"Honeymoon" in Hawaii

A lot of changes and travels this year. It will be hard to top. And probably impossible to top in 2010, considering I've burned through my savings like the pile of paper it is. Without a job or a job in site as the year closes, I will have to cut down my extra curriculum activities and stay put in Japan -- mostly.

I started this blogspot in May, but probably missed one of the most exciting trips I had taken prior to that. My "honeymoon" trip to Hawaii back in March 2oo9. Well, it wasn't our honeymoon, but we told everyone in Hawaii it was to get "free stuff". How can you resist the extra stuff and fluff when it's free? Well, you just can't.

So the first thing I did was to get us some free desserts at Alan Wong's. Needless to say, the food was amazing AND very pricey. But what's surprising was their list of frufru drinks which they incorporated fruit flavor such as litchi. YUM! It's hard to say no to that.

The next day, we decided to spend some time on the North Shore visiting sites such as Sunset Beach and some snorkeling at the cove at Turtle Bay resort. But not before we skydived from 12k feet in the sky. The scenery from 5k feet of the North Shore was unforgettable. After a tired day of skydiving and snorkeling, we chilled at sunset beach watching hot Japanese surfers walk by (that was mostly me), and having north shore garlic shrimp. Although, there was probably more butter than garlic.

Our most memorable tour was the "Hawaii Food Tour", which is a must for first-timers and we highly recommend it. http://www.hawaiianfoodtours.com The tour introduces a few of the local eateries in Honolulu and a bit of interesting facts of the history of the city. And gave us lots of good suggestions of where and what to eat while in Honolulu as well as Kauai, our next stop.

Iolani Palace: the only palace in United States, which belonged to the monarchy in Hawaii until the 1800's. The structure is fairly new built with European influences and is situated in downtown Honolulu on a big piece of beautiful green lawn with lots of palm trees.

It was time... to say good-bye to my faithful sandals that have followed me for 5 years through many trips across the globe. I was sad to let them go. Bye-bye shoes.

The next morning, we woke up extra early to hike up to the Diamond Head (an inactive volcano) from our hotel. The hike was about perhaps about 10 miles, which include the ascent to the base of the volcano. Most people drive to the base, and hike up from there, but the scenic view on the way there was beautiful. Lots of expensive houses and the homes belonging to my once favorite TV show LOST casts.

Voted the #1 beach in USA, Lanikai beach was probably well worth the drive across Oahu. It's situated right next the US Marine Corp base that Ray would have gotten stationed at had he chose to go to beautiful Hawaii instead of middle-of-nowhere Japan. The beach was one of my favorite spot. Even though, it was chilly cold, I still took a swim in the water... that's rare for me.

The shortest plane ride of my life was from Oahu to Kauai. The flight schedule said it was supposed to take 1 hour and 10 minutes, but we arrived shortly after 30 minutes. We were probably in air for less than 10 minutes that was not in take-off or landing mode.

Kauai is beautiful and most importantly peaceful. There were beautiful waterfalls, hidden and only accessible after a long and exhausting hike. And a little preview to my experience at Grand Canyon, this is the Waimea Canyon on Kauai.

I felt really at home in Kauai, it almost didn't feel like we were in Hawaii, except for the beautiful sceneries. We rented a small one-bedroom apartment with a deck, kitchen, pool, and a hot tub of our own. We shopped at the local grocery store, enjoyed shaved ice with sweet cream and red bean paste, and ate giant coconut shrimp. Life is wonderful.

4th of July in Japan's old capital

For July 4th, Raymond gets 4 and a half days off. Yep, your tax dollars hard at work -- paying for our very patriotic trip to the old capital of another country. List of cities on our agenda this time is Himeji, Kyoto, and Nara. Since this trip took place almost 2 months ago, I will do my best to include the details of our trip. Here we go...

July 1st, Wednesday afternoon, Raymond and I picked up our rental car and headed out of town, but we got lost, and ended up very hungry at a near by shopping center an hour later and decided we'll have dinner first. Now that our stomach is full, we headed up north on the express way.

Himeji is located in the Hyogo Prefecture, south of Kyoto, and it's one prized treasure is it's Himeji Castle. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the best example of a true Japanese Castle. In fact, after seeing this castle, pretty much all other castles seemed less impressive. The castle was built in 1346, but was badly damaged in the 1600s, so it was restored and expanded to the current seven story castle. It is so awesome that when Tom Cruise shot The Last Samurai, it took place here.

Our first full day, we decided to first tackle the castle. The grounds of the castle was like a maze, and as you wind through the maze up hill, you'd eventually reach the castle. From the top story of the castle, you could see the rest of the city of Himeji, surrounded by mountains and ocean. This was a definitely a place to build your castle to defend your ground from invaders. Before entering the castle, you are required to remove your shoes. Then an old lady hands you a plastic bag to hold your shoes while you're inside. At the end, you return the plastic bag to another old lady, where she then folds the used bags very neatly into a flat new looking plastic bags to be reused. Wow, I wonder how much they pay for that job.

With our Himeji castle tickets, we acquired a combo ticket for the near by Kokoen Garden. The garden was absolutely lovely and huge, and has nine individually themed gardens. We arrived early morning, so there were barely anyone there, except for about 30 employees working diligently on spurning the trees. The place was tranquil and peaceful, we strolled around the garden through many water falls with giant asian gold fishes.

Continuing our journey, we headed north to Kyoto, the old capital of Japan prior to WWII. We selected a small Japanese style inn as our home base for the next 3 nights. This was the first time I've ever set foot in a Japanese styled hotel, and boy it is small. If I thought Japanese hotel rooms were small, this was even smaller. The room was sparsely furnished. A small table for tea, a water heater, tea bags, 2 cups, and mats for sleeping. That pretty much concluded all the things that were in the room.

We didn't dwell and continued our sightseeing. Our first stop was Fushimi Inari Shrine. Inari is a fox like creature and is represented in shrines as a god. It is also the god of business, so many Japanese company donate money to this shrine. For example each of the torii below is donated by a particular Japanese firm, with the name of the company written on the side of the torii.

The next day, we decided to visit a few of the famous temples and shrines. First stop Ninnaji, originally built in 886, but was destroyed in 1450s and rebuilt and expanded (sound familiar?) 150 years later. This temple was also the home to a line of imperial lineage, when an emperor retires, he often became a priest/monk, and here would be his home. This tradition carried on from 900 to almost 1900.

Two of the prized possessions of this temple is it's original hand painted screen walls and a beautiful zen garden. Here is where we decided to relax bit, enjoy some of Japanese mocha (whipped powder green tea) and the view of this peaceful zen garden (reminds me of the last fight between Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu in Kill Bill Vol One).

Next stop Ryoanji, meaning the Temple of Peaceful Dragon or Peaceful Dragon Temple as the literal translation. All of the names of the temple are written in Kanji or Chinese characters because Chinese language came to Japan along with Buddhism. A lot of the Chinese characters remained in their language, but Japanese also have their own set of alphabets.

The temple was under construction when we visit, so a lot of the sites were closed off to tourists. However, its most impressive and famous site was not, and that was it's dry zen garden. A dry garden is basically a garden made of small pebbles/rocks, and this one was no different. The small pebbles are raked precisely in a particular direction or another to indicate the flow of water or qi (air). Maybe I lack inner peace to fully appreciate this beautiful garden, but it was kind of a disappointment. AKA, I don't get it.

Of course, we saved our best sight for last -- Kinkakuji or more famously known as Golden Pavilion Temple. I was very excited to see this temple because this was the place where Ikkyusan studied as an adult zen master. Ikkyusan is a Japanese animation series that aired in China when I was little, and I watched it religiously everyday. So it was pretty cool to see this temple in real life. Plus, it's just a beautiful temple, and it doesn't hurt that the top two layers of this temple is built using pure gold leaves.

Lunch, finally!!! We decided that we'd go all out and have a nice sit down lunch at somewhere fancy near the Imperial palace, but we ended up lost and walking in the opposite direction before finally finding the place suggested by our guidebook. When we arrived at Mankamero, they were about to shut down for lunch, but thankfully, we made it just in time for them to seat us at a nice, private room, facing their peaceful and lush garden.

The hostess and waitress were all dressed in traditional kimonos, while they waited on us. Instantly , I felt we were underdressed for this place. There was no menu and no words were spoken, they began by serving us some tea and a fresh cold towel. Then the lady exited the room without ever turning her back on us, and then returned with some cold and fresh sashimi, jelly, and some rice. When she returned, once again no words were exchanged, except her absolute courteous gestures, she took out our emptied tray and immediately brought in more food. A straw basket with many different types of sushi and sashimi beautifully presented with a few maple leaves, a separate bowl of rice with a dash of sesame, and a bowl of miso soup. Once again she exited quietly without turning her back towards us.

As soon as she left, Raymond and I chowed down the food. The texture of the sushi was wonderful, along with a few other things I can't name. The rice was flavored with sushi vinegar, and the miso soup had pieces of decorative "mystery stuff" in it. Everything tasted and looked so pleasing. I couldn't help but take pictures of EVERYTHING.

The waitress came back in once more, refilling our sake and water, took out our emptied trays, and then brought back dessert this time. A quarter of grapefruit, but instead of actual grapefruit inside, it was grapefruit jello with a piece of cherry on top. It was just beautifully presented and what a novel idea! Made me want to do that when I get home. After we finished all of our food, we sat there and slowly enjoyed our tea and our view of the garden. It was so peaceful that I could have possible fallen asleep right there on the tatami mats. We signaled to have our bill brought to us, and it was a whopping ¥12000, but it was worth every yenny.

Day 3, our agenda was to visit the near by city of Nara. It was once a rival with Kyoto as the imperial capital, but after year 800, it fell out of favor. The city is modeled after the capital of China, Xi'an (terra-cotta warriors) during the Tang Dynasty. Today, the city has also fallen out of favor as a tourist destination, but the city is currently promoting and many sites and parking are free - which is unheard of in Japan. Our first destination is Todaiji.

Todaiji features a gigantic statue of buddha in its main hall. And when I say gigantic, I mean just the face of the buddha is 17.5 feet tall -- so it's gigantic. The rest of the temple ground features lots of intricately carved water fountains, where people can wash up (usually their hands) and cleanse their mouth by drink and spitting out the water from the fountain, and bronze lanterns hung low on the outside of the buildings. There's also a temple at the top of the hill over looking the entire temple grounds. A nice place to take a rest and feel the breeze of the air.

We took our time getting up on the last day of our vacation. Our agenda is to drive to Kobe to get some authentic French food for lunch before driving home leisurely back to Iwakuni. Kobe is a big city where there's a lot of foreigners, foreign architecture, and home to the insanely expensive kobe beef. We arrived in Kobe on a Sunday morning, and the place we had picked out for lunch was fully booked because Kobe is apparently a huge wedding destination for the rich Japanese. So every expensive foreign restaurant was catering a wedding or two. We thought we were out of luck, when we finally found one nice, quietly tucked away French restaurant that had an expensive wine list and good French-Japanese food. Bingo! And with that we concluded our first vacation in Japan.

Arrival

We arrived in Japan on May 29, 2009 in the mid afternoon. One of Raymond's new co-worker picked us up at the airport and brought us to our hotel -- our unofficial home for the next 2 weeks. Prior to arrival, Raymond and I had already purchased a car in Iwakuni from a guy who was leaving his post here. So within a few days, we had our own set of wheels and were exploring the town and cities near by.

Our Honda. They don't have this model in US, but it's very popular in Japan

Note: The steering wheel is on the otherside, and I still have trouble getting on the "correct" passenger side.

On June 15, we moved into our new place. A three bedroom apartment on base, next to the commissary (AKA grocery store) and very centrally located. By June 17, all of our stuff had arrived and we are all set to set out our next 3 years in this country.

Our living room and dinning room. It's bigger than it looks, but hard to take photo of it from the inside.

Our big kitchen. An upgrade from our tiny kitchen in Charlotte. Very cool!

Our bedroom/closet. Well, the closet space is quite small, but luckily we have 3 bedrooms, so who's going to say anything for me to spill over a bit to another room. Which is what I did.

Cross country USA Part 3: The Grand Finale

After traveling with Raymond, now, for the past 15 days where we were basically joint at the hip, I was dying for some OTHER company. Today, May 24th... well, actually, tonight I will meet up with my bestfriend, Rebecca, for the Grand Canyon - Grand Finale part of the trip. For the morning, we drove to Mesa Verde, CO to visit US' largest Native American cliff dweller settlement (the Ancient Puebloan Indians).

The settlement has thought to date back to 1100 A.D., and was first explored by the Spanish in the 18th century. They named it Mesa Verde, meaning "green tableland" for the tree covered plateaus, and it was absolutely green as ever in May; however, it pretty much turns into a dessert brown once the summer hits. The stone dwellings were actually discovered by archeologists in the late 19th century, when the cave excavations began and they found hundreds of rooms over many sites in the area. The largest is the Cliff Palace with over 150 rooms, some were underground with only a small opening to the cliff. Then in the 1300 A.D., the dwellers suddenly departed the area, and to this day this phenomena has yet to be explained.

We continued west to Four Corners, where they were charging admission to visit an American flag planted in the corner of four states (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona). I decided against paying the fee, and we continued driving. We reached Monument Valley, AZ by late afternoon, and the landscape of this place is odd. The land is flat and dry as can be, where you can see miles down the road except for these odd structures that stick out from middle of nowhere. The descriptions of these structures would be totem pole, elephant buttes, mittens, etc.

By sunset, we have met up with Rebecca and arrived at the edge of Grand Canyon. We quickly got out of the car for a quick picture. And I think this first picture I captured of Grand Canyon was perhaps my best picture of Grand Canyon.

May 25th, 2009. We woke up extra early to participate in the Mule Ride into Grand Canyon on the Bright Angel trail. The trail brings us about 4000 feet down and 6 miles into the canyon, and luckily for us -- on mule back. It took us all the way to Bright Angel point where it over looks the Colorado River, and along the way we passed the Indian Garden, which is a field full of cactus flower.

The ride takes about 3 hours down into the canyon, which is quite hard sitting on the mule going down at about 18% down grade, then 4 hours back up the canyon in scorching heat. I can't lie, there was no way I could have hiked this myself, so I will not complain about how uncomfortable the ride was on the mule. At the Bright Angle Point, I was lucky enough to see an American condor (which is an endangered species) and a gecko.

I was a bit sad that we were unable to spend more time exploring the Grand Canyon, but I was absolutely exhausted from the mule ride the day before. The three of us happily settled for breakfast at Denny's and off back home for Rebecca in Las Vegas. Along the way we stopped briefly at Hoover Dam, and I was amazed at how touristy it was there -- for a dam! And once we were home at Rebecca's, I was delighted to be able to sleep on her sofa instead of a hotel bed for once, again.

After dinner, Rebecca took Raymond and I to the famous Vegas strip. Where there were small replicates of... everything. From Eiffel tower to Giza pyramids to the Wings in the Louvre to fake venetian canals... indoor! There was a million screens flashing a bit of everything at you, just a constant visual feast. After about an hour, Raymond was officially tired and whined about going home. So we finally caught an entire showing of the Bellagio fountain show and off we're home.

The next day, I was feeling a little gloom. It was my last official day in USA. I packed and repacked my belongings, and was finally ready to make a departure from this country. Rebecca dropped us off at the Las Vegas airport, where we said our good byes in tears, and then we were off. The past 3 weeks went in a whirlwind, and it was both sweet and bitter. From my last view of Charlotte, to saying "I DO" at the wedding, to my last hug with my mom, to over indulged food fest at Blackberry Farm, to leaving the east coast through the gateway of the west, to stepping on a stupid cactus, to my first buffalo burger, to grand sights of snow capped Rockies, to the colorful Grand Canyon, to the outrageous city of Las Vegas, and to my final good byes with my bestfriend and my adopted home country, USA.

Cross country USA Part 2: Midwest

May 15, 2009. We woke up extra early to drive across some of the most boring landscapes in US. It will take us roughly 13 hours and 915 miles to get from Saint Louis to Badlands in South Dakota, giving time for lunch and pit stops. We got up, packed our luggages, ate breakfast, and left Saint Louis at 7:30AM. We arrived in Kansas City, MO (not to be confused with Kansas City, Kansas) at Arthur Bryant's for lunch.

Not to be confused with Arthur W.M. Bryant, the British historian, Arthur Bryant's is a BBQ joint in downtown Kansas City. The place is a small hole in the wall restaurant with a long queue of people waiting to get their hands on some of the tastiest BBQ ever. The BBQ here is mostly beef briskets served open face on loads of soft white bread, as much as you'd like actually. The specialty is the burnt ends, which is what I had. It's burned to a nice crisp, with a

bit of ash flavor still lingering on the meat. It was finger licking good.

At halfway point, we stopped in Omaha, NE for a quick cup of joe at the local Starbucks. After the pick me up, the weather started to turn on us. And what a great opportunity for Raymond to become sleepy (yes, after the coffee) and wanted me to drive a little. For the next 2 hours, the weather got really nasty, it rained so hard that I couldn't see 2 feet ahead of me, then it hailed, and it was very intense driving. Soon after the storm rolled by, the sun came out and revealed a bright blue sky. The landscape was just as Raymond had described, lots and lots and lots and lots of small rolling hills and cows for the next 5 hours.

By the time we reached the Badlands National Park, it was close to 8PM (after we gained one hour heading west), and the sun was going down fast. I was itching to get out of the car, only to find my flip-flop and long sleeve sweater to be slightly -- wait, scratch that out -- to be very inadequate. The weather in South Dakota was bitter, cold, dry, and extremely windy, even in May. I quickly unpacked my camera and tripod, ran out towards the pretty yellow and green grassland to snap a few pictures. "Ouch!" Yes, I stepped on a cactus.

Badlands was once a hunting ground for the Native Americans. It is here where they hunted bisons, scanned for their enemies and wandering herds. It is 244,000 acres of eroded land blended with rich fossil beds in an once fresh water valley. The once stream banks are now the colorfully carved rocks in the background. It is also the home to bisons, bighorn sheep, black-footed ferrets, swift fox, prairie dogs, and CACTUS. After my cactus injury, the arch of my foot swelled up to the size of a lemon. Raymond had to carry me back to the car. Note to self: Next time -- wear shoes.

We spent better half of the next day exploring Custer State Park. We drove around the park circle looking out for buffalos, elks, mule deer, pronghorns, and bighorn sheep. And finally we pondered upon a big herd of buffalos grazing, with baby buffalos trailing after their mother. I was a bit disappointed that I did not own a mac daddy zoom lens for my camera, so I was only able to take pictures from a distance. For the first time in my life, I saw a wild herd of buffalos. And for the first time in my life, I ate a buffalo burger at a cook out sponsored by the park. It was a bit wrong, I admit.

By noon, I was ready to go for a hike, and we decided on the Lover's Leap. As we got out of the car at the trail head, there was a buffalo about 10 feet away from me, across the stream, grazing alone. I took the golden opportunity to take a quick picture. Please note: It is very dangerous to observe a buffalo from a short distance, do not try this at home.

For dinner, we decided to go to the Corn Exchange in downtown Rapid City, which was a very lovely little town and restaurant. We were only able to snatch a reservation at 9PM, and the restaurant was sold out of a lot of the things I had wanted. The experience was still very pleasant, I settled on a Caesar salad with anchovies while Raymond had a Filet Mignon with sun-dried tomato butter. And we finished the night with a very creamy and slightly sweet creme brulee.

We decided to sleep in the next morning, and finally got out of bed at 7:30AM (which is like 9:30AM on the east coast). Our agenda today was to drive 510 miles/8 hours to Yellowstone, horizontally across the state of Wyoming. For about 6 hours on the road, there was nothing. No rolling hills, no cows, nothing, until finally the sky opened and there it was -- the snow capped Rockies.

We finally reached our destination at 8PM and checked into Yellowstone Lake Hotel. The hotel needed a restoration BAD. It looked as if it was still living in the glamor of the 1960s, which was probably when it was last renovated. There was a lounge/foyer, where guests could sit, enjoy the view of the lake (frozen lake in May), and have an overpriced cocktail. Our room was tiny and old, but the bathroom was clean.

Raymond broke into the beer that he received as a gift from the wedding, and we went straight to bed. In the middle of the night, Raymond jumped out of bed, turned on the light, and he was throwing a towel up and down on top of me and the covers. I was confused, pulled the covers over me, and went back to sleep. The next morning, he told me there was a mouse running on top of me and the covers last night. THAT caused me insomnia the following night.

By now, you'd think I'd be used to the cold north west, but I wasn't. It's difficult to look outside and see 10 feet of snow piled up on the side of the road in May. I was dressed in layers of tank top, long sleeve t-shirt, sweater, coat, and gloves. We headed outside to see Old Faithful this morning. We waited roughly 10 minutes around the geyser, and then it started to produce a ton of steam, and then water spouted for about 3 minutes.

A geyser is basically a hot spring that is usually located near volcanic areas, and the name derives from the Icelandic verb, to gush, gjósa. Geysers are co-located with a pool of water, such as mudpools or fumaroles. Where the underground water circulation system is heated by the magma from the volcanic area, and is then pushed up through the geyser and thus erupts. Then the cycle continues. And Yellow Stone has almost half of all the geysers in the world.

For the rest of the day, we drove around the park loop, checked out Roosevelt Tower, crossed countless waterfalls, and did a bit of hiking in 6 feet of snow. Many of the hiking paths were still closed, and would not open for another 2 weeks or so. There were an abundance of geysers, and the fumes were toxicating and smelly from the sulfur. Then finally we reached Mammoth Springs! I've been looking forward to the Springs; however, I was slightly disappointed when I found out that many of the springs have ceased to flow for a few years now. I suppose the springs flow and die out and comes back every few decade or so. I was just unlucky. The Canary Spring still flowed in abundance, and has a hue of yellow/orange in the bed of the spring that is caused by a specific kind of algae that thrives in the hot temperature.

We returned to the hotel for dinner early in the evening. I have already been forewarned regarding the food at the hotel by TripAdvisor.com, so I was careful not to raise my expectation too high. I decided to go with a seared duck breast salad for $14, with dressing on the side incase they drench my salad. To my surprised, the duck salad was not half bad. The duck breast was generously sized on a big plate of fresh greens, and not over cooked -- just slightly pink in the middle and very juicy. Not bad for a tourist trap.

May 19th, and we were on our way to the Grand Tetons. The drive from Yellow Stone to Grand Tetons was lovely with the Tetons covered in snow. We decided on an easy hike around lake Jenny that is a 6-7 miles loop. However, I did not anticipating on hiking in the snow, so I had to back track to the car to put on a pair of hiking boots. The hike would have been a pretty easy one had there not been any snow. With the snow, the trails are sometime ambiguous and we got lost, and half of my body fell through the snow drift into a stream and placed a deep cut on my leg. However, the hike was well worth it, along the way we saw a few black marmots (much like a beaver but without a flat tail and doesn't build dams), chipmunks, and a baby elk.

I was exhausted when we finally checked into our motel in Jackson Hole, and slept like a log for over 8 hours. The next day we were on our way to aunt Janet's in Erie, CO. I started my day off with a 6 mile run, felt great about myself before we stuffed ourselves back into the car for another 8 hour drive. By now, I was getting a bit sick of ridding in the car and was hoping therun in the morning would give me a bit of a jump start, but it wore off in about 30 minutes.

The weather has been pretty good all along in the trip, so by the time we reached Erie, it has become cloudy and rainy. We spent the day walking around the sleepy college town of Boulder (most of the kids would have gone home by end of May), visiting the college campus, and then the outdoor shopping district -- Pearl Street Mall. Since Estee Park was not yet open, we went on a short hike up Flat Iron Mountain, called Royal Arch. The last 0.7 mile of the hike ascends you to the top of the mountain where you could view the entire city from atop the clouds. Quite an invigorating view!

We left aunt Janet's on May 22nd, for another 7 hour car ride to Durango, CO. The highlight of the day was when we passed through the town of South Park, CO, while I watched "He's Not That Into You" in the car. The next day we fulfilled one of Raymond's childhood dreams. We rode on the steam train from Durango to Silverton, CO. The train ride up the mountain was spectacular, waterfalls left and right, streams crossing underneath us while we crossed over wooden bridges, mountains on both sides of us so close that I could easily reach out and touch them. After about 2 hours of the train ride, I was no longer visually stimulated, and there was still 1.5 hours left on the ride up and then another 3.5 hours of train ride back down the mountain. Oh boy.

The name steam train was a bit misleading, because the engine was actually run by coal. And the sot from the coal gets picked up by the steam and was then released into the air, and eventually lands on my face as we strolled slowly up the mountain. This was NOT very environmentally friendly. The train also moves very slowly at about 5-15 miles an hour, we noticed that some people actually got to the top of the mountain in Silverton faster by bicycle.

The town, Silverton, was formerly a silver mining town with a small population of 500. Today, the town is mostly a small tourist trap, with small bar/restaurants/saloon, such as Shady Lady in a former brothel, few shops for souvenirs, and such. The train allows the tourist to roam around town for almost 2 hours, and that would be plenty to see the town and catch a bite to eat. Then another 3.5 hours back to Durango. Raymond came to Durango almost 15 years ago, his parents refused to take a trip to Silverton on the train, I can see why.

For dinner, we went to the famous local eatery called Red Snapper in down town Durango. I decided on the local almond crusted trout, since I see a lot of trout finishing in the CO area. However, I was disappointed by the dish, the trout was over cooked, the almond was overwhelming, breading was too thick, fish skin was not roasted with a flavorful crisp, and the whole dish was just quite bland. Raymond decided that we should contribute the unpleasant dinner experience to the high altitude. It apparently is very hard to cook in high altitude, but Raymond also contributes the fact that he misheard me to that he can't remember any things he did wrong on this trip to the affect of altitude. SURE... honey!

Cross country USA Part 1: Gateway to the West

Three hours after we exited from our wedding, we arrived at our first destination on your honeymoon -- Blackberry Farm. It's an actual working farm, that also has guest rooms like a hotel. All meals are included, and on top of that, Raymond had included a bonus -- an exclusive wine tasting and dinner with the wine makers of "Chateau Le Pin". In case you are not familiar with Le Pin, like me, here's a link to Wikipedia for you to browse a bit more.

The Le Pin vintages in the picture below were 1983, 1994, 1999, 1998, 2005, 2001, 1996, and 2004 (the order we tasted them for lunch and dinner on May 11, 2009).

Finally, it's time to relax. After a few quick pictures on the property, we went to the barn -- yes, an actual barn for some real gourmet dinner. Blackberry farm is located at the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountain in Walland, TN. It was originally purchased by a couple by the last name of Laiser from Chicago in 1940, when the wife accidently snagged her silk stockings on a blackberry bush, that's what they decided to name their new home.

In the 1970s, Blackberry Farm was turned into a six-room country inn by then owners -- the Beall family. After numerous acquisitions, the modest country inn was expanded to a 63-room Relais & Chateaux estate and restaurant today. This expansion also included a new farm house, where guests could relax, enjoy a cool refreshment before dinner (the mint julep is a must), lounge, and partake on formal dining.

Our day consist of getting up, shower, etc -- 3 course breakfast. Gym. 5 course lunch. Gym. 7 course dinner. And it was still hard to work up an appetite, but some how food disappeared when it was placed in front of me. It definitely helps when a simple picnic sandwich looked something like this --

After 3 days of stuffing our faces and finally sobering up from all the wine drinking, we were sad to leave all this behind. Our next destination was Saint Louis -- "The Gateway to the West". We arrived at Saint Louis in the early evening, and checked ourselves in to Napoleon Retreat B&B.

Saint Louis was named after King Louis IX of France, but was lost to the Spanish in the Seven Year War. Then secretly transfered to Napoleon, who then sold it to United States in 1803. AND it hosted the FIRST Olympic game in US in 1904. Since our cross country journey is taking us from east to west. It was only appropriate to visit the famous arch as first stop on our agenda (May 14, 2009).

The arch's construction was from 1963-65, 630 feet tall, and 630 feet wide. It's widest part at the base is 54 feet and narrowest part is only 17 feet at the peak. The elevator ride is in a small, cramped, un-airconditioned pod, that takes about 5 minutes to get to the top. Once at the peak, you can clearly see the entire city of Saint Louis and the Cardinal's ball park.

After the arch, we had lunch at Eleven Elven, one of the top restaurants rated by Wine Spectator and Zagat. However, I think partly due to the raised level of standards that we had at Blackberry Farm, I was not at all pleased with my lunch. The sauce on my seafood fettucini was overwhelming and completely drenched my pasta.

To walk off our lunch, we decided to go to the Saint Louis zoo and park. We saw lions, elephants, seals, snakes, turtles, etc. And my personal favorite went to their butterfly house. I wish I could have stayed there longer. :(

Wedding

May 10, 2009. The big day. I've had nightmares of this day. One, for example, that I walked down the aisle and no one was there, no flowers, and everything was a mess. I suppose that dream was a reflection of what little planning I had done for the wedding. I am glad that didn't come true.

I started the day with a short jog around the lake at Montreat at around 7AM. I was already running late when I received a phone call from Rebecca saying she's about 15 minutes away from Homewood (the wedding place). I quickly packed, handed Raymond my veil and asked him to iron it, and then left. My stylist, photographer 2 (Melissa), maid of honor (Rebecca) was already there when I arrived at 9:30AM. I know I am the bride, but I felt a little bad for being late.

The day had already become chaotic when my breakfast had not arrived at 10:45AM. Raymond was in charge of picking up the breakfast, but when he arrived at Starbucks there was a wait for picking up a jug of coffee. When the coffee was finally ready, the Starbucks cashier accidently dropped it, and spilled the coffee. Another wait for brewing more coffee. My breakfast finally arrived at 11AM. Starving! I quickly chowed down what was in my face and back to make-up.

Noon, my veil finally arrived. I had almost decided to do without a veil until I visited this veil shop in South Charlotte. It's tucked in the back of Quail Hollow shopping center inside of a bridal dress shop. The owner, Jet Tayler, was fantastic. We tried on almost 15 different veils, different layer, lengths, width, color (I thought there was only white, but I was proved wrong), trimming, etc. And finally found one that was perfect. It was a bit off white, with a blush layer, long, no trim, and with a slight shimmer in it, that brought out the shimmer in my dress. It will take one month for her to make the veil for me, while steaming it four times in the process to get it perfect. Then she handed me a card with her name, number, and price -- a whopping $250.

My veil arrived in a David's Bridal bag, I was a little stunned. I quickly looked inside the bag and pulled out a one-layer, short, white veil. What happened to my veil?!?! I called Raymond as fast as my finger could dial his number. He explained -- He was ironing my veil this morning after I left, while speaking to Kim about why I trusted him with the task of ironing my veil with the iron in his hand. Then as soon as he put the iron down on my veil, it just melted and put a huge hole in my veil. I gasped at this.

$250 was a bit out of my budget to spend on one veil, so after hearing the news that Raymond had burned a hole in it on the day of my wedding, I was relieved to have decided to only spent about $6 dollars making my veil instead. Still, I wanted a blusher and not a single layer veil! My stylist suggested that we still use the old veil and just hide the hole on the top of my head. He was amazing.

By 1PM, we were putting finally touches on my hair. Everything is coming together. I can feel that I was getting really excited. At the same time, Melissa and Vara (photographer 1) were taking a million pictures of me getting ready. And now the finally step -- slip on my dress while my mom helped tie the back of my dress.

I'm ready, ready to walk down the aisle and I have 5 minutes to get down there. Wait... Where's my maid of honor? Where's Rebecca? This is where things became a complete blur. For the next 30 minutes I remember being cramped in a tiny bathroom with about 7 other women trying to fix Rebecca's dress that had come apart along the zipper. I remember trying to help rebecca sew up the dress in the tiny bathroom, but my hands were shaking so badly that someone else had to take over.

I was a very lucky girl on Sunday, May 10th, 2009. It had been raining for 2 weeks straight prior to my wedding. For 2 weeks, I checked weather none stop and hoped that the rain would clear up. And according to the weather channel, the future looked gloom. But on May 10, 2009 at around 10AM, the sun came out. And by 1:30PM (wedding time), the sun was blazing and over heating every single one of my guests. Guests were forced out of their seats and stood in the shade, while they waited for us to start the ceremony.

Linda, my wedding director was very good. And before long, the wedding continued back on track. It was the shortest ceremony I have ever been too, lucky me. The reception started at 3PM, and I was exhausted. I greeted my guests/friends smiling as much as I could, but I was mentally drained. I ate my food, but could not taste or saver the experience. I was a walking zombie, but a smiling zombie. I posed for pictures, cut the cake, and had one dance with Raymond. And we were off...

The wedding day came and gone. The day a bride, sometimes, plans for 3 years are gone in matter of hours. To me, the whole day seemed like a dream, a blur, a hazy experience. I often wonder if this happens to anyone else, any other brides. It may be blurry, but it was a good day that left a sweet after taste. Beautiful day, filled with lots of sun shine, flowers, greenery, wine, food, great friends, family, and a few exciting adventures.

Let's start from here

My blog begins on the last day of my life in Charlotte (May 8th, 2009). Here a new chapter begins and lots unknown. I cried as Raymond picked me up from my last day at work at Wachovia Bank (soon to be Wells Fargo) in downtown Charlotte and together we drove to Montreat, NC. I can see the skyscrapers disappear quickly as we headed west and then they were gone.

View from our penthouse apartment in downtown Charlotte.