Weekend Recap

To show off Sydney's new bangs, we went to Xintiandi on Saturday. The name Xintiandi in Chinese means "New Heaven and Earth". It is big plaza next to a small mall, and it is very Western, and very expensive. Cars are not allowed in the plaza so it is a GREAT place to hangout. Most of the restaurants here are on every best restaurant list in Shanghai. It is also one of the few places in Shanghai that is stroller friendly, although Sydney shuns the stroller now. The architecture here is a restoration of Shanghai's colonial Skiku Men (stone gate). This is a must see place for all visitors to Shanghai.

The pictures that I've posted above really doesn't do the area justice. But with Sydney being as mobile as she is, it is hard to do anything other than keep up with her. We come to Xintiandi every couple of weeks for a nice meal and for Sydney to walk around. After our meal, we always visit a bakery here called Paul's to get pastry. They are soooo good. I have to confess that sometimes we visit Paul's before our meal.

Since it was threatening rain today (again), I knew it was a good time to visit Xintiandi because there wouldn't be too big of a crowd there. We had a snack at Latina (a Latin American restaurant) and then a chocolate eclair at Paul's.

On Sunday, we had breakfast at Moon River Cafe, as usual. We met a nice family there and we set up a playdate for next week. Then after a nap and lunch, we went to a place called Shanghai's City of Books. It is a 7 story bookstore with wall to wall books and people. It was insane! I wanted so badly to take pictures of it to show you the madness but I was too busy holding Sydney so that she wouldn't be trampled. I did put her down once to peruse a couple of cookbooks, and in the 3 minutes that I was distracted, Sydney had dislodged 4 books and 5 magazines from their intended places. She was so overstimulated at the bookstore that she fell asleep on the way home, for which I am grateful. She's usually fussy in the car when she's that tired.