MT's Travel Notes

Our footsteps around the world …

Lake Arrowhead Village

Written By: moonie - Aug• 19•13

A few of our friends from travel group (cô chú Minh, cô Annie, cô Lệ, chú Phước, chị Tina) were camping at Dogwood campsite in Lake Arrowhead; and they invited us to join them but being pregnant I would not feel comfortable sleeping in the tent so we decided to go there early in the morning and then leave in the evening.

It took 2 hours driving to the camp site from Santa Ana; they only allow 2 cars per site (site #20, #25) and max of 8 people per site.  They charged $56.00 for 2 nites/camp site, plus we have to pay entrance fee of $5.00 a day (if we visit friends for only 15 minutes then they won’t charge).

Besides trees and dirt; there’s nothing else. Oh there are LOTS of small bees which gather around our foods and us while we were eating which is really annoying.  They only came when there’s foods on the table, especially meat.  Did not know bees like meat!

After lunch and a short nap, we went to the Lake Arrowhead village: there’s an outlet around the lake with a few brand names like Coach, Bass, etc. There’s also Mac Donald, Subway and a few coffee shops.  We stopped at McDonald for restroom break and had some ice cream.

Lake Arrowhead Village

Ice cream tasted so good in a hot summer afternoon

 

Lake Arrowhead Village

Tim is shopping around!

 

Lake Arrowhead Village

Lake Arrowhead Village

At the end of the village there’s a small playground for kids: a go-kart, merry-go-round and little train which goes around the village.  There are other water activities like Kayaking, Cruise around the lake ($16.00/adult for 50 minutes ride) , jet ski, etc.

We left the village around 5:30Pm after 2 hours of walking around the village to head back to the camp site which is only 3 miles away. At this time the shops are starting to close up, not sure if it’s because Sunday that they close early?

We had dinner here (white rice with shrimp scampi, bamboo soup) before leaving the camp and headed home.  We got home about 8PM; tired but had fun!

 


Michael Bolton Concert

Written By: moonie - Aug• 15•13

I thought the Grove of Anaheim would be more like a stadium but it’s not; it has tables where they serve dinner from 6:30PM – 7:30PM.   Their menu is simple with average prices: appetizers from $13.00 and entrees from $16.00. They have pitches full of ice water and small plastic cups on the tables for those who don’t want to order anything.  Max occupancy is about 560 people only so it’s kinda small.  The seats are assigned so there’s no need to come early, unless you want to have dinner there.

This is the first time I heard Michael Bolton performs live; he is so good!  He performed some of the hits and concluded the concert with the famous song “Lean On Me” around 10PM.   The whole crowd stood up and applauded so hard.

They check bags at the entrance and don’t allow SLR cameras (compact cameras are ok); so Tim had to bring the Sony Nex3 back to the car.

Overall Tim & I had fun in a beautiful night of summer in Southern California.

The Grove of Anaheim

The Grove of Anaheim

 

Michael Bolton

Michael Bolton Concert at The Grove of Anaheim @8PM

 

The Grove of Anaheim website: www.citynationalgroveofanaheim.com

Parking: $10.00/car.

Address: 2200 East Katella Avenue (adjacent to Angel Stadium of Anaheim), Anaheim CA 92806


Swallows Day

Written By: moonie - Mar• 23•13

Swallows Story

” The miracle of the “Swallows” of Capistrano takes place each year at Mission San Juan Capistrano, on March 19th, St. Joseph’s Day.

As the faithful little birds wing their way back to the most famous mission in California, the village of San Juan Capistrano takes on a fiesta air and the visitors from all parts of the world, and all walks of life, gather in great numbers to witness the “miracle” of the return of the swallows.

At dawn on St. Joseph’s Day, the little birds arrive and begin rebuilding their mud nests, which are clinging to the ruins of the Great Stone Church of San Juan Capistrano. The arches of the two story, vaulted Great Stone Church were left bare and exposed, as the roof collapsed during the earthquake of 1812. ”

Website: http://www.missionsjc.com

We enjoyed the colorful parade even thought it was so hard to find the parking, and we had to walk a little bit to the Mission from where we parked.  I think the best spot to take pictures is the parade starting point which is only 1 small block from the main street.   At this spot the performers are waiting for their turns; and they’re willing to pose for us to take pictures.

 


Cherry Flowers in Lancaster

Written By: moonie - Mar• 16•13
Điệu quá! :)

Điệu quá! 🙂

It had been 2 years since we visitted the Cherry flowers in Lancaster so I thought this year we had to go; the reason (why we did not go) being when we decided to go around end of March, I heard others said the flowers were already done so we canceled the plan.  So this year we planned to go on mid-March to make sure that we would not miss the flower blossoms.

With all the excitement we woke up early around 7:30AM with hoping to get there before noon.  It was so windy & cold when we got to Gorman around 10:30AM.  When we arrived to the Cherry fields; the disappointment unfold before my eyes: the whole field has been abandoned; not sure for how long but most of the trees are dead!  Some trees still have flowers but there are very few flowers, i guess because lack of water & nutrition.

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The whole field is dead!

My heart was broken but we tried to make the best out of it by selecting some good trees and took a few photos.

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Free spirit!

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I’m having fun with the red lantern

After that we drove to the Grapevine to check out the lupine field near the gas station but we missed an exit and stumbled on the Wheeler Ridge drive: the road that has lots of white almond flowers that we stopped by 2 weeks ago. To our surprise, all flowers are gone: all the trees are now filled with green leaves.

We made a U-turn to go back that gas station on Grapevine exit: another disappointment! There are no lupines yet; actually Tim spotted a few. I guess it’s still too early for wildflowers. Same thing in Gorman, the field is still very green.

Love the dead trees!

Love the dead trees!

Beautiful day!

Beautiful day!

 


Kite Party at HB

Written By: moonie - Mar• 09•13

It was a beautiful Saturday morning so we decided to take out our bikes and pedal along the Huntington Beach ocean side and to check out the Kite Party there.  There were not that many kites as we expected but there were a few performances by the professionals who’ve been doing this for years on the Bow Tie Kites that were very interesting.  I was amazed at how well they can control the kites to land, to fly and to dance in the sky with music.

Bow Tie Kites

Bow Tie Kites

 

T & the Kites

T & the Kites

Visit their website: www.kiteparty.com