When Brent went to work yesterday, T. and I had a couple of hours to fill before we could check into our hotel. He had his notebook and pencil, so I didn’t feel too bad parking him in a pavilion in the Chinese Garden of Friendship while I enjoyed the place to my heart’s content, taking as many photos as I wanted. Some places are magic. This garden is one of them. All the stress of getting packed and moved and the worry about us coexisting in yet another smaller place fell away from me for the time I was there.

The place is designed so thoughtfully that everywhere is beautiful. I found myself more than once taking a photo of some scene, taking a few steps and taking another photo of another, equally beautiful aspect of the same scene, transformed by that slight shift of perspective. Enough chatter. Here are photos. Sculpture, water, and plants:



Koi:



Pavilion and sky:



Bridge and rocks:



Then we got to go in the pool at the hotel. Whatever lingering ick may have been hiding in my body was banished by the application of chlorinated water.