Farewell Tour

My friend from Dallas, Michelle, was in town last week for a visit and I used that opportunity to visit all of my favorite restaurants. Since Michelle was in Shanghai only during the week, I had to work and wasn't able to spend as much time with her as I would have liked. But Michelle didn't have any problems getting around and was able to see much of Shanghai.

Sydney and I have been doing the farewell tour through Shanghai. We've visited our favorite restaurants, play areas and shops. We finally got around to doing some souvenir shopping -- things that will help us remember our year in China, although I don't think that I will ever forget this experience. It is nice to have this blog to remind me if I do forget. I don't feel sentimental about leaving Shanghai --- at least not yet. Part of the reason why is because all of my friends here, except for one, are moving back to their home countries either this summer or in December. And part of it is that I'm looking forward to being home -- where friends and family are, where Chipotle and Bangkok City are, where my first house is and where Sydney and I became a family. Dallas is Home and, and as they say, there is no place like Home. Ironically, I've spent years complaining about how dull my life in Dallas was and now I'm so sentimental about it. This is one of reasons why I love to travel --- it helps me appreciate what I have.

I had put my house on the market in February and decided to take it off the market last week. I have too much going on with moving back to Dallas, getting Sydney settled into a new environment and new school, and adapting to a new schedule to worry about moving into a new house too. I am very excited to move back into a familiar place and be around familiar faces.

The photos on this blog are from a photo shoot that we did with a photographer in an older part of Shanghai. Our other pictures were taken inside a studio and I wanted to have pictures that better represented Shanghai. Of course, Sydney had her own ideas about what she was going to do that day. She did everything but cooperate with the photographer. I wasn't planning to be in the pictures but it was the only way to keep her from wanting to leave. In the hour photo session, Sydney only smiled once and out of 75 pictures, the only ones worth having are ones that you see on this blog.