HK Labour Day Weekend

Click on the photo above to see more photos on Picasa. We had a couple of days off from school due to HK Labour day and a teacher in-service workday so we had a nice four day weekend. Saturday started out with our normal activities – tap dance for Maggie and trampoline for both kids. After that we headed to Sai Kung Chong Hing Watersports Centre where we went last fall to go camping again. We arrived in time to pick up our tents and sleeping bags to set up camp before starting the BBQ. We opted to bring our own food this time instead of ordering the assorted meat packs from the outside vendor so we had things we wanted, and plenty, except for the chicken wings which proved to be pretty popular. For dessert there were four packages of marshmallows (though we only went through three)! We also had fruit, cupcakes and cookies. We finally tried to retire around 10 or 11pm but the kids took awhile to settle down and the other groups around us were noisy as well. Several people were heard talking fairly late into the evening – maybe 1am. Around 2am we woke again for a ‘pitstop’ and to zip up the flaps on the kids’ tents. We had eight tents this time for our group of 20 and three were kids only tents. A couple hours later the wind was blowing and we were awake again! At 5am the earliest birds started chirping and by 6am the kids were awake! Argh... We were all tired that night! For breakfast we had left over pork chops with our cup noodles as well as cereal, bread, fruit, hot chocolate and coffee. After that we took down camp just before it started raining but we got wet carrying the equipment back to the storeroom. It was only a morning shower though and by our 10am kayaking time it stopped raining but it was breezy on shore wind so it was tough to get out. Maggie and Kathryn were blown over in their two person kayak, but the staff in their motor boat were quick to help right them. (Maggie said she was leaning over at the time the gust hit them.) Kathryn was done after that and a couple people were too scared to go out after that incident even though the wind was letting up... Maggie was still raring to go and was out there the longest with various partners during the two hours we had the kayaks. Paul and I went out for a bit and Alex went with me once. About 13 of our group went out so we had to keep coming back to switch. Half past 12 was time to catch the bus back to town and we hit Pepperoni’s for pizza again which cost more than the whole camping trip! I believe we all enjoyed ourselves even though we were a bit tired from lack of sleep. The next day I took the kids to Ocean Park to meet up with other school friends and then one of Maggie’s friends slept over that night. May 1st was the reopening day of our pool with free swimming so we all jumped in for a bit. Whew – four days went by in a hurry! The rest of the school year will as well – we finish June 1st and there are lots of performances, parties and field trips on the calendar.