Louisville Trip Fun!

Seeing our friends from Louisville was such a blessing. We had fun taking them on a tour of the city. In the picture below, we're all in front of St. Sophia Church (a masterpiece of Russian architecture in our city and now a museum).

Hunter also led the group on an excursion to Sun Island!
A view of our city from near the main bridge:

The waterfront:
A funny picture!
Our friends (left to right) Jennifer, Mark, Hanzhu and Lauren


Archie is crying because he knows Joe and Julie are fixing to leave and he will miss them!

Welcome to the Siberian Tiger Park (Part II)

Who could resist a photo opp with such a cute cuddly tiger cub. Smile Josh and Michael!

Uh-oh! Is Michael being eaten by the tiger?

Archie's not so sure about this...



We enjoyed the English on the signs at the Park. The opening sentence says "Tiger is the creature of the Nature, throug millions of years of differentiation and fnally.developed in Siberian..." What does it mean? Your guess is as good as ours.


This sign is advertising the Liger area. I thought that was another English mistake at first, but I have now been educated. A liger is a real term for a cross between a male lion and a female tiger.

Think they mean "walking" not "wacking" area here though.

Archie got a little tired of the tigers and fell asleep on the bus. How cute!

Guess he missed the sign for the designated resting area!

The park also had a little museum. Anyone want to buy some tiger tongue?

And, here's the group of locals who just couldn't resist getting their photos made with TWO white guys!

Welcome to the Siberian Tiger Park (Part I)

Welcome to the Siberian Tiger Park, home of between 400-500 tigers (plus a few lions and other species of wild cats). We recently had some friends from America come visit so we took advantage of the opportunity to visit a local tourist spot we still hadn't seen. This is Post I from the Park. (I'll be posting the remainder of my FUNNY park pictures soon along with pictures from the rest of our friends' trip.) Mark (pictured below) is pointing out one of the main attractions: Feeding LIVE animals to the tigers. We didn't want to fork over 100 Yuan for a live pheasant, but thankfully some other tourists did and we got to watch and make pictures. Maybe next time someone will go for the whole cow! That would be a sight to behold.

Below is my favorite series of shots!








After a meal like that, I guess even tigers need to take a rest.

We rode around the park in a little bus. These tigers were walking along the road in front of us.

One more feeding shot:
Stay tuned for Post 2

Eating like a big boy!

Ha ha! We were eating at a restaurant with some visiting Americans, and they thought Archie eating off my chopsticks was pretty funny! When they decided to take a picture, I did too! Archie's feasting on some "Cold Dish that Families Often (Eat)" (lit. translation :)). What's in this often eaten dish? Tofu strips, carrots, cucumbers, some weird noodle like things and a sweetish vinegary sauce. One of my favorites and Archie's too (although Hunt doesn't care for it much). I could not feed him fast enough. If I stopped to take a bite, he would grab my arm in an attempt to redirect the chopsticks to his mouth!


Here we are at another restaurant with some of my friends! Archie's not looking at the camera - must be looking at the pork and cabbage dumplings he's craving! YUMMY!

Archie has learned about the summertime delights of watermelon. The only problem is he makes such a big mess when he eats it, I have to take his clothes off except for his diaper!

Hokie Baby!

Do the Hokie Pokie and turn yourself about! Well, nevermind, just enjoy how cute Archie looks in his Hokie onesie and hat from Grandma and Grandpa DeJ!

I thought this lion statue was pretty funny! Don't worry, Archie, it's not a real lion!

Walk with me down Center Street!

December brings a winter wonderland, but July brings summer flowers to Zhong Yang Da Jie or Center Street (the most famous street in our city). We recently took several groups of folks on a tour. They all had fun so I thought I'd offer a virtual tour to everyone.

Family portrait in front of Saint Sophia Russian Orthodox Church (now museum). Our city is heavily influenced by Russian architecture.

Better view of the church

We had three babies with us so we were a bit of a tourist attraction ourselves. I told Hunt if I had charged $1 for every photo and video they took of our kids, I'd be rich! It's not often they see white babies. When they do, they squeal in delight, "He's REALLY white!"

Closeup of the babies and their mamas

I spotted some cute triplets and couldn't resist snapping my own picture.

The inscription on the topiary says "Yi Fan Feng Shun" or Smooth Sailing (lit: one mast wind smooth).
Me and my boy!
Center Street ends at the Song Hua River.

We checked out one of the big malls on Center Street. Inside we found a pretty fishpond.

I think Archie wants to go fishing.

What a hot day! Here's a Russian boy taking advantage of the drink stand.

Sometime I want to visit the inside of this Russian coffee house. Does anyone know if Russian coffee is similar to American coffee?