On Friday, Michael had the morning off but would need to be back by noon so we wanted to explore someplace that was fairly close.  We chose the Summer Palace and were told that we should leave by 7:00am to avoid the traffic.   One of the professors was scheduled to go with us, but he kindly demurred, saying that he figured we would enjoy some time by ourselves!!   He did, however, provide a car to drive us there!!!

The Summer Palace was built in 1750 and acted as the temporary palace of the Qing Dynasty.  It was burned down in 1860 by the Anglo-French Forces (as was much of Beijing, particularly the cultural areas), and rebuilt in 1888.  The property consists of 300 hectares (750 acres), much of which is covered by a huge lake.   It is called the “Summer Palace” because the Emperors would move there during the hot, sweltering summer days, seeking the cooler temperatures found at a bit higher elevation.

When we first arrived, we were bombarded by tour groups (mostly kids) waiting in the front courtyard.   After Michael bought our tickets we thought that we would have to wait until all of the tour groups went thru, but we were motioned on by one of the guards and taken thru a different gate. 

When we entered the palace grounds, we were met with carefully manicured green areas, gorgeous landscaping and MILES of tranquil paths winding their way thru the garden.   Since it was early in the morning and we were relatively rested we decided to take the “hilly” road and head upward…..

Since the palace is built on several levels, we were able to look out over the roofs of the lower buildings….

The path continued slowly upward….

….and we would catch glimpses of buildings just over the hill….

I loved being closer to the tops of some of these buildings so that I could get better photos of the amazing details….

We passed thru “Hobbit” holes…..

….and narrow passageways between the buildings…..

I loved being at eye-level with this particular decoration…..

Some of the views were gorgeous, although the smog precluded seeing all of the view…..

As we walked we would run across small groups of people dancing…..

….playing music…..

….or doing their morning exercise…..

This lady was the most amazing, keeping the balls balanced on the racquet while she danced…..

WATCH THE VIDEO

We laughed at these hats featuring the “Marlboro” logo…..or is it the Mar–i-boro logo…..

This entrance was one of the more interesting ones……

When we had first entered the Palace grounds, the “Hall of Benevolence and Longevity” had been closed but we figured that it would be open by the time we got ready to leave.  We sat for a few minutes with all of the others milling around the square in front of the building……

After a few minutes of waiting, we realized that the building being opened simply meant that the doors were open so that people could see in!!!    We had a peak in and then made our exit back to the hotel.

That afternoon, Michael gave his public lecture which was well attended……

We had one last banquet to end our visit in Beijing, featuring EIGHTEEN dishes followed by two types of dumplings and fruit.  My favorite of the evening were these “drumsticks” formed from chopped lobster…..

My ‘not-favorite” was a bean porridge that tasted like sweetened Black-eyed Peas……

I loved looking across the table and seeing the variety of platters and bowls that were used to present the dishes…..

The drinks served were fun…..Watermelon juice, Passionfruit Juice, Beer and Hot Flower petal tea……

It was a fun way to end our time in Beijing!!!

And, before we go, here is the carpet from the hotel…..

On Thursday, I had finally finished my deadline work and  Michael was going to be working all day so I decided to take a trip to the Pearl Market in downtown Beijing.  I had visited here in 2011 and really wanted to go again.

Once I was able to communicate to the hotel front desk exactly where I wanted to go, including going back upstairs and emailing myself a link that I could show to them, they organized a taxi to take me to the market.

The trip was interesting on several different levels.  First of all (for all of you Big Bang Theory Fans), his “Check Engine” light was shining brightly through the whole trip.   When he would idle for a long time at a light, the car would start an ominous squealing!!  Secondly, we encountered a bus traveling in the wrong direction on a multi-lane road…..

…of course, if you look at this photo, you can see that we were in the “bike only” lane ourselves!!

I arrived at the market and was at once accosted by the noise and confusion of hundreds of booths, hundreds of vendors and LOTS and LOTS of white people shopping.

As I walked up and down the aisles, the patter seldom varied….the first question was “What are you shopping for Madam?” or “Scarf / Watch / shirt (fill in the blank) for Madam?”  I would smile and shake my head as the vendor’s cry followed me to the next booth.  In many cases the price would drop even though I wasn’t interested in the item!!

The first floor was mostly electronics and I wasn’t interested in those so it was easy to breeze on thru.  The second floor contained booths and booths of purses, suitcases, shoes  and clothes of all genres…..

Once again, I wasn’t too interested in these items so was able to move thru fairly quickly.

Now I slowed considerably on the 3rd floor as it held vendors selling crystals and costume jewelry and also “arts and crafts”.  My first purchase was a red and black necklace (for Georgia Football of course).  It was fun to watch her re-string and tie off the beads……

There were many interesting shops on this floor and I loved seeing rows and rows of shiny beads and baubles….

I purchased a picture in the “Arts” section that I am really excited about.  It is done on fabric that has been shaded with paint and then has straight line embroidery making up the rest of the picture.  It has so much depth when you look at it.

I moved on up to the 5th floor and the quality and sophistication improved yet again…..

I was planning to visit a store that I had come to last time, but had forgotten to look up the name.  I remembered that it was the name of a woman and that it was in the very corner along one corridor, so I patiently walked every corridor until I came again to “Lynn’s”.  I knew immediately that I was in the right spot and spent some time shopping and enjoying talking to the women working there.

A quick jaunt up the escalator one more time took me into a world that was far beyond my means!!!   Most of the stores on this floor sold only designer pieces and they started at $1,500+++++, although they were certainly beautiful.

I did avail myself of the facilities on the 6th floor and found a clean, quiet bathroom, very much different from the one that I had visited on the 2nd floor!!!

When I started down the stairs again, I kept going down and ended up on the Basement level which was the Food Court.  I wasn’t super hungry but wanted something small and ended up at a Dairy Queen!!!!.   My “blizzard” was similar to the ones at home, except that it had a vein of Strawberry (or Red Berries as they are called here) running thru the center…..

As I sat and ate it, I looked around at the other food vendors and kicked myself that I hadn’t ordered dumplings or soup or something along those lines.

On of the funniest encounters that I witnessed was between a British gentleman and a shopkeeper.  He was wanting to buy a small chair but was worried about taking it on the plane as carry-on baggage.  The shopkeeper repeatedly assured him that she would wrap it in bubble-wrap and that it would fit, but I fully expected to see it sitting abandoned outside one of the International gates as we departed!!!

Now I was ready to return to the hotel and this was the part that I was the most worried about.  Because the hotel was fairly far away, many drivers are not interested in taking fares there.  I approached the first driver and was relieved that he spoke very good English.  He told me that he would take me but it would cost 300 Yuan!!!   Now, I had come over during rush hour traffic and knew that the fare should be about 75Y so I told him thanks, but no!!!

I walked back inside and found an ATM to get some more cash….just in case and then approached a second driver.  He told me that he would charge 100Y for the trip and I felt that was fair so agreed to the amount,.  He drove about 10 blocks and then pulled over and asked to see the card with the hotel name and directions and I had a sinking feeling that I knew what was coming.   Sure enough, he turned to me and said “it is VERY far” and I will need 120Y for the fare.  I argued briefly that we had agreed on 100Y, but he knew that he had me over a barrel, so I finally said yes…..after all, it was only $3.00 more!!  He happily drove me to the hotel and I grudgingly handed over my 120Y!!  Oh well, at least I had made it home.

When Michael finished, we walked to Twosome Coffee, a small cafe that has become his “sanity station”.  If he eats on campus, he almost always ends up talking with students or professors about science but if we walk down the street, he can enjoy a quiet cup of Espresso!!   Don’t get me wrong, he LOVES to talk science, but sometimes it is good to have a little break!!

While we sat at an outside table, we engaged in one of our favorite pastimes….people watching!!!!

One thing that we noticed were the umbrellas that the women carried.   We learned on our first trip to China that the Chinese women do not want their skin to become dark, especially their faces, so they will use an umbrella to shelter the harmful rays from the cheeks.  I noticed in one store that the umbrellas actually had ratings as to the spf factor.  Many of them had “black-out” material as a lining so that absolutely no sunrays could get past.

We have also noted that there is a definite “Business Card” etiquette in China.  They love to give and receive business cards and they are always handed to you with both hands and a little bow.  When you receive a card from someone, you also use both hands and it is apparently uncouth to put the card in your wallet and into your back pocket.   They apparently deserve more respect than that and we have seen businessmen with special cases just to carry their cards.

We have laughingly noticed people driving motor bikes and scooters with the handlebars covered with something that looks like giant oven mitts.  We are not sure exactly what the purpose is for these covers, but they are fun to look at.   The only drawback that I see is that I bet they are really hot in the Beijing summers!!

After our hour of people watching we returned to the hotel, making a quick stop at the cafeteria to get a little something to eat.  We were really glad that we had stopped as we had our self-proclaimed “DDM” dinner.   That stands for DONKEY, DUCK & MUSHROOMS and yes,they were all three delicious!!!!!

Monday (July 25th) was the first day of Michael’s classes and the symposium was opened with a typical ceremony.  There were announcement posters…..

…..a head table……

…..speeches……

and MUCH clapping!!!

I was concerned about taking photos, worried that I would be interrupting the proceedings but I needn’t have worried.   There were three or four individuals standing at the front taking photos thru the entire ceremony!!

We then moved outside for the group photo……

…which I was pulled into at the last moment!!

The rest of Michael’s day was spent teaching and meeting with students and faculty while I spent time in our room, working on accounting deadlines.

I did take a bit of time out to visit the local grocery store and had fun looking at all of the different items.  I am always impressed with the variety of goods that are available.   Here is the toothpaste aisle…..

….and here is ONE of the Soy sauce aisles…..

And, of course, I had to visit the snack aisle to bring a few things back to the room.  I did, however, abstain from the pickled chicken feet…..

Speaking of snacks, there is one item already in our room that we did NOT try…..

When I walked out of the store, I realized that there was a fountain built into the courtyard area and I loved watching this little girl play in the water…..

There were a series of signs and paintings on one of the outside walls and I really liked the sentiment displayed there…..

“Take time to think;  it is the source of your power.

Take time to play; it is the secret of your youth.

Take time to rea; it is the foundation of your knowledge.

Take time to dream; it will take you to the stars.

Take time to laugh; it really is your best medicine.

Take time to exercise;  it will give you energy and health.

Take time to reach out to others;  it will give your life significance and meaning.”

 

That evening, there was yet another banquet with way too much food.  This Beef and Onions was one of my favorites…..

..  as was the Peking Duck which is used to make a little “taco” with a sweet soy sauce, thin sliced onions and lemon grass…..

 

The company was enjoyable…..

…and there were rampant rounds of toasting that would break out spontaneously during the meal…..

Culturally, each person at the table is supposed to toast every other diner before the evening is over.  If they are close enough, they clink glasses, but if they are sitting on opposite sides of the table, they tap their glass on the table and then drink.  Then, there are several “full table” toasts where one person toasts everyone there.

On Tuesday, I worked more and Michael taught his class…..

As usual, he is doing a great job of encouraging the students to interact and ask questions.   One of the professors said that the students are really enjoying it because Michael doesn’t berate them if they answer incorrectly, but instead tries to help them re-think the question!!

Tuesday afternoon we were given a tour of the Natural History museum associated with the Beijing Forestry University.  It was interesting to see all of the animals, although I finally got bored and started looking for the “weird” ones…..  like the “crazy cow” look on this one…..

…or the schnozz on this poor guy….

The butterfly display was very well done……

….and Michael posed with a King Cobra…the snake that he hopes to see when we are in India…..

I felt like I identified with this little guy……

….not sure if it is look in the eye, the big nose or the Bad Hair Day!!!

While leaving the campus, we passed this interesting architecture…..

Since it is located on a Forestry University, I am assuming that it is supposed to be reminiscent of a tree.’’

Wednesday continued in the same vein with work for both us of, but that evening we decided to take a drive into the heart of Beijing and have dinner at one of the Ritz Calton Hotels.  We started the evening in the “Crystal Lounge”, enjoying drinks……

and music performed by a beautiful young woman on a Chinese Sitar…..

Video here

 

I was interested to watch her and noticed that the little finger on her right hand is permanently bowed backwards…

….obviously the result of the pressure used to play the instrument.  It makes me wonder how many hundreds of hours she has practiced in her short life.

We ended up having dinner in the Italian Restaurant associated with the hotel and it was a wonderful meal.

It started with bread and sauces to dip in, followed by an Amuse-bouche described as a Lobster Ball with Mozarella Foam and tiny scrapings of Truffle…..

We were wondering where the salt and pepper were and realized that this strange decoration was on our table……

….and it ended up being the salt and pepper shaker……

Our table was also adorned with two bottles of specialty water….these being  Patagonian Rain Water…..

Not long ago I had seen an article about these specialty waters and found out that they are often more expensive than the wine!!   Needless to say, we were VERY careful to not break the seal.

My meal consisted of a mixed green salad…..

….and a simple pasta with a Bolognese sauce…..

The presentation of this dish was wonderful as the wide, home-made noodles were wrapped around each other in the center of the bowl with a few scattered on the top.   It had an excellent flavor, and according to our waiter from Rome, it was better than his Mama could make!!”.

Michael chose the roasted Lamb which was served on a platter with various mixed vegies……

The green stuff is actually sea sponge which interestingly had a bread flavor and texture to it.

The star of the evening was Michael’s tiramisu……

All in all, we had a very enjoyable meal…..

After dinner, Michael had hoped to find a place to smoke a cigar and had thought that there was a lounge in the hotel.  They said no, but that there was one at the Westin hotel, located about two blocks away.  When we started out the door, we found that it was pouring rain so they offered us two umbrellas and sent us on our way.  We arrived at the Westin to find out that they sold cigars but that it was illegal to smoke inside a building in Beijing so we were out of luck.

We tried to catch a cab from the Westin but they weren’t particularly helpful so we traipsed back thru the rain to the Ritz.   By now we were completely soaked!!!  The concierge at the Ritz started trying to get us a taxi using an “Uber-type” of call service.  He suggested that, because of the rain, we agree to add an additional 10 Yuan ($1.50)to the bill and we said ok.   We waited for about 10 minutes and he came back and said that, since no one was responding to the call, he suggested that we add even more incentive….20 Yuan more this time.   Well, that did the trick because we were soon in a taxi and winding our wet way back to our hotel.

Today (Sunday), we started our first day of adventures in Beijing.  We went to the hotel Breakfast buffet but found that there was no black tea or coffee so we started out to find a coffee shop.    I had an idea of where some might be, based on things I had seen as we had driven in yesterday.  Sure enough, we quickly found a Starbucks and a “Twosome Coffee” shop, however neither were open yet so we walked a bit to kill some time.

We heard a loud, steady beeping and wondered what was causing it.  As we walked closer we realized that a train was crossing the major street and that this gate on wheels was being moved out to stop traffic…..

The beeping starts when the gate is being deployed or reeled in.  There are two attendants that stand there all day and move the gates whenever a train passes!!!

The Starbucks was the first shop open so we went in for the usual fare.  I loved that one of their coffee blends was called “Komodo Dragon”.    Now, Michael LOVES his Espresso and normally drinks 6 shots each morning.   To avoid confusion, the first time thru he just ordered a double.   Then I went back to order 2 more doubles (4 shots) at one time.  The little girl that was making it carefully brewed four shots into the tiny espresso cup and then realized that it was too full to carry.  She tried to hand it to me, but I knew that I couldn’t get it upstairs so asked that it be poured into a larger cup.  One of the other workers came over and made her re-make the 4 shots into a larger cup….I felt terrible!!!

Today, we were supposed to go to the Great Wall again, but apparently the weather was bad in that area so we ended up traveling to the “Beijing Botanic Garden and Fragrant Hill” complex.  As we neared the park, I was amused to see that people were selling butterfly nets along the street and I actually saw one little boy in the park who had caught a butterfly and had it in an air-filled bag.

We were hosted today by Professor Lee and he took great delight in sharing with us all of the historical information about the area…..

As we talked,  we learned that his parents were both highly educated and, during the cultural revolution (1966-1976), his family was moved out of Beijing and sent to work on farms in another province.    He is now a professor at the Beijing Forestry University.   He certainly did know his history…..and his trees!!!!

He pointed out several interesting types of pine trees including this one with a very weird looking bark…..

….and this White Barked Pine, whose younger bark looks like camouflage and older bark is pure white.   In this photo, the young tree is at the front……

While Professor Lee and Michael talked science and history, I zipped around and took photos of the more interesting sights, including this lion protecting the entrance to the park…..

The first gate that we came to was protected by two, 16 foot warrior statues, known as General Ha and General Heng….

The first hall that we entered was for the Buddha Maitreya.  According to the sign outside, it was built during the Ming Dynasty and holds a Buddha whose “image is vividly designed with a face lit up with pleasure”…

 

The next hall contained another Buddha…..

…and his cohort…..

At this point, I was told that no photography was allowed in the temples….OOPS!!!

As always, I LOVE the colors and shapes found in the pavilions…..

Red ribbons were hung everywhere in the park and especially inside the temples. 

Professor Lee told us that the printing on the ribbons are various prayers that are being offered.  Some of the ribbons were praying for good grades or getting accepted into Peking University (the PREMIER school in the nation), some were for family, marriage, children or money.    Most of them were signed with a marker at the bottom of the ribbon.

One of the most interesting sites that we saw was the Memorial Hall of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, a revolutionary who was considered to be the founding father of the Republic of China.  He was instrumental in overthrowing the Qing Dynasty emperor and instating a republic form of government.

There was one statue that was based on a photo that was displayed.  It was of him reading the newspaper that announced the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty!!  The walls of the memorial hall were covered with his last writings, relaying his hopes for freedom and for what China could become.

We continued walking thru courtyards, pagodas and other structures…..

….stopping often to rest because it was incredibly hot and, as Michael described it, “ impressively humid”!!!

As usual, I found lots of design ideas during our walk, including the ceiling of a small Pagoda……

….this VERY cool window…..

….and LOTS of pictures of stone designs in the paths.  I really want to make a quilt using some of these ideas……

We loved how these trees were growing out of the stone walls…..

At this point, Professor Lee suggested that we climb Fragrant Hill.  We agreed, and after climbing stairs for about 45 minutes we had reached the top….or so we thought.   As we turned the corner, Professor Lee pointed to our ultimate goal….

….at the top of the NEXT hill.

Now, Michael and I were both struggling to make this climb, mostly because we hadn’t slept well the night before and were definitely dealing with Jet Lag.  We had also drunk all of our water!!!  When he said that we were going further up, Michael said “No…we are going back down again”.    This is me having a happy face that we weren’t climbing any higher….

One of the interesting things that we noticed along the trail were these butterfly cutouts…..

I kept trying to figure out what was on them and when I got in close, I realized that the form was made out of fly paper and that it was covered with small insects.   We still cant figure out why they have these outside where the bugs are supposed to be!!!

One cute interchange happened while we were on the way up…..we passed a family coming down the stairs with a cute little girl in tow.  She looked up at us and I said “Hello.  How are you?”  She smiled and answered “I am fine thank you” (just as she has been taught in her English classes).  I then asked if it was pretty at the top of the hill.  She looked quizzically at her Dad who spoke to her in Chinese.  She then looked at me and held her hands out as wide as she could get them……a perfect description of the spaciousness at the top of the mountain!!!

We walked down for a ways and then stopped for some tea made from a flower of some sort…..

It was good and finally we both started feeling better, however I really wanted some water.   I saw a small store near the tea shop and went there to buy some water bottles.  They were 5Y each and I wanted to buy four of them.   I agreed when the shop keeper indicated the price by holding up 5 fingers, but when I held up four fingers to indicate how many bottles I wanted, she vigorously shook her head and held up FIVE.  After we went back and forth with this several times, I finally realized that she thought I was only wanting to pay 4Y for each.  So, I stopped the exchange and reached over the counter and picked up four bottles of water.   She laughed as I paid her the 20Y and was still smiling and laughing at me as we left the complex!!!

We continued down the hill and I loved this sign…..

They seem rather incongruous and personally, if I needed a bomb shelter, that would be my Happiness Garden too!!!

We exited the garden and walked down the street a ways to a restaurant for our mid-afternoon meal.  As I looked around, I felt that we had been there before, and, sure enough, we found out that this was the same restaurant that we had visited on our last trip to Beijing in 2011!!  

We had an EXCELLENT meal, with spicy beef and peppers……

….spicy Cabbage……

….and spicy eggs and onions (served on little “tortillas”)…..

I hope that you caught the recurring word in the last descriptions….everything was Spicy and WONDERFUL!!!!

We couldn’t find a taxi to take us back to the Hotel, so Professor Lee suggested that we ride a bus.  It was an interesting and easy ride, although it took over an hour to get back to our room. 

Once back, we had a most welcome shower and fell gratefully into bed!!!

First of all, I haven’t posted yet because I have had a huge accounting project that needed to be finished first and this morning I sent it off to the client so I finally have a bit of time to catch up…….

We flew out of Atlanta at noon on Thursday, but actually started our trip a day earlier by driving to Atlanta on Wednesday, having dinner with Brian and Amber and then they dropped us off at a hotel near the airport.  It was a great start to the journey!!!

The hotel, a Holiday Inn Express was perfect for the evening and was amazingly sound insulated!!  We could see the planes landing directly over our room but couldn’t hear a sound!!

I have always found the patterning of hotel carpets interesting so one of the things that I decided to do on this trip was to keep a hotel carpet journal….photographing the hall outside of our rooms, so here is the first entry in that journal……

On Thursday we had a great flight to Detroit, found a place to have a nice lunch and then got ready to board our long flight to Shanghai.  Unfortunately, there was a thunderstorm coming in and the captain decided that it would be too dangerous for the ground crew to work during the storm so he delayed our flight until the weather cleared out.  The interesting part of this was that the plane next to us boarded and took off in the middle of the storm!!!

So, we ended up leaving about an hour late and arrived into Shanghai an hour late as well.  Unfortunately, we had a fairly tight connection to make our flight to Beijing and were especially worried when we saw the length of the Immigration line.  On Michael’s suggestion, I mentioned to one of the workers that we had a close flight and she immediately moved us to a short, “fast” lane!!!

We found our bags and ran hopefully to the ticket counter only to be told that the flight had closed about 5 minutes earlier!!   However, the wonderful attendant gave us a certificate stating that the Delta flight had been late and also a voucher to a local hotel.  At the next desk we were able to present our certificate and be booked onto a flight for the next morning.

A quick taxi ride took us to a BEAUTIFUL Ramada hotel….all at no charge!!!  And, of course, it meant another carpet for my journal…..

We hustled our bags in the room and headed downstairs for a quick dinner.  Eventhough we were both looking forward to having Chinese food, we couldn’t resist the Indonesian food on the menu and ended up with this…..

It was YUMMY!!

On Saturday morning, we took the shuttle back to the airport and stood in a massive line to (we thought) check in and drop off our bags.  Unfortunately, when we got up to the counter we were told that we had to first go to the ticketing desk….ARGH!!!

We did that and he pointed us back to the line, which had grown even longer!!  Michael hopefully asked one of the agents if we really had to stand in the line again, and the young man opened the gate and let us cut to the front….people are SO sweet!!!

The flight to Beijing was completely uneventful and we landed almost on time.  We were met at the airport by two people from the University, Professor Lee and Doctor Jianfeng.  They drove us to our hotel, pointing out many sights along the way, including the Olympic stadium and park.  The stadium is very interesting as it looks like a great big bird’s nest!!!

We are staying at a hotel and conference center that is located in the middle of a series of Universities and used to be for the exclusive use of those institutions.  In later years, it has been opened to the public as well.

As soon as we dropped off our bags, they wanted to take us to lunch….at a Japanese restaurant!!!  We enjoyed a series of dishes, including Sashimi (yes, it was raw but it was delicious)…..

We also enjoyed steamed Salmon, Dumplings, Fried shrimp and stir-fried rice!!

We returned to our room for a brief time and were then met by Michael’s host, Xiao-Ru (pronounced Shou-ru).  We were joined by another couple who were professors at Peking University….or maybe it is called Beijing University….we heard it both ways.

They took us on a tour of the gorgeous campus, including a haunting lake…

…and a VERY ornate water tower…..

The campus was once a botanic garden and the rule of new construction is that it must keep the same style and character of the ancient buildings that were originally there.  Consequently, the gym looked a lot  like a temple!!  There were several beautiful vignettes as we walked……

…and I hated to go inside again!!  They offered tea and I was rewarded with a refreshing brew of flower petals…..

We were told some interesting history about the University.  This particular property was original owned by Yenching University which was founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in America.  In 1952, Peking University took over the property and the school as well.  Today, PU is the premier University in China!!

After they all quit talking science, we headed to a restaurant (still on the campus) and enjoyed a wonderful meal consisting of NINE different courses!!   I love the elegance of the table setting…..

As a sign of the times, the menu was on an I-Pad and not in the usual large book of dishes.  This food was tasty and included a steamed flounder…..

….wonderful veggies…..

…..and shrimp and noodles……

 

One dish was little brown cubes of a lacy looking substance and I figured that it was some sort of tofu.   I was surprised to hear that it was pure gluten!!!  (sorry Kathie….you cant eat it!!!!)

We ended the meal with refreshing fruit for dessert……

We returned to the hotel and fell happily and sleepily into bed!!!!