Leaving Hong Kong and Flying Home

We left Hong Kong Thursday morning. At the airport we saw this olympic countdown and deemed it picture worthy. We are so glad we made the trip to Hong Kong! We were both nervous about it and were anxious to just come home, but we had such a great time and created some awesome memories. What a fun trip!

So we flew from Hong Kong back to Singapore. Our good friend Tania was out of town but let us stay at their apartment for the night. It was perfect to be able to rest and do some Laundry before our long flight home. Friday morning we had a chance to swim and watch a movie, then we packed up and headed to the airport. Here's Ben with our six VERY FULL bags! We were so close to going over in weight, but barely made it! Our flight from Singapore to LA was almost 16 hours. Grace was almost perfect on the flight. She had a hard time falling asleep, but when she did she slept for about 8 hours. I only slept about 4. My poor bum just couldn't find a comfortable spot. So we watched lots of movies and ate some great food. I definately recommend flying Singapore Air if you're traveling over there. They are the best!
Our layover in LA was 4 hours. But we finally made it home to Salt Lake just after midnight. I was sure Grace would crash as soon as we got home, but when she walked into our house for the first time she went nuts! She was so excited to see all her toys she left behind. I was surprised she remembered any of it, but she was so happy to be home. It felt so good to sleep in our own bed again after a week of vacation and a day of LONG flights.

Being home has been so wonderful! I have a new found appreciation for the wonderful country we live in. And I LOVE MY CAR! And my house and my family and all the other things I missed. But what a fun adventure we had.

Hong Kong Day 5

Wednesday was our full day at Disneyland. The Hong Kong Disneyland park is pretty small so we were able to ride every ride and see almost all the shows in a day. It was perfect for us! We started out the day with Breakfast with the Characters. This was a tiny bit dissapointing because we were expecting tons of Characters and we only got 2. The first character we met was Mulan. Grace had no idea who this was so wasn't that excited to meet her.

Here is Ben enjoying the tasty breakfast. I'm not sure what he's eating. Something Chinese I think. He had Dim Sum for breakfast, I opted for the American version and got eggs. We also got Mickey shaped waffles!
Chip and Dale came and visited us next. Grace wasn't familiar with them either, but they were more fun that Mulan.
She warmed up a bit and gave out kisses.
Since we got to be at the park early for breakfast we were also the first for many of the rides. We had to take a picture of Sleeping Beauty's castle. After this picture I set Grace down and she ran through the doors of the castle. I slowly followed when all of a sudden I hear a shriek and Grace b-lining back to me.
She had stumbled upon all 4 princesses together and didn't know what to do! I think they were a bit surprised by her too, but were very nice when we asked for a picture. I don't think this happens very often, they were supposed to be spread throughout the park already.
After meeting the Princesses Ben and Grace had to attempt to pull the sword out of the stone.
It wouldn't budge.
We rode a few rides and then caught all the characters in the Garden posing for pictures. We didn't have to wait in line so we met all of them! Grace loved Minnie and Mickey the most.




She didn't really like Eeyore.

We covered almost all the rides in the morning so we thought we'd catch the Lion King show. This was the most crowded attraction we encountered our whole time there so we almost didn't go, but I'm so glad we did. It was just like the shortened version of the broadway musical. It was so fun and we loved it!
Then Grace fell asleep in the stroller so Ben and I took advantage of some quiet time and walked through all the Disney shops. We only ended up getting a magnet and a Minnie mouse for Grace which she loves and can't sleep without. Then we got some hotdogs for lunch and watched High School Musical in the street. I am a closet High School Musical fan. I blame it on Ben working long hours in Singapore and me not having much to watch but the Disney Channel. So I was excited to see this, but it wasn't that great. Most of it was in Chinese and the performers weren't very good. Oh well, Lion King made up for it.
Then back to Adventureland for a boat ride and Tarzans Hut and we made it back to main street just in time for the parade. Grace thought that was so fun and was so excited everytime she saw a Character she knew. With Mickey and Minnie being the favorite of course. We were done with everything by 3:00 so we decided to head to the hotel for a swim.
What a fun surprise to have Goofy come swimming with us! This was a great pool that had a water slide. Grace was going down it non stop and she was only excited about Goofy after he went down the slide. This I think was so memorable becasue there were just a few families at the pool and goofy stayed and played for like 30 minutes. Where else but Disneyland do you get to swim with Goofy?
We ended our day with some yummy pizza at the Disney Cafe and watched the fireworks from our room.

Hong Kong Day 4

Tuesday we moved from our Hotel in Kowloon, to the Disneyland Hollywood Hotel! We were so excited for Disneyland and I'm glad we saved it for the end of our trip. We took the subway to Sunshine Station where you get off the Hong Kong MTR and take Disney's own train to the resort. I LOVED the train. I thought the Mickey Mouse windows were an awesome touch!And the Mickey Mouse rings... Grace loved holding onto them.
And inside the train was totally plush with little statues of all the characters. It was impossible to keep Grace seated.
We made it off the train and started towards the park with all our luggage. We made it to the main entrance before we realized this was not where the hotels were and we had to backtrack to take the buses around. Grace was frustrated that she couldn't just go in. But we went and checked in and had some yummy lunch at a cafe in the hotel.
We decided that we wanted to go see the Worlds Biggest Buddah statue, and if we went to Disneyland first we would never make it. So we took this airtram ride for about 30 minutes and made it to the Big Buddah. This is a good picture of how green and hilly Hong Kong was.
It was an incredible view. We saw these stairs going up and down the hills all the way to the tiny village where the Buddah was. Beleive it or not there were a few man actually climbing them. Now that's dedication.
We made it to the village and decided to get a treat. Our favorite in Hong Kong was gelato. Mmmm!
There were a bunch of little touristy shops. I decided I needed a chinese hat to wear, but since none of the formed pointy straw hats would fit in our suitcases I opted for this beauty. It cost about a dollar and folds into fourths. Ben was right though, I haven't worn it since this day.
We visited the temple that the preists worship in. It was pretty, but under construction, I think they're making it bigger.

Grace mostly liked the cat. Don't worry I didn't let her touch it. All cats over there grossed me out. It was all that I could stand not to be grossed out about her lying on the floor.
I don't know exactly what I'm doing here, but all the buddist people were doing it. Pretty much you pour a cup full of water over the little buddah statue and say a little prayer I think.
Then up to the top to see the Buddah. Here Ben and Grace are at the very bottom.
Half way up! Can you beleive he carried her almost the whole way? What a man!
And finally at the top.

Together as a family. I'm really glad we did this. It was fun to see and now we can say we've visited the Biggest Buddah in the world. I think he's only been around since the early 90's and the place was very commercialized, so not a very spiritual experience, but fun nevertheless!
After the Buddah we headed back to Disneyland! I could hardly wait. Right as we walked into the park Grace saw Micky and Minnie and about freaked out. She LOVES Mickey! Ben didn't want to wait in the line so I convinced her we'd see them later and she was happy as soon as we went on her first ride. She was totally fearless and wanted to go again and again. We went to the Autobahn next and the employess totally freaked out and were insistent that I not ride because I was pregnant. They were afraid I was going to get bumped, but I assured them I would be fine. We went about 2 MPH around the track and didn't get bumped once thanks to Ben driving behind us!
On to Buzz Light Year. Ben got tops scores for shooting all the bad guys, but Grace had no idea what to do with her gun. I'll keep it that way as long as I can.
And we ended the night with It's a Small World. I actually really enjoyed this ride this time. Theirs is a newer version of the ride with all the Disney Cartoons incorporated into the different regions of the world.
Grace was pretty exhausted by this point, but we decided to have a little dinner and watch the fireworks. The park closes at eight, so after the fireworks we headed back to the hotel and crashed. It was a magical day!

Hong Kong Day 3

Monday....Shopping Day! We started the morning off with a trip to the Jade Market. We walked there and on every corner there was a Chinese Medicine store. Boy were they stinky but you could find all sorts of crazy things. Here's Ben thinking about dining on a lizard popsicle.

There were squid out drying all over the street.
Here's a wider view of the store. They all looked pretty much like this, and with my pregnant tummy I hurried right past each one so the smell wouldn't make me sick.
The Jade Market was really fun. We saw a lot of beautiful things and had a lot of people trying to rip us off. Ben was a pretty good negoitator though and I got a set of black pearls, earing and necklaces. We also bought Grace a few little bracelets which she has now lost of course. On the way back to the Hotel to drop our goods off we seriously saw a guy peeing in a garbage can. I didn't look all the way down, but Ben assured me that's what he was doing. It was a pretty dirty part of town, and I couldn't believe the difference when we went Downtown. It is beautiful in Downtown Hong Kong, and dirty pretty much everywhere else we went.

Here are Grace and Ben resting up for an afternoon of more shopping.

We caught lunch at McDonalds! (thanks goodness they're everywhere!) Then we headed to the south of Hong Kong Island to Stanley Market. That place was awesome! They had all this name brand clothing for kids that was a few US Dollars each. We spent a lot of Hong Kong mullah, but came out feeling like we got such a steal on all the cute clothes! Ben got a few shirts, and I just had fun buying for the kids since pregnancy and Asian sizes of clothing don't mix. This is a view out over Stanley Bay. It was a beautiful area.
Ben saw these tiny fruits at one of the stands and had to have a picture. They were pretty cute.

We took a bus there and back. Both Ben and I were surprised at all the hills! I guess we just expected Hong Kong to be one huge flat city, but it was beautiful and green and there were tons of Hills. We went up and down on these tiny roads in a big bus. I'm glad I wasn't driving! One of our favorite Briberies with Grace were Gummies. She loved them and while we were riding on the bus we asked her if she wanted some and she did this face and clenched her hands together out of pure excitement for a little gummy. It was hilarious.
After our trip to Stanley Market we were pretty exhausted, but I really wanted to go to the Star Boardwalk and see the Symphony of lights. The view of Hong Kong Harbour was incredible all lit up. This is the best picture I got of it, but there were lazer lights shooting from several of the rooftops and everything was lit up. With the breeze blowing it was a wonderful evening.
This picture is hard to see but there is a statue of Bruce Lee behind Ben and Grace. This was kind of like our Hollywood walk of fame. All these asian actors had a star and their handprints along here.
And this is the tribute to the Olympics. We just missed the torch relay by a few days, but I think Hong Kong is hosting the horse events for the Olympics. They have a pretty famous horse track that we didn't go to.
Anyway, it was a Very long day! But I was sick of roomservice so we found a little food court in a mall and had some pizza. Not quite American, but we weren't feeling very adventurous with our stomaches on this trip.

Hong Kong Day 2

Hong Kong Day 2 was Sunday May 10th. The day started out by us sleeping in a little bit thanks to our late night before. So we missed church, but we decided that since it was in Chinese it wouldn't have made much of a difference. We did make a trip to the Hong Kong Temple. We weren't sure how to get there so we ended up taking a very round about walk through a beautiful park, which ended up being a wonderful way to spend our Sunday morning. We knew we were on the right street when we could see the Angel Moroni sticking up between the builidngs. What a wonderful familiar sight!

The temple was beautiful. We were able to go into a part of it since there is a chapel on the 1st and 2nd floors. We caught the last 15 minutes of church.
Any idea what this says?
Think about it.... it was on right in front of the Temple.
After the Temple we discovered another fun park right across the street. I loved these elephants.
It was great to give Grace a chance to run around and play. She loves the park and I had a fun time watching these people practice their Thai Chi (sp?).
After that we took the subway to Downtown Hong Kong and rode the tram up to the top of Victoria's Peak. It had a beautiful view of Hong Kong Harbour.
And it was a fun place to walk around and explore.
The tram was seriously amazing. It was built over 100 years ago up this steep mountain. The trolley just pops into view here.
This is looking straight out the window. We were on a 45 Degree angle at least and had to ride back down sitting backwards otherwise you would fall right over.
We ended the day by going to the night market. We got there right as it was opening so all the booths weren't set up yet. It was fun to see all the totally cheap stuff you could buy, but we were exhausted and starving so we headed back to the hotel for some more room service and an early nights sleep.