Bahamas 2023 Itinerary

This trip is a continuation of Miami trip.

Wednesday June 21, 2023 Take Southwest airlines to Nassau, Bahamas.  Hotel Transfer: Majestic Tours, book thru Atlantis hotel 2 weeks before the trip. Stay 4 nights at Atlantis on Paradise Island, Bahamas.

Thursday June 22, 2023 Explore hotel

Friday June 23, 2023 Two hour tour of Nassau: 2 historic places are Ft Findale and Queen staircases.

Saturday June 24, 2023 Explore hotel

Sunday June 25, 2023 Check out Atlantis hotel, fly to FLL, from FLL fly to John Wayne airport.

Miami & Key West 2023 Itinerary

Saturday June 17, 2023 Fly to Ft. Flauderdal (FLL) from John Wayne airport (SNA) via Southwest airlines. Stay 1 night at Hyatt House Fort Lauderdale Cruise Port. Picked up car rental at Budget. They upgraded to 4Runner from Rav4 free of charge.

Sunday June 18, 2023 Check out hotel and drive to Key West. Stay 1 night at Hyatt Centric Key West Resort & Spa.

Monday June 19, 2023 Check out and take Yankee Freedom boat to Dry Tortugas. Breakfast and lunch provided on the boat. Depart at 8:30 AM and back to port at 5:15 PM.  Drive to Miami.  Stay 2 nights at Hyatt Centric South Beach Miami .

Tuesday June 20. 2023 Five-hour Tour Everglades, book thru Groupon.com

Wednesday June 21, 2023 Check out hotel in Miami, drive to Ft. Lauderdale to return rental car at FLL and take Southwest Airlines to fly to Nassau, Bahamas.

First Fever In the Year 2022

Monday Jan 3rd, 2022.  First day back to school after New Year holiday 2022, William had a fever so he had to stay home for 3 days.  Besides fever he complained about the stomachache.

Tylenol 10 ml every 4 hours to decrease the fever.  I also used the warm towels to put on his forehead, body and legs.

By Tuesday afternoon his temperature became normal.  As for his stomachache, Dr. Chi said to monitor; she pressed on his stomach but he did not feel hurt so she said nothing is wrong.

Bye Ms. Marilou – We’ll Miss You!

Dec 31, 2021 is the last day that Ms. Marilou will be with TasKids.  Can’t believe it has been 3 years!  She’s one of the best Behavioral Therapist that we’ve had.   William loves her; and they’re getting along really well.  I love that she introduced William to “1 mindful minute” where she played this video from YouTube and had William followed the instructor: sit down nicely with both hands on the knees with palms up.  With his eyes closed to listen to the instructor voice, he looked so cute and peaceful!

I still remember the first Xmas she was with us, she helped us assembled the bike that I bought for William for Xmas gift.   She’s always considerate and addressed our concern very seriously.

Too sad to see her go but if it’s for her best interest; we’re happy for her.  We wish you all the best and luck on your new adventures.

In the mean time, Thomas, our BCBA will take over Marilou session until they can find a new BT for William.

 

Welcome Year 2022

The year of 2021 ended with lots of unfortunate events happened to us, but it was also the year that we first took the longest road trip to Monument Valley (8 hours driving).   William is now 8 years old; he loves to travel but is not really fond of hiking.  If the weather is hot or the hiking roads have flowers or butterflies, he’d just refuse to go.

It was 10:00 PM, I opened the Apple Cider bottle to get ready to count down but he wanted to drink right away.  Then he felt asleep around 11:00 PM, before the count down.

Here’s to a new year, looking forward to lots more travel and the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Cheers!

 

 

Journey to Bethlehem At Crossline Church

Every year Crossline church organizes this beautiful and meaningful event that we enjoy going for some hot chocolate and re-live the journey of Jesus.  This year we had my sister Eliza and her 2 children (Bryan and Victoria) accompanied us.   To my surprise, William was ok to ride the camel by himself!

They took our photo taken by a professional for free at the Nativity scene: beautiful angel stood next the beautiful Mary & Joseph with Jesus on their hands.

Note: Need to register to attend this event.  The photo they took would be available on their web site  (link is below) 2 days after the event.  They organized the pictures by day so you have to scroll thru the day folder to find your picture.

Journey to Bethlehem

Happy 8th Birthday

Cannot believe he’s 8 years old now.  He looks so handsome and grown up.  Because of our trip to Monument Valley during Thanksgiving week that we had to postpone his birthday party to 1 week after.

This time I took him to the supermarkets with me because Tim had to work on Saturdays.  First we went to Costo, then Arirang Korean market to buy some marinated BBQ ribs.  Then to 85 Bakery to get birthday cake but there was no chocolate cake so we stopped by Albertsons.

It was just a small gathering of our closest families (Tim’s family could not make it this time); but from the look of his face I think he was happy.  One thing I felt bad that he does not have any friends so that we could invite them.

Happy Birthday Son.  We love you!  Hopefully next year you’ll have some friends that we can invite on your birthday.

Monument Valley Trip

Due to Covid-19, Japan has closed their border and does not allow any travelers to get in their country, which means our trip to Japan is cancelled.  The Stunning Tours company gave us the option to postpone the trip to next year (Nov 2022) or to take the credit; we chose to postpone to next year.   This meant that we had a full week of vacation with no where to go so we decided to take the road trip to see the Monument Valley, a place where the famous movie was film: The Forest Gump.  This would be our longest road trip ever with the driving of 8.5 hours on the first day to reach to the first destination and the total trip days was 6 days.  Before this trip, we only arranged the trip to drive max of 6 hrs a day and 4 days in total.  This was also the first time that we missed Thanksgiving dinner with our family.

Saturday 11/20/2021: Drive to Page, stop at Las Vegas for lunch and break.   Stay at Home2Suite hotel in Page.

  • There was traffic after we left Las Vegas that it took us 6 hours to get to Page.  By the time we got there, it was so late.  Fortunately Hilton hotel allows us to digitally check in so we went straight to our room upon arrival.

Sunday 11/21/2021: explore Page, stay 2nd night at Page.

  • Horseshoe Bend, Upper Antelope Canyon tour.

Monday 11/22/2021: drive to Monument Valley from Page (2 hrs)

  • First stop was View Hotel, took a quick drive on the scene drive, then Sunset tour of the back country.
  • Check in a Goulding Hotel around 5:30 PM.

Tuesday 11/23/2021: Forest Gump Point, Mexican Hat, Valley of the Gods.  Drive back to Page.

  • It was raining and cold this day but we got a good shot at the Forest Gump Point.
  • Stay at Home2Suite hotel in Page for 1 night.

Wednesday 11/24/2021:  Zion National Park, Las Vegas.

  • On the way back to Las Vegas, we stopped by Zion Park.   Did not know it still had beautiful yellow leaves so we stayed here longer than we planned.
  • Arrive to Las Vegas and check in to Hilton at Resort World, a brand new hotel just opened this year.

Thursday 11/25/2021: Las Vegas.

  • Spent our Thanksgiving at Las Vegas.  Explore the hotel Resort World.  William loved to swim at the hotel pool until they closed at 5:00 PM.
  • Walk to Paris Hotel to see the Effeil tower lit at up night; and Bellagio to watch the dancing water.

Friday 11/26/2021: Go home

  • Check out the hotel and go home, there was no traffic at all so we got home early around 4:00 PM.

 

Discover Scouting

Newport Sea Base organized a family event “Discover Scouting” for free so we signed up.  This is a 4 hour event which is full of fun activities.  First we learned how to fish, then kayaking and play balls, then bird watching on a small boat.  William seemed to enjoy all of the activities but when we got home, I asked him did he like it, he said he likes boating but not kayaking!  The weather was hot so it was great to be near the water.  We had a great time; glad the we joined.

 

 

 

 

 

Festival of Flights

Festival of Flights returned to Long Beach after skipping last year due to Covid-19 pandemic; I remember William as having so much fun in 2019 Festival of Flights, he loved the cannons!

We were asked to show the vaccine cards; they offered free rapid PRC test for those who are not vaccinated; so William had to take one.  It was nasal swab, William did it by himself.  We waited only for 15 minutes for the result; it was negative.

I was a bit disappointed because this year there was not that many airplanes and booths like in 2019.  Luckily there was 1 airplane that allowed us to get in and touch the controls; William loved it!

We sat on the fake lawn to each lunch and watched the performers on the stage; William did not pay much attention to the music because he was busy playing with the Jack’s Game  that he got from 1 of the booths.

We got some chicken noodles for lunch, at first he said no but after the first taste, he loved it.  It’s really good but too salty, I guess because there’s no veggie; I did not know that if we want veggie we need to order it, which costs a bit more.  From the pictures on the truck, I thought veggies is included.

Then I went to get some Churros Sunday which has ice cream on top of the churros; I asked to have the churros separated from the ice cream and that all the toppings should be on the ice cream but they misunderstood, they have the ice cream on a separate cup but the sauces and toppings (I chose Hershey chocolate and Oreos) are on the churros!  William took the ice cream and did not want to eat the churros because there was sauce on them.  From his look, I think he enjoyed this event.