New England, October 7 – 10, 2011.

Kin, my roommate while in graduate school, and his wife Sandra visited us for the long weekend.  I picked them up Thursday and had dinner at Seabra Armory in Perth Amboy while Anne attended her class.  We would embark on a New England foliage tour.  The forecast said the foliage would be at its peak.

10/7 Friday.  Left house at around 10:30 am.  Parkway to Tappan Zee Bridge to Merritt Parkway to Route 7.  Driving through Danbury, New Milford, CT.  Lunch at Italia Mia in New Milford.  Their specials were quite inexpensive.

Drove to top of Mt. Greylock, at 3491 ft highest point in the state, in Northwestern Massachusetts.  Clear day, but not sure we could see the five states as claimed (from the top of the memorial).  Checked in at Vacation Village in Hancock, and ate dinner at Powder Hound about ½ mile away.  Anne had the meatloaf, Kin the spare ribs, and Sandra the stuffed flounder, which were pretty good; I had the shepherd’s pie which was quite forgettable.  Did get to enjoy some of the spare ribs, though.  As agreed, today’s meals were paid by Kin.

Quite disappointed at the foliage at less than 20% by my reckoning.  The claim is it’s at its peak.

 At Mt. Greylock, with Kin & Sandra.

This is being advertised as "near-peak" foliage.

Stay at Vacation Village at the Berkshires.  Miles: 250.

10/8 Saturday.  Left hotel at around 9:30 am.  Took Route 7 to go North.  Stopped by farmstand and walked around a bit.  Lunch at Rutland, VT Ponderosa, the Ponderosa being a restaurant many of us met on Sundays after church while students in Ithaca.  Stopped at Quechee Gap, many more people than when we visited in 2009, but colors not nearly as nice.  Hotel in Weirs Beach (Laconia) has nice view of Lake Winnipesaukee.  Rooms a bit dated, but functional.   Dinner at Weathervane in Weirs Beach.

Colors a bit better than yesterday, still disappointing.  Also we probably calibrated our expectations after yesterday.

There were also many signs of Hurricane Irene’s destruction along the way, especially in Vermont.  Many houses were moved, many trees toppled, and there was a lot of silt deposited on the “banks” of Quechee Gorge.

 Williams College.  There are these eyes on the lawn next to the museum.

 Covered bridge near Quechee Gap, NH.  Closed because of roads destroyed by Hurricane Irene.

The Foliage has improved, a little.

Stay at Cedar Lodge, Laconia, NH.  Miles: 215.

10/9 Sunday.  Left hotel at around 9:30 am.  Drove to Squam Lake and visited Squam Lake Natural Science Center which has a walking trail with caged animals along the way.  Some interesting, but mostly mundane stuff.  At $15 per person it was also a bit expensive.  But we spent about 90 minutes in the area, and got a few mosquito bites in exchange.  Drove back down to Meredith for lunch, the lines were long – today was part of a long weekend, afterall.  Lunch at sandwich place Sunshine and Pa's; we ate there a couple of years back also.  Drive to Ogunquit, ME, looking for the working boat Ugly Anne.  Anne and I are sure we took a cruise on it many years ago, when Ellie was still in high school.  Area was too crowded, we couldn’t find a place to park and had to leave.  By the time we got to Rockport, MA it was already 6:15 pm or so, with little daylight left.  Saw “Motif #1” and strolled around area a bit.  Dinner at Moore’s Fish Shack in Rockport, which turned out okay.

Sunrise on Lake Winnipesaukee, as viewed from our hotel room.

 In front of the No. 1 Motif in Rockport, MA, at dusk.  The power boat feels out of place in this picture.

The more canonical view of Rockport, NH.

Old college rommates at  Meredith, NH.

Ugly Anne as posted on her website.  She has been sold and is now in Mackinac, Michigan.

The colors seemed to be improving, but still not even close to “peak.”  I feel quite cheated by the foliage report, some of which unequivocally say this is the peak foliage weekend.  This is like Jersey Shore saying it’s a great weekend even though the winds are blowing and it is overcast.

Stay at Homewood Suites, Arlington, MA.  Miles: 210.

10/10 Monday.  Breakfast at Homewood Suites.  Drove and parked at 200 State Street – a good location, but quite expensive, $38 for 2 hours.  Walked around waterfront, visited various buildings and the Paul Revere statue.  Bought some pastry at Mike’s – they are quite good.  Take-out lunch in Quincy Market.  Took Kin and Sandra to MIT and Harvard; drove around while they visited these institutions.  After dropping Kin and Sandra at the airport, we went to Joe’s place.  Oysters and light snacks at Island Creek Oyster Bar.  Drove home afterwards and arrived at about 10:30 pm.

Miles: 301.  Total miles for trip: 976.

Hong Kong, September 20 – 28, 2011.

I decided on this short trip a little while ago.  Ruth and Stephen were thinking of visiting, and David was also going to be there at about the same time.  Since I can stay at the Tai Po House, the expense element isn’t a huge consideration.

9/20/2011 Tue.  Anne couldn’t come along because her school term is just starting.  She dropped me off at Newark at about 1:45 pm, check-in and security were relatively easy.  The flight took off on time, and is 3 hours in as I type this.  This is a rather crowded flight, but I do have an empty seat next to me, so by my reckoning this should be a good trip.  The young couple behind me has two young children (a toddler and a baby) that are doing a great job of relay-crying.  I don’t want to be too harsh, but they seem as frustrated as the rest of the passengers are … it’s not easy traveling with young children, that’s for sure.  Good news is flight should get in about 40 minutes ahead of schedule, so I should land at around 6:30 pm Wednesday.

We did land at around 6:40 pm, and the mother of the two kids thanked her neighbors for tolerating the crying – not that we had much of a choice..  Even though the gate is located at the far end of the terminal, and it took about 20 minutes to get to immigration, I was out in about 25, the checked piece of luggage appearing soon after I got to the carousel.  Tim and Alyson picked me up.

Dinner was prepared by Ling.

9/22/2011 Thur.  I was very tired last night and went to bed at around 11 pm.  Woke up at 3:30 am or so and haven’t been able to go back to sleep.  It’s now 5 am, I will try.

Most of the day was spent with David, who is also visiting Hong Kong for a week.  First we met up at Mongkok East MTR Station and had yum-cha breakfast at Jade Garden.  Then it was a stop-over at Causeway Bay to visit our phone service providers: him to get the phone recharged, me to get the data service to work.  We then went to Taikoo Shing to have coffee, first by ourselves, then Jane joined us for more coffee.

Dinner at Tai Po House, prepared by Ling, who seems to relish the task.

9/23/2011 Fri.  Woke up relatively early to go to Tim’s office for some blood work, then to a nearby Fairwood for a rice dumpling.  The Café de Coral on Jardine Crescent is closed due to building renovation, but Fairwood did a reasonably good job.

The one-way travel cost from Tai Po MTR to Causeway MTR takes about one hour, and costs the equivalent of US$2.  A trip from South Amboy to NY Penn is over $12.  Public transportation costs are low in Hong Kong, but housing prices are very high, with small apartments located in the outskirts easily costing $1000 per square foot.

We met up with George and Manna Leung at Chiu Chow Garden at the Tai Po Uptown Plaza for lunch.  We actually sat at the Peking House run by the same group but ordered from the dim-sum menu.  The Leungs then came by the Tai Po House to visit for a couple of hours.  They seemed to enjoy the surroundings very much.

Tim came to Tai Po for dinner, and we ate at Chiu Chow Garden again – not too many choices around here.

9/24/2011 Sat.  The alarms I set failed to ring, so I woke up a bit late and had to rush to get to the University MTR station by 8 am.  Met up with Ling and Wally and took the Tsui Wah Ferry to Tap Mun (Grass Island).  Our intention was to hike the length of the island, a 6+ km trip that should be relatively easy to do, and we had close to 4 hours to do it.  However, we didn’t have very good maps, and couldn’t find the right path.  We managed to hike that distance, but didn’t reach the destination we wanted to get to.  Thus we were all a bit disappointed, and Ling complained of tired legs, not having been this active for a while.  Overall a nice few hours.  The ferry ride at 90 minutes (including stops) felt a bit long coming back.  The weather also cooperated, mostly cloudy, and the threat of rain materialized only during our return trip.

 Ferry from Shatin to Grass Island.

 Trail on Grass Island.

 Interesting Rock Formation on Grass Island.

Feral cattle abandoned by departing villagers roam the island.  They are quite tame, though.

We bought groceries at the Tai Po Market so Ling could cook up dinner; she doesn’t seem to mind doing the chores.  Tim brought Whitney along.

9/25/2011 Sun.  I typed up last several days events early this morning.  Last night I just collapsed at around 10 pm, and woke up at 5 am this morning.

Tim picked us up at around 9:30 am.  I drove his Cayenne to the Aberdeen Boat Club, scaring him quite a bit in the process since I tended to drift to the left, not being used to right-hand-drive cars.  Turns out this was the least exciting thing that happened during the day.  In any case, we met up with Mr & Mrs Leung and did the obligatory boat ride to Lamma Island for lunch.

On the way to Middle Island after lunch the boat was involved in a collision.  Ah Yau managed to miss or misjudge an on-coming small boat and we collided with it.  The thump and jolt made us think that things were quite bad.  Tim was seething as Ah Yau not only missed this most basic of navigational rules, he also insisted the other guy – who was to our starboard - should have stopped.

Anyway, this got the Marine Department very excited and they sent two launches to investigate.  While the department certainly has the right to investigate the accident, and perhaps to cite Ah Yau, they sure took their time doing so.  We were held up for close to two hours to get the proper paperwork in order.  It turns out the damage wasn’t that bad, basically a long scratch on the front side of the boat, and most of that came off with some buffing.

When we tried to weigh anchor, we discovered it was stuck on the sea bottom.  We were in about 20 feet of water, and Ah Yau dived in to investigate.  It was caught on an underseas cable.  This is a very popular anchorage right by Deep Water Bay, so we were quite surprised there were no prominent signs posted – certainly not the kind we are used to in the US.  Ah Yau and Tim eventually put on scuba gear and wet suit, and with Perry using a line to lift the cable, managed to free the anchor.  Ah Yau did the scuba diving.  Quick, but quite impressive.  Most people would just cut the anchor and ask professionals to retrieve it later.

During all this commotion, Ling served cake, and we went on Middle Island and had coffee there.  When we got back to Aberdeen, Tim got a message asking him how bad the damage was.  News travels fast.

We killed a couple of hours in Tim’s apartment, and then went for dinner at the Kowloon Tong Club as guests of the Leungs.  Not a bad day spent with friends (they were actually more like friends with our parents).

Docking this boat takes quite a bit of skill.

 With Mrs. Leung.

 Geared up to untangle the snagged anchor.

The scratch is not nearly as bad as the sound of the collision.  The color of the boat appears dull because of reflection.

9/26/2011 Mon.  Lunch at Okinawa Bridges with Tim.  I then took buses to Wan Chai Ferry Terminal and Tuen Mun to visit David and his mother, whom I got to know quite well during my year in the LA area.  Mrs L looked quite healthy, although she is a bit more stubborn and doesn’t want to move around much.  David and I had a simple snack at Café de Coral in Tuen Mun Center.  I then followed his suggestion and took Bus 261 to Sheung Shui MTR Station and then MTR to Tai Po.  Hong Kong does have an amazing transportation network.  When I got off the mini Bus at Lai Chi Shan, Alfred and his family just arrived.  Dinner was a hotch potch of home-cooked, store-purchased, and Tim brought along a sweet and sour pork dish.  The latter was quite good, restaurant quality.

9/27/2011 Tue.  Josiah screams quite loudly and managed to wake everyone up at 4 am this morning.  I got back to sleep, but Ruth couldn’t do so.  Morning was mostly spent on various paperwork that I needed to sort out.  Lunch was take-out and home-cooked lightfare.

At Wally’s instigation, we all went to Golden Computer Center in Shum Shui Po to look at various electronics stuff on sale there.  I was quite tempted to buy a tablet, but decided not to do so as the name brand ones cost the same (or more) than what we get in the USA, the non-name brands are probably more miss than hit, and – most important of all – I don’t need one.

Dinner at Peking House in Tai Po Uptown Plaza.  Ling & Wally, Ruth & Stephen, Alfred, Naomi, Toby and Josiah, and I got to eat together before I return to NJ tomorrow.

9/28/2011 Wed.  Instead of car service costing around HK$500, I decided to take a taxi to the airport at half the cost.  And it worked quite well.

The flight was quite full, and I didn’t get the empty seat next to me.  Nonetheless, there were no continuously screaming kids, and I managed to catch a nap here and there.  Anne picked me up at the airport.

Aberdeen, MD. September 17 and 18, 2011.

Visit the Chius at the Aberdeen Proving Ground.  Drove down Saturday afternoon in the Hwang's minivan.  We left late because Anne had a CCHC commitment in Flushing.

Susan had 30 or so steam blue crabs waiting for us.  I ate two, some people ate six.  Enjoyable camaraderie among old (in multiple senses of the word) friends.

Went to early breakfast which Peter insisted we try at around $5 each, then worshiped at the base chapel.  Toured the grounds, including a marina still strewn with tree trunks and other debris from Hurrican Irene, before we had lunch.  Returned to NJ later that afternoon.