It's not Kennywood, but Hong Kong's Ocean Park is for families

Before we arrived here Ocean Park was a family destination we kept hearing was great fun. Finally we made the trip to check it out last Saturday after Sam's soccer practice in Kowloon.

We bought family passes so anyone who comes over be prepared to be entertained there. It has exhibits with dolphins and sea lions that were great. It reminded me of a cross between the PGH Zoo & Aquarium and Kennywood. The dolphins "rescued" a visitor who fell in the pool, they jumped over sprays of water, and performed for fish treats. The sea lions did some tricks too. We didn't get to see everything like the giant panda exhibit because we ran out of time. It is open year round so it had Kennywood beat on that aspect. The rides were a distant second to Kennywood though. Kate was just under 122 centimeters (48 inches I think) so she couldn't go on the roller coaster. The cable car ride between the different sections of the park was a terrific view. They have a Halloween promotion going which looks fun at night. http://www.oceanpark.com.hk/ is the website.

The Stormy Dragons had an open tryout for their dragon boat team on Saturday morning so I got to try paddling. It was not easy and I got all wet. I'm going to try again and maybe join the team. They didn't mind novices and were recruiting men for their men's team. Ron might try one of the evening paddles.

We found a local Catholic Church, St. Anne's, and tried CCD this week on Sunday morning. Kate's class has 29 other students so I tried to be a helper with our teacher. They did well considering it was in a really hot classroom. I think it will teach me too. Now I'll find out what my grade school friends were going though in Watseka at St. Edmunds since I always wanted to go! My helper, Verlyn, goes to the Filipino mass they have on Sundays, but since it's her day off we don't go together.

Not sure how this blogging will work...

Well, thank you Bobbie Goettler and Jennifer Wagner for your inspiration to try the blogging route while our family is in Hong Kong. Bobbie's family went to Qatar for a semester so her husband Ron could teach economics overseas as part of Carnegie Mellon University and she kept her blog to describe their experiences and posted cool pictures. I loved it and was disappointed when she didn't write more often!!! Now they are in Chicagoland as Ron took a new job teaching there. I keep checking back to see when or if she's going to keep us posted on their new city....

Jennifer suggested this would be easier to manage so here goes! My intent is to keep friends and family entertained by our experiences here in HK and save myself time typing the same stories to multiple people!

So far as some of you heard we moved from our hotel home of two weeks into our four bedroom apartment on the 18th floor of our building in the Pacific View. Our rental furniture looks sparse when compared to other places with families who have been here for years and shipped over contents of full homes from other countries. Our South island section of Hong Kong is called Tai Tam.

Ron works in Central (what you'd call "downtown" in any major city). He can take a shuttle bus from our building or use public transportation or catch a taxi. He is trying to integrate a firm called Richards Butler into the rest of the ReedSmith fold. The office here has 13 equity partners and about 100 attorneys/staff total. Last Saturday we went out on a large boat with another partner and had lunch on a small remote island, then were pulled behind a speedboat on "rings of death" (innertubes...). Ron would like to rent or partially own a boat after that experience!

Sam and Kate started at Quarry Bay School. They catch a charter bus each morning and wear uniforms. Several other kids get on with them and they have been meeting alot of kids from all over the world. They should start tennis and swim lessons once a week soon. Sam's going to do a soccer team based afterschool as well. They are in the easiest Mandarin "pathway".

I am enjoying the chance to explore using public transportation. Today I got to play doubles with several ladies and tomorrow I might try to dragon boat race, which I never tried in Pittsburgh! Yesterday I went hiking in Tai Tam County Park with two other American women and it was a great view of mountains, water, fog, with high humidity. We made it about 6 miles before we caught a cab home. The "hiking" is on paved cement roads but it was very steep in some sections.

Now to figure out how to show pictures!