HOT DATE DAVIS

Actuall the weather was quite cold. GaoYan and I took our date money and escaped. Some of the best memories in our marriage have been exploring new cities on vacation, so we spent one night in Shaoxing. We left Caleb with Grandma. Shaoxing is so close it actually took more time getting to the train station than the train to Shaoxing. But we felt like we were on vacation. A boat man rowed us down the canal with his foot oar. He would stop along the way at cultural sights. We could get out of the boat, walk around, and then we would continue down the canal under little bridges. Ladies were making sausages, cleaning out pig intestines and stuffing them back with chopped pork and fat. Then the sausages were hung in the sunshine to cure. For dinner we enjoyed hotpot for nearly two hours. The window in our hotel room opened up to a small canal. We slept in until 8:45 and enjoyed a cup of coffee and pastries at Starbucks. On the train ride back, GaoYan and I were amazed by how refreshed we felt after just a day and a half out of town.