Halloween

Halloween is not a holiday most of Hong Kong celebrates, but it is big with many expats and there are celebrations in concentrated areas.  Although native Hong Kongers don't celebrate the holiday, you will still see Halloween decorations/promotions at businesses and Halloween decor/costumes for sale (although on a MUCH smaller scale than the US).  Business still want to capitalize on those that do celebrate Halloween.

Charlotte wanted to be a princess for Halloween so I ordered an Anna dress for Tom to bring back on one of his trips to the US.  Tommy could care less what he dressed up as so he decided to wear his firefighter costume from the previous year.  Unlike the US where children wear their costumes to school as well as to several parties/trunk or treats/events, I knew he would only wear it on Halloween evening so I didn't care.  We are lucky to live in a neighborhood that participates in trick or treating.  Less than 1/4 of the houses participate, but there is still plenty of candy for the kids.

We had 4 families over for dinner before heading out to trick or treat.  We had a great time with some festive treats.  Charlotte was so excited her friend Olivia came dressed as Elsa.  They stuck together like glue all night.  The kids got lots of candy and we all had a great time.

Mummy pizzas

banana ghosts with bananas from our tree

Anna and Elsa

All the kids

 

Ocean Park

Tommy has been very excited to go to Ocean Park.  We decided we would get Disneyland annual passes our first year here while the kids were younger and shorter.  The second year we wanted to get Ocean Park passes.  Now that Tommy is 48" he is able to ride a lot more of the rides than he would of in the past.  Unfortunately, Charlotte still isn't tall enough for many but there were still some she could ride.  Ocean Park is an amusement park/aquarium.  It has a lot of roller coasters, many fast ones neither kids are tall enough to ride, plus several marine animal habitats and a dolphin show.

Ocean Park is built around a mountain and is separated into 2 areas, the lower section and upper section.  You enter in the lower section and had read most people start there so if you go straight to the upper section you can enjoy short lines for several hours.  There are two ways to get between the sections, an underground train and cable cars.  Again, I had read most people take the cable cars up, so it is much faster to take the train.  Both of these things turned out to be true.  We headed to the top and rode a couple roller coasters.  Then, we headed inside to see a penguin habitat.  The penguins were really cute, Charlotte really enjoyed watching them.  It was very cold inside!

Tommy and I did an obstacle course Charlotte wasn't tall enough for.  We rode a few more rides and had lunch.  Then we headed up the giant escalators to the mine train and log flume.  Charlotte wasn't tall enough for the mine train so Tommy and Tom went to ride that while Charlotte and I did the log flume.  Then we all rode the log flume together.  Then it was time for the dolphin show.  I know dolphin shows are very controversial, but we found it to be very entertaining.

In front of the mine train

We rode a few more rides.  By that time, the upper section had gotten crowded and the lines were long.  We decided to head down to the lower section and ride a ride or two before leaving.  I hadn't thought about the fact it was the weekend before Halloween and since Ocean Park has several special attractions for Halloween it was extra crowded.  We rode the cable cars down and when we saw all the people at the bottom, we decided to just ride the carousel before we left.  

view from above

On the cable car

A rare picture of Tom and I (this is the one Tommy cut off Tom's head the least)

Charlotte loves carousels

We are looking forward to going back to Ocean Park and exploring the rides in the lower section.  Tom and I are also hoping to go back without the kids so we can ride some of the bigger rides.