Sunday 17 March 2013

恋恋红石

十月十五日是重要的一天,我们要赶往大峡谷了!!

Sedona from afar

我们一早就离开了沉闷的Phoenix,直奔Sedona。当第一个红石进入眼帘,我们就爱上了这个地方。

Driving towards Sedona

驾着车子在红石中穿梭,有种难以形容的兴奋在空中飘荡。我们基本上是每看见一个观景台就非驱车直入不可。我们的第一站就是Sedona Tourist Information Center。此地的旅游观光处做得很好,犹如小型博物馆,资料应有尽有,连每一天的 park rangers 的详细资料也一一列出。


Panoramic View from Sedona Tourist Information Center


到了Sedona市中心,简直就是个红石围绕的小镇。小妹妹因为受人所托,见到GAP专卖店非进不可,我则撇下她在小镇内绕了一圈。蓝天下红土坎上的黄色野花正在撒野,subtractive primary colours 营造出单纯的、自然的、强烈的视觉上的刺激与满足。在这一刻,我后悔了。早知如此,与其在凤凰城无聊了一晚,我们应该一鼓作气驾多两个小时的车程到这美丽的地方住上一晚。



要是时间许可,其实应该住上好几晚呢!我单单想象蓝天红石黄叶加流水的画面,就觉得这是露营的好地方!






告别Sedona后,两旁风景一路转变,温婉的山脉、蓊绿的高原、白雪覆盖的山峰……

Driving towards Flagstaff (photographed by Ching Ching)


我们一路往大峡谷前进,时常有一些莫名的感动让我们停下车子,记录一些只有亲身经历才能明白的情绪……



在到达大峡谷之前,我们又在一个观景点驻足。(要不是小妹妹一直以“再磨蹭下去就看不见大峡谷的日落了”提醒我,我想我们应该会在每一个观景点停留并不知时日过)

当地土著很随意地搭了一个收银站说是维护这峡谷的经费,我们也不见他们有什贡献,但也不和他们争执,给钱就是了,反正是乐捐的。

小峡谷也是由Colorado River雕塑而成, 在荒凉大地上画出了深层的3D画作。我们拍了几张到此一游的照片,又再匆匆上路。

毕竟,谁都不想错过了大峡谷的日落……









Friday 15 March 2013

So Proud of Myself

This morning, when I'm busy working, I received a pleasant surprise. An email from TripAdvisor, titled "Congratulations, you are among the top 1% most-read reviewers on TripAdvisor!"



I was so excited, I can't imagine I'm the top 1%! Must have contributed a lot to the world tourism. Ha ha!

I print-screen this email and share the news with Ah Wei, some friends and colleagues. Some asked "So what price do you get? Free trips? Discounted tickets?"

Well, nothing monetary. It's the sense of satisfaction and sense of contribution that count!

I always dream of having my own business in tourism industry. Before I could actually start contributing in this industry, at least I have putting in quite some effort in giving opinions that help other travellers :)

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.....