Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Happy Independence Day

Happy July 4th! Are you ready for the fireworks?

I went to Turkey Run State Park in Indiana with my bf and couple friends. It was my first time going to a state park. We set up the BBQ grill and had BBQ as lunch. Then we went canoeing along the river, the view was awesome! It has been so long since I last canoed. There is 10 trails at the park so we decided to go on the trails. The trails are at both sides of the river and there are only 2 bridges going to the other side and one of them was closed! It was very fun that we walked across the river at the shallow side (opps, we weren't allowed to) and created our own trail because it was getting dark and we needed to get to the opposite side and the only bridge was miles away. It was a great experience tho, I love it!

Get ready for canoe!!







































I spent my night at home watching fireworks as my apartment is facing downtown. Fireworks were amazing! It was almost 20 minutes long. Of course Churro got scared again and mama need to comfort him :P


Canoeing & tubing 
Went on the trail



Friday, May 24, 2013

When Dream Comes True: Disney World Orlando

Hi everyone! Have you been to Disneyland or Disney World? What's your favorite character?

I always wanted to go to Disneyland when I was young but I didn't have the chance. The first time I went to Disneyland was when I was 7th grade. My mom brought my sis and me to Japan and of course, we visited Disneyland in Tokyo. That was my first visit to Disney and I told myself I will visit all the Disneys around the world one day. Then I visited Disneyland in Hong Kong back in 2006. It was the smallest Disney in the world. In 2010, I came to the states and I visited Disney World Orlando with my friends.

This time I got to go with my family! I always thought going to Disney is a family thing. And that's how to dream came true! My sister and I was very excited to go.

On the 4th day in Orlando, we went to Disney Magic Kingdom. It was very crowded as summer break already started. There was a long wait for all the rides and taking pictures with the characters. We went to Epcot on the 5th day and damn it was really hot but we had lots of fun in Disney!

Magic Kingdom entrance
Magic Kingdom!
A picture with Mickey
Class of 2013 Mickey hat
Ice cream was my lifesaver in this hot day
On a ride 
Magic Kingdom at night
Disney Epcot
Snow white and the seven dwarfs
Class of 2013 Duffy
Thanks for reading :) I hope you guys have a great weekend!

Universal Studio and Island of Adventure featuring World of Wizarding Harry Potter

Happy Friday! Do you have any plan on the weekend? I'm exhausted from the 2 weeks trip to the east coast and gonna take a long long break before I go back to work.

We flew to Orlando, Florida from NYC and stayed 5 days there. Got to Orlando pretty late so we went straight to hotel to have good rest for the next day. We went to Universal Studio on the 2nd day. My first Universal Studio visit was in Osaka, Japan. I wanna go to all the Universal Studio all over the world! Planning to go to the LA one in this winter, trying to get out from the mid west winter, hah!

We then went to Universal Island of Adventure on the 3rd day. We actually wanted to go to the Harry Potter world only :P Harry Potter world was amazing, it felt like I'm in the movie lol. We had 4 cups of butterbeer. I love butterbeer, yummmm. I wish I had one right now. We did most of the fun rides and had so much fun in both parks!

With mommy!
Daddy girl :P
We <3 minionsss
Who live in the pineapple under the sea?? Spongebob squarepants!!
Minionsss again!
Jaws
Giant lollipop
Universal Studios Florida
At Universal :)
Harry Potter world!!!
Hogwarts train
Butterbeer and mustache :{)

Got all wet riding this
Sis and I
 Thank you for reading <3


Sunday, May 19, 2013

Summer Break: NY and DC Trip!

Happy Sunday everyone!

So I went on a graduation trip to the east coast with my family. IT was their first time here so we were all excited for the trip. We departed a day after my commencement and flew to Buffalo, New York to see the world famous Niagara Falls. We went to the American Falls and Horseshoe Falls. The view was stunning. It was very cold when we went and everyone was freezing because we thought it would be warmer :( We enjoyed the trip except for the bad hotel front desk service.

Gorgeous tulips at Niagara Falls state park
American Falls view from top
American Falls view from the boat
Took the Maid of the Mist boat trip
American Falls at night
Top of the falls
 *******************************************************

After a 3D2N stay at Niagara Falls, we took a plane to Washington DC. The first time I came I visited many museums and it took up a lot of time so this time I'm gonna go see the beautiful buildings in DC. We had the chance to stay in brownstone apartment in Columbia Height, DC. The apartment was beautiful and clean. We bought the Big Bus tour so we can tour around DC and it came with the ticket to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. What a deal! We had a very pleasant stay in DC.

US Capitol
Madame Tussauds Wax Museum DC
The White House
Lincoln Memorial
********************************************************

Now the fun part! NYC yay!! This was my second visit to NYC and I will never get bored to this city that never sleep. There are tons of good restaurants and stores. We took the bus up to NYC from DC. Our stay wasn't that pleasant this time. We stayed in a brownstone apartment in Brooklyn, in some ghetto neighborhood. Have you ever seen a gated counter in KFC? Yeah, they have the gated counter in this neighborhood, that's sketchy! Other than the unpleasant stay, everything else was good. We did a lot of shopping at Times Square. We also went to Woodbury Premium Outlet Mall and my family went crazy shopping there lol. We also watched the longest running broadway show The Phantom of the Opera. It was still amazing even though it was my second time watching. Statue of Liberty was closed due to the damage from hurricane Sandy so we didn't get to visit. We can still kind of see the statue at Battery Park. We visited a lot of places and it was pouring the dat we were gonna go to Central Park so we had to cancel it. We had so much fun in NYC, will definitely revisit!

The Phantom of the Opera
Times Square
Wall St. Charging Bull
Grand Central Terminal
Fifth Avenue shopping!!
NYC view from Empire State
MoMA
Thanks for reading guys <3

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Family Reunion in Chi-chi-chicago

Happy Tuesday everyone!

I'm here in Chicago again but it was different this time. MY FAMILY FROM 10,000 MILES AWAY CAME TO VISIT ME!!! No words can describe how excited I'm.

So my bf, I and of course Churro, my dog went to O'hare airport to pick up my parent and big sista. I was so happy the moment I saw them walking out the gate. Big hugs to all of them. It has been a while.

We went to the hotel to check in and drop off the luggages. It was literally next to the airport. Decent hotel, nice and clean and FREE PARKING! Then the journey started :)
Four Points by Sheraton








Churro becoming so asian lol





























We had late lunch at Gyu Kaku, a japanese BBQ restaurant in downtown Chicago. The foods were amazing, order any BBQ meat on their menu and you will not be disappointed. Their green tea ice cream was by far the best green tea ice cream I've ever had, even better than Haagen Dazs one. Downside was a little pricey tho and portion was small. But you get the good foods! We spent around $200 for 5 of us and we didn't leave with a full stomach.

Gyu Kaku
Green tea ice cream!!


Since we were at downtown, we walked along N Michigan Ave. The weather was kinda chilly. We went back to hotel after so my family could get some rests since they flew almost 20 hours to get here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After we got some good sleeps, we had brunch at Yolk, one of my favorite restaurants in Chicago. The food portion was huge, we always have some leftovers to bring home. We then went to the Skydeck in Willis Tower. Although it was my 3rd visit, I'm still fear of the height, not as much as 1st and 2nd visit tho, I guess I'm slowly overcome the fear :)

Yolk!!

Skydeck @ Willis Tower




















Next stop was Millennium Park and its famous bean, Cloud Gate. Flowers were blooming and it was so beautiful here. I took some graduation pictures here with fam. We then went to Crown Fountain and Buckingham Fountain. Too bad it was too cold to play in the water. We had dinner at Lao Beijing in Chinatown. We were gonna go to Lao Sze Chuan but it was too crowded, line was about an hour wait. Foods was okay.
Crown Fountain
Cloud Gate
Buckingham Fountain
Millennium Park











Cloud Gate



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Third day in Chicago, we had brunch at The Cheesecake Factory. I love their red velvet cheesecake, I think I will never get bored of it. We went to Water Tower Place after brunch then headed to Art Institute of Chicago. We got the discounted price ticket for only $10 because it was the last hour before they closed.
The Cheesecake Factory @ N Michigan Ave



Red velvet!!
Art Institute of Chicago

Art Institute of Chicago







































Went dinner at Pizzeria Uno. Love their deepdish!

Pizzeria Uno deepdish pizza