On an adventure

Galatians 6:9 – Let us not become weary in dong good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

This verse may have to become our dedicated family verse. Yesterday, was pretty adventurous for us and involved a LOT of walking. We axed the idea of going to Disney because it was pouring rain in the morning (not unlike this morning, but it’s our last chance today). We debated on the $20 breakfast buffet and decided that that was way too much money, especially when Sheehan eats so little and the cost was still $20 for him. Thankfully, under our hotel is an entire mall and we were able to find a little Chinese diner where we ate fried eggs, bacon and noodles. Steve had the egg and bacon sandwich … on white bread with the crust taken off. Apparently the Chinese are not big on crust J.

After breakfast, we headed to the Star Ferry and took it over to Hong Kong Island with the intention of going to the top of Victoria Peak even through the rain and fog and clouds covering the peak. When we got to the island we realized that we were running late and that it was already lunch time, so we had to skip the tram ride to get to the Peak tram and go get lunch instead. McDonald’s was the place we knew, so we went there. It was the same one we went to on our first trip to HK island inside the giant, posh International Finance Center mall. To get a good visual of what we looked like … picture a foreigh family dressed like they are ready for a day at Disneyland having a McDonald’s picnic in the middle of the John Hancock building in Chicago. There were business people and dressed up “shoppers” … and the Hall family with drool bibs, milk mustaches and hot sweaty parents.

After lunch, we decided to walk to the Peak Tram instead of taking the tram/bus. We didn’t realize that it was uphill the entire way. The walk was clearly marked, but uphill. As we were walking we saw a bunch of people in orange vests surrounded by police and camera-people. We don’t know if it was picketing or protesting, but it all seemed pretty orderly. With calves burning and backs aching (I was pushing Sheehan in the stroller and Steve was carrying Josiah on his back in the backpack stroller), we made it up to the tram.

The Peak tram is a tram (like a car on a railroad track) that takes you up an incline carried by pulleys. It kind of felt like a roller coaster. Josiah was asleep for the entire ride up. At times we were at greater than a 45 degree angle. We made it to the top and as we were up there the clouds began to part and we were able to get some really good views of HK island and Kowloon (where we’re staying) as well. It was beautiful.


Then we went down the tram (the downhill portion “looked” a lot like a roller coaster ride without the speed … Katherine was a little uncomrtable) and decided to walk to the Zoo, which looked like it was really close. “Looked” is the key word. It was all uphill again and we had to climb stairs and cross dangerous roads. We made it! The zoo consisted of a playground (which the kids thoroughly enjoyed, and looked like a place that the rich people send their kids with the nannies b/c it was all Asian or southeast Asian women with Caucasian babies), lemurs, a few monkeys and many birds.

After that, we were totally dead and it was 6pm and the kids were cranky. We decided to just walk back to the pier for the ferry since it was all downhill this time. We got lost (Katherine’s definition … Steve knew exactly where we were J). We ended up in party central at the end of the work day on a Friday evening. We literally turned a corner and there was a street full of bars, mostly full of westerners, music, partying … it felt like Chicago’s Rush Street … and there we are with our strollers and backpacks. We followed the narrow road down to another bustling street. At that point, we found the words longest escalator and I wanted to ride on it since we may never be in HK again. We rode for a few minutes and then got off and decided to take a cab back to the pier. We got there in like 5 minutes, and we realized that where we were walking was WAY off course of getting to the pier. At dusk, we made it across the harbour on the ferry and decided to eat dinner at the Spaghetti House at 8:15pm (our usual bedtime). After dinner, we walked back to the hotel through Kowloon park and immediately tried to get the boys to bed. Of course, they were all wound up, but eventually fell soundly asleep. Today, we go to Disney HK and it is not currently raining, but the clouds are thick.

Everyone seems to be feeling better health wise, but Sheehan has a few bug bites on him and Josiah seems to be covered in them. They’re actually pretty large red welts. We’re glad to be going home tomorrow.

Josiah going counter-clockwise

Josiah going clock-wise

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