Hey! It Is A New Blog :) ...Xi'an

It's only been about a month and a half since our last entry. The only excuse we have is that it has been a very busy summer. I (Tony) have crossed the Pacific Ocean on an airplane 6 times since the 1st of June. We've had visitors here at our home in Shanghai, toured the sites of China, spent a week or so at the cabin in North Dakota, managed to spend some time with the twins, etc., etc. It has been a busy, but fun, summer.

Anyway...now for the blog. In June my mom (Sylvia), my son (Brandon), Sabrina's mom (Sandi), and Sabrina's sister (Heather) visited us. It is always awesome to experience new things with the ones you love. We also took the opportunity to travel to Xi'an & Beijing as one big group.

XI'AN:

(pronounced "she on")

Xi'an is one of the most popular places to visit as a tourist in China. It was the first capital of China - in BC times. The most famous site in Xi'an are the Terracotta Warriors. On our tour we visited this site. You'll have to Google "Terracotta" to learn about the site because I don't have enough time or space to explain it for you. Or if you have the time to watch the Discovery or History Channel, it more than likely is covered at some point in time as it is one of the biggest archaeological finds of the past century. Places like this bring tears of joy to my mom's eyes and this site was one of those and truly awesome.

We also visited the City Wall and Bell Tower. In ancient times the cities were surrounded by a fortress. Xi'an has one of the most preserved city walls and it was definately a grand site. We also took in a traditional Chinese show that dated from the Tang Dynasty (a long time ago).

Other sites include an Emporer's tomb & a large temple and pagoda.

We also thought we might have found Brandon a girl friend. Our final night in Xi'an we were approached by these people that wanted to have their daughter in a picture with Brandon. Brandon, bashful as he was, said "Ok". ...we thought she would be the perfect girl for Brandon but it turns out she was 27 years old. Brandon is only 14! We'll keep trying, I guess.
I'll be providing a blog or so a week for the next few weeks as I'm currently in China by myself as Sabrina and the twins are still in the US. Needless-to-say, I have some extra time at nights so the blog should be covered. The next blog will be about our trip to Beijing and the Great Wall.

Enjoy what is left of your summer..!