Life Through the Lens

Snow Testing in Minnesota

Every Winter we head up to Northern Minnesota for work.  We test a ton of tires for a week straight.  Its long days…and sometimes long nights depending on the weather. But we always find ways to make things interesting.  Usually there’s a lot of unhealthy food eaten, but this time there was bad food eaten.  I think the prime rib special (shown below) took out half the team with a serious case of Montezuma’s revenge.  We watched way too many movies and did too much shopping at hardware stores.  The temps also dipped as cold at –27, which was a record (in the outdoors) for me.

 

Here’s a crazy vertical rainbow that seemed to have been cause by ice crystals in the air.  It only lasted a few minutes, but was pretty cool to see.

New Year’s 2013

I flew back to Orange County on New Year’s Eve and then proceeded to drive down to San Diego to celebrate with my friends.  You can tell we are getting old as the evening was spent just drinking booze eating cheese and meats.  But I stayed the night and we went out to the Linkery for brunch on New Year’s day.

NYE Photos Courtesy of Marc Mizuta.

Lia was being her usual adorable self for the New Year.

Christmas in Seattle 2012

This was an eventful Christmas in Seattle.  Surprisingly enjoyable and drama free.  My Mom was back in her backing mood and revived the Yule log baking tradition.  We had a fun Christmas dinner at my Mom’s Cousin’s house.  Took a short family vacation to Vancouver and enjoyed some Boxing day people watching and the Museum of Anthropology.  In general, we just ate a lot and enjoyed each other’s company.

 

Round one of Yule log cake making.

 

Some pre-Christmas shopping at Bellevue Square.

 

Round two of Yule log making with my younger cousins.

 

Some fun at the Casino

 

Christmas dinner at my Mom’s Cousin’s place.

 

Trip to Vancouver B.C.

 

BC Museum of Anthropology.

 

Dinner at the Sand Bar before heading back to Bellevue.

 

Giant sized Duty Free shopping.

 

More eating in Seattle.

 

Lunch with Auntie and Uncle #1.

 

Last dinner of Vietnamese food with my Parents before I fly out the next day.

Korea 2012

At the beginning of December, I went to Korea for the first time (ever) for a business trip and visited a couple cities, Namyang and Ulsan.  It turned out to a bit of a dud for work as things got delayed and the work we were supposed to do didn’t happen.  But I did manage to meet a lot of counterparts that I had been working with through email.  I also got a chance to to a bit of sight seeing in Seoul since I arrange to fly out on Sunday instead of Friday.

First few nights in Namyang we ate like kings.

 

Lotte Hotel in Ulsan.

 

Some night scenes from Ulsan.

 

Famous Ulsan Pork Soup, add optional noodles and rice.

 

Pho in Korea? Not the same.  Also tiny coffee cups out of the machine…and the inevitable KFC invasion!

 

By Friday, the weather had turned bad and it was snowing both Ulsan and Seoul…and after my ride dropped me off at the airport, they told me all flights were cancelled.  So I had to make my way to train station and get northward bound.  Top is Ulsan Station.  Bottom is Seoul Station.

 

First dinner in Seoul, Bibimbap!

 

Freezing snowy cold night in Seoul.

 

As soon as I check into the hotel I made sure to book a DMZ tour for Saturday.

 

After we got back to Seoul, I headed down to Namdaemun market for some street food, but the temperature was so cold that I couldn’t stay outside for very long at any one time.

 

I also wandered into the Camera District…some serious camera shops all around.

 

On returning to the City Hall area, it looked like the riot police were getting ready for some big demonstration/public rally.

Sunday, I headed to the Korean War Memorial Museum.  Possibly the coolest museum that I’ve ever been to.  And it was free.

 

After leaving the Museum, I headed down the road to Itaewon to see what the Ex-pat area looked like.

 

Last meals before flying back to California.

 

Returned my Rental SIM car and headed towards the gate.

Thanksgiving in San Diego

This Thanksgiving, I chose to forgo any air travel and drive down to San Diego to hang with the Mizutas. They had a big Thanksgiving dinner for all the peeps that didn’t go home for the break.  We had tons of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and desserts of every kind.  For the rest of the break we did some photography lessons for Marc, hit up Greenflash, went to the zoo, and even did a baby photoshoot for 5 week old Noah.  I’ll post some of those photos later.

Japan 2012

Life seems to have gotten in the way of my blog posting lately.  But now I’m finally caught up and ready to post a flurry of adventures.  The first week of October is Golden week in China, so my friends Mike and Kim had planned to bug out to avoid all the local tourists.  They suggested that Brian (Detroit) and I (O.C.) meet up in Tokyo and go on a Japan adventure.  Of course we said yes!  Anyway, we started out in Tokyo for a few days and made a few day trip excursions to Yokohama, Harajuku, Tsukiji Fish Market, and Akihabara…as well as enduring a Typhoon to retrieve a hat from a bar.  Then we headed to Kyoto for a few days with a side trip to Nara.  Then we ended up in Osaka to visit my Cousin Vi and her husband Daniel.  It was a pretty epic trip.  Good times with my peeps.  Definitely have to do it agian soon.

Harajuku…

 

Aaron and Mitch happened to be in Tokyo on a layover from Korea, so we met up for some food and beer.

We got to Tsukiji Fish market way too late, but still had a chance to walk around and explore.

Then it was off to Ginza for some shopping.

Our attempt to see the Imperial Gardens.

 

Boss before our trek to Yokohama to see the Baystars!

Tokyu Hands…Tempura and a pet store.

Shibuya.

Shabu Shabu

Mustache ride to Kyoto.

Nijo Castle.

The cast of characters, Brian, Kim, me, and Mike.

Geisha District.

 

Getting our Temple on.

The Golden Temple, if you couldn’t guess.

Nara, home of the largest Buddha in Japan and free roaming deer.

Osaka – Meeting up with my Cousin Vi and her husband Daniel.  1 Michelin Soba Restaurant and Sake Tour time!

Kobe, Mike and Kim head off back to Osaka for their Anniversary celebration and fly out early the next morning.

Yakitori!

Osaka Castle.

My 6 hour layover in Seattle to visit my parents for Dim Sum.

Carlsbad Caverns & Guadalupe Mountains Roadtrip 2011

This was the first Thanksgiving that I wasn’t able to go to Big Bend with Doug and Jim.  It was kind of a bummer, but I essentially ran out of vacation this year…although that doesn’t matter anymore.  I then planned a trip to Carlsbad Caverns New Mexico, and asked Yama if he wanted to come along.  After work in Wednesday we headed west.  As it turned out the drive wasn’t much longer than the typical traffic filled drive to Dallas.  Click here for all the photos.

 

I picked out this cool hotel called the Trinity…it was the only non chain option, but seemed to be the nicest option in Carlsbad.

The room was pretty swank, but they only had one bed and a sleeper sofa.  We alternated who had to sleep on the sofa. Still it was worthwhile.

Especially since the room came with free coffee and pastries in the morning.  I was expecting danishes and some french toast, but got lattes and scones/muffins/cinnamon rolls/strudel instead.

 

We decided to hit Carlsbad Caverns on Thankgiving as the crowds would hopefully be smaller that day, and it turned out to be a pretty wise decision.  There were so few people there, we could easily setup tripods and shoot.

Here’s some highlights of the Caverns

 

Being that everything was closed on Thanksgiving, we made our way to the Best Western for the Thanksgiving buffet.

 

The next day it was raining in the morning, so we headed up to Roswell to look for some aliens and see the sights. First stop was the visitors center to get a pic with aliens and figure out what sights there were to see.  Needless to say, it was a bit disappointing.  We checked out the Bitter Lake Wildlife Refuge and saw nothing but birds. Then went to the Lea house to see the house of one of the founders of Carlsbad. Also saw the POW memorial, where WWII German POWs built an iron cross into the bank of the river while working on the chain gang.

 

The next day, we went to the Guadalupe Mountains to hike the Devil’s Hall trail.  Its freezing in the morning, but warmed up a little later.  It was an awesome hike with some sweet sights.

 

Sunday morning, we headed back to San Angelo, but on the way we stopped off at the Living Desert Zoo.  It was pretty cool, but the animals were less than active.

Austin Photo Expo + Anne and the Frenchies

Last weekend I headed out to the Austin Photo Expo that’s put on my Precision Camera.  It’s a fun and informative weekend of free seminars and a large floor where all the major camera and accessories vendors come to sell some goods at discount.  It was kind of last minute, as I didn’t get the email until the Wednesday before.  I tried to convince Doug to come out, but he had made plans already.

 

After I filled my brain with photographic knowledge, I met up with my friend Anne to grab some Thai food. Afterwards, I had to twist her arm into taking some portraits…so that I could use my photo knowledge and play with some new lighting techniques.

 

On Sunday before I had to leave for the Taste of Asia festival in San Angelo, we went out to brunch for Anne’s friend Aurore’s Birthday.

Best Business Trip Ever

This year for work all the drivers got to go to Bondurant School of High Performance Driving for training.  Three days in Phoenix with perfect weather and driving Corvette Grand Sports, hard to beat that.  Not to mention the massive amounts of tasty food we consumed each day and go kart racing each night.

 

Around the Texas Horn

I felt like I was running the bases at a baseball game played on the state of Texas last weekend.  I had planned to be in Dallas for the last weekend of the state fair, then my buddy Derek called up and said he was going to be in Austin that weekend.  Being that I haven’t seen him since last Christmas in Seattle, I made the trek to Austin to hang out for the night.  It made for a tiring triangle of long distance driving, but it was worth it.

First stop to the Congress Avenue bridge to see the bats.  I’ve ventured down there many times, but never saw any bats.  Guess that night was my lucky night.  I was really surprised to actually see bats and then actually be able to photograph some.

Then it was off for some Shinerbock and dinner.  Derek wanted Tex-Mex, but I never ate Tex-Mex in Austin before…usually too busy eating stuff I couldn’t get in San Angelo.  I Yelped some place called Corazon, but it had maybe 2 mexican dishes on the menu.  It was expensive, but not fantastic.

After the somewhat disappointing meal, we went off in search of dessert/pie.  I took him to Gourdough’s, but they had take off to a festival of some sort (should have checked their twitter first). We ended up at Magnolia Café South, where I had a delicious Pecan pie. Afterwards, we stopped off my friend Anne’s place, where she was having a dinner party with her French grad student posse.

 

The next morning, we hit up Flip Happy Crepes for some lunch before I had to leave for Dallas, and he had to catch a flight back to Seattle.

 

Driving up to Dallas, I saw this 458 on I-35W…looks like its brand new.

 

I had planned to meet up with Dave and Ali on Sunday for the Fair, then we could convoy back to San Angelo together. Saturday night Ryan, Nicole, and I headed out to a Tornadoes Hockey game.  They are an NAHL team, but provided plenty of exciting hockey as well as a full on brawl.  Before the game, we got some dinner at Fadi’s Mediterranean Grill.  The food was delicious, but I got way too much…damn cafeteria style restaurants!  We also saw some weirdo superfan dressed in this yellow zentai suit.  Here’s all the photos.

 

Sunday was fried food day, all day!  There were so many delicious concoctions to try out.  Pretty much everything I had was good, except for the deep fried beer.  It was just warm Shiner in a ravioli…it was gross.

Deep fried Frito Pie was the best

Critter Fritter (beef stuff jalapeno)

Chicken Fried Bacon

Deep Fried Beer – the worst

Buffalo Wing in a Flapjack

El Bananarito (banana in a sopapilla)

Fried Cookie Dough

Deep Fried Autumn Pie (pumpkin pie)

Fried Autumn PIe, Butter, & Cookie Dough