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| The 6 day road trip has been both fun and extremely tiring! We drove from California to Nevada to Utah to Arizona (and back of course). The first two stops that we intended to make (King's Canyon and Death Valley) were unfortunately either closed due to heavy snow condition or required chains to be installed to our wheels. We didn't really find out until we were there because our online research didn't reveal the severity of the snow. So we ended up making detours to these destinations without the chance to explore the beautiful scenery they have to offer. The fun part began after we got to Las Vegas a couple of days before the New Year's Eve. We were on the strip counting down with many and a few hotels had fireworks afterwards. A few fights actually broke out in the crowd but luckily the cops were able to promptly stop and contained the massive chaos. I personally am not a fan of standing in the cold counting down in public but I guess it adds to the experience nonetheless. I probably won't do it again though for what it's worth. The last couple of days were spent at the Zion National Park in Utah and Glen Canyon Dam/Lake Powell in Arizona. These places are beautiful and refreshing, giving me a break from the busy city away from the crowd. You have to check out the pictures in the album to believe ( http://brleung.shutterfly.com). On the last day, we drove 16 hour straight home, which is a record! We were so bloody tired and destroyed that we all know we won't be doing another road trip in the next little while. Brian | | |
| Last blog entry was back in August. Has it been that long? I haven't seen blog entries from many of my fellow friends either. Guess we have all been busy. Now that I get some time off from work, I can fnally attend to things that I have been putting off - watching DVDs, writing Xmas cards, planning our upcoming trip to HK in March. Work has always been draining...draining to the extent that I have not been feeling all that well for the last couple of months. On and off I felt dizzy and had great difficulty concentrating in what I do. Two doctoral visits, another two to a neurologist and a MRI scan yielded nothing - the lab reports indicate that I am in perfect health. The specialists did not even have any plausible explanation of my conditions  . I guess my symptoms are too abstract for them to pinpoint what the problem is. This is depressing because I am definitely suffering... Christmas is a time that I typically leave town but this year Ceci's parents are visiting to see our 'new' place. Well, visitors are welcome always.  We will do a short road trip to Las Vegas and plan to stop by various national parks such as Death Valley and Grand Canyon on the way. I am sure it will be fun especially for Ceci since we haven't seen her parents for a while now. This winter seems colder than usual - even LV is snowing! We probably are not going to see any when we are in LV but throughout the drive I am sure we'll see quite a bit. Last but not least, some pictures that we took for our recent Swiss Fondue dinner where we celebrated my birthday. It tasted okay...a little bit more white wine for our tasting. Whether it is considered authentic or not I cannot comment as this is our first Swiss fondue experience. A friend told us there is another (better) fondue restaurant in Berkeley so I guess we will pay it a visit when we are in east bay.  
  
Without any exception, Ceci made me a dessert cake for my birthday, and this year it was tiramisu, which is my favorite! I think she totally mastered it and for her cuisine talents, she should move on to something more advanced. For those expecting a picture, I am not posting any because I cut the cake in my PJ...hehe. In case we don't post any entry before Christmas, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! Brian | | |
| It's (yet another) sunny day in the bay area. So what's a better idea than hanging out at the beach under the beautiful sun? Half Moon Bay is the closest beach from our home, making it the most logical choice. We did a quick search on the web for any events in the area before we headed out, and we came across numerous rave reviews of a restaurant that got recognitions for Top 5 American sandwich and top 3 outdoor dining in the bay area - Sam's Chowder House. Boasting award winning lobster roll and chowder, which are Ceci's favorite for the former and my favorite for the latter, we wasted no time and headed out! The restaurant was ideally located with a breath-taking view of the ocean and the beach, which explains why it deserves the outdoor dining award. Once we were sitted, we immediately ordered a new england clam chowder, the much anticipated lobster roll, and last but not least an oyster stew, which is another favorite of mine!    
When the food arrived, they certainly didn't disappoint! Rather than having a thick, glue-like texture, the chowder was in a surprisingly light broth with fresh, clean clam flavor. The lobster meat in the roll are extremely generous and comes in a crispy garlic bun (but it also comes with a hefty price tag of $20). The oyster stew has absolutely incredible flavor; it's irresistable for an oyster fanatic like me and is very comparable to the one served in Sophie's (oh I miss Sophie's). Overall, we were satisfied with our first experience with Sam's and would go back again for the food and the scenery. After the heavy lunch, we had a stroll along the beach. We enjoyed the view alot but the (super) strong wind forced us to cut our romantic walk short...bummer      
Nonetheless, another wonderful day. We wish we can explore and try out more diners in the future! Brian | | |
| Last Sunday we woke up early heading to San Francisco for the highly anticipated pride parade! SF is well known for its openness and acceptance of the homosexual community, and this year the parade is especially crazy because the supreme court of California unbanned same sex marriage in May, which is a major step forward for legalizing same sex marriage in the whole nation. As soon as Ceci learned that her company organized to have a float in the parade, she signed both of us up to walk in the parade! We joined many of her coworkers at the float and headed down Market street, which was packed with people on both sides. Everyone was dancing, screaming, and waving...the atmosphere was amazing!    
After the parade, we watched Wall-E from Pixar, which we enjoyed alot. I didn't find it as good as Ratatouille, and Ceci still thinks Monster's Inc is her favorite. Last but not least, a picture I took that I find pretty nice. 
Brian | | |
| Last weekend was the Memorial Day long weekend so we did a road trip to Las Vegas to pre-celebrate our first weddinig anniversary! It was a big day for us, and we wanted to do something special. The drive was definitely not short (9 hours one way). To maximize our time spent in LV, we headed out at 3:30 am so that we would arrive at around noon time. We managed to arrive on schedule, having made only a brief stop at MacDonald's for a quick breakfast and refreshment. This time around in Vegas we planned to concentrate on the new casinos and places that we missed in our last visit in 2005. Therefore, we visited Wynn (very beautiful), Planet Hollywood (nothing special), Palazzo (twin of Venetian?) Fashion Show Mall, the Premium Outlet (happy shopping!), Fremont Street (very disappointed - it doesn't even offer 10% of what the strip has), and the Hoover Dam. We considered driving to the Grand Canyon as well especially after the sky walk was built. Yet, it was a bit far, and I was quite exhausted from all the driving so we decided to save it for the next trip. The return trip was extremely painful (especially on our butts!  ) because the traffic jam entirely stretched out our driving time to an insane 12 hours! Imagine spending 12 hours on a plane instead, we would be in HK. Haha... Overall, we had so much fun. But if I am to go to Vegas again it will probably be another few years later on a plane. Please find our LV album on http://brleung.shutterfly.com Brian | | |
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