Day 1

            We arrived in the harbor on the first day and I got up nice and early to greet the family waiting outside. After a long wait for immigration to clear, they were finally allowed on. The kids who were on the Parent Trip all gathered in one of the dining rooms to greet their families. Jeffrey was the first one on the ship and the first one to make it to us. The rest of my family followed not far behind and it was so fun to see them. After grabbing a snack because they hadn’t eaten breakfast yet, I took them on a short tour of the ship. Then we grabbed my stuff and headed to the hotel to drop it off and go grab breakfast. Afterward, we headed out into the city. We took the ferry across to Hong Kong Island, and after walking around the port for a while (and finding Starbucks!) we got on the double-decker street trolley. We took it down the road just to ride it and then got back on the other way to go find an attraction my mom had heard about – the longest escalator succession in the world. Super random, but it was cool riding all the way up to the top. We turned around and walked back down about halfway before stopping to find a place for drinks and snacks.

            After walking around the city more, we stopped at a hotel for high tea. After waiting around way too long, Dad and Jeffrey decided they weren’t up for finger sandwiches and tea so it turned into a ladies tea. The hotel was very nice and we order the tea special which included a 3-tiered spread of desserts, sandwiches and other goodies. We each ordered our different kinds of tea and had a lovely time. Then we rushed back to the hotel to quickly change and meet up with the rest of the parents group for our junk boat tour around the harbor. On the boat we sat on big lounge seat, with 2 people per section, of course Allie and Jeffrey and I all fit on one, and there were snacks and drinks provided to everyone. After the boat, we arrived back and Mom and Jeffrey went back to the hotel because it was a little late for both of them. But Dad and Allie and I waited around until the light show started. All the buildings around the harbor have lasers and lights going up the building in cool designs and different colors. It wasn’t as cool as we thought it would be, though, so we left early and went to find the Temple night market. We walked around a little while and decided to eat first. We ordered a few noodle and seafood dishes at the little street side, slightly sketchy restaurant, with the seafood all sitting in Styrofoam boxes outside on the street. But the food was delicious and we headed out to find some goodies. After finding some great fake products, we headed back to the hotel to prepare for our day of travel

Day 2

The second morning, we woke up and grabbed breakfast and after shopping around a little bit, we packed up and left for the airport at 11 a.m. The drive to the airport was beautiful, right along the water with a view of the islands around Hong Kong. We all checked in for the flight to Beijing, and grabbed some food at the enormous food court. The food court and shopping area in the airport looked exactly like a mall.

            Once we arrived in Beijing, we had free time. After checking in and settling into our room, we went to a restaurant right outside the restaurant, called Blue Frog, which ended up being a Western grill so I had a burger and most everyone ended up with great food. After dinner we just headed back to the hotel and rested. I went down to the lobby to hang out with some of the other kids on the Parent Trip and some of them were going out to hang out with some other SAS kids. I wasn’t really in the mood but I got convinced to go out. I ended up running into Malia and Cole and a few other friends, which was funny because we were in the middle of Beijing, so that was very unexpected. I was too tired to stay out late though so two other kids and I headed back to the hotel and I fell asleep very quickly…