China 2019, day 17: San Francisco!

Not a lot happened today. After breakfast, we took a short walk in the hotel's inner courtyard, which is really cute:

We finished packing, left the luggage with the hotel, and went to check out Wudaoying Hutong. "Hutong" means "alley", and this one is an example of what alleys used to look like before modern construction started changing the city's landscape. Some people called for preservation of more traditional building style and Wudaoying Hutong is a result of that.

It's a very trendy street, with stylish designer clothes stores, coffee shops, and bars. We came too early and most of everything was closed, so we got some coffee in one of the only places that was open.

Then we walked over to the Confucius Temple. It is, indeed, a temple.

And that was that. We went back to the hotel area, got lunch there, went to the hotel to pick up our stuff, and went to the airport. The flight was pretty hard. Ada pooped all over me right after we took off, and after that all of us were cold and uncomfortable - mostly Julia, who was stuck under the very intermittently sleeping Ada the entire flight.

So - yay, we're done!
Not that we didn't have fun, but if you've been following the whole thing, you realize that this was not really a vacation, and large portions of this were hard, frustrating, and challenging. I loved China in our previous two visits, and I think visiting with a small child changed my relationship with China and made it more complex. I'm definitely more protective and have less tolerance for people's bullshit, regardless if this bullshit is their way of showing concern, a part of their culture, or just them being dicks. It's hard for me to buy the whole "it's a part of the culture" thing. There have been quite a few, even if not a lot, people who showed concern, even while being somewhat overbearing, while doing so with warmth and compassion to both Ada and us.
At the end of the day, we did what we came to do, which is have Ada meet her extended family. That part of the visit went very well, and that's the most important thing. Another positive thing is that the more complex and challenging the trip is, the better, I think, the blog is, so I hope you appreciate what I'm going through for you.
Julia and I have been discussing this, and we're thinking of moving this blog out of the Blogger platform, perhaps to something we build ourselves, so stay tuned for that. If it works out, I'm sure you'll enjoy the blog even more the next time I'll be a
Person
On
The
Roaaad!
(stu-gu-du-gu-da-gum -- tshhhhhh)