Carolyn's Kindergarten Graduation

Congratulations our Bechtel bumblebee on a successful completion of kindergarten! Hard to believe next year we'll have a kid in first grade and another in kindergarten!

Happy 5th Birthday Meghan

Happy Birthday Meghan!! Meghan relished the week long attention in celebration of her birthday. We celebrated her actual birthday by going out to dinner at Jam's steakhouse, a teppanyaki restaurant. It is one of her favorite restaurants because "they cook the food in front of you" and "its fun". I have to admit the food is good and it is fun. The restaurant celebrates birthdays by presenting a bottle of champagne (or apple cider) in an ice bucket strewn with sparklers by a masked monster or clown. Our kids (and the adults) loved it but the poor little Japanese boy on the other side of the table was terrified. We all had a good time and too much to eat!

We had so much fun treating Meghan to her 'princess for a day' routine we just had to keep it going. On Saturday we had a Bowling Party at Kadena's very psychedelically lit kids lanes. If you have not been there it is a real treat. Lots of black lights to make everything glow, kid music (no barney thank goodness), they even have retractable bumper and a rail system to help kids aim. The pizza isn't too bad either. Once again we broke out the princess cake mold with the barbie like top, really simple but very effective cake.

Afterwards I went and had a very relaxing facial, while Karl took the kids and their friend Ode to play back home. When I got back they were coated in black (something from the playground rubberized matting), sticky with candy (left over b-day goody bags) and all very tired from playing monster hunters and chasing Karl all round the 7th floor. :) After a good scrubbing to get the black gook off it was off to bed. It had been a lot of fun.

Hong Kong

Ah, Hong Kong at night, Erica and I set to head out to enjoy our first night in China. It is really our second night but we had an overnight lay over in Taipei, Formosa the Other China. We did not see much but the Airport was nice; the Nationalist Chinese restricted us to our hotel. Darn trapped in a four star hotel overnight just Erica and I, hope we could find things to do... Thank you Chang Kai Shek! :)

Once in Hong Kong, we settled nicely into our Hotel the Marriott Renaissance of Kowloon. Swank place, the view from the water front right behind our hotel was spectacular.

At night the view is great as well. I think Erica is stunning in her lowcut little black dress don't you?

From Kowloon in the day you can see the mountains above the city and the bustling traffic on the bay. Here, behind Erica, is one of the famous tourist Junks that ply the waterways. Behind the Junk, you see the Hong Kong Convention Center. We were walking to the Star Line Ferry to ride across to the Island. It is a pleasant and short boat trip to the far side. From there we headed out to explore. We headed out to the market streets, Queens Road is basically several blocks of 'pharmaceuticals' if you think of deer horn, shark fin, lizard on a stick, dried seahorse and cicada shells as Aspirin and Viagra substitutes.

Chinese Viagra company: Hang Cheng Ginseng Deer Horn Medicine Company LTD.

Dried seahorses anyone?

Or how about some crunchy cicadia?

FRESH food, note 'sleeping' cat.

Typical Market Street. Erica hunting for another 'deal'. She is a deadly shopper, I barely escaped with my life, and the poor little old lady who sold us silk dresses for the girls was SO scared when Erica said we were over charged and demanded a refund, she threw in three purses, three fans and a fourth purse for Erica just to save her skin.

We wandered around to the Antique areas after the Oriental Exotic foods and medicine markets. We were presented with many different items, from 3000 year old bronze daggers to 'woolly mammoth' tusk Ivory carvings (since elephant ivory is illegal, there is now a decent trade in prehistoric mammoth tusks. It was really nice stuff. Though it does seem somewhat suspect since they did not allow photographs. Plus just how much prehistoric ivory is there?)

After the ivory and ancient weapons, we found a story specializing in more recent history. In this photo you see the Chairman and his minions as they spread the good word of communism. If you look closely you can see the Proletariat Workers waving their RED BOOKS with their feet on the backs of the disgraced bourgeoisies. I like the fact this is an antique market.

DID I mention the food? I have been to the Iowa State Fair, they eat everything on a stick there. Porkchops, corndogs, corn-on-the-cob, etc, BUT I am not sure they are ready for dried lizard on a stick.

OUCH that's a hot one! Get ready for the DIM SUM, yum yum. After eating, we headed up to Victoria Peak. The mountains overlooking the city are gorgeous and the flowers beautiful. Plus it was nice to get up to the cooler, less humid air of the mountains.

WE LOVE OUR PRESENTS! and so do we all. Beautiful Girls.