DuFu's Cottage and Antique Market

One of Matt's co-workers has a friend in town visiting for a few weeks. I volunteered to take her out one day this week. Venice, Brynn and I began the morning by taxing to DuFu's Cottage, which was the home of a famous poet from the Tang Dynasty. http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/sichuan/chengdu/dufu.htm It was a beautiful morning and the three of us had a good time exploring the grounds.

Brynn and me with DuFu

One of these may or may not be a picture of DuFu's cottage. We had trouble reading the map and the signs were all in Chinese.

We think this was a famous poem, because people were lined up to take pictures. We have no idea what it says.

After DuFu's we made our way down the street to Songxianqia Antique Market. We did a quick stroll through, as we were overwhelmed with all of the vendors and stuff everywhere.

Mt. Qingchengshan

Last Saturday our family, the Whitlock's and the Brewer's took the train to a nearby mountain called Mt. Qingchengshan. The train is brand new and very nice. It took about thirty minutes to get to our stop and then we took a 45 minute bus ride to the backside of the mountain. When we got off the train, it began to rain and it never slowed down. We were able to buy umbrellas and ponchos to help with the rain. However, we had to walk through ankle deep, muddy water and our rain gear didn't help with that. I was in a puddle when a car went through, so needless to say, I got really wet. Brynn stayed dry in a backpack with an umbrella wedged into her Daddy's back. We made it to a little town at the base of the mountain. It had some neat restaurants and shops. We got to look at where we could ride a chairlift up the mountain and climb, but it was closed due to the rain. We ate at a very good Chinese restaurant and drank some hot tea. The gang then headed back down to the train station. It was a little disappointing  not to be able to hike and explore, but we made the best of it and ended up having a great time. We are hoping to make it back up there soon and get to take in the scenery when it is dry!

 The only picture I got outside! This is before we set out in the rain. Brynn loved sitting in the backpack.

Waiting at the train station playing Kung Fu (I think that is the name of it) with the Whitlock's. I was terrible! Yes, Aimee and I have the same shirt on. We went shopping the day before and found them on sale and both ended up wearing them the next day. 

Board at the train station. Thank goodness we had Kira and Zack with us to help us translate and figure our how to get around!

Brynn says "Roll Tide" from China

The Alabama football season started off a little differently this year for Matt. On our Sunday morning, he set his alarm clock for 6:45 a.m to wake up for the game. He then prayed very hard that Jeff's sling box would work (thank you Jeff, it worked great and we hope you are feeling better!). While everyone was eating wings, pizza and nachos while watching the game we ate eggs, bacon and toast in our pajamas. Brynn even got to try on her cheerleader outfit. I bet she wins the award for the furthest away fan! Thankfully, next week Matt will be able to watch the game at a decent hour, but the others he will be waking up in the middle of the night.