Black and White

(This should have been posted a long time ago....oops)

Back in May, my friend Alaina and I went on a tour of the Black and White colonial homes in Singapore. (I went on this tour with my mom and her friend Susan when they were visiting last year but never got around to making a post.)

The Black and White homes were built between 1898-1941 when Singapore was a British colony. They have since torn down many and only about 300 remain. They are all owned by the Singapore government.

What a great family room.

This house chose to use a little color in the theme. Each room was painted a different color.

This veranda was my favorite part of the house. It wraps around the entire upstairs.

Love the exposed beams.

This was the new house on the tour. It was huge and followed a black and white theme throughout.

Look at this cute little guy. I love a cute pup and this one didn't mind 20 people invading his space!

They used the bed to divide this huge bedroom.

This house is called a long house. It reminds me a little of the ranch style homes in Texas.

Happy 4th of July!

Ahh, the 4th of July...my favorite holiday. It holds so many great memories from Rangers games, fireworks at Sand Hills Country Club and trips to the lake. It's everything American and I love it! We attended the Singapore American Association Independence Day Celebration as we did last year. There was great music, great food (corndogs, hamburgers, hot dogs and beer!) and of course, fireworks. It doesn't compare to a 4th of July celebration in Texas but it's not a bad alternative.






We hope everyone has a safe and Happy 4th of July!

China in Pictures

We had 4 days of site-seeing before the race. All of the tours we organized by the Marathon and groups were divided by hotels. It was a great way to meet tons of people from around the world and get to know them throughout the week. Our group had people from Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia as well as Americans living in the US and abroad (Singapore, Guam, Okinawa, and South Korea). Below is a somewhat chronological order of the pictures. We really enjoyed Beijing a lot more than we thought we would. Yes it as crowded and smoggy but getting to experience such historic things was pretty cool. Most of the buildings and structures we visited are over 600 years old and were unseen by anyone but emperors, etc for 500 of those years!

Just a horse and wagon in the middle of Beijing...

A coco-cola and corn will make this boy happy!

Now that's a happy face.
And he shared!

We found a fruit stand. Yummy!

Tian'an men Square

THE FORBIDDEN CITY (PALACE MUSEUM)

We are overlooking The Forbidden City from Coal Hill. You can't tell how big it is because of the smog but The Forbidden City is HUGE. It took us 2 hours to walk through.

Silk Factory. We made it home with 2 pillows and they are AWESOME!

Peking Duck for lunch! We were hesitant at first but it was probably the best meal all week! Definitely a must try. In the picture, the chef is slicing the duck. Each duck gets sliced into 120 pieces!

Temple of Heaven
In the Chinese culture, heaven is round and blue. All the buildings in Temple of Heave have blue roofs.

Can't go to China without trying the tea!

The Great Wall

Ying and Yang Square at the Great Wall

Cloisonne' Factory

We made it home with some really cool ornaments for our Christmas tree!

Sacred Way

Unique architecture

We would love to visit another part of China and make the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an apart of that trip. We have a long list of places we want to go so we'll have to see if we'll make it back to China. I am so glad we were able to make this trip. The Wall alone would have made the trip worth it but seeing all of the other historical places was a great bonus!