Movie talk 21

Frida (Julie Taymor) 8
Landscape in the mist (Theo Angelopopulos) 8
The weeping meadow (Theo Angelopopulos) 9
The keys to the house (Gianni Amelio) 7

Seattle WA 10/9-10/14/09

Ruby's beach



One year's good



Mount Rainier



Pikes street market

Have been wanting to visit Seattle for long. Not because the terrible hollywood movie "sleepless in seattle", however.

Heard of Seattle for its unique culture of the city: most gay friendly city in the US, closeness to Canada and another great city Vancouver, raining and damp climate, Microsoft and boeing, Starbucks,etc. The recent watch of Key Burns 's National park series film brought up my curiosity of the Mt. Rainier NP (the 5th NP in the US) and Olympic NP.

Pre-trip research and reservations:

Book flights to seattle with a round trip ticket only costing 160 bucks each.
Two nights stay in Six avenue inn, downtown seattle.
George went get city and state maps from AAA.
Thrifty rental car reservation for the whole trip at the airport.

Reality:

The frontier flight was delayed so when we got to seattle it was after 1 am. Thrifty car rental place at the airport was closed. We took the bus to the closest thrifty car rental place and got a red PT cruiser. After we got the room in 6th avenue inn, it was 2 am already.

Next day we walked to Pikes street market - not as many people since it was too early, But a restaurant inside has long lines waiting, as well as flower vendors around everywhere - the flowers are beautiful and cheap - I really love sun flowers they got. The vendors are mostly asian. I would get one everyday if I live there. There are several seafood stores and the vendors are very friendly in getting customers look at their seafood stuff. They usually have this kind of flying fish show every so often. We also saw the first ever starbucks store. We walked passing the market and went to the waterfront and got to Pier 66. Nice view. Stopped at tully's coffeeshop for coffee. The walk in downtown is nice, a lot of people.

Afternoon we went to Smith's tower, the old highest building in the city. (now the highest is Columbia tower) The area is unique at there is a big historic underground area. There is a tour but we don't have enough time for that. After that we went to the Klondike gold rush - national historic park just 3 blocks from Smith's tower. People found gold in Canada in 1897 and everybody ran into seattle to get to go to canada for gold. What is interesting is that Canada side require all gold miners to have one year's supply (see picture) per person before they climb up the high mountains. Gold Gold Gold - there is a Chinese sayings " everybody in the world crowded, come for money. everybody in the world crowded, go for money".

Night life started with a Chinese seafood buffet at Lynwood. We had quite a bit of King crab legs and snails. Only for 13 bucks per person. I don't get it how these people make money really. We stopped by REI afterwards got a pair of sports pants for me. The entrance of REI is like a maze of forest. After a rest at the hotel, we went to two bars afterwards: The eagle and Neighbors. They are quite mediocre.

Next day we drove to Mount Rainier. It was cold. Colder and colder when we drove up. Dramatic scenes. We stopped at the Paradise visitor center. Watched a movie (forgot the name) there, it was a great film. Had lunch there too. Took a hike to the left of the mountain. very nice. quite, peaceful. We kept on that road all the way to Ohanapacosh visitor center. I called them before the trip and was told it will be closed for the season on Sunday. When we got there it was still open. The ranger gave us quite a detail about Mount St Helens National Volcanic Monument - which I came across on the state map but didn't see it over the NPS.GOV washington map. It seems we couldn't make it to there that night. We stopped at Packwood and stayed in a small motel there.

Next day we drove to Mount St helens. It was beautiful dramatic drive but very winding. Mount st helens is a volcano and erupted in 1981 and a huge trunk of the peak broke down. It was really COLD AND WINDY at windy ridge, where you can see the broken mountain, the lakes, and even the Mount rainier.

After that we drove the Olympic National Park though I-5 and route 101. Another great scenic drive - although the driver's seat was quite uncomfortable the great scene really made me feel much better. When we got to Port Angeles it was about 4 pm. Port Angeles is the most northwest coast city in the US. It was a bit like Tangier. We checked the weather forecast it was gonna rain the rest of the days. We decided to go the hurricane ridge, one of the major scenic spots of the park. It was a tough drive - I had to resist the temptation of the scenes to focus on driving. When it was getting closer to the top, the road was even a bit icy. When we got to the top, it was a big platform parking lot. The hurricane ridge was just sitting there in the cloud with peaks after peaks. They were there so elegant, stand alone, really not caring what is happening in the human world and for thousands years they were just there: cold, clear, snowy, and lonely. It shocked us.

We chose Port angeles Inn to stay for that night. It was the greatest hotel I have ever been. One of the room is all window, with the view of the coast, canadian side. On the other side is the valley of olympic mountains. We left the curtain open all night.

Next day we kept going around the park. The first stop was Elwha valley. It was cloudy with some rain showers, foggy and misty with colored leaves emerging in and out of the fog. In one of the dirt road trails, it was really an one way road - I frequently worried what if there is a car coming towards us and there weren't many turnouts for both cars passing through, plus it was so steep and winding. There are many hiking trails in the park, for example, you can hike about 14 miles from this valley to hurricane ridge. Sounds really cool but we couldn't do it. George got a cold and we didn't have that much time.

Next stop was East beach. was nice along lake crescent. Then it was Marymere Falls. The hike was only one mile so we could afford it. So many tall trees with moss around it. very peaceful.

The drive to Sol Duc hot springs was rainy. But it didn't decrease the great scenes at all. So many red leaves along the road. I think we were just lucky to chose this time to visit - obviously it was the best time to read Autumn in this area. The hot spring area used to have a big resort but burned down long time ago. When we got there just felt lucky to have some hot clam chowder soup and sit in the hot springs surrounded by many Russian people.

Next we drove to Hoh Rain forest. Again very scenic drive. In fact even the Route 101 is a great scenic drive itself. When George was taking a nap in the car, many times I had to resist the desire to wake him up to see the beautiful scenes. They are really just as good as New England autumn, if not better. The rain forest visitor center was closed for the day. We took a hike along the muddy but dramatic trails.

In my pre-trip research, I heard Ruby's beach is a good site to visit but never found it on the map. George also recalled that when he visited seattle he went to the pacific ocean beach that was very nice. We kept on driving west and finally found the first beach along 101 is the ruby's beach. It was nice - black stones, yellow sunset and white driftwood. That was a good finish of the park until I injured my ankle when walking on the driftwood.

We stayed in Econo Lodge at Hoquiam that night. We had dinner at Mexican restaurant across the street. We were the only customers. I had a margarita, jagerbomb and Corona loaded over 12 raw oysters on an ice plate.

The last day was heavy rain, I struggled to drive in the rain for two hours and stopped at Tacoma for a break. Then all the way to seattle airport. Alaska airlines coming back, it was a good service and I like their planes.



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Movie talk 20

Western (Manuel Poirier) 5
When father is away for business (Emir Kusturica) 9
Bye bye monkey (Marco Ferreri) 7
Slaughter house 5 (George Roy Hill) 8
The class (Laurent Cantet) 8
The house of smiles (Marco Ferreri) 7

West colorado 9/26/09-9/27/09

Reason:

1. To see aspen leaves.
2. We promised ourselves to come back to see CO65 again when aspen leaves get yellow:

Reality:
We started on Saturday morning. Taking a route 6 to Keystone for the first time. Nice scenic town.

The drive south through highway 24 was also scenic but not as scenic as a lot of other scenic roads in Colorado. We also passed the historic town of leadville/twin lakes, where used to be a major mining center also famous for high country land.

Taking CO82 north, we came to the Independence pass, it was 12k feet tall. Everywhere in our eyes are strong winds, white snow and shining sunlights. When the CO82 comes closer to Aspen CO, there are many shining yellow aspen leaves on the side of the highway. Great scenes. There was not much to see in Aspen CO, the place the most of american want to live in, also the place where a lot of super-rich people live in. The two mountains at the north and south of Aspen were quite plain. It reminded me when we were here in August 2004. We never like Aspen.

Although the leaves were yellow and the trunks were white, there are a lot of problems about some diseases spreading out in aspen trees. A lot of leaves have black scars and many of them are totally black and dead.

We decided to take CO 133 south. It was great scenic road. In this area, there were tons of healthy aspen trees, green or yellow or in between. There are several coal mining companies along the road.

We came to Hotchkiss in the afternoon. It is so-called "friendliest town around". There was a big BMW lovers having a gathering and camping in the fairground. We also decide to camp there after a dinner sitting on the trunk of the car with roasted chicken from city market and two foster can beer.

Night came we stopped at the one of two bars in town. It was a rough bar, with nobody dressing nicely. Granny works as bartender and served few generous whiskeys. There was a sticker at a very noticeable spot saying "the taxpayers that voted obama is like a chicken voted for colonel sanders". A young man in his 20s introduced himself to us. He works in one of the mining companies we saw on CO133. He lives in Cedar city, UT, very close to Cedar breaks national monument where we visited on the way to pick up my parents in Sept. 2006. He got 3 kids and one wife at home. Mining around in Colorado, Utah, Washington, Mexico even Peru. Learning that I am from China, he said," oh I have a Thai roommate at college."

Next day we went for the long-anticipated CO65 skyway trip. It was still good, but most of the leaves were blackened. I would rather see the green healthy leaves we saw before - I guess that can only exist in our memories now.

There was a ski area with many shops and condominiums, sort of running down, but did attract quite a lot of viewers.

After we got some Palisade peaches and plums, we headed straight back by I-70. The classical mountain scenes around Vail area was still there: blue sky, snow mountain, yellow shining aspen leaves standing out of background.


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Detroit 9/20/09-9/23/09

Reason:

George was going to have a conference in Detroit. So we decide I went along.

Reality:

We stayed in downtown marriott.

I took a river walk just outside the hotel, along the river that separates US and Canada. Predominantly african american people, with tourists that are mostly indian. Was nice and relaxing although not too much to see and part of the trail was under construction.

We went out for a walk to look for a restaurant, mostly for me to have a good meal, since George already had his dinner in the conference. There was actually a trolley high in the air serving in downtown area. We walked across Greek town, where there was a casino (there was also one across the river, on the Canadian side). There weren't many people in the street at all, except few streets. We found this restaurant called "fishbone" on a busy street and decided to give it a try. It was very good, we had fried lobsters, steamed crawfish, raw oysters together with hot bread and house margaritas.

Generally speaking, the downtown area is safe. With police car patrolling around, at least people should feel safe, and do they or will they? Anyway the police station is in this really old but very nice building right in downtown area. There are many old but nice building in downtown area, with many of them empty now, still reflecting the old time prosperity.

Next afternoon George got away from his conference, we decided to take a bus to Dearborn area, where most of middle-eastern people live. It seems the bus starts from somewhere around our hotel, but we didn't see any sign for the information of bus number etc. In all areas, it only says "bus stop". I ran to one bus that waited a block away and found out where we should wait for the bus and how much the bus fare is. That was bus 23 and it was already there waiting one block away in another direction. The bus customers are absolutely mostly African american people, with only one or two white women at all time when we took the bus these two days. Looking outside the bus, we saw a gradually lower and lower building, again with many of them broken and empty, and then a really broken area, where everywhere you saw is broken business, graffitis, poor people and trashes. Once it is close to Dearborn, everything is suddenly getting nicer.

We had our dinner at Al-ameer. It is a Lebanese restaurant, with hot fresh bread from their big stoves. The lamb liver and hummus are good, as expected. And we have enough leftover for my next day's lunch. Although it is good, its quality is far less than the Yemenis restaurant in Brooklyn, however, we couldn't find a Yemenis place in that area on a pre-trip research.

Next day we decided to go to the middletown area to visit detroit institutes of arts, mostly for Diego Rivera's works, part of which we saw and were amazed when we visited National palace of Mexico city in April 09.

The museum was closed on Tuesday, however. There are few other places around, including the history museum, which unfortunately was closed as well. It was 4:40 pm and we found one place that was NOT closed. That was Museum of African-American history. It will be closed at 5 pm however. The ladies at the entrance let us in for free. There was nobody there, an almost empty building with only reception people.

We didn't see anybody visiting the museum at the entrance. The museum is well designed with the origins in African and the long painful history of how african slaves were transfered to america. It was dark, with many fake people standing around. Sort of scary we quickly walked out the room that is full of fake african slaves laying on a boat with noise of coughing and ocean waves. Right then we saw a real person.

He was wearing ragged clothes, starting to speak to us right after he saw us, regarding the museum. After exchanging the opinion that the museum is good, etc, George quickly realized that he is not a normal person since he was just talking and talking without stopping and we won't get away from it unless we just left that room. So we did. We didn't see any other person until the clerk coming in to get ready for the close of the museum for the day. On the way out, we found that person still keeps talking and talking to the clerk there.

That night we went up to the 72th floor of marriot. The elevator is exposed and we enjoyed our view of Canada side, the river, city lights and tall building around. We had a beer there and it was crowded there. Then we moved to the bar at the hotel registration area, had more outside at the deck, it was windy and the Whiskey I had was just perfect.

To end this story, I would like to mention the downtown marriott building, it was connected to several others, with GM motor headquarters, and a lot of other places. There was a car exhibition at the first floor from GM. The design of these towers are very alternative, mysterious and it is easy to get lost. And that is how I feel about Detroit.

National parks in TX & NM

9/4/2009 - 9/8/2009

Labor day weekend, we wanted to make a trip, not sure where. After evaluating few options: seattle, west colorado, new orleans, and El paso, TX for Big bend, carlsbad caverns, guadalupe, and white sand national monuments, we chose the latter one. Mostly not wanting to miss any of good western scenes when we are still here.

Pre-trip research and reservations:

Flight to el paso (which is cheap and saved time to drive there)
Reservations for car rental at EL paso airport
Reservations for tour guide in carlsbad caverns NP, for slaughter canyon cave and kings palace cave. The only two available at the day I booked.
Reservations for Casa grande rooms at chisos mountains lodge in big bend NP
Hotel reservations for Friday and Monday at El paso, Saturday night at whites city NM (just outside of carlsbad caverns NP)

Reality:
Very fast car pick up at the airport, and a stunning look at the city residential lights from hotel area

Woke up by the alarm at 4:45 am to get ready to go to the carlsbad caverns NP, afraid of construction delay

Pulled over by police checking point. Without my green card in hand, we had to stay there for 15 minutes for the officers checking my background making sure I am not an illegal immigrant. It turned out fine after.

Was chased by police car after more than 15 miles drive after the checkpoint, and got pulled over in shock. It turned out it is the police officer from the checkpoint to return our car rental documents. The latino officer smiled to me and said, "have a great day!"

A big up hike to slaughter canyon cave entry point, which is outside the NP. Dark in the cave, funny guide, and climbing with a rope in hand. Great tour.

Open house self guided tour inside the park. 750 feet down in the elevator. A stunning view in the very beginning. We were warned that time might not be enough for the whole area before King palace tour started. But I thought we should be fine then kept going. It turned out the warning was right, the back road is unexpectedly long, I had to rush/jogging back out since I needed to go to the bathroom badly, probably stimulated by the cold air?

King palace cave is really really good.

Drove to Carlsbad and got roasted chicken from albertsons. Best roasted chicken in the USA! Finished almost all on the lawn just outside the hotel room in Whites city.

A drive to big bend NP is full of discomfort of an expected checkpoint delay - luckily it didn't happen.

Incredible low traffic at the entrance - nobody even worked at entrance booth and it was the labor day weekend.

Two trips planed in big bend:
First a drive to rio grande village. There was a hot springs area with rio grande river running adjacent to it. Unfortunately I didn't bring my swimming pants. Planned to swim just nakedly, but there were mexicans on the other side of the river now and then. On a hiking trail we came across a mafia-look Mexican riding a horse, with few small souvenir stuff aside, he asked us if we would like to buy some. We said we might consider it on the way back. Keeping on our trail, we saw him riding down the trail to the river, which is the border, back to Mexican side, where probably his wife/or kid? was waiting there with another horse tied on a tree. On the way hike back, we left 5 bucks in his can on the side of vendor area. I waved to him from faraway and hope he knows.

After collecting some drinking water outside the NP visitor center, we kept on another trail to Cottonwood and Santa Elena overlook area, still hoping we can take a swim in the other part of the river. The drive is amazingly scenic. I pulled over to take some videos and George found some interesting bugs (see photo above) The river turns out to be way too muddy to swim - it is like the Yellow river in China. At the Santa Elena overlook, we saw a group of hikers sort of stuck in some areas with no trail around - it doesn't look like they need help since they saw us and didn't say anything. Nobody else was there, very quiet.

There are many unique plants and animals in this park. Encountered many of bugs/animals across the road, and snakes twice.

When we arrived our lodge, the restaurant was already closed (they close at 8 pm!). We had some snacks and went to sleep. Next morning we took a hike just outside the lodge room. I was afraid of mountain lions, which is supposedly more frequently seen in the early morning, I tried to speak loudly when I can. We also tried cactus fruit, but get really stung everywhere on our fingers from hidden needles. Not worth it and not recommending it.

Out of bid bend, we stopped at Telingua, which was a big mining town, but became a ghost town after an accidental explosion. We went to a wrong ghost town in the beginning, where everywhere is broken houses. The real ghost town has a big cemetery on a high land.

The drive after that was extremely bumpy. We stopped at one spot of big bend state park, where the movies "uphill all the way" "My maria" and several others were made. Since then it has been deserted for more than 9 years.

Not surprisingly, we got pulled over again by check point one more time, and this time the police officer told me he could arrest me right then. We finally got away.

Although tired and exhausted, we decided to keep on going to White sands national monument that day. It was not a good idea, I over drove last several days and especially that day I drove more than 500 miles in 9 hours without a break. In an abrupt decision, I drove onto a very hidden narrow one way road, but on a wrong direction. A car drove towards us, shocked to see our car, us shocked as well. After a struggle, I finally backed our car out of this one way ramp - which is actually a ramp entrance to the highway.

Not fully recovering from the shocking, unhappy, helpless, feeling-lucky-not-having-an-accident, and guilty mood, I saw another checkpoint coming. Sighing why I didn't bring my green card with me although this is a domestic trip, the latino officer at the checkpoint waved us to keep on going. Based on George's analysis, they were busy having supper.

The White sand NM is great. It covers such a big area that it reminds me some part of sahara desert in Morocco. It feels a big ice land there like underneath us it is a lake or ocean. A double rainbow was in the air speaking out its beauty as if telling us it is worth anything to come here.



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