A Kura-Worthy Adventure

"Don't dream it, be it."
--Tim Curry, British actor, from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"

Today is Kura's birthday, and so I decided to go on an adventure here in Hong Kong. Here's the link to my blip about Kura from June 13th - she and I have been friends for over 30 years and have had many, many adventures! So today, even though we're on opposite sides of the globe, I was inspired to mark Kura's milestone birthday with a Hong Kong Adventure that was Kura-worthy!

Kura is originally from Seattle, which is where I believe she picked up her pioneering spirit. She's lived in NYC for many years, yet still has the energy and enthusiasm to uncover new, exciting and fun things to do - last year we had the most exceptional evening taking advantage of New York Restaurant Week, an annual event that in the entire time I lived in NYC, I never once, not once, enjoyed the benefits of! Kura was all over it, finding us a 5-star restaurant offering their best plates for pennies in a sophisticated, upscale, world-class setting - it was truly one of the most enjoyable NYC evenings I can remember (and I promptly brought Chris back to the restaurant on our next trip into town!)

Kura has rarely met a challenge she won't face, and we've spent many long hours in rental cars braving everything from a day of shopping in New Jersey, to weekend trips to Connecticut and Pennsylvania, to long road trips up to Massachusetts, Maine and ports farther afield. Kura loves to shop, explore and experience new things, perhaps more than anyone I know, and through the years we've often plotted and planned our adventures together, something I've always been very grateful for, since my world was often very work-centric.

I should note, however, that Kura's adventurous spirit runs well beyond the northeastern regions of the U.S. - in the past few years, she and her equally adventurous pal, Paul, have ventured to both Antarctica and Africa! They just returned from a driving tour right through the Great Migration on the Serengeti, complete with Masai Warriors and stampeding Wildebeests! I'm currently making a case with both of them to adventure into China and Hong Kong next, where I can join them for at least a part of their world tour!

So today I set out to see parts of Hong Kong I've not seen in quite a while. When Chris and I first got here, we explored Hong Kong from one end to the other, and then, as happens anywhere, you "settle" and get into your routines and stop doing things that tourists do. So today I played tourist and took the Star Ferry over to Tsim Sha Tsui, walked along the promenade and took lots and lots of pictures of Hong Kong from right along the water. It was such a beautiful day, a perfect day for an adventure, and my camera kept finding more and more wonderful things to shoot.

This refurbished old junk represented the spirit of adventure to me today, and as it passed me by, it occurred to me, if Kura were here, we would be taking pictures from the bow of that boat rather than watching it simply pass by - truly, it would have been a Kura-worthy Adventure!