Greetings all,
As you know from the last post, we returned from a 2 week whirlwind trip around China with my sister and her husband and came home very satisfied, but somewhat exhausted!! Since we didn't go back to the US for our vacation this year, we had some additional days here in China, so I took an additional week off and just rested and relaxed for a week in Shenyang and the surrounding area. One of the first things we did was go to lunch with our Chinese friends at the "hot pot" restaurant. This is where you have a hot plate and a pot at your table and the ingredients go around on a floating boat type thing and you take them off and put it in your soup bowl to cook it, then eventually, you take it out and eat it with some selected sauces and vegetables. Here are a few photos from our "hot pot" lunch
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| The "boats" circulating around the tables with containers of meat & vegetables at the Hot Pot Restaurant |
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| Mr Sun, The Xhou family and Rod & Sarah Miller at the hot pot restaurant |
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| Some selections before cooking at the hot pot restaurant |
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| Sarah Miller, Zhou Min and Rod Miller cooking and eating at the Hot Pot Restaurant |
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Another little trip this week was to go to the West Lake, outside of Shenyang. For those of you who have been long time readers, you may recall that we went there last October and found it to be eerily beautiful in the Fall, but we imagined what it would look like in the Summer. This year we went to see for ourselves. We were slightly past the peek season for the Lotus flowers, but we still saw some, and even if they weren't blooming, these were the biggest lily pad's I've ever seen in my life! We took a boat out onto the lake and got our in and amongst the flowers..and other critters! Here are some pictures from our trip to West Lake.
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| As in Life, the journey is just as interesting as the destination...here an overloaded truck hauling rice stalks |
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| The dragon boat we took out on the West Lake outside of Shenyang |
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| Not the way I wanted to start my boat ride...but this snake just showed up...he lives here..not me! |
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| Some of the lily pads and Lotus flowers on the "West Lake" outside of Shenyang |
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| More Lily Pads and Lotus Flowers on the West Lake outside of Shenyang |
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| Rod holding a new type of fruit for sale after the boat ride...we ate the juicy red seeds inside and chucked the orange outside..kind of reminded me of a pomegranate for the taste with the texture of a grape |
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| A view of the West Lake outside of Shenyang |
Then today, I went out with the Zhou Min family and went to a Lavender garden...this is where being friends with a Chinese family has definite advantages...I would have never known about this place and as it turns out, it really is in the middle of nowwhere! It was worth the trip...and for those of you who really love the color Purple...these pictures are for you (you know who you are!!) Rod opted out of this trip...and so did Mr. Zhou...so it was a girls day out and we had a ball!
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| Daisy, Sarah and Daisy's mother in front of Ziyan Lavender Garden entrance, outside of Shenyang, China |
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| A view of the Lavender and Blue Salvia...soup for the Gardener's soul! |
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| Sarah & Daisy in the purple flowers (not lavender here..not sure what it was but it was beautiful..and acres and acres of it!) |
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| Cosmos flowers then acres and acres of the purple flower looking towards the entrance...a long way back there! |
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| Sarah Miller in the purple flower patch! |
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| Blue Salvia with the horse carriage in the background in the Lavender Garden outside of Shenyang |
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| Daisy's mother in a rare (non-pose) photo in the Cosmos patch |
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| Diasy in the Lavender garden outside of Shenyang |
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| Sarah in the Lavender garden outside of Shenyang |
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| A little Chinese boy climbing on the rocks in the lavender patch |
To get an idea for the size of this place, I took a 360 degree video below. I'm not sure what exactly has inspired this...or if the flowers will be harvested for some reason..so I just take it for it's face value of beauty and enjoyed every minute of it! Two garden trips in 1 week...truly spoiling myself this week!
So, that's about it for today..I'll go back to work on Monday...but for now, and updates may get sparce again...so for now, I'm really enjoying some time off and sharing some scenes from China with you!
Until next time, thank you for your continued prayers and thoughts...we really do appreciate them!
Rod & Sarah
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