classroom?! She is converted and is trying to talk us into moving abroad to teach internationally. The three schools we have toured are state of the art, and all top notch in all they do, and our friends who work at them all live in pretty swanky places. But not to worry, though she is sold, we are not. We love the fresh air life at home and think our schools are pretty good too, not to mention our home.
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| Great Wall image by Mattias |
We had the luxury of traveling with some new friends for half our China visit - the Rahals: Daren, Cynthia, Molly and Marcus are on a very similar trip. We were sorry to say goodbye to them;) but hope to see them in Vancouver when we get back!
 |
| Hangin with the Rahals |
Who knows what is left on our "just when you think you have seen it all" list, but we can't wait to see. And we will let you know as we see it!
Hi Karen, Bernie, mimo and matthias
ReplyDeleteWe have really enjoyed looking at your blog over the year following your adventures. Our year has finished and we had such wonderful times but settling back in to reality has been strangely easy, maybe in a couple of months I will feel my feet itching again, but I think that might be it now until the kids leave home and we all can set off on our own paths.
I hope that it has been wonderful for you guys too, it certainly looks that way, continue to reach for that horizon and I hope we can stay in touch and our paths may cross again one day...
Best wishes Ruth Tim Charlie and Billy (the honking lezards!)