My cousin and his daugter came to pick us up right after breakfast. He drove us to the beautiful countryside of Hangzhou surrounded by mountains. Somewhere within these mountains were amazing caves.

A small boat transported us deep inside a cave. After a 10 to 15 minute ride, we went on foot to explore the rest of the huge cave. The staff inside the cave gave us water proof tall boots and hard hats to wear.

This cave is surrounded by cool crystal clear running water. We got to see some breathtaking waterfalls inside the cave. We were in awe with mother nature’s secretive beauty.

Well, it is quite easy if you are on Westlake, Hangzhou.

We devoted an entire day worshipping the lake on and around it all. First, we enjoyed a lakeview breakfast buffet offered at our hotel, where I had coffee and tea, porridge, steamed meat buns, and very green looking local vegetables. The kids had milk and quite a few sides of buttered bread, and hubby wanted to try all kinds of food, so he piled on a mountain of food onto his plate.

After our breakfast, we went to walk around the lake carrying our full tummies. A local boat man talked us into boarding his small private boat for a ride. We spent most of the morning on his boat, relaxing and enjoying the boat ride, and being carried to an inner islet for a visit, before finally being brought back to near our hotel.

Then we were hungry, so we ate lunch at a local restaurant, and it seems the food does not disappoint here. Except the restaurant made us pay for our napkins.

After lunch, we were determinted to walk the section of the lake that is the most beautiful. Apparently, everybody else had the same idea, and the path was covered with people. Luckily, most people do not walk the entire length of the never ending path, so gradully the crowd easied, and we shared the long tree-lined thin walking path along the lake with a deserving few.

When we finally arrived at the other main section of the lake, the crowds of people slowly surfaced again, and we had had enough of walking by then, and hopped on an open-air lake circulating tram to enjoy the lake with far less energy.

By then it was 5PM, we were exhausted. So we found a small coffee shop by the lake to re-fuel. The kids shared an ice cream sundae, hubby had a cheese cake, and check out the lovely cup of coffee they made me.

After this short stop, we were ready for more.

We had dinner with my cousin, his wife, and their young daughter. My cousin is very good at ordering food at restaurants, I loved everything, and ate too much again. The kids hardly ate anything–they don’t like unfamiliar food.

After dinner, we went to a night market together. It seemed so unusual that on a Monday night, the night market can still be so lively, and full of people, with local vendors kept busy and smiling, because they are making money.

After we got back at our hotel, it was around 10PM. We decided to take another night walk rather than going to bed. We were immediately glad that we did, the sidewalk by the lake was full of people sitting with friends, young lovers walking hand in hand, families relaxing together, and young children still out late playing and acting crazy.

We heard disco music in the middle of all this, and found ourselves in front of a group of people dancing together, they were men, women, young and old. But most of them are middle aged. They weren’t dancing with each other, they were ALL dancing together doing this incredibly synchronized routine. It looked fun. I was thinking about joining them, but I didn’t want to be the only one messying up this dance troop’s routine. Perhaps tomorrow night, I will find them, and join their dance.

We took a direct flight from Taipei to Hangzhou, China earlier today. We checked into a hotel right by the waters of famous Westlake. This is the view from one of our hotel room windows. Very beautiful here…

A couple of weekends ago, we went to Seattle, WA to attend a family wedding. While we sat waiting for our lunch to arrive inside a restaurant with large windows, I couldn’t help noticing a prominent ice caped peak above some clouds in the distance. This famous Washington State landmark is the volcanic Mount Rainier. I became inspired, and talked my family into visiting the park the next day for a closer look.

Mt. Rainier is beautiful. I had expected a Lake Tahoe like scenery, but Mt. Rainier is host to a much more diverse and dense vegetation, and with abundant rainfall, it is much more green. Melting glaciers create cascading water throughout the park, and form gigantic waterfalls that dot the major hiking trails.

We had not come prepared–dressed comfortably for spending the day inside our rental car. But we decided on a mile-long hike anyway to see one of their waterfalls. Soon we discovered that the short hiking trail we choose included some painful terrain, and was very steep. We looked totally out of place in our slipper-like shoes among backpacking hikers here and there. Every time, we contemplated on giving up and turning back, some friendly hikers on their way down would tell us that it is not far up ahead, and it will be worth the trouble. Although, there was one hiker that was not as encouraging.

We came upon a section of the trail where there was a long and huge metal tube oddly out of place in the middle of this nature wonderland.

Puzzled by its presence, I stopped in my tracks to think out loud and out of breath, “What is this huge metal thing doing here?”

A hiker on his way down and heard me talking to myself. Without stopping or looking up, he pointed back up, and said, “That’s for the big fake waterfall you will see up ahead.”

I love waterfalls, where can we buy more of these huge metal tubes…