Travels with mom

Some photos of our recent travels with Ev's mom ...

Here we are in huge and fabulous Buddhist temple in the ancient canal town of Zhouzhuang

 The posts and trees were covered with red ribbons in places which release the wishes and prayers of the individual that ties them on. We each had a ribbon that we tied together by the large fish pond and let our wishes flutter to the heavens!

The town of Zhouzhuang was a fabulous place to wonder around - the canals date back centuries and formed trading routes between the coast and the inland cities like Beijing. Zhouzhuang was an important and rich town that traded spices and silk between Shanghai, Suzhou and Beijing.

 Another day we took a cruise along the Huangpu River, past modern and old buildings to the Yangzi River and South China Sea - here we are going under the Yangpu Bridge

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Mom got quite brave and explored a lot of Shanghai by herself (including a 3 hour hair salon extravaganza all in Chinese) - she also tried some Chinese specialities such as dim-sum, dried bamboo shoots, stuffed lotus root and tofu. We also spent some time wandering the city together - here we are in the French Concession in an arty/trendy shopping area developed from old alleyways and buildings (Tianzifang)

We spent a great weekend in one of our favorite places - Hangzhou - famous for it's beautiful lake, pagodas and temples and long history. It is peaceful and relaxing - here we are enjoying some of the local green tea grown in the nearby tea terraces sitting by the edge of the lake by a pagoda - doesn't get much better than this!

 One of the highlights was a visit to the enormous Lingyin Temple that dates back centuries

 Despite it's age, the temple is still very actively used and we saw many worshippers praying and burning paper offerings for their ancestors

Although most breathtaking of all was the 10th - 14th century rock carvings that covered the hill there - supposedly magically flown there - FeiLai Feng (The Hill that Flew There) - there seemed like hundreds of carvings and they were truly breathtaking - definitely a highlight of our recent travels - and how cool to share it with mom.

Now, we are into the National Holiday with several days off work - it's time for us to commit to plans and make bookings as we prepare for what is next in 4 months time .... In the meantime, Andy has begun training for a 1/2 marathon in December and we just scored tickets to the Shanghai Tennis Masters (center court!!!) to see the likes of Nadal and Murray duke it out - Andy is so excited!!!