Hong Kong Weekend Updates

This weekend I tried out the pool on the rooftop and found it to be really nice.  It's completely outside so open based on the weather, thankfully Saturday was free from rain.  I swam for an hour and enjoyed some time reading on the lounges but it started to get really hot, in the mid-80's and Maryland is still in the low 70's so I'm not used to the heat yet.  After the pool I found the ladies locker room and it was so amazing, they have an experience shower where you can choose rainfall, tropical, etc.  I picked tropical and the shower nozzle is located super high so it really feels like you are standing under a water fall.  It was so cool. 

I had lunch at Spasso where I had a fairly boring piece of Salmon, but the dessert was amazing.  The menu mentioned a 15 wait and with nothing pressing to do, I didn't mind waiting.  It was a mini chocolate lava cake, with a scoop of Espresso 26 ice cream, one scoop of chocolate pudding, and a few raspberries for decoration.  I'll upload a photo when I get back, for some reason I can't seem to transfer any right now.

After lunch I got a coffee and walked around a bit but didn't really find anything interesting and it was too hot to go far.  I probably should have gone somewhere as I got quite bored in my room and tired from the morning swim and previous day arm workout.

For supper I went to Outback Steakhouse for Toowoomba pasta.  It was a bitter disappointment.  I got this dish as far back as when my husband and I lived in California in 2002-03.  It's supposed to have little crawfish and be spicy.  After awhile, I could only find this dish in HK as they stopped selling it in the US so I'd look forward to it when coming here.  It was basically plain fettuccini alfredo with five shrimp.  Very boring, not at all what I've remembered and gotten in HK many times.  The brown bread was also not the right taste.  I barely ate any of it and it gave me indigestion.  

Back to Hong Kong

It has been 4 years and 3 months since my last trip - the longest stretch in between trips in my entire 23 years of coming here.  Last trip was January 2019, that year rioters took over HK streets fighting for human rights.  Then at the end of 2019 Covid spread and shut down HK for almost 3 years to visitors.  My bosses first trip back was October 2022 when they still had the mask mandates and required testing in place.  I'm thankful those have been lifted.

So much has changed.  The war between Russia and Ukraine means we can no longer fly over Russia.  Instead we fly from the east coast to west and leave out of San Francisco, this adds several hours to an already long trip.

The hotel where I've stayed at for 15 years, has dropped many of it's luxuries.  No mini bar, no free cell phone to walk around with, and no ordering breakfast for dine in room service (I'm still confused by this one and it was one of my favorites), seating throughout the hotel has been removed to discourage people from sitting around and presumably spreading germs.  They've removed the night time menu dining options and I feel like the menu has been severely reduced to limit requests for room service.  I don't believe they do downturn service anymore.  

At least Ruth Chris Steak house is still here!  

Ten Years of Travel

It's time to renew my passport!  I know that once I turn it in that I won't get it back.  I'm sad to say goodbye to some of these stamps, Japan and Paris are two fond memories.  For these more unusual trips, one never knows if they will happen again!  

Apparently 2011 was a BIG year for travel for me:

• February 26th - went to Japan, had a layover that because the original flight left late, meant I had to spend the night in Japan!  They put us up in a hotel and gave us dinner.  For me it was so incredibly cool because I've always wanted to visit.  I spent hours the next morning walking through the airport and had a nice teriyaki lunch before boarding my flight to Vietnam.
• After Vietnam, I went to Hong Kong and China for a few days.  Then back to Vietnam for a few more days and on my return to Hong Kong, while in the airport, I watched in horror as the tsunami coverage unfolded on every television in the airport.  I literally watched live coverage.  It was heartbreaking.  I then had to return through Japan because United would not change my ticket.  My flight was the first back into Japan after they were able to return to work.  It almost felt disrespectful to barge in right after a national tragedy but they were so polite and professional.  It was so tragic.
• July 8th I went to Paris!  To date it's the only time I've gone and it was a trip I'll remember for the rest of my life.  I was actually pregnant with Violette at the time!  After Paris, we went to London!
• In September I was back in Hong Kong and China 

Violette was born on 4/3/12 so I did not travel this year.

In 2013 I went to Asia in the spring and fall.  I also went to London in February and it was my last trip there as our client merged with their US office thus negating the need to return. I'm forever sad about that.

In 2014 I went to Asia in the spring.

Evie was born on 12/29/14 so I didn't travel in 2015

In 2016 I went to Asia in the spring and fall.  I was given a 10 year visa to travel into China!  It's funny that my passport was set to run out in 5 years but I think they only offered like 1 year or 10 year after you get through the shorter months of 1 month or 3 month.  I don't think they'd offer me another 10 year at this point given the cooled relations between US and China.

In 2017 I went to Asia in January.

In 2018 I went to Asia in October.

In 2019 I went to Asia in January.  The rest of 2019 was filled with Hong Kong people rioting so all trips were canceled.

In 2020, Covid-19 took over the entire year so there was no travel.

In 2021, who knows what will happen, it's still early!

In summary, I went to Asia 10 times, Paris once, England twice, had two babies, and experienced one international corona virus lock down.  Looking forward to the next 10 years!  

Roaring Point Camp

I've been reading "Chesapeake" by James A. Michener for two years, it's a book that covers multiple generations of Marylanders in a fictional way so I read a generation then put it down for awhile.  The book began around the Nanticoke River so I wanted to find a campgrounds in this area and get a better feel for where this book began.  I found a campgrounds called "Roaring Point Camp" and we planned a trip for the weekend of "Talk Like A Pirate".  We told the kids about pirates who used to pillage these areas and it was a really fantastic weekend.

2020 Trip to Texas

Our last summer trip to Texas, after this year Pepa will retire and the following summers he and Mema will spend in Montana.  We left late due to our work on the camper, but at least the trip down and back was uneventful.  Due to covid-19, we stayed at their house for the entire 2 weeks and didn't do our normal visits to the dino water splash and local swimming pool but we did get to swim at one KOA camp.  We also got our favorite take out foods so altogether we still had a really nice visit.

Violette did a virtual art class while we were in Texas.

This last trip just about killed us

I have a terrible tendency to "bite off far more than I can chew", as the saying goes, and that'as all fine, until I bring others into the mix. 

In the first week of July, our church has a Convention, where many related churches of similar beliefs come together for a week of services.  It's an exciting time, and easy to get caught up in the energy of attending other churches revivals.  We met some folks from the Mississippi church and casually mentioned we were thinking of visiting them for their Labor Day weekend revival.  They got super excited and introduced us to someone who had camper hook ups on his property so by the time last weekend rolled around we were committed.  Even though we'd barely finished school shopping, left all of it on a table to be divided up the first morning of school, and got back at 11:30pm to put the kids in bed at midnight! 

It was an ambitious trip, with very little pre-planning and lots of wrong turns that had us driving late into the night for half the trip!  Regardless, the services were outstanding,

Trip to Texas 2019 - Day 4 Odessa, TX

We limped into town with our sad travel trailer in tow, sad because it was only used one night.  We had such high expectations.  Thankfully Mike was able to get it fixed in town for considerably less than what Camping World had quoted us.

This is our favorite DQ, just outside of Dallas.  

Trip to Texas 2019 - Day 3 Texarkana, TX

It took half a day to finish at Camping World, so we only made it to Texarkana, TX but at least we made it to Texas at the of day 3.  We had planned to go to a really exciting water park in Texas but by this point we just wanted to be done with the trip.

We stayed in another hotel for the night.

Trip to Texas 2019 - Day 2 Memphis, TN

We made it to Memphis, TN around dark, it was incredibly hot outside with about one million mosquitoes that descended upon Sam with a furious vengeance.  Just as we got the electric on and door firmly shut, we realized the air conditioner was broken!  The heat was so bad we immediately packed up everything and went straight to a nearby hotel.  This is one reason I'm glad we didn't have the dog as it can be been hard to find a place that allows dogs.

We were near Camping World, so the next day we went over to see if they could fix it.  The cost and time was greater than what we wanted to deal with, so we decided to get it fixed at our final destination. 

Here's photos of the kids enjoying the hotel and lounge at Camping World.

Evie adopted this towel as her new best friend.

We let them swim in their pajamas the next morning.

Trip to Texas 2019 - first stop West Virginia

* this post is back dated for those getting email blast

This is our first trip with the travel trailer and we were a bit nervous about so many details.  We knew it would take longer to get places from pulling the extra weight, more gas stops, considerably slower in the mountains so hard to predict our stopping point.  We didn't know how long it would take to set up the travel trailer each night, how long to pack up the next day, so we planned to take an entire leisurely week to get to Texas.

Our first major stop was middle of West Virginia, about a five hour drive, to drop our dog Bitzer at a dog kennel for the duration of our trip.  He's stayed with this family before and they are friends of ours. 

Our stop for the night was Wytheville, KOA.  It was a really nice spot and I'd like to return when we have more time to enjoy.  I like KOA's because there's an app where you can schedule a site and it was all very easy to navigate and get same day service.

We had electric, water and internet but we couldn't figure out how to get hot water flowing so I took my morning shower at the KOA bathrooms.

Panning the water for gold.

The Natural Bridge, VA

The Natural Bridge does not involve much walking to get to the bridge, it's about a hundred stairs to get to the bottom and then a short walk to the bridge which you walk under.  I think for the cost it's worthwhile to take the entire hike to the end waterfall, even though it's very far away and not easy to see.  There is the Monacan Indian village along the way that has people doing various jobs who teach their craft.  We found that very interesting.  In total we walked 3.7 miles! 

Luray Caverns, VA

My brother invited us to go with him to visit Luray Caverns.  We're both sure we went as kids but neither of us can remember it.  Our dad used to take us on lots of road trips so we remember the places we went regularly but memories are starting to fade.

One of the reasons I blog is for my kids to have a road map of their childhood - "Hi kids!", if you are reading this one day! 

Luray Caverns is quite a vacation destination for the area, they have several free museums and a really fun rope park.  Thankfully they have free parking and plenty of it!  We brought lunch and ate at the picnic tables before going in.  

We walked 3 miles!