Summer 2015

Went on back-to-back vacations this summer with both sides of the family. We arrived on a Monday, were there to celebrate the first birthday of my youngest niece and at weeks end flew the red-eye on our anniversary to Miami for a seven day cruise with my mom and sister on the Norwegian Getaway to St. Thomas, Tortola and Nassau followed by a night in Fort Lauderdale, then a week in Las Vegas with Paul's family with side trips to Hoover Dam and Red Rock Canyon.

  We drove straight back to join an 80th birthday banquet for Paul's aunt (father's side). There were four tables and it was nice to see a lot of relatives that we hadn't seen in awhile and meet some new ones (married in, babies born). It was to be the last time we saw Paul's oldest uncle, since we received news that he recently passed away. We're thankful of that opportunity.

We settled back in the Su family home after that, taking several trips to the airport as various family members started flying out, Paul, Rosa, then Maggie, who was heading back to her school to teach at summer camp.

We spent the last weeks of July hanging out at the house with Susanna and Catie who were visiting for the summer from Nagoya where they'll be until next summer as well as Helen and Annabel who are temporarily staying there to save on daycare - grandma is it! We also went to visit James, Kathryn, Mia and Christopher for lunch, then lingered on until after dinner. I, for one, enjoyed playing with the little ones.

A late decision the last week was for Alex and I to drive up to Redding to visit my mom one more time and catch my Aunt Hing and Uncle John who were driving back to SLC from Seattle. Although we drove back in one day down I-5, on the way up we took 101 stopping to camp out for a night at New Brighton State Beach near Santa Cruz, then continuing up the coast on Hwy 1 to stay at Melodie's after a yummy Italian dinner. I hadn't seen my aunt and uncle in quite a few years so it was nice to catch up.

Satisfied most of my US food cravings and even tried a couple food trucks - the famous Kogi Korean BBQ taco, and a lobster roll from Cousins Maine Lobster. Only ended up bringing back one extra bag this year on our late night flight with morning arrival so we can hit the ground running, so they say.

alumni news

Maggie Su (2014), former Muse writer has kept writing in college. She applied to and was accepted to write for her award-winning college weekly, Occidental Weekly this year. Her editors awarded her "Writer of the Week" for one of her articles during first semester and entered her work (and some of her fellow colleagues) in the Society of Professional Journalists 2014 Mark of Excellence Awards. The awards honor the best of collegiate journalism from a calendar year and entries are judged by professionals with at least three years of journalism experience. Her school, Occidental College, competed against others in Region 11, comprising Arizona, California, Hawaii and Nevada. Some categories were divided between large schools (greater than 10,000 students) and small schools (9,999 and fewer students).

Maggie's school paper won Best All Around Non-Daily Student Newspaper, she placed in the top three for Sports Writing (Small) 1-9,999 Students, and several colleagues won or were finalists in other categories. Congratulations Maggie!

http://www.spj.org/news.asp?REF=1337

Easter weekend in Nagoya

Brother-in-law and family moved to Nagoya on a two year assignment with Toyota in January, so we went for a visit at the end of spring break, over Easter weekend.

We were able to catch the sakura blossoms despite rainy weather shortening the season. There were beautiful trees everywhere - across the street from our relatives' home, in school yards, parks...

We went several places especially to view - the first evening along a section of the Yamazaki River that is lit up at night. It looked a little eerie, but it was a pleasant walk.

The second day we went to the Higashiyama Botanical Gardens and saw lots of Spring flowers among the many types of sakura along the trails. You could easily spend the whole day wandering the trails, but since it was rainy, we stuck to the main route.

 

I was happy to see was a maple tree with glorious red leaves and imagine Fall at this park would be beautiful.

The last day of viewing we went to Nagoya Castle. We took the kids here on our last trip in 2007 through Nagoya (and Kyoto, Kobe then flying out of Kansai). After strolling through the castle and grounds taking lots of photos, and after a break to eat udon outside under canopies to protect against falling blossoms, we went to the Sakae area to shop at GU ("gee-you" a sister store of Uniqlo) and to check out the Apple and Sony stores. 

We celebrated Easter mass at Nunoike Cathedral, but since we went in the evening, we didn't have brunch, instead kept to the family holiday tradition of a hotpot dinner eating at a restaurant in the JR Central Towers above Nagoya Station.

For other meals enjoyed sushi, curry katsu and plenty of noodles (ramen, udon, soba, dan dan) and one American meal out - breakfast at McDonald's after dropping our niece off at school for drama rehearsal. I think sushi was most memorable at Sushiro - a 100 yen/plate kaitenzushi (self serve revolving style sushi bar). We ate 47 plates of nigiri and maki!

It was great to get away for a little vacation!

Happy Chinese New Year!

From CNY

As you know, we were in California for Christmas this year and managed to get a couple of family photos. Here's one fashioned into a CNY card by Maggie. The photo was taken in Redding, CA with the three Shastas in the background although you can't see them very well - Shasta Dam, Shasta Lake and Mount Shasta - look back a couple of posts for the original (or just click here).

We're already mid-way through the 3rd quarter and it's nice to have another break. We started by visiting a friend's home to share a hotpot meal.

The apartment complex had lovely decorations, so we snapped a photo on the way out. (Maggie will have to Photoshop herself in to "join" us.)

We had a couple of Disney tickets to use, so off we went after figuring out the best way to get there was bus to Kwai Hing, then MTR the rest of the way. Here we are on the special Disney train with Mickey windows, plush couch seating, etc.

Disneyland was decked out for the holiday, Mickey and Minnie were dressed in special outfits and special merchandise was on sale (of course - cookies, clothes, dolls, home decor, etc). We did get a couple of free iridescent themed stickers and a guide map, though.  

As expected, there were lots of people, but we made the rounds and rode "singles" to speed up the wait time. We caught the Flights of Fantasy Parade on the way out - a nice way to end the day. 

Noticed such nice light while waiting for the train back so made Alex pose for a photo - hoping the rest of our break has nice weather, too.

Reunion at the USRC

The expat community in Hong Kong is fairly transient, but there are families like ours that have stayed and made it their home.

Every year before Christmas, friends start trickling in from various places - some for a quick stopover, others to visit longer. We haven't necessarily been in touch through the years since our lives have pulled us different directions, but when these former HKers arrive for a visit, we usually get together for a meal.

One friend is a member of the USRC, the lovely, little, city club where we all brought our children to playgroup so many years ago, so that's where we went this year. They have delicious Indian food among many other dishes.

It was a beautiful afternoon, perfect to sit out by the pool. Our long history and easy familiarity with each other made it easy to reminisce and catch up and talk about future plans while we ate. Before we knew it, more than three hours had passed!

We took the group photos as people started to leave, but missed a few that left early. The older the children get, the more unwilling they are to pose for photos...

Christmas break in CA - SoCal

Our last photos before leaving NorCal were with Santa at a neighborhood home that was voted one of the most festively decorated, and a family photo at home Christmas eve after Melodie arrived. Christmas morning was white, but from frost, not snow making it quite chilly as we loaded up the car for our drive to Sacramento to catch our flight to SoCal.

We arrived at Burbank and made our way to the family home - full for the holidays with two of Paul's sisters, his brother and their families in town as well as frequent visits from Paul's other sister and family who live down the street.  The hot pot was still going from an extended lunch and was fired up again for dinner with the family followed by opening presents. We haven't been back at Christmas for over ten years!

Finally got to hold my cute, curly-haired niece, but at six months old, she is quite attached to her primary caregivers.

Played games with Alex, Maggie and my other nieces and nephew - so fun to see how they've changed in the last year and a half...

Including Maggie and Alex, there's a generation gap in this group of first cousins - the older three are age 12 and up and the younger three are three years old and below!

Christmas weekend included family and food, of course, and a karaoke marathon; and ended with a teppanyaki lunch and Baskin Robbins ice cream cake to celebrate Paul's father's birthday, as well as a going away party for Paul's second sister and family who are moving to Japan for a couple (or three) years.

The days leading up to the new year were filled with more food, family activities, and errands. We enjoyed mostly beautiful weather with breezy, cool, crisp mornings that warmed up during the day; perfect for afternoon excursions - walks, skateboarding, picture-taking...

Late on New Years Day we'll be heading back to HKG wrapping up a short, busy, fun break. Maggie still has three weeks of break and hopes to get more driving practice in to prepare for her driving test.

Christmas in CA - NorCal

Since we didn't come back during the summer, we decided to make a quick trip during Christmas break.

Alex and I flew to SFO arriving in the evening, Maggie flew up the next afternoon, and Paul arrived the evening after that. We spent the time before Paul arrived with Melodie and saw Steve for a late lunch.

Paul hasn't seen his cousins in the Bay Area in awhile, so first off was a seafood banquet lunch with them and their families. Half of the 12 first cousins were there with 10.5 offspring - second cousins!

After lunch we drove north to visit my mom and since Paul hadn't been to Redding in a few years, played tourist and visited the Sundial Bridge and Shasta Dam during our short visit.

rowing

A few years ago Alex took a rowing course with friends and passed Star 3 Sculling. There are other levels to strive for, but attaining this level was sufficient to join the Hong Kong China Rowing Association and any one of several clubs that row for fun, exercise, and/or competitive training.

Since we stayed here this summer, I thought it would be nice for him to get back on the water and found a rowing club to join. The group meets twice a week, but Alex prefers the mid-week time for individual practice over the more social Saturday group that often rows in quads.

 It was the height of summer when he started rowing again and the heat and humidity made for trying conditions. Now that it is fall, the weather is much more enjoyable and Alex has noticed his stamina/endurance levels increase.

Coach rides his bike along the river banks while having the group row from bridge to bridge - about 3 miles out and back. Sometimes they do several laps - it's quite a workout!

Temperatures have been dipping to about 65F in the evenings and the sun sets earlier, but it only feels cool afterward when bike riding home about a mile going the quickest route over the vehicle bridge or 2.5 miles going the longer, more scenic way along the banks toward the river mouth and over the pedestrian/bike bridge.

We are fortunate to live right by the river and less than a mile to school/office/grocery/banking/eateries and walk or ride our bikes every day. There's a link in the sidebar to a map of where we live and here's a screenshot of another with the yellow dot depicting our home and the lower left pencil is where the rowing center is.

You can also see our apartment building across the river behind the low white building which is a school. We eat dim sum in the "floating restaurant" in the foreground.