Showing posts with label USA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label USA. Show all posts

Tuesday 12 March 2013

凤凰城

离开San Diego后,我们开往凤凰城。那是我们整个旅程中最闷的一段路程。


连接San Diego和Phoenix的,是五百多公里的笔直公路,路上没什么车,两旁一片荒芜干枯。和我同行的小妹妹被这段路上的炎热天气弄得昏昏欲睡,车上收音机也只能接收墨西哥电台了,我们似懂非懂的,像堕入了另一个空间。


偏偏那公路又延绵不断地往地平线无限展延,无尽头似的,驾车的连所有感官都麻木了。

也不知道驾了多久、驾了多远,在一个休息站看见了仙人掌,那种属于沙漠的,孤孤独独笔直的一支。我就知道,是Arizona了。

算起来这儿的天气对我们还不算太坏。明明是寸草不生的沙漠,才摄氏35度而已。 我还暗暗庆幸。不离开车子的话,基本上还热不死我。












快到凤凰城时,看见诺大路牌写着"Gila Bend",笑了一餐,也算是San Diego到Phoenix路途上最有趣的事了。
















到了Phoenix Downtown,或许是因为天气太热了,也或许是因为星期日,诺大的城市摆空城计似的, 像“I Am Legend”那个空荡荡无人烟的城市。我们不习惯,赶忙到口碑好的Budget Lodge Downtown Phoenix问了价钱,把行李都扛进房间就再不出门了。从lobby到客房还要经过一个铁栅,小妹妹说治安一定很差吧?我安慰她说这是美国第六大城市呢,怕什么。其实,美国大城市才恐怖着呢。

我们在房里看地图研究该到哪儿逛(此刻,我开始怀疑是不是应该选择Scottsdale而不是Downtown),最后决定先到Scottdale的购物中心走走,再到外头的餐馆小资一番。

凤凰城的购物中心虽大,但没什么可观的,我们看看跑车、玩玩Kinect、买些减价的Godiva,正想找家咖啡馆坐下来喝一喝饮料,就发觉大家都在准备关门了,才傍晚五点多!! 六点正式关门!真不可思议!




我们开车到Scottsdale Old Town绕,所有的店都关门了,冷冷清清的。小资个屁!
我们好不容易看见一家还开着门的面包店,进去解决了晚餐就打道回府。还好我们的motel不错,大床也舒服得很。

就这样子,在凤凰城的这一天,成了我们全程休息得最好的一天。


Halloween Costumes at SeaWorld


Oh, by the way, during our visit to the Sea World, it is almost Halloween. I think the kids just can't wait and already in the festive spirit. Hence, we actually met a lot of cute kids with cool costume. Unfortunately, no one wears the Doppler effect costumer :)


Check these out:

1. There are less princesses as compare to Disneyland. We only spotted one here :)
Merida (from Brave) hopping to the park

2. Superheroes are everywhere!
Captain America get bored


Captain America's younger brother - Spiderman

The angry Iron Man

Supergirl on balance beam


3. Surprisingly, there were not short of bugs too :)
The innocent Ladybug

Cute little bee


4. And our favorite goes to ----------- NEMO!!
 


Monday 11 March 2013

Shamu!!


I have to tell you, of all the theme parks that we visited in this trip, SeaWorld San Diego is my favorite! I was so tired of 3D or 4D or any rides after the 2 theme parks we visited earlier. At SeaWorld, we skipped all the rides, and let only the animals to entertain us. How could one not fall in love with Sea World when you have dolphins, killer whales, sea turtles, penguins, sharks, beluga whales, otters, seals etc waiting to entertain you?

Oh, and by the way, everyone loves Shamu!! Even when it means you will get splash at and get all wet! Everyone had so much fun watching the show. We even watched twice, one in the afternoon, one on the last show before the park close. Killer whales kill!! Literally tons of fun!








Before the Shamu's One Ocean show, we went to Shamu's Underwater Viewing for up close view. The sun rays formed excellent background as the whales swam elegantly and playfully. All the kids and adults are equally excited when the whale swam near to the viewing area, and I'm so sure the whales enjoyed too!





We also had great fun at the Dolphins Point too. You can actually feed and touch the bottlenose. When we were there, there were a group of 6 ~ 8 kids having their Dolphin Interaction Program. They were all in wet suits, in-water, pet the dolphins and have dolphins bring them circling the pool. I was so envy!! Why didn't I consider doing that when I planned for the trip??

So we basically watched every animal shows in the park, and visit every exhibits. We also went crazy in the shops where all the stuff animals are extra ordinary cute. I almost wanted to carry a Shamu back to Malaysia!!









Bottlenose Dolphins doing great in Blue Horizon Show


Short Finned Pilot Whales


The mysterious and shy Beluga Whales








This always remembered me of Peach

I didn't take a lot of photos during our visit at Sea World. I was too busy having fun. So most of my photos are with handphone, where I can easily show off at Facebook after I shower and have nothing to do at night :) Having said that, when writing this blog, I still find it very hard to decide which photos to post here. They are all so adorable. I almost wanted to post everything here. Hee hee! 

Anyway, we had great time and I couldn't find the appropriate photos to properly project the excitement and fun. We concluded our park visit with Shamu Rocks was a great choice. The show really rocks!



Sunday 10 March 2013

Exploring Arts & Culture


If you ask me, I'll say Balboa Park is definitely on the MUST DO LIST if you ever travel to San Diego. If you can, please make sure you plan at least 2 days there. It is huge, and it is extremely interesting!

It's a dogs heaven

Since we had spent our first day doing nothing at Harbour Island, we have to squeeze both Balboa Park and Seaworld into our 2nd day.

We were thinking of covering Balboa Park in the morning, and go to Seaworld at 12pm, so we had only about 3 hours in the park. Due to the limited time, we rented a surrey near Spanish Village, and tour the heart of Balboa park in style (and honestly, in pain too. There are lots of uphills and downhills!) We enjoyed the architecture of the buildings, and we did stop for some photo shoots or a brief visit etc but we wish we could have more time here. There are so much to see!





The little girl was very envy when our passed by a garden birthday party. Blue sky, palm trees, green green grass, nice California weather and lots of laugthers. All the best elements in one great party. A bunch of lucky kids :)






San Diego Automotive Museum

San Diego Air & Space Museum

I particularly love this pet show, where they actually put up a sign saying "Warning! Children Left Unattended Will Be Sold To The Circus". Love their sense of humor.

After exploring a little bit of everything in the park, we were supposed to return our surrey and go to Seaworld. However, when we saw the lovely Spanish Village Art Center was having an art glass guild, we couldn't resist, and spent almost another hour there.

It was a sunny autumn afternoon. All the glass art were so mesmerizing under the sun. We visited a few art galleries, chit chat with a few artists, some were still busy adding the final touch on their art pieces.


This experience made me almost wanted to extend our stay in San Diego and visit as many art galleries / museums / parks as we can.....




Saturday 9 March 2013

The Birth Place of California

This is where I fell in love with San Diego,
almost immediately

I love San Diego!

It is one of the few places that I could fell in love at first sight. We were driving from LA to San Diego through highway #1 (yes, still couldn't have enough of it). Our initial plan was to drive around checking for a few motels / hostels that I have shortlisted, check-in, then go to Balboa Park. However, when we stopped by at Harbour Island for washroom, we immediately fell in love with this place, and decided to have picnic at this area instead, and totally forgot about our accommodation concerns.

The beautiful abstract art formed by the tree shadows on the grass was so mesmerising, you could easily feel connected with your true self and found your inner peace. Both of us sat on the bench, quietly, feeling the time flew around us. The scene of deep blue sea heavily decorated by the reflections of sunlight, with yachts sailed through the calm water, with laughters from afar, is definitely one of my favourite moments of this trip.


Hours later, when we finally noticed that we had spent too much time sitting here doing nothing (but felt extremely satisfied), we decided to go straight to Dolphin Motel, the #1 in my short list motels, with very good reputation in a few websites. The owner gave us very good rate and very understanding. He knew we were on tight budget so he even guided us to a few other motels/hostels nearby so that we can check the price before making the decision. Well, of course, we ended up with this lovely motel because of their service, and also because the rooms are very clean and comportable.

We got a lot of tips from the workers here to explore San Diego. So on that evening, we followed their recommendations, visited the amazing Sunset Cliff and the old town of San Diego.

We had great sunset experience at the Sunsest Cliff. We walked the trail and met the great Pacific Ocean again at the end of the trail. I just can't have enough of the ocean :) The soil at the cliff reflected sharp vibrant red-orange that took our breath away.






After sunset, we drove to the old town. It's a typical tourist spot with restaurants, cafes, bars, and shops selling souvenirs. Apparently this is the birthplace of California! I love the fact that it is so colourful and vibrant, so Mexican (I like how they describe in one of the popular sign plate that almost every souvenir shops have "we didn't cross the border;the border cross us. This is exactly how I felt). We saw a long queue in front of the Old Town Mexican Cafe, and decided that this is the one! I had our name on the waiting list, then we sat near the front kitchen, looking at how they prepared the tacos. Half an hour later, we were seated. I love the ambience, warm yellow lamp with a few Mexicans playing their music and sang in the happy tune. The food was good, but too heavy for us.

It's a lovely first day at San Diego.


Monday 4 March 2013

Pilgrim of an Olympic Fan

Like what I said a year back, I am a huge fan of Olympic games. I love the wonderful opportunity to look at the physical and cultural aspects of our world. I love the true meaning of to train, to commit to an activity, and healthy sense of competition. I love the diversity of our world.

In year 2011, I had the "Pilgrim" at Barcelona, where my all time favorite Summer Olympic being hosted.


In year 2012, I finally have a brief visit at the place where it begins.....

The Games of the XXIII Olympia stays forever special in my heart. It was year 1984. I was 8 years old. I knew nothing about Olympics but I decided to wake up very early to watch the opening ceremony together with my uncle, just for fun. And I was hooked to Olympics ever since. Maybe because we can remember better when we were young, or maybe because this is such an unique experience for me, I have vivid memory of the jetpack, of the pianos and choir, and of how the "Olympic Fanfare and Theme" was played (it is until I when I wrote a blog about John Williams that I noticed this was composed by him. No wonder I love this piece so much :p)

So, before I departed LA for San Diego, I purposedly drove all the way (when I said purposedly, I meant it! LA's traffic is horrible and I didn't mind the countless traffic lights along S. Western Ave just to get to this place!) to the LA Memorial Coliseum.The weather was great and I love the fact that the coliseum stands out in the pictures with my favorite California blue sky as background.