The morning we were to leave Qingdao for our holiday in Oz dawned cloudy and coldish… and... a rarity in our coastal city... snowy!
Millie burst into our room that Sunday morning, and said, “Guys, you really need to look outside! It’s so beautiful!”
And it was. I was one of the most beautiful December events we’ve seen in Qingdao. Our naked little trees in the backyard were perfectly outlined in the heavy white stuff, which also dusted the row of small pines across the back of the yard.
“Can't we just stay and play in the snow?” asked Eliza a little short-sightedly.
“We NEVER get to play in the snow in China,” she added defensively (a good argument since we've never had measurable snow fall during our tenure in Qingdao.)
The snow tapered off, only to start up again, more heavily shortly before we needed to leave for the airport. We began to get a little worried about our flight. Qingdao is not exactly prepared for snow, as we saw in the ways locals “shoveled” with brooms and they way they drove (which was exactly the same way they usually drive, but since it was wet, slick and frozen, resulted in fender benders and worse along the high way where they traveled at greater speeds!)
We shivered as we deposited our winter coats in the back seat of the van, and quickly whisked the kids in to the cold interior of the airport. Our flight was delayed. But... only a little delayed! We boarded the plane. We cleared customs in Hong Kong without incident. We made our connection and nine hours later stepped out into summer—blue skies, warm air, bright sun, and green leafy trees. It was 10:00 a.m. and we had a whole day waiting for us.
In about 12 hours we left a snowy bleak midwinter, for bright southern hemisphere summer sunshine!
Sean and the girls overlooking Sydney Harbor with the Harbor bridge in the background
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