Back to Maryland – Visiting Chuck, Danna, and Evelyn
It is always nice to be welcomed into the house of an old friend. Maryland was unfortunately windy and rainy on most of the days we visited; however, Chuck, Danna, and Evelyn provided all the warmth we needed on the trip. I have known Chuck since elementary school, and he has always been like a big brother to me. Coming to his home to hang out with his wife and kid makes me feel like we completed a full lap around the track of life. Complex feelings come to mind. The first half of the trip were spent at National Air and Space Museum which the Space Shuttle Enterprise on top of a massive collection of planes and rockets. We took the Metro to the National Mall the next day to see the cherry blossoms blooming as well as the “Dinosaur Museum”, Museum...
2011 Sno Park Trip with Chin Family
As much as I complained about my busy life and schedules, I found myself excitedly saying “yes” to Maria’s invitation for a Reno sno park trip only two weeks after we came back from Taiwan. So here we were with the Chin family, Maria, Steven, Caden and little Cailey, heading to Tahoe at early February. The deal was too good to resist. Two Nights junior suite for $79 after tax at Reno Grand Sierra Resort. I was too late to book, or the deal was two nights FREE for a standard room. The kids were doing fine on the road since we were lucky that it was a warm weekend and there was no traffic. We were at Yuba Gap sno park. Though it was a smaller park, we had a blast. Anders wasn’t too much into tubing though he was asking for it now and...
Tahoe Summer Trip Part 1
Anders and Arden were ready to go far sooner than the adults were. While we checked and rechecked out list of items to bring, the kids knew that we were doing something different and eagerly waited for all of us to shove off. And so it started with our trip to Tahoe. We stayed at the Red Wolf Lodge in Squaw Valley for 4 days, giving Anders and Arden had plenty of beach time and we mixed in some sight-seeing, healthy eating, and some fishing into the trip. Despite his eagerness to try his hand in fishing at the trout farm, Anders was afraid of the fish once it was caught. It took the promise of ice cream (which he has had less than a handful of times in his life) to convince him to touch it. In the past, a “food experience” and Lake Tahoe has not...
LA Anime Expo – Part 2
We were right on time for Mandy’s Birthday and we went to an old favorite of ours in Monterey Park called Open Door. It is a Japanese Tapas Bar or Izakaya, serving small dishes of traditional Japanese sushi/sashimi, cooked dishes, to crazier offerings like truffle butter edamame. The next day we found our way to Descanso Gardens to enjoy the summer weather, plants, and animals. The night ended with a solid ramen offering from Daikokuya with the best ramen egg we have had in the states. An entire egg was offered per bowl of ramen, not the usual half-egg. The middle of the egg was half-cooked in the perfect amber-colored glaze. Oddly enough, the drive down and back from LA went by incredibly quick. Maybe time does speed up as we get...
LA’s Anime Expo via Mandy, Chunpeng, and Cats – Part 1
Christine and I have been big Anime fans for almost a decade now. This year Christine organized a trip to the largest Anime convention in the US, the Anime Expo, which is held every year in LA around the 4th of July. Originally, it was a way to get all our old friends (who all watch anime to some degree) to reunite and spend some time together by renting a vacation home in LA for a week, but alas, jobs and obligations intervened and most of them begged off. We wound up scaling back the plans and spending more time with Christine’s BFF Mandy and her husband ChunPeng and their newly adopted cats! During the day, Christine and I took Anders around LA while Mandy and ChunPeng worked, and at night we all hung out together for dinner, played with the cats,...
Boulder Trip with Michelle, Steve, and Bryce
We had a quick weekend getaway with Michelle, Steve, and Bryce to Boulder, Colorado. With extensive mountain trails, a biking culture even more avid than in the Bay Area, excellent breweries, and an amazing downtown, Boulder left an overwhelmingly positive impression on all of us.