Christmas and New Year break!

So, I spent Christmas and New Year (because of the inclement weather) in Richmond, VA. The drive down was the usual, mostly smooth until I hit Northern Virginia. I tried using alternative route instead of I-95, but it was still bad. I drove down on Christmas eve, and I guess many people are out for last minute shopping (as the alternative route passed by some strip malls and I saw that all the parking lots were packed.) So, it took me a good 11.5 hours to reach my cousin's place. Started the journey at 6.45am It was snowing/raining when I left my apartment.

As I spent Christmas in Richmond as well last year, but, because I was flying (no luggage room for gifts), and I was still a poor college student, I didn't buy any gifts last time. So, I did sorta double up this year. It was actually kinda fun to Christmas shop. Trying to pair gifts to my cousin, her husband, my niece and all really tested my memory. It got me trying to recall our conversations, my observations from my last few visits and trying to figure out what they will like. It's not so much about the price of it, because they can definitely afford most of the stuff they want, it's more like putting in time and effort to find the perfect gift. This may sound cliche, but, it's the thought that counts. So, after few trips to different malls/shops a couple weeks before Christmas, I finally got all the presents and even wrapped them nicely the weekend before.

As always, my visits to Richmond are always filled with food and drinks. Couple that with festive seasons really spell more food and more wine. Knowing that, I actually bought a case of wine down. (3 of us actually put a huge dent to that case of wine over the break.) So, for Christmas, there's turkey and lamb, then, all the eating out -> Sushi, and then, the visit to Harrisonburg to celebrate my cousin's mother-in-law birthday, there's ham and more... I did manage to put in a run with my cousin-in-law.

So, as my niece loves drawing and crafts, i bought her a colossal craft kit sets, with glass stone painting, friendship bracelet kit, sock puppet kit, stone painting kit and clay shaping kit. I actually can't believe I have some 'touch' in glass stone painting. :-)

Last year, I saw my very first Barbie movie. Well, lightnight struck twice. I saw another one this year. I got to admit that it wasn't as bad as I first imagined. It's actually an adaptation of the play 'A Christmas Carol'. For those who know the play, I was wondering how they actually adapt such a classic play into 'Barbie'ish. I actually saw the play live a week back at the Hanover theater, and then, another one on TV few days ago. It's kinda weird as I had never heard of it, let alone see it before that, and then, in a short span of less than 2 weeks, I've had seen 3 versions of it.

What else? Oh yeah, the new tinkerbell movie, also, Mamma Mia! the movie on dvd.

At first, I was thinking about leaving for MA again on the 30th, but I wasn't feeling too good. I guess it was because of the excessive merrymaking (reads wine drinking) and Rummikub from the night before. So, I postponed my trip to the 31st, not knowing that there was a snow storm brewing in New England. So, I found out about the snow storm warning on 30th afternoon. That's when I decided to spend New Year in Richmond. Well, it was all good. On New Year Eve night, after watching Mamma Mia!, it was about 11ish. Did the Countdown thing in front of the tv, bad champagne (a Chandon - lovely, not too dry) and strawberry to celebrate the new year! May the New Year of 2009 be a better year for all.

Woke up the next morning early to load up my car and all. After breakfast and a little waiting, I hit the road at 10.30am. The traffic was light all the way from Richmond, VA to Shrewsbury, MA. I stopped twice, for food and fuel. And with 30 minutes of stopping, I managed to cover 520 miles in 8 hours (including the stops), putting me traveling at an average speed of 65 mph, or if just average speed of moving, closer to 69 mph.... shhh....!!!

Also, last weekend, I bought a luggage sets and other stuff to start preparing for the trip home. I'm so excited!!! Finally going home again since Aug 2006. And finally be able to celebrate CNY back home (since 2004). Guess things might get a little awkward, but definitely gonna be some good time.

pictures? having hard time with firefox lately... guess i really need to restart it after updating... will try to get few up here...

New Year Resolutions?
I actually do have a few on my list. But, nope, I'm not sharing them here.

Happy New Year!!!

Thanksgiving Break

Whenever I've a long drive, I tend to think a lot, if I'm not singing to the tunes blaring on my stereo. So, for my drive down to Richmond, VA and back over the Thanksgiving holiday, more than 1000 miles of tar to cover, I got the chance to reflect on a lot of things. About the future, about my future and all that uncertainties. Fun stuff...

So, in order to clear up my vacation, I took 4 extra days for vacation for this break. So, last Tuesday, I started my journey at about 7.45am. The drive was pretty smooth until I was leaving CT and entering NY. Then, some traffic on the Geo. Washington bridge in NYC. But, the worst was at Northern Virginia (I got stuck here every time... 3 out of 3 times). The traffic was pretty much crawling at 10-20 MPH for 2 hours! So, instead of the 8+ hours, it took me a good 10 hours and 15 minutes to reach my cousin place. Reaching at 6pm.

Also, for this trip, I planned that I'll be reaching Richmond, VA early enough to meet up with my college buddy Quang, before he leave for home for Thanksgiving. So, we met up for dinner. And followed by coffee and pub til late. It was fun to catch up with a Wolverines. I think that was my first time seeing a college buddy since graduating in late April. Can't believe it's been that long.

So, like Thanksgiving should be, I stuffed my face with a lot of food and wine over the break.

Other than eating, I helped out with some Christmas decoration, and also, helped my niece with decorating the gingerbread house. It's a laborious task, even with pre-made icing and ginger bread and candies.

Also, as it was also my cousin's birthday, we went to The Jefferson's in Richmond for dinner. Fortunately, I brought a change of preppy clothes, as it was certainly a place that you need to dress-up for. Even though it says casual, the decorations and the staffs in the restaurant warrant for more than jeans and t-shirt.

Also, we played this board game 'Rummikub' over the holiday. It was like Gin Rummy, but with tiles. The rules are simple, but the possibilities are vast. It's amazing to see how mind clicks and all that. It was so fun, that I decided to order a set and have it for game night with my colleagues once in awhile when we have them.

So... my thoughts... well, it was just a bunch of questions with no certain anwers. I rather not to bore you guys here.

The drive back from Richmond, VA wasn't that bad. Knowing that Sunday after Thanksgiving is the busiest day on the road, I decided to wait til Monday to start my 516.6 miles journey. I left my cousin's place at 9.15 am, and got back to my apartment at 5.50pm. I did hit some office traffic in CT. Oh well, if not, I could have pulled an 8-hour, including 30-minute stopping for coffee and restroom.

Also, with this trip, I managed to try out my ride's full potential. It's rather responsive to the accelerator, and I can get pretty good mileage, close to 30 mpg on average. And with gas prices this low, it's not really that big a factor... but to see the car going 400+ miles on a tank of gas is rather amusing... :-)

About Bees and DRIVING... Lotsa Driving

So, for my 4th of July weekend, I took an extra day off, on Thurs so that I can enjoy a 4-day weekend. I drove down to Richmond, VA to meet up with my uncle and aunt, who were visiting my cousin.

I thought leaving at 8am will allow me to most of the traffic, but I was half-right. I managed to beat the traffic in New York and most of New Jersey turnpike, but, it was about 3pm, when I was clearing Washington DC. The traffic in Northern Virginia was bad, really bad. I was pretty much crawling at 20-30mph for a good hour. So, my 8.5 to 9-hour drive turned into a 10 and a quarter hours.

It was great to see my uncle and aunt, and of course my cousin, and cousin-in-law and niece. I really enjoy hanging out in Richmond, VA. More like, hanging out with family. Too bad, I was suffering from a minor cold. Started feeling a parch-throat on Wed, stuffy-nose on Thurs, droopy-nose on Fri, and the rest were history... But, that didn't stop me from enjoying all the good food. All the grilling and roasting...

So, the next day, Independence Day, we went to the Botanical Garden. Weather was hot, but, we went there anyway. The garden is of good-size, but well-maintained. The colors were so breathtaking, and just the sight, sound and smell of nature were really overwhelming. And the lunch at the tea-house was great. Amazing food. The Baja beef salad I had was delicious. I took a bunch of pictures, and here there are...
Bees... pretty huge ones...
More of them...
The colors....
Looks artificial sometimes.
Flower... flower... ORCHID-Lah...
More flower... oops, i meant more ORCHID-lah
An interesting-looking orchid. Just like a pitcher-plant.
A giant hibiscus, like the size of a soccer ball.Dragonfly...
The conservatory, reflected upon the lake.
More bees...
And another...
Very last one...

So, that was fun. Then, we had a great dinner on Friday. Always do when I was in Richmond, VA. Always some kinda holiday or celebration. Grilled lamb... seriously...

On Friday night, we planned to watch some fireworks in the city, but, the event was canceled because of bad-weather. And, we drove to the other part of town, more like another town, hope to catch another firework display, but apparently, it was canceled as well. My poor niece was very disappointed, as all the anticipation to her first 'LIVE' firework display was called off.

The next day, we drove up to Washington DC, to attend a cook-out of my cousin-in-law's relative. Well, it was a great party. We spent the night at Westin Hotel, in Arlington, VA. It was a nice hotel. The next day, we drove to Silver Spring, MD for lunch. I found a highly-rated, well-reviewed dim sum place, and true to the words, the food was pretty good. And we waited about an hour for it. Probably, 'value-added' in that sense too.

Then, a good drive back to Shrewsbury, MA from there. We left the restaurant at about 1.30pm, with them heading south to Richmond, VA, while I head North. On paper, it should be 7 hours. But it turned out to be a 11.5 hours monster. Again, the driving through New York was actually not that bad. With my fastlane tag, I managed to skip all the queue of cash-paying drivers. But, the traffic came to a standstill on I-91, right outside of Hartford, CT. Apparently, a fatal accident had occured and the police closed down the highway, and it wasn't 3 hours later that I was able to get out of that. When I google-news the next day, I found out that it wasn't until 6 hours later that the freeway was fully reopened. It was like something I thought would only happen in some movies, where people turned off their car and walked on the highway. But, what can you do?
Looking back...
Looking ahead...
So, I got back to my apartment at about 1.10am. Starving and exhausted, I assembled a quick bite, took a quick shower, and went to bed at about 2.30am. Woke up 4 hours later to go to work...

Did I mention that my house-warming gift from my cousin survive the entire journey. It's a plant. I'll get the picture up soon.

An update since graduation... for real

I didn't publish many posts since late April, but that doesn't mean that I didn't write many posts. Most of those posts (half-written) are saved as drafts and most likely will remain as draft forever, lost in wasted memory space, stored as 0's and 1's, never to be read (at least that's what I hope). One thing about blogging is, it's rather a spur-of-the-moment thing, if you don't blog about it now, eventually, you will tend to forget a little, and then, you don't feel like publishing it after you wrote it half-heartedly.

So, here I am, late at night, typing this post. A real (in my opinion) post. The reason I'm still up late at this hour is because I had a headache earlier today, took some aspirin and had a nap in the afternoon -> won't fall asleep til much later in the wee hours. So, what's better to do than to update my blog when the air is cold (it's less than 50 degrees outside, and it's late May) and the surrounding is quiet?

About the headache. I think I'd been rather stressed out recently. Well, I always think that I handle my stress well, that's just because I don't show it, and manage to let go of it (at least that's what I think) with a chuckle, a deep breathe and a smile. But, come to think about it, do I really handle my stress well, or I'm just good at hiding it? Come to think about it, maybe it's a good combination/mixture of both. So, back to headache and stress. So, since graduation, I'd been trying to study as much as I could for the exam. Even with all the support and understandings from Jessica, Tomas and my dad, I still couldn't concentrate, partly because I feel bad for them, and I still think it was kinda selfish for me to write the exam, with my dad flying across the globe to come to the states and all. And now, knowing rather well that I didn't do well enough to pass the exam is really adding salt to wound. Ouch!

So, other than a 3-day vacation to Harrisonburg, VA and Charlottesville, VA, I hadn't been enjoying much of my 'freedom' of a fresh graduate. In addition, there's the apartment hunting, and still staying under other's roof stress that I'm feeling. Because of preparing and taking the exam, I didn't have much time to hunt for apartment in Worcester, MA. Fortunately, my colleagues help me on that. Now, I've the furniture hunting stress too.

Living off suitcases and with your car-trunk loaded is no fun too. And, the worse of all is, eating out! Try eating out 80% of the time for close to a month now. There's only that many restaurant and fast-food that one can have before you get sick and tired of them all. To me, eating out is only good once in awhile. Regardless how good is the premium burger, or the panini, or the pho, or the sandwich taste, it's not as good as a simple home-cooked food like simple celery hearts stir-fry, oyster-sauce chicken with potatoes and a simple omelet, all to go with rice.

So, thanks to my colleagues, I found a 2-bedroom apartment for myself. Why a 2 bedroom? Because this apartment doesn't have any of the extraneous amenities like gym, dvd library, tennis court, pool and whatnot, and for that reason, it's cheaper and bigger and more practical that all the 1-bedroom apartment that I found. So, if you need a place to crash if you are in town, once it's furnished (not sure when), just let me know in advance. I'll be moving into the apartment this Wed or Thurs. As much as a planner I am (aka a worry-freak), I started looking for furnitures since Sunday, actually, since 2-3 weeks ago on Craigslist, but didn't find much. So, I've been to Lowe's, the Home Depot, furniture outlet stores, Bed Bath & Beyond, Linen N Things, too many websites to remember, Pier 1 import, Sleepy's, Mattress Giant, BJ's wholesale club (which I'm now a member), Target, Staples, Office Depot and you-name-it. Furniture hunting's been not bad, especially for today, it's rather fruitful as I have quite some KIVs at Pier 1 and bought a set of cookware.

So, that's all the stress. People were telling me furniture hunting is fun, maybe, if you have the money to spend and also don't have a deadline to meet. Deadline being having no real bed to sleep on, and no chairs to sit on, and no table/desk to use.

Also, I can't mention enough how grateful I am to all the people that have helped me over my pre-university and undergraduate life. Also, worth another mentioning, is to Jessica and Tomas for helping me transitioning from graduating to starting my new job. THANK YOU!

So, guess, pictures next! A picture a day, and I'll try to elaborate on that day...
04/25/08 -- Right after Econ commencement. With my dad. In front of the Rackham Graduate School. Bell tower as background!

04/26/08 -- Right after the Actuarial Math Commencement, which was after the Spring Commencement. Congratulations, Class of 2008!


04/27/2008 -- Because of the dinner and then a party last night, I didn't finished packing and didn't start loading the car yesterday night. So, with all the cleaning and packing and loading to do, my dad and I only started our journey to Richmond, VA at 11am, 2 hours later than we initially planned. Here's how my bedroom look after all the cleaning up and stuff. Goodbye Ann Arbor. You'll be missed.

04/28/2008 -- Arrived at my Tomas' and Jessica's, Richmond, VA at about 10.45pm last night. Other than a 25-minute delay, before I decided to turn around and took a different route, because part of I-70 being closed for hazmat cleaning up after a spill, it was a great smooth drive. After a good night sleep, I did some unloading today and getting comfortable in this great house which I'll call home for the next 3 weeks.


04/29/2008 -- A big bird (related to hawk) perched on the very top of the tree beside the house, and shows how bored my dad was. (He took this pic.) LOL!


05/03/2008 -- Weather was great. Went to the park, Deep Run Park. Look at those cute goslings. Then, we went to downtown Richmond, and took the James River boat tour. Pretty interesting and informative.


05/04/2008 -- Cousin threw me a party. THANKS! Beef was great! Beer was better! Then, Jose took us back to his place at Harrisonburg, VA. Where we spent 2 nights there! First night, we tried some really authentic Mexican food for dinner. Also, my dad and I sampled 3 tequilas -> 3 shots each supposedly, but my dad gave me some of his, sangria, wine, and more!

05/05/2008 -- Visited the Luray Caverns. Nice and not smelly like Mulu Cave I visited. No bats!

05/06/2008 -- On the way back to Richmond from Harrisonburg, we stopped by Charlottesville to visit University of Virginia. Of course, I took the opportunity to visit Wooi Yang. Back to Richmond, VA! About 1 week to study for my exam! Yippee!


05/08/2008 -- A doe? Well... it's eating some flowers at my cousin's backyard.

05/11/2008 -- A squirrel got onto the bird-feeder! I was bored! And studying for the exam, and saw this. :)

Spring Break 2008...part 3 (Grand Canyon, AZ -> Las Vegas, NV : 02/27/2008 - 02/29/2008)

Part 3:

Day 6(02/27/2008):

So, the day started early, really early, because we needed to reach the airport at 9ish for Keng Yang's flight at 11.30am flight. Not too bad that the flight's at 11.30am. But too bad that we were 200+ miles away from Las Vegas McCarran International Airport. So, to be safe, very safe, we decided to take off from Grand Canyon, AZ at 4am. YES, 4 AM (Mountain timezone). So, we have more than 6 hours to make sure we make it to the airport with plenty of time to spare.


Also, it was a really cold morning. Checkout the snowflakes on my windshield.

Somehow, we managed to make it in slightly less than 5 hours because we didn't have to stop for anything, other than a little bit of gas. Because of driving, I missed the star-filled skies! As it was there wasn't much light pollution driving from Grand Canyon, AZ to Las Vegas, NV, star gazing must be great, and the sky was clear too. KENG YANG, I blamed you for this. And all this while, you were sleeping at the back. ;-) Just kidding.

So, we made it to the airport at 7.45am. So, it will be too long a wait for our friend, and we were pretty hungry, so we decided to go for breakfast and come back later. At first, we were thinking about some breakfast buffet, then, I remembered most of us have never been to IHOP, so, I decided to go to IHOP instead. And, after some turning around, we found one right next to the hotel we will be staying at for the next 2 nights, Stratosphere. So, after 4/5 cups of coffee, a huge omelet and a stack of pancakes, I'm all recharged. And others too had their stack of pancakes and whatnot, at about 9.30am, we went back to the airport to drop our 'burden' down. Did I mention where he is going? Oh, for a job interview. All the best!
Stratosphere tower.

Driving down Las Vegas Boulevard. MGM Grand.
New York, New York.
Bellagio, with the infamous fountain.

So, after that, we went back to our hotel and try our luck on getting an early check-in. After standing in-line for awhile, (I tried to self-check-in kiosk, but it didn't give me the non-smoking room option); hence, the waiting in-line. So, we got our room at about 11am.
Me, waiting in line.

SWEET! After some rest, we went to check out the casino. It was alright, but I don't like the 2nd-hand smoke. My throat was irritated. The reason we chose this hotel, north of the Las Vegas boulevard, was because of the great price for the promotion I found. Not only it was free 2nd night, there were 2 free show tickets and a bunch of coupons in the package. So, we got tickets for the show at night, and then, a couple of us started playing slots. At first, it was just some random slots that I played, then, I discovered the video poker and that was it, before we knew it, we spent like 3 hours playing it in a trance.

Then, it was about time for us to go to the show. It was American Superstars. A show tributes to some of America's best stars: Elvis Presley(wasn't there for our show), Michael Jackson, Tim McGraw, Rod Steward, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, impersonated by some rather talented people. Especially, the Michael Jackson, the moves of the impersonator was amazing. The singing of Christina Aguilera and Tim McGraw impersonators were great too. The Britney Spears' wasn't bad at all. Rod Stewart too was alright.

After that, we decided to walk to Sahara to try out their buffet there because I saw it on an advertisement in the in-flight magazine and it was cheap or something. So, we went. It was like dorm food. (SO, never trust in-flight magazines.)! :P

Then, we went back to our hotel to call it a night. I guessed most of us were so tired that we fell asleep without taking shower. I managed to be the first one among us to fall asleep, quite an achievement for me since I had been having trouble to sleep early and sleep much.


Day 7(02/28/2008):

But, I woke up at 6am, after a shower, I went to play some slots again so that I can accumulate enough points to get a t-shirt. :-P I mean, it's a free t-shirt, and I was only like 10-15 points from getting it. So, $10 later and an hour later, I got the t-shirt. After that, I went to the gym to run off the carbs I'd been piling on from the buffets. And, we were planning to go to a few more buffets before the end of the trip. So, 3 miles later, I went back to our room and others were up and about. We went to the Stratosphere tower as planned. (We got free tickets as hotel guests get to access the tower between 10am - 2pm for free).
Some crazy rides on top of the tower.
View from the top of the tower.

After that, when it was time for lunch, we went out to the central of Las Vegas boulevard, with all the cool hotels and stuff to do all the touristy stuff. From my friends' recommendation, we went to this Japanese Restaurant, Todai for what we considered to be the best buffet of our trip. We enjoyed the sushi and stuff a lot.

The weather was great. Mid 70s in the afternoon.

We concluded that people here loves to read, as most of these magazines racks were empty.

Paris!More of Paris!
And Paris at Night. Viewing from Bellagio.

Then, we walked more. Because of the amount of food we store in our stomach, we were worn off easily. We went back to our hotel for a siesta. Then, Siew Gee and I decided to explore some stuff around Stratosphere. First, because we walked past these aqua-massage machines many times and were tempted by it. So, we finally gave it a try (we had those coupons too). In my opinion, it was not shabby, but, somehow, too noisy for my liking, one suggestion, prolly providing us a pair of headphones with some sort of relaxing music will be great. Then, on the way back, we passed by this oxygen bar, and out of curiosity, and didn't want to go back to our room and rot yet, we decided to give a try as well. The package was a neck and head massage and 30 minutes of inhaling pure oxygen. It was rather corny, having to inhale it through some special tubes, and stuff. Not sure whether it's a psychological effect or physical effect, but I did feel fresher after the session, not to mention $20 poorer, and also, sore from the massage.
From Bellagio, looking to the North of Las Vegas Boulevard.

Poooooofffffffff... The climax of the fountain show. (I had the entire video, but it's 300+ mb, can't seem to get anywhere to host it for me, and I'm too lazy to resize a video.... it takes forever.)
Siew Gee missed her show at Cirque Du Soleil...

Ahhhhhhh!!! The city of Lights...

But, it was rather fun. At night, we went to Bellagio, damn, the hotel was magnificent. We went there for the water fountain show. Then, for some reasons, we decided to walk from there to Excalibur, a good 20-minute walk, with a bunch of Latinos(nothing racist here, but that's who they are...) handing out call-girl cards and promise us a girl in 20 minutes. DAMN, that's even faster than Domino's delivering a pizza. Come on, Domino's, pick up your game.

Luxor... Love the architecture.
So, from Excalibur, we took a tram to Luxor, where we walked around a bit. As we couldn't stomach another buffet (pun intended). We decided to call it a night.

Day 8(02/29/2008):

Last day at Las Vegas, NV. Woke up at 7ish, and went running and soaked up some sun. Well, the weather was great, in the 60-70s. Then, we checked out at about 10.45am from our room, and then, went for the lunch buffet. It was rather good. Ranked 2nd among all the buffets we had on the trip.
Soaking up some sun. That was me.

So, we left for the airport at about 1pm. Because of some rather heavy traffic (Nascar weekend at Vegas I supposed), we arrived at the airport at about 1.30pm. So, for the entire trip, we(I) drove more than 1500 miles. Yup fifteen hundred plus miles.

We were kinda rushed but made it through the security and all for our 3pm flight with 15 minutes to spare. So, I managed to buy a shot glass and a deck of cards as souvenirs. I thing amazes me of this Las Vegas airport is there are slot machines right beside the boarding gates.
Amazing, isn't it?

The flight wasn't bad at all, even though I sat between a huge guy and a big guy. One's a student from U of Michigan - Dearborn, while the other is a Marine on leave, and will be a free man in a month. We had quite a lot to talk about, and it was eye opening to talk to a Marine. Hats off to you, man. He was only a few months older than I am, but, he already served 4 years in the Marines Corp. To make such a huge decision fresh out of high school, and to undergo all the trainings and all. Good man. We talked about a lot of stuff, joked a lot too. And finally, bid each other best of luck once we reach St. Louis, MO. We had a connecting at St. Louis, MO, just a 45 minutes layover.

We reached Ann Arbor at about midnight. Due to the heavy snow storm just before that, the drive back was INSANE. Everybody was going really slow because the condition was extremely bad. I was talking about 25-30 miles/hr slow. And even at that speed, I was having quite some hard time controlling the car. It took us about an hour and a half to drive from the airport to Ann Arbor. Along the way, we saw more than 5 cars skidded off the road, making some 180/270/360 degrees spins. I was so afraid driving, not that I was afraid that I will crash into another car (I was keeping a really safe distance from the car ahead of me), but more so that other cars will rear-end or side-swipe me.

Fortunately, we got back to Ann Arbor without any incident. Got back to my apartment at about 2am. Called home, and called it a night at 3ish. After transferring more than 3Gbs of photos and videos onto my computer.

Overall, it was a great trip! Within my budget, great memories, great companies, and great experience.

What's next? Skiing, skydiving and many more.

Spring Break 2008...part 2 (Yosemite, CA --> Grand Canyon, AZ : 02/24/2008 - 02/26/2008)

Part 2:

Day 3 (02/24/2008)
So, after another complimentary Continental breakfast, we left Oakhurst, CA for Las Vegas, NV via the Death Valley National Park. Because the famous CA-120 is closed for winter (one of the most scenic driveways in the US), we had to take a rather long detour in order to go to Las Vegas via the Death Valley National Park. According to both Microsoft MapPoint's and Google Map's directions, it was a 10-hour journey. The drive to the Death Valley National Park was rather uneventful, the sceneries were not bad at all. We saw a bunch of wind-turbines (modern windmills) along the way.

For lunch, we stopped at somewhere-I-forgot when we found a Denny's at about 1pm. Breakfast food for lunch is always good. :)Long drive, but this is what we see for most of the drive.

Death Valley National Park is famous for its well below sea level elevation, in fact, it is the lowest elevation in North America at -282 ft. Also, it features the Mojave desert and stuff. We saw some great sand dunes, and drove through dips and stuff. (Sorry, not really that well converse in geology.) Also, Death Valley is also famous for being hot. Really hot in the summer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Valley

Also, while driving to/along Death Valley, our GeoSci major friend Keng Yang spotted a horseshoe-vortices cloud formation.
I tagged this photo because it's a rare thing and don't want others to steal it... :P http://www.weatherscapes.com/album.php?cat=clouds&subcat=horseshoe_vortices
Keng Yang couldn't find a pole, so needed to look for a hole to settle his business instead. On his way back after his small business.
Cam-whoring while waiting for Keng Yang dealing is small business.

We continued our journey and reached the Death Valley National Park and found a designated scenic spot. So, we took some pictures, some rather interesting ones. It was rather windy, so I decided to put on my sport jacket.

I suggested (I think I did) people to leap/jump and I'll snap their pictures while they were in mid-air, a much better pose than the usual say-cheese-toothpaste-commercials-smile. So, it was all good when I was taking the pictures, perfect timing for most of them. :P
First, Pei Ying...
Then, who else...
Then, Siew Gee...aka Atsuki
Then, Ren Jie...

Then, when it was my turn to jump, oh my, Keng Yang and Ren Jie really wanted me to have some workout, had me jumping umpteen times, until Pei Ying finally got it on her second try.
Here are the evidences:
Too late...Another one...
Yet another too late...
And another...
And another again...
And another...

FINALLY!!!
Then, the harder group-jump photo. Other tourists must be thinking that we were crazy and all.
Pretty neat huh?

After about 20-minute of admiring the beautiful view of the basin lake, and enjoying strong wind breezing through our hair, we decided to continue our journey.
Because of unclear printed directions, we sorta overshot but managed to claw our way back when we saw a kinda 'unofficial' road sign pointing us to Las Vegas - 86 miles.

~"Country road, take me home, to the place I belong..."

Ren Jie and I decided that it was 'safe' to follow the unmarked, but paved road, as it was leading us to the right directions. It took us to a town, Pahrump, NV, where the highest building of the town is 2-storey tall, and it was ghetto-looking and stuff. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pahrump,_Nevada
Love this picture. Ren Jie!!!
We stopped for gas, and Keng Yang, Pei Ying and Siew Gee almost wandered into a bad-looking bar while looking for the bathroom unknowingly. Luckily we spotted the sign of the bar and Ren Jie warned them just in time. After refueling, we continued our way, and hit the major road of Pahrump and it was much better.

So, after a rest stop, where I got more coffee, the sky was getting darker, and we had about 60 more miles to cover before reaching Las Vegas. As we had to go up and down the mountainous terrain all these while, often going up to elevations of more than 5000ft, it took more than an hour to cover the 60 miles.Elevation 4000 ft...
Sun is setting...

We reached our hotel at almost half-past eight. It's the Monte Carlo Hotel, on the Souther part of Las Vegas Boulevard! Checked in and ka-ching. We were set for the night.
We went to Luxor for dinner buffet. It was not as good as we expected. So, Luxor buffet, a NO-NO. But, we still do pretty well. At least I did, 3 full plates of meat and stuff, a plate with 5 different desserts and some fruits. Not to mention ice-cream and a cup of coffee.


We walked around and stuff, and called it a night, of course. The 3 lightbulbs gave Keng Yang and Pei Ying their own time and space, but asking them to go on their own. The 3 of us pretty much back-track to our hotel room and called it a night after everyone of us had a long shower. Really need to point out that the water pressure was really strong and I really enjoyed the shower. Best shower in a long long time.

We dozed off at about midnight, and the two lovebirds only came back later. Ehem...

Day 4 (02/25/2008):

We woke up slightly later today, at about 7.30am I think, after packing and all, and Siew Gee and I got our Starbucks coffee, we hit the road at about 9am. Next stop, Grand Canyon, AZ!!! Initially, according to our directions, one says it's gonna be 4.5 hours, while the other claims approximately 6 hours.
Crossing Hoover Dam... into the state of Arizona
Also, the weather was great... Some interesting cloud formations.

We did it in about 5 hours. Including a little bit of stopping for informations (maps) and gas. Of course, along the way, the lovebirds were busy dozing off, while the other three of us sang our hearts out to some old tunes we can remember. Fun fun fun! ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........



So, we were able to check into our hotel early, at about 1+pm (different time zone, it's Mountain time here). We had a late lunch at a Wendy's nearby, and then, went back to our hotel room for some rest. Before we headed out again for the Grand Canyon National Park for the sunset.We saw snow on our way to Grand Canyon.

So, some pictures of the beautiful Grand Canyon and of course, the sunset.While waiting for the sunset... we took pictures of what else at Grand Canyon....
Magnificent...


Can't believe wherever we went, there were snow.
Group picture...
Staring at ... well, just turning away from the camera man... Keng Yang
How cute...
Quick... guess a professor... You know it, you know it... come on...
Sun setting...
Sun really setting...
Sun really really setting...
Told you so...

How cute... over the shoulder...
On the way back to our car, we saw a couple of rabbits.
Snow at Yosemite and now snow at Grand Canyon. At night, we did nothing much, other than watching tv and playing Big-2. Dominating the game of Big-2 was fun. :P

We went to bed rather early again because we were planning to catch the sunrise the next day.

Day 5(02/26/2008):
So, we woke up at about 6am and left for Grand Canyon National Park at 6.30am. As we checked from weather.com, the sun rise will be at 7.09am. While driving there, just a short 5-mile drive, the sky was kinda bright, and we thought we were gonna miss the sun rise, but apparently not.
Love the color...
This one looks even better... The shading, the color...
And, love the leng chai...
First glimpse of the sun rise...
A couple minutes later...
And later...
And even later...
And by popular demand...
Love the light shone on the lens and created the ray and the refraction.
It was freaking cold, well, relatively. It was still below freezing and the wind was really gusting. But, the sun rise was absolutely amazing, and thanks Siew Gee for sparing me your extra pair of gloves.
Mother nature at her grandness...
Yup... no doubt about that...

After the sun rise, we went back to our hotel for the breakfast. It was rather good breakfast. Bacon, cereals, biscuits and sausage gravy, yogurt, coffee, toast, eggs and stuff. I pretty much stuffed myself with it. Then, after a couple of hours of resting, we went back to Grand Canyon National Park again.
The weather was great, but the temperature was still not warm at all...
There, we did more sight-seeing, drove along the scenic driveway, stopping along the way. Snapping pictures of deers and elks.
~"Doe a deer, a female deer....
A GIANT ELK doing its business... That's our car hood...it's only like 10 ft away from us. And our friend Keng Yang suggested me to honk it. You crazy ar?!?!


And all those stuff. We even had our cute little picnic at the very tip of the South Rim of Grand Canyon.Our picnic spot...
I mean, having a snack while enjoying such breathtaking view... Can't be that...

We did some 'hiking' too. Nothing serious, just about half a mile, until we saw a sign that says where the trail leads to and warnings to people that are unprepared. It was a 9-mile trail that will take us all the way to the Colorado River. Maybe next time, as we said it so many times during the trip, we will come back in the summer. Right, guys?

So, we head back to our room at about 3pm, I think. Bored! I went to check out the swimming pool. Damn, the swimming pool was tiny. One kick off the side and I'm at the other end of the pool. Spent about 30 minutes floating on my back, just relaxing. Then, went back to join others and dominated the game of Big-2 again. Went out for dinner, and then, called it a night even earlier as we will be hitting the road at unearthly hour tomorrow. All for the sake of our friend Keng Yang.

So, that's part III.