Time Square HK

Tese are pictures of Hong Kong Time square.  

Waiting to catch the train from Time Square to  Tsim ShaTsui

 

Tsim Sha Tshui is an area where the locals live and shop but tourists make there way across the harbor to get better pricing.  Susan took me to multiple stores, malls and street vendors. Pricing in the US is cheaper on everything I was looking at.  I compared Cameras, Laptops, Electronics.The one thing that seems like a good deal is the tailor shops that will make a custom suit and 3 shirts for less than $250 USD.  

Lunch

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Grand piano fitting for the starship enterprise

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HK time square shopping center

Sunday morning I rode a stationary bike for 40 min then met Susan to go sightseeing. We rode a very crowded train to HK times square. I cannot describe how big this place is. Susan says Shanghai shopping much bigger.

There is an art exhibit, these statues are made with waste handbills, magazines and sales flyers.

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Mall under the hotel

Susan and I went down and ate dinner in the mall located on main level of hotel. Below the mall is the main MTR rail line.

Mall is very western, Susan says it is 15yr old but IMO it looks newer. Of course there is a Starbuck.

We ate at Zen, Susan ordered in Cantonese. I had Corn chowder, crab soup, Jasmine tea, fried rice and a green vegetable. The vegetable does not have a English translation but reminded me of Asparagus. Hard to pick up with chop sticks but I was abe to eat a lot.
Dinner was 423 HKD

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Marriott in Hong Kong

From Lobby

I am in a Marriott hotel. The TV guide is on a bamboo roll which is unique. The view from my room looks at a common road that links three hotel. The lobby over looks the harbor.
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Taxi ride into Hong Kong

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747 upper deck

Another shot of the upper deck. I just had a heart attack, they announced flight number and destination and said flight to Ho Min Chi. They then explained that is final destination after HK.

Thanks,
Gregg

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747 upper deck

The upper deck is very cool

Thanks,
Gregg

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Another shot of my plane, Mountains and cloud bank

United 747-400



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San Francisco

We were 43 miles from SFO when the pilot announced the temp of 63?? It is July right? I opened the shade and saw rolling mountains that looked arid and sparsely populated. It was a clear sky until wham we hit a cloud bank. The infamous SanFran micro climate. Look to left of pic for clouds (click to make larger). You can not make it out but there are large letters on the side of the mountain spelling out SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO THE INDUSTRIAL CITY" This is a city I want to read up on.


Thanks,
Gregg

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1st Asia Trip

My next adventure is to the Far East.  I am getting on a United Airbus 320 in Orlando and flying 5hrs to San Francisco where I have a layover.  After a 3 hour layover I then board a United 747 for a 13hr trip to Hong Kong, I can remember when Hong Kong was given Special Administration Region status (SAR) by the People Republic of China in 1997.  Hard to believe 14 years later I am going there.   I am meeting Susan in HK who is a peer of mine that now lives in Shanghai.  Susan was born in Hong Kong and has family there.  Here are some fun facts:

The city of New York has 8.3 million people where Hong Kong has 7 Million people. Shanghai where I will travel to on Saturday Aug 6^th has 13.3 million people. 1  The numbers are for the city not the metropolitan area.  China has 1.3 Billion people where as the US has 311Million. 

In Hong Kong I will be visiting people that are in charge of providing the infrastructure for the D park that was built there in 2005.  I am learning a lot about the details of International work and it is very intriguing. My colleagues that fly from the west coast do have a much easier flight since they forgo the 5hr flight across the US. 

Bobblehead launched on high altitude balloon lands in Autauga Co. | Arts & Culture | Prattville News

Chance and I find it intriguing that these amateur scientists are doing these cool experiments.

Bobblehead launched on high altitude balloon lands in Autauga Co. | Arts & Culture | Prattville News

Flooring continue two months later :(

We finished room 5 of 7 this weekend.  We are replacing all of the carpet, baseboard molding in the house along with painting and redecorating.  Steph's old room was a bear to get trimmed out due to the walls being not square.  The floor goes down quick but the detailing takes the most time.  

Amazing how much Sally has changed around the house.  She even twisted my arm to get the TV hung on the wall. 

Austin, Tx HITEC 2011

I went to Austin for a Hospitality conference for a few days.  Stayed at the Intercontinental which was like staying in a rich Aunts house.  Everything was nice but old. 

Dinner on Lake Travis. Water level was real low from drought.

It seemed all we did was eat and eat and eat.  Tex mex, BBQ, Sports Bar food and it was all incredible.  

Incredible BBQ at SaltLick a ranch 45 minutes from Austin. The restaurant only takes cash, you eat on picnic tables, food is served family style yet the place was packed and holds hundreds of people.  This is one of two BBQ pits that was inside the restaurant.


Austin is a great place to visit.6th street had great music and I only made it out once. 

Thanks,
Gregg

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Los Angeles international

Plane behind us had a problem and was met by at least a dozen crash trucks.

Thanks,
Gregg

PS- LA Angels baseball team charter jet had hydraulic problems. I hope all planes with an issue get this much attention.

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Off to Glendale

Quick trip to Cali to present our strategy to Sr. Executives. I received my 1st complimentary upgrade so this leg should be comfy. I get back Saturday early hopefully to a house ready to be put back together from the new floors. This stack is down to 6 boxes and the contractor probably only needs 2!

Thanks,
Gregg

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Chinese travel Visa and buisness cards

I am ready to travel now!

Thanks,
Gregg

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Junior Prom

Big weekend at the Wagner's. Stephanie went to Prom with Daniel

Thanks,
Gregg

Chance's 1st big bike wreck

Chance had to go to Jason's deli so wee rode downtown to appease his appetite. On the way back on Orange Ave he was transitioning his hands on the handlebars and hit a bad bump. He lost control and instinctively rode into the curb. Sally saw him fly through air and he just missed a large bench. He was very lucky that he was able to ride away from this one.

Thanks,
Gregg

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Floor acclimating to new environment

Sally hired a contractor to do the three common rooms. Chance broke up the foyer tile, pulled up some carpet and the tack strips.  The plan is that I will do the bedrooms.  While it is a lot of time wasted it is good to pull years of "stuff" out of the rooms, sort, clean and redecorate.

Thanks,
Gregg

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Another trip to Glendale, I set up my office on the roof of hotel.

Thanks,
Gregg

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4100 Lbs of wood floors

Sally forgot to ask about delivery.........
Thanks to Dad and Chance we loaded and unloaded it all in 3hours.
84 50lb boxes

Thanks,
Gregg

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Original Big Boy restaurant

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Spent the week in Glendale and ended it at Castaway which is in the mountains overlooking burbank and LA. I am learning so much, like drinking from the firehose.
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New project = big change

After 9 years working for WDPR-IT at Disney Cruise Line I have been asked to Manage the Technology Infrastructure for the Disneyland Shanghai, China resort. Today I am flying to Glendale, California where the main Imagineering headquarters are located. Traveling with my VP and another Manager to get our roles and responsibilities clearly defined. This is my second United flight ever (see previous bad experience in blog) and upon arriving at airport I find out flight 277 is delayed 90 minutes. We were then told there was no food put on this plane prior to arriving so they made an announcement to go to the snack bar in the airport.  I expect to be doing a lot of these West Coast trips so I hope I can get on Delta in the future to keep enhancing my frequent miles.

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DeLeon springs ride

This will be in history books. 6 riders tackling 62 miles on a route that Google chose. We started out with a new chickfila employee messing our order up. Then a helmet rolled off the back of a motorcycle on I-4 at hwy speed. Said helmet went under our Honda minivan and lodge itself under the engine. The noise, the chaos inside the car and traffic was crazy. I pulled over and we could not dislodge it. I backed over a drainage culvert with no luck so I backed down I-4 until I could back up onto a curb which freed it just before it burst into flames. The burning smell from it sitting on tailpipe was pretty strong. Then we went up to the trailhead and started our adventure a little late. 3 flats later and multiple missed turns we made it to the DeLeon spring as the winds picked up. We ran into a 12k miles a year bicyclist that gave us a short tour of Volusia county getting us back on course. Ultimately Chance and Eddie made it to the cars and reran the route to pick up the remaining spent carcasses the wind defeated. What a day. Total mileages were 56 -79 depending on your energy.

Big training ride today

Kevin Hart has joined the team and he mentioned the Deleon Springs Sugar Mill. So using Google Bicycle and then Map my Ride I put together a 64 mile roundtrip ride.

This will be on roads we have never ridden but it seems from Google street view it should be scenic.

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Steep Canyon Rangers at Skipper's Smokehouse in Tampa. Great venue, great warm up band and SCR was great. Wrapped up at 12:45 which made for a late night return to O-town

Heading home

One of the reasons I wanted to go back to New Orleans was for Stephanie to go to Mississippi which is her birthplace. While we did not make it to Jackson but we did get a perfect picture for her.

Nottoway Plantation a wonderful experience

While the movie in the Victory Theater was the highlight of our trip it was followed by the Nottoway Plantation which is on the banks of the Mississippi below Baton Rouge. We arrived in the evening and we were met by the evening manager who personally escorted us to our room through the night-lit gardens.

The accommodations exceed our expectations and we slept like babies. We stayed in the Overseer house on the ground floor in room 7. The next morning we ate a great full buffet and then took a tour of the house.  Everything was included in the cost of the overnight stay.  This was unexpected.  While their website explains the grounds I want to point out that they recently went through a ten million dollar restoration and Katrina is still impacting their business. This is total package and is highly recommended by Sally and myself!

Acme Oyster house

Took Sally and Steph to Acme for wonderful food, great service and atmosphere.