Kate's Birthday

November 6, 2015 - Today is Kate's birthday, and we had a weekend full of activities to celebrate.  We all met for some Asian cuisine.

Random fact:  Kate's spent more time in Asia than anyone else in our family.

Hey, look who's having some more sushi!

Kate handling chopsticks like a pro, while I fumble in the background.  

My Asian grandparents would be so disappointed.

Forget it...I'm just gonna hold it like a pencil.

ENTP pragmatism: If it works, do it.

And boy, did that philosophy not help me when studying pronunciations in vocabulary.

Lebanon: LEE-ban-non  

Yeah, sounds like it works to me.

Noah posing for the camera.

This guy seemed a bit incomplete without a smartphone in his right hand.

Because there aren't enough Dr. Wongs in the world.

And here we see three different ways to pose with your hands in your pockets.

Oh, and the sun was REALLY glaring into our eyes during this photo, 

but hey, squinting like that did make all of us look more Asian.

Time for some shopping!

(The exclamation point represents enthusiasm.)

We ended up spending quite some time at Janie and Jack.

I wish I could shop for MY clothes here!

This dress shirt onesie is just too awesome for words.

A crossover converse/leather/boot shoe.

The result of a designer with homozygous thoughts in his brain.

See...you should be able to learn a new word in every blog post!  

Click "homozygous" for a definition that will be so unclear 

that you'll still be in the dark as to what homozygous means.

Next Stop: Nadoz Bakery and Cafe

And this photo wasn't posed...I have a perpetual smile when I eat ice cream.

No matter what that face says, I give "Mississippi Mud" ice cream two thumbs up.

Insightful mentor. 

Patient teacher. 

Theological comrade. 

Generous giver. 

Fun-filled friend. 

Sister in Christ.

Oh, and also the "mother" of the most 'precious' dog in the world. 

(I love how Lydia was going for the inspirational stare 

into middle-distance for this photo - I just don't think she achieved it.)

I've been so blessed by having you in my life. 

I'll bear the fingerprints of your loving influence in my life until the day I die. 

Happy birthday Kate!

We ended the evening with hot dogs and chili beside the campfire.

Chicago Chinatown

  After a goodnight’s sleep we checked out and said farewell to the Indian Lakes Resort and headed to downtown Chicago.

  My Mom and Kate have been to Asia and have always wanted to take us to Hong Kong where my Dad grew up.  Mom learned that Chicago has the largest Chinatown in the US* so going to it would probably be the closest we could get to Asia in the mid-west.

*The Chinatown in New York is geographically larger, but Chicago has a higher population

  Mom and Kate were pretty impressed with how authentic Chinatown felt to a real Asian city.  Kate thought it even smelled like Hong Kong- a mixture of food and gasoline.

  Something that was very different was the traffic on the streets.  Everyone still followed traffic laws and there weren’t enough cabs and no mopeds .

  Some of the buildings looked interesting:

Christian book store       

Chicago public library

  Well, it was time for lunch so we walked to the “Moon Palace Shanghai Restaurant.”  it always a bit of a risk to walk eat authentic Chinese (or in this case Shanghainese) food.  Last time I ate Dim Sum in a Chinatown I had an allergic reaction and broke into hives. Thankfully, Mom had looked up restaurant reviews online and had found the “Moon Palace” had good reviews.

 

 

Kate wearing a smirk on her face because she’s the only one who could eat her meal with chop sticks!

I used a spoon

   After lunch we started walking back to the car:

 

  We took a look at one of the grocery stores.

The Chinese can certainly go through a lot of oranges!  This stack was dropped off for just one store!

As soon as we set foot in the store, our nostrils caught the stench of dead fish and who knows what else.  I think we regretted that we’d already eaten.

Dried Croaker Fish  -  Dried Fungus

Turnip Slices        -          Dried Shrimp              -               Mussels            

  Kate’s heading for the door…