Date Afternoon

Alex had last Wednesday, Sept 22, off from work for Chun Tian Jia (Mid Autumn Festival).  We still asked our ayi to come in the afternoon, however, so that Alex and I could get a date afternoon together.  We drove out to Kaifaqu (city between us and downtown Dalian) and hiked up UFO Hill.  This is more of a tourist hike - imagine "hiking" from Lincoln High School up to the zoo, and that's about what was like.  There were stairs and some minor paths, but for the most part we were on paved walkways.  Still, it was nice to get out with just the two of us, though we realized that the kids would love it, and plan to take them this next week for the China National Holiday (Fri Oct 1 through Tues Oct 5 are Alex's days off, but most of the country takes off the whole week!).
Here are some photos from our afternoon!

Halfway up with the bull pegasus and cherub rider statue in the background (where do they come UP with these things?)

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Nice view towards the ocean and Dalian across the bay:

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View of Kaifaqu with Da Hei Shen (Big Black Mountain) in the background - we were going to hike that, but realized that was more of a real hike - Saddleback Mountain or something):

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We ran into a friend of ours who brought her kids to the park for the afternoon - they were rolling down the hill with this gaggle of Chinese people snapping their photographs:

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This is why we call it UFO Hill:

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