Ray & Ashley

On the morning of August 14, Ray and I headed to Newark Airport to board our flight to Vancouver to meet up with my family.  The Au’s family planned a 10-day vacation to see Vancouver and Alaska. We were spending two days in Vancouver and then board a cruise ship to set sail to Alaska for the remaining seven days. My parents, both sisters, niece, nephew, Ray and I were all very excited. We haven’t had a family outing in many years. My family and I have been to Vancouver once, a long, long time ago.  Seeing Vancouver again and seeing some of the changes and as well as new things were eye-opening. Vancouver is such a beautiful and clean city.  As soon as we arrived at the airport, my family was there to meet us and we headed out to our first stop: Capilano Bridge.

I could tell my parents were having a great time already and Ray reacquainted with Meagan fairly quickly. They haven’t seen each since our wedding back in 2007. But as you can see, they became buddies right away. My dad spent the majority of the trip manhandling my nephew, Dylan. Boy, this kid was absolutely full of energy and no one could stop him. He was constantly moving, climbing, or doing things that made my parents unable to peel their eyes off him. Very fun to watch. I wish I could have that kind of energy!

The car rides throughout the two days in Vancouver were very cozy and rather pleasant.

My parents loved Vancouver. It met one of their main criteria of a good place to visit: good chinese food. We went to several restaurants that had the Hong-Kong flavor and my parents reminisced about the food and how they miss Hong Kong itself.

At noon on the 17th, we embarked the Island Princess cruise ship and were off to Alaska. Our agenda included landing on three major ports: Ketchikan, Skagway and Juneau, along with passing by Glacier Bay National Parkand College Fjord. Our first stop in Alaska was Ketchikan. According to a local guide, Ketchikan was the actual destination for the “Bridge to Nowhere” made infamous during Sarah Palin’s campaign.  Ketchikan and pretty much everywhere we visited in Alaska had delicious canned salmon. They were extremely different than what we could find back in New York’s gourmet stores. Ray and I also took a walking tour around the quaint city and saw some amazing things, such as a bald eagle and an owl. That owl could turn its head 240 degrees within milliseconds. Crazy huh? They were presented by a local preservation group reaching out to educate the public about these fascinating creatures.

The cruise ship itself was pretty amazing. There were so many activities going on at any given hour. We all kept busy throughout the day, either getting off and exploring the different ports or stayed on the boat, relaxed and enjoyed the numerous activities offered, ranging from movies to shows to playing ping pong. My parents, especially my mom, love to play cards, and hadn’t had a chance to do that in some time. We took advantage of the card room and had a blast. My mom was very lucky and consistently won.

Ray even played some chinese chess with my dad. Loser drinks every time he lost a piece. Ray and I even teamed up against my dad, but my dad blew us into the water. He called us amateurs. That’s okay, we made him drink his share of the wine we bought at one of the ports.

No matter what everyone did during the day, we always tried to meet up for dinner every night at one of the formal dining rooms. The dining experience on the boat was pretty good; well-presented dishes, great service and a respectable variety. We sat on the same table every night since they were reserved for us and we had the same two waiters throughout the entire cruise.

Meagan was ready to eat! She called me the week before the trip and gave me a heads up on what she intended to eat on the cruise. She is an experienced “cruiser”, having been on several cruises before, including the Disney cruise. She knew what kinds of food would be available on the boat and she literally named a laundry list of what she planned to consume. On top of that, she challenged that she would eat more than Uncle Ray. I can tell you that she lived up to her end of her claim… the girl can eat! Don’t let the little 5-year old frame fool you.

Dylan, on the other hand, was more interested in doing other things on the boat besides eating. He wanted to climb, climb and climb, and make everyone nervous that he would fall off somewhere. Thank goodness, he is very agile and strong and knew exactly what he was doing… not even one accident…

The main attraction on this cruise, of course, was to see glaciers. The views were breathtaking at any angle, anywhere on the ship.  I never knew this type of scenery truly existed until I witnessed it with my own eyes. We saw glaciers calving as we got up pretty close. It was beyond what words could describe.

At some point, we were getting so used to seeing the amazing scenery that we began to take it for granted. See Ray talking or checking his phone and ignoring the beautiful view behind him… (”Oh, it’s just some ginormous glacier….no big deal, we’ve been seeing this throughout the cruise”)….Get off the phone!

One of Ray’s and my favorite events throughout the cruise was visiting the Alaska Sled Dog and Musher’s Camp in Skagway.  It was pouring outside and the shuttle ride to the camp site was over an hour.  But! It was worth every minute! The sled dog and musher’s camp had over 300 dogs with each one having its own little dog house. These dogs were there to train to run in dog sled races.  Some races stretch over a 1,000 miles. Absolutely incredible. The dogs get anxious every time a van pulls up to the site because they knew that it may be an opportunity for them to pull the cart and get to run. Ray and I both agreed it was one of the most incredible experiences we’ve had. After the 1-mile run pulled by about 16 dogs, with a cart of about 7 people, we even had a chance to play with some of the pups.  SO MUCH FUNNNNNN!!!

This trip was incredible.  On the morning of the 24th, we disembarked in Whittier, Alaska and took a bus to the airport.  I think this was one of the best vacations we have ever been on so far.

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My huney was very sweet to take a day off on my birthday so that we could spend some quality time together. His project has been very busy and he had to work some very long hours. However, he wanted to make the day special for me. We started off with some breakfast in bed. Then we headed out to the Museum of Natural History on the Upper West side.  It was quite a neat place to visit. There were a lot of activities to do at the museum, including shows and hands-on experiments you can play with and learn from. We had lunch at the museum’s outdoor courtyard. Ray prepared a delicious and light meal that included some sandwiches, shrimp cocktail and a little bubbly. Yeap, we snuck in alcohol to the museum. Shame on us. But having mimosa along with shrimp cocktail for lunch? Hard to beat.

I couldn’t resist asking Ray to do the same pose as the bear in the display. Another funny moment.

Later that evening, he took me to a dinner for some fresh seafood, which is my favorite. We went to Aqua, a restaurant not far from the meat-packing district. The oysters were cold and fresh and once again, I had bouillabaise, a seafood stew in broth. Absolutely scrumptious. I thought dinner couldn’t get any better but it did. When we got home, he had dessert waiting for me. It was a decadent cake from Crumbs.

I feel so lucky to have a great husband who is so wonderful and never ceases to make me smile. He really made my day special. It made turning 32 a little easier to accept.

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After a long two weeks I got a long weekend to relax and enjoy New York with Ash. The weather is really nice and we are both sitting in front of the New York Public library on a sunny warm and breezey Monday afternoon.

Ash is talking to me about fashion and what she can wear to work. She just got an internship for the summer working for the US Green Building Council of NY. I am happy she found a place to learn and hopefully she enjoys the job there along with all the new wardrobe opportunities. (or the lack of - as Ash always complains to me. Just kidding).

So this weekend we went to Coney Island Friday night but boy was that a trek. We had been hyped up for the last month due to all these posters. However after about a 45min to an hour train ride we found “the most drepessing carnival I have ever been to” according to Ash. We did have some great tacos there though!

This weeked they also closed Tomes Square or partially closed off to traffic. There lots of people as always and Ash and I turned into good ol’ tourists and began snapping pics left and right!

We also went to a street fair right downstairs from where we love and had some great street food. Is it wrong to love street food?

Ok, that’s it for now, we are starting to get bit by Mosquitos and it’s time to escape.

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Our good friend, Jimmy Chang and his wife, Kat, got married in Hawaii in April. Ray and I wouldn’t miss that opportunity to attend the wedding as well as visit family and friends back home. The wedding was absolutely beautiful and Jimmy and Kat were a stunning couple. We were also able to see some friends from college at the wedding and it was a nice reunion.

During our 10-day trip, we were able to do a bunch of things, including spending some precious time with my parents and my popo (grandma). We had really good food, starting from eating Pok’e (raw fish with seasonings) for breakfast, to dim sum for lunch, to eating at Roy’s for dinner. Of course, these were on different days, but every meal throughout the trip was savored.

Shave Ice at Waiola’s was a must! We had the azuki bean, mochi balls, with condensed milk shave ice bowl.  Holy moly!!! We also went to the local institution, Zippy’s a couple of times. You haven’t been to Hawaii without going to Zippy’s. Zippy’s is a franchise in Hawaii that has all sorts of local food, ranging from its infamous chili to its plate lunches (always two scoops rice, one scoop macaroni salad).

Ray and I even spent a day on the Big Island, also named Hawaii. It was a short flight from Honolulu. We took a tour from HIlo to Kona and visited the volcano park and other various sites on the island. Ray was such a fun traveling partner. How can you not laugh when he does silly things such as the picture below?

Back on the island of O’ahu, we spent some time with my grandma popo and drove around a lot to do sightseeing. We went to do a little snorkeling one afternoon at Hanauma Bay but my snorkels were broken, so only Ray was able to explore in the water and find some interesting creatures.

During one of nights cruising around, we stopped at Kahala Mall to buy some things at Whole Foods. A few doors down, there was a smashing party going on and we walked over to see what was going on. There were cameras everywhere outside the door, as if people were waiting for some celebrity to come in and out of the joint. As it turns out, it was a party that included guests from the TV show, “Lost”, which was filmed on the islands.  Ray couldn’t resist the temptation and waited along with other bystanders.  His patience paid off, when Ben, from the show, came out for some fresh air.

The trip was great. Ten days were too little to do what we wanted and we hope to go back again soon. It was a nice little break from New York and everything in Hawaii was very laid back.

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LIttle did I know that we would end up living in Times Square for the next year. This apartment was the most convenient one I could find closest to Ray’s work. With the long hours he had to endure, at least his commute to work would end up to be a 10-minute walk from home. Plus, it was one of the few that allowed 2 dogs.

One of our main concerns of living in Times Square was whether our dogs Pok’e and Cappy would adjust well. There were very little areas of green and they had to deal with doing their business on the street sidewalks. But thank goodness, our dogs cooperated and adapted quickly to their new temporary home and surroundings.  In fact, they somewhat embraced it and enjoyed all the different scents they got to smell on the busy streets of Times Square.

They even found their new favorite hangout spot in the apartment…

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