China: Part 1b

 Here are the rest of the pictures for Part 1:

 

Google picture showing Tienanmen Square at the bottom and
The Forbidden City at the top. We walked the entire length of both.

Statue of Mao Tse Tung in front of his Mausoleum. It is opened occasionally,
when long, long lines of people queue up for a free visit.

Tienanmen Square, where the student protest took place.

Map of The Forbidden City

Google picture from above of the Forbidden City

Explanation of the many gates and features of the Forbidden City

Where the Emperor would receive visitors

Walking in the Imperial Garden

The Beijing Opera principle character, The Emperor, applied
his own make-up on stage and then was helped into his costume. 

The final addition was his ornate wig with long hair and a long
beard but we apparently didn't get a picture of it. 

China: Part 1a

Here are some pictures from our first day in China. The rest of the pictures for Part 1 are on the next entry. Facebook is blocked in China, and all Google programs are limited, so most posting had to wait until we returned. It was a fabulous trip. Once again we were traveling with Kris and Heidi. Heidi had found a trip sponsored by the Chinese government that flew both members of each couple from Detroit to Toronto to Beijing for a stay that included three nights on a cruise boat on the Yangtze River, three flights within the country, and all our meals, hotels and activities for less than $5000! China is a vast and amazing country. The following are a few pictures of our first day in Beijing, on April 14 (I think. The time change and long flights made the calendar a bit confusing!). We did a rickshaw/pedicab ride in an old neighborhood, walked the extensive grounds of the Temple of Heaven, visited Tiananmen Square, and finished at the Forbidden City.  That evening after the first of many, many typical Chinese dinners (which were just like the lunches) we attended a Chinese Opera, which was a real culture shock for the ears!

This map shows where we will be going for our tour, starting from Beijing

Our first hotel, the Loong Palace

Jeff, our wonderful tour guide, had very good English
and taught us some useful Chinese words and phrases.

Typical Beijing neighborhood street

Jeff explains the government controlled pedicab system
in the Hutong (traditional old neighborhood)

Ready to roll

Our driver did a lot of huffing and puffing on his creaky old bike. Despite
tipping the amount Jeff had told us to give him, he didn't seem very happy with it.

The narrow old streets in the Hutongs were not laid out with cars in mind.

A typical inner courtyard with the living quarters on all four sides.
Rooms here can be rented for overnight stays.

Canal along the edge of the Huton that led to a man-made lake.

The dragon tiles on the roof indicate this was once owned by a royal family.

A map of the grounds for the Temple of Heaven. We explored the park-like lower level and then
mounted the stairs up to the complex of buildings surrounding the upper level with the Temple of Heaven.

Ready to climb up to the Temple of Heaven

Climbing up to the Temple of Heaven

The Temple of Heaven from the plaza level

(See next Blog page for the rest of Part 1 pictures.)

Winter Trip: Homeward Bound

Tuesday (Happy Birthday, Jordan!) it was nice to be at a site with sewer hook-up because we could do everything needed to winterize right where we were. In fact, we were packed, cleaned, closed-up, and on the road well before 10:00.  It was another sunny day in the seventies and we made good time and good mileage with a tail wind. We stopped at a Rest Area and had lunch out of the leftovers in the cooler, and then stopped at a Cracker Barrel around Nashville, TN for dinner, and made it to Elizabethtown, KY to a Comfort Inn for the night, both remarking how different the drive north in the sun was from the drive south in the snow had been. We had a call from The Desk at 10:30 saying that there had been complaints about someone smoking weed in our hallway, where only 4 rooms were occupied, and they were going to involve the police if it continued. Tee-hee! Lucky it wasn’t us. J We had a good breakfast Wednesday morning and got to Indianapolis in time to buy Jordan a Mind Craft set to give him for his birthday, along with the promise to choose something online to go with it. Sarah and Analyn hadn’t returned from Preschool yet, so we took our stuff in the house and made our lunch from the cooler contents again. Despite some light drizzle we played outside when the boys got home from school. When Craig got home we gave Jordan his present and then we took everyone out for dinner downtown to celebrate. 

Jordan is such a dramatic guy!

What a joy to see that both boys are very good readers!

Big brother, Eli, "helps out".

Analyn, Jordan and Elijah check out the new Mine Craft set

Dessert was at an ice cream place across the street, where Elijah’s basketball team was having a season’s end party. The coach had taken Sports Illustrated covers of famous basketball players and superimposed the boys’ pictures on them and laminated them, which the kids found uproarious. As he handed them out he talked about each individual and what made him an asset to the team. It was a really nice gesture. 

Eli gets his picture and accolades

We left Thursday by 9:00 and met Ken, Jen, and Josh at the Bob Evans in Auburn for an early lunch. Marv pulled up to Mirabella’s Salon right at 2:30 to drop me off for my hair appointment and went home to begin unpacking and putting away. In East Lansing the temperatures were in the fifties and the crocuses and hellebores were in bloom. A warmer than usual Spring was predicted which will make our Coming Home easier.  It had been another nice Winter Trip and we were so grateful to be home safely. We drove 4112 miles and averaged 17.5 mpg. I biked 90.4 miles and Marv had done 8-10 more. Our experiment with staying in the same place for extended periods of time had worked well and we found it to be a quieter, less eventful trip than some we have had. 

A riot of crocuses

Hellebore poking through the leaves

Our next trip is two weeks in China in April. Come back to read all about it! 

Winter Trip 2016-Eufaula, AL 2

Sunday, March 6 Carol, Marv, and I (Macel passed on this) got up at 6:15 and climbed in our truck to drive to Plains, Georgia, home of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. We had to leave early because Georgia is Eastern Time Zone and Alabama is Central Time Zone but we wanted to attend the 10:00 Bible Study that President Carter leads most Sundays when he is home. The drive is a pretty hour or so through rolling hills of pines and not much else. There are a couple of small, old, decaying towns along the way. Plains is untouched by modernity and as modest as it was when Jimmy was born there over 90 years ago. Time has truly stood still and there are no McDonald’s or Wendy’s or Walmarts or anything else. There is a one side of one block “downtown” and the old depot that was his campaign headquarters has been restored across the street from the old hotel and a general store. We found Maranatha Baptist Church, where the parking lot was overflowing and a Secret Service man walked a sniffer dog around the truck before we could park. The church members are allowed in the main door to the sanctuary while the visitors go in a different door and are again checked by Secret Service. The sanctuary was full by then and we had to sit separately in the overflow seating in the social hall with a TV monitor of the sanctuary (some people were turned away when it was full). Women were giving instructions of how the morning would go. The Church Service would follow the Bible Study and one could have ones picture taken with the Carters after the Church Service. But we had already decided we wouldn’t stay for that. Jimmy came into our area first to greet us, ask where people came from, and answer some questions. He is smaller with age but still sharp as a tack with a gentle sense of humor. 

When asked, he announced that his cancer has responded so well to the experimental treatment he received that his doctors have said there is no sign of cancer and that he doesn’t need more treatment. Then he went to the sanctuary, where we watched on the TV as he again asked where people had come from and then began his Bible Study with a lesson on The Last Supper and what it means to humbly offer oneself to God. He is so thoughtful and so humble himself that it was wonderful to listen to him and feel his inspiration. In the midst of this crazy, crazy Presidential race he makes me wish the candidates would emulate his moral humility. Just down the road is the high school building that Rosalynn and Jimmy both attended and is now a National Park museum about their life up to and beyond the White House. The three of us spent a long time there, perusing the exhibits and learning about the campaigns and their Foundation and the wonderful service they have given, not only to Habitat for Humanity, but even more so to world health efforts. 

Renovated classroom in the High School Museum

More than 70 countries have been impacted by the Carter Center Foundation

The Plains High School National Historic Site Museum

Finally, we drove out to the National Park Historic Site that has been established to preserve and maintain the farm where Jimmy grew up, restored to its 1930s appearance. In about 5 or 6 places throughout the house and barns there are recordings of Jimmy reminiscing about what it was like to grow up and farm during that time. We had to return to the campground so we didn’t stay as long as we might have wished but it was a very nice, quiet spot and the sun was shining brightly with temperatures in the low 70s. 

Carol and Peggy listening to one of Jimmy Carter's reminiscences of his boyhood home

Looking back at the house and the Farm General Store  

Inside the Carter Farm store

Carriage/Wagon house

Carriage House and barn. Note the cane syrup pan in the foreground

As we drove out of town we realized we passed right by the very understated compound that surrounds the Carters’ modest brick home, which they built in 1960, is the only house they have owned, and remains their home today, surrounded by furniture that Jimmy made in his workshop in the garage. On the way back to the campground we would have liked a bite to eat but there is NO Fast Food or deli or anything in any of the tiny villages, so we settled for some cheese crackers from a convenience store with not much else. When we got back I helped Carol make a fruit salad and all four of us piled into their truck to drive far outside of town and deep into the woods on a rough two track that leads up a hill to the Pine Ridge Hunting Lodge. Mike (the friend of a friend of the Ezells from the “Michigan Circle” at the State Park) is a banker of some sort in Birmingham. To relax, he raises bird dogs and hunts, and built, almost entirely from wood from his hundreds of acres, a three bedroom lodge with a large loft that sleeps several more, where he hosts hunting parties. The walls of the Great Room are hung with heads of his trophies from all over the world and the ribbons his champion dogs have won. Now, he helicopters from Birmingham to Eufaula, but he and his wife are retiring in a couple of years when their two daughters have both graduated, so he is building a home on the hill on the other side of the dog kennels. He invited the 20 or so members of the Michigan Circle (which includes some Canadians and Wisconsinites) to have a Fish Fry and Potluck at the lodge. Unfortunately, as we arrived we were told that one of the dogs had gotten out and caught in a coyote trap in the woods so Mike was in Auburn at the Veterinary School getting the dog taken care of, and wouldn’t be there for the party. One couple had caught and cleaned all the catfish and were using a turkey fryer outdoors to cook it as we arrived. People gathered around in chairs on the lawn or around the log fire burning in the giant cane syrup iron pot that serves as a fire circle, chatting and enjoying the magnificent views in every direction. When five dishes/platters were heaped with fish chunks, the rest of the food was put out on tables on the wrap-around porch and we sat at picnic tables on the porch and had a FEAST!!! Everyone was friendly and welcoming, the food and fish were delicious, and the day couldn’t have been nicer. Having gotten lost in the wilderness the only other time they had been to the Lodge, Ezells wanted to be sure to leave in the day light, along with the rest of the crowd. As we drove out the main gate at the paved road, Mike was just turning into the drive. We said hello and thanks through the windows as he told us the dog would be fine. We got back to the campsites in time to watch the MSU Women lose the Tourney Final to Maryland.

Pine Ridge Hunting Lodge from the parking area

Panoramic from the lodge porch

Frying dough balls after the fish were cooked

Cane syrup pan fire circle

Monday Marv and I spent some time, after it warmed up, biking around the other three loops of the campground. The first is only used for storage for trailers that get left there all summer, the second has water and electricity but no sewer and had only four campers, the third isn’t open until summer when the park gets more use, and the fourth, called Deer Court, is the one where we are staying and was about hall full over the weekend, but less during the week. In general, the park is underused and not well kept up.  The Alabama legislature voted to stop all support for State Parks but the governor vetoed it. In the meantime, they closed the golf course that was a big draw for Snow Birds, including the Ezells. The huge park also includes a big Marina on the lake with a store and snack grill, a large Lodge with two restaurants, an outdoor pool (closed in the winter) and three clusters of one, two, and three bedroom cabins. This spring the Ezells are selling their trailer and next year will be using one of the cabins. The cabins are available from Nov. 1 to Feb. 28 for long term rental but the rest of the year the park can make nearly as much money for each weekend rental as they do the monthly rentals in the winter! After lunch Macel, Marv and I went to the Country Club Macel has had to settle for since the park closed its course to play golf with a friend of Carol’s named Marsha. The course is challenging and nine holes, even with a cart, was plenty for me, especially because the front nine ended with three of the longest, toughest holes. Marsha turned out to be a better golfer than Macel had said, but everyone was very kind and tolerant of my crummy game. We got back in time for me to make a chicken stir fry and fruit salad for dinner at our camper. After we cleaned up and did the dishes, we went back to Ezells’ and watched “Young@Heart”, a cute documentary about senior citizens who sing rock music to stay young. We had had a wonderful time in Alabama and the Ezells were wonderful hosts who had filled our time there and helped us forget that our trip was drawing to an end.

Marv sizing up his next shot

Our campsite at Lakepoint