Jalan-jalan Bay Area

Kke’s aunt and uncle were here from Saturday until Thursday, so we have to be tour guides. Mind you, these visitors are seasoned travelers, having been to about 15 countries!! Impressive! I have been to…hmm, let me count; Malaysia (yeah, must include ), Singapore, Thailand(Phuket), Australia(Gold Cost, Sydney), China(Beijing), US, Czech Republic(Prague), France(Paris), Spain(Barcelona), Rome(Italy), United Kingdom(London), Vatican City; 12 countries! Wow, I am expecting less than that.

During their visit here, I would say that our schedules were quite relaxing, usually departing for our destinations later than 12 pm. The weather were really great, sunny but cool.

They eat really healthily, eating lots of veggies and fruits. I did learn a recipe or two.

Hehe, prepared a balanced meal, under aunty’s supervision: salmon, asparagus, mash potatoes, salad

Aunt mentioned about us relying too much on GPS, and do not recognize the roads. YL mentioned this before also. This is so true! Should make more effort the recognize the roads.

Sunday

Stanford University

Went to Cantor Arts Center, which houses Rodin works.

The Thinker

Gates of Hell

Monday

Golden Gate Bridge

It was a nice weather that day as it was not cloudy. The bridge can be seen clearly in the pictures!

Hmm, I wonder why is the bridge called Golden Gate as it is actually reddish.

Can see Alcatraz from the vista point

Muir Woods

This is not really a hike, as platform was made for visitors to walk on.

Aunt and Uncle work in the flora-related field, so they appreciate nature, plants in particular. They specifically asked to see redwoods in CA. They were analyzing trees and making interesting comments about the plants. I learn to appreciate plants more and look at them at the different perspective. Hehe… Will try to pay more attention to them when I see them.

Huge tree, right?

One of the things I learned was that my “lucky bamboo” is not actually a bamboo. Also, if I cut my bamboo into half, both segments will grow! And poplar trees make is a good wind break.

Tuesday

Chinatown

Need to take pic with the pintu gerbang

Lombard

Jalan bengkang bengkok

Some part of SF is really steep, so you have to park at 90 degrees relative to the slope. You do not want vehicles to roll down do you?

Union Square

The picture of the love often changes

Golden Gate Park

This is is my first time to golden gate park. It is HUGE and beautiful. There are lot of things to see.

Rose garden! Which girl doesn’t like flowers, right? So need to take a pic!

Look at my socks! YL gave me those. And, that was my first time wearing those socks knee high, without covering them with boots. When I watch Korean/Jap dramas, I see actresses wearing those socks like that, which look cute. But I do not dare to wear like that , as it not my style (IMO, my style is more proper normal, okay fine, boring). But oh well, there is first to everything. Next, I am going to try to wear platform shoes with fishnet stockings and red lipstick.

Wednesday

Wednesday was a beach day!

Poplar Beach, Half Moon Bay

Look at those pretty flowers! It was pretty windy day. Too bad most of the pink flowers have already wilted. Else, the view would be much more amazing! If you want something more adventurous, you can also go for horse back riding here.

Pebble Beach

This beach is highly recommended by WJ. It is special as the beach has pebbles in place of sand.

Natural Bridges State Beach

This place is called Natural Bridges because the rock looked like a bridge long ago, before the top part fell off.

Reno

Thanks to YL, who found a great deal, we went to Reno for our Xmas break. It was snowing quite heavily on the way there. The white-christmas view was breathtaking, but it came with some inconveniences. We had to use snow chain, which meant we can only drive up 30 mph, max. It took us about 8 hours to reach our destination. According to google map, our destination was about 5 hours away, with traffic.

We, (more accurately, the guys) took about 30 minutes to set up the chain, which broke after we drove for barely 20 meters? We had buy a show cable chain(with a very high mark up) and paid a professional to help us set up the cable. Being a professional, he took merely 5 minutes. After passing the snow chain check-point, we stopped at the first rest area we saw. We had to wait for about 45 minutes to get into the ladies. The line wasn’t that long, about 10 meters, I think, but the line moved soooooo slow! Not sure how we ladies use the restrooms.

Snow chain	Snow cable

Although I lived in Pittsburgh, this was my first snow angel

Lobster, tad salty

Sunny San Diego: Day 3

Last day at San Diego!

USS Midway

“Unconditional Surrender” statue

After the visit to USS Midway, we headed for Point Loma.

Old Point Loma Lighthouse

It was quite cold as the lighthouse is located 129 m above sea level. I wore my jacket and told kke NOT to take a full length picture of me. Why you may wonder? It was coz my attire did not go well with my jacket. He still did …

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This reminds me of my dad. There was once he wanted to buy lunch for us. I asked him to get duck rice and NOT pork rice for me as I do not like pork. I reminded him a few times NOT to get pork rice.

He bought me pork rice. 

After Point Loma, we had some time to spare before going to the airport. We headed for Coronado. It is already dark and we did not do anything there other then had our dinner. According to Wikipedia, “The district is one of the most expensive places to reside in California, San Diego County and the nation.”

We had an expensive dinner.

Below is one my favorite pictures, taken from outside of one of many shops in Coronado.

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Day 3

USS Midway Museum

Point Loma

Coronado

Sunny San Diego: Day 2

First highlight of the second day of my trip! I met my friend at kitchen area of the hotel during breakfast. Talk about coincidence! Just a few weeks before the trip, she asked me if I have booked a room, as her friend(s) backed out from the trip and she asked if I wanted take over the room. We actually booked the same hotel!

Balboa Park. Oh no! The Grinch!

Yup, this is the only picture taken at Balboa Park which is posted here.

Old Town

Seaport Village

Seaport Village

I love hammocks! So relaxing. I have one hammock at home for as long as I can remember! I think it was a gift as I do not recall my parents ever using it.

	I do not like sparkling diamonds nor emeralds. I prefer guli-s(marbles)! Aren’t they pretty?

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Day 2

Balboa Park

Old Town

Seaport Village

Sunny San Diego: Day 1

I was quite bz with work, hence, I did not update my blog for quite some time.  Maybe I should just have a photo website instead of a blog since most of my blog posts were dominated by pictures.

I was in San Diego during  Thanksgiving break! Gone were the days where a Thanksgiving break meant a week long of break. Miss college!! (summer breaks, winter breaks etc)

We flew to San Diego on Thursday and got a nice car !

Felt really different going on a nice car. Nicer than our current car, at least. . After having lunch at Gaslamp Quarter, we had 5 hours to roam San Diego Zoo.  Initially, I thought that 5 hours was A LOT of time, but in the end, we did not cover all the animals. Being  typical kiasu-s, we tried to at least catch a glimpse of ALL featured animals, walking until our feet felt sore,  but to no avail.

There were many types of animals in the zoo. (What else do you expect to find in zoos.)

Cute sleeping giant panda.

Aawwww… so sweet!

Another cute giant panda sleeping on a branch

An interesting animal with horns protruding sideways. This is a Southern Warthog.

I also learned something new when I was in the cable car, and that is, lighting(angle) is CRUCIAL when taking pictures.

Compare this

with this!

What a big difference! Just to make sure we are on the same page, the second pic looks much better!

Day 1

Gaslamp Quarter

San Diego Zoo

Sizzling Texas =D

Had a great time hanging out with the Texas people. Happy to meet up with you guys… Learned to play mahjong! Realized that I am truly gifted at mahjong. Won a fair number of times. Were introduced to Sonic(fast food) and Rudy’s(yummy BBQ). Thanks for being such great hosts!

May 23

Flew to Austin, Texas! Reached at about 11 pm.

Went to Joo May + Ken Yu’s place. First thing that came to my mind when I saw their apt? WOW, SO NICE!! Their apt is VERY well decorated! Has AC somore! Not to mention their rent is almost half of ours… Envious envious.

May 24

Drove to Dallas, which is about 3 hours from Austin.

Excerpt from Wikipedia

School Book Depository, from which, both the Warren Commission and the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded, Lee Harvey Oswald fired a rifle that killed President John F. Kennedy….
… is now the home of the Sixth Floor Museum, a place of remembrance of the events in Dallas and a tribute to the legacy of President Kennedy.

I believe that the fire was shot from the window which is the right, second from the top.

The “X” on the road is the approximate location where one of the shots hit JFK

We then headed to Fort Worth Stockyards, a National Historic District. There are restaurants and shops selling tourist stuffs in this area.

Excerpt from Wikipedia

…the area has a Western motif. There is also an opry and a rodeo. The Fort Worth Stockyards are the last standing stockyards in the United States. Some Fort Worth volunteers still run the cattle drives today. They do it so that people can see what it was like in the 1800’s.

Colorful children boots. Cute + pretty!

Eric doing his thing. He was’t too good. He did not stay on the cow for more than .. a few seconds?

The weather was so hot that we kept trying to go into shops to enjoy the AC. The temperature around Austin and Dallas whenwe were there were between 34 to 38 Celcius, hence the title of this post. Now, you know why I am complaining! Heat = bad mood for me… hehe

Botanical Garden

Played mahjong at night.

May 25

Headed to San Antonio, which is about an hour drive from Austin.

Excerpt from Wikipedia

The Alamo (San Antonio de Valero Mission) is a former mission and fortress compound, now a museum, in San Antonio, Texas located at 300 Alamo Plaza.^[2] The compound, which originally comprised a sanctuary and surrounding buildings, was built by the Spanish Empire in the 18th century for the education of local Native Americans after their conversion to Christianity.^[3] After its abandonment as a mission, it was used as a fortress in the 19th century and was the scene of several military actions, including most notably the 1836 Battle of the Alamo, one of the pivotal battles between the forces of the Republic of Texas and Mexico during the Texas Revolution.^[4]

San Antonio Riverwalk. I guess this place is really happening as the the restaurant where we had lunch apparently open for 24 hours. Had the best quesadilla ever! Hmm, feel like making quesadilla some time soon.Tourists can take a cruise along the San Antonio Riverwalk. Notice the cruise boat at the background.

Grainy Dipping dots ice-cream. Recommended by Eric. Basically it is the usual ice-cream but is freezed into grains, bubbles, balls or whatever you are want to call it. Trolley car at the background.

Market Square. This place is like Pasar Seni. Selling lots of interesting and colorful trinkets. The merchandise sold are similar from one shop to another.

And.. we continued our mahjong marathon again. This time until 6 am. It is addictive!

May 26

Woke up fairly late, at about 12 pm and went to Rudy’s for lunch. It is a fast food BBQ place. Yummy-licious!

The original plan was to visit Texas State Capitol and 6th Street, …. but we met with an accident. No one was hurt. Poor Eric, his car is new! Went to the airport after settling the formalites with the police. Both of the police were actually really nice!

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During the flight from Austin to LA, I witnessed flirt-and-ignore-sessions, starring an air steward. Basically he flirted with two giggly-ladies. Actually, that is fine, as this made the flight experience more interesting. Some of the passengers would say that it was quite noisy. He stood near giggly-ladies to chat with them, gave them extra cup of drinks and much more peanut snacks compared to other passengers. Sigh, I guess being extra friendly is a superb idea to get more food in the airplane. I am fine with all this flirtings, but was a bit irritated when the air steward chose to ignore an old-man which was seated near the ladies. The air steward saw the old-man pushing the attention button, but the air steward blatantly ignored the old-man when he passed the old-man ’s seat, TWICE! Can you believe it! The old-man’s patience was tested to the max, and in the end, he has to speak up and flag(action you use when you want to flag cab) the air steward. Ish ish

Note: During this trip, I realize that I have a really soft voice, compared to Joo May’s. Just a random thought.

Yosemite Take 2

My second trip to Yosemite! My first trip was in December last year and the view was breathtaking although it was cold, icy and slippery. In this trip, we stayed in a bungalow at Grooveland which is about 3 hours from my place and 1 hour from Yosemite National Park. Well, don’t expect me to camp! I love comfort (bed, heater), convenience(microwave, tv) and cleanliness(restroom) too much.

Welcome to Bear Haven! This house is really beautiful!
Bear Haven really lived up to its name. There were bears
everywhere in the house. There is also a jacuzzi (which is broken),
a large patio and a BBQ grill

In the living room

Yosemite Falls

Mirror Lake

The weather was great! We BBQ a lot, which means we ate a lot. We did not hike up Half Dome. Next time, maybe?

Reminiscing and Visiting Pittsburgh: Prologue

In the previous post, I wrote about what I saw and what I did. This post is dedicated to the people I met.

At the booth. We were given a choice of either red or black shirt.

I chose red, since the fair was on 7th Feb. Black is out of the question.

As you can see, I am the only person wearing red.

I also bumped into two girls I knew from

Oral Communications class. Great to catch up with them.

I met one of my favourite coachs during my college days.

Patient and always so helpful

It is great to catch up with you.
Hopefully we will have another chance to chat while having
brunch at your favourite Pamela’s in the near future

One of my PATIENT ski coachs

Teck Hua, another PATIENT ski coach wearing his head-gear.
A fabulous host too. Thanks a lots~

 

It is always nice to meet people you know.

It is weird that you only realise their presence and

how they meant to you after you do not feel their

presence for some time.

 

Reminiscing and Visiting Pittsburgh

Just came back from a vacation in Pittsburgh yesterday. It all started when HR contacted me and asked if I want to attend CMU Career Fair. I replied her with a YES instantly! Of course I said yes! I was so excited… It was a good time to go as I still know some nice ppl there.

If I were offered to go back to CMU end of this year or later, I would not feel so excited, since most of those nice ppl has graduated.

My flight was on February 6, which is Chinese New Year eve. Being superstitious, I reminded myself to be happy. My flight was canceled and then the hotel Internet connection did not work! Not a great start of New Year eve. I first stepped into my hotel room at about 12 am and tried to get the Internet to work. I called the customer service twice and was told that the network was down. Asked to try again later. I spent 2 hrs trying to go online but to no avail. Nevertheless, I was not unhappy, just not happy. Well, the Internet does not work for the 2 days I stayed there.

eunice beauty care

 

Felt nostalgic while I was on campus, especially ECE computer cluster. Miss college.

Oh, there is a sleeping/resting chair in the library. It was not there the last time I was there. Not sure if you can sleep peacefully on the chair, since it is placed in the noisy area of the library.

I think this is cool! Has a control panel at the right of the arm rest to

adjust the chair to make yourself comfortable. Hm.. I think you can

bring the top lid down for privacy. I certainly do not want strangers

staring at me while I am asleep.

 

Wanted to go to Fallingwater, but it was not open. Disappointed

 

Went for a rushing 20 minutes tour at Phipps Conservatory.

 

Drank a cup of ice coffee from Hunt Library. My favorite beverage in college.

Went for a Chinese New Year reunion dinner with all the nice ppl.

Went to see the controversial Bodies Exhibition at Carnegie Science Center. The exhibits are preserved human bodies dissected to show … what … humans are comprised of. According to a post in the exhibition hall, the bodies used as exhibits were not claimed by their families and relatives. Unethical? No comment.

While looking at those exhibits, I realize that there were sooo many different types of diseases. Every part of your body is susceptible to disease. Does it mean that if a body has a larger volume, the probability of contracting diseases is higher than a body which has a lower volume? Well, just a thought. Looking at the bodies also made me thought about soul vs casing (body). Digressing here …

Met up with Rozana at Pamela’s. Enjoyed my brunch : food and company. Generally I like any food which is made of chocolate or is sweet, so these suite my tastebuds.

Hot Chocolate	Chocolate Chip Banana Hotcakes

 

After approximately four and a half years in US, I skied for the first time at Seven Springs! Thanks to my two PATIENT buddies who accompanied me down the “Beginners’ Slope“. Without them, I do not think I can make it down the slope.

They PATIENTLY waited for me while I rested after a fall, taught me how to get up when I fall, pulled me up when I was not able to get up myself after a fall, tried to teach me how to slow down/stop without falling. Yup, skiing and falling go side by side. By the end of the day, I still could not master the slow down/stop maneuver. The only effective way for me to stop is to fall. I do not really mind falling, since it was not really painful… But little did I know, a day after that, my arms and legs were so sore!

Me up for the challenge

Tired even after the first round down the slope. After the third

time down, pwned …

Blue-blacks everywhere!! I have a few of these on my legs.

 

Guess I can’t go swimming for quite some time

 

 

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You can find many dinasaurs installed in Pittsburgh. According to this website, “Dinomite Days brings 100 decorated dinosaurs to various locations around Pittsburgh. Hand-decorated by talented artists throughout Pittsburgh and surrounding areas, these dinosaurs are destined to add a splash of prehistoric panache to Pittsburgh’s parks, plazas, and public streets. “

Along Forbes Avenue	In Pittsburgh Airport. Dun think this is part of Dinomite Days

 

Jimui Outing 16/17 Jun 07

Three of us “sa po” went to Genting for a night. I should say it was our first all-girls-only vacation.

It was fun and I feel like I was in secondary school again.

We did gals’ stuffs like experimenting makeup and also catch up with each other.

 

“ji mui” day out in Genting….16/17Jun’07

~courtesy of My Chien (copied from her Frienster)~