Now, no disrespect to our friends because I love them, but when family visits you in Hong Kong you roll out the red carpet. Or at least you try real hard, but then life happens and the luggage carrying the spare air mattresses stays in Chicago and your sweetheart husband ends up sleeping on an ikea chair and you and your sister are on the couch. Some B & B we’re running – please don’t check our yelp reviews.
Long story short, my dad and sister had an eventful trip to Hong Kong and while they were more than ready for their flight, their planes weren’t. So at 2am Hong Kong time we get a message letting us know they have missed their connecting flight due to mechanical problems and I thought all was lost. Then that sweetheart of mine, with Brent cheering him on in the background, got on the horn and made sure the airlines corrected their mistake. It’s now 5am and I am barely able to sleep picturing my dad and sister strapped in beside the cargo on the plane and sure enough, I get an email from my dad with this subject line – “Business class upgrade, sooo good.” OK – so they’re fine.
Well, Gary Corrigan and Cristin Petersen arrive in Hong Kong to their obnoxious daughter/sister with a big sign at the airport, but they are missing some luggage. Ain’t no thing, we made it work and that night our B & B held a Corrigan, a Petersen, some Cengia’s and us for the night.
The next morning, we hugged our Cengia’s goodbye and Cristin and I went on a hunt for some clothes in HK – twist my arm. Gary and Dom had an important meeting at the Beefsteak and Burgundy club of Hong Kong. All I really appreciate about this club is that once a month a select group of, shall we say gentlemen, gather at a wonderful location in Hong Kong to eat delicious food, learn about and drink some good wine and talk about how awesome their wives are – clearly. (Scroll over the photos for some captions)
Our first real day in Hong Kong, in fact every day, we followed my excel spreadsheet to a tee, but that’s not the point (yeah for type A!), the point is we crammed everything we could into their visit and had so much fun every single day! Below is a play-by-play of the Corrigan/Petersen visit to Hong Kong:
Day 1 – After a massage and delicious Vietnamese pho for lunch (Cristin’s new favorite dish), we moseyed our way to the the Star Ferry terminal to catch a ride over to Kowloon for the afternoon. We walked along the avenue of stars, watched a protest rally that we couldn’t understand, and made our way to the Intercontinental for high-tea. You see, after their business class upgrade, these two developed quite a refined palette and who was I to disappoint! We ended our evening with another ferry ride along the Hong Kong harbor to watch the world famous laser show.
Day 2 – We kicked off our next day with another outstanding lunch with even better company. Unfortunately, Dom had to work in Jakarta for the weekend, so he was unable to join the Corrigan’s and Brenner’s for dim sum and a walk through the Hong Kong Botanical Gardens and Zoo. Dim Sum is a local dish in Hong Kong and I think we made Gary and Cristin new fans of these little dumplings. Not so much the chicken feet. We capped off this relaxing day with dinner and drinks with a fellow Toledoan, Stefanie (Dunlap) Benner and apart from seeing her, my favorite memory of that night was her drink order – a tall glass of ‘Ain’t nobody got thyme for dat!’
Day 3 – One of my favorite things to do in Hong Kong is hike and it was so special to be able to take my dad and sister on one of my routine trails – the Morning Trail. We walked a bit extra to see another side of the island, but it was worth it. It allowed the sky to clear a bit and we were able to get some great photos of the HK skyline from the Sky Terrace. The views from here are breathtaking, but the three of us particularly enjoyed the “audio tour” of Hong Kong. Each of us received an iPad, headphones and a touchscreen map of HK that allowed us to learn more about the city by neighborhoods, cuisine and culture.
Day 4 – After another excellent meal of dim sum with the one and only Marisa, her sweet son Charlie and newborn Grace – what a treat – we got back on the open waters and took another fast boat to Lantau Island for a Buddhist adventure. We couldn’t have asked for a better day. Lantau is a beautiful respite from the chaos on Hong Kong island and there is no shortage of sights to see. This was dad and Cristin’s favorite day and I think the photos speak for themselves:
Day 5 and 6 – The next couple of days were jam-packed and allowed us to easily keep up with our daily average of 12,000 steps. Gary found himself invited to a Rotary Club meeting/luncheon in Hong Kong (if you know him, this is not a surprise), so Cristin and I made our way to the Ladies Market. Hang on, I’ll explain just what that is in a moment. The Ladies Market is a totally overwhelming, open-air street market teeming with bargain shoppers from all over the world. The stalls are managed almost exclusively by women who promise to make you a very good price for a copy watch or a tea set that you definitely don’t need, but the scarves are great 🙂 The next day we hopped effortlessly onto a city bus and made our way to the other side of Hong Kong island to Repulse Bay beach and Stanley Market. We had a delicious Indian lunch and Cristin and I showed Gary a thing or two about bargain shopping.
Day 7 – On their last full day in Hongkers, we took another fast boat to Lamma island for a fresh seafood lunch. We didn’t know it was a public holiday, which meant most people had off work and also took their families to Lamma, so we were accompanied by hundreds if not thousands of our closest strangers. The food was fresh and the people watching was even better.
On our last night, we returned to one of our favorite Chinese restaurants in our neighborhood and the owner, remembering our recent visit, loaded us up with heaps of green beans and dumplings and threw in a free round of drinks and a local dessert. It was the perfect way to end an absolutely wonderful stay in Hong Kong. While it was really hard to let Gary and Cristin return home, I don’t think I will have a hard time convincing them to come back.
It helped that on the same day my family left, our friends Braden Bennie and Jay Radley landed in Hong Kong ready for everything S.E. Asia had to offer. But that’s a whole other story.
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