Off To Hong Kong, Part 2

We started Day Two by buying some pastry for breakfast at Syd's favorite French/Austrian bakery 

around the corner from her apartment.

Roger and I shared this chocolate almond croissant . . . 

to die for!

. . . and this peach Danish.

Yum!!!

Honestly, this was the best pastry ever!

We bought some pistachio biscotti and a baguette to take with us.

Our four cute grandkids walking down the street by Syd's apartment

We got on the subway and headed to the Hong Kong Temple.

That must be it; that's Angel Moroni on top!

Around on this side it looks pretty with the trees in front.

Okay, so here's the story of our getting to have a brief visit 

with  our missionary grandson, Elder Stratford:

Ordinarily, family members don't visit the young elders and sisters while they are serving on their missions 

because it can distract them and kind of throw them off their game, so to speak.

Josh is a particularly focused young missionary with less than six months left. 

So we walked into the missionary office, which is across the street from the temple, 

to meet his mission president and hoped we would get a peek of our oldest grandson. 

The president and his wife happened to be standing in the front of the office, 

talking to the older missionary couple serving there.

Roger went up to him, shook his hand and introduced us all as being the grandparents 

and the aunt and family of Elder Stratford. 

His face lit up, as did his wife's and the missionary couple's faces. 

We heard, "Oh, we love Elder Stratford," almost simultaneously from them all 

and they seemed delighted to meet us.

President Lam was warm and gracious, 

we chatted for about five minutes and when we asked if Elder Stratford was there, 

he said, "Oh, I think he might be around here someplace."

About then, he and his companion walked into the office, Josh's  arms full of folders.

The shock on his face was apparent; he just held on to the stack of folders until President Lam told him 

to put them down and give his Grandma and Grandpa a hug. He expressed great fondness for Josh, 

saying he was his "grandpa," too.

Josh is serving as the assistant to the president and was just transferred a couple of weeks before 

from Macau to the office in Kowloon.

We would never have been able to see him any other time or place he has been in previously.

Oh, joy! He looked so happy and absolutely wonderful!

We talked with him less than five minutes, then were on our way, leaving him to continue the good work.

I included this pic of the building where four different wards meet in Hong Kong, 

including where Josh and Sydney go, though in different wards.

It is located a few subway stops away from where the temple is.

Our next stop was the flower and plant market.

The Chinese have separate streets and markets for each category of their needs; no "one stop shopping" here!

What a colorful display of beautiful flowers and plants, even in January!

I was in love with all of the varieties of orchids!

I loved all of the color!

Syd had been looking for a particular floor plant for her apartment for awhile. She found one there and they held it for her until she and her brother, Jake, returned later to bring it home on the subway.
 It's a good thing Jake is strong because it was heavy!

Then we walked to the pet market and Rog took a pic of what we saw when we looked up, almost everywhere. 
It is high density living!

I don't have pics, but there were puppies, cats, rabbits, gerbils, etc., one shop after the other.

Rog took a pic of these albino frogs . . .

. . . turtles . . . 

. . . and this giant weird turtle?

We found this sushi place along the way to have lunch.

It was good and pretty authentic - they didn't speak much English and the menu was in Japanese.

The sushi was good.

We next went to where the kids had looked forward to most - the Ladies' Market!

That's what it is called, but it has lots of stuff for everyone.

Each stall clerk loved to bargain with the tourists 
and Sydney was good at it.

The Youngs purchased backpacks and sportswear 

and Lego knockoffs for the twins.

What d'ya think?

Naw, he didn't buy it!

That night we went to one of Syd and Jake's favorite restaurants 
that serves gourmet hamburgers with top quality beef 

and delicious fries.

Next day Syd took us on another adventure!

We thought these painted steps in the MTR were cute.

So we had to take a pic with us all sitting on them!

She took us to the beautiful Chinese Nan Lian garden that is connected to Chi Lin Nunnery.

Both are in the Tang Dynasty (AD618-907) style.

It was so scenic and we took lots of pics.

They take meticulous care of the plant life.

Everything was placed in the garden according to specific rules and methods.

Three sisters checking out the display

There were giant goldfish in the water.

Me with my beautiful daughter, Stacy.

My handsome husband

Love this family!

The Chi Lin Nunnery is a Budhist Temple with the Hall of the Heavenly Kings.

We took the subway back to the elegant mall near Jake's office building to meet up with him for lunch.

We loved all of the beautiful displays for Chinese New Year.

Cute little Chinese kids

This lovely mall even includes an ice skating rink

Jake took us to a place where he often has lunch, which offers a variety of cafeteria-style food.

Variety of salads

This restaurant was high up in a building and offered great views of the city.

Rog took a pic of this mother and daughter taking a break.

The whole week we were up and down the escalators and stairs.

The subway was very modern, clean and on time.

We made a stop to see Hong Kong's Times Square.

There was a giant Apple Store where we spent some time.

Hong Kong's Times Square isn't quite like New York's, 

but it was fun to see it.

That evening, the Youngs all went to a carnival, with lots of fun rides and lots of walking.

Doesn't this look fun?

Roger and I got some tasty dim sum, noodles and other snacks upstairs in our hotel and rested. 

We kept up quite a pace keeping up with this Young/young family. 

More to come in Part 3 . . .