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I had the total Pasadena experience today.

The weekend before i left for china I went on this "epic" (debatable term) mountain bike ride through the mountains east of LA at a pretty good elevation... it was so fun but a lot of big drops down the mountain and i still have scabs from scratchy stuff that cut me up.. dan got some poison ivy or oak stuff on him too (for whatever reason it never has caused a reaction in me)
i just saw this picture and suddenly really wish i had my bike here!

For whatever reason this is something i do at all tourist spots... i first got this idea in boston at the john hancock grave in downtown boston that looks like a giant penis. Now i just pretend to grab most landmarks and anything else that will stand still long enough

In this picture i'm on the bund (its all britishy) and across the river is pudong where the pearl of the orient building is located...

Thats me and that tiny white ring at the top of the picture is the sun totally covered by the moon! its about 9:35am in this picture but it got super dark during the eclipse.. much more dark than i thought it would be

I'm in Beijing, i got in on a train from shanghai this morning.. beijing feels a lot like la.. its sort of creepy that way. Wide streets, starbucks, lots of people speaking in languages i dont understand, lots of food. But i haven't seen much yet so its probably the area i'm in. Facebook is blocked now the last VPN site one of my friends used is now blocked as of this morning..

In this picture im staring at the sun as it went into a total eclipse. I was in one of the only places where you could see the sun during the entire eclipse. I went to the city of hangzhou (china calls it heaven on earth) and up their version of a mountain, called jade emperor hill, to a buddhist temple and watched the eclipse from there... it was amazing..

Shanghai is a fun city and very easy to get around on subway or walking.. it was just very hot the first few days

Dan and greg, my husband and bro-in-law, are feeling a bit sick. I've been eating random stuff from all over town and have thankfully stayed healthy. I think all my randomly trying stuff i happen upon on hikes that looks edible has paid off.

I hope i can get a bike tomorrow to get around town traveling in subways means its hard to get a good view of stuff.

My grandfather, and uncle, and all sorts of people back in time are named john elliot or john elliot bowles..

This bible was translated by John Ellliot in 1685 at Cambridge Mass. I'd heard of this bible as a vague sort of family story but the actual bible is real and one is in pasadena, ca of all places.

I've walked by it a few times before but figured it ws just a coincidence then my mom saw it a couple weeks ago and got all excited.

How immature am I?