Kung Hei Fat Choy

Happy Chinese New Year! The celebration festivities started last night at midnight and today is the first day of the Chinese New Year. Festivities will continue over the next 2 weeks.

Hong Kong was a ghost town today. Most of the shops were closed all over the city. We visited a nearby temple, which was packed, and then made our way to Ikea to pick up a few little things for the apartment. Note to self: Ikea is a good place to go on a public holiday. We were practically the only ones there.

My doorman took our pictures so we had to take one of him

Shops closed up

Angry Birds

Umbrella Man- all he does is fix umbrellas

Walking to the temple

Mini temple/shrine

Mom loved the artwork in this gallery

Year of the dragon decor

Hollywood Road Temple

Oh yeah! They were burning the goods

This was the place to be. Lots of incense, candles and paper goods were purchased for the ceremonial traditions

I tried to be discreet with my photos as not to offend anyone. Just a few shots for the blog

We had to buy some souvenirs in Cat Alley. Mom  purchased a jade piece only to discover it is a symbol that means "all your dreams will come true" according to legend. I am anxiously awaiting for her to win the lottery

We never got this guy's name but he was hilarious. Here he is striking a pose for me

More empty streets

Everyone knows what an Ikea looks like and they are no different in HK. The only thing noteworthy to photograph was a little stuffed animal display. They were strung together with the little plastic strings for the display. I thought it would be cute if they were sold this way vs. individually.

I got Dragon puppets for Jackson and Jordan

Chilling out and watching movies with Mom. Nice to have some down time after a busy start to the trip

Pedometer count today: 13,877