After a bunch or research trying to figure out where to go Brian found Qingdao. This also happens to be the city where the German's first settled in China and where the popular Chinese beer Tsingtao is produced. We liked that is was a short flight which could be taken from our city, so no 3 hour drive to the Shanghai airport before the flight like we usually have to do for any trip and we found a hotel right on the beach and with an outdoor pool, can be hard to find in China!
So last week we packed our bags, grabbed our friends and we all headed to Qingdao. After arriving at the airport there were two shops and one restaurant for the airport, again we live in a small town so no Starbucks at the airport. We waited in one of maybe 5 lines for them to start checking people in for our flight. Once checked in we walked through to the departure gates and sat.....there were two or three shops and then two restaurants and a little snack shop. Of course our flight was delayed. If you have every been to China you know this is as common as red lights at an intersection. They never seem to know how much time your flight is delayed either, so they told us one hour and we sat in the airport that was not much more than twice the size of the Flagstaff, AZ airport if you have ever had the pleasure of flying into or out of there. After about an hour delay we were on the plane for the 1.5 hour flight to Qingdao! Wahooo....vacation!!!!
When we landed, the kids wanted to know why the flight was so short :) Haha, this is when you know your kids are travelers.....anywhere from 13-16 hours to get to America ...... then a 6 hour flight doesn't seem so bad......but come on.....only 1.5 hours we didn't even get to enjoy being on the plane. It was 30 minutes before the kids could play ipads, then 30 minutes before the landing they had to put everything away. We were served bottled water and a package of coconut cookies to each person. But we made it!
After arriving late to the hotel we got some rest and looked forward to the next few days of relaxing and playing in the sun! This is something they don't seem to enjoy so much in China, they hide from the sun, they are known for wearing facekinis (although we didn't see one this is a google image) and being fully clothed around the beach too!
We found the beach, Golden Beach to be exact! There were a lot of people on the beach, most of them were under umbrellas or fully clothed in the water. There were parts of the beach that were closed off due to coral reefs, but there was still a good amount of beach for people to enjoy. We saw one guy walking through the water carry two cup-o-noodle type soups and spoons, not sure what they heck he was doing with them. We saw a few jet skis and a speed boat cut right up to the beach almost at full speed through the swimmers, i can't believe no one was killed. It was so dangerous to even watch. While I did see a lot of people covered up, there were some in swimsuits, but i really didn't see anyone applying sunblock. The sunblock i have found in China has all been foreign brands so maybe they just don't use it. We let the kids play in the water about 15 minutes and we took some family photos with our friends and then we headed back up to the hotel.
The sun was shining, the sky was blue and we spent two days in the pool loving it! We almost had the pool to ourselves, maybe it was beacuse we looked so good in our required swim caps, or maybe it was fear of the sun but either way we had fun. We would see a Chinese family come in the pool and no more than 20 minutes later the gathered their things and left. While we parked ourselves under one of the large cabanas and continued to order beverages, and lunch out by the pool. The waitress thought we were crazy for wanting to eat outside because it was so hot, but we wanted to let the kids swim and didn't want to get dressed to eat inside. So 40 minutes later out came our hamburgers and fries. It was about 30 minutes every time we ordered drinks from the bar too...they didn't seem to like delivering it outside. Oh well. The second day we grabbed lunch from the inside deli, completely wiping them out of bread and tuna fish for the day! I guess they don't get 8 people ordering sandwiches often.
The kids really enjoyed swimming, there was a big pool and a kiddie pool which Grace could easily walk in. We wore ourselves our in the water and loved every minute of it.
We did leave hotel twice, once for dinner to celebrate our friend's birthday and the other to the Tsingtao beer museum and brewery and then dinner. The beer museum was very nicely displayed, we could go at our own place so we went through pretty fast with the kids, but we got two beers along the way to try, one raw beer and the other was a cold draft beer. If you know me, i don't drink beer, everything but beer. So i tried this as we were at the brewery/tour and it was almost like water....so if you know Brian, you also know it wasn't his kind of beer .....lol But we had fun, saw some crazy streets in town, and had about 10 people ask us to come into their street-side restaurants for Tsingtao! We went to an Italian place for dinner that was pretty good, considering we don't get much Italian food here. Then back to the hotel for our last night.
The third day we took the kids to the pool in the morning, then up for a nap. Our flight was at 8:45pm which was super late for my kids, but it was the only flight. So we packed everyone up and went to find a taxi to the airport. We got a very interested taxi driver for one car, who quickly made sure to find us a second car and i think he told the guy to follow him, they would get us all to the airport together. It took us 50 minutes to go from the airport to the hotel on our first day. It took us 1.5 hours to go to the airport from the hotel today with no traffic!!! We had no idea where we were going, texting back and forth from the two cars trying to get it on our maps, we knew we were going the opposite direction we had gone before through the world's longest tunnel under the water to get back to the city, but trying to ask and tell the driver we wanted to get to the airport and we didn't have time to waste wasn't easy..... the driver was stopping by every taxi, opening his window and yelling, for all i know he was saying "look as these foreigners i picked up, i am taking them the scenic route to the airport to make some extra cash". So 1.5 hours later, Blake car sick and our friend asleep in the car, I was nauseated and mad and we arrived at the airport!
Check in was easy and we had time to grab some food for the kids, of course Qingdao airport is much larger than little Changzhou, so they had a McDonald's AND a Starbucks!!! lol AS we walked through the airport it was like none i had been in before with almost open market type stores and shops. They sold a lot of fresh fruit in the shops like the small stands you see on the streets in China, rather odd for an airport. Again our flight was delayed and they couldn't tell us for how long, but it was a weather delay from the rain that started that afternoon. So about 45 minutes later we boarding the plane and finishing up our Starbucks. Again, we wait 30 minutes then the kids can have ipads, they served us all a bottle of water and two packages....one dried sweet meat and the other prunes, within 5 minutes the whole plane smelled like dried sweet meat...don't confuse this with the smell of beef jerky the seasoning and smell are completely different......not a good time to be stuck in an airplane, but 30 minute before landing away goes all the ipads, the kids are all 4 exhausted and want to sleep as we wait for the plane to land. We arrived home safely. Now we are counting down for school to start, Blake can't wait....he is keeping the same teacher but moving to the Pre-School room and Grace will start Nursery school 2 days a week. Summer is coming to an end.....but that just means Fall is almost here.....cooler weather and our visit to the States!
Until next time....
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