Shop With Intent

We shopped. For the whole day. The only thing that stopped us was the shopping that we have to pick up in LA on our way home! There are two major outlet malls and neither have free transport so we took a rideshare to the nearest which was Dolphin Mall. It is similar to most US outlets and have genuine deals with a few extra sweeteners for tourists. The boys were drip fed icecream and frozen yoghurt to jeep them happy, but by 4pm we were all shopped out.

Dinner was at Chipotle, which was on Lara's wishlist. It is not bad, but won't make it onto our awesome FF list with the likes of Crackerbarrel or In 'N Out (not Arby's!!).

Shops didn't open until 10am so the boys had time to practice with the snorkles and flippers that Daddy bought...

Working out how to order at Chipotle

Outlet Shopping

This post will be rather brief. It was all shopping (mostly at Woodburn Premium Outlets) , restricted only by remaining luggage space!

Finally got a haircut!

Portland is home to Columbia so we went nuts!

Running out of luggage space and the man buys a microphone...

Portland

The planned sleep-in never eventuated! Our body clocks still had us up and ready for breakfast at 7 am. We were off and on the road before 8 am. We could appreciate the rugged beauty of Astoria better in the morning light. Although we could hear the seals clearly we couldn’t sight them!

Many buildings used to be canneries, the other big industry in addition to lumber

Astoria -Megler Bridge in the background

One of the reasons we stopped by Astoria was that The Goonies, one of Mal’s favourite movies, was filmed here. We drove by the house that was used for filming but alas the new owner was not so sympathetic to fans. There were signs up warning people not to drive up to the driveway or to take photos! Sheesh! We respected his wishes and kept driving to Cannon Beach for a quick stop before continuing on to Portland.

Cannon Beach

There would be moments of fog patches that came and went

The drive took only around two hours so we stopped by Opa’s favourite of Applebee’s for lunch. With time to spare, we stopped again at the nearby Sears to ease the shopping crave. 800 fill down jackets for only $49! Bargain! No sales tax! Even better bargain! Our detour chewed up enough time for us to be able to check into our rooms at the Marriott downtown waterfront.

It was time to sightsee and the first stop was Chinatown. It was pretty quiet and seemed a bit rough. We were headed to Ground Kontrol. Malcolm wanted to visit it as it was known for preserving classic arcade games. The children enjoyed it but they only had about 20 minutes before the arcade switched over to became adult only.

Chinatown!

Ground Kontrol

Portland was also known for its many food trucks. You could easily have your pick of cuisine from Asian to middle eastern to Western. After perusing some of the offerings, we chose Thai for our dinner. Eating standing up without making a mess was a somewhat of a challenge…

Food cart time!

The highlight of the evening was without doubt Powell’s Books. I had forgotten how enjoyable it was to browse through physical books! The store was MASSIVE, so much so that it was overwhelming to begin with. It had one of the most impressive children’s sections I had ever seen. We could have easily spent a few more hours in there! The prices were reasonable, and we walked out with a big bag of books. Don’t ask how we were going to bring it all back home…

Literally a city of books

The children's section!

Jonah found his spot and stayed there for most of the time we were at the store

Many many interesting things to look at

By this stage, legs were getting tired and we returned to our hotel for free desserts in the M lounge. The family took some time out to chill, with some watching a movie, some reading, and others playing board games. Energy recharge was of utmost importance for tomorrow’s activity of shopping!

Star Wars, Shopping & Swordfights

This was the first time that we hired a car at World Disney World. The process was thankfully smooth and easy. Our rental was from the Car Care Centre which provided a free pick up shuttle from our resort. The shuttle came right on time at 0645. We drove to Disney Springs and found our way to the parking garage without incident. Luckily there was no one on the road!

What?!? Is this small car ours?!?

We needed to be at the Void for our Star Wars Virtual Reality experience. This sold out so quickly so we had high hopes and it didn’t disappoint! Oh my goodness virtual reality had come a long way from my last nausea inducing experience at DisneyQuest 4 years ago. Despite the rather painful check in process, everyone came out in awe. The vest that we had to wear was quite substantial and heavy and Jonah did well to manage it. The attached helmet whisked us to the lava planet of Mustafa. What we saw and experienced was so real that Malcolm was petrified of falling into the lava. Once we were given guns, telling Jonah to NOT fire the guns was pointless. The rest of us immediately felt tiny buzzing feelings on our midsections. Jonah was shooting at us! The exercise showed me that I was rather cowardly. When Darth Vader showed, I was absolutely terrified and convinced that I was going to die. Thus I used my children as shields…Thank goodness the whole experience only lasted 15 minutes!

With the morning excitement out of the way, we proceeded to the Premium Outlet mall at Vineland. We had only until 5pm to shop before dinner at Medieval Times. Medieval Times was a family favourite. What could be more fun than eating a whole chicken with your hands while watching and cheering on your Knight?! The only problem this time was that there was a problem with their ovens and so our food took a LONG time to come out. So much so that they had to give out bags in case we wanted to take our food home with us. And alas, other than having great hair, our red knight was virtually useless!

An old favourite!

Outlet Shopping

Today was the day to shop. We caught the bus to Downtown Disney and from there caught a taxi to the Premium Outlets at Vineland Ave. The big camera was left behind as space on the pack mule that is our stroller is at a premium! The family did well shopping to our hearts content from 9am to 5pm. Unfortunately, we had to return back to the resort as it was the boys turn for an evening out. Dinner was a casual meal at Olivia's where we were named family of the day!

So nice to be able to walk to dinner

The many many photo frames of families within Olivia's

Family of the day!

I shall leave you with one photo...a purchase that a very proud Jonah made with his own money.

Iron man mask with Captain America sneakers. Jonah is set.

Disney Treasures

I was feeling a bit sorry for myself with yet another cold. What better way to console oneself than to dig up and catalogue one's purchases from Hong Kong Disneyland! You've all seen my Mickey ring. Here are some of my other favourites...

My rather busy Disney umbrella. This is the one that we had to pay for! I wanted one of the really loud ones with Big Minnie ears and bows, or the Buzz Lightyear ones, but decided for moderation in the end...

So thrilled to find this, and only in Hong Kong...a nail clipper key chain!

Converted to nail clipper mode

There were so many beautiful tins that were unique. I had real difficulty picking one. Went for this lovely apple green tin with the characters in chinese costume. I am thinking that this will make a great tin for colour pencils.

Jonah's Chip and Dale cars

The obligatory fridge magnet to keep the other one company

A camera strap to personalise my Nikon D90

A unique pin...only in Hong Kong!

Another one to commemorate the year of the rabbit. Ignore my pudgy fingers

A lovely key chain of the fab 5. I can't believe that I gave away the one that I bought from WDW!

Next to the Winnie The Pooh version

Ah...my HKDL Dooney & Bourke

The one at 50% off

A rather shy Jonah modelling the only T-Shirt that I bought

I had to have this musical jewelry box when I saw it. I love the details on the top. Made in Japan, it plays "When You Wish Upon A Star" when opened.

It houses my precious pearl Mickey earrings purchased onboard the Disney Wonder.

Back to Reality

We are home safe and sound! It didn't take us very long at all to crash back into reality...I am ready for my next holiday!

Our last day in Hong Kong was one of last minute shopping. We had plans to visit the Pixar exhibition but we had to change MTRs too many times for our liking and couldn't figure out which bus to take. My parents, AKA our trusty guides, had already left for Singapore early in the morning.

So we decided to be brave and return to Sogo! It was slightly better than the previous day as most Hong Kong locals don't start their day until later. I can't even remember anymore what we bought! All I knew was that we spent 2 hours back at the hotel trying to rearrange everything in our suitcases. The rest of the afternoon flew by and we left for Hong Kong airport in the same weather condition as when we arrived...grey and rainy. We were grateful to be able to fit into the one taxi and the ride didn't take long at all.

The Qantas check in counters at Hong Kong International was better organised and more efficient than the one in Sydney. Despite the long line, it moved quickly and the staff were friendly and helpful. Immigration and security were likewise efficient and quick.

We made our way to the wonderfully LARGE food court that they had. We had to spend the last of our Hong Kong dollars. Our first stop was Cafe De Coral for some last minute BBQ pork, duck, rice and noodles, as well as my favourite Hong Kong milk tea. It was a lot cheaper than expected. So we moved on to what has become a bad habit at airports for us...McDonalds! We filled ourselves with taro pies, sundaes and milkshakes. Again, we still had money left over!

It appeared that I was destined to go into the Disney Store...we finally finished our last dollars.

A last minute dash later to purchase a man bag, and we were on the plane flying home. The flight home was not as smooth as the flight over but we were glad to be home nonetheless. We also welcomed Chloe into our home, who will be staying with us over the next 10 months. She had also arrived that morning from the UK.

I realised that I had forgotten to add photos to my last photos so that problem has been fixed!

Shopping With The Locals

Well so much for avoiding camera dementia this trip...I left the camera behind at the hotel! We spend the morning shopping away from the main tourist drags. It was a pleasant change to browse through the little shops and the moderate "shopping centres". I loved the Hong Kong equivalent of our $2 shops and couldn't resist purchasing a selection of knick knacks. The best shop though, was what appeared to be an outlet for Disney merchandise made especially for the Chinese market! The dilemma was how much to buy now and how much to buy at the park tomorrow. I settled for 2 tracksuit pants and a hoodie for the children. I could always come back if the park doesn't satisfy tomorrow (famous last words).

The morning went by quickly and we headed back to hotel after lunch. The children had a short rest whilst we waited for Malcolm to finish the last day of his conference. He surprised us by finishing a little earlier than expected. We caught the number 15 bus to the famous "peak". The bus ride up was hairy at times with double decker buses trying to get past each other at hairpin turns. The views on a clear day would have been spectacular.

Waiting at the bus stop outside our hotel for our bus

To the Peak!

Upon reaching the top, we made our way straight to the viewing terrace only to be surprised by a fee if we wanted to get to the very top! We decided to stop for dinner instead at one of the restaurants at the top. And guess where we ate...

At The Peak on a grey and rainy day

I wonder where we are...

The views from our table

Yep, we had dinner at Bubba Gump's. Isn't that where everyone eats while in Hong Kong??!?! The meal was tasty as always. The service was quick but it wasn't quite the same without an American server! We had a quick look around the shops after dinner and discovered the Hong Kong Disneyland Ticket Booth. The lady serving us was very kind, and advised us that if we purchased our tickets at Disneyland itself using a visa card that we would get 10% off! So we bought only the children's tickets to get the free 5th anniversary Disney umbrella and left the four adults tickets for the next day.

We then had a quick look around outside before heading back down to the city via the tram. Everyone was made to go to sleep early in preparation for a Disney Day tomorrow!

Hong Kong by night

My beloved Mr Brosnan