CMCNY Spring Festival Party!

It was very fun to see everyone in street cloth. With those that I do not know as well, it took me awhile to put the name to the face but it all worked out at the end. There were lots of people and plenty of food but I think people were more interested in chatting than eating!

The presentation by Mr. Chen, Chi, George were very inspiring. They make me want to plan some trips to the exotic locations. Unfortunately I was sitting far from the projector screen thus I did not get to enjoy the presentation to the fullest extent. However, the presentation the really got me going was Mr. Chen's, as he was talking about his trek in some of Taiwan's peak. Being that I am from Taiwan, it seem like that's the more likely place for me to do a big trek.

I have no pictures of hiking from Taiwan. However, here (http://www.frogfree.com/) is a site with beautiful pictures of climbing/hiking around Asia (Taiwan included) that I think most member of CMCNY would appreciate. This link (嘉明湖) is for Mr. Chen. This link (神山, Malaysia) is for Ben. Now that you have seen them, don't you guys ever plan a trip there without me!

I think the highlight of the party was the fashion show, courtesy of EMS. It was hosted by Chuck, the assistant manager at EMS Downtown NY. Our very own Marjorie, Michael, Cam, and Mandy were the model.

The party ended with raffle and bingo (with fifts provided by EMS and CMCNY). I think there is a prize for everbody. Tami was very glad that her 年糕 (sticky rice cake) was popular among the deserts.

Well, all good things come to an end, I will see you guys on the trail soon enough!



Peeping Francis










Henry's kid, Nathan was quite popular at the party.









Michael performing his version of "盲劍客."

Mandy looking sassy even with her dislocated thumb.



Tami making sure the rice cake is done the night before the party.

For more photos of the party, try here.

2006-02-18-Winter Hike at Harriman (Very Cold Day!)

It was a very cold day. The wind was gusty and the sky looked like a storm was coming when we set out in the morning. By the time we met up at the parking lot by Lake Tiorati, it was snowing very hard.

My first thought upon seeing the snow "damn, better not get left behind, cause people won't be able to find me!" Thank God the snow slowed down afte half an hour; the sun also came out. It was quite nice to be hiking on a thin layer of fresh snow.

I met several people on this trip. Jessica brought her dog, 來喜. Whe is one year old and very active. She was running around us constantly. If we did 5 miles, she probably did 20 miles. Jessica also brought 煮番薯 (boiled sweet potato). It was quite refreshing at 11:30AM when my breakfast was not longer sitting in my belly.



Jessica carrying her dog across a stream. The dog got scared after she nearly fell into the stream.










I also met Mr. Chen, who is a member of "26 mi. club." He just came back from a trip in Taiwan and had done some hiking over there. I am planning on getting some more info from him regarding hiking in Taiwan.








During lunch time, Michael gave us some 茶葉蛋 (eggs boiled in tea); Ben donated some sausage. Both helped boosting our energy in the cold weather.

Here is a picture of Su trying to fish out a 茶葉蛋 from Michael's thermos.

Despite being in the shelter, it was still very cold. We pretty much left right after everyone is done eating since most of us could not really stand up to the cold weather. It was probably the shortest lunch on trail for me.

Just a note, it was so cold that the tubing from my Camelbak froze. I had to defrost it with some warm water.

After lunch, we visited an "Ice Cave." It was an old mining site. There were icing hanging off the ceiling. I was told that when there is sufficient rainfall and cold weather there would be some spectacular ice formation. Well, not that day!













For more photos from this trip, try here.

Snow Storm.

Just flew in from LA last night to one of this winter's biggest snow storm. I actually had to get on an earlier flight to beat the storm to NYC. Because of that, I missed a potentially good meal in LA.

By the time the plane landed, about an inch of snow has alredy built up on the ground. I spent today trapped in my apartment watching the snow, wondering when it was going to be over. Finally it stopped around 6PM.

Feb 7th. - Day 2 - Visiting UCLA Campus

Tami had lost her UCLA hoody pullover and wanted to get a replacement so we drove to UCLA. If you know anything about women, then you won't be surprised that she took about 40minutes to find one she liked.

Oh well, what can I say, she is my wife right? At least she let me have my way at outdoor equipment stores.

We then met up with Dave, my friend from college who is working on a building in UCLA. He took us around the construction site.


We had to put on hard hat for the tour. We looked kind of goofy.

We finished the day having dinner at 小陸子 and desert at 鳳城.

For more pictures from that day, see here.

Feb 8th. - Day 3 - Visiting Relatives and Thai Town

This was a day spent experiencing LA's highway system. We drove from LA downtown to Orange County (O.C., as in the TV series) to meet up with Mei for lunch. We took 3 highways and spent nearly an hour going at 70 mph to get there.

Mei's daughter, ELizabeth has grown so much since I last saw her (when she was about a year old). She wasn't feeling well that day so I could not get much smile out of her but she is still adorable nevertheless. We also saw Peter, who is still as big as I have remembered.














We then drove back to Beverly Hills to see Uncle Randy who just had a liver transplant. He actully looks preety good for someone who had undergone such a big surgery within the past 6 months.








The last stop we made was at Rose' s place, which is just a few blocks away. She just had a babygirl not so long ago. Her son, Noah is also very different from what I remembered. He hs grown into a handsome little boy.

























The day ended with Thai food in the Hollywood. The neighborhood was really run down for me but the food was simply amazing. The best Thai food I ever had, period!

Feb 6th. - Day 1 of LA Trip.

We took a flight out of JFK to LAX. Before getting to JFK, we stopped by Flushing to get some 飯團, 蛋餅, and 豆漿 for breakfast, which we had at the airport.








Flying into LA, the first thing we noticed was how warm it was. It was 70s when we landed. We walked around downtown for a bit while waiting for Victor to get off work.


















......We walked by the Disney concert Hall, which was spectacular in the setting sun.



Picture of Victor in his office.

We finished off the short day by eating at Garden Cafe at San Gabriel - a very worthy meal follwed by some Tapioca at Tea Station. We were very stuffed.






For more photos from this trip, try here.

Bummed!

The ski trip was cancelled due to poor snow condition. We then planned to do a day hike on Sunday the 5th. However, it was cancelled for other reason. This got me really bummed out as the things I was looking forward to this weekend were disappearing one by one......oh well, there is always next time.

Nevertheless, I did bring Tami to Jacques Torress chocolate. It is know for making its chocolate from scratch (i.e. coca beans). These chocolates are good but somewhat pricey. We bought a box for Victor and some others for mommy and daddy in Taiwan.




Some of their truffles have very interesting names - Love potion, menage a trois, love bug...

I remember taking a friend of mine (who is going to remain anonymous) to this chocolate store. He thought the chocolates were good but have announced that his girlfriend is not going to know about this place....

Vacation is coming!

Starting my vacation at 7AM on Friday, 2/3/06. I am very psyched. Going to be spending two days doing cross-country skiing at upstate, then flying out to LA for 5 days!

大年初一去爬山!
(Hiking on Jan 1st of Chinese New Year!)

After the feast of New Year's eve, we woke up to a brisk day of hiking. It was warm for late January. Unfortunately it started raining around lunch time - mostly just drizzle, so had to cut our day short.


I was glad that it was cut short since my leg started hurting around the same time. Probably from lack of warming up and trying too hard to keep up with Chung.









Secret red envelope from Nancy, only Su and Wendy would know what's inside.







As I was moving along, I could not help but overheard this conversation between these two lovely ladies. "不知道是沒有人要騙我們,還是我們太聰明沒被騙到?" (Is it that nobody want to take advantage of us or is it just that we were too smart to be taken advantage of?). You can guess what they were referring to, use your imagination.


For more photos from this trip, try here.


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