Hong Kong (or, "Disneyland, condensed version")

We left Korea in a snowstorm and arrived 3 hours later in warm, sunny Hong Kong for a week of relaxation and family time.  Oh, and a brutal 100km (62 mile) footrace for Jake and me.  But first things first:  Disneyland!  The day was beautiful and we had a delightful time at the "Happiest Place on Earth".  And let me tell you, going to the House of Mouse in Hong Kong is the almost perfect Disney experience.  It takes all of the highlights of a week at Disney (Cinderella's castle, Space Mountain, the spinning tea-cups, the jungle ride, etc.) and condenses them all into one location that you can see in one day, at a quarter of the price, with no fuss, and you can take the subway from the city right up to the gate. 

Beyond Disney, we enjoyed Hong Kong by simply riding the public transportation, and Hans, especially, is a huge fan of the cross-harbor ferries and double-decker busses and trollies.  We also saw more fancy cars than we've ever seen -- not just the basic expensive cars, but Mazeratis and Lamborghinis, too.  We wandered around the island and appreciated the green trees and colorful flowers.  We ate a ton and enjoyed both authentic Chinese food and lots of gelato (we very rarely pass by ice cream shops and bakeries without a purchase while travelling).  Most of our time was spent simply soaking up the city and its sights, including riding every inch of the longest escalator system in world!  We also hung out on the rooftop garden of our rented apartment, playing board games and watching the ships in the harbor.

We found a babysitter through friends we had met on the Mongolia trip, and the kids had a great time with her while we were at the race, going to church, visiting the aquarium, an amusement park, and the zoo.

The race course was gorgeous, up and down the mountains and along the seashore.  And when we say up and down, we do mean quite literally.  The course goes to the summit of the 7 highest mountains in Hong Kong and back down to the coast after each one , and is amazingly more rural than you would think it could possibly be in a territory with a population of over 7 million, but it was.  I have never felt as alone as I did up there on top of those mountains in the middle of the night!  Earlier in the day when we were still running together, Jake ate a candy bar and had to wrestle a monkey for the wrapper to keep from littering.  The imagination works like crazy in those conditions, and I couldn't help but wonder what else there was around.  Anyway, Jake had a fantastic run and finished strong in 21 hours 35 minutes (coming in approximately 500th out of 850+), but the night took its toll on me and I was one of the 220+ people to drop out, having made it to the 83km mark with some minor injuries.

All in all, an exhausting trip, but definitely one filled with a ton of memories.