Hiking · Travel

National Parks

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Since we go to national parks quite often, I thought I will be better off having my own place to stay rather than renting all the time.

The following house I have is closed to most of the Utah and Arizona national parks within 2 hours or less drive. There are a lot of national parks around : Zion, Bryce, Grand Canyon, Antelope, etc.

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Travel

Vancouver is awesome!!

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We just got back from a long road trip to Vancouver, BC, Canada. It was an amazing trip, one of the best I remember in recent years.

For those interested in stats :

  • Trip length is nine days.
  • Trip expense is just under $1500 for 4 adults and 1 child. See the pie chart breakout below. Therefore, it’s roughly $300/person or $30 per person per day.vancouver-expense

Trip details :

  • The first day of our trip was a 400 + miles drive from LA to Sacramento. We stayed in a 2 acres farm house. It turned out this was the worst part of the entire trip since this airbnb house was not very clean and it was actually the most expensive ($131) airbnb stay of our entire trip.
  • The second day we drove from Sacramento to Portland, it was a very long drive (600 miles). We arrived just past 7pm, this airbnb host Karen was the most amazing host in our entire trip. Moreover, it was the cheapest as well, $42 to be exact.
  • The third day we arrived in Vancouver, Canada. We stayed in a glamorous apartment complex at the Vancouver downtown centre for 4 nights. The location cannot be any better. It was another one of the best deal – $115 per night, 2 beds and 2 bathrooms on the 31th floor with amazing views of the city and harbor.

Best pit stop :   Shasta lake in California (breathtaking views)

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Best parks :

– Stanley park (Vancouver, BC)

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– Queen Elizabeth park (Vancouver, BC)

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– Minoru park (Richmond, BC)

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Canada Place (waterfront) – an iconic landmark and venue for world-class events and inspirationally Canadian experiences.

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Best FOOD!! (Vancouver has the best Chinese food, I can’t wait to go back) :

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Last but certainly not least, my daughter absolutely loves Vancouver :

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It’s her first time staying at a high-rise apartment complex. She absolutely loves it.
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She goes shopping at the T&T Chinese grocery market, learning how to walk.
Travel

Cruise Deal

zyschen1681 Comment

Holland America has pretty good deals on Pacific Coast cruise from San Diego or San Frans. to Vancouver. It’s only $199 per person + tax for a 4 nights cruise on Eurodam. I cruised on the Eurodam in 2009, it was a very nice ship!

Then there was even a better deal on the Nieuw Amsterdam ship which is a newer ship from Holland. Sailing from San Diego to Vancouver for 4 nights, has limited last-minute balcony suite room for $249 per person + tax.  (Updated : this is sold out now)

Take advantage of these great deals before they are gone!! See the link below :

https://www.hollandamerica.com/find-cruise-vacations/FindCruises?destCode=L&regionCode=L&dateCode=4_2017&page=0

 

Hiking

Easter weekend

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For this Easter weekend, I took my daughter to her first hiking trip. It was a very easy  hike in Lake Arrowhead@California.

The weather was perfect on that day, in the 80s with a warm breeze. We first stopped by the Lake Arrowhead village, where you can find lots of docking boats and many local shops and restaurants. Since it was a Easter weekend, there were a lot of families brought their kids to the village Easter event. See the picture below.

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We decided to spend some time exploring the village before heading to the hiking trails.

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My daughter with her cool sunglass.

Since this is my daughter’s first hiking trip, I wanted to start off something easy. Thus, we took the Heaps Peak Trail which was an easy 1 mile trail.

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She’s camera shy.