An Outing to the Lake

There is a lake in the center of our city that underwent an extensive improvement project in preparation for "sprucing up" the city for the national games. They actually made the lake larger, adding a whole new section with bridges, a sandy play area, paths, beautiful landscaping, and lots of traditional architecture (pagodas). It was a lovely place to spend a morning. Priceless smiles in the flower garden!

A restaurant within the gates to the lake park, with lake views. Ann enjoyed seeing the traditional painted wood designs.

We spent most of our time on a boat ride, tooling around the lake and trying to take the boat through the new passageways. Most of them, unfortunately, did not allow boats, so we stayed in the main part of the lake. The girls enjoyed pretending to be the captain of the ship! Ahoy! Pagoda ahead!

A beautiful bridge, so inviting . . . and the security guard off to the left, motioning to us "You shall not pass!"

Wherever we went, people along the shore would start whipping out their cameras to take pictures of the "foreign baby dolls." Finally we just encouraged the girls to wave to their adoring fans.

The main gate to the park (seen from the inside, of course), with a bed of lotus growing in the foreground. The lotus flower is the city flower.

Taking a few moments to be silly is always fun!

Daddy and Clara sharing a moment. Clara loves to feel his whiskers!

Refreshed and relaxed after our time on the water. By the time we left, we were a bit chilly and were happy to go home and drink something hot to warm up. But it was a lovely morning at the "Big Moon Lake."