First Hike of The Year

This year is flying by way too fast! It is already April and we just went for our first hike. We have been traveling almost every month and every weekend have been either preparing for a trip or recovering from a trip. This past weekend, we decided to go somewhere different for a hike. 

McDowell Mountain Regional Park

The McDowell Mountains is located about 20 minutes north of Tempe in Fountain Hills, a little town just north of Scottsdale. To enter the park, you will have to pay $6/car. We hiked the Granite and Bluff trails, which was recommended for views of the spring wildflowers. It is definitely our favorite low intensity hiking place now! It is extremely peaceful with only sounds of nature. You can hear the bird callings, rustling in the bushes from lizards and snake (this is the first time we saw a huge snake during our hikes in AZ!) and the surrounding is very tranquil. These two trails was a total of 3 miles round-trip with no elevation. 

Desert spring wildflowers

Goldfields

Tree carcass

Poppies

Anthill

Hedgehog Cactus

Cholla cactus

Lupinus 

After the hike, we stopped by Fountain Hills on our way home. We went to a Mexican tapas place for lunch - Sofrita. It is a small family-owned restaurant with very unique and homey decorations. Their flower choice of their table decoration brought a smile to me - Cymbidium orchid, our wedding flower! 

Sofrita has a simple lunch menu with familiar ingredients. I ordered the Chilaquiles Verde - a tortilla stacks with shredded chicken and eggs. I have wanted to get one since my trip to Cuatro Ciénegas, Mexico. I ordered one from Chelsea's Kitchen when we went there sometime last year but was very disappointed at their chilaquiles. I was excited to see another menu serving chilaquiles. Sofrita's version is very delicious and flavorful. The tortilla stack was soaked with fresh salsa verde and their chicken was very juicy and tasted like it was prepared in a cooker with lots of flavorful herbs. 

After lunch, we walked around the Fountain Park, a man-made park with the fourth tallest fountain. The fountain goes off every hour. We saw it sprayed while we were hiking at the McDowell Mountains but not while we were walking around the park. The park was full of activities with lots of birthday parties and people BBQing. We were extremely surprised to see the American coots so healthy and plump compared to the ones we saw at MSU and Tempe Town Lake! They sure get lots of food here. But, the highlight of our day was watching a mating game between two dragonflies - they sure are brutal when it comes to mating! 

American Coots

Dragonflies

Butterflies, butterflies, butterflies

In the past six months, I have been to 4 butterfly gardens/exhibitions! I guess it was having the macro lens that prompt our first visit to a butterfly garden - Butterfly World, Florida. The other gardens that we have visited to see some butterflies are the Desert Botanical Garden at Phoenix, AZ, Frederick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park at Grand Rapids, Michigan and the most recent trip, Penang Butterfly Farm, Malaysia.

Butterfly World is by far the largest butterfly farm. In addition to butterflies, they also have an aviary and various flower gardens, making it the most enjoyable park out of all 4 gardens that we have been to. We went there first thing in the morning, arriving shortly before it opened (kiasu mah!) and stayed until almost 5pm! Since the main attraction is the butterfly farm, we spent most of our time there and some time at the aviary. As the flowers were not blooming yet, we were only at the flower garden briefly. The nice thing about this garden is that there is a lakeside cafe where we could take a rest, look through some of our photos and get some snacks. There was also a macaw section that we spent quite sometime at as they have very interesting interactions. We also went into the lorikeet section but only stayed for a while because the lorikeets were feisty! They kept nibbling on John's camera bag and seem to have no manners when flying around! :P One butterfly that we saw a lot here and haven't seen it elsewhere is the one that has a huge black dot that makes it look like a bird's eye. It is known as the owl butterfly (Caligo eurilochus).

More photos from this trip on Flickr and Multiply.

In early March, when I made a trip to Arizona, we went to the Desert Botanical Garden at Phoenix. It is mainly a garden of various plants from the desert ecosystem. It also has a section representing the lifestyle and various natural resources used by the people of the Sonoran Desert (the desert of northern Mexico, California and Arizona) in the olden days. When I was there, they had the Spring Butterfly Exhibit so we got to see more butterflies! However, the exhibit area is very small, only about the size of our Penang garden. As we went on a Friday morning, there were a lot of kids on school trip so it was a lot more crowded. There are also fewer varieties of butterflies compared to the ones we saw at Butterfly World. Even though there were fewer varieties, I did saw a few that I haven't seen before - the malachite (Siproeta stelenes), a light green moth and one with green and brown wings (this one might be a moth).

I also saw one yellow butterfly hidden under a flower.

We spent a few hours in the exhibit area and then head out to walk around the garden. Besides butterfly photos, there were not as much to capture as cactus are less colorful. We did end up spending most of the day there too because the park is huge and has various trails with different characteristics of desert ecosystem. Photos of this trip on Flickr and Multiply.

In mid April, John came back to Michigan for a visit and we took a day trip to the Frederick Meijer Gardens at Grand Rapids. Similar to the garden in Arizona, they had an exhibition of tropical butterflies, which they called "Butterflies are Blooming". The Meijer Gardens have a similar layout as the Desert Botanical Gardens where it is divided into different sections, one of which is a farm garden showing an example of a typical Michigan farm. They also have a children's garden with interesting flower arrangements, an indoor arid ecosystem and a mini waterpark for the kids. There is also a section with sculptures. The butterfly exhibit was held at the Lena Meijer Conservatory, a tropical conservatory. It has the humidity of M'sia weather but much much cooler. We went there on a Saturday morning and as expected, it was very crowded too. The conservatory is much bigger than the exhibit area at the Desert Botanical Gardens but it has a very high rooftop allowing a lot of the butterflies fly up high, which made them hard to be photographed with a macro lens. It is also more challenging to capture close-up photos of the butterflies because the the high density of leaves in the controlled tropical environment decrease the amount of light available. After spending a few hours in the conservatory, we went out to take a walk around the other gardens but it was very windy that day. We decided to go back into the conservatory to get a few more photos. If it wasn't for the wind, I think we could have gotten a lot of flower photos too because the tulips and a few other flowers were blooming. I didn't get as many nice butterfly photos because of the lighting but did get to see a few more different butterfly, like this blue one.

It was very hard to get a photo of this butterfly. Whenever it lands, it will close its wings. Most of the butterflies in this garden is the smaller ones with black wings. However, I get to see a butterfly popped out from its cocoon! When they first hatched, their wings are all crumpled and take a few hours for them to pump liquid for the wings to completely open.

Photos in Flickr and Multiply.

The most recent butterfly encounter is at the Penang Butterfly Garden, back in Malaysia. All these visits to the butterfly gardens made me look for one in Penang and guess what, there is one in Teluk Bahang! Knowing the lack of sustainability in any of Malaysia's public amenities, I had low expectation for this garden. Surprisingly, I find it to be the second most enjoyable garden, after the Butterfly World in Florida. Thankful for the tropical environment in Malaysia, the garden is an outdoor park. Unlike the other gardens in the States, it is solely aimed for butterfly farming. However, it is much bigger than the butterfly exhibits at Grand Rapids or Arizona. They also have small areas with other types of animals such as ducks, snakes, lizards, scorpions, turtles and a pond of fishes. It was fun to see other bugs like the moving leaf and the stick bug.

While we were looking at the moving leaf bug, one of the people working there came out to release some butterflies that just hatched. We get to see lots of different butterfly and a huge moth!

We only spent a few hours there because it was getting really hot and there was no place to sit down for a rest. If they have a snack bar or at least a vending machine selling drinks or ice-cream and a shaded rest area, I think we could have spent a longer time there. There are a lot of different butterflies and other bugs that will be fun to photograph. It is definitely worth going back. Next time, will go first thing in the morning when the butterflies are not as active and on a weekday.

More photos in Flickr and Multiply!

Bunch of new toys

Am back in East Lansing! Fortunately, I get to come back to sunny Michigan with blue skies, which is very rare in winter. The cold is much more bearable when there is snow on the ground and you can feel a little warmth from the sunshine.

After all the housekeeping stuff and catching up with all the papers I missed during break, am now back to planning experiments for the coming week. This is the longest break I have ever taken and not gone home to Malaysia...hehe...

Over the break, I somehow inherited a bunch of new toys..wait, actually, it should be A LOT of new stuff, some of them happen to be cool toys. Crazy as it sounds, I have sooo many presents from John and his family! 超尷尬的!! 但也很感動. 他們真的很熱情. One of the gift I received from John was the most unexpected gift I have ever gotten...a Nikon D5000! 在開禮物的時候, 感動到熱淚盈眶. It is also very sweet of him to let me use his macro lens to play with it...hehe...until I go back to Malaysia for some shopping! Hehe, I guess somewhere in my Flickr, he must have seen a photo that shows I do know something about photography that got me this camera.

The first few photos I took with it...

It does not have auto focus motor so it took me quite a while to get sharp images. The weight of an SLR camera also makes it much more difficult to get nice macro photos so Ping has lots more to learn!!! This combination will be good for me to practice focusing with stable hands.

The other new toy...was acquired while we were at Florida. We went to Ikea one of the day to help John's parents get furniture for the condo. While walking through the toys section, we saw this huge and cuddly elephant...and it came home with me all the way to Lansing to join my elephant collection!! Hehe, another unexpected one...or maybe not...for those who have gone shopping with me. *bleh* Wei Qi is now my first elephant with tusks! 也是John 送我的第一個毛絨玩具!

The Colors of Fall

秋天來了!! But this year's Fall is a little weird. It feels more like Spring. 天天都下雨, 下到表土都邊泥土. Soil sampling is not as fun when the soil moisture is so high. Sieving is even worst because my 2mm sieve gets clogged up easily. But now I switched to a 4mm so not as bad.

Besides that, Fall is pretty fun for photos because it is so colorful outside! It is lovely just to walk outside too because the leaves are falling and sometimes, the cool mist is pretty refreshing.

This is the newest remodeling on campus - Wharton Center. It is where performing arts such as Broadway shows are held. Super excited that Phantom of The Opera will be in town next summer!!

One of the major streets on campus. The red leafed trees line the side of the walkway.

The red colored trees are pretty but I like the mix colored ones better.

Stumbled upon this rock while walking along the river. Someone must have gave it a pair of eyes! It made me thought of Steph's pet rock widget. Boo! Only Mac has cool widgets that don't slow down their system. Windows need to chill a little. Hehe.

While the trees are pretty, we haven't been getting nice, blue sky for a while. This is one of the rare days when the sky is blue and clear that even its reflection on the river is blue.

This shot came out blur but I still like it. It reminds me of a painting in a storybook. For some reason, I thought of Alice in Wonderland. It is actually the trailer of the movie (Johnny Depp is in it!!) that made me thought of it first. I think it will definitely be one to watch on IMAX, but after I hear the reviews first. :P

The Tree of Love. Its leaves are heart-shaped.

Red Cedar River. As usual, my favorite spot is along the river.

Ping have to go soil sampling tomorrow. Boo. It is going to be a rainy day hence, a muddy day for me. Planned to go today, which is pretty nice out but have to collect soil from one of the plots that is locked and it is hunting season so not recommended to sample during the weekend. Am starting to get tired of this high humidity and moisture weather. 8 more days!! Hehe.

Bear Lake and Rocky Mountain wildlife

On Friday morning, we woke up right about sunrise time but it was already pretty bright outside...I learned that the sunrise time reported on weather.com is actually when the Sun is already completely up.

The first place we went, which is also my favorite place this trip, is Bear Lake. I passed by the lake on the way up to Flattop Mountain the day before but didn't get the chance to stop by and enjoy it or take photos. So was glad that John enjoyed it because I get to walk around it and take a bunch of photos.

To get to Bear Lake, we had to hike for 2 miles to get to one of the park information center - Moraine Park - to catch a shuttle that took us to a park-n-ride area to catch another shuttle that took us to Bear Lake.

The view of the mountains and the desert from Moraine Park.

What is so special about Bear Lake? It has awesome reflections and it is sooo clear that you can see the bottom of the lake! It is also surrounded by colorful pine (the green ones) and don't know what yellow-leaf trees. I like how there are also the 'red' colored pines but sadly, those are actually dead pine trees due to infection by mountain pine beetle. Poor trees...

After walking around the lake, we hike another mile to get to a waterfall, Alberta Falls. It is not a very big one but definitely not one that you can go near (like the one at Titi Kerawang) because it is very rocky and it does not end in a pool but keep going down a rocky path.

The hike to the waterfall is very enjoyable as it is a very relaxing trail with lots of colorful plants and cute little squirrels. Even though they are wild, they 'boh kia lang' as they will come very close to us.

We spent the rest of the afternoon looking out for wildlife as the wildlife guide point out to us and at the same time, get to go all the way up to the highest visitor center - Alpine Visitor Center. The wildlife at the higher altitude are all small rodent type animals like the marmot and the pika, which I think looks like Pikachu!! Hehe, although I don't think that is where the character Pikachu originated from.

Since it is the elk season, of course we have to see some elk! Only a few elk photos that I took came out nice but am still waiting to get the raw files so I can edit it. John took lots of awesome shots of the elk, and he got one when the male elk was bugling! The elks are always in a group of females with only one male. Their social life basically revolves around how many females the male can gather and mate with.

I did get a shot of this deer because we were much closer to it. This is the baby one. We kept 'bumping' into a mum deer with her two kids. I think that it is the same family! :P

There are lots more photos that John took during our trip.

Mountain Hiking

After the conference, I stayed back for a few days to explore the Rockies. I had all day Thursday with no plans since John will only be arriving later that evening. I decided to join two people I met at the conference (they are actually from KBS but I just didn't bump into them at KBS) to go hiking. Guess what, they are actually pretty hard core hikers who have climbed tundras and all kinds of huge mountains before. My experience - "pek sua" with gee ku and gee kim. That is barely Penang Hill height, which is ONLY about 3000 ft! Haha, but now, Penang Hill will be sub sub water for me ler! :P Will definitely want to do that when I go back next year...and now we have Aun Aun as the guide too since he has done it all the way.

Since we could not check into our respective hotels until after 3pm, we left our bags at the YMCA and walked about 1 mile to get a shuttle bus that took us to Bear Lake. From there (which is at 9400 ft), we hiked up to Flattop Mountain of 12300 ft, which is a 4 mile hike. While 4 mi is typically not a big deal for me but going up hill on a rocky trail with sneakers - Ping wasn't doing too well. What more, hiking with two hard core hikers who have hiking boots and longer legs. At one point, I told them that I'll meet them at the top and took my time hiking up. But every once in a while when I look up at the sceneries (instead of looking down at my feet and where to step next), it sure is worth it to make the hike. This is definitely a popular trail because there were tons of people...mostly passing by me. :P

View from my first rest stop, about 50 minutes into the hike.

Halfway to the top, when the plant community has changed to a more shrubbery ones.

View of Lake Emerald... from 3/4 way.

Phew! Finally at the top! The plants on the mountain peak are mostly grasses. Plant density is also very low as there are more rocks than plants.

It was freezing cold up there! We passed by a few glaciers and came to one, the Tyndall Glacier, where we saw a guy preparing to ski down the steep glacier.

Can you imagine hiking all the way up to the top with your ski, ski down the glacier (which only took like 1 min) and then have to climb up the glacier to get back on the trail to hike down. Gila! But here he goes...

Wow, he made it through the rocks! (A bunch of people watching with us was cheering him at this point.)

And he made it all the way down.

View of Emerald Lake from the top.

One of the reward being up there is I get to see this marmot sun-tanning itself. :P

Another 500 ft elevation/0.6 mi hike, it will be the Hallett Peak but I have had enough rock trails for that day. If it wasn't that rocky, or if I had better shoes, I would have done since it is only 500 ft.

When you are up there, it feels like the clouds are so close. This is my favorite shot from Flattop Mountain. Too bad a lot of the photos came out looking washed out due to increased UV intensity from the top.

The view of Longs Peak right at the back with the clouds. It is the tallest mountain in the Rocky Mountain National Park with an elevation of 14300 ft. If the weather is great, the hike up to the top, which is an 8 miles trail and 5000 ft of elevation, it takes approximately 12-14 hours for a hard core hiker. But the scary thing is, because of the rocky surface close to the top, people have died when the weather is not as pleasant, especially when it snows or when there is a thunderstorm. But, I would still like to climb Mt. Kota Kinabalu of 13,400 ft someday. That was last years vacation the Sunway gang did that I missed. :( I never seem to go back at the right time. Hehe.