This past weekend, I went on a 4 day trip with my cousins to Zion to celebrate my cousin John's 30th birthday. I, along with my cousins John, Ruby, and Jeff drove from California on Thursday night, stayed the night in Vegas, and then headed to St. George the next day, where we stayed from Friday thru Sunday. Our Utah family met us at the house we rented out and they did a little surprise party the first day we were there for our cousin John. I always enjoy these get togethers with my cousins because it always reminds me of how blessed I am to have family that I am so close to. In all honesty, it doesn't feel as though we are cousins, but rather, I feel like we are like siblings. Anyways, this weekend was full of laughs and nostalgia. So many moments where I thought I would pee myself from laughing so hard. I love my family.
We got to St. George on Friday at around 5PM-ish. Our Utah family was lagging due to a mishap at the bakery where they got the cupcakes at (apparently no one there had any idea we placed an order). So I had to stall somehow in order for this surprise to work out.. Luckily I managed to stall enough for them to set the house up and surprise my cousin John. For dinner that night we did Thai food at some place in Downtown St. George. It was really weird being in a Thai restaurant where there was nothing but White folk, but can't say I was surprised. After dinner we came back to the house and drank the leftover bottle of whiskey, the wines they brought, and some beers I bought at a nearby Walgreens. We also played board games and ordered pizza, because why not? Our cousin Tai got so drunk he threw up at the Pizza Hut when we went to pick up the pizzas. So as revenge, my cousin Brian and I left him there and parked across the street to see if he would notice. He was so confused when came back out and we weren't there.
We made it to the Lower Emerald Pools in a relatively quick 20 minutes or so. We took our first break here to take pictures and rest up as it was starting to warm up. After that, it was another 30 minutes until we would eventually reach the Middle Emerald Pools.
The hike at this point was very mellow and for the most part, featureless, so I was just focused on getting to the next destination.
Once we reached the Middle Emerald Pools, it turned out to be rather anti-climatic (not to mention crowded), so we took a couple minutes to catch our breaths and continued forward.
The hike to the Upper Emerald Pool was the lengthiest one of the 3. This one took us a good hour due to the size of our group and having to wait on people every now and then. It was also largely non-shaded and thus, very hot. We spotted a pretty cool rock along the way that would make for good pictures, but more on that later.
The Upper Emerald Pool was probably the 2nd most picturesque of the 3 pools (I'd say the Lower Emerald Pool was the most picturesque). It featured canyon walls as tall as the eye could see and a relatively large, but shallow, pool of water. The falls trickling down the rock face was nice, but very small. I'm sure after a heavy downpour or during the Spring snowmelt it would have been much larger.
After taking our family pictures, we headed back down, and instead of going the same way back, we decided to take different path at the fork in the road, which lead us to the Grotto trailhead. From here, we walked the Grotto trail south which lead us to the Zion Lodge. We spent a good hour or so there refueling on some fries and ice cream (a must if you're there). After that, a collective decision was made to head back to the house and hit the pool, so that is exactly what we did.
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| The house we rented was a really nice, new house, in a still developing community way in the hills of St. George. |
On Saturday, we woke up around 8AM to head to Zion. We didn't get there until after 9AM and the parking situation was luckily not as bad yet, so we found relatively close parking. We started our day with a hike to the Emerald Pools. We did all 3, the lower, middle, and upper pools.
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| Trickling waterfall at the Lower Emerald Pools |
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| We had to cross this neat little slot canyon right after the Lower Emerald Pool. |
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| We saw quite a few of these creepy crawlies along our hike. YIKES. Way to test my arachnophobia. |
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| Middle Emerald Pool in all its glory. |
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| Here we are at the Upper Emerald Pool holding a Happy Birthday banner haha. |
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| As said previously, this was the rock we saw that made for great picture taking! Here's us guys sitting on it looking at who knows what. |
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| And here's the whole group! I need to Photoshop this photobomber out the picture haha. |
The rest of the afternoon was spent in the community pool at the house we rented. We had a few beers prior to jumping in and just had a blast in the cold water. It was such a relief after such a hot day hiking. As the sun began setting, we decided on Mexican food for dinner at this restaurant in Downtown St. George.
That night, we decided to use this gigantic clown mask we bought at Walgreens the night before to scare our cousins Connie and Ruby. Needless to say it failed horribly so Brian, Tai, and I got bored and stayed up watching scary movies.
Sunday morning came all too fast. It was time to say goodbye to St. George and Zion. The girls, along with Hai and Jeff headed out first towards Las Vegas because the girls wanted to shop at the outlets. Brian, Tai, John and I left much later because we wanted to sleep in. We all met up at the outlet and then from there, headed to the Wynn for their lunch buffet. After lunch, we said our goodbyes and parted ways. I always hate goodbyes when it comes to these outings with my cousins. Our time always come much sooner than we want it to, but I suppose it leaves us eager for our next get together!
Brandon
Woo! I haven't been on here in awhile. I'm finally done with school until the Fall so I figured I'd update a little on what's been going on. I've been pretty swamped at work, but now that school is done I can focus more of my free time at home on editing pictures.
I currently have about 200 pictures still left to edit from my Yosemite trip at the end of May that will keep my busy.
In the meantime, here's some pictures of GCM and DTLA that I shot when I went with an old friend of mine. We caught up over some food from Eggslut and walked around a bit. Even spent some time at the Last Book Store.
I currently have about 200 pictures still left to edit from my Yosemite trip at the end of May that will keep my busy.
In the meantime, here's some pictures of GCM and DTLA that I shot when I went with an old friend of mine. We caught up over some food from Eggslut and walked around a bit. Even spent some time at the Last Book Store.
To kick off Spring Break this year, my cousins and I decided to fly out to visit our other relatives in Utah. This trip was meant for us to bond with our other cousins and see our newborn niece, which was the most important part of the trip, for me. I didn't do any adventuring during my stay, so this will be more of a personal post. Here are some pics I snapped during my 5 days there!
My first time using a selfie stick lol.
We had Sunday brunch at a chateau restaurant called La Caille.
The food was ah-mazing. I had eggs Benedict with broiled salmon and potatoes.
And of course, how could I forget this lil monster? She's gonna grow up to be one tough cookie.. Just look at that serious face!
When I get really stressed out I like to ride my bike or go for a walk/hike. This week has been a pretty crazy one so far because of finals and projects. Also, half of the people at my work are gone this week for training, so my coworkers and I have been kinda doing double duty to make up for their absence.
As you can probably guess. I did go for a bike ride. It was amazing especially given that I haven't gone in months.
It was my birthday this weekend and what a weekend it was! Everything felt like such a blur and then Monday kind of just came like a splash of cold water. I spent Friday night getting ramen with my cousins. After dinner, I grabbed some beers with my friends Alan and Miguel in the Art's District and then we wandered around Little Tokyo and DTLA until 3 in the morning.
I spent my Saturday morning/day very hungover in bed until eventually mustering the courage to get up and have lunch with my parents. I didn't really do much the rest of the day until later on at night. My friends Annie, Jennifer, and Jie made dinner reservations at Bestia in DTLA. Our reservation wasn't until 9:30pm, but we weren't seated until about 10. The dinner was an amazing experience and being there with my bestest friends just made it all the better! I didn't get any pictures of the amazing food, so you'll just have to take my word for it.
After dinner we hung out at my place until the next morning and then we got breakfast together before parting ways. I got home around 11ish and slept the rest of the day pretty much. Tbh I was pretty bummed once all the festivities were over. It's been awhile since my friends and I have hung out like this. But, till next time, I guess!
I spent my Saturday morning/day very hungover in bed until eventually mustering the courage to get up and have lunch with my parents. I didn't really do much the rest of the day until later on at night. My friends Annie, Jennifer, and Jie made dinner reservations at Bestia in DTLA. Our reservation wasn't until 9:30pm, but we weren't seated until about 10. The dinner was an amazing experience and being there with my bestest friends just made it all the better! I didn't get any pictures of the amazing food, so you'll just have to take my word for it.
After dinner we hung out at my place until the next morning and then we got breakfast together before parting ways. I got home around 11ish and slept the rest of the day pretty much. Tbh I was pretty bummed once all the festivities were over. It's been awhile since my friends and I have hung out like this. But, till next time, I guess!
I'll end this post with a cool candid Annie took of us at breakfast. Happy friends = happy life.
Yesterday, my friends and I took another day trip out to Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park as a way to wrap up our winter break! This would be our second trip in just over a month and it was totally worth every minute. We left home at around 6:20AM and were on the road for roughly 2 and a half hours before we made our first stop at a Wal-Mart in Tulare. I had to pick up some tire chains that I ordered earlier that morning and we also bought some snacks and had breakfast. After that short stop, we stopped for a pit of gas at the place we went to last time (where we had the whole keys locked in trunk fiasco) and surprisingly, the man at the register remembered us!
So by the time we made our way into the park, it was getting on around 11AM. The drive was absolutely gorgeous, I really wish I could have gotten some pictures of it. After paying our entrance fees, we continued driving up the winding roads, and halfway to our final destination, there was just snow EVERYWHERE. It was amazing and got us really excited for the day to come.
So by the time we made our way into the park, it was getting on around 11AM. The drive was absolutely gorgeous, I really wish I could have gotten some pictures of it. After paying our entrance fees, we continued driving up the winding roads, and halfway to our final destination, there was just snow EVERYWHERE. It was amazing and got us really excited for the day to come.
This was the view at the entrance of the Lodgepole campground (which was shut for the winter presumably). We had to walk through the entire campground to reach the trail we'd be hiking that day.
This section of the Kaweah river was almost completely frozen over at the end of our hike.
After a bit of falling in the snow at the start, the trail became nicely packed and easy to navigate. Did I mention how great the view was?
More views of the river along the trail.
About halfway through the trail, we walked through a grove of very tall pine(?) trees. It was like stepping into a completely different environment, especially given the rapid drop in temperature in this area.
But at least the snow here was so nice and powdery!
As we neared the end of the trail, it became slightly more inclined. The grove we went through in the pictures above can be seen in the background.
Just before we reached the falls, the trail became lined with these large boulders. Some of them made pretty neat overhangs, while others formed these narrow pathways, which made the going a bit tricky.
Nevertheless, this was the view that treated us on the other side! My jaw was on the floor at this point. I still can't get over how magnificent the view was. And although the falls had almost completely frozen over, it was still roaring away behind all the ice.
After soaking in that gorgeous view, it was time to head back down. We wanted to catch the sunset before leaving Sequoia.
And that's a wrap! There was a decent bit of fog over the mountains that made for a nice shot. It was such a great time adventuring with some of my closest friends, even though the day just zipped by so quick. Until next time!
And here are some pictures of said friends. These shots came out pretty rad.
