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if one door opens when another closes, your house is probably haunted


It's crazy to think before now there was not a single water park in all of Hong Kong. Ocean Park opened Water World at the end of September, and we were eager to go check it out before the weather began to cool down. The park is smaller, but still provides a full day of entertainment, even for the expensive price. 

The park is about 50% indoors, 50% outdoors. Even some of the slides start outdoors and end indoors or the otherway around, which can make the layout a bit confusing, but a great place for a waterpark to be in the winter or rainy weather. 
The slides were all really fun. There were a few tube slides, a few body slides, partner slides, and family slides, so a great variety.
For the most part we only waited about 10 minutes in each line, except the big slides (Vortex and Cavern Chase). They have signs with the wait times posted, but none of them are no where near correct. Vortex and Cavern Chase we waited close to 45 minutes for each, simply because there was not a lot explanation about what people were suppose to do with their masks and shoes they were requiring you to walk around the park in. There was also a LOT of stairs walking around this park.
Biding our time waiting for Vortex...
We had to wear our masks, but carried a waterproof bag to put them in on the way down the slides. 
Food in the park was also very HK style theme park food, and definitely nothing noteworthy, other than the cups! The cups looked like the french fry containers from high school, I was so confused at first.
Teriyaki burger and fishless nuggets
My favorite part of the day was playing in the wavepool and relaxing in the 2 lazy rivers (one indoor, one outdoor).
Outdoor lazy river is tubeless-

indoor lazy river is with tubes-
 
This was such a great day, and I really recommend the park to anyone considering it. 

We have had a few minor typhoons come in since this day, finally cooling the weather down a little bit, allowing us to do more outdoor activities. 

During one of the typhoons (I don't recommend this, kids), we hiked Ap Lei Chau. This hike is very steep, and requires climbing ropes to get to the top, which with strong winds, is not easy. 
Sign literally says "do not hike in treacherous weather"...oops. To be fair it was only a T3 at this point though. 
We made it to the easy top and decided not to continue on to the really difficult stuff.
It was insanely windy on top here though.
Our other hiking adventure was with Annabel to Cape D'Aguilar for some cave exploration. It was mostly a downhill hike on the way there, and with cooler weather, it was glorious. 
Eventually we reached the main marine life area with small tidal pools.
The next stop was Thunder Cave, where you can hear the sound of the ocean very clearly. For someone who doesn't love enclosed spaces, it was actually really beautiful. 

But the best part of all was the open cave with the incredible view of the water-
haha, we were attempting to be Ariel on the rock when the water splashed up, but we could not get the timing right
There were a few other cool things in the area like these incredibly old whale bones and some unique rock formations.
Ariel attempt #2, haha
All was well and good until we realized in order to get home we had to then start climbing uphill, but then it started raining. But us being in good spirits, had a great time regardless. 
Don't worry, there is still plenty of food adventures to be had. One of the local HK favorite dishes is hot pot, where you cook all your meat and vegetables in a hot, boiling pot of soup. I have only ever been with locals because it can be kind of confusing, but Annabel showed us the way by taking us to Master Beef, and now I want this every week.
We ordered all our meats, and then created our special sauce mix-
Then visited the vegetable boxes to pick out our veggies- 
picked out our buffet style drinks, and started dunking-
This video is of a "meat tube" being cooked, lol-
It was a blast and I can't wait to go again soon. We had some other delicious treats this month as well, checking off some bucket list items, such as....
Rainbow swiss roll cake from 1966 Bakery in the Central Market, which was not only super cute, but really tasty as well!
Messina gelato also recently opened, and ice cream is not easy to come by in HK. It often has a freezer burnt taste to it, and the flavor options are limited, so this was a real treat. The gelato texture is smooth, and the flavors are unique. We tried salted caramel with white chocolate chips and egg tart with tart shell pieces inside, and they were yum!
Elysia is gluten free and found the cutest gluten free cafe called Sweetpea Cafe, where not only the food was good, but the company was even better-

And another brunch spot where you make your our chartreuse board at Ninety's coffee shop-

I try to be really honest on my blog about recommendations when it comes to food, which unfortunately sometimes means pointing out when things are not so great. One place I have had on my list for a while to check out was sadly not my favorite meal. After living in NYC for a few years, I had higher expectations for Morty's, and honestly the sandwich was probably the best part, or the unlimited pickles, but overall, it's a sad no from me.

We also took our friend Justin to our favorite local Thai food stop, Thai Market, where I was apparently slacking cause I didn't even take a photo of the food!-

We had some authentic Australian food (lol) from Outback Steakhouse with the Australian to both confuse and confirm that bloomin onion should in fact be the national cuisine of Australia.
We had a final Greek meal at Artemis & Apollo where they let us smash plates!!

With Elinor leaving, we had a lot of park adventure time to make sure she got to ride, meet, and eat her way through Hong Kong Disneyland (insert my heart breaking here).

The Halloween season is very quickly coming to an end already, and I think I will be slightly depressed no longer getting to hang out with the villains. (Full show HERE, mama specifically click HERE).
Some amazing edits featuring my favorite flowers

Also still flipping my fins with Ariel! It's been a while since I have posted a video of her latest swim, but in case you haven't seen the show, you can watch the full thing HERE or just to view the princesses click HERE

With Elinor and others leaving, it means new cast are currently quarantining to be able to join us soon. We were able to go drop goodies off and visit them in their windows before they begin rehearsals. My friend Holli from Orlando is one of those joining us, and we helped her husband Justin to celebrate her quarantine birthday in style. 

Also, Happy almost actually Halloween folks! Mike brought home dry ice to play with the other day, and being married to a science teacher is fun...



Eventually we did have to actually say goodbye to our dear friend Elinor. We took an Aqua Luna harbour cruise for her farewell bon voyage, and it was absolutely lovely. We practically had the boat to ourselves and were able to exchange our gifts and spend some quality time together. 
The weather was pretty chilly and the boat may have rocked us around a bit, but I could not think of a better send off for our brave girl. 
We gonna miss you so many bunchies 'Linor, in case it wasn't obvious, but go shine, we love you!

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