Day 11

Our last full day in Nanjing. And, we're ready to move on, for a lot of reasons. Each day we've been here, we've had fun experiences and made memories. And, today was no exception.

We met our guide this morning and she took us to the local lake. Lots to see and do there. We didn't know what to expect, but  we had a great time. When you first walk through the city wall gate (part of the same ancient wall we toured the other day) you see a lotus garden. There were thousands of lotus plants lining the bank of the lake, with their huge green leaves and their bright pink flowers. We took lots of pictures of the lotus flowers, because they were so beautiful and unique.

As we kept walking our way around the lake, we saw people flying kites, and we saw some bumper boats. Elliott was desperate to do the bumper boats, so we paired up and rode. Each boat could only handle two riders, so Elliott and Kris rode in one and Hannah and Calla rode in one. We decided that Anne would wait behind with Ruthie. Just as Kris and Elliott were climbing in, Ruthie came running up and wanted to get in the boat with the boys. So, she sat in Kris' lap through the whole boat ride. We didn't expect her to do well once the bumper boat left the dock, but she did great. She had fun seeing Hannah and Calla in another boat (and bumping in to them). She seems to be getting over her fear of Kris a bit. When she's tired, she still only wants Anne, but in her good moments she is really a lot of fun. As we were walking through the park, Kris leaned down to take a picture of the two of them together. She absolutely loves seeing pictures of herself on our iPhones. Kris took the picture and said "selfie!" As he stood back up, she repeated "selfie!" Add that to her growing list of English words she's learning. 

After the boats, there were a lot of other fun things to see at the lake. It was hot, but we walked around and saw some more old ladies dancing (our guide said they were square dancing, and it was very common, just as we had seen outside our hotel last night), we saw some street musicians, and we saw some really unusual rock formations that occur naturally at the lake. We also saw an area where people come and write their wishes on a red ribbon and tie it to a tree. Families will do that on Chinese New Year and then come back the next year to reflect on the year. The trees were absolutely full of red ribbons. It did make us stop and think about what a significant year it has been for our family, and what God might have in store for us over the next year. 

Another interesting area they had at the lake park was a bunch of hand written papers hanging from trees. There were a lot of older people milling around and reading the papers. Our guide told us that the papers were basically personal ads. Older people will look through the ads, trying to match up their children to get married. We thought it was funny that only the older parents were out looking for matches, and none of the children themselves.

As we headed back to our hotel, we decided to get a bite to eat. We put ourselves in the hands of our trusted guide, and she took us to a fast food Chinese place. Not sure what it was called, but the sign said "Style." It was a buffet-style place, where you got a little meat of your choosing, and little veggies, and a little rice or dumplings. Anne and Kris both agreed that it is really hard to order food here. For one, it it difficult to recognize what kind of meat you are looking at, and for another, you can't really tell what it is going to taste like just by looking at it. So, we got a few things that looked appealing, or at least that looked more appealing than the other options. Kris grabbed some meat and our guide said, "Are you sure you want that?" Not sure what it was, but we think it must have been oxtail. That is our best guess. At any rate, it was better than the chicken that Anne got. Even Ruthie wouldn't eat that. Still, it is hard to complain when lunch for 6 costs only $6.00.

After lunch it was nap time, and swimming for the older kids. Ruthie took a long nap, so we all got some good down time. We hung around the room for a while, and noticed that it was raining. That dampened our plans to go back out and explore the city. So, we wandered around the mall for a bit and got some dinner to take to the room. 

We spent the evening having more fun just being together. Ruthie is a blast. Full of energy and spunk and silliness.

We'd appreciate your prayers for our travel tomorrow. We'll leave here in the afternoon. We'll spend the morning packing and getting ready. Conveniently, our pastor told us what verses he'll be preaching on, so we'll spend some time in the morning reading and worshipping as a family. That helps us feel connected to our faith family while we're away.