Moganshan Part 2

Ok, so I'm late posting, again. Sorry! You can blame Ben for leaving me for MICHIGAN where it's warm, no, hot, and sunny and full of our friends and family, while I sit here single parenting in China.

I digress. Is that how you spell that? Oh well.

Ok, so, when I left off I was posting about our hikes.
On Saturday the whole clan (except for 36-week pregnant Penny) went for a hike that went past the summer home of Mao. Pretty sweet, right? Actually, it was kind of a let down. I was expecting the peak of luxury and it was just ok. The building was quite large, but the inside had been turned into a kind of Mao Museum, and a sad one at that. There were basically just pics of him at that location, a few rooms with signs that read, "Oh! Mao slept here!" (Yeah, I highly doubt he really slept in that bed and sat in those chairs....) I'm so jaded. :)
Here are some of the pics of the house:
This is Sophie standing by the entrance of the compound with her new friends Floortje and Genna

Just after the entrance we must, yet again, hike some stairs to access the house.

Inside the vacation home of Mao. These were pics of other various dignitaries that had also stayed there.

Mao in the middle. It was kinda funny because in every picture of him he had his hands folded over his belly.

Where Mao slept (suuuuuuuurrrre)

Saturday afternoon the boys announced they were going on a waterfall hike. Didn't ask if it was alright, didn't ask if we women wanted a break from having 12 kids by ourselves for the past 2 days and go ourselves..... hmmm. Yeah, ok, that's off my chest. :)
So, off they went to go down 1000 steps and then back up. It was HILARIOUS when they returned. Ben VP, Ben L, Nick, and Roy all came back pouring sweat, beat red in the face, huffing and puffing. Like they were moments from a heart attack. :) "So steep!" they claimed. "So beautiful!" Ok, so then Liz (Ben L's wife), Angelique (Roy's wife) and I declared right then we were taking off in the morning and doing the hike by ourselves. They could care for the children and pack as well, right?

Saturday night we had a version of bangers and mash. We had all kinds of fried sausages (we weren't entirely sure what they were made of bc the packages were in German), mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. Sooo good! Some wine and chatting that night and then off to bed.

In the morning we had our last toast, coffee and eggs and starting packing up. Liz, Angelique and I headed out on our own 1000 step adventure. Oh, it was totally worth it. Serene, quiet, beautiful, just nature and us. No pollution, no trucks or cement. Reminded me so much of hiking in Northern Michigan.

These first few are pics Ben had taken the day before when he went with the guys...

Ben taking a picture of Ben L and Nick taking pictures. Good grief....

Ok, here are the good ones of me and the girls, Liz and Angelique, the next day. :)
Us at the start...

This house was about half way down. Meat hanging from the windows, laundry up to dry. The running water was the brook next to the house. Tiny electrical wires were going into the house so apparently they did have lights...

A little ways further down we ran into this teeny hut where an older lady was selling touristy trinkets- my favorite!!!

Yes, I bought. I'm a sucker for these places. You can barely make it out but there's a piggy bank made from a coconut- I got that for Soph and I bought a pencil cup thingy with some Chinese writing on it. My ayi says it has sayings for good luck on it. (I think it probably says "This Western sucker paid way too much for this piece of junk"- but I don't care. :)

Some odd sword statue further down

The pagoda at the top of the waterfall

Looking over the railing by the pagoda down to the pool at the base of the waterfall

Pagoda at top right (can't see it). I'm in the wooden structure that's by the pool.

Needless to say, we got back and had not even broken a sweat. Not out of breath. Maybe a bit warm but that's it. We're still not sure exactly what they were doing to get so worked up. Guess we're just in such great shape (hah!!). :)

We all finished packing up then and packed up the cars. On the way down the mountain Sophie got really carsick. The driver was racing down the turns and she had been playing Leapster- oops. She started with, "I'm hot", which turned into, "My tummy feels funny", which turned into, "I have to go pukey". Thankfully with a little breeze, a snack, stripping some clothes off, a nap and a back scratch from Momma, she was better. Whew! The rest of the ride home was uneventful- Coop was great and even took a nap in his carseat.

We got home, unpacked, realized everything smelled like we had been camping, so into the wash it all went.

It was a fun weekend of hiking and relaxing. Really nice to make some new friends and hang out with some "old" ones. Even if we did almost freeze to death that first night... :)

Oh, before I forget- I wanted to put a few pics of some signs we saw while hiking over the weekend. Needless to say, I believe much is still lost in translation...

You mean "prevent forest FIRES", right??

Don't recklessly slip, do it carefully. :)