Trying to photograph two toddlers in one picture was tough enough… one crawled everywhere and another ran everywhere. Keith is one big crawler, and he doesn’t make much noise, more like a silent ninja. Both brothers tried many different outfits, including their Halloween costumes. We were just thankful the weather were warm enough for them to be outside without wearing too many layers of clothes.

Carrying a big lens and laying my belly on the ground to take pictures is one hard work, to say the least. I’m just glad the pictures turned out the way I wanted.

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This year, we decided to visit New England because it is dubbed the world’s best place for fall foliage, and we are certainly not disappointed. That said, we are afraid that any fall foliage that we may see elsewhere in the future may not match our great experience and expectation in New England, except, perhaps Kyoto in Japan. This time, we visited 3 states: Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. These are the states we always talk about visiting, but never weigh much on our minds because we weren’t sure what to see there. So, our objectives of this trip are simple: 1) to see fall colors and 2) to eat whole lot of lobsters.

When we arrived in Boston, we were greeted with rain and gloomy weather. Our drive to Vermont was rather disappointing because the trees were fairly green. It was raining hard and by the time we arrived at our vacation home in the evening, it was too dark to see anything. The weather on the next day was just beautiful. We drove along the country roads and we stopped at a few small town stores to stretch our legs and to try out some local products. The following day, we did the Ben & Jerry’s factory tour in the morning. It really wasn’t the best tour ever because the factory is fairly small and we only sampled one ice cream flavor. We visited the Trapp Family Lodge, the inspiration for the classic musical and movie “The Sound of Music”. Our drive through Smugglers’ Notch was probably the best drive in Vermont with colorful leaves on both sides of the road. We ended our day with a visit to the Vermont Teddy Bear Company Factory Tour. Okay, this company is pretty darn serious in making good Teddy Bears and there are so many type of bears with different outfits that it is almost comical… yea, only rich folks can afford stuff like this.

During our drive to New Hampshire, we visited the Cabot Visitor Center to do the factory tour, partly because we bought a big block of sharp cheddar back in Minnesota… so, we decided to learn more about this company. What we initially thought would be an half hour visit ended up to be a more than an hour visit because we spent a long time trying out different type of cheese again and again, pretty darn awesome considering the fact we only had light breakfast that morning. Then, we spent most of our day in Franconia Notch State Park, covering all the attractions in the park. We took the tram to the summit of Cannon Mountain and we could see beautiful fall foliage for miles and miles away, just unbelievable! The next day, we drove to the summit of Mount Washington, the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at 6288 ft… way to abuse the rental car. It is also the home of the highest wind gust directly measured at the Earth’s surface at 231 mph on the afternoon of April 12, 1934. In the afternoon, we visited some attractions along the Kancamagus Scenic Byway, often referred to as the best fall foliage trip in the United States. Our third day in New Hampshire was greeted with cold shower the whole day, but we proceeded with our hikes in Crawford Notch State Park.

From New Hampshire, we drove a few good hours to Acadia National Park in Maine. Although it is one of the smallest national parks in the United States, it is also one of the most visited national parks in the United States. We hiked up the Precipice Trail, the most challenging trail in the park. In fact, we were told this trail is considered the most difficult trail in the east of the United States. We essentially scrambled and climbed for 1000 feet to the summit of Champlain Mountain. This trail is so incredibly difficult and dangerous that we decided to take a longer but safer route down the mountain. In fact, this trail makes the Angels Landing in Zion National Park look way easy. We also did the Beehive Trail, which was equally challenging with the climb at half the height of the Precipice Trail. Acadia National Park is a very different national park compared to other national parks we have been to. Although it encompasses just 47K acres, but the land includes tidal pools, rocky shoreline, tall mountains and pockets of deciduous forest. We woke up at 5 AM Eastern time to make it to the summit of Cadillac Mountain to watch the sunrise. It is the highest point along the North Atlantic seaboard and it is the first place to view sunrise in the United States from October 7 to March 6. The Mount Desert Ocenarium turned out to be one of the most surprising and interesting visits throughout the trip. It is the only lobster hatchery in the United States. Even though the place looks run down, the staffs were incredibly knowledgeable about lobsters. We were told October is a good time to eat lobsters in Maine because the lobsters shed their shells every August. Thus, the lobsters weigh less because the shell is softer, taste sweeter and much cheaper per pound wise. We would highly recommend this place to anyone visiting Maine next time.

We spent a night in Portland to cut down our driving time to Boston on the following day. It was said that Portland in Oregon was named after Portland in Maine. We spent most of our time visiting the lighthouses while waiting for our dinner time to eat the lobsters.

We were grateful the weather held up, for most of the days. This was one trip that we were unsure what to expect, but it turned out to be a rather awesome experience. 11 days, a very memorable trip, and we are almost sure that we will be back someday… to eat more lobsters.

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Our initial plan was to bring him to the Como Zoo on Sunday morning, but the weather wasn’t too cooperating. So, we brought him to do some grocery shopping at the nearby supermarket. Somehow, Richard had the tendency to complain that I drive too fast even though I drove well below the speed limit. Weird. On Monday evening, we picked Jenny up from the airport and Richard seemed stunned to see his mom sitting beside him in the car. That shut him up for a good 10 to 15 minutes right there.

That said, Richard was pretty obedient for that entire weekend. It was fairly surprising that he never asked for his parents, not even once. It was a long and tiring weekend for us, but it is safe for us to say that we have accomplished our part with flying colors.

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After a long 6-hour drive, Chicago welcomed us with heavy rain. In fact, the rain was so bad and windy that most motorists parked their vehicles beside the road. The weather on the following day was much better. We spent most of our time strolling along the Michigan Avenue a.k.a. “The Magnificent Mile” and the nearby parks rather than visiting the museums this time. In the afternoon, we did the Chicago River Architecture boat tour, which was very interesting and informative. The skyscrapers in Chicago are truly works of art.

We departed to Milwaukee from Chicago. Milwaukee seems like a big city, yet the buildings look dull and boring, and the motorists tend to drive below the speed limit, which is the complete opposite of the motorists in Chicago. We visited the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Miller Brewery Factory Tour and the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee. The Harley-Davidson Museum seems to be the most interesting one among those attractions. The bike collections and related artifacts are just impressive.

We spent our last night in Madison where we visited the Olbrich Botanical Gardens and the Wisconsin State Capitol. The building design is astoundingly breathtaking and beautiful, using the construction materials from various countries, such as Greece, Algeria, Italy and France. We joined the free tour where the tour guide showed us some of the important rooms, such as Supreme Court, Governor’s Conference Room, Senate Chamber, Assembly Chamber and North Hearing Room.

This is probably one of those trips where we tried a lot of ethnic dishes: Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Laotian and American. The dishes were awesome and we always enjoy trying something new.

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All that being said, this trip turned out to be quite a memorable one. I promised sis that we would cover “all” major attractions in Las Vegas, which is impossible to begin with, but at least we did manage to visit the ones we wanted to see over there. We spent half a day at the Hoover Dam, which is considered one of the seven wonders of the Industrial World. We did the Power Plant Tour, but the tour wasn’t that interesting. That said, it is a tour about the power plant, not the DisneyWorld… so, that should ring a big bell.

In Las Vegas, we practically walk from the morning to past midnight everyday. When it got hot during the day, it got REALLY hot, yet we proceeded with our walks as if the sun wasn’t there. It wasn’t too bad at all compared to some of our past hiking trips. We had my wife accompanying Jenny’s mom back to the hotel every late night so that she could get her early rest first while sis and I loitered around the strip to enjoy the beautiful night view until way past midnight. It was pretty funny that Jenny’s mom kept indicating that I was very tired, hoping that we would take a taxi back to the hotel soon, yet in my mind, I really wanted to keep walking just “a little further” to see what other “interesting” things ahead of us.

We watched two shows in Vegas this time: Mystere by Cirque de Soleil and Phantom of the Opera. Mystere was very good, considering the fact we got a great discount for the tickets. Besides, anything by Cirque de Soleil is usually good. The Phantom of the Opera was outstanding! My wife and I actually watched this play before in Minneapolis, but this is truly one of the best shows in Las Vegas in our honest opinion. Love the play, love the songs, love the effects, love everything about it. In fact, we might watch the Phantom of the Opera again the next time we visit Las Vegas in the future. It is THAT good.

In the end, we hope this Vegas trip made a positive impression to first-time visitors like sis and Jenny’s mom, minus all the leg-breaking walks, heavy secondhand smokes, scantily clad ladies, porno advertisements and rowdy folks carrying booze on the streets. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas…

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After having BBQ for dinner, we decided to watch lil’ Richard showing off his painting skill. He was pretty talkative for a toddler at his age. Every time we visited him, his vocabulary seems to improve exponentially… very impressive. At night, Richard decided to paint everything, including himself… much to our delight and entertainment. I’m sure Jenny has a lot to say about us teaching his son how to paint his own body. Nevertheless, it was an unique and interesting experience to watch a toddler so mesmerized in painting.

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• Drive along the Pacific Coast Scenic Byway in Oregon.
• Visit Multnomah Falls in Oregon.
• Learn more about the Underground Portland and “Shanghaiing” from the Portland Walking Tours.
• Visit the tulip farms during the Skagit Valley Tulips Festival.
• Eat seafood in Crab Pot restaurant in Seattle.

Once we arrived in Seattle, we drove south to the state of Oregon and made a detour to the Mount St Helens National Volcanic Monument. The drive to Mt St Helens was a little disappointing. Not only the Johnston Ridge Observatory was still closed due to the winter season, we didn’t have the opportunity to view the mountain from afar due to the foggy weather. The drive was treacherous, the road was slippery… it was raining, snowing and raining marble-sized hail… and most of the viewpoints were inaccessible due to the snow.

The drive along the Pacific Coast Scenic Byway was a memorable one. We drove to Astoria, Cannon Beach and Oceanside for the entire day before heading to Portland. The rugged coastline and the crashing waves were just beautiful. We also covered two state parks along the drive: Fort Stevens State Park and Ecola State Park. We visited a few waterfalls during our drive along the Historic Columbia River Highway. The Multnomah Falls is by far one of the most beautiful waterfalls we have witnessed so far in the states.

We decided to learn more about the Underground Portland by taking one of the walking tours. The story about “Shanghaiing” wasn’t as disturbing as I thought it would be. In fact, the shady stories that I have read from the websites weren’t completely true in the first place. Nevertheless, it was a very interesting tour. We also learned that the Simpsons’ creator, Matt Groening, named all the cartoon characters (Homer, Mr Burns, etc…) based on the street names in Portland because he is a Portland native. The tour guide also talked about why there is a Portland in Oregon and another Portland in Maine. This tour brought us around the downtown area. The actual underground section of the tour was rather disappointing compared to the Underground Seattle that we did a few years ago. We were brought to some pizza restaurant’s basement and that was it… it wasn’t too exciting to say the least.

The tulip farms in the city of Mt Vernon was fantastic! Even though we know the tulip farms here are not as big as the ones in Holland, we truly enjoyed our time there as we spent hours admiring the beauty of the tulips. We visited the Roozengaarde Display Garden in the morning and the place became very crowded by noon.

We didn’t cover a lot of attractions in Seattle this time. While Angelina attended her conference sessions at the nearby convention center, I worked from the hotel throughout the day. Our only plan was to eat a lot of seafood before flying back to the Midwest, and I think we had successfully accomplished that. Throughout this trip, we consumed variety of food: American, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Greek and Chinese. This is probably one of the less taxing trips for us because we didn’t do much hiking this time. In fact, I think I consumed more calories than burning them, but it was worth it. 🙂

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It was really a last minute plan for us to head up to cities, and I decided to set up a makeshift studio in their house to experiment with directional lighting and to do some family shots for them. So, we scrambled to a fabric store to buy a big black fabric and a big white fabric. Then, we bought a few mini clamps to hold the fabric on the curtain bar and a screw to mount the flash hot shoe to my tripod. The entire poor man’s studio setup cost less than $70… pretty economical. The 2-hour photo shoot went well, and the shots turned out rather good, considering the fact that I basically had no preparation for this studio-like photo shoot. Richard and Keith were pretty cooperating most of the times throughout the night. At some point of time, my wife had to distract Richard to allow me to squeeze a few more shots of his parents and the baby.

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