Keeping the faith

An interesting read from the BBC:

Keeping the faith

The US may be one of the most religious countries in the West but is it undergoing a period of doubt.

Nike women's marathon!

In San Francisco to cheer my friends in! This is the starting line at
7 am this morning.

Sent from my iPhone

Ethiopian adventure

Enjoying a sit down dinner with buddies! :)

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The Lustig Wedding.

To wrap up my impromptu vacation, I went down to San Diego to attend a friend's wedding.
Check out the photo album here: The Lustig Wedding



There is nothing like going to a wedding where you know both the bride and the groom really well, along with all the wedding guests. You have to understand that my friend Christine is an event coordinator and we all expected to be wowed by the wedding. She definitely did not let us down. The wedding was amazing!!
Everything took place on Coronado Island off the bay of San Diego with an amazing view of the city. The ceremony had the San Diego bay and skyline as the backdrop, with sail boats floating by occasionally. But to top it off, the reception took place outside as well right as the sun was setting over San Diego. The buildings were glowing orange and the sky had a kaleidoscope of blues/pinks/oranges. Wow. Words are definitely not enough, check out the photo album above.

The rest of the night was a big cerebration/reunion with some of my really good friends from school. Nothing like dancing and goofing around with people you love :)

We were joking as the night ended.. "see you at the next wedding"! Its absolutely true, looks like its going to be a cycle of a couple of weddings per year and I look forward to them.

Congrats to Ryan and Christine! May your relationship be blessed and be a blessing upon others!

Midwest Trip: The End.

Well... My midwest trip has come to an end... but! my so cal trip is just beginning!

I arrived back in LA yesterday afternoon and trained back to my house in Monrovia. Its good to see my family again. Last time I saw them we had JUST gotten back from Thailand and I had to immediately leave for San Jose. It was really neat to see and talk to my not so lil' sister who's been going to college for a couple of weeks now. So proud of her!

After some good family time my friend James and I drove down to SD this morning. I'm staying at my old condo aka the hotel alan sun. We just got back from an Oktoberfest thing in La Mesa. Man, its weird to be back in SD again. I kind of remember things here... but eh... not really. It just doesn't feel like home here anymore... probably because it isn't.

Tomorrow is Ryan/Christine's wedding. Should be fun! Especially knowing that Christine probably did most of the planning and its taking place on Coronado Island... NICE.

Midwest Trip: Day 6

Photos from Day 6



Time to wrap up my adventures in Chicago. Today began with a visit to the John Hancock center. We went to the observation tower on the 94th floor. Wow, the view is breathtaking (check out the gallery above). Looking north you can see along the Lake Michigan shoreline and southward you can see the Chicago skyline from up top. What was also really cool was the elevator ride up and down the building, it took only 40 secs to get from the lobby to the 94th floor. It was crazy to imagine how fast we must been going to get up there that fast.

For lunch, I went to Giordano's. Honestly, its the best deep dish I've ever had. Lets just say they were not conservative with the cheese at all. Although, it took 40 mins. to cook the pizza it was worth every second! Man... it was soooo good.

I tried to walk of a bit of that pizza with a stroll up and down Navy Pier. It was an interesting mash up of the Santa Cruz boardwalk and Pier 39. If anything, it had an awesome view of the Chicago skyline.

Headed back to the hostel after Navy Pier and rested a bit before heading out to the Art Institute of Chicago. The museum is free on Thursday nights from 5-8p, so that was a grrreat deal. They had the most extensive collection of Monets I've ever seen in any museum. My favorite exhibit though was the miniature rooms. The exhibit portrayed different interior design styles from various parts of the world in time period order. These miniature rooms were all no bigger than a shoe box! The details in these rooms were right down to the pattern on the carpet. Crazzzzy...

Walking down Michigan Ave. after the museum made me really want to take some night shots. So I went back and grabbed the camera for some of the shots you see in the gallery above.

I wasn't going to leave Chicago without getting some hardy Chicago Blues. I headed down to "Buddy Guy's Legends". The owner was the Blues legend, Buddy Guy. With a $10 cover charge, I got a really good show. The BEST part though was when out of NO WHERE, Buddy Guy gets on stage and starts playing with the band. Man, that guy can still ROCK! If I'm not mistaking, I think Eric Clapton was also standing behind us at the bar. I was having such a grrrreat time :) Oh yeah, and not to mention, the food was awesome! I had the grilled chicken sandwich drenched, literally drenched, with tobasco. Droooool.

What a way to finish off my last night in Chicago :)

Midwest Trip: Day 5

Second day in Chicago...

Photos from the Second Day


Man, I am lovin' this city.

Today, walked over to the Mag. Mile to grab some breakfast. After a quick bite to eat, I ran my butt down to the Chicago Architecture Foundation for a walking tour of the city's historic sky scrapers. There was soo much informaiton being passed around during that tour, I couldn't retain it all. If you guys take a look at the day's pictures, you can check out some of the awesome buildings that we saw. Not only did we study the outside of a building, but the tour guide also took us inside of some of them to see how each of the buildings had their own personality.

Afterwards, I continued my fine Chicago dining experience with a Chicago hot dog. I got a "red hot", Chicago style, from Gold Coast Dogs. Delicious and affordable :). Before heading off, I stopped by the "Wicked" ticket office to drop off my raffle ticket for that night's performance. If my name is chosen I would be able to purchase seats from the first two rows for $25. More on this later...

It was off to Wrigleyville, to see one of baseball's most hallowed places, Wrigley Field. It was a thing of wonder. Here nestled in quaint suburban neighborhoods was a baseball field from the 1910s. Now with the Cubs in the playoffs, everyone had Cubs fever.

I wandered around a bit more before I started heading south towards Lincoln Park. Along the way, I stopped by the one and only threadless.com retail store. For those who know what this is may understand what a big deal it is.
Walking around the neighborhoods north of Lincoln Park, I absolutely fell in love with the quaintness of it all. It felt so cozy and warm.

I didn't realize Lincoln Park was so far away, but I eventually made it. Checked out the zoo... its hard to be impressed after living in SD for 5 years and visiting the zoo many times, but I guess Lincoln Park zoo is good especially for the price of FREE. Walked through Lincoln Park and into Old Town. It was nice, reminded me of an older downtown Saratoga. I stopped for a quick snack and had to get going so I can be present for the "Wicked" raffle drawing. I had everything planned out, I'd take the Brown line into downtown so I can make it just in time for the drawing at 5:30p. I get to the subway station... it was dark, there were wooden boards everywhere... closed....
What the... crap...
Okay, I thought quickly. Afterall, I only had 30 mins left to get into the loop. So, I start walking... into some shady neighborhoods... no stations... crap...
I had a decision to make. There were two possible stations, either one about 6 blocks away. I chose one and went with it. Thank God, I made eventually made it to the theater, but my back was soaked from sweat walking as fast as I could to that station.

The drawing happens... they had 20 tickets availalble and there were about 30 people there...
18 tickets are given away... this is my last chance... "Is Danavin Ruuanngggaa...", "Yes! I'm here!" I won! I sat in the second row for $25! It was amazing!

For the show... I thought... it was good... but not great. I wouldn't rank it in my top 3 list. The show and music itself was great but the story lacks something. It felt like the writer had to cram everything in so it would fit into a 3 hour show. I liked it though, but I think I'll have to see it again because I feel like I missed a lot of stuff.

So far, so good! Chicago has been a blast!

Midwest Trip: Day 4

CHICAGO!
Pics from day 4


I arrived here via car from Wisconsin earrrrly in the morning. I was dropped off at O'Hare and rode the "L" into town. Man, its an overwhelming feeling when you exit the subway station and are surrounded by massively tall buildings where people are rushing to and fro. I was in Chicago...

My gracious friend Bruce let me stay with him at the Hyatt for a night while he attends a conference in town. I got a quick crash course on downtown Chicago as I lugged my backpack and duffle bag through the city looking for the hotel. After I arrived, I took a quick shower and was off to explore the city. The hotel was directly next to the Chicago river and very to the Magnificient Mile. First went to check out the Michigan Ave. bridge and a quick stroll on Michigan Ave. It was creeping up towards lunch time so I figured I'd have my first Chicago meal. Time for some Chicago deep dish pizza. I strolled across North River to a restaurant recommended to me called Lou Malnati's. Maybe it was just me... but it was just alright. I've actually had better Chicago style deep dish in California. Oh well...

I took another "L" train through the Loop, to really get a feel for the city. It was interesting and somewhat stalkerish to be able to look into office and apartment windows from the trains.
Next up, Millennium Park. Beautiful new park with very intriguing art. Yup, saw the giant bean, but I was really impressed by the performing arts auditorium - it was very reminiscent of Disney's Music Hall in LA.

I started to walk south, knowing that Grant Park and eventually, the Museum Campus was ahead of me. Saw Buckingham Fountain (of Married with Children fame) along the way, the fountain really is huge. I made it to the Musem Campus where I went to the Field Museum of Natural History - for free! Saw Sue, the most complete T-Rex fossil and a bunch of other things. I was so tired by this point because I was up since the crack of dawn, I started falling asleep in some of the video exhibits at the Field. For those who know about my European backpacking trip, this is nothing new.
I walked right back up Michigan Ave. after the Field Museum and stopped by a nice lil cafe in Millennium Park. Took a lil' rest and headed back to the hotel room.

My buddy Bruce was awesome and got me into the coorporate party his company was throwing that night. It was great! Yummy food, BMX/Skateboard riders, Richard Cheese performed, Arcade/Video games, Segway rides and more! What a way to end my first day in Chicago!

Good morning Chicago

The view outside my hostel window. Chicago is grrrreat so far. I'll
update when I have legit Internet access.
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Midwest Trip: Day 3

Links to the photos: Midwest Trip: Day 3



Its wedding day! Spent the day hanging out with the groomsmen. Man, even though I wasn't in the wedding party, they made me feel really comfy.
The wedding was FAST! 30 mins - wham/bam done!

The reception was held at "Mr. Miyagi's" - yes, like from Karate Kid. They do special surf n' turf type o stuff and it was decently good. It was interesting because 50% of the guests that were there are from Apple. Mostly Wisconsin retail plus the three of us from Apple Corporate. We had to leave though before the dance party really got started since we have a lengthy drive into Chicago tomorrow morning.

Scott and Jess, I only wish you the best! Congratulations!

Chicago... here I come...