Ocean Park

On Sunday, after the typhoon warnings had expired, we needed to get out of the house! There is an amusement park nearby, Ocean Park, that we have planned to visit but have been to busy doing other not-so-fun things - like unpacking.

The skies were still a bit dark and it was raining when we arrived. As we parked the car, Dave and I wondered how long our day would last. But, it quickly became clear that we we would have a hard time getting Lydia to leave; to her, the weather was completely irrelevant. She was THRILLED to be there. No doubt about it - we were all in, wet or dry.

To get to one area of the park, a trip on a cable car over a mountain is necessary. Of course, that's exactly what Lydia wanted to do right away. (Stairs are available but Lydia said, "It would take a whole day to get to there if you had to walk all of those steps!" And, I think she was right!)

Though it was cloudy, we had a great view of the south side of Hong Kong Island.

Lydia hadn't ever been to a real amusement park and she's not really a thrill seeker. So when we decided to go on the Raging River ride as her first big-kid ride ever, we thought it would either be really fun or really awful. It was a water ride with a huge drop off at the end that results in a BIG splash. Fortunately, she loved it. Unfortunately, we didn't capture any pictures of it!

We walked through several nature/animal exhibits, rode a ferris wheel, enjoyed watching people on other really scary rides, and ended our day by watching giant pandas play.

The weather must have kept people away. We enjoyed the rare pleasure of not being in thick crowds and not having to wait in long lines. It proved to be the perfect day for the park!