Sunday Foggy Sunday

This morning (Sunday) was reeeeeally foggy - I couldn't see anything when I looked outside the window. This did not bode well for our planned trip to Hong Kong, as I've been a bit anxious to go to our church there. I was thinking the ferry ride, if it happened, might be a bit nerve-wracking.

Well, it cleared up a bit as the 9:00 launch neared so we headed to the ferry station and to Hong Kong. As we got closer to HK, the fog cleared some more, although I was pretty nervous. Normally there are many, many cargo ships, ferries and fishing boats out - really a LOT of boat traffic between Mainland China and Hong Kong. Well, this morning we were looking at the traffic and suddenly we spotted an aircraft carrier loaded with planes and helicopters in the water! It was an amazing sight!! Andrew was beside himself - he has been obsessed with aircraft carriers lately and we've NEVER seen one of those! Once we did see the Queen Mary II docked - it's huge - but the aircraft carrier was certainly the cat's pajamas today. It was really, really cool.
When we arrived in Hong Kong, we made our usual pit stop at Starbuck's for a snack and placed our bets on how many men would approach Tim to sell him stuff on the way to church. Each Sunday, at least 3 - sometimes up to 6 - men try to sell Tim tailor services for custom suits, watches, and handbags in little hole in the wall stores nearby. I guess we have "TOURIST" written all over us, although you'd think they'd recognize us by now! (3 men approached him today - not too bad.)
Sadly, when we arrived at church we found out they'd changed the service time for this week because it's their annual meeting. They were already 50 minutes into the service when we got there...so, so sad. Especially since we missed it the past few weeks. AND, we had bought the round-trip tickets for the 6:00 pm ferry so we had some time to waste.
Well, Tim ended up talking to one of the suit guys on the way back and they are now in the process of custom-making him two nice, new suits. They had a storefront where they measured him, had thousands of fabrics to choose from, and designed the suits and dress shirts for him in about a half hour's time.
We ate at Dan Ryan, where I had a steak salad. Let me tell you that steak and meat in general is different here -different texture, different cuts, different flavor...it's just not the same. But Dan Ryan serves AMERICAN steaks - woo-hoo! It was an amazing steak salad. Just like being home. And in the restroom, they play all these old tv jingles - today I heard "My Three Sons" and "Mission: Impossible". Last time we went there it was The Jeffersons' "Movin' On Up". Aaaahhhh....so nice to hear (and EAT) stuff that makes me feel normal! (side note: whenever I say "Let's go to Dan Ryan", I feel like I'm heading to a big, huge highway...another side note: if you're not from the Midwest, the Dan Ryan Expressway is a major route through Chicago)
Then we took the Star Ferry across the harbor to the main Hong Kong Island side called Central. We stocked up on some healthy foods we can't get here (only packaged foods allowed across the border, though - no produce, meats or cheeses) and spent some more time wandering around Hong Kong.
Hopped onto the 6:00 ferry, had a rocky, jerky ride home - we did see the aircraft carrier again. But the boys were so tired and so sick from the rocky boat ride that it wasn't quite as exciting. I just did some research and found out it's the USS Ronald Reagan (gonna keep quiet here...), the latest in nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, carries 80 aircraft, and can go for TWENTY YEARS without refueling...and there are suggestions that it's on it way to establish a presence in Iran...again, I'm going to keep QUIET right now because this is not a political blog because I have dear friends on both side of "center".... *sigh*
I dearly missed church but it sure turned out to be an interesting Sunday!