Yosemite Again! 08/26/06

So after not going to Yosemite at all for about 5 or 6 years, I am making up for it now! This was my fourth trip since last November. It has been interesting to see the change of scenery each visit has brought. I am looking forward to visiting the park when there is snow!

This trip had been planned for quite awhile. My June trip inspired some co-workers of mine to visit and I, of course, offered to take them on my day trip tour. Miraculously I talked everyone in to getting up at 3:30am for this trip (I must have some amazing powers of persuasion or something :-p ) . I ended up waking up at 3am for some reason so that was when my day started. I made two stops to pick people up and we were off to the mountains.

The first official stop was at Scotty's Doughnuts in Oakdale. The earlier you get there the warmer the doughnuts are and let me tell you they taste GOOD! We were not there that early this time though, but that is okay, the maple bars I had were still tasty. We piled back in the car and continued on. The next stop we made was at the Rim of the World vista point. There was a forest fire burning a couple of ridges over so all day we were seeing helicopters with their buckets dropping water on the fire. After the vista point we were in the park! We stopped at my usual Hwy 120 stops (Big Meadow overlook, the Half Dome overlook, the Cascades bridge). There wasn't much water so a lot of my waterfall stops I skipped this time. We continued on to Bridalveil Falls which was a ghost of its former spring self. It was nice not to get wet at the overlook this time though, usually you can't go there without an umbrella or rain poncho. We looked at El Capitan and the Three Brothers, made a quick stop at Sentinel Beach (we tried to outrun the mosquitoes but failed), and parked at Curry Village.

We had quite a sight when we got to Curry Village... A buck was in the parking lot munching on apples that had fallen from the trees in the apple orchard that is the parking lot. He did not care one bit that people were around. After hanging out for a bit we headed out, our next destination being Lower Yosemite Falls. This waterfall also was a ghost of itself. It is a lovely walk though. We meandered our way to the base and back, stopping to pose for some pictures on a fallen log that I took pictures on in June. This time though it was all about the yoga poses! You have to have good balance to do those poses on a log! Once we were done with the area, we drove up to Glacier Point. This was the conclusion of the trip and in celebration we had ice cream on a stick!

It was a fun day and memories of my June trip were still vivid as I looked at the familiar landmarks around the Valley. I have always loved Half Dome but now that I have been most of the way up there I look at it in a different way - I love it even more now. After the long drive home, my day ended around 9:15pm. I skipped dinner and went right to bed!

Pictures in order:

Half Dome overlook from Hwy 120
Jennifer and I doing Yoga poses near Lower Yosemite Falls
Half Dome from Glacier Point

My Other Colorado Adventures 8/10 - 14/06

This is a long one....

The reason I went to Colorado was for my cousin's wedding but while I was there I managed to get in a lot of other activities, thanks mainly to my dad.

The trip started out a bit sketchy due to the increased security at the airport. I woke up to my cell phone ringing. It was my mom telling me to make sure to turn on the news that there had been a bunch of people arrested for plotting another terrorist attack. I spent the next few hours watching the news and going back and forth on whether I should check my bag or buy all of the stuff I needed when I got there. I finally decided that since the plane was small and we were flying in to a small airport, I would check my bag. My grandma did not see the part of the news that said that things like suntan lotion and toothpaste were liquids too so she was detained a bit and they threw out a lot of stuff from her carry-on. Hindsight said she should have checked her bag. Oh well, she took it in good spirits for the most part. My flight was delayed so we didn't make it to Colorado Springs until late afternoon. Once there though we were out and in to the rental car very fast (maybe a total of 20 minutes from getting off the plane to us driving out of the airport).

Friday morning was a play day for Dad and I. I didn't have any tasks until around 4-ish when I volunteered to pick up my grandpa, aunt, and cousin from the airport. Dad and I took the opportunity to visit one of the tourist destinations of The Springs - The Garden of the Gods. This is an area where unique rock formations sit. We started the morning at the visitors center (very impressive). From there we went down to Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site. This is a lovely living history area of the park. We saw a lot of wildflowers and visited an Indian village, an old Homestead, and the house of one of the owners of the property. There was more to see but it was getting hot and we knew we had to make it to the rock formations before it got too hot.

The next activity was to take a driving tour around the rock formations. We got out to hike to the Siamese Twins trail. It is a very short (1/2 mile rt) trail with only 150ft of elevation gain, but I managed to biff it quite spectacularly. I was totally stupid. I was wearing a cute Hawaiian dress with sandals that had no traction at all. I was just asking for a fall. Going up wasn't so bad, only a couple of slips. It was going down that was my undoing. It is surprising actually where I did eventually fall. It wasn't that steep but I hit those tiny pebbles on exposed rock and down I went. I skinned my knee and messed up my toe (I punctured it). I guess I just needed to give a little blood to the rock gods. My Dad was slipping around too on the trail and he had proper hiking shoes on. We took a lot of time to take pictures and made it back in time to take a trip to the airport. My Dad also took the time to patch me up back at my Uncle's house. Thanks Dad!

After picking up my family members we all needed to go to the rehearsal dinner. It was quite a large dinner. We had Italian food, lots of good conversation, and we saw the strangest thing. A fox decided to crash the party. I don't think I have ever seen a fox in real life before. They are really graceful creatures. This one knew right were the food was though. People outside startled the fox off finally because it was getting too close.

Saturday was the wedding and I covered that in my previous post!

Sunday, Dad and I managed to talk my Uncle Mike in to going hiking with us. My dad was the master planner of the excursion with my Uncle Mike's help on where things were located. We took a drive up to Helen Hunt Falls. This is a pretty little waterfall and the Silver Cascade Falls Trail goes up over the falls to an additional waterfall called guess what... yep, Silver Cascade Falls. It was a nice warm up hike for a longer one we took later up the Mt Cutler Trail. This trail was beautiful. It starts off gaining elevation and once you go over the ridge to the other side you have great views of one of the biggest tourist destinations in the Springs - Seven Falls. Normally (and maybe eventually) I would have been all over this attraction. I read though that they had an elevator and that they shine colored lights on it at night... Hmmm, I am not too sure about that whole experience. It was pretty though to look at from a distance during the daytime. We ended up on a point that gave us great views of the Garden of the Gods, pretty much all of Colorado Springs, the Broadmore golf course/resort, a shrine on the mountainside, and of course Pikes Peak itself, one of Colorado's fourteeners. While on that hike though the weather turned south and it began to thunder and lightening and rain. It was quite wet by the time we got back to the trailhead. It didn't look good for our next planned hike which, it looked, was right where the storm was the worst. Until we drove up there though (about an hour away from where we were) we decided that we were hungry so we stopped at one of the local burger places near my Uncle's house. It was pretty good, but I regret not getting a shake. My Dad had a Butterscotch shake and my Uncle had a Strawberry malt... YUM!

Our next destination was on the western side of Pikes Peak. I think my dad said the elevation of the waterfall at the end of that trail was around 8400ft. Unfortunately, by the time we got there the weather was terrible. It was hailing and raining heavily. I actually turned on the 4x4 on the Ford Explorer so that I would feel better driving on those wet soggy roads. We ended up in Cripple Creek. A mining town with lots of casinos. I had been there before a long time ago, and we did not stop this time. We continued on so that we could get back in time to BBQ. It was a completely lovely ride through that area of Colorado. I found a valley that I could move to it was so beautiful and peaceful. We ended up at the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. It was really cool there because we saw fossilized Giant Sequoia trees. I have seen the real thing twice this year so it was really interesting to see the big stumps of the trees but made of stone. We made it back home for dinner. That night my cousin Gina, Dad, and Aunt Eileen all went out to see a movie (Talladega Nights is very funny!).

This brings me to Monday. The original plan was to go to Cave of the Winds - a place that I have been several times before, but my Uncle (who has lived in Colorado Springs for around 25 years) had never been. He unfortunately had to go in to work Monday morning so we (really I mean I) didn't have time to go there before I had to go to the airport. I, instead, dropped in on an old high school friend of mine. I haven't seen Damian in a good 7 years but I have known him for probably around 13 or 14 years. He dated my former best friend and I dated his best friend way back when. We remained friends though even after break-ups and when he got married, I made his wedding cake and was one of his wife's maids of honor. I even took his wife out for her bachelorette party!!! It was good to see him doing well. We talked about old times for a while but then I had to go so that I could pick up my luggage and say goodbye to my family before flying out.

All in all, it was a pretty busy and fun weekend!! I need to go back to Colorado though, there is so much to see that I could probably spend several weeks there!

A Wedding in Colorado 08/12/06

I have a lot of material to cover for my trip to Colorado so I am going to break it down in to two posts - one of just the wedding and one for the sight-seeing I was able to do.

My cousin Samantha is the youngest daughter of my Dad's brother Mike. Over the years I have spent some time with my Uncle Mike's family but not much due to the fact that they lived in Colorado Springs and I lived here in California. Even though I haven't really gotten a chance to get to know my two Colorado cousins very well, I was still very happy to be there to witness such a happy event and to get a chance to get to know them a little better than I did before.

Saturday morning started very quiet and calm. The ceremony was at 1pm so all twelve people staying at my Uncle's house had plenty of time to get ready in addition to some of the bridesmaids. I only briefly saw Samantha getting ready but I was given a task that morning to give her husband to be a set of car keys and to retrieve a camera from him when he stopped by. He was already wearing his tux when he stopped by the house with one of his groomsman to pick up Samantha's car. Around noon, a group of us were tasked with decorating the church due to the fact that the people who were to decorate it were tied up at the reception location. I piled six additional people in to my rented Ford Explorer and off we went to the beautiful church. In my SUV was my Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Eileen, cousin Gina, and a close Colorado family friend, Crystal. Decorating was done in no time and we all sat waiting for the event to start.

It was a very nice ceremony. I didn't really get a chance to see Samantha's face but her husband Jon's face was beaming the entire time. I have to admit that I cried and even now I get a tear to my eye just thinking about the ceremony. In no time the ceremony was over and as we walked out to a waiting area in the church I saw that it was raining. I had heard some crashes during the ceremony and did not realize that it was thunder! It was pouring and hailing. Thank goodness we stuck around to take pictures, that allowed the cloudburst to blow over.

After pictures were taken, all the same people except for Crystal piled in the car to make the 16 mile trek to the reception at Mystic Meadows. What a beautiful place. The whole area was green and there was a lovely little pond on the property. The family made our way to our designated table and we feasted on appetizers - a chocolate fountain with various goodies for dipping. It was really my first experience with a chocolate fountain and I have to say I give it two big thumbs up!

The wedding party arrived and it was time to get the party started! There was great food, speeches (one 23 minutes long by the best man), the bride and groom's first dance, the father daughter dance, a Hawaiian dance performed by my Aunt Patty for my cousins Samantha and her older sister (and maid of honor) Cory, cake cutting, bouquet tossing, garter retrieving and throwing, dollar dancing with the bride and groom, all ending with a group dance of the electric slide. I had a great time and I am truly happy for my cousin. The bride and groom managed to leave quietly leaving the rest of us to close the place :-)

My car ended up being the car that carted home a lot of the alcohol (not the kegs though - no room for them!) in addition to a full passenger load. Once back at my Uncle and Aunt's house the party sort of moved there and continued for awhile. I don't know how late it was when I got to bed but I was tired!

I have included a few pictures throughout this post the descriptions are below in order even though the pictures posted are not in chronological order. Enjoy!


-The first picture is of Samantha and her parents, my Dad's brother Mike and his wife Patty.

-The second picture is of my Grandma, cousin Gina, and Auntie Eileen waiting to be driven to the church.

-The third picture is of Samantha and Jon during their vows.

-The fourth picture is of me and my dad at the reception.

-The fifth picture was one that was taken at the insistence of my grandma. All four of the girl cousins (from marriage) in one picture - in order Me, Cory, Samantha, and Gina.

-The sixth picture is of me and Gina. My Auntie E did a good job of taking this shot so I included it!

Congratulations again to Mr & Mrs Calm!

Randomness Part 4 - Special Photo Issue - Flowers Vol 2

The weather in Colorado has been very wet this year so even in August it was very green there. Flowers were in abundance!! The following were just a few of the flower pics I managed to snap during my recent visit to Colorado for my cousin Samantha's wedding. Enjoy!



This flower is Butter and Eggs

This flower is Indian Paintbrush

A Day Playing Tourist in San Francisco

I have lived in the San Francisco Bay area all my life and I work in downtown SF, but I rarely do touristy stuff around here. A co-worker of mine from the Hong Kong office of my company was in town, so it was time to put on my tourist hat and have a good weekend enjoying activities and sights that the tourists usually do!

Saturday morning started with a Segway tour of Aquatic Park and Fort Mason. For those of you who have never Segway'd before, it is REALLY cool! I had a lot of fun. They are controlled mainly by your feet... toe side you go forward, heel side you go backward (for those of you who have snowboarded before it is similar :-P ). To turn you use a controller that you twist it side to side. I didn't have any problems at all learning to ride the Segway - in fact I really took to it fast! It was an absolute blast and the weather was really nice. We couldn't have asked for a better day.

After the Segway tour, we took a walk on the Hyde Street pier and looked at all of the historic ships that they have there. We then took a stroll down along Fisherman's Wharf to Pier 39. At Pier 39 we did a little shopping. One of the things to do is to stop at the chocolate store - a tradition I have engaged in since I can remember. I also stopped at Na Hoku to replace the thumb ring that I lost last weekend :-( It is good that I have been losing a lot of weight but unfortunately my last thumb ring had become so loose that it fell off without me even noticing. The new ring fits quite snugly.

After we looked at the sea lions it was on to lunch. We had clam chowder, sourdough bread and salad with shrimp or crab on it. That clam chowder was good! It was time to start the driving tour of the day.

The driving tour started at Fisherman's Wharf (where we were parked) went through the Marina District, past the Palace of Fine Arts, and over the Golden Gate Bridge (we got out and walked on the bridge a bit and took pictures). The drive continued to the Seacliff area of SF with a brief stop at China Beach and Lands End. From there we drove past the Legion of Honor and down past the Cliff House for a stop at Ocean Beach. We dipped our toes in the Pacific Ocean and drove through Golden Gate Park next. We drove right past one of the waterfalls in my book but I didn't snap a pic so I need to go back! Our next destination was Twin Peaks where we enjoyed great views of San Francisco. By this time I decided that we needed to drive on the crookedest street in the world... Lombard Street! Coit Tower was our next stop (great views from there as well) and then a drive through North Beach and China Town to our dinner destination of Juban in Japan Town. I love Juban, it is one of my favorite restaurants! After dinner the day was over so I dropped everyone off and headed home.

It was a long day but a very fun day!