September 11, 2025
We are settling into a nice daily routine in Hong Kong. It all starts with a morning breakfast adventure which today led us to a diner that was described as a Canadian owned Hong Kong diner. We really just wanted a western breakfast and that was what we found. Upon arriving we noticed a very strong K-Pop theme and after texting our friend Gabby, she confirmed it was the same person everywhere, G-Dragon. The kids colored while we waited for our food. At one point I went in search of the bathroom and was given a key, told to go outside to the building next door , take the elevator to the 6th floor, and use the key to unlock the door. Somehow, I found it…
On the way home we stopped at the Bakehouse bakery again, I imagine we will stop daily, for an iced coffee and snacks for homeschool. Then we returned to the hotel briefly before heading out again. I was going to the gym and was going to show Kayleen and the boys where an entrance to the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens was. They spent an hour in there and loved it. Lenny even said, “Mom thanks so much for bringing us here!!!”
We all met up outside my gym. I told Kayleen how my suspension of the owner being a guy named Jimmy who was a trainer at the fancy gym I went to when I lived here 15 years ago were true! We all walked down the mountain to Kayleen’s yoga class. Then I headed back up the escalator with the boys, planning to go to the pool and cool off since they were roasting after being outside for the last hour. The pool yielded more games with them jumping into lifeguard rings and then back to the game where I was the boss who flashed red when below 20% health. Once Kayleen returned, we all headed up to our rooms to shower and get changed.
The plan was to do home school in the reading room and then head to Kowloon via the Star Ferry to go to an arcade before heading to our cooking class. Ollie had a better day of home school and the reading room continues to be a good setting for us to work in. Though we got yelled at for bringing food today.
We took an Uber down the mountain to the Star Ferry and used our Octopus cards, we got the kids their own Kids Octopus cards, to pay for our ride and hopped on. The ride costs 4 HKD or about 50 cents USD. The Star Ferry is a famous, but very old boat, that shuttles people back and forth across Hong Kong Harbor. The subway is much faster but the ferry is a nice ride with views of all the boats and waterfront if you’re not in a rush.
We had to walk a bit to try and find the arcade I found on Google. Eventually we found it in the lower level of a large mall. As soon as we opened the door to enter, we saw it was filled with smoke and a man working there quickly ran over to tell us kids were not allowed. This was a devastating blow to the boys but mostly Ollie who was in tears. There had been a lot of build up for going to this arcade all day which only made the letdown worse. Ollie made his case that the arcade was foolish as kids were the best customers at all arcades! I told him I agreed and that this must be a weird one and maybe they would be out of business soon.
We decided to get an ice cream and walk the rest of the way to our cooking class through Kowloon Park since we had extra time due to the arcade being closed. Lenny got a chocolate waffle ice cream that looked like it would be a flop but Kayleen and I agreed it was quite good. It was large enough that he tired of it so we got to have a few bites without him complaining. It was a chocolate ice cream with a thin layer of hard chocolate on the inside and an edible outer casing shaped like a waffle that kept your hands from getting gross.
We met our cooking class instructor, Felicity, outside a large grocery store in the Jordan neighborhood of Kowloon and started our walk through the wet market. She showed us different stands and explained what things were, mostly for our education but we did stop at a few places to purchase ingredients for the dumplings we would make. When we would stop, the boys would want to sit down on the ground and needed constant reminders that sitting was strictly off limits in an active wet market!
The most interest things to look at are always in the seafood section, if you can handle the smell. There are many different live fish, crabs, frogs, and even shrimp jumping out of their enclosures. As we were leaving the boys requested a coconut to drink so we ordered one to share. The woman working at the stand held it in one hand while wielding a meat clever in the other with enough force to chop a hole in the top of the coconut. Kayleen and I both immediately thought of our friend Chris who we had watched try to slice a lime in half while holding it in his hand once.
As we were heading to the space we would cook in I got the feeling where I was so hot that I would never feel cold again but while also desperately having to pee! It was a brutal combo and one of the more unpleasant walks of my life. Luckily the closed coffee shop where the class was had the AC humming when we arrived and a restroom in the back.
The cooking class was a hit and the boys did a great job for the most part. They both did really well kneading and splitting the dough we made for the dumpling wrappers. I was impressed by how careful they were while rolling out the dough to be big enough before using their cutter to make the perfect sized circle. Ollie was given more freedom to use his knife when we cut the baby bok choy which pleased him greatly.
We made two different dumpling shapes with the favorite being the one that looked more like a wonton. Everyone ate as many as they could, even Lenny! Once he finally tried soy sauce, he realized we had not been lying about how salty it was and would happily dunk dumpling after dumpling. Filled to the max we took an Uber back to our hotel and headed to our rooms for a quick shower and bed after a very long day
