Last Night in Shanghai

On Wednesday afternoon, we headed to the Shanghai Science Museum. This is an impressive, interactive collection geared toward educating children about science and nature. It was filled with students in brightly colored matching shirts, apparently on organized school tours. I will say that the bug exhibit suffered some neglect as school girl after school girl lined up to have their picture taken with Heidi. Maybe they should create a Heidi Exhibit!

After a refreshing swim in the hotel pool we headed out for dinner. Our intention was to get off the beaten path, so we asked Li for a recommendation on a place where the locals would dine. We rode the subway over to the west side and walked a mile perpendicular to Nanjing Lu, which afforded us a closer view of the streets and people of Shanghai. When we arrived on the prescribed street corner, we had to guess which restaurant was our destination. As later confirmed by Li, we guessed right.

Although the menu included pictures, ordering was somewhat of an adventure due to both the selection and the translation. The restaurant's offering included roasted pig tails, ducks feet, duck blood soup, sliced snake head and, my favorite, squirrel weever. Thanks to Monica's courageous willingness to attempt communication, and with a little help from our server, we ended up with a tasty selection.

For me, this dinner was a highlight as the 5 of us joked around about our situational incompetence and went through our ritual of everyone naming their two favorite memories from Shanghai.