Where do I start?

Maybe I'll start at the end and back up... we took some family time and had a vacation. It was wonderful.

Have you every been to Hong Kong? Initially, we went so the Princess could see a skin specialist, but decided to stay awhile. We spent several days there and found we really liked it. They speak Mandarin, Cantonese, and some English. It's filled with foreigners as well. It reminded me of an Asian New York City.

We did quite alot of shopping...just here and there...not looking for specifics. We planned all week to go to Ocean Park (sort of like Sea World) instead of Disney Land (because we have a 14 yr old SON who probably wouldn't be interested) but we changed our mind in favor of a few pleasures we don't normally have.

We decided on an American movie since it was playing in English. We couldn't pass that up since we don't have that opportunity. We saw Ice Age 3 in 3D. We thought it was funnier than the first two. We laughed at everyone wearing these huge, chunky, black, 50's style glasses. We were expecting paper ones. Of course, we couldn't keep them and I hadn't brought my camera on that leg of shopping. We bought our tickets early and had some time to kill. We visited a huge massage chair store. I thought I'd never get the King out of there. The salesman was so good and he was willing to find a way to ship the MONSTROSITY that was supposed to be like a Lazy boy chair to our home in another country...um...NOT. Since we were still waiting on the movie to start, we continued moseying around the mall. For that small amount of time, it really felt like we were in the States at any mall. There was an ice skating rink CRAMMED full of people. Hong Kong on the whole doesn't like to think of themselves as being Chinese. But just one glimpse of ALL the people and you can't forget where you are. Our last stop before the movies was STARBUCKS. Oh. It was heaven. I don't remember the last Grande Caramel Frappacino that I had...until now. Then on to a cute movie. I almost enjoyed hearing the laughter of my children more than the movie itself. At times the Princess would laugh out loud at something that no one else was laughing at. It didn't phase her. She thoroughly enjoyed herself. We hadn't planned any of this particular leg of our trip. It was totally on a whim and it was worth it.

Here are some highlights:

Sight-seeing...


What do you call these...they play by themselves? (I can hear all you smartypants people out there saying, "Um...piano." Duh.) The Princess was fascinated.


A souvenir shop...

Driving up the mountain, we got several nice views of the beaches and bays. Beautiful.

While hunting for the Mexican food place...we discovered this. I decided that if we couldn't find Mexican food (which I was pretty determined to do) we'd come back to Subway.


Where's Waldo...I mean, the Prince?

The King helping the Princess...

What a great Dad! I know you're wondering why I wasn't skating. I had heard there was a store where you could buy imported items and I went to search it out. By the time I got back there was only a half hour before they were going to have to get off the ice. So...I took pictures and videos.

More to come...