Day 303 – Moat Boat Ride

We went over to the bank about 10:30 this morning and found the manager that we had talked to yesterday and she helped us get the forms and take us to the teller that we needed to be at so that we could get the rest of our money and close out our account.  It took about forty-five minutes to get everything done. 

We were meeting two of David’s students for lunch at the teacher restaurant.  One of the boys was a little nervous to come because his girlfriend was in town and he didn’t know if he could bring her or not.  We told him that it would be fine, we had ordered enough food to feed five or more.  It was nice to meet her and she seemed thrilled to be eating with us.

 

With David's students: Liam, John, David, me and Liam's girlfriend.

We didn’t plan our time very well today, because we had planned to meet the Pace’s at one, but we weren’t quite done with our meal with David’s students, so we had to excuse ourselves and leave.  We were done eating, but they were still eating.  I hope it wasn’t too rude of us to do that. 

The children's play area at Five Dragon Springs.

David ran some things back to the apartment while I took care of our university cards.  There was still a little money on David’s card, so they gave us some money back.  Just as I finished with that, Stan and Nancy were there to meet us.  We took the bus over to Five Dragon Springs.  They hadn’t seen it yet and so we decided to go there with them.  We did a quick walk around the park and then we went over to see Black Tiger Springs.  We were going to walk the whole way, but it was a pretty hot day, so we got on a bus and rode there.  It was only a few stops, but would have been a pretty long walk and with the Pace’s pressed for time to get back by 5, it was a good thing. 

We parted ways after seeing Black Dragon Spring so that they could get back on time.  David and I have wanted to do the boat ride on the moat that goes around the old part of Jinan ever since we found out about it.  We decided that today was the best day to spend the last 200 RMB that we had in our pockets and that was how we wanted to spend it.  We had a very nice ride around the moat and through DaMing Lake that lasted for about an hour.  The breeze on the lake and in parts of the shaded areas of the moat were a cool relief from the heat.

 

The best part of the moat ride was being able to go through the locks at the dams. 

Opening the gate after we dropped about 10 feet in less than five minutes.

Design of the lotus leaf along the side of the moat.

Our "selfie"!  (It only took one try to get one this perfect!)

There is an area of the moat where they allow people to swim during the day.  The police are there to keep the swimmers safe by watching for the boats and not allowing the people to swim when one is coming.

We hurried to catch a bus after the moat ride because it was getting close to drive time.  We made it home in good time and then stopped in to see Eva.  She has been working at the school to grade papers and enter scores all day, so we dropped by to give her our “check-out” paper with all the red stamps on it.  We invited her to stop by for some supper and she ended up bringing something to eat from the canteen anyway.  We had a nice visit.

Alan, his Dad and his Mom came over for a little while this evening.  They had another small gift to give us.  (Thank goodness it was small because we are having a hard time bringing all the gifts we have been given home now!)  They stayed for a short visit and then we got busy trying to finish putting things in suitcases.  We decided we needed to mail another box home…