spring break in... Ann Arbor?

During spring break the hot place for Hoosiers to vacation is always Florida. Our little family only had a three day weekend, and I did not want to take a two year old any further than a four hour drive. I was looking for a city I haven't been to before or haven't spent much time there, something special for Hannah to do, and go to an authentic Taiwanese restaurant. Ann Arbor, Michigan, fit the bill.

We drove in on Friday night and settled into our hotel before heading out to dinner. We went to Great Lakes Chinese Seafood Restaurant. I wanted to go there for dim sum, but I always forget that dim sum is usually served at lunchtime or for late night snacks... and when we go to restaurants that have dim sum they don't serve it at dinner time. Great Lakes had a very extensive menu. Most of the other diners were Asians, so that's a sign that we're someplace good! We shared some potstickers to start with. Kevin ordered a combination soup that we don't remember the name of, and I had rice noodles with Chinese vegetables. Mine was so so. I think I just get bored having the same thing and like variety. Kevin REALLY liked his soup and kept picking out pieces of thinks like squid that I really don't want to look at. I'm pretty adventurous, but not when it comes to seafood.




Before leaving we checked out the dim sum menu, and told our friendly server that we'd be back for lunch tomorrow, for sure! We made a Target run and played in the toy aisle for some time. Hannah is starting to enjoy drawing, so we got her a Ni Hao, Kai-Lan themed Magna Doodle. This little toy has brought on hours and hours of entertainment for our little scribbler in just a few days! I think we'll keep it in the car for now to keep her busy in her seat.

Back at the hotel, we got in the pool with Hannah for the first time since last summer. What a difference a few months make! Gone was the baby that cried when she was carried into the cool water. Instead we found a laughing toddler that wanted to be swirled around and around in the water.











This shot's just for you, Lora!

Saturday we slept in. Ahhh! We did a little shopping. Dada and Hannah found an educational toy store to play in for over half an hour while I went shopping for summer clothes for myself.


We went back to Great Lakes for dim sum, and it did not let is down. They had a good selection and everything was good. Hannah's favorite was the hot dog bun. Go figure! We had sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf, congee, fried turnip cake, my favorite Chinese vegetables stir fried with garlic, and several others I can't remember. We always order way to much, but that's okay. Ordering something totally foreign to us just to try it it half the fun... as long as it's not seafood!


Just looking at this photo makes my mouth water!
After lunch we found a playground for Hannah to run off a little steam. Had to get her good and tired so we could go back to the hotel and Mama could watch her BUTLER BULLDOGS take on K-State.


My DAWGS are on to the FINAL FOUR!!! Can you believe it? This is such a big deal for my tiny tiny Indianapolis university to be playing in the final four in our town... Indianapolis.

I must admit, I did start doing a bit of yelling and screaming in the final four minutes of the game when Butler gave up their lead and K-State was up by one. I woke Hannah up. Bad mommy... yelling at a basketball game and waking up the kiddo.

For dinner we went to Asian Legend, a small place that describes themselves as a Taiwanese restaurant. The setting was very modern looking. About half of the diners were college aged Asians, and the other half were families with children. We had boba teas and oyster omelette... very Taiwanese. I ordered beef and noodle soup and Kevin had spare ribs. Kevin LOVED his spare ribs. Very soft and tender with lots of flavor... tastes like five spice to me. My soup was fine, but not as good as the beef and noodle soup I had in Orlando.






We drove around downtown Ann Arbor to see what things looked like, and kind of ran out of things to do. Thought about shopping, but we don't need anything. We knew that Sunday would be all rain, and decided to head home Sunday afternoon. It rained all.the.way.home. Looking forward to warmer sunny days that can be spent in parks!

Back at home this week, Hannah's able to express herself more and more every day. She likes to sing songs, and Dada has added a new one to her repertoire. It's from the "Kai-Lan Goes to China" episode of Ni-Hao, Kai-Lan.

♪♪ We feel so happy we just want to sing ♪♪
♪♪ we feel so happy ♪♪
♪♪ kai-xin, kai-xin, kai-xin ♪♪

I'm very proud to say that Hannah's first word in Mandarin is kai-xin, meaning HAPPY!

Today's new word in English... BURP. Nice. Not so proud of that one.