From Grits to Chopsticks

Last weekend, we traveled about five hours north of our city to attend the wedding of two good friends.  Even though we were just riding in the back seat, we were pretty exhausted upon arrival due to the stress of constantly passing large vehicles on  blind mountain curves:

Instead of watching out the front window, it was much better just to look at the beautiful scenery through the side windows:

Along the way, we stopped at a rest area.  We hope that no one was in a hurry to get to the hospital:

The groom is from a small village surrounded by rice fields and apple orchards:

The people are very friendly.  We first encountered these (little) ladies on their “main street”:

Later, we met this old man near the market:

Getting to the groom’s parents’ house is not easy.  The local residents all wear rubber boots due to the mud (we only had flip flops):

We passed a few guard dogs:

Straddled more mud:

Saw a kid playing a cell phone game and wearing an “angry birds” T-shirt:

And passed a toddler that was probably surprised to see foreign faces:

The groom’s house is white and green with thick brick/stucco walls.  It was expanded from one room to three rooms over the years to accomodate a growing family of five children:

Inside, family members were working hard to prepare a pre-wedding feast:

“Home cooking” is usually delicious: the dishes are simple and the veggies are fresh.  Here’s the aftermath at our table:

We also were able to hang out with some of the older family members.  The family has lived in this village for ten generations:

We ended our visit by walking through the chicken yard to the garden (this mud caused Susan’s flip flop to have a blow out):

Their garden is mostly fruit trees, including this peach tree with apple branches grafted in, growing both kinds of fruit:

Everything was interesting, but for those of you who are curious – no, we did not use the rest room there (the slot leads to an open pit behind the house):