On Monday we went to the Baitang Arboretum. We were pleasantly surprised and had beautiful weather. There were parks, sculptures, gardens, fountains and treehouses. On the left is Abigail and James driving us around in a four seater bike we rented (scary....not feeling too good about the upcoming teenage years!) and on the right a view of the lake with the city in the background. We are definitely going back with Claude and Lynn. Apparently it is like a completely different park each season.Tuesday of course was Abigail's birthday! After talking to all 4 grandparents on Skype we headed to Suzhou Amusementland. Expectations were very low but this place was amazing! It was crowded because of the holiday but it was also huge. A complete rip off of disneyland, they even had It's a small world with the boat going through the different parts of the world and the song playing! Don't know how they get away with that one. We hiked up a hill and took a cable car down (Abigail begged to go on the parasail but her mean mother refused). After a brief period of loving rollercoasters James is back to not enjoying them at all. I think a particular ride on PEI this summer ruined it for him. After amusementland we went home and watched Nim's Island (a present from James), then walked to singha plaza for dinner at Mister Pizza (where they serve chinese, malaysian, thai and indian as well as pizza, burgers and fries). The day ended with fireworks on the balcony (just for Abigail of course!)
The view from the top of the hill we hiked up. You can see the parasail on the left.
These are pictures from the illusion house we went in. It is just basically one kodak opportunity after another but the pictures looked neat.
We had to take a picture of the It's A Small World for Mike and Treasa.On the right is our eight year old and Mark at Singha Plaza.
We are just back from 2 days in Shanghai but I am going to write all about that next time. It was exhausting, and we'll just leave it at that. Thanks everyone who sent birthday wishes for Abigail. Hope everyone is well!
Love, the Smiths
