Saturday at a Suzhou Garden

In the book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die and the Gardens of Suzhou are listed as a must-see.  It took us almost 10 months, but we finally visited one.  One Saturday afternoon we ate at our favorite Chinese restaurant in Old Town, Yang Yang's, and then strolled to the Master of the Nets garden.

These green beans are so good!

EBean kept asking for more meat.
This dish is pepper beef on hot rocks with cilantro.
I crave this dish.

Look at LBean going to town with those chopsticks!

On the way to the garden we walked through a very quiet alleyway.  I feel like we found the quietest place of all of Suzhou.

Along the alleyway there were several gates with
mailboxes.

The Master of the Nets garden is the smallest of the gardens in the Suzhou but it is considered one of the best.  The garden was started in 1140.  We've found that the gardens are a lot of fun for the girls.  They like climb on the rocks, look at the fish, and look in all the nooks and crannies.

The ground had several inlaid tiles. So beautiful!

EBean saying "hoohoo"

Pointing at the turtle.

The girls asked to have green tea for an afternoon treat.  I chose to have a Diet Coke instead!

This group of ladies was getting a kick out of our girls
drinking green tea.

We ended our Saturday at John Brown Chocolates.  It's a nice little place on Bar Street that serves ice cream, macaroons and some fun chocolate truffles.  The most interesting truffle we tried was chocolate and chili powder.  It was an interesting combination, but I only needed to eat half of one.

We'll be back soon, of course they do deliver...