Weekend trip...

Last weekend we joined the Kids Club and 10 other families for an

overnight getaway. We took a bus for 2 hours to Huzhou. We stayed a very nice hotel, Leidisen. Even had a great balcony overlooking Taihu Lake.

Unloaded our suitcases and then headed out for a 20 minute boat ride on the lake. It was nice having different scenery, but this lake was sooo stinky and polluted! It was pretty sad to hear that it is the 2^nd biggest lake in China too.. It was still fun though J

 

 

Was hoping this was our boat, but....

Here was our's :) Not the beautiful Chinese one, but it floated!

 

Our hotel on the lake

Saw a few brides out by the lake. Check out her shoes :)

This was a pretty cool building that was under construction. Was told it even goes underwater.

Not quite sure what these statues represented, but they were all around this area when we were walking.

After our boat trip we headed back to the hotel for a BBQ dinner and some crafts for the kids. Definitely would say it wasn't the type of BBQ I was hoping for, but was able to enjoy the bread and gelato :) LOL

The next morning ate breakfast at the hotel and then hopped back on the bus for 45 minutes and went to Di Gang Fishing Village. While there we walked around, played on a playground and exercise equipment (ha ha), watched a demonstration of making tofu and rice cakes, went fishing, and had the most local food to date!

Everyone on this trip was so great and all 18 kids got along very well. Rilynn made a new friend from Finland, while Brady had his friend Brycen there too.

Making tofu

Fishing!

For 15rmb (~$2.25) we were able to rent ginormous poles and given some bait.

Some of our local feast. They seriously kept bringing out more and more!! I'm sure they brought out at least 25+ different dishes. Had to use chopsticks, but did manage to get full :) Not really quite sure what I ate, something fried and just told myself it was a chicken nugget!! HA.. The grossest part was seeing the photographer sitting at our table eating the fish head!!!

After our very local lunch we headed back on the bus for a 30 minute drive to Nanxun, a well preserved old water town. We walked through the city and toured the former private residences and gardens of Nanxun’s wealthiest families. One of the homes had almost 200 rooms in it, it was HUGE and very beautiful.

Yes, that would be a chicken getting washed off in the canal. Who needs a sink?!? Ha!

Definitely not a gondola in Venice :)

A beautiful garden. Last month they said all these had flowers on them. That would've been great to see!

Our family :)

Love signs here. It's fun trying to figure out what they are saying :)

We decided after this trip we need to do more of these overnight one's. There are so many cool local towns nearby that we're going to try and visit more!