Spectacular Shanghai

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of leaving for Shanghai is...vomit. Not mine luckily, but poor little McKennas. We took a 5 hour train ride to Shanghai and it seemed we hadn't gotten too far when McKenna started throwing a fit, she was screaming and crying so Brad turned around then said, "Oh my gosh, she threw up all over Cam...all over their Computer!...Oh, it's all over Brittny. It's all over the floor, it's everywhere." As he said this a distinct smell of stomach juices mixed with partially digested food began to fill the entire cart. Somehow they managed to get cleaned up and Mckenna calmed down, and after some train attendants sprayed down the cart with air freshener all was well. Well, we had our little contribution too- the girls had poopy diapers and cried a bit, I'm pretty sure everyone on that train hated our group.

We got to their HUGE apartment complex where a lot of Americans live, had some expensive pizza, and headed to see the city. First up was the fabric market which was very cool. We bought ties and Brad had a custom tailored suit, shirt, and jacket made. I wanted to have a custom dress made for myself, but time was short and I can be a little picky so now I have a good reason to make it back to Shanghai one day. :)










We walked down this cool old street, it was interesting to see the huge, modern skyscrapers in the background. It was also incredibly hot, hottest day of our trip. Despite the heat, even when we were all dripping with sweat, everyone kept telling us throughout the entire trip that our girls were too cold, too little to be taken outside, and that their headbands were too tight. People would rub their feet like they were cold, then pull on the headband and ask Brad, "why this?"

We headed over for a boat ride around the city. I'm pretty sure we were the only Americans on the boat, everyone was crowded inside and looking out dirty windows, then I noticed a "VIP" section was roped off out front... there were cushy seats outside and they gave you free bottled water. What did it take to get there? Turns out like $2. We did that. We would have done that all day long.

Our boat wasn't as fancy as some of the others, but we paid less and got cooler views of their awesome boats.

The skyline was incredible. What an amazing city. It's weird how I was just recently in all of these cool places and suddenly I'm bumming around Utah again, going to Costco...like the whole thing was just a dream.  Seriously though, check out this city- pretty phenomenal huh?

As usual, I fed on the go.

On our way home we stopped to get some famous Shanghai noodles. This guy kept twisting up dough, hitting it on the counter, and all of the sudden it was a bunch of perfectly thin noodles- like magic! They threw them in a pot of boiling water, mixed them with some magic sauce and I was too hungry to remember to take a picture of the finished product, but they looked and tasted delicious. Trust me.

We did a video, but we kinda missed the part where they turned into noodles... :)

Their apartment complex has people who you can, yet again, pay almost nothing to for a long, lovely foot massage. They were super nice and Brad had fun talking with them.

Ahh...spoiled suites me well.

And prepares me for this:

Day two we planned to visit a little river city called Zhu Jia Jiao. It was pouring rain by the time we made it to the subway station, we almost backed down, but Brad and I decided it was worth a try. The subways were PACKED- I actually had to feed the babies in this packed crowd because it was a long trip and they were hungry. I've had more pleasant feeding experiences... At some point I begin to get used to having a hundred Chinese people shamelessly stare at me while I got situated feeding a baby with my nursing cover, or while I changed a dirty diaper. Sometimes I'd stare back at the onlooker, but they could care less, just kept starin' away. Every time.

Someone's personal driver picked us up and took us to the quaint little city. It was touristy, but with good reason, kind of like a little Chinese Venice. We took a boat ride around to see the sights.

Lunch was rough, Lyla had been struggling on and off all day- exhaustion, teething, who knows. I was glad we went though and that the rain died down for us. I also got to try my new favorite magnum flavor- light chocolate inside with a chocolate coating that had little chocolate cookie crunch pieces in it! yum. China is awesome.