Hong Kong

Sorry we've been off the grid for a while, we just got back from a short trip to Hong Kong. We went to the Disneyland and then stayed in the city for one night. We are glad that we will have an extra set of hands on the next trip we take. That's you Dad!

As we suspected, they loved Disneyland. We kept hearing how small it is, and everyone who told us that was right. It would not have kept older kids entertained for long, but for two year olds, perfect! There were the tea cups, Dumbo's flying ride, the carousel, a Winnie the Pooh ride, a Buzz Lightyear ride, cars, spaceships, and a few shows. Plenty to keep them entertained. The timing was good as well, because it was not very crowded, which meant a little more freedom for our two who like to explore(i.e. run away from us in opposite directions).

Hong Kong is a beautiful city that was a mix of San Francisco and Hawaii. There were incredible hills and it was lush and tropical. It is a very rich city, we discovered. We lost count of how many Ferraris we saw, and didn't even try to count the number of Bentleys. We fit right in, with our shorts, t-shirts, tennis shoes, and two screaming kids! Actually, though, Hong Kong was nice for many reasons. Every sign is in English as well as Chinese, most people speak English, the taxis are bigger(for us that is noticeable since we always cram in the back of one in Shanghai), we actually had people offer to help us instead of running over us to get there first, and we found Dr. Pepper. All these things we'd been used to living without in Shanghai, so we enjoyed it for a few days.

So, here are the pics. The only decent family pic:) We walked into the hotel to check in and Cinderella was there, I didn't get the camera out quick enough to capture the excitement on Kate's face. Breakfast with the characters was fun. They didn't really know most of them, but that didn't stop them from loving it. AJ running up to Mickey. Kate enamored with Minnie. They both liked Goofy, well, because he's goofy. He "picked" some fake flowers from the arrangement behind our table to give to Kate. We seem to have a lot of pictures on the carousel since it was their favorite, as you can see by their faces. AJ got to sit in the driver's seat, which made him feel, oh, so cool. And, well, he is! Just cooling off a bit. They didn't have to wring out their clothes this time. Our friends, the Youngs, just sent a bunch of pictures from their Disney World trip, and they got about 25 good family pics in front of Cinderella's castle. This is what we got! As you can see our kids are not fighting being in the strollers. As this does not usually happen, know that they were exhausted and they were watching fire works. AJ especially liked the show. The rest of our trip we were in Hong Kong, and since it was incredibly cloudy/smoggy, we didn't take any pics that are worth sharing, but Hong Kong is set in a beautiful part of the world.