The Taylor Family: February 2014

Tuesday, February 25

PEAF

The Property and Evidence Association of Florida has an annual educational conference. Every year it is in the Orlando area since that is fairly central for the entire state. I wish it were somewhere else though because I always end up having to drive to and from each day rather than get to stay in a hotel and since I am on the board I have to be there at ridiculous hours and stay super late

then drive home for an hour or so. Anyhow, the conference started yesterday and goes through Friday if you need to get certified. I am already certified so I today was my last day. During one of the nights there is a banquet that is held for all the members and they give out awards and have good food. I am president of our chapter (Lake, Osceola, Seminole, Volusia and Orange Counties) so I had to present the award for our Chapter Member of the Year. This year I chose my VP who is from UCF. She had no clue and wasn’t going to go to the banquet (because she also has to drive home each day) but I told her supervisor about it so

she pushed her to attend. In the end I was glad that I also stayed because I love my members and we always have a good time. I didn’t stay real late and pretty much left right after all the awards were given out (I got one too for being President which was a surprise because I never got one before) but I had a great time laughing and talking with people I don’t usually get to see outside of a Chapter Meeting. The pictures aren't that great but you get the idea.

Monday, February 24

Big Helpers

It's so nice to have helpers around the house. Of course, I may not need so much help if there weren't so many people to pick up after. ;) Check out Javan's cool new Dragon shirt!

Sunday, February 23

Bresa wanted Bangs

Before we left for Hong Kong Bresa told me that she wanted bangs. We talked about it a little bit but there was never a good time to

get it done. I told that since she had been taking good care of her hair and washing and brushing it as needed I had no problem with her getting a new hair style. When we came back from HK one of the first things she asked about was getting her hair cut so I called up Cindy (she does all the kids’ hair) and she said she could come over today. We talked it out and decided what exactly we wanted and Cindy set to work making Bresa super cute with her new cut. I think Bresa has the perfect shaped face and no matter what you do to her hair she always looks cute.

Friday, February 21

Our China Dolls

Last time we went to China we bought all the children jammies (as my mom did when she went to China when I was 7). The girls loved them and wore them until I told them to throw them away because they were falling apart. I made sure that buying new jammies was at the top of my shopping list this time around. Javan was only 3 last time so he didn't really remember them but he was excited to get a new set just as the girls were.

Thursday, February 20

Our 36 hour day

Time to say good bye to Hong Kong and grab our things to head home. We really miss the kids and our bed and our cat and pretty much everything (except for work for me) that we left back home. Peter set the alarm for 6:30 and after some procrastination we were up and out of our room. We stopped for one final free breakfast from the Glo restaurant at the hotel and checkout. We had planned to walk to the MTR and catch the train to Central where we can easily get to the Airport Express but while we were eating we decided we would just grab a cab so we didn't have to struggle with all our luggage through the streets and MTR stations. It was a short ride and soon we were getting our tickets for the one way trip to the airport on the express train that goes to Lantau Island. Our flight didn't leave for a couple hours so we took our time getting through immigration and security. Once we were on the other side of all that

we stopped at Starbucks to get a couple drinks and then found our gate where we sat for a little bit before we boarded. Everything was on time with no issues so soon we were on our way. The flight was about 14 hours, I think, and it was long and uneventful. There was quite a bit of turbulence when we flew over Taiwan but the skies were clear so we got to see all the beautiful mountains that made up the island. We tried to get some sleep

and I may have gotten 2 hours but Peter hardly got any. We had a window and middle seat again and then there was another, occupied, aisle seat next to us. The guy in that seat pretty much slept the entire time, not sure how he did that. We both watched a few movies and read a bit and then killed that last hour playing games on my phone. Finally we touched down in Chicago where the sky was grey and when we finally could see the ground it was covered in pretty white snow. Thankfully we didn't have to go outside. We got out of the plane and went through customs and such and then took a shuttle to our connecting flight's terminal to wait. We were only supposed to have a couple hours before we would board but the plane at our gate that was flying out before us was delayed due to not having a co-pilot. Not sure what happened there but they didn't leave the gate until about 2 and we were supposed to board our plane at 1:50. That plane finally left and ours arrived. Already delayed about 30-40 minutes we were called to start boarding. About half of the passengers got on (including us) and were called to de-board because there was an issue with the electrical system and maintenance workers had to turn everything off and back on again. We couldn't just get off the plane though we had to take all our carry on luggage with us, which is all we ever have when we travel. We called Peter's dad and my mom to let them know about the delays. We did have some great conversations with a lot of great travelers. Many Canadians and a few that were Winter Park locals, it was a great way to pass the time, especially when we haven't had anyone who spoke English to talk to in 2 weeks. We finally got on the plane again and actually seated this time and then we sat... and sat... and sat. Eventually they taxied us out to the runway but then we sat some more. We were on the plane for over an hour waiting to take off. The airport is super busy and our plane was already 2 hours late so they had to fit us into a take off time that didn't exist. At this point, we just want to be home.

Wednesday, February 19

Tsuen Wan

We stayed up late last night trying to pack what we could. We really had to get creative with our things and hopefully our carryon luggage bags won't be rejected. They are definitely packed full. We kept out only what we needed for today and tomorrow and the rest was rolled up tight and crammed strategically into a suitcase. This morning we got up late as a result and missed breakfast downstairs. By the time we left the hotel it was lunch time so we stopped at KFC (they have the best waffle fries there) for a quick lunch and then headed to Central.

We had brought our art pieces with us because the three larger ones wouldn't fit in the suitcases so we were wanting to see how we could ship them home. We were hoping to find a package large enough to send them all but with the large canvas painting we got that wasn't going to happen. We were also hoping that the smaller three pieces would fit together but the embossed character one was too long for any package at the post office. We ended up having to mail the large print in the tube we got it in after taping it up a bit better then I had to get a little creative for the two water color pieces. I ended up cutting open one side of a large padded envelope and

then taping it all back together with the paintings inside. We probably spent a good hour at the post office trying to figure out how to package everything and then getting it all together and then figuring the best way to ship them. Hopefully all three will make it home and in good condition. We still had the long piece left but that one would fit in our suitcase we would just need to figure out a way to keep it flat. Neither one of us really wanted to do a whole lot today but Peter brought up the point that we weren't going to be doing anything at all tomorrow when we had to fly back home.

That motivated us to get moving and we talked about going back to the hotel to drop off our last art piece so we didn't have to carry it but when I searched the hours of the things we had discussed doing we knew we wouldn't have enough time. We got on the MTR and headed to Tsuen Wan. This is in New Territories and the last stop on the red line.

We rode the train all the way from the beginning to the end and got off to catch a minibus up the mountain. We were a little confused on how to go but we quickly figured it all out and got off the bus at Yuen Yuen Institute. We still aren't quite sure what the Institute is but we had a good time wandering through all the beautiful architecture and buildings. There were lots of people burning incense and praying and we got a ton of great photos.

Just about all the buildings reminded us of Beijing and we remembered lots of what we had learned about the colors and meanings of it all. Just to the south was the Western Monastery so we walked there and got to enjoy some more beautiful buildings. I really enjoyed seeing these places and Peter said he was glad we came also. The Western Monastery is styled as a classic Chinese Palace and there

was no one around so we freely roamed the very peaceful property walking up and down all the stairs and around the gardens and waterfall. When we had seen it all and taken as many pictures as we thought necessary we headed back up the road to catch the bus back down the mountain. When we got back off the bus at the bottom of the mountain I wanted to see Tak Wah Park which is in the middle of city.

I was looking at the map and trying to figure out where we were while Peter looked at his phone to get the GPS going. We weren't trying to figure it out for very long when a man came up to us and asked if he could help. I showed him where we wanted to go and he pointed us in the right direction and welcomed us to Hong Kong. Overall we have found that the people in Hong Kong are very helpful. They often offer to help us when we haven't asked for help and sometimes we don't

even look like we don't know what we're doing (or at least I don't think we do). We found our way to the park easily after that it was quite unimpressive so we just did a quick walk through and then headed back to the MTR. Since we had skipped the ICC yesterday we decided to hit it tonight. The temperature today was very cold again but the sky is absolutely clear. I don't think we have ever seen the sky in Hong Kong so clear before. There

isn't a pollution problem at all but because there is so much height to the mountains and so much humidity in the air we are usually in clouds or a mist/fog that you can't see through very far in. Even if you go to the best vantage point in Hong Kong you often won't be able to see too far because of the clouds. Since today is super clear and there seems to be absolutely no limit to how far you can see ICC would be great. ICC

stands for International Commerce Center, it is 118 floors high and is the 7th tallest building in the world standing at 1590 feet. On the 100th floor there is an observation deck that you can pay to go up to and

/>see a 360 view as far as you can. On the 101st floor there are four restaurants where you can eat while enjoying the amazing view. We assumed the prices at the restaurants would be pretty expensive but since we would have to pay for the observation deck we thought maybe it would be worth it to pay the difference. When we got to the ICC building we found out that the observation deck wasn't available because the entire thing had been reserved for a private event.

Okay, well we will see what the restaurants had going on. You can't just go up any random elevator to wherever you so we had to find our way to Sky Dining 101. We were directed to go around the corner and when we walked up a hallway a lady popped out and set the elevator for us to go on up. We got in the elevator and Peter and I watched as the meter count rose and the position on the animated ring around the ICC building picture got higher and higher. My ears popped a couple times but it was only a few seconds and we were there. It reminded me of the ride up the Sear's Tower in Chicago only in that elevator we were crammed in like sardines and this time it was just Peter and I. When the elevator doors opened and we got out we found ourselves in the middle of four hallways that each lead in different directions, like a big X. We made our way to each one (one was around another a corner or two so we didn't actually make it to that one because we weren't sure where it was and we felt weird about snooping around while no one else was there) and asked to look at the menus. Peter did most of the research, I mostly just stood around and looked at everything. There was a sushi place called Inakata and while we were trying to figure out where to eat (or even if we could afford to do so) the hostess asked if we wanted to see something. I wasn't sure what she had said due to the language barrier but Peter said sure so we followed her to the back around the corner and down a hallway or two when she opened a sliding door into another room. I was little worried at first, if we were on floor level I would have thought she was leading us out the back of the restaurant back to the street. In the room was a huge table with 20 or 30 place setting. It almost looked like a huge hibachi set up but there was no flat grill in front of the settings, instead there were dozens of shallow baskets with different types of food in each one. Most of them had vegetables in them but as they progressed toward the back they had different meats and fish on/in ice. Behind the table were two men who kneeled on stools. Peter made the decision that we would eat there but we weren't really sure what we were doing. We ordered a couple things off the menu, a salmon/avocado sushi roll and some beef with fried rice and got some water. It was a bit awkward because we were the only costumers in the whole room and there were probably 7 workers all waiting on us. After

much struggling over understanding one of the waitresses told us we could pick the foods from the table and one of the men would grill it however we liked. We asked a few prices and then Peter ordered chicken and mushrooms. The man closes to use had to crawl over to get to the mushrooms but I guess that's how he does it. He grilled up our chicken with teriyaki sauce and when the mushrooms were grilled our waitress made us a sauce of minced ginger and vinegar. The food was really good but also pretty expensive so we had to eat lightly. From the room you could see the amazing view from the large window that made up one entire wall. I took a few pictures but had a hard time because of the glare and reflections from the lights within the room. We really enjoyed dinner and the view and were happy we came. On the way out one of

managers (I assume) asked if we wanted to see the VIP room. He said the view was the best and we could turn the lights off. Of course, we said we did. He took us to a large dinning room with a traditional table and a corner view of the sky line. He showed us how to turn out the lights and then left us to take as many pictures as we wanted. It was amazing! What a huge blessing for us.

I still got some glare but hopefully I will be able to clean them up a bit in Photoshop and they look a million times better than the other ones plus you could see down Hong Kong Island's coast a lot farther in this room. When we left we made sure to thank the manager and then found our way back to MTR to get back to our hotel.

Time for more packing and showers. Early start tomorrow and the fire alarm that went off at 11:30pm didn't help.

Tuesday, February 18

Round up

We decided we would get up earlier than we had been today and we had actually dressed and eaten breakfast by 9. There were a couple things we thought of last minute or that we were still thinking about from the Stanley Market so we headed that way on bus 260 from Central.

I thought Peter wanted to see a few museums out there also but turns out he wasn't too interested so we just hit the market. There was an art store that we had seen on our last walk through that we wanted to pick up a few things from but when we walked by it looked like they were just opening up and nothing was out. We figured we would walk around a little bit more and then come back. I was looking for a set of jade earrings for myself but everyone wanted a lot of money for them. One store had the size (small) that I wanted and the lady said they were $360. I said okay and went to walk out. She said how much and I wasn't really in the mood so I said I was going to keep looking. She kept pressing and Peter said, "Well we bought a pair just like them at the Jade Market for $30". Which was true and had I thought about it then I would have just picked up two pair. The lady immediately says, "Ok, for you $30". I couldn't hide how ridiculous her change of price was and laughed a little, totally unintentionally, but she saw me and got insulted and told us to leave. Haha, it was pretty funny and all for the best because if she was willing to scam us that much I don't want to do business with her anyhow. At least the lady at the Jade Market only started at $60 when we asked her. We kept walking and found some little Chinese boy hats that have a long braid out the back. I wanted to get one for Javan since the girls got a few extra things, they are so much easier to buy for because everywhere sells purses and pretty clothes and jewelry, so I picked up three for a better deal and will give one each to my nephews, Tyler and Wyatt. We went back to the art store

but were surprised to find that it was completely shut down. They must have been closing rather than opening when we came by earlier even though it wasn't even 10 in the morning at that point. Peter said he wanted to look at another art store that we had been through so we went back there and he looked for a long time. We left and talked about the art and he really wanted a water color painting. I wasn't too excited about it but we talked about it while we did a little more browsing. I picked up some more scarves and a sun dress and then we went back to get a water color. Peter couldn't decide between 4 different ones and asked for my help.

Together we narrowed it down to 2 and then bought them both. We also got a cool gloss embroidered character set on handmade paper that said, "Faith, Hope, Love". We will probably have to ship the art work home because we won't be able to fit it in our carrying on. We ate at a French restaurant and then left Stanley and went back to the hotel to drop off

our purchases. Today was a really warm day and Peter finally got to wear his shorts. The temperature was supposed to drop later though I still took my jacket as we headed out to Kowloon. We weren't completely sure what

we doing but we did want to hit the Jade Market again for those earring and then possibly ICC and the Ladies Market. I had read previously about other street markets that seemed interesting and since we had seen lots of views of Hong Kong Island and all the buildings we decided to skip ICC and keep walking. We went down several streets and hit a fruit and wet market. There were lots of stalls with people selling their

fruit and veggies and then their were several shops with hanging meat where you go and say what you want and they cut it right there on the street. There were shops with bins of water and fish for you to choose your dinner from and then there were the occasional random shops that sold odds and ends. Along the way Peter stopped and bought me a single rose. He is so sweet to me. I enjoyed carrying it all night and smelling it happily.

There are so many different sights and smells here but the rose has the same smell as those at home and it made me feel happy. Peter found a guy selling buttons, which Abbi collects, but he spoke no English.

We tried to talk to him about the buttons but he couldn't understand. A random lady walked by and asked if she could help us so she acted as our translator and we picked up 10 buttons for Abbi's collection. It's a good thing we don't have a huge market like that by our house, I would get in trouble with all that produce around. I love our Farmer's Market but that is nothing compared to the streets of shops that we saw today. We saw the start of the Temple Street Market but decided to keep walking until we hit the

Goldfish Market. This is a stretch of street that sells all things related to fish, things for tanks, plants, food, and of course fish too. It was pretty cool to see it all together that way. Pretty much each shop sold one of the items but several varieties of it then you go to the next shop and they sell something associated with it but not the same. We had fun looking and went on to the Flower Market. There is a corner in Mong Kok that has a few street

dedicated to flowers. The shops are overflowing with boutiques and potted plants and they all spill out into the street. We had a great time just walking passed the shops and peering inside and smelling all the sweet

fragrances. There were a few shops just filled with orchards and others with mums. There were a few that were flower shops for buying bouquets for loved ones. Peter said he was sorry and should have bought me flowers there but I told him I would feel really bad if he bought me a bunch of flowers and I had to leave them behind when we left in two days. From there we went up to a little garden area where there was a short strip of the Yeun Po Bird Garden. Apparently this is where old men go to walk their

caged birds and some sell some as well. We saw a few in cages and then went on our way back to the markets. On our way back we hit the Ladie's Market and the Temple Street Market before heading

back to the hotel. Peter was hungry and we looked for some good street food but the only one we found was a bit pricey so we ended up eating at McDonald's which is super cheap here.

Monday, February 17

Lamma Island

We actually woke up at a decent time today and got breakfast down in the hotel restaurant.

We stopped for coffee on our way out to Hong Kong Central Pier where we grabbed a ferry to Lamma Island. As far as the island goes there's not really a whole lot to do there. They have a couple interesting sights of a giant wind turbine and huge

coal-powered fire station and they are best known for their excellent seafood restaurants but what we really wanted to do was hike through

it all. We started in Yung Shue Wan and right off weren't really impressed with the area. It was very apparent that the area was very poor and dirty. There were a bunch of stray dogs and nothing was very nice to look at but we found the

trail we wanted to take and were on our way. Once we got out of the populated area and into the nature side the views were stunning and we took a bunch of pictures. We stopped at Hung Shing Yeh Beach and got a

lot of cool shots before we headed up and over the mountain. With every step we went up we were rewarded with beautiful views of the ocean and rocks below and more mountains above. The first half of the walk was pretty much all uphill and it made our legs

tired but the sights were worth it. Today was actually a warm day with no rain. The first we have had of it's kind. When the wind blew it was chilly but once we started hiking we quickly warmed up. I had read that you don't want to do much bushwhacking here because the island has many poisonous snakes so we stayed on the trail. It was really cool to start on

one side of the island and see the views from that side then cross over the mountain and see the sights from the other side with Hong

Kong Island in the background. When we reached Sok Kwu Wan we were ready to go but we missed the ferry back to Central by seconds-this seems to be a trend for us. The next one didn't come back for over an hour so we took our time and went through all the restaurants

and looked at the menus and mostly the prices. We stopped at one at the end of the strip and enjoyed our lunch. It was nice to just sit on the balcony looking out at the boat houses, fishing

boats, and mountains without being rushed or hurried. I had fish and chips with a couple shrimp sticks and Peter had beef and curry but later said he should have gotten the same as me. He also tried a Chinese beer but said it was bitter. When we had finished our lunch we had about 20 minutes until the ferry was scheduled to

leave so we walked back to the pier to wait. Pretty soon we were back on Hong Kong Island. We walked down to Pier 9, where we had read that the AquaLuna Junk boat leaves from, to check on the times. They had a trip scheduled for 7:45 that took you out to the harbor and shut off the engines so you could see the Hong Kong Light show that

happens every night at 8:00. Peter called to reserve our spots on that tour but we had a couple hours to kill before then. Vandita had told me that I needed to go to The Mandarin Hotel and get a hot chocolate at Mo's Bar. We were trying to figure out what to do and Peter saw the Mandarin Oriental across the way so he suggested we get a drink. We found our way to the hotel but when we got in we were told that Mo's was at the Mandarin Landmark Hotel down the road so we took another walk. When we got there we found the bar without any problems and asked to be seated. I felt a little strange walking into this place with my jeans and tang top and baseball cap on. Everything was very sheik and everyone was dressed very nicely. Oh well, we are who we are and we only wanted a drink. I ordered the hot chocolate

and Peter got a glass of wine. When they brought the hot chocolate out I knew right away why Vandita thought I would like it. They brought me the hot chocolate, a cup of warm cream and then three plates of additives with it. There was cream, chocolate shavings and gourmet chocolate marshmallows. I was also given 3 tea cookies to dunk. That was definitely not like any hot chocolate I had before and it did taste amazing but I think the best I have ever had still goes to the hot chocolate I got every morning at the bar on

our trip in Rome. We still had to time to kill after that so we went to the IFC mall to walk around until it was closer to departure time. The malls are great and the size of them is enough to be impressive but I can't get over the fact that they have no where to sit. My feet were tired and I just wanted to rest for a moment but there is not a single chair that isn't in a restaurant and usually those are all filled up too. We still had time but we decided to head to the pier because we knew there were benches out there. On the water it was a bit more windy but I was prepared with my jacket and scarf. We could see the AquaLuna across the way with the red sails lit up in the darkness. I wanted to get a few shots of it while it was on it's way over but while we were waiting Peter realized that everyone

else had made a line to get on the boat. We would be the last to board and therefore got the seats leftover. I was a bit disappointed about that but I think in the end it actually worked to our advantage. The boat wasn't crowded but there really were only enough seats for the people onboard. If we had gotten good seats we wouldn't have wanted to move around at all in fear of losing our seat but since our seats weren't any good to begin with we got up and walked around to see the best view from any position in the harbor. We started the tour sitting on the top deck in the middle but ultimately went down to the very front of the bottom deck where we could

easily see both sides of the harbor, Hong Kong Island and Kowloon side. The light show was very unimpressive and boring but the sights of the all the buildings glowing their usual lights was very pretty. We took a bunch of photos and then managed to steal a seat for the last bit of the ride. Peter had said he wanted to go back to a Thai restaurant that we ate at last time we came to Hong Kong but neither of us were really hungry and we knew the servings at the Thai place would be large and pricey. Instead we went back into IFC Mall and found a little cafe that served salads, sandwiches and paninis. From there we caught the MTR and then walked back to our hotel.