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Our family and another family of good friends piled into their van for a trip to a nearby town about 3 hours away. We hadn't been there before and heard it was beautiful. We weren't disappointed.
On the way, we went up through a pass.
At the top - that's 12,500 feet - we romped through the snow for awhile. But we were soon too cold and retreated back to the van.
Tibetan prayer flags.
As we went down toward the town, we hit a change of scenery.
Noodles for dinner.
We came across a fairly quaint/cool walking street. That horse and buggy is made of metal.
Apparently Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs are big here.
And then came across some dancers. Here is a circle of Tibetans.
Another group of dancers weren't far away.
Local architecture
We spent Saturday morning in the hotel's hot spring pool. We had only heard about this pool, but it was a lot bigger than we expected. After a short time, all the girls cheeks were red from the warm water. And someone was hogging the rings.
Next to the hotel was a grassy area with a bunch of trees. We had a picnic lunch there. And shockingly no one came along and yelled at us to get off the grass. So while the girls played, we laid back on the blanket to rest a bit. This was our view ... and the only picture of the picnic.
We wanted to explore the local river, but when we arrived at a 'tourist' area to view the river, it was crawling with people. We did a u-turn and decided to find our own spot. This we did; it was super peaceful and beautiful.
For dinner, we went to a 'tea garden' where we had our own ... uhhh, room/tent/pavilion structure to eat in.
Lori with her 8 treasure tea.
The 'tea garden' restaurant is run by a few siblings of a local minority Muslim group. Here are a few of the siblings with the girls.
Then their kids got into the action. Can you tell who doesn't want to be in the picture?
The girls got excited by seeing a pig along side the road.
Then a three-wheeled truck full of workers were all smiles when we pulled up next to them.
On the way back home we saw a lot of yaks grazing. They're hard to see - they're the dark specks in the below picture.
It was an excellent weekend
and was refreshing to get a change of scenery. And it was yet another
reminder that we need to get out of town more often.
On Easter afternoon, we went outside with 90 decorated eggs - 84 boiled, 6 plastic - to hide and find them. Soon our apartment complex local friends started to come out to join us. Some had participated last year - "Are we going to look for eggs?!?!"
Soon about 12 local kids and our girls were gathered for the event. There was even a grandmother and her grandson. Also, many neighbors leaned out their windows to see what all the activity was about. Lori and I, along with two of our American neighbors, began to hide the eggs while the restless kids waited on the other side of the building. We got creative with our egg hiding - last year we were too easy on the kids. So we chose places like on top of a lamp post, on the edge of a pocket of a jacket hung out to dry, and under the egg crate. This last place was particularly tricky since the egg crate is where the kids put the eggs once they're found. Surely they'll NEVER think to look under the cardboard egg crate.
So we hollered for the kids to come, and immediately these kids came running and yelling with huge grins on their faces. They all dispersed and the egg crates began to fill up with found eggs. 88 were found. Two left - one in the laundry and one under the egg crate. Right at that moment, an elderly female voice from the 6th floor bellowed - "Look under the egg crate!!!" She had seen us hide that egg and gave away the secret. The kids quickly found it. I had to offer a hint for them to find the egg in the laundry.
Then we suggested that the kids hide the eggs and the four adults find them. They're response - "YEAH!!!" It was quite the challenge finding the eggs - some of them were buried in the dirt. The kids had to give us hints, and they were thrilled when we found them. Remarkably, we found - and the kids remembered the locations of - all 90 eggs.
Before we finished, we offered the kids to each take two eggs. They were ecstatic. One local girl, about 11 years old, took the eggs that had been written on them "I [heart] Lori" and "I [heart] Craig." When I told her the meaning, her face lit up with joy and said, "I am so fortunate!!!" Hilarious.
It was an incredibly fun afternoon.
Later at dinner, a knock came to our door and six neighborhood girls wanted to see our girls. They brought six painted eggs (not boiled) for them. So kind.
Before the hunt, the girls were adamant that I take some pictures of their favorite eggs. Here they are girls!
