Our visa requires that we leave the country every 90 days. So we usually end up taking a short trip to a neighboring country- wherever we can find the cheapest flights. This time, we took our first trip to Macau. Cosi was very excited about going to see a cow.Sadly for Cosi, we never once saw a cow... But we did have fun :)
Honestly, Macau is not a very family friendly location. I pictured beautiful sidewalks with multi-colored Portuguese influenced homes lining the street. I think I saw a picture like that and my imagination flew. Although there are some tourist locations like that, the majority of Macau is a city with cheesy casinos. It's hard to navigate and bad for pedestrians (especially those with strollers, which might have been just us in the whole city). I'm thankful to have gone, but I'd be okay with never going back.
The Ruins of St Paul's Cathedral was one place that I really liked - though it could be because a Starbucks and a McDonalds were nearby. The Ruins were amazing. I couldn't read the brochure about it, because Trey slobbered it to a pulp, but I think it has something to do with a church that was destroyed by fire and only one wall was left standing. Even without the history, it's an incredible sight to see. If I knew the history....well, I can only imagine how awesome that would be...
Here's Cosi holding her new keychain. The ruins are behind her.
Cosi, the destroyer of idols (a veritable Josiah of modern day), stroller-rammed a Buddhist offering that was sitting outside a store. It looked much like this one, but had a lot of fruit. I guess Buddha likes pomelo. What Buddha-lovers do not like is a stroller running over their offerings. What they like even less is a culturally insensitive mother who tries to upright the offering with her foot. I know, I know, it was an impulsive move for a non-Buddhist. I realized it as soon as the store owner yelled at me. But, I was trying to hold onto a wirey 4 year-old girl who often forgets that she's not allowed to push the stroller into the busy car-filled street located mere steps away. What I'm trying to say is that my hands were otherwise occupied, as they have been for the past 10 months since Cosi joined our family. Anyhow, what I'm really trying to say is that if you want to tick off a Buddhist person, knock over their idol and then upright it with your foot. Works every time.
The most disappointing part of our trip (for me) was missing the Macau Grand Prix. It's a car race that happens on the streets of Macau - how awesome does that sound??? It happens every year in November. Since I didn't know anything about Macau before our trip (except that it's a cheap flight in & out, therefore a good location for a quick visa trip), I had never heard of this race. But, once we arrived and I couldn't help but hear about it and see it at every turn. It was then that I knew my forever dream was to see cars go fast on streets. I picture it being like a James Bond movie. What's not to like? Sadly for me, the Macau Grand Prix was Nov. 17-20. We were there Nov. 14-17. All we got to see were the signs and street preparations mocking my lack of proper travel plans. I blame it on my preoccupation with the children....too many poopy diapers slowing me down...The closest we got to the action was walking past this grandstand a few times a day. In Macau's defense, we should note that our view of macau as bad for pedestrians might be strongly influenced by the preparations they made for the Grand Prix.
And - who's that boy? (rocking the swing like it's his business) who's that boy? It's Trey!We took this on the day that we ate at Fernando's. (no pictures from the lunch itself) It's a famous, beach-front Portuguese restaurant. Rob had no desire to go (there was a McDonald's in Macau, remember?), but I was determined. We took a bus for 30 minutes to get there. We could have taken a taxi, but we're cheap. We waited in line until the restaurant opened at 12. By this time, our kids were already fussy. They didn't have any kids seats (Rob pointed out that McDonald's has kids seats). Our kids were the only kids present. Their usual clientele didn't need kids seats. I'm kinda surprised they even let us in the door actually. Anyhow, in a classy mom-like fashion (or desperation), I sped through the menu and picked out our food, which were the only two non-seafood items on the menu. Since the waitresses were all at other tables, I approached the server station, baby in tow, and begged to get our food order in first. I need not have begged. They wanted to get us out ASAP, too. I then proceeded with the next phase of my plan = nurse the baby to sleep and then Rob & I will outnumber the awake child and be able to split the work while we eat. Fail. My normally good little eater kept pulling off and exposing his mother to the other guests. I could have forgiven his lack of discretion had he eventually dozed off, but it was not to be. The two little ones teamed up to make lunch a mildly unpleasant experience, somewhere between getting a splinter and minor surgery. Rob was right, McDonald's might be our best choice for eating out these days :)
So, there's an overview of our trip to Macau! One of the things that I like about our life is that we get to travel. In honor of thanksgiving, I'm going to write a list of things that I'm thankful for. This will be near the top.
