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Our flight home from Hong Kong left at 7pm, so we had some time to kill before leaving. Our plan was to check out late, try and get our bags checked in, and do some exploring near the airport while waiting for our flight. We packed our final bag, cleaned up the flat, triple checked that we had everything, and spent a little time as a family reflecting on the trip. We then headed out.
As I’ve already mentioned, Hong Kong has a great subway system, which includes an airport express line. As part of that, they have a luggage check in service. Up to 24 hours before your flight, you can check your luggage in at a station in the middle of the city; it is a brilliant service. We started there, checking in 4 of our bags. The fifth we wanted to wait to check in case we ended up buying something last minute; plus, it had our final change of clean clothes for the plane and some of our carry on stuff. We took it to the airport and put it in storage.
We had a couple options for things to do near the airport. One would have been the tram ride up over the hill to the giant Buddha statue. We were a bit worried about the amount of time, so decided to just head over to the suggested outlet shopping mall for a couple hours, eat lunch, and browse around. We carefully planned out our money so that we had enough Hong Kong dollars to pay the bus fare both ways, found the bus line, and climbed aboard. It was a double decker bus and so of course, we rode the top, which is something we’d all wanted to do since being in Hong Kong. Taking the public bus also helped round out our modes of transportation for the trip – plane, train, boat, car, van, bus, and rickshaw.
The shopping was pretty unexciting. It was an outlet mall, just like any other outlet mall, and there were a lot of people, just like there always is in a big city. We grabbed some lunch, shopped for a bit, and headed back to the airport to get checked in and ready for our flight. Once we paid our bus fare, we had $5.90 in HKD left. I found some cola candy for $5.90 at the airport 7-11, which I bought and the kids and I ate. We grabbed our bag from storage, checked in, and made our way to the gate.
The flight home was Hong Kong to Vancouver to Seattle to Anchorage. We all slept quite a bit on the leg home from Hong Kong. In Vancouver, we were routed through U.S. Customs, which was super easy. They had automated stations to check the passports, a quick talk to a customs agent that could see our bags on his monitor, and we were checked through. We all slept a little bit on the remaining flights and arrived in Anchorage a bit before midnight.
There to greet us at the airport were Connor and Andrew’s girlfriends, Larissa and Keegan. I must admit, it was fun to walk in to a welcome ceremony. They had made signs for all four kids, which were really cute, and the girls gave the boys big hugs and the families gave us all a warm welcome. They also offered to give us all a ride home, which was a huge benefit that we were very grateful for as we had just planned on grabbing a cab.
We came home to one of our two dogs (Pepper was still at my sister’s place) and our cats. Sadie was super excited to see us, whimpering and running back and forth between people. The cats were super affectionate and happy, too. Our neighbor left us some fruit and my mom had left us some muffins and cookies; it felt so good to be welcomed home. We got reacquainted with our pets, spent some time taking in our home a bit, and then went to bed.
We’re still adjusting to jetlag, but after a day back I can already feel my breathing clearing up and we don’t wake up coughing in the morning. It is so nice to have clean air again and water that we can drink out of the tap. We’ve gotten unpacked and organized; we are ready to assimilate back into our normal lives and the summer routine. It is almost time for fishing, after all, so we don’t have time to waste.
Several years ago on a sleepless night I found a blog about a family of 6 travelling the world for a year (http://www.sixintheworld.com/). I was so inspired that I spent the next couple hours reading through some of their archived posts. I then got to the end, after they had returned. The wife had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and had passed away. I was amazed and crushed at the same time… how sad, but how amazing that they had the courage to quit their jobs, take the adventure with four kids, and live life so fully without knowing they had so little time they could have made that decision. While our trip was nowhere near the magnitude of an adventure theirs was, I feel a similar sense of accomplishment. Returning to China with our kids was one of the things I felt I had to do; that if I didn’t, I’d have regrets. No camping trip, family vacation to Hawaii, or other adventure would be fully appreciated if this trip hadn’t been taken. The boys and Amanda aren’t in a hurry to go back, but the girls and I are already talking about another trip, maybe to work in an orphanage for a little bit. I have no idea how this trip will impact our lives, but I’m confident it will in many ways, many that we likely won’t always see.
For those that have read along, or are reading this now, thank you. I’ve already heard from a few of you since returning and it makes me really happy to hear about you enjoying this blog. It has been a lot of fun writing it and chronicling our journey. I also want to give a huge thank you to all of our friends and family who helped make this possible by taking care of animals, watching our house, mowing our lawn, and generally supporting us in life. We are very lucky and appreciate your love and encouragement. Cheers!
