Category: Travel – United States

Miami & Key West 2023 Itinerary

Posted on by MICHELLE N

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.

Monument Valley Trip

Posted on by MICHELLE N

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

Posted on by MICHELLE N

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

Posted on by MICHELLE N

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.

Fall-O-Ween

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Fall-O-Ween event was at Heritage Hill Historical Park in Lake Forest.  A free event.   The scavenger hunt requires 6 stamps, then you’ll get a small bag of goodies.   William enjoyed this place very much, he walked around with us without running around.   We took quite a few pictures because their decorations are very nice.   On the way to dinner, I asked if he liked that event, he said yes.  I said, “It’s nice that you got a bag of candies”.

– “Not much” – he replied.  And he was right, there was only about 4 candies in the big brown paper bag.  I explained to him that there’s lots of kids coming so we have to share the candies,  4 is good enough.    He enjoyed eating the candies while looking out the car window: we were driving to a Japanese restaurant near there: the Ajisen Ramen at Diamond Jamboree shopping center in Irvine.

We ordered 2 special bowls, I asked for an empty small bowl so that I could share with William.  It turned out he wanted to have a big bowl and let me use the small bowl!  I told him he could have the big bowl only if he ate noodle with meat, he said “OK”.   And he did, he actually liked the meat in this ramen bowl.  It’s been more than a year since we’re back to this place.  I remember that time he did not like this ramen as much as he did today: he has changed and knows how to enjoy good foods, which is a good thing.

Chasing Autumn 2021

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Oct 2 – Oct 4, 2021

It’s our most favorite season of the year: Autumn; and the nearest location to our place is of course Bishop, which is around 6 hours driving.    Actually this year we were planning to go to Cedar City, Utah but then we heard that it’s peaking at Bishop so we changed our plan in the last minute.    It’s peaking at North Lake and South Lake, Rock Creek Lake but other areas at lower elevation is still green.  Maybe in the next 2 weeks it’ll peak there.

William was so excited as usual about the trip, but he did not like Travelodge, “It’s a motel, not hotel!”.

– It’s a small city, there’s no resorts here.  I said.

– Why? he asked.

– Because people come to this town for hiking and fishing , not to relax.

– Bishop is a bad city, it only has motels not hotels! – He kept saying that.

This time we had his Grandpa Thieu Bui (Tim’s Dad) to go with us.  He wanted to see yellow leaves.  We did not think that he’d have trouble breathing in high elevation area but he did.  First afternoon we went to North Lake, he had trouble breathing ; and worse, he left his ventilator at the hotel so we gave him William’s ventilator (which we always carry with us along with EpiPen everywhere we go) and then we had to leave right away.

59th Annual Sandcastle Contest

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Sand Castles Contest was taken place at Corona Del Mar Beach, which is about 20 minutes driving from our house.

William always gets excited when we’re going out; and he likes to bring some of his favorite stuffs with him and put them next to him in the car, which of course makes a big mess.  I want to emphasize, favorite stuffs, not favorite toys.  Now his favorite stuffs that he wants to bring whenever we go out is:  a big bag full of white shipping foam that I got from 1 of the packages, 2 trays of checkers and chess board games, heavy load of coins that he put in my make up bag, and of course a few stacks of playing cards that he put in a drawstring backpack!  Anyway, that is not what this post is about.

When we arrived to the beach, which we went here before, Tim parked on the street; William started to say “I don’t want to walk too far!” and kept repeating it over and over.  That was when I realized that to access this beach, we’d have to walk down hill for about 7 minutes.  Downhill is easy but it’s tough to go uphill on the way back.  So we decided to drive down there to park in the paid parking lot; to our surprise, it’s expensive: $5.50 for 1 hour!  Huntington beach parking fee is much less: if I remember correctly it’s only $3.00 for 1 hour.

William was so excited that he ran around non stop; but when we got to the sand, he sat down and did not want to go to check out the sand castles, so I stayed and watch him so that Tim could check them out.

Tio’s Tacos

Posted on by MICHELLE N

It’s Monday, Labor holiday so we had no school/work.  We heard about this Tio’s tacos place and decided it check it out.

It’s a Mexican restaurant but the unique thing about this restaurant is that the owner built those art sculptures using junk and recycled materials; some of the tables are hand-made and decorated with soft drink or beer caps.   It’d be a better place if there’s no trash around and not too much dust.  We bought 4 tacos (beef & chicken) and 2 quesadillas (beef & chicken) for total of $21.00 which is reasonable price.

William at first did not want to go in because he said it’s too hot outside. Yes, yesterday it was hot! I tried to persuade him that inside the restaurant it’d not be so hot, but he did not want to get out of the car.  Finally I had to carry him thru the parking lot.  Once we were in the shade I put him down and he was ok since then.  He was running around and extremely curious about those soft drink caps on the tables and walls: he kept touching them.