A family weekend trip to Rizhao

D1: Set off after lunch, head straight to the Shijiusuo seafood market upon arrival in Rizhao to buy seafood, then check into the homestay. After that, we split up; dad stayed at the homestay to prepare the seafood, while my mom, brother, husband, and I took the kids to the Shanhai Tian beach to dig in the sand. The wind was strong and it was a bit cold by the sea, so we played for less than an hour before returning to the homestay. We also watched the swans by the lake in the residential complex for a while. Dinner was a feast of various seafood prepared by my dad, including tongue fish, cat's eye snails, oysters, razor clams, shrimp... each one was delicious. D2: Early in the morning, my dad and I took the kids to the Shanhai Tian to check in at the love sign. Due to a marathon, the roads were going to be closed, so we didn't dare to linger by the sea and hurried back to the homestay planning to have breakfast and then go to the forest park for fun. On the way back, the kids found two swan feathers by the lake in the residential complex and were as excited as if they had found treasures. The world of children is so simple and joyful! For breakfast, in addition to what we brought, we also had a Jining sorghum porridge with a large deep-fried dough stick, which received unanimous praise from five people from Linyi. After breakfast, we set off for the forest park and arrived before 11 am. Also due to the marathon, the park did not provide bicycle rental services until after 12 pm. We decided to go to the Metasequoia forest to take some photos first and unexpectedly found a children's playground in the forest (50 yuan/person, with one adult allowed to accompany). The two kids had a great time playing in the woods. Before we knew it, it was time for lunch, and we enjoyed snacks and pancake with ham sausage under the Metasequoia trees. Then we rented a large and a small sightseeing bike (two-person bike 60 yuan/2 hours, four-person bike 80 yuan/2 hours) and cycled through the forest park. Riding north along the seaside road, we finally saw the sand sculptures, which were very detailed and had shapes in 360 degrees, perfect for taking photos and checking in. Afterwards, we accompanied the kids to dig in the sand on a nearby beach for a while. The sand in the forest park was fine, and there weren't many people around, like the part of the beach we went to in the north, where there were just a few of us. After playing, we started cycling back. That's when we realized a problem: we could only return the same way we came, as the road to the west was almost impassable, and we could only cycle back south, unable to enjoy different scenery. After returning the bikes, we set off for the seafood market again, ready to buy more and head home! This was the first trip where we didn't dine out; the entire trip was spent with mom shopping and dad cooking, but it was truly both delicious and economical. During the trip, the little siblings were sometimes in perfect harmony, getting along wonderfully, and at other times, they were at each other's throats, but they couldn't bear to be apart. In response to my brother's attempts to intervene, mom often said one thing: 'This is just what kids do.' Yes, because they are kids, they both want the same feather, one second they're red-faced and arguing, the next second they can't bear to be apart. If they were adults, those childish quarrels would be gone, and so would the joy. Cherish the time when you're a child, cherish the time we spend together~