The Hitch'n Post

Brittany and Jen were great hosts and took really good care of us the entire time - thank you both!

We spent a nice morning walking along the beach and out onto the the pier at St Kilda's. This provides a great view of the city and the marina - another windy day but loads of fun with Cooper - this was his first trip to the beach. Afterwards we went for a meat pie - that was for me ;-0) Brittany took us to the best place in town for a meat pie - man was that good!

Miss Marple's is a nice cafe/tea room we stopped at for a scone and some coffee - it's on the road to Dandenong Mountain.  It's themed after a British detective show.

Dandenong is a mountain east of Melbourne that offers a great view. This was a very windy day but that just helped to clear out the clouds.

We were very fortunate that Jen was able to arrange tickets to an Australian Football game. We were going to see Collingwood take on the West Coast Eagles at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds (MCG). Australian Footie This was an all day event that included a fantastic meal before the game. The meal was served in a dinning hall that had views of the field and the area surrounding the MCG - including downtown Melbourne. We had great seats and the weather was fantastic for the entire day - what an experience! Australian Football (Footie) is a very fast paced game in which the ball is kept in play most of the time, it was very exciting to watch. The ball is run, kicked, passed, and punched (another way to pass it) around the field. This was also Cooper's first Footie game so that made the day extra-special and he seemed to being enjoying it completely. Cooper at his first footie game

 Coop's party was a big event that was held at a great venue - a rented hall connected to the shopping mall. Several trips were made to get all the props for his jungle themed party. Jen and Brie put a lot of effort into planning this and it really turned out great. Lots of people, lots of balloons, lots of food, lots of fun.

Cooper received a hand knit monkey (George) from his Gigima Hitchcock. George the monkey The look says it all! Thank you Gigima. George is a hit!

Cooper's first birthday is today and he's getting a special breakfast - pancakes in animal shapes. Happy birthday to you,, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear cooper, happy birthday to you.

Nana in her element We're adjusting to the day/time change, catching up, and Nana is getting plenty of Cooper time. It has been a few years since we had one this small in our charge (well, maybe more than a few) but we're being reminded of just how much time it takes to get a baby from side of the day to the other. It is a constant cycle of eat, play, nap, repeat (spiced with fresh diapers and a little fussing in the middle). Now that he is walking and is very mobile - always, every moment, someone is on Cooper duty watching and playing with the little man. Nana is in her element, this is what she lives for :-0)

Our Virgin Australia flight to Melbourne went well and, as predicted, I slept for much of the flight. We arrived early in the morning and made it through Customs quickly after which Brittanie met us coming out the exit! Meeting Brittanie at the airport After a short drive home - no traffic this early in the morning - we got to see the birthday boy. Cooper, the birthday boy

Iced coffee After a short rest overnight at our hotel, we headed towards the Hong Kong Jade Market. The market doesn't open until 11:00 a.m. so we had time for breakfast and a coffee at Starbucks - this was also an opportunity for Becky to add to her Starbucks mug collection. Charged with coffee, we head to Kowloon by subway and then walked towards the Jade Market from there. On our way to the Jade Market Fortunately, there was a nice breeze today which really helps when the temperature is 90 degrees (F) and the humidity is about the same. On our way to the market we passed through city blocks with high-rise apartments, many store fronts, and eateries. One of the things that is really popular is roasted meat so we would walk by shops with duck, chicken, pork, and other roasted meats hanging in the window. Apartments Looking around, confused and trying to read out map, we were helped by several locals and eventually made our way to the market. Store Front The

The base of the Victoria Peak tram We're in Hong Kong for just 24 hours so there's no time to waste, after checking into our hotel, we made plans to take the train/tram to the top of Victoria Peak. The 1800 foot high peak over looks Hong Kong Island and the mainland beyond.  It was a short, but confusing, walk from our hotel to the tram. The roads here are not laid out in a grid, they meander and criss-cross each other with lots of over-passes which makes navigation difficult for the unfamiliar traveler (that's us). We ask lots of questions and eventually find the tram - and the long line.  Waiting for the tram This is is probably a good time to talk about the population of Hong Kong, which is currently at 7.3 million and rising. We had been for warned that there would be a lot of people here and we'd been lucky up to this point. Hong Kong has about three times the population density of New York city. That magnitude of density has a noticeable effect on t

Desolation Sound, B.C. Before I get started, I just want to point out that for those of you who subscribed to this blog and are receiving emails, I just noticed that you don't get the pictures in the emails. However, the emails have a link to the blog at the bottom so you can quickly go to the site and view photos if you choose to. So how far is 13 hours? 6392 miles! those are the flight miles for our 13 hour journey from Vancouver, B.C., to Hong Kong. That is a long time to be on a plane and even with the foam pad I brought to sit on, I still was saddle sore. We flew Hong Kong Airlines and that was fine - an older plane - and they were nice people. Arriving in Hong Kong a bit groggy, we found our way to the luggage storage counter where we left our larger luggage (~$17.00 USD for 24 hours) and stowed what we would need for our exploration in small day packs. Scott - "Becky smile", Becky - "no, not after 13 hours on that plane!" The train/subway i