Grandma Time

 Following our week in Massanutten, I spent a little over a week with the kids to help out with my granddaughter while my daughter-in-law went away for the long holiday weekend. They had her in daycare for the first few days so I took advantage of the beautiful weather and enjoyed a local park and long walks with Monty, their small dog.

Green Springs Gardens

I also visited our nation's capital. I rode the train in with my daughter-in-law, so I arrived pretty early in the morning. A good friend from college lives in Arlington, so she took the metro in and met me on the mall. We had an incredible day together, picking right up as if we had just seen each other last month instead of years ago. We saw many of the iconic structures of DC in addition to stopping at some of the Smithsonian exhibits. I logged over 22,000 steps, and had the time of my life. It never gets old to visit the seat of our democracy.

Washington, DC

On Friday we took A to the National Zoo. It was another beautiful day, and we were blessed to see the new pandas that have arrived from China. There's nothing like a trip to a zoo to bring out the kid in all of us.

National Zoo

The days passed quickly, and soon it was time for me to fly home. It was such a treat to get to spend so much time with my sweet little gal (and her parents, too, of course!) She is still very much a grandma's girl, so I'm going to eat that up while I can. I know it won't last forever.

Chinese Lantern Festival 2015

Phoenix Reborn

The Missouri Botanical Garden has a special event going on right now, "Lantern Festival: Magic Reimagined". This is the second time that they have hosted a Chinese Lantern festival, the first being held in 2012. It is rare for lantern festivals to take place outside of China, so it is a testament to the close relationship the Garden has established with that country that we are blessed to have it in St. Louis again.

The 22 lanterns are impressive during the day, but when they are illuminated at night they do indeed become magical. I wasn't sure that they could top the last festival, but this show is equally as impressive. On July 20th they offered a special night for photographers. Though it came with a fairly steep price tag, the attendance was limited and more importantly they allowed monopods and tripods to be carried in. Those are restricted on all other nights. I was unsure how "limited" it would actually be, but Jim and I were quite surprised. There was no problem with parking, and while I know the event was sold out the crowd was minimal. Add the fact that the rain held off and it was a comfortable temperature and humidity level, and all that equals a successful evening. They did not have any of the performances taking place that night, so that was too bad.

Porcelain Elephants

For the special events held at the Garden I like to go during the day to photograph all the sculptures.That way I get the lay of the land while it is light out, but also it is so interesting to see what they are made of. While most of the lanterns are constructed of traditional silk fabric on wire frames, two (including the elephants picture on the right) are comprised of porcelain plates, cups, bowls and spoons, tied together with intricate knots. The peacock is made of glass medicine bottles filled with colored water, while the dandelions are made of recycled bottles.

While I did get some good photos that night, I am a little disappointed that the lanterns don't seem as sharp as I would like them to be. That is despite using my tripod and trying all different kinds of settings on the camera. I have seen pictures taking by other people that are way more sharp. They probably took them with their iPhones! Sometimes too many settings is not a good thing, especially for me. I should have taken some with my own phone just to compare. It is a little frustrating, and I suppose that tells me I need more practice. Regardless, the show is amazing and I highly recommend a visit. It runs until August 23rd.

Porcelain Stupas Pagoda and Lantern Way

Soaring Dragon Horse and Dandelions

Sun Yatsen Gate and Dragon King

The $138 Halloween Candy

Last week I decided that I was going to send our daughter a care package. I thought long and hard about what to send because there is a Walmart right outside the gates of her university in Shanghai. I know - how sad is that? So she can get pretty much whatever she needs there. But then I realized that since they don't celebrate (?) Halloween there, she probably could not buy any Halloween candy at Walmart. Thus was born the idea to send her a black and orange themed package. I purchased candy, some Halloween socks and some other fun novelty items to send that I thought the students from other countries might enjoy and boxed it all up.

After confirming that the "What can Brown do for You?" folks do actually deliver to China, yesterday I headed over to my neighborhood UPS store. The first thing the guy wanted to know is Katie's phone number. Since her Chinese phone number is about 14 digits long, I don't have it memorized. Nor do I have it in my cell phone since I hope to never call her in China. Strike 1. After weighing and measuring the box, he consulted his computer and proceeded to tell me that I should take it to the Post Office because they (PO) would only charge me $76 to ship the box. Strike 2. The downside, he added, is that while it would travel from here to China via the PO, once there the Chinese mail service would take over. No telling how long - or if - the box would get to her. But he was pretty sure it would. So I asked him what UPS would charge to ship it. Are you ready? $138! Strike 3 and your out. Or I'm outta here. I told him that I am not spending $76 much less $138 to send $10 worth of candy and other sundry items to my daughter. It's not like I'm shipping Mrs. Wryly's awesome cookies or anything. Get real!

I looked online and it appears I can get the small PO box and stuff it with as much as will fit in there. That box will ship to China for $13.25. That still seems like a lot, but I'll probably check that option out. The irony of the whole thing is that as I was pulling out of the parking lot, a PO truck pulled in front of the USP store and the driver entered the business. Have they joined forces or something?