Time travel for Thursday.

There now,

don't you feel a little cooler?

Have a great day,

and stay cool.

Kat

Summertime!

Yes, it is rather warm out.

But summer has it's charms.

This sunrise for instance.

What a pretty way to start the day (I don't see many of these on my days off).

This lovely tree blooming in my front yard.

We get to see wild baby bunnies.  

We watch all sorts of birds,

I believe this is one of our hawks,

but we have turkey buzzards in the area too.

 This is where we go to get the mail.

There is an old watering tank on our place.

Right now it is home to two sizes of polliwogs! 

 Summer brings an interesting assortment of wildflowers.

When it is really hot, and I am really spoiled,

my Sweet Husband pulls out the White Mountain Ice Cream Freezer.

Life is good!

Cheers,

Kat

Beijing Day 9, Summer Palace, Panda Zoo and home.

This is the last post from our trip to China.
We have been home for quite a while.
I took several hundred pictures, I have some serious scrap booking to do!

The Pandas are stars at the Beijing Zoo.
The habitat in the Panda House are quite nice.
These guys are quite charming.

Apples evidently make a tasty breakfast. 

You can't adopt the pandas and bring them home,
but the gift shop has plenty of things they will be more than happy to send with you.
I liked this Tea set, but not enough to carry it home.
I did find a pair of earrings that were much lighter.

An excellent way to view the old section of Beijing.
We took a trishaw tour through the Hutongs.
Fun and interesting. We visited one family,
with our official guide and translator of course.....

Our driver.

This picture is from the Summer Palace.
It is of the long corridor, a covered wooden walkway through gardens and beside a lake.
Every surface is painted. The pictures are works of art in their own right.

This is the walkway's destination.
A marble pleasure boat.
No, it does not float (I had to ask).
Nice place for the Empress to take tea.

One of the pavilions at the Summer Palace.
Who is that handsome man in the center?
My traveling companion!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

We had a great trip.

Next up,

Summer at our place.

Cheers,

Kat

and Now, a break from our regularly scheduled post.

Beijing Day 8 continued, the Great Wall and the Sacred Way.

The Great Wall of China is so big, you can see it from outer space.

According to Fodor's Beijing's 25 Best, it was built between the 5th century BC and 16th Century AD.

Like Hadrian's wall in Great Britain, it was built for defense. 

 The guide book warns of crowding, but we did not have to climb very far to get away from the crowds.

Some portions are quite steep.

My wonderful traveling companion posed for me. 

 The view is amazing.

The area is so lovely, well worth the effort it took to get there.

You can feel the history.

How many thousands of people have walked here in awe.

Lovely! 

 We also visited "The Sacred Way".

Our guide book calls it the spirit way, but the guide referred to it as the sacred way.

Translations must be difficult.

This group of vendors was set up outside the entrance.

If you look closely you can see one of them has her mouth wide open,

they were trying to out shout each other to get our attention.

Don't they look silly?

Great entertainment.

 The Sacred or Spirit way is a long avenue of willow trees and statues.

It leads to Ming tombs.

A lovely walk, with lots to look at.

Four scenes from the sacred way.

Does that guy on the bottom look familiar?

Here kitty, kitty.

Dinner was Beijing duck.

You may be more familiar with it as Peking duck.

Beijing is the modern name for Peking.

It was very good.

We saw a Kung Fu show after dinner.

I was growled at for taking pictures....

It was fun.

More soon.

Cheers,

Kat

Beijing, Day 7 and 8.

Beijing was our entry point to the country and our last stop on the trip.

It was also one of the busiest parts of the trip.

It is hard to believe we have been home for almost two months.

Beijing China.

 Monks at the Beijing Airport.

Our flight from Xian to Beijing was delayed by several hours.

When we arrived, we went straight to Tian'anmen Square.

This is The Monument to the People's Heroes on Tian'anmen Square.

The building behind it is Chairman Mao Zedong's Mausoleum. 

 We were there late in the evening. They have two of these giant screen TV's on the square.

Our guide said the pictures and video they are showing are "Beautiful China".

It was very surreal.

When I think of Tian'anmen Square, I think of Communist May Day parades and student riots that ended badly. What we saw was a place where local people gather in the evenings, and tourists, mostly Chinese, come to look.

 My Sweet Husband and I are standing in front of the Meridian Gate on the square.

It leads into the forbidden city.

See Mao's portrait behind us?

Seen on Tian'anmen Square. 

 The military presence is everywhere in China.

After exploring the square, we followed our guide through the gate for a walk through some imperial gardens.

We had dinner at a restraunt inside the gardens,

then off to our hotel for a good nights sleep.

We had another very good breakfast buffet before setting out on our way to the great wall. 

We drove past this shop front.

Looks like a Christmas store. 

It is hard to tell, but I think the animals along the roof are Lunar Calendar figures.

Do you know your year's animal?

I am a rabbit. 

This very unusual building was the site of some Olympic events.

Our guide called it the "Birds Nest". 

Another of Beijing's unusual buildings.

This is the Dragon Building.

Can you see the head? 

The smaller buildings behind it are meant to be the dragon's humps. 

This trycycle is certainly not a toy.

We saw several of these being used like small trucks. 

A visit to the Beijing Jade Carving Factory.  

Awesome stuff!

Jade Ship.

There were two of these in different parts of the store.

They are about 6 feet from bow to stern.

Tons of detail!

I knew I should have brought a bigger suitcase......

Oh, well, it is probably hard to dust.

Next stop is the Great Wall. I will post those photos soon.

Only a few days worth of pictures left to share.

Cheers,

Kat