It has been a year already?

We were caught a little off guard when we realized that our first anniversary was fast approaching. It seems like such a short time ago that we were planning for our wedding and running back and forth between Poco and Victoria.

To celebrate, we decided to spend the weekend in Dalian (the biggest city nearby –around 6.5 million people) which is about an hour and a half away by train. On Friday the 3^rd we headed into town on the light rail train immediately after work.

We splurged a little this weekend, and booked ourselves into the nicest hotel that this part of Northern China has to offer. Suffice it to say that we felt underdressed much of the time we were there. The view wasn’t great, but the room we stayed in was one of the best we have ever been in- perhaps the best! The bathroom wall slid into a recess to make the gigantic soaker tub sit in the center of the room. The rain shower was wonderful, the huge television was fun to watch real English shows on, the bed was soft and the pillows were plushy. Oh and the breakfast buffet and spa style swimming pool were fabulous! All this for under $120 Canadian.

 We spent Saturday walking around Labour park, enjoying the music from the full brass band, the waltzing older Chinese couples, the cages of cranes (yes the endangered species- on display in metal houses), the rose gardens and children’s amusement park. Later we went for massages at a Thai massage spa. So decadent! That night we headed to the top of a hill to the nicest restaurant in Dalian. The restaurant was Italian, the food delicious, the drinks cold, the service attentive (they pulled out our chairs and folded napkins in our laps- not typical Chinese waiters here), the view fairly good and the decor relaxing.

A different type of crane from the ones we see all over China.

Does Disney know about this???

Fishing for goldfish!

In all, the weekend was great. We had a chance to think back on the first year of our marriage, chat about how much fun our wedding was, and how great it was to have all of our family and friends give us so much love and support for our marriage.