Today is Monday....a national holiday in China. The holiday is Mid-Autumn Festival and the tradition is to give and receive moon cakes. We sampled many kinds of moon cakes last year and decided that our favorites.....drum roll please.....Haggen Daz!!! We are such "Westerners"!!! The Haggen Daz moon cakes are made of .....you guessed it.....ice cream and we much prefer these to the pork and egg cakes. Sometimes...."while in Rome (or China)" it is just more fun to do (or eat) what is familiar!

Tim was finally able to take some time away from work (and the phone) this weekend and we spent Saturday morning touring some friends from HP around the city. And...Saturday evening we went to dinner with another HP friend that lives in the US (Camas, Washinton) but grew up in Shanghai. I have been in a bit of a "funk" since the incident at Yu Garden and Jenny was very insightful and offered some interesting perspectives on the culture. Thank you Jenny!!! I think I am ready to move on now and get out of my "funk!"

Abi was away most of the weekend camping with the student council kids. They went to an "outward bound" camp area and had a great time hiking and participating in team building activities.

This afternoon Tim drove our friend Hellen and I to the golf course where he plays. The drive is over one hour from our house towards the Pudong airport. I could immediately see why he likes to go there....it was like stepping onto a southern plantation with beautiful green fields and gardens and it seemed far far way from the city. We had lunch on the patio and watched the golfers come and go. There was a nice breeze blowing that kept the temperature very comfortable. After we left the golf course we drove through a small village and discovered a beautiful park/garden with signs calling it the "Flower Port". It looks like a great place for a picnic and we are planning to visit it again soon!

News from home....My brother is a Grandfather!!! Oh my gosh!!! Congratulations to Cody and Amanda Fitch on the birth of their son Adrian. With his birth our whole family shifts positions in the cycle of life....now my parents and GREAT Grandparents and I guess that makes Tim and I....GREAT Aunt and Uncle! So hard to believe!

The weather has been pretty good today until now. A dark cloud just rolled in and there is lightening flashing all around our building...YIKES! We have seen many of these storms during the past month. It is a pretty great show from the 36th floor.