Valentine Family Summer Vacation

I have been home for a few days now. I think I have finally rested up enough and have gotten caught up on housework to sit at the computer and write my final post. Here are the events of our final week of vacation:

We arrived in Salt Lake City, UT at about 6pm on Monday night. The two flights from Hong Kong were uneventful. They didn't take our temperature again to test for the H1N1 - apparently the US doesn't care if we bring it in. They were sure careful about it when we arrived in Hong Kong! I watched the movie "Push" on the way home, which was filmed in HK. I didn't much care for the storyline, but it was fun to see so many of the buildings and locations that we had just visited. I dozed a little on the leg from San Francisco to UT, but didn't sleep other than that. Surprisingly, I wasn't tired at all when my Aunt Jayna picked us up from the airport - it was about 8am HK time then, so I was ready for a new day! We stayed at Jayna's house that night, and I stayed up until about 11pm talking to her and my cousin Amy. With the aid of some Benadryl (and Jayna's VERY comfortable bed!) I slept well that night.

On Tuesday afternoon, we drove out to Logan, UT (about 2 hours away) to my mother-in-law's house where three of my kids (Tory, Hannah, Monah) had been staying for the previous week. It was so nice to be reunited with them after so long! We all spent the night there that night, and the next day we drove up to Bear Lake to enjoy some swimming, playing in the sand and relaxing in the deliciously wonderful weather. That evening, I returned with my five kids to Jayna's house to prepare for our departure the next morning. This involved single-handedly repacking all of our luggage, cleaning the van, mapping our route of travel, etc. It was after 11pm by the time I was finished, and I still hadn't gone to the grocery store to buy food.

We managed to pull out of Jayna's house at about 8:30 the next morning, all packed and ready to go. We stopped by Target on our way out to buy some food and videos for the trip. It takes a lot longer to shop with 5 kids than it would by myself! We began our 12 hour drive to Albuquerque at about 9:30. With the aid of several Mt. Dew, I was awake and alert the whole drive (good thing, since I was the only driver!). We took a little detour to Four Corners, where we took a picture and bought some snow cones and fry bread. We arrived at my friend Celeste Killpack's house at about 9:30 that night.

I decided that since I had slept so well every night since I had arrived in the US, I must be over my jetlag and I could try a night without the aid of Benadryl. Unfortunately, my plan didn't work so well, and I lay in bed wide awake until after 5am. I considered getting my medicine at about 2am, but that would have involved going out to the car and digging it out of our luggage in the dark. I decided to count sheep instead (didn't work). After finally falling asleep sometime after 5am, I got a phone call from Josh at 7:30am saying that he needed some money (sigh). That kept me awake for another 30 minutes before I finally dozed off again. Another phone call at 8:30 woke me again. I decided it was futile to try to sleep more, so I got up and showered.

That afternoon we played with the Killpacks by going to an indoor swimming complex. It had diving boards and slides and lots of fun for the kids. They all had a blast. That night we went to a huge pizza buffet/arcade called “Itz.” We met my cousin Daniel Markham and his wife and two young children there. He also lives in Albuquerque, quite near Celeste, as it turns out. It was fun to spend time with him and get to know his cute family. The kids played at Itz for more than 3 hours, riding rides, bowling on a mini bowling alley, winning tickets at the arcade, and cashing them in for cheap little prizes that thrilled them.

I took more Benadryl that night (I needed to make up for the 3 hours of sleep the night before!) and finally got the rest I needed. We left the next morning at about 8:30 for the last leg of our trip – a 14 hour drive to San Antonio. Most of it was through the flat, dry desert of New Mexico and Texas – very boring. Fortunately, I had my Mt. Dew, my books on tape, and frequent interruptions from the kids to keep me entertained and alert (and irritated). We finally arrived at our house at about 11:00pm Saturday night– YEA!!

I unpacked the car, put away the food, and collapsed into bed. I would have slept through church the next morning, but Josh was giving a talk, so I was determined to attend our 8:30am service. We had a little surprise as we loaded in the van to leave for church in the morning. We had left the interior lights on when we went searching for my cell phone the night before, and the battery was completely dead. So, we all squished into my little Honda Fit instead of wasting time jump starting it. I was very sleepy all through the church meetings, and after we returned home, I went back to bed and slept for over 3 hours. That night we went to my mom’s house for dinner, since I still didn’t have any food in the house (or any inclination to make anything)

Well, that pretty much covers everything! Hope you’ve had fun reading my blog posts. Looking back, I am amazed at how well the whole vacation turned out. Everyone was healthy, there were no emergencies, and the entire trip went almost exactly as planned with mostly perfect weather. How often does that happen when so many people are involved and there are so many variables that could go wrong? Such an incredible blessing for me and my family. I am especially grateful to all of the relatives and friends who opened their homes to us while we were travelling – A HUGE thank you to each of you!

For those of you who already read my "Hong Kong day 5" entry, you probably saw that I accidentally copied and pasted the "Day 3&4" entry. Sorry about the confusion! Here is the real entry I intended to post this morning (or was it yesterday? Crossing the dateline always gets me confused!)

Well, we are now sitting at the Hong Kong airport waiting for our flight to San Francisco. Here is what we did so far today: Hong Kong has a very cool system to check in to the airport where they have a check in terminal in the central part of HK Island, which was just a few minutes from the apartment. So we took our check in luggage to the express terminal early in the morning and checked it all in. Then we took a taxi to the Victoria Peak tram station to take the tram back up to the peak. It was a beautiful day today with sun and few clouds, so we thought we could get a better look from the top. However, we were greatly disappointed when we arrived and learned that the tram was closed for maintenance. We were excited about riding the “funicular” cable-pulled tram straight up the mountain at a 45 degree angle. Our only other option was to take a city bus about an hour through town and then up a windey road to the top. Despite our tight schedule, we decided to do it.

When we had been to the peak the other day with the tour, the tour guide told us that there was a path which went all around the top of the mountain that took about an hour to walk. I figured that it would give us a view from all around the island, so we decided to walk it (very briskly, because of our lack of time) It started out as a pedestrian path, but ended up being a very narrow road which serviced some of the homes and apartment buildings up there. There were quite a few intersections, and we crossed our fingers and picked a direction every time, hoping that it would lead us back to the starting point. After one wrong turn, we found our way back to the peak. However, there were so many trees, we failed to see much of a view. I did catch a brief glimpse of the other side through some trees, but that about it. The only thing we accomplished by the walk was to get some great exercise and to get all nice and sweaty for our long flight home. I don’t envy the person that will get stuck next to us on the plane! After our walk, we decided to try out the yummy looking crepes we had been drooling over since we saw the display on our first trip. Mike and I each got one with cheesecake, ice cream, strawberries and whipped cream. Delicious!

At the top, we ran into one of the Australian couples we met on our cruise. In a city of 7 million, I can’t believe that we ran into them! They had tried to ride the tram too, and were disappointed as we were. After our crepes, we took a taxi back to the apartment to pick up our carry-on backpacks, and then took the shuttle bus to the Airport Express terminal. It was a quick 25 minute ride through Kowloon and over to the island with the new airport. Since we had already checked in, we just had to get through security and customs and walk an additional 30 minutes to our gate at the very end of the terminal. More exercise, but at least it was in the air conditioning this time. I kept thinking that we would board the plane at 12:45, so we were cutting it short. When we arrived at 12:50 I realized that I was an hour off and we weren’t boarding until 1:45. I guess we didn’t have to rush so fast at the peak after all! Oh well, I guess we had done everything we really wanted to do up there. So, that leaves me here in the waiting area writing this update. The plane is just about to board, though, so I guess I’ll sign off until we get back to Utah! It will be so good to be back in the States!

Saturday was our half-day tour of Hong Kong Island. Again, we rode the ferry to Kowloon to meet our tour group, which was much larger this time (darn!!) – about 16 people. Just as we arrived at our meeting place, it started pouring rain. We were so lucky it didn’t start as we were walking around! The rain continued off and on all morning. In our rush to leave the apartment, I had forgotten the bag with the umbrella, so I had to buy a new one at one of our stops (at about triple the price I could have bought it for at the street market). Oddly enough, the rain would pour down as we were travelling from one spot to another, but would stop completely whenever we got out, so I never did use that umbrella. I guess I was just buying insurance.

Our first stop was Victoria Peak – the highest mountain in Hong Kong. There were breathtaking views of the harbor and all of the thousands of skyscrapers. Of course, the clouds and misty rain over the harbor hindered the view somewhat, but it was still spectacular. We only spent a few minutes there before we left for our next destination – Aberdeen. This is the typhoon shelter for all of the fishing boats. Many of these boats are also the homes for the fishermen and their families. We rode a water taxi boat for about 25 minutes around to see some of the boats. It is also a parking spot to many huge and expensive yachts. There is also the world’s largest floating restaurant – it seats 3000!

Next we drove by Repulse Bay, a large beach on the island, and saw the apartment building with the best “feng shui” in all of China. Apparently, combining water and wind is very harmonious and will bring good financial fortune. This building is mostly blue and is shaped like a wave. In the center of it is a big square hole which allows the wind from the tall mountain behind it to blow through. Rent in this apartment is over $10,000 a month for a small 800 sq. ft. unit, but the building is always filled to capacity. Apparently, all of the occupants become very rich when they live there, so they don’t want to move. At least, that’s what our tour guide told us….

We drove on to nearby Stanley Market, a large outdoor street market on Stanley Bay, which had another beach. The tour only allowed about 30 minutes at this stop, but it was the last stop of the tour, so we decided to stay an extra 30 minutes and then make our own way back on a bus at the nearby bus terminal. We rode a double-decker bus home – quite the adventure! The road home was a very narrow, windey road that wound along the coast for about 5 miles. Those busses come so close to the edge! And looking from the top, it was a little frightening. We also kept hitting branches from the trees right above us. And when we passed other double-decker busses or big trucks going the other direction – I don’t know how they manage to not hit each other! Those bus drivers have some serious skills!

When we returned to the Central Plaza, Ben met us and took us to a very popular dumpling restaurant. When we are seated at the table, women pushing carts with different kinds of dumplings come around and we tell them which ones we want. I guess that is the traditional way of eating dumplings. It was fun, and the food was extremely good. It was nice to be able to see what you were getting and be able to choose what you wanted. A fabulous meal!

After lunch, the kids and I rode the subway back to Kowloon where we found a very large street market to buy some gifts for the family. We had fun wandering around for a few hours, and bought lots of stuff. On the way back to the apartment, we bought some yummy bread for dinner.

The next day was Sunday, so we went to Ben’s ward for church. He meets in a new building on HK Island that he said per square foot is the most expensive piece of real estate that the church owns. It is 12 stories high, and has several chapels inside. Apparently, because of the growth of the church they have already outgrown it. When they built it they considered putting more levels and leasing the space until the church grew into it, but Pres. Hinckley decided that the church wasn’t in the business of managing real estate, so they didn’t. The fact that the space above the building is not being used is the reason this building is so expensive. Interesting trivia!

The church service was nice and the people were friendly. I met the son of a good friend of mine in Shauna’s ward – Sis. Lee. I had heard her talk of her son David many times and knew that he lived in Hong Kong, but I never dreamed that I would run into him here! He had apparently heard his mom talk of me, too, so it was fun for us to run into each other. It’s a small world! After church, we rode an electric trolley home, just for the adventure of it.

Later that afternoon, we went to another nearby street market. The night before as I was sorting out the gifts we bought, I realized that I had gotten lots of things for some kids and very few for others, so I decided I needed to even it out a little so I didn’t hear about how unfair I am for the rest of my life (you can’t imagine how hard it is to keep things perfectly even when you have 9 kids! I learned that Matt can list off who got the fewest presents after the last 3 trips I’ve taken. And I’m sure he’ll remember for the rest of his life and keep reminding me of it.) On the way home from the market, we got a little lost. We got on the trolley going the wrong direction and I couldn’t find where we were on the map. When I finally realized my mistake, I tried to get on another trolley going the other way, but it turned on a side street and started going up instead of across. I finally gave up and took a taxi home.

That night we had a 2-hour dinner cruise through Hong Kong harbor. We boarded the boat at 7:45, and there is a nightly light show set to music from the buildings along the harbor at 8:00. Unfortunately, our ship just wasn’t arranged very well to allow us to see much of the show. As we were heading into the main harbor, the best view was from the front of the boat. But, most of the front of the boat was blocked by a cabin and the bridge. There was only about 15 feet of space along the front rail that was partially blocked by some big metal support beams of the ship, and all 200 people on the boat were fighting to get a spot along those 15 feet. I finally gave up and went back to eat my cooling dinner.

The dinner was a huge gourmet buffet feast. The food was incredible! I loaded three plates of food. So many things to choose from! So, when I got back to the table, guess what Matt had on his plate – two pieces of French bread and a little steamed rice. All that delicious food, and that was the only thing that he thought was edible. Well, that and some cheesecake for dessert. I really hope a person can survive on pure starch for 18 days, because rice and bread are the only things he has eaten this whole trip. I sure hope he doesn’t go on a mission to the orient someday, because he will literally starve. I think that I have been overeating this whole trip partially to compensate for his lack of eating. When a pay a lot for a nice meal, it kills me to see half of it thrown away. The other night I dreamt that I was pregnant – I think it was my psyche’s way of dealing with my expanding waistline. There HAD to be another explanation! It COULDN’T be just fat!

The curry chicken that I was anticipating while writing my last entry was as good as it smelled. My friend's husband, Ben, came home in time for dinner, and I had a very pleasant evening visiting with him. It's always fun to see friends you haven't seen for many years. I just wish Hyegyoung could have been here, too. I have been able to talk to her briefly on the phone while I’ve been here, though.

The next morning, we got an early start and rode the Star Ferry across the harbor to Kowloon to have our first tour. It was a group coach tour, but there was only one other couple with us – lucky break! Small groups are much easier. It was a tour of Kowloon and the New Territories. We started by visiting the Bamboo Forest Monastery. It was a Buddhist temple much like the other 20 temples we have visited, but I still love seeing the beautiful architecture and exquisite décor. From there we drove past a huge container port and several huge suspension bridges linking Lantau Island. Then we visited one of the few remaining walled villages left in Hong Kong. Family Clans built these mini fortresses about 700 years ago to protect themselves. It had tall brick walls with a lookout tower at each corner, the remnants of what used to be a moat around the outside, and was full of very narrow alleys and3-4 story homes. They said at one time there were about 250 people who lived inside – all from the Tang family. There was a group of octogenarian ladies there who asked for a dollar to have their pictures taken with some traditional clothing.

Next, we drove to the border of Mainland China and Hong Kong and looked out from a high lookout point to see a large city just inside the border. It wasn’t terribly exciting for me, since I had just spent the previous 2 weeks in China! Then we went to a wishing tree. There were two trees at this site – a 300 year old banyan and another very old (don’t know the age) Camphor tree. Worshippers believe that the god Pak Kung (the local land god) would grant their wishes. We were able to buy some paper with beautiful decorations and elaborate paper cuttings (as an offering to please the god and make him want to grant our wish), on which we wrote our name and our wish. Up until about 4 years ago, people would tie this paper onto an orange and throw it into the branches of the tree. If it stayed, you would get your wish. However, 4 years ago two of the banyan tree branches broke off and termites were discovered. So, they banned the practice of throwing things in the branches and built some structures where you could tie your wishes onto pegs under your zodiac sign.

We briefly visited a jewelry making factory/tourist trap after that, and then the tour was over. We found a little restaurant for lunch, and then headed to the subway to go to the temple. Halfway there I realized, to my great dismay, that I had forgotten my temple recommend at my friend’s house. So, we jumped on a subway headed in the opposite direction and took the 45 minute trip back to her house. The boys were very happy about this change in plans, because they were dreading having to wait in the temple lobby for two hours while I attended a session. I just left them at Hyegyoung’s house to watch movies and swim while I went back to the temple by myself. I got there just a few minutes after the 4:00 session started, and the next one wasn’t until 7:00. After walking about 10 minutes from the subway to the temple in 95 degree weather, I was hot and tired. However, the lady doing some cleaning out in front told me that I couldn’t go into to the temple to wait until after 6:00 when they unlocked the lobby doors for the next session. I couldn’t believe it! So, I went to a stone planter in the shade of the temple (but still in the 95 degree weather!) to wait for two hours. Thankfully, the lady returned a few minutes later to tell me that she had gotten permission to let me sit in the air conditioned lobby to wait. Whew! So I read the July Ensign cover to cover and took a short nap while I waited. The session was great, and I’m glad I made the trip back to attend. The Hong Kong temple is very small! The celestial room is about the size of some sealing rooms I’ve seen.

After the temple, I made my way back to the apartment on the subway. Today we are about to leave for a tour of Hong Kong Island and then do some shopping. I’ll let you know how it goes!

On Wednesday, we had our first whole day without a tour guide holding our hand. On our own we found the subway station, figured out how to buy tickets, and rode the subway across town, including one transfer to another train. My training in Seoul on the subway paid off – it was very similar to the Korean subway, and it was very easy to find my way around. We went to an amusement park to play all day. We were the only foreigners I saw all day except for some actors in their shows. I guess it’s not a big tourist hangout. It was a fairly large and fun park, though. It had several very big roller coasters. Matt’s favorite ride was a motorcycle rollercoaster where each rider sits on their own little racing motorcycle shaped seat, leaning forward and holding onto the handlebars. Very different! I got a big laugh at the two water rides they had. While waiting in line for the ride, you had the option of buying a raincoat, complete with plastic booties for your feet and a hood with a drawstring. What’s the good of going on a water ride if you’re not going to get wet? About 90% of the riders bought the rain suits and stood sweltering in the 100 degree weather wrapped in plastic. It was hilarious! We chose to get wet, and boy did we! It felt good to be cool and wet, but we never did completely dry out, with the high humidity and our constant sweating in the heat. I think the boys had fun riding the rides and watching a few shows, but we decided to leave a little early, about 6pm.

We went back to the hotel and decided to wander the streets to find a place to eat dinner. We walked around a few shops lining the streets for about 1.5 hours, and then the boys decided to eat at McDonalds right next to our hotel. I couldn’t waste another precious meal in China at McDonalds (we’d already eaten their twice already!), so I walked down another street while the boys ate. That’s when I found a huge shopping district right behind our hotel. There were probably thousands of little tiny shops of people selling clothing and accessories, all crammed into about 4 city blocks. I went back to get the boys (who had been planning on just returning to the hotel room after they finished eating), and we wandered the stores until about 10pm. We didn’t buy much, but it was interesting. I am trying to save the bulk of our buying until we get to Hong Kong. We had so much fun shopping that I never did get any dinner.

The next morning we left the hotel at 9am, and we barely had enough time to visit the two things that we missed seeing on Monday because of our late train. We went to the Chen Family Ancestral home, which is now more of a museum. The buildings were covered with very interesting, intricate, colorful carvings. They were in the process of restoring the paint on the carvings, so most of them were all still in much need of repair. A few had the fresh, bright paint, though. We walked through it quickly and then drove to the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees, which is another Buddhist temple. We only had a few minutes to spend there before we had to dash off to catch our 12:00 train to Hong Kong.

The train ride was only 1 hour and 45 minutes long, so we just had seats this time. I bought the boys some cup raman (their favorite meal!) for lunch, which they ate on the train. We were on our own when we arrived at this station. And, going through customs, the health people caught me for running a slight temperature again. I must run a little hot or something. I never knew that before. I don’t usually take my temperature when I don’t feel sick. I had to sit behind a little screen and answer a bunch of questions and take an oral temperature. Then they made me wear a mask (those things make you very HOT!) I only wore it until they couldn’t see me any more – such a rebel! I appreciate the health officials keeping everyone safe by testing everyone, but it has been a real pain for me to have to jump through their hoops every time when I know I don’t have the swine flu. I guess I should just plan on it happening again when I leave Hong Kong. One of my foreigner friends from the cruise said that she brought a big bottle of Tylenol and dozens of sample-sized doses of cough medicine with her on the airplane to hand out to anyone around her displaying flu symptoms so they could get through the health checkpoint without getting caught. Maybe I should pop a couple Tylenol before I get to the airport to make sure my temp is down.

So, we got to Hong Kong and were able to take a taxi to my friend Holly Ford’s apartment. She is in the US right now on her annual vacation with her two kids, but she kindly offered the use of her home while we are here. Her husband is still here, although he is at work right now and I haven’t seen him yet. They have a live-in helper who was able to let us in and make us comfortable. She is making come curry chicken for dinner right now, and it smells delicious! Can’t wait to eat it!