Bryan, Chelsie and Madden visit!

Morgan's sister Chelsie came out for a visit with her husband Bryan and 8-month-old son Madden. They had the beautiful Delta non-stop flight from Atlanta to Shanghai... here's a picture of them in-flight.

Bryan had read about Shanghai "baozi" and wanted to eat some. So we took them to our favorite little baozi place here...
I can only compare it to the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. These things are so good, but you have to know the process of getting in the right line to pay for them first, then get in the other line to pick up your order. And with the courtesy typical of Chinese restaurants, you definitely feel like you're getting scolded for asking questions.

The little seating area was so crowded that we just decided to eat them on the steps of the next building. You just have to be careful eating these things because baozi are filled with a meat and vegetable ball surrounded by a boiling-hot soup. So if you bite directly into the thing, you will get burned by scolding-hot soup pouring down your chin.

Adayla ate the most of any of us...

Another day we went out to another favorite part of town... Taikang Lu. It's a little art area in a restored, older setting of town. It's just a fun area to go to, with fun things to look at, fun shopping and great food options.

Our favorite food option in this area is, however, not Chinese food... it's a pizza place called New York Pizza. This place is owned and operated by Chinese, but surprisingly it is the best pizza in Shanghai hands down... while Shanghai has Pizza Hut, Papa John's and Dominos, it's not even close... New York Pizza blows them away.

Bryan hanging out a the restaurant...

Chelsie and Madden...

Some pics of from around the Taikang Lu area...

I didn't realize it at the time, but see the sign above, "Ling Life." The character and word "ling" is Chinese for the number zero. So I guess that translates into "zero life" or "no life." Sorry Bryan, I didn't mean to put you under the sign that says that you have no life. Next time I'm out there I'm going to have to look and see what kind of store that place is.

This was our first chance to meet little Madden and we had a fun time together.

Chelsie has posted several times about Madden's hair and that nobody really knows where his red hair comes from...

Here are the six people responsible for Madden's genes.

One thing we can definitely say is that he doesn't get his eyes from his grandpas...

But while little Madden was here, several times I stopped and thought I saw Bryan's mom in miniature form looking at me.

You decide for yourself, but I think this little guy's mouth, chin and smile are totally Sharon's. I just wish I had a better picture to show that...

One evening we took the ferry from our place across the river to hit the Bund and Nanjing Lu.

The walk along the Bund...

This next picture was a picture that I actually "blew" the focus on. As you can see they're not in focus, but the buildings behind are. One day when I have some time I'll try cutting Bryan & Chelsie out of the above picture and putting them in the below picture. I think it would be pretty sharp...

The Bund is where East meets West, and where the Old meet the New. On the west side of the river you have the beautiful European-styled buildings that were built in the early 20th century as the Westerners moved into Shanghai. On the east side of the you have all the big new skyscrapers. I'll detail the big buildings later.

This area is also a very popular place to take wedding pictures.

We walked the Bund up to Nanjing Lu where we continued our walk, taking in all the neon lights and stores.

As you know by now, foreign babies are attractions here. Red-haired Madden was a huge attraction!