Happy father day cards made by isabel and Alexis

The kids are getting quite creative. These are the ones isabel and Alexis made for jaime.

Am in food heaven in China

While I am guaranteed to gain weight after this trip, I love the food here in China and especially the snacks as wells as the prices.

Pic 1: I had my favorite fried egg crepe with fried dough for breakfast the first day here. Probably 1000 calories but worth every bite.

Pic 2: Then it was freshly made cotton candy for 80cents. They make it for you when you order it. What a concept.

Pic 3&4: Followed by this snack we used to get on the street for 10 cents for 3 thirty years ago. Now it's $1.25 for six. Some kind of baked bland pastry with various sweet jam on top. No longer as good but a novelty

Pic 5; numbing spicy stir fry made based on anything you pick from buckets of meat seafood and veggies. They would have 20 different choices and you would pick how much of each. You pay by weight and type of food and then tell them how spicy. I never had this before but wanted to try it. I got light spicy and it was probably one of the spiciest food I have had. It's numbing spicy so feel good and make you sweat but wow. Had a lot of rice. That's definitely to going to pad my belly. Hehehe

Pic 6 and 7: again street snack now turned into part of very clean food court. I had a kind of an egg fried pizza dough thing with some lettuce and sauce. Plus a fresh mango smoothie. One is hot and one is cold. A no-no in China as apparently it hurts you stomach to have extreme hot and cold combined. Good thing my American stomach is well trained. And loved every bite and slurp. ;-)

Pic 7: Xiao Long bao. 12 for $1. It is not the best but can't beat the price. We were starving so it was yummy. A little too much bread and not enough meat for my taste. Still great. We had lunch for 5 of us in this little shop for about $7 total. Fast and cheap!

Pic 8: Chingqing noodles with pork ribs and greens. This is the less oily and light spicy version. I had it for dinner tonight. $2.50. Super awesome

Pic 9&10. Freshly made dumplings. You pick the inside and they make it on the spot in 10 min. $2.25 for 14 dumplings. Isabel had a nice dinner.