Southwest Deserts

Arizona-New Mexico

Correction, some of the Southwest deserts. Hee-hee! Have you ever taken one of those China Bus Tours/Go To Bus Tours? It's those super cheap tours that takes you to different places by bus with the hotel and most entrance fees included!!! Let me just say too, that the hotels you stay in are not bad at all. Well, we took this one tour that would take us from the China Town in Los Angeles, CA all the way to AZ and NM! Talk about a long drive huh? The tour is nice but, the downside is you'll be on your butt for a long while! Hehehe!!! Oh yeah, I should also mention, that the guide conducts the tour in multiple languages. Luckily for us, the tour we were on was only done in 2 languages, Mandarin and English. Hee-hee!




Anyways, this was our first stop on the bus tour, Phoenix, AZ! This is the capitol building, and guess what we saw? Another replica of the Liberty bell!!! Well, this is the second replica I have seen... hehehe! (First one I saw was in Honolulu)

We didn't really do much here but take photos and a brief lecture from our guide about Phoenix... We were here like, 15 minutes, 30 minutes tops. So does this still count as me having been to Phoenix? Hee-hee! Well, I have been at the airport here in Phoenix at least a couple of times before for a connecting flight... =)

From here, we had a long drive to our hotel for the night in Tucson, AZ.


    

Our next stop was the White Sands National Monument, NM. On the way though, we were lucky enough to be let inside the White Sands Missile Range to gape at all those planes/missiles!!! We saw the Patriot missile used in the Gulf war! The place is really cool!




Here we are at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico! I have to show the sign somehow, so here it is. Tee-hee!



The white stuff you see is not snow, but really, really white sand! (Guess where the place got its name? Hee-hee!) Don't forget to stop by the gift shop to purchase those round sled thingies to slide down the dunes! That purchase was worth it! It was fun sliding down the dune! The not so fun part is getting to the top though, my feet kept sinking in the sand while trying to get to the ridge!!!





The next day, on our way to Carlsbad, NM, we stopped here at the visitor center of Guadalupe Mountains. I didn't realize before that there's a lot of hiking/camping trails here in New Mexico/Texas! Hehehe! From the brochures we were looking at, it looks like there's quite a few trails out there. The mountain you see at the back is part of the Guadalupe Mountains!


More Caves!



Who doesn't like caves? Here we are at one of the most famous caves around, Carlsbad Caverns! The caverns is impressive!!! It is big, so it's just fitting that they named the biggest area in the caverns, the "Big Room".



For some reason though, I think I like the stalactite and stalagmite formations in Luray Caverns and Shenandoah Caverns better... For me, the formations here at Carlsbad Caverns were not as impressive... Looking back on it, it's probably because there's less lighting there to highlight the formations... Don't be discouraged with my impressions of Carlsbad Caverns. I know some people who have been there and they were really impressed with the caverns! I, am also still very impressed with the size of that caverns! It's Ginormous!


    

Is there somebody standing in the distance? Here, we saw a lot of one of my favorite cactus, the saguaro!!! I love the protrusions on it, it looks like arms!!! Hehehe!





    

We stopped by the Desert Museum in Tucson, AZ to see other types of cactus in the area. (What? It's not just saguaros growing here? Hee-hee!) Disregarding the nice cactus specimens they have there, the view was just amazing! Different cactus and brushes on the foreground against the mountains and endless blue skies in the horizon! The deserts here are just beautiful!

New York, New York

Where else, but New York! =)



Guess what time of year this is in New York... The streets are packed with people... There's gigantic balloons floating on the streets...




Yes, it's Thanksgiving day! These are some of the balloons from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!!!

Unfortunately, we didn't get to see all the balloons (something about us wanting to sleep in... hehehe!), but, it was still pretty cool!

We first tried to view the parade by going to 57th St I think (at around 10 or 11-ish I would say), but by the time we got there, there was only a few balloons left! So, we decided to run along with the parade on a parallel street, and we did see quite a bit of balloons (we saw the Pillsbury balloon and the smurf's house, and some other things that I don't really know... hee-hee!) After a while, we got tired of running along with the parade, we thought there's no way we could catch up to the front of the balloons... So, we decided to take the train to 34th street and just watch from there... By the time we got to 34th St, let's just say we were not able to catch up with the first balloons. =D We were still able to see some balloons we haven't seen yet, and some balloons we saw twice. =)

The photos above was taken from 34th Street. So, if anyone wants to see the parade, I suggest getting up earlier than we did so you can see the performances and all the balloons! Hee-hee! Maybe we'll try again some other time to watch the parade from beginning till the end...




What better way to put you into the holiday mood than watching the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City? After watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, we headed over to Radio City. I saw the show for the first time! Although, I have met a Rockette before when we took a guided tour of Radio City a few years back! =) One thing I can say about the Rockettes, they really do kick very high!




After the show, we headed over to the Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree! My what a big tree! At that time though, they haven't lit the tree yet... I think they light the tree on the next Wednesday after Thanksgiving Day. It's still amazing though! Of course, it's also fun to watch the people ice skating. Hee-hee! Ooh, have you seen the movie Elf? This is where Jovie took Buddy to see a really big and beautiful Christmas tree in town! Yeah, Elf is one of my favorite movies for Christmas! A lot of people I know have been pleasantly surprised with the movie, give it a try if you haven't seen it yet! Hehehe!




Our last stop for the day, the Brooklyn bridge! It was my first time walking on the bridge. =) The views there is pretty nice, except that it was really, really windy when we were there and it was drizzling a little... Oh well, it was still very nice!

Oh, and we didn't actually cross the bridge... =D We just walked a little and took some photos, then headed back home for a very nice Thanksgiving dinner my dear friend hosted!




That's Macy's theme for the 2009 holidays! Oh yeah, we actually arrived in New York at 3am Thanksgiving day... Guess what, the streets were still alive and we saw some of the performers for the parade practicing in front of Macy's!

More Waterfalls!

Niagara Falls, Ontario



This is one of the first views we got of the falls. Isn't it amazing? We were getting a little bit wet from the spray of the water! Can you see the Maid of the Mist(the boat on the water)? I've been on it a long time ago, and it's a pretty neat experience getting close to the falls, you can really feel the power of the falls!

    

That's the American falls on the left, and the horseshoe falls on the right, as viewed from the Canadian side. Yes, I agree that the views of the falls from the Canadian side is better than the US side... Hehehe! Last time I was at the falls, aside from going on the Maid of the Mist, we also went on the Cave of the Winds tour where we walked down to a point beneath the bridal veil falls (US side). I can't remember the experience exactly but I remember a kid pushing me towards the falls so I was really drenched! Luckily, I was still wearing the blue rain coat from the Maid of the Mist. Hehe! Maybe someday I'll go back there and do the Maid of the Mist and the Cave of the Winds again!




We walked a little bit around the area and I'm not sure exactly how to describe it, there was a lot of arcade thingy things around and of course all those tourist souvenir shops and restaurants... Interesting, I guess. Oh yeah, and we did see a mountie! And yes, we had our photo taken with the mountie! Hehehe! (He was glad to have his photo taken with anyone! There was actually a line of people wanting to get a photo with him! Hehehe!)

    



We got another opportunity of viewing the falls from a different angle, from the SkyWheel at Clifton Hills!!! Okay, it's only a ferris wheel, a very slow moving ferris wheel that gives you an opportunity of viewing the falls from above, for awhile anyways(hehe!), and the surrounding areas... I don't know what it's called though... =) Anyways, the views were gorgeous!