Recent Vacation Pictures

Finally found some time to post some of the vacation pictures. We spent two weeks in the Puget Sound area, and 1 week in the Bay Area staying with Pearl's brother. It was a good vacation, and we managed to find a suite with kitchen for our two weeks stay in Anacortes.

We spent the Independence weekend at Victoria and Vancouver. Victoria was pretty touristy, and Vancouver was almost like Hong Kong. We went to the Aberdeen center and ate at the Asian food center there, twice. I think we missed good and genuine Asian food a lot. Then had authentic Singapore Chicken Rice (though it is actually called Hainanese Chicken Rice) at my ex-colleague Cherie's place, thanks to her mom-in-law's wonderful cooking. Ian and Megan had fun playing with their pet rabbit, and the hedgehog (never seen a real hedgehog until then...).

San Jose was another place full of Asians. I can imagine myself living there with all the cheap and good Chinese eateries and groceries (Dungeness crab for $5 a pound!!)...if only their property prices are as low as Houston's.

All in all a pretty good and memorable trip, especially the family time spent together with Keat's family. However as ever travelling with two small kids are tiring...

Sweet and HUGE Rainier cherries at the Pike Place Market, Seattle...err the Iguana was fake, I think :o

Lots of wild caught seafood at the Pike Place market.

Ian enjoying his mayonnaise-free sushi

Happy Megan at the hotel

Megan loved the fluffy King bed

Pearl brought the kids to the strawberry farm, this is a revisit for Ian!

Ian had a blast at the local playground
The kids really like checking out the new hotel's beds

We bought some seafood from the local shellfish farm near Anacortes. Cheap Dungeness Crab, yummy!

Vancouver is a beautiful city by the bay, lots of rich people's yachts at the pier

Ian kung fu fighting at Stanley Park, Vancouver

Ian was very focused on the stone painting at Stanley Park

Petting Zoo at Stanley Park

We took the ferry from Vancouver to Victoria, it was rather cold onboard

Ian loves playing with Megan

Ian "Sayang" Megan :)

Gaya, Mutu, Keunggulan, Inilah Dunhill...I can almost hear the advertisement voice behind this pose.

Hatley castle, Victoria. Nice garden and much cheaper than the very touristy Butchart garden too.

Fort Rodd lighthouse was one of the most beautiful scenery we have seen throughout our three week's trip. This is almost like a painting. Definitely a well hidden secret of the beautiful Victoria Island.

We fell in love with this Lavender farm instantly

Other yachts along the route from Victoria back to Anacortes

Beautiful sun set at the ferry terminal of Anacortes

One of the rare moment when Ian and Megan managed a picture together

Otherwise this is Ian's usual self in front of the camera

Puget Sound was so beautiful that we can almost imagine ourselves retiring there

The First Encounter of the Cousins - this is t very first time Ian and Evan met each other

They click at the very first instant, and were playing happily at the playground close to Keat's house.

At the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco. This is my second visit, this time with family, which is a lot more fun than my previous visit just by myself. However I had more time to experiment with the camera then.

Both cousins are taking pictures!

Another hidden secret in San Francisco - the Art Museum

We also spent some time at the Happy Hollow children zoo and park in San Jose. In fact the kids enjoyed this much better than the sceneries. Ian was driving Megan around...may be another 15 years.

Ian and Megan "sharing" a ride at the park...who needs a double stroller? We can do it the "Penang" way :p

Ian wished he was tall enough to ride the go-kart alone

The beautiful shore at the 17 miles drive along the Pacific Coast

The famous Lone Cypress tree

The world renown Pebble Beach Golf Course

The kids enjoyed the Monterey Bay Aquarium very much. I must say that it is the most beautiful and interesting aquarium I have ever visited!

The Kelp (seaweed) jungle display in the aquarium

Lots of huge fish tanks in the aquarium, very grandeur and lots of interesting things to see.

Ian was very fascinated with the touch pool, he was able to feel the star fishes

Cousins playing sand castle at the Santa Cruz beach

The Tam Chiak Po (贪吃婆）Megan with a grain of rice beside her smile, after a satisfying meal

More from Malaysia…

I should have been packing at this time and preparing to go back to Houston but the vicious virus or bacteria that I caught 2 weeks ago had made me stay back for a couple more weeks. I probably had not been so sick in 10 years.

At week 18, I am just now feeling more normal. My indigestion has eased a little, the nauseous feeling is gone, the awful taste in my mouth is almost gone if I don’t overeat and I can finally keep food down in my stomach. I can finally enjoy those yummy Malaysian foods, especially the delicious hawker food.

Unlike in the US, an ultrasound is performed at every check up. I also had a chance to see 3D pictures of our baby no. 2 at no additional cost! Here is a 3D snapshot, though a little hard to make out. Ian’s speech has blossomed since he came back to Malaysia. He is now very expressive and asked too many “whys”. The things he says surprises me and makes me laugh. Here are some pictures of Ian…

Ian checking out and smelling tea at a tea shop. He has an incredible sense of smell and has extremely sharp taste bud…thus a picky eater :)

Ian, the tea connoisseur, making tea for us…

We take Ian to the playground whenever we can and let him be a little monkey.

Ian witnessed the metamorphosis process. He likes bugs but his is more interested in rotating equipment and tools. He asks his grandpa everyday if there is anything broken so that he can do repair work.

Like me, he loves durian.

(Note from Papa: also like me, he likes watermelon...)

I Left My Shoes @ Yosemite

I finally made my trip to the Yosemite NP, so yet another NP deleted off my list of "places must visit before the end of the World" :p
This time was a "business-pleasure" trip, i.e. I spent the weekend for a photo trip to the NP before I started working on Monday. It was early March, and the winter was lingering in the Yosemite valley. I really recommend going to the YNP during this time of the year if you had already been there during the summer (which, incidentally, is the peak tourist season with overpriced motels and jam packed traffics).

The late winter/early spring was not a bad time to go even though some of the high altitude roads were closed due to snow and icy road conditions. The first moment I drove into the valley I was taken away by the breathtaking, beautiful snow scene of the Yosemite.
It snowed a little while I was there. It had been some time since I last see the snow fall, and it reminded me of my very first snow fall many years ago in Scotland...I think among the four seasos, winter is my favourite for photography.Since the snow were just starting to melt, the gush of water rushing down the falls were building up their momentum. There are many falls in the valley, one of the most famous as well as most photographed falls were the Yosemite Upper and Lower falls.
Since it the temperature were still at around 30's to 40's°F, there were still ice formed where the water were falling. The combination of ice and water was indeed spectacular.
While I was there, I chanced upon a free photography trip organized by the Ansel Adams' original photography shop. Before the trip, I had wanted to grab a copy of Michael Frye's Photo Guide to Yosemite, however unfortunately the book was so popular that it was out of print, and the last I check with Amazon, the used book price has gone up to $120! Michael used to work in the same photo shop as our photo guide, shown in the picture below. He was wearing a cool sunglasses, carrying with him a huge ass Gitzo tripod and hauling along a bag full of heavy L lenses. However other than showing us the various excellent photo spots, he had not taken a single photo during the trip. Well, I guess it was the same reason why I like to use humongous equipment for my wedding photo assignments - so that the clients think that I am a pro (the bigger the equipment, the more pro you are!).
Yosemite falls is also a popular field trip for the local schools, here I suppose this field trip was organized by the Art's teacher. Back in my time, my Penang art teachers usually asked us to draw fruits such as banana or durian instead of taking us to a field trip like this...
When the fog came along with the evening, it added a mystical touch to the already picturistique scene of the Yosemite falls.
Other than the Yosemite falls which are located right in the valley, there were other falls as well. Among others are the Briday Veil Falls
and the Vernon falls
Some falls such as the Briday Veil and the Yosemite are easily accessible by road, and are perfect for city bums like me who likes the convenience of "drive and shoot". Others, like the Vernon falls, requires strenuous hiking through trecherous icy, snowy mountain trails...
Via footbridges...
And crosses icy streams of springs...
But the breathtaking view along the journey was well worth the sweat and hardwork indeed.
Another famous lanscape of the Yosemite is the Half Dome. The fact sheets in the musuem suggested that the formation of the Half Dome was due to errosion.
It seems that everytime I visit the Bay Area, I seem to have the luck of seeing fogs/clouds surrounding the most famous lanscape.
This was one of the famous "Ansel Adams's Half Dome" view from the center of the valley.
Another awesome view of Half Dome can be seen from the Mirror Lake, about 5 mile track from the valley (yup I actuall hike that much, and this is just one of the many hikes during the trip! And I did this while hauling along my tripod and lenses, in addition to water and food!!)
This is yet another famous Ansel's classic of the valley, taken from the Tunnel's View. On the left is the El Capitan, and the falls on the right is the Bridal Veil. The Half Dome can be barely seen, right in the middle. Tood bad the moon was too small, else it could be another "moon rise classic" :)
Other than the falls and the snow capped mountain
Another of my favourite shot during trips to the National Parks was photographing the springs and the streams. With a steady tripod and long exposure (typically 1/2 second to a few seconds, depending on the light conditions and the speed of the streams), the rushing water can seem pretty dreamy.
It will be better if there is overcast sky, as you will appreciate the soft and dimmer light in this kind of photography.
All in all, I really enjoyed my solo photography trip to the Y valley, and it reminded me of my travel trips during my younger days when I mostly travel alone and without having to carry along diapers, milk, baby food, and ofcourse, my cute little Ian.
One of my favorite photographer was the Taiwanese engineer guy who travelled to the Aegean sea, and produced我的心遺留在愛琴海. Well, as for me, I had to hike so much that eventually my trusty Nike hiking boots gave up, so I had to leave my shoes at the Yosemite.

我的鞋遺留在有稀米地

Photo Note: Body - Canon 350D; Lenses - CZ 28mm f2.8, CZ 35-70mm f3.4, CZ 80-200mm f4.0, Canon 50mm macro f2.5; Tripod - Gitzo with Monfotto ball head. Dissapointment: 1. Dust speck on some of the shots, and didn't discovered it till viewed on computer! Lesson learnt - must clean lenses every day! 2. The cropped and reduced photo for uploading to this blog lost a lot of resolutions and details, especially the shadow details...can't do anything here due to the size limit of the blogspot.