A Day at the Museum and Adventures in Laundry

Another day, another adventure.  Today we were scheduled to have an outing to a well-known museum.  It showcases the 13 different ethnicities found in this area, is home to several 4000 year-old mummies, and has a brief history of the area, including the silk road routes.  But none of that started until 10:30, so after breakfast, Little Weed #4 pulled out his notepad, showed me some letters he knows how to write, and asked me to write his new name.  He copied the letters and was as proud of himself as I was of him.  (This evening he was writing letters again, said "bamy" - no clue what that means - and I looked at his page to see "B-A-M-Y" written neatly on the page.  Could that possibly have been a fluke?  Or is it possible that my little guy really has some pre-reading skills.  Time will tell...)

Back to the museum...  It was really very interesting.  Since the older three kids are very well-versed in museums, they were interested and attentive.  The tour was in English, so - well, it IS a museum and #4 is only six - I wasn't sure how things might go.  Besides having to watch him especially carefully because he does not yet know not to wander away from us, he did spectacularly.  He was interested and engaged in all that we were seeing.  And he used an entire set of batteries in his camera while were there.  :)

 After visiting the wing on the various ethnicities, we went upstairs to see the mummies.  These were not Egyptian-type mummies prepared and wrapped for burial.  These were desert people buried in ultra-dry conditions and preserved unbelievably.  Here's the really cool part.  They did all kinds of tests on these ladies (and one man).  It turns out that they are tall and have "big noses."  They are genetically European!  The question begs to be asked...  what were Europeans doing inhabiting Asia 2000 years before Christ was born?  I may need to put my two history buffs onto that question.

The final wing was focused more on the history of the area.  We kind of rushed through this as we were all getting tired and hungry, but the silk road portion was pretty interesting. The green lines are the upper and lower silk roads.  Urumqi is pretty much in the middle of the mountains that divide the area in half. 

We finished up our tour, got a quick picture with our guide, Jessica / Xiaofan, and then hit the road.

Before we could head back to the hotel, we needed to deal with one urgent issue.  Laundry.  In every other city we've visited, laundry services at very reasonable prices abounded.  Most other travellers have shared that experience.  Unfortunately, we did not have the same luck here.  The hotel laundry service was astronomically priced ($2 for a pair of socks!) but we were down to our last outfit for each person.  After enduring the heat in Beijing in most of those clothes, there was no chance of rewearing anything without those around us needing nose plugs.  :)  Our driver was determined to find us a place.  He finally located a roadside business and pulled in.  We were able to leave our shorts and shirts, but they wouldn't wash socks or underwear (my biggest need!)  The cost was ridiculous, but I had no choice.  It was either wash the clothes or buy new ones to wear.  Washing won.



Next door to the laundry, was a familiar sign spotted quickly by the Fairy Godmother.  She made a strong "suggestion" that we'd better go there for some sustenance.  Here was the sign that nearly made her break out into song.

And here she is enjoying her favorite moment in Urumqi.

Now that we were properly nourished with a dairy-heavy "lunch," we could get down to business.  We returned to the hotel where Sticks and the older boys hit the gym for a workout.  The littles and I endeavored to take care of the stinky sock dilemma.  We filled the tub, created a mixture of shampoo and body wash suds, and dumped in the remainder of our laundry.  They had fun agitating and scrubbing and spin cycling.  And it was a fun way to pass a good chunk of the afternoon!

Other fun ways to pass the time included beach ball basketball, balloon volleyball, iPad drawing, and hanging out upside down.

It probably seems like we are out and about quite a bit - and we are to an extent - but we are also getting to spend a lot of down time each day in the hotel room.  Except that it's not really "down time" when you have four kids all anxious to have fun.  Tomorrow is a completely unscheduled day, so we'll definitely have some more time here in the room, but we're also planning to walk down to a local park for some running and playing in wide open spaces.  Looking forward to that more than I can say.

Please keep the two littles' health in your prayers.  #4 came to us with a croupy cough (worse in the mornings) and Sweet One started up with a little cough of her own this morning.  No fevers, but we're watching nutrition and rest closely, hoping we can keep any budding pathogens from getting the upper hand.

Time for bed, so goodnight from Urumqi!