start of long........day 3

day 3; whew...so far so good i hope. thank u, God. we drove up to the northern part of the state. the plan that we talked about yesterday was to leave the southern part (where we were) at around 9am. i guess with so many things that need to be done by the aunt, so we ended up waiting around until about 12pm, oh well...the drive up started great actually. we stopped by in one area to have lunch, which ended up to be a place that i used to love. it's 'the hat'. everybody had pastrami, hm...really really nice and tasty, especially after a long while not having it. well...tell u what? let me tell u a little bit of story about myself. i used to be able to eat 1 whole sandwich with an additional chili cheese fries that is about the half size of the whole wrap of the sandwich. the visit to 'the hat' was definitely unexpected. i was not planning on it. i never thought about it, but somehow i was given the opportunity to find it and eat it again.
ok, that was a side story, now back to the drive up north. as we get to one point, just as we were about to get out of the city, we were stalled with an accident ahead that giving a warning about the closed freeway up ahead. oh well....guess we'll just have to take a detour. in the beginning, i never thought it was going to be kind of detour that we were in. the detour started ok. got a chance to see wind power generator; pretty close by. then suddenly we went to a deep dense foggy area. so obviously everybody slows down. then we went on to a country side road. not too bad, just a bit slow. then after a while we were able to get back to the main freeway. by this time, i realized that the 6-hours drive that we planned had turned into a longer one. oh well...no biggie, as i said to my friend, 'i'm just the chauffeur, and just try to have fun'. hahhaaha....
so, what's so interesting about all that. in terms of view, nothing special really; except for the wind power generator. other than that, it was the conversation. this was the first trip that we took together that put us in the position to see each other quite often in a span of one week. at first, i thought this could go either way. it could be cool, but it could also be a risky situation. so far so good. so far it has been pretty nice and cool. to tell anybody the truth, i'm in kind of an uncharted water here; foreign soil. man...i thought i have been in that area for quite sometime, but obviously this is even something different.
we talked about a lot of stuffs during the drive. to tell u the truth, for me, all of it is very interesting and definitely worth and need to be talked about. talked about situations, families, things that had been done for the past year, since we were about to move on to a new year, plans for the upcoming year, etc. definitely exciting.

quotes on stone...

some interesting quotes that was written in a stone path at places that i visited. hope these could impact u. God bless....

side note...

on the side note, i also was able to get what i wanted to get during this vacation, specifically in this state. i got my in&out burger (hmmm...a double double, really really nice...)



and the other one is the ice blended black forest from coffee bean (oh yeach...really really nice...)

then we rested quite a bit in the aunt's place until about dinner time. we had dinner at a korean place with the aunt's fiance'. interesting kind of person. funny and humorous guy. surprisingly, kind of tall for an asian guy. i would say he was about 6'3", maybe. not sure, didn't ask personally. btw, i'm gonna call him, mr. b.

below is the pix of the hiking trail that i did on day 2...

day-2, hike...

all rite, day 2. woke up kind of early, at least for vacation. i was up at about 5.30-ish am, but ended up getting out of bed around 7am. planed the day with my friend and decided to cook breakfast for everyone. the least that i can do for being allowed to stay at the aunt's place.
so today, we went to hike one of the park not too far from we stayed. nice area. as much as i had lived in this state before, i had not been to the area at all. so having to go hiking with this friend was definitely pretty cool. this is actually one of the activities that we planned to do together as soon as we planned to come here. the hike was pretty challenging at some part of the hills and peak, but i would say it was definitely worth it. we went up to this hill almost to the top. enjoy a great views of the snow caps mountain, the valleys, the sky, and one of my most favorite, the eagle flying above us. i don't know why, but i always have an amazement for an eagle flying above. it always give me the feeling of realization that it is GOD above protecting us below HIS wings. at the same time, it also always give me an assurance that HE wants us to fly soar high like an eagle, just like in the Isa 40:31. that verse is also use in lincoln brewster song. really really thank u GOD for all these.
at the same time, i was actually able to do some of my own workout. the run uphill repeat and the downhill run.

check out the hike pix

day 1

first, the travel day, it was ok. i was awake around 3am for a 6am flight. picked up my friend, get to the airport around almost 5am. the check in was not bad at all, then waited for the boarding. stop by in atlanta. somehow along the way i was not feeling hungry at all, which is kind of weird.

we arrived around 11am local time and met up with my friend's aunt in souplantation for lunch. this place was actually one of my favorite places to eat in while i lived in this state. for anybody that don't know; this place as some of u might be able to tell is filled with soups. yep, this place is actually a buffet place for salads and soups. after lunch, we went back to the aunt's place (which is definitely a nice place) and rested for a bit. then again, since i'm the type of a person that cannot stand doing nothing, so i went for run with my friend. we ran for about half an hour. just to kind of loosen up our legs from being cramped up in the plane. could not and don't really want to run much since i don't know the area that much, so definitely didn't want to go out too long and too far to get lost. then, we had dinner at a vietnamese place. pretty nice and normal for a vietnamese restaurant. then we had frozen custard. this is definitely a new place and experience for me. the custard place basically had many different kind of varieties of flavors. forgot the name of the place, but definitely nice and something different. definitely would try again.

goin' west...

well, here we go...my first real actual vacation for the year. in a way, it's probably a long waited one. altho, this was not the main destination according to the plan in the beginning of the year. but yet, so far, this has become a very interesting and probably could one of the most memorable ones yet. so much had happened in just 2 days. so much i had done, discovered, found out, met, etc. in one way, it's kind of unexpected, even tho, some are a bit expected. ok, so, here's the clue of where i'm at. it's definitely sunny; with views of , valleys, mountains (some are snow caps), hills; not too hot, definitely not cool at all in comparison to where i lived now. some of u might be able to guess from the pix i posted above.

pix

here is the pix that i'm talking about in my last blog;



seeing my dad have that big and nice of a smile, definitely made my year. definitely made me realize what i did was absolutely worth the cause. thank u, God.....

enjoy

worth...thankfull...

so, christmas had passed. nothing too exciting this year. a couple of things happen beforehand that might have made me feel a little bit down. but, somehow, i never felt out. i didn't plan anything for christmas, then again i already knew that i have a couple things going on during the christmas day. i visited houses of a couple of people from the church's congregation. it was fun. it's always fun when u can go to people's places and eat. oh my goodness, i ate quite a bit, that i think i finally gain a couple of pounds. oh well....i was enjoying and it was a wonderful time. so, i know for sure i was thankful and my tummy definitely so very thankful.
now the other part; at christmas morning, i woke up kind of late. sleep in a little bit more than usual. i was going to run, but yet, hm.....i thought to myself, 'nach.....i'm going to relax today...' so i ended up checking my e-mails and do some online stuffs. it turned out i found pix of my family. i found pix of my mom, dad, sister, brother, brother's wife, and my nephew. and somehow, after looking at those, it made me glad. especially seeing my dad looking so happy in the pix. oh yeach....so i thought to myself, yep, the sacrifice that i made before the december plan that i had is definitely worth the cause. i talked about these with a friend. and showing the pix to this friend, hopefully coule make my friend realize the thing that i had done. last october, i was so very happy about the plan that i had for december, but then november came and everything changes. like i said earlier, i was kind of down. but after looking at those pix, it definitely made my year. definitely made me realize that what i had done was definitely something that i felt so worth it and definitely very thankful. my friend did agree with me....
as for the pix, i'll try to get them when i got a chance later....
thank u GOD for giving me the opportunities to do all these....

feeling minnesota

hm, yes, can't imagine, i'm actually in minnesota rite now. on business, yeach, i know, sounds like i'm making that up, but yet, it is true. i'm in minnesota for business. it was nice. didn't get a lot of chance to look around the city tho. since every time i'm out, it's either very early in the morning or it was too late in the day. besides, the daylight here seems like it goes by so quickly.
anyways, a little bit about the trip. overall it was a good and successful business trip. i did get a chance to take care of things that need to be taken care for the project that i'm working on. met a couple of nice people (client).
a little bit about the experience in minnesota. it was freakin' COLD. first time in my life i actually felt what -20 degree fahrenheit (that's like -35 centigrade, for any of you that came from the other part of the globe) feels like. this is also the first time i actually felt glad that it was 2 degree fahrenheit. i think during the time that it was -20 degree, my jacket and my bag got froze. it was a good thing i came prepared tho. i got enough layers of clothes on my body and also, the material of the clothes that i have are the good ones. definitely keep me warm. if any of u curious, it's endura brand.
rite now, i'm sitting in the airport waiting to go back to warmer whether, in comparison to minnesota off course.
check this out...



other impression about minnesota, the traffic and snow. oh my goodness..., i never mind about any snow in my area. i don't hate it, and i don't like too much either. but here in minnesota, oh yeach....now i know why hockey is definitely a big deal here.
on other note, i did get a chance to relax a bit, altho i still can believe i went to work at the minnesota office this morning, but oh well....it's not too bad anyways. nice office, but yet, it definitely much more quite compare to my office. not sure whether the people don't really socialize among them in the office, or what? so, about the relaxation, i went to the mall of america. the biggest mall in the us. interesting. got some pics.
it's big all rite. with theme park and aquarium inside, oh yeach.....i think i just accumulate my time in the mall today for quite some time. for a guy that going to a mall means either i need to buy something specific that i can't find on-line, or going to mall is to eat somewhere in there, man....that was definitely enough for me for sometime.
a note about the places that visits in minnesota, i went up further north from minneapolis, to a city called grand rapids. guess what? the city is actually the birthplace of judy garland (mother of liza minelli, accordinig to one of my co-worker). for those that don't know, she is a famous old entertainer (movie star, etc). i think she was in the her prime in the 70's or maybe 80's, not sure, i might have to look into more later on.



all rite, enough stories, i'll talk more later. thanx 4 any of u that reading this....

here are some pix from the trip...enjoy...

reflexion

2008 is almost coming to an end. a couple of days ago, i talked with one of my friends. we were discussing about what had happened to each one of us throughout the years. one of them actually said, ' wow, how the year went quite fast. '

i heard that words so many times from so many different people that i met along the way throughout the years. for me, those words sounded like they're missing something. i, on the other hand, always thought that the year is going just at the rite pace. yeach, sure, there might be something that i miss, or maybe even there is something that i didn't get a chance to do, but what about the others. the insurmountable of blessings that we received from GOD throughout the years. the things that i never thought i could and/or would do, it turned out, i did them. i achieve them, i even conquer some of them. even the result is quite far exceeded my own expectation of my abilities that i thought i have.

i know for sure that most of the stuffs that i wanted to do in 2008 did get done by me. most...yeach....i know....it sounded like i miss something. it sounded like i didn't get the job done. guess what? i am definitely not feeling sorry for those. some of them have become my goals for 2009. others, well....let's move on. sometimes, there are things that u just can't do anything about. others, i guess i just have to bury them.

every year, i always make a blueprint of the plan that i wanted to do for the following year. and every time i go into the end of the year and beginning of the year, i surrender them to HIM. so, at this point, i just wanted to acknowledge this time as my submission of myself and all my plans to HIM.

underway

Today would mark as the first day I will be blogging more than my races. As one of my friends suggested, i probably would talk about my everyday activity. Hopefully, it won’t be boring. If any of you interested in my race blog, u can follow the pathway. Otherwise, read on.

Well, it’s been quite a while since I write any blog. Talked about stuffs, and so many things had happened recently to me. No race planned, no race being done, but indeed, there is always something to think about and ponder. So, here is one of them.

Last week, I had a minor adjustment on my bike fitting. Something that I always do regularly every year to just try to find something about my bike that might wrong, or maybe even my position on the bike. The intent is to try to find some tweak so that I can possibly improve in my biking, in terms of efficiency and speed. During the process, since there were quite a few of my teammates, then there would always be jokes and things that make everybody laugh and having a great time. In the midst of all that jokes and laugh, the person that was doing the fitting, bob, owner of wheelie fun, made a comment about my accessory. He said, ‘I like that thing; makes u look like a slave in the old days ‘. At first I didn’t agree, but then after a second of thinking about what he said, I realized, he’s rite. I am a ‘slave’. I am a slave of JC. I was bought by HIS blood to be freed and now I’m HIS slave. Then, he explain a little more about the ‘old’ days of how back then my accessory was a sign that was used to mark that certain peculiar slave was owned by a particular master. After a while thinking about what he said, I was reminded by this verse in Titus 2:14 (NKJV), ‘… who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works …‘

never thought what i had on me could result in many different perspective opinions from many different kinds of people.

Thank U… and God bless….