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November 24

Well, not every day can be an exciting one when you travel with two small kids. In fact, today was kind of low-key, bordering on boring! Just kidding, we’re still enjoying ourselves!

The kids are completely over their jetlag and are now sleeping at night. Danny and I are fine, too, although we both have a habit of getting up in the middle of the night to read email, since we feel completely out of sync with the rest of you.

The morning started slowly, with Danny heading out with his mom and aunts to visit his father’s memorial plaque. This is a tradition, whereby even though Danny’s dad is actually buried in China, they have a plaque that they visit here. We didn’t see the benefit to take the kids since they couldn’t understand anyway, so the kids and I stayed at the hotel while Danny and his mom met there.

Afterwards, Emily and Stephanie and I went downtown and met Danny, his mom and his aunts at the Star Ferry terminal so we could go over to Tsim Sha Tsui for dim sum. The boat ride is short, and the girls enjoyed watching the other boats, so it was good fun. In fact, the terminal is currently being decommissioned since they’ve built a new one, so we were some of the final passengers to use this one. Most of the businesses in the terminal have already closed down and moved into the new building. You can see photos of the new building below. It’s quite good looking, although it doesn’t look entirely ready.

Dim Sum was awesome. This is the same restaurant we took the aunties to on our March 2005 trip, only this time Danny’s mom is here too. The food, although pricey, is among Hong Kong’s best dim sum, and we were not disappointed. The fare included fabulous large dumplings in individual bowls, and lovely har gow. The girls ate lots, and even though Emily fell asleep just as we arrived, she woke up and charmed the pants off everyone!

We headed back uptown after lunch, and Stephanie had a long afternoon nap. Unfortunately, Emily opted out of the nap program, which meant we were in for some fun later.

For dinner today, we had decided to have hotpot, just the four of us. On previous outings, Danny had seen a famous seafood hotpot restaurant in Causeway Bay, so we went there for dinner, on the bus. The girls enjoy the bus, and it’s a cheap and easy way to get around. The restaurant was great, the food delicious, and I was a spectacle. Although Hong Kong has many foreigners, I’m guessing not too many of them frequent hotpot restaurants, so the waiters and waitresses hovered quite a lot, waiting to see if I had any clue what to do. After watching me cook and eat successfully, they were satisfied, and then mostly left us alone. It was the best meal we’ve had since arriving in Hong Kong.

You might get the impression that all we do is shop and eat and you wouldn’t be far off. This vacation has been very relaxing. We have no set agenda and we adjust our plans based on naps and temperaments to make sure we get the best out of the girls. They have done really well so far, considering how young they are.