Home for Christmas

We were lucky enough to go home for Christmas this year. I went a few days early to visit Kari in Idaho. Then Chris met me in Indiana to have Christmas with my side of the family. We then went to Gig Harbor Washington to see the Sugg side and my dad. It was a great, but short trip. A lot of these photo's have been on various facebook pages, so apologies for duplicates!



We had a little blip in our travels to Seattle, but made it just 1 day late. We weren't expecting snow in Seattle!

It was great to see everyone while we were home. :) Thanks to all of our gracious hosts for making our stay so wonderful.

New Years Eve in Hong Kong

Happy New Year! Our friend Jeff had a NYE pre-party followed by ringing in the New Year at our favorite club, Dragon-I. Some of the pictures have been edited out to protect the innocent...



Chris had my camera most of the night and did a great job taking lots of pictures. We had a great time and were glad we weren't too jet lagged to make it to midnight.

I'm kind of famous!

I was interviewed for a small biweekly magazine a few weeks ago. There was a feature on new comers to Hong Kong. I was recommended by a friend from the American Women's Association for the article. It was fun to be interviewed and a photographer came to our apartment to take the picture. My 5 minutes of fame!

Suggs Visit Part III: Guangxi Region of China

After a fun week in Hong Kong with Tracey, the 4 of us headed for 5 days in mainland China. We went to the Guangxi region to Guilin primarily. It was only about a 1.5 hour flight away which was nice. We stayed in Guilin most of the time but also ventured out to Yangshuo and Longsheng (more details in the sections below).

Guilin is a thriving city in China with 1.34 million residents. They get over 10 million tourists each year (mostly from China and other countries in Asia). The city is very developed, but still maintains some of it's original character. Pictures below include our sightseeing in Guilin, our river cruise to Yangshuo, a tour of a small village outside Guilin, tour of a local tea farm, and the Reed Flute cave.

Li Jiang river cruise to Yangshuo

We took at 4 hour river cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo. The river is lined with beautiful limestone mountains and caves. We had a traditional Chinese lunch with some fresh river fish. The fisherman ride their bamboo rafts up along side the boat and sell fresh fish daily. It was delicious! We ended our journey in Yangshuo a charming fishing village. We did lots and lots of exploring, shopping, eating, and drinking Tsing Tao beer. We had amazing Chinese food in Yangshuo. Our guide hooked us up with some spicy local cuisine. Chris and I rode bikes through the country side with a local guide. We wish we could have had another day here.



My pictures didn't turn out of the Liu Sanjie performance on the Li River. It was choreographed by the same guy who created the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics, Zhang Yimou. It was spectacular and all done on the river! I found these pictures on the web. They hardly do it justice.

Longsheng Rice Terraces

We traveled 2 hours Northwest of Guilin to Longsheng county to see the famous Longji Titian rice terraces. We were able to see the Zhuang minority village on our trek up the mountain. We all made it to the top and it was well worth the view. Our visit was after the rice harvest. Each season has a distinct beauty. We were also at the cusp of the slow season, so it wasn't too crowded. We had some of the best Chinese food I've ever had; bamboo rice, roasted sweet potatoes (whole and plain), lemon chicken, spicy red pepper dishes, eggplant, etc.



Slide show:


That's all of our trip to China. I hope you enjoyed the million pictures we took!