Casa Loma Castle - Day 1

In the morning, we woke up to have breakfast included at the Hilton Homewood Suites hotel at 8am EST... (5am PST).  We were so so so tired but can't forgo the free breakfast for 5 people.  It was a really nice spread of fruits, pastry, pancake, egg, hash browns, oatmeal with juice and coffee.  

We bought the Toronto Citypass which included 5 attractions:  Casa Loma castle, CN Tower, Ripley's Aquarium, Royal Ontario Museum and Ontario Science Centre.  After breakfast, our first stop was checking out the Casa Loma Castle.  We found free parking a 10-minute walk away.  This place was huge and the stories about the castle were very interesting.  I didn't think we'd stay that long but we were there for 2 hours.  

After a long day of walking around, the kiddies enjoyed some time in the hotel pool, swimming and splashing around.  It wasn't busy so they had the pool to themselves.  

Toronto Here we go!

It's been over 2 years since our last family trip via airplane.  We are very excited about the trip as we've never been to Toronto before and even better, the 3 kiddies get to skip a week of school!  C-O-O-L!

Check in at the airport was fast and without complications.  Before we knew it, we were flying over the bright clouds and enjoying view from up above.  We arrived into Toronto at 10:30pm EST.  

Due to staffing issues at Toronto Pearson Airport, we had to wait for 45 minutes in the airplane before being unloaded at a dock.  Then after docking, we waited another hour for our luggage.  By the time we arrived at the hotel, it was past midnight.  Phewf.  Made it safe and sound.  

 

Vegas Baby! (video) - Long

It must have been a summer boredom thing; I started looking at trips "just in case" we wanted to go somewhere and I spotted a deal for Vegas!  I was so excited.  

I found a deal via Allegiant air for $180US/person for return flights flying out of Bellingham.  The Residence Inn Marriott Hughes Centre had nightly rates at $130 CDN (taxes in), including buffet breakfast and evening manager reception, no resort fee and free parking.  Most hotels charge extra resort fees and parking fees now.  

I purchased a groupon deal for a $40 POGO pass Las vegas which includes many attractions in the area and we visited the following places:

1) LV mini gran prix

2) Lion Habitat Ranch (retired lions live here when they are too old for shows and 1 giraffe)

2) Gameworks
3) Seaquest Interactive Aquarium, fed sting ray and birds


4) Cowabunga bay - water slides
5) Discovery children museum

6) Get Air, trampoline park

We also saw the Nathan Burton magic show, went outlet shopping and of course, the girls wanted to see Pawn Stars shop.  It was a fabulous trip.  Super duper hot though (40 deg C) so maybe next time, we will go to a cooler place in the summer months.

Portland Getaway

I am an Airmiles collector and my 5,000 Airmiles were about to expire at the end of the year so I've been redeeming my Airmiles for merchandise or for travel such as hotels.  Since I had to use them up, I decided to put them towards a Portland getaway during my bday week at the Hampton Inn Portland/Clackamas.  We stayed 3 nights.

It was a brutal 6 hour drive down to Portland and back up again but it gave us a much needed break from the kids.  We basically just shopped, ate and slept.  We found a buffet in Vancouver, WA for a very reasonable $20US/person which included hot crab legs.  My FAVORITE!  All I ate was crab legs and dessert.  We went back to the restaurant twice.  

As for shopping, we did very well.  Take a look at all the goodies.  Most of it was Rich's stuff though.  I'm still on a hunt for new leather boots.

Victoria Xmas Trip

For Xmas this year, dinner took place at Winnie and YJ's place.  It was nice to just hang out and relax.  I realize that we didn't take enough pics this year...likely from all the drinking!  From memory, I think the boys (Gavin included) finished an entire bottle of Tequila?  

We also went to Oak Bay Rec center to take advantage of the free Xmas ice skating and did the secret santa gift exchange.  Drewsie picked out really wonderful scratchies this year.  I won $70 on the scratchies.  

Little Josh had a rash attack this trip and that prompted me to try to find out what caused it.  I suspect it was from cat hair.  I'll have to follow up with the allergist and do some testing.

We managed to visit Mom and Dad's place for 30 minutes this short trip.  Thanks Lin Family for hosting.

Trip - HK Ngong Ping 360 and Big Buddha

We fly back to Vancouver tonight at 7pm so we still have an entire day to sightsee.  First thing we did was pack up all the luggage, dropped off all the checked baggage to HK station where it is an Airport Express location.  


In order to drop off our 5 pieces of luggage, 3 people have to pay for the Airport Express tickets now (2 luggage per person allowed).  All 7 of us will eventually need to take the Airport Express to get to the HK airport but buying it from this station is very expensive since it is far from the airport.  My mathematical mind calculates that paying for 1 adult and 2 kids price to drop off 5 pieces of luggage is the cheapest.

We are going to see the big Buddha on Lantau Island today and the Airport Express price from Tsing Yi station is much cheaper.  Thus, we only paid for 3 people here and will pay for the other 4 people at Tsing Yi station.

We spent around 4 hours touring the Tian Tan Budda, walked up the 268 steps to see Buddha up close and then rushed to catch our flight.  The tram ride up the mountain took 20 minutes.  We totally didn't factor in the 1-hour lineup to take the tram down the mountain, the 20-minute tram ride down and then getting onto the MTR.  We JUST made it onto the plane!