joy eats

After 10 years, i finally got to see the beauty of the rocky mountains in Canada. My parents and i met up in Calgary and rented a car for the week. we started in Calgary and drove all the way up to Jasper and back. I didn't know the flight up to Canada was only 2 hours and 10 min. which was a good surprise, since i hate airplanes..
the beauty of the mountains and the lakes are beyond what i can describe. the mountains are so grand; it stretches all along the highway. it felt like i was being protected by two rows of huge walls. The water in the lakes has a deep blue/green hue from a distance. but when i stood next to it, it looked clean enough to drink. everything look almost a little fake because it's just so picture perfect. =)
here are few of my favorite places that i visited..

this is the famous Banff Springs Hotel. it's a beautiful castle in the morning, but it's kind of spooky looking at night especially with that kind of sky light...supposely, one of the ballroom in there is haunted... the paintings in that room are pictures of train crashes and unfortunate events...

we had fondu for one night and this was our view from the restaurant.

sunset at Pyramid Lake in Jasper

just a view from the icefield parkway

Peyto Lake

a beautiful reflection of the moutains on Bow Lake

my dad decided to splurge for one night and we got to stay at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. now i can cross out an item on my list of "watashi no yume".

a view of Lake Louise from our hotel room!

Moraine Lake

Castle Mountain.
it was such a relaxing trip and the sun doesn't set until 10pm, so there were lots of time for us to explore and walk around. during the trip i kept thinking to myself that God must had lots of fun creating all of these... while the hymn "How Great Thou Art" is playing in the background.
anyways, if this didn't convince you to go visit Banff, i have uploaded all my pictures from the trip on my yahoo photos under Banff 2005.

it's funny how people are concern about my sims... since i have promised some people that i would reveal at least some of the info about your occupations and marital status, so here it is:
andreas, as most you know is married.. and he turned out to be a good guy. work in the medical field. =p
Esther is a lab assistant and Joseph is a field researcher. single.
Bob is the mayor of sim city, he goes to work on a helipcopter.. cool eh. married.
George is a theorist and he just recently got engaged!
Mike is a detective..which i think suits his personality. married.
Karen, a paramedic. she's also married.
Byron and Maria have a child now name Naomi.. just for you, maria =)
Byron is a commander.. haha totally does not fit him...
Scott Joe is an executive at a huge sim coorperation.. =) (i gave you a sweet job).. still single, because he only wants to marry rich sims.
Andy Yoon is a resident in the medical field. he fell in love with a sim, but she's married to someone else... how unfortunate..
Joyce Su is a city council member and single.
as for myself, i am a celebrity chef! i guess that's kind of like Rachel Ray in real life.. and i have my own Asian fusion cookbook too.. hehe what a life.
well that's about all the drama with my sims game.
i hope that satisfy some of your curiosity.. no more details.

just some updates about my week...
Jen came up north this weekend to visit... jerry. =p
saw Batman Begins on Fri. which i thought was very good. it made more sense now seeing Batman develop into his character. i think i like this one better than the other superhero movies, except X-men of course.
Sat. was Andrea's birthday! a few girls took her to Fresh Choice for dinner because she was craving for salad... along with many other things. Then we had a dessert party afterwards.



oh.. look at my flaming birthday cake.

woa.. one breath 

It took us five tries to get a group pic where veryone is smiling...

Sunday, some of us went to see Mr. & Mrs. Smith after church. it was entertaining. not much of a plot so don't expect too much. but the actor and the actress made it worth watching.. Angelina Jolie was hot. even from a girl's perspective.
after the movie, we decided to head up to S.F and had dinner at Brother's


korean bbq at Brother's

andrea and esther wishing we had more food..  

after dinner, it was too late for us to catch the fireworks, so we went to Greco's cafe and ate more! what else...

yummy coffee and tiramisu at Greco's Cafe...

Monday- the north san jose guys hosted a BBQ. it was madness.. about 50 people showed up so there were people everywhere. but it was still good; meeting new people, lots of food, fun games, cute babies to play with and interesting conversations. =)
and that officially was the last party for the weekend.