There were pies on Thanksgiving...four different kinds! The one above is sugar cream pie (remember this post?). I made the filling, my mom made all the crusts for all the pies.
Butterscotch pie with meringue on top (I made the filling, mostly; we had to strain it, but it tasted lovely!).
Pecan pie, made by my mom.
And pumpkin pie (also by my mom), mais oui! Yum yum and yum-yum! What kind of pie did YOU have after Thanksgiving dinner?
It's somebody's birthday up in here! Yay! Happiest b'day, my most darling B.!
Tallulah Mae's advice? If you're feeling overfull from yesterday's feast, forget that "go take a walk" nonsense...instead, just lie down in the sun and sleep it off.
"We are NOT amused {said in best Queen Victoria voice}," but we DO wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving, however you celebrate it!
We're going "over the river and through the woods, er, across the desert," to Grandma's house. Yay!
OK, Blogger, just be that way! I give up...I won't continue my China Holiday today (and today would have been the Great Wall, a very picture-heavy post!) due to technical difficulties (I keep getting this message: "Error gobbledegook number forazzle fifty two ZAAAJmmm *&%^$#," or something like that. Well, maybe not JUST like that, but you get the general idea!).
Day Five was a travel day--we flew from Shanghai north to Beijing. We were picked up at the airport by a driver we'd hired and taken to Panjiayuan Flea Market. Fun, if chilly (it was drizzling but this was a covered market, so much better than the day before!).
Piles and piles and piles of beads...
Shadow puppets...
Who knows?!
We went then to our hotel, the lovely Shangri-la, a real oasis. Every day in the elevator they tell you what day it is.
We were all hungry, so we struck out (across a very busy multi-lane road) in search of food. This restaurant specialized in Peking duck. I ordered a most delicious scallion cake. Yum!
The red seat covers are a) emblazoned with ads for Coca-Cola; and b) not seat covers at all--they are to put over your jacket so that food doesn't get spilled on it. Clever!
"Why, no, I'm not begging for food. Can't you see I'm just resting my head here under the table because I'm just very very tired. I don't care about your human food in the least. In fact, I'm insulted by your insinuation..."
Another interruption of the China Holiday (next we move from Shanghai to Beijing!) to report on the Vintage Sampler Yard Sale. There were even about a dozen folks lined up before we opened...
It was a fun (and looong) day. Lots of friends and neighbors stopped by, which was nice. The pink lemonade and cookies were yummy. Was it profitable? Hmm...We all three made some money, but if you break it down into an hourly rate, not so great--and alas, I still have all of my heavy and bulky items (boo!). My two co-sellers were tons of fun, as always--thanks a bunch, girlies!
I'd so looked forward to this day, a day to walk around the French Concession and the Bund, the formerly European areas of the city. Alas, the view out our window revealed a very wet day in the making (that IS a huge statue of Mao sticking up above trees at lower right). The rain was part of Super Typhoon Megi, which did much damage further south and in Taiwai--no winds, but plenty of WET in Shangai.
We started out at the site of the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Interesting...lots of rare artifacts and photographs. Lots of appropriate propaganda...
I was very sternly told "No!" after I took this photo...oops!
This area, the French Concession, still looks quite European. Very pretty, even in the rain.
A hot cup of coffee was just the ticket--and it came from our very own California coffee purveyor, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.
We then set off walking...here's a few things we saw along the way.
This was our destination, the Dongtai Road Antique Market.
The word "antique" is loosely used in China, by the way...and at this market lots of other obviously non-antique goods were mixed in. It continued to rain, picking up intensity...
We were utterly soaked through and through. I stepped in a big puddle that went up over my ankle. Ugh.
Hot dumplings for lunch improved our spirits momentarily.
But the rain was relentless (also: it was once again crowded, despite the downpour).
We gave up, went back to the hotel, had an egg tart (OMG yum, remember my rhapsodizing about these on my trip to Hong Kong?) and a cup of tea and proceeded to take turns using the hairdryer to dry our shoes. A fun, if damp, day.
