Hong Kong, Day Three

Finley was wide awake at 3:30 am this morning. Sitting up straight in her bed talking to her animals. There was no coaxing her back to sleep. Clifton and I both fell back asleep, but she never did.
We headed down for breakfast around 7 am and afterwards to the MTR to Disneyland. We ended up getting to Disneyland much quicker than we expected, which meant we were there nearly an hour before opening. Luckily Main Street opens a half hour before the park, so Finley got to meet Minnie and Mickey before the park opened. Finley had brought Figaro with her and loved showing her to Minnie Mouse.

We decided our best strategy was to try and ride Space Mountain first. Turns out, it isn’t so popular here in Hong Kong so we were able to ride it three times and Buzz Lightyear three times without waiting in line. The big draw in Tomorrowland is Autopia. The mad rush was to get there in the morning and the wait time was never below 45 minutes, so we didn’t get a chance to ride it.

We then headed to Fantasyland to watch the Golden Mickeys show. A lot of the show was in Chinese, but all the songs were in English. Tarzan came over to Finley and played with her hair, I am not sure she realized who he was. Then it was onto It’s a Small World, Teacups and Winnie the Pooh. Winnie the Pooh had a big line all day and was one of only three rides that had Fastpasses. After Winnie the Pooh, we went to the Storybook Shoppe to get Finley new ears for Hong Kong. There weren’t many ears to choose from, in fact that shelves were quite empty. People were shopping like crazy and it was hard for the salespeople to stock the shelves fast enough. Finley’s new ears were pink with a red and white bow. Finley wanted a set of Pluto ears, but they didn’t say Hong Kong Disneyland, so she said Grammy would get her the Pluto ears in Disneyland. We grabbed lunch and rode Buzz again while the ears were being embroidered.

After we picked up the new ears, we headed over to Toy Story Land. We rode Slinky Dog and Army Men Parachute Drop. The lines were long over here, reminiscent of Toy Story Land in Paris. We cut it real close to see the parade, but we made it just in time. The music was the same as the parade in California Adventure and Hollywood Studios, but some of the words were changed to fit the Flights of Fantasy theme. And part of it was in Chinese (obviously.) Finley liked the Pooh float the best.

The line at Jungle Cruise was quite long, so we headed over to ride the carousel, visit characters and do some shopping. We also picked up a new button for Finley. I lied and said it was her birthday because when I asked for one, they said “for her birthday?” and I went with it. While shopping four stores in, we came to the realization that we weren’t going to find the Pluto Finley was hoping for. Eeyore was second on the wish list, so we picked up the last one on the shelf. There are baskets in all the shops here and people were just stuffing them full of stuff. It was madness.

We headed back over to the Jungle Cruise and rode it twice in a row. This Jungle Cruise is quite different. It goes around an island with Tarzan’s tree house in the middle and there is a fire and water show at the end. We rode in an English speaking boat both times, but I think the jokes must have been lost in translation. They both mentioned turning into a gorilla if you went through a window…

After the Jungle Cruise, we went to fastpass Space Mountain. They said not to bother, it was a walk on. We rode Orbitron (HK version of Astro Orbiter) with a 20 minute wait and then walked on to Space Mountain SEVEN times in a row. I think I have ridden this version more than the one in California. I was amazed there was no line. And that Autopia was still 45 minutes. Finley just wanted to ride it again and again, she was running down the ramp and the cast members remembered her every time. We sort of stuck out here. The lady working at Chip and Dale remembered us from the morning with Mickey and Minnie. The other comical thing about HK Disneyland was the number of people who wanted to take pictures of Finley. It was so very strange, we had our own mini paparazzi. It happened several times and everyone was really nice about it, but it was rather silly.

Space Mountain wore Finley out. We grabbed a quick dinner and Finley passed out in her stroller. She slept through the fireworks and the whole train ride home. If you ever get a chance to visit HK Disneyland, the subway is one of the neatest things. All the windows are shaped like Mickey Mouse and even the handles inside the cars are shaped like Mickey. There are character statues inside the cars and it is really decked out Disney style. Finley’s heart remains with the monorail…

Hong Kong, Day Two

Because of the nap that evolved into night, we were all up quite early this morning. At 5:30 am Finley was sitting up in her bed in complete darkness, who knows how longs she had been like that. We got Finley a shower and in her cute kid sized robe. We headed down to breakfast as early as we could since no one had eaten since lunch.

We walked over to the Star Ferry Terminal to go across Victoria Harbor to Hong Kong Island. The top thing on Finley’s to do list was to ride on the top of the double decker tram. She instantly spotted a pink one as soon as we approached the street. We ended up boarding a mint green tram to ride to the end of the line. We even had seats at the front on the top level. We walked around the area a bit and then got back on a double decker tram to head over to The Peak Tram. The Peak Tram is an incline train that goes to The Peak (naturally.) This wasn’t Finley’s first ride on an incline train, she had ridden the one in Montmatre in Paris last year.

At The Peak we got a little lost in the mall where the train lets off. We kept going up and down, down and up, never finding a way to exit. The main exit was under construction, so we could see where we were supposed to go, but not where we could go now. We finally found the exit and Finley played a bit in the old Peak Tram car. We then went to the roof deck to check out the view. Finley had fun looking through the binoculars. We then grabbed an ice cream snack and sat outside enjoying the view of the mountains to the south.

We took the Peak Tram back down the mountain and headed to the MRT to head back to the hotel for an earlier nap. No one was hungry after ice cream and Finley got some good rest in. We were out and about a little early for dinner. We walked along Nathan and Mody roads, but finding somewhere to eat was proving to be a bit of a challenge. If you needed a watch, camera or jewelry, you were set, but we were finding it was not yet dinner time at most restaurants. We ended up eating in a crazy food court in an underground shopping mall. The food was good, but there were no napkins to be had. Which proves to be a challenge with a four year old.

We headed back to our hotel room to watch the harbor light show. Our room provides the perfect view of the show and we figured it was easiest to watch it from there in jammies.

Honk Kong, Day One

After nearly 24 hours of travel, we arrived in Hong Kong yesterday evening. Finley did great on the flights, she was still not a huge fan of headphones and she did do some kicking while she slept, but other than that, she was perfect. I still cannot believe we all traveled together for that long and made it. I did get whacked on the head by a suitcase, but other than that, the trip was without incident.

We got to sleep relatively quickly on Sunday evening and were up bright and early for breakfast. After breakfast, we walked along the harbor to the Hong Kong Tourism Office to arrange our Junk Tour for Thursday. A lot of the decorations from the Chinese New Year are still up along the waterfront and Finley was fascinated by them.

Then it was off to the MTR (subway) to catch the trains out to Lantau Island. Finley had selected riding in the cable car as her first choice activity in Hong Kong. I was curious as to whether she had ridden one before. I eventually remembered the cable car in the San Diego Zoo. It wasn’t until later in the day that I realized she had ridden on a cable car multiple times in Vail and Beaver Creek. They have a display out of cable cars around the world and seeing the old cars reminded me of the old cable cars at the top of the bunny slopes in Vail.

The main draw of Lantau Island is the cable car ride itself. It is quite long. Finley entertained everyone in our car with stories of alligators that chomp chomped and ghosts. She didn’t want to end the story until we were off of the car. I don’t think she realized how far that was. At the end of the ride stands the largest sitting outdoor Buddha. Finley was insistent that we walk to the top. I was worried about her making it, but she went faster than both Clifton and I. She had the same determination climbing the steps in the Sacre Coure. There must be something about steps on vacation. Finley loves it!

We took the cable car ride back to the MTR station and had a very late lunch. Then it was back to the hotel for a nap. Or as it goes when you are on a 10 hour time difference..,in for the night. Despite our best efforts of setting an alarm, no one woke up until nearly 10 pm. Finley is still asleep and we will let her stay that way hopefully until morning. We all still have a lot of sleep to catch up on.

Valentine's at Home

On Valentine's Day, Finley was in a really goofy mood.  Which made for some very interesting photographs.  Finley got a Minnie Mouse Valentine book, the six Star Wars movies on Blu-Ray and a Star Wars sheet set.  She was most excited about the sheet set and insisted on changing her bed to the new sheets straight away.  She now sleeps with a Death Star pillow.  What a sweet little Valentine!

Valentine's Day at School

Finley filled all the bags for her Valentine's for school. She was quite upset that the bag of Hershey Kisses didn't have equal numbers of colored kisses. We had an excess of pink and not enough red kisses. Other than that, Valentine's day was easy. Finley shared her Valentine's at school, they made chocolate covered pretzels and then had a party. Apparently no one napped, so they played all day. The kids had pizza, fruit and cupcakes. At home Finley opened each one of her cards and treats. The cutest part was that she could read each of her friend's names.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Bubbles, kisses and love! From Finley, to you!

Happy Birthday Luca!

Luca had an awesome monster truck birthday party this weekend. There was a jumpy house, Chick-fil-a nuggets, cake and chocolate pudding with gummy worms. Finley was in heaven. She spent most of the time playing in the play room with the kitchen. She certainly didn't want me in there with her because every time I went to check on her, she told me to go back outside. We are enjoying wonderful warm weather right now, so I was happy to oblige. Happy birthday to Luca!

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