Hong Kong- Part 2

I had over 600 pictures from this trip so I thought I would split it into 2 parts to lessen the reading load for those of you back home. :)

So, I left off at the end of Day 2, eating some great American food and crashing early.

Day 3 was beach day. We decided first to try again to find that elusive restaurant, The Flying Pan, to get some tasty American breakfast. After Google mapping it out, we saw that we were, in fact, right where we were supposed to be the day before. Odd, we thought, because we had not seen it anywhere when the taxi had dropped us off. We decided to walk there as we were going straight tothe beach after breakfast.

Cooper is still loving the hiking backpack, although it is getting much harder to lug him around in it. 37 pounds is not a small thing to carry on your back! My boys in their matching plaid shirts... :)

Low and behold, the restaurant was, in fact, exactly where we had stepped out of the taxi the day before. Today, however, there was no super drunk guy sitting in the entry of the building so we were actually able to see the sign for the restaurant, which was on the 3rd floor. *sigh*
Anywho, the food was great. Eggs and toast and fruit and actual American bacon (not that Canadian stuff, no offense, Christy :). It was delish!

From the restaurant we snagged a taxi and headed out to Shek-O Beach. This was a harrowing ride (not sure if I spelled that right) around windy mountains up and down and back and forth at break-neck Chinese speed. Blech. At the end of the ride, Cooper and I gleefully leaped from the taxi as one more minute inside of it and we would have vomited.

There to our left was an old Chinese woman with a pile of umbrellas and chairs. For a nominal fee she dragged some down to the beach for us and set us up, right on the edge of where we were allowed to go (it was odd bc there were places you could set up umbrellas and closer to the water you couldn't).

Our little spot for the day. You can see the yellow line in front of us showing where you had to stop setting up umbrellas. Now that I think about it, I bet it was this way so the lifeguards could see the swimmers better. Maybe. Who knows.

You can't tell here but it was really sunny and hot that day. Great views of natural rock formations in the water.

A view to the right. This was around 11. There was almost nobody here then. It was hilarious bc when we left at 3ish it was packed!! I'm begining to realize China doesn't wake up until about 11 so things don't get busy till 12 or 1 around here.

Ben being the ultimate daddy and braving huge waves to swim with the kids. We had to take turns swimming as we didn't trust leaving our stuff unattended. Too many weird single people just milling around. As the day progressed the waves got bigger and the undertow was becoming more pronounced. Around 2 they decleared a red flag and asked that nobody go in the water. Too dangerous. We witnessed 2 rescues just in the few hours we were there. It was sad bc we found out that the next morning 2 teens drowned at this beach bc they were carried out in the undertow. So scary. :(

Since we couldn't swim, we decided to bury ourselves. Sophie wanted to be a mermaid. I'll spare you from the pic of me. ;)

Once we figured that the waves were not going to get smaller we decided to head back into town and rest and then go explore the town and eat dinner.
Some friends of ours had suggested this place, Yorkshire Pudding (yes, they're Brits :), so we thought we'd check it out and see what the UK has to offer in terms of food. :)

Right next to the restaurant were these outdoor escalators that brought people from the bottom of the hill all the way to the top. You could stop off at any level for shopping or restaurants. Really cool set up and a very necessary one considering Hong Kong is a huge city on a mountain.

Inside Yorkshire Pudding. This is one of the few meals in a long time that we didn't have to bust out Dora to distract Cooper. He was fascinated by this huge fishtank at our table. How perfect!
We had some delicious fish and chips and these odd ham and cheese sandwiches and then headed home to rest up for another big day.

Day 4 was our hiking day. We decided to take this famous train thing up the really steep mountain to this area called Victoria's Peak. There the plan was to hike around and explore for a while. We had heard these awful tales of people waiting for 2 hours just to get on this tram and, as you all know by now, this is not acceptable or doable with Cooper (and Sophia, for that matter). So, we decided to get there at the crack of dawn when it first opened. As you can see, no issues. We walked up to the window, bought tickets, and walked on. This was about 7:45 am and there was maybe 3 other people on the tram.

 

A view from in our car on the way up the mountain. See? No one there! China does not wake up until 11, people!!



When we got to the top of the mountain the entire area was still closed bc it was only about 8 am, so we decided to do our hiking while the weather was still mild and the stores were still closed.
Here is Soph running ahead- endless energy as always!

This was a great waterfall. Perfect family photo op, right? Cooper. Cooper? Hey, Cooper! Nope. He's obsessed with the waterfall. Oh well... :)

Do you see that face? Good gravies, he just lights up when he smiles! Just wanna smush him.... :)

Ok, this made the blog for one reason and one reason only. The sheer size of this spider was ridiculous, people. This crazy China spider was up in a tree over the path and had to be at least 3 inches across. This is not a fish story, people. This is a freaky crazy huge spider. We walked quickly by.

Further down the path were these trees whose roots grew on the outside. They hung down like vines until they reached the ground. Very cool.

Here we are at the top. The air quality left something to be desired but the view was still cool. You can actually see the bend in the island as it wraps around the city and the ocean just beyond the city. Really interesting place. Reminded me quite a bit of Seattle, really.

Near the end of our hike we came past the building that the train stopped in. It held a mall with about 5 or 6 stories of shops and restaurants. You could pay to go to the top of it and look over the city.

 
On the top floor of that mall place was a Bubba Gump Restaurant. Yup. We couldn't go in as it was only 10 and it didn't open until 11 or so but we did get this pic by the entrance.

Since we were hungry from all that hiking but all the restaurants were still closed, we went to our constant happy place in China, Starbucks. Ahhhhh..... Here we see Ben's cinnamon roll, my blueberry scone and my salted carmel mocha. Life was good. :)

Just outside the mall was this great play area where the kids could burn some extra energy.

Another view of the mall area at the top of Victoria's Peak.

So, when it was about 1130 and we had had enough, we headed back down the mountain, again simply hopping on the train and riding down the mountain, no waiting. When we arrived at the bottom, this was what greeted us. The line was over 2 hours long to get up the mountain. China is easy if you're willing to get up early, people!!

We discovered that our hotel was a short walk from the tram, and that it was through a park, so we continued our walking for the day and explored around a bit.

Near the end of the park was this cool fountain that Soph really wanted to get a picture in. Coop just wanted to touch the falling water. :)

After grabbing some lunch we headed out to the pool for some down time. We actually went swimming almost every day. It's the kids' favorite thing to do!

After Coop had a nap we headed into Causeway Bay to try out this restaurant called The Spaghetti House. We thought it would be a good Western place but it was fairly sketchy so we ended up at Outback Steakhouse instead! Who knew. We haven't ever been to one of those in the U.S., even. :)
After dinner we had some time to kill before heading out to this dragon thing Ben wanted to go to. We went walking around- it was crazy busy!!

The place was lit up and full of people. This was the actual holiday night (Oct. 1) so everyone was out celebrating.

Off we went to the dragon thing. It took us a while to find it bc this ritual happened in this tiny part of town in these alleys. I was a bit worried how sketchy the whole thing was going to be, but it actually turned out to be pretty cool.

A 35 meter long dragon was made out of twigs and sticks. Designated men came along and filled the dragon with lit incense sticks. The smell was amazing. There were easily thousnads of these sticks and it took almost an hour to fully cover it. There were drums playing and people everywhere.

Here is the dragon almost at completion. The crowd was getting very excited!

Once it was filled, there were some things spoken and then other designated men lifted the dragon by the poles to huge cheers by the crowd. They had this choreographed dance where they went up and down alleys to the drums. It was a massive thing and they moved so quickly. Unfortunately, Cooper was way past his bedtime and done with the noise so we didn't get to see the head or tail of the dragon, but it was still a really cool thing to see!

Once everyone was settled into bed, I suddenly heard these huge booms. I was worried they were gun shots or something else, so I looked out of the windows to this pretty sight!
There were 3 barges setting off fireworks in the channel celebrating the MidAutumn Festival.

The fireworks went on for over 30 minutes and we probably took 50 pictures of them- they were so pretty! Still can't believe the kids never woke up during the whole thing!

Ok, I'm calling it a night! I still have 2 more days to write about but this one's long enough. I promise I'll get the rest done soon!

Hong Kong!!

Finally, I get a rainy day where I am "stuck" inside and am forced to work on my blog. :) So lazy, am I! Really, though, I have been surprisingly busy with friends having babies, play dates, school stuff, visitors. Such a life. ;)

The first week of October here is the Mid-Autumn Festival. Couldn't tell you what it's about but I can tell you the Chinese get a week off of work (so we do, too) and they eat mooncakes. What are mooncakes? They are small (maybe 2 bites), they have a poundcake-like outside with any variety of filling. Could be nuts or fruit or egg or beans or even meat. I bought a few from the store and we tried them out. Thankfully I had not bought the egg, bean or meat ones. I think they had nuts, but I'm not really sure. :) Anyway, they weren't very tasty so we didn't even finish them.

On Friday, Sept 28th, our family flew to Hong Kong, a Chinese city that is so NOT Chinese! A fairly short flight- less than 3 hours, however, we were delayed in the plane for almost 2 hours so it made for a longer journey than we had hoped. We went stright from the airport to Hong Kong Disney. Our reasoning for packing so much into one day was that Disney was really close to the airport and very far from the hotel and the city. Disney held our bags for us and off we went. It was really hot that day (prob almost 90) and very very sunny with little breeze. This Disney is the smallest one, I believe, but it was the perfect size for the one day we had to spend there!

Here's Soph going into Disney-

Just after the entrance, a huge Mickey made out of flowers. The building in the background is the train station that has a train that went all around the park.

Strolling down Disney Lane. I think Ben was just as happy to be here as Sophia was. :)

Approaching the Princesses Castle. Big moment!

One of the first things we did was go to meet some characters. The first was, of course, Winnie the Pooh, Soph's favorite! However, what surprised us was how much Cooper loved him! He looked up at Winnie and laughed and held his arms up for Pooh to hold him. He wanted to touch his nose and feel his fur. We had to pry him off!

From there we moved on to the Winnie the Pooh ride. A big hit with both kids (and the grownups)!

After that ride we headed for lunch at the only American restaurant we could find. We got a great seat by the window that overlooked the main road through Disney. What we didn't realize was that there was a huge parade starting with all the Disney characters! We watched from the window for a bit.

A tiny portion of the parade. It really was amazing!!

Sophie calling out to TinkerBell.

Moving on to the Space Mountain portion of the day. We didn't go on the actual ride- I think Soph would have totally freaked, so we decided to try out the Buzz LightYear ride instead.

Inside the Buzz LightYear ride. Coop did really really well and Soph loved it. I couldn't get Ben to stop shooting things and let Sophie win. :)

Soph with her Princess Minnie ears enjoying the Buzz ride.

From there we headed to Adventureland. This was where we found Tarzan, the Lion King and many more.

We saw a quick 30 minute Lion King musical. Really good!

We were very impressed with the dancing, singing and the props!

After the Lion King show we took a tiny boat ride across a lagoon to Tarzan's treehouse.

Inside Tarzan's house-

It gets dark fairly early here, around 630 or so. Ben got this great picture of the clouds and the castle.

Almost at the end of the night we decided to do "It's a Small World". Poor choice on our part. Poor Cooper had had enough and this simply put him over the edge.

Evidence of Cooper being "done". We got on the ride and he proceeded to thrash around and yell for the whooooollllee trip through the whhoooollllee small world. It's not nearly small enough when you're stuck with an over-tired toddler...  :(

A little shout-out to the Dutch heritage...

Soph and I, however, did enjoy the ride.

All day Sophie had been asking for cotton candy and we hadn't seen a single stand for it. Finally, after riding the teacups, we saw it. They used a glowstick as the wand. She was in heaven!!

SO much we've already done and we're only on day 2 of 5! We woke up the next morning to Sophie opening the shades, looking out of the hotel window and declaring, "It's Hong Kongish, VERY Hong Kongish"! Great view from our room! To the left you can see the channel that seperates Hong Kong Island (where we were) from Kowloon (mainland).

 

 

Another view of our room-

That second morning had a really rough start. Our intention was to find this American diner called The Flying Pan to have breakfast. However, the taxi dropped us off at the wrong place (we thought), there was this super drunk guy hanging out in this entryway, and everyone was hungry! We got a 2nd taxi that brought us to another wrong location and then things weren't looking so good. I remembered seeing this other restaurant down the street with Westerners in it and decided to try that out instead. Turned out to be a great place- Oo La La was the name. Several waffles later we were ready to head out to Ocean Park.

This was a great sight on our way to the restaurant. This 80-something year old lady dragging big boxes down the street to who knows where. Maybe this was her workout for the day. Amazing!

On to Ocean Park. Another big theme park with rides and games and an aquarium.

At the entrance to the park. Cooper just loved the water fountains!

Once inside the park, we first came across the big aquarium and decided to check it out.

A huge fishtank with random floating sharks (?)

We decided to take the cable car to another part of the park to check out some rides.

A view from the cable car-

It took us up and over a mountain to another area of the park.

It gave us a great view of the Bay. So pretty!

Cooper's favorite part of the day- the escalators! China as a nation is not, in any way, wheelchair or stroller accessible. Thankfully, strollers fit on the escalators and we use them all the time. SO different than in the U.S. where you'd get in serious trouble for doing this!

Sophie and Ben went on this arctic chill ride that was too fast for Coop so he and I went and explored the penguin exhibit. Inside there was this weird seal-thing that he thought was hilarious. Most of the kids were afraid of it but he thought it was funny!

The penguins.

Coop loved the exhibit, especially the see-through floors when the penguins swam by. It was also about 30 degrees in there so it was a great place to cool off from the heat!

After the one ride we discovered that most of this area of the park we were in was for much older kids. We headed back to the other side of the park to a great kids area. Unfortunately, this is where Cooper fell asleep in his stroller so while he rested Soph and I enjoyed an apple slushy.

After about 45 minutes Coop woke up and was hot and still tired and not happy. He didn't want to play so we decided it was time to head home.

On the way out Sophie got her gift to remember Ocean Park- a stuffed pink dolphin she named Coco.

 

 

That night we went to a restaurant at the advice of some friends who used to live in Hong Kong. It's called Dan Ryan and, yes, it's based after a Chicago eattery. It was wonderful!! Chili and hot dogs and mac and cheese and burgers. Home food that actually tasted like home. It was really really nice.

 

 

After dinner it was straight to bed after baths for the kids. Ben and I actually went to bed around 8 that night as well. So tired from 2 big days and still 3 full ones to go!