I wish I knew the name of this festival??

...but I don't ...sorry :( In the next town (Towada) there was a festival this weekend. We loaded up the truck, charged the batteries in the camera and rolled out!

Before we got there we saw these cool sculptures in the middle of town in front of the art museum. We just had to pull over and snap some pics!

Just so you are clear.....that is a DOG in that baby stroller! Such a pampered poodle :)

This is a puffy car that belongs to the house below...it was actually a real car!

Inside this puffy house there is a TV that plays Japanese and English. It says that this house is both a work of art and a house - so if you buy it you will be buying a house and a work of art!

Pretty, pretty flowery horse

ARGHHH a giant, scary FIRE ant!!

2 min later we were at the festival.....

The women horse riders setting up for the show

fresh fish on a stick ... it's being cooked over hot coals

chicken on a stick -- kind of taste like teriyaki chicken -- YUMMERS!

Elijah's first ride on a horse - he liked it!!!

Our little samurai!

This was the main show - pretty cool. They compete to get the arrow in/on a target WHILE on a quickly moving horse!!

Beijing, China Day 5

We SHOPPED! Sorry no pics though :( They weren't allowed in the shopping centers. All the centers we went to had women that L.O.V.E.D. them some Elijah! They loved his large eyes, his smile, his skin. EVERYTHING! They touched his head (I CANNOT stand when people touch Elijah without asking) and rubbed his head. I then proceeded to pull Elijah closer to me and away from them.

As we walked by booths they would all yell at you "Hey pretty lady would you like to buy a coat or a silk scarf" "Oh look at the little boy - he is so cute" "How old are you?"

Elijah grew very tired of it and put his hoodie on and held my hand for the rest of the day. He said, "I really like China, but I don't like how pushy the sales ladies are here."

Beijing, China Day 4

We decided on the Sesame Street theme for the day :)

Silk factory ..... the life cycle of a silk worm

threading silk

at the fresh water pearl factory.... Elijah picked out this oyster..it had a lot of pearls in it! He got to keep 4 of them!

PANDA bears! We stopped at the Beijing Zoo too!

Temple of Heaven

Yummy authentic Peking Duck!

Has NEVER found a camera he didn't like! Can you blame him??? He is as handsome as he can be!

We went to see a Kungfu show during the evening......excellent show!

Beijing, China Day 3

Beijing had the LARGEST buildings I have ever seen in my life!!

Taking off on our hike up the Great Wall

climbing the Great Wall of China! It's over 600 miles long!! It goes from the sea to the desert!

at Ming's tomb

the Water Cube at the Olympic Park -- Go Michael Phelps!!

The Bird's Next...Did you know that the Chinese purposely designed one building to be square and the other round to symbolize ying and yang??? WOW! I learned so much on this trip!

No matter where you are in the world -- you are NEVER too far from a McDonald's!

Beijing, China - Day 2

overlooking the Forbidden City at Jingjang Park
Inside the Forbidden City

On day 2 we started out tour with our English speaking tour guide.

Let's just start with some comedy.......let me just say that the American way of waiting in a single line for the next available stall is NOT the way they do it in China. (Not to say one way is better than the other) In China, you wait in front of a particular stall until that female is done and then you go in. Hmmmmm? The best part is ......... the is NO toilet paper in PUBLIC toilets...EVER! SO we had to carry around a roll of Charmin in a gallon sized Ziploc bag for a week :)
Overlooking the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square
A tea shop where we learned about Chinese tea and how to drink it properly
fried scorpions, water snakes and spiders...all on stick! I tried to eat one...but I couldn't take it -- you could still see the hair on the scorpions!
Chinese acrobatics show

Spring Break 2011 - Beijing, China - Day 1

Traveling from home to Beijing, China. We saw this store in the Tokyo airport! I love the kimono on Hello Kitty! The guys didn't want to guy into the store at all????? Hmmmmm I wonder:)

We are all over ................

...........the 900+ earthquakes in northern Japan since March 11th!