Day Full o’ Fun!

Saturday we all slept in a bit and I got up and took inventory of everything Dad had brought me from home (I had made a list and Mom went shopping for me and TOTALLY came through for me)!! Here’s all the awesome stuff I got – I really felt like it was Christmas, laid it out on the table just so I could soak it all in… I love presents and I swear it doesn’t take too much to make me a happy girl!

Magnets for the fridge
Bug spray wipes
Bug bracelets (I have never seen these but whatever works – the mosquitoes are legendary here)
Bug spray
Lysol Disinfectant spray
Benadryl stick
Tide to Go stick
Deodorant (3)
Loofahs (3)
Cotton face pads (2)
Folders
Notebook
Notepads (Mom knows I love lists)
Receipt system folder
Stationery
Envelopes
TONS of oatmeal (maple brown sugar which is the kind I like)
Goldfish!

After I finished looking at all of my great stuff, we got ready and headed to the Renaissance hotel for a lovely treat – American breakfast buffet! Enjoyed a delicious meal together, and then we got on our way to Tiger Hill, which is a historical Chinese temple and garden with its own leaning tower that predates the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We had a great time walking around, taking pictures, and enjoying the gardens, temples, and sites – including a ton of Chinese people, the largest Bonsai garden I’ve ever seen (was really cool) and a traditional Chinese show of some sort! The weather was gorgeous, so we were very fortunate.

After a couple of hours and hundreds of pictures later, we decided to show Dad the walking street (not sure what it’s real name is) which is where a lot of the locals shop, the temple that is there with lots of burning incense, and then we kept going to a more traditional area of Suzhou with small alleyways to a nice, quaint street along the waterway. There is a nice English bookstore along this street that I’ll be going back to again sometime, soon, I think!

Then we spent FOREVER trying to hail a taxi cab to get us to Bar Street which is where we were going to have lunch at a famous local place (famous as in Lonely Planet famous, not “very, very famous” in Chinese standards the way that *everything* is, haha). Finally we made it over there, and enjoyed an amazingly delicious lunch – steamed dumplings, a beef hot pot dish, and something called “tourist fish” which is a fish mutilated into an awesome blossom type deal, fried, and coated in a sweet and sour sauce. Doesn’t look appetizing, and probably doesn’t sound it, but it was pretty good! The meal was great, we had a nice breeze by the window on the second story overlooking the waterway, and with tummies full we couldn’t go wrong! Then we walked bar street for a bit longer, then caught a taxi home where we all rested for awhile. Dad and I catnapped, Curt played video games, then we decided to watch a movie before cleaning up and heading to dinner.

Since we had a late lunch, we headed out at around 8 p.m. to see if we could catch another laser light show at the fountains (they had gone off at 7 p.m. while I was in the shower, so Dad saw them from our balcony complete with the music that echoes off the buildings, but we have yet to see them actually from the shore, so maybe someday). After waiting around for a few minutes, we started the 45 minute walk along the lake to Mario’s, the oh-so-yummy Italian restaurant that we knew Dad would love! This time I got the pizza that Curt had last time, Curt got the same, and Dad got some spaghetti. We also shared some focaccia to start with which was SO good, and the meal was just great. We had limoncello to finish the meal (Curt had grappa), and shared tiramisu, then taxi home!

By then it was around 11 p.m. so we all went to bed after talking to Mom and Kendyl.

So that’s Saturday, and it was just so fun having Dad here… enjoy the pics!