Father-Daughter Bondage...

Due to popular demand here is the latest from dad's trip, I will try to tell the story mostly through pictures or else this blog would last forever...... I enjoyed dad's trip immensely and everything worked out pretty much according to plan. He arrived late on Friday night and unlike me, adjusted to the time change rather quickly (he still had to drag me out of bed to start the mornings, even though I am the one that has been on this time change for over a month)! When we first arrived, we went to get some late night food at a little restaurant, dad's first Chinese meal (notice the TINY chair he is sitting on).

While in Hong Kong we stayed at the Courtyard Marriott thanks to my discount. Having a good night's sleep for over a week straight in a comfy bed was incredible! We were right near all of the action in Hong Kong which made it really easy to see most of the main attractions in a short amount of time.

Saturday morning we started out by going to Lantau Island, home of the largest outdoor Buddha in the world. We took a cable car to get there and it was a beautiful trip up the mountains.

Here's the Buddha in the far distance.

That's more like it........

Now he's got it!
No alcohol....or meat!
Dad's first look at Chinese laundry... I think I've seen enough Chinese laundry to last me awhile!
We took a fairy to the Kowloon side across Victoria Harbor to see the light show! I don't think I will ever get tired of looking at this!

Dad got a chance to meet all of my friends while he was here and of course they loved him. Even now that he is gone they keep talking about how cool of dad he is...

Here he is seen learning the Soulja boy... how many dads would do this?!?!?!

On Sunday we started out really early at Victoria Peak before meeting my host mom at church. We did a three mile hike around the top with some beautiful views of the city!
What can I say, keeping up with dad is exhausting...

I officially broke dad into the craziness of the market shopping in Mong Kok!
Our last night in Hong Kong we went to Macau, it is only about an hour fairy ride from Hong Kong. It is awesome, even though dad and I lost money on the slot machines! They have a lot of the same casinos as Vegas including the Wynn, Venetian and MGM Grand.

That pretty much does it for Hong Kong, we left for Beijing on Tuesday late afternoon. I know the picture below is blurry, but as you can see dad is right near the end of the track and about 5 seconds after this picture was taken, he completely wiped out and took his bags and entire body down with him. It was HILARIOUS and everyone turned to look and laugh! Thank goodness he didn't get injured, a broken ankle would have put a serious damper on the trip!
The Marriott in Hong Kong was AMAZING, and opened just 3 days before the Olympics so it was brand new. Check out this sweet pool!

IF this isn't an imitation Starbucks, I don't know what is!!!

Here we are in Tianamen square, one of the famous sites of Beijing. You could tell the city had really been built up for the Olympics, everything was very clean and new. Behind us is the entrance to The Forbidden City.

We were there during a major Chinese Holiday and the place was busy, as you can see. I thought I might lose an arm in the hustle and bustle of trying to get across to the Forbidden City, don't worry all limbs are in tact.

Inside the Forbidden City, the architecture was really cool!

The flowers were gorgeous (this was in Tianamen Square)

The bird's nest, Olympic park was beautiful at night!

We walked down the night food market and saw a little bit of everything! I stayed away from eating crazy foods this time because we had just eaten a really nice dinner.... the locust was the worst!
I take that back, the stomach was the worst......
The Great Wall of China sure was Great, no disappointments there! We hiked pretty far up and you definitely get a work out. It was a great day for it, a bit hazy in the distance but wonderful!

Let's play a game called spot the American... ready go! (Clue: look for the one a head taller than everyone else)

After the Great Wall, we went to the Ming Tombs. There are 13 in total, each honoring a different Emperor during the reign of the Ming Dynasty. We saw one of the Tombs, they are all so extravagant and take up acres of land each. When this emperor died, all of his mistresses killed themselves to be buried next to him, wow how times have changed. We had a great tour guide named April who took us and two other travelers around, she was local so she had lots of information on customs and history.

Our final day in Beijing we went to the Beijing zoo and had a chance to see PANDAS! It was an absolutely beautiful day to be outside and I hadn't been to the zoo in ages so it was great. I also had the first meal since coming here that I literally just could not get down because it was so bad! Dad took over on the meal like a true garbage disposal should :)
We absolutely loved Shanghai! I did some serious damage in the market and bought about every knock off designer product they offered.... it was great! Here is dad finally getting used to using chop sticks (being a lefty, it was hard to help him out because everything is backwards).

That night we took a river cruise, I must say that the Shanghai skyline rivals Hong Kong's, I loved it.
My favorite knock-off purchase, coming in at a whopping 17 USD... not too shabby!
Trying to imitate the statue and failing miserably!
Everyone, meet Chinese toilets (thank goodness they aren't like this in Hong Kong).
I think it is a LITTLE top heavy!

Here is a tribute to some of the fans we had along the way, wanting pictures with us foreigners. Trust me this is just a few, there is no exaggeration when I say we took at least 50 pictures with random people!