Thursday was our last day in Guangzhou and was therefore dominated by preparation for that.  We grabbed an earlier than normal breakfast (at about 8am!, yes that’s earlier) and then started packing up.  By the way, I finally took some pictures of the breakfast spread … see below.  We had planned to head out on the island for a few more things … but a large rain and lightning storm kept us inside longer than we planned.

We finally decided we better head out at about 12:00pm or we wouldn’t be collecting the last of our laundry from Jenny.  We tried shopping first but were unsuccessful in finding Sandy a jacket as cool as mine … sorry, babe!

Our last meeting with Jenny was nice … we consider her and her husband friends now.  They were so nice to us and gave us ridiculous deals on our laundry.  As we were saying goodbye this time she asked me if I was Christian.  I told her that I was and she said, “Me too!”  That surprised me as I’ve met very few native Chinese that are.  She was born in Guangdong province and has never left China … so I’m not sure how she came to Christianity.  I thought that was pretty amazing.  She gave us a little book about Christianity in China (written in Chinese) for Claire.

We then grabbed some lunch and waited out the rest of the rain in the room.

We headed down to the lobby just before 2pm and checked out.  Our internet charges for the week came to 300 yuan (about $40 USD) … which I thought was great!

We joined two other families in the shuttle over to the train station.  Both families had brought their children with them … it was fun to talk to the kids (ranging from age 6 to 16) and the parents.  One of the families had a 12 year old boy that reminded me a lot of Seth … nice kid.  The shuttle wasn’t huge and so we were all on top of each other!

When we got to the train station the shuttle driver decided to stop the shuttle right in the middle of the street.  So as we all unloaded the bags we created a huge traffic jam in the middle of Guangzhou (for about 6 minutes)!

We then moved through security and headed up to the 3rd level to wait for the train.  Helen showed up a few minutes later with our visa and travel papers.  We took a few minutes to say goodbye to her and then she was gone.  Helen was very nice and very conscientious in helping us get to where we needed to be.

The train ride itself was fairly uneventful.  Claire did need to make one “pit stop” while traveling.  The only facilities on the train were of the “squatting” kind and I volunteered to help her … not a great idea.  I barely remember the procedure for male usage of squatters … trying to help Claire turned into a near disaster.

I got pretty emotional as we entered Hong Kong.  I lived most of my time in the areas near the Chinese border and so I pretty immediately started to recognize the landscape.  It is such a beautiful land and more importantly, holds such beautiful memories for me.  I had almost forgotten how lush and green the mountains and hills are … just amazing.

Claire had been doing great with everything until we actually stopped in Hung Hom (the station in Kowloon where the train stops).  She had been watching a movie on the iPod during the ride but we needed to put it away to handle the walk and transportation to the hotel.  She was not happy about that!  She proceeded to cry for the next 30 minutes.  Sandy felt like we should stop for some McDonald’s at the station before we tried to make it to the hotel … best idea of the day.  Claire must have been both tired and hungry because after this break … she was right as rain.

We then headed onto the MTR (subway) to get to the stop by our hotel.  Next came a ton of difficult walking and a HUGE staircase to ascend.  As we had been walking, Claire got into the habit of pushing her bag as I rolled it along.  She was giggling and having a blast doing this.  This turned into a problem, though, shortly.  After we went up about 100 stairs dragging all of the bags (enough of a workout for a year) we then had an immediate short staircase (about 5 steps) to descend.  I started heading down with realizing that Claire had decided to play the “push the bag” game again.  Next thing I was aware of was Sandy screaming for me to stop … too late.  Claire tumbled head first down the stairs and was not in great shape.  She ended up with a “goose egg” on the back of her head and in need of about 15 minutes of comfort.  Needless to say … it took us a while to get to the hotel.  We arrived in Hong Kong at about 6:30pm, but didn’t make it to the hotel until about 8:30pm … even though it was only about 20 minutes away without kids and luggage.  Oh well.

We then had the blessed experience of entering The Mira … our hotel.  It is BEAUTIFUL!  As I mentioned before … easily the nicest hotel either Sandy or I have ever stayed at.  Pictures below, although they don’t do the place justice.  The room is controlled by a “comfort computer” for lack of a better word.  We have “mood” buttons that automatically set the lighting scheme for different moods.  We have a 40 inch flat screen TV with a Sony Vaio entertainment system … TV, Blue-ray, Internet, etc.  The bathroom is amazing with a deep tub and separate shower.  The shower has one of those overhead rain simulators (Tom’s favorite … Sandy not so much).  Anyway, awesome!

Everybody was tired but I couldn’t contain my excitement.  So I headed out for a 30 minute walk-about while Sandy and Claire got ready for bed.  Hong Kong is still the awesome-est!  I came back to a bit of frustration as Sandy and Claire were unable to get the hot water to work.  The hotel staff responded quickly and were finally able to get it going … kind of.  We’re on the 17th floor (out of 18).  Apparently hot water takes a long time to travel up to us … so every time we need a shower or bath, we have to plan ahead by about 10 minutes.  That’s how long it takes for it to hit our pipes … seriously.  Oh well … with everything else this place has … this feels like a VERY minor thing.

That was our Thursday!