Here is a slideshow of our weekend in Hong Kong. We took around 450 pictures so here are a few to sum up our trip!
Monday, October 18, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
68. Touch a giant Buddha
We decided to check out some more of Lantau since we were in the area this weekend. We took a cable car ride up to the world's largest seated outdoor Buddha (a statue at the Po Lin Monastery). The cable car ride was about 25 minutes each way (times that number by 2 to find out how long we waited in the stinking line-up to get on the cable car) and we opted for the glass bottomed number. It was pretty cool! As soon as we arrived at the top we noticed the temperature had dropped a couple of degrees which was great since it was a warm day. We grabbed Kylisha a sub from Subway and then started the short hike up to the giant Buddha. That Buddha is immense! It weighs as much as a jumbo jet! The stairs up were a challenge (especially for those of us with 40 extra pounds on our shoulders). Once at the top we had ice cream, enjoyed the views and then headed back down.
The walk down and browsing in the shops afterwards was so tiring that we had to have ice cream...again. This time we enjoyed gelato. The tiramisu flavour was especially good.
10 down...90 left to go.
78. Discover a new tasty treat!!
We found this little treat at HK Disneyland after exiting the scariest haunted house EVER!!!! We were waiting for the Lion King show to start and thought we'd have some ice cream. Imagine Amanda and Kylisha's excitement when they found FROZEN CHEESECAKE ON A STICK. Basically it's what you think it is...a slab of cheesecake (various flavours), dipped in chocolate and frozen onto a stick. I'm sure this won't be the last #78 we post...
9 down...only 91 more to go!
25. Get a picture of our family in front of the castle at HK Disney
This picture was taken by someone else and unfortunately, he was not the greatest photog! I took the pic below of the girls and Kaidyn. I love Kaidyn's face. This is so typical , everyone looking great and Kaidyn not caring at all!
Anyone who knows our family knows that we are all pretty big Disney fans! As soon as we knew we were moving over here we immediately knew we wanted to check out HK Disney (we've even tossed around the idea of some annual passes). As luck would have it, Kaidyn's birthday fell on Saturday and we figured it would be pretty cool for him to spend his 6th birthday at Disneyland. And it was.
We have heard from a lot of people that HK Disneyland is very small and to not be disappointed when we compare it to the other Disney parks we have been to. We were therefore pleasantly surprised when we realized we liked it just as much as Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom at Disney World (and in some respects, more)!! Perhaps it was because it was Kaidyn's birthday, or maybe it was the Halloween themed guided tour we had (more on this in another blog). It could have also been that it wasn't nearly as busy as the other Disney parks we've been to, or the fact that we met some really nice people. Regardless, it was a wonderful day (or as Amanda and Kylisha would say...it was magical)!!
8 down...92 to go!!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Congrats, Community Day, Thanksgiving, and a house guest
We've had another busy week (sorry for taking so long with this post).
Kaidyn started his Kinder computer club last Monday. He loves it (big surprise). While he is at his club Amanda runs one (cooking club grades 4-6) and I tutor. We still manage to get home every day by 4:30.
Amanda's good friend had her baby back in Alberta on Thursday. Amanda's been pretty excited over the last 2 weeks while she's waited for baby Chloe's arrival. When her buddy was having troubles sleeping in the middle of the night (Alberta time) it was perfect because she could call Amanda and it would be around 5 pm our time. As soon as the baby has a passport they're coming for a visit (which, as you can imagine, makes my wife giddy with excitement). Apparently they've worked out a plan that involves me + Chloe for a long weekend in March while the two of them go off galavanting to some Angkor Wat joint in Cambodia? It's perfect because the baby and I can watch lots of Oilers games together and I can brainwash her to cheer for the good Alberta team!! Anyways,welcome to the world, Chloe. We can't wait to meet you in person.
On Saturday Amanda did the Macau Trailwalker that had been re-scheduled from September. I was supposed to be on her team, but I am now tutoring on Saturdays, and it was Community Day, so we found a replacement for me...Amanda's new pal Kirsten. I'm not complaining. The "12 Km walk" involved a lot of stairs, running on the sand, and on slippery rocks along the shore. Amanda said that the views were spectacular and it was a nice workout. Apparently at the finish line the girls took some goodie bags that were filled with food. The bags were sitting under a tent on the beach. Once they took them (and snarfed down everything inside in record time), they realized that none of the other finishers had goodie bags. The bags were clearly for the volunteers.
While Amanda was running, the kids and I went to the first Community Day at the school. Community day was set up very much like the Lantern Festival at the school. TISPA set up a bbq for food and drinks, parents could rent tables to sell items, much like a flea market and there were fun and games for all the kids. We were there for 2 hours and the entire time, Kaidyn played dodgeball in the gym. They had 2 games set up for the kids, one for the 4-6's and another for the kinders - grade 3's. I tried to convince him to wear shorts to the event, but he insisted on wearing jeans and by the end of the game, he was drenched! Kids don't really seem to care though.
After Community Day, Amanda and Kylisha headed to Zhuhai with Nick and Gill. When they first arrived they all went for pedicures and manicures. The girls said the place they went was a GONG show! The lady working on Amanda's feet was in the all time worst telephone argument ever while giving Amanda a pedicure. She was apparently SCREAMING at the top of her lungs at some poor fool who was dumb enough to keep calling. Amanda said that the angrier the woman got, the harder she filed her feet. Meanwhile, the girl working on Kylisha's feet was having some troubles of her own. She received a phone call on her cell half way through Kylisha's pedicure and immediately started crying once she hung up. Just when it looked like she had pulled it together her cell phone would ring again, she would answer it, talk for a few minutes, and then start crying again. They were both truly dedicated professionals, as they never once stopped working. The girls will forever call this place "Nail Happiness". They got 2 pedicures, 1 manicure and some eyebrow plucking for $13.00 CAD. The entertainment was free. They also managed to pick up 3 seasons of 30 Rock and 13 Wii games. The 13 Wii games cost just over $10 CAD total!!!!!
On Sunday the 10th, the elementary principal organized thanksgiving dinner for the entire staff, or those that had no other plans. The dinner was held and prepared at a restaurant across from the beach in Coloane and was a great taste of home! Everything that you would expect at home was there, except the cranberry sauce. We're not big fans so it didn't matter to us. While dinner was wrapping up, there was a little karaoke of Canadian tunes (Barenaked Ladies etc.) then we went for a quick stroll on the beach. For the past couple years, we have hosted Thanksgiving in SP complete with the annual Turkey Trot. While on the beach, we decided to hold the Turkey Trot with some newcomers. They may think we are freaks now, but I think they thought it was a cool tradition!. Darin, his son Nicholas and Chyrelanne joined us in the race and Kylisha is the 2010 Turkey Trot champion! After the race we had to head home quickly to meet our houseguest from back home!
Soon after we arrived home, Amanda went to pick up Jodi from the Venetian. Jodi's boyfriend works with Amanda's dad and has been travelling through China for the past 2-3 weeks. Tom mentioned that we lived here and after a few emails, we had our first visitor since Pat was here. She is quite the traveller since she has been travelling China alone for a couple weeks. That can't be easy, especially mainland China! Anyways she has been touring around Macau for the past few days and has really enjoyed it. Last night, Amanda, Kaidyn and I (Kylisha was sick) joined her at the Tower where she went bungy jumping! It is the highest bungy in the world off of a structure. She chose to jump at night, so we stuffed our faces at the best Thai restaurant in town (Tuk Tuk) and then headed to the tower for the jump!She ended up being the last one of the evening. We stayed on the ground to watch and as soon as she jumped, we could hear her screaming all the way down. Jodi thought it was the greatest rush of her life! While she was preparing for the jump, Kaidyn and I ran up to Toys R Us (which is also in the Macau Tower) to spend some birthday money Nana and Papa sent. He ended up buying a nerf gun battle set before Jodi's jump. When we arrived back home, we had a quick nerf battle before reading some stories and hitting the sack.
Kylisha has been really sick this week. A fever had her wearing mittens and a hoodie, and also kept her home from school the last three days. Here's hoping she's well enough for Hong Kong this weekend. We leave at 7:15 tomorrow morning. I'm sure we will have plenty to blog about as we celebrate Kaid's turning 6 tomorrow at Disneyland!!!
Later
Kaidyn started his Kinder computer club last Monday. He loves it (big surprise). While he is at his club Amanda runs one (cooking club grades 4-6) and I tutor. We still manage to get home every day by 4:30.
Amanda's good friend had her baby back in Alberta on Thursday. Amanda's been pretty excited over the last 2 weeks while she's waited for baby Chloe's arrival. When her buddy was having troubles sleeping in the middle of the night (Alberta time) it was perfect because she could call Amanda and it would be around 5 pm our time. As soon as the baby has a passport they're coming for a visit (which, as you can imagine, makes my wife giddy with excitement). Apparently they've worked out a plan that involves me + Chloe for a long weekend in March while the two of them go off galavanting to some Angkor Wat joint in Cambodia? It's perfect because the baby and I can watch lots of Oilers games together and I can brainwash her to cheer for the good Alberta team!! Anyways,welcome to the world, Chloe. We can't wait to meet you in person.
On Saturday Amanda did the Macau Trailwalker that had been re-scheduled from September. I was supposed to be on her team, but I am now tutoring on Saturdays, and it was Community Day, so we found a replacement for me...Amanda's new pal Kirsten. I'm not complaining. The "12 Km walk" involved a lot of stairs, running on the sand, and on slippery rocks along the shore. Amanda said that the views were spectacular and it was a nice workout. Apparently at the finish line the girls took some goodie bags that were filled with food. The bags were sitting under a tent on the beach. Once they took them (and snarfed down everything inside in record time), they realized that none of the other finishers had goodie bags. The bags were clearly for the volunteers.
While Amanda was running, the kids and I went to the first Community Day at the school. Community day was set up very much like the Lantern Festival at the school. TISPA set up a bbq for food and drinks, parents could rent tables to sell items, much like a flea market and there were fun and games for all the kids. We were there for 2 hours and the entire time, Kaidyn played dodgeball in the gym. They had 2 games set up for the kids, one for the 4-6's and another for the kinders - grade 3's. I tried to convince him to wear shorts to the event, but he insisted on wearing jeans and by the end of the game, he was drenched! Kids don't really seem to care though.
After Community Day, Amanda and Kylisha headed to Zhuhai with Nick and Gill. When they first arrived they all went for pedicures and manicures. The girls said the place they went was a GONG show! The lady working on Amanda's feet was in the all time worst telephone argument ever while giving Amanda a pedicure. She was apparently SCREAMING at the top of her lungs at some poor fool who was dumb enough to keep calling. Amanda said that the angrier the woman got, the harder she filed her feet. Meanwhile, the girl working on Kylisha's feet was having some troubles of her own. She received a phone call on her cell half way through Kylisha's pedicure and immediately started crying once she hung up. Just when it looked like she had pulled it together her cell phone would ring again, she would answer it, talk for a few minutes, and then start crying again. They were both truly dedicated professionals, as they never once stopped working. The girls will forever call this place "Nail Happiness". They got 2 pedicures, 1 manicure and some eyebrow plucking for $13.00 CAD. The entertainment was free. They also managed to pick up 3 seasons of 30 Rock and 13 Wii games. The 13 Wii games cost just over $10 CAD total!!!!!
On Sunday the 10th, the elementary principal organized thanksgiving dinner for the entire staff, or those that had no other plans. The dinner was held and prepared at a restaurant across from the beach in Coloane and was a great taste of home! Everything that you would expect at home was there, except the cranberry sauce. We're not big fans so it didn't matter to us. While dinner was wrapping up, there was a little karaoke of Canadian tunes (Barenaked Ladies etc.) then we went for a quick stroll on the beach. For the past couple years, we have hosted Thanksgiving in SP complete with the annual Turkey Trot. While on the beach, we decided to hold the Turkey Trot with some newcomers. They may think we are freaks now, but I think they thought it was a cool tradition!. Darin, his son Nicholas and Chyrelanne joined us in the race and Kylisha is the 2010 Turkey Trot champion! After the race we had to head home quickly to meet our houseguest from back home!
Soon after we arrived home, Amanda went to pick up Jodi from the Venetian. Jodi's boyfriend works with Amanda's dad and has been travelling through China for the past 2-3 weeks. Tom mentioned that we lived here and after a few emails, we had our first visitor since Pat was here. She is quite the traveller since she has been travelling China alone for a couple weeks. That can't be easy, especially mainland China! Anyways she has been touring around Macau for the past few days and has really enjoyed it. Last night, Amanda, Kaidyn and I (Kylisha was sick) joined her at the Tower where she went bungy jumping! It is the highest bungy in the world off of a structure. She chose to jump at night, so we stuffed our faces at the best Thai restaurant in town (Tuk Tuk) and then headed to the tower for the jump!She ended up being the last one of the evening. We stayed on the ground to watch and as soon as she jumped, we could hear her screaming all the way down. Jodi thought it was the greatest rush of her life! While she was preparing for the jump, Kaidyn and I ran up to Toys R Us (which is also in the Macau Tower) to spend some birthday money Nana and Papa sent. He ended up buying a nerf gun battle set before Jodi's jump. When we arrived back home, we had a quick nerf battle before reading some stories and hitting the sack.
Kylisha has been really sick this week. A fever had her wearing mittens and a hoodie, and also kept her home from school the last three days. Here's hoping she's well enough for Hong Kong this weekend. We leave at 7:15 tomorrow morning. I'm sure we will have plenty to blog about as we celebrate Kaid's turning 6 tomorrow at Disneyland!!!
Later
Monday, October 4, 2010
Dancing in the Park
On some mornings, while I wait for the market to open, I venture into Myrtle Park and there is always a dance class going on. Sorry for the poor iPhone quality, but there are around 50-60 people taking part! They are doing some Bollywood this morning.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Squirtle, the beach, and some dogs
Everyone knows that we left a pile of pets behind when we moved over here. This has been extremely difficult for certain members of our family. One of the pets we had to leave was Myrtle (Kaid's turtle). We have had Myrt (a red-eared slider) for almost 3 years and she is a happy and healthy turtle (thanks again Harveys, for taking such great care of her in our absence)!! The red-eared sliders here are neither happy nor healthy. They are kept in approximately 1 inch of water. When you see turtles in the stores or markets they look sad (seriously). And sick. Amanda and Kaid went to feed the fish and turtles (the only healthy and happy ones we've seen here) at Myrtle Park the other night, and they somehow managed to return with a turtle that could fit in the palm of my hand. Her name is Squirtle (although I think it's a BOY) and the two of them have decided that they will nurse her back to health and hopefully save more of her relatives. Amanda filled the aquarium with water and put the little turtle in and it became apparent that she didn't really know how to swim (and she's an aquatic turtle)??!! Ever since, she has been blissfully swimming and eating a lot. The man at the fish store tried to refuse to sell a filter to Amanda for a turtle because he said, "turtle no need water". She managed to convince him to sell her one, but when she asked him for something that floated that the turtle could bask on, he sent her packing. So, we ingeniously put an empty soldier pail in the tank (thanks, Kaid). We filled it with water and rocks to keep it anchored, and now she has a place to climb on to bask. Yesterday Myrtle and Squirtle got to meet via Skype. Yes, I shake my head daily at the insanity!!
We had another long weekend this weekend, having Friday off for National Day. Thursday evening Kylisha went out with some friends and I tutored. On Friday our plan was to go to watch the Bubble show at the City of Dreams. The Bubble show is a free ten minute show where apparently you stand in the bubble and the show takes place above and around you. When Kaidyn heard that the show involved dragons, he decided that he was no longer interested in the bubble show??
So, we headed to the Venetian for lunch and then to the Qube instead. The Venetian has the greatest food court!!! They have Vietnamese, Malaysian, Italian, Chinese, Japanese...you name it...they've got it. They also have a Fat Burger and Amanda loves the veggie burgers and chocolate shakes there!! I went for some Thai noodles, Kaid had pizza, and Kylisha and her buddy had paninis. After lunch we spent a couple of hours at Qube and Kaidyn was a hot, sweaty mess when we were done. The fact that they insist you wear long pants and shirts may have had something to do with this. The best thing about the Qube is that if your kid is wearing a t-shit and shorts when they arrive, they will give you long pants and shirts for them to wear. Basically the ensemble looks like a pair of gray PJs. So, it's pretty funny to see the hot and sweaty kids running around in pajamas!!
On Saturday Amanda and I headed to Fisherman's Wharf to check out the US Market. It's a grocery store filled with "western food". Amanda found some pudding and chocolate chips and we stocked up on junk food and chocolate bars. The kids were happy when we got home with their treasures. Saturday afternoon I tutored and Amanda did some baking in the good old toaster oven. She managed to make banana chocolate chip muffins and I could smell them as soon as I got out of the elevator from tutoring. She also made a coconut cream pie!!
Today Kaid and Amanda and I headed to Hac Sa beach for the morning. Kylisha opted to Skype instead. Kaidyn LOVES the beach! Hac Sa is a black sand beach and the sand is super silty and black. The beach is also (quite literally) crawling with crabs!! Kaidyn thinks this is wonderful-(anyone who knows our boy knows how much he loves interesting creatures and creepy crawlies). The crabs dig little holes in the sand and can be seen scurrying along sideways all along the beach. We spent several hours watching crabs and collecting shells. Afterwards we got ice cream before heading back to Taipa. Amanda found a wonderful creation. It was like a Revel but it had a mango puree center and instead of being dipped in chocolate it was dipped in banana flavoured deliciousness.
This afternoon Amanda and Kylisha headed back to Anima with some friends to walk Don-Doe and his best pal K-K. Don-Doe continued to make them laugh, and Amanda managed to get a picture of him today lounging in some water. Those girls are huge fans of that dog, and I'm just waiting for the day they come back from their dog walking with Don-Doe himself. This had better not happen (I support the "Save the Turtle" project we've got going on, but I don't think we need to expand this little endeavor)!!!
We had another long weekend this weekend, having Friday off for National Day. Thursday evening Kylisha went out with some friends and I tutored. On Friday our plan was to go to watch the Bubble show at the City of Dreams. The Bubble show is a free ten minute show where apparently you stand in the bubble and the show takes place above and around you. When Kaidyn heard that the show involved dragons, he decided that he was no longer interested in the bubble show??
So, we headed to the Venetian for lunch and then to the Qube instead. The Venetian has the greatest food court!!! They have Vietnamese, Malaysian, Italian, Chinese, Japanese...you name it...they've got it. They also have a Fat Burger and Amanda loves the veggie burgers and chocolate shakes there!! I went for some Thai noodles, Kaid had pizza, and Kylisha and her buddy had paninis. After lunch we spent a couple of hours at Qube and Kaidyn was a hot, sweaty mess when we were done. The fact that they insist you wear long pants and shirts may have had something to do with this. The best thing about the Qube is that if your kid is wearing a t-shit and shorts when they arrive, they will give you long pants and shirts for them to wear. Basically the ensemble looks like a pair of gray PJs. So, it's pretty funny to see the hot and sweaty kids running around in pajamas!!
On Saturday Amanda and I headed to Fisherman's Wharf to check out the US Market. It's a grocery store filled with "western food". Amanda found some pudding and chocolate chips and we stocked up on junk food and chocolate bars. The kids were happy when we got home with their treasures. Saturday afternoon I tutored and Amanda did some baking in the good old toaster oven. She managed to make banana chocolate chip muffins and I could smell them as soon as I got out of the elevator from tutoring. She also made a coconut cream pie!!
Today Kaid and Amanda and I headed to Hac Sa beach for the morning. Kylisha opted to Skype instead. Kaidyn LOVES the beach! Hac Sa is a black sand beach and the sand is super silty and black. The beach is also (quite literally) crawling with crabs!! Kaidyn thinks this is wonderful-(anyone who knows our boy knows how much he loves interesting creatures and creepy crawlies). The crabs dig little holes in the sand and can be seen scurrying along sideways all along the beach. We spent several hours watching crabs and collecting shells. Afterwards we got ice cream before heading back to Taipa. Amanda found a wonderful creation. It was like a Revel but it had a mango puree center and instead of being dipped in chocolate it was dipped in banana flavoured deliciousness.
This afternoon Amanda and Kylisha headed back to Anima with some friends to walk Don-Doe and his best pal K-K. Don-Doe continued to make them laugh, and Amanda managed to get a picture of him today lounging in some water. Those girls are huge fans of that dog, and I'm just waiting for the day they come back from their dog walking with Don-Doe himself. This had better not happen (I support the "Save the Turtle" project we've got going on, but I don't think we need to expand this little endeavor)!!!
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