Back in September we found awesome flights to Shanghai China... like $390... Shane's ALWAYS wanted to go to China, we had talked about taking Lydia one day since she's in the Chinese program etc. etc. etc.
So we jumped on the tickets.
The kids were excited + super confused when they found out for Christmas.
Cuz why China?!? haha
We got the girls passports.
Had the fiasco with the Visa's... which meant Jadyn and I got a trip to DC.
Then I planned...
Like for hours and hours and hours.
Trying to navigate websites in Chinese, having Shane call and verify info with hotels etc.
I booked and cancelled a million times, used google maps and relied on travel reviews.
Since we wouldn't be having a car and transportation would be hard with the 8 of us + luggage... there was a lot of coordinating walking right to hotels from the train etc. How to get from here to there etc.
But in the end ALL of my planning worked out and everything ran as smoothly as it could!
We left Friday March 29th around 5 PM.
Went to the opening night of the Dumbo movie in Centerville and then checked into our "super not fancy" SLC airport hotel. It served its purpose since we were leaving for the airport at 4 am. haha
Our 6 am flight to San Francisco was great.
The 5 hour layover in San Francisco was long... longer for the kids, since Shane and I had United sky club passes. haha
So we were all anxious to board the plane for our 14 hour flight.
Only to be met with a 5 hour delay on the tarmac.
Lydia and Jadyn finished 2.5 movies before we even left the ground. Ugh
I was proud of my kids. They hardly even complained.
Well maybe a little bit of complaining during the 14 hour flight after we'd left SLC 12 hours before... but they're super good travelers.
It was long.
But we made it.
Customs was fine, but we had trouble leaving the airport since the shuttle that we had arranged from the hotel was now not running at 1 am Shanghai time.
We had to take 2 taxis and since Shane is the only one that could actually communicate...
I panicked putting 4 of my kids in a taxi with a smoking (he did put it out after Shane asked) Chinese man who didn't speak a word of English and only had the name of the hotel.
AAAhhh! I thought I might never see them again!
So glad when both taxis pulled up to the hotel, which btw was super nice!
We had a short night and were excited for our first day in Shanghai.
It made us laugh how they "secured our luggage" in the lobby all day for us.
It made us laugh how they "secured our luggage" in the lobby all day for us.
After some taxi problems and an hour drive, we made it to...
SHANGHAI WILD ANIMAL PARK
What an awesome day we had.
Our family loves zoos...
This zoo is like a zoo + a petting zoo... on steroids.
It would NEVER happen in the US. But we LOVED it! haha
We fed zebras...
Played with Lemurs...
Hung out with kangaroos...
Fed Giraffes...
and Hippos...
What?!?
and elephants...
and Tigers!
Raw meat... off of a little skewer. hahaha
and lions...
The kids rode elephants...
The guys played with Lorikeets...
The girls... well we're not so much "bird people".
We went on a "safari ride"...
the driver threw huge vegetables, raw chicken, raw meat etc.
Took a boat ride...
We saw lots of pandas...
And had altogether the best day!
We experienced our first "squatters".
We picked the perfect time.
The weather was great, it wasn't very crowded etc.
According to reviews that is not always the case!
There was SO much more to do, but we only had one day.
PS tickets were relatively cheap... maybe $20 US per person.
But since each "experience" was between 20-50 yen ($3-$7) which is a great deal...
Until there's 8 of you + 20 experiences hahahahaha
We don't even know how much we spent this day, but gosh it was a day we'll never forget!!
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