On being flexible...

Well, I certainly wasn't planning on having chips and an ice cream cone by myself in Hong Kong for Thanksgiving dinner, but, so it goes. Navy life seems to give a whole new perspective on how to be flexible ("semper gumbi" as the saying goes)...and now adding "being a mom" to the list of character building and flexibility training exercises, I guess I should be like a well cooked noodle (or some other illustration of a very flexible object!).

I guess I could say that I'm getting a little better at going with the flow, but it's not without plenty of growing pains along the way. I thought that being the oldest of 7 and working with kids for a living would have prepared me for most life surprise situations...guess I still had something to learn!

Anyway, Elise and I made the 30 hour trek from Philly to Hong Kong to meet Josh for a long weekend port call. He had been underway for 5 weeks and we were anxiously awaiting our reunion, along with a fun weekend getaway in HK. We arrived on Tuesday night and were anticipating meeting up with the ships on Wednesday morning. Fortunately, I had joined up with another DESRON wife in Tokyo so we were together and making plans to get to the pier by mid-morning. We checked e-mail right before leaving the hotel and both Josh and her husband said that they had been delayed and that we should wait and come in the afternoon. At this point we thought the delay was weather related, so we headed off to the local Jade Market to do some shopping and figured we'd check back to the hotel in the afternoon.

When we returned from the market, we found out that they still were not in port and that there was a small possibility that they would be in later that night or the next day. Again, we headed off to get Thai for dinner in an area of Kowloon called Tsim Sha Tsui and hoped for the best. It wasn't until after dinner that we got e-mails that confirmed that the ships had been denied access to the ports by the Chinese gov't and they had now turned around and were sailing away from Hong Kong. (bummer!)

Being travel weary, having a jet lagged baby, and finding out the news was a bit much to handle, but Maria was a great support and we quickly made arrangements to return home a few days early and then resolved to make the best of the rest of our time in HK. Besides, I think the guys got the worse end of the deal. They, of course, were really looking forward to a few days on land, time off work, and to meeting up with their beautiful wives. (ha, ha!) Instead, they got a movie in the hangar bay, turkey dinner in the galley, and 4 bonus days at sea - kind of a let down, to say the least!

Maria and I spent the next day visiting Hong Kong Island. We shopped at Stanley Market; visiting countless shops selling strings of pearls, jade jewelry, and silk and cashmere everything. I'm generally not much of a "shopper" but it was fun to make some Christmas purchases and it was a unique cultural experience to bargain with locals as well. We ate a late lunch at a little cafe along the South China Sea and then headed back to the Kowloon side. We spent the evening strolling down the Golden Mile, yet another shopping district in the city.

All in all we made the best of less than ideal situation. Hong Kong is very cosmopolitan and has a lot to see and do (and buy!), so I hope that Josh and I will have a chance to return some day.