We first ran in to the Fuhua amusement park by chance. We were riding around on our E-bike one day and saw roller coaster tracks twisting in the air above the trees. We excitedly followed the tracks in the sky until we came across an old, but fully functioning amusement park. This park ended up being our go to for holidays. It had amusement and carnival type rides, food stalls and pretty grounds for walking. We went there on Halloween night and Christmas night. They would decorate the park for Western holidays, so it felt a little like home. While walking around the park one day we noticed a huge building and decided to check it out. It was a big indoor water park with slides, wave pools, and kid play places. We knew we wanted to go one day, but it was closed for the season and wouldn't open until a couple weeks before we were to fly back to the States.
We anxiously waited until opening day! Summers in Weifang get very hot, and pools aren't easy to come by so we were so excited to swim! We packed up our swim stuff after lunch and road our bike over. Aside from the water being a little cold, it was a blast! The indoor park is SO big so it didn't feel crowded and we rented a little raft to pull the kids around in. We splashed and played until we were too hungry to stand it and had to head back home.
On the way home we needed to recharge our bike battery because the park was a bit far from campus. We pulled over to a convenient shop where they had a charging station and bought some drinks and snacks. Something I loved about our city was the laid back, easy feel. In America, if it took me 20 minutes to fill my car with gas I would be irritated by the waste of time, but in was just a part of life to sit back and relax while the bike charged. The store owner brought out little chairs for us and the kids fell asleep on my lap, exhausted from swimming. It was a great day spent together as a family, with many simple moments that will remain precious to me.
June, 23, 2018