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We enjoyed the coffee and apple pie pastry and then walked back. Upon passing Jaimie and Mario's room we heard the sound of a keyboard. Jaimie and Mario were hard at work catching up on their journal and sorting through pictures. We volunteered to return to Starbucks and provide them with a special room service. We left them to their work and did some laundry and repacking. We also tried to solve our toilet paper crisis by finding an extra roll or two on the maid's cart. Toilet paper seems to be a scarce commodity around here. I learned almost the hard way that you had better be prepared when using a public toilet to have your own supply. Not only are you faced with Asian toilets (a hole in the floor) but most likely there will be no toilet paper and in the worst case no door and no sink. A normal restroom would go on my most missed items list.
Since much of the palace ground is a huge lake, we decide to rent a paddleboat and view the grounds that way. We were not alone. There were many paddle, motor, tour and rowboats on the lake. We paddled towards the Seventeen Arch Bridge and the South Lake Island. On the island is the temple of Timely Rains and Extensive Moisture - they always have very interesting names at these palaces! Our fellow boaters seemed to get great joy from waving and exchanging smiles and greetings with us. They also seem to enjoy taking our picture.
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We had agreed to a late wake up since the Great Wall experience had tired us all out. Since I had not felt like eating much last night, I was very hungry which led to Tom and I venturing out to find our local Starbucks all on our own. Once I stepped out of the hotel, I was clueless on which way to go but luckily Tom knew the way. It had rained the night before and we found the sidewalks of Beijing to be covered with a film of wet sand. The sky seemed to have lost some of the haziness so we were hopeful that our last day in Beijing would have clear skies. 
Around 1:30 we were off to find lunch and then on to the Summer Palace. Mario is our expert communicator with the cab drivers. First he will ask the hotel desk to write the name of the location or address in Chinese characters. Next, if he has an idea of the location he will take out the map and show the driver the location and route. We were headed towards a Thai restaurant and the taxi driver dropped us in the general location and pointed the direction we should walk. After stopping and asking directions twice, we found the restaurant. Now the fun begins as we tried to order from a waitress who knows no English at all. Luckily the menu had the meals in both English and Chinese and we ordered. Our waitress read back our order in Chinese and we could only hope for the best. It turned out to be very good although Mario had ordered his meal with chicken, no beef and he got beef, no chicken. :( 
We got very lucky to have the next taxi driver understand that we wanted to go to the Summer Palace and he took us there no problem, although couldn't get all the way to the front entrance. Upon entering, we once again saw an endless sea of people everywhere. The Summer Palace was once the playground for the royal court. After going through several builds and destructions, the Empress Dowager Cixi did some serious rebuilding. She used money that was supposed to have built a modern navy and built instead a huge marble boat.
After several rotations of paddlers (our legs must be wondering how much more punishment we can dish out) we made it around much of the lake passing by the Willow Bridge, the Pavilion of Bright Scenery, the Jade Bridge and the Marble Boat. The marble boat is over 36 meters long with a hull and upper deck made of massive stone slabs. The paddleboat had saved us from much walking and since most of the structures are closed to the public, the lakeside viewing had worked out great. After 1 1/2 hours of paddling, we had seen a large amount of the area and no crowds!