Out Of Town Trip!

Since arriving in China, one of us has been sick so we haven't had the chance to travel! Finally we were both healthy enough we decided to get out of town! We went to Hangzhou, which is really only 1 hour away, but it was enough!

This is us at the train station, barely making it after getting off at the wrong stop from the bus, they really need to update the bus schedules. It is very interesting traveling in a foriegn country, you think you have all the info you need to get around, and something always suprises you! After riding the train for an hour, we arrived in Hangzhou train station, got a taxi and of course the driver had now I dea what hotel we were looking for. Luckily we bought a map and could point to the general location of our hotel. He took us pretty close to where we wanted, but we still walked 2-3 minutes (not bad we thought).

I about cried as we walked into the lobby and heard christmas music, and then saw this tree! In our apt. we have a 2 ft tree, and it is scarcely decorated. The hotel was awesome. It had christmas decorations everywhere!! After being in a city that doesn't have decorations this was lovely!



Hangzhou is nown for the West Lake. This is a View of it from the restaruants window! The restaruant was pretty good. We were excited about the hamburger and fries! We haven't had a real one since arriving in China!


Another View from the restaraunt. Notice the guy out of the window? we wouldn't want his Job! Especially being 7 floors up! And yes he did just climb out the window to water the plants!
I fell in love with these fish... they were so funny to watch! Look at those big lips. I even saw two kissing, but didn't have my camera this trip!

Doesn't he look like he is pouting!?




For Michelle(and anyone else that loves Amazing Race): I think these were Amazing Race China contestants. There were teams running everywhere all over the West Lake Park.


3-D Map of Hangzhou, pretty cool.Usually you see teenagers or someone in their twenties doing this skating thins (there's a name for it and I just can't think of it!) We saw some pretty old men doing it though!

Another A.R. Team.

Ahh, Michael was very happy to see this place! We went in to get warm, and enjoyed some real Strawberry Ice cream.... mmmmm.

More A.R. runners.

When we become really really really really really rich, we think we would like this car. But then again, we would never drive it because it is so beautiful and we wouldn't want to get a scratch or dent in it.... so then what would be the point? I guess we'll just look.

The musical Fountains. No Belligio Foutains in Vegas, but still pretty good. After this, we had about 2 more hours until our returning train left, so we decided to get a foot massage... oh the pain, but it felt sooooo Good! Not as Cheap as ones we have had here before, but compared to US prices, worth it!

The joys of little things, even a little hamburger in BK. It was also really really nice to get a steady stream of hot water with lots of pressure in the hotel shower, hear english, see other foreigners that we didn't know, not having to wear a coat 24/7, eat beef, have a huge soft (er) bed, and Just have a vacation!!