Hangzhou

For Mother's Day we headed to Hangzhou, China! About a 2 hour ride south of Shanghai. Our good friend Ryan was able to come to! We had a blast (missed you Aimee and kids!). I hope to go here again soon. Most people spend a weekend or longer here- but we packed it into one short day.

It is know for the huge West Lake and then many short rivers and streams off the lake. There was plenty to explore!

Fountains galore- my kids just wondered why they could not just jump right in...

How does a stick become the perfect toy?

This is the YMCA hostel. Which seemed more like a really nice hotel than a hostel. We plan to stay here when we come back! We hung out here and had some ice cream.

We also rented bikes and were able to get around the whole lake this way. Ryan was so nice to take Miriam on the back of his bike. We joked that Ryan was Fred Flintstone. As the bike seat was so low (not built for tall people) that Ryan could of just used his feet to run along the ground like Fred's car. Miriam loved going really fast over all the bridges and beating all of us in our race around the lake.

Asa loved the bike ride until her got too tired. My dear Joab held his head up like this for a short 15 minute cat nap. I could not believe it! But Asa slept like a charm and woke up happy! Ready for more fun.

Here is the gang in from the lake we just biked around. My ankle did great on the bike ride! I was so happy.

We then took a cable car up a huge mountain. Here are the boy snapping pictures. You can see the lake in the background.

The tea fields we saw from the cable car.

And we reached France on the top! No, this is the huge TV/Radio tower on top. But it made me think of Europe in the middle of Asia. Perhaps someday I will get there!

This is about as close as Miriam is going to get a rabbit for a pet. This is at the YMCA the kids loved the pet YMCA rabbit eating cabbage. For those of you who know about this- yes my kids now sit in the traditional "china squat".

We had a blast- just another reason to come on over and visit Hangzhou!

On a sadder note, there was a huge earthquake in China today. Joab and I did not feel it, but please pray for those who suffered loss.