28 kid free hours

We have amazing teammates! First they made dinner for everyone on our team using imported cheese. They shared cheese! Then they volunteered to watch our kids while we went out for an overnight date.

What do we do without kids? We asked ourselves the same question. We decided to get as many kid-free meals in as possible. And we did. First, Hamama's, our favorite Western restaurant in town, and then Pizza Hut because who can pass on a chance to eat pizza?

The river in Harbin is frozen solid this time of year and M'Lynn had never walked on it. And being a girl from West Texas, she thought it would be super cool to walk on a frozen river. It's covered with cars, horses, snowmobiles, and go-carts each available to rent for the right price. We choose the horse drawn carriage because it was enclosed (out of the wind) and cheap (after a bit of bargaining). We were thankful for hand warmers and the coffee as we carriaged around the river.

We did get ripped off once. We bought two sparklers on the way back to the hotel and asked the seller to light them. She tried three different lighters. I guess each was frozen because none of them worked. Then she asked us to wait while she went to get another lighter. And the other five sellers who were out with her all disappeared too. I don't know what happened. Were the inspectors coming to shut the illegal sellers down or was it simply a scam? She never returned with the lighter and we never lit the sparklers.

After 28 hours away, we were ready to get back home.