2014 in Review

I have to say that 2014 started off exciting with some bumps on the road, but I think it just went downhill as the months passed along. Too many lessons learned throughout the year. There was so much that made me feel frustrated, yet I learned to deal with. For the longest time, I thought I needed to make a major change or improvement in order for me to get what I want, but I learned that it didn't work.

I have to say that one of the most exciting parts of this year was getting to go to Big Sur, Lake Tahoe, and Las Vegas for the first time. It was a great experience and I'm glad I went to those places and I'm definitely planning to go to all those places again. But, I don't think I will ever drive to Big Sur again. I wouldn't mind driving to Lake Tahoe because it's just a a straight path, but I don't like that I can see how high up from the mountains I am for a few minutes.

I went to see the Backstreet Boys again in Wheatland, CA.

I went around Sacramento and Elk Grove to see Christmas lights.

I saw fireworks in Elk Grove on 4th of July.

 I had many problems with my health. My eczema got really bad, then it improved, but it hasn't gone away. I had really bad coughs and sometimes I couldn't finish a conversation without coughing. It just wasn't a good year for my health the whole year :(.

I went to San Francisco at least 3 times this year and drove each time.

I hiked at Hidden Falls in Auburn with Michael, Xeng and some of her friends and I actually enjoyed that hike, except for the really steep part.

I went to a Haunted House with Cindy and Brandon.

I received really awesome customer service by AT&T and was able to reduce my bill by a whole lot.

I had 2 amazing BBQ picnic with friends. I always wanted to gather with friends and eat picnic style.

I learned that I really love BBQ food and BBQ spareribs may be my favorite food.

I went mini golfing for the first time and realized how fun it can be.

I went clubbing with some friends :).

Finally played Ticket to Ride and found out how fun Sequence can be.

I explored San Jose a bit.

I was able to visit Santa Cruz again and visited the Mystery Spot and Natural Bridges State Beach.

I went to Half Moon Bay Beach for the first time, which was really nice.

I met a few new people who been great friends.

I went ice skating.

I read of Mice and Men and really enjoyed it.

I did a 31 day challenge on my blog.

I hiked to Arch Rock in Point Reyes. I also tried to go to Alamere Falls in Point Reyes, but just ended up walking Limantour Beach for a very long time.

I ended my gaming addiction after so long and it felt bittersweet, but I'm still glad I did it.

I finally saw the New Year fireworks in Old Sacramento.

I went through 2014 with so many things I wanted to do and goals planned out. But, sometimes it's hard to accomplish them, especially when things in life aren't working with you or helping you out the way you want it to go. I didn't get to go to San Luis Obispo, but it's still in my mind. I still never been to Disneyland. I still haven't been to Chicago, New York, or Italy. I still haven't completed my main goal. Then, I noticed and observed myself and along with others. I noticed that many people ask the same questions, complete the same routines and is content with just that and nothing more. I thought to myself if I were to live my life like that, like a routine I already completed my purpose in life. I have nothing else to do. But, I already knew from a young age that travel was my main goal in life.

I have only one goal for 2015 and it's been my main goal for a long time. I will discuss about it later if I made progress.

Winter Holiday 2014

Happy Holidays! 

I'm glad I got all my shopping done and Christmas set up done early, so all I had to worry about was catching the fun stuff of the holidays. I was able to see a lot of holiday decorations and lights thought that it would be best to share them. I've seen so many different Christmas trees, decorated houses, and light show and was able to go ice skating. But, I'm hoping I will go ice skating again!

Oakland California Temple

One of the most memorable holiday lights I seen were in Oakland at the Oakland California Temple. Lily suggested we visited the place and I'm glad we did.

Tree in Arden

Tree in Union Square, SF

I've seen so many Christmas trees that I'm not going to post them all.

Tree in Folsom

Tree in Japantown, SF

 

I don't know what it is about ice skating that I enjoy so much, but I love it!

A lot of the decorated houses I seen I found out about through the Lights of the Valley website or simple just searching in Google "best decorated houses in Elk Grove". I looked up places in both Sacramento and Elk Grove.

Rick's Light show was great. I really enjoyed it. I was nervous when there was traffic on the way there because I wanted to make it by 5pm because the show starts at 5pm and I didn't want to miss any of it. Luckily, I made it on time to see the whole thing :).

Macy's Theater of Lights in Old Sacramento definitely had the most people. And, the show was good. I definitely enjoyed it. I also like the Christmas tree.

I can't catch every single holiday decorated place, but I can enjoy what I can. I wish everyone a happy holiday or wonderful winter season.

San Francisco with Lily and Chen

It was the last week that me and Chen met up with Lily again. I was surprised that Lily would come to California again this year. I told her that I plan on going to New York next year, so I hope that happens!

I originally planned on going to San Francisco at 7am, but I had to take care of some stuff that morning and didn't want to bring my laptop along. We ended up in Oakland around 11 and picked up Lily and headed to our hotel. We also got our bus passes ready and was able to obtain a map with bus routes at our hotel. Our first destination was Fishermen's Wharf. I been there a few times already, but it was Lily's first time. Lily liked it because it was touristy.

Our first goal was to eat and we dined at Fog Harbor at Pier 39. We had a great view of the Pier and a part of the city.

Me and Chen shared some fried stuff and I ordered the clam chowder and a orange juice.

There was some nice decorations at Pier 39, including a big Christmas tree that's pretty skinny.

There's lots of heart statues in San Francisco. One of them is in Union Square. And, another one is at Fishermen's Wharf.

After Fishermen's Wharf, we took the bus to Lombard Street to see the Crooked Street. It was rather nice looking and looked exactly like it did in pictures. There's only houses around though from what I could see.

After our visit to Crooked Street, we headed to Chinatown for some boba and had some Cool Tea Bar.

We walked around Union Square for a bit. I ended up getting some items at Uniqlo and didn't plan on shopping.

 The nicest decorations were at the park. There was a view of Macy's, which was decorated really nice and the park had a big tree.

We took the bus to Japantown and ended up eating Korean food at New Korea House. After dinner, we made our last stop of the night to the Palace of Fine Arts, which looked great at night. There was nobody else around though.

The next day, we went to Japantown and had lunch at Kui Shin Bo. I thought it was a cool place to have lunch. It seems casual in there and it had good lunch specials.

One of the stops me and my friend always make in Japantown is Daiso. Daiso is a nice place to get cute goods for a cheap price. That day, they had really cute socks for sale and we all ended up with a few of them. I also got a sign that said "Merry Christmas" to help decorate my home.

After walking around Japantown for a bit, we got crepes. Chen bought crepes from Sophie's Crepe and me and Lily got crepes from Belly Good Cafe. I used to think that the only difference between the two places was that Sophie's has a crispier crepe and Belly Good has a softer crepe. I found out that Sophie's Crepe only serves vanilla ice cream and only has other kind of flavors in gelato. At Belly Good Cafe, there's many different ice cream flavors to choose from and you can even have a green tea crepe. Also, it's easier to eat the whole crepe since you can just rip off the red paper that is given at Belly Good versus at Sophie's you have one hard paper holding the whole crepe and you can't really rip that off.

 We visited a few museums the next day in San Francisco. We visited Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Cartoon Art Museum, and Museum of Craft and Design. I was able to obtained a few informational flyers of the work that was currently in the museums. I been saving up flyers or whatever I can for my special scrapbook I'm going to work on next year.

Before we took Lily back, we went to Purplekow and then headed to Oakland. Lily suggested that we visit the Oakland Temple, which was nicely decorated.

 We also made a trip inside the visitor center to look around and ended up staying longer than planned. I didn't expect there to be a great view of Oakland and San Francisco at the temple. But, it was nice to see.

We dropped off Lily at her grandma's place and hopefully we will see Lily in New York next year!