You may remember that my aunt Jill brought two of her students over from China about two and a half years ago. This summer, another four of her students came to visit from overseas, namely Mark, Danny and twins John and Wen.
To let them see what the U.S. was like, my family took the boys to Reno and Tahoe over the weekend. Jill herself unfortunately couldn't come as she recently suffered a stroke and was told by her doctor to avoid going far places. The other issue is that the weather was extremely hot as it's the middle of the summer right now. However, neither of those things made the trip any less fun. Traveling with other people is always exciting - even though kids can be hard to deal with at times. :-)
Day 1: starting out late
As we would be taking four other people along, there was lots of stuff that needed to be done. I took the opportunity to give the boys a tour of my old high school while my parents packed up. Mom also took the boys to buy some ice cream and other snacks. It was almost 1 p.m. when we left our house. Seeing that it was well past noon, the first stop was a dumpling place in Milpitas for lunch. The food was pretty greasy but wasn't too bad otherwise.
The rest of the drive wasn't too eventful, although we got to Reno pretty late due to the amount of traffic along the way. All of us then had dinner at P. F. Chang's China Bistro. While the service was great, the food kind of sucked. Everything was either too dry or had no taste. However, the boys were very polite and kept telling us how good everything was. Bless their hearts.
There was also a little mishap: I noticed I had brought the wrong adapter for my laptop after we checked into the hotel. This wasn't a huge issue, but it did mean missing out on lots of RuneScape XP. Good god, I'm such an idiot.
Day 2: a step back in time
The day began with a visit to Virginia City in the morning. The nice thing is that the weather was cooler than expected, not to mention that most of the shops were open this time. Mom even bought us some ice cream at one of them. The atmosphere was simply wonderful.
We then decided to check out Carson City as well. One memorable sight was a group of people who were protesting against Hillary Clinton. Politics aside, this was our first time seeing a protest up close and so was a neat experience. Our group then stopped at Firehouse Subs for lunch. I suggested eating here because their subs looked really good and that they put in a great deal of effort in supporting firefighters. This wasn't a bad choice because the sandwiches were absolutely delicious.
Lake Tahoe awaited us in the afternoon. The temperatures were much higher here, but there was luckily lots of shade at one of the beaches. The plan was to go on a sightseeing cruise so the boys could get a better view of the lake, but the tickets were all sold out. Though there was another cruise available, the boat was having technical problems. In the end, we just relaxed in the shade for a while.
Up next was a vista point overlooking Emerald Bay. The views were amazing, and even the weather was pretty cool here. It made for a wonderful experience.
The final stop of the day was Circus Circus. All of us were pretty hungry when we arrived and so had dinner at a pho restaurant first. The reason for coming to Circus Circus is that we figured the kids might want to try the carnival games. It turned out none of them were really interested, so we headed back to our hotel.
Day 3: the heart of the Golden State
The highlight of the day was Sacramento. As the field trip there last summer was lots of fun, Mom thought this would be a great place to take the boys. Our party had a nice seafood lunch before visiting some of the nearby shops. The weather was really hot, but there was fortunately some cheap ice cream available. :-)
The penultimate stop was the California State Capitol. This was pretty relaxing as the building had some nice air conditioning. The place was so nice that we didn't leave until late in the afternoon. The trip ended with a quick dinner at In-N-Out Burger. I had no idea the Double-Double and animal-style fries could be so delicious!
Conclusions
As mentioned earlier, the main purpose of the trip was to let my aunt's students get a glimpse of Western culture. Even though we didn't really visit any new places, traveling with other people always makes vacations exciting. It's hard to say which was the best part of the trip, although I'd probably pick Virginia City if I had to choose.
The nice thing is that we'll be taking the boys on another trip to the Southwest U.S. later this summer. That will be our first time going to the Southwest in over four years. We're also taking them on a field trip with Henry's film club right after getting home. I'm super excited!
Last but not least, here's to hoping Jill will get well soon so we could go on more trips together!
In other news...
Happy second anniversary to my cousin Connie and Luc!
Currently listening to: "Team" by Lorde
Monday, July 25, 2016
Monday, May 30, 2016
an awesome Memorial Day weekend
I had a pretty nice Memorial Day long weekend as my family did quite a lot of stuff.
Having gotten up earlier than usual, my parents and I began our day with a hike on Stevens Creek Trail. The nice thing about starting out early is that the air is usually pretty fresh in the morning. We went back to our house for a short rest before heading to a noodle house in Mountain View for lunch. The ramen was pretty good!
The afternoon was fairly uneventful as the weather had gotten pretty hot. However, I did start watching Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey on DVD. It was definitely one of the best science TV shows ever.
Sunday began with a trip to El Cerrito to visit George and Eileen. As the Tangs' and my parents' wedding anniversaries are pretty close to each other, the four of them decided to do an early celebration. For that, I treated our party to lunch at a local Vietnamese restaurant. Everything we ordered was delicious!
The rest of the day was again uneventful because of the temperatures, although I did finish up some online classes.
Having been so busy in the past two days, my parents didn't do much in the morning. However, I did watch the new Fantastic Four movie after lunch. It definitely wasn't as good as the 2005 one.
Later in the evening, Jeff and Sheila invited us to their house for ice cream and snacks. This was pretty nice, given how hot the weather was.
Currently watching: Fantastic Four (2015)
Having gotten up earlier than usual, my parents and I began our day with a hike on Stevens Creek Trail. The nice thing about starting out early is that the air is usually pretty fresh in the morning. We went back to our house for a short rest before heading to a noodle house in Mountain View for lunch. The ramen was pretty good!
The afternoon was fairly uneventful as the weather had gotten pretty hot. However, I did start watching Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey on DVD. It was definitely one of the best science TV shows ever.
Sunday began with a trip to El Cerrito to visit George and Eileen. As the Tangs' and my parents' wedding anniversaries are pretty close to each other, the four of them decided to do an early celebration. For that, I treated our party to lunch at a local Vietnamese restaurant. Everything we ordered was delicious!
The rest of the day was again uneventful because of the temperatures, although I did finish up some online classes.
Having been so busy in the past two days, my parents didn't do much in the morning. However, I did watch the new Fantastic Four movie after lunch. It definitely wasn't as good as the 2005 one.
Later in the evening, Jeff and Sheila invited us to their house for ice cream and snacks. This was pretty nice, given how hot the weather was.
Currently watching: Fantastic Four (2015)
Monday, May 9, 2016
Mother's Day weekend report
So this is my first post here in ages. I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day weekend!
Speaking of which, mine was pretty awesome. As it can be hard to get restaurant reservations for Mother's Day itself, my family decided to do an early celebration the day before. To start off, I treated my parents to lunch at a Japanese restaurant in Los Altos. Although we had been there several times, the food has never disappointed.
The three of us also went to Peruvian restaurant in San Mateo for dinner we didn't Mom to have to do any cooking. The food at Andes Café was pretty good when we had lunch there with the Tangs last year. Although one of the dishes and the dessert were the same as what we ordered last time, they actually tasted better than during our last visit. This is actually the first time that I treated my parents to a meal twice on the same day!
I also had some assignments for online courses to catch up on. One of them was fairly long, but I managed to finish it by Sunday evening. It's nice to be able to have an extra day to relax!
The weather was quite nice on Saturday morning, during which we went for a stroll in the neighborhood. Dad wanted to try some new routes, and we ended up walking for almost two hours. The rest of the day was kind of busy as I spend a few hours backing up my files, something I had not done in several months. I also took the opportunity to get a head start on my online classes for next week. Other than that, I did get to play a bit of RuneScape in the evening. As you can see, this was a productive weekend!
Speaking of which, mine was pretty awesome. As it can be hard to get restaurant reservations for Mother's Day itself, my family decided to do an early celebration the day before. To start off, I treated my parents to lunch at a Japanese restaurant in Los Altos. Although we had been there several times, the food has never disappointed.
The three of us also went to Peruvian restaurant in San Mateo for dinner we didn't Mom to have to do any cooking. The food at Andes Café was pretty good when we had lunch there with the Tangs last year. Although one of the dishes and the dessert were the same as what we ordered last time, they actually tasted better than during our last visit. This is actually the first time that I treated my parents to a meal twice on the same day!
I also had some assignments for online courses to catch up on. One of them was fairly long, but I managed to finish it by Sunday evening. It's nice to be able to have an extra day to relax!
The weather was quite nice on Saturday morning, during which we went for a stroll in the neighborhood. Dad wanted to try some new routes, and we ended up walking for almost two hours. The rest of the day was kind of busy as I spend a few hours backing up my files, something I had not done in several months. I also took the opportunity to get a head start on my online classes for next week. Other than that, I did get to play a bit of RuneScape in the evening. As you can see, this was a productive weekend!
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Chinese New Year long weekend report
The long weekend was really awesome as my parents and I went to a party at our family friend Grace's house. The rest of the weekend was rather busy as I had some assignments for online classes, but I'm definitely ain't complaining!
Saturday
The morning was fairly uneventful as I was busy working on assignments for an online machine learning class. However, the fun part was that we went to Grace's house in the evening to celebrate her "70th" birthday. Grace is technically 69 year old, but it's a tradition among Chinese people to add one year to a person's real age. There were lots of people, and it was really fun. We would definitely have stayed longer if her house wasn't so far from ours.
Sunday
The morning was again somewhat busy as I had still had a few assignments left. The good news is that I managed to finish them shortly afternoon, so we had the entire afternoon free.
Speaking of which, Dad and I watched Super Bowl 50 in the afternoon. It was definitely great to the Broncos win the Super Bowl, especially given what happened two years ago. :-)
Monday
Although Lunar New Year isn't one of our work holidays, I was able to take the day off thanks to comp time. I didn't do much today besides listen to some online lectures, but an extra day off is certainly nice. :D
Saturday
The morning was fairly uneventful as I was busy working on assignments for an online machine learning class. However, the fun part was that we went to Grace's house in the evening to celebrate her "70th" birthday. Grace is technically 69 year old, but it's a tradition among Chinese people to add one year to a person's real age. There were lots of people, and it was really fun. We would definitely have stayed longer if her house wasn't so far from ours.
Sunday
The morning was again somewhat busy as I had still had a few assignments left. The good news is that I managed to finish them shortly afternoon, so we had the entire afternoon free.
Speaking of which, Dad and I watched Super Bowl 50 in the afternoon. It was definitely great to the Broncos win the Super Bowl, especially given what happened two years ago. :-)
Monday
Although Lunar New Year isn't one of our work holidays, I was able to take the day off thanks to comp time. I didn't do much today besides listen to some online lectures, but an extra day off is certainly nice. :D
Sunday, January 24, 2016
another amazing Lab126 party
So this is my 300th post. There's no better way to use it than to tell you about the awesome party I just got back from!
As you've probably noticed, Lab126 puts on an amazing post-holiday celebration every January. This year's event took place at Club Auto Sport in San Jose and was just as awesome as the previous ones. Club Auto Sport is kind of like an automotive museum with lots of high-end cars, so it's definitely great for gearheads.
Like at our previous events, there were lots of food and desserts. I would definitely have eaten more had I not gotten full so quickly. There was also a dance floor as usual, and especially many people got up to dance this time. The DJs were the same guys that played at Levi's Stadium last year, and they certainly did not disappoint.
One thing I've noticed is that dances aren't very common once you're out of school. This was definitely my favorite Lab126 post-holiday event to date; I don't think I've been to a dance this fun since college. :-)
As you've probably noticed, Lab126 puts on an amazing post-holiday celebration every January. This year's event took place at Club Auto Sport in San Jose and was just as awesome as the previous ones. Club Auto Sport is kind of like an automotive museum with lots of high-end cars, so it's definitely great for gearheads.
Like at our previous events, there were lots of food and desserts. I would definitely have eaten more had I not gotten full so quickly. There was also a dance floor as usual, and especially many people got up to dance this time. The DJs were the same guys that played at Levi's Stadium last year, and they certainly did not disappoint.
One thing I've noticed is that dances aren't very common once you're out of school. This was definitely my favorite Lab126 post-holiday event to date; I don't think I've been to a dance this fun since college. :-)
Monday, January 4, 2016
an amazing but busy holiday
This Christmas break was one of the best ever - even though it was stressful at times and that my family didn't go anywhere.
As we had already gone on three vacations last summer, the three of us decided to stay home and take a break from traveling. However, that doesn't mean the break wasn't fun. For starters, my parents and I got to eat at several different restaurants. Out of the restaurants we visited, Portobello Grill in Redwood City was my favorite, although the other ones also pretty nice. We also watched several movies as well as went shopping quite a few times.
New Year's Eve was somewhat eventful as we didn't have a party this year, nor did anyone invite us to theirs. On the other hand, the following day wasn't too bad as we went to the New Year's Day Fun Run in downtown Los Altos. This was our first time participating in this event, and not only was it lots of fun, but it was also a great workout. We then visited the Tangs on January 2nd.
The rest of the break was somewhat stressful as I had lots of assignments for two online courses. Considering that we decided not to go on any vacations this time, my parents figured this would be a good time to gain new knowledge. Other than that, I got to play lots of RuneScape in my free time, in which case I got over six million total XP over the course of two weeks. I'd say that's pretty impressive. :-)
Currently listening to: "Best Song Ever" by One Direction
As we had already gone on three vacations last summer, the three of us decided to stay home and take a break from traveling. However, that doesn't mean the break wasn't fun. For starters, my parents and I got to eat at several different restaurants. Out of the restaurants we visited, Portobello Grill in Redwood City was my favorite, although the other ones also pretty nice. We also watched several movies as well as went shopping quite a few times.
New Year's Eve was somewhat eventful as we didn't have a party this year, nor did anyone invite us to theirs. On the other hand, the following day wasn't too bad as we went to the New Year's Day Fun Run in downtown Los Altos. This was our first time participating in this event, and not only was it lots of fun, but it was also a great workout. We then visited the Tangs on January 2nd.
The rest of the break was somewhat stressful as I had lots of assignments for two online courses. Considering that we decided not to go on any vacations this time, my parents figured this would be a good time to gain new knowledge. Other than that, I got to play lots of RuneScape in my free time, in which case I got over six million total XP over the course of two weeks. I'd say that's pretty impressive. :-)
Currently listening to: "Best Song Ever" by One Direction
Friday, January 1, 2016
Happy 2016!
It's hard to believe 2015 has already passed. Oh hai, 2016!
I'll cut to the chase and say that New Year's Eve was pretty uneventful: my family didn't feel like throwing a party this year, and nobody invited us either. I had hoped to check out downtown Mountain View for special events but changed my mind finding out it was cold as hell outside. We also had plans for a board game night of sorts - after all, just because we're not having a party doesn't mean we can't have fun - but that didn't come to fruition as Mom was super tired and sleeping the whole time. Blah.
I've also been extremely busy as I had a shitload of assignments for two online machine learning classes. The good news is that I managed to finish all of this week's assignments, so I spent the rest of the evening playing RuneScape until the countdown. Gotta love good ol' RuneScape.
On the bright side, my parents and I will be visiting the Tangs on the 2nd, and as well as our family friend Grace on the 8th. So at least that's something to look forward to.
2015 in review
I'd say 2015 was overall a good year. The highlight was definitely our trip to New Zealand in September. It was no doubt a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and the memories from that trip will certainly last a long time.
The past year was mostly positive, except when I got a bad case of hives in June. The good news is that the hospital costs were covered by insurance, but it was sure as hell an unpleasant experience. Let's hope that doesn't happen again.
As for my New Year's resolutions, my goals are to become familiar with machine learning and hopefully get a promotion. I'm also hoping to get at least two 99's in RuneScape. Challenge accepted!
Currently listening to: "We Own the Night" by the Wanted
I'll cut to the chase and say that New Year's Eve was pretty uneventful: my family didn't feel like throwing a party this year, and nobody invited us either. I had hoped to check out downtown Mountain View for special events but changed my mind finding out it was cold as hell outside. We also had plans for a board game night of sorts - after all, just because we're not having a party doesn't mean we can't have fun - but that didn't come to fruition as Mom was super tired and sleeping the whole time. Blah.
I've also been extremely busy as I had a shitload of assignments for two online machine learning classes. The good news is that I managed to finish all of this week's assignments, so I spent the rest of the evening playing RuneScape until the countdown. Gotta love good ol' RuneScape.
On the bright side, my parents and I will be visiting the Tangs on the 2nd, and as well as our family friend Grace on the 8th. So at least that's something to look forward to.
2015 in review
I'd say 2015 was overall a good year. The highlight was definitely our trip to New Zealand in September. It was no doubt a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and the memories from that trip will certainly last a long time.
The past year was mostly positive, except when I got a bad case of hives in June. The good news is that the hospital costs were covered by insurance, but it was sure as hell an unpleasant experience. Let's hope that doesn't happen again.
As for my New Year's resolutions, my goals are to become familiar with machine learning and hopefully get a promotion. I'm also hoping to get at least two 99's in RuneScape. Challenge accepted!
Currently listening to: "We Own the Night" by the Wanted
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