Friday, May 28, 2010

Hong Kong!

Hong Kong = AMAZING
We had such a GREAT time in Hong Kong! The flight was 16 hours (very hard for me) but totally worth it! Once we got to Hong Kong we had a rough start. It took 2 hours to get to our hotel, (should have taken 45 minutes) once we got to the hotel they wouldn't let us check in, we went back about 5 hours later and they told us they had a water break and had to move us to a different hotel...may I remind you that we haven't showed for 36 hours! We were extremly put out about the whole thing until we got to the new hotel...5 star hotel, in a suite, on the top floor! We had to work Wednesday night, Thursday, Friday and Saturday so we weren't able to do much.

On Sunday we did alot of walking and saw both Kowloon and Hong Kong. We got fitted for our custom suits & shirts (highly recommend if you are ever in HK). I can't believe that they made 2 suits and all our shirts in less than 48 hours.

Monday we went to the Ngong Ping cable car that takes you to the Giant Buddha, we had to take a 45 minute cable car ride to the top, it was beautiful!  We toured around Giant Buddha and the Po Lin Monastery. We did some shopping at the Ladies Market that night and then headed back to the hotel.

Tuesday we went to Victoria Peak which over looks the entire city of Hong Kong and across the harbour to Kowloon. We than went to Ocean Park which was awesome, it was like Sea World but right on the ocean, the roller coasters pretty much hung over the ocean. We did a little more shopping that night and packed up to go home. 

This is from the first day we got there-before we got our hotel room. 
This is at the bar district...Lan Kwai Fong....it was packed every night
This picture was taken from Kowloon, it's on the mainland looking back at Hong Kong island.
 
Kowloon
 
This was our interpreter Isabelle-Thank goodness she was there to help us!
 This is the pool on top of the hotel...I sat here thinking about how it was snowing in Utah.
 
 Our hotel room
 
 Bathroom-it's hard to see but we had a great view of the city!
 
The tram ride up to Giant Buddha
 
The sign telling us which way New York was
 
Top of big buddha...you have a 360 degree view of HK island
 
 
 
 The cable car had a glass bottom...kind of freaky!
 
Enjoying the view of the ocean from the cable car
 



 This was the 2nd tram that we took to Victoria Peak-I swear it went straight up the mountain, it felt like a roller coaster.
 
Looking out on the city
 

 
This is at Ocean Park, one of the rides that is right on the ocean
 
 
I hate the rides that shoot you up or drop you so Dan had to go by himself.
 

It's hard to see but there is a panda bear behind us
Looking out at the amazing view

 
I am a very picky eater so it's hard for me to travel, I usually pack plenty of pop tarts, fruit snacks and granola bars but I found something I liked... mini chocolate cupcakes! I ate them every morning for breakfast! I also found out that Hong Kong has AMAZING french fries, I ate them every night for dinner!
 
Shopping at the night market
 
Our last night looking back at Hong Kong-I miss it already!
A few fun facts about Hong Kong:
*Cab drivers are crazy...worse than anywhere I have ever been!
*Cars are really expensive to own in HK so only the extremely wealthy drive them.....most private cars are worth over $100,000...I had never even heard of half the cars!
*All the drinks are served warm. NASTY
*Every night our maid would come in and shut our blinds for us.
*The subway is way cleaner and nicer then New York
*Nothing opens till 10am....and stays open till midnight
*Most people spoke enough English to get around
*I was asked over 50 times if they could get a picture with me (some people are from mainland China and don't see very many white people)

Once again we are so lucky that we are able to travel together and see so much of the world! We had such a great trip and are looking forward to going back next March!

Our 6th niece Maya Bell finally made her arrival on May 18th weighing in at 4lbs 12oz! I received a phone call from Tasha right after we were dropped off at the airport saying that her water broke and she was on the way to the hospital... it was hard to be stuck on the plane wondering how everything was going. This was my first time meeting little Maya, thank goodness for skype!
Congratulations Bells! 
 
A little preview of Maya's first photoshoot!
She is so tiny!
 

Monday, May 3, 2010

East Coast Road Trip

We had so much fun on our east coast trip, even though it rained the 8 days that we were gone we were still  able so see and experience so much! We flew into Baltimore and drove to New York to spend 2 days. Driving in New York is something else, our gps stopped working because of all the tall buildings so that made for a very interesting drive through the city.  
Beware-I took over 800 pictures!  
We got in late on Saturday night so once we found our hotel we settled in for the night. The next morning we got up early to go see the city. We probably walked a total of 12 miles, we saw so much! There were a few things I loved about New York and a few things I hated. I loved the city, shopping and cafe shops but I learned that I hated the subway. It was a great place to visit but I don't think I could ever live there.




If you know anything about me you know that I am madly in love with chocolate and can't live without it!
Wall street
My poor pants were soaking wet
Times Square-not very busy in the rain
Central Park
NBC
Empire State building
At the top
New York

 After New York we drove up to Boston, we have a friend that lives there that let us stay with him. We didn't have tons of time there but we were able to see a little of the city and spend time with Cody.

 We went on a duck tour (land and water) it was a great way to see the city!
 This was the house we stayed in, I loved it because its just what I thought a house in Boston would look like.
and it was on wisteria way... 
The original cheers bar in Boston  
Looking out on Boston city

Next we drove up to Quebec, we wish we would have had a little more time there, we only had half a day to see the city and had to work the other 3 days. It was a little harder to get around because everything was in French but most people spoke enough English to help us.

 I loved the small steets with cafes and shops!

The top of our hotel eating breakfast

Dan walking across the bridge on the top of the waterfall


Our last stop was Maine, we had a few extra hours before we had to catch our flight so we found a beach to hang out at. We loved Maine!

Play in the ocean
LOVE this guy!



We were so lucky that we got to see the East Coast and we loved every minute of it!


I thought I would share a few fun facts about our trip:
*We drove through 10 states and 2 countries*All the roads back east are lined with trees on both sides so you can't tell you’re in the city*In one day we saw: Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, Wall Street, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Terminal, Ellis Island, Central Park, 5th Ave., NBC, Broadway *It rains, A LOT.*Our hotel room in New York….not very big*I hate the subway in New York *I like the train in Boston *We got searched crossing the border for an hour and I was scared to death they were taking me to jail *Driving in New York sucks*We paid $50 in toll roads to go from Maryland to Maine….total waste of money *The shopping in NY wasn’t that great *It snowed for 5 out of the 7.5 hour drive to Quebec *We saw 4 moose in 4 miles at 1:00 A.M. driving through Maine *I took over 800 pictures *The chocolate & water is terrible in Quebec...made for a long couple of days!

                                                    **Next stop...HONG KONG**