Another fun floor outing

Pics: me toasting my bun, the boys goofing off on a bigger bike, guess which one is my foot?, peace from floor #9

Yesterday we woke up at the crack of 9am to finally get everyone ready and out the door by 10:30 (large groups are still large groups in Hong Kong). We were off to take a one hour ferry ride to a small island called Cheung Chau. So we paid loaded all 20 or so of us into the ferry at $2 a head. The weather was dreary but everyone was excited, jumping around and taking tons of pictures (peace signs are a must). The day didn’t get much sunnier but I am sure the island would be most pleasant when it is nice out. The day got better than the cold ferry ride though as we walked around and looked at all the little touristy booths. We played this hacky sack like game in a plaza for a while as we waited for some people to go buy the BBQ items we were to enjoy. Lorna and I got spontaneously inspired to go on a quest for smores like materials and returned victoriously with graham cracker like substitutes and chocolate (apparently smores truly are an American phenomenon because none of the Europeans nor Emma the Aussie knew about them). The BBQ was amazing as we all decided what meat we wanted to cook our selves as we huddled over the pit and tried to lap enough honey on top of our meat so that it was nice and sweet to eat once it was finally done. I can’t say I have ever roasted marshmallows next to meat (one time I had to throw one out because it collided with a juicy red steak…ewww) but the takers that we found said they liked the smores a lot, only that they were just so sweet and filling. (The desserts here really are much less sweet with most of them being fruit or bean based). After a hot dog and other various meat (I avoided the squid) and two smores I thought the sound of bike riding sounded like a bad idea but once we were all on our bikes and managed to teach one girl how to ride a bike in about twenty minutes it was quite pleasant peddling along the wide, bike-strewn streets of Cheung Chau. We stopped at the other side of the island (which took less than five minutes to get to) and also for some warm vitasoy milk drinks and glutinous desserts eaten with toothpicks (yum!). It was a nice outing and I could tell that everyone was glad to be back with their friends and peers and away from the boring relatives that don’t play Mahjong properly. Barbequing will certainly be a must when the weather gets better. Everything is better when you don’t have to wear five layers and you can feel your pinky toes.