The Beauty of Nature - Rainbow

When there is rain and there is sun, it is a sign that we should tilt our head upwards and look around for rainbows. Ever seen one? Am sure everyone has seen it at least once, a big one, a small one, a complete one, a small arc, any variety at all, we come across them every once in a while. Ping and Lin saw one just a week ago when we went to Walmart. It was a complete one but neither of us had our camera at that time so we could only enjoy the pretty view.

We were talking about that incident in the car today on our way home from Kalamazoo (yeap, went to Rasa Ria for dinner - we were so desperate for M'sian food we ordered almost all their M'sian dishes). May was telling us about her rainbow experience at Disney and then she turned out towards the window and suddenly shouted 'ahhh!'. Ping and Lin was looking for some animal that ran by when May finally found a way out of her excitement to tell us about the rainbow that was creating a lovely spectrum in the sky. Wow! This is the FIRST time Ping see such a lovely rainbow - wait, there was actually two, the larger one is lighter.
Ping was very thankful she wasn't the driver because now she can just enjoy looking at the rainbow. Tai lou was very nice to exit the highway and stopped by a roadside for us to take pictures of it. It was just lovely that we kept looking at it. The above is a panaromic stitch of photos Ping took from that first stop (not very smooth, but Ping is not sure how to rotate it to fit properly). There is actually two but the second was too light to be captured with Ping's setting at that time. Isn't it lovely?























After a bunch of photos, we got back on to the highway and we were still looking at the rainbow and realized that it was getting more apparent (gotta learn how to capture and edit panaromic shots better...the lighting is not right at all). So ngam, tai lou need to get gas so we exited the highway again into a gas station and of course, more photos!!!
That's the best rainbow Ping have seen!!! At the gas station, we were even lucky enough to see a rare supernumerary rainbow!!! Isn't nature wonderful? Something that is so amazing that can bring a smile to all our faces...it is all about Mother Nature. The more reason we should protect our environment!!!

A Journey of Life – The Sleeping Bear Dune Climb

Ｆrom the Glen Lake picnic site, we could see the Sleeping Bear Dune – the main reason for our trip out to the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore. It is so high up that all the people climbing up the dune looks like 'or hia' walking around. The dune is just basically a 'suar eh sua' but because it is so bare, it feels exciting to climb it. You have this entire hill of sand right in front of you and it is all yours to climb.

View of Glen Lake from the peak of the 1st Dune climb

Unlike hill trails, running up a dune trail is definitely harder and uses a lot of your calf and hamstring muscle. It is easier if you can find a spot where someone else had stepped on because it makes the sand firm. If it has been a while since it was stepped on and the wind had blow the sand even, then it is much harder because climbing one step is actually climbing half a step as your feet sink into the sand.

The entire trail is about 3-4 hours. It takes you to the beach of Lake Michigan and back through the same route. There are green patches of grass here and there but the trail itself is all sand. Sometimes we feel like we're lost in a desert and yet, the intensity of the wind is pretty strong that sometimes you feel cold.

While the dune may not seem super interesting, Ping actually learned a lot from the climb.

1. The excitement when one enters a new path in life.
   

   When we arrived at the Dune, we were all very excited to climb up to the first top peak. When you see little kids rolling down the hill, you want to get up there so that you can roll down too (of course we didn't do that lah, that'll be too much sand getting into weird places). But thinking back to when Ping first came to the States, when Ping first stated her graduate school, everything is exciting. Something as simple as a perfect gel electrophoresis picture makes your day. Now, it has to be more than that to feel the satisfaction.
   

2. Curiosity keeps us going.
   

   When we arrive at the peak of that first Dune, we look ahead and we see another dune. After climbing another, yet another dune appears in front of us. It was the curiosity that had us kept walking forward. Similarly in life, we see people around us and they make us think about what we could do if only we know how to do so and so. It makes us want to pursue it. Hence, it is the curiosities that initiate us take that step forward again and again.
   

3. Influence
   

   Along the hike, we met a couple whom Lin asked what is at the end of the trail. The guy told us: Hell. Don't go there. Upon hearing that, we thought we were headed the wrong way and turned towards another direction. After a while, we realized that there is no sign of footsteps along that route. So we turned back and clearly, that was the wrong direction. We were supposed to follow the wooden sticks with blue colored top. Throughout our journey of life, we meet people who can negatively influence us. Sometimes we decided to listen to the wrong people that divert us from our main goal, making our journey complicated. BUT! If we realize that we are going the wrong way, it is never too late to turn back. Eventually, we'll find our own way to achieve our goal, not getting influenced by negativity.
   

   Further along the hike, we also met a bunch of guys who told us "You only have 2 more dunes to go!". It may just be a simple sentence exchanged between strangers but sometimes, it is this small motivation that brings our spirit up again. Around us, there will always be someone or even something that encourage us to keep moving forward, heading towards our goal, it just depends on if we see it or not. Whenever Ping feels like just quitting and go back home, there is always something stronger that prevents it from happening. Even the fact that someone has reached a similar goal can be encouraging – if they have done it, why can't I? Maybe I can do even better.
   

4. The goal might not be the way we imagine it to be.
   

   We have no idea what the end is like. We know it is Lake Michigan and that is where we want to go. In the end, all we get is a stony beach with 4 other people. So why isn't there anyone else? There really is not that many people travelling along with us to begin with but Ping never did expect to see so little people at the end of it. When we start on a new journey, we know what we want but really, we don't know how it will be like when we reached our destination. The traditional view is that you study hard, get a degree and then get a good job. But what is a good job? Is there really such thing as a good job? We have no idea. Do we really know how we feel once we get that job? Not really. At least not until we get there. It might be totally different from what we have in our mind.
   

   At the end of the trail, the view is pretty, but at the same time scary. The waves comes in really strong and you feel like any second any minute (haha..how to translate 每一鍾每一秒?), the waves will just swipe you away. It is not a very enjoyable beach either because it is stony instead of sandy. It hurts to walk around and again, scary because it is hard to grip on to the slippery stones. Even so, Lin and Ping went into the water and got a dip since we felt dehydrated. Oh yeah – definitely bring TONS and TONS of water when climbing the dunes.
   

5. Treasure every moment.
   

   The walk back started out harder than the walk towards the lake. That is pretty normal since going back is always tiring. But at the same time, we also couldn't wait to get back to the campsite to shower and lie down on our backs to rest our legs, away from the heat. While we are enjoying going downhill, we look forward and we see another dune that we have to climb – aiyohhhhhh. Going uphill is like the down moments in life while going downhill is the up moments in life. In life, it is not as clear because we don't see the next hurdle in front of us. In fact, we don't even really enjoy the up moments because there is always an 'if only', we'll be thinking, wah, na si wa u chi keng bungalow…or stuff like that. So Ping and Lin was telling ourselves, we should not look at the next dune and go aiyohhhhhh, instead, we should be having fun going down the dune.
   

   Lake Michigan at the end of the Dune trail.
   

   Overall, it was a fun and inspiring climb. It made Ping think about all the experience in life and reanalyze Ping's view of life in general. Would Ping recommend people to climb the Dune to enjoy what lies at the end of the trail? Nope. It is just a beach. Not the most fun beach either. But for the experience of climbing a dune, Yup, definitely! Just bring lots of water and be prepared for a 3 hours of climbing session.

Hiking the Trails

Sleeping in the tent was pretty cozy but it got super cold in the morning! As dawn approaches, it got colder and Ping was 'kiu-ing' up in the sleeping bag, trying to preserve heat from herself. Ping eventually gave up and woke up, seeing ah Pei 'pai ang kong-ing'. Fortunate for Ping, less fortunate for ah Pei (since she didn't get sleep all night), that she is awake so Ping has company. We jogged to the shower room to wash up and then walk around the campground. We were looking at the RVs in the area and thought that they are very much like a home as the owners decorate their own RV, each with a different theme.

We then wanted to make breakfast for everyone but realized that all the food is in Tai lou's car. So we snacked on fruit and nut bar made by ah Pei. That is one of the best bar Ping had (Ping probably had the most hor?), kept eating it. After a while, we started getting bored of sitting around so we decided to drive out to the nearby town. Didn't want to wake the others up, we set the car into reverse gear, push it a little distance away from the tent and set out. Went to the visitor center to get the park passes and then drove into the Empire town (by the way, they only have 378 residents as of 2000!!! That is so cute! Am sure everyone knows everyone there). At the end of the town, we came across the Empire beach and if Ping and Pei was not up and awake yet, that surely did it. We were super excited to see the lovely beach and soft sand and cool breeze, it ALMOST feels like you're at the ocean as the lake seems to run forever. The only thing about beaches around this area is that they have a lot of flies. They don't bite but they surround you. As long as you don't look at them, you're totally fine. It was a good thing we decided to drive that way because that was the best beach of the trip that we've seen. We made plans to go back there the next day but we never did because we found a nature trail to explore. We lepak there until Wei Yi called – they're awake!

Went back to the campsite and we (actually more like Jo and Wei Yi) cooked breakfast and lunch. We had tuna that was modified to taste like sardine (it's all in the mind mah..if you think you're eating sardine, then you're eating sardine lor), scrambled egg and sausages. Cleaned up the area, changed and then it is time to chu4 fa1 lor! Our first stop was the Pyramid Point Hiking Trail. The national park has 14 trails and Pyramid Point is the most Northern point of the Sleeping Bear bay. It overlooks the two Manitou Island and supposedly, we can see a ship wreck on a clear day. Nope, we didn't see any even though the weather is pretty nice out there. Along this trail, we started out hiking through a meadow, going into a maple-beech forests, heading towards the lookout point at a high bluffs area. The view from the bluff is breathtaking and yet, scary because one step too close and you'll be sliding down to the lake... it may just be a lake, but it is so huge that sometimes you can feel dark aura enveloping your soul, giving you a jolt of fear. The sky was clear enough that we can easily see the two Manitou Island and boats. The picture on the right is taken by Ming - the tree has lost so much soil to grip on and yet it is still standing strong. If Ping were to name this pic, it would be - Determination.

Using a different route, we hike back to the starting point, going through more maple-beech forests, along the way seeing the understory plants community changes. We ended our morning and early afternoon with a picnic at Glen Lake, just opposite the Sleeping Bear Dune. The view below is Little Glen Lake.

A Lovely Surprise!

Just as we were all done with dinner, girls wants to go wash up and do the stuff we do before we go to bed so we walked to the shower rooms. On the way back, Ping wanted to fill up a pail of water to 'sae kah' before we go to sleep. Tai lou helped carry it back to the campsite and set it down next to the picnic table. Ping wanted the pail to be near the tent so that after we sae kah, we don't have to walk around to get back to the tent. Just as Ping picked up the pail, Tai lou took it from Ping and says no no no, it is time to make smores (a popular BBQ and camping snack made of graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallow). So Ping hen ren zhen go find the satay sticks and marshmallow, thinking that Jo and Lin Pei went to look for the graham crackers and chocolate bar.

Not too long later, Jo and Lin Pei came from behind, singing Happy Birthday and carrying a cake with a candle that sets the Happy Birthday melody…we're not getting ready to make smores! We're celebrating Ping's birthday! This is definitely a very successful surprise because Ping was all prepared for smores AND Ping had no clue that she was driving her own b'day cake all the way to Sleeping Bear!!!!

Thanks a bunch to everyone! And especially to Lin for making it happen and TT for the great suggestion! The blackforest cake from Roma Bakery is very good! Ping and Lin had it for breakfast on Sunday too!

Camping at Sleepy Bear Campground

Ping's first camping experience in the States! Ping and the girls had wanted to go camping since last year but there are so many places to explore that we never made it last summer. So one of the first few things we planned this summer is camping!! Ming had also mentioned about Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore last year so we decided to go there for our camping trip.

Ping wanted to make reservations at the Platte River campground within the National Lakeshore border but it was fully booked. Since we had quite a bunch of people, Ping didn't want to take the risk of driving all the way there and not having a place to stay. So we ended up getting a campsite at a private campground – Sleepy Bear Campground. This campground is a pretty good location as it is not too far away from the national park but we have to drive everywhere because it is basically in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by meadows and woods.

The drive to the park is suppose to take only about 4.5 hrs through the scenic route but due to road damaged from the crazy weather Michigan is experiencing recently, we had to detour and end up taking almost 5 hours to get to the campground. The drive on US-31, once we get out of US-127 is very different. The roads are hilly and there are meadows and hills for the side view. Definitely much more fun than driving on US-69/US-96!!! Thankfully, we got there before it got really dark and had time to build our tent, which was very comfortable! All 4 of us had plenty of space to sleep, with more space to put our stuff too. Ming followed Ping's car and helped us set up the fire, which kept us warm later in the night when the temperature drop – definitely lower than Ping expected because Ping only bought a thin sweater.

Just as we finished putting up our tent (the dark blue one, at the back) and unpack our sleeping bags, the other car driven by Tai Lou, with the guys and Pei Hua, arrived. Helped them pitch their tent (which is super huge because all 9 of us had dinner in it the second day!), or more like help 'slow' them down in pitching their tent since the more people it is, the more luan chi cha we become but it is more lau juak mar! Once the tents are up, it's dinner time!

We knew that we would be arriving late and might be too hungry to be cooking so we made some stuff for the first night. Jo made char bee hoon, Ping made pasta salad (actually Ping still calls it macaroni salad since back in M'sia, irregardless of what shape they look like, we always call pasta as macaroni, unless it is spaghetti or lasagna) with Italian dressing and Pei Hua brought mashed potato. It was Ping's first time making the pasta salad and Ping likes it! It was actually Kristi's idea. Ping was asking for Kristi's (she's the best person to go to when it comes to cooking!) suggestion on a non-milk or cheese-based dressing for macaroni salad and she suggested Italian. Ping didn't want to have too much meat in it so Ping used tuna and of course, lots of vege!!

Italian Tuna Pasta

Cooked elbow pasta

Cucumbers, Carrots and Bell peppers chopped into small pieces

Corn kernels

1 can of tuna (drained the water)

Italian dressing

Mix em all up and it's tasty!

Elephant Collection

Elephants, elephants, elephants! They are the most adorable large mammals!! Ping started collecting them when Ping got her first - Elli-O.
Elli-O is the larger one, with a smile on her face. Right next to Elli-O is Hathi Junior from Jungle Book. Isn't it cute? Elli-O is still Ping's favorite (seems like 'first love sticks around forever' is certainly true in this case *grins*). Ping's second one is lazy Dumbo. It is super hard to get this lazy bum to sit by its own. But it has been Ping's ngek ngek here because in US, they don't sell ngek ngek at all...or at least Ping haven't seen it. Actually, when you ask some American about 'bolster', they wouldn't know what you are talking about. Ping also has an elephant bookmark, a birthday gift from Nokkie.
The porcelain elephant is a souvenir that Ping got from Holland. Ping's latest addition is baby Emmy and Elbion. Baby Emmy caught Ping's eye the moment the guy at the yard sale brought it out. Ping just had to get it. Elbion gave Ping a little weird feeling. It's a white elephant. With blue feet. Hmmm...kinda weird looking too. But it is one of those Disney collection that is no longer in production and it is unique. So Ping got her along with baby Emmy from a yard sale when Ping was down at K'zoo not too long ago.