Death Valley, 8 March 2009

This trip was delayed a whole month due to bad weather. We rented a 4WD SUV for driving on unpaved roads and it was well worth the money. It's challenging, but really really fun! Until your tyre punctures that is... In general, Death Valley is full of different natural phenomenon, which makes exploring the entire National Park so fascinating.

Badwater Basin, lowest point in North America.

It doesn't show up too well, but the ground is actually salt deposits...

... which looks like this close-up. Quite amazing.

Natural Bridge

Charades: Guess the name of this place!

Ok, a bit pathetic, but I was trying to act out Devil's Golf Course.

Artist's Palette. See if you can spot the different colours.

View from Dante's View

Scotty's Castle

View from Zabriskie's Point

Sand Dunes

Titus Canyon. I will remember this drive forever. It still ranks at the top of my list of most challenging roads taken. VERY WINDY and furthermore it was unpaved. But it was great, great fun!

Ubehebe Crater in the day and at sunset

Racetrack Playa. Enroute to this place, one of the tires punctured. Sian-half. Aside from that, this place is huge and empty. 空。The photos can't quite capture it, really gotta see it for yourself.

Julian, 1 March 2009

This trip was really all about this:

Introducing piping-hot Julian Apple Pie, with a generous serving of cinnamon and vanilla ice cream. Oh it's good. It's so good that back-blogging about this trip has me drooling already. Shall take that one hour drive again soon to satisfy my taste buds heh.

Long overdue but I'm getting there...

Mt San Jacinto and Joshua Tree National Park, 22 Feb 2009

This trip was an interesting contrast of two extreme climates. I experienced knee-deep snow on one day, and the very next day I got sunburnt in the desert. I told people I was going to Palm Springs but that really wasn't the main point because sadly, Palm Springs downtown was really kinda quiet. Mt San Jacinto is the nearby mountain, 10 to 15 min cable car ride up to 8500 ft above sea level. Was surprised to see so much snow! These were remnants from a huge storm two weeks ago.

Palm Springs Downtown

This is a Joshua Tree. Very odd looking, not very tall but hoo yeah the weather was so good, the sky so blue that all my pictures turned out looking very nice indeed! (Ok should stop rambling...)

Old ranch at the National Park. Was inhabited until 1970s I think.

The reason why Joshua Tree National Park has its name as such is simply because there are so many Joshua trees.

And Skull Rock. Pretty obvious huh. :)

Skiing at Big Bear, 18 Jan 2009

My first attempt at skiing went quite well, a.k.a. no major injuries, just bruises + took the chair lift + ski-ed down the beginner's slope 3 times. The amount of snow was misleading; the day was so hot that I wore only 2 thin cotton layers while skiing. Big Bear Lake itself was in the midst of awakening from winter slumber. Half of the lake was frozen and the other half was fluid water. In fact I witnessed a pair of ducks make a U-turn while swimming in the lake because they came to the ice-water border. Rather amusing.

And I'll never forget the day of President Obama's inaugration, albeit for a different reason. 

That poor squirrel. 

Disneyland Anaheim, New Year's Day 2009

Everyone else was a Disneyland virgin except me. In fact it was my second visit to the Disneyland at Anaheim and my third visit to Disneyland since 2005. (2005 was Florida's Disney World, 2007 was Hong Kong Disneyland.) There are two ways I can go from here:

1. Really, how many Disneylands does a person have to go to? It's time to stop.

or...

2. Well since I've been to so many, I should just visit the rest too and complete my grand tour of Disneylands.

We shall see eh? :)

Sneaky me. But somehow this is a very endearing shot...

We had to settle for Toy Story characters because there were such long queues for the main Disney characters.

Ocean Boys!!

Meng Choo and the pirate-wannabe. Cap actually belongs to Uma standing in the background. Thank you for lending it to me!

And that's us, all graduated from Disneyland :)

Las Vegas 25 Dec 2008 - 28 Dec 2008

Sarina and Meng Choo, our two lovely ladies from Vacaville, joined us for this trip. It was a back-breaking 9 hour drive due to slow traffic. Encountered some snow at higher elevations. Well it took us 15 min to confirm that it was snow heh. Probably the funniest thing that happened to me was that I got married thrice, twice to the same person.

???!!!

Hahaha! Don't worry la, didn't walk into the chapel.

Anyway you've probably realised by now that I'm getting really lazy with this whole updating thing so just enjoy the pictures. Afterall, they do say a thousand words :)

Hello, it's been awhile, thanks for checking in here. The past weeks have been busy and eventful. I went traveling, then moved house, then had to wait for internet to be set up so that's why I've been out of contact. 

When I left off at my previous post, I had just completed my job orientation and was to start shift on 17 Dec. So before that happened, John and I took a trip to San Diego City on 16 Dec to enjoy our last day of freedom (Uma, Albert and Daniel had started work by then). We took the Trolley Tour which took us round the major attractions and sights in San Diego. At designated stops, passengers could hop off if they wanted more time to check out the sights, and hop back on another trolley later. 

Old Town

Seaport Village

Horton Plaza

Balboa Park

And here's the trolley:

Then I started working. Yes for real now, finally. Everyone's really nice and patient, and take very good care of me so I'm really happy and enjoying what I'm doing. So far. (hahaha!) Amidst all that, was also busy looking for house but don't bore you with the itty-bitty details. 

The events that followed were Las Vegas, moving house, Disneyland and Big Bear City. Will update again :) (Just don't hold your breath waiting haha! You know how I am heh.)

Had a busy, busy week. Hmm... where to start? 

Let me start by elaborating on my last post. I think I shocked a few people, sorry for worrying you. A senior took us out for dinner that night and on the way back to the hotel, the car was stopped by the highway patrol because there were 4 ppl seated at the back without seatbelts. Really sian-half. Now I'm just waiting for my ticket to come in the mail so that I can go pay my fine.

Monday to Thursday morning was mostly spent learning this software that I'll be using for work in the future. Then also squeezed in 2 house-viewings in the evenings. And attended my first Ho-Ho on Wed evening. Ho-Ho is the weekly company party. Free food, drinks and many little kids running around with face paint and goody bags because the theme this time was Children's Holiday Party. Being young-at-heart, I took a picture with Santa:

Thursday afternoon and Friday were the most "exciting" days (read: mentally-draining, exhausting, busy!!!). In summary, I got my car on Thurs afternoon and took 4 exams on Friday. 

2001 Mitsubishi Mirage ES, nice and small (unlike that huge monstrosity called the rental car that has gotten us into parking troubles TWICE at Ranch 99, the Asian supermarket). The entire process of getting a car was based on communication, trust and blind faith but I'm not feeling too eloquent now so I'll leave that for another post.

Currently still having some housing issues, sigh. Really hope things will turn out for the better soon. Not left with much time at the hotel. Many thanks to Kor, Yu-san, Gills for your encouraging comments and also all of you out there for your concern (I know you all care, just shy to say right? Heh).