My most precious treasure (富可敵國的寶藏)

In this modern era, receiving a handwritten letter seems a luxury as people favor the convenience and quickness of sending an e-mail or even a text via phones. I’m glad that the charms of handwritten postcards are not yet replaced by any electronic forms. I have to admit that any electronic form of communication lacks certain warmth, and nothing can beat receiving a postcard from a friend who travels to foreign places.

Not only I’ve been bitten by the travel bug, the friends around me seems to be adventurous enough and enjoy going to every corner of the world (ok, this might be a exaggeration for now… but who knows ), thus I have the privilege of receiving these precious postcards.

These are postcards from U.S.A and Peru.  My friend went to Peru to hike in the magnificent Machu Pichhu.

Postcards from England, Ireland, Belgium, France, and Spain.

Postcards from “fairy tale-like” Czech, Holland, and Austria. 

*From* Rome with Love? Postcards from Italy, and Greece which I’ve always wanted to go but not been yet.

Postcards from southern hemisphere–New Zealand and Australia.

Postcards from mysterious Asia–Tibet and Cambodia. Postcards from Iceland, Egypt, and Jordan (I’m longing to visit these places too)
Some are from exotic islands–Maldives, Easter Island, and Tahiti. More from Phuket (Thailand), Cozumel (Mexico), Bali (Indonesia), Palau, Bahamas, and Boracay (Philippines)
Not only the postcards and stamps enriched my collections, the greetings warmed my heart. I love reading them; through reading them, I seem to share little pieces of the journey with my friends. 
I love writing postcards to myself too. It’s a weird hobby I’ve fully developed since my trip to France in 2008. Before, I wrote myself postcards occasionally, such as when I went to Italy. I’ve been to Japan many times but for some reason I didn’t send any of the postcards from Japan. I should start doing that next time when I go, haha.

Here are postcards from Hong Kong,  Boracay (Philipines), Guam (U.S.A), UN office in New York (I was told the the postmark would be very special, but when I received it, not only the unique stamp fell off, the “very special” postmark was not on it either, maybe it’s some very special invisible postmark…), Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, and Venice in Italy!
My trip to France 2008, including Monaco, Nice, Aix en Provence, Avignon, Loire Valley, Mont St Michel, Etretat, Paris. I almost wrote myself a postcard in every city I’ve been in this trip, except Grasse, Chatres, and Giverny. And my trip to England and France in 2009, including London, Cambridge, Bath, Oxford, Saint-Malo, and Paris. These are definitely my most precious treasure. They represent my friends’ incredible trips and priceless travel experiences. Better yet, they can’t be bought with any money. My PRRRREEEEEEEECIOUS~~~~

My good friends, write me a postcard whenever you go on a trip!

Road trip to Sausalito, San Rafael, Napa, Davis (Part2) 北加州一路玩(趴兔~)

The third stop of my road trip was Napa valley. Although I also have been to Napa with my family long time ago, I really didn’t have much memory about it. Last time I went to Napa valley was only reaching the south Napa and to spend a little time to taste a little wine in Domain Carneros Winery.

This time, I made my mind to go further north and spent a night to experience more in Napa valley. I first arrived in Napa city and would spend the night in Napa River Inn. Although it’s called an “inn,” the hotel is in a historical building and decorated delicately with a classical nostalgic ambiance.

Napa River Inn locates in the Napa city center, connecting the downtown. The downtown seemed rather new to me, perhaps it was a newly established community. I must say it was not very lively, and many stores seemed to close at dusk.

My room in Napa River Inn was quite cozy. It’s not like the modern type of hotel but the warm color and floral bedding made me think of the Victorian era or the movie– Gone with the Wind. The room was of a decently spacious size.
The reason that’s called Napa River Inn was because it’s on the bank of Napa River. Some of the more luxurious rooms got a nice view of the river.  The complimentary breakfast was served in a bakery store just next to the hotel lobby.

I was not sure what this machine still preserved in the middle of the bakery shop was used for originally, however, it’s an evidence that this bakery shop was a barn house many years ago.  The facades of Napa River Inn are still kept in their very original appearance.  I drove across the Napa city downtown toward St. Helena in the north.  Since it’s January, the vineyards were empty. I imaged the scenery would be much more beautiful with ripened grapes hanging in the vineyards.  Since this was supposed to be a completely relaxing trip, I only checked a guidebook for some wineries in Napa valley that might be interesting. One of them was this V. Sattui Winery. V. Sattui does not only sell wines, it also has its own marketplace to sell deli. The yard serves as a picnic ground for customers to enjoy.
Of course, a wide selection of wines are available.
The wine tasting course cost $10, which was the least expensive wine tasting course I’ve known. The wine tasting course was held in the center bar table of the wine shop and consisted of 5 different wines of your choice from a given list. The lady who served me was the 5th generation of the Sattui family. Her ancestors immigrated from Italy and started wine business in California long ago. I even found out that Castello de Amorosa, the exceptionally elegant winery with a castle which my good friend and I wanted to visit previously but didn’t make it, is also owned by the Sattui family. However, the lady told me the wine selections were very different.  The wine cellar is also adopted as a petit museum, displaying the huge wine barrels, some old tools for crushing the grapes, and introduction of the Sattui family history.  This Southbridge Napa Valley hotel belongs to the group of “Small and Luxury Hotels.” However, it looked very low-profile from the outside.
After leaving St. Helena, I drove across St. Helena’s downtown toward Calistoga.  Actually I had no plan in Calistoga, but since it boasted the high-end wineries and spring water, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to drive by and see what it’s like.

On the way, I found this culinary school. It almost looked like Harry Potter’s Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizerdry.
I also saw Beringer Winery, which was so pretty! I didn’t find the Calistoga downtown particularly special actually.  The famous Calistoga Ranch is probably the most expensive resort/villa in Napa valley. It’s hidden so well in the woods that the environment wasn’t shown clearly on my GPS system. However, there’s nothing much to see. The individual villas are scattered around the hill and I read that you have to park outside after you check in, and you need to call the golf cart to be taken around. Isn’t that a bit immobile??  The last stop was Davis. I mainly visited it for sentimental reason. The downtown was still quiet because the school hadn’t started yet. The downtown generally didn’t change much but with more refined restaurants and cafes now.  The Music building is perhaps the most colorful and artistic building on Davis campus. I remembered registering for piano practice room there as I didn’t own a piano in Davis.  The main library was one of my favorite spots on campus. (Another was Cowell center where you get pampered when you get a bad cold. )  This statue reminded me of a guy I used to see in the library. Every time he would drop down his books on the desk then fell asleep on the pile.  Ah… this reminded me of the endless study and report-writing. What a good old memory.  The library remained generally the same, but I could see that much more circuit jackets and network cable jackets were installed. Now we can’t survive when getting around without a computer and network, can we? This is where students hangout for lunch time, and this is also where I saw a guy chasing his escaping bagel…
Inside the Memorial Union was the bookstore that’s like a little department store on campus where I used to hang out when I got bored.  The famous (and infamous) “Starship Enterprise” building in which I got lost several times. Many of my professors’ offices were unfortunately here and it’s really a pain in the butt to find them. Oh, I remembered that the evacuation plan on the wall–someone wrote “Run!” on it… 

I thought to visit the barn area, the creeks, and the woods on the campus, but I ended up not going since it was getting very windy. The winter in Davis was quite cold. Though there’s no snow in Davis, the winter time was freezing with icy sharp winds. Sometimes I had 8-o’clock class in the morning, I had to ride my bike in the cold windy winter to the class. Now I had no idea how I did it that time!

While I was at Davis and swamped by exams, projects, and reports, I wished I would graduate as soon as possible and I did manage to graduate early. My mom used to tell me that being a student was the luckiest time in life and I didn’t believe her. However, after working for several years, as much as I don’t want to admit, I miss the school times when I *only* had to deal with exams, projects, and reports.

The squirrel was obviously having a good time observing me from the tree… 

There’s a store named “The Inconvenient Store.” I didn’t check out what “inconvenient” stuff it sells…

So, this concluded my first road trip. What’s your relaxing, busy, extravagant, or funny road trip? Please share!

Road trip to Sausalito, San Rafael, Napa, Davis (Part1) 北加州一路玩(趴萬~)

This time while I was in California, I thought about traveling a little without striving to make a perfect plan. A few places that were not that far away came to my mind and I could certainly spend a few days for a relaxing trip.

I’ve decided on driving up to Sausalito, San Rafael, Napa valley, and Davis, then I’d come back from Davis.

I have been to Sausalito long time ago with my family, but I had a rather vague memory of it. It’s a little gem nested in between the hills and ocean; I drove across the mountain and had to go across a “hidden” residential area to arrive.
The town has been described to be “European” style little town. However, I didn’t find it’s that European to be exact. The town consisted of many artistic little shops and the very wide shoreline overlooking San Francisco bay.  The San Francisco city skyline was very interesting–I think it could make a good silhouette wall sticker! The town square was full of people basking under the January sunshine. Most shops sold paintings and artistic souvenirs like clocks, mugs, and table clothes.  I really had to take more photos of the beautiful blue sky and the ocean, despite it was actually still quite chilling under the sun.  Another side of the town was full of restaurants. Some were dessert shops that people enjoyed ice cream and gelato. Though the sunshine made the weather seem very nice and warm, it was windy in January. My second stop was San Rafael Marin County Civic Center. The reason I wanted to visit it because it was a backdrop for one of my favorite films–Gattaca. The building was designed by famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. It must be a very unique architecture in that era as Frank Lloyd Wright was well known for his creative designs. It still looked like a modern construction today.

It was difficult for me to capture the whole building due to its vast size and the tall trees around it. Though I wished I could jump off from the car while I was on highway because the view was so much better from there.

This was the best shot I took from the parking lot.

This is the photo I found on the Internet, depicting a much better view.

The 2 main characters in the movie, Vicent and Eugene, looked at the building at night from some distance away. (Copyright to Columbia Pictures)

The interior was also set as the stage for the Gattaca‘s aerospace facility. 

Here are the captures from Gattaca: (Copyright to Columbia Pictures)

The roof of the civic center: 

And the roof where Vincent always stared at to see the spaceship launch: (Copyright to Columbia Pictures)

There’s a small exhibition room displaying books and photos of the history and construction process of the civic center. 

A small fountain is outside the top floor right next to the cafeteria. The breach on the side of the fountain allowed the water to flow down the building, making a small waterfall. However, it was not easy to observe. 

The civic center, built 1950s, is obviously an old building. Several reconstructions and reinforcements were done. Although the design is quite modern, when I walked inside, I found the old style offices and drinking fountains still remained, giving it a rather old movie-like atmosphere.  

When I was about the leave, I found this electricity car enjoying getting electrocuted…oops, I meant getting charged. This was the first time I saw how an electricity-powered car got its “gas”.

To be continued~

Carmel, here I come again!! (Carmel~我又來了~~~)

 

What to do with the last day of 2012? In the chilling and windy winter time in bay area, California, the best way to spend the last day of 2012 would be sunbathing under the Californian sunshine in picturesque town–Carmel-by-the-sea.

Although Carmel-by-the-sea is tiny, the oceanic view and delicate scenes attract tourists (and me of course)  to come back again and again.

The small but really cute library–good for sunbathing and people-watching…

“LUSH” was having an after-x’mas sale. The luxurious and fun bathing products boast of natural and eco-friendly ingredients that emit mouth-watering fragrance. I didn’t have to see the store to know I was around one because of the smell.

Some of the products looked edible enough–the color, smell, and shape are all very tempting…

Of course, the marvelous oceanic view is one of the biggest assets of Carmel-by-the-sea.

The mansions with floor-to-ceiling windows, don’t we all want a vacationing house like this?

Oh… guess who’s enjoying the winter sun too?

This is the same fellow I met more than 2 years ago!! Oh, what could beat sunbathing AND petting a big head cat in Carmel-by-the-sea??

Some unknown mushrooms peeking out from the tree truck, kinda cute~

The miniature merry-go-round and the ferry wheels are music boxes to bring back nostalgic memories…

Ah ha! This is the “battle between cats and dogs” chess set I saw two years ago too! This time I had a closer look at it and was amazed by its creativity and humor! The dogs and cats were of various breeds to reflect their “dog-nalities” or “cat-nalities” in each chess piece!

The little shopping center still got some holiday atmosphere left. 

Chateau de Chambord isn’t built in one day (香波堡不是一天造成的)

It has been 4 years since I’ve seen Chateau de Chambord and been astonished by it’s majestic size. Of course, I resented butchering so many animals for entertainment. It was still a bit chilling to watch hundreds of animal skulls and antlers displayed all over the interior walls…

Chambord was the king’s hunting site, but far from being a humble hunting villa, Chateau de Chambord was situated on Loir-et-Cher and constructed by French king Francois I to be the largest castle in Loire Valley. It has some very distinguishing features besides its size–its symmetry, the elaborated towers, and the double-helix staircases inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci’s works.

Ok, so I’ve been there, seen it, but haven’t done that. Done what? Remember the booklet bought by me that would allow me to construct my very own Chateau de Chambord out of paper and glue? Here it is–I finally got the courage and brain to make it. As it says–you only need a pair of scissors and some glue. Sounds easy enough huh?

Chateau de Chambord is composed with a rectangular structure with four towers on the four corners. The four towers are Francois I, Dieudonne, Henri V, and Caroline de Berry. Outer facades surround the main structure with another four towers on the four corners–the 2 bigger and fancier towers are Robert de Parme and De La Chapelle; the smaller and plainer towers are “tour des princes” and “tour du chaudron.” There’s also a center lantern-shaped decorative tower on the center of the main structure. 

The booklet provides the history and instructions of the project along with Chateau de Chambord’s layout: 

Of course it comes with the paper images and shapes for you to make your own Chateau de Chambord, in a reasonable size of 1/300 of the real one.  

The first part to be constructed is the decorative center tower; this is the most difficult part in the project: 

The center main building is built next: 

This is what it’ll look like when the lantern-like tower is placed: 

Tower Francois I is constructed. Same for all four towers, it consists of two parts–the cone-shaped and triangular towers: 

Tower Dieudonne: 

Tower Henri V: 

And the last one is Caroline de Berry:
So this is how it looks like when the center main building is finished. It’s crowded by the extravagant towers: Now it’s time to make the facades and its two larger towers–Robert de Parme and De La Chapelle: When the less fancy part of the facades and the plainer two towers–”tour des princes” and “tour du chaudron”– are built: 

Now assemble all the pieces together: 

Tata~~~ Completed! Now I realize that the chateau isn’t as symmetrical as it seems; each tower is unique of its own designs of windows and chimneys, and the outer facades do not have identical towers; in fact, they’re quite different. Furthermore, Chateau de Chambord is definitely not built in one day!

Definitely, Maybe (愛情三選一)

If you get a second chance to find true love and happiness, are you going to take it?

I’m DEFINITELY not the type that’s easily smitten by a romantic comedy, but MAYBE this one really caught my heart. Definitely, Maybe told a story about a single father, Will, unfolding his love story to his 11-year-old daughter, Maya. There were 3 women in Will’s life–Emily, Summer, and April, and Maya was trying to figure out which one eventually became her mother.

Maya is asking her father to tell the story… The story started in 1992 when Will was fresh out of college with an enthusiastic in politics. He left his girlfriend, Emily, for New York to pursue his career in Clinton’s campaign; he hoped to bring his girlfriend in when things were more settled.

Emily is Will’s girlfriend in hometown Wisconsin and seeing him depart for a career in New York.

Will starts to work in Clinton’s campaign…

In the campaign team, Will met the team’s copy girl–April, and started a friendship that would last longer than Will could imagine…

April is a free-spirited girl who leads a Bohemian life…

When Emily surprised and turned Will’s life around…Summer stepped in. Summer was adorable, clever, and certainly charming. The two clicked and fell for each other like a perfect match. They shared the same passion in politics…but this was also the downfall for their relationship…

Summer is clever and charming; she captures Will’s heart immediately…

Will experienced his ups and downs in his relationship with the three women, until his daughter, Maya, reminded him to examine his past one more time to find the happiness. Will finally realized that the love for him was just an inch away…

The reason this movie impressed me was because it’s packed with witty conversations. The story spanned over several years that one could observe how each character developed intertwining with the real events when time went by, giving viewers a more vivid yet believable canvas for the story to unfold. Moreover, the cast was so strong–Ryan Reynolds was the lead character, Will, and Rachel Weisz was the clever Summer.

Summer, played by loving Rachel Weisz who’s one of my favorite actresses, was not only a pretty face. She was intelligent and sharp as a journalist. It was no surprise that Rachel Weisz injected the life into this character and made Summer the type of woman that would absolutely attract Will.

Rachel Weisz’s Summer is witty and sharing the same passion as Will…

Elizabeth Banks starred as Emily, who’s Will’s hometown college sweetheart. I was not familiar with Elizabeth Banks before this movie, but her Emily was decent, not too over the top but just persuasive enough as a girl from Wisconsin.

Elizabeth Banks plays Will’s hometown sweetheart, Emily…

Among all the characters, the one blew my mind away was Isla Fisher, who interpreted April in the movie. A majority of the fun and witty conversation was done by her. April practically grew up with Will, sharing all the moments with him. She’s like a friend but also a outsider of Will’s life. April was always there watching over Will, but their lives came across each other, separated, intercepted, went to their own direction…At first glance, April was this next-door-girl character, but she’s actually the most complex character among all. Since the story spanned for a long period of time (from 1992 to 2008?), April grew up and transformed the most in these years. She had to be this giggling copy girl at first, then she evolved into someone who could consider what’s important for herself. She went back to school, she went to travel, and she blossomed to be a smart mature woman. One thing that did not change was her friendship with Will, which also added some complicated emotions. Isla Fisher had to pull this character off carefully–not only how this character should be interpreted in each stage, but also the subtle feelings she felt for Will, and how she would cope with it.

Will’s long time good friend, April, played by Isla Fisher…

Ryan Reynolds was certainly a comedy actor. He’s definitely not the slapstick type of funny but always with depth. His funny-factors were from his acting and facial expressions that came almost all naturally.

I felt that Definitely, Maybe was distinguishing from other romantic comedies because it showed how love could be found in different shapes and how it’s various when it came in different times. Sure this movie was no Romeo-Juliet type of romance, but it’s so subtle that we could relate it easily to our lives. What was so fascinating about life and love was that they’re versatile and unpredictable–this movie really depicted the essence of these and made us appreciate how magical that things could fall into place nicely in their most natural ways.

Tiny trip to Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz 超小旅行)

As I’ve lived in California for a long time, of course I’ve been to Santa Cruz. Funny enough that I seemed to remember the most about “banana slugs” in Santa Cruz and forget all others, perhaps I was freaked out by these slimy animals…

This time I came across Independence Day while staying in California and decided to pay Santa Cruz a humble visit. I checked online and found this place called “Natural Bridge State Beach,” in which, consisted a stone natural bridge not far from the shore.

It’s less an hour drive to go to this beach from my home. It was quite sunny and warm all the way until I reached Santa Cruz. Similar to my trip to Half Moon Bay last time, it was cloudy and windy on the shore.

The beach was much smaller than I expected and located at the end of a residential area. From the fact that many people came here on Independence Day, I guess it was still a popular beach. 

This is the “stone bridge” that has earned this beach the name: 

At first I would expect a lot of people swimming in the ocean, since it was over 90 degrees F in Bay Area. However, only few of them were even touching the water since it’s actually quite chilly. You’d think to get a glimpse of some bikini-cladded beauties enjoying the sunbath–wrong, that day I was glad to find a jacket in my car. 

I still saw some people trying to surf. For this weather, I’d rather surf online… 

On the rocky shore was where the fun (for some people) begins. You can climb up and find some oceanic animals left by high tide swimming in the dents of stones. If you’re lucky, you can find little fish, anemone, crabs, or some unknown aquatic babies. But no luck for me this time.  

Some houses are up on the cliff. The view is wonderful, but I’m not sure how windy it gets when the winter comes… 

Some houses are further from the shore but still looking over the magnificent ocean view: 

This one seemed newly built, not bad eh?