vacation

So we escaped for a few days this week, 5 to be exact. We used to have this rule about not vacationing anywhere in the country in which we live, but I think that's now changing. (For one thing, it's too expensive to leave the country all the time!) We headed to one of the top tourist destinations in the country, or at least that's what the locals tell us. It was just a few hours away by bus and has been on our list of "things to see" for quite a while. We had a great time.

I have to say, that at times being away from computer and all the world's news is a good thing. Tonight, as I've been catching up on news that we've missed, my heart is so sad to think of all the people around the world who are grieving. From the Steven Curtis Chapman family to the knowledge that the death toll in the earthquake has hit over 55,000, it can get flat overwhelming. Makes my pictures from a little vacation seem very insignificant.


This town, although very "touristy," was quaint. I enjoyed watching this cute old man as he rode around on the water, mainly for photo ops for the tourists. One night, we did go on a boat ride to observe how these cormorant bird go diving in the water to fish.

"Mom, this hat you bought me to keep the sun off is waaaay to big, but I love it!"
Kevin's personal trip highlight was getting to rent a bicycle and go on a long bike ride through the mountains. The mountains actually are called karst formations, made out of limestone. They are only found in our part of the globe.

During the middle of our trip, the country observed a 3-day national mourning period to remember the victims of the earthquake. In our hotel room, every single TV channel (and I do mean EVERY channel) was devoted to media coverage of the earthquake. It's amazing to flip through 30 channels and see the exact same person speaking on the broadcast. Many activities were suspended across the nation for those three days.
I could NOT believe how many foreigners we saw in this town. I mean, not even in Beijing did I see such a conglomeration of white folks. That being said, I did not see another foreign child besides Grace the entire time. So, she still got lots of attention from the local folks because she was an oddity.
We ate at one particular restaurant many times because, besides the great food, we had an amazing view of the mountains and a lake.
One morning we boarded a little bamboo boat for a scenic tour. It did not disappoint!

The scenery is so famous here that they put it on the back of the 20 yuan (local dollar bill). Our tour guide told us this was the exact scene from the back of the bill.