Escaping The Life: My walks.

In China, there are tons of little "villages" or neighborhoods and each one, while similar, has its own unique personality. My new BFF Sherrie was convinced we could walk everywhere and did not understand that walking is exercise, while shopping is a sport. You do NOT cross the streams and try to mingle the two worlds. You are either exercising or shopping, but you cannot walk the last 2 miles home carrying all of your purchases!
So, I have found it best to try and walk or shop on my own. My hard learned lesson is to do either of those on Wednesday, when I have a half day off, instead of trying to do it all on the weekend, when every other Chinese person is out and about doing the same thing! The food court at Ikea is a prime example. I just go for the 5rmb cup of espresso with free refills. For an extra 8rmb, you can buy a little container of milk. For 13rmb I can sit and have 2 cups of real coffee. BUT, and there is always a big but, if you try this on Saturday or Sunday, the place is beyond packed and the cafeteria is worse. The locals will literally stand over you and ask repeatedly if you are finished yet.
When I was having dental work done, Sherrie convinced me we could walk. "It isn't that far." So I put my faith in her hands, and her map, and took off for the dentist. What I did not know, and Sherrie apparently did not know either, was that there was no real walkable path from point A to point B. We wound up walking on the drainage path for a roadway and crossing a 6 lane highway. Fortunately, there was a toll-booth like structure between us and the other side so we were able to play frogger and cross one lane at a time. Not that far, turned out to be over 3 miles when I google mapped it.
After dentist, we were going to walk home and wound up walking in a huge circle before I was able to convince her to just get a cab. These are the pics from what I saw.