Our last big outing before Tao heads home was to the Summer Palace. We take DiDi(the Chinese Uber), of course it was supposed to rain, but thankfully it was only a few sprinkles. Otherwise it could be dangerous walking as you have to do a lot walking/climbing over slippery stones. It is a very cool place, earning lots of picture taking. We tried more flavors of tea, this time lychee and perhaps grapefruit? The boys really wanted to rent a boat to go out on the lake, but it required a big cash deposit we didn’t have with us thanks to the ease of paying via phone on WeChat or Alipay. So we settled for a ferry ride across the lake. We did a lot of walking and the boys did really well. Most likely due to keeping them hydrated with drinks, ice cream and snacks.
It’s always funny to watch people just stop walking and start asking Tao about having 3 kids and a foreign wife. A few left their tour group to find out.
Next time we come to the Summer Palace I told the kids we should just walk around the lake and not do any of the climbing stuff. Then we would be able to go over all sorts of cool looking bridges.
There is a huge bridge that boasts 500 lions carved into the bridge to a small island. After we left the island I say we should’ve counted the lions. Ethan is game, so the others were told to sit and rest. Well we started out with good intentions to count and realized we couldn’t possibly figure out where the lions were due to deteriation of the bridge. Was that round thing a lion or a ball or something else? We decided to give our count at 498, 2 ran away. We started back to find them, not sitting but getting ice cream! WAIT.....Just in time! We got some too and drinks. I was glad I brought my sweat towel with me. It was so hot and it wasn’t even sunny today.
I wonder why you don’t see more people use the little sweat towels or handkerchiefs like you do in Japan. It seems like a really good idea. You want to brush at your face but use the towel so you keep your hands off your face. No hand dryer use the towel. So many uses.
Tonight we tried the rotating hot pot restaurant across the street. My father-in-law went with us. It was a buffet that included drinks from Pepsi to green apple pop to blueberry juice drink. Make your own sauce bar with everything unnamed and left up for guesses. I didn’t venture into the unknown and stuck with thinned tahini(sesame) paste, green onions, cilantro, black vinegar, chili oil and soy sauce. Besides the rotating items they bring each person 2 shrimp, 2 pieces of lamb and beef. So many options on the rotating line up, eggs, tofu, several different noodles, different greens, meats, tomatoes, cucumbers and watermelon, snacks to grab, water pictures to refill your personal hot pot. The problem is they only give you one tongs to grab everything with. So I grab the ones next to me to use on the tomato, cucumber and watermelon. Then I worry no one else is using 2 tongs to get the tomatoes, cucumbers and watermelon. Better throw the tomatoes and cucumber into the pot to kill any cross contanmination. I watch most people grab the watermelon with their hands and pray I’m safe not throwing that into the pot but I don’t eat any more just to be safe. They even had ice cream for desert. Good now we don’t need to stop on the way home. No green tea flavored, but they boys were happy for chocolate. Well the chocolate turned out not to be the chocolate they were looking for. They told me it tastes bad, maybe it’s coffee, and please try it. I smell it first since I don’t like coffee. Nope not coffee. I try it. It’s chocolate, but China chocolate that tastes like tootsie roll chocolate not real chocolate. So I get all their icecream. I put it in my pop and make a float. It tastes just like a chocolate soda.
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