Where We’ve Been

Sri Lanka: Yala National Park, Ella, 5 Days

China: Shanghai, 48 days, Henan Province, 4 days

South Korea: Seoul, 4 days

Highlights

Leopards in Sri Lanka: It’s possible that our hopes were sky high that we would spot a rare leopard or two while exploring Yala National Park. Our scheduled day in the park left us with no leopard sightings, so we rolled the dice, booked another night in our fancy hotel, and crossed our fingers that we’d get lucky the second day. Our wishes were granted and we saw four leopards – one solitary male, and one mama with two cubs. We even saw a sloth bear, an animal so rare to see that we didn’t really have any expectations we would see one. This was a gamble that paid off big time and now we’re pushing everyone we know to add Sri Lanka to their vacation lists, with Yala National Park at the very top.

Summer in the City: You’ll notice from where we’ve been over the past couple months that we have been largely in Shanghai. We spent the past two summers in Shenzhen where the summer is hot and miserable. So far, we’re comfortable in Shanghai, with warm days and cool nights. The dog days have yet to arrive, and we’ve heard they’re brutal, but we are downright comfortable so far. We’re also building our summer bucket list (which we tried to have in Shenzhen but the heat deterred us) and it involves sampling the city’s best pizza and finally visiting some of Shanghai’s many art museums. Many weekends our biggest decision is which restaurant patio to spend an afternoon. It’s been fab.

Korean Splurges: This month, we wrote about our big adventures in Seoul, a food tour and a DMZ tour. A couple highlights we didn’t write about were the cocktails we had a hidden bar (Charles H in the Four Seasons hotel) and buying all the skincare in the Myeong-dong neighborhood. We joked at the time that going to the fancy bar was Drew’s treat in Seoul and buying skincare was mine. At the bar, Drew tried a flight of Manhattans in tiny glasses, which was downright adorable. On the skincare front, I spent about $150USD (an estimate, I don’t dare add it all up) and got about 20 face masks, moisturizers, toners, washes, eye cream and a night serum, plus a few things for Drew.

Another Nephew: My already huge family got one person bigger in May when a third nephew was added to the bunch. Baby Desmond is a chunk, but is already being the perfect second kid by being an easier baby than his older brother was. I can’t wait to smush those cheeks in August.

Lowlights

Water Problems: Chalk this one up to our choice to live in one of Shanghai’s historic lane houses. We’ve been able to keep our apartment free from (most) water for eight months. But now that we have heavy summer rains on our doorstep, a small crack between our upstairs landing and our terrace has been breached. Now, when it rains really hard, a rivulet of water leaks in, building up to a small puddle on a corner of the landing. The landing is self-contained, so the water is more a nuisance than anything, but we’ve spent way too much time bailing out the water for my taste. And we have to wait until there is consistent dry for the problem to be fixed.

RIP Fields: Many Shanghai expats rely on a few grocery delivery apps to supplement the raw fruit and veg available at tiny markets all over the city. Some of this reliance is food safety related (for example, meat, which we like to buy imported from Australia instead of the local stuff) and some is pure convenience (canned tomatoes, which are NOT a staple in China like they are in the rest of the world). Anyway, we use two online groceries regularly and recently one, called Fields, abruptly closed. Like, sorry if you ordered your groceries a half hour ago, but we’re shutting down and not delivering your stuff. So harsh, but that’s business in China. We’re just hoping that the decreased competition doesn’t result in increased prices, but so far, so good.

What We’re Loving Lately

New Zealand Resources: We’re going to New Zealand later this year! During China’s National Day holiday time in October, we’re going Kiwi, meeting my youngest sister for some adventuring. We’re deep in research mode, and there are so many fantastic resources for planning trips in this magical country. A few faves: Great Walks, 8-14 Day Itinerary Suggestions, and unique accommodations. We’re already so excited for this trip, even though we have many months to wait.

What’s Coming Next

In July, we have a weekend trip to Hong Kong on the books. This is mostly for fun and also for some banking stuff. Then, at the end of the month we take off for three long weeks in the US. By my count, we will spend at least one night in five states, see close to 20 relatives and lots of friends. We will spend all our money in New York City, spend a few hungover days in our old home of Portland, Maine, and have some serious uninterrupted family time in Indiana and North Carolina. We can’t wait.

Enjoy the summer, all. Cheers!