Tea Mountain

We went to the breakfast buffet this morning in our hotel. Maelin found a new favorite food-watermelon! She ate 6 wedges of watermelon, half of a Mandarin orange, some low protein cereal, and some pretzels! She was a hungry little girl! After breakfast, we had about an hour and a half before our guide came to pick us up. We went back to the room and looked through pictures of family back home. She gets really excited when she sees a picture of Rylan (guh-guh big brother) or Keelan (gee-eh gee-eh big sister)! She really likes the picture of Raider (our pet chihuahua) too. She is going to love him, but he is going to hate her. He is an old fart that doesn't like to be bothered by children. He will be protective of her though. At 9:30 this morning, our guide came to pick us up to take us to Tea Mountain. Hangzhou is known for having the best green tea in China. It is very good, and very expensive. It is known as Dragon Whale tea. Tea Mountain is very beautiful as you can see in the pictures below. After walking around a bit and taking pictures, we went inside for a tea tasting and sales pitch. On the way back to the hotel, our guide stopped to get us some more dumplings for lunch. It was our request. Seriously, they are the best thing we have eaten in China. If the restaurant were in Denver City, we would eat there at least 5 times a week. Plus, enough dumplings to feed Kala and I only cost us $2! Our guide ordered for us and I waited for them while she went to another restaurant to get some rice and bean sprouts for Maelin. Our guide, Veronica, is so sweet. She is always looking out for us. In fact, at the restaurant last night, she insisted on us sitting where they really didn't want us to sit(that area of the restaurant was not being seated in yet) because they don't have non-smoking sections in restaurants. If we sit where nobody else is sitting, no smoke! This was the Texas Roadhouse of fish. As you walk in, you can go by the fish tanks and select the fish you want to eat. I posted a picture of it below. As you know, Kala ordered the duck-head and all. Enough about that. After lunch today, we walked down to the market by ourselves to get some more water and cokes. We also had to get a couple tea thermoses. Yes, we bought some tea. I'm telling you that lady at Tea Mountain was a good salesperson. I offered her a job at Electric Motor Repair, but she turned it down. Too bad, sales might have gone up by 50%. My girls, minus Keelan, are taking a nap right now. Our guide is at the notary's office picking up some of our documents that we will need for our Consulate appointment in Guangzhou next week. That reminds me, we come home a week from today. We are half way there! I hope everyone has a good Thursday, we have. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! We love you all. Rylan and Keelan, we miss you very much; and we are ready to come home and see you.