KYLE & SHANNON'S MOVING DAY

Saturday, August 20, 2011

On an overcast, then rainy day in the city of

Kyle & Shannon moved into their new 3rd floor apartment on South Wood Street.

 They have big plans for some type of publishing endeavor, so we brought THREE copiers with us from Indianapolis.  Kyle had found them through Craig's list & Gregg had made a couple of trips to Indy to purchase them.  The copiers now reside in one of the three luxurious bedrooms in the new apartment.

Pictures of the apartment before the moving crew started to work!

Back at the "old" apartment packing continues.

The guys were real troopers continuing to move furniture & boxes even while it rained.  I thought the rain was supposed to hold off until afternoon, but that was not the case.

 Lunch break while our 1998 Silver Jimmy is repaired!

  We enjoyed roasted peppers & tacos while the Jimmy's front stabilizer pins were replaced.  I was so thankful the breakdown had not occurred on the highway, as this was the vehicle Gregg had driven to Chicago by himself on Friday night!

Roxanne was such a good girl!

She even cooperated in the tradition of taking feet pictures.

Pictures after the moving crew did their job.

Jim & I spent Saturday night at the "new" apartment, while Kyle, Shannon, Roxanne, and Gregg spent the night at the "old" apartment.

Sunday morning before breakfast Jim & I walked around the neighborhood park.

We were joined by our feathered friends!

Chicago skyline from the park.

Bike at the park!

Breakfast at McDonalds.

After breakfast we stopped at Pete's market for some great deals on fresh fruits & vegetables.  We started back to Kokomo about 9:00 am & made good time on the trip home.  Thor & Mojo were glad to see us even though our pet sitter Nicole had taken very good care of them.

The saga of car problem's continued as we received a phone call from Kyle asking if my car had jumper cables in it.  We had driven the Silver Jimmy home because we thought we were leaving the better car for Gregg to drive home later on his own, but I guess that was not the case.  A few more phone calls from Kyle & Gregg & it turned out the battery was dead on my Red Jimmy.  One new battery later Gregg arrived safely back in Kokomo Sunday night.

Wow!  Thanks for the exciting moving day, Kyle & Shannon!



FEET AROUND SHANGHAI & SUZHOU CHINA

July 22 to July 30, 2011 -->
We arrived safely in Shanghai, China one day later than originally scheduled. We flew from Indy to Detroit as scheduled on Friday. Two hours out of Detroit we turned around & went back to the airport due to an electrical problem with the plane. We waited on the plane for a period of time while they attempted to fix the problem. We eventually left the plane to wait in the airport for an 11:00 PM departure, which was changed to a midnight departure and finally the flight was canceled. We were given meal vouchers, hotel vouchers & taxi vouchers & told to make our own travel arrangements to Shanghai. What’s up with that??  We almost canceled the trip & returned to Indy!  After much time on the phone & standing in many lines we found out that a 1:00 PM Saturday flight had been added to the schedule. We crawled in bed at 3 AM Saturday in Livonia, MI, which was the closest available motel room to the Detroit airport.

We tried it all over again on Saturday afternoon!! We finally arrived in Shanghai & stood in more lines as we went through customs, exchanged currency, rode the train and rode the subway to our motel. We felt like we had been to Disney World, but there was never a ride at the end of any of the lines. What an experience!

Jim & two co-workers were busy during the days with business. I kept busy exploring Shanghai. There were a lot of people, buildings, taxis, bicycles & scooters. It is a typical big city. It is also very hot & dirty!  When I got back to the motel & took a shower I couldn’t believe how dirty I had gotten just by walking around town.

Wednesday we were driven to Suzhou where we stayed for a couple of days. We stayed at the Intercontinental hotel & it was very nice.  We all decided it was a little upscale for us though.  I finally got a decent chicken breast sandwich at the Subway across the street from the hotel.
We went back to Shanghai on Friday.  We actually took the train on the return trip which was faster than driving on the highway.  Jim & I walked around town together since his business meetings were over.  There were still a lot of people, buildings, taxis, bicycles & scooters!

The trip back to Indy on Saturday was uneventful except for an hour delay in Detroit.  We were VERY glad to be home!  I am glad I went to China with Jim, but it is not a trip I would want to repeat.
I have attached a few pictures of the sights and FEET around China!

View from Shanghai hotel room.

Flower Clock at Century Park in Shanghai.

Pearl Tower in Shanghai.

Mall in Shanghai

Dessert at the Stone Grill Shanghai 

Century 21

Shanghai ferry

Les Mills is even in Suzhou!

Train ride from Suzhou back to Shanghai with Harry (standing) Skip & Brad (both seated).

Yummy Chinese dinner!!

Papa John's pizza delivery Shanghai style!

This is John McIntire from Wisconsin.  We shared the taxi from our Shanghai hotel to the airport with John on Saturday.  John was also one of the passengers on the canceled flight on our trip from Detroit to Shanghai.  He actually stayed at the same hotel we did in Shanghai.  It truly is a small world!

Detroit airport from JIm's phone camera.

Barb at the Detroit airport.

Standing in line at Disney World! 

Actually this is Immigration at the Shanghai airport.

Authentic Chinese dinner with the China & American co-workers. 

Pearl Tower

THE END!!