In April, Richard and I travelled to Hong Kong to visit our son, Creighton, who lives and works there. We had a fantastic time exploring the city, sampling a wide variety of amazing foods, catching up with a few friends, and taking side trips to Tai O and Macau.
Most of all, we cherished this time with family. Creighton, his girlfriend, Charling and their dog, Kuro, were incredibly gracious hosts. I learned several things about hosting from them. I greatly look forward to our next visit together.
While I was away, my review of Greek Fish in a Packet was posted on New Classic Recipes. You can check out this site for great recipes from Bernadette Laganella and other contributors to Cookbook Confidential.
Have your own food or drink post to share? Please include it here:
No time to cook? Check out my cohost’s clever post here.
This officially concludes my month-long blogging break. I look forward to catching up with you soon!
Retirement Reflections 
Great photos and great times, Donna & Richard. It was lovely you could visit Creighton and the food looks delicious. I also think you are very creative in how you present the photos – I need some lessons. Thanks for hosting What’s On your Plate? I am linking up a Chowder recipe. xx
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Hi, Sue – Thank you for your kind words. This is my first “official” reply in my return to blogging. It feels good to be back! Recently I treated myself to an upgraded subscription to Canva. It makes photo arrangements a breeze. It is amazing how many times I use it for tons of different occasions. I love chowder but have never had great success with making it myself. I am off to read your post now. See you there!
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What a fun collage of food and activities in Hong Kong Donna and welcome back from your blogging break. I’ve shared our recent zoom cooking session which are always so much fun! Thanks for having us over for the linkup.
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Hi, Debbie – Thanks so much. It’s wonderful to be back. I’m delighted that you shared our recent Book Club Baking for your post. I can’t wait to read it. I’m heading over to your site right now!
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Looks like a fabulous time for all. Always great to see our grown-up kids.
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Hi, Darlene – I wholeheartedly agree with you about the sheer pleasure of hanging out with our grown-up children. Immediately following our wonderful 3-weeks with Creighton, our second youngest son had his 40th BD party in Vancouver. So back-to-back, Richard and I were able to spend time witih all four of our sons and all three of our grandchildren. Absolute bliss!
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Looks like a wonderful trip! I loved the food in Hong Kong when I visited many years ago now. I couldn’t add my link for some reason.
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Hi, Barbara – The food in Hong Kong (amongst so many other things) was so incredible, I never knew where to start or what to choose! I am so sorry about the hassel linking up. I don’t typically use Safari but will check it out to see if it will work for me. Thank you for this heads-up!
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Ah….the link works in Chrome but not in Safari!
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Hi, Barbara – Yup, I just checked out this post on Safari and the InLinkz tab does not show up on the post. Strange! This will be another Rabbit Hole for me! 😀
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I find that WordPress doesn’t always behave itself in Safari. Who knows why!
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WordPress can definitely be strange!
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How nice to spend time with family and friends and explore different places. I am curious about what you have learned about entertaining.
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Hi, Bernadette – Spending time with family near and far is always a pleasure. Richard and I have been to Hong Kong numerous times before, but not since Creighton has been living there. That made this trip the most special of all.
To answer your question about what made Creghton, Charling and Kuro such great hosts, it was mostly their relaxed nature and their repeated expressed gratitutde for our visit. They greatly modelled what will now become my commandments of having company visit and stay over:
1. Keep calm. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed.
2. Don ‘t bite off more than you can chew.
3. Don’t overschedule activities.
4. Do make sure your guests have a comfortable bed and their own space (harder to do in HK but they did this brilliantly).
5. Do consider your guests favourite food and drinks.
6. Most importantly, make your guests feel appreciated and show your gratitude for their visit and their efforts. ❤
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These are very good rules for hosts. Such young people to be so brilliant. Thanks for your thoughtful response.
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Thanks, Bernadette. I think they are very cool (and wise). But I might be a wee bit biased! 😀
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I’m glad you had a great time with your family, Donna. I really enjoyed your photos both here and on IG. Thanks for sharing!
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Hi, Jill – Thank you so much for following here and on Instagram. I greatly appreciate keeping in touch with you. I just saw your IG post with music about Donald. Super uplifting! ❤
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Wowza, what an adventure – looking forward to hearing more about this special time with family and entertaining ideas!
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Thank you for your kind words. In my reply to Bernadette above, I shared what I believe made Creighton, Charling and Kuro such great hosts. Hopefully, I will be able to put these ideas in practice myself (and try to keep my stressing over company to a minimum). I am off to check out your post now. See you there!
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Welcome back, Donna! I’m glad you had a great time with family. Hong Kong is definitely the land of culinary delights. I haven’t been to Tai O but enjoyed both Hong Kong and Macau when I was there.
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Hi, Natalie – Hong Kong was definitely the land of culinary delights. If you are ever out that way again, I highly recommend a sidetrip to Tai O. It can easily done if a day, although an overnighter there is fun too. I greatly appreciate you dropping by. I am off to your site now to catch up on what I’ve missed!
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Looks like you had an amazing (culinary) time. No photo of Kuro? 🙂
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Hi, Liesbet – Yup, Kuro is that little black furry face in the family photo underneath the pizza pic. He was absolutely adorable!
I’ve enjoyed following your adventures on FB. I am now off to your blog to check out what I have missed!
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Found him! I guess I wasn’t looking carefully enough. 🙂 I’m way behind with my blog. Not sure how to solve that problem, being as busy as we are on the road…
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Hi, Liesbet – I can completely understand your feeling of busyness. I recently took a month-long blogging break (no blog writing, no blog reading). It did me a world of good and helped me to be much more mindful in my travels!
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I should probably do something similar. But then I’d never blog again, because I always travel… A catch 22. 🙂 Finding a balance has been hard, because we are now back in travel mode instead of “living in a camper in North America” mode.
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That is a Catch-22! I believe that your readers are like me and are extremely grateful for anything that you posts. Your adventures, writing and photos are always worth waiting for!
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You look like a lot of fun to travel with!
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Thanks, Jacqui – You are very kind! I am delighted to be back in the blogging world and am off to check out your site now. See you there!
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I’m glad you and Richard had such a good visit….AND THE FOOD!? Wow. Did not disappoint. Will live vicariously through you until if/when I get a chance to visit for myself 😉.
Deb
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Thanks, Deb – It feels great to be back. I’ll let Creighton and Charling know that you might end out coming out that way. I am sure that they would love to host you too! ❤ I am off to check out your WOYP post and comments. See you there!
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I can’t believe how quickly your time away has passed. Thanks for sharing what made your son and his girlfriend such good hosts. They are young to possess such wisdom. Must have learned it from mom…
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Hi, Suzanne – Thank you for your very kind words. Sadly, Creighton did not learn his wonderful hosting from his Mom — at least not the ‘stay calm and don’t stress’ part. It truly made a wonderful difference to our already great stay!
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Looks like a great trip! We visited HK several times in the late 90s / early 2000s and loved it.
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Hi, Anabel – Thank you so much for stopping by. We were last in Hong Kong and Macau in 2015. The changes to both places were immense. I am off to your site now to see what I missed while I was away. I look forward to catching up!
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Hi, Donna,
Since I don’t fly anymore, I probably won’t make Hong Kong, but I’ve heard it is fascinating. Thanks for sharing. I read your Greek Fish recipe and will definitely try it. I’m sure it could be prepared on a grill if sealed well and would be an awesome RV meal with fresh fish which we are always looking for. Glad you are home safely. Have a great weekend. Joe
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Hi, Joe – It’s great to hear from you. I agree that the Greek Fish Packets would be perfect on your grill – especially with the fish that you catch while camping. I am off to your site now to catch up. I look forward to reading about your continued adventures!
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Hi Donna – what a great trip and so nice to spend time with your son and his girlfriend. We just finished dinner, but suddenly I’m hungry again after seeing these pictures! Hope you are doing well 😊
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Hi, Barb – Thanks for dropping by, and for your kind words. We just finished dinner as well, but glancing at those photos kinda made me kinda hungry too. I look forward to hopping over to your site to see what I have missed.
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So awesome you had a great visit with family and ate like KINGS! Thanks for sharing and hosting. Bernie
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Hi, Bernie – Great to hear from you. We did eat like Kings and were treated that way too. We already look forward to going back! ❤
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It looks like you ate your way through Hong Kong– and isn’t that fun! Thanks for sharing your photos, I’m not hungry at all now.
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Hi, Ally – I know exactly what you mean. Everytime I glace at these photos, I am suddenly hungry again. I am off to your site now. See you there!
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What a great combo – family, food and travel! Looks like you had a fabulous time
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Hi, Janine – Thank you for reading and commenting. Family, Food, flying and fun! What else could I possibly ask for? ❤
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I’m glad you enjoyed your visit. The food looks wonderful.
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Thanks, Christie. We had a fabulous times. Travel always ends too quickly! 😀
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I followed your trip, it looked very special.
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Thanks, Antoinette, for following. It was a wonderful trip to share!
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Hi Donna – how lovely that you were able to see all 4 sons and families … in different places around the world – I’ve never been to HK or China – I’d love to visit … unlikely now – so it’ll have to be vicariously … like here – or via books. Lots going on – so been somewhat switched off – UK wise and me wise … but love reading all things – enjoy summer on the west coast of Canada – cheers Hilary
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Hi, HIlary – I always love hearing from you. Thank you so much for stopping by. I’m off to your site now to catch up on what I missed while away. See you there!
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