Museums and gardens… Oh My! Shanghai Saturday
Today was the first weekend day that I spent in Shanghai. As such, Jim and I were escorted by JunMin to the Shanghai Museum, Yuyuan Gardens and out for a nice dinner of dumplings!!
The day was fairly cold and a nice day to spend inside a museum. The Shanghai museum covers the various eras of Chinese history. There was the Bronze hall, the Sculpture Hall, the Ceramics hall, the Caligraphy Hall, the Painting Hall, the Currency Hall and the Jade Hall. I've included a small sampling of photos from the museum. (The internet connection is pretty slow at the hotel, so I didn't include any descriptions or anything). The exhibits were fascinating.
After a nice lunch, we then headed to the Yuyuan Gardens. These gardens were a house and garden built during the Ming Dynasty. It was chilly outside, but it was enjoyable to wander through the labyrinth of rooms, rock and pools. The architecture was amazing. Everywhere you turned there were hidden carvings, especially on the rooftops. I've included some photos that even show a dragon and a lizard figthing.
Or course, in this day and age, you can't go anywhere without your Starbucks!
We then ate a traditional Chinese dinner of dumplings right next to the Yuyuan Gardens. When we came out, night had fallen and the old buildings where glowing.
I hope you enjoy the photos and I look forward to posting more soon.
Shanghai at Night
This evening I was lucky enough to have an enjoyable dinner at The Bund in Shanghai. While we were down there, our gracious guide, JunMin, braved the cold weather and took Jim and I for a walk down by the river. The entire city lighted up is a magnificint site. I've included a few photos here. I'm sure I'll have more when I get home, but I thought I'd at least share a tidbit of what I've been doing. 
Houston…. we have water and sand
The sandbox officially now has sand in it and the water feature is running REAL WATER.
Now... if they were together, it would kind of be like going to the beach!!
First Snafu
Well, we made it a good way into the project before we hit our first big SNAFU with the landscaping project. The plans had the length/space of the backyard wrong for where the sandbox would go, so we had to move the fence out a bit. So, now we have a new gate on the south side of that house.
The rest of the work in the backyard has been around the water feature. We now have a HUGE hole in our back yard. The pictures do not do it justice. I had to take two so that you could get some perspective, but the hole is about 4 and a half feet deep. The sand box is in the background and it's 5 ft long. And we have a big pile of dirt that should eventually turn into a small waterfall.
Day #… I’ve lost track, but the work is getting done! :-)
Well... I can't quite remember which day of the project this is, but we've had some great progress.
The back yard patio is completely finished. It is SO much bigger than our other one. I'm looking forward to lots of bbqs!
Today they started on the water feature. It doesn't look like much now... just a BIG pile of dirt (man, the kids are bummed they aren't here right now!)... but it should be looking pretty fancy here in a little bit.
Day 7 – Front Patio Finished, Back Yard Demo, Mushroom Tree is history!!
The weather has turned warm and really made me want to be outside enjoying the weather... now I just need the patios to be finished. The front patio is all but finished (capstone on the seat wall is really all that is left). It's really turned out beautiful, and has been the cause of lots of envious neighborhood comments... all very postive!!
Today the back yard demo started in earnest today. There is no longer a SCRAP of grass at 4645 N Chapala Way. The back yard patio is gone... and best of all the mutant mushroom tree is GONE!!
Day 6 – More Front Patio
Tyler confiscated my pc last night to do computer games, so I'm a little late posting these. More of the front patio was filled in and I anticipate that they'll probably be pretty close to finishing by the end of today.
Day 5 – The patio has started!!
The guys spent most of the day putting the first pavers in the front yard.
Day 4 – Seat Wall
Okay, so maybe you guys are getting bored with this... but I'm still so excited over the whole thing... so, I'm sharing more. Our seat wall is almost finished. The neighbor asked me if we were going to get a portable fire pit for the front porch so they could come over and enjoy it.
Day 3 – New stuff!!
For those of you living landscaping vicariously through us, here is day 3 of the "project". I'm pretty excited... they've started adding in the seat wall! They've finished the trench to make a front path and leveled out the new front patio area!!
Here are some photos.
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