Big Sur is a fabulous place for hiking and that's the main activity that we did on the second day of our stay. We checked out three different locations namely Pfeiffer Beach, Andrew Molera State Park and Pfeiffer Big Sur State ParkEach of the location has its own appeal and Stvn and I loved our experience at Andrew Molera SP the most. Pfeiffer ( Read more... )

Yet another lovely weekend, thanks to diligent husband who is always on the look out for fun activities. This time round, we made our way to Point Reyes National Seashore with the hope to see whales and elephant seals. No whales but we saw many elephant seals from a distance and a few at close range! Very fortunate. Our first experience with ( Read more... )

We kicked off our weekend hike at Butano State Park, located in Pescadero. It is about an hour drive and my ever resourceful husband found a pit stop where we could fuel up before the long hike. Located at a gas station, the Mexican food here is one of the best that we have tasted. The best part? It is very affordable. We ordered 4 tacos which ( Read more... )

During Labor Day weekend, together with our guests we headed up to South Lake Tahoe. What we didn't realise then was that we were not the only one with this clever idea. We paid for it dearly when we made our way back to the Bay because the usual 4 plus hours drive morphed into more than 7 hours! The longest drive ever ( Read more... )

Several weeks ago we did a road trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park, which is about 4 hours drive north from where we are. As we got nearer to the park, the terrain changed significantly and gorgeous alpine trees, mountains and meadows greeted us. It was stupendous and I immediately relaxed and was drawn in. It's hard to imagine that about 90 ( Read more... )

This past Saturday, I experienced and verified what Gretchen Rubin claims in her bestselling book, The Happiness Project that novelty and mastery of challenge is one of the keys to happiness. When Stvn suggested that we climbed Mission Peak at Fremont, I had no idea what to expect and being me I didn't bother to look it up either. Maybe it's a good ( Read more... )

When the last day rolled by we were disappointed to discover a threatening sky. Undeterred we decided to go to Hetch Hetchy Reservoir when the map informed us that it was relatively near to our lodge. Turns out it was a brilliant idea because personally I enjoyed that hike the most. It is a glacial valley and the scenery there is out of the world ( Read more... )

Day 2 started early because the drive to Mariposa Grove took about 2 hours from our lodge. That gives you an indication of how massive the park is. On the way, we had much fun listening to Chinese pop songs and our companion J kept reminding me to take it easy for the hike that we were going to do. Even though it was spring, some roads were still ( Read more... )

"Sedikit-sedikit lama lama jadi bukit" = Little by little it grows into a mountain (rough translation ( Read more... )