Dec. 24th - Christmas Eve in Hong Kong!!! (Cheryl)

We slept in this morning, having absolutely nothing planned for us by anyone!!! We made it to 7:30am when Kaeli decided it was high time to get rolling. Laurie went out foraging for food and brought back breakfast from a local shop. Then we walked around the neighborhood for an hour or so - found the gorgeous Kowloon Park a few blocks away and had fun with the fountains and birds and all the stairs.

We had our noon time naps, then heated up leftovers for lunch. Then we took a taxi down to the Star Ferry terminal and took the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong Island (Kaeli's first boat ride!), where we visited Kaeli's second library! We wandered around for awhile, then headed back to the mainland where we're staying. Evidently Christmas Eve is a big deal here - they have shut down several main streets (including the one our hotel is on) and there are street parties going on everywhere. Everyone wishes us a Merry Christmas, too. The streets are all lit up with Christmas lights and lots of people are wearing Christmas hats.

Tomorrow we are scheduled for an all day tour of Hong Kong (we couldn't bear not to be on a sightseeing schedule for more than one day!) and will see Victoria's Peak, the Aberdeen floating villages, and have a dim sum lunch and a morning harbor boat tour.

Kaelie has now ridden in a taxi, a bus, a train, a plane, and a ferry boat. By the time she's home in the US, she'll have also been in three countries before turning two (China, Japan (our plane change) and the US!).

More later... must go up to rescue Laurie from a little miss Kaeli who is full of energy and giggles tonight...

love to all on this Christmas Eve in Hong Kong...

Cheryl

PS - please forgive any and all typos, grammatical errors, etc. in this blog - we can not be held responsible for our poor typing and English skills at this late date in our adventures....