Our week in Hangzhou

The view from our hotel room:

Good summertime home-cookin' at Dan's mom and Dad's house (corn on the cob, cucumbers, soup, tempura mushrooms, dumplings, tomatoes, purple sweet potatoes, and a few other things I can't remember...)

A little ways outside of the city, west among the hills, there are tea farms. The farmers often have converted parts of their homes to tea houses and restaurants. We've visited countless rural teahouses like that, enjoying hours of talking, snacking, and walking the country paths. This time we went with my brother-in-law, on a day which threatened and delivered rain (in the middle of our walk, no less). Glasses of LongJing (Dragon Well) tea and a bowl of sunflower seeds sat on the table under an awning and a local dog made friends with Devin and Merlin. She followed us up the path, alternately leading and running back to see why we'd stopped.

Sometimes we'd stopped so Merlin could do the ïtchy itchy mosquito dance"

Eventually it sprinkled, then it rained with real intention and the dog came racing back to find us as we went racing back toward our spot on the patio.

Hanghzhou is pretty, near the lake.

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Devin took the picture of the lotuses.