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April 27 Color of the SpringLast weekend, we finally got some time and went out to enjoy the spring. Hondo Canyon is not as great as I expected from the 5 diamonds in localhikes. But we still got enough chances to feel the colors of the Spring. It was a nice walk, also a lot of nice talks with old friends. These days, just got the shadowy feelings that many friends are leaving the area very soon. At least 4 friends are defending next week, 3 of them will leave LA area... yes, they are leaving, finally spreading out all over the world. I wish there will be some old friends staying in the area, and some new friends coming in... and for those old friends who will not be around, hope I could see them often. Or, maybe, we will get back together 15 years later, at that time, the conversation might be: "How are you these years?" "Nothing change, just two more children".:P February 04 Santa Monica Mountains.Went to Santa Monica Mountains last weekend, very typical views in coastal mountains in LA area...
Sigh... not sure if I will be able to go to the wildness around LA so often in the future... maybe I can stay in LA area with my Caltech friends, or maybe I will need to move to other locations.
Fortunately, I am so lucky to have some friends here and there who I can have fun with. We can go hiking with snakey, or skiing with richard if I end up in Seattle area. Can stroll around Manhattan with jt or rui, or follow bridget to Chinatown if NY is the destination. Or rollerblading along the bay shore with google friends or 9# guys in bay area.
thanks to all my friends, and happy spring festival.:) November 08 Mt San JacintoWhen John Muir scaled San Jacinto in 1887, he exclaimed that "The view is the most sublime spectacle to be found anywhere on this earth."
Went there last weekend. The view really deserves the honor. Pictures are more convincing than words... October 02 the spirit of flyingWent to ballooning with our group. That's the first time that I was flying in the open air, at the height of 4000 ft -- with nothing steady under my feet. The view is great!
The baloon is "powered" by hot air. whenever the propane flame starts, it's sizzling hot... and the sun above the cloud is so strong... and even worse, we don't have any control on our direction. The captain can only control the altitude of the balloon and catch the wind in different levels with different directions. (Sometimes, he can also rotate the basket and give everyone a equal view.) But he could not lead the balloon to "a destination". We have to find a place to land around wherever the wind takes us to -- that's probably why the Irish ballooners always bow and pray to the God before they fly...
So, finally, five different balloons from the same launching site ended with five different landing sites. We were lucky to find a flat undeveloped site, our colleagues in the other balloon got a more exciting adventure: they bumped into the driveway of a high-class community and have to wait for someone open the gate to let in the pickup shuttle. And I am happy that those astonished residents didn't take them as the gifts from heaven. -- The first historic balloon flight was completely by a sheep, a duck, and a cock (since no person dares to fly) They landed into a farmer's home but were BBQed by the farmer, as the gift from the god.
Anyway, the view is really really good. Even better, with the wine in the 4000ft high sky. September 28 Some photo in Zion National ParkIt was a great trip.:)
See the miracle by Mother Nature... September 19 Adventurous monthSpent a weekend in Zion national park: one day to climb the steep cliff of Angel's landing, the other day is the intermediate class canyoneering: "Subway". Fuling's blog and Min's blog have all the details.
One weekend later, went to Mt San Gorgonio with Fangqiang, Weijun and Zhimei. Here I share the photo. The 9-mile trail ascends 3500 ft, not very steep. But this highest peak in southern California is 11500ft, high enough to let us feel altitude symptoms. And the 18-mile round trip is long enough to kill our knees and ankles. This is probably the longest trail I ever took. Finally, sun sunk and we navigated ourselves in the moonlight. Waha, the whole trip became a moon-light hike, though not planned or expected... Got back to the car at 8:30 pm. After driving (or, crawling) carefully (or, tentatively) along a 10mile dirt forest service road full of rocks, bumps and gulches..., with the Ford Escape swinging and roaring powerlessly, we got back to Hwy38 at 9:30 and returned to the civilized world... Hope everyone is recovered now or very soon. Fangqiang did a great job in rough terrain driving and he is heading for Philadelphia on 20th. Wish him a wonderful new world there. I probably won't go any serious hiking in the coming month. Had enough adventure this month and it's the time for reflection... August 18 Hollywood Bowl celebrates Disneyland's 50th anniversaryHollywood Bowl & Disneyland are both parts of the unqiue life in LA. Disneyland is also in the dreams of childrens all over the world, while Hollywood Bowl is more the semi-classic people's favorite.
This year, the two came together to celebrate the 4th of July. Disney Music, lightening characters in electronic parades, folk songs by their original writer, old interview films with Walt, new shots from Disneyland Hongkong, and... the famous hollywood bowl... Fireworks!
To our surprise, most of the audience are very senior people. They came here to enjoy the wine and music, the old memory of the childhood with Disneyland, sing along with the songs in cartoon films and the fireworks in the chily night.
50 years later, will we come here again?
ps: Hollywood Bowl, an open-air concert "hall". A "nest" is built in the bottom heart of a valley near Hollywood. Musicians play in the "nest" of the bowl. Thousands of audience sit in benches on the hilly valley. Firework comes with the final piece in holidays. It is many people's alternative of Walt-Disney-Concert-Hall in the summer seasons: If you are rich, you can sit in the front and enjoy a wonderful dinner near the fountain pool; if you are poor, you can sit in the very top and enjoy the sight of Hollywood sign in sunset. And the wonderful music, the brilliant fountain, and the magnificent firework are of everyone, rich and poor. June 13 Chicago SeriesWent to Chicago in Spring Break with lots of 9# friends. Many posts in 9# told stories of night life in Chicago. Now, let me share some photo about the day life in Chicago -- it's, at least sometimes, really a piece of art. I will probably keep adding new photos to the series in the next two months. --The only time I used to update the photo is the time when my computer keeps running simulations... May 12 Death Valleyconceivablely, a desert without hope of life However, if you go there this year, you will find that it has all kinds of lives. California had record-high precipitation rain fall this year. All the wild flowers are blossoming. Went to death vally at the end of March. We found all kinds of interesting things there... May 03 Antelope Gorge Treking 5-1 last yearEn... uploaded a treking trip my junior school friends and I did last year. It was exactly one year ago -- right before I flew to LA. The Antelope Gorge is at the top of Pearl River's delta, close to my hometown ZhaoQing. Very beautiful scene. A short but steep trip to the top of the mountain gave us a wonderful birdview over the winding river in the gorge. Also in the canyon is the birthplace of Duan Yan (some famous inkstones of Duanzhou). Going against the crystal creek "Duan Xi" is very cool -- mentally and physically. Finally, the delicious fresh fish, right caught in the river, were served on the table :P Going back to the the ship we rent, we enjoyed the sunset over the gorge and finally the city lights along the river. What a wonderful day! More importantly, we had so many old friends together... Wondering when we could have such a trip again!:) Not sure if anyone wants to put his/her face on the web. So I didn't share any photo with front faces. Em... wondering if there is any website that provides different access rights for different photo albums... -xl April 29 Paris series done.having had three bitter melons (苦瓜), got serious stomachache... still could not concentrate on work for a whole day. So I finish my Paris series today and plan to work tomorrow. So, enjoy it.:) Now feeling much better after the salted-egg-conjee -- haha, thx fuling for the suggestion of salted-egg. Probably it is able to neutralize the coldness of bitter melons. thanks & sorryThanks, to my known friends and unknown friends. But I feel guilty to waste your time. I've been only uploading one small part of my Paris photo every day... so, you'd better not to see the photo in these several days. You can see the whole collection next week. Now only half of them are online... sorry for not making it clearer...:( IQ: your travel ads site looks informative. I put it to my one-click list. do you mind? what's your plan in 5-1. Em... I think I will later later later publish some of our photo in treking the Antelope Straight of XiJiang River last 5-1. It's a good memory. Miss you guys all. If nothing to do in 5-1, probably you can organize once more? :) -xl April 26 experiencing the msn blogem... finish the first batch of photo in River Sein. the "photo uploader" must be a cool thing. I like the automatic compressing feature. And maybe it is improved by FAST or other special transmission protocol? haha The photo sharing is quite better than blogger.com now... hello worldOK. MSN 7.0 forces me to have a blog with MS:P It IS convenient to share photo than my blogger.com account. Let me make this place as my trip blog:) OK, I start with a feeling of fulfilling of one of my promises... -xl |
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