France: Loire Valley and Paris. May 25 – June 5, 2015.

Ellie and Kuau wanted to visit France and asked us to come along, an invitation we were happy to accept.  They also found out these inexpensive EWR-Paris Orly fares on OpenSkies, a British Airways subsidiary, which for their “biz bed” class worked out to a little more than what I expected to pay for coach, especially with a hefty discount provided to AARP members.

Monday 5/25.  Since I had an obligation at church on Sunday, Anne and I left on Monday.  Eric T gave us a ride to the airport.  Ellie, Kuau, and Reid had left two days prior and stayed in Paris.  Calling Biz Bed first class or business class would be a huge injustice, the seats are flat bed, but so narrow that I had no place to put my arms next to my body.  It resulted in a wide aisle, though.  I had a backward-facing window seat.  I didn’t realize the climbout of a 757 is at such a steep angle, in fact I was a bit worried that it was too steep.  Anne reassured me that from her forward facing seat it felt quite normal.

Unfortunately I didn’t get much sleep during this 7 hour flight.

Open Skies is the low cost carrier of British Airways.  This is a 757.

 A Business Class seat.  Seat felt a little tight, with four across there is a wide aisle.

Not much to choose from in the menu.

Tuesday 5/26.  We landed at around 9:25 am, 40 or so minutes ahead of schedule.  Immigration was straightforward.  Ellie and Kuau were to pick us up after we land.  We didn’t get started until about noon due to Paris traffic and a miscommunication on where we should be picked up – the latter took an extra 30 minutes.  Reid was in his car seat kicking, happy to see us.

The drive to Villandry was quite uneventful except for an illegal U-turn we had to make (at the suggestion of the toll-booth operator).  We also stopped at a rest area for about an hour for lunch.

Villandry is a small village about 250 km from Paris, and our house is about 3 km out of town, in a hamlet of about six houses, beyond which are cattle and wheat fields.

Ellie and Kuau went to Carrefour to get groceries.  We ate at the house.  Anne and I walked around a bit after dinner.  Sunset is at 9:40 pm, and it is still bright out at 10 pm.

Backyard of "Nature and Chateaux" is next to a cattle ranch.  Somehow the winds were in such a direction that we weren't downwind during our entire stay there.

Lots of cattle around.

Reid checking out the flowers in the yard.

An abandoned house down the road from where we stayed.

With many electronic devices with US plugs, this is the jumble of wires we have to keep them going.

Accommodation: House “Nature and Chateaux” in Villandry, arranged by Ellie through Airbnb.

Wednesday 5/27.  Reid took his nap at around 10 am, so Anne and I drove to the same Carrefour and bought a few necessities and snacks for our stay.  We drove to town for lunch, and decided we will visit Chateaux Usse popularly considered the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty story.  There are hundreds of chateaux and palaces in the region, and those who open up for visitors get subsidies from the government (per Rick Steves.)  It is a rather impressive looking building, but not quite worth the E14 we paid for admission.  We nonetheless spent quite a bit of time there exploring, with Reid enjoying himself by running around the grounds.

Outside Chateau Usse.

Family relaxing on the grounds of the Chateau.

Lunch in neighborhood restaurant in Villandry.

Sausage of unknown meat.

Dinner was again a home-cooked meal of hamburgers and sausages.

Thursday 5/28.  After Reid woke up from her early morning nap, we left the house at about 10:30 am for Chenonceau.  We bought at a small local shop various food items (sandwiches, quiche, cheese, and salami) for a simple picnic on the grounds outside the Chateau.

To quote from Rick Steves’ guide: “Chenonceau is the toast of the Loire.  This 16^th-century Renaissance palace arches gracefully over the Cher River and is impeccably maintained, with fresh flower arrangements in the summer and roaring fires in the winter.  Chenonceau is one of the most-visited chateaux in France.”  We must have hit it during the low season as there was no one waiting to buy tickets to get in.  The chateau was located at the site of a medieval castle, but was first to be built for pleasure rather than defensive positions.  After having visited three of these chateaux, I get the feeling the all have a similar history.  Castles were built in the middle ages, built over by various Kings (sometimes for their queens or mistresses,) and eventually fall into private hands; in other words, playgrounds of the rich and powerful.  Of course individual chateaus have their distinctive histories, but that gradation is best left to the serious historian.

When it comes to Chateau de  Chenonceau, the memorable aspects are (i) the ladies involved in its early years, there is a painting of “Three Graces” hanging in the chateau; and (ii) it is built over the Cher river.

Chateau de Chenonceau is built over the River Cher.

This hallway is right above the river.

They had several antique cars parked outside the Chateau.

We got back to Villandry at after 4 pm, and felt energetic enough to visit another Chateau, the local one.  Kuau and Ellie wanted to tour only the gardens, considered the best in the area.  Anne and I bought tickets that would allow us to visit the building itself; a climb to the top (called “The Keep”) also allowed us a bird’s eye view of the garden.  Reid was having a good time, which was interrupted briefly when he fell and had a lot of sand on his face, and a few bruises.

Chateau Villandry.

Panoramic shot of the Chateau's gardens. (Click on photo to get a larger version.)

Dinner at restaurants don’t start until 7 pm, even the one that starts at 6 didn’t have workers show up until a few minutes before, a bit late for Reid.  Anne and I ate at home while Ellie got Reid to sleep.  They went off to dinner in town.

Friday 5/29.  What with people still somewhat struggling with jetlag, and our inability to get things organized, we didn’t get started until around noon time.  Our goal for the day was quite modest: visit to the nearby Chateau d’Azay-le-Rideau, a short 15 minute car ride away.

We first had lunch at a café right outside the chateau.

This chateau’s origin was purely pleasure, it was built by a rich financier to the King.  Its royal connection was it was seized by King Francois I; the owner had fled because his partner was executed for embezzlement.  It’s now owned by the French government.  Unfortunately when we visited it was in the midst of a 3 year renovation project, so the entire main building was covered up.  We still could tour the inside; frankly it is not that different from others we have seen, only smaller.  Reid had a lot of fun playing in the yard, including picking up the pebbles on the walkways and trying to eat them, the latter fortunately without great success.

Chateau d'Azay-le-Rideau.

Ornate interior of Chateau.

The main part of the Chateau is enclosed for a 3-year renovation project.

This was the fourth chateau, perhaps two more in our immediate future?  (Langeais and Chambord; the first for being close, the second for being the granddaddy of them all, with over 400 rooms and 300 fireplaces.)

On the way back we stopped at (another) Carrefour so Anne and I can have a meal at home while Kuau and Ellie went back to Azay-le-Rideau to have dinner at Cote Cour.  Of the 14 meals they have had since they got to France, they thought this was the best.

Saturday 5/30.  We got started relatively early, thinking we will head to Tours for lunch.  Since Reid fell asleep along the way, we drove straight to Chambord instead.  Chateau de Chambord is the largest of all the chateaux in the area.  It was indeed quite grand.  We spent about 2 hours touring the building, famous for its architecture (Rick Steves thinks it might be designed by Da Vinci, the chateaux itself making the claim without any reservation.)  While the space is huge, the rooms are many, and the double-helix staircase interesting, I didn’t find it overwhelming as I did when I first saw Versailles, Angkor Wat, or the Great Wall.  Having seen several large castles perhaps contributed to that feeling.  In any case, Anne and I both decided we have develop some level of chateau fatigue, that doesn’t mean we won’t be bored enough over the next two days to visit a couple more though.

Chateau de Chambord is the largest castle in the area.

Courtyard.

Reid is having fun climbing up and down the many steps.

After some discussion we decided to head back to Villandry after the visit.  Dinner was home-cooked, everybody stayed in.

The countryside abounds with flowers like these poppies.

Sunday 5/31.  We again left at around 10 am this morning, and got to Chinon at about 10:40 am.  Anne and Ellie stayed in the car for Reid to finish his morning nap, and Kuau and I walked around the medieval town by River Vienne for about 20 minutes.  The town is one of the largest we have hit so far, and there was a market in the center of town for the morning.  We bought a roasted chicken and some roasted pork there.  Lunch was at Le Café Des Arts.  On the menu they had an item called “rib beef” which Kuau and I both ordered, thinking that it is spare ribs.  Turns out they were rather large pieces of steak on the bone.  Kuau finished his, I had a lot of left over which the staff kindly put inside a box for us.  This was the most expensive meal we have had and it cost E120, including an item from the kid’s menu and tip.

The town has a statue of Joan of Arc because she lived there for a while.  I was surprised that she was only 19 when she was burned at the stake.

 Town of Chinon.

Statue of Joan of Arc.

All said and done we didn’t get back until 3:30 pm.  At around 5 pm Anne and I took the car and drove to Tours.  We passed by the city several times and had not been impressed with it.  Turns out the city center is a few blocks away from the Loire, and it was okay.  They had a wine-tasting festival going on, which drew quite a few people into the town center area.  There is also this light-rail track that stretches for many blocks.

 Tours is a large town.  This is the train station.

Tram tracks through the middle of town.

Dinner consisted of the left-over beef from lunch, and the meats we bought in Chinon.

We briefly entertained leaving town tomorrow so we could visit Versailles.  Turns out Versailles is closed on Mondays, so that idea was nixed.

Monday 6/1.  It is interesting that in Rick Steves’ Guide Tours is used only as a reference point for the chateaux in the area: as in “east of Tours” and “west of Tours.”  There is no description of the city itself, as there is for Chinon and even Villandry.  Fodor’s devotes a couple of pages to it.

Tours was our destination as we didn’t want to see any more chateaux, and we thought it was worth a visit by Ellie and Kuau (and another one by us.)  We parked our car a little after 11 am, and then walked to Cathedral St. Gatien and then let Reid play in the garden of Musee de Beaux Arts.  The cathedral is quite impressive, church history in the area dates back to the 4^th century.  It was finished in 1484.  On the grounds of the museum there is a Cedar of Lebanon that is over 200 years old, with an impressive girth and canopy.

We then walked to Place Plumereau with its many restaurants and had lunch.  There are buildings at the square that dates back to the 15^th century.

While Reid slept in his stroller, we walked around a bit more, visiting the ruins of the old Basilica St. Martin.  The building must have been very impressive, if the standing clock tower (Tour de l’Horloge) and Charlemagne tower are any indication.  And it is also interesting to note how the ground level has been raised in the intervening years since the 4^th century.  We also stopped in the “new” St. Martin Basilica, completed in 1924, with its neo-Byzantine theme.

 Garden of Musee de Beaux Arts, Tours.

 Cathedral St. Gatien dates back to the 4th Century.

 Inside of Cathedral.

 We had lunch at a restaurant in Place Plumereau.

 Charlemagne is one of the remaining structures of Basilica St. Martin, Tours.

 The current St. Martin Basilica.

Interesting statue in Tours.  "Large polyester sculpture of a monstrous man."

It was then time to go home.  Anne and I then went to Carrefour to pick up provisions for dinner, our last one in Loire.

As I type this, I do wonder why there is not as much sense of history as I would expect, given how far back the area goes in time.  Perhaps a question to be answered some other day.

Tuesday 6/2.  When we thought Reid was ready to take his morning nap, we started our trip to Paris, with Ellie driving all the way to Rue d’Amboise, where we would stay for three nights.  A straight shoot from Villandry to our location should take about 2 ½ hours, it ended up taking 3 ¾ hours because of the traffic jams around the city, even in the middle of the day.  Traffic inside the city was actually quite okay, just a bit chaotic, and Ellie handled it with aplomb.  We used multiple guidance systems (Google, Waze, and the car’s GPS) to work through the many detours we ended up taking.

We checked into the top floor apartment, accessed via a small lift and a flight of stairs, while Kuau returned the car.  It was then off to lunch at La Saotico across the street.  It was still serving food at 2:30 pm, which was great for us.  The dishes are not particularly expensive, but the presentation and taste were much better than what we found in the Loire villages.

The La Saotico Restaurant is across the street from the apartment we are staying in.

After lunch I went to Opera Bastille to buy tickets for the evening’s concert while Anne returned to the apartment to prepare for her conference call.  We stopped by McDonalds by the Richelieu-Drouot station before heading over to the opera.  It was about 11:15 pm when we left the opera house, and we got back to the apartment a bit before midnight, stopping along the way for a Filet-o-Fish.

Accommodation: Apartment in 5 Rue D’Amboise (3 nights.)

Wednesday 6/3.  We (mostly Anne) were to babysit Reid for most of the day so Ellie and Kuau could have a day of their own.  So from morning until 4 pm it was walking on the streets in the area, getting Reid to sleep, to eat, and playing silly songs on YouTube for him.  At about 3:30 pm we met up with Ellie & Kuau at a café in Tuileries Garden for a 3-hour hand-off.  We did have coffee and croissant with them (at E8 each) before heading off to Musee de l’Orangerie.  This is a relatively small museum (at 145 paintings per its brochure) dedicated to impressionists.  The ground level is dominated by eight murals painted by Monet hung on two large oval rooms.  In the basement there is a good collection of paintings by various painters.  With the hour or so that we had, we couldn’t study the works in detail, so we bought a book to read later.

One of Monet's Murals at Musee de l'Orangerie.

We decided to eat before doing evening duty with Reid.  The Del Arte restaurant near the Richelieu-Drouot Station is an Italian establishment that has been around for 30 years.

Thursday 6/4.  We split up with EKR after walking the mile or so to the Louvre together: they wanted to take the hop-on hop-off ferry, Anne and I went to visit the Louvre yet another time.  Strangely, it felt a bit overwhelming this time since we didn’t want to spend too much time and consequently found it difficult to decide what to see.  We ended up touring the old part of Louvre (from medieval times) and how much work was involved with construction of the pyramid in the courtyard.  After seeing Venus di Milo and touring a few other halls, we gave up and headed to lunch instead at the museum café.

The design of Pompidou Center is unique in that the “plumbing” is located prominently on the outside of the building.  I don’t know if all or most of the plumbing is thus situated, but know that it is not pretty, although not ugly either.  It houses the Museum of Modern Art.  The museum seems to indicate modern spans from 1915 (or so) to 1965, and art after that is considered “contemporary.”  Regardless, by this definition modern artists include Picasso, Mondrian, and Giacometti, whom I get somewhat.  Contemporary art, on the other hand, still escapes me.  A great example is a canvass that is painted purple, or a long line of spherical objects arranged by size.  We spent some time in the modern section, and walked quickly through the contemporary section.

 The Pompidou Center ...

... and some of its art.

On the way back, I got off the Opera metro station to get tickets for tonight’s ballet while Anne continued on to make sure EKR come back to an open apartment (we had only one set of keys.)  Palais Garnier is well-known as the fictional setting for the Broadway show “Phantom of the Opera, although it is used nowadays mostly for ballets and concerts.  I was offered seats that cost either E130 or E12, and opted for the better seats, joking to the agent that they got all my money.

Anne and I left the apartment a little after 6 pm, had dinner at Le Gramont around the corner, and sat through the 2:45 hour performance (including intermission and curtain calls.)  It was then trying to finish packing and get some sleep for tomorrow.

 Ceiling mural in Palais Carnier.

 Lobby, jugglers would perform during intermission.

 Auditorium.

Curtain call, Les Enfants du Paradis.

Friday 6/5.  We got up at around 6:30 am, and left the apartment at around 7:45 pm for the airport, taking 2 Uber cars.  Traffic was already quite busy, and evidently was very route dependent.  Anne, Ellie and Reid left later than Kuau and me, but got to the airport first.  Check in was simple, and we spent some time in the Iberia lounge which is quite a distance away from the gate area.  Immigration and customs were a bit slow, and I was one of the last to board the bus.

Reid started fussing when it got quite warm in the bus.  He also fussed for quite a while, not being able to fall asleep.  He is now, and let’s hope it is for a while.

We arrived on time, and took the train home.

Turks and Caicos. April 18 – 22, 2015.

Joe Jr has the week off, so he and Ellie decided that we would spend a few days in Turks and Caicos.  Frankly Anne and I know very little about this small British Territory in the Caribbean, so we thought it would be a fun thing to do.  Of course any excuse to have the family together will do.

Joe Jr did our flight books, Kuau booked the hotels.

Saturday 4/18.  Joe and family got to our house at around 8:30 pm last night.  Emmie, whom we had not seen for a couple of months, was very happy to see us, so she stayed up way past her bedtime.

This morning I had to wake up at around 6 am so we could be ready to leave our house at 7 am.  Things went pretty smoothly, although traffic in the terminal area was heavier than I expected.  And the line at TSA pre-check was quite long, the machine beeping everyone contributed to the delay.  There is talk that TSA wants to charge passengers now for the privilege, and they want to enroll a lot more people in the program – I am not sure these objectives are consistent with a more efficient screening program.  In any case, I was in the terminal before 8 am, so there is really nothing much to complain about (and this includes dropping the car off at EZ Way Parking.)  The other folks, meanwhile, were in the United Lounge.

The plane was packed, with perhaps one or two vacant seats.  After considerable musical chair-playing, I ended up in the same row as Ellie, Kuau and Reid (lap infant), and Anne was in a middle Exit Row seat.  We were a bit slow to take off as the pilots were delayed getting in from Boston.  The plane landed on time, and we got our first experience with island time: both immigration and customs were slow, even though there didn’t seem to be any problems.

A short but rather expensive ride got us to Villa Del Mar.  As our rooms were not ready yet, we left them in the lobby and went to lunch across the street.

Emmie, Reid and their mothers got into the pool for a rather long time while Joe and Kuau went grocery shopping.  Anne and I also went to pick up some meat.  Things are expensive as this is both a tourist place and (I suspect) a lot of stuff is flown in.  A box of clementines costs about $5 in New Jersey; here it is $15.  Salmon is about $8 a pound, $19 here.  For dinner we grilled the steak and hot dogs on the BBQ provided by the hotel.

 First dip into the pool.

 View from our room.

Accommodations: Villa del Mar, Room B301, 4 nights.

Sunday 4/19.  Morning was spent on the beach.  While I enjoy sea views much, I am not a seashore, suntan type of person – the motto I invented was “no sun, no water, no sand.” Both Reid and Emmie had a great time, and they mostly didn’t mind sand all over their bodies (in Reid’s case including his face.)  We babysat Reid as Ellie and Kuau went out to lunch.   They brought back these huge hamburgers for us, not cheap at $18 each.  Dinner at Coco Bistro, considered one of the best restaurants in town.  I ordered the wahoo since I never had it before; the dish turned out okay, but not much more than okay.

 Grandpa is not that much into sand ...

 Relaxing by the hotel pool ...

 or on the beach.

Panoramic view of Grace Bay.

Monday 4/20.  Well, I went into the water for 20 minutes or so today.  Not having swim in the sea for a while, I was surprised at how salty the water tasted, and how buoyant it was.

Lunch was with Joe, Jess and Emmie at Seaside Café.  BBQ dinner of chicken drumsticks, steak, and hot dog.

Tuesday 4/21.  Kuau picked up lunch today.  Anne and I finally got cabin fever, so we checked out a rental car from Caicos Wheels.  Rent-a-Wreck is probably a more appropriate name for the outfit, our car was a Honda Fit with about 75,000 km on it (the island itself is only 20 or so miles wide.)  But it did the job: we drove to the eastern end of the island where some really huge yachts were docked, and then to the southwestern end.  Chalk sound has this nice blue color (from the limestone deposits?) and Chalk Sound Road is on a ridge that constitutes the southern rim of the sound (cove.)  We also drove by some local areas; the outside of the houses looked okay, but we have no idea what the insides are like.

 Deciding if we wanted to go into the water.

 Cousins having fun playing in the sand.

At this time apples cost less than a dollar a pound in NJ.

Wednesday 4/22.  This car rental works out great financially also.  Taxi service is $16.50 per person, counting the children.  So we saved quite a bit even though we had to make two trips to get everyone to the airport.  Gasoline is $5 a gallon, yet the fill up before car return cost only $19.

Check-in was a breeze. There was security screening, but no immigration.  Anne, Ellie and I all got upgraded, but I gave my seat to Kuau so he and Ellie and share in Reid-tending duties.  The boy actually cried quite loudly for a while – he must be asleep now (this is about 1 hour into the flight.)

Hong Kong, March 5 – 16, 2015.

This trip has two main purposes: (i) to celebrate the opening of a non-profit’s Hong Kong office; and (ii) to attend to a family matter.  We also scheduled to travel to China on Wednesday to look at another non-profit we work with.  Despite all that, we will have quite a few idle days on our hands.

Thursday 3/5.  So far this winter, we have been quite lucky when it comes to dodging the weather, traveling on days where there was not much snow, and being away from NJ when it had been bitterly cold.  Last couple of days we thought our luck was going to run out as our flight was scheduled to leave right in the middle of a heavy snow storm.

Chung Shu was going to drive us to the airport, but when we saw there were about 6” of snow on our driveway this morning, and central Jersey might have gotten it worse, we decided to drive up ourselves.  The roads were okay once outside of our development, going was slow, traffic was heavier than I expected, but we ended up taking only 15 additional minutes to get to the parking garage.  We boarded on time, the plane left the gate about 10 minutes behind schedule.  However, the plane had to wait to be de-iced first, and then it waited in line for takeoff.  With all that, it left “only” 90 minutes behind schedule, and due to favorable winds, we arrived about 30 minutes late.  Anne noticed on the monitor that our path biased a bit towards Europe.  I checked recent UA179 routes on flightaware.com, indeed the routing can vary from western Greenland to Iceland.  Our flight didn’t take a particularly unusual path, though.

I watched only 1 movie (pretty forgettable “Horrible Bosses 2”) and 2 short TV episodes, and dozed off every now and then listening to my iPod.

After getting something to eat at the airport, we got to Tai Po at about 11:15 pm.

Accommodations: we will staying at the Tai Po house during this trip.

Saturday March 7.  Went to Wan Tau Tong to have a hearty breakfast.  Then went to Yau Ma Tei to get bus tickets to Zengcheng: we plan on a one-day visit later this seek.  Went back to Tai Po to have some rest.  Then it was back to town for dinner with the Horsts and the de Lysters.  Restaurant Hotung has great view of Hong Kong skyline but food was underwhelming.  We were done at around 9:15 pm.

Sunday March 8.  I got Tim to invite the Horsts and the De Lysters to go to his boat, which they gladly accepted.  Abe, the 4-month old son of Chris and Alli was acting a bit odd after his parents applied some medication on his rash.  Tim took a careful look at the baby and gave them some opinion as to what happened.  (To everyone’s relief, Abe seems to be getting better.)  We stopped at walked around Stanley a bit, and then we had lunch on the boat (takeout from ABC.)  Our guests left, Anne and I went to town to shop a little and to have coffee.  We met with Tim and Whitney later to have dinner at Aqua Garden in Sam Mun Tsai.  They have some “specialty” dishes, including a dessert that roughly translates into “sugar strands and banana fritters.”

 Group photo on Tim's boat.

A familiar view from Middle Island.

Monday March 9.  After Anne got done with her English class, we went to Man Wah, a local café heavily recommended by Whitney, to have noodle soup, French toast, and Glutinous Rice Dumpling for breakfast.  The latter two were my favorite food items growing up and I usually try to have them every time I come back to Hong Kong.  I have been able to find good rice dumplings, but the French toasts have always been disappointing.  Today’s were quite good, the toast still wasn’t’ what I remember, tough.  The meal was so heavy that we decided to skip lunch.

At two pm, we met with Chris H and Nathan d L at the new office (loaned by Edwin) to discuss a bit the immediate plans Hope Hong Kong have developed.  Anne and I then wandered around the TST area, had some snacks, and then headed out to Sheung Wan Community Church to attend a Q Commons event.  While the speakers (some taped, some live) raised some interesting and disturbing issues, I felt they often make up their fictitious strawmen and then attack them to make it point.  I also ran into Doreen C, who worked at a seminary as its development officer; she told me she’s taking some time off to try to define what she wants a bit better.  In any case, the supposedly tightly run meeting ran late, and Anne and I left before the event concluded. Anne and I tried to look for things to eat in town, and in vain.  We finally grabbed something at McD’s.

Writing a letter in Tai Po Square (Tai Ming Lane Plaza to be exact).

Tuesday 3/10.  Today was a lightly packed day.  Our one event was an evening conference call with H China.  We wandered around Shatin a bit to try to buy some small items for our grandchildren.

Wednesday 3/11.  We woke up very early (around 5:30 am) so we could catch an 8:00 am bus from Yau Ma Tei to Zeng Cheng.  The idea was to visit a drug rehab center which we support.  Things went quite smoothly until we off-loaded the bus at Shenzhen to get through immigration.  It turns out my visa had expired last week, and there this particular check point could not issue a visa on the spot (supposedly one at Lo Wu can.)  Meanwhile, Anne cleared the Chinese authorities.  It is a good thing T-mobile roaming is inexpensive so we could keep in touch.  Everyone (Chinese and Hong Kong) was professional and nice about it, but it still took us 45 minutes to get back onto Hong Kong soil.  So I emailed and called Vivien to apologize; the visit has to be postponed till our next trip to the area.

This was going to be an all-day visit (we expected to return to Hong Kong at around 7:30 pm), so we got a day on our hands.  A short (about HK$120) taxi ride got us to Wetlands Park where we spent quite a few hours walking around.  It made for a pleasant morning; a few more birds would be nice, though.  On our way to the Tin Shui Wai MTR station we saw this Horizon shopping center and jumped off the lightrail.  We ended up having lunch at Maxim’s Hong Kong Day, which is best characterized as a retro restaurant; it was around 2 pm.

The Tin Shui Wai to Shatin ride took over an hour, and involved a change in Hung Hom, but we got seats the whole way!  I had coffee at Starbucks while Anne shopped for a gift for Thomas, our grandnephew.  When we saw a Ding Tai Fung at this mall, we decided to have a light dinner even though it was quite early at 5:30 pm.

 I didn't realize my China visa had expired until I got past Hong Kong Immigration.  At this point I was still oblivious.

 Taken at Wetlands Park.

 Pei Pei was caught a few years ago.  It has now grown quite a bit.

Din Tai Fung in Shatin.  This chain is getting quite popular all over the world.

Thursday 3/12.  Our first appointment was a lunch with Whitney’s dad at West Villa Causeway Bay.  This trip took about an hour, a record, so I had some time for coffee at McDonald’s while Anne shopped for hairclips for Emmie.  We spent a pleasant time with Mr. Tang, Whitney and Tim to get to know each other better.  Before meeting up with Larry and Elaine at the Jockey Club, Anne and I had coffee at UCC Causeway Bay.  Then we went down the hill to visit Thomas, Larry Jr’s son.  Thomas is a couple of months older than Reid, and eventually warmed up to us.  Elaine’s driver dropped us off at Admiralty MTR station so could catch the subway back to Tai Po.  Anne and I decided to take the bus to Hung Hom and catch the MTR from there, the advantage being we could get seats even during rush hour.  The strategy worked, although riding the bus backwards reminded me of the unpleasant ride from Tuen Mun last December.

Friday 3/13.  Whitney and Tim raved about the “French Toast” at SeaStar Restaurant in Tai Po, so we went there this morning to check it out.  Unfortunately they don’t serve that at breakfast, so we had these “western breakfasts” instead (which included instant noodles with beef satay.)  Anne also got more hair clips for Emmie (now we must have bought 20 of them.)  I got the idea to catch Bus 307 from Tai Po Center into town, and we both got seats since we caught the bus at the terminus.  We had a long lunch with Larry – Anne had only soup, I had a piece of fish.  We caught the same bus back to Tai Po (and also had seats.)  This time we stopped by Man Wah again.  Anne wasn’t feeling very well, so I went to Wan Tau Tong to have dinner at Fairwood by myself.

Anne wasn't feeling well, so dinner by myself at a nearby Fairwood.

Saturday 3/14.  After lunch of fish balls and noodles, we took Bus 64K to Yuen Long.  Yuen Long is a busy place, comparable to some of the busier areas in town (e.g., Mongkok.)  It took us a while to find the shop where Café-a-Roma was, it is now a massage parlor.  After coffee we went back to Tai Po via 64K.  The return trip took much longer as the bus made many stops.  It was close to 6 pm when we got back to the house.  Dinner was at the house with Whitney and Tim.  A rather interesting menu: soup made from goji berries, leaves, and pork liver; small abalones stirred fried in garlic paste; razor clams with caramelized onions and butter; steamed bream; fruits – mangoes, apples, and pomelo.  I asked Tim to drop me off in Tai Po to try my luck at French Toast again, but they don’t serve them during dinner time.

 Enroute to Yuen Long.  Kapoks are among the first to bloom in the spring.

Lots of trails to hike in the Tai Po area.  From easy to quite difficult.

Sunday 3/15.  Today Anne’s siblings and their spouses all boarded Kenneth’s boat for a ride to the waters south of Lamma Island.  Afterwards we had lunch at Aberdeen Marina Club; we had not been there for a long time.  Dinner was at the Jockey Club in Happy Valley.

 Saying goodbye in the seas south of Lamma Island.

A familiar view from 15B.

Monday 3/16.  Flight home on a crowded flight.