2014 Adventure in iceland

We just got back from iceland! What an amazing place! The only wish is that we stayed longer. 

Let's start from the most memorable part of our trip~The two-day hike from Alftavatn to Landmannalaugar.  It's  part of the iceland's most popular hiking route, Laugavegurinn. Normally, people spend four days walking from Thorsmork to Landmannalaugar. However, since we only have five days in iceland. We decided to do a two day hike instead. We also decided to end our hike in Landmannalaugar so we can reward ourself with dipping into the hot spring. 

The first day began with the bus to Alftavatn. We parked our car in Hella and took the bus to Alftavatn. There is only one bus every day to alftavatn in summer time. The price is 6500 isk per person. When we got it in the information center in Reykjavik, we thought it's over-charged for an three-hour bus ride. But I need to say it's totally worthy. The roads on the highland have gravel surface. Our bus was even fording rivers a few times. The view is spectacular, really unique scenery. There were only three more person on the bus but we were the only hikers. 
We arrived Alftavatn at around 1:00 pm and started our hike. For the first day, the hiking distance (Alftavatn to Hrafntinnusker) was 12 km( 7.45 miles), Estimated walking time is 4 to 5 hours.  

Started our hike in Alftavatn. Both of us didn't seem ready for the hike =.=

The hike before reaching river Grashagakvisi was mostly flat. The vegetation was abundant with vividly yellow and green color. Before crossing the river, we overheard the news that an eruption started near Bárðarbunga last night from other hikers. Luckily, it's an lava eruption. No wading is required when cross  Grashagakvisi. 

After crossing the river, we experienced a series steep ascent. We passed an unusual hues of rhyolite mountains, ashen gray, rusty red, muddy yellow, and metallic brown. The field was just like a color plate of nature. White steam from from the ground adds some bizarre feel of the scene. The smell of rotten egg from the sulfur was not that appealing but it's almost the only thing reminds me that I was still on the earth. 
Soon the landscape changed. A lots of ravines were filled with snow and ice. We saw bigger and bigger patches of snow when we hiked. We even stopped by and explored one of the ice caves just next to the trail. William went through it although it's considered unsafe. The ice carve is developed by the thermal activity underneath the glacier so it's unstable. Soon after that, we had to walk on the snowy field. It's really different than the one I had in New York. It's packed but not slippery. So the crampons are not necessary. Before reaching Hrafntinnusker,  the weather became miserable. It was raining with strong wind. 

July 5-6 camping and hiking weekend in Catskill

We had a camping and hiking trip for this 4th of July in Catskill. I was lucky to get a camping spot in last minute. I booked it on 7/1, when I almost gave up and decided to stay in long island for the long weekend. 

Our campsite is number 70 which is a hike-in campsite on the left side of the little pond. It's about 3 minutes walk from the parking lot. I saw some people bring a cart to carry cooler and food between car and campsite, I think it's a really good idea. Compare to beaver pond, where we've just been last month, the campsite here has more privacy. Each campsite are divided by lots of trees. Every remote hike-in site has its own pit toilet. It has toilet paper inside and doesn't smell too bad. We can not get any phone signal (AT&T) in the campsite, which is a good getaways from modern world. 

After we sep up our tent, we decided to explore the lake. There are kayak, canoe, and row boat rental. The price for single kayak is 15 per day, and double is 20. We got two single kayaks. Since we arrived at 4pm, we only spent an hour kayaking, before returning it at 6pm. The pond is not that large, so we slowly went around the pond twice. The pond is really clean, and has a lot of fish. 

Kayak at little pond campground

Then, we had a delayed July 4th BBQ dinner.  The main is burger, and desert is brownie orange. Last time we tried, the brownie just exploded like lava from volcano. This time we only filled the orange 1/3, wrapped with aluminum foil, put around the red ashes, and baked for 20 minutes. It turned out perfect, not too gooey.

Campfire brownie oranges

Another thing I was really excited about is trying out the new sleeping bag (MHW photon 32). William has a photon 45 and are really satisfied with the quality after having it for three years. I bought a right zipper sleeping bag in order to zip with William's. I was so happy about this function before. However, after trying in this camping trip, both of us agreed that we won't use this function again=.=. There are two main disadvantages about zipping two sleeping bags together: one is the cold air get in easier. the other is whenever the other person turns, you can definitely feel it. I got really little sleep on that night.

Little pond campground #70

The view from our campsite

The next day, we had a day hike in  Minnewaska state park, which is about an hour drive from the campsite. Our route today is Lower Awosting (LA)-> Mossy Glen (MG)->Blueberry Run (BR)-> Castle point(CP)-> Rainbow falls (RF)->Lower Awosting (LA).The distance is 8.35 miles. It took us about 5hrs to finish. Only RF need a little bit scramble, other foot path are pretty easy.

When we came here last time in April, I wondered how the blueberry run gets the name. This time, I found out all the low bushes are almost all blueberry. It's blueberry season in July, we had a little blueberry picking. The rainbow falls is gorgeous. We had a lunch just underneath the falls.

Blueberry picking at Minnewaska

Rainbow falls at Minnewaska state park

We arrived almost the same time as another couple with their baby. We saw them again in the middle of Mossy Glen and Rainbow falls and almost arrived the parking lot at the same time. I am so amazed that the mom used baby carrier to carry her kid all the way. I hope I can do the same if one day I become a mom.
Thanks William for a great time. 

Jun 22nd: A great day in Brooklyn

I was making a summer to do list yesterday! One of the thing is rollerblading on the Shore Parkway bike path from bay ridge ave. to bay parkway in Brooklyn and going to Smorgasburg, flea food market,  to eat the one bite cheese cake Masha mentioned. I got both things done this Saturday. 

We went to Smorgasburg for lunch. Since it's Saturday, the location is in East River state park in Williamsburg. We got buttermilk fried chicken, bite size cheese cake, coconut water and ice coffee in the first round. We ate lunch with stunning view of Manhattan skyline. Such a treat in a lovely day. After we had some food, we stayed in the longest line to get the ramen burger. We waited for about twenty mins. It use ramen as "buns" and has burger meat, cheese( an extra dollar), green onion  cilantro, and asian style BBQ source in between. That remind me of the MOS rice burger. It is an interesting try. 

Then we headed south to bay ridge ave. and started roller balding. The trial is flat and nice paved, and has separated pedestrian and bike lanes. The whole trial is paved by the water so the view of Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, bay and ships are gorgeous. We stopped at Verrazano bridge since the rest trial is a  little sketchy. William said he felt he got a feet massage by rollerblade on it:(. 

I had great food, great view, great day, last but not least great accompany today. Will said one of his job is making my wish come true <3

May 2014

May 25, 2014
People say memorial weekend is the beginning of hiking and camping season.

Will and I had a small hike around Blydenburgh Park. It's a really lovely day for hiking. 

It is a special place for us since it's the place where we first hiked together. 

The scene is really different from the last time when we visited though. 

The pond is surrounded by beautiful yellow iris. They light up the pond like sun shine. In addition, the wild orchids, pink lady slippers, are in bloom. I never knew the orchid can handle cold temperature and grow wildly in New York.
It's a good warm up for this season. I am so excited about all the hike we plane to do :)

Iris in Blydenburg Park

Wild Orchid-Pink lady slippers

2013 Belize (I)

I just got back from a wonderful adventures in Belize. I felt I lost part of my heart there and can't wait to visit again. Thanks Will for introducing me to the adventure vacation. It's really unique and different from every vacations I had before. Although I still got panic sometimes during this trip but I like it.

There is no direct flight from New York to Belize city so we had one stop in Miami. Our flight left JFK at 8:55AM which means we needed to be there before 6:55AM. We took 4:55AM LIRR from Port Jefferson station and arrived Jamaica at 6:15AM. We took the air train to JFK. The flight attendance took a while to check if I need a visa to enter Belize. They said if someone doesn't have proper documents and being sent back, the flight company need to pay a $500  penalty fee for that.
We had an hour laid over in Miami. It's lunch time so we decided to get burger~worst decision ever. The counter said they need 15 mins to prepare it. We didn't realize we had really tight time so we said ok. It ends up we ran and arrived the gate about 15 mins before the plane took-off. 

The Belize international airport is the smallest international airport I have ever seen. There are only 6 gates and there is no jet bridge. Our connection flight to the village of Placencia supposes to departure at 14:40 but we waited for an extra half hour because other passengers' flight was delayed. The flight is a 10-12 passengers propeller plane. It flew over the sea for most of time so it's really scary experience.  The flight was actually much smother than what I expected. Luckily, we didn't have any stop before it landed in Placencia. Once we arrived, there was a taxi driver sent by the resort took us to the boat dock to meet with other guests. We were the last group arrived so the boat took off Hatchet caye, which is 18 miles offshore from Placencia. The water is really choppy but we didn't get really wet since we picked the seat at second floor. After about half hour boat ride, we saw an island with a coconut tree from far away. It seemed like our boat was heading to that island so we asked captain Leo is that the island. The answer is yes. When we got closer, the island became greener and we can see the small red-roofed cabana on it. When we arrived it's around 6pm. The welcome drink, which is a fruit punch including watermelon, pineapple, and mango, is really delicious. We got a little tour to the resort and  were escorted to our cabana( number 6)

Our flight from Miami to Belize city 

Propeller plane of Maya island air 

Hatchet caye on the map

cabana 6

We went to adventure center before dinner to check if we can get kayaks for tomorrow. It is the place we visited most often in our four day stay. There are inflatable kayak, sit on top sea kayak, stand-up paddle board and hobie cat. You can also get fishing tools and snorkeling gears there. The most important thing is except scuba gears, almost everything there is free. One day, we wanted to try night snorkeling and they lend a waterproof flashlight. Thanks to the adventure center, we stayed activities from early morning to late afternoon and never felt bored or lack of things to do.
Then it's dinner time. Our package includes all meals. For breakfast and lunch, you can pick one dish from the menu, but for dinner, it's a three courses meal including soup/appetizer, entree, dessert. The restaurant on the island is named lion-fish grill. Just like the restaurant's name a lot of dishes are made from lion fish. Lionfish is an invasive species that threatens Belize's saltwater fish and wildlife. Eating it is one of the solutions to protect the native reef creatures. Actually, lionfish meat is really tasty. It has moist and buttery flavor.
In the four-day stay, we almost tried everything on the menu. My favorite includes,
Breakfast: island style breakfast with fry jack( fry jack is a traditional Belizean cuisine. It's made out of flour tortilla dough with baking soda and deep fried until they puff up and turn golden color). Belize dollar pancake(I tried pineapple and banana, and I love both)
Lunch: fish and chips( Shrimp is also a good choose. It supposed to be British style dish. However, they put  some panko crumbs, so it's more japanese style deep fried fish. The fish was more tasty than what I ate in UK. )
Dinner: they had special for dinner everyday and a lot of my favorites are on the daily special. I loved the eggplant with parmesan and roosted tomato basil soup. Hatchet caye lobster was really yummy. The desserts menu changed day by day. We had carrot cake, chocolate cake, key lime pie, and brownie with ice cream. For a people have sweet teeth like me, having different dessert everyday is like living in the heaven:)
We also asked for coconut water everyday. There are a lot of coconut trees on the island. I was dreaming about grabbing the coconut from the threes every time I passed. Finally, William help me to ask the staff if we can pick the coconut. The staff is really nice, even it's already out of their working hour, they still sent someone to pick the coconut for us. The coconut juice was so fresh and delicious.

Our favorite spot in lionfish grill 

Bar of lionfish grill

Island style breakfast with fry jack

July 4th 2013 BBQ and firework in Montauk

    Will and I have a small BBQ on July 4th since all of my roommates are on vocation. We tried a new burger recipe: peanut butter burger. The idea comes from MOS burger~my favorite fast food restaurant in Taiwan. I almost went there almost every morning for breakfast and ordered exactly the same thing, the egg and bacon burger. The best part about the burger is they spread the peanut butter on one side of the bun. So the whole burger is a perfect balance of sweetness( peanut butter), saltiness(bacon) and crunchiness (lettuce). I told Will about my craving for MOS burger and he said he heard about this idea before. He said some more interesting idea about burger like glazed doughnut burger. We decided to try to make our own peanut butter burger. It turns out really delicious:)

    The ingredient we put into the burger includes: burger meat( quarter pound 15% fat and 85% lean ground beef), peanut butter, bacon, lettuce, tomato, provolone cheese. We had sweet pickles as a side dishes. Other things on the BBQ list includes: clams, corns, and watermelon. 

Peanut butter burger

My favorite chief~Will

     After the meal  we decide to see the firework in Montauk. I haven't been to the east end of New York, although it's only 1hr 45 mins away from where I live. Our original plan is to see the light house first and then to go to the umbrella beach seeing the firework. However, when we got there it's already 8 and a lot people were there waiting and car already parked on the lawn since most parking spots were occupied. So we decided find a parking spot first and luckily enough we found a roadside parking spot.  We walked from the east end of the beach to the west end where the firework were launched. We sat right next to the fence. It's the first time I am so close to firework. I were hit debris several times. I like the firework fade into streams and double heart shapes most. 

 I am so happy about what we did in July 4th. After the firework I still have a lot final exam papers need to grade but I feel much better after the short break.  

Firework at Montauk

Jun 23 Waterfall rappelling at Catskill

 Will and I went to a waterfall rappelling trip this weekend in catskill with discover outdoors. We got a 50% off Groupone about half year before. The origin plan is going to ice climbing but we were busy at that time. Suddenly, it's summer time so we decide to do waterfall repelling to celebrate the beginning  summer( a day after summer solstice)

The day started at 4am in the morning~I haven't waked up so early for years:(. We managed to leave my house at 5am, parked in flushing and took 7 train just like how we planned. But, instead of getting off the train at 42nd time square, we jumped out two stops earlier at 42nd Grand central:( Luckily, we took the s train instead of waiting for the next 7 train and managed to arrive before the meet-up time at 7 am.

Our guide Elise is a cute girl and she brought her mother with her today to go rappelling with us. I feel amazed they tried a lot different crazy things together like gliding and trapeze. I don't think my mom would like to try any of the activities.

After 3hrs drive and a little bit lost, we arrived The trip started from a really short walk to the first waterfall. The instructor gave a quick instruction of rappelling skills and let everyone practice on the slope before going to the edge of first waterfall. The cliff actually is not perfect flat. I tried to move my body closer to the cliff and to see if I can put my feet back to the rock again. However, instead of getting closer, I just swung and turned. After turning, I can see how far away I am from the ground and got scared. I never know I am scared of height. When I safely landed, my legs are a little shaking. The first waterfall is stunning.

The second waterfall is much smaller than the first one. I felt a little bit more comfortable than the first one. I knew I don't need to keep my legs perpendicular to my torso and to put my feet against the wall all the time.

Waterfall rappelling at catskill

2nd water we rappelled

3rd waterfall we rappelled

4th waterfall we rappelled

The hiking back is short but the trail is loss and slippery.

We had fun although i didn't get as wet as I expected. The waiting for every rappel is a little bit long but the beautiful surrounding and funny group members make the waiting time not that boring. I like the fourth waterfall rappelling most, since I feel safer and can enjoy the surrounding more.