Kings Canyon & Sequoia National Forest

This past weekend, Chris and I visited Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Forest.  We wanted to take advantage of the close vicinity (4 hour drive) of the national parks and visit before Memorial weekend started off the summer season.

We left LA at 7am Saturday morning and arrived in Kings Canyon around 11am. We headed straight to Cedar Grove into Kings Canyon to Mist Falls hike. A 9.1 mile hike that started in the bed of the canyon brought us to the canyon mid-level right next to a water fall that let out a LOT of mist, hence named Mist Fall hike.  Here are some views from the hike. 

 The upper level of Mist Fall. This hike was beautiful, interesting, and varied--the first 2 miles were in sand, surrounded by the deep canyons, and required us to cross some streams. The remaining 2.5 miles went from climbing boulders to deep forests with moss covered trees. Also, we saw a black bear!!!! It wandered onto the path as we were heading back to our car ---only about a 100 ft away!

As we drove back to the lodge, we stopped by to take some pictures of the canyon.  

We stayed at Stoney Creek Lodge, right in the middle of Kings Canyon and Sequoia Park --- we splurged a bit with the convenience of staying right in the middle of the park, but it was so worth it. A small 12 room lodge with delicious pizza at night and a filling breakfast in the morning, and we were well rested. We ate breakfast while watching a small family of deer! 

We went to Sequoia last year when my parents were visiting, so this time we visited a different part of the park. We climbed Moro Rock, drove through the Tunnel Log, and walked around Crescent Meadow looking at the Sequoia trees.  

 Moro rock is awesome!!!! Its 350 stairs hugging a huge boulder and set in the crevices of a rock jutting out of the mountain. I'm so amazed at the engineering, the foresight, and the incredibly hard work that went into making this boulder accessible to ordinary people like us. I was so impressed with this and I was shaking as I climbed gingerly up this rock.

 I don't think you can ever get sick of this view and the majesty of these 1000-2000 year old trees. Did you know that they self heal?!! These trees can withstand termite, fires, and diseases. If they make it to full adulthood (which is really rare), they seem like giants that can survive it all. Sequoias only grow at a certain altitude in this region of California.  It made me remember my parents visit seeing the Sequoias--and how I still haven't written about our wedding and vacation last year!

 Look at Chris between these two huge Sequoias.  How do they grow so close to each other?

 Driving through tunnel log! It's much more exciting to see in the picture than it is to actually drive though, but I was excited nevertheless.

 An uprooted Sequoia tree that is 21 ft long...it was called Auto log because people used to drive their cars on the car on top!

A beautiful view of the Crescent Meadow. We saw a white tailed deer wandering around and we enjoyed a lunch nearby before we headed back to LA. 

I'm so grateful to have access to this nature and environment. Conservation and preservation are so important and I feel increasing committed to doing what I can to save this environment. Being in nature is such a great way to gain perspective on the everyday troubles and definitely helped motivate me for the week heading up to this weekend and this rough work week ahead!

Seoul highlights

After our intense travel in Japan, we spent four days in Seoul. It was my parents' 70th birthday (they both turn 70 this year) and my siblings and I threw them a party!  I will post about this separately, but a few highlights from our days in Seoul.

Chris and I spent one day meeting friends. We went to Seocho galbi with Jany for lunch (huge galbitang!) and visited the Nike employee store courtesy of my brother. We then went over to Jihae's place to visit with her and her son, and in the evening met some high school friends for dinner.  Even though so much time has changed, at the core we are all still like high school kids! 

The other days we spent at home helping my parents wash Baekho (who has aged so much since I have last seen him) and plant lotus plants. I took a lot of pictures of us walking through the neighborhood and of my house because I can't believe how much it had changed and I was deeply sad and nostalgic for the past and held on to the images of my childhood home and neighborhood.

Do you see all those high rise buildings/apartments in the background of the top photo? Those didn't exist before. Neither did those huge homes on the left side of the photo. The neighborhood is half modern buildings and half older homes, with the newer buildings literally overshadowing older buildings. The high rise apartments took over rice fields and a beautiful view of mountains. I know people need places to live, but do we really need to make 30 floor apartment buildings?

 My neighborhood is so different now...and I hate it. Look at this apartment buildings...its so horrible.

 We went to a baseball game for the first time in Korea!!  It was very entertaining and we all had so much fun. I'm not a fan of baseball and usually find the games so boring, but Korean baseball games are nothing but constant cheering, excitement, music, and dancing. I highly recommend it! You can also eat fried chicken and pizza at the game.

 See the guy in the maroon shirt? He was up there leading the cheer team for the 4.5 hour game!

 Ah...at least this view is the same.

 Chan sung came over for breakfast and dropped us all off at my parent's birthday party. I haven't seen him in years and was really grateful he made time for us in the wee morning.

I miss my mom's cooking! We went home every morning for an elaborate breakfast. 

Honeymoon to Japan- day trips to Hakone & Miyajima

HAKONE
Hakone is a small mountain resort city just 90 minutes outside of Tokyo. It's a common trip many Japanese people take over the weekend and is known for its hot springs, view of Mt. Fuji, and ryokans!  Ryokans are traditional Japanese hotels- you wear these Japanese robes, have a outdoor/private hotsprings experience, and usually eat an elaborate Kaiseki meal (traditional Japanese meal--- with a lot of little elaborate dishes).

We spent a day riding the various forms of transportation Hakone has (boat, cable car, bus, train, tram, ropecar) and in a traditional Ryokan.  We had so much fun there ---and so much fun travelling on the Shinkansen - the bullet train. A few words about the bullet train...amazing!!! There are 2 minute intervals when trains take off, 2 minutes!! They are always on time, quiet, and so incredibly fast. Below is the lunch box we had on the train...they are prepared specifically for train rides and only sold inside train stations.

 Outdoor foot spa!

Our ryokan!

MIYAJIMA
Okay... we never planned on going to Miyajima, but our friends told us it was worth it, so we made it happen! With Miyajima, we did a 4 city trip in 8 days :) We are troopers.  We rode the shinkansen to Hiroshima, took a train and then a ferry and finally made it to Miyajima. The entire island is considered a UNESCO historical site and the country has made efforts to preserve the island in its traditional form. We saw the shrine and climbed Misen mountain. Miyajima also has deer all over the island.

OF COURSE we picked the hardest trail up Misen mountain and it was a massive undertaking. We almost died...it was only 2 hours, but it was a very vertical climb. We didn't give up though, we made it and the view was worth it.  Our legs were shaking as we made our way down via cable car (thank god for the cable car). We also had no water... not a smart hiking move.  Anyway, we were glad we made it out there.

Honeymoon to Japan- Kyoto!!!

I'm so delayed in writing about our trip to Japan.  I'm procrastinating because I want to do it justice, but then I end up not writing anything at all! So far from perfect, but here it is.  Some highlights from our 2 days in Kyoto.

Here is where we went:
1) Kyoto Market Nishiki
2) Fushimi Inari Shrine
3) Main street of Gion (Geisha district)
4) Arashiyama Bamboo Grove  & Tenryuji Zen temple
5) Ryoan-ji
6) Kinkakuji (Golden temple)
7) A handful of other temples and shrines

And we stayed one night in a futuristic capsules and another in a tiny tiny hotel room as all Japanese hotel rooms are!

I really fell in love with Kyoto and the time we spent there was too short. The streets are narrow, old, and buildings lining the streets are mostly traditional. Unlike Tokyo, the city is historical and has somehow escaped the metropolis patterns of most Asian cities. There are also a million zen temples and shrines all throughout the city. Kyoto isn't as accessible at Tokyo for transportation, but had so much character and we found ourselves marveling at everything. At one point, we got on this one car, one-way train that passed through a tunnel of cherry blossom trees-- it was quaint, beautiful, and felt as if you've been transported to another time.  I would really like to go back. Some pictures from our time in Kyoto.

Finally, a picture of vending machines. Japan has soooo many vending machines - and strangely (I may have mentioned this before) but not trash bins!  We spent so much on vending machines, I think it was almost criminal, just trying every single kind of drink possible.  Kept us hydrated as we walked throughout the city and kept us engaged in Japanese culture---in some weird way.