Summer Palace

June 6^th

Another early start today…we really don’t like waking up our sleeping beauty when she is obviously so tired from all these ‘life changes’ this past week.  It will be so nice once home to be on a more consistent schedule for her. 

The Summer Palace was beautiful…in many ways it reminded us of Stanley Park.  It really isn’t a ‘palace’ as in just one building, but rather a man-made lake with a stone walkway bridge going over it, with different buildings for various uses.  As usual, the architecture was incredible to see.  There was an orchestra playing in one of the open buildings, so you could hear the wonderful music throughout.  There are boats to take to go across the water to the other areas of the ‘palace’, but we did not have enough time to explore much as the palace encompasses such a huge area.  Mataeus enjoyed pushing his little sister in the stroller…and is very protective of her when people stop to look and take pictures.  He is grossed out by the children he sees in the split pants everywhere, as he doesn’t understand why they allow their ‘private parts’ to be seen by all…we told him we could get him a pair, but he declined…haha!

Next we stopped at a pearl factory…we learned a lot about the differences between ocean versus fresh water pearls, and how to tell between fake and real ones.  It is incredible how many fresh water pearls are found in an oyster…easily over 30!   And it looked really neat to see how the pearls are embedded inside the oysters flesh. 

In the afternoon while Thea was napping, I went to the Silk Market with some of the other ladies from our travel group.  I was able to bargain good prices for some Chinese dresses (chee pows) for Thea, plus I bought my very first pair of skinny jeans (it’s about time I enter into the fashion of the times, right Heidi?..lol.

After the long day…and Mataeus showing off his new 'pringles trick'...I literally passed out when we put the kiddies to bed…J