I’m departing tonight for Hong Kong.  I’m gonna have to finish everything that is yet to be done in the US.

In the morning I returned my car with bro at Enterprise @ Eagle Rock.  The Enterprise guy reimbursed my bottle of coolant, which was purchased at the instruction/advice given by Enterprise technician when the previous rental car was having problem in Los Banos.  Concerning the rental car’s problem, the guy also gave a pro-rata rental rate – discounting break-down day.  Then, the guy printed out a big big itemized bill, showing the rental rates, insurance, under age charges for all different cars I rented.  The rental rates and insurance were higher during the days around my bro’s wedding as my family needed a bigger van on that special day.  I checked all items very carefully and found some discrepencies — i.e. they claimed that for one of the 4 cars I rented, I did not return the car with the required fuel level.  They said they need 3/8 while I returned the car with 1/4 only.  But I argued that when I returned that car, the Enterprise staff did not warn me.  At last, they resolve to take away that under-fuel charge for me! haha.  I felt like a c lai.

Returning home at around 11am, we had lunch.  Tracy’s mom cooked.  I was also finalizing my packing.  2 luggages.  I left some spaces for one of my luggages because….I wanted to go to Fry’s and see if I could get a laptop home (HK).

After lunch, I went to Fry’s with my bro (we rode on his car).  After much and careful consideration, I bought Compaq Presario CQ60.  Just about US$380.  One thing that it won over a US$300 e-machine laptop was its built-in Altec Lansing speaker.  (I know laptop’s built-in speakers are not comparable but it’s just cool to see its brand engraved above the keypad area.  It’s just cool.)  The lid surface is a hard, glossy finish  — much like a “piano wood” surface.  The lid surface is also imprinted with a “Compaq”-logo metal plate.  Nevertheless, for this kind of budget 16:9 laptop, I have to give up something — I never bought anything in my life with an AMD processor!  I lost my “Intel-virgin” to this US$380 laptop…

That was about 15:30 when we finished the purchase.  I also asked the Fry’s people to let me plug in the power and try — just to make sure I can bring an OK computer home without the hassle to come back for an exchange…etc.  In fact, you know I don’t have much time to come back for an exchange; in no time would have to be on a flight (at 23:55).

We bought McDonald’s iced coffee on the way home.  This is the first time I tried the US’ McCafe.  Hong Kong was rather a pioneer in launching the McCafe.  To this day, the US is not offering as much flavor as HK does.  And not all US locations have all the flavors published on its website.  At least the one near Glendale community college does not have ice mocha.  But anyway, a $1.99 iced coffee is well balanced in price and quality.  Content with that.

At night we ate dinner at home.  Again, Tracy’s mom was cooking.

After dinner, my bro drove me to the airport.  We parked the car and he walked me to check-in as well as baggage-drop for security check.  There I saw my Torrance’s friend Elaine and Jenny.  I kinda invited them to come to the airport so we can meet.  I regreted to have to met my friends last-minute at the airport, but I was happy to see them coming to meet me!  It’s really funny to see some friends where we lived in the “dorm” in 2002 and survived — now going in different paths; healthy; looking good.

OK…..departing for Hong Kong.  I was sitting with a nasty guy who seems to be on a flight for his first time.  Or the first time with Cathay Pacific; i don’t know.  He seems to have no knowledge in flight courtesy!  He stretched his arms across the seat separator (i.e. armrest)!  He read his Financial Times and — while I was asleep — secretly put them in front of my seat!  The worst thing — he kept coughing along the pacific.  I was so really scared!

Today is the day before I will leave the US.

I did laundary this morning before going to church.  I also participated in CBC’s pledging exercise in its purchasing of a new church building.  Meow and I each contributed.  After all, this is the place where we learned a lot, and this is a big cluster of time we spent in our lives.  We want this blessing to pass it on.  Though small help, today is the last day for receiving pledges.  The entire purchasing would not move on unless, by today, a pledge of $1 million is received.  CBC would count today’s offerings and pledges and announce it tonight on its website.

I felt that the church really needed a new building — our current church building has been on loan from another church for many years.  This also means the CBC, due to the rental nature, is subject to any changes in rental conditions.  In late 2007, the owner of the church building requested that our worship team be changed from 11am to 1:30pm.

Today is my first time attending a CBC worship at 1:30pm.  So unbearable.  I know Christians in North America are blessed with comfortable worshiping environments, but feeling sleepy at the 1:30pm worship cannot be blamed, really.  It’s such an inconvenient time — Too late for lunch after church, yet too sleepy if lunch before church.

Anyways….while waiting for the result of counting the pledges, after worship, I went to shop around with old friends — Costco.. Centery City Center…Walgreens.  (I shop for myself and Meow and some others…).

Then we had some snacks and some beverages at Volcano Tea.  We shared and talked about job prospects in HK among other things.  I started feeling friends are so precious.  Although the world is small, it is beyond our control on when and where we would meet up.  We talked and I left at 10:25pm (I “made an appointment” with Vanda to talk at 9:30pm actually!). 

In 5 minutes I arrived the Vanda and Mike’s home.  We updated each other.  Got some inspiration on the topic of dating and marraige.  They have been most helpful in my journey on this matter.

Then I go home to sleep!  Tomorrow my the last day!!!

Woke up … we had continental breakfast as usual.  This time -  cuppucinno machine too:

We then go back to Yosemite’s Glacier Point via CA-140 and then Glacier Point Road.  Glacier Point gives you a spectacular view of the Yosemite valley + various domes and falls.  We needed to park the car at the parking lot and hike a bit to Glacier Point:

Glacier point arrived.  As usual, NPS makes geology very accessible to layman like us:

Seeing Vernal Fall (left, lower) and Nevada Fall (right, upper) from here:

Also viewing down at the Yosemite valley:

(more coming up…big streets…driving on rural roads…)

Waking up at our motel in Angels City, I went to the reservation office and asked for the wifi password, so I can check some routes and email…blog..etc.

We had breakfast at a restaurant conveniently located adjacent to the motel.  Traditional western breakfast dishes….

We started driving up to Yosemite via CA-120.  Nice roads and valleys along:

Arriving at around 1pm:

As we  drive by, lots of trees are burned down by management fire…not good looking (click and enlarge to see):

Lower Yosemite Falls….windy today:

We hike at a 2-mile trail to Mirror Lake:

We then walk downhill back to our car at 8pm and headed to our sleeping place in Mariposa via CA-140.  Note that 8pm at Yosemite is still very bright…

We arrived the reserved motel at 10pm.  It’s not a chained brand, but has quite a hugh site and has its own restaurant with live rock band there.  We had dinner there.  It says “close 10:30pm”, but I begged the waiter to let us in because we were really hungry.  In fact, the waiter didn’t show any hesitation in letting us in… Good food. I had babyribs for dinner.

We started our morning with Travelodge’s continental breakfast.  Then we headed Lombard Street first.  Next, Chinatown for lunch.  We had 2 bowls of pordigees + some other dishes.  Then we toured almost the entire Chinatown, where we bought egg tarts from “Golden Gate”.

We took Cable Car towards the east back to where we parked the car. 

Then we drive to the Palace of the Fine Art for some photos:

Then we take some pictures of the Golden Gate Bridges at the Yacht Harbor parking lot, which has a good view of the bridge.  Alas the weather wasn’t too good for photos at that moment:

Then we start going to Angels City, CA — the place we stayed for the night before entering Yosemite the next day.  On the way to Angels City, we dropped by Stockton for food.  To our surpise, we spotted a cinema showing Transformer!  So we the movie there:

Stockton is quite a big town.  After the movie, it’s about midnight, and we started driving from Stockton to Angels City.  Roads are so dark:—

We arrived the motel at around 1am.  In fact, there’s no night check-in staff — the office was closed.  But they left an envelop showing Chung’s name on it, and the key cards are there.  So we unloaded our bags into the rooms.

On the other hand, I kept finding the wifi password because the motel reservation said there was free wifi.  Chung and I failed to find any, so we resolved to sleep.  Chung always watched TV at motel and felt asleep midway…He is always like that.

Today is crazy!

I arrived at Ava, Chung, Ida, and Joyce’s home at 4am and started driving to SF with a KIA Spectra.

When we were somewhere on I-5 near Coalinga we noticed a high water temperature on our dashboard.  So I called up Enterprise’s emergency road side service right away.  The technician over the phone asked us to buy a bottle of coolant and keep to receipt for later reimbursement.  And we followed his instruction and did so.

Looks like the temperature lowered a bit, but after driving a while, the temperature went up high again.  What’s more —- we lost our A/C!  Today’s a hot day and we cannot further go without A/C.  So I called Enterprise again and asked for further instructions.

They now asked me to go to a garage near Los Banos and see if the car could be fixed an hour;  if not they will arrange a car for us.

So we arrived at Los Banos’ garage.  After 30 minutes of careful examination, the technician over there told us the car cannot be driven because several things are broken with cracks on the engine wall — such that he can see that the coolants have mixed with the oil already — too bad to continue driving.  The technician talked to Enterprise for a while and got back to us that “they will send another car for you guys in 30 minutes“.

After 1 hour the car has not come!  I called the Enterprise emergency phone number again.  They connected me back to the original Enterprise branch.  I though that wouldn’t be much helpful, but things ended up to my surprise — they arranged a tow truck and brought all of us (including the Kia car) from Los Banos to Merced — the closest place where Enterprise has a replacement car for us.  This is a map showing where we were towed to:

The tow truck unloaded the crap car; we also unloaded our bags and stuffs on the ground.  I called the Enterprise at Merced for picking us up to their branch.  Enterprise very soon sent a guy to pick Chung and me up to their branch.  Very soon they switched out a Chevy Malibu to us…that’s considered an upgrade…so good!

We very soon move on to SF.  Approaching SF, we dropped of Ida Chan to her home.

We went to Nick’s Lighthouse at Pier 45 for dinner.  Good crabs:

Then we went to Pier 39 for a walk…that’s freezing…Then we went to Travelodge on Market St to sleep.

My parents and sister’s family will leave LA tonight.  This morning they were packing.  I went to bank with my dad at around noon.

At the evening we went to 稻香(Arcadia) for dinner.  Then, we returned home to pick up all luggages and go to LAX.  My brother, Nathan, and I all give ride to them to the airport.

***

For me, I’m going to SF + Yosemite at 4am next morning!

We started our good morning with Torrance’s Shin Sen Gumi. We waited 20 minutes to be seated. The ramen was good as the old days. We saw cops eating there too.

We then visited to Venice, CA for the canals again. My brother joined us at Venice too. My bro-in-law enjoys taking photos around the canals. Parking is really a problem in LA, but that’s not a news.

After the canals, we went to Santa Monica Beach / Venice Beach. I walked down to the ocean with sister’s kids…breezing and freezing.

At the evening we eat at C & O Trattoria near Venice pier / Marina Del Ray. THe food was good; the only mishap was that the 2 pasta dishes were quite similar in its look and taste…

After the dinner, my bro take all people back home using the rental van, leaving his Corolla to me. I went to shopping at Santa Monica 3rd street with my sister. I felt the need to do some shopping because over the 2 weeks I’ve been occupied by family wedding matters. Shopping around, we find that Old Navy is quite nice. Old Navy is not a super brand but its quality is not to be challenged. I picked a pair of pants and polo shirt and t-shirt. And 4 pairs of slippers/flipflop —– same as 2 years ago — 2 pairs for $5.

Last night we had Cyrus and Tracy’s banquet.  We returned home and fit the wedding cake into the freezer.  Then we all get ready to sleep.

After worship, we went to Alhambra’s Garden restaurant to eat.  Just as the old times — wait wait and wait.  8 tables ahead of us.  But i’m used to this kind of life.  This is accurately the thing I like about here — slow.  If I want fast, I can go somewhere else; but if I am not in a hurry, I like a leisure and slow pace activities.  Slowness makes you think more before you act, hence a better decision.  E.g. shopping slowly, writing slowly, or eat slowly in general gives you better results as compared with doing things in a rush.

The life in Hong Kong is too rush.

Then we returned home at around 3pm.  Mom and dad went to take nap.  My sister was supervising her kids to do homework amist the AH1N1 break.  I went to Glendale Galleria to do some shopping.  (Ever since I’m back to LA I did not have a proper leisure time to shop for myself.)

At night we went to University City’s Hilton for seafoot buffet dinner.  Very good.  Almost all waiters/waitresses are speaking Chinese.  It has shark fin soup too.  We had this buffet dinner to celebrate both Tracy and Cyrus’ dads (as well as their siblings’ husbands/dads).

Dining in California style is good.  But you won’t know what’s “California style” until you’re out of California.

Big day!

My bro’s getting married!

In the morning the Bestman and other Groomsmen went to receive the bride…games and challenges are simple.  I think when I marry Nicole, I want the same kind of games — non-violent, non-embarassing, non-challenging….! yeah!

Then they drink in-law tea, first at the bride’s home and then the groom’s.

After that, we proceed to church for lunch.  There are ample time and lots of food.  I never see a wedding that has lots of food between receiving the bride and the ceremony.  Good.

We have banquet (i.e. reception) at Empress Harbor Seafood Restaurant.  It’s also the first time I see a first dance in a supposing Chinese wedding banquet — a nice blend of the east and the west.

With a suit vest I look like a restaurant waiter today.  Without the suit jacket, I totally resemble a waiter at Empress…

***

With bro and Tracy will live happily forever hahahaha!