Home again and back

Well, after a good May I was going to head home at the end of the month. The main reason was to get back in time for the boy's graduation. Brian was graduating from the UofA and Kevin was graduating from high school. This was going to be a busy month. We also were still very busy with work trying to finish up all the early tool set and be ready for the start of running test wafers in July. We were doing well but still a little behind on a few tools.

A couple days before I was going to leave for home I had to change my plans as we had too many of our folks that had already went off on a vacation. I was planning on getting home in time for Brian's graduation from the UofA but was unable to. I was sad I was not going to be able to make it but there was no way I would have been able to stay home long enough to be able to go to both the boys graduations. Brian was OK with me not making it to his and Kathy, Kevin, my mom and dad and Kathy's mom all went down to Tucson to go to the graduation. As you can see it was a good ceremony. I am really sorry that I missed it. Kathy and Kevin also met Jenny's parents too. I have yet to meet them.

What a crowd at McKale center at Uof A

Here is my mom and dad with Brian

Kathy with Brian

Kathy, Kevin and Kathy's mom with Brian

While I waited another week before I was able to go home and be there for Kevin's graduation, I hung around China like usual. The weather was getting really nice by now. The days were warm but the evenings were still cool. Right before I was going to leave the folks at our favorite hang out decided to have a cook out to celebrate Cindy's birthday. Cindy is the owner of the bar. She has become a good friend with all of us so she invited us to come to her party. It was our first official outdoor cookout for the year. What a good time.

A little booze, beer and meat and what a good time

The next day I left for home and was ready to get there and have fun. I was looking forward to seeing everyone and enjoy Kevin's graduation. The night of the ceremony it was a nice night. You never know in Arizona at that time of the year. It could be way too hot to be able to be outside or there could be a massive dust storm that could come in and blow everything away. Well, we lucked out. Neither happened and it was a wonderful night. Other than my mistake of which side to sit on it went off without a hitch. Kevin did really well as he graduated number 25 in his class of over 400. He got to sit in the "Front Row"

Here is the ceremony on the football field.

Kevin with my mom and dad

Here is Kathy and her mom with Kevin

The next week after the graduation we were able to get down to Mexico and spend a couple days in our condo on the beach. I have missed going down there and relaxing. The weather was great and there wasn't too many people down there at Rocky Point. Kathy Kevin and I went down there for about 3 days.

Here is the view from our balcony

Beautiful sunset over the water in Rocky Point.

After a couple weeks at home I set off for my other home again. Yes, back to China. The good thing was that Brian decided that he was going to visit me for a few weeks. He flew out the week after I got back. He was with me for a couple weeks before Kathy was planning on coming out. He just kind of took the time to relax and enjoy a culture that he was not used to. He had taken a semester of Mandarin Chinese and he was able to practice it while he was here. He was very good at it. He and Nicholas were having very good conversations. He was able to carry on a solid and understandable conversation. I had been here for about 9 months and I couldn't even speak as well as he was.

While he was here and before Kathy got here, we did a few things. The first weekend he was here we went up to Dang Dong. This is the city which is about 2 hours from here to the north. It is right next to North Korea. It also has a portion of the great wall. I thought Brian would like this. We spent the day up there. Walked the great wall, saw the damaged bridge between China and North Korea and went to the Korean war museum. Nicholas was wonderful and drove us up there and back in the same day. I really appreciate him. It was raining when we left in the morning but ended up being a nice day and we had a great opportunity to walk the wall.
Here you see North Korea in the back ground from the wall

Brian with North Korea in the background

From the wall overlooking North Korea

The little river between China and North Korea

The rest of the time that Brian was here before Kathy came to China we spend watching the world cup soccer games. We did a little shopping and ate out a lot, but we just waited for Kathy to show up so we could head to Beijing and Xi'an. That will be in the next blog.

General Life

After we finished with the party for Kathy we still had a lot of time in China before Kathy had to leave for the states. The weather was still cold outside but was just starting to get warmer. It was no longer below zero but it was still pretty cool. There were many friends to make and places to eat. Some of our old friends hung out with us. We all had a great time sitting down in a restaurant and talking about how difficult it was to live in China. Let's see, I think a difficult day for Kathy, Barbara, Wendy, Lisa and other new friends was to start out at breakfast, do some shopping, catch a lunch, get the nails done along with a pedicure and finish it off with a few hours at the spa for a foot and body massage. I know this is difficult to have to put up with but luckily I didn't have too. I only had to work all day long.

Once the woman were all worn out after the difficult day, they would get ready to go out to dinner with the guys. There are many wonderful places to eat both in KiaFiaChu and in downtown Dalian. One of the fun places to go to is the Paulenar Bar. In this restaurant there is wonderful German type food and the brats are good. The German beer is delicious. I ordered the Venice brats and Kathy ordered a salmon salad. Well, my food was good but when they brought Kathy's salad it actually had raw salmon on it. There was no way this was going to be eaten. We sent it back and wanted them to cook the salmon. They did but when it was brought back again, it was still raw. She ended up ordering something else. We still sat back and enjoyed the Filipino band that played.

Here we are enjoying Paulenar Bar. Beer and Brats

Another fun bar that we frequent regularly is Friends bar. We are always greeted with open arms by Krystal the bar owner. She is this tiny Chinese woman that remembers everyone that ever comes into her bar. Kathy and I have gone there with our friends every time she comes to visit. Krystal takes pictures of everyone and of course, Kathy and I have our pictures up on the wall. That is how friendly it is there. In this bar Krystal had a wonderful game that helped her sell drinks. It is called the shots around the world. In this game you chose from a list of shots from 21 different countries. You need to choose one type of shot from each country and finish them in 3 month time. After you have completed drinking some type of shot of booze from each country you are allowed to choose a bottle of one of the drinks you tried. Everyone was doing it. Many folks have done a number of them. Once they finish the first 21 shots they start on another round. I had completed only one game. That is enough for me. I chose a bottle of 10 year old Glenmorangie Scotish Whisky. I have no idea what I am going to do with it but it was pretty good when I had the shot.

Proud completers of around the world

Kathy's final night in Dalian this time had us finishing up at Friends. She needed to get up in the morning to catch a flight but that did not stop us from having a few going away drinks. We did not stay out too late but it was fun and relaxing. Cheers Kathy until the next trip.

You can see it was two for one night.

About a month after Kathy left it was really starting to get nice in Dalian as far as the weather goes. It was cherry blossom time. They say the best cherries in China are in the Dalian region. The next trip we decided to make was down to a city called Lucian. This is a small city farther south on the peninsula of Dalian. It is supposed to be the best place to see the Cherry blossoms when they begin to bloom. We took the 2 hour drive to south of Dalian in search of some good picture taking opportunity. Boy, were we disappointed. We were about a week early on for being able to see some good cherry orchards in bloom. It ended up being a stick festival instead of a cherry blossom festival. It was a fun trip none the less. After we visited the stick orchards we went to an old Japanese prisoner camp for political prisoners. This was an eye opener. They tortured many Korean and Japanese folks for their beliefs. This area a China was controlled by the Japanese at one time and the folks who were against the Japanese political philosophy were tortured and killed.

Here is the stick blossom festival

I was lucky to find a couple trees with blossoms on them

Trees with blossoms were few

The front of the Japanese Political Prison

These are actual skeletal remains in a barrel These prisoners were put in barrels and buried alive

Once we left the prison we went to a tiger park. This was not as good as the one in Harbin though. It was dirtier and the animals did not look too healthy. Not a place we would visit again. It was hard to see the animals in the bad conditions. I did actually get to feed the tigers with a live chicken. That was pretty cool to see.

Prior to my upcoming hike on the mountain on the 8th, Barbara, Brian, Jackie, Nicholas and myself decided to take in the zoo for a day. It was a beautiful weekend so why waste a good sunny day in May in Dalian China? Off we went. The Dalian is a very nice zoo and you can get very close to the animals. In fact, with some type of animals you can actually walk among them and pet them. Very spacious very nice zoo.

King of the Beasts

Queen of the beasts. Here is displayed a rare wild animal known for the shopping habits and wine drinking.

It was cool to walk amongst the animals

We could actually pet the animals as well

The following weekend ended up being my birthday. I decided to go for a hike on my 53rd birthday. I have done this hike before. It is a pretty vigorius hike. It is on Black Mountain. We go up one side, reach the summit by the communication towers and then down the other side. This hike takes about 4 hours. After a night of having fun at Obsiden I got up firs thing in the morning and went for the big hike.

the hike is very pretty and it was a nice warm day
Here is a temple up in the middle of the mountain

this is a long and difficult hike in some areas

Great way to spend my birthday. Even at 53 I can still climb the mountains

This was it for the Month of May. I was able to head home the end of May for some time off and going to many parties for graduation. Both Brian and Kevin graduated in May this year. Brian from college and Kevin from high school.

Half Century Celebration in China

Happy 50th Birthday Kathy

Well, it has been a long time since I have updated the blog and I have so much to talk about I don't know where to start. The best place would be to start where I left off. That would be back in April when Kathy came out to visit me once again. This time the weather was much better. It was no longer -15degrees C. It was still cold but not like in January. This time too we had a big celebration to keep us going. Yes, that's right, we, or should I say Barbara, Wendy and Lisa, put together an unbelievable 50th birthday party. Let me get into the details a little.

First, while Kathy was here visiting in January she met and made a lot of friends amongst the wives of my co workers. They got along very well. They all got to talking and were discussing the different parties we have all had while here in China. Some of them included theme parties like I have written about in the past blogs. Barbara's pajama birthday party, the new years eve parties, the infamous club crawl just to name a few. Well, Kathy decided that she wanted to have a party when she came back in March or April to celebrate her birthday and to have a theme of a hat party. It ended up as both a hat party and a formal dress party for the woman. This is all that Barbara, Wendy and Lisa needed to begin the planning. This planning started back in January and ended in April when Kathy came back to visit. This planning obviously gave the women something to do for a few months. They told me to leave it to them and they would put it together. That should have been a clue to me as to what was to come. With them planning the party it took a lot of pressure off of me but I found out that was a good thing and a bad thing. I didn't have to plan it but I had to pay for it. I was visiting the ATM all the time. Mind you, I am not complaining as they did a fantastic job and there is no price limit on the happiness of a wife, especially Kathy. I opened the check book for them, or should I say the ATM.

I was kept totally in the dark on the party. They did not want me to know where it was, what was going on, what they were buying or anything. All I knew what the day it was going to happen. April 2nd. This was a few weeks after Kathy's actual birthday of March 15th, but when you get to be 50, a few weeks does not make that much of a difference. for weeks leading up to the party I was trying to find out what was going on. Nothing, I heard nothing. They did a really great job at keeping the details a secret. I was assuming it was going to be at one of our local club hangouts. That is what we have been doing since I have been here. I did get Rami to slip up one day when I asked him about the party and he mentioned he thought it was downtown Dalian at the Brooklyn Bar on the upper floor. That made sense to me and I assumed that is where it was going to be. Well, the day of the party here is what transpired.

Barbara told me they would be by the apartment to pick us up and take us to the party. We waiting patiently for their arrival. I took this picture of Kathy while we waited. The flowers were purchased by Nicholas my driver for Kathy in celebration of her birthday. It was very kind of him to do this. Nicholas is a very good driver and friend. He is always so thoughtful. He takes very good care of us.

The Queen of the party. Waiting to be picked up.

Barbara eventually showed up at our door. She told us to come with her and we would get to the party. We grabbed our warm clothes and headed out the door. We got into the elevator and headed toward a night of fun and laughter. Now, once in the elevator on the 18th floor Barbara took charge. The elevator started to move. I was not paying attention and before I realized it the elevator stopped on the 21st floor. I just assumed the elevator went up to pick someone else up and I had forgotten that no one lives on the 21st floor. This is the penthouse. Well we got off at the 21st floor and went to the door to the penthouse. As we opened the door, everyone yelled surprise and shot off little tubes of confetti. So this is where the party was being held and why the secrets were kept. They had rented the penthouse for her birthday. What a great place to hold a party.

Kathy's grand entrance into the party room.

Barbara and Kathy right after the door opened.

I tell you, when these girls plan and throw a party, they really know how to do it right. The decorations were wonderful, the food was tremendous and delicious and there were plenty of drinks to go around. There was about 25 to 30 people there. All people who have meet Kathy and who we have become friends with in the past year. It was absolutely wonderful. Z basically was in charge of the music all night and everyone had a great time dancing and eating and of course drinking. The penthouse was very spacious and it was a wonderful place to hold a party.

Everyone sitting and enjoying the atmosphere

How about that hat?

The cuisine was exquisite. Catered by Flares

Kathy the birthday girl, surprised and happy

Kathy with the boss, but this night, just a good friend

Kathy relaxing before the rest of the evening

Of course, the night would be complete without the event of fireworks. We set off 1000rmb worth of fireworks. One of best displays to date. These were loud and high in the sky. We all went downstairs to the front of the building and Jacky and Nicholas set up the boxes of fireworks to be set off. It was a lot of fun.


Kathy, Jacky and Barbara

Kathy and Nicholas

What a wonderful cake which Barb had made for the party

She looks great for her age huh?

Just a few of the friends Kathy has made

Once the fireworks were done, and the food and cake was eaten, the drinking continued and the dancing began. Everyone had a chance to shake their booty. It went on for hours. People came and went and returned during the night. The wine and beer was flowing and the music was loud. Everyone was laughing.

Old but not dead!

I just feel like dancing the night away

Here is the planning committee

Wendy and Z

Claire and Kathy wrapping the party up

You know the party is over when Kathy ends up on the floor at some time. Just joking, but we did have a great party. I think it ended sometime around 3am. It was a wonderful time of celebration and enjoying the friendships we have all made. Not many people can say they had a celebration like this in China during their life. Kathy and myself are blessed to have wonderful friends and an opportunity to be in China. Happy Birthday Kathy. I hope you had fun.