Tulip Flower Festival

After a busy Holiday weekend, it was a perfect day to wander over to the Shanghai Flowerport, where they are having their annual Tulip Flower Festival. The place was quiet, serene, beautiful and peaceful largely due to the fact that everyone was back to work today (Monday was the observed Holiday). The sun was shining and it was actually warm weather, so he hit the road to the Festival.

O.M.G! What a gorgeous display of beautiful flowers! The park was a HUGE place, extending at least a few miles wide. I had no idea a place like this existed anywhere near Shanghai. Well, in fact, it was about an hour's drive outside of Shanghai. I initially thought we would be there just a few hours...but we ended up staying a full 8 hours before we had seen most of the park...yeah, MOST of it.







The boys kept going and going and going. Every time I even thought to suggest we head back to the main gate, they requested to "explore some more!" The park had SO much to see! I couldn't believe it! Every nook and cranny we explored ended up having something fabulous to either do or see! It truly was incredible...like we had been handed a gift...of fun. A Shanghai Mama had recommended this place and I decided impromptu this morning that I would take the boys since the weather was so nice. Such a good decision!

Well, the entire park had a "Holland" theme due to the immense about of tulips carpeting the ground, in all colors, types and designs. But, the park also had large bodies of water with paddle boats, fountains, waterfalls, rocks, statues, a mini kid fair, exhibition buildings, windmills, greenhouses, bridges and a mini adult eco challenge obstacle course! Wow, right!?


After we arrived and started walking through the park, it only took about 20 minutes before we were targeted...for pictures. Yes, we even had a small following through a good portion of the park. The kids got to a point where they wanted to choose the most isolated or narrow path, just to get away from the adults taking pictures of them. People wanted pictures of the kids, of me, of me with the kids, and of course, of THEM and the kids. It's CRAZY! And they all speak to us like we were some animal in a cage, cooing and sweet talking us...like they are trying to get us to do tricks. Every time I would stop for a photo op, OFF the beaten path...I would turn around and there would be a line of chinese people, smiling and pointing at us. The kids could have done anything and they would have enjoyed watching them do it. We tried to find a nice, pretty and QUIET place to sit down and have a picnic. As soon as we sat down on the grass, one of the park employees came and stood over us, the ENTIRE time...just watching us eat. She even pulled my backpack open to see the food inside. She wanted to know what we chose to eat. Isn't that crazy?! That's not to mention all the other people who walked OFF the path to watch us as they were strolling past. It's disconcerting at the VERY least. Most of the time, it's downright annoying and obnoxious. We had one photographer team with professional looking cameras, stalk our every move for about an hour, taking pictures of all of us continuously! I can only imagine where those pictures will turn up...?

Well, anyway, despite the annoying passersby, we had an excellent day. The kids just got used to the people after a while (what else were they going to do?) and we ended up having so much fun! Brandon was a real sport about mommy wanting him to pose for HER pictures. The boys even had a few tries taking pictures of both mommy and the flowers. They are naturals behind the camera! ;-) And they had a lot of fun trying! We did end up having a nice picnic among the tulips! The boys got to play games, drive bumper cars, bounce in a bounce house, go on a merry-go-round and watch mommy win them prizes with darts! The boys got to play in the sand on a real sand beach! I'm telling you...this park was amazing! Not to mention all the rocks they were able to climb and jump off and the bridges they got to run across! They also had races in the lanes of the tulips and climbed up a rock hill! Whew!



We also went to see the Barbie and Lego exhibition in a large looking ship! We saw the very first Barbie, sold in 1959, and saw everything in between then and now! We saw Lego art and Lego statues and even got to play with Legos at the end of our tour! You can imagine how much fun the boys had doing that! We all got to eat ice cream for our afternoon snack and proceeded to whole new section of the park.






The corner of the park had a very long bridge to walk across and there were also rock paths to jump along on the ground. Then we followed Brandon (our leader) through a Chinese symbol labyrinth. He did so good! I was very proud of him! He located the edge of the maze and kept a steady eye on the outside, through the tall bushes, pacing us through twists and turns and eventually leading us out the other side! He has a good sense of direction! On the other side of the maze, was an adult obstacle course. How fun! Brandon amazed me further when he completed several of the obstacles across the water canal! He did so good! They were exercises of balance, agility and strength. I know I probably wouldn't have been able to do many of them. ;-)






The park had trains that people rode on to get through the park. They also had private trams available for a cost. At one point in our day, I hailed down one of them at the front gate to ask for directions. There were three girls who indicated that we could hitch a ride with them to get to where we needed to go (the boys worked their charm on them). These private trams are pretty expensive, so I was surprised they let us on without charging me. I have no doubt that these three very young ladies were chinese models of some kind. They were all decked out to the hilt with brand name labels, from shoes to purses, all their shoes had six-inch heels, they all wore short shorts with flesh nylon over their legs, their shirts were silks and satins, and their hair and make up was immaculate. But, what really sold me on them being models of some sort were that they posed for pictures among the flowers, trees and statues with an almost pornographic flair. You should have seen the way they posed...together! You can imagine the attention they got...especially from my open mouthed boys! hahaha It was funny. Something even funnier was that the girls wanted pictures with the boys and after a whole day of shying away from people, the boys were only too happy to pose with these girls! I can't tell you how many times all of the young ladies looked at themselves in one mirror or another on our short trip through the park. haha Again...too funny...




It was a long and exhausting, but super fun day! The boys amazed me with how much energy they had! They were like little energizer bunnies...and, in fact, lasted 10 times longer than my camera batteries today...all six sets of batteries! I hadn't brought a stroller with me, so I was extremely lucky that Ryan didn't fizzle out the entire day. He kept up with his big brother, no problem...and that was without a nap! However, not more than 10 minutes on the ride home, both boys were out like lights! Mommy too almost! haha



For mommy, the day had been filled with "zen" moments, even with the kids running around. The air was so fragrant! I can't remember the last time my eyes had been so visually stimulated! The water had been serene...and most of the trails we took had been quiet. I got to teach the boys many things about nature (which I love) and give them lessons in physics (jumping, gravity, balance, etc). It truly was a perfect day with the kids. And so unexpected!



Before we left, I purchased some cut flowers for the house. And when we got home, we noticed 7 caterpillars on our old, dying flowers. So, we put them carefully into a container, where we can watch them grow and eventually turn into butterflies. How cool is that!? The boys were so excited about it! Spring is definitely in the air! :-)

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