The Millington Fam: Hong Kong

Nick and I went to Hong Kong from 10/27/10-11/4/10. It was our second time leaving Graham and, at a full week, our longest time away from him. We had a wonderful time but also missed Graham quite a bit. He was nice enough to get out of bed to see us off:

We woke up early each day (because of the jet lag) and spent long days exploring on foot, followed by relaxing late-night dinners. I also enjoyed the rare treat of several bubble baths (something I have not found the time for since baby Graham arrived).

We stayed on the Kowloon peninsula and took a ferry across Victoria Harbor when we wanted to explore the island of Hong Kong:

The ferry was always a good place to practice taking self portraits:

We enjoyed walking down crowded alleyways full of street vendors:

and saw some rather odd items out by the curb for free pickup:

We found a trendy baby shop and couldn’t leave without getting a special outfit for Graham:

We rode up the longest escalator in the world on our way to the starting point for a hike to Victoria Peak:

The views at the top were worth the hike:

The ride down was a lot quicker than the hike up:

It was always fun to see the contrast of items displayed in storefront windows around town:

and while some buildings were ultra modern and high tech, others were not:

We decided to take a day trip to Macau (a former Portuguese colony and now a special administrative region of China) commonly considered the Las Vegas of Asia. That was probably my favorite day of our trip. The casinos were amazing. They appeared to be exact replicas of those found in Las Vegas, only 3 times as large. The Venetian may look the same in these pictures but this one (in Macau) is actually the largest casino in the world:

We also got to see several casinos being built and seeing those enormous structures going up with the support of bamboo scaffolding was quite a sight:

In addition to the casinos, we also explored some of the culture of Macau. We especially liked the cluster of Portuguese colonial buildings and small temples with artifacts that we stumbled upon:

We visited the Fortaleza do Monte (Portuguese for Mount Fortress) which was the historical military center of the former Portuguese colony of Macau:

We also visited the Ruins of St. Paul and watched the sunset from the top:

On the way down, we noticed some exercise machines and a rock path that we were supposed to walk barefoot across to prepare our bodies and minds for the visit:

On another day of exploring, we started off at Happy Valley race track (our horse won!):

then made our way to the Nan Lian botanic gardens:

and Chi Lin Nunnery:

One day we went in search of specialty markets. We visited the flower, bird, and fish markets:

I’ve never seen so many frogs and fancy fish for sale in bulk:

We had some fun at the Hong Kong Science Museum:

On our last day, we visited the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery:

We went up in the pagoda:

And got lost on the way home and found ourselves in a man’s private backyard bee farm:

In Hong Kong proper, we went to see the view from the top of the Bank of China Tower and had to get full security screening and clearance just to ride the elevator up:

We also visited St. John’s Cathedral in the heart of downtown Hong Kong. An organist was practicing during our visit which was a pleasant surprise and added a special touch to the experience:

We had fun crossing the harbor during the day, but chose to stay on Kowloon so we could enjoy the harbor views (and the light show) at night:

Although we had a wonderful trip, Graham was never far from our mind and we couldn’t help take a picture of this perfect reminder of our little dude waiting for us at home:

After a LONG day of travel, we made it home and were reunited with our baby:

While we were off in Hong Kong, my parents were in Santa Barbara watching Graham.

They came a few days early to learn Graham’s routines then kept him on schedule the entire time we were gone. They took Graham to his weekly PEP play date:

as well as his music class:

and a friend’s Halloween party:

They kept us posted with daily photo updates and we were amazed by how grown up our little man looked while we were gone (10 months, 4 days old to 10 months, 11 days old):