Another school year of graduate studies have gone by, and once again I managed to get a little time off before starting my summer research. Just like last year, my parents came to visit me and so we went on a few short trips. We stayed in New York City for a few days, and this year we also went up into Quebec to visit Montreal and Quebec City. Here is a short account of the trips with some photos.
Now that I’m a grad student, I travel more than before thanks to various conferences and meetings. Recently, I went on a conference trip to Knoxville, Tennessee. It was my first time in the city (and the state for that matter), and I managed to squeeze in a little bit of sight-seeing in between business duties. Here are some photos and a few thoughts I had about the city of Knoxville.
A little while ago I went on a conference trip to Orlando, Florida. Back then, the Northeast was still pretty cold, while Orlando was sunny and warm, so it was certainly a great destination to go to. Unfortunately, the conference took place right at the hotel inside the airport, and so I ended up staying in the airport through almost the entire trip. It was a short trip and we didn’t have much free time, but just going outside for a couple of hours to the actual city would have been nice. At least the hotel and airport were quite nice though. The Orlando Airport is one of the nicest airports I’ve been to in the United States. The Hyatt hotel is right on top of the main airport lobby which is shown in the picture below. This trip was the first time I’ve been to Orlando or Florida. I didn’t really get to go anywhere, but hopefully I’ll make it back there some day as a tourist and actually visit the city.
This week was my spring break. I had a lot of work to do and spent most of the break working, but it would have been pretty sad if I had to work the whole week and not do anything fun. So one day, I went with some of my friends to ski on a local ski hill. This was the first time I have ever skied, which is actually kind of weird given that I’ve lived in Vancouver for well over a decade. Vancouver has a couple of ski hills nearby, and the world famous Whistler is not that far away either.
The day we went, the weather was very nice and it was sunny the whole day. However, it is March and spring time has come, and so it was quite warm and thus the snow was a little slushy at the base of the mountain. Given this was my first time skiing, I went and took the beginner lessons to learn the basics. On the bunny hill I actually wasn’t doing too bad. I could turn and had some control over where I was going, and I didn’t fall while skiing. It did take me a few tries to figure out how to get off the chairlift without falling though. After a few times down the bunny hill, I then moved on to try the novice hill. I found out the hard way that the novice hill was way steeper than the bunny hill, and on my first trip down I ended up falling 4 or 5 times. I can’t seem to control my speed on the steeper hill and end up going too fast and then losing control. After a couple of tries I did make it down the hill once without crashing, but I still haven’t really figured out how to control my speed. I tried the “pizza slice” stance and that doesn’t seem to work.
Despite the falls and the slushy conditions, my first ski experience was pretty fun. I expected to fall a couple of times as a first-timer, and I think I did better than expected. The weather is getting too warm now and my spring break is over, so looks like my next skiing experience will have to wait until next winter.
I survived my first academic year as a graduate student, and my adviser was nice enough to let me have a bit of a vacation before I start my summer research work. My parents came to visit, so it was a family vacation. Over the last three weeks, we went to New York City, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and Boston, so basically the major cities in the northeast/eastern part of the United States. As always, the post contains an account of the trip accompanied by some thoughts and photos.
I went on my first conference trip recently in the area around Washington DC, and a colleague and I decided to swing by the Mall on one of the days. Due to time constraint, we only walked around the west side of the mall from near the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial. This article is just for me to post some photos, nothing more.
Here is another short trip/visit that’s part of my efforts to get to know British Columbia better before I leave for the US for grad school. This time, I visited Grouse Mountain, one of the more notable attractions in the Lower Mainland area. Located in North Vancouver, Grouse Mountain is a ski resort in the winter and a scenic park with shows and a trail in the summer. Despite living in the Lower Mainland for quite a few years, I’ve never been to Grouse Mountain before, and so last weekend my family decided to go there. The post is short description of our trip accompanied by some photos.
My family went to pick some blueberries recently and I just thought I should write a post about the activity. Since last year, picking blueberries has become one of my family’s favorite summer activities. Picking blueberries is an easy, inexpensive activity that is not very time-consuming or tiring. Perhaps more importantly, blueberries are also touted for various health benefits, and they can be delicious too.
A few days ago I went on another day trip to explore places near and around the Vacouver region. I will be leaving the area to study in the US soon, so these are the last few weeks that I have to get to know British Columbia a little better. This time I went the Sunshine Coast, an area composed of several small towns/villages that’s located northwest of Vancouver. As a resident of the Metro Vancouver area, I keep hearing about the term “Sunshine Coast” but before the trip I didn’t really know where the Sunshine Coast was. Just likes the trips to Sydney (Vancouver Island), my relatives and I fished and crabbed during the trip, and below is the record of that day.
My family and I went to Whistler, BC for a short vacation not too long ago. Located about 2 hours drive north of Vancouver, Whistler is best known as a skiing destination in the winter and the location for the downhill and sliding events in the 2010 Winter Olympics, but there are a lot of stuff to do there in the summer as well such as mountain biking and white water rafting. I didn’t do either of these, but I did visit a few places while I was there. This is not the first time I’ve been to Whistler during the summer, but this is the first time I actually did something other than just looking around. Here is a record of the things I saw and did during the trip in rough chronological order.