Grand Canyon Adventures

Oh boy, it's been awhile since I've updated.

This summer, I've had the pleasure of road-tripping over to Vegas and the Grand Canyon. It's always been on the bucket list to check out the Seven Wonders of the Natural World. If you have not gone, I highly recommend you check it out, especially if you live on the West Coast. Often, we take for granted of these beautiful natural beauties in our backyard (okay, not really in our backyard but it's not far from where we live)!

I forgot to bring my camera so I used my phone. My poor iPhone battery drained out so quickly from all the pictures I took. But I have to admit, smart phones these days may just be the perfect alternative to photography. Check out the picture quality.

Now I'm going to stop talking. See for yourself.

Eagle's Peak at the Native American reservation. You can see the eagle rock formation right behind us with its wings spread wide.

Hoover Dam

Hm. This looks oddly familiar... are we still in the Grand Canyon? Nope, it's Cars Land in Disney California Adventure! For some reason, I felt like I never left work... even when I was on vacation. ;)

I can't believe it's almost winter and I'm still sorting through my pictures from the summer. As they get edited, I'll be posting it on this blog. Check back periodically to see where my adventures have taken me!

*Leap of faith*

Road Trip Back to Cali

Long overdue post! I have officially moved back to the Golden State of California and happily accepted a position doing what I love to do. Everything happened really fast and the next thing I knew, my bags were all packed in my car and I was on the long road of I-10 W. Luckily, my sister was able to come along the trip. :) 

Here's a photographic journey of my road trip. I am thankful that my iPhone has a nifty setting to track locations where you take snapshots, otherwise I'd be scratching my brain a little to find these places on the map. Please excuse the quality of these pictures, many of them were taken while we were driving. It's hard to take a good picture on a phone while you're speeding 80 MPH.

And we begin... Day 1! Left Orlando around 5 am in the morning on Sunday, 5/27.

Pensacola, FL - around 9 or 10 am. There is nothing but the road.

Alabama State Line

Mobile, AL

Mississippi State Line. I missed the "Welcome to Mississippi" sign, so I shot the welcome center sign instead.

Louisiana State Line

Baton Rouge, LA

Lake Charles, LA - Traffic on the bridge. We were going so slow that I was able to shoot a picture of the gun decor on the bridge.

Texas State Line. The most patriotic state I had ever seen. There were a lot of Texan flags flying everywhere.

Saw a dog hiding behind a truck. Thought it was interesting.

Houston, TX- Finally made it to our pit stop for the night. Crossing over 4 states in one day? Not bad. But I knew the next day was not going to be as smooth. Driving through Texas is the worst part of the trip.

Early morning of Day 2. Good morning, Texas! Got a nice Texan waffle for breakfast. What a great way to start the day.

Passed through San Antonio, TX

Definitely took advantage of the speed limit. We usually don't get to drive 80 MPH... legally.

Nothing but the Texan road ahead of us. Farmland everywhere.

6 hours later... just almost out of Texas! El Paso is right near the New Mexico border.

New Mexico State Line! At this point, I felt like Super Woman. The worse part of the journey was finally over. The grand gates of New Mexico welcomed us.

Afterwards, we stopped by a small town in Deming, NM to eat.

Arizona State Line.

And we made it to Phoenix that night for our pit stop.

Start of Day 3! Just seeing that "Los Angeles" sign made me feel so much closer to home.

By then, you can see the different terrain of Arizona-- the desert and beautiful mountains.

And finally, we made it back home to the Golden State!

Passed by windmills on the Californian terrain.

And when I finally arrived in sunny Southern California, I met up with my brother-in-law that night for some good Japanese food by Manhattan Beach. It was a great way to end the road trip.

I hope you enjoyed going through my photographic journey across Southern United States on I-10. I can't believe I did it all in 3 days!

But really, there is only one thing I missed in California, and I still can't get enough of it. Hint: It's in the picture below. Nom.

Being back in my home state is so awesome.

Star Wars Weekend

Star Wars Weekend is upon us! Star Wars Weekend is an annual event held at Disney's Hollywood Studios where fans get to celebrate the Star Wars Saga and the animated series, The Clone Wars. During selected weekends, they have limited edition pins, artwork, collectibles, and apparel for the guests to purchase to be part of the unique event. There are also exclusive photo opportunities with Star Wars characters all around the park (with some lines being 40 minutes long).

Last month, I took advantage of an opportunity to be an extra on a Star Wars Weekend promotional shoot. At the 0:08 second mark of the video below, you can see the side profile of my body as I'm eagerly waiting in line to get an autograph with Ashley Eckstein, the voice of Ahsoka Tano from The Clone Wars. Check it out!

Can you tell I was excited?

The Disney characters were dressed up in Star Wars gear. Too adorable. However, I didn't understand why Goofy was in his underwear, but then again, he's a "goofy" kind of guy, isn't he?

Just like when Han Solo was frozen in carbonite, for the first time, guests were able to "carbon freeze" themselves onto a three-dimensional figurine exclusively made for the Disney Parks. I got to go backstage a little bit and see how it all worked out. 

The prisoner chamber where guests wait to get carbon freezed. A picture is taken of their head and it's transformed into a figurine.

Posters and examples of the carbon freeze product. 

End product of the carbon freeze merchandise. Because it takes about 10+ hours to make for each figurine, it has to be mailed to the guest's house.

Life-size model of the Carbon Freeze experience. 

For some reason, I found it very amusing for the Storm Troopers randomly roaming around the Streets of America. I took this candid picture to show just how normal they looked walking around. That guy had no idea what was coming behind him.

A character from The Clone Wars. She told me not to smile so I agreed to pout with her. But as you can tell, I couldn't help myself myself in the end.

Another cool thing they offered this year was exclusive Star Tours name tags with your name in Aurabesh, language/writing system that the Star Wars characters used. 

We went on Star Tours ride just because it was Star Wars Weekend. It only seemed right.

Donald Duck is cleverly designed as Darth Maul.

I had a fun time hunting around for the characters to get their pictures, but shopping was probably my favorite. If you do have the time, I would highly recommend you check out Star Wars Weekend at Disney's Hollywood Studios. There are only several more weekends left: May 25-27, June 1-3 & 8-10. For more information, click here.

I'm thinking of buying this R2-D2 gear. What do you think? Thanks for reading!