Julie's parents took care of the girls while we went on our eight-day trip.
Our bus for the 10 hour journey to Songpan.
A village on the way.
Mountains near Huanglong National Park, still snowy in June.
A traffic jam on the way into Songpan. No flagmen means large trucks all just drive on into the one-lane section of road, then figure out which line of trucks and buses will reverse back out after they meet the trucks coming from the other way.
Dinner at Emma's Cafe in Songpan.
Dusty little SP.
On our way out the next morning. The dust from the roadwork was incredible. It had cleared some by the time we took this picture.
Sheep and yaks.
Unloading a bunch of windows for a village of T. people who've been settled off the grasslands.
In LMS.
A general store.
A view from Gansu into Sichuan.
One of the two monasteries. This is the one on the Gansu side.
A bone. Animal? Or left by the vultures after a sky burial?
LMS has horse trekking for people who weigh 80 kilograms or less. We didn't go but not because of weight (in Julie's case at least).
The Sichuan-side monastery.
Heading up a gorge to start a morning hike.
On top of the mountain ridge.
View over LMS as the rain clouds descend.
And a view along the ridge.
Heading back down.
The lady on the right was herding these calves. She had no dog, no staff, nothing but the rocks she picked off the ground. But she was a great shot and got the cows to go where she wanted them to go by whacking them in the rumps with the stones.
Julie and her hat merchant friend in LMS. Their friendship would be deeper if they spoke a common language, but the lady doesn't know any English or Mandarin.
Prayer wheels at the edge of the large monastery in XH.
A monk painting a statue of a god whose name we didn't think to ask at the time. But the painting you can just see at the top of the picture took him 40 days to paint.
Pilgrims going up and down the stairs of a temple.
This nice old lady invited us to her home for lunch even though it was only 10:30am.
Some teenagers who live or hang out in the same house the lady lives in.
Half of the lady's living quarters. The little table separates places to sleep on either side. She told us that her husband died a while ago so if we wanted we could sleep there. There's a hunk of butter in the middle of the table, and the jar sitting on the bed platform is full of roasted barley kernels for making tsampa.
Offering tea and food to the DL, whose picture is there between the flowers.
Spooning great slabs of butter into bowls. Then boiling water is poured in and you dip bread in the melted butter.
The other half of the room.
Bread and butter.
Building (or rebuilding) in the monastery.
They laid new sewer pipe during the two days we were in XH.
A spirit goat. A lama blesses it and then no one is allowed to harm it. They tie the flag to its coat so everyone knows that it's off limits. You can still hassle it though. Our friend here was trying to rile it up so it would butt him, but the goat was very friendly and didn't rise to the bait.
Julie and people picnicking above the monastery. The one older lady was singing. The rest of the people in the picnic party were all school age.
The part of the kora without prayer wheels.
There were so many different types of wild flowers in bloom on the hills. We'll just put this one in this post.
View up the valley in which XH sits.
Julie descending.
A sky burial site.
Homemade mask.
Doorway with one flower.
Our favorite restaurant in XH - the Nomad.
Afternoon in the monastery, monks just done with prayers.
New construction.
Young monks playing tag.
Stone slabs laid out so the devout can prostrate themselves while doing the kora.
Our bus to Xining left early in the morning. So early that when we got there the bus station hadn't opened yet.
On the way to Xining.
The yellow fields are rape/canola.
Our bus got a flat tire. They had it changed in half an hour.
The male passengers supervise the tire repair.
Julie gets an IV.
Xining from our friends' apartment.
And the other side of Xining from a window on the other side of their place.
Caterpillar fungus is big business in Xining. In the airport, half a pound of it sells for over $11,000. But you can get it cheaper than that.
Julie enjoys some instant noodles while we wait four hours for the mechanics to fix our airplane.
Getting on the airplane again, after our long wait.
But three passengers didn't get back on, no one knew where they were, and the airline wouldn't let us just take off without them. After sitting there for another half hour or so, passengers started getting really angry, yelling, arguing with the stewardesses, and then some of them got their bags and tried to get off the plane. Eventually these guys in the picture showed up and started handing out cash. They gave everyone 200 RMB ($30) and then we took off without the three missing passengers.
The end.
Our bus for the 10 hour journey to Songpan.
A village on the way.
Mountains near Huanglong National Park, still snowy in June.
A traffic jam on the way into Songpan. No flagmen means large trucks all just drive on into the one-lane section of road, then figure out which line of trucks and buses will reverse back out after they meet the trucks coming from the other way.
Dinner at Emma's Cafe in Songpan.
Dusty little SP.
On our way out the next morning. The dust from the roadwork was incredible. It had cleared some by the time we took this picture.
Sheep and yaks.
Unloading a bunch of windows for a village of T. people who've been settled off the grasslands.
In LMS.
A general store.
A view from Gansu into Sichuan.
One of the two monasteries. This is the one on the Gansu side.
A bone. Animal? Or left by the vultures after a sky burial?
LMS has horse trekking for people who weigh 80 kilograms or less. We didn't go but not because of weight (in Julie's case at least).
The Sichuan-side monastery.
Heading up a gorge to start a morning hike.
On top of the mountain ridge.
View over LMS as the rain clouds descend.
And a view along the ridge.
Heading back down.
The lady on the right was herding these calves. She had no dog, no staff, nothing but the rocks she picked off the ground. But she was a great shot and got the cows to go where she wanted them to go by whacking them in the rumps with the stones.
Julie and her hat merchant friend in LMS. Their friendship would be deeper if they spoke a common language, but the lady doesn't know any English or Mandarin.
Prayer wheels at the edge of the large monastery in XH.
A monk painting a statue of a god whose name we didn't think to ask at the time. But the painting you can just see at the top of the picture took him 40 days to paint.
Pilgrims going up and down the stairs of a temple.
This nice old lady invited us to her home for lunch even though it was only 10:30am.
Some teenagers who live or hang out in the same house the lady lives in.
Half of the lady's living quarters. The little table separates places to sleep on either side. She told us that her husband died a while ago so if we wanted we could sleep there. There's a hunk of butter in the middle of the table, and the jar sitting on the bed platform is full of roasted barley kernels for making tsampa.
Offering tea and food to the DL, whose picture is there between the flowers.
Spooning great slabs of butter into bowls. Then boiling water is poured in and you dip bread in the melted butter.
The other half of the room.
Bread and butter.
Building (or rebuilding) in the monastery.
They laid new sewer pipe during the two days we were in XH.
A spirit goat. A lama blesses it and then no one is allowed to harm it. They tie the flag to its coat so everyone knows that it's off limits. You can still hassle it though. Our friend here was trying to rile it up so it would butt him, but the goat was very friendly and didn't rise to the bait.
Julie and people picnicking above the monastery. The one older lady was singing. The rest of the people in the picnic party were all school age.
The part of the kora without prayer wheels.
There were so many different types of wild flowers in bloom on the hills. We'll just put this one in this post. 
View up the valley in which XH sits.
Julie descending.
A sky burial site.
Homemade mask.
Doorway with one flower.
Our favorite restaurant in XH - the Nomad.
Afternoon in the monastery, monks just done with prayers.
New construction.
Young monks playing tag.
Stone slabs laid out so the devout can prostrate themselves while doing the kora.
Our bus to Xining left early in the morning. So early that when we got there the bus station hadn't opened yet.
On the way to Xining.
The yellow fields are rape/canola.
Our bus got a flat tire. They had it changed in half an hour.
The male passengers supervise the tire repair.
Julie gets an IV.
Xining from our friends' apartment.
And the other side of Xining from a window on the other side of their place.
Caterpillar fungus is big business in Xining. In the airport, half a pound of it sells for over $11,000. But you can get it cheaper than that.
Julie enjoys some instant noodles while we wait four hours for the mechanics to fix our airplane.
Getting on the airplane again, after our long wait.
But three passengers didn't get back on, no one knew where they were, and the airline wouldn't let us just take off without them. After sitting there for another half hour or so, passengers started getting really angry, yelling, arguing with the stewardesses, and then some of them got their bags and tried to get off the plane. Eventually these guys in the picture showed up and started handing out cash. They gave everyone 200 RMB ($30) and then we took off without the three missing passengers.
The end.
