A Weekend in Cheung Chau!

Hello! It's Saturday following a busy week- and I'm finally getting the chance to sit down and write to you all about our delicious weekend in Cheung Chau. An island south of Hong Kong Island, Cheung Chau is probably best described as a "fishing village" and summer house locale for Hong Kongers. The sun set as we arrived on a ferry. The tents you see are the docks where the ferry let us off.

Brett and I stayed at the

one hotel on the island- The Warwick. It was nice- with complimentary breakfast served

on our private patio overlooking the south China Sea. We woke to more adventurous tourists (and locals?) windsurfing on a VERY windy day. I don't expect

you to keep up with the local weather, so I have to tell you that typhoon was blowing past and the repercussions of gusty winds did reach us on our long awaited vacation. But no matter! Our first day was spent sleeping late and then getting Chinese massages.

We did venture out for dinner. We crossed the island on foot (the only way if you don't want a ride from a bicycle taxi). There are no cars allowed on the island (with the exception of an ambulance- and a fire truck, I think). It takes less than 5 to walk across the narrowest point.







Dinner was spent waterside for seafood, in Brett's case! See the photo of scallops served on the shell piled with garlic. Brett was in heaven. We also had pork and broccoli- aslo very good, though not from the water! Note the very large Tsing Tsao Beer.
Dinner
Here is the beach just outside the hotel. We went looking for sea glass to add to our collection. (We also have some from our Macau April trip.)

We spent Monday travelling back to the main island, but headed south to Ocean Par

k, a local theme park in HK. Check out that Panda, and Brett probably wishing he was as relaxed as the sprawled big guy.

It was a great trip- and one

we'll likely recommend as a side trip if you can come visit us in Hong Kong! :)

Moon Festival, Wedding, and Another Concert!

What an entirely insane week we had! Busier than we'd been in a long time, Brett and I finally had the chance today to relax and enjoy the day.

It was Grace's birthday on Thursday. Please see picture of Adam giving her a birthday kiss! Behind her, note the "birthday themed desk set" we gave her. Like a strand of Christmas lights, these birthday blubs are powered via her USB port and com

plete with birthday mouse pad and hat: truly an office treat. Upon receiving t

his gem, Grace's first thought was, "It's reusable!" ... I'm happy I have until June to look forward to the same reward.

Thursday also marked National day- China's 60th anniversary. Similar to 4th of July for Americans, National Day is a holiday (no work- unless you are Brett Peach under a deadline) and loads of fireworks above Victoria Harbour. Since Brett was working, we timed his dinner break to the televised fireworks and dubbed it "National Fish Taco Day" - as that was the tasty dinner that night.

This Saturday was the "Mid-Autumn Festival" or some of you might have seen it in the tour books as the Lantern or Mooncake Festival. Another holiday (2 in a span of 3 days, but not related enough to give us Friday

off work and an extra long weekend.

Mooncakes are traditional treats for this time of year. The originals are very dense pastry filled with lotus seed paste (similar to fig or sesame in flavor...) and they contain a salted duck egg yolk, representing the full moon.

They are tasty in small bits, but seriously the most dense dessert I've tried. They come in beautifully ornate boxes. Modern confections have reinvented the mooncake over

and over. Haagen Daaz (which is mysteriously huge here, by the way) has an ice cream mooncake. The same is true of Godiva and other western stores...they all want a piece of the "money-makin' mooncake."

Brett and I headed off to Plato's wedding first thing saturday. (Picture of us above is from after the beautiful ceremony). It was small and lovely- with more cameras than guests. It was professionally filmed- and the place was full of asians and their cell p

hone cameras! Brett and I were starved so we headed back to that patio on the IFC tower you'll remember from one of my September posts. I ran into the grocery for some bread, cheese, salami and fruit- and we had ourselves an expensive little "western picnic" with a nice view of TST.

We headed home for a while to rest before the big concert.