Ice,tow truck,bikes

Today we went to see our friend Tami and her daughter Lauren. We went to the Gaylord hotel to see the ice sculpture display made by men from Chins who work on the Harbin Winter Festival. It is a constant 9 degrees in the display and luckily they give you large parkas to wear over your coat. I brought gloves and hats too. The girls had fun together and at the end, there is an ice slide that they went down a few times....then out because it was getting very cold.

By this time, Sara was too hungry and she crashes when she needs to eat. We went to the restaurant and were told we had a 30 minute wait, so we got the pager and went to get our free Christmas cookies and apple juice. Then we were not starving and wanted to save some money, so when they paged us, we told them thanks, but we needed to go. As I waited with the now crying Sara, Tami took the girls to the garage to get the car, and we waited, and we waited.....finally we met up and the car had died. It was in for maintenance the day before, and now a dead battery...coincidence, we think not. SO, back to the restaurant, a sports bar, and they seated us immediately, brought food within 5 minutes, and tended us like royalty! Sara got some, what else, chicken into her and she shared with Ruth and I. The meal was great and the service wonderful. Tami went ahead to see about the car, tow truck and loaner car coming from the dealership.

We met up with Tami as her car was leaving piggy back on the tow truck. On the way home we stopped at a park by her house and the girls played until it began to get too cool. Back to the house for the girls to make cookies. Then I took the training wheels off Lauren's bike and Lauren and Ruth both learned to ride!!!!! They were off like the wind, and Sara had to show them a few finer points on the bike.

Then back to the house and an end to a very fun day. Oh yeah, it was the battery on Tami's car and she called saying that she was on her way to get the car.