Hot Summer Day at the National Zoo
What to do when it’s 95 degrees outside with 70% humidity? Go to the zoo, of course!
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- Tian Tian chillin in his air-conditioned room
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- golden lion tamarin
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- the thinker
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- what???
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- blue frog group
Capital Fourth
Scenes from our neighborhood July 4th festivities:
Crystal City Car Show
Father’s Day in our new neighborhood:
DC Pride Parade
Scenes from our neighborhood pride parade this weekend:
California Coast
One thing I always look forward to doing during home leave is taking a leisurely drive along Highway 1 between LA and SF Bay Area. This time around, we started in Santa Monica (where we used to live), stopped off at El Matador Beach (where we married 10+ years ago), checked out the SLO Concours, elephant seals, drove through Big Sur, dined in Carmel, spent a lovely afternoon in Monterey, before finally arriving in the bay area. I can’t wait to do it again.
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- Santa Monica Beach
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- El Matador Beach, Malibu
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- Santa Maria Airport
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- Elephant Seal Beach
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- rude awakening
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- sometimes you just wanna bury your head in the sand
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- awwwww
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- Big Sur
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- Carmel
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- Monterey Fishermen’s Wharf
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- what a view
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- 17 mile drive – Spanish Bay
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- lone cypress
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- Pebble Beach
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- an unexpected find on Stanfurd campus
San Luis Obispo Concours d’Elegance
One of my favorite summertime activities is attending car shows. With Cars and Coffee on hiatus, I had to look elsewhere. Luckily, San Luis Obispo Concours d’Elegance happens to coincide with our home leave so we made a pit stop on our drive from SoCal to the bay area to check it out…
Bali
Before making our big move back to the US, we took one last family holiday in the Indonesian island paradise Bali…
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- Nusa Dua Beach
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- Pirate Bay
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- bamboo treehouse
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- Ting Ting’s new friend
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- Temple of Mengwi
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- sneaky kitty
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- coffee beans
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- palm fruit
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- the famous luwak coffee
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- Ulun Danu Temple
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- tiger mom
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- temple procession
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- another procession
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- roadside durian shopping
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- Tanah Lot
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- kecak and fire dance
Krabi, Thailand
With our departure only a few weeks away, we decided to take full advantage of our remaining time by squeezing in a couple more trips. First up, Krabi:
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- Railay Beach
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- Phra Nang Beach
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- mermaid
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- are those?…yes.
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- happy
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- Ao Nang Beach
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- why do people love these jumping pics?
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- check out these melons
Sarawak Cultural Village
If you want to experience the indigenous cultures of Sarawak but don’t have the time to go deep into the jungle for a few nights stay at a long house and hang out an Iban tribe, then the Sarawak Cultural Village is a pretty reasonable substitute. It’s a living museum, and in many ways, it reminded me of the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii.
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- Bidayuh House
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- Inside the Iban Longhouse
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- Orang Ulu Longhouse
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- Melanau Tall House
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- Sago Chips
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- Malay House
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- a game of Congkak
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- Chinese farm house
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- why buy a fancy crib when you can just hang a basket from the ceiling?
Bako National Park
Part of the draw for Kuching is the abundance of nature activies that are within easy reach of the city. Bako National Park, a forest reserve at the mouth of the Bako and Kuching Rivers, is a prime example. From Kuching, it’s about a 45min drive to Bako Jetty, and from there, a 15min boat ride to the park entrance. Depending on the amount of time you have, you can choose trails lasting anywhere from an hour to an entire day…
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- the boat ride to get to the park is part of the fun
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- we only have enough time for one of the shortest trails, but you can spend a few nights in the park if you want to hike them all
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- fiddler crabs
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- one of the 7 different kind of butterflies we spotted on the trail
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- here, lizard lizard…
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- we were rewarded with this secluded beach at the end of the hike
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- aftermath of our two hour hike in the jungle
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