Sunday, June 19, 2011

Father's Day with a View

I have never been hotter. Or sweatier. Or more cardiovascularly challenged. Or sweatier. Ever. At least all of our hard work was rewarded with an amazing view and fun times at the beach.


For Father's Day, we took a 20 minute ferry ride to Lamma Island, one of the 260 islands that make up Hong Kong.  We had a choice of one of two ferries that takes you to different points on the island. Cars aren't allowed on the island, so we knew we would have to walk to wherever we wanted to go.  We were ill advised as to which ferry to take. We ended up at a more remote part of the island and had to hike at least 2 miles, mostly uphill, through the jungle - which included all sorts of jungle sized bugs - to get to the beach.  Cole was riding on my back, Syd walked the whole way, and Skye alternated between walking and getting a piggy back ride. This beach was very isolated in comparison to what we found later.  We were greeted by an elderly Chinese man selling a bucket of beach toys, water, beach mats, and cold beer. We were so happy to make it to our destination and were ready to run into the water.  We all had a blast!!!  When we wrapped it up, we decided to walk to the other pier. Just when we thought we couldn't walk anymore, we see a sign that says it's just a mere 45 minutes longer to get there. Instead of turning around and heading back the way we came, we kept going, my guess is at least 2-3 more miles. This was our best decision.  We finally made it to the other beach, the one we probably should have been at in the first place. This beach had shops, restaurants, and paved walk ways. We sat at the first restaurant with shaded seating and had a surprisingly incredible meal! They even had a Little Tykes play set that kept Cole and Skye entertained for awhile. We replenished our fluids, our color started returning to a more normal shade, the kids finished their meal with a banana split, and we trudged on to find the pier...still a ways away.  We ended up walking through the main part of town and it was amazing....tons of cute shops, restaurants, bars, and friendly people. After seeing this, we would love to come back and start where we ended up.  The sun was setting and our energy was depleted, but this is definitely worth exploring again.


This wasn't staged...
We learned of Noelle's intense fear of spiders. These were about 9 feet above ground and hanging in impressive webs. We heard Noelle scream on more than one occasion! We counted 4 spiders in this picture and that was just the beginning. As Todd would say, "We're not in America anymore".




We made it!

Going for a Buggie ride.

Cole loved playing with the sand, but wasn't too sure of the water. He kept inching closer and closer until the water would rush up to meet him. Then, he would scoot back just far enough...

COle decided to exfoliate....it started with this set of cheeks and ended with the other.

Working together to build me a turtle castle.



Cole trying to fill up the bucket with water.

Who needs beach toys? Cole filled up everyone's shoes with sand...Thanks!

Todd and Noelle swam out to a diving platform. Cole didn't know they were gone and combed the length of the beach looking for Bubbles (Noelle) to throw sand at her.


He ended up turning on me. Luckily, he can't throw very far.

Todd and Noelle are out there somewhere.








If we would have thought of this when we first got to the beach, I would have had a much more relaxing time.



A Father's Day photo like we've never had before.


On the way back, Noelle decided to use the umbrella to protect her from the spiders.  

The way back to the other pier had breathtaking views and a few lookout points.








We found an amazing beach side restaurant...just what we needed to refuel.

This was at the restaurant.







One of Noelle's phrases to the kids when they need to sit down is to "plant it." Cole took her seriously and sat in a potted plant.


Todd's dinner was swimming on there somewhere. I wanted to set them all free.

The sun was beginning t set as the pier was in our sights.





Father's Day was a huge success. Hiking through the jungle, swimming in the South Pacific, surprisingly delicious food in an unexpected setting, and all of us together discovering new places and discovering what we are capable of...

Todd took this picture for himself with his phone...He is a No. 1 Dad!!! Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful Dads out there! We miss you!

2 comments:

  1. Gorgeous pictures! Feels like I am there with you getting to see the beautiful sites! Thanks for sharing!

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  2. these photos are AMAZING! we had this EXACT same experience when we went to lamma island. twice. when we were in texas, we thought we would want to live on lamma. when we went out there to look at this apartment we'd fallen in love with online, we had to hike for about 45 minutes to find it. and another 30 to find a beach. we went back to lamma one more time to look at the populated side of the island to see if we thought we'd want to live there. we had to hike 10 minutes STRAIGHT up dozen flights of steep, steep stairs to get to the apartment we wanted to view. lamma is beautiful, but it is NOT easy!

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