Best Laid Plans

Since Turner and I have almost two months off between semesters, we have come up with creative ways to spend all our free time. Today's modus operandi was a Tour de Qingdao McDonald's. I know what you're thinking--"McDonald's? Why on earth would you want to go to more than one?"--but sometimes you just gotta.

Qingdao has five McDs within the city proper (one is beyond the Licung River so it does not count). They are located in the tourist/retail areas of the city. Our plan was to visit all five in one day, more as a way to see parts of the city we've never been to rather than to enjoy the cuisine.

We left the apartment around 9:30am, hoping to snag the 10RMB breakfast deal at the location closest to us, but by the time we had walked the two miles, it was past 10am and therefore no breakfast! So we ordered two coffees and a 5-piece chicken nugget to hold us over until lunch.

From here we hopped on a bus to take us further west in the city to the Taidong shopping area for McD #2. It was about lunch time so we ordered a Whopper Value Meal to split, taking into account the fact that we were going to be eating at three more McDs. The food is about the same quality as an American McDs, so it offers a nice bite of Americana when we feel homesick. After eating at one of these fine establishments though, we usually feel a different kind of sick.

After our lunch, we started our walk to #3. By this time the weather that was earlier partly cloudy and mild had turned cold and extremely windy. We had not dressed appropriately and started to feel quite chilled and miserable. The wind was blowing dirt and debris everywhere, including our faces. Trudging along, hunched over, we were not longer enjoying our outing, and so we decided to abandon our hopes of eating at five McDonalds in one day.