Just a walk in the park

Our weather has been wonderful lately. And by weather, I mean the real weather, not the "weather" the Chinese use to describe the smog. All of last week was fantastic, so we played outside as much as possible.

I could almost feel bad that we were having such great fall weather when everyone back home was freezing their bums off, but after suffering through the inferno we had July through September, I'd say we are even-steven. Sunday we left for Shanghai (posts about that visit coming soon!) and the AQI was 444 in Wuhan. That is the highest reading we have seen yet. I was really glad that we were leaving town. (500 on AQI is basically the worst air reading that exists. 200 is considered "Very Unhealthy". Normally we are around 140.)

We even returned to the only park on our side of town. Four months ago we were sweating at 9 a.m., but this visit was lovely, even later in the day. Turns out, if you can see through the smog, China has something to offer! The boys enjoyed getting the chance to burn off some energy.

I also drove for the first time in four months! This little red go-getter was getting passed by people leisurely peddling their bikes, but it made for some hilarious memories. Holly and I took the boys to the local botanical garden. Those once-gorgeous lotus plants are all dead and ready for winter. But we were able to see awesome displays of roses and mums.

 And there was an entire forrest of bamboo.

Really glad we have had a stretch of nice easy days. Just a month left. Just a walk in the park.