Our own walking tour of Kowloon...

Today, Jennifer and I spent all morning exploring in Kowloon.

It's just so different. First of all, there is no inch spared. There are businesses EVERYWHERE. It's just amazing.

We woke at 5:30 a.m. and went to breakfast about 6:30 or so. After breakfast, we just began wandering the streets of Kowloon.

Our first stop, however, was so Jenn could get her Starbucks:






























Then we were talking about Larry and how he would have just loved to hear about our trip and all of the China experience. Literally, we turned a corner and found this:
















So, we just kept walking and found this display that is promoting a Food is Art Festival. Since it's all about the sweets, we just had to snap it!

















Nothing opens until 10 or 11 a.m. (Stacia's time) and since it was early, well we spent the morning in the most amazing park I think we've ever seen. Now, we have always held Krape Park in our hearts from a days in Freeport (just one of the nicest parks we've ever seen), but the Kowloon Park has taken the top spot! Enjoy some of the photos:

Our first night in Kowloon...

We both slept like rocks last night, but woke up at 5:30 this morning. So, we are nearly ready for the day. We're going to start with some breakfast and then just check out the sites, or should I say, shops?

:~)

24 hours of travel and we're still speaking...

Nearly 24 hours after leaving our house this morning, we arrived in our hotel in Kowloon.

So, here's the recap:

-- Car services 30 minutes late. She couldn't find our house and then got turned around. Once we were on the road, she missed the exit to the airport. She was a bit ditzy.

-- Delta. I did not get my first class upgrade I was hoping, but we did get upgraded to preferred seating with a outlet for my electronics. That made life a lot easier. Oh, and we had an entire row to ourselves.

-- Flight. We took off one our later than anticipated, but it was a 16 hour flight. The flight was not nearly as bad as we had thought. We slept quite a bit... probably six-to-eight hours total, but it was interrupted sleep, so we are a bit cranky and tired already. I'm sure this is just a sign of things to come with parenthood.

-- Hong Kong International Airport. WOW... this place is awesome! Tiffany. Burberry. Armani. Prada. Jimmy Choo. If I wasn't so tired, I'm sure we'd still be there. But, we went through Immigration with out any problems. Customs was even easier.

-- Kowloon. Because our hotel shuttle operates on certain hours, we ended up taking the train and a bus to the hotel. Once we got to Kowloon, you would just not believe the amount of stores... EVERYWHERE. Small stores, big stores, just stores everywhere. I am not kidding, there is not an inch of space left unused.

-- Hotel. The Regal Kowloon upgraded us... so the room is really nice.

I think that's it... we're tired so we're going to relax and get to it tomorrow.

Planes, trains and automobiles... so it begins!

We are as ready as we'll ever be.

Bags are packed.
Electronics are packed.
Itineraries printed.
Passports in hand.
Money in hand.
House cleaned and organized.
Trash out.
Newspapers on hold.
Mail on hold.
Lawn service ready.
Housesitter ready.
Work is done.

I'm not sure there's much else left to do. If there is, we'll figure it out.

Jenn slept like a rock last night. Me, not so much. Too many thoughts. Too many items to remember. Nervous energy.

We are just waiting on the car service... just 35 minutes to go and then we'll load up and head out. :~)

A blog that Jenn has been following said that Blogger is not accessible in Nanchang. So, we may not be able to update the blog while there. So, we may have to send some emails out to those of you interested and then do a lot of posts in Guangzhou and Hong Kong. So, please be patient.

Well, here we go... our trip of a lifetime is just minutes away.

A room of her own...

Here is Ella's room. Our goal for the room (yes, we had a goal) was to make it a place for Ella to grow. We didn't want a theme or make it a true nursery.


















Some things to point out:

Crib: We purchased the pewter-finished crib almost four years ago in Rockford. Friends of ours saw it on the floor and knew we were wanting a silver crib. They told us about it and we purchased it. We are fortunate that it hasn't been recalled. :~)

Bedding: The day we handed our life over to China, literally, we went shopping in Chicago. We hauled this PB bedding about 35 blocks back to our hotel. I swear we walked through Cabrini Green, too!

Walls: The room is painted Duchess Lilac. It was painted about a year ago to celebrate our three-year wait.

Artwork: The piece over the crib is the ABCs of China Provinces.

Mirror: Every girl deserves a full length mirror, right?



















Chandelier: Yes, it's probably too much, but we found it in Traverse City and just thought it would fit nicely in her room.

Bookcase: From Land of Nod, we liked it because the toy box is open and at the bottom.


















Rocking chair: This was my grandma's chair. It was green with a pineapple decal at the top. Not any more. :~)

Quilt: the quilt was made by a very good friend of ours, Charlo. She is so talented and made it with all sorts of ladybugs all over it. It's so sweet, we love it.

Desk: The white desk was a table in the basement of our Rockford home. The previous owners used it for a laundry basket to collect clothes from the shoot. We didn't plan on bringing it to Lansing with us, so when it came off the truck, we were surprised. We had it refinished, strengthened and a drawer added.

Closet: it's full!

Everything else was collected from various places and people. But, we are very happy with it and know that Ella will be, too!