September 2005 - Hockey Hong Kong Style

One of things we miss most about Minnesota is watching Laine play hockey so we were thrilled when we read there was an ice hockey tournament going on in Hong Kong. We could go see what Hong Kong hockey parents are like. You know you are not in Minnesota anymore when you arrive at the rink and have to take an elevator to the 8th floor of a shopping mall. Another clue is the dragon roller coaster that travels above the rink. One look at that roller coaster would have any self-respecting MN hockey youth clamoring for a little target shooting.

The rink is not olympic size or even NHL size. The zamboni is half size like the one at NYC Rockerfeller Center if you've been there. So they play 4 plus goalie on a side. Defensemen were scoring from their end. You can't really tell who the parents are because there was no cheering and no one was yelling at the refs probably because there were no penalties until into the third period. What kind of hockey was this? There were even Canadians in this tournament and there was no dirty hockey.

September 2005 - Ice Bar

After eating some rather spicy Indian food we found a place to cool more than our intestines with a couple of BBBs (British Business Buddies). This Russian vodka ice bar was about a 10 by 10 foot room kept at 10 degrees F. Fur coats hang outside the room for customer use...you wonder who wore them last and when they were last cleaned, then you have a quick couple shots of vodka and all your cares vanish.

September 2005 - Moon Festival

When the harvest moon comes out the Chinese celebrate with the Moon Festival. Families get together and have night time picnics lit by candlelight. Denis & I celebrated by having martinis and cosmos at the Intercontinental so I wasn't out with my camera taking the photos I should. Lanterns are lit and hanging everywhere. They also give each other Moon Cakes which are the Chinese equivalent of western Fruit Cake....something you give but never eat yourself.

September 2005 - Fishing Tolo Harbor Style

Our apartment at Horizon Suite Hotel is supposedly on the 15th floor but there is no 4th, 13th or 14th floors as these are bad luck numbers so we are actually somewhere around 12 floors up. From here one of our favorite pastimes is watching the local fishermen along the Tolo Harbour breakwall. Most fish using traditional poles, some use the really old method of handlining.

This guy is unique though. He's using a child's floaty ring (he's really skinny) and swimming a ways out from shore to drop traps marked with floating pop bottles. He draws quite a crowd to check out his results which are usually fish only about 3-4" long.

September 2005 - Tai Chi

A few weeks before I left the US Denis let me know that Simon (owner of SML) had arranged for the officers of SML (Denis, Elwin, Dickson) and Jenny, Elwin's wife to take Tai Chi lessons from a well known master in Hong Kong. I was to join in the lessons upon my arrival.

This plan would mean that all of them would have several lessons under their belt before I started. I couldn't have this, I would be like the worst! So in Minnesota I found Master Gustafson in St. Cloud and took a crash course in Tai Chi.

It was awesome, I loved it. I was prepared to show my stuff to the Hong Kong Tai Chi master. Well, I never got a chance because the week I arrived, the Hong Kong Tai Chi master left for Bejing, never to return. Denis had only learned 3 moves and I had conquered the first third of the simple form (Tai Chi lingo).

All that we have left of Denis' Tai Chi days is a calendar with his Master's photo. I practice my Tai Chi in front of this.

August 2005 - Final stop before leaving US

San Francisco is my favorite big city in the US and I was able to route my flight to Hong Kong with a 12 hour layover in SF. I rented a car for the day and visited my favorite spots. While at the harbor I saw this convertible parked in the wrong spot. The owner was no where to be seen.

August 2005 - UNR Arrival

Watch out UNR here she comes! It was quite the family affair moving Laine into her new dorm room. All that was missing was Daddy.

August 2005 - The Dog House

Before taking Laine to college, I spent some time back in the Minnesota dog house helping Chaz get a little more settled (whether he liked it or not). I did things like organize the garage and put in closet organizers. I stayed long enough and the grass got long enough that I got to see my son use our riding lawn mower for the first time. I was so proud. It was like seeing him take his first steps as a baby.

July 2005 - Republicans at the Lake

Here I am at Lake Tahoe having dinner with Ginnie & Lane and a group of their friends who were embroiled in one of those Republican conversations that make no sense. I finally couldn't take it anymore and had to reveal that everyone at the table was not Republican. The only way to get their jaws off the table was to take a group photo.

Needing a Democratic fix, I met up with Kelly Goodman one of my friends from our old Reno days.

You know, I think there is a reason our country is based on "Democracy" and not "Republocracy."

July 2005 - Lane & Ginnie's house in Reno

In the last year Denis' parents bought a second Nevada home down in Reno. It is brand new in a brand new neighborhood. I call it the stepford neighborhood because it is so damn perfect. People aren't even allowed to park on the street, in fact the neighbors frown if you leave your car in the driveway instead of putting it in the garage.

Chaz's Summer Trip

Once we moved out of the old house and into the "Dog House" the first thing Chaz did was take a vacation. Granted this was well earned as he was a tremendous help in the moving process, but it meant the dogs would be left in the care of Chaz's two new roommates. Tedd & Jon were great and the dogs survived.

Chaz's vacation was a trip with his old scout buddies to backpack in desolation wilderness on the west side of Lake Tahoe. I was already at Grandma & Grandpa's condo in Tahoe for a few weeks killing time until it was time to get Laine to college. Chaz and the guys showed up for a night at the condo then I drove them to the trailhead. They were suppose to be in the wilderness area for 6 days, but I got a phone call the 4th day and they were out...chased by mosquitos! A bunch of Minnesota boys chased out by mosquitos...how ironic is that.

Anyway, once back in civilization they made the most of it by visiting every casino down in Reno while Chaz and I shopped for a new truck for him. Denis' old Toyota was on it's last tires so we sold it and decided older cars were in better shape on the west coast where they aren't subjected to the salt on the roads. We found a nice 4-Runner so the guys had more room on the drive home.

Prologue

Since it's it's taken me a few months to get this blogging thing figured out, I'm gonna go back to the ending/beginning of our US/Hong Kong life. If you really aren't interested in every aspect of our adventures, you can just scroll through to find what interests you. I've posted in chronilogical order from some of our summer adventures to the present. We'll see how far I get caught up.

Well I see that it posts newest blog entries at top, so if you want to view back to the beginning you're going to have to scroll down.

Welcome to our adventures in Hong Kong. We hope you will enjoy some of our stories as much as we are enjoying our experiences here. Hong Kong can be as endearing as it can be frustrating and confusing. We've found the best way to experience our new home is with patience and humor.