Emily slept through to almost 6:00am, so at least one of us was happy. Oh, and did I mention that Danny has his own room, without any kids? For real, did I mention that? And that it was my stupid idea?? At least one of us had a peaceful night, I guess.
Luckily, we had those groceries, and the pizza Stephanie never ate, ‘cause not much is moving in Hong Kong at 5:00am on a Sunday. Stephanie ate her entire pizza, and Emily had hotdog buns. Both girls were showered and dressed and we were ready to head out before 8am.
We walked down into the city, to the empty streets (‘cause the smart people were still sleeping). We actually had to wait 5 minutes for it to be 8:00 so that the kids could go into a shop to get a cold drink to take to the tea house with us. We got their drinks and went in search of dim sum. We actually found some, and sat and had a good meal. Not sure whether this still can be called breakfast, because we ate at 4:50 and 5:30am, but it was still before 9:00 so calling it lunch seems a bit dumb. So, breakfast #2 it was. And it was actually quite good, so we all left happy.
Even after we were done, nothing much was open, and the escalator doesn’t change to the upward direction until just after 10:00am. We walked partway up, then it started to rain. Heavy. And our umbrellas were at the hotel, doing us absolutely no good. We stood and waited, under cover, for the escalator to switch to “up” and took it back up towards the hotel. By the time we got off (just 10 minutes later) the rain had stopped and the sun was peeking out. We decided that a swim would be good idea, and the kids were good with that.
The pool was awesome. Warm water, hardly anyone around, and sunshine. This time of year, we knew this was the weather we’d get….a little bit of rain (or a lot) almost every day, but not lasting too long. With plenty of HOT sunshine too. Some other English speaking kids came to the pool shortly after we got there, so Emily and Stephanie had little friends to play with. They swam for over an hour, then we called it a break.
The afternoon was really sunny and hot, so we decided to head over to Causeway Bay to shop. Danny was in search of some more light weight shirts. The kids love riding the bus in Hong Kong.
We shopped around a bit in Causeway Bay but not much. Being Sunday, everyone was out shopping and the stores were crazy busy. Not really what we had in mind. We walked around a lot, then decided on a snack in one of the little dessert shops that specializes in mango desserts. Oh yeah, and they also specialize in air conditioning and relatively clean bathrooms (way more valuable and appealing than any dessert could ever be!!). We had some desserts, but then Stephanie had started whining about how tired she was, so we called it an afternoon. A short and inexpensive taxi ride and we were back at the hotel. By now, you’d think Stephanie might actually take a nap, but you’d be wrong, my friends, dead wrong. Little buggar wasn’t going to nap, no how, no way. So she didn’t.
The dinner discussion went something like this:
Kids, what do you want for dinner?
Pizza.
Pizza.
But.
Pizza.
So, after we went to Pizza Express again (yeah, I’m that persuasive), Stephanie made me a promise that she’d stay awake and eat. Yeah, sure, I’ll believe that when I see it. We order the kids pizzas again, and I had the exact same thing as last night. Tonight, Stephanie at about ¾ of the pizza before collapsing, and Emily actually got to try her hot chocolate. Just as I was going to give up on Stephanie, I told her that her dinner came with ICE CREAM. Oh magical words. ICE CREAM. Stephanie woke up and was down right happy eating a little cup of vanilla ice cream. So, in fact, dinner was a huge success, even though it wasn’t the Chinese food I so wanted.
Back up to the hotel we walked, enjoying the evening warmth. We barely reached the hotel lobby when both kids showed signs of collapse. I brought both kids up to the room (yeah, the room I share with them while Danny has his own room with NO KIDS). Both kids and I were in our beds by 7:30pm, bowing to the pressure of jetlag. We had a good relaxing first full day here, and got lots of fresh air, so I guess that was a good start to the holiday.
