Last Minute Travel Planning

Larrabee State Park, Bellingham, WA ( July 2010)

Serendipity! That's how we discovered the inspiring beauty of Larrabee State Park, which is located 6 miles South of the city of Bellingham, Washington. Last July 2010, we had to cut short our trip to North Cascades National Park because we were unprepared hiking in deep, solid snow with avalanche warning. Ice axe were needed in the trail and we haven't had experience climbing on ice. Our experience is snowshoeing and skiing which is far from ice climbing. Because we have covered most of North Cascades that we could cover safely without using ice axe, we decided to look for an alternative place for us to explore instead of spending several days sitting around at North Cascades. We looked for a place that is in between North Cascades National Park and Olympic National Park, since we were going to Olympic National Park the next few days. Our last minute accommodation search brought us to Bellingham, WA.

Larrabee State Park, Bellingham, WA ( July 2010)

While driving from North Cascades to Bellingham, some of us were searching high and low for last minute hotels in our cell phones and iPads that will give us a good deal. After finding a place for us to sleep in, we again searched for places to hike near Bellingham. Thankfully, it is not difficult to find scenic places in Washington. Having less time to search for more information, we came to Bellingham with less expectations. We felt so lucky on finding out that the last minute hotel we found was near Whatcom Falls Park.

Because the water was too cold for us to swim, we finished exploring Whatcom Falls park early. We again looked for a place to explore near Bellingham by typing the phrase: "State Park near Bellingham". Google referred us to Larrabee State Park, we went to the state park site, and finally decided that Larrabee State Park will be our next place for exploration and sunset watching. On reaching the park, we were not disappointed, in fact, we had so much fun scrambling on rocks next to the water, and we were so excited even to see tidepools! We went to small beach inlets, found our place to relax and take in the scenery. We may have failed to conquer the icy slopes of North Cascades, but we were rewarded by such peaceful and inspring beauty at Larrabee!

Serendipity- I so believe in it! Last minute travel plans- though we do not do it often, but I believe in it as well :) In fact, just a week ago, I was happy enough to make successful last minute flights reservation. Last minute travel planning can be fun especially with the hottest deals around. Who does not want the best accommodation for the cheapest cost?
“Serendipity. Look for something, find something else, and realize that what you've found is more suited to your needs than what you thought you were looking for.”- Lawrence Block

Faces Part 2

Last Saturday, we visited the San Diego Zoo Safari Park ( formerly known as the San Diego Wild Animal Park) and had a great time photographing animals. In this post, I will not be sharing my pictures, but instead, I will be continuing my Faces post last January where all pictures were taken by my husband who loves to shoot faces of animals, and of people :) However, because of internet etiquette, I cannot post here the faces of people he took because we do not have permission to publish them for public viewing. Instead, I will share here some of the animal "faces" that my hubby took. I enjoy looking at these faces shots, hope you will too.

Orangutan ( sad? )- this picture was taken from SD Zoo not from Safari Park

mom with a newly born (less than a day old) gorilla

rhino (dreamy?)

white pelican

cheetahs

elephant (taking it slowly uphill :), very slowly actually )

playful baby elephant ( he purposely put the bigger elephant for comparison)

what are they doing?

Lizard

There will be new animal encounter at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, which is the Cheetah Run Safari, where park visitors will be able to witness the amazing speed of the fastest land mammal on Earth. It will open on July 2nd, so maybe, I will share my Safari Park pictures after July 2nd :) 

Lessons From Nature

 San Diego Spring 2011 Wildflowers

Spring is one of the most colorful season, it is the season where brown slowly changes to a rainbow of color.

Despite the allergies spring season brings, yet I adore spring! Spring is the time when all of nature sings, it is the awakening of nature from its most needed restful slumber. During spring, the scenery around becomes insanely breath-taking, my camera shouts for joy of taking  pictures of wildflowers here, there and everywhere.

When taking pictures of flowers, I usually do not purposely wait for bugs to suck the nectar out of flowers as I am scared of the bee stinging me. However, oftentimes, while I am attempting to take an up-close picture of a flower, a bee would suddenly appear right in time to take the photo.And as if I do not exist, the bee would always proceed nourishing himself to feed on the flowers.

I believe the bees keep on appearing in my sight whenever I snap pictures of flowers to teach me something. But what were these bees teaching me? Are they teaching me to remain focused while set on a goal?  Or do the bees remind me to follow their way of life, that is to slow down, smell the lupines and poppies, to taste the sweetest nectar of life? Are they teaching me that no matter how we avoid some circumstances such as my avoidance of the bees, yet we have no control over their coming? But we can  best prepare for it?

Thinking about what the bee tries to teach each time it appears in my sight remind me that in life there are several unthinkable circumstances we cannot avoid but we can best prepare for. To prepare for the unthinkable of us leaving our loved ones behind all so sudden, we get life insurance not for us, but for our loved one. With the recent economic woes, it is best to find the insurance that suits our needs best. There are different types of life insurance, you can visit AptusInsurance.com to learn more about these different types. Aside from life insurance, other insurances also provide us security to the question "what if". What if someone hits our car on the road despite we are too careful? There are so many car insurance companies Nationwide, and just like life insurance, it is a must we find the best for our bucks. 

In going out, nature reminds us of the many realities of life that we have to face and we have to prepare for. The singing of the birds and seeing them enjoying the sweet nectar around them is like celebration of life anew.

Life is precious and beautiful, it is worth celebrating, and preparing for the unthinkable circumstances. So that whatever happens, the strength within that we built through the years will continue to live beautifully just as nature continues to live beautifully in its many cycles and seasons of life. 

Archwalk at Alabama Hills

Mobius Arch @ Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, Eastern Sierra

The Eastern Sierra Nevada of California is full of mind boggling diversity. It is full of extremes and contrasts. The low elevation has a stunnning desert scenery.

Looking East from the Arch Rock above, @ Alabama Hills

Whereas the high elevation has the giant forests.The Sierra is home to the giant sequoias, home of the largest tree by volume in the world.
One of the interesting stops at Highway 395 in the Eastern Sierra is Alabama Hills. Those who hike to Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in contiguous US, from Whitney Portal must have passed this place.

Mt. Whitney As Seen From Alabama Hills

Those who have not been to Alabama Hills may still find this place very familiar, or may have seen this place through the many movies filmed here! The mind boggling scenery here at Alabama Hills was a popular location for sci-fi, adventure and Western movies. Our poses in Mobious Arch was our fun way of copying John Wayne :)

Alabama Hills is very short detour if you are traveling on Hwy 395 to Death Valley National Park, or to Mammoth Lakes, or to Lake Tahoe, or to Yosemite National Park from Southern California, or vice versa. Movie Portal Road is only 2.5 miles from Hwy 395, and to the parking lot for the Mobius Arch is 1.5 miles of unpaved road.

• Coming from Hwy 395 South to Lone Pine, Turn west (at the stop light) onto Whitney Portal Road, drive 2.5 miles to Movie Road, turn right.
• After 1.5 miles you will come to a "Y" in the road.
• Go right and pull into the dirt parking area immediately on your left.
• You will see the trail sign on the left side of this parking area; this is where you begin your arch walk, which takes approximately 15 minutes round trip.

- directions above were taken from Alabama Hills website.

If you have short time and needed to be in another place at a given time, you may skip driving the whole Movie Flats Road and just do the short Arch Walk (all pictures in this post were just from the Arch Walk). Why? The whole Movie Portal Flats is huge and may take you very long to complete it. You can have a movie tour by following this map which is also availabe at the inter-agency visitor center, or at Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce. Doing this however would no longer be a short detour. For a short 30 minute- 1 hr detour ( with photography), the Arch Walk would be enough.

Me, Trying to Copy John Wayne :) @ Mobius Arch (found at Arch Walk)

Lathe Arch close to Mobius Arch ( at Arch Walk )

For more information about Alabama Hills, please click the following below:

1. Alabama Hills by Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce

2. Arches of Alabama Hills

3. Geological History of Alabama Hills

Canadian Adventure Vacation

One of my dream vacations is to see beluga whales,

beluga whale @ Sea World San Diego

polar bears,

Polar Bears @ Sea World, San Diego

and other arctic wildlife in their native habitat. Presently, I only get to see these creatures in Sea World, San Diego. How exciting and educational it would be to be able to experience how they interact in their natural setting. At first, I thought taking an alaska cruise will bring me closer to these wonderful but rare creatures, but then, later I found it I would have greater chances of seeing them through an adventure vacation both on land and water. Alaska is definitely one of my dream vacation destinations, but I also learned that there is a greater chance to see beluga whales and polar bears in Manitoba, Canada. As I looked into the different wildlife, adventure tours and cruises from Canadian Sky, I can't help but get excited. Though I am not thinking of spending some holidays to Canada this summer or this year, but I have learned from our many travels that planning ahead is very helpful in securing better accommodations at a cheaper price. I am thinking that if we take the birds, bears and whales tour at Manitoba, Canada, we might as well explore other places in Canada such as exploring Niagara Falls in Ontario. The vibrant city of Toronto, which is the cultural, entertainment and financial capital of Canada, is close to Niagara Falls and not so far either from Manitoba. I think it would be ideal to spend some nights both in Toronto and Manitoba. The Hotels in Toronto will most probably give us a more luxurious sleep yet a lot cheaper compared to the wilderness lodging in Manitoba. But of course, experiencing the joy of seeing these wondrous wildlife in their native habitat is priceless. Manitoba, Canada, here we come, but when?

Butterflies

I am having one of those wordless days :( Hope you enjoy these butterfly shots, greetings from San Diego.