Hearst Castle

I expected a CASTLE. But no...its juz a museum on a hilltop portraying the lifestyle of a famous person. Oh well, it costs only 20 bucks, and the experience to tell me that i SHOULD NOT bring my family and Ping here when they come for visiting. Unless they wanna go back to high school for a history lesson of course. But thinking back about that extremely "scenic" drive....hmmm... i might consider going through that again.

Hearst's residence(Castle), is pretty huge to begin with. And so i will just pick a couple of interesting pics to show....

A scenic view from the "castle"...

Outdoor pool...
3 marble lesbians, and errmm....3 human ones...

Some grand entrance to the castle...

Hearst's dinner table....
And the finale....This is in the indoor pool of the "Castle". Everything is made up of marble here. Its amazing how they manage to maintain the entire place!!


Next Stop.... LA!!

LA-Vegas Trip

I have procrastinated long enough regarding this post! Actually, my dad juz reminded me a couple of minutes ago over MSN. Its been delayed because some photos are still in my friend's laptop! hahah.... Excuses!!

1st day was our drive to LA. We met in Stanford before setting off in 2 cars. And halfway through, we were supposed to stop at a museum called Hearst Castle.

The drive to Hearst Castle...well.... was really quite an experience. A few entries away, i was commenting about how scary it was to drive on the highspeed, but straight highways in the US. Now, we are supposed to go on Highway 1. Its highspeed... not exactly straight...and its only 2 lane!! Now, thats intimidating!! And it goes through hills!!.... On top of that, we encountered fog halfway through.... my god! One wrong turn, and we go down the cliff! Just an idea about what i was going through from 7am till 1.30pm.... here is what i was looking at most of the time...

Hey, it doesn look so bad here... coz we happen to be at the bottom of the hill. Its the only time i can have a hand free to take a pic while in the driver's seat!

But highway 1 has really proved itself to be one of the most scenic drives in the bay area. Never regretted volunteering to be the driver for this group of people. They entertained me along the way, i was glad they did not puke from all that winding driving.

Presenting my crew....and the view....:)

After all that torture of winding roads.... we could finally see Hearst Castle...

LA-Vegas Road Trip

I have been neglecting this blog for a while...had a busy Xmas week. Was busy clearing my work in preparation for this 5-day road trip. Yes!!! 5 Days!... no email, no circuits to troubleshoot, no shit!

Juz in case you do not know what a road trip is, its basically juz driving long distance to tour various places. Its damn popular with the Asians here in S.V, and i managed to tag along with a group of students who were mostly studying in Stanford.

And this was how i spent my Xmas:

Day 1(22nd Dec): Drive down to LA, stopping by Hearst Castle
Day 2(23rd Dec): Universal Studios(LA)
Day 3(24th Dec): Disney Land(LA)
Day 4(25th Dec): Drive up to Vegas
Day 5(26th Dec): Drive back to Sunnyvale

I promise pictures on this blog... still sorting them out. Its too many pics. For a rough idea.... my 2GB SD card on my Lumix is insufficient... thats how many pics we took!!!

The Inconvenience of Convenience...

Sent my car for slight servicing today. Had trouble starting my car juz the day before....heard some funny clicking sounds before the engine really started....and they got me reeeaaalll worried.

Call me paranoid, but i juz experienced the fear of having to walk home after my car battery went dead last week.... thank god i was at the office, and some kind colleagues helped me to jumpstart my car.

Well, thankfully juz had to replace my car battery.... which set me back at about $80. The filipino mechanic also informed me about the nuts the bolts of what i have to watch out for... which oil to top up....which fluid to top up.... he was so kind, really. Great service! He even found that my engine oil was running really low, and he topped it up...FOC ok!

$80 is juz the beginning. I juz realized i need to buy lots of stuff, like engine filters, engine oil, coolant,..and he told me to check my fluids and oils every week or 2.... sigh... the price of convenience.

Christmas Atmosphere....

Updated Pic of Thanksgiving Event

Juz received this pic from the host a couple of days ago, juz felt that the previous entry will be more complete this way..