Congratulations on your new born baby girl, Corey and Liz!

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Our flight to New York was rather smooth although it was delayed for an hour. We took a cab to our hotel upon our arrival at LaGuardia airport. During the ride, the cab driver asked us whether he should take the tunnel or not to the hotel. He obviously didn’t instill any degree of confidence in us on his ability to get us to the hotel. After checking into the hotel, we took the subway trains to New Jersey to visit John, Cathy and Ashton. It was very nice to see them and we had great dinner at their place. Cathy walked us to the nearby Jersey City’s waterfront after dinner. Even though it was foggy in the evening, the Manhattan skyline was still beautiful. We took the last PATH train back to Manhattan, which was jam-packed with passengers. After spending a short time at Times Square, we decided to call it a day.

On Sunday, we took a subway train to Chinatown for dim sum breakfast… certainly one of the best meals we ever have. We strolled around Chinatown and Little Italy before headed to Battery Park. Since Ellis Island was closed due to Superstorm Sandy, we took the Staten Island Ferry free ride to see the Statue of Liberty from afar. It was certainly much better than paying for the cruise boats that park a little closer to the statue on a very foggy day. We didn’t spend any time in Staten Island since we took the next ferry back to Manhattan upon arrival. From Battery Park, we strolled around the financial district and visited the famous Charging Bull statue, Trinity Church, New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall. From there, we headed to Ground Zero. We acquired our free Memorial tickets from the 9/11 Memorial Preview Site, which is about 5 blocks away from Ground Zero. The security at the Memorial was incredibly tight. It wasn’t possible to see the Memorial without going through the security because the entire site was walled off due to the on-going construction at Ground Zero and to control the crowd. We spent a good chunk of time at the Memorial before we took a subway train to Brooklyn to see the Manhattan skyline from the Brooklyn side in the evening. We initially planned to walk on the Brooklyn Bridge back to Manhattan, which is about an hour of walk, but we decided against that because we were incredibly tired due to the amount of walking we did the entire day. We took a subway train to Chinatown for dinner before heading back to the hotel.

On Monday, we spent the majority of our morning renewing our passports at the embassy. While waiting for our new passports, we paid a visit to the nearby United Nations. The security guard I talked to obviously misled us because there wasn’t whole lot of things to see and do in the building… just bunch of gift stores. After picking up our passports, we visited Grand Central Terminal, New York Public Library and Bryant Park. Then, we visited B&H Photo Video, which is the largest non-chain photo and video equipment store in the United States. I was very pleased to be able to visit this store because I have bought many expensive toys from their online store. This store is definitely a paradise for photographers. It has pretty much all the equipments of any brands where you can see and touch to your heart’s content. I bought a heavy duty Gorillapod to allow me to photograph the evening skyline at the Top of the Rock observation deck the following day since I already knew tripods weren’t allowed to be used there. From there, we visited Penn Station and Madison Square Garden where we witnessed hundreds of teenage girls anxiously queued up to get a glimpse of One Direction boy band who supposedly was in the building. We took a short rest at Macy’s Herald Square before having early dinner. After dinner, we strolled around Times Square before calling it a day.

On Tuesday, we visited the Rockefeller Center in the morning. We headed to the Top of the Rock observation deck, however, the view wasn’t spectacular due to the thick fog. After having the biggest corned beef sandwich at a deli restaurant, we decided to spend some time in Central Park. This is one place we didn’t initially think of visiting, but it turned out to be a great visit. It just felt great to be able to get away from all the noise, people and traffic… and where we could walk leisurely without bumping into anyone. We spent a good few hours walking around and sitting at benches, doing absolutely nothing. From there, we visited the nearby Metropolitan Museum of Art. We finally walked a good 20+ blocks back to the Top of the Rock observation deck to see the Manhattan skyline in the evening, which was incredibly packed with tourists. A trip to New York wouldn’t be complete without having a New York style thin-crust pizza, and we had a great pizza dinner in the evening.

On Wednesday, after having our breakfast, we took the hotel-provided shuttle to the airport. Driving in New York definitely takes some time to get used to. Our shuttle driver was one hell of a driver and also a hell driver. There were a few circumstances where it was almost impossible to overtake slower vehicles on busy traffic and he did it with ease. Whenever he saw the light turned green and the traffic wasn’t moving, he would make a full use of the honk… the one feature in a vehicle that the Midwestern drivers rarely use.

We were extremely pleased to be able to get our passports renewed without problems. We were also incredibly pleased that we have finally revisited New York 12 years later. The weather was pleasant throughout our stay there even during the winter month… a great trip for sure.

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During our cab ride to the hotel, we chatted with our Russian cab driver regarding the weather in Baltimore. Apart from a few fallen trees, it sounded like Baltimore wasn’t badly affected by Superstorm Sandy, unlike New York and New Jersey. In the evening, we strolled along the Inner Harbor to Little Italy for dinner. After dinner, we managed to visit the observation level of the Baltimore World Trade Center (WTC) at closing minutes. Since we were the only visitors at the observation level, a staff was gracious enough to shut off most of the floor lightings to allow me to photograph the night view through the building windows. We stumbled around the pitch black floor to move from one area to another. Before leaving, we chatted with the staff who recommended us a few good things to do and eat in town.

On Saturday morning, we strolled to the Lexington Market in search for the “best” crab cakes in town. Unbeknownst to us, we walked into one of the shadier areas in the neighborhood. We arrived about 10 minutes before the opening hour of the crab cake place, but we decided to walk away instead.

From there, we took a subway ride to John Hopkins Hospital. After wandering aimlessly around the campus, we asked a security guard what we could do as tourists and we were told most buildings were closed for public access on the weekends. So, I rephrased my question and asked him what we could do as two Mayo Clinic employees at the campus. The security guard immediately shook my hand and showed us where we could take some nice pictures with the “John Hopkins” sign at the campus.

In the afternoon, we decided to utilize the free public bus to Fort McHenry, based on the Baltimore WTC staff’s recommendation. This interesting fort is the birthplace of the National Anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner. From there we wandered aimlessly to Tide Point. While waiting for the bus to Mt Vernon, we chatted with an older gentleman who recommended us to visit the Federal Hill that would allow me to take good panoramic photos of the Baltimore skyline.

Our bus ride to Mt Vernon was a crazy experience. A group of about 10 foul-mouthed kids, aged around 12 to 15 years old, boarded the same bus we took. After making plenty of noise at the back of the bus, the kids decided to leave the bus just after a few minutes of boarding. They screamed and cursed at the bus driver to stop in vain. One of the kids decided to pry the back door of the bus and jumped out of a moving bus. Then, a loud thud was immediately heard, presumably that kid slammed his head on a truck parked along the street. The rest of the kids freaked out, rushed to the front of the bus and cursed at the bus driver to stop the bus immediately. The bus stopped and the kids rushed out. Somehow, the bus driver stood beside the bus, waiting for something. We decided to leave the bus instead and walked to Mt Vernon, which was about 10 blocks away. We managed to zip in and out the Baltimore Basilica, which was the first Roman Catholic cathedral built in the United States, and the Walter Art Museum before closing. We had delicious Afghan meals for dinner at the restaurant, owned by Quayum Karzai, the elder brother of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai. In the evening, Angelina’s ex-coworker, Ying Wei, paid us a short visit at our hotel lobby after work.

On Sunday afternoon, we took a water taxi to Fell’s Point, which is famous for its historic cobblestone streets that was in place since colonial times. We also visited the interesting American Visionary Art Museum at the south side of Harborplace, which houses art made produced by self-taught artists. We hiked up to the top of Federal Hill to take some breathtaking panoramic photos of the Baltimore skyline before heading for dinner.

We didn’t do much on Monday due to Angelina’s on-going conference. However, we had a wonderful dinner with Yingwei and her 15-month-old daughter, Hazel, at the nearby Italian restaurant. After dinner, we hung out at the hotel lobby to chat and I decided to shoot some photos of Hazel playing on the ground.

On Tuesday, after seeing the Camden Yards related banners along the streets, we decided to walk a good several blocks to Camden Yards during lunch hour. In the evening, we strolled along the inner harbor for one last time after dinner before heading back to hotel.

Two interesting observations during our stay in Baltimore…

• The Baltimoreans LOVE running, and I couldn’t emphasize more on that. Everywhere we went, we could see the locals running in all directions, even at night when we could barely see the ground.
• Most beggars would quickly say they were not here to cause trouble and that they had IDs. I’m still trying to determine whether the illusion of owning some IDs made them less of a beggar or underscored the fact that they were licensed beggars.

Baltimore is one place we wouldn’t have visited by ourselves, if not because of the work related conference. However, we truly enjoyed our stay there where we had great fresh seafood that we sorely lack in the Midwest. It was very nice to meet Ben, Ying Wei and Hazel during this visit. It amazes me how small a world can be at times. Hopefully, we are able to cross path with them again in the future.

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We drove to the Midtown Greenway to take some family photos after having lunch in Minneapolis. The Midtown Greenway is a rail trail that provides a virtually traffic-free route across the city for the cyclists and the pedestrians. We didn’t spend long there as the kids had trouble coping with the cold weather.

After the kids had their afternoon naps, everyone donned the Angry Bird costumes and we took more photos in the backyard. Keith was rather crabby due to lack of sleep but he seemed to enjoy watching everyone in costumes running around from the distance. We did the whole reenactment of the Angry Birds story where the Pig steals the eggs, the Birds get angry and attack the Pig. It was pretty funny and entertaining.

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The weather on Friday afternoon was gorgeous. It was nice to be outside with just a light jacket for several hours. We did many different shots… some were the more “usual” poses and some were just plain silly. Not only we had a very photogenic couple, Andrew and Jenna were just really fun people to hang around with. We had our dinner (hmmm… tasty brats) at Kurt’s parents’ place before heading home.

When we arrived at 5PM on Saturday, the house was filled with guests. A gentleman who greeted us at the door asked “Whose side are we on?” and my response was “We are on nobody’s side and we are just here to eat free food” before casually proceeding into the house. Although it was very cloudy and hazy outside, it was a perfect day to do photo shoots. I managed to persuade Andrew and Jenna to do some group photos with all the guests. After all, gatherings like this don’t happen everyday. There were several speeches made by Andrew, Jenna and the parents from both side. I spent my time taking candid pictures the entire evening while hanging around the “cheese” table since I like cheese a lot. The dinner theme for the evening was Italian. So, we had incredible homemade lasagna dishes made by Jenna and her dad, and Tiramisu for dessert. We stayed until 9PM before we decided to call it a day. The best part of this whole thing is Jenna actually prepared us a big box of homemade twice-baked shrimp stuffed potatoes to take home. We actually tried that awesome dish for the first time during Aayden’s baptism celebration last summer and we remembered that since.

Andrew and Jenna, congratulations on beginning a new chapter of your lives!

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Overall, it was a great quick getaway from our busy daily routines.

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Guns, four-wheelers, steaks, Octoberfest beers and good buddies in a beautiful afternoon… best hangout ever.

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My sister’s trip goals were: 1) to see Yellowstone NP before the super volcano explodes, 2) to see Glacier NP before all the glaciers completely melt by 2020, and 3) to see snow (and even better, snowfall) so that she can describe to Shamaine what snow actually is.

Unlike the past trip where we drove all the way from Minnesota, we decided to fly to Missoula before beginning our road trip. We spent one day in Missoula, two days in Grand Teton NP, four days in Yellowstone NP, four days in Glacier NP and finally one more day in Missoula before flying back home.

The road trip from Missoula to Jackson Hole was about 8 hours, with multiple stops along the way. It was very exciting to witness the huge Teton Range so close to our eyes. We took the boat ride across Jenny Lake to hike up to the Inspiration Point in the morning. We did this hike in the past, thus we were familiar with the trail condition. When we reached to the top, the rain began to pour cats and dogs with lightnings flashing among the dark clouds every so often. It was blistering cold with strong wind blowing from side to side. We decided to hike down the slippery rocks slowly instead of waiting out the bad weather under the trees since we didn’t want to increase our chances of getting struck by lightnings. The rest of the day was pretty gloomy. We took turns hopping in and out from the car at every destination while Shamaine took her nap in the car.

From Grand Teton NP, we headed north and entered Yellowstone NP from the south entrance. The southern part of Yellowstone NP was mostly covered with thick snow. The weather in Yellowstone NP was generally great throughout our visit. Although the road from Tower-Roosevelt to Canyon Village was closed due to the road constructions, we managed to covered all the well-known attractions, including all the basins, Mammoth Hot Springs, Hayden Valley and Upper/Lower Falls. We also visited a couple of lesser known attractions, such as Lamar Valley and Tower Fall. We saw plenty of wildlife in Yellowstone NP this time. There were plenty of bisons, elks, coyotes, birds and even bears. In fact, we witnessed more than 10 bears in one of the days. Both grizzly bears and black bears were virtually everywhere in the park.

From Yellowstone NP, we began our 8-hour drive to Glacier NP. Although the drive was rather long, the view along the drive was incredibly scenic with lush landscapes and mountains on both sides of the road. We had a little trouble locating the vacation home, which was heavily surrounded by aspens, upon arrival. Once we found it, we were greeted by a large house that we initially drove past it earlier. This secluded vacation home was amazing. It can easily fit 8 to 10 adults. The best part of this stay was the nice gesture by the home owner who provided bunch of toys tailored to Shamaine’s age. She had a blast throughout her stay, playing with all sorts of toys.

Although both east and west entrances of Glacier NP were opened, the famed Going-to-the-Sun Road that cuts across the national park was partially closed at the midsection of the road to allow the plow trucks to clear the thick snow off the road. While exploring the east side of the park, we encountered a large grizzly bear by the roadside, searching for food. It did make us a little worried when hiking on the trail after that without bringing a bear spray with us. So, we kept asking Shamaine to sing her ABC as loud as possible throughout the hike to scare the bears away.

We allocated an entire day to do a 4.7 miles roundtrip hike to Avalanche Lake in Glacier NP. The hike wasn’t too strenuous to our standard, but it was definitely a little bit of work to carry a 35 lbs kid on my back for most part of the hike. I decided that the hike would be much faster if I were to carry her instead of having her to walk on her own. The hike to Avalanche Lake took us about 2 hours to get there. We were greeted with an extraordinary view with snow capped mountains wrapping around the turquoise colored lake completed with several 200 feet drop waterfalls at the background.

We woke up one morning in East Glacier Park to see light snow on the ground. During our drive to Many Glacier, we stopped by at a visitor center to determine any possible trail closures. We were promptly warned by the park ranger to hike closer to our car as Many Glacier would be hit by the winter snow storm. Most part of the trail along the Swiftcurrent Lake was heavily covered with snow, much to my sister and Shamaine’s delight. We spent some time building snowmans for Shamaine who had been nagging to her mom the entire time about seeing “Snowman” all the way from Malaysia. As we hiked deeper into the trail, the wind picked up and it began to snow heavily. Seeing snowfall in May was pretty unusual, even for Minnesotans like us. We decided to head back out because our trail visibility was significantly reduced and the trail ahead of us was heavily covered with snow. Further, Shamaine had difficulty times walking on snow without falling with every few steps. From Many Glacier, we drove to Two Medicine to do a short hike to Running Eagle Falls before heading home.

From Glacier NP, we drove south for about 4 hours to Missoula. We visited the Elk Center Visitor Center and also hiked up Mount Sentinel to the huge letter “M”, located within the University of Montana’s campus. Although the zigzag hike to the top is only 3/4 mile, we also gained 620 feet in elevation too, which makes the trail very steep and tiring to hike up. During our hikes, Shamaine kept asking me where the big letter “M” was, and I kept assuring her we were about to see it at the summit. When we reached the top, she asked me about the letter “M” again because apparently it was too big that she couldn’t see the entire letter.

Throughout this trip, we spent roughly $220 for 10 days on groceries, which was incredibly cheap (3 meals x 3.5 persons x 10 days = ~$2 per meal per person), granted we did bring some food with us from home too. We saw a total of 11 grizzly bears and 4 black bears. It was an incredible trip, and it was definitely fun to have my sister and my niece tagged along this time.

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