it’s 3:45am PST. why am i still up? well… i got up at 12:30am after a 2 hour nap. lolz. watched miami vice on hbo. and then got really hungry. so we ate the left over sushi from dinner. =)

oh yea, exciting news!! we’re moving tomorrow into our new apartment. we’ve decided to settle down in the East Bay in Fremont. it’s right off of the BART train station. and it’s only a 20 minute drive to silicon valley. the apartment is very nice… but the price reflects that i guess. or maybe it’s just typical Cali prices.

on another front, i just had a second round interview today. i think it went really well. i had one hiccup with the VP of Eng… and it’s totally due to my carelessness. hopefully i can right my wrong by following up with the correct information. wish me luck! if i get offered for this position, the pay is going to quite little. definitely not enough to survive out here. BUT good thing there is a starbucks right downstairs of where we’ll be living. lolz. would you like whip cream with that?

i spotted vegas 16 miles away the moment we drove over the peak of the desert highway. i was very excited because it was my first time in vegas. we pulled off on las vegas blvd and drove by the casinos. they looked so dull. where are the flashing lights? where are we? what time is it? oh… it was only noon time.

something didnt look right. where’s the cool casinos? and so, i turned on the GPS and looked up the MGM. “please drive the highlighted route.”

jumped back on i-15. it’s the bellagio! the MGM! the Wynn! the mirage! “please take exit on right.” we’re there! got off on tropicana ave and all the cool casinos were there. we turned at the New York New York. woah. major tourists! pulled into the Venetian. hmm… it smelled like a bathroom in the grande shopping area. i thought i was in a horror film with the echoing bellows. what was it? oh… it’s just the fat guy in stripes paddling the gondola in the canal.

so we went outside attempting to walk to another casino. bad idea! the minute i walk outside… i was drenched in sweat! we walked two blocks and i couldnt take it anymore. so i dragged shan back inside. tired and hungry. we went on the hunt for food. we settled in at postrio, a cafe/restaurant by wolfgang puck. ordered a glass of sangria and paulagner hefeweizen. both were rather disappointing. got the spicy grilled lamb pizza and the porcini mushroom ravioli dish. both were yummy. then we finished off our meal with the thirteen layer tiramisu. was it really thirteen layers? you tell me. but before that, let me tell you this… it was yummy!

after that… walked around. went shopping. went to the casino. guess what it looks like? the freakin same as every casino i’ve been to. lolz. so decided not to waste my money and leave. we still had a 4 hour drive ahead of us.

overall experience of vegas was disappointing. maybe we didnt go to the right places. maybe we went at the wrong time of day. who knows.

on the drive to LA… turned on the radio and the weatherman was reporting. “it is currently 105 degrees on the vegas strip. make sure you bring water with you wherever you go. stay inside when possible.” you kidding me??

finally, we get to LA. i was craving chinese food. shan suggested we go to el monte because her friend lives there and she remembered that they had chinese food. ok. stephy, show us to el monte! “please drive the highlighted route.”

woah. i think i was suffering from culture shock or something. after we got into el monte, all of the signs turned to chinese. yummi chinese food. wing’s auto repair. china dragon. peking river. sole so good. wha? sole so good was a foot massage shop! lolz. it just didnt feel right to me. i was not used to all those chinese signs.

we pulled into some plaza with a 99 ranch supermarket. it was PACKED. you know it was heavily populated with asian people when all you see are camrys, accords, civics, corollas, BMWs, benz, and minivans. 8 out of 10 were silver too!!

ate at some bbq eatery. ordered off the “american” menu because we didnt see the chinese menu and both were starving. chive and duck soup. shrimp and eggs on rice. black bean sauce with spareribs on rice. and baby green sprouts with garlic? dou miao? not appetizing at all! msg ftl…!!

anyways. it’s 10:30am PST. which mean it’s 1:30pm on the east coast now. shan is still sleeping. and i’ve been up for 2 hours! since i’m here. i’ll upload pictures to make this a mega thread. =)

this is our family picture the morning before we left. Our daughter Ming took us out to Shangri-La in Belmont for Taiwanese dimsum. 

this is us packing. almost done.

this is the back of my trunk. packed to the limit. and yes, that is an ironing board!

this is the front of the car. and yes, that is a snowboard AND a folding table. so ghetto!

my Boston cap almost got us beat up in Albany at Dennys. EVERYONE was staring and grilling me. we made sure to get out of there fast!

this is the american niagara falls. it was an amazing view. we were literally 10 feet away from the water.

this is the chairman mao from shenzhen who treated us to buffalo wild wings! this kid is only 24 and on his way to getting his PhD! what are kids smoking these days?

this is that really weird plaza in chinatown chicago. i have never seen anything like this before.

this is some random native american memorial center in nebraska.

this is the colorado rockie mountains a few minutes outside of denver. it was a truly amazing drive!

this is us at a scenic rest area in between the rockies on i-70w.

where we going? to some place with no name. =)

after 2500 miles in utah, this is how many lives i have taken. shan counted over 100,000!!!

this is the Colorado River in Moab, UT at the Arches National Park. the bridge was opened on May 16, 2008. we walked on it on May 18, 2008.

this is some random picture of some canyon in the Arches National Park.

where to get off?

a picture from las vegas blvd.

shan’s porcini ravoili with roasted pearl onions.

my spicy grilled lamb pizza with chorizo and peppers.

and here is our thirteen layer tiramisu.

this is that chinese plaza in el monte. see… all hondas and toyotas!

here’s that new frozen yogurt place called nubi. didnt have space to try it. http://www.nubiyogurt.com/

in theory, i should be tired. i drove 8 hours straight today. but i’m not. instead, i’m applying to jobs and donating money to the China Earthquake Relief Fund.

http://american.redcross.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ntld_china_relief_fund_0508&s_subsrc=RCOProfile_China&s_src=HomeLatestNews

I encourage everyone to help out by donating even a few dollars. the 7.9 magnitude earthquake claimed over 22,000 lives so far. but an estimated total of 50,000 could have been lost. over 168,000 people are injured and close to 5 MILLION people are homeless. yes, FIVE MILLION HOMELESS. so please find it in your heart to donate a few bucks to bring some relief to the unfortunate.

my turn to vent…

a few days ago, as we were pulling up to the american-side of the niagara falls, my cell phone rings. area code 949? who could that be? it was the recruiter from Edwards Lifesciences, one of the places where i really want to work!

anyways, i find a meter parking spot and back in. we sit in the car for a good 15 minutes. finally, i’m done. we get out and start messing with the wacky computerized parking meter. stupid thing kept saying i was issued a $25 violation. huh? it turns out that i got fined for not paying the meter within 3 minutes of parking! it’s got a camera equipped with LED flash!! wha? i had the choice to pay on the spot for $25… or by mail for $35! so stupid.

we are in omaha now!!! I thought Omaha is only gonna be a small town. (well, it is kinda small compare to chicago) but it turns out omaha is a very nice city.

Upstream Brewing in Old market streets…

Phil had the 11 house beers taste…

personally i like the honey rasberry ale the most… i would like to promote it to all ladies.. it’s in pink color too..

rib-eye and pork chop.. yea, it is a big pork chop!!

haha.. we couldn’t finish all of them..

a very special passageway in old market streets..

we’re almost to our destination! about 2400 more miles to go. hahahaha.

for those who haven’t been to chicago before… let me be the first to tell you… WOW. it’s a very unique city. i think chicago is full of character. too bad the weather is not great majority of the year (according to our taxi driver). did i tell you? that was my first time in a taxi in almost 10 years? geez! the last time was before the $10 fung wah buses came out. i remember we had to take the taxi from the port authority bus terminal on 42nd street down to manhattan chinatown. talk about memories.

anyways. so far, we spent the whole day in chicago yesterday. did most of the touristy things. i finally got to see the magic bean! actually, the official name is Cloud Gate and it was designed by a British artist named Anish Kapoor. This was located along Lake Michigan in Millennium Park.

this was next to the Art Institute of Chicago. we used our student IDs and save $10! and so, we went in to see their exhibits. i think The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is MUCH better… plus it’s free with my student ID!

while we were enjoying the gloomy skies above us at the Crown Fountain, we saw two bozos winking and smiling at us, so we took pictures of them.

they’re the creation of Catalan conceptual artist Jaume Plensa. Standing 50-feet tall, the transparent glass blocks are illuminated by LED screens and generate the two bozos.

ok… housekeeping just knocked. have we overstayed our visit? NO! it’s only 10:50am! i still have 1 hour and 10minutes! anyways. time to shower and hit the road. we have a 7 hour drive to Omaha. Maybe i’ll have some steak tonight. that’s what they’re famous for right? Omaha mail-order Steaks?

we went up to the Sears Tower last night. watched the sun set. quite enjoyable. ok. the stupid housekeeper is banging on the door with her vacuum cleaner. i’m going to shower now. see ya in Omaha!

it is 2:30am central time now. phil is sleeping.. i am still up. although i heard the news about china’s earthquake couple days ago, i didn’t have chance to sit down and read more about it untill now. after reading more news and seeing more pics in si chuang province… i am so shocked… i feel so sad… couldn’t go to sleep… thousands of thousands people died during this earthquake. many of them are just school kids. how can i post our pics onto our blog? i was having fun while lots of other people are suffering pain. they lost their family, their home, and even life. i feel so shame of myself at this moment. i need to do something to help them…

anyways, sorry that i am so random. please don’t mind me.. well, i know i still need to update wahshan first for keeping our credit. we are in somewhere 1 hour west of Chicago staying the night. we arrived chicago last night. then we had chinese food in chinatown. the chinatown in chicago is so cool.. it’s so different from any other chinatown that i’ve ever seen in the US, UK and Canada. hmm.. don’t know how to explain that.. the first time i saw it, i felt like i am in china.. (not in big cities though, more like in a second tier city in china.. a little bit off-beat, little bit fake.. weird.. little of everything.. oh, my poor english. anyways, it’s definetely special.)

Joy Yee Noodle.. the place we had dinner in chinatown. i had baked fresh coconut with seafood curry, phil had basil seafood in bamboo pot..

then we went to here and there… (just too many names to look up and write down again) i’d rather show you guys pics.. that’s more straight-forward.. i hope..

May 14, 9:30pm we had dinner in this place.. Sushi Wabi.. i like it a lot. the interior design is just my taste.. food was good too. phil said the yellowtail sashimi was really fresh and good. i like the presentation of this maki though.

called Ecuador: has maguro . hamachi . cilantro . cucumber . avocado . green onion . jalapeno . orange tobikko . tempura crumbs . chili sauce . wasabi mayo . sesame seeds

hmm, feeling sleepy now. i will keep updating tomorrow night when we get to Omaha. OMAHA! the place where warren buffet lives.. yeah, we are going to the home of the richest guy in the world (only this year) tomorrow.. FTW! ( i though it was F**k the way… phil almost laugh to dead. now i know it is For the win.. hahaha.. i need to confess it before phil tells everybody..)

so… it’s monday morning. and i’m sitting here in the dark under the gloomy sky. *sigh* rain… please go away? shan is still sleeping. my nose is runny. my throat is itchy. am i catching a cold?

we had buffalo wild wings last night… yummy! paired it with 2 tall glasses of blue moon. wow.

http://www.buffalowildwings.com/

ordered way too much food though. many thanks to Chairman Mao for treating us to dinner. i insisted on treating because i’m the eldest, but in the traditional chinese manner that hosts treat guests, he gave chase across the restaurant to stop the waiter from swiping my card. again, much thanks to Chairman Mao… good luck in Vegas tonight!

i’m a little bummed right now. can’t post pictures because the cable to link the camera is in a box… somewhere inside the car among many other boxes and bags and stuff.

so what does the itinerary look like for today? hmm… we’re going to stop by Niagara Falls. Drive to Cleveland. Take a picture. Eat. And drive to Toledo for the night. Why Toledo? Because it’s half way between here and Chicago. Duh.

緣于phil對中國武俠片和黑社會電影的一丁點兒認識，他想到了這個可愛有趣的名字“華珊派”，應給他個最佳創意獎。華當然是錦華的華，珊自然就是我啦。而通常我們說到門門派派，又一定要說各門各派的特色絕活，要比招式，看誰跟有能耐本領更高。我們這個華珊派的招式是什么呢？我們比別人又有何不同之處呢？這個博客就是給介紹我們派的獨木絕活，敬請留意！如果對我們派感興趣，或者想要加入我們華珊派的話，請留言在我們的日志，謝謝！

we’re in buffalo now! waiting for shan’s friend to pick us up to get some buffalo wings and beer! FTW! we’ll be back to post pictures later tonight.