July 23 Will's Bday

July 23 is William's birthday It's also the last twenty something birthday for Will and the first birthday we spending together<3. I tried my best to make it memorable. Will told me later that night that it's the best birthday ever lol.
I made a card~i haven't done any hand-made card for a while. I made it like to gingerbread man drinking coffee together since both of us are coffee-holic.

I left the job early that day in order to get the cake in whole food. The girl in the bakery section ask me if I want any thing written on the cake. I said "William". The girl wrote "William!" on it and asked if I am satisfied with the words on the top. Although I don't like the exclamation, I still said" oh it's nice..." When Will saw the cake, he's laughing and said it's just like the way when I said his name. I always so excited and happy=.=. I found out the other interesting thing that "William" can be reassemble to "i am Will" after cutting the cake : )

Then, I cooked the dinner lol it's peri-peri sauce chicken and avocado shrimp salad. Will is crazy about spicy food but I am not. So the good thing about peri peri sauce is you can adjust how spicy it is by putting different amount of pepper.

It's the gift time~and i think is the hardest part. Will is the kind of person need nothing. He has all thing he needs and even has a lot staffs which are unnecessary. Original, i want to give him the silkweight T-shirt from Patagonia. However, he ordered it before me. Then, I was thinking about GPS for car since he only has iphone as GPS. However, he still likes his iphone better. Whenever I asked what he want on his birthday, he always said" I only want you>///<. Finally, i found he may want a GPS for hiking. Bingo~he's really happy about it.

Happy birthday Will 

4th July, 2012

I got my housewarming gift from Will on July 4th~It's a charcoal grill which is really an occasion gift
According to Will it's a gift more for himself than for me since he is really crazy about BBQ.
However, if someone brings the equipment and cooks for you, it still a pretty good gift :)

So this year I, like most of my neighbors, celebrated independent day with BBQ lol
I haven't done BBQ for a really long while~almost forgot how hard to start fire
We soaked the news paper with oil, put it on the charcoal, and lighted the news paper.
However, the news paper usually finished burning before anything happened on the charcoal.
After the stack was burning, the other problem happened.
While burning, the charcoal was not only crackling, but coming with flying embers, and sparks
It's really like we bought a holiday edition charcoal( firework).
Will needed to use the cardboard to protect himself from the tiny pieces charcoal pop out.

Will is fighting with the charcoal 

Finally, we got our first food cooked~Although they doesn't even look edible:(

Anyway, after a little bit more waiting for the flame went down, we started BBQ
My favorite is the bacon asparagus roll and corn

Then will say we should go to the smith point~
We arrived there at almost 8 so we wait a little bit~since it stop charging the parking fee after 8pm
We only played a little bit on the beach before the sunset.
Will buried my leg into the sand so i just look like a dwarf

We sat in the car in the parking lot to see the firework on long island
The view is pretty good
Before, I was always saying I want to go to New Jersey on July 4th to see the firework on Manhattan.
Although for some reasons we didn't go, will still keep my words in his mind
Thanks for Will you are so sweet lol

Memorial weekend: camping at fire island

We went to fire  Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness for camping on memorial weekend. It's the first camp after we got our tent (REI quarter dome T2). Actually it became a really memorable one( not in a good way>"<)
We called the fire island wilderness visitor center before we came. They told us we can get the permit there. The permit is free and is first come first serve basis. They give limited amount of permit everyday. They don't recommend  us go on memorial weekend since a lot of people will be there. However we still took a chance and went there on Saturday morning at 10 am to see if we still can get in. Luckily we did~The ranger told us people usually went there on Friday during the long weekend. 

We started our hike at fire island wilderness visitor center which is next to the smith point beach. We need to walk down the beach about 3 miles before we can pick a place to camp. On the way we passed the clothing optional beach and piping plover nesting area. The scenery on the way is pretty. Dunes are covered by the green. Seagull and piping plover walk on the beach. We hiked to the place we can camp at 1 pm and it's till early so we decided to hike all the way to the other side of the wildness area, Watch hill visitor center( which is only accessible by boat or ferry)

My backpack looks huge on me:)

We started setting up the tent at 4 pm. We found a perfect spot between two big dunes, which block the wind. I was really impressed by how quick to set a tent (10 mins). The pole clips designed make the assembling really easy even for the beginner.
Chief Will started cooking the meal for us. The stove is beverage can stove made by Will. It is ultra light weight. It's made from aluminum can and burn the alcohol( we steal the methanol from the Lab :P). The dinner is instant noodle and dehydrated beef pasta which is super delicious. 

Chief Will is preparing the dinner

Next morning, we waked up at 5 am to see the sunrise. We didn't see anything since it's cloudy:( . When we went back to the tent, we saw a ticks on the mash outside our tent. It's a dog tick. We guess it got on our backpack yesterday when We tried to hike deeper into the interior of the wilderness around 5 mins. 
After the ticks, bad things keep happening. I started feeling dizzy and headache. I took one . I throw up after i took it. At that moment i still think it's only the serious headache like i had before.  Will asked me to take a nap inside the tent and hoped i can feel better. However, The headache became stronger. We started heading back at 10am. I just kept vomiting. At that moment, we found it may be heatstroke. I become waker and waker and Will carried all the staff we brought. i kept vomiting and the water went out become yellow. We hiked 5 miles back to the visitor center. The ranger said i should call them and they can give me a ride. I guessed i got the heatstroke since i stopped drinking water at 9 pm last night since i don't want to pee at night.