What day is it, what time is it? Despite my meticulous planning and strategy to get on the right time zone when we land; the 1st day is always rough, but you just have to power through it. It's midnight Sunday night here, and despite an extended nap this evening, I think we'll be good to go in the morning.

Rewind 36 hours to our departure...

At the check-in counter at the airport, the attendant told Heather, "wow, you pack light for a family of 4! You know you're allowed 2 check-ins a piece?" Yeah, not in this family, she's lucky she got away with 3 total! We breezed through security and spent 2 hours in the terminal waiting to board; you never know with TSA...might be 5 minutes or and hour and 45 minutes!

First impressions of the plane are great! New, clean, and spacious, tons of leg room! Every seat has headphones, pillow, and blanket. There's at least a dozen flight attendants, they're all smiles, the service was excellent, and the food was a B+. But regardless of all that, 16.5 hours on an airplane is a long time. The girls got pretty decent sleep but on opposite schedules, so we took turns being up with them, and Heather's belly is in the way and she can't get comfortable anyways...going to be a tough, tired day I can tell. We've always suspected Milan was susceptible to motion sickness, and go our confirmation on this flight! 3 incidents of turbulence, 3 yaks!

I guess the pilot decided to save on gas, we arrive 26 minutes late for a 50 mintue connection in Tai Pei, Taiwan. Luckily its with the same airline, so they're at the termial to escort a whole group of us through security and onto the next plane in time...but the bags take another 30 minutes to get on the plane so all the rushing was pointless. A quick up and down flight, and as the wheels hit the tarmac, Maclaren yells out, "we're in Hong Konnnnn!!!" (no typo there)

It's 11am by the time we get through immigration, collect our bags, change clothes, and get outside to the taxi line. We're looking for a blue taxi to take us to Big Buddha & Po Lin Monastery, and of course there aren't any, just reds and greens. The color of the taxi determines where they are allowed to drive and they can't cross over. After 20 minutes and only 2 blue taxis, with 4 more people in front of us, I call for a change of plans, we''re heading to the hotel and will do Po Lin tomorrow.

This city is incredible, the number of high-rise buildings is unbelievable; it's easy to see how this is the most densly populated city in the world! Our hotel is just off the waterfront and is centrally located to all the sites in Kowloon, so after dropping our bags with conceirge, we beat a path up Hankow Rd. to Kowloon Park. Where we're a little disappointed to find every female, muslim, Philippino, house-maid in Hong Kong had descended upon the park to occupy every square inch for picnics (apparently this is a weekly ritual on their 1 day off). So we short-cut it out of the park and loop aroud to Signal Hill Garden where there is a scenic kids playground on top of the hill with swepping views over Victoria Harbor. We aren't disappointed, this is just what the girls needed to burn off some energy after a long trip!

Upon leaving there, we enjoy a leisure stroll in the sun and breeze along the water-front promenade, past the Muesem of Art (under renovation) and the Cultural Center to the public peer, past the Star Ferry Terminal and historic Clock Tower. Arriving back at the hotel at 4pm; everyone is beat tired, so naps are in short order. Maclaren thinks she is Kevin McAllister from Home Alone, and immediately jumps on the phone to call room service for "a cheeze pizza just for me!" (I actually do order a pizza for her, as Heather and Milan passed out for a nap).

Unfortunately, we all napped for way longer than we planned, I got up at 8pm, Heather at 11pm, Milan at 12:30am! I guess we were tired! It's 2am now and we're going back to sleep to hit it bright and early tomorrow!