Renata's Birthday

We spent Renata's birthday in Guangzhou at the middle school touch-rugby tournament. Luca played with the boys and Renata played with the girls team. Both had a ball (pardon the pun). What a great day! It was a bit tiring however! Guangzhou is about two hours away by bus so we had an early morning departure from Shenzhen to arrive at the tournament on time. We are all rugby fans now!!

The boys on the bike

So the boys finally got their motorbike and here it is. Notice the lack of helmets. Fortunately, it goes slow, but it goes. Now we fit right in:)

Luca's 12th Birthday

Luca turns 12 in China. He was skyped by his good friends Matt and Tom in the am and Robby, Tom's brother said, "Wait, you were born here in Maine. It is still November 12th over here, you are not really 12." Luca heard from his grandparents on both sides and his aunt. Pretty sweet. He is modeling his prized b-day gift, a red COKE shirt written in Mandarin. The cake, the first thing we have baked in our time here, tasted just like the boxed cakes back home.
Next weekend, he has asked his dad to take him and a friend to his favorite haunts in Hong Kong.

Rolling on the River

We took bamboo rafts down the Yi Long River. Victor and I rode together. A very slight man was our gondalier. At one point he grunted something in Chinese to the gondalier handling Luca and Maeve's raft. Vic leaned to me and said, "You know what he said? 'Why did I get the fat assed Americans? Why couldn't I get their skinny kids?'"
The photo to the left is our two families at a water break, Maeve in forefront. Last picture is Luc and Maeve kayaking.

Some scenes from rural China

Just a couple of shots from our various bike trips through Yangshou. It was rice harvest season while we were visiting. From left: Dragon Bridge, hundreds year old bridge over the Li River; Luca in the entrance of a still working Qing Dynasty village, soy bean leaves drying over a family's patio-- used for cooking, Luca and Vic biking past a harvested rice field.

Faces of Rural China

We visited a still working 500 year old Qing Dynasty village within Yangshou. This man made pipes out of fish bones and pumello skins. He was a good bargainer.


This fellow is clearing out new growth from his osthmanthus trees so that they will be successful next year. Osthmanthus is used for healing tea.


This little one, Pengpan, followed us on her grand dad's bicycle when we went out for a bike ride. When we stopped for a water break, she and her grandfather broke out tons of little Chinese ornaments for us to buy. Of course we did and I asked for a photo as a part of the deal.
I finally was able to get close enough to get a shot of the many grandparent-baby scenes. These folks are headed into their village. Many of the preschoolers yelled "Hello, Ni Hao" to us as we biked through their hamlets.