Tag Archives: Forest

Operation Tutu

Jun
23
2012
by Tina | 1 Comment

operation_tutuJust had to share a very fun adventure with friends… Inspired by the Tutu Project that supports cancer patients on chemo, on a rainy day in June, a bunch of my friends got together at Bradley Lake in Puyallup in tutus. I was the lucky one chosen to capture it all on film. You can find at more about our ‘Operation Tutu’ on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/OperationTutu/.

Setting up our awnings to give us a dry place to retreat to…
Doesn’t Joyce just look darlings in her pink and black outfit?
Becca was willing to get ready in the rain…
Jeanglee – Love your tutu!
All different colored tutus!
Oops! Someone is missing their tutu… 🙂
All the love in one hug…
Becca and Dustin…
Big Al… What a charmer in his red tutu!
A tree tutu fairy!
All kinds of tree tutu fairies…
Here’s another shot of them…
Can you read the sign? What a riot!
The young ones… Nope, my kids didn’t participate.
They’re so sweet…
Isn’t he the cutest?
The ladies…
Ladies…
Ladies…
My favorite of the ladies…
Dustin – never met a man with more man than him…
The boys were heading down the path…
Here come the men…
HEE HEE HEE…
How can you not laugh?
Oh my!
The bum bum shot!
All together!
Aaron with his pink tutu and Grinch flannel pants…
The park is usually always packed… as you can see the rain kept all away.
Those who did come would just stop and stare at us.
Mary is so pretty in her pink tutu!
Mary
Looking cheery in yellow on a very dreary, cold day…
Connie posed for a bit…
Steve, got to love this man! My boys just love him.
Operation Tutu’s Group Leaders – Joyce, Donna, Jeanglee and Mary…
She flits. She floats…
They dance so well…
Connie and Joyce dancing…
Where you can find more information on the Tutu Project…
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Huangshan – Nine Dragon Waterfall

Apr
30
2012
by Tina | 1 Comment

ninedragonUpon rising with the ever-honking buses and loud speaking maids outside our door, at 6am we were up and ready to blow the joint. Passing up the breakfast from yesterday, we decided to head out for Hangzhou and Mike added a scenic route on the roadway that found us at the Nine Dragon Waterfall trailhead. At the entry was a sign saying this was one of the seven most famous waterfalls in all of China. How could be pass up viewing that? All was good until we realized there was the dreaded  S T A I R S … again. Oh, the kids were ready to hang it up. But I so wanted to see it so I convinced them to push on. I told them, “It ain’t over until the fat lady sings, and this fat lady is not singing!” It made them laugh and figure if Mom can make, they can.

We took the trail as far as it was open, which allowed us to see a good portion of the waterfall. All 984 feet of it. Very impressive. The water was clear and the air was fresh. What I loved was the ancient Buddhist Temple at the base of the big climb. Its days are numbered because on the other side of the river, they are erecting an astounding, jaw dropping new temple. Not even done, and it gave me goose bumps. By the looks of it, it will be completed this year. Oh, found another cute butt picture… This was of a little one not even old enough to walk on its own.

After leaving here we continued to Hangzhou and West Lake, our hotel was very nice, but the amount of people and the dreary weather left us going… what?! The sky was gray to the ground and never have seen so many people in my life. More than we saw in Beijing. It was unreal. So the next morning, we walked out to the lake and fought our way back to the van headed home to Suzhou. Obviously, Labor Day weekend was not a good time to visit West Lake. From what we heard, it never is. Hope you enjoy the photos…

…Click on any image to enlarge. Or better yet… click on the first photo and scroll through them all.

This was the first freaky looking bug we had run into. He was about three inches long and Mike had a blast irritating him… It was a Whipping Scorpion. (Photo by Mike)
We found him as we left the hotel and were getting in the van. He has a nasty stinger, huh? (Photo by Mike)
Of course, Briana couldn’t even make it past the ticket booth before a photo opt…
Zachary, Nathan and Briana
We thought our first 1.5 hours of walking was the waterfall. Ha! They may be waterfall for us at home, but not here..
Nathan and Zachary
Nathan and Zachary
Countryside had lots of pine and other deciduous trees but the bamboo forest was our favorite…
the kids…
Nine Dragon Falls is a less popular walk for tourist, in the Huang Shan…
Clear, pretty water…
Gate before the ancient Buddhist temple…
Old Temple…
A new bridge they just put in. It originally was a log bridge. I think they built it just for me. I wouldn’t had crossed the logs.
Nine Dragon Falls
One of the Halls of the New Temple
Bamboo Forest along the walk…
Nine Dragon Falls
This part of the trail was no biggie. It was when we got to the actual waterfall it became a doozy…
Nine Dragon Falls
Nine Dragon Falls
Nine Dragon Falls
Nine Dragon Falls
Nine Dragon Falls
It was such a nice area to be in. Very lush, smelled great and reminded us of a good walk in the Cascades.
Not a perfectly clear photo with no tripod, but the water is still pretty.
Great photo, Mike! (Photo by Mike)
Nine Dragon Falls
New growth on the trees was lush looking…
This was the bottom of the Nine Dragon Falls. From here we climb straight up. No rest for the wicked!
Nathan, Zachary and Briana
After climbing up hundreds of steps we reached this point, where we could view all of the falls.
From this point, the trail was closed.
Nathan
Nine Dragon Falls Flora
One of the Nine Falls up close…
Hey, it’s me! (Photo by Briana)
Once we got to the bottom of the steep climb down, the first seat was taken…
Photo opt!
Coming by the new temple again, I spotted the painting on the temple. Beautiful!
Also, realized there was not emperor on the end, it was a dragon instead.
Zachary and Nathan
What a Bamboo Forest looks like for a distance. Lace-y looking.
Mike
Now isn’t this cute?

 

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Our Very Own Cowboys…

Mar
01
2012
by Tina | 2 Comments

Just wanted to share these photos of Zachary, Nathan and their two friends, Hunter and Wayne. They had sleepover together during our stay at home and Zachary wanted some old styled photos as cowboys. Didn’t they turn out great? We had one of them printed out 24″ x 36″ and it is here with us in China hanging on our living room wall.

…Click on any image to enlarge. Or better yet… click on the first photo and scroll through them all.

Wayne, Zachary, Nathan and Hunter
Nathan, Wayne, Hunter and Zachary
Nathan, Wayne, Hunter and Zachary
Nathan, Wayne, Hunter and Zachary
Nathan, Wayne, Hunter and Zachary
Hunter, Zachary, Wayne, and Nathan
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Beijing – The Great Wall at Mutianyu

Jan
28
2012
by Tina | 6 Comments
great_wall

The Great Wall

Over two thousand years old and thousands of miles long, the Great Wall is China’s, and one of the World’s, most captivating historic site. Stretching from the Yellow Sea to Central Asia, the wall was originally built under China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang to protect against the northern invaders; something it never did effectively. The Chinese had historically built walled cities and regions. The Great Wall was just a consolidation of these focusing on the more vulnerable lowland and valleys. Fearful of the threat from the north, Qin Shi Huang linked the various regional barriers to make the first, crude version of the Wanli Changcheng using over a million laborers. After the fall of the short-lived Qin dynasty, the wall continued to serve its defensive purpose until the the empire expanded under the Tang and the wall found itself several hundred miles back from the front line. It wasn’t until the Ming dynasty the wall once again become a key importance. The original wall was built with rammed brick, the Ming dynasty began to bake bricks to rebuild the wall. Most of the sections of intact wall you can see around Beijing today, including Badaling, Mutianyu, Jiankou, Jinshanling and Simatai are Ming.

Here are some facts of the Great Wall…

  • The Wall is really, really long (no one knows quite how long, but at least 3,500 miles)
  • The Ming sections of the wall are around 23 feet high and almost as wide
  • There were once some 25,000 watchtowers

We decided to head towards Mutainyu for our visit. Since we were not in tourist season, we figured we would get a few stolen moments here on the Wall. Mutainyu offers more dramatic scenery and less crowds. The 1.5 mile stretch of wall is furnished with watchtowers and was first built as far back as the sixth century, rebuilt under the Ming and then extensively restored in the 1980s. Walking the restored portion didn’t compare to the walk we took on the original wall out to a fallen watchtower. It was a very moving moment to stand on the old portion of the Wall knowing its history. We all felt it. The Great Wall is Mike’s favorite of all he has seen so far in China. He was in his element out there on the old wall. Adding a bonus to the Wall experience, there is a toboggan ride we took to get back down from the wall to the parking lot. What a hoot! Mike and Zachary were getting busted all the way down by guards screaming at them to slow down. Nathan hung with me for a short bit and then took off. I video’d my ride down…

My one wish was to see some snow on the Great Wall. I was told to dream on by everyone because it rarely snows. It is just very cold. BUT, I did not stop wishing and upon arrival, we found that a light snow had fallen earlier in the morning and I got my wish. The snow helped the photos show the Wall better and it was just so darn neat! Here is Nathan playing at the steepest part of the wall…

Here are our photos.

…Click on any image to enlarge. Or better yet… click on the first photo and scroll through them all

A cold, lightly snowy day at Mutianyu – Nathan, Zachary and Briana
The Great Wall at Mutianyu
Shops that lined the walk way up to the ticket booth…
A painting available at one of the shops… HEE HEE HEE
Mike posing with a new hat…
Another hat.. which one was your favorite?
Briana’s turn… after this the shop lady busted us and we had to stop.
Took a chair lift up to the Wall – Briana and Zachary
Here’s a look at the toboggan ride, we took at the end to get back down…
Nathan and I (Photo by Mike)
The Great Wall (Photo by Mike)
The Great Wall (Photo by Mike)
Kids at the base of the Wall
Another pose at the base of the Wall
We’re Heroes! (Photo by Mike)
Nathan, Zachary and I (Photo by Mike)
Zachary, Briana and Nathan – 100% Heroes
The Great Wall (Photo by Mike)
The Great Wall (Photo by Mike) – check out all the graffiti, it was everywhere…
Mike and I (Photo by Briana)
The Great Wall
Hello! Having a grand time…(Photo by Mike)
The Great Wall
This part was steep and tilted…
Briana and Zachary doing a little Tebowing with Nathan
A nice guy you will see in the photos with two of the kids took this for us…
and this one too…
Wow! and NO he will never grow up when it comes to freakin’ me out…
This was one of valleys off the Wall…
Nathan (Photo by Mike)
Here’s the nice guy who took our photos posing with Nathan…
Here he is with Briana…
Another nice tourist from Columbia took this for us…
The Great Wall (Photo by Mike)
One of the Watchtowers (Photo by Mike)
Goofy girl!
More stairways in the tower (Photo by Mike)
Briana doing another Tebow in a window inside the Watchtower (Photo by Mike)
Boys had to do it too, but from another window…
The Great Wall (Photo by Mike)
This was the steepest part of the renovated portion of the wall. Nathan loved crawling up it.(Photo by Mike)
Nathan and I (Photo by Mike)
The Great Wall
The Great Wall
Zachary climbed out on a very exposed ledge. Crazy kid! Just like his daddy.
Nathan
Briana (Photo by Mike)
Me. Lots of photos of me this time, huh? (Photo by Mike)
The Great Wall
Mike and Nathan
Nathan
Briana
Briana
The Great Wall
The kids in another watchtower (Photo by Mike)
Zachary
Zachary and I. See the light snow?(Photo by Mike)
I took a photo of Mike taking a photo of Zachary and I…
Inside a watchtower…
The Great Wall
Nathan (Photo by Mike)
This is where it got a lot of fun, we left the renovated portion and continued on the original wall
The wall was only half as wide as the renovated portion. Zachary (Photo by Mike)
The Original Great Wall
Us on the Original Wall (Photo by Mike)
On the original Wall looking back at the watchtower. (Photo by Mike)
Briana on the original Wall
The Wall went up to the far away peaks and ran along the top. (Photo by Mike)
We stopped at the watchtower. Big difference from the renovated ones, huh?
Original Watchtower in the foreground with the renovated one in the back.
Briana (Photo by Mike)
Nathan, Briana and Zachary
Nathan, Briana and Zachary
The Great Wall
The Great Wall
The Great Wall
Zachary and Nathan (Photo by Mike)
The Great Wall
The Great Wall (Photo by Mike)
The Great Wall
On our way to the toboggan, Briana spied some chin-glish…
Nathan (Photo by Mike)
Photo opportunity awaited us at the bottom – yes, it cost RMB.
Our driver took us to a little-hole-in-the-wall for lunch. Great food!
Briana at lunch. They had donkey on the menu. Can you imagine? Yuck!
Me, Mike and Zachary (Photo by Briana)
Me, Mike, Zachary and Nathan (Photo by Briana)
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Sichuan Province – Mt Emei and City of Emeistan

Nov
19
2011
by Tina | 2 Comments
Emei

Kids in front of the stone saying “Mt Emei”

For the weekend, we decided to leave Chengdu and adventure up in the mountains. Our plan was to head to Mt Emei for a hike, return to the city of Emeistan to stay the night, get up the next morning and go to LeShan to see the largest, pre-modern statue of Buddha ever made and then make a mad dash to the airport to return home to Suzhou. In order to do this, we hired a driver, suggested to us from our hotel, who took us everywhere we needed for the weekend. He also arranged for us to attended the Sichuan opera after our hike in Emeistan. (Sichuan Opera specializes on the quick changing masks. The kids were very tired and did not want to attend, but was thoroughly re-energized and loved the opera due to it color and lively presentation.)

Mt Emei has been considered holy by both the Taoists and Buddhists since the Eastern Han dynasty. We originally thought this was a single mountain climb up to one temple and it took over three days to complete. How wrong we were. Come to find out, it has various peaks, with many temples that have short routes that can be easily taken in a day. If one wanted to see it all, every route would require three days to hike. For a day, we easily saw three temples and wild monkeys and went to our hotel very sore from all the up and down staircases.

Many of the temples are dedicated to the Bodhisattva of Universal Benevolence who was said to have ascended the mountain in the 6th century on top of six tusked elephant. Mt Emei is also full of plant species: 3200 plant species, which is over 10% of China’s total botanical life. The most visible of the animal life is the aggressive monkeys, Tibetan Macaque, who freaked our guide out so much he would not continue on the walk when they came into view. We did of course. You can see the video with Briana’s excited OMG! MONKEY talk.

We took a cable car up over many tea fields to a pathway that led to the amazing temple of Wannian–the oldest surviving building on Mt Emei dating to 1611 that houses the famed golden statue of Puxian on the White Elephant with Six Tusks. From there we walked down to a Bailong Cave (the cave is so small you blink and you might miss it as you can see in the photos) and its temple where couples hang prayers for their upcoming marriage and just outside this temple is a 1000 year old tree said to be planted by an emperor. From there we walked down to Qingyin Pavilion, up a trail to see the monkeys and practically ran to get back to the last bus leaving Mt Emei for the night.

We all had incredibly shaky legs from stairs and a lot of my pictures, you are not seeing them here, showed how much I weebled and wobbled. A lot of photos were throw aways. Nathan was the smart one who purchased a bamboo stick from an older lady for 3RMB. The stick was helpful with walking and Mike used it to protect us from the monkeys. Mike was so heroic fighting off the monkeys with Nathan’s stick. He made sure no monkey could get to his kids or me. Of course, he had met a gal a bit down the trail who had shared that she was just attacked and bitten by a monkey. With the guide refusing to continue the trail to view the monkeys, Mike was ready for anything.

It was pretty funny once we reached our four star hotel. Hah! We got one room that had two twin beds. Five people… two twin beds… add in we could barely get around the beds. To make it through the night we put the bed together and sleep with one person on the end and four lined up. It was a tight squeeze but if any family can do it. It’s us. The opera was a good chance for us to get out of that tiny room. We would have not survived well if we would have been there all night.

I would like to share something about a symbol you will see throughout China. It is the swastika. The swastika has been a symbol of good luck for thousands of years. It stands for good fortune and prosperity. It is found in all the temples and is placed on a lot of the buddhas. So don’t be shocked when you see the buddha with it on his chest.

Here’s Briana screaming over the monkeys. This video just makes us laugh and laugh…

Hope you like the photos.

…Click on any image to enlarge. Or better yet… click on the first photo and scroll through them all

Zachary hates heights and the views from the car made him nervous
the Bridge (Photo by Mike)
Monkey (Photo by Mike)
Monkey at Mt Emei
Monkey at Mt Emei
Monkey at Mt Emei
Monkeys guarding the next suspension bridge back. This is where Mike had to defend his family.
Another person getting attacked.
We stayed and watched those going across the bridge and the monkeys leaping from person to person.
Me (Photo by Mike)
Mike and the boys
The clouds made the Mt so magical to me…
Mt Emei
Briana
Mt Emei
Mt Emei with Fall colors
A lake toward to bottom of the Mt
A hotel on the lake
The bridge over the lake
Me (Photo by Mike)
The Statue in the Center of the City of Emeistan
The ceiling of the opera house
Even a little mysterious…
The Opera Stage. The ladies were auctioning art.
Mt Emei
Mt Emei
Shops are lined up right at the top where we got off the cable car
Puxian and his Elephant
Map of Mt Emei
Zachary and Briana at the entrance to Wannian Temple
Shishi is the Stone Lions guarding doorways. Come in pairs–male on the right and female on the left as you look toward the doorway
Mt Emei
Female Shishi
Mt Emei
Mt Emei
The Entrance Gates to Wannian Temple
Devotees in front of the hall
Devotees and incense burners in front of the hall
Incense Burners in front of the hall. The air was breathtaking. Smelled so good.
Kids in front of the stone saying “Mt Emei”
The Temple with the Golden Puxian and his Elephant inside
The Wannian Temple – Just to let you know even though there are three doors, you enter from the left door and leave on the right. Never enter the center door-monks only.
Turtles in the pond in front of the Temple.
Another Shishi
Puxian and his Elephant
Puxian and his Elephant
Puxian and his Elephant -the Statue was huge and impressive
Wannian Temple
Wannian Temple
The Hall prior to the Temple
We find these same 3 Buddhas in each hall prior to the main temple in all the Temples we have been to.
These were the Monks on the left of the 3 Buddhas
These were the Monks on the right of the 3 Buddhas – loved reading their faces.
A Buddha
Falls Colors on Mt Emei
Fall Colors on Mt Emei
Mt Emei
It’s amazing all that is made here was brought in my hand. There are no roads. All pathways are concreted.
Koi Pond in the Wannian Temple grounds
This is as foggy as it got on this day…
As we walk, there are older people on the sides of the staircase selling things.
Zachary
Mt Emei
Fall leaves on Mt Emei
More fall leaves on Mt Emei
We stopped for lunch at our guide’s family house. Nathan and Zachary…
We tried two teas. One with bamboo and the other with tea styled leaves. Bamboo was the best.
With little sun, all have arthritis. This medicine is used to help. Briana wasn’t feeling well so she drank a glass and was able to make it thru the day
The special medicine drink – comprised of wine and an enormous amount of herbs…
Zachary
Found a friend along the way…
Zachary and Nathan by the cave and its temple for couples
The Infamous Cave… We never did find the opening.
A funny stick caterpillar…
Local spider…
The Cave’s Temple
Incense Burner
Incense Burner
Incense Burner
Kids by the prayer ribbons. Briana is making a heart with her hands.
This type of fern tree is supposed to have existed with the dinosaurs
The Cave’s Temple
Here’s the story on the old tree…
The tag on the old tree…
The Old Tree
More sellers on the staircase
The Pavilion
The Pavilion
Stone carvings on the way up to the monkeys
Another carving…
Zachary is on the way to the only toilet we found. It was down a hillside and across the river. (Photo by Mike)
Briana, Nathan and Zachary at the Cable Car Entrance
Boys coming back from the toilet. (Photo by Mike)
The toilet from where Briana and I waited…
Briana and her favorite little oranges. We ate massive amounts of them. So juicy and sweet with no seeds.
Onward! (Photo by Mike)
Mt Emei
Briana
Mt Emei on the Monkey Trail (Photo by Mike)
Briana and I (Photo by Mike)
Mt Emei on the Monkey Trail
Mt Emei on the Monkey Trail
Zachary and Nathan in the Cable Car
Mt Emei on the Monkey Trail
Mt Emei on the Monkey Trail
Mt Emei on the Monkey Trail
Mt Emei on the Monkey Trail
Mt Emei on the Monkey Trail
Mt Emei on the Monkey Trail
Zachary
Mt Emei on the Monkey Trail
A sign we saw back at the Mannian Temple about the monkeys.
The dreaded suspension bridge to the monkeys. Dreaded because I hate heights. This is where our guide stopped.

 

 

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