tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37547863059672253772024-03-12T23:05:23.355-04:00Silver Lining HandmadeMy adventures in life and craft.Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.comBlogger111125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-4456351120266308772014-06-03T23:09:00.000-04:002014-06-03T23:10:08.788-04:00HK Day 8: Headed home<div dir="ltr">
On our last partial day (which is kind of today), we woke up at
4:30am. This wasn't intentional, but it suited us well because we had a
lot of packing to do! By 10:00am, all our bags were expertly packed
full and we headed down to the lobby to check out. We went to the Front
Desk to confirm that we would be able to use the pool changing
room/shower facilities before leaving for the airport. The nice
gentleman at the desk suggested that we come to the Front Desk and ask
for a "hospitality room" instead. This sounded like an even better
idea, so we happily left our luggage with the bell services team and
headed off for our last trip into Central. <br />
<br />
The day's
plan was to finally locate a wonton place recommended to us by my Uncle
Jong and then meet up with Liz, one of my friends from high school.
Both activities had been on our to do list all week, but just never
actually got done, and this was our last chance. <br />
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<br />
Turns
out that the wonton restaurant is quite close to (just a few blocks from)
the Peak Tram stop in Central. It is also right across the street from
another famous (at least on the blogosphere) restaurant called "Mak
Noodle." As we approached the entry (places here often leave their
doors open, spilling loads of ac out into the world or else have "doors"
made of large strips of clear vinyl to keep from wasting too much ac), a woman
standing in the doorway saw our questioning faces and told us that
though she didn't work there, she knew the wontons were good. Not being
able to read the Chinese characters on the sign outside, we took this
comment to mean we were in the right spot - Tsim Chai Kee. We had been
warned that the restaurant would be very busy, with shared tables, but
arriving at 11am appears to be really the right time to visit because
they were open and mostly empty!<br />
<br />
--The rest of this post was written several days later, after returning home...--<br />
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<br />
After our delicious
lunch of king prawn wonton noodle soup and chilled sweetened soy milk,
we walked around Central, taking in the sights and sounds of Hong Kong.
We visited the IFC Mall, home to some high end fashion stores and a fun
looking tea house with lots of macaroons on display! Too bad we didn't
have time to stay for an afternoon tea set there.<br />
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<br />
We
met Liz at the Starbucks in her building, which was great because it had
nice comfy chairs and cold drinks. It was lovely to finish off our
trip catching up with an old friend!<br />
<br />
After our little
meetup, T and I went back to the Hollywood Hotel to pick up our luggage
and have a shower. Like at the Langham Place, the Hollywood is
accustomed to guests wishing to shower and change after checking out.
We simply asked for a "courtesy room" at the front desk and were given
keys to a hotel room. I don't know how long we could have had the room,
because I told her we'd be out in 45 minutes or less.<br />
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<br />
Our
flights home were the reverse of our flights to HK, with each leg
somewhat longer this time. Knowing what to expect, I think we were both
slightly more comfortable on the first flight from HKG to Dubai.
Again, we flew the Airbus A380, which does offer slightly more comfort
than the Boeing 777. If nothing else, the aircraft are newer which
means they are cleaner and have more functional features. This time, we
managed to take off precisely on time and even made up time in flight
which allowed us to land at Dubai almost half an hour earlier than
expected. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHykV6dbn6Hts_4d0xUSjZi4i5p4czGShSIceUfZEOLbl2-qTLriILKCQfMRL49ST02c9TuWOW0gmwr9SMmZplJXynqV298s-B2IQEvlf1fM733U8YlQ1jKD1r3LGhKxm9MFfnOmqQXVL3/s1600/2014-05-30+23.09.47.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHykV6dbn6Hts_4d0xUSjZi4i5p4czGShSIceUfZEOLbl2-qTLriILKCQfMRL49ST02c9TuWOW0gmwr9SMmZplJXynqV298s-B2IQEvlf1fM733U8YlQ1jKD1r3LGhKxm9MFfnOmqQXVL3/s1600/2014-05-30+23.09.47.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Giant fresh flower arrangement</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Because we were flying business class for our
super long haul flight from Dubai back to Dulles, we were given passes
for the Emirates Business Class Lounge. This was definitely the largest
airport lounge we've ever seen. Taking up almost the whole floor of
the terminal, this lounge had 4 separate hot food areas and several
other full bars and cold food/snack areas. In addition to nice, clean
bathrooms (heated toilet seats and proper towels for drying your
hands/washing your face), there were also separate bathrooms for
showering. Each shower room was equipped with towels, shower slippers,
terry slippers and a fluffy bathrobe. The shower room attendant cleaned
the shower rooms after each use. If we hadn't been so sleepy, we might
have indulged in a shower. <br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJRQeU4HCzjS0C_A77X5wdNyzaqNUDU1r8EOjeyAoFjBIkSLadzhKFRnUHFdUVaCM-vSXodfAKIF9wa0eap1sPFwnn2I4F1Z1jGUTeqJKnRnGEVOML14TzYXYwsg_hI6PP5nekt-p26RGz/s1600/2014-05-31+01.28.45-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJRQeU4HCzjS0C_A77X5wdNyzaqNUDU1r8EOjeyAoFjBIkSLadzhKFRnUHFdUVaCM-vSXodfAKIF9wa0eap1sPFwnn2I4F1Z1jGUTeqJKnRnGEVOML14TzYXYwsg_hI6PP5nekt-p26RGz/s1600/2014-05-31+01.28.45-2.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Even our travel mascots were too tired to finish blogging</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
After scoping out the whole
place twice, we settled on a cluster of comfy chairs that could be
pulled together to make sort of bed pods (think University library
chairs). We settled in to write these last two posts, but having been
awake for more than 24 hours, I fell asleep after the first 3
paragraphs. Fifteen minutes later, T was waking me up telling me we'd
have to get going soon.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNxs1kMyvnAPVSmBs57NBR3bws7no579y8w5gRg-a-1eRO9fLZ-Px10g-8nA3aK86N7eim_XhO6BJMdU0IptNbrPZk_nZmJkzmpGBTa_4JysSRaAKgW2WNNIwD-C9LkOTr9vW_BJ84OIxt/s1600/2014-05-31+01.46.47.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNxs1kMyvnAPVSmBs57NBR3bws7no579y8w5gRg-a-1eRO9fLZ-Px10g-8nA3aK86N7eim_XhO6BJMdU0IptNbrPZk_nZmJkzmpGBTa_4JysSRaAKgW2WNNIwD-C9LkOTr9vW_BJ84OIxt/s1600/2014-05-31+01.46.47.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not pictured: the comfy mattress laid on top of the chair for better snoozing</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Our 4th and final flight was in
business class on the Boeing 777. The seats were almost lie flat, and
not quite as private pod-ish as on Air Canada or British. Our seats
were in the center cluster of 3, and by magic, the third seat was not
taken. Apart from the hot towels before take off and landing, the only
major difference we noted was that on Emirates, we were given 3"
mattresses to put over our seats. T declined his, but I very much
enjoyed that extra layer of fluff. It helped make the seat much more
like a bed and I think I managed about 5 hours' sleep. The food was
good, though I would say not far and away better than on other airlines'
business class. In fact, by the time the steward reached us to take
our dinner order, they were already out of my first choice (again). I
ended up having seafood biryani rice or something, which was good, but a
little spicy. All in all, we were glad to be in b-class for that last
14 hour flight and maybe it helped with our jet lag.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Next time:</b> HK in the rearview</div>
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Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-73668947822913137322014-06-03T22:57:00.002-04:002014-06-03T22:58:03.740-04:00HK Day 7: Last full day<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2141492562" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">On Thursday</span></span>, we woke up at <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2141492563" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">6:30 AM</span></span>
as usual - still not fully adjusted to HK time! However, we made good
use of the time by catching up on a couple days' worth of the travel
blog and uploading photos to Flickr. In addition, Gwen got super
creative in securing an upgrade to business class for our return flight
(woo hoo!). To make a long story short, we received an offer to upgrade
to business class for what struck us as a reasonable increase in fare.
However, for various reasons, we were unable either to pay the fare
increase online with our credit card or make an international call from
either our cell phones or hotel room to secure the upgrade via phone.
Ultimately, Gwen was able to call our credit card customer service via
Google Talk, and they were able to push the transaction through. It'll
be nice having business class for the 14 hour leg from Dubai to DC!<br />
<br />
Around <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2141492564" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">10:30</span></span>,
we headed out to dim sum at Maxim's Palace at the Hong Kong city hall,
which was highly recommended to Todd by a partner at his firm. After
walking around the block a bit, we finally located city hall and Maxim's
Palace (which is one of a handful of restaurants in city hall, another
of which confusingly is called Maxim's Cafe). </span><br />
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<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Maxim's Palace is a large,
beautifully appointed ballroom / banquet hall. Though it appeared
totally packed, we were seated in just a few minutes and quickly were
brought piping hot tea. Shortly after that, we had chosen almost too
many items to eat from the numerous carts that came by frequently.
</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Items we tried included char siu bao (three different kinds), bai tan
gao, dan tat, sweet bean soup, shu mai, and zhong zi, all of which were
super. Also great were the carts themselves, which were state of the
art. Each cart listed each item for sale in English and Chinese and
provided the price of each item, and some carts even included screens
showing videos of the items! Overall, this restaurant was a huge hit
with us -- we were stuffed until <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2141492565" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">9pm</span></span>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk_RVs5sdQ-T2p06RiNISWCqCecDuFWI1V37SKebHtqntmHVrUk1fPm5gllV5plcUR0XbM6y_JAewXEKSh8v96UhW1A205MRF2XCLg8-uPeJdbJiyZQG0LwCmt5Cs9l82uwcv6coVfhPXi/s1600/2014-05-29+13.54.48-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk_RVs5sdQ-T2p06RiNISWCqCecDuFWI1V37SKebHtqntmHVrUk1fPm5gllV5plcUR0XbM6y_JAewXEKSh8v96UhW1A205MRF2XCLg8-uPeJdbJiyZQG0LwCmt5Cs9l82uwcv6coVfhPXi/s1600/2014-05-29+13.54.48-1.jpg" height="142" width="640" /></a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Afterwards, we visited a series of stores in Mong Kok that qualified as
... interesting, but unfortunately some of them were not as cool as we
had hoped. We did get some good souvenirs out of the excursion,
however. We checked out a $12 dollar store (where we picked up a couple
cut strawberry-shaped dishes), a place called Sim City contained floor
after floor of electronics items (where we picked up a couple lighting
cables that appear not to work due to Apple's greediness), a shopping
mall, and an outdoor market that we think was the Ladies Market (which
seemed quite a bit larger than Temple Street). We declined to buy
anything at the Ladies Market, though many vendors were quick to drop
their asking prices after the slightest bit of haggling, because we just
weren't sure whether was could place any faith in the items there. If
you buy a watch, for example, how can you know if it will work two weeks
later?</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzuqUDlszQeFYTQeGIZd_ESFtr_WlE9UARIIh1d2Iea5fjah5Yu2uzBK44sPjRL63DMaJL_mb3RaquhN-jX26ln6NDkNW7G5khd3T1olxLshucUbqSktB-thI0aZCZcQVL9xc3fVCzZoBO/s1600/2014-05-29+14.53.33.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzuqUDlszQeFYTQeGIZd_ESFtr_WlE9UARIIh1d2Iea5fjah5Yu2uzBK44sPjRL63DMaJL_mb3RaquhN-jX26ln6NDkNW7G5khd3T1olxLshucUbqSktB-thI0aZCZcQVL9xc3fVCzZoBO/s1600/2014-05-29+14.53.33.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEPF8nkGSA2imHpa0ehQpItJTZs_zLXvJU1N87MwKxFT8O63sJRKyMnhogJuehZ-8OkQnWr3XLYlJx4_7J5x7_ot7lZg_o0Ze4Rj8M5yaSQS73ytv9MO_oxXupVXbmwu6dFcLqZJhBhpsh/s1600/2014-05-29+16.35.40.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEPF8nkGSA2imHpa0ehQpItJTZs_zLXvJU1N87MwKxFT8O63sJRKyMnhogJuehZ-8OkQnWr3XLYlJx4_7J5x7_ot7lZg_o0Ze4Rj8M5yaSQS73ytv9MO_oxXupVXbmwu6dFcLqZJhBhpsh/s1600/2014-05-29+16.35.40.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">After wandering around for hours and racking up 14,000 steps on Gwen's
FitBit, we decided to give our sore feet a rest at a noodle place in
the Langham Place mall, where we grabbed a quick late dinner.<br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0VsoL-mIntqcUsf2qulMhxLfK0QTcByRVSFFn-8pNe4vq1G68E1Fs4bQ0BFxYCy-5xMACAml42BIHnX1sofeHlj4fTNiEPCCavht9mV0p7qFJ-IVGe3wlvcJP_W_FY60PPFllnFGpGJQN/s1600/2014-05-29+19.35.48.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0VsoL-mIntqcUsf2qulMhxLfK0QTcByRVSFFn-8pNe4vq1G68E1Fs4bQ0BFxYCy-5xMACAml42BIHnX1sofeHlj4fTNiEPCCavht9mV0p7qFJ-IVGe3wlvcJP_W_FY60PPFllnFGpGJQN/s1600/2014-05-29+19.35.48.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As our last act for the day, we decided to buy Gwen a dress to wear for
the next day's adventures. Sadly, this task proved much harder than
expected! We had read a blog post claiming that Mong Kok has a giant
and excellent Esprit outlet. However, the outlet was quite challenging
to locate, as it is underground and only marked with fairly modest on
the street (modest signage really doesn't cut it in Mong Kok, where
there are so many lights at night that it feels like day on most
streets). After many trips around the block, we did eventually find the
outlet, but found it very underwhelming and would not recommend that
others make the trip. We decided to go back to the real Esprit just a
few blocks away, buy Gwen's dress at a fairly reasonable non-outlet
price, and call it a day.<br />
<br />
</span>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-9164878952548602082014-05-28T22:18:00.002-04:002014-05-28T22:34:09.208-04:00HK Day 6: Disneyland day!<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">We couldn't stay at the Disneyland Resort without visiting Disneyland at least once! So, we designated <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2069678813" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">Wednesday</span></span> as our day for checking out the park. This was fortunate, as <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2069678814" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">Wednesday's</span></span> weather was the best yet -- still very hot and sunny, but less humid than on prior days.</span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
Unlike WDW, which opens first thing in the morning and stays open long
after the fireworks end, Disneyland Hong Kong doesn't open until <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2069678815" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">10:00am</span></span> and closes promptly after the fireworks show (which ends around <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2069678816" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">8:30pm</span></span>).
These hours suited us fine -- we spent the morning catching up on this
blog (on which we were two days behind, with our memories of HK Day 4
already starting to get fuzzy). We eventually made our way to the park
around <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2069678817" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">10:30am</span></span>.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh3xy1BBXH8FU9SiKB4uqhJHIFrvfCHLbTz4bXeyCgqu7DQDam-ZTV2EJMcknUdWDa5IPpWkpc_JJvJhC89g8ZR-1PjLJ-K7o2zxXvWmU3YP7USQu3XoG9QfcxwlEgTcJle0lAxUqVWHkE/s1600/2014-05-28+11.46.20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh3xy1BBXH8FU9SiKB4uqhJHIFrvfCHLbTz4bXeyCgqu7DQDam-ZTV2EJMcknUdWDa5IPpWkpc_JJvJhC89g8ZR-1PjLJ-K7o2zxXvWmU3YP7USQu3XoG9QfcxwlEgTcJle0lAxUqVWHkE/s1600/2014-05-28+11.46.20.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Monstro fountain outside the park with surfing Mickey (who actually went up and down)!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGr9fkN8qigjdp1f4jWsomMxCo-fuq13ju6E3od22aHF0PLbroci-g01iQp3Fi-aZ2V85iwMHv1q5Bfo6gdfdlxNL1PBiY3K-55ahRb_ho7_Mw0P5xNTGSL65E9YpEWTm0I5qra0iAUr7O/s1600/2014-05-28+11.48.08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGr9fkN8qigjdp1f4jWsomMxCo-fuq13ju6E3od22aHF0PLbroci-g01iQp3Fi-aZ2V85iwMHv1q5Bfo6gdfdlxNL1PBiY3K-55ahRb_ho7_Mw0P5xNTGSL65E9YpEWTm0I5qra0iAUr7O/s1600/2014-05-28+11.48.08.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Park gates - so empty!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">One thing we noticed immediately upon arriving at the park was the size
of the crowds -- virtually nonexistent by WDW standards! On pretty much
any day at WDW, you can expect big crowds and significant wait times
for popular attractions. Here, by contrast, we breezed right through
the security checkpoints into the park, and from then on could
essentially walk right on to any ride we liked. We've read that
Disneyland Hong Kong has only recently started operating at a profit,
and if <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2069678814" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">Wednesday's</span></span>
crowd is any indication, we can see why! From our perspective,
however, it sure was nice to be able to casually walk our way around the
park without ducking and weaving though throngs of people.</span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
Right off the bat, we also noticed that HK is much smaller in several
respects than the Magic Kingdom in WDW. Each "land" in the HK park has
only a couple attractions and restaurants, with considerably more unused
space between each one. At WDW, in contrast, each "land" feels packed
with attractions and add-ons (such as Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom)
that make use of otherwise dead space. We think / hope this means that
the park simply has lots of internal room to grow. Several structures
also are much shorter than their WDW counterparts. Most obviously, the
castle is very short, which makes it look more like a set piece than an
actual building, but the trend of short structures holds true throughout
the park (e.g., the gate to Tomorrowland). Overall, however, we
thought that the theming and attention to detail around the park was
very nicely done. Mystic Point in particular was a highlight where
theming is concerned.</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgVQhPDOt7EYwF-jQu5q1cFWAr6NvMiEuOMhNCfs5lDrvxtOQlLOb4VFcuouPpIUEpUtXsUKg1-o9MTqWgvyO_JdGLOqhQFQf_uB1KQwbsPgP_bjC0lUiCoAHr8_jK_09bo7RPk4XDvx_d/s1600/2014-05-28+13.07.51-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgVQhPDOt7EYwF-jQu5q1cFWAr6NvMiEuOMhNCfs5lDrvxtOQlLOb4VFcuouPpIUEpUtXsUKg1-o9MTqWgvyO_JdGLOqhQFQf_uB1KQwbsPgP_bjC0lUiCoAHr8_jK_09bo7RPk4XDvx_d/s1600/2014-05-28+13.07.51-1.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's not perspective - the castle is very short!<u><br /></u></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjknjg27e81ekoECfPYCcKfGs-Mv_Ky7fPoCB6RKUOYjQyeCqtVt5GuTzgCiWmo-UlKPzf4Zrk7KWNd8bFGWKDVrE7jM5r4dEmHv4T790acw3NV0FHcyHj2MYZjitNY65WNxm4WDYbtzB2a/s1600/2014-05-28+12.37.19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjknjg27e81ekoECfPYCcKfGs-Mv_Ky7fPoCB6RKUOYjQyeCqtVt5GuTzgCiWmo-UlKPzf4Zrk7KWNd8bFGWKDVrE7jM5r4dEmHv4T790acw3NV0FHcyHj2MYZjitNY65WNxm4WDYbtzB2a/s1600/2014-05-28+12.37.19.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mystic Manor attraction</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Our main goals for the day were: (1) check out the areas of the park
that are unique to HK Disneyland, (2) sample HK Disneyland's take on
park food and (3) see the fireworks show. Starting with goal number
one, we decided to head over first to Toy Story Land, Mystic Point and
Grizzly Gulch. Toy Story Land is an area aimed at younger age groups
that is themed (very nicely) like the Toy Story Midway Mania ride in
Hollywood Studios, WDW. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">After working on her for a bit, Todd convinced
Gwen to try the Green Army Men's Parachute Drop Training ride, which
lifts you up and drops you down a few times (think Tower of Terror, but
much less scary / appropriate for little children). We liked this
ride, in particular because it afforded some great views of the HK
skyline and surrounding mountains. </span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnR_5CuEkIucN15GkZlXu23hlcEu8HmhjWOE0ds_CzNqOEc0aCvDo32R8oDMvngaF3ToyzLjbiWcaiXn9VbHkWRvuIVT3LWC1vkkuGHm8PD6VQKMaa5Ww5sxkt3GsYvV-_EGr7cf1i4Dd3/s1600/2014-05-28+13.22.27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnR_5CuEkIucN15GkZlXu23hlcEu8HmhjWOE0ds_CzNqOEc0aCvDo32R8oDMvngaF3ToyzLjbiWcaiXn9VbHkWRvuIVT3LWC1vkkuGHm8PD6VQKMaa5Ww5sxkt3GsYvV-_EGr7cf1i4Dd3/s1600/2014-05-28+13.22.27.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Howdy, partner!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguJNrvOBVquystdVFV2DSNSLrpkMntSrObvo782roTZzUJOsAed5vOIx1GBxHCy7C0dUzQto4Fa9XIPDWUoyoYiQZdhC3lNhQkCvrKJHWF3RB3O1Ktl_ZbCTD8YBNMwrIpOO0XFKHTvc65/s1600/2014-05-28+13.28.44-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguJNrvOBVquystdVFV2DSNSLrpkMntSrObvo782roTZzUJOsAed5vOIx1GBxHCy7C0dUzQto4Fa9XIPDWUoyoYiQZdhC3lNhQkCvrKJHWF3RB3O1Ktl_ZbCTD8YBNMwrIpOO0XFKHTvc65/s1600/2014-05-28+13.28.44-1.jpg" height="320" width="317" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Mystic Point is an interesting area
themed around the travels of Dr. Mystic and his monkey, Albert, who have brought
treasures from around the world back to their mansion. The mansion is
the main attraction -- an animatronic ride, somewhat like the Haunted House
in WDW, in which Dr. Mystic's treasures come to life. We thought that
this ride was one of most well-done and technologically advanced
animatronic rides we've seen. Really, very cool! Finally, we walked
through Grizzly Gulch quickly before deciding to search for food (Todd
was threatening to get hangry).</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAnLvcVpnAAqdZBa6RBpCE0RPOSFBg4TTseMUDCiZXpsN8GroQwTFIewzSoAXHTG9HZlcaVbY30X3dbOOcTkPHMh1bQWmy7ejzGxdRWeVPb_F5f-O1XNKgBVK4od3sCfSfKgmpGokmsW8G/s1600/2014-05-28+13.42.03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAnLvcVpnAAqdZBa6RBpCE0RPOSFBg4TTseMUDCiZXpsN8GroQwTFIewzSoAXHTG9HZlcaVbY30X3dbOOcTkPHMh1bQWmy7ejzGxdRWeVPb_F5f-O1XNKgBVK4od3sCfSfKgmpGokmsW8G/s1600/2014-05-28+13.42.03.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Light up cotton candy!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtniRd4nl4UwXKR9odOafrQqAbXqN-VB6ppCDF5apGNmYOrWcnKEwgwIhMK3hD6w1AhuW4rRHDa2hdoDIWmzKw62GTuGW825NKGsA5hYJ-U7gckACEJolrF72MzZ-aFFy8VWbrcSmOgq5p/s1600/2014-05-28+13.19.54.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtniRd4nl4UwXKR9odOafrQqAbXqN-VB6ppCDF5apGNmYOrWcnKEwgwIhMK3hD6w1AhuW4rRHDa2hdoDIWmzKw62GTuGW825NKGsA5hYJ-U7gckACEJolrF72MzZ-aFFy8VWbrcSmOgq5p/s1600/2014-05-28+13.19.54.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yangzhou fried rice, pickled veggies and watermelon juice</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRVTDMqSW4OgIKIo5pgYDf_d8F-J8Fkpr8MQSzCBpQMA19-IxVDcQ1BzKLL7eE-HH2w5I3ZWxP0cBJzGthyphenhyphenauydro58_Fi80ddl4EEzqOVie352NlEBsbOypy1DY4kIcvB2TD0FZ7KynML/s1600/2014-05-28+14.24.32.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRVTDMqSW4OgIKIo5pgYDf_d8F-J8Fkpr8MQSzCBpQMA19-IxVDcQ1BzKLL7eE-HH2w5I3ZWxP0cBJzGthyphenhyphenauydro58_Fi80ddl4EEzqOVie352NlEBsbOypy1DY4kIcvB2TD0FZ7KynML/s1600/2014-05-28+14.24.32.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BBQ pork with rice and veggies</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The food options are strikingly different in HK Disneyland in comparison
to WDW. As is to be expected, there is a much greater emphasis on
Asian foods (including Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and Indian), and many
fewer spots for burgers and the like. There also are some very
interesting snack options (including dried fish and squid at the popcorn carts). After checking out some options, we settled on Festival of
Food, which showcases various Chinese dishes. Todd got the pork
(complete with little bones as you might get in a Chinese restaurant),
and Gwen got the fried rice. At this point, it was around <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2069678819" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">2:00pm</span></span>.
As we were feeling way overheated and also had made reservations for
afternoon tea at Walt's Cafe, we decided to head back to base.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7FuuAWFehFf3suQpmmHruuy6Dm1xx4GE7_KRit2_evtHyfpGJf47U7jNt28lIAX72Umxkeh7uML-p9qO4iADBtXkqxeNsuPUZFRgfwL3xdMJLTO4SCSsSDbqspVQgbsQw9ahNJ4r-b_p9/s1600/2014-05-28+16.52.12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7FuuAWFehFf3suQpmmHruuy6Dm1xx4GE7_KRit2_evtHyfpGJf47U7jNt28lIAX72Umxkeh7uML-p9qO4iADBtXkqxeNsuPUZFRgfwL3xdMJLTO4SCSsSDbqspVQgbsQw9ahNJ4r-b_p9/s1600/2014-05-28+16.52.12.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGoLBB0xbmFqNf6AyHtYOU4xw5AXLrm-hX2vicgOZvqGz5vKUABIgrNsJ6AexQYlDTNgpt_zgreaj8_Hvg3kFtzO37mOxanjpnqsA4LEIieJuZRMINClqI-sQq4tepOJIoSrpbxX5Mhl_B/s1600/2014-05-28+16.52.31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGoLBB0xbmFqNf6AyHtYOU4xw5AXLrm-hX2vicgOZvqGz5vKUABIgrNsJ6AexQYlDTNgpt_zgreaj8_Hvg3kFtzO37mOxanjpnqsA4LEIieJuZRMINClqI-sQq4tepOJIoSrpbxX5Mhl_B/s1600/2014-05-28+16.52.31.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Check out the capers & onion smiley face!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">Walt's Cafe, a restaurant at the Disneyland Hotel, did a nice job
overall with tea. While the quality and presentation certainly weren't
at the level of the Peninsula or Cafe Gray, the cost was less than half
of the Peninsula's and lower than Cafe Gray as well, and great views out
the back of the hotel were free! For HK $385, we received a single set
of tea cakes to share, and we each received a tea pot and a small hot
dish (such as assorted dim sum items).</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnNxQcvNroFdyFOPpgM91FrDe9ONkLse07V5U2IfUICAJauUzlHv-LJrDg62c_gbbhv1C41aSv0bZWVx1A_UtXqWg3fnQmUy9vyVKrIlFLp6Y4TKmmpHz7NZzvTW_snEPXo9HZEiU5qe8I/s1600/2014-05-28+20.15.34.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnNxQcvNroFdyFOPpgM91FrDe9ONkLse07V5U2IfUICAJauUzlHv-LJrDg62c_gbbhv1C41aSv0bZWVx1A_UtXqWg3fnQmUy9vyVKrIlFLp6Y4TKmmpHz7NZzvTW_snEPXo9HZEiU5qe8I/s1600/2014-05-28+20.15.34.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKgOHhaPI3JVcRRkpmYmBsBJ7HJbl8lhh6xmQR-DcWo6wf8uzYLJvJ5XI2GrH9N0W7uj70F3xSB6_kVnet1bPT68r1FzaQgzSX-CJwVoNk5CafBKvM6HoDbwaxCoJDz5HeiwGiHBqNi2Un/s1600/2014-05-28+19.17.02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKgOHhaPI3JVcRRkpmYmBsBJ7HJbl8lhh6xmQR-DcWo6wf8uzYLJvJ5XI2GrH9N0W7uj70F3xSB6_kVnet1bPT68r1FzaQgzSX-CJwVoNk5CafBKvM6HoDbwaxCoJDz5HeiwGiHBqNi2Un/s1600/2014-05-28+19.17.02.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We're actually standing right in front of the castle...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">A bit later on, we made our way back to the park for the fireworks show.
Before the show began, however, we were able to walk right into Buzz
Lightyear's Astro Blasters (a somewhat updated version of Space Ranger
Spin at WDW). Again, this ride typically has 25-30 minute wait times at
WDW, but essentially no wait here, making it a great deal! We enjoyed
the nifty modifications made to the ride. Somehow, due to cheating for
sure, Gwen's score was nearly double Todd's.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggPJAY9SdRWyb2jLnTJlmGFPMZELKDeDnus-CeFwJdh3AmuHFn0rn7lRqSmQNQ9YlJy7zGbdI4415on_mTz32owARNUvPZHxgAV2KEbJ5KPQB_62DlYHvNSAz4CQeTAZoYo0Ta2fvNG1LN/s1600/2014-05-28+20.11.35-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggPJAY9SdRWyb2jLnTJlmGFPMZELKDeDnus-CeFwJdh3AmuHFn0rn7lRqSmQNQ9YlJy7zGbdI4415on_mTz32owARNUvPZHxgAV2KEbJ5KPQB_62DlYHvNSAz4CQeTAZoYo0Ta2fvNG1LN/s1600/2014-05-28+20.11.35-1.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5hpE43Sqnq7SUHIM0ap1IjPvJcDzS93rLEWdh_WrNquMzwCfJnh-ydMwNw4Z_AyItDN9QxKKc8aQMtTrKRQVEa2_0W8iIS2NGvZ-RxNRK1yZNgHQ9qQ1-fo1mNHJ_7qf-LOnHGNYl9bAH/s1600/2014-05-28+20.05.29.mov" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5hpE43Sqnq7SUHIM0ap1IjPvJcDzS93rLEWdh_WrNquMzwCfJnh-ydMwNw4Z_AyItDN9QxKKc8aQMtTrKRQVEa2_0W8iIS2NGvZ-RxNRK1yZNgHQ9qQ1-fo1mNHJ_7qf-LOnHGNYl9bAH/s1600/2014-05-28+20.05.29.mov" height="179" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Disney in the Stars fireworks show</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The fireworks show was truly spectacular, drawing loads of audible
oooohs from the crowd. The show included several cool firework effects
not used in WDW, such as giant spinning sparklers mounted to polls
extended from the castle. While there may be several aspects of
Disneyland HK that feel a bit small, the fireworks show definitely is
not one of them.</span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
As mentioned, the park closes promptly after the fireworks show ends,
resulting in a bit of a rush to the exits. Our efforts to take refuge
in a gift shop worked fairly well, however. After spending some time
examining a very cool Disney-themed miniature house display (see below),
we found that much of the crowd had dissipated.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ6vCD8xG0qK2kDh65JYe2Zgx_lXEC2St-LX8wBHDuw1YLxmVazppGqsvBfF18mvpTsgVO9SeqeGVA-xpgfT9tXZJetMufCHcXtBfoztPtRMLgsE3XppZK37Rh1UivPu3RsP745QlcPmBI/s1600/2014-05-28+20.24.07-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ6vCD8xG0qK2kDh65JYe2Zgx_lXEC2St-LX8wBHDuw1YLxmVazppGqsvBfF18mvpTsgVO9SeqeGVA-xpgfT9tXZJetMufCHcXtBfoztPtRMLgsE3XppZK37Rh1UivPu3RsP745QlcPmBI/s1600/2014-05-28+20.24.07-1.jpg" height="320" width="258" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">With our last ounces of energy for the day, we decided to check out the
grocery store at Tung Chung, one stop past Sunny Bay along the orange
line on Lantau Island. Here, we loaded up on interesting candies to
bring home as gifts (this is for you, Matt) and procured breakfast for
the next day. The store also included some wild, never-in-the-USA
aisles, such as one full entirely of boxes of various kinds of dried
mushrooms! Lugging our grocery store loot home on the train, we got
home around <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2069678820" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">10:30 pm</span></span> and called it a day.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkf5-gL-2oas3qML59tERv9JChIC1DX9NLOMaBMkMQ8bEHjJzSANATe9yvxjm5t1YUa0LrU6V0iWDrou_DLtwFl21WNn3NUHCF8HcR5GDS6FqtnQottzygXI_lblJwU5HRrYCUeewy9yiv/s1600/2014-05-28+22.25.17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkf5-gL-2oas3qML59tERv9JChIC1DX9NLOMaBMkMQ8bEHjJzSANATe9yvxjm5t1YUa0LrU6V0iWDrou_DLtwFl21WNn3NUHCF8HcR5GDS6FqtnQottzygXI_lblJwU5HRrYCUeewy9yiv/s1600/2014-05-28+22.25.17.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dried mushroom gift packages: who wants one?!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b>Next time:</b> More Mong Kok Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-37546241735425891482014-05-28T21:37:00.001-04:002014-05-28T22:23:31.669-04:00HK Day 5: Enchanting breakfast and fabric jackpot!Tuesday, we thought we should start our day off right with a Disney breakfast buffet. Having already tried Chef Mickey in our hotel, we took the shuttle bus (like a charter/tour bus in the States) over to the Disneyland Hotel. There, we went downstairs to the Enchanted Garden, where we saw a sign saying the "next breakfast seating" would be at 9:30am. Being only 8:30am, we asked a lovely Cast Member, Tam (apparently people here often pick their own English names, and we have seen some interesting ones - "Windy," "Chicsi," and "Yancy" to name a few) how the seatings work. She took our room number and told us to come back around 9:20.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT4tqPcIfCo3HPLLE2DnityqKONgJ14t_IS-uhbuble8DOQOb9zQN4QdWk-XVxzfIMSfBDvLT4MIXgGTdmWpooPDzlEfCtBtIhD1qetpLMD4gI1e567tfZ7cci5IgMQ8AoddokrQf2d64c/s1600/2014-05-27+08.47.20.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT4tqPcIfCo3HPLLE2DnityqKONgJ14t_IS-uhbuble8DOQOb9zQN4QdWk-XVxzfIMSfBDvLT4MIXgGTdmWpooPDzlEfCtBtIhD1qetpLMD4gI1e567tfZ7cci5IgMQ8AoddokrQf2d64c/s1600/2014-05-27+08.47.20.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mini version of the main lobby of the Grand Floridian in the Disneyland Hotel.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3MqCwsO0CdBFMH3dp5Qj81BMvCDaeR33eQiC4HKBbp9ojaDSP1PwWkhRNmlDCfFASlfb8PEsLCM-u3GQmKxBsxuYZxf5-X1DZ9nL4EXSTeijJAsdmNdIRj3hyphenhyphenYU9a_OeOhmEQ36xhw1WE/s1600/2014-05-27+09.03.26.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3MqCwsO0CdBFMH3dp5Qj81BMvCDaeR33eQiC4HKBbp9ojaDSP1PwWkhRNmlDCfFASlfb8PEsLCM-u3GQmKxBsxuYZxf5-X1DZ9nL4EXSTeijJAsdmNdIRj3hyphenhyphenYU9a_OeOhmEQ36xhw1WE/s1600/2014-05-27+09.03.26.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hedge labyrinth behind the Disneyland Hotel.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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The Hong Kong Disneyland park doesn't open until 10:00am, so at 8:30am, the Disneyland Hotel (DH) was still pretty sleepy and empty. We took this opportunity to explore the hotel and enjoy the views in the super bright morning sunshine. We'd also read on the interwebs that the DH provides different complimentary toiletries, themed after the seven dwarfs, so we went in search of a maid cart to verify. [Anyone who knows me well knows I love the cute little "goodies" from hotels... one of the little things to love about traveling I learned from Mom.]<br />
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Back at Enchanted Garden at 9:25am, the foyer outside the restaurant was starting to fill up with the haphazard queuing we've started to get used to (the result of quantities of pushy/eager/excited/barely-able-to-communicate Asians of all types). As we approached the hostess counter, Tam saw us and quickly recited our room number from memory (! and we realized that we hadn't even left our names), and graciously set us up with an usher (the 9th or 10th "Matthew" we'd met) who led us to our table. Following Matthew through the beautifully themed restaurant, we finally understood the "seatings." They had completely re-set the restaurant so it seemed we were the first to enter for the day. All the buffet offerings were freshly laid out and the restaurant empty, waiting for a new round of excited diners. Because we were among the first into the restaurant, I quickly took some photos of the huge breakfast spread:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEichvcaPoCrObaOHnEFQmenuaWfwjo887rkg5uZvJ2XLXleoOFnhSFHyU_4IzZhPec17EnmRrUy5umHdPVzDNeEWhu2fxEe_2K7M_Q59ggAm9p4J2n7zUmdhZMbJLyGJzy0aJF_zM76RfRV/s1600/2014-05-27+09.31.02.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEichvcaPoCrObaOHnEFQmenuaWfwjo887rkg5uZvJ2XLXleoOFnhSFHyU_4IzZhPec17EnmRrUy5umHdPVzDNeEWhu2fxEe_2K7M_Q59ggAm9p4J2n7zUmdhZMbJLyGJzy0aJF_zM76RfRV/s1600/2014-05-27+09.31.02.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWkfUwgzp-EvFgGb8qlySuiztM-buUeJAdWSPEI1M5y250h7ydBhtH6NiQ5wTbiw89njQRkNTZBq_HNkpbp2SHn-ZGKMLu3BQfOspG2caNYRhEA0wPGJBGVhlY89EL5w4BJln63ECfbi5d/s1600/2014-05-27+09.30.37.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWkfUwgzp-EvFgGb8qlySuiztM-buUeJAdWSPEI1M5y250h7ydBhtH6NiQ5wTbiw89njQRkNTZBq_HNkpbp2SHn-ZGKMLu3BQfOspG2caNYRhEA0wPGJBGVhlY89EL5w4BJln63ECfbi5d/s1600/2014-05-27+09.30.37.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzqeyaYU9A9XPpm9PzeeSydhqKYJSHsXFzEWvr-6B85fo-1TaZ_xOkyjFV4LeDe57vZrLopzgJx5ZKzDaRJb3htXKZ-fAaFvl0oYKlvfTjzXvaqI2UbUiuxMuCvfZzHxbBk8uYto3bYXj0/s1600/2014-05-27+09.38.15.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzqeyaYU9A9XPpm9PzeeSydhqKYJSHsXFzEWvr-6B85fo-1TaZ_xOkyjFV4LeDe57vZrLopzgJx5ZKzDaRJb3htXKZ-fAaFvl0oYKlvfTjzXvaqI2UbUiuxMuCvfZzHxbBk8uYto3bYXj0/s1600/2014-05-27+09.38.15.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Round 1: Plate clockwise from bottom: Zhongzi, samosa, tea egg, teriyaki glass noodles, coconut milk rice, spring roll, cha siu in flaky pastry & 2 xiao long tang bao; accompanied by blueberry Mickey muffin, Nutella filled doughnut, gluten free blueberry pound cake, grapefruit juice, vegetable juice (possibly containing papaya), sweet potato and pork xi fan, museli with blueberry yoghurt and apricot yoghurt.</td></tr>
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Much more like Chef Mickey at WDW, at the Enchanted Garden, there were several characters roaming around, interacting with guests. And by interact, I mean really interact - as much as they can without making sounds. Unlike in WDW, after making their first pass around the restaurant, the characters wandered around playing with children and "talking" (?) to adults, <i>without handlers.</i> It was amazing to watch how a mute Pluto gently freed himself from the death-grip clutches of a little girl so that he could pose animatedly with another family and then return his attention to the little girl. These characters really have skills! Equally talented are the photographers who speak at least 4 languages plus baby-attention-grabbing (a surprising and sometimes loud language of entertaining sounds). I tried (but failed - didn't want to be TOO much of a creeper) to get a video of one particularly exuberant photog (also named Matthew) who was animatedly teaching a little girl how to be a princess, including the walk, poses, fixing her hair, and wiping her face.<br />
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Absolutely stuffed (in more ways than one, see photo below...) from too much breakfast, we lounged a bit in the lobby before waddling back to our room. There we re-grouped, packed the adventure bag and headed off into the city.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6MpTlJHBipc-JZ4bdWm9WJF5ienal6TcbyVPHOVCyBW48Z89bVQu3vhXUHp83luvOXwLPbGyJK6don6fmxoRP_Y8zlTidKOWKyA9i-hZRzM36NiF-NumrqJwmApgBBfDTOsWkx-L2c-KG/s1600/2014-05-27+15.04.15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6MpTlJHBipc-JZ4bdWm9WJF5ienal6TcbyVPHOVCyBW48Z89bVQu3vhXUHp83luvOXwLPbGyJK6don6fmxoRP_Y8zlTidKOWKyA9i-hZRzM36NiF-NumrqJwmApgBBfDTOsWkx-L2c-KG/s1600/2014-05-27+15.04.15.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Breakfast haul: 6 little jars of jam, "Sleepy" cotton swabs & pads, comb, razors, shampoo, conditioner, bodywash, Asian pear, emmanthaler cheese, tea spoons</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
First stop was Sham Shui Po, a mecca for all things sewing related. Streets FULL of wholesale fabric shops sold every type of fabric imaginable. We even saw branded fabrics - polo shirt fabric with little embroidered Abercrombie mooses, satin-y fabric printed with golf tees and balls that I swear was for Vineyard Vines ties and others.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2sQF-U63aR481yzMY1O7MchyphenhyphenJ1LAJ3A9JZ4kg54GLxgWSRUPaMUGGr2eEAzXtkAERmeV6MlylE6Kbnc6MYH930H-zL9VD3yqkf4Hk1W49iMtyiQHGc9KmiQqsTUKBN27DhNKt5YcAeM8y/s1600/2014-05-27+16.16.51-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2sQF-U63aR481yzMY1O7MchyphenhyphenJ1LAJ3A9JZ4kg54GLxgWSRUPaMUGGr2eEAzXtkAERmeV6MlylE6Kbnc6MYH930H-zL9VD3yqkf4Hk1W49iMtyiQHGc9KmiQqsTUKBN27DhNKt5YcAeM8y/s1600/2014-05-27+16.16.51-1.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beads galore!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXy7FME44fW-qJ-d3luER0_Xugnz0_lL679YRk3X4cY5OLY32aedIDXjtfghVKuQ8ePP4VsIMEg1qS28WbWVSVhQYz4ny7YRXzTu0hGoQXyiYuf88RDecCjtzVnok413EedLL2HZt3qgGx/s1600/2014-05-27+16.38.51.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXy7FME44fW-qJ-d3luER0_Xugnz0_lL679YRk3X4cY5OLY32aedIDXjtfghVKuQ8ePP4VsIMEg1qS28WbWVSVhQYz4ny7YRXzTu0hGoQXyiYuf88RDecCjtzVnok413EedLL2HZt3qgGx/s1600/2014-05-27+16.38.51.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fabric stalls on the street</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRDJrXBGc35nsLuaMw-r87_EgRS8wVjjUW0e2pAsdCUzJEXr-kzX8byjgnmft8WfSjgbEN3DGUOkFJRSl5UfAKUEZ78YfFkF_jbfEoh6xcANYsCq_C9cFNk2-3wLD5KaPt46rb3WHhEG-4/s1600/2014-05-27+16.49.01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRDJrXBGc35nsLuaMw-r87_EgRS8wVjjUW0e2pAsdCUzJEXr-kzX8byjgnmft8WfSjgbEN3DGUOkFJRSl5UfAKUEZ78YfFkF_jbfEoh6xcANYsCq_C9cFNk2-3wLD5KaPt46rb3WHhEG-4/s1600/2014-05-27+16.49.01.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fabric swatch cards for wholesale purchasers</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdimeAlfyVUOhPZlm_XbaJ5DM_Vt6gnN1lrLaMDQCsRAX5k2ZnmQrbYXpxpBZfYwOBHdMhJCUzjK3v5VjopQxPuSB0Nq8YpYCqkEzyvawd0c1jDQdNjgjCfTCb9EmTk7ercVnZbJftVEe-/s1600/2014-05-27+16.52.29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdimeAlfyVUOhPZlm_XbaJ5DM_Vt6gnN1lrLaMDQCsRAX5k2ZnmQrbYXpxpBZfYwOBHdMhJCUzjK3v5VjopQxPuSB0Nq8YpYCqkEzyvawd0c1jDQdNjgjCfTCb9EmTk7ercVnZbJftVEe-/s1600/2014-05-27+16.52.29.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ribbon!</td></tr>
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Halfway through our perusal of one block of street fabric vendors, all the vendors suddenly began hauling their giant (read: probably 300lb) fabric carts closer in towards their tents/booths. A few minutes later, we saw a police-like person a little way up the street and decided they must get fined if they have their carts too far out into the street. Maybe another 5 minutes later, all the carts were right back out whee they were. Fantastic!<br />
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Wending our way back to the MTR station, we stopped in lots of little shops selling all sorts of bits and bobs. One shop was the size of a small apartment and packed FULL of all kinds of plastic beads. So full that though the walls were lined with tiny drawers, some of them were pulled out to make shelves for jars of still more beads! Similar stores sold all types of strings, ribbons, elastic, lace, sequins (including giant 3"+ diameter ones for making curtains - like the sort you might have for a party), buckles, and rhinestones.<br />
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Having completely exhausted T's (very generous) patience for looking at all things shiny and crafty, we headed off in search of Granville Road and the promise of up-and-coming designers, discounted clothing, and interesting Hong Kong shopping. Emerging from the MTR, right away we could tell that this was indeed a place for shopping. It was starting to get dark, so neon lights were on advertising all types of wares, including a particularly large sign above the center of the road that read "UNDER WEAR." Sadly, looks like we didn't get a photo. Already somewhat laden with my haul from Sham Shui Po, we spent another several hours perusing the stores and malls on Granville Road, making a few more purchases to add to our load. At Uniqlo, we were entertained by the variety of American/American-inspired t-shirt designs and also <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomin">Moomin</a>, a new favourite "cute thing" to add to our list.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn6SLNEV1qIk4RnewtQBNiUApv3ThDBp4yE4TnaAeR8jg3827uGE4jFtA3ZE5N_uxIPoKGOfmYMCsy0xBIsAZYAuPyOEhfZX0HWpkBu4Z4F1bo1fR_Vhffod3ap92cECUJSdnouxh_O_OI/s1600/2014-05-27+18.09.58.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn6SLNEV1qIk4RnewtQBNiUApv3ThDBp4yE4TnaAeR8jg3827uGE4jFtA3ZE5N_uxIPoKGOfmYMCsy0xBIsAZYAuPyOEhfZX0HWpkBu4Z4F1bo1fR_Vhffod3ap92cECUJSdnouxh_O_OI/s1600/2014-05-27+18.09.58.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Street vendor selling all types of zhongzi</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiruHwwNiQrFcC9omfCQ38tP61CMhfoSw57aKsHBZzoanX0DSI1rkSVqCgpofyIfUPoqz358VfninwrpzAU32z7Nh_rEe0mtmrvoROpInkp3hT_7bvNCyB1XMdRrIj9zHl9WwJxJdx1yP2B/s1600/2014-05-27+18.18.14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiruHwwNiQrFcC9omfCQ38tP61CMhfoSw57aKsHBZzoanX0DSI1rkSVqCgpofyIfUPoqz358VfninwrpzAU32z7Nh_rEe0mtmrvoROpInkp3hT_7bvNCyB1XMdRrIj9zHl9WwJxJdx1yP2B/s1600/2014-05-27+18.18.14.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Something (very popular - there was a long line) called egg yolk ball... looked like a crunchy sort of pastry/baked item</td></tr>
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Heading back to the hotel around 10:00pm, we realized we hadn't eaten dinner... or lunch... and one of us was becoming somewhat hangry. So we made a quick stop at an ever present 7-11 for sandwiches, sparkling orange juice and a strawberry banana juice (sorry, too tired to take photos). By the time we reached our room, we had just enough energy to shower (we've lost track what number we're on now, but I think we're averaging 2.5/day), eat, and fall into bed.<br />
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<b>Next time</b>: Disneyland!!Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-33708628853310182822014-05-27T22:03:00.002-04:002014-05-28T22:31:06.345-04:00HK Day 4: Real Hong KongMonday, T and I decided to try breakfasting like the locals. Various blogs and other info on the interwebs pointed us to a place in Central called Lin Heung Tea House. Known for delicious congee (xi fan for Mandarin speakers, jok for Cantonese), we were excited to be able to order our breakfast off of carts (like Dim Sum).<br />
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Even though we were up super early (about 4:30am), our internet perusings kept us from getting underway until 7:00am, which we felt was a more suitable time to actually get going. Being on the MTR at that early hour meant that we got to experience the HK morning commute. Lots of tired looking people, as to be expected, and being out here in the "suburbs" on Lantau Island, we saw a higher ratio of expats. We did not envy the men's full suits in the HK heat and humidity, but figure at least they won't freeze in their offices which are likely air conditioned to near-tundra temperatures (as are most of the shops).<br />
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Thanking the Google Gods for designing such amazing maps (the directional arrow, showing which way you're facing is particularly handy), we had little difficulty finding our breakfasting location. The greater difficulty was in communicating and wondering about how sanitary the place might be. [Vi, you would not have gone in.] As an answer to my concerns about the cleanliness of the dishes (clean ones are stacked on the floor, for quick resetting of tables), a server/bus boy set a bowl of steaming hot water on the table in front of us. He also threw down a little card listing the types of tea available. I chose Jasmine and quickly looked around, looking at how others were using the water bowl. Not seeing any other new diners, I assumed it was for washing our dishes. As I swirled our little bowls and cups in the piping hot water, we noticed someone else pouring their tea over the ends of their chopsticks, also into the bowl. We did that too. Dishes "sanitized," we started looking around at the few carts, searching for recognizable foods.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu3ER8y_naFYfsck8ikN5W5Z2uwM8vWbG4Ytot7VhhFQbq9-If-V0y2a_BPyw6b0jk4CS5zcauGhBylNYHyfdJLIYt0NU7ksEMA6x9khmgdpwMGYhb1tsrGvFz7u-jFrXUnrQxHIBvWv9i/s1600/2014-05-26+09.13.51.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu3ER8y_naFYfsck8ikN5W5Z2uwM8vWbG4Ytot7VhhFQbq9-If-V0y2a_BPyw6b0jk4CS5zcauGhBylNYHyfdJLIYt0NU7ksEMA6x9khmgdpwMGYhb1tsrGvFz7u-jFrXUnrQxHIBvWv9i/s1600/2014-05-26+09.13.51.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No need to wait patiently for the carts to come to your table! When a new cart came out, people would get up from their tables to check out the steaming items. </td></tr>
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Unfortunately, they didn't actually have xi fan, which was disappointing. Maybe we missed it, or maybe the people just couldn't understand what we were saying. We did sample a variety of other things, none of which we'd ever had before. The zhong zi (sticky rice with some kind of meaty filling, wrapped in leaves) was the closest item to anything we recognized. About halfway through our dining experience, a nice couple sat at our table (shared tables appears common here) and the man offered us a variety of helpful tips - in English! He taught us how to pour from a teapot properly (2 fingers inside the handle, thumb pressing down on top to keep it steady), told us what some of the more interesting looking foods were (another pair at our table ordered a LARGE helping of steamed pork liver...), and generally gave us advice about how and what to see in the city.<br />
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Tummies full, and hoping the hot water/tea dish washing was sufficient, we headed off in search of the Peak Tram. Again, following the guidance of Google maps, we found the Peak Tram fairly easily. We were expecting something somewhat more elaborate, especially after having been on the cable cars. The tram is literally one tram vehicle with two cars that goes up and down a single, very steep track. It has the feel of an old trolley from some place like Louisiana, but the track is so steep, you also kind of feel like you're on a roller coaster, and thus keep waiting for a stomach turning drop (which thankfully never happens).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There's the tram!</td></tr>
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At the top of Victoria Peak, the main attraction is the Peak Tower, which has undergone several total make-overs - there are many photos showing previous iterations. Inside the tower is a sort of mini-mall, with a random sampling of stores. At the top level, next to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. (yes, themed after Forrest Gump...) is TonyMoly, a Korean cosmetics company that makes some of the cutest packaging. We made a quick pit stop.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from the coffee shop</td></tr>
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Thirsty and hot, as usual, our next stop was a little coffee shop with fantastic views out over the city. T tried a blended iced coffee, but I stuck with bottled water. Re-hydrated, we explored the rest of the establishments on Victoria Peak before joining the queue for the return trip. As I mentioned earlier, it's one vehicle that goes up and down the track. There's no turning around. So on the way down the mountain, you're sitting backwards. This really feels like a roller coaster, but fortunately the ride is just slow and smooth enough to prevent any freak-outs. Still, I think there were some who were glad when the tram ground to a stop.<br />
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The Peak Tram stop is at the edge of Honk Kong Park, a large, outdoor, somewhat jungly place with paved walkways and lots of stairs. We saw a somewhat extreme looking work out group that made us think of <a href="http://www.missionfitcamp.com/">Fit Camp</a> (except perhaps less safe). In the 93F heat, with 100% humidity (really, it was raining), weather.com told us it felt like 106F. This group was running up and down the stairs, interspersed with burpees, and sprinting/grapevining/high-knee-ing up the slope of the mountain. We were tired just watching them. So we continued on our way through the park. We walked past gardens, a large koi pond, and fountains before arriving at the <a href="http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/ce/Museum/Arts/en_US/web/ma/tea-ware.html">Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware.</a><br />
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The museum showcases all types of Chinese tea ware and even had a room for viewing a short video showing how teapots are traditionally made by hand. Using the Museum as a welcome respite from the heat and giving our feet a change to relax, we spent the majority of our time in the children's playroom watching the videos about tea customs and how tea is made (from picking to packaging with Mr. Black Tea Leaf). I'm pretty sure the playroom attendant thought we were quite odd.<br />
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Our last stop for the day was tea at the Upper House. This is a hotel that is somehow attached to/on top of the JW Marriott. A very stylish hotel in a stylish part of the city, our reservation was at 4:30, not for another 3 hours! We were able to move it up to 3:30pm, but still needed to bide some time. We looked around both the JW and Upper House for a place to sit and relax, but large hotel lobbies (with comfy couches and chairs for lounging) are not really a thing here. Instead, we settled for just being out of the heat and walked around the large mall across the street.<br />
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Full of high end brands like Cartier, Hermes, and Burberry, we made one $5USD purchase at a pharmacy for throat lozenges. The over-helpful shop attendants wanted me to buy a large glass bottle
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Tea at the Upper House is at Cafe Gray Deluxe on the 49th floor, providing more fantastic views of Hong Kong. T chose Chinese oolong and I had lemon ginger. The tea set itself was comparable in taste and quality to the Peninsula, we thought. Cafe Gray was less expensive, but the ability to make reservations and thus not having to wait really earned Cafe Gray a lot of points. The tea itself was definitely better at the Peninsula - both mine (green tea based) and T's (black tea based) were bitter on the second cup, thanks to their use of 3 tea bags in 2 cup teapots. But, did we mention the view?<br />
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After a leisurely tea, with tummies full, we headed back to Disneyland, where we showered and promptly fell asleep.<br />
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<b>Next time:</b> Enchanted Garden and Sham Shui Po!<br />
<br />Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-44956470083790105412014-05-25T12:45:00.000-04:002014-05-28T22:23:43.390-04:00HK Day 3: The Big BuddhaAfter finishing last night's post around 3:00am, we were surprised to wake up at 7:30am. So we're either not on HK time yet or our bodies have decided 4hr sleeps are good enough. Also, the sun rises earlier here - 5:40am today, so maybe that has something to do with it.<br />
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Anyway, we were up, so we got ready for breakfast (#9 - forgot to mention a couple showers yesterday). Just as we were leaving our room, a Mousekeeping woman came to our door to ask whether we'd like new towels and bed sheets and when we'd like her to tidy our room. We told her we were on our way to breakfast, and she could come in now.<br />
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Downstairs, Chef Mickey's was very busy. The energy is different, and more frenetic here than in either the Chef Mickey's in WDW or Tokyo. T described it as a more "Chuck E. Cheese" feel, which is pretty accurate. The restaurant is louder, the only character to "meet" is Chef Mickey, and (possibly because of the craziness) he only poses for photos by the entrance to the restaurant. We were seated right away, at a table set with yellow paper place mats and red napkins. As she left us at our table, the hostess handed me a laminated card (obviously done by hand...) telling us that we could queue up for a photo with Chef Mickey any time between 8:00 and 10:45am. Realizing we'd forgotten to bring both phone and camera for taking pictures, T went back to the room for them, giving me a chance to observe the surroundings.<br />
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I'd say 80% of the clientele were Chinese, speaking either Cantonese or Mandarin (seemed mostly Mandarin, actually), 10% were Indian, and the remaining 10% comprised everyone else (a deer-in-headlights American family of 3, a German speaking family, and various other types of Asians). I also noticed that while the Mandarin speaking small children were clearly very excited to be there, they were surprisingly well behaved. Upon arrival, many were pointing out the not-so-hidden Mickeys omnipresent in the theming, but as soon as they were seated, they sat fairly quietly and patiently waiting for their parents to bring back plates of food from the buffet. This meant that few children actually went to the buffet area, which is probably a good thing.<br />
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The food offerings sort of mirrored the breakdown of the clientele, though 50% was traditional Western breakfast fare (lots of pastries, scrambled and over easy eggs, pancakes, Mickey Waffles, etc.). Interestingly, the Mickey Waffles and banana cakes (above) were the only specifically Disney food items. Where WDW has Mickey shaped pancakes, Waffles, sprinkles and breakfast pizza, Japan had lots of Mickey-shaped things; yolks of soft boiled eggs, hash browns, pastries... Both those restaurants have food areas (and probably seating areas too) that are twice the size of Chef Mickey's here in HK. Thus, the individual food sections were also smaller, with less variety; made-to-order noodle soup, Indian (dal, rice with ghee & cumin seeds, curry), Japanese (various types of pickles, lox), dim sum. Also, there was kind of an "every person for themselves" vibe. Once seated, we had to flag down servers to get (terrible) hot tea and coffee. They did do a quick job of clearing used dishes, however. At the food stations, there was no order or flow to how people moved through the buffet. Instead, people literally pushed through at any point. I even had several people reach over me! But, there were 2 types of delicious xiao long tang bao on offer (and only 4/steamer basket), so perhaps some of the pushing was warranted. Overall, we felt that breakfast at the Langham Place was better, and comparable in price.<br />
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After our delicious breakfast, we collected our adventure bag (stocked with sunscreen, bottled water, wipes, and hand sanitizer) and headed off to find our way to the Big Buddha!<br />
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The MTR station is quite easy to get to; the Disney Resort Station is just outside the entrance to the park. There is a special "Mickey train" which took us to the Sunny Bay stop, where we changed to the orange line to Tung Chung. There, we were surprised to see an outlet mall right off of the MTR station. Just past the mall is the entrance to the cable car station.<br />
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We bought round trip tickets in a standard cabin (as opposed to glass bottom, which seemed like it would be pretty terrifying) for $300HKD. Another option was a one way ticket, but it appeared that to get back, you'd have to walk across several mountains (and swim across a bay) if you didn't have some other transport waiting for you at the top. As an aside, there are actually 2 queues - one for the glass bottomed Crystal Cabins, and one for the standard cabins. Not noticing any signage, we chose the wrong line and after waiting half an hour, were sent to the back of the proper line when we made it to the ticket taker... Luckily there are at least twice (maybe 3x) as many standard cabins, so this line was shorter.<br />
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I was a little dubious about the cable car ride, not being a huge fan of heights. But the ride is very smooth and not so fast that you feel like your car might fall at any moment. In fact, the cabins are "naturally air conditioned" by vents, so we could feel and hear the wind gusts as welcome cool breezes, but did not feel any sway in the cabin. Being a (scorchingly hot at 91F, but felt like 101F according to weather.com) clear day, the views were wonderful.<br />
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At the top, the cable cars drop you in a "village" called Ngong Ping. This is pretty much a tourist village of shops selling all types of refreshment and souvenirs. We walked through the village, stopping for a grapefruit juice at Starbucks (check out our <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/silver-lining/sets/72157644425516568/">Flickr</a> for photos of some other intriguing Chinese options!), and made our way to the Big Buddha and temple.<br />
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After walking around the temple area, we bought some ice pops and headed up the stairs to the Big Buddha. Definitely not for the faint of heart on this sweltering day, we got our workout for the day and were rewarded with more fantastic views.<br />
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Leaving the Big Buddha, we stopped in some of the stores in the "village," more to cool off than to really shop. At the very end of the line of shops was a little tea shop, where we decided to stop for tea. It was 2:30, and tea time after all. The shop had a cute little seating area where we enjoyed a traditional tea ceremony and relaxed in the air conditioning whilst drinking 95C hot tea.<br />
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After tea, we re-boarded a cable car and headed back to Tung Chung. We spent a few hours exploring the outlet mall, but didn't find anything particularly enticing. By the time we returned to the hotel, I'd developed a sore throat and we were both a little hungry, so we went back to Hollywood and Dine. We got a nice dinner of noodle soup for me and cha-siu-bao and fruit cup for T. We got our food to go so we could eat it in our room after much needed showers (#10). Well fed, we've been napping since about 7:00pm and now it's midnight. I woke us up to soothe my throat with some more tea, but now it's back to bed!<br />
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<b>Tomorrow</b>: Central and wontonsGwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0Hong Kong Disneyland, Hong Kong22.3129666 114.0412819000000622.2835876 114.00094140000006 22.342345599999998 114.08162240000006tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-57469710712115962772014-05-24T14:50:00.001-04:002014-05-28T22:33:02.568-04:00HK Day 2: Part 2Afternoon tea at the Peninsula was worth the wait. After spending almost exactly 2 hours standing in the queue, we were swiftly seated and had our orders taken in maybe 5 minutes. T chose the Organic Peninsula blend along with an iced cappuccino while I had the Peninsula afternoon blend. Both of us had the regular "tea set" which came along with a lychee mousse topped with homemade organic strawberry jam.<br />
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After waiting so long, we (probably like everyone before us) felt somewhat entitled to a leisurely tea experience. By now, the live music seemed to encourage us to linger over our tea rather than making us feel that the time was passing slowly. The 5 or 6 piece group (hard to tell, as they were a level above us, mostly obscured from view by columns) played 3 song sets of popular American tunes between 10minute breaks. They were very good, though. I think I forgot to mention in the previous post that not 5 minutes after we walked into the hotel, the band played "Part of Your World" from the Little Mermaid. It was like they were playing it for us! [Our wedding music was adapted- cleverly and carefully by Brudder- from the score of the Little Mermaid.] We thought that was pretty perfect, and they did play one or two other Disney songs. I remember hearing "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" anyway.<br />
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Though the edibles don't look like a lot in the photos, we were really quite full (maybe it was because we each drank 2 pots of tea) and couldn't finish the last 2 raisin scones. One of the waiters swiftly boxed them up for us and we headed to Disneyland!<br />
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The taxi ride to Disneyland was about half an hour. After seeing what we think was a building owned by my grandparents - it has a bathroom fixtures showroom in the bottom- I promptly fell asleep. T woke me as we approached the gates welcoming us into the Disneyland Resort. We were greeted in 3 languages by Cast Members who quickly determined our preferred language and took our luggage to deliver to our room (this 3 language greeting is something we are starting to get used to, and is not peculiar to Disney). Check-in was quick and easy and we were happily surprised to find out that our room comes with complimentary park passes - enough for 7 days! Perhaps we will spend more than half a day in the park after all.<br />
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After a short nap, we explored our hotel and the other one on property - the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel. We are staying at <a href="http://park.hongkongdisneyland.com/hkdl/en_US/hotels/landing?name=HollywoodHotelLandingPage">Disney's Hollywood Hotel</a> which I would equate to something like the Swan or Dolphin in WDW. The room is similar to your standard American hotel room in terms of size, plus it has a tiny mini fridge. It's significantly smaller than our room was at Tokyo "Dizunee Randuruu." This hotel, like the Ambassador in Tokyo, is art deco themed, and reminds me of a land version of the cruise ships. The lobby even smells like the lobby of the Dream. There are 3 restaurants in the hotel - Chef Mickey's (looks similar to the one in Tokyo and WDW, we'll report back after breakfast tomorrow), The Lounge (looks... like a lounge...), and Hollywood and Dine (not much like Hollywood and Vine in Hollywood Studios in WDW, this is a small quick service sort of replacement for the lack of room service).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chandelier in the Disneyland Hotel, not quite the same as the <a href="http://rootweddings.com/blog/2011/09/26/gwen-todd-wedding-part-i/">Roots' photo</a>...<u><br /></u></td></tr>
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I had wanted to stay at the <a href="http://park.hongkongdisneyland.com/hkdl/en_US/hotels/landing?name=HongKongDisneylandHotelLandingPage">Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel</a> because it is themed after the Grand Floridian in WDW. Alas, because we booked through DVC, the lottery got us into Hollywood instead. From the outside, it looks like a mini version of the Grand (minus the monorail, small houses, and DVC sections). Inside, it's also a mini version of the Grand, complete with the decorative elevator shaft in the lobby. But the artwork is much more heavily/overtly Disney themed, including a 2 story painting of Aurora's castle in the staircase leading to the conference rooms. That hotel has a Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique on the bottom floor as well as 3 restaurants: The Enchanted Garden (looks like the one aboard the Dream, same general theming outside, anyway), The Crystal Lotus (T says they're supposed to have really good dim sum - perhaps we'll try), and Walt's Cafe (not sure what the theme was here, perhaps something from Edwardian Britain, because the waitresses were all wearing aprons like Mary Poppins's). Unfortunately, all the restaurants were closing as we made our rounds, so we couldn't try any of them.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We learned a new shirt-rolling technique from Pinterest, so our clothes look so neat and tidy!</td></tr>
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Back at the Hollywood, we settled on "Cafe Mickey" take-away sandwiches from Hollywood and Dine with a Sprite and watermelon juice. Back in the room, we unpacked our bags, and settled in only to find that none of the available outlets appeared to be providing electricity. Each of the outlets available have switches to turn them on and off, but possibly because we were attempting to plug in our power strip, none of them were working (we tested with an electric kettle provided in the room). Of course, we'd just fully settled in (read: unpacked all the clean clothes), and I was 90% sure we'd need to change rooms. A quick call to the front desk sent someone in less than 5 minutes who was able to flip a switch in the closet and fix the problem! Hurrah! So now, we have power, a pot of sanitized boiled water, and neatly arranged drawers of clean clothing. T has also finished captioning all the photos on Flickr, so I think we're all caught up. It's also 2:40am, so we'd better get to sleep!<br />
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<b>Tomorrow:</b> The Big BuddhaGwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-25106364608757102452014-05-24T03:40:00.001-04:002014-05-28T22:25:02.136-04:00HK Day 2: Part 1Our first full night in Hong Kong, we slept for a solid 7 hours. We woke early to sun(!) shining into our room. Considering that we'd expected thunder showers for nearly the entire trip, the sun and even some slivers of blue sky were a welcome sight. After packing up, we headed down to the Lobby for breakfast. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The view from our room - blue sky!</td></tr>
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The buffet included a delicious variety of foods including veggie curry, sushi, seared sole and a variety of Chinese breakfast items like hot soy milk, congee and shumai. T enjoyed some of their perfectly ripe tropical fruits for both of us.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">T's breakfast</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">G's breakfast</td></tr>
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After breakfast, we showered (that's #5 since leaving DC, for folks at home keeping score) and got ready to begin our first adventure for the day. We checked out and left our luggage with the bell stand. We were also permitted to keep the big umbrella provided in our hotel room! [Hoping that carrying around an umbrella will keep the rain away.]</div>
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We found our way across the street to the MongKok metro station and bought ourselves Octopus (read: SmarTrip for DCians) cards from the very kind woman in the booth who spoke perfect English- hooray! We took the subway 5 stops to Lok Fu in search of the Kowloon Walled City Park.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5kuDU8Mvs5-t0p2zPxKYuxnDETpXjUDtaYEj1S1AW2thDRj0GYp80MfrFJtbLndDfLJ5cJui7Ecl5h8t_8hYzBgGLqhxR9AtciLY5VqKaFCvarak2t3Qf1WOHjS6_kbmd-qcWdhFaW54s/s1600/DSCN5587.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5kuDU8Mvs5-t0p2zPxKYuxnDETpXjUDtaYEj1S1AW2thDRj0GYp80MfrFJtbLndDfLJ5cJui7Ecl5h8t_8hYzBgGLqhxR9AtciLY5VqKaFCvarak2t3Qf1WOHjS6_kbmd-qcWdhFaW54s/s1600/DSCN5587.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Helpful signs above each of the doors on the train.</td></tr>
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Kowloon Walled City used to be a crazy couple blocks that somehow was left out of the Chinese lease agreement with Britain. Because it seemed to have no governing authority, it became a self-sufficient area in the middle of Hong Kong. The podcast 99% Invisible told us that the population density was equivalent to Manhattan if everyone in the state of Texas were to move there.... Run by Tongs (the Chinese mafia), the place was well known for unlicensed dentistry, live wires, and "streets" less than 3ft wide. Crazy (and dangerous!) as you might imagine, the Chinese government demolished the structure after the British lease of Hong Kong was over. Curious? Learn more about it <a href="http://projects.wsj.com/kwc/">here</a>.</div>
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We found the park about 6 blocks from the metro stop. It is now a beautiful outdoor area with playgrounds, picnic areas and green spaces for people to just enjoy the outdoors. The only remaining evidence of the walled city is a single gate which must have led into the structure.<br />
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Having found the park and taking the requisite selfie, we headed back to the Langham Place. We collected our luggage and went up to the spa where we were told we could shower and change. This was a great perk. I don't know if hotels in the States or elsewhere do this, but the gentleman told us about this possibility at check in so that we could plan! [#6]</div>
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After our refreshing pit stop, we got in a taxi bound for The Peninsula for afternoon tea! Having been a British colony for more than 100 years, Hong Kong still shows a lot of British influence ("look left" and "look right" painted on the streets for pedestrians - very helpful!). We arrived at the Pen amidst a line of cars that included 2 Maseratis and a Rolls. Looking good! Again we took advantage of the bell stand and checked our luggage to join the 2 hour queue for tea. And that's where we are now... It's been about an hour and we can now see the front of the line! We'll check in again tonight to add photos and tell you about the Disney Hollywood Hotel!<br />
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Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-90832129864480101962014-05-23T21:00:00.001-04:002014-05-28T22:25:27.201-04:00HK Day 1: Finally made it<style>
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We landed in Hong Kong in the mid-afternoon on Friday, May
23.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, we were very happy to
finally arrive after the trials and tribulations of the prior couple days (a
total of 37 hours travelling!), though Todd could have used another hour to
wrap up watching the first season of Under the Dome (oh well, we’ll save that
for the return flight; Gwen is rolling her eyes).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Getting through customs was a breeze.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One oddity that we noticed, however, is that
Hong Kong passport control doesn’t give you a stamp in your passport.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, they give you a little slip of paper
indicating how long you’re allowed to stay in the country – best not to lose
that!</div>
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As the Hong Kong airport is located on Lantau Island, we
needed to catch a bus from the airport to our hotel, the Langham Place in Mong
Kok on Kowloon peninsula.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fortunately,
while we were in Dubai, Gwen was able to correspond with the Langham Place and
let them know about our delay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we
walked up to the hotel’s desk at the airport, the folks there were expecting
us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After spending about half an hour
waiting for the bus, surrounded by hilarious Chinese tour groups wearing
matching hats or neon t-shirts, we were loaded onto a bus and got underway.
While the bus ride took us through mostly industrial areas, the bus did take us
past a few things of interest, including a gigantic shipping port and the cable
cars on Lantau Island that you can ride up to the top of a mountain for great
views and to see a large Buddha statute.</div>
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We got to the Langham Place around 5pm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The hotel reminds us somewhat of the Hotel
Akasaka Excel where we stayed in Tokyo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Like the Akasaka, the entrance on the street level leads only to an
elevator bay, which in turn takes you to the lobby one floor up. The rooms are
similar in format too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The check-in
process was quite smooth, and our bags were delivered to our room by a zealous
bell-hop who gave us an extensive tour of the amenities of the room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Very nice over all!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After washing up (very welcome after our most recent bout of
travelling), we decided to explore the area around the hotel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mong Kok and the neighborhoods directly south
along Nathan Road are extremely busy at night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We walked about 20 minutes from Mong Kok to Jordan to find the Temple
Street Night Market, a large, famous street market spanning a few blocks where
folks sell a wide variety of items.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over
all, the market was very fun to see, but we did not stop to buy anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of the items for sale were touristy
(e.g., I Heart Hong Kong t-shirts) and items started to repeat after a while
(e.g., we saw several booths selling the same jade statutes, binoculars, and so
on). </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGF70ZZ7Qgy7pE10DzL_IeN3b2z3rAfGlg08B61nuk3c65u2o2aLyk4eGc1Wpw0HXaHdjoufy2UKKgvy2-uCJvmnQ3Q_Or0qE-FE2lfJFt_tfQtn3Lnp5v8PueayhwfQnLFVnHpKnnoKcK/s1600/DSCN5574.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGF70ZZ7Qgy7pE10DzL_IeN3b2z3rAfGlg08B61nuk3c65u2o2aLyk4eGc1Wpw0HXaHdjoufy2UKKgvy2-uCJvmnQ3Q_Or0qE-FE2lfJFt_tfQtn3Lnp5v8PueayhwfQnLFVnHpKnnoKcK/s1600/DSCN5574.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gate entrance to Temple Street Market</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFf0whyphenhyphen-yJLVJp1LiLR2yeBlo7kaPjGSFqWtnemIY8UWDs3EhbGBexwp-AL2Pm0RRTj_zKG622DiWRZ81BXp8BPJ8Sl4THW1lxcmekus-rRJlSCU0pA2i3AAVglnJ9Ou18l443EKryYY5v/s1600/DSCN5573.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFf0whyphenhyphen-yJLVJp1LiLR2yeBlo7kaPjGSFqWtnemIY8UWDs3EhbGBexwp-AL2Pm0RRTj_zKG622DiWRZ81BXp8BPJ8Sl4THW1lxcmekus-rRJlSCU0pA2i3AAVglnJ9Ou18l443EKryYY5v/s1600/DSCN5573.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nathan Road</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After that, we walked back toward our hotel in search of
dinner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As mentioned, these
neighborhoods were hopping at nighttime, and most every restaurant was packed
even though it was now nearly 9:00pm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Eventually, we ended up at Langham Place Mall, a gigantic and beautiful
mall attached to our hotel, where we found a number of interesting restaurant
options, including a restaurant serving various items on toast (such as meat
floss on toast, and peanut butter toast), and a dessert restaurant focused exclusively
on mochis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We noticed that, though these
restaurants were packed, they also were machines at getting customers seated,
fed and out of their seats, and then cleaning up their tables in preparation
for the next guests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We settled on a
raman restaurant, where we enjoyed the giant steaming bowls of noodles shown
below.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So far, we haven’t had too much
luck attempting to order in English, but the point at the menu and smile method
seems to work fine!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All told, these
giant bowls together were about $20 U.S.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN2iO-bib8R7BKRhqNsHLCSYkA8Q2tkpGm86uJN95ovMqS5bSxBlUEiPiNV1NC9alrs_L1xU9ESdEn1sANiwsrybKOS7WqbRtSdWqw__ik8rksFswRTQVJVjNAp06HKRtFEf3U_8rh627_/s1600/DSCN5576.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN2iO-bib8R7BKRhqNsHLCSYkA8Q2tkpGm86uJN95ovMqS5bSxBlUEiPiNV1NC9alrs_L1xU9ESdEn1sANiwsrybKOS7WqbRtSdWqw__ik8rksFswRTQVJVjNAp06HKRtFEf3U_8rh627_/s1600/DSCN5576.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifCuDwQfzKuyFuYAa7zwRsKmyikL2tWsmh1SqSPihVLKhustPtrmlLBZ76yMqNqsn6F-tV1T0ThPtKq-p2zHyvhN8c4lkHV9EQBuSKZe4oh1eVpB7usMMkO2KmO7i-7iIrbl0SGkCXRPcZ/s1600/DSCN5579.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifCuDwQfzKuyFuYAa7zwRsKmyikL2tWsmh1SqSPihVLKhustPtrmlLBZ76yMqNqsn6F-tV1T0ThPtKq-p2zHyvhN8c4lkHV9EQBuSKZe4oh1eVpB7usMMkO2KmO7i-7iIrbl0SGkCXRPcZ/s1600/DSCN5579.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well-fed and ready for sleep, we ambled back to our hotel
through the walk bridge connecting to the mall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Gwen cranked out yesterday’s blog post before she conked out (Todd was
already asleep).</div>
Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-73047189953604633022014-05-23T12:01:00.004-04:002014-05-28T22:25:51.213-04:00HK day 0.5: Where were we?So, there we were in Dubai, hotel voucher in hand, wandering through the expansive airport trying to figure out what time and day it was and what time and day our bodies thought it was. [It was 1000 on Thursday 22 May, but our bodies thought it was 0200 on Thursday.]<br />
<br />
Dubai's airport is enormous and beautiful. The whole place is like a
marble palace inside, and very, very quiet. We did manage to wander our
way to the proper desk to hand someone our voucher. The nice man told
us a shuttle would arrive for us shortly to take us to the hotel, where
we should show our voucher again to get our room and credit for a 3
minute international phone call. Kind of sounds like jail? As John
Mulaney would say, "ooooookay." So we waited, and the shuttle arrived
and drove us to the hotel. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPD7PFJShsxgeA8jQS6xqz9gfbbbj6ktwK0kXQLc_vfu2i-kV3iSfYlZr1qvp3ZhHC_waiohjddjcksOZP7Uy8il2oCrM8nTWiYcq12kcSPBGHgWsVH8JozcB4gKKmQ1SeDPFSaOLr2Z4-/s1600/2014-05-22+01.41.27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPD7PFJShsxgeA8jQS6xqz9gfbbbj6ktwK0kXQLc_vfu2i-kV3iSfYlZr1qvp3ZhHC_waiohjddjcksOZP7Uy8il2oCrM8nTWiYcq12kcSPBGHgWsVH8JozcB4gKKmQ1SeDPFSaOLr2Z4-/s1600/2014-05-22+01.41.27.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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I'm not sure what the technical differences between a hotel and a motel are, but this one was a shack-y hotel at best. I gave it 2 stars. It was clearly a dumping place for all cattle class passengers of Emirates flights, as all the staff were prepared for our situation. They even had a person handing out flyers for 2 hour tours of Dubai, leaving every other hour (not a bad idea, really). We checked in at 1050, I know, because the breakfast buffet was closing in 10 minutes. We took our newly procured vouchers to the dining hall style buffet area and enjoyed a slightly better breakfast than what we'd had on the plane. Ten minutes later, we asked about getting wifi, and traded our 3 minute phone call for 24 hours of wifi (for 2 devices, even!).</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGUvq93PEGHmKSfxSnvXJFn6x4vLgyglkQcciBZi8pcFPoLPWMLZPgTzCHn8z3E-BFouFl_RA2oGuHRYX6t8u9CoJ54FrAbQV58NaV0MXSHHjud_JPvjprbi6EOJ4JUTU6LxLuc853zsFz/s1600/DSCN5561.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGUvq93PEGHmKSfxSnvXJFn6x4vLgyglkQcciBZi8pcFPoLPWMLZPgTzCHn8z3E-BFouFl_RA2oGuHRYX6t8u9CoJ54FrAbQV58NaV0MXSHHjud_JPvjprbi6EOJ4JUTU6LxLuc853zsFz/s1600/DSCN5561.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ok, ok so apparently they got 3 stars from somebody</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe0T2ImXOAQcDtSHCazqG3CVPxUwnLeId8U987ageok9f_qwo45sdzzIbmbojTn6Ds4IknqXed-FkAou6298LN-nfgwEjOf4K5ktDDhrQB-dDEUt8NO6h5e6PQMvOdMdD060zhvkZxm0wc/s1600/DSCN5572.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
Our room was... minimalist 80s style, containing 2 slightly larger than twin beds (apparently, they weren't sure if we were a couple or not). Contrary to what our Emirates greeter had told us about the hotel providing all the "hygiene products we might need, like towels and toothbrushes," there were exactly 4 towels, one of which was a bath mat, and 2 shower caps. No soap, let alone toothbrushes. And, because we'd checked our 12kg small suitcase, we didn't have any of the "just in case" things I always pack, and so infrequently need. We both wanted a shower, but that wasn't going to be too useful without soap of any kind, nor clean clothes to put on afterwards. Plus, given 13 hours to hang out in Dubai, we didn't think we should sit in our hotel/motel room. But, it was 95F+ outside.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe0T2ImXOAQcDtSHCazqG3CVPxUwnLeId8U987ageok9f_qwo45sdzzIbmbojTn6Ds4IknqXed-FkAou6298LN-nfgwEjOf4K5ktDDhrQB-dDEUt8NO6h5e6PQMvOdMdD060zhvkZxm0wc/s1600/DSCN5572.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe0T2ImXOAQcDtSHCazqG3CVPxUwnLeId8U987ageok9f_qwo45sdzzIbmbojTn6Ds4IknqXed-FkAou6298LN-nfgwEjOf4K5ktDDhrQB-dDEUt8NO6h5e6PQMvOdMdD060zhvkZxm0wc/s1600/DSCN5572.JPG" height="240" width="320" /> </a></div>
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Cleverly, we rallied our thinking powers and asked the Google what was nearby. Google's response: <a href="http://www.thedubaimall.com/en/Index.aspx">The Dubai Mall</a>, one of the world's largest shopping malls. The fourth person we asked in the lobby told us it would cost 50 dirham(s?) to get a taxi to the mall. The man in the business center (which was a corner of the cafe) who also handled currency exchange could not exchange our HKD for AED (dirhams), so we found our way across the atrium (which had a beautiful pool... too bad we didn't have bathing suits!) to find an ATM.<br />
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About an hour later, we walked into The Dubai Mall and were greeted by glorious air conditioning (yet not too cold!) and a dinosaur skeleton. Apparently, the <a href="http://www.thedubaimall.com/en/Entertain/The-Dubai-Mall-Dinosaur.aspx">diplodocidus</a> was found in 2008 in the US and brought to be displayed in Dubai. We decided to set ourselves the goal of finding soap, shampoo, and clean socks and underwear at the very least.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-2U_Rq1Y2CISQiJ0CURw9SUWYL3vAP1upAaeOeVuQmYf0VE0ARd7TDaFjUSMRM2Sq6OfqTctUGouyb6N4PrFvX0MyRNaOsGTcDd5U_0KYynynNDJk01XRyEA7t4GY6L6lo2BkbyAxvNGY/s1600/DSCN5565.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-2U_Rq1Y2CISQiJ0CURw9SUWYL3vAP1upAaeOeVuQmYf0VE0ARd7TDaFjUSMRM2Sq6OfqTctUGouyb6N4PrFvX0MyRNaOsGTcDd5U_0KYynynNDJk01XRyEA7t4GY6L6lo2BkbyAxvNGY/s1600/DSCN5565.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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Four hours later, more tired than we realized, we'd each procured new outfits (including the aforementioned socks and underwear), a bottle of baby shampoo, and 2 little, plastic travel bottles. In search of a taxi stand, we were approached by a man asking if we needed a taxi. Oh, how perfect - yes! we do need a taxi. Please take us to our hotel. 45 minutes and 4 obvious u-turns later, we were at the hotel with the "cabbie" charging us 170AED. T pushed back, but I was tired and got out to go exchange more money. Walking into the hotel, the guy who got us the first taxi asked how it went and I quickly explained I needed more cash as I walked by him into the business center. One of the bell boys followed and asked what was going on, so I explained. He thought the cabbie's behaviour was outrageous and told me to go back out and ask for a bill or receipt or something to stall while he went to get a security person. After stalling for about 2 minutes, during which the fare went down to 120AED, the bell boy came out himself, apparently unable to find back up and spoke to the driver for us. So, lesson learned - even 3 star hotel/motels can have pluses.<br />
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Following this ridiculousness, we finally got our glorious shower with all purpose baby shampoo and a much needed 4 hour nap.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS-WksujPZhhqbV3g4EGXKFkYCFPL2b152gYxQN2H0wk1UeUmWiMxxujQu2tFr4W2U0LyZ4OW1Deig46JG2Bg4Op4jdPur2yiqBKU-TDgxCU58rkMl2inOlxZzsa8mJ9G4pTty0P7b4oaK/s1600/2014-05-22+13.40.34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS-WksujPZhhqbV3g4EGXKFkYCFPL2b152gYxQN2H0wk1UeUmWiMxxujQu2tFr4W2U0LyZ4OW1Deig46JG2Bg4Op4jdPur2yiqBKU-TDgxCU58rkMl2inOlxZzsa8mJ9G4pTty0P7b4oaK/s1600/2014-05-22+13.40.34.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiudaLPTPbrMNKXqgXr9Uves4VHQ6p2ya01GcQy1tuf929aDZFoyu-FRmcPCaS68Mx9rWs29DkkID7xceftUlpoZbdzLKfApmu6xEonpH4l0fzdQBlk2utDSiM55h3GZ863wmPmXmBk3cmA/s1600/2014-05-22+13.41.27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiudaLPTPbrMNKXqgXr9Uves4VHQ6p2ya01GcQy1tuf929aDZFoyu-FRmcPCaS68Mx9rWs29DkkID7xceftUlpoZbdzLKfApmu6xEonpH4l0fzdQBlk2utDSiM55h3GZ863wmPmXmBk3cmA/s1600/2014-05-22+13.41.27.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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We woke up in time to use our vouchers at the dinner buffet. It was a very tasty buffet, with a good effort at pleasing as many people as possible. As we ate, we observed our fellow diners. Of particular interest was an older gentleman, sitting alone. Shortly after he sat down, a woman asked to sit with him, clearly a stranger. He accepted and the two had a nice conversation getting to know each other. [We weren't intentionally eavesdropping at first, the woman was speaking loudly so the man could hear her.] As we were finishing up, the old man's grandson appeared and the three of them had dessert together. It was such a nice thing to see how kind these perfect strangers were to one another.<br />
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After finishing our own dessert, T and I decided to head to the airport early. Our flight wasn't until 0330, but we weren't interested in hanging out in our hotel room. So we turned in our key and were told to have a seat for 10 minutes until someone came to tell us the shuttle to the airport had arrived. After about 20 minutes, we decided nobody was going to tell us anything, so we went outside. A shuttle had just arrived with a new load of displaced passengers, but we were told this one would be leaving empty, a shuttle bound for the airport would arrive in 10 minutes, please have a seat and wait. Not willing to do that again, we waited outside, and amazingly enough, about 15 minutes later, a shuttle did arrive and took us to the airport.<br />
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Once at the airport, we breezed through security - only had to remove my laptop from my bag, but we got to keep our clothing on. We headed straight for the Marhaba Business Class Lounge and used our Lounge Club passes (courtesy of Chase) to enjoy the next 3 hours in relative quiet, with unlimited tea, a selection of dinner-esque foods and accompaniments and free wifi.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpKHEj-2PLnIi_7PJG77AALQskjjNHyTxfHrf7hyphenhyphenF_xPMjUsyf9BEoT9TDOyd6pw5lsFLIy9yRuMTMw5wYFWN_T5EuCLXlYURlRkWYDKXXYzUkJG3P08siI7UlC4Tf9V7z9TaoPsndvIIS/s1600/2014-05-23+00.14.38-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpKHEj-2PLnIi_7PJG77AALQskjjNHyTxfHrf7hyphenhyphenF_xPMjUsyf9BEoT9TDOyd6pw5lsFLIy9yRuMTMw5wYFWN_T5EuCLXlYURlRkWYDKXXYzUkJG3P08siI7UlC4Tf9V7z9TaoPsndvIIS/s1600/2014-05-23+00.14.38-2.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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Our second flight was closer to our expectations of what an Emirates flight would be like. Aboard one of their newest Airbus A380s, just the fact that everything was cleaner, newer, and shinier helped the situation. Also, there seemed to be only one child and she was sitting far enough away from us (or was well behaved enough) that we didn't hear her until we landed - making exclamations of excitement whilst returning to her seat from the lavatory. [Side note: why are all airplane bathrooms called lavatories?] The food was better this time around, though we didn't get two full meals, but instead had a "light bite" snack of a sandwich and blackberry muffin and breakfast. Everyone had the same light bite, but the breakfast options were cheese omelet or chicken congee. T had the omelet, I had the congee. We were both pleased with our choices.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinZNNugX31ScSnzk9CucM2A7gpEB5OzQ3FcPBdQX1WUxA6X9I6VN9_ZqFoqiu-Z01qpnluLdgmH-jG4KFm7DQLX7ft81STf5nkcVq0-izvypHsR6ljQEFTeFs4ArLFVxc93YfupjPYMBko/s1600/2014-05-23+08.56.24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinZNNugX31ScSnzk9CucM2A7gpEB5OzQ3FcPBdQX1WUxA6X9I6VN9_ZqFoqiu-Z01qpnluLdgmH-jG4KFm7DQLX7ft81STf5nkcVq0-izvypHsR6ljQEFTeFs4ArLFVxc93YfupjPYMBko/s1600/2014-05-23+08.56.24.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Being about half the length of our first flight helped a lot, too. We still didn't sleep much, maybe an hour total, because we still didn't know what time our bodies thought it should be. The night-day effects are pretty convincing!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJFMnVC-FZ_4q7MrCBchmByDWZ2ibzN0uVN_L4PYww8dPMcX10V8JlMtcYbts1zQqc7PQcYL0Wt5R3nGsb8XNKfYDOhWGpaaYjlJTeHCCu0r8wKL3uwZDX-js12ckapUJNzYrb4eglatHz/s1600/2014-05-23+02.54.39.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJFMnVC-FZ_4q7MrCBchmByDWZ2ibzN0uVN_L4PYww8dPMcX10V8JlMtcYbts1zQqc7PQcYL0Wt5R3nGsb8XNKfYDOhWGpaaYjlJTeHCCu0r8wKL3uwZDX-js12ckapUJNzYrb4eglatHz/s1600/2014-05-23+02.54.39.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZHZMBN17_3HBvzE80QPnwCC9cTYJ8lBg4Tlrq-BTF3Svc4LyX7bceTUB3aOkeRqQHMXStLA7rqllUjVyLc-iyykIS7TzQXJ8u-VvvKYJBQCfrBwrY9eI8nbGeZ68RnDQe2fgwF9-EFZCl/s1600/2014-05-23+05.08.54.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZHZMBN17_3HBvzE80QPnwCC9cTYJ8lBg4Tlrq-BTF3Svc4LyX7bceTUB3aOkeRqQHMXStLA7rqllUjVyLc-iyykIS7TzQXJ8u-VvvKYJBQCfrBwrY9eI8nbGeZ68RnDQe2fgwF9-EFZCl/s1600/2014-05-23+05.08.54.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Upon arrival in HKG, passport control was quite speedy, and we made our way to baggage claim. To our pleasant surprise, both our bags turned up! The little one (new for this trip) arrived looking about 5 years old, but they were both there, intact and that's all that really matters! Finding the greeting desk for the Langham Place was pretty simple also, just following the signs. We waited perhaps another half hour for our shuttle, having just missed the previous one, and were ready to start our Hong Kong adventure!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx-4iIVWOP6_EonuABv5xebFxAakYbztPHVeGdikbHlWFZ74t2O_dgtUuielvH4rNDXFZUb2mD2C_Q4oFyE0FKKAs0VKRfAJK0TPmv-6nl5bDz7jxEWOSoT4uihsdMqdtzFCLZ0yvY99Pm/s1600/2014-05-23+16.36.34-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx-4iIVWOP6_EonuABv5xebFxAakYbztPHVeGdikbHlWFZ74t2O_dgtUuielvH4rNDXFZUb2mD2C_Q4oFyE0FKKAs0VKRfAJK0TPmv-6nl5bDz7jxEWOSoT4uihsdMqdtzFCLZ0yvY99Pm/s1600/2014-05-23+16.36.34-1.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>Next time: </b>First foray into Hong Kong!Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-57134343599804788462014-05-22T18:20:00.004-04:002014-05-28T22:26:01.289-04:00HK Day 0: Hello from one of the safest cities on the planet!<style>
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</style><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Yep, we're in
Dubai, but we’re heading to Hong Kong. [According to <a href="http://www.expatarrivals.com/dubai/safety-in-dubai">expatarrivals.com</a>,
the laws here are so strict, there is very little crime; 0% according to <a href="http://www.thecrazyfacts.com/10-interesting-facts-dubai/">thecrazyfacts.com.</a>] </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Courtesy of Mom's
Car Service (includes semi-hot breakfast, but non-partially drunk drinks are
extra), T and I arrived at Dulles around 0930 (that's am) on Wednesday (we
think that was... yesterday). After taking a minute to locate the
Emirates check-in desk (at the back of the "regular" airline desks),
we were somewhat displeased to see that every human in the airport was
attempting to check in for our flight. Not only was everyone trying to
check in for our flight, but they were also each attempting to bring every item
they have ever encountered in life, packaged in individual plastic grocery
bags, haphazardly packed into enormous duffel bags. Surprisingly, each
bag was overweight by 800kilos and thus incurred overweight baggage fees, which
also surprisingly, nobody felt they should have to pay. EDIT to add: I had read the baggage rules which allow one carry-on per person, so we packed one large suitcase to check and one small suitcase to be T's carry-on. Unfortunately, I didn't read the weight limit on the carry-ons: 7kg. So when we got up to the check-in counter, the woman told us we'd have to check both. I quickly removed a bag of toiletries and Todd's messenger bag from the small suitcase, figuring that's all we'd need on the plane...</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Having survived
the check-in process (mental note: next time, check-in online, 48hrs in
advance), we breezed through security, without having to remove any of our
clothing or items from our bags (!) and made our way to the gate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amazingly, we got there with about 10 minutes
to spare, which was good because again, we rejoined every other human in the
airport in the queue to board.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We filled
our water bottle at this clever station, and made our way on board.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7b1SgzpGaw5pInvgDDookOkKQjVk-q1xmkeOqCq3AuhlH5QgjCsB_I__uQsLPn3EuJ9ZTHItOYoknJkFPebFxvsoCOvhqcnOZquhmUm4YUTbYTd5jUQjq0E0_21-taJLU33GVHwkoTcdA/s1600/IMG_3929.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7b1SgzpGaw5pInvgDDookOkKQjVk-q1xmkeOqCq3AuhlH5QgjCsB_I__uQsLPn3EuJ9ZTHItOYoknJkFPebFxvsoCOvhqcnOZquhmUm4YUTbYTd5jUQjq0E0_21-taJLU33GVHwkoTcdA/s1600/IMG_3929.JPG" height="320" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Once on board, we
were pleased to find our seats, nearly on the tail of the plane, next to a very
small (adult) girl who took up almost half her seat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No getting squished in the middle –
hooray!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plus, the personal space was
perhaps 6 square inches larger than on other airlines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Soon after, the pilot told us that the
baggage transport belt was broken (too many overweight bags??) and needed
possibly 30 minutes to be fixed, so if we wanted to get off now, we could.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apparently there’s a law saying that if
passengers are trapped on a plane for more than 30 minutes, the airline has to
offer to let them not fly that day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is
this for people who are scared and feel like take-off delays are bad
omens?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyway, we managed to get
underway about 45 minutes later, not bad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We enjoyed a nice hot towel just before take off along with a menu
detailing the delicious culinary choices for our 13hr journey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Getting excited for our adventure yet??</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj92s_GgTg9DJTGOiZz4aojRPpD3lOW5KEc7_cITShRdXlMMdYs68PbPCV271mh1iTMbwUsUil2q93I73pWwp3D17X3e7msFMCnEdaA1GaX12piG0LCYry-AQIW3fNNSXMDKP9DI24CP4ho/s1600/IMG_3932.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj92s_GgTg9DJTGOiZz4aojRPpD3lOW5KEc7_cITShRdXlMMdYs68PbPCV271mh1iTMbwUsUil2q93I73pWwp3D17X3e7msFMCnEdaA1GaX12piG0LCYry-AQIW3fNNSXMDKP9DI24CP4ho/s1600/IMG_3932.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisKyIJw_pOmCyFapgopuuigveEbmOHDqJyTdojPaP5au3PsgaGc0h9QAU_yX0qN8QBohqZwcePE-5-qeTPIl6QYaIuMJFJ3d4fW3zS4UjW7vbjLVRsG6Qw2kW6UEgjvjFmhgAtkicUlcdh/s1600/IMG_3933.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisKyIJw_pOmCyFapgopuuigveEbmOHDqJyTdojPaP5au3PsgaGc0h9QAU_yX0qN8QBohqZwcePE-5-qeTPIl6QYaIuMJFJ3d4fW3zS4UjW7vbjLVRsG6Qw2kW6UEgjvjFmhgAtkicUlcdh/s1600/IMG_3933.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The clever
day-night-day transitions, as on many long-haul flights were supported by a
starry night sky effect with tiny fairy lights on the ceiling and sunset and
sunrise lights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Around Sunset, we were
served our first meal, called lunch on the menu, but dinner by the cart labels
and flight staff – at least we weren’t the only ones confused about time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I enjoyed a vegetarian, Indian/North African
meal of Dhal and some kind of mushroom masala – delicious!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>T was hoping for the garden herbed chicken,
but being amongst the lowliest of travellers, they were out by the time they
reached us, so he had the lamb instead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He says it was very good.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiVQNAhKVpajzoAQ8ppLZ7XE28ciCjGFSX0D1TPjdkBcRsA4_wPEowM6uEiMWr5VtNktn62-fl8wxaiOoV6fCR8J35RLYQFrWi8E491fwd91QVPoDCIYDyFEKf12ME8JkXedKf14obSQB2/s1600/IMG_3937.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiVQNAhKVpajzoAQ8ppLZ7XE28ciCjGFSX0D1TPjdkBcRsA4_wPEowM6uEiMWr5VtNktn62-fl8wxaiOoV6fCR8J35RLYQFrWi8E491fwd91QVPoDCIYDyFEKf12ME8JkXedKf14obSQB2/s1600/IMG_3937.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD0kuwpA4cUeZhefYdLujRcGwiWkpZ5kYSxiILCz20nRkLHatc3A2fdDCK__HxLYxBObMEtY-0RzJaHUth3C1sel2xCqtpPteSrSwAF_uCffKBoW0On7BWYvAm7latwA47sJafi4hIlVCW/s1600/IMG_3936.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD0kuwpA4cUeZhefYdLujRcGwiWkpZ5kYSxiILCz20nRkLHatc3A2fdDCK__HxLYxBObMEtY-0RzJaHUth3C1sel2xCqtpPteSrSwAF_uCffKBoW0On7BWYvAm7latwA47sJafi4hIlVCW/s1600/IMG_3936.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The plan was to
sleep as much as possible on this first flight so that we could stay up for the
second, 7hr flight to be on track for Hong Kong time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, the 3-year-old boy sitting
behind us with the Worst Mother on the Planet (WMP) had other plans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was whining, fake crying,
semi-screaming and WMP’s exclamations about Dora every 3 minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of sleeping, T and I occupied
ourselves and plugged our ears by enjoying some of the vast collection of tv
shows and movies on board.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the middle
of the “night” we were served individual pizzas, which were actually really
delicious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plus, once an hour or so, the
flight staff came by with trays of juice and water cups to keep us hydrated and
going to the bathroom to stretch our legs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>[Note: except for tiny girl sitting next to me – who ate almost nothing
and didn’t get up once!]</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
By Sunrise, we were starting to feel the time… 0200 to us by
then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> But, the smells of breakfast plus
the sunrise lights were keeping us going.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Somehow, the people 2 rows ahead of us were served breakfast almost and
hour before us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the time we were
served, we were only an hour from Dubai.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Of course, by then, none of the regular breakfast options were
available, so we were offered either the children’s meal (pancakes) or the
Indian vegetarian meal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luckily, the
extras included fresh fruit salad and croissants, so we didn’t go completely
hungry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, T got the vegetarian meal,
which he says was good.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoIzDvHvREbOV6O5AqYpFgHOcdEFgbjxF_jqMvnz4NQA81rUlNn95xzYXwmSzzRAenvKvJYkfYtZL_26RZOlv-ftxM4d7TLKrbb4DEH8Y_D8hrs9s28xCgpEUIzytybTtHAtSuaiequCAT/s1600/IMG_3943.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoIzDvHvREbOV6O5AqYpFgHOcdEFgbjxF_jqMvnz4NQA81rUlNn95xzYXwmSzzRAenvKvJYkfYtZL_26RZOlv-ftxM4d7TLKrbb4DEH8Y_D8hrs9s28xCgpEUIzytybTtHAtSuaiequCAT/s1600/IMG_3943.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The deplaning process was surprisingly speedy with all the
people on board.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-size: small;"> T and I were met at the
end of the sky bridge by an Emirates ground staffer who informed us that there
was no way we could make our connection, so she had vouchers for us to be taken
to a nearby hotel, including meal vouchers.
Kind of stunned and more tired than we realized at the time, we barely
grasped what she said and ended up having to run to catch her up 5 minutes
later to ask her to tell us basically everything again. With better comprehension (I’d say 80%) the
second time around, we walked away and figured out that it was 1000 here in Dubai,
and Thursday.</span>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Next time:</b> 17 hours in Dubai, 4 hours’ sleep!</span></span></div>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-10402845124454087902014-03-28T19:19:00.001-04:002014-03-28T19:21:35.642-04:00Pinterest hackEven though my posting is still sporadic, there's a lot going on here behind the screen. Hopefully, I will have something to post about soon, though!<br />
<br />
In the meantime, I have a Pinterest hack for everyone. It's actually pretty basic, but somehow I hadn't thought of it before, so maybe there is one other human out there who also hasn't thought of it (meaning I'm not the last).<br />
<br />
<b>Problem:</b><br />
You found an awesome site, full of useful information. You want to pin
it to your "Good to Know" board on Pinterest. There are no detectable
images.<b> </b>Now you are sad.<b></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oe1OiEcCoTI/UzYAY1kiBDI/AAAAAAAAEfw/_tLe7XorS0U/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-03-28+at+7.05.25+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oe1OiEcCoTI/UzYAY1kiBDI/AAAAAAAAEfw/_tLe7XorS0U/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-03-28+at+7.05.25+PM.png" height="304" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>Solution!:</b><br />
Go to Google. Search for an image that generally represents the page/information you wish to pin.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-itinGOBqhr8/UzYBIxd0pnI/AAAAAAAAEf4/yY00eQ0_ijk/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-03-28+at+7.08.27+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-itinGOBqhr8/UzYBIxd0pnI/AAAAAAAAEf4/yY00eQ0_ijk/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-03-28+at+7.08.27+PM.png" height="132" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Click the "View Image" button. Pin that.<br />
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Go to Pinterest and click the little pencil icon to modify your pin. See it? Down in the bottom right corner.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y8lWZ6kWtAQ/UzYC4gaOOmI/AAAAAAAAEgQ/z_TDtuKekho/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-03-28+at+7.15.40+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y8lWZ6kWtAQ/UzYC4gaOOmI/AAAAAAAAEgQ/z_TDtuKekho/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-03-28+at+7.15.40+PM.png" height="157" width="320" /></a></div>
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DONE! Now you have a pin that goes where you want, but shows you something to remind you more accurately of the information to which it leads!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-USS9yXmqIzg/UzYDJwSqrcI/AAAAAAAAEgY/tmzyH-Tertk/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-03-28+at+7.17.09+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-USS9yXmqIzg/UzYDJwSqrcI/AAAAAAAAEgY/tmzyH-Tertk/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-03-28+at+7.17.09+PM.png" height="196" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See the differences between this image and the one above? Found on rabbitnetwork.org NOT adorablerabbits.co.uk!</td></tr>
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<br />Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-2804774037737385242014-03-10T17:09:00.000-04:002014-03-10T17:09:00.540-04:00New projectsIt's been a long time since I posted last. Partially it was because I was getting annoyed with all the spam comments I was getting (sometimes 10/day!) and partially it was because we've been so busy! Here's a quick rundown of updates:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>We bought a house! We closed at the end of September and painted through October. It's a great house, in a great location and we're so glad that we held out, even though our journey seemed long at times.</li>
<li>Now that we have our house, it's a great excuse to have friends over and our social life has really come into bloom. We've enjoyed fun-filled weekends with family and friends ever since we got the majority of our furniture moved in.</li>
<li>Furnishing a home is a big project! It has taken longer than we thought it would, but along the way, we've learned a lot about our style and what we really care about; as we did with the house-buying process. It's been a lot of fun!</li>
<li>We are finally having a housewarming party! It's coming up this weekend, and we're so excited to be able to have people over to see what we've done with the place.</li>
<li>I'm working on my thesis plus two internships - which take up more than all of my time! All three activities are great, but it does take some serious time management, leaving little time for blogging...</li>
</ol>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP7nIqxMDrr9cVdUmvHss4BjZDf5HJFrY2RiOje27uYqDVGrnb0uF79Ft2uV4MFIlqqqZIWR9e_6AzX17LOUHJSV34p2fxWn8xbn7MOWMXmTjrE7iHED0Vhpf2orkQ0dzt1hiIlHuAKO-O/s1600/2014-03-06+19.14.14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP7nIqxMDrr9cVdUmvHss4BjZDf5HJFrY2RiOje27uYqDVGrnb0uF79Ft2uV4MFIlqqqZIWR9e_6AzX17LOUHJSV34p2fxWn8xbn7MOWMXmTjrE7iHED0Vhpf2orkQ0dzt1hiIlHuAKO-O/s1600/2014-03-06+19.14.14.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/211716286/Daily-Quarter-Pages?secret_password=1vleyw75rtxudn0i6eu1" target="_blank">Download</a> Quarter Page Goal Worksheets (prints 4 on a letter page)</td></tr>
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<br />
Speaking of time management, that's part of my post for today - I'm here to share a little daily goal sheet I made up for myself. I've decided to go back to using a little paper planner. I found that there is an amazing online community of people who use Filofaxes and similar paper planners. I used to do that in high school and while it would be super fun to go back to that, I also like the idea of having smaller little planners that fit in more modestly sized purses. So, of course, I'm making my own Faux-lofaxes, as I'm calling them. Part of the organization plan involves these little quarter page worksheets where I can write down my goals and such for the day. So far, I think it's been pretty helpful!Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-63651513012864130902013-07-30T12:02:00.000-04:002013-07-30T12:02:05.854-04:00The quest for home<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji8N0cy7sK2QM9H3wmDzG6jnoMJz2_HGWz_-iDOX7KZFsWJ4gN5wSSYp02fZfKMne7wo1VFavn3U74BQ1AJJKnFpzB427Pmnv3k52VPsT4dpQqe0L6r5DXPMvFr6Iao35u51Lm_hoseoDh/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-07-24+at+12.49.35+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji8N0cy7sK2QM9H3wmDzG6jnoMJz2_HGWz_-iDOX7KZFsWJ4gN5wSSYp02fZfKMne7wo1VFavn3U74BQ1AJJKnFpzB427Pmnv3k52VPsT4dpQqe0L6r5DXPMvFr6Iao35u51Lm_hoseoDh/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-07-24+at+12.49.35+PM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dream house</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
For about 6 months now, T and I have been looking for a house to call home. We've seen quite a few houses now and I think we finally really know what we need and what we want. It took me a little longer to come to terms with what we can get for what we want to give (price for amount of house), but we're finally on the same page. We both want a home (a lot), but we're also both understanding about what we can realistically get and what we need. We are also not willing to give up the search early just to get a house. We want a home, not just a house. Anyway, to help us with our quest, I've come up with a little grade sheet that we'll be able to use when we visit potential homes.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Nhz7CxyOz7kZ4Kp8i9VNCt1lzHzo35HH2-QS-WtOGftpjrpykF9c8tjEXSWip7dLNFkn2lwwDwdNVPJqoUp5f_Y8-YPFYmQvTw6U7FNXjSSatoCLGU5oYXjUyL6o_zqZgxV5-Sf4WlN-/s1600/Home+Report+Card.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Nhz7CxyOz7kZ4Kp8i9VNCt1lzHzo35HH2-QS-WtOGftpjrpykF9c8tjEXSWip7dLNFkn2lwwDwdNVPJqoUp5f_Y8-YPFYmQvTw6U7FNXjSSatoCLGU5oYXjUyL6o_zqZgxV5-Sf4WlN-/s320/Home+Report+Card.jpg" width="247" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5bAvmodj_HeSDZLcGZWeEstRXc/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Click to download</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-61876080668971183622013-06-06T12:15:00.001-04:002013-06-06T12:15:27.536-04:00Day 3: La Spezia: Pisa<p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="s3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">5 June 2013</span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><br></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3">After yesterday’s high-intensity day of sightseeing in Nice and Monaco, we decided to take things a bit easier today. We previously had signed up for </span><span class="s3">a</span><span class="s3"> 11.5 hour day </span><span class="s3">consisting of guided tours of Florence and Pisa starting at 7:45 a.m., but instead switched to a 5.0 hour visit to only Pisa leaving at 8:30 a.m. The extra 45 minutes in the morning was a big improvement, allowing us to enjoy a nice breakfast in the Parrot Cay restaurant before taking off.</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3">The bus ride to Pisa through the Tuscan countryside was beautiful, with numerous views of mountains, farms, and pine trees. However, still recovering from the day before, we slept through most of the ride! Pisa itself is a fairly small, attractive city where nearly all of the buildings are old Tuscan architecture (colorful facades and shutters). After arriving at Pisa, we were loaded onto a little train (or “</span><span class="s3">tschoof</span><span class="s3"> </span><span class="s3">tschoof</span><span class="s3">”), really a tram that shuttled us to the old city. High walls surround the old city, and located in the middle is a square where the leaning tower stands, along with the cathedral and separate baptistery. All of these buildings are quite beautiful and elaborate – the facades are covered with intricate carvings and other details. </span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="s3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Some interesting facts we learned about the leaning tower of Pisa: </span></p><div class="s5" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 36px; "><div class="s4" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; position: absolute; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">1.</span></div><span class="s3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The leaning tower is really just the bell tower for the cathedral, so while it is the most famous of the buildings today, it was much less important in prior centuries.</span></div><div class="s5" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 36px; "><div class="s6" style="text-indent: 0px;margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; position: absolute; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">2.</span></div><span class="s2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The leaning tower is not the only leaning building in Pisa. The cathedral and baptistery, as well as several other buildings we noted, also are leaning (though not to such an impressive extent). The buildings lean because, when they were built long ago, Pisa used to be located by the sea where all of the soil was quite soft, resulting in numerous leaning buildings.</span></div><div class="s5" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 36px; "><div class="s6" style="text-indent: 0px;margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; position: absolute; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">3.</span></div><span class="s2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The square served all religious needs from life until death, starting with the baptistery, then to the cathedral, then to the hospital on one side, and finally to the above-ground graveyard on the other side.</span></div><div class="s5" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 36px; "><div class="s6" style="text-indent: 0px;margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; position: absolute; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">4.</span></div><span class="s2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Lots of stories about Galileo we previously learned by watching Empires: The Medici before coming here.</span></div><p class="s7" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s2">After listening to our local tour guide “explain you everything” about the tower and other buildings (in great detail), we wandered around the nearby shops and restaurants. Unfortunately, most of the shops were tourist-oriented (selling little leaning tower statutes) or local-resident oriented (selling batteries and wrenches), rather than the types of shops we might be interested in. Another downside of Pisa – there </span><span class="s2">were</span><span class="s2">numerous highly aggressive vendors wandering the streets attempting to cajole people into buying watches, umbrellas, jewelry and other stuff. Perhaps we are hardened by living in the DC area, but we were way better at giving off the “back the heck off” vibe needed to deter the vendors from bothering us. Other tourists got repeatedly and aggressively bothered though.</span></span></p><p class="s7" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s2">After returning to the ship from Pisa, we ordered room service and took a break while Gwen struggled with her hair </span><span class="s2">(if not mentioned already, Gwen got a terrible haircut before the trip that makes it virtually impossible to put up her hair). After feeding, we set out for La Spezia, the town where our ship had made port. We had good shopping success here, bringing back a nice bottle of wine to share with our dinner friends, green pants for Gwen (who has been searching for them for a while), and some other souvenirs.</span></span></p><p class="s7" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 18px; "><span class="s2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We got back from La Spezia in time to change, start a couple loads of laundry in the machines on our deck, and get to dinner. As usual, dinner was lots of fun, as our dinner friends this time around are very easy to talk to.</span></p><p class="s7" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 18px; "><span class="s2"></span></p><p class="s7" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 18px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s2">Last for the day, we finished up ou</span><a name="_GoBack"></a><span class="s2">r laundry, which took a while due to a backlog of people looking to use the dryers, and got ready for a busy day in Rome tomorrow.</span></span></p><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); "><span class="s2"><br></span></div><p></p>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-22475674859522161842013-06-06T12:13:00.001-04:002013-06-06T12:15:39.521-04:00Villefranche : Nice and Monaco<p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s2">3 June 2013</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s2"><br></span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s2">After relaxing yesterday, today was practically work! Our Port Adventure into Nice met at 7:30am, so we were up at 6:30, thanks to early morning room service breakfast. </span><span class="s2">Villefranche</span><span class="s2"> does not have a place where cruise ships can dock, so we had to take tender boats from the ship to shore. Once ashore, we were met by a guide who led us to a queue of busses waiting to take each group on their adventures. We got a bit of a late start because of some trouble with one of the tenders, so our time in Nice was cut a bit short. Luckily, T and I had visited Nice on our honeymoon, so this wasn’t too much of a disappointment. Also, in place of the flower show and market that is usually in the central area, Monday is antique market day in Nice! We used our hour of free time to peruse the market’s wares. Ranging from old, but still functioning sewing machines and typewriters to furniture to clothing, the market was a feast for the eyes. We took lots of photos, but only bought a few decorative wooden buttons. Before boarding the bus, we decided to buy one of our </span><span class="s2">favourite</span><span class="s2"> foods in France, a mini baguette sandwich slathered in butter, this time with salami and cornichon pickles!</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s2">Next up was Monaco, the second smallest country in the world (after Vatican City). The first stop w</span><span class="s2">as the rock of Monaco, where we were supposed to visit a cathedral, but we ditched our group in </span><span class="s2">favour</span><span class="s2"> of shopping. We found ourselves another ginormous sandwich, this time on a long </span><span class="s2">ciabatta</span><span class="s2"> roll with </span><span class="s2">brie</span><span class="s2">, cheddar and tomatoes. We were searching for our </span><span class="s2">favourite</span><span class="s2"> chocolate shop, Jeff de Bruges, but discovered that there was not a branch in Monaco. Instead, we stopped in at the Chocolatier of</span><span class="s2">Monaco which</span><span class="s2"> is also a tea house. We enjoyed cups of tea and bought some to bring home. Afterwards, as we headed back to the bus, it began to rain.</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s2">The rain increased traffic somewhat and it took us some time to get to our next stop, Monte Carlo. Monte Carlo is home to the famous casino and Formula One racing, which occurs on a track that winds throughout the streets instead of a traditional track circuit. By the time we reached Monte Carlo, it was raining in earnest. We walked to the casino with the rest of our group, but decided to forego the line and went off to explore the area on our own. We saw some of the most expensive seats in the bandstand for the Formula One race</span><span class="s2">;</span><span class="s2"> </span><span class="s3">€2000</span><span class="s3"> for 2 hours! The race occurred just about a week ago (24-30 May), so they are in the process of breaking down the “track.”</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3">After about an hour of wandering (and a </span><span class="s3">€20</span><span class="s3"> umbrella purchase), we headed back to the bus, somewhat soggy for the trip back to the ship. Last time we were in Nice, we shopped a cute little outdoor artisan fair just outside the port terminal. We had hoped to see it again, but the venders had packed up due to the weather. Instead, we enjoyed a “first dinner” of tea and salads in our room, courtesy of room service.</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3">Dinner was the show dinner at Animator’s Palate, where the restaurant transforms from black and white sketches to full </span><span class="s3">colour</span><span class="s3"> images over the course of the meal. We topped off the day with two desserts, one from the menu and one Mickey Bar, a “secret” item.</span><span class="s3"> After another late night chat with our new friends, it’s finally very late/early and we have another early morning tomorrow!</span></span></p>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-123749894719704622013-06-06T12:11:00.003-04:002013-06-06T12:11:32.928-04:00Day at Sea<p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="s2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">2 June 2013</span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><br></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s2">Today was our recovery day. After the time change and lack of sleep, we slept in until about noon. We managed to make it to </span><span class="s2">bruch</span><span class="s2">-fast before it closed at 1pm. Full of food, we headed right back to our room for a nap! Finally around 3, we were ready to consider ourselves awake and found chair in the sun by the </span><span class="s2">pool to continue our relaxation regimen.</span><span class="s2"> The only productive accomplishment of the day was finishing, assembling and distributing our fish extender gifts. Here’s a photo of one of the gifts we received:</span></span></p><div><span class="s2"><br></span></div>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-49291356757697891622013-06-06T12:11:00.001-04:002013-06-06T12:11:01.066-04:00In Nice, FranceAfter a long travel day and a recovery day at sea, T and I are in the beautiful city of Nice, France. We are taking photos and will post more later!<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEianhSJ-U3w9fuLngozWhLFvFQ2K5Z7UcZVrgNCm-Sag6AyaQhQPQSMxNXJXsGaGLfGHi6mwmt0JZYww424gev8ZIb6d_C-X-d1PP34pk20_yJvBY4IrcsfZrKw54wSa_8Tsemh7EsBv4Ag/s640/blogger-image--53721169.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEianhSJ-U3w9fuLngozWhLFvFQ2K5Z7UcZVrgNCm-Sag6AyaQhQPQSMxNXJXsGaGLfGHi6mwmt0JZYww424gev8ZIb6d_C-X-d1PP34pk20_yJvBY4IrcsfZrKw54wSa_8Tsemh7EsBv4Ag/s640/blogger-image--53721169.jpg"></a></div>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-86145027645431555332013-06-06T12:10:00.001-04:002013-06-06T12:10:19.987-04:00Vamos a España!<p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s2">31 May </span><span class="s2">– 1 June </span><span class="s2">2013</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><br></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="s2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Packing for this trip was more rushed than usual. Maybe it was because T was working up until an hour before we left for the airport or maybe it was because I hadn’t had enough time to fully mentally prepare for our voyage. It could also have been because we were only getting about 5 hours’ sleep each of the three nights before travel day. We also discovered our camera simply wouldn’t turn on (even after an overnight charge) about 2 hours before we needed to be at the airport. That triggered a very last minute trip to Target to buy 2 new cameras (luckily both were on sale, and many thanks to Vi for putting the last one on hold for us!). At the time, I wasn’t sure why I felt I needed to buy 2, but I had that “just in case” feeling.</span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s2">We made it to the airport in plenty of time (thanks to </span><span class="s2">Brudder</span><span class="s2"> for being our personal door to door taxi service!</span><span class="s2">) which</span><span class="s2"> was good because everyone and their cousin seemed to be flying today. We wound our way through seemingly endless lines at security, but made it to our gate with about and hour to spare. We had lunch at Potbelly, which was good because on top of the lack of sleep, neither of us had been eating particularly well this week as we tried to prepare for the trip!</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s2">While having lunch, I realized that we had forgotten our Secret Mickey gift at home. On Disney cruises, you can sign up for small gift exchanges called Fish Extenders and Secret Mickey. Fish Extenders involve groups of cabins semi-secretly leaving each other small gifts throughout the cruise. Secret Mickey is like Secret Santa. Weeks ago, I had planned out and procured our gift which was going to be a t</span><span class="s2">ravel scrapbook binder that could be filled along the cruise. Luckily, I had finished all of our Fish Extender gifts (fabric cup wraps, wristlet pouches and I-Spy treasure pouches for little ones) and had remembered to pack all those things. We decided to get something for our Secret Mickey in one of the ports and attach a not saying we’d like to send their real gift after the cruise is over. We’re hoping they’ll think of it as a way to “extend the magic.”</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s2">The flight from Dulles to Heathrow was relatively uneventful except that due to my allergies/nasal issues, I had a very stuffed up nose and couldn’t sleep the whole flight. The next flight, from Heathrow to Barcelona was worse because we were both super tired and trying to sleep when I suddenly experiences fairly severe sinus pressure/</span><span class="s2">pain which</span><span class="s2"> didn’t dissipate until after we landed. Luckily, it was a short flight. Once we saw our first DCL contact person, things started to look better already!</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="s2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Unlike on our honeymoon cruise, our single checked bag made it safely and was whisked away by DCL to appear in our stateroom later. Checking in at the port and making our way onto the ship was relatively quick and speedy. By the time we made it there, our room was already clean and we were able to go and start getting settled right away.</span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="s2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We spent a little time unpacking and getting a little sun on Deck 9, then showered and headed to dinner. This time, we were seated with two other young couples and became fast friends. After dinner, we stayed up chatting until the wee hours, even on very little sleep!</span></p>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-79031121388414915092013-04-09T14:02:00.003-04:002013-04-09T14:02:51.723-04:00Bracelet breakI've been diligently working away at my copious amounts of school work. [Two papers and a midterm due this week!] I've also managed to make some more progress on the hexie front. I've now got close to 100 little hexies all pieced together! Mom and Flea have suggested that I not make an entire quilt top out of tiny hexies and that I make some kind of pattern or shape to applique onto a quilt top instead. In the class the quilt will be for, we have a sort of class joke about trees. So I've decided that the hexies are going to make a nice tree top. The hexies will be the leaves and I'll free-motion quilt the trunk and branches. Then to quilt the hexies, I'll quilt little leaf shapes over them... probably randomly. Thanks to the interwebs, I managed to find a <a href="http://www.printfreegraphpaper.com/" target="_blank">free graph paper generator</a> that gives me 1" hexagonal graph paper. I'm using this to map out what my hexie tree top will look like. In the meantime, I'm also creating quite the large <a href="http://pinterest.com/gsilverlining/hexies/" target="_blank">quilt-y/hexie pinboard</a> with all things related to this hextra special project.<br />
<br />
Not that my interest in hexie-making is waning or anything, but I have been thinking about making bracelets recently too. This afternoon, I'm working on my midterm for my motivation class and decided I deserved a little break. When T and I were on our honeymoon, I started collecting bracelets from the places we visited. A nice old man gave me a simple bee bracelet at the honey farm we visited and that kind of started the idea. A few days later, when we were in Nice, there was a cute little craft fair by the port and I bought some pretty fabric bracelets. Again, they are very simple, and the old lady who was selling them was very cute and French. Her younger helper (maybe her daughter or someone whom she treated like a daughter) explained that the bracelets are made from scraps of fabrics and beads and baubles the old lady has collected over the years. None of the bracelets were the same. It was really hard to choose which one I wanted, so in the end I chose two. Since then, I've been thinking it would be fun to make some of these bracelets, so today I tried it! If you're interested in a pretty bracelet that can be made in 15 minutes (if you have all the supplies on hand because you are me or an old French lady), here's a quick tutorial!<br />
<br />
<b>Supplies you'll need:</b><br />
Fabric - preferably a lightweight cotton lawn type with a smallish print<br />
Scissors<br />
Iron<br />
At least 1 bead with a big hole - the hole should be about the size of the hole in a pony bead<br />
Tape measure (optional) <br />
<br />
<b>How to make it: </b><br />
1) Iron your fabric so it's nice and wrinkle free.<br />
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2) Cut a strip of fabric that's about 1' wide by 10" long. The length you'll need depends on the size of your hand (not your wrist). To measure how long your strip will need to be, use the tape measure to measure your hand at its widest point when you put your fingers together as though you're going to put on a bracelet. This length (mine was 8"), is the absolute minimum length you'll need. Add 2 or more inches to this number to get your final strip length.<br />
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3) Iron the two sides of the strip in towards the middle as though you are making bias tape. In fact, if I had been clever, I would have used my handy Simplicity Bias Tape Maker for this project. But that would have required me finding the appropriate tip and getting it all set up. For a 10" strip of fabric, that seemed unnecessary.<br />
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4) Fold the little strip of bias tape in half, as you would when you are using it to bind something. Iron it.<br />
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5) Here's the only slightly tricky part. Start to twist the little strip you've got. This is something like if you were spinning yarn. You want the strip of fabric to turn into a round cord. After you've twisted the first inch or so and it's staying put a little, iron down the length of the cord as you twist. This way you're ironing the twist into the fabric, which makes it hold the twist better.<br />
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6) Your bracelet cord is all done! Now get that big-holed bead and string it onto one side of your cord. String the other end of the cord through the bead in the opposite direction. [Does this make sense? It's like you're making a "x" with the ends of the cord and the center of the "x" is in the bead.] Tie the ends to the cord in neat little knots. If you had extra length in your cord, you can tie knots and cut off any excess. If, like me, you made your cord exactly the length you wanted, you'll have to make sure your knots are very close to the ends.<br />
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7) Ta-da! Put on your bracelet and be the envy of everyone!<br />
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<br />Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-33841771549786655192013-04-04T23:16:00.000-04:002013-04-04T23:16:06.108-04:00Hextra work...Two posts in one week! Something crazy must be going on! Well, I have taken on a potentially crazy project. I'm making a little quilt! I want it to be useful for something, someday, but I don't have much time to finish it because it's going to be for a class final paper. [I'll explain.] So, I've decided on a crib size quilt which are typically 23"x46." And now, on to the back story.<br />
<br />
I'm in the middle of a Master's program in educational psychology. It's interesting and I was actually excited to start school again after working for several years. But, I'm a procrastinator. It's not so much that I don't want to do the work. I mean, I kind of don't, but I do like the topics and I like to think about them. But I tend to let projects expand to fill all the available time. I can be doing something else entirely, but in the back of my mind, I'm
mulling over paper topics, ideas, themes, structure, whatever, until
there's just barely enough time to write the darn thing. Until that
almost-panic moment, I feel like I can keep on just thinking, not
actually doing the work.<br />
<br />
This particular semester, I have two classes about which I'm not really that excited. The course descriptions sounded intriguing, and enough of the initial classes were interesting enough that I didn't drop the courses. But now, past midterm time (one has the midterm due and the other has the two article reviews...), I'm finding it hard to motivate myself to get to work! This is especially sad because one of the classes is about student motivation... whoops. <br />
<br />
The other class I'm not super excited about is a theory-based class about culture and intelligence. Sounds like a cool class right? The topic is definitely interesting, and some of the readings (not that I've been reading them all...) are also interesting. But I have trouble with classes in which I can't find a practical application for the content. This past Tuesday, as I zoned out a little in class, I kept thinking about my hexies and how I would much rather be making them than talking about our individual definitions of wisdom. The more I <strike>zoned out</strike> thought about it, the more I felt like I could use my hexies as an analogy for some theories of intelligence we've discussed. I had the idea that if I made a hexie quilt and then wrote a paper about how the quilt and the process of making it is analagous to theories of intelligence, I would be able to make the course content meaningful to me (and motivate myself to get to work!). Longer story short, the professor likes the idea, so I'm making a quilt. <br />
<br />
I am taking full advantage of the opportunity to incorporate my crafting into course work. So, naturally I started a <a href="http://pinterest.com/gsilverlining/hexies/" target="_blank">pinboard</a> of all the ideas and resources I'm collecting with regard to hexies and quilting. One resource I found was this handy <a href="http://www.cddesigns.com/PaperPiecing/number.html" target="_blank">hex-quilt calculator</a>. You tell it how big your hexies are and how big you want the finished product to be and it tells you how many hexies you will need. Very useful. Here's what it gave me:<br />
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See that? Only 410 hexies! Plus 30 half hexies... but I think I can do it. I've already got 74 done:<br />
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<br />I'm also happy to say that I actually spent some time doing research today and also managed to read a few articles! Hopefully this little quilty pleasure project will be just the thing to keep me motivated through the end of the semester!Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-81596577688688462072013-04-01T12:58:00.002-04:002013-04-01T12:59:22.140-04:00Hexed!I have some hoarder tendencies. One thing I have a hard time throwing away is fabric. Even the smallest of scraps seems like they could be used for <i>something</i>! In fact, Tuzi has a hedgehog beanbag which is stuffed with fabric scraps instead of the bag of beans IKEA sells for that purpose. Every so often, I go on a purge of my crafting room and throw away the bins of tiny scraps I've been saving up to that point. I try not to go through the tubs because then I get all remorseful and half the time, I save them anyway.<br />
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Well, about a week ago, I stumbled across the perfect project to continue my hoarding tendencies! It's well known to quilters, I suppose, but I haven't ever been very into quilting (not quite that patient; instant gratification projects are more my style). It's paper pieced hexagons! The technique is also called English paper piecing which fits in nicely with my English themed life lately (watched all of Downton Abbey, BBC's Sherlock and as usual have been enjoying tea all day, every day). So anyway, I was inspired and remembered that long ago, I acquired a hexagon paper punch. At the time, I had no idea why I would ever use it, but I kept it anyway because it's one of those Creative Memories ones that has two sizes and has the measurements marked right on the punch (very helpful when you don't like to measure things, like me). I went ahead and punched out a bunch of hexagons and got started chopping up some scraps into little 1.25" squares.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paper hexies arranged in a pattern</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fabric squares to match the paper hexies</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One little hexie</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">4 hexies sewn together</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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After doing a few test hexies, I made the whole pattern and sewed it onto a re-sized 2XL t-shirt I had from an uncompleted project a few years ago. Here's how it turned out:<br />
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Sorry about the weird colours; I took the photo in the bathroom mirror and it was kind of dark, so I had to adjust so you could see the hexies better. I'll get a better photo later and post it.<br />
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Anyway, I've had hex-mania since then and have made a similar shirt for Flea and have another mini-quilt for a shirt for Sneetch (once I get her a shirt). I've also made a little "hexie fabric" so that could produce this:<br />
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Now I think I want to try making slightly larger hexies. These are 1" across. If I get really good at them, maybe I'll be able to make a baby quilt one day!<br />
<br />Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-8163990989804059722013-03-21T16:57:00.001-04:002013-03-21T17:10:15.400-04:00Girls trip to WDW!Last week was Spring Break for me, and conveniently the American Montessori Society annual conference happened to be Thursday through Sunday. The conference was also in Orlando, so it was kind of a no-brainer for me to want to go. Plus, my friend Feder was getting to go to the conference with her school, so she'd be there too. We decided to make a trip out of it and as I was looking for flights, I mentioned it to my other friend Julia and she found a great price for a round trip flight and decided to join us! So, it turned out to be a <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/silver-lining/sets/72157633052028715/" target="_blank">girls trip to Disney World</a>! <span style="font-size: xx-small;">(click to see more photos in a new window)</span><br />
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Julia and I flew down on Wednesday to take advantage of the best flight fare. We visited Animal Kingdom and EPCOT on Thursday and got to see SO MANY animals at Kilimanjaro Safaris! We even got to see some baby animals; rhino, hippo and giraffe babies were just some of them. Friday, Feder and I went to the conference in the morning and I got to talk to some people about research possibilities and other fun things relating to my school work. I have emailed a few of them to follow up, so fingers are crossed that they actually have time to get back to me!<br />
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Saturday, all three of us went to the parks. We managed to go to Hollywood Studios, EPCOT and Magic Kingdom all in one day! It was a loooong day of walking around the parks, but totally worth it! We didn't get back to the room until 1am! I took advantage of the jacuzzi tub and had a nice, half hour soak before getting to bed, too. :)<br />
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As an extra surprise, some friends we met on our honeymoon happened to be coming into Orlando over the weekend and I got to have a quick brunch with them Sunday morning before heading to the airport! Baby C was so cute and well behaved!<br />
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And, when I got back , I had this little guy to greet me! I "planted" (soaked the dirt disc and sprinkled the nearly microscopic seeds over it) the week before I left, and the tallest one is about a centimetre tall now!<br />
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<br />Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-15704079420234685282013-02-11T09:12:00.001-05:002013-02-11T09:12:37.361-05:00Xin nian kuai le!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Yesterday was Chinese New Year's Day. To celebrate, T and I had a dinner party! We rearranged the furniture to extend our table to its full length to seat 12 people and cooked up a storm. Julea came over Saturday and early yesterday to be my sous chef and helped to do LOTS of chopping and dicing. We had an auspicious 8 entrees on the menu plus some appetizers and dessert! Unfortunately, we didn't get pictures of everything all laid out at the beginning, but we did get some pictures mid-meal.<br />
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Here's a picture of the menu:<br />
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And the English translation side:<br />
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Sorry it's a little blurry at the top.</div>
It was nice to get to spend some time with friends over good food!<br />
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For more photos, see <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silver-lining/sets/72157632731575781/with/8464199829/" target="_blank">Flickr.</a></div>
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<br />Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754786305967225377.post-9568708602365626352013-01-29T13:16:00.001-05:002013-01-29T13:16:28.564-05:00Sorry for weird posts!Long time, no post. Sorry. Also, some of you who subscribe (all 2 of you, I think... maybe 3) might have gotten some weird post emails in the past couple days about honeymoons and tell me your name. Sorry about that. I was helping Vi and Mash with their wedding website and I was testing a Honeymoon Fund donation button. Here's a <a href="http://www.weddingwire.com/gennymatt" target="_blank">link</a> to their (newly renovated by me) site, if you are interested, and a photo montage of them:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJuhLiQUjNUXydiTy6LfXcTicvFLfvUUtq2rE7J9k7D5d1PBtFY8Ne1mLodv3M0h1NOOJ3Y8wcVxs1fLrlRNxFJdUeaqGlHirlEjHrkOdsdLht1OMARSl5NUdgCrP_BwzFVgxc-QLofe2x/s1600/MashFlea+Montage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Flea & Mash" border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJuhLiQUjNUXydiTy6LfXcTicvFLfvUUtq2rE7J9k7D5d1PBtFY8Ne1mLodv3M0h1NOOJ3Y8wcVxs1fLrlRNxFJdUeaqGlHirlEjHrkOdsdLht1OMARSl5NUdgCrP_BwzFVgxc-QLofe2x/s320/MashFlea+Montage.jpg" title="Flea & Mash" width="320" /></a></div>
In other news, I updated my Etsy shop this weekend and learned to make coupon codes. So now you can <a href="http://www.silverlining.etsy.com/" target="_blank">head over there</a> and use the code HAPPY2013 to get 20% off your whole order! That's all for now. I'll post something more interesting later... after I come up with something more interesting! Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05644609455409981599noreply@blogger.com0