After getting the full pat-down at the Austin airport (a mom with three kids in tow apparently looks pretty dangerous!), I wrangled all my kids onto the plane. Mark got to say hello to the pilot and help him with his flight check by flipping two switches. He was his normal chatty self and decided to tell them our whole life story . . .
The trip to LA was pretty uneventful; my kids were entertained by movies and the novelty of their first flight ever! Mark started melting down with exhaustion right before we boarded our long flight to Hong Kong, but that was pretty understandable, since body time for him was close to 3:00 in the morning. Thankfully, the long flight went much better than expected, all of us slept for a sizable chunk of time, and we watched lots of movies. We had arranged to get three seats on the center aisle in the back of the plane, and two of the ones in the row just in front. That way we had three aisle seats to take kids to the bathroom and stretch our legs a bit. It was my longest flight, but shortest day, ever!
We arrived in Hong Kong early in the morning on Friday, 8/7/11, and got to watch the sun rise on a very scenic personal shuttle to our hotel in downtown Kowloon (the large island opposite Hong Kong island). We were able to leave all our baggage there, but quickly grabbed some fresher clothes, as it wasn't time to check-in to our room yet. We took off from there and headed to Starbucks for some much needed caffeine! Then it was off to explore.
We wandered through beautiful but humid Kowloon Park and saw many people practicing tai chi. The park was wonderfully designed, complete with two children's playgrounds, a flamingo pond, an aviary, meandering walkways, and tons of flowers everywhere. Eventually, we retreated to what was a very extensive underground system of tunnels, where we suddenly found ourselves very under-dressed in a huge mall of ritzy, expensive stores that went on and on and on . . . Our kids didn't care much for shopping, but we finally found a place to get some juice. After more wandering, we ate seafood laksa and lo mein noodles at a cute and eclectic little deli. Our kids complained about the spiciness, and I was appalled when Mark spit out what was in his mouth. So embarrassing!!
After lunch, we walked along the promenade, looking out over Victoria Harbour and watching all the ships go by. We were finally able to check in to our hotel by then, so we went up and took a quick dip in the rooftop pool before our kids crashed on the bed for the night at 6:30. Not even Mark's new DSi could keep him awake any longer! We ate an apple for dinner and were in bed by 8:30.
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