Nothing Ghostly in the Ghost Town

Earlier today, everybody kinda took the Gondola up to the peak of the mountain. Lazy me decided to just stay inside and walk around the resort. Some went mountain biking and some just hiking. Heard from them that the mountain biking road was really really scary. So glad I never went. Worse thing is they were stuck in the mountain and was so late until they do not have a chance to shower as we have to check out. Ewwwwwww.
So with 3 clean ppl and 6 very muddy pals, we headed up to the ghost town, Bodie State Park. Basically a ghost town is just a deserted small town. These town boomed during the gold rush era. But when they run out of the minerals, people just flee the town. Wild wild west kinda setting. Bodie has a reputation of being a very bad town in which there is full of bad guys and horrible weather. I can totally understand the weather part. It was scorching hot! Quite an eye opener but this is that kind of places that you only go once in your life and never wanna visit it again.

We reched Lake Tahoe pretty late as there is more road work. This time we were completely stopped. There is this long queue of cars along the highway. OMG! The Horizon Hotel in Lake Tahoe was such a letdown, old and too basic. Certainly worth less than the price we pay for. Feeling tired from the hot sunny morning, I went to bed as the others gamble it out at the casino.

Here is the little cowboy story me and Mixue made. Enjoy!

Out of the Haze into the Mountains

The day started super early. 7am OMG! Everyone was like super half asleep. The itinerary was super long today. So many places to visit. I really doubt that we can do it all in time. Lucky that we have a lot of drivers on stand by.

Wonderful morning sky

Visited the Yosemite Falls. Not much water left at the falls as it is already summer. It was like spraying tiny droplets of water down. The walk in the woods to the falls was really refreshing. Although it was hazy outside, the trees really did absorbed all those smoke. This time around I passed on climbing all the way up to the falls. Left the rest to do it. Too lazy to do a detour as I went up the short cut which apparently cut short my hike due to a huge rock blocking the way.

Isn't the water amazingly clear?

Stopped by Yosemite Village for lunch a before heading off to the Toulene Meadows. This place turned out to be my favorite stop. Its really beautiful. Green green grass, bright blue sky, clean clear river with lots of wlidflowers around. Really seems like I'm in those gardens in movies.

Reminds me of some ads in magazines

The beautiful day does not stop there are we move on the Olmsted Point. The view from the vista point is simply enchanting. Borrowed the graduation gown from Alex to take photo there. Lol. Almost everybody did that. So guess i can say I went through my commencement here at Yosemite National Park. Haha.

We finally reached our pit stop at a ski resort at Mammoth Mountain. The elevation was so high that I feel so chilly. As we entered the house, we were greeted by the sight of the wonderful hotel. It is really like a vacation house. Complete with a living room, dinning room, kitchen, 3 full baths, 2 bedrooms and a cute attic with 4 beds. Could really have a party there in the room man. Feel like I wanna stay here for the rest of the Vacation man.

Goldilocks and the 3 Bears?

Here Comes Everybody

Today marks the end of our SF trip. The past 2 days has been so much fun. Wanted to stay longer in The City but we've got plans ahead. So reluctant to leave the place. We left SF for San Jose where we are supposed to meet up with the rest. The whole ride on the Caltrain was spent recollecting about our fun filled weekend in SF. Wonder whether we will get the chance to do that again. Its already been 2 months that I'm here in US. Time really flies.

Drove off from SJ to this small little town called Chowcilla. Found out from Ben and gang that they got a speeding ticket. Gosh, that's horrible. Still remember my horrible incident with the highway patrol 2 years ago. That thought me not to speed or at least watch my ass if I intend to speed. Lol.

Love the whole natural feel

Can you find me?

The drive to Yosemite seems neverending. Upon entering the park, we were told that there is a huge forest fire a couple days before. Bummer. Not only we cannot get a good view of the place, the air smell so hazy. As bad as the time when home was affected by the Indo forest fire. Now where is my breath of fresh air. Argh! There goes the beautiful view at glacier point :(

What we see and supposed to have seen. Argh!

Next stop was Bridalveil Fall. We kinda got lost as I drove to the Bridalveil Campsite instead. The other car waited for us quite long. Sorry. But it was fun getting lost somehow. Haha. We were lucky that the part where the fall is situated is clear from the fog. So we finally get a good view and a little fresh air. The climbing on rocks to the top was really fun! The water is crystal clear. Reminds me of the stream back in Korea. This is better though as there is very few ppl around. Hence we get a lot more peace and quiet.

After seeing the wonderful sunset, we checked out a hotel near the place. Pretty nice and decent but too bad we are not stayin there. It is so high class that their dining place requires proper dress code. Bleh.

Our drive to the cabin was very 'interesting' too. Apparently they were doin road works and we had to follow a pilot car for a long long time. Super slow man. The best part is actually when we reached the place, we found out that our other car is missing. Everybody was like :o We waited for a while and the are still not appearing and decided to drive back to search for them. The worries finally end when we found them. Not! We found out that the cabin we booked does not have cooking facilities and they banned campfire on the site. After some negotiation with the front desk, they decided to let us use the kitchen. Thank goodness. If not I think we would need to hunt for a deer and eat it sashimi style.

The cabin room was pretty small. Toilet was not adjacent. Really back to nature right. Too bad I am not such a nature lover. All these unfortunate events was quickly forgotten when I stare into the sky. I see such a wonderful constellation of tiny stars shinning brightly above me. Magnificent.

SF I totally *Heart* You! (Part II)

Impressed that we still woke up early the next mornin after all that booze yesterday. I forgot to mention that this is actually only day 2 of my week long vacation . Haha. Yes, I took a week off to go sightseeing. Lol.

We headed off to Chinatown and Little Italy which is really side by side each other. Well, Chinatown really does reminds me of Chinese market. The layout of shop houses, smell of vege and fish, sounds of ppl bargaining and sights of small messy sundry shop are all present. Its amazing how this place managed to keep to its root.

All smile before we try the food. You won't wanna see the look on our face once we tasted the food. :(

Our search for dim sum turns out to be disastrous. We were trying our best to save money and decided to gave a $5.99 dim sum buffet. It sure sounds like a good deal, but really it is disastrous. Worst I've ever had. We learnt our lesson to pay a little more next time so we could really get some good quality dim sum.

Transamerica Pyramid from Little Italy
We saw ppl singing opera in the middle of the street. High class buskers?

After that horrible meal, we went back to the hotel for a nap. Guess bad food does not energize us. Haha. After recharging we walked around downtown Civic Center and Tenderloin area for some really nice Vietnamese food. SF is really a food heaven. (minus the dum sum buffet of course)

SF City Hall

We headed off to the Alamo Square to see the painted ladies. The setting for Full House. Still remember how I've always liked the show when I was young.The view of the city from the park is beautiful but it is definitely inferior when compared to the one at Dolores Park. Thanks to John for introducing the place to me. Hehe. Wanting to see a better view of the city, we went to Dolores Park for the night scene. Our plan was ruined due to the thick thick fog at night. Sigh. So we took picture in the train instead. Lol. This is really funny. Guess parking is really that scarce in SF that this owner worried someone is gonna park at his doorstep .
Oh, there is this Crepe shop at Richmond which is really really good. We went back to Richmond that night just to have the Crepe. Lol. We accidentally found that shop the day before as we were taking a bus back from GGB to the hotel. Yummy!

SF I totally *Heart* You! (Part I)

This marks my 4th trip to SF in just a month. Proud of myself for being able to travel here so much. Hehe. This time around I'm here with M&J. Been a while since we see Mixue since she quit her job early to travel around. So I was really lookin forward to see her.

We took the Caltrain down to SF as usual the cheap and convenient way. Weekdays are even better they got this baby bullet that only takes 45 min to get to SF :) The process of walking to our hotel almost killed us. Never expected it to be all the way at the Civic Center. Walked for about 40 plus minutes......
The Whitcomb Hotel was really an old antique hotel as they claimed to be. Looks like a haunted mansion too :s Headed straight out for lunch at Union Square. Very very nice. Haha. They have hearts all over the city. Cannot remember what it is for but sure it speaks for me. I *heart* SF. Haha.
The process of finding a bus to the Golden Gate Bridge, GGB was really funny. From missing a bus, to chasing after one and getting off a little too early. The climax was actually when we could not see a bus stop sign. Mixue was pointing out to me and Joyce that there is a bus stop but all we see is a huge red stop sign in front. We laughed at her silliness only to find that there is a bus stop. Its written on the ground! OMG!
The hardship gone through was well worth it as we were greeted but a super sunny weather. Absolutely no fog, when we reached the GGB at sunset. I feel like I could really fly. Nice weather perfect scenery. My first time walking along the bridge although I've been to this city countless number of times.

View of The City from the bridge.

Time for some Action :)

I couldn't decide which photo is better. Thanks MX, the professional photographer!

The houses around the Marina area are so pretty too. I really hope that someday I could buy a huge beautiful house here in SF facing the ocean.
That night, we went clubbing at the Castro area as they gal feel safer clubbin' at a place that they are preyed on. It was certainly a fun fun night. I shall spare the details of that eventful night. :p Gotta go to the club again soon!