We are less than a week departing for our trip. \240We are both excited. \240The cats are going to Alane and Steve’s for the 42 days. \240Olivia spent 5 months with them when we did the world cruise. \240Oliver has only visited. \240 They will have a good time and the Asps will get their cat fix.

Packing has begun and of course the kids want to help. \240Help is a relative term.

Jeff and I are getting ready for two trips in April. First a week to Washington DC then to Ohio to celebrate his mother’s birthday. \240 Then the end of April we are cruising from Hong Kong to Vancover a 40 day trip. \240We are excited about both trips.

We are cruising on the Viking Orion. \240Listed below are the ports of call for the cruise. \240

We have now discovered \240Ocean Park in Hong Kong has two behind the scenes events with the giant pandas. \240 The first is behind the scenes with LiLi the mother giant panda. \240 This,will include only 8 people. \240 The other is a 30 minutes time viewing the giant panda twin cubs with 40 people. \240Both are expensive but we hope to get tickets to do one of them. \240Theee will probably not be another opportunity to get this much time with the pandas.

Everyday for the past week I have gone in the Ocean Park website to attempt to purchase tickets for the Panda Experience. \240Thus far tickets for May 1 have not been available.

I was able to complete out comfort check in for the the cruise and also pay our gratitude’s and buy our beverage package. \240We are really looking forward to seeing old friends and the adventures of a new country

I did it! I got panda behind the scene tickets. \240We are very excited as this is a once in a,lifetime experience. \240 There are a lot of rules with this adventure the least exciting one was no pictures, however they will sell you pictures. \240 The cost of the experience was $225/person plus park admission of $68/person. \240Of course we will buy pictures.