The Big Game

Last Sunday, the Notre Dame alumni club invited both Notre Dame and UofM football fans to the American Club to watch the big game. Of course we went, partly to snoop around the club, and partly to have a more exciting atmosphere to watch such a big game. As we all know how the game turned out, it was a happy day in the Kirchner household. I know it's normally "happy wife, happy life," but on game days it's the other spouse's turn.

I did some research on the American Club in Hong Kong, and the stats are pretty astounding. They actually have two facilities, the TownClub which is in the heart of downtown Hong Kong right next to the second tallest building in the city and where we watched the game, and the Country Club, a sports and rec facility on the south side of the island. The membership entry fee is just under $50,000 USD per family plus a monthly fee of $300/month, or $3,600/year. YIKES! And there is currently a wait-list to be a member! Sounds like too many people with too much money. Needless to say, we are not members, hence the snooping. We opted out of the $50/person brunch, for a $5 glass of orange juice and a $5 coffee. The pictures below are shots from the balcony outside of the lounge room where we watched the game. A lot of the shots have interesting discussion points so I will again discuss each pic in turn. 

The pic below shows Victoria Harbor, the ICC (tallest building in Hong Kong) and the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. At the bottom of the pic, you'll see ferry terminals. These are the ferries that can take you to several outlying islands, like Lamma Island, Discovery Bay, etc. Some of Drew's coworkers actually work in Discovery Bay, so they take these ferries (most are about a 30 min ride) in to work every day. Works for some people, but I think my mother would have a hard time. Ginger! Get the ginger!

This pic looks back onto Hong Kong Island. The tall pointy building is in Central. The low, curvy building sticking out into the water is the convention center, and it's supposed to look like a turtle. Give me some fin (slap)...Noggin (clunk)! The high spot behind the tall pointy building is Jardine's Lookout that we hiked on Sat afternoon. Check out the previous post for details. 

This pic looks at the east side of Hong Kong Island, in the neighborhood called Sheung Wan. Most of these high rises are residential, except the really large one on the right of the pic. The high ground on the left is Victoria's Peak, the highest point on the island. This is the best lookout to see the whole city, especially at night. Don't look over the railing Stu.....

This is a close-up of the IFC, the 2nd tallest building in Hong Kong, and obviously right next to where this balcony was. Not sure how many stories it has, but I dare someone to count them! And look! Blue skies! One of the few with no haze. 

Finally, this is a pic of public piers #9 and #10, where the junk boats pick up people for their day trips. This was us exactly one week prior. Remember how I said the boats circled around to pick up people, as there wasn't enough docking room for them all? This picture was taken at 10am, right when we picked up our junk. So, this gives an exact feel of that morning! Chaos :) But look at all of the junks! See how popular they are? And Sept. isn't considered peak junking season any more.