A Blue Beijing

January 4, 2013-

Holly said she and the kids are going a little stir crazy at home…let's take a break from Tianjin and head to Beijing for a few hours???  

Since it's cccold outside we need to find some indoor activities that will amuse the kids-  I think we'll head to the Blue Zoo and then eat at the Blue Frog in Sanlitun afterwards.  Added bonus is that there are lots of us weird foreigners in Sanlitun so it'll give us a wee bit of a break from feeling like the animals locked up in a zoo.

tank-o-jellyfish. This tank reminds me of a lava lamp with the changing colored lights….mesmerizing to say the least.

Whoa! That's a huge herd of red fish! Or is that a school of fish?

The "Finding Nemo" tank

The aquarium was relatively empty and as we had lots of time to kill we decided to ride on the moving sidewalk through the marine tunnel…not once, not twice but THREE TIMES!!!!  It was actually kind of fun not having to rush through it and the kids enjoyed watching the fish and the Chinese mermaids.

Annika, Ava and Amelie in the marine tunnel

A Chinese "mermaid"

watching the mermaids dance

Round and round we go!

Chinese mermaids attracted a LOT of attention (especially from the Chinese visitors):

Getting ready to eat "western food" at the Blue Frog in Sanlitun.  I can't even tell you how nice it is to be able to clearly communicate with the waitress in English.  (okay, I know, I know…I do NEED to learn Chinese!):

After lunch we did a quick shopping trip at the Yashow Market (we found some clothes that fit us westerners).  We also stopped at Jenny Lou's- that's an imported foods store that carries many of the groceries we crave from home. We topped off our trip with a pizza-to-go order from Annie's (which is an excellent Italian restaurant, conveniently located next to the Jenny Lou's store).  It's going to be a pizza night!!!!