On our Sunday, March 18 flight to Hong Kong, Matthew said that his tooth was bothering him. This baby tooth was little wiggly, but not much. He grabbed napkins and pulled and tugged until he got that tooth out! Because it really was not ready to come out, the amount of blood was incredible. It completely freaked out the flight attendants. We had just begun our landing, so we could not get up to go to the toilet. They brought tons of napkins and bottles of water. It was amusing.
We arrived in Hong Kong to find a very long line at immigration. We have grown accustomed to all the staring, so we just smiled. We then had a long bus ride to our hotel, The Cosmo. We checked in and headed out quickly to Causeway Bay to find dinner. We ate falafel and beef donor wraps. An unexpected find, but very good.
Our 2 bdrm suite had big family room area with a L shaped comfy couch and footstools. The kids came up with some cool games of balancing and jumping. Phillip called reception and found out that no one was below us. After living in an apartment for almost 2 years, being able to jump and make noise was quite fun.
On Monday, March 19 we had the buffet breakfast and then took a cab to Ocean Park. We took a cable car from the Waterfront part of the park to the Summit. We saw beautiful views of mountains and the China Sea. As we are racing to the first ride (Hair Raiser), we saw our friends, Keith and Mary Gail Congleton and their daughter Natalie. The Congletons live right below us in our apartment building. What are the odds? We hung out all day together. We rode Hair Raiser, bumper cars, Flash (which went all the way over 3 times), Mine train, Dragon, The Abyss, Bungee Trampoline, water rides, ... So much fun. We got pretty annoyed at how aggressive the Chinese people were, though. They literally would bump and push to try and make their way to get in front of us while standing in line for a ride. Unbelievable. We started "boxing out" to keep them from breaking line. Because we stayed until closing, we stood in long line for the cable car to get back on the other side of the park to the exit. We took a cab to Central Station.
On Tuesday March 20, we slept in and then went down to breakfast. There was smoked duck, pasta, and chicken nuggets, as well as eggs and pancakes. We took a Ding Ding, but then we hopped off to go back to hotel to get Phillip's pedometer. We walked through a fish market and then took a cab back to the hotel. We started over with another Ding Ding. We realized we were going the opposite way of where we wanted to go. Once more, we got off and boarded a 3rd Ding Ding. It was so cool to sit on top deck.
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| Aboard the Ding Ding |
We went to Central Station, walked to Hong Kong Station, and then took a subway to the International Commerce Center (490 meters), the 4th tallest building in world. We have seen 5 of the 10 tallest buildings in the world – Hong Kong ICC, Petronas Towers (2 towers), Willis Tower, Trump Tower when it was being built. We went up to Sky100 on the 100th floor for incredible views.
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| ICC Building |
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| View from Sky100 |
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| Sky100 |
We took a taxi to Ladies Market / Sneaker Street, had lunch on the street, and started shopping. We did
lots of walking and negotiating for bargains. We were excited to purchase Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretsky jerseys for our future sports basement. We took a cab to the Night Market, but we were pretty much done with shopping. We could not find a restaurant that we all liked, so we ended up at KFC.
We awoke Wednesday, March 21 to learn of Collin's death. He had been hit by a car. Our family prayed and cried together. We were in a bit of a daze for a while. We talked to the children about communication, decision making, and safety. We decided to go back to Ocean Park, but our hearts were heavy all day.
We left Ocean Park early enough to catch a cab to the Peak Tram which goes to Victoria's Peak. We wanted to be there before dusk. We got a table at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company for dinner and had an amazing view. We then headed up to the Sky Terrace. It was a beautiful view, but it was very windy and cold. We did a last bit of shopping, took the tram down, and then took a cab to our hotel one last time.
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| Peak Tram |
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| Dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company |
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Sky Terrace at Victoria's Peak
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| View from Sky Terrace |
On Thursday March 22, 2012, we had a 4:30 wake up call. With our family of 5 and luggage, we took 2 cabs to airport. On the Delta flight to Narita, Matthew got sick. He felt better once we arrived. We rode the Narita Express to Shinagawa and walked to the Prince Hotel. Phillip went to a meeting. Then, Jacob got a migraine. So, the kids watched Sumo on TV while I went down to the 7-11 for snacks and drinks. I never thought I would see the day when my kids would be so interested in watching Sumo! Once Jacob felt better, the kids and I took the train to Hamamatsuchi Station and walked to see the Tokyo Tower. We had great views of world’s biggest city. Amazing. We then took the train back to Shinagawa to meet Phillip for dinner at a Korean restaurant - steak, garlic, kimchi on lettuce. YUM. We played cards in our hotel room until 1am.
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| Tokyo Tower |
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| View from Tokyo Tower |
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| Tokyo Tower |
On Friday, March 23, we had planned to take a river cruise to Asakusa. However, it was raining pretty hard. We changed our shinkansen tickets, grabbed lunch at a famous Tokyo noodle shop, and headed for home. Only in Japan would we have left 5 suitcases outside a restaurant on a sidewalk while the whole family was inside eating. I love this country.
So, our spring break adventures in China are complete. We had a great time, but as always, it was good to be home.
Peace and Love,
Tina
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