My Sister's Visit!

Jen here. My sister Sarah decided to come visit us for a week. She got permission from my parents and paid for the tickets on her own. Wow, she loves us. :)

She split her time between Roy and me, and my brother and his wife. I was able to take a day off work (my last week of work until the fall!) so Sarah and I could be tourists. I stayed up late deciding what to do and early in the morn we headed out.

The plan: kayak Lake Union, stay clam at Ivar's, Space Needle and possibly the Underground Tour. Tourists in Seattle. :)

Roy and I kayaked through NWOC the summer before we left for Hong Kong, so I decided to rent our kayaks from the same place. We arrived at 9:30am and they opened at 10am, so we had plenty of time to get ready. :)

Our double kayak served us well. If one of us was tired, the other could paddle and keep us going. And boy, we both got tired so fast! In looking through Sarah's pictures (I didn't take my camera for fear of ruining it) it appears that I paddled most of the time and Sarah just took pictures of us. Haha...it is somewhat true.

The house boats (is that what they are called?) interested us right away. They literally are houses floating on the water. Wow. NWOC asked us to stay at least 20 feet away from the house boats so as to respect the privacy of the "house boat dwellers" (they sound kind of scary to me). It's so hard to stay 20 feet away when one wants to see the houses and also is being moved by the waves. :) Sarah kept reminding me to steer away from the boats (my kayak seat had steering pedals connected to an udder). It was fascinating how there were little neighborhoods of house boats. Similar to in a city, the houses were next to each other with space between for a boat dock (driveway) and were in rows separated by larger stretches of water (roads).

Our kayak journey began in Lake Union, a small lake in Seattle with a view of the Seattle skyline (see photo--the space needle is just to the left of Sarah's head). We paddled west through Portage Bay to Union Bay which is just off Lake Washington near to the University of Washington. We saw several sea planes take off and land, the duck boat tours go by multiple times and artists perched on the shore painting landscapes.

Sarah had a blast and took many pictures. My face got fried because I did not bring sunscreen or a hat! And both of our arms were so tired. Once we made it to Union Bay I seriously wanted to ask one of the leisure boaters if they could tow us back to NWOC. Ha! We stuck it out and paddled back. All in all we spent about 2 or 3 hours on the water. Sweet!

Cheung Chau Get-Away!

Jen here. On Chinese New Year's eve, Roy and I packed our stuff and left HK Island for our first get-away since arriving last August. It was much-needed and we praised God for it!

Cheung Chau--one of the outlying islands of Hong Kong--is an old fishing island. I read somewhere that it is the most densely populated outer island. Shaped like a dog bone (see map), most people live in the central part, while the end regions are perfect for hikes. No cars on the island, except for mini emergency vehicles, so all the roads are narrow and there are bikes everywhere.

We stayed in a B & B (more like a hotel than a US B&B) and had a great time. The weather was cold and rainy all 4 of our days there. :( Fortunately we brought coats and umbrellas, and easily face the weather each day. The staff at the B&B always had hot water on hand, so we drank many servings of hot chocolate and tea (which we bought at a Park N Shop on the Island). For breakfast in the morning, we had three choices: soup, eggs (with meat and fruit), and an omelet (with mushrooms and tomatoes, no cheese). Oh, and btw, the "fruit" is a slice of cucumber and a slice of tomato. :) Interesting...

We spent many hours walking along the beach picking up sea glass. Roy loves to do this and this beach was a jackpot for such a thing. There was almost more sea glass than sand (not really)...after seeing it all (and some rubbish with it) we were glad it was too cold to swim.

On our third day there, Roy rented two bikes for us and we zipped around the island, taking in so much more than we saw the two days prior. It was so fun! We biked along the shoreline, past all the little street vendors, past all the tourist shops, past all the locals eating meals and hanging out. We buzzed up the hill (all paths were paved) to a hiking path, where we locked up our bikes and hiked to the "Pirate's Cave", where supposedly an old pirate stored his booty. It was less like a cave and more like a small hole in a rock, but hey, we saw it. The shoreline of the island was full of large tan rocks which the path led us over. At one point the wind caught Roy's hat and rolled it down some of the rocks. After some thinking and investigating, Roy retrieved it and we returned to our bikes and continued on. Up until this day, I thought the island was cool, but a little run down. I mean, if you live in a flat in an apartment complex, who cares how the outside looks? But on our biking expedition, I saw a different side of the island. A side that was quaint and tended to. Neat and painted apartment buildings, brick sidewalks, decorative fences and grass (what's that??). At one point I looked to Roy and said, "This place is kind of cute."

Here are a few more photos of our adventure.
Photo 1: Roy. On our hiking adventure, under a pagoda. Sweet.
Photo 2: Jen on the shoreline. Check out all those boats out there!
Photo 3:The sign in the top left of the photo is to a Christian cementary. I'll translate. No praying to the dead or swinging around those joss sticks. No burning incense. No food offerings (no poultry or veggies, or pigs or fruit--gotta be specific). No fires. Interesting.
Photo 4: One of the many street vendors who cooked food for you on the spot. We ate many a meat on a stick and bubble waffles. Mmm...sounds good right now. The street vendors made for a happening night life. You could eat dinner at a restaurant, or just mosey from street vendor to street vendor. Ciao!