Community Day

this is an annual event at Stanford - sort of like an open house for Stanford's neighbors, i.e. anyone living in the community around here. This year's event was held on April 15th, Sunday.

I went with Sun Sun and family and her neighbors as HL went on a full day field trip out of campus with his classmates. I was a little disappointed at the turnout and programs, but still had fun watching the 2 kids play and we also took the opportunity to visit the Stanford Barn, where the horses for the equestrian team are kept. The kids got to ride on the ponies - too bad I am a little too old & too heavy for that! Ha ha!

this is the link to the pictures:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLDbg

ikebana #4

this is the 1st ikebana class in Spring quarter - we have more students in the class compared to Winter quarter. This arrangement uses carnation and baby's breath flowers - simple but stunning

this is what Singapore should be doing....

....if it wants to give a serious boost to its declining birth rates!

Carmel By The Sea & 17 mile drive

Actually this is part of the Spring Break trip, but I omitted to mention in the 2 entries below (this gives you an idea of how much we have done during this break, that I can't keep track of all the places we went to when I was typing the blog entries...)

We drove to Carmel and the 17 mile drive (at Pebble Beach) on Tuesday 27th March. Carmel is a quaint and picturesque town by the Pacific coast with lots of galleries, eateries and houses owned by rich folks. It was nice to stroll down the streets just window shopping and people watching...

Paid $9 entrance fee to drive along the famous 17 mile drive with various points of interest along the way, including the Lone Cypress (purported to be "one of California's most enduring landmarks" - the cypress tree has "prevailed on its rocky perch for over 250 years"), exclusive mansions and of course, the famed Pebble beach golf course...it was extremely windy that day, so I wondered how those guys managed to play golf on the greens when we drove past the course...

This is the link to the pictures taken that day:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLDTA

Spring break! (2 of 2)

days 6 to 8 (Mon to Wed 26th to 28th Mar)

drove to San Jose to visit a museum but it was closed on Mon! Got a small scare when driving from San Jose to Milpitas – an engine light came on, indicating a possible malfunction with the transmission system. Had to drive back to the car rental company to switch to another car (PT Cruiser – Chrysler), but not before we went shopping at Milpitas!

Tuesday was also a shopping day, this time at Gilroy, another premium outlet! On Wednesday, we returned the car and took the Cal train to SF city to catch a musical, Jersey Boys, which is about the life story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. Before this, I have never heard of this name or the group (but have certainly heard of their songs as I realised during the musical). The show was really entertaining and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

days 9 to 13 (Thurs to Sun 29th Mar to 1^st Apr)

flew to Portland Oregon for this last leg of our holiday! The hotel, Four Points by Sheraton, looked a bit disappointing on the outside, but the room is comfortable and has a nice view of the Willamette River, which the hotel is located beside.

We (or rather, I) basically decided to come to Oregon because of its tax-free shopping, but Oregon has many scenic places within a few hours drive from Portland city (like the coastal fishing towns, Historic Columbia River Gorge drive, mountains like Mount Hood and Mount Bachelor etc).

1st day – we walked around the city and did some shopping (again!). Rented a car for the next 2 days and drove to tulip farm in Woodburn (some 45 min away from Portland) and more premium outlets for shopping! Also managed to get to a coastal fishing town, Newport (although it was late in the day already).

The following day, we headed east for the Historic Columbia River Gorge drive (the first scenic highway in the US to gain the distinction of National Historic Landmark), where we marveled at the 2nd tallest non seasonal waterfall in the US (Multnomah Falls - picture shown above) and took on twists and turns in the tree-lined roads...

These are the links to the pictures (you will need to copy and paste on browser) -

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLDCA

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLC9g

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLDKg

Spring break! (1 of 2)

we are back from our 1.5 weeks holiday for spring break! We drove and walked so much during this break, that I was actually quite relieved the holiday was over...I thought the best way to share this holiday is through a chronological order of the days:

day 1 (Wed 21st Mar)
started our day with a delicious breakfast of bagels, then proceeded to collect our rental car (for a week) and drove to the Golden Gate Park in SF city where we spent some time walking around and taking pictures - the weather was perfect!

thereafter we drove to Sausalito, a quaint seaside town north of SF, brimming with artists' lodges and restaurants...it was a pity we didn't have enough time to really explore the place apart from having lunch there and buying 2 drawings from an artist.

Muir woods national park was our next stop, where we spent over an hour walking among gigantic West Coast redwood trees and taking pictures...Ended the day with dinner at Milpitas with my friend, Juliana.

days 2 to 5 (Thurs to Sun 22nd to 25th Mar)
start of Yosemite trip! We drove to Yosemite, a 5 hours drive away from SF. Before reaching Yosemite Valley, we took a short detour to Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, the body of water that supplies drinking water to SF and the Bay Area.

We stayed at 2 different hotels during this trip, Yosemite Lodge at the Falls, which is right smack in the middle of the Valley, and Wawona Hotel, at the southern entrance to the park.

The beautiful thing about the Park is its wilderness, which is easily accessible to the public (only a $20 entrance fee which is good for 7 days) via walking and easy hiking paths and for those who want a challenge, steep and long hiking trails which lead up to the waterfalls and the many granite monoliths in the Park.

As spring season is just starting, certain trails are still closed, but we were glad we went in spring, as the snow is melting and the waterfalls are awesome! Definitely one of the most pretty sights in the Park!

Well, we managed to do a fair bit during the 4 days there – went hiking and walking, saw Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls (picture shown above), Bridal View Falls and Vernal Falls, also saw 2 of the other landmarks – El Capitan and Half Dome, attended a 2 hour Ansel Adams photography walk and tried snow-shoeing for the 1st time in Badger Pass! Another first, we created a small snowman with the ice on the ground!