Yosemite 2020

Valley View

Our short vacation: 2 nights at Yosemite View Lodge.  William got so excited the he did not sleep the night before!  He was running around trying to help me pack (of course it took longer to pack with him helping :)).

We picked up the rental car at John Wayne airport on Saturday night; the airport was so empty during this Covid-19 shut down.  We came to the Arrival level but the Alamo rental agency is down at lower level.  William was so excited to get in the rental car: touched this and touched that with wide open eyes!  The car rental price was so cheap:  $164.00 total for 3 days for a van of 8 seats!  Our family of 8 fit nicely in the car; there’s no place for the luggage so we put most of our luggage on the roof.

6 hrs drive with a few stops along the way for food and rest room breaks was not bad.  William looked so happy all the time.  This was our first trip out of town since the lock down.  We stopped by Vons supermarket in Oakhurst town, which is about 1 hr from Yosemite park.  They had fresh cherries so good that my brother in law Than bought 2 bags.  We loved it so much that on the way home we bought some more.  This town is big compared to Mariposa which is nearer to the park (about 30 min).  It was a good choice to stop here at Oakhurst town; it’s a great place to stock up food & goodies before entering the park.

Checking in with Yosemite View Lodge was easy, of course everyone was wearing mask.  I overheard that they had 50% vacancy due to the shutdown.  The hotel has some outdoor pools and 1 indoor pool which was closed.  It has a pizza store on site if you need some food.  The hotel is in a very good location: the Merced river is right behind the hotel , and it’s only 15 minutes to the Yosemite entrance.  That’s why it’s not cheap: $550 for 2 nites in a mountain view with a small kitchenette ( small sink, 4 burners stove, microwave, mini fridge, toaster, coffee maker, some dishes, pots and utensils, no oven).  The bathroom is very roomy, looks like they just remodeled it.  The balcony has 2 plastic chair and a little table.  It was so hot so we rather stayed inside than sitting outside.

We made reservation with the park on 7/19 so we had to activate the pass on this day.  So after checking in, taking a little break, we headed to the Yosemite park entrance.  They asked for the reservation print out and my ID because my name was on the pass; they took the car license plate and gave us a a pink pass which we should always display on the dashboard.  The reason they took the license plate is that, they check the license plate to see if it matches with our pass every time we re-enter the park.  I guess it’s their way to prevent cheating because it’s so hard to get a reservation to the park due to the Covid-19 restrictions.  William felt asleep while we were driving to the Tunnel View; after a long drive and no sleep he must be very tired!

Tonight’s dinner was Canh Bún  and Bún Mắm I bought from Mama Oanh’s Kitchen before we left for the trip (freeze the soup the night before).  Nothing tastes better than a bowl of Vietnamese soup after a long day!

Our plan for the next day is Tunnel View, Valley View, hiking to Lower Fall and Swinging Bridge.  It was an easy hike with lots of big trees on the way so we did not feel hot at all.  But the Lower Fall is a little bit disappointment because there’s so little water.  After the hike we drove to the Swinging Bridge where we had lunch and had fun playing with the clear water.  It’s so beautiful here.   On the way back to the hotel we stopped by Valley View for some more family pictures.

Swinging Bridge

It was around 4 PM; we took William down to the pool; there was only 2 families there so William had his own corner: he refused to leave the steps.  Uncle Than tried to get him out to teach him to swim but he kept saying no.  It was too sunny and too hot, he got off the pool after only 30 minutes.  Tim & Than & Huong found the way the Merced river thru the pool gate so they went there to check it out; I took William back to the hotel room.  William did not like the river; we took him there but after 1 minute, not sure what he saw but he insisted to go back to the room.

Hotel Pool

Tonight’s dinner was Phở,  aunt Huong brought from home.  Yes it tastes so good in the jungle!  It’s our last night here at Yosemite park.

Tuesday morning, time to go home.  We checked out early; we had some time to check out the Merced river behind the hotel again for some last minutes pictures.  We stopped by Vons in Oakhust town again for some more fresh cherries; and then headed home.

The drive home was so smooth without any traffic; and of course, much thanks to our driver Tim Bui.  We got home around 6:00 PM.

Swinging Bridge

 

About the Yosemite View Lodge:  overall we love this hotel, its location is perfect, kitchenette and roomy bathroom is a plus.  Hotel pool need some cleaning.  Wifi is available to purchase for $10.00/day thru a 3rd party (not provided by the hotel).

Yosemite Entrance Pass: due to Covid-19 restrictions, the park limits the number of people entering the site.  We must make a reservation thru their web site; and it’s not easy.  They release 80% tickets 1 month before; and 20% tickets 2 days in advance at 7:00 AM.  You have to be fast in booking, by 7:03 AM all tickets are sold out! The trick is to log in before 7:00 AM and get your credit card ready.  When it’s exact 7:00 AM, refresh the page continuously until it shows the available slots.  Make your selection right away and add to cart.  So you have to pay the entrance fee plus $2 for reservation free, which total around $32.00.  Print your reservation, and make sure bring your ID with you; they will check to see if it’s really you (your name must match with your ID).  Also, you must arrive on the day you reserved.  So make sure to plan carefully.  They open from 8:00 AM – 11 PM, but we didn’t see anyone at the booth when we left the park around 7 PM.

Here’s the link to the reservation site:  https://www.recreation.gov/ticket/facility/300015

Snow Play

More Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/9bTRe75Ye7tthsyB6

It was New Year’s Eve, we decided to drive up to Mountain High for some snow play. There was no traffic at all so it took about 1 and 1/2 hours to get there. There was lots of snow and cold as expected. William enjoyed playing with the snow: he carried the small Eiffel tower with him and played with it on the snow.

For lunch, we set up a little table and benches to cook instant noodle and heat up the hot dogs for William. He wanted to eat noodle but it was so spicy. He also enjoyed drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows.

He loved the snow so much that he did not want to leave but we have to leave early to avoid traffic: we left the mountain around 2:30 PM; William felt asleep on the way home.

Grand Canyon West Rim Trip 2019

After Thanksgiving, we took a road trip to Las Vegas with the main goal is to visit Grand Canyon West which is about 2 hours from Las Vegas. This time we stayed at Luxor Hotel.

About Luxor: The lights are very dim in this hotel which I don’t really like; and it smells! lots of smoke that I could not stand in the lobby for too long; we could smell smoke even inside the room (and the room is non-smoking!). Worse part is the parking: its parking lot is so small: one day the parking attendant re-directed us to the Mandalay Bay hotel parking because this parking was full! We are not familiar with the area so we had so much trouble first to find the Mandalay parking entrance; and then to walk from Mandalay Bay hotel to our hotel is quite a bit, especially it’s late at night! we arrived at the Luxor’s parking lot around 11 PM; and by the time we could park the car at Mandalay Bay and found our way around to get back to the Luxor hotel, it’s 12:00 AM. Unbelievable! I don’t think I’d stay here again.

Las Vegas After Thanksgiving 2019

After Thanksgiving, we took a road trip to Las Vegas with the main goal is to visit Grand Canyon West which is about 2 hours from Las Vegas.

We left for Las Vegas on Black Friday; never seen so much snow along the freeway like this. We took a quick exit on 395, stopped by the gas station for William to play with the snow; he totally loved it. Luckily we brought the slide. Then we stopped by Fashion Outlets next to Primm Casino for lunch, this outlet is dying: halves of the stores are closed. Grandpa went to the Primm casino while we went to have lunch at the Outlet (Grandma did not go with us this time). Note that the Mc Donald here is always crowded, the line was so long!

We arrived at the Luxor hotel around 1:30 PM; our room was ready because we checked in on-line as soon as they sent us the email providing the instructions to email; which I received around 1 AM in the morning. As always, William’s favorite part is to jump up and down on the hotel bed! Too bad it was cold, the pool was closed so William did not get to swim but he seemed to be ok with it.

After waiting for our sisters and brothers to get their room, we went to Pho So 1 for dinner. Then we went to Bellagio to watch the Water Fountain. It was so crowded so we took a detour to park at the other hotel and walked to Bellagio. After a long walk we finally got to the Water Fountain but William refused to go out to watch: he covered his ears. The music was so nice but he found it noisy. So he ran around the Bellagio hotel, I ran after him, and we ended up at the Garden, where we meet the rest of our family. The garden was so beautiful but William refused to stroll around the garden so we had to leave early. It was a long walk in a cold night but William was ok; he kept complaining that “I walk too much” but that’s about it: no crying or kicking!

We left Bellagio around 10:30 PM but when we got to our hotel room, it was 12:00 AM! I totally hate Luxor hotel for not having enough parking for its guest! (see below comment about the parking).

This time we did not explore Las Vegas much because the next day we went to Grand Canyon West, then we left Las Vegas the next day.

About Luxor: The lights are very dim in this hotel which I don’t really like; and it smells! lots of smoke that I could not stand in the lobby for too long; we could smell smoke even inside the room (and the room is non-smoking!). Worse part is the parking: its parking lot is so small: one day the parking attendant re-directed us to the Mandalay Bay hotel parking because this parking was full! We are not familiar with the area so we had so much trouble first to find the Mandalay parking entrance; second is to find the entrance to the Madalay Bay hotel from the parking structure: the parking was so huge! and then to walk from Mandalay Bay hotel to our hotel is quite a bit, especially it’s late at night and the casino is crowded! we arrived at the Luxor’s parking lot around 11 PM; and by the time we could park the car at Mandalay Bay and found our way around to get back to the Luxor hotel, it’s 12:00 AM. Unbelievable! I don’t think I’d stay here again.

Met Santa at the Fashion Outlets

First Time At Legoland Hotel

Sunday 9/8 – Monday 9/9

More Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/AnPnwLYJSQMk8E2M6

William has been watching clips about Legoland hotel from Youtube.com; seeing how much loves to watch it over and over again, I decided to book 1 night at the Legoland Hotel, knowing it’s not cheap.

After days of researching for the price from several travel web sites, I finally found a day that was cheaper than other days: Sunday Sept 8. The pirate room is $178.00, plus tax and resort fees, came out about $264.00 total; which is not cheap but affordable. It was Sunday night, that’s why it was cheaper.

I told him about this trip a few days before the departure day, he was every excited.

So Sunday morning, we woke him up about 7:30 AM. He walked toward the door with only … diaper on. So I told him he needed to put clothes on before we could go out.

Our first stop was McDonald to get him hash brown for breakfast, then picked up Grandma and headed our way to Carlsbad where the hotel located. Our plan was to check in the hotel first, the check in time is 4:00 PM so we’d go to San Diego’s Balboa Park and then when the room was ready, we’d drive back to the hotel.

We arrived to the hotel around 9:30 AM. William loved it so much that he ran straight in, jumped right in to the lego pit, ran around the hotel while I was waiting on line to check in. Tim had a hard time to catch up to him as the hotel was so crowded with children.

After checking in, they gave us a temporary card to use the pool so we decided to check out the pool. On the way there, William wanted to get in the Disco elevator. It’s exactly what he saw in the clips: as soon as the door closes, the disco light is turning and the music is on. I’ve never seen him smile so much!

Then when we got to the pool, he did not want to leave! He ran into the pool, I had to run after him to get him back because our plan was to visit Balboa Park first. On our way to Balboa Park, he kept saying “I want to go back to the hotel”, “Our room is not ready yet, so we can’t go back!” – I told him.

We did not spend much time at Balboa Park because William did not enjoy it; so we left around 12:00 PM. After lunch at McDonald, we headed back to the hotel; William slept on the way. Our room was still not ready yet so we stopped by Costco, which is only 5 minutes from the hotel. Grandma and Tim went to shop while I stayed and watched William sleeping in the car.

Balboa Park

3:30 PM William woke up and so ready to go back to the hotel.

Picking up the key was fast, our room was 2056 on the 2nd floor. The hotel is not that big so we had no trouble finding the room. It’s a beautiful and spacious room that can fit 5 people nicely. William was so excited to climb up the bunk bed. “You’re gonna sleep on the bunk bed tonight, ok?” – I asked. He said “OK!”. It was the first time that he wanted to sleep by himself.

It was 4:50 PM, the pool is closed at 7:00 PM on Sundays so I hurried William to put on his swim suit to get down to the pool. He’s under 48 in so the pool attendant asked him to put on the life vest. Soon after, he ran to the pool and play with those floating legos while Grandma and I enjoyed taking pictures. It was a beautiful day with white clouds, not too hot or sunny.

By 6:00 PM, it started to get cloudy and cold so I asked William to get off the pool; Took him a while to listen.

My sisters families on the way home from Sea World stopped by the pick up Grandma and paid our room a visit. It was so fun seeing everyone. They all loved the decors of the room; too bad they did not stay long; they had to go home because they all have school & work on Mondays.

We had dinner in the room ( I bought hot dog, sandwich from Costco), then we came down to the dance room, William stayed there and jumping around for a little and ran to the lobby where the pirate ship is and played there. After that Tim took him to the game room.

He did not sleep until 1:00 AM. Both Tim & I were tired and were so ready to sleep but William was still hyper, running around turning on TVs, climbing up and down the bunk beds!

Next day, after breakfast I took William to the pool but it was closed. When it was time to check out, I asked the font desk and they said the pool will be shut down for a few days but we still could use the pool in the Castle Hotel which is next door! I wished I asked sooner so that William had more time to play in the pool.

So we walked to the Castle hotel, it has a very nice play ground and a big projected screen near by the pool. William did not wait long to get into the pool; and he stayed there until 12:00 PM. I had to ask him to get out several times before he actually walked out of the water.

We stopped by Costco again to fill up gas and buy lunch. William ate half of the turkey sandwich really fast. He must be hungry after swimming.

It was about 1 hour drive from hotel back to our home.

I can tell William had so much much; he enjoyed the pool the most. He smiled a lot when we used the dance elevators too.

I’ve never seen him smile that much during the time we were here at the hotel.

About The Legoland Hotel

Parking: The hotel will charge $22.00 to the credit card on file for the parking ($28 for Valet Parking) so when you get to the parking lot, tell the attendant that you’re staying at the hotel, they will give you the pass to display on the dashboard and will not collect the parking fee at that time. They will write down the date on the pass; and you can park your car any where in the parking lot. The parking is right in front of the hotel entrance; you can load your stuffs before park the car. Show this pass to them when you go in / out to avoid paying the parking fee.

The Pirate Room: It’s a spacious room with very beautiful pirate theme decoration. There’s a box of small lego in the room for you to play but you can’t take them home. There’s a small treasure chest near the door; to get the password to the lock you have to answer 4 questions. This question sheet is given to you when you check in. If you answer them correctly, you can open the chest and whatever inside the chest is yours to take home. We got 4 packs of lego to build the bird)

My answer was: 1624 ( How many chef hat in the Mini cafe? 1. How many red stripes in the Castle Play Aread? 6. How many Swords above the dragon in the lobby? 2. How many hot dogs on the wall near the survey ipad? 3)

There are total of 3 TVs: 1 in the sitting area, 1 in the bunk beds area and 1 next to the queen bed. The couch can be pulled out to turn into 1 queen bed. Our view from the window is the pool which is ok.

They provide lots of towels, tissue boxes and toilet papers. The toilet is designed for the little ones to sit on. There’s also a little wooden chair for the children to stand next to the sink. The restroom is so clean.

Complimentary Drinks: The juice pouches and water bottle with coffee are free for you to use.

Buffet Breakfast: is included with the booking. They count the heads when you check in for breakfast. The maximum count for our room was 5. Which means you can not go in / out multiple times.

Castle Hotel: the room key at 1 hotel will work in other hotel. The playground at the Castle Hotel is really nice with a big screen playing movies all the time. There’s a hot jacuzzi next to the big pool but of course it’s too hot for a summer weather.

Hotel Deal: Wait for Groupon deal. If I had waited, I’d have saved around $60.00 for the same room & same date. But booking with the hotel is non-refundable so I could not cancel.

https://vacations.legoland.com/california/booking/package/search.html

Fleet Week 2019

Monday Labor Day

Knowing William would love to sit in the fire trucks and touch the army trucks / cannon; we left the house early with hoping to avoid the crowd.

Waking William up was easy because he loves to go out. We first stopped at Mc Donald to get him some hash brown which he ate while we were on the way. It took about 45 minutes to get to the Sand Pedro port.

I guess we were early that the parking lot was full yet; we did not have to walk that far. We did not know the entrance to view the ships is on the left right after the security gate; we kept going straight and stopped by a few booths for William to spin the wheels; we ended up spent too much time at the military displays where they showed case army equipment. William especially love the tank that he kept coming back to it. He also tried to hold a few heavy guns and look at those huge binoculars.

I thought the ship that we were going to visit is right next to the view area so I hurried William to keep going; but it’s the IOWA ship, which we have to pay for admission. Then I asked the security guard, he pointed me to the big dome which is the entrance to the free viewing of the 4 ships.

Once we got in the dome, the lines to the ships were too long so we let Tim stood in line while I took William to explore the area: it has a few booths that give out free stuffs too. He especially loved this “rocket” booth where they taught the children to make very simple rockets and they have some simple device to launch the rockets that the children built. William launched his rocket several times and refused to leave. He also loved the truck that show case the Seals (not real): he got in / out of the truck so many times.

Then we watched the robots contest where the robots throw balls into baskets.

Tim called, finally it was almost our turn to get in the ship, I carried William ran to the line and asked the people to let me get to Tim. Some man really pissed off thinking I was cutting the line but I did not: we were here way before him, that’s why he was still standing at the end of the line.

I still had to wait for about 30 minutes before we could actually got to the ship. We waited for about another 10 minutes for people to get off the boat before we could get in. While waiting, our tour guide, who is the chef of the boat, gave us some general info about the ship. This ship is invisible to the radar so it’s very interesting to view but inside is totally empty. The guide introduced us to several key components inside the ship. We had to follow the tour guide; we can’t just walk freely to explore at our own space. It took about 15 minutes and we had some free time at the end to buy souvenir. William picked the big black coin which costs $20.00.

William was happy to have the coin but he refused to go home; he went back to the fire trucks, climbed up that and refused to get down. I asked Tim to watch him so that I could go buy some food for lunch. It was 12:30 PM, William must be hungry.

The line to get the burgers was long, this place was now packed with people. While I was waiting for the order, I saw William came running with tears on his eyes.

“What’s wrong? “I asked.

“There’s children waiting to get on the fire truck but William refused to get out; then he slammed the door. The fireman asked him to leave because he did not want any one to get hurt. ” Tim said.

I picked him up and comforted him. I let Tim stayed to wait for our burgers order while I carried him to the car. William stopped crying a few minutes later but he seemed very tired and hungry.

We sat in the car and waited for our meal. I gave him a bottle of milk and he drank it . Finally Tim came back with our burgers; William finished the whole cheese burger with a few fries.

Then on the way home, he slept.

I bet he had a fun day but to me it’s still very frustrated because he doesn’t listen well. He’d just run off to see or touch things that he likes without asking. Or for the things that he doesn’t like, he’d just kick /cry and run away if we try to make him do it.

Address: 100 Swinford St. San Pedro, CA 90731

https://www.lafleetweek.com/

A Day At The Stables With Chey

A free event fro children with Autism organized by Cheyenne Angelica LLC, with. I was not sure that William wanted to ride the pony but when I asked, he said “Yes”, to my surprise.

After the ABA session with Ms. Brenda, I quickly prepared some hot dogs for William to eat before heading to the stables. I did not know they provided food.

It was about 20 minutes driving from our home. William was so excited. It was a dusty road when we got to the parking lot. This place is huge!

The event was very well organized. It was quite a bit of walking; you can get lost easily at this big barn if there’s no directions, especially when it’s your first time here. Chey staffs stood at all the corners where we needed to make a turn so we did not get lost. ( we got lost on the way back to the car because Chey staffs were not there anymore as the event ended).

Dust was all over the place; and it was sunny but William did not complain at all. He patiently walked with me thru the way to the are where the event was held.

This young lady was seating behind the table and greeted us as she saw us coming. Very young nice lady (too bad I did not get her name and did not take a picture with her). She had me sign some papers and gave us a bag full of goodies for William: a hay hat, a bandana, 2 horse figurines; 1 plush animals. I put the hat on him right away, he looked so cute. The horses are beautiful and big. He pet the horses and tried to feed the horses too. I asked if he wanted to ride the horse, he said “No”. There was no people waiting to ride the horse at that time but too bad he did not want to ride.

I wanted William to go get some food first but he saw the game board, he immediately ran to it. And came back to this table few more times later. Then as we walked to the food tables, he saw the Moon Bounce, he ran to it and did not want to eat.

After tired of jumping, I asked again if he wanted to ride the horse; he said “Yes” this time. I guess because he saw other children riding the horse and that made him change his mind. Unfortunately there were 2 other kids before us so we had to wait. He could not stay in line; he ran off to pat the horses; I have to run after him; when we got back, we lost our place; so now we’re behind 4 children. It was too hot and sunny; waiting in the line is just impossible for him; he kept running off to pat the horses. This time I learned my lesson, I asked the lady behind us to keep our spot for us so that we did not have to start at the end of the line again.

Finally William got to ride the horse; he did not show much emotion but I think he liked it because he did not ask to get down. He got to ride 2 round around the event area with a lady leading the horse and a man walking behind her to make sure William did not fall.

After the ride, William ran back to the Moon Bounce and jumped some more. At this time he was hungry: he drank some water and asked for muffins.

He loved to jump; I asked him if he wanted to leave several times but he said “No”.

Finally he decided to go him, on the way out, he saw the painting table and stopped and pour colors into the plate.

He seems to enjoy this event a lot.

First Time In Sea World

From our last experience with William in Disneyland, he did not like rides or any shows so that was why we never took him to Sea World. But this weekend all of his cousins were going so we decided to take him there.

Just like we expected, the only place he wanted to be was the playground and the game arcade. We tried to attend the Dolphins Day show, but it was too sunny and he was not enjoyed the show that much so he and I left the show early to go back to the play ground.

Sea World has a nice playground with Bouncing areas, tunnels, cable bridge, and splash pad. The game arcade is next to it; so are the rides. He did not care much to play with the water or the rides so he just ran around between the bridge and the bouncing place.

It’s hard to ask him to stay still to take a quick picture!
Beautiful Flamingos but William didn’t like it.
He loves to put his hands into the water, but scared to touch the fish!
He’s taller than 39 inches!

Rafting Adventure 2019

The highlight of our summer trip this year was to go rafting on the Stanislaus River in Oakdale, which is about 2 hours driving from San Jose.

6:30 AM we left the hotel, stopped by Huong Lan Sandwiches to get some Pate Chaud and coffee for breakfast; then headed to the meeting point Golfland. We were on time but there was not many people there; and my friend was still picking up his friends, so we decided to go to the Knights Ferry.

Arrived to the Knights Ferry about 9:10 AM. We needed to check in at the parking lot near the bridge first to get our bands and pay for parking, then we head back to the bridge and walked down the stairs to where the boat ramp is. This is where they gave us a short orientation about safety and what to do, and make sure we all had the life vest on before letting us board the raft. Our family of 10 people fit nicely in this big raft.

Our group of 10
Julie, Thân, Danny & Tracy Võ
Eliza, Bryan, Victoria Nguyễn
Michelle, Tim & William

Soon after we left the ramp, friends from other rafts starting to attack us with water guns and buckets full of water. We came prepared too, so we attacked back with the water gun and water buckets. Vy, Bryan and Eliza was so vigorously in fighting back :). Soon we all were wet from heads to toes.

William at first loved the boat, the water but he did not like the water war; he asked “I want to go back to the car!” so I hugged him and tried to shelter him from all the water splashes. After that he was fine; he tried to use the water gun to shoot others too.

The river is beautiful, lots of times we can see the rocks at the bottom so some parts are not that deep. When we stopped for lunch around 12:30 PM, William refused to get out of the water, he loved to play with the paddle in the water.

After lunch, we continue our way to the Orange Blossoms ramp, which is about 3 miles ahead. This leg of the river has more waves which added more excitement to this fun adventure.

We love this place with shallow water and lots of rocks; this is near the end of trip.

We arrived to the Orange Blossoms point around 2:00 PM. There were River Journey Adventure staffs waiting to pull our raft to the shore. This is where we had to take our stuffs and got off the raft and gave back the safety box (they let us borrow for free). William did not want to leave just yet, he ran back to the water that I had to pull him back. There was a shuttle waiting there to take us back to the parking lot. So it was a one way river trip.

It was definitely a fun trip for everyone; it’s 1 of the family trip that we will remember as we go thru life. And most importantly to me is that William had fun and he was happy to play with the water.

Cost: $33.00/pp (child or adult). If buy more than 10 tickets then the website will automatically apply discount of $3.00 off.

https://www.riverjourney.com