SUMMER LOVIN....

The House that Mickey Built

We got the summer adventure off to a fantastic start!  Straight from Erin's last day at work, onto a flight and a few hours later checking into The Disneyland Hotel in Hong Kong!  It's only 10 minutes from the airport and we had a 2 day stay-over there on our way back to the U.S. for 6 weeks.  A couple of days with Mickey and his crew sounded just about perfect before jumping on the 8th longest flight in the world from Hong Kong to NJ.

Checking in late at night, we found ourselves making a plan for the next day.  The park did not open for rides until 10 a.m.  Mickey was hosting a breakfast buffet downstairs from 7a.m.-11a.m.  We decided to sleep in, hit the buffet at our leisure, schmooze with the Big Man for a bit then mosey over to the park.  Well, we found ourselves at the gates to get into the park 1/2 hour before they opened!  I guess the commercial is right "I'm too excited to sleep!"  And we can assure you, Graeme was not the one leading the charge so early ;)  I am not sure what kind of magical pixie dust they sprinkle on you at Disney, but they must use something.  between the massive merchandising and long lines, usually I'd be screaming to get out of a place like that.  Somehow at Disney it's all OK!  "Wow, look!  Mickey Mouse on a pencil!  How cool!  Hey - there is a Donald Duck hat!  I love it!  30 minute wait?  Sweet!"

We were happy to find out that although a bit smaller then it's kin in Anaheim and Orlando, Disney Hong Kong is about the perfect size for an aging toddler and his parents.  Charging from 9:30 a.m. till 9:30p.m. you can knock out just about the entire park.  It is missing some of the larger roller coaster rides and the restaurant area, but it has everything we needed and then some.

Going to Disney for the fist time with Graeme was so much fun!  It was interesting to see how he would react with the characters (not usually his favorite - he still runs at the sight of the school mascot), crowds and general melee.  Graeme really reveled in it.  We sort of gave him the reins and followed his lead.  It was truly his weekend to go nuts at Disneyland.  The crowds were generally light, with rides like Space Mountain having no lines to a few having up to 1/2 hour waits.  There were only 2 rides he missed the height requirement on, Grizzly Gulch Roller Coaster and one other, other then that he could do it all - and he did!  Space Mountain?  No problem.  Actually, not just Space Mountain, but the front seat!  I was so stoked for this one!  That is until the first turn and my own head almost snapped off so I tried from then on to hold his head in place.  He loved it though, claiming it to be his favorite of the park!


Graeme was so good and so excited.  We all were.  Hong Kong Disney is basically on a tropical island and you are surrounded by majestic volcanic mountains covered in the greenest of green colorways.  It is also just about the hottest place we have ever been, and that is saying a lot as we live in Southern Vietnam!  So around 3pm we headed back to the hotel to take a 2 hour nap and head back to the park for more rides, dinner then fireworks!  That was the plan anyway, Graeme decided to just jump up and down on the bed for an hour so we just went back to the park for more fun!

Having done so much on day 1 we figured we would sleep in, catch a few pancakes with Mickey in the morning and stroll over to the park and go on some rides we really liked for the second time.  Well, that was the plan.  We found ourselves once again waiting for the gates to open up.  This time we had a plan.  There was an exhibit there just for the summer based on Frozen.  There were 4 "shows" a day and you needed to get to the exhibit and get a separate ticket for it.  So as soon as the gate opened I ran to the exhibit and got in the line to get our tickets.  Erin and Graeme followed shortly after and got on a different line we weren't super sure of what it was.  Turns out it was the line to get into the first show and we got in right away!  

There was a theater with a sing-a-long with some of the Frozen characters and video.  Really fun.  Then when that was over they opened the doors to the back of the theater and we all emptied out into a Frozen wonderland - SNOW!  There was a sledding hill and a play area.  The ground was all packed snow.  Every few minutes snow fell from the sky.  Olaf was there taking pictures!  Graeme took his first sled ride and made his first snowball - in Hong Kong!  Unbelievable...What a way to end our stay at Disney in Hong Kong and start our journey back to the U.S.

To see all of the Disney Hong Kong pictures CLICK HERE.

Want to know a great way to take the 8th longest flight in the world (HKG->EWR)?  Hop on it straight from Disneyworld!  After watching a movie and eating dinner we all fell asleep and woke up somewhere over Pennsylvania.  Now that is the way to fly!  We hit the Right Coast first this year and flew right into Cousin Love with Noah and Sammy.  

We were able to make it to Sammy's 8th Grade Graduation!  So cool to see him and all his classmates together and getting ready to start the next adventure of their lives!  Also a bit of a shocker, as when Erin first met Sammy he was Graeme's age!  Man, how time flies! 

 We were able to meet a new cousin, Lilly was born just prior to our arrival and to add to the excitement while we were there my cousin Casey was due any minute (and ended up having her just after we left) with Bryn.  That makes 10 Great Grand kids for Gram-Crackers!  And you know what?  Number 11 is due in December from my Cousin Sara!  So cool!  We had our annual Hawken Day reunion at a beautiful lake and pavilion at Brett and Lisa's house, there were Grand kids and Great Grand kids everywhere!

Something that I forgot all about and most people do not realize, is just how green New Jersey is! We hit the weather just right and got to spend tons of time outside exploring hikes and parks.  We even got Pops out to the park to kick the soccer ball around!

As always, it is very hard to get to see everyone we need and want to see.   We had one special few hours where we were able to catch up with lifelong friends that we were not planning on seeing.  The Klauser family happened to be up from North Carolina visiting their cousins in NJ.  Through the wonders of social media snooping and a few text messages we were able to make a detour and spend a few short hours catching up with Brian, Amy, Eva and Rudy - along with Mr. and Mrs. Klauser and about 40 other cousins of theirs!  I wish I saved the texts that went something like this:
Amy - Where are you?
Me - Long Valley, NJ
Amy - Where is that?
Me: Closer then Vietnam.  Send me your address and we will be there at 10a.m. tomorrow!

To see all of the NJ pictures CLICK HERE.

From the Right Coast we flew over to the Left Coast....or at least close to it.  We were in Lodi, CA for lunch and were able to pick up Cousin Emily along the way, following us from NJ.....no time was spared, spending quality hours with G-Pops, Poppy, Nan, Aunt B, Uncle J, and of course, Miss Sienna Puppies!

This was such a great visit with Sienna as Graeme is finally old enough to communicate with her and have her respond.  We spent hours in Nan's backyard playing baseball - me pitching, Graeme hitting and Sienna catching and returning the ball!

July 4th was spent up in Jenner along the Sonoma Coast as usual and as usual involved great cousin fun with Avrie and Piper....we attempted to see the fireworks to but the infamous fog crept in at the last minute so all we got was some noise of fireworks exploding.  No worries, these cousins made the most of it!

We had so much fun going to the vineyards with Poppy, picking tomato's from the garden and having G-Pops introduce us to his favorite lunch spots!  Nan even got adventurous and showed Graeme just what happens when you introduce Mento's into Diet Coke!

To see all of the California pictures CLICK HERE.

The summer really went by too fast.  It's a tiresome adventure to try and see everyone and, at best, we never spend enough time with those that we do get to see while having to cope with not getting to see some at all.  We want to be sure that everyone knows we appreciate the efforts put out to see us and accommodate our hectic schedule during these few weeks in the summertime, as well we appreciate the patience of those who we did not get to actually connect with.

We arrived back to HCMC finding the heat not as bad as the Central Valley in California that we left and we acclimating right back into our routines....

Graeme started his second (and final) year of Early Childhood at SSIS this year with Kindergarten right around the corner!  We christened the school year with some new shirts (keeping the old ones for days when there is Art class), smiles and anticipation of reconnecting with old friends and meeting new ones.  Truly a surreal experience seeing him get on that bus everyday and charge ahead into his world of development and building a strong foundation for a lifetime of achievements to come!

We have lots of fun things on tap for this year (some already have taken place - stay tuned for an update!)  Sumatra, Christmas in Vietnam, India, Laos, Siem Reap Cambodia, and many more ideas!  Get on skyscanner.net, track your tickets and get over here because this is a part of the world not to be missed and you won't have a connection here forever!  Just ask those who have made the trip, it is one of a lifetime! Not sure where they are at now but last year tix from US were between $600-$700 for most of the year!

A special thanks again for everyone making our pilgrimage this summer so special!  Our 3rd school year is well under way here so let's keep in touch with all the wonderful technologies at our disposal...

Hoà Bình,

The Hawken's in HCMC

#thetaoofgraeme