Restaurant Reviews

We tried two new restaurants in the last two days. Last night we went to GMT Barbecue Restaurant. I'm not sure where the name came from, but the restaurant was upscale and pretty nice looking. Menu included Korean barbecue (grill meat yourself at your table) and Japanese.

Oh, but first, let me describe going there. We drove the Buick to the beautiful lakeside. Trees, grass, lake with many lights, Chinese people sauntering in their sandels and pajamas, 3 year old boy regurgitating out the window of a passing truck. Eww. I didn't need that.

The restaurant decor is quite nice. Very large and comfortable booths. The bar chairs are a little disturbing as they have one, large eye on the back of them facing into the restaurant. The dining tables and chairs are between the bar and the booths, the booths being along the heavily windowed wall facing the lake. The chairs have a photo on the back of each one. The same photo on each. Paul McCartney circa 1960s. As if he is the main mascot of this restaurant. This BBQ meat restaurant. For those who aren't aware, Paul is a vegetarian.

We placed our orders (sushi and Corona for me, noodles for GP) and looked out the window at the passing people, the lake, the trees, the 6 year old girl lifting her skirt, squatting and peeing on the sidewalk. That is a first for me and hopefully a last.

The food was very good - I even ordered seconds on the tuna sashimi. Next time we will have the Korean BBQ.

Tonight, GP and my boss went to Tomato Kitchen in the Li Gong Di area, a little farther down the lake. The food is some of the best in Suzhou - GP had beef, potatoes, carrots in spicy sauce with rice and said it was great; my boss said his steak and giant prawn were very good, though heavy on the garlic, and my spaghetti with pesto and shrimp was as good as I'd expect in the US. Dessert of cheesecake and black forest cake were also scrumptious. We'll go there again.

Fortunately, nothing came out of any children at that end of the lake. At least not that I saw.

Now, back to work on the immigration papers.

What? It's Friday?

I woke up so happy this morning. "Yay! It's Saturday!" then I realized, uh, no, it's only Friday :( I'll get through it somehow.

The siblings have been working on their Chinese (how cute) and there phonetics seem pretty good. Let me help you with the pinyin, though.

Older brother = ge ge "gur gur"
Older sister = jie je "gee gee"
Younger brother = di di "dee dee"
Younger sister = mei mei "may may"

Ma ma and ba ba are pretty easy to figure out.

I was going to work on the vacation photos last night, but GP said something about massage and dinner, so we did that instead. Massage was only good, not great (well, only cost $12 each) and dinner was only ok. Probable return to the massage place, but not the restaurant :p

So hot. So humid and hot. Real humid. Ugh

It's really hot and humid in Suzhou. I vaguely remember hot and humid in the US. Yes, it is as bad in IA, NE, and PA sometimes, but the level of comfort *inside* is better. Waiting for the elevator in my building in the morning is like standing outside, but with no breeze. My kitchen has no AC, so it is often 95F (35C)in there. Who wants to cook? Not me; time to go out again for dinner :)

GP and I went out last night with a coworker / friend from our Israel facility. A very nice, Ukranian and his lovely wife went with us for German food. I thought it was a good choice, but hadn't realized that 80% of the menu is pork. And this guy doesn't eat pork. Or onions. Unfortunately for him, saying "no onions" doesn't prevent the large amount of chopped onion greens from landing on the potatoes. We had a good time anyway.

Ok, some of the US trip. GP and I had a great time and I'll never spend the time to describe it all well. I will start with big THANKS to John and Denise for feeding us, gathering our mail and letting us relax with them for awhile. Continued thanks to Horst for the great BBQ and fun time. I'm sorry that we didn't get to see any of our other, many east coast friends :( Next time! I swear :)

Ok, ok, I'll write some chronological detail. (NOTE: I'm going to start using more big words in my blog so GP can continue expanding her English vocabulary.)

July 6: woke up at a comfortable time for a change. Usually it's an early flight: get up at 4am, drive to airport 4 hours before the flight, etc. This time it was a 1pm flight, we were packed, the drive was good, the wait was ok. So nice :)

The flight to Chicago was pretty good. I think we probably slept a little. For the second trip in a row, GP got to set next to one of the great unwashed, so that wasn't so nice, but overall it was good. Immigration was easy and the bags showed up very fast. Then flew to Philly with no problem. Got the car, drove to Willow Grove, yada yada yada. In three-weeks-back review, I'd say the highlight was going to Giant for some late-night groceries and GP getting excited about 9 for a $1 Ramen noodles.

The first two days we did a little shopping, a lot of sleeping (early) and a lot of TV watching. A lot of TV because we slept from 5 or 5:30pm until 12 or 1am. Then watched TV for 4 or 5 hours :p Jet lag is a pain.

We saw Horst, we saw John and family, we bought stuff. We went to K&S so GP could see headquarters and I could pilfer the lab for things to send to China. Then Tuesday was something and Wednesday we flew to Chicago again.

We arrived late in Chicago, got the car and started driving. I was pretty awake, so we ended up halfway across IL before stopping for the night. At least I didn't have to do Chicago traffic in the morning. The Best Western in DeKalb was . . cheap. If it hadn't been cheap, I might have complained about the wet carpet and the general crappiness. Luckily, it was cheap.

We stopped at the Amana Colonies for lunch and it was good. Also hit the first welcome center into Iowa and saw lots and lots of corn in the fields. It was a neat experience for GP to see so much road with so few cars. So many fields with so few people. So many cars not honking and staying in their lanes.

Arrived in Des Moines Thursday afternoon and dropped in on KBF and family. For GP, this was the height of the entire trip - seeing Joshua face-to-face. (Un)fortunately, he is two years older than her maximum kidnapping age, so she didn't try to snatch and run with him :) We had dinner before my planned conference call (ugh, conference calls during vacation) and scheduled a post-call drink with Scot. Luck was with me as the call was cancelled (no, they didn't tell me, just no one else dialed in), so we went for one drink with Scot. A short one (very sorry, Scot) as GP and I were so, so tired. Good to see you Scot, sorry it wasn't a longer visit. Steve, et al, sorry very much we missed you. Now it's your turn to visit us :)

Friday morning we drove to Ames, walked around ISU campus a little, bought a new ISU t-shirt for me (yippee!) and had lunch at Hickory Park. I need that every 2 or 3 years. Then west on Hwy 30 and down I-29 to Omaha. We missed the casino turn off the first time, so stopped in the Old Market for a drink and a little shopping. GP found a very pretty red sweater, so it was a fortuitous diversion. Finally, out to the casino to meet Mom & Dad, have dinner (so yummy) and win some money. GP had some beginner's luck and did well.

Saturday we slept in and then drove west and North to find Dan's farm. I saw the immediate relatives (all 14 of them) and some aunts, uncles, and cousins I haven't seen in 5 to 15 years. It was very fun and GP loved the attention from all the nieces. She is quite popular with the blue-eyed children. Big thanks to Dan, Mom, Natalie, Jodi and everyone else who put so much time and work into the picnic. It was a lot of fun.

I don't remember Sunday much - just relaxing at the parent's, IIRC. Monday was a little shopping and repacking. Tuesday was GP's birthday and she spent it sleeping in the Ford Freestyle (who came up with this thing) while I drove across Iowa and Illinois. We found the Candlewood across from O'Hare airport (it looked questionable for awhile, then the neighborhood got better again) and had a nice birthday dinner at the recommended restaurant.

Wednesday morning we got on the plane for Shanghai and found it (pleasantly suprising) only 60% full. Unusual, but appreciated. The flight was good (thank you Benadryl) and we made it to Pudong in good time. Immigration took less than 5 minutes (usually 30-60 minutes) and we got the bags and found my car.

Of course, as we drove back to Suzhou and home, I was already checking and responding to email . . .

I'll get the photos up sometime. I promise. ;)