Mu's mansion and mountain views from the Old City

Breakfast yesterday at Lamu's House of Tibet, our new favorite place, right across the street from our inn.

Michael had the Tibetan breakfast special: yak yogurt, yak butter tea and tsampas..all tolerably good, but weird.

Helen wants you to know that Mommy bought her a ring that a big girl would wear, and she is taking excellent care of it.

We went exploring to the Mu mansion, a Ming-style palace on the edge of the old town, where the ruling family of the area once lived. It had fallen into disrepair and was completely destroyed, but was reconstructed from historical records in 1998. So it has that new feeling, but still visually pleasing.


My favorite part was the hillside Jade Garden, with some flowers still in bloom even in January.

From the garden we began climbing up the covered stairs to the Lion Hill Park, with views of the rooftops of the old town and the mountains beyond.



Thomas took this picture..a nice one, I think. The weather has been cold (in the 40s) and crisp, with some sun.

We visited a Taoist temple, where we didn't take pictures but did have a nice chat with the priests about the girls. The priest told me my Chinese was very good...nice of him to lie like that.

The yin yang symbol is associated with Taoist beliefs.

Please forgive all the mountain photos -- I am so captivated by the views.



I love seeing all the babies on their moms' backs...a few minutes before taking this picture, we ran into some people we know...what are the odds? They are teachers from Xi'an who had been on the Sichuan bus trip with us back in October. They had just finished hiking the Tiger Leaping Gorge-- the major hiking destination around here for the hardy twentysomething crowd.

At night we wished on a floating candle and followed it down the canal through the city,

Altogether a satisfying day..in the afternoon we spent several hours doing nothing...reading in the courtyard while the kids watched gong fu movies on TV. After the little girls went to sleep, we left Thomas in charge and walked two steps out the door for a drink, which was a thrill for us..and a foretaste of the future when Thomas will be old enough to babysit regularly!