For the balance of our Spring Break, we went to Hong Kong - a wonderful mix of city, mountains & islands. Given it used to be a part of England, most people speak English so communicating with taxi drivers is significantly easier! And while it is now a part of China (kind of I guess) there is no expectorating (or hawking as Andy calls it), no public urination, no squatty pottys - it is amazingly clean!! Love it!
Instead of the normal hotel or resort stay we instead used VRBO and rented a flat! Very fun and convenient to just stay in a local apartment! Our primary destination in HK was not any cultural museum, historical site or educational experience...it was Hong Kong Disney! I know, not real deep, but just look at our crew...and we absolutely loved it! Zoe and Abigail were squealing and dancing the whole way into the park - it was fun just to watch them. We were concerned that Joseph wouldn't like the loud noises but he did fabulous and we just stayed away from the shows which had long lines anyways. We found out that Zoe and Abigail LOVE roller coasters - Abigail's favorite was the Grizzly Gulch and Zoe loved Space Mountain. Joseph loved...the characters! He wanted to hug them, kiss them, hold their hands and have his picture with them...and so we have A LOT of character pictures! Only really needed to wait in a long line for Mickey & Minnie...the rest not too bad! As for Andy, Megan and I (note that Lindsey was in Colorado then San Diego with her best friend for the break)...we enjoyed being kids again - riding rides, watching parades - and watching the little kids love it so much. Our first day at the park we arrived when it opened (hoping to beat the crowds which really were not bad) and stayed until fireworks over Sleeping Beauty's castle...Joseph was a heavy load as he slept through the fireworks, two trains and a taxi back to the flat! The park is relatively smaller than the Disney's back in the US - but it was great to do the whole park in a day and then hit our favorite spots again on day two!
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| A very happy Joseph hugging his fam on the train! |
On our off Disney day despite the rain, we had a transportation fun day with ferry rides, taxis, buses and trams exploring the city and seeing the skyline. We enjoyed some Western restaurants not in Shanghai...Outback Steakhouse and a very fun Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. Saved a few days to just hang out in Shanghai as well. Overall a much needed and well spent Spring Break!
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| Zoe's Favorite character pic - the princess of course! |
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| Sleeping Beauty Castle |
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| Sitting in the teacup! |
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| Our spacious kitchen in the flat! |
In the end of April, our amazing Megan turned 17! Birthday breakfast (that would be muffins with Megan's standard frosted wheat cereal) including Kelly via Skype(!!), dinner at a new Italian restaurant right in Shimao, 17 candles in a Shanghai skyline cupcake, a new iPhone and then a surprise dinner party with her friends later in the week! Love celebrating this girl!
Last weekend then was PROM! Planning ahead (of course what else would you expect!) we purchased a dress back in Colorado over Christmas holiday and boy did she look beautiful! Her group of friends took pictures at Century Park, came back here (yeah!) for snacks before heading to Kathleen on 5 (a restaurant in the Shanghai Art Museum). Our 'little people' also loved getting dressed up to host the teenagers and of course Zoe adored seeing the girls in their fancy dresses! Great group of friends, lots of laughs and fun memories.
