My October camping trip in Kings Canyon National Park, in [photo] review.

Some does on our first trail :)





you can walk through this tree!









 


So. Awesome.








And that's that. It was a short weekend trip, staying at the Azalea campsite within Kings Canyon and taking little drives around to Sequoia National Forest. I really wanted to explore these forests after seeing signs while driving down from our camping trip in Yosemite. My conclusion? As always, what nature has to offer is amazing and the lack of foot traffic on most of the trails, within both parks, made my experience all the better. So. Peaceful. Still, nothing beats Yosemite.

(P.S. when I reached Moro Rock's peak, there was a sign that totally mentioned we happened to be breathing in pollutants originating all the way from China--thanks for the tip USNPS)

It's been months and months since I went on a summer trip to Hawaii so some of the details have already left me. Fortunately, I took as many photos as I could.


I was born in Hawaii & after moving to San Diego as a child, I still visited the island/s too many times to count. Maui, however, was totally new to me and I'll never not be amazed by Hawaii's beauty.





Kayak/Snorkel tour!


Snorkel selfie: I spy freckles




Driving on the Hana Highway:





majesticccc

broken bridge barrier...


So far up the mountain, I expected the shop owners and residents to be Maui locals, maybe some native ancestry, but no. Almost every single shop owner was a hippie, from the mainland and white. They were all friendly, of course, but I was just surprised and a little put off--like, where are the kanaka maoli and POC? That's a for another post, I guess.






one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. feelin' fortunate.




If you look a few posts back you'd see the itinerary for our trip. A mountain biking, Haleakala summit sunrise tour was on the list and it was one of the main things I was most excited for... Welp, we didn't get to do it... which was a huge bummer. Apparently it is very "rare" for the clouds to be above the summit, high enough to douse the mountaintop with rain. Usually one would drive through a bit of rain, some fog and clouds then passed that, you're in the clear. Unfortunately, we went on a very rainy day and the clouds were all above us. Well, even without the sunrise, being atop Haleakal was a pretty cool experience. It was kind of interesting, being in Hawaii & finding yourself begging for more layers of clothing because it's so cold. Kind of.  The biggest draw was having to wake up at 2 AM to start driving -_- But hey, at least we got our money back! AND we are going back to Maui next June, so maybe we can try it again :)





Getting to Maui was such a trial, I'll never book connecting flights, separately, again! It took us nearly an entire day, leaving my house at 6 AM PST and getting to Maui at 8 PM UTC (which is 3 hours behind California). First thing the next morning, 7 AM, we went on a snorkel-kayak tour and though it was really beautiful and incredible, we were almost deplete of energy towards the end. Next time, I also won't book or plan a tiring activity for the early morning after my arrival -_-

Still, even with tiredness and tours gone wrong, I still loved the experience of traveling to a new place. Our Maui apartment was also just right two people; cozy, well furnished & clean.

Now for Oahu, I'll only post a few photos. I spent half of the time with my family which is great because I was able to hang out with my grandparents again <3


All the years my grandparents have lived here, they never visited the Byodo-In temple, until I took them there that is ;)


I wish could have stayed on Oahu longer because I overestimated what I could do in 5 days. Still, I was able to meet my new baby cousin, Ethan Josiah, and oh my gosh he is the most adorable dude ever. I got to hike, drink and eat with my uncles, cousins and aunts--all new activities because I was 17 the last time I visited (&not so much into hiking). Seeing grandparents again the best part :') They were living in San Diego on and off these past 2 years, but they officially moved back to Oahu while I was in Maui, so I felt that I didn't have a proper goodbye. Now that I had more time with them, we all went on a drive around the island to the North Shore :) I was unbelievably happy for all the family quality time. I am now hoping I could afford to add a visit to Oahu when we go to Maui next summer. FINGERS CROSSED!

Yay! So I've finally found the time to write up an update for our upcoming trip. I've been busying myself with things like getting fit, to watching anime (haha)--everything & anything I can before work and school consume my life again. Though, I will admit, I haven't been very adamant about the gym for the past week & a half. Even though I've told myself to I need to get into tip top shape, running errands has taken up my free time (aka gym time). Not only am I going to Hawaii, but I'm also attending a friend's wedding! Gah, we've known each other since we were 13 years old. Now we're 25 and it's bachelorette weekend in Las Vegas!<< This is the only reason why I'm okay with missing Comic-Con this year. That being said, there's much to be excited for this summer & lots to do to prepare.

Anyway, back to business.
Eek! I am so thrilled because I haven't traveled anywhere in such a long time. And I've been gettin' myself ready: This week I bought an excessive amount of tops/tanks for Vegas/Hawaii, a "tough" camera for partying & adventuring, and I just booked some ecotours in Maui.

So, to document all the fun, I will be bringing my trusty Olympus PEN E-PL2 and my brand spankin' new tough Oly, the TG-1.




Sweet, right? I haven't used the TG-1 much lately, but so far I'm fully pleased with the photo quality (see E-PL2 photo above). So cleannnn. I am most excited about its waterproof-ness! It has only been put through a running shower, but so far, so good. You can bet I will put it to use next weekend at the Las Vegas resort pool parties.

Alright, so now for the Hawaii itinerary. We pretty much have our Maui stay planned and we may just wing it once we get to Oahu. We aren't afraid to be touristy and so, yes, we will be doing lots of... tours! Sadly, this also means spending a whole lot of dough. To mitigate overspending we have been keeping track of all of our bookings/costs via shared spreadsheet on our Google Drives. Recently, I've really been adamant on budgeting wisely in everything. I've also made a spreadsheet of all my purchases, budget, money left over (etc.) related to my friend's wedding. That being said, even with the high cost of Hawaii, we seem to be doing well in terms of spending--so far. Oh and it also helps that we booked vacation condo rentals at extremely low rates instead of hotels! Note: must use VRBO this again for future destinations.

ITINERARY (Maui only; Tentative) 

Thursday  8/08 - Arrive in Maui

Friday      8/09 - Snorkel/Kayak Tour

Saturday  8/10 - Haleakala Sunrise Biking Tour 2:30 AM! - Booked  

Sunday    8/11 - Ziplining Tour!

Monday   8/12 - Road to Hana!

Tuesday  8/13 - [Anything] --- Arrive in Oahu 4:30pm

Well, I think it's safe to say we are going to be broke for at least a month after this trip & we will be needing all the energy we can get in Maui. Now I know the activities don't sound like the "classic" dates the Romance Isle is known for, but I can't wait to experience all of these adventures. It isn't fully exotic nor is it a journey across the world so I know it is as if I'm making a huge deal out of this domestic vacation. But if you didn't know, Hawaii is also my birthplace and home to much of my family. I haven't been back since 2006 so actually, it is a big deal to me!

Ah, I can almost feel the sand between my toes!

Before I go on, here's the gist of the trip in photos:

We arrived early Saturday morning & after a power nap we made our way to Vernal Falls. This is actually the flow coming down from it--don't be fooled, it's huge!

Me, being cool + some snow higher up in the hike & closer to the falls--it looked as if we were in The North (Westeros) ;) -------------------------------------
We prepared our [fancy] meals pretty well for our trip with lots of fruit, nuts and protein + lots & lots of water. After our Vernal Falls hike it was time to celebrate with some dinner! We washed, cut, seasoned and cooked our dinner around the campfire for a good 30 minutes while sipping on some red wine. We had a buttered salmon stuffed with spinach & feta (prepped by Fresh n' Easy), some vegetable medley, asparagus and "country fried potatoes." As usual, I did not take a picture of our meal, but I assure you, it was delicious. Pretty fancy for camping, am I right? Totally doable, too. I recommend for car camping if you willing to do a little work.

We were stuffed, but I guess you can say we were filling up for the next day's hike: Upper Yosemite Falls



it took hours just to have this view; top of waterfall is our destination


switchbacks for days. hike is equivalent to walking up empire state building steps TWICE



I was terrified; he looks delighted

UPPER YOSEMITE FALLS:
This hike was killer. I've never really hiked anything so strenuous before this trip so my legs and feet hated me. Prior to the hike I did not realize it was labeled as "very strenuous" at 7.2 miles/11.6 km round-trip; 6 to 8 hours; 2,700 feet/823 m elevation gain. Egads. Nothing in San Diego is equivalent to that. Not even close. Hiking back home is chump change! Anyhow, we started hiking around 11am/12pm and I even had plenty of other activities in mind for after the hike. I was such a fool. The noobiest noob!

Because of my constant break-taking, photo snapping, snack eating and water drinking, it took us about 6 hours to reach the top of the falls. Still worth it! To be honest, I still think we did pretty well, considering how many dozens of people stopped & turned around half way or even 3/4's the of way. I was so ecstatic reaching the top of Yosemite Falls. The views were breathtaking. Shoot, my heart raced so intensely when looking over ledges, I thought I may die from over-excitement or, you know, fear. Still, I felt incredibly awesome.

Off the beaten path, we decided to take our 5pm "lunch": ham with mozzarella + avocados, lots of trail nut mix, clementines and apples. By the time we headed back down it was nearing 7pm and at that I started to freaked out because... We wouldn't make it in time to buy more wine before the village store closed, which was at 8pm. What could we do? Run down that mf'n mountain, that's what! Clarence handed me his big ol' hiking backpack, I gave him my small day pack, one of my trekking poles, and a bit of my water--then off he went. That maniac made it down in 30 minutes. YES, FOLKS. THE SAME TRAIL THAT TOOK US 7HRS TO DO. After a few minutes, I started feeling lame & foolish so I decided to run down as well, big ol' backpack & all. One hiking stick & my trusty headlamp is all I needed. I got to the valley floor around 7:45pm & felt like my legs would fall off. I also felt like a freakin' champion.

As for the wine we rushed to buy? After cooking our pesto & sausage pasta, we were way too tired to drink even half the bottle. Oh, the things we do... Safe to say, we were so done that night.  We slept like babies and with that, our trip came to a close. Dates in nature, beautiful hiking trials, awesome views, silly fun & very tired feet; mhmm, Yosemite was very good to us.

Post-Portland Post: Or more like my travel review & culture-shock post. Some locals may not like it. Eek 

First of all, it was fun. It was really interesting—but it was the experience more so than the actual city. To be honest, I kept trying to remain unbiased about Portland before heading there. I wanted to be open about it, but in reality I think I was sort of expecting it to be very awesome, very urban, very green, very rainy, very cold and veryyy "hipster." Well, when I was there only a few of those things seemed accurate (the rain wasn’t one of them, phew!). 

It was cold and hip. There were little shops here and there with its fair share of “alt” looking folks, but it was less… well, culturally rich, than I had hoped for. In my view, it can hardly be considered a melting pot. Sure, the alternative hairstyles, fashion and boutiques were far from the mainstream and more closely resembled hip ass blogs/homelessness, but then again it was so prevalent that it seemed a bit overdone, un-unique and forced. It made me remember that Portlandia IS of course, poking fun at the antics & eccentricities of Portland. Okay, that might be little harsh, but y’know this is actually what I had to realize by the 2nd-3rd day, even as I kept trying to tell myself how cool being in that city was. 

But I will give Portland some credit: The greenery that I did see, even in this cold winter weather, was still quite magnificent. And apparently winter there actually sucks and is boring—a few separate bartenders told us as much. So summer may do the place more justice. We also spent most of our time south of the Columbia River, in downtown Portland, yet apparently the cool spots are in the north? 

I will say, I loved almost everyplace Clarence and I went to north of the river, save the hip ass bar we visited in the Industrial District that reminded me of high school scene shows, the only difference being a new style of hair & clothing + gimic-y music + alcohol and minus the ethnic minorities. I could feel the judging. White Owl Social Club it was called (I have a twisted belief that I would have enjoyed it more if my complexion & features were.. um, Anglo?) Anyway. As for its lack of ethnically integrated groups, I may just not have the bigger picture. Our hilarious white, Texas-native guide on our Shanghai Tunnels tour was so gracious to give us the straight-up history (and currents) of racism and segregation in Portland = it’s the 2nd (EDIT: I JUST READ THAT MAYBE IT’S ACTUALLY #1. Sad) largest white metropolitan city in the U.S. and racism was pretty bad, so they’ve come a long way, yet still have more to go. Okay, I can understand that. I guess.
But that’s just how it is. I had to realize, well shit, I am coming from a completely different part of America. I’m coming from California, and not just that, but Southern California. And not just that, but San Diego, California right above Mexico & home of the large ass military base in which a lot of minorities serve. So, duh. 

As disappointing as some of the things I noticed in Portland may be, I’m really glad I was able to see & experience it. There was homelessness all around, evident gentrification and I found the older generation to be more kind than the young, but I only stayed there 5 days and maybe I just don’t know shit. But I do know I’m not about to give up on it yet. We’re definitely going to see Portland one spring or summer and will bask in all its natural glory. Let’s just hope diversity would have increased by then. 

Anyway, every restaurant we went to, even at random, had mighty fucking delicious food. That’s reason enough for a second chance, am I right?

Better late than never: PORTLAND (Jan. 2013)!

So a few posts back (which was actually 3 months ago), I briefly mentioned that I would be heading on a trip to Portland, Oregon. As a quick summary of this little adventure, I will say that it is very, very different from home here in Southern California. And I do mean that in a semi-bad way, considering its lack of cultural diversity. Yet admittedly, I also believe it has its own hipster aesthetic. Plus, winter may not be the best season to enjoy what the city has to offer. Maybe next time we'll fall in love with the place, given we have more than just 4 days.

Anyway, I wrote this whole post about my time there and the kind of "culture shock" I endured, but that was on my tumblr and I don't want to be repetitive--at least not in writing. I will, though, re-post my photos on here without guilt :)

WARNING: No pictures of food. I am no foodie and I am perfectly okay with that.
And so that's about it for the photos. I have lots of other photos of my friends and I (our group was 10+!) where we're seen being silly and inebriated and dancing... but I'll save those for our Facebook pages (tags I won't approve!). I loveeee those last few photos of Clarence walking away in amongst all the green, but unfortunately photobucket resolution is not very good. Oh well, still nice right?