Space Museum and Symphony of Lights

Today was a long day.  The kids and I stayed home this morning.  After lunch, we headed to the Hong Kong Space Museum.  It doesn't open until 1 each day.  I thought that was really strange, but on their website it said they were open in the morning for field trips.  The museum is pretty small, so it would fill up pretty quickly with a large school group.  The museum had 2 different parts, one on astronomy, one on the space program.  Tommy really liked the astronomy section, he was really interested, and slightly concerned, about the fact that our sun is already halfway through its 10 billion year life. 

The space program portion was bigger.  I was surprised by how much of it was about the space program of the United States.

The Space Museum is located on the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade along with the Art Museum and the Hong Kong Cultural Centre.  The promenade has a great view of the Hong Kong Island skyline.  We spent awhile looking at the buildings and the ships.

Then we walked further down the promenade to the Avenue of Stars.  We were looking for a restaurant for dinner, but again, I was surprised by the lack of food options.  There were a couple stands selling squid, a bar that didn't look like it served food, and a Starbucks.  There were a few fancy restaurants in the nearby hotels, but not what I was looking for with the kids.  The Avenue of the Stars is like our Hollywood Walk of Fame.  There are handprints and stars for Hong Kong natives who have been successful in the entertainment industry.  Charlotte really liked trying to fit her hands in the handprints.  The most famous celebrity from Hong Kong is Bruce Lee.  They had a statue of him.  There is also a big exhibit at the Heritage Museum on him I haven't seen. 

We finally found something to eat for dinner.  Then Tom met us at the waterfront after work and we waited for the light show.  Every night at 8 PM, the buildings put on a light show choreographed to music.  Many of the buildings are normally lit up.  The light show just featured them lighting up in time to the music and a few extra lasers.  We found the show pretty underwhelming.  (Except for Tommy who enjoyed it and got upset when we suggested leaving a few minutes early to beat the crowds back on the train.  We ended up staying until the end.)

Panoramic view of the night skyline

Before the light show.  Tom works in the pink and purple building with the spire on the top toward the right.

During the light show

Lasers during the light show.

We didn't get home until 9:30, it was almost 10 before the kids were in bed.  We all slept in this morning.  :)