Banks Big Adventure: Strong Start, Sleepy Finish

Our first full day in Tianjin was just that - - full! Mainly our tummies. We ate, and ate, and ate at our International Breakfast Buffet. Deacon's favorites were yogurt and Fruity Pebbles. Baxter's were bacon and sausage. Not very Asian, I admit. However, Steven and I made up for it by eating sushi from Japan, Mung Bean Paste pancakes - a specialty of this area, and Chinese 5 Spice hard boiled eggs.

We then went over to an area that housed the offices of an animation company. The park out front had statues - some we recognized and many we didn't.

Back to the hotel for a little help with our computers. China blocks access to Google and Blogspot, so we had been unable to do much on the Internet. We had to install a special computer program that hides our internet from the government. Success!

And then lunch with our hostess - - another international buffet. The boys' favorites this time were pizza and spaghetti noodles. Oh, and Deacon found something that looked and tasted close to chicken nuggets. Sound like Chinese food?

Then into town. We are staying in an area about 50 minutes from the main city of Tianjin. We went into an old section of town and walked around a bit. It got dark early, so we didn't get any pictures. But we did get some pictures at dinner.

We were taken to dinner by one of the sponsors of the conference and a few of her employees (writers). She runs a company that has about 100 writers who work on film and television projects. Two of the ladies at the table will attend the lectures that Steven gives tomorrow and Friday. We went to a popular Bai restaurant where they have delicious buns.

And delicious squid. And delicious frog. (Yes, frog!) And delicious tofu. And delicious pumpkin soup. And delicious...not quite sure what some of the other food was, but we tried it. Well, "we" meaning Steven and me. Look at the dinner pictures closely - - there is one with the boys passed out in the sitting area behind the table. Baxter is asleep and Deacon is propping his eyelids open while playing on Steven's phone. They tried a few of the foods, but were pretty exhausted. Luckily there were cozy chairs just a few steps away.