We had a week before we left for Yellowstone, so during that time Paul got some golf in, we did a little shopping, and we took the kids to La Brea Tarpits and Page Museum.
We went to Yellowstone National Park for our semi-annual vacation with the entire Su family. We rented a cabin in West Yellowstone, Montana as our base and each day was spent driving, looking at sites and for wildlife... It's huge, with so much to see. Took lots of photos. Click on the underlined words under the photos for links to Picasaweb photo albums. We drove from SLC through Idaho, detouring for the Mesa Falls bypass (scenic route) and drove through (Wyoming) Grand Tetons on the way back to Salt Lake City. We spent some time with my relatives there and my parents and sister flew out as well. We played dodgeball and climbed the treehouse in the backyard, went swimming at the local rec center, went for a waterfall hike (Alex got wet, of course!), went to a fun center where the kids drove go-karts, and ate way too much food!
After that, we headed to SF for our NorCal tour visiting more friends and family in the Bay Area, Sacramento, Redding and stopping by Davis to see a cousin for lunch break.
We went to a farmer's market with Melodie, sampling and buying lots of juicy stone fruits, as well as half a flat of strawberries (Maggie's holding the box width wise; it's about twice as long as you see!)
While in Redding, we went to Turtle Bay Exploration Park where they had a special exhibit of Sue-T the T-Rex created by the Field Museum, Chicago and super lego creations by Nathan Sawaya. You can't see, but the detail is incredible!
After Redding, we drove back to SF to pick up Melodie and hit the road to lovely Paso Robles where we spent the weekend wine tasting and going to Morro Bay on the coast to look at Morro Rock. We enjoyed a picnic there while waiting for the fog to lift but ran out of time since we needed to catch the Amtrak train in San Luis Obispo to ride to Santa Barbara for one more night on the road. (We were gone nearly the whole month of July!) We went to an old favorite seafood place for dinner, kayaking the next morning out to the mile buoy (lots of sea lions and pelicans), fish and chips for lunch and walked back to the train station to catch the "Surfliner" to LA Union Station. Riding the train was slow, but scenic, since the route was along the SoCal coastline.
Finally, I'll end this with video with a surprise ending due to my negligence. Rented mountain bikes during our visit, went to a nordic ski area with lots of trees and the 'runs' were open areas with single track - easy with smooth trails and some little hills. Also went for a ride through a meadow next to a river - more technical with lots of stones embedded in the trail. Thought I would film a bit - need a helmet cam!
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
We've been in L.A. for a week now and enjoying time with friends and family. Visited our college friend in San Clemente and went walking at the beach next to the railroad tracks (Can you see the train below?) Friday we're off to Yellowstone.
We celebrated our anniversary with an Italian dinner out, so I changed the photo at the top of the blog. Decided to stick around a little bit before we travel for the summer, so we could see friends; some who are staying and some who will travel themselves. We've had both kids' friends over to hang out at our place, some sleepovers, a movie, a little shopping, eating out, swimming and soccer. Managed to get a some snapshots...
Amazingly, the boys didn't play Brawl, but tried DDR and then Mario Kart. They took turns with the others... Went to dinner at a favorite noodle and dumpling place. With Alex gone at a sleepover, Maggie and I had to stand to have sushi on a Saturday evening, but we found a seat at Honeymoon Dessert for mango sago, yum!
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Finished the school year with a trip to the bowling alley and Butterfly Beach - too bad the Thunderstorm warning was hoisted otherwise the kids would have kept happily playing in the rain... Also some photos of in class ESLR certificates as well as parent helper awards.
Can you see the spider?
Paul with view of CB Country Club golf course
What you can see on a clear day: Nine Pin Group, Steep Island, Shek Mei Tau, Po Keng Teng, Waglan Island, CB Golf and CC, Tung Lung Chau, Po Toi O, Beaufort Island, Clearwater Bay, Tin Ha Shan
On a not so clear day, you can see faintly Nine Pin Group and Steep Island
Serious "fighting kite" flyers - I think they use a fine wire to fly their kites with the object of slicing opponents lines so they lose their kites...
Kites flying high
Sunday, May 10, 2009
On most Fridays after school, Alex and friends have been gathering to play soccer at Ryan's house. Alex doesn't play much, but on this particular day he did and then invited some of them over after to hang out longer and have dinner. Here are some photos of the boys playing a soccer card game and playing on the jungle gym. I was trying to reprise an old picture from when Alex, Ryan and Hugh were in preschool... I scanned it since it was from a film camera, imagine that!
Timothy, Andrew, Sung Min
Hugh, Alex, Ryan
Kaito, Hugh, Sung Min, Alex
There has been beautiful spring weather lately, perfect for bike-riding. One day, we rode along the river to Shatin town center and had a nice pizza lunch in a little village surrounded by the shopping mall and apartment buildings.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
I was trying to clean up my computer - tells you how this rainy afternoon was spent - and found this old photo I put on the original webpage I started when Maggie was young. Click here to have a look.
Been reflecting on how computer savvy kids are now when we didn't use computers until college - remember Unix? I hated going to the labs to use the school's computers so I finally took out a student loan and bought a Mac for over $2,000. (Before that I had an old Brother word processor/typewriter that used thermal transfer cartridges. It had a tiny litle screen that held a few lines of text that I could edit before printing.) I forgot exactly which Mac I got, SE, maybe. Paul had an older Mac that he had to keep swapping 3.5" disks to run or store anything on. We also had those noisy old dot matix printers that took all night to print long college papers.
It's not really a computer, but I'll include it in my computer history. We had a Magnavox Odyssey2 that my parents bought because of the keyboard (for educational games) when we wanted an Atari, instead. Here's a video someone put on You Tube of one of my favorite games - Pick Axe Pete!
I'll end this reminiscing with one more old photo of Alex on my Dad's old manual typewriter. Melodie and I got to type our papers on it when we didn't write them out by hand. Need finger strength to type!
Friday, April 24, 2009
During the kids spring break we decided to go check out the Venetian Macau. We stayed a couple of nights and enjoyed the Cirque du Soleil Zaia as part of our package.
The suite had a partially canopied bed for us and the kids had the sofa bed in the sunken living room.
We marveled at the fresco on the ceiling above the casino and mall.
We ate Fatburger, pho, fajitas, and ramen at the food court. Notice the blue sky - too bad the actual weather outside was rainy since there were lots of outdoor swimming pools and a nice looking mini-golf area we could have used. We walked around browsing the shops along the canals, rode the gondola and had "That's Amore" sung to us. (Yes, Alex got the hat.) Alex also got to try some interactive soccer games at the Manchester United Experience store.
We also left the kids at Qube play area for a couple of hours. They enjoyed the slides the most.
