Hiking in Grand Canyon, Part 2

Armed with his new-found confidence, Daniel started planning his solo hike all the way down South Kaibab Trail--and up--in the same day. South Kaibab is a shorter and steeper trail than Bright Angel, and worse of all, has no water source until one reaches the river. According to his plan, I would hike down the South Kaibab Trail in late afternoon and meet him at Cedar Ridge at the 1.5 mile mark.

Needless to say, I didn't like the idea: the park has posters all over the place stating most people needing rescues are 18-35 male in good shape (i.e., over-confident and arrogant). His repeated reassurance that he knows his body well and wouldn't do anything stupid was not comforting because the whole plan was stupid in my eyes.

I stated my disapproval tried talking him out of it during the rest day in between hikes, but it didn't work. I mean, on one hand, I knew he really wanted to do it. I tried to be supportive, helping him plan his meals, snacks, and time. But then, it was really really stupid and dangerous. By the evening, while he was cooking (again, man owns the grill), I became so worried that I hid inside the tent and cried my eyes out silently. When Daniel found me, still crying, inside the tent, he finally realized how worried I was about his whole plan and decided to ditch it. "I don't want you to cry for the whole day tomorrow," he said. I was relieved.

What would we do tomorrow then?

We decided to join a ranger-led hike down the South Kaibab Trail to Cedar Ridge. The program started at 7am. Even though we didn't arrive at the trail head until 7:20am, we found the group hadn't started the hike yet.

The wind was exceptionally strong and there were lots of clouds, so the expected temperature rise didn't materialize. By the end of the guided hike program to Cedar Ridge, we felt we still had enough gas (and food and water) left, so we decided to double our distance (again) and head to Skeleton Point at 3-mile mark.


The above picture was taken at Skeleton Point. If you stood close to the edge of a cliff, the uplifting wind was so strong that it was hard to plant your feet firmly on the ground without shifting.

By the time we started our return trip, I already felt tired. Adding to my woes, as we only planned to do a much shorter hike, we did not prepare enough water -- given the weather was cool throughout the hike, I would say we could use about 500mL more. And, for some reason, Daniel miscalculated the number of bottles of water we had (he thought we had one less bottle), so he started rationing water very strictly on the way back, which made the hike even harder for me than it should have been. The typical exchange went like:

Cindy [tired and exhausted]
Daniel: Have some water. Just a few sips to wet your mouth.
Cindy [galloped a few mouthfuls]
Daniel: Hey hey hey hold there!
Cindy [knowing there was sufficient water, unwilling gave up the bottle]



By the time we reached Cedar Ridge again, we decided to have lunch. During lunch, it started raining. Not exactly a downpour, but enough to make people flocked to the only sheltered area -- that is, outside the toilets at Cedar Ridge. We, on the other hand, didn't want to waste time, so we continued our hike as soon as we were ready. It was just a few droplets of rain, but it was rare -- Grand Canyon only has 7" of rainfall annually.

The whole hike took us (me) 6 hours, considerably longer than our previous hike down Bright Angel. Part of it was fatigue, and my muscles were still aching. Plus, my shoes were a little too tight and scratched my achilles heel. I complained to Daniel, "I was tricked! I thought this was supposed to be a hike-free trip! And I did a 6-mile hike! Twice!!" Daniel promptly replied, "You know you want to hike ;)"

We also decided to take a mule trip to Phantom Ranch... maybe after our kids grow up.

Hiking in Grand Canyon, Part 1

According to our very first plan, this Grand Canyon vacation was a multi-day hiking trip. We would had hiked down from South Rim along the South Kaibab Trail and camp at Phantom Ranch on the first night, then up Bright Angel Trail, with camping at Indian Garden Campground on the second night.

The first hurdle? We could not secure a backcountry camping permit for the dates we planned. We then decided to reserve a camp site above the rim for the nights we intended to hike, and try our luck to get the walk-in permits.

(More correctly, it was mostly Daniel's desire to hike down to the river. I was never really into this hike as it sounded too strenuous and boring -- the image of hiking in the desert and without water just didn't entice me. And I didn't give a shit about Colorado River.)

Well, as I found out I was pregnant, the whole hike-to-the-river part was scrapped. However, I have already bought the plane tickets, so we would still go as planned.

I thought that was the end of long (3 hours+) hikes in Grand Canyon. How wrong I was.

Daniel still very much wanted to hike to as close to the river as possible, and he wanted to hike at least part of the easier Bright Angel Trail. On the other hand, I had no desire nor intention to hiking below the rim. On our second day, I came up with all the excuses: we got up too late (hiking between 10am-4pm is highly not recommended by Park Services), we need to set up our camp site, blah blah blah.

We ended up walking a paved section of the Rim Trail, from Shrine of the Ages to Mather Point.

I tried the same tactics on the third day, and successfully wooed him to visit Desert View (east side) during the day instead. However, by late afternoon, we ventured back to Bright Angel Trail trailhead area, and this time I had no excuse.

We started hiking at around 4:45. The hike itself wasn't too bad. My body was holding up better than I expected. As most of the trail was shaded in the afternoon sun, it was a more pleasant hike than I thought as well. Our original plan was to hike to the 1.5-mile resthouse and back, but we ended up doubling our distance and hit the 3-mile resthouse (about 1900 ft. below the rim) in about 1.5 hours. I felt like I could probably go further still, but I didn't really want to test my limits. Plus, we would be need to hike a long way in the dark if we continue. So we turned back.



The hike up was less than 2.5 hours, which was shorter than I thought. Still, with the sun setting around 7:30, it was pitch-dark near the end. Good thing we brought a torch with us.

At the end of the day, I hiked a total of 6 miles. Not bad, considering my absolute lack of training!

Another Wedding Invitation

I just received "Jack and Vanessa"'s wedding invitation. Should I RSVP on the article comment section instead?

Las Vegas + Grand Canyon Pictures Posted!

Camping in Grand Canyon

As far as I can remember, I had not camped under weather as unforgiving as in Grand Canyon. During the day, temperature had reached as high as 38C and maybe more, but dropped to near-freezing (around 1C) at night.

Good thing we were prepared: we brought our usual sleeping bags (they're actually only good for summer, rated 3C), the nylon duvet I have been sleeping under (Daniel used it throughout the winter, while I hung on to the warmer, silk fiber filled one), a fleece throw, and our winter coats.


After we have set things up, I went inside the tent for a late afternoon nap while Daniel was preparing dinner (man owns the grill, as he likes to say). Our original plan was to open one of the sleeping bags and use it as a sleeping surface, and I would use the duvet as cover and leave the second sleeping bag for Daniel. (Despite it being a queen-size duvet, he has no chance of keeping himself covered in the duvet tug-o-war with me when I sleep, especially when I feel cold. That's why we always use separate duvets.) As I slept, I found myself losing a lot of heat to the ground, even though it was still very warm inside the tent with the sun still shining.

I mentioned to Daniel that the ground is too cold, and we tried to further cold-proof our sleep through the night. Daniel slid our extra tarp underneath the tent, and I added the fleece throw beneath my side for extra insulation. On top of that, we both put on our fleece, winter coats, and pants for extra warmth. I also had wool socks on. I tried wearing an extra pair of pants, but it felt too tight as my belly has outgrown that arrangement.

Even then, the first night camping was nearly unbearable. Part of it was due to my own carelessness -- as my hair wasn't complete dry by the time we went to bed, so I didn't want to cover up my head for insulation (which I should). In the middle of the night, I suddenly woke up and found myself panting a lot and had a slight headache. That woke Daniel up as well (he said he could sleep well anyway), and we were both wondering if it was due to the cold weather, or if I was having altitude sickness. I drank up (water, of course), and after sitting up for a while (to prevent excessive heat loss), I put on my toque and eventually fell asleep again.

The second night was noticeably warmer than the first. Since I worn my toque from the start, I had no problem with heat loss -- in fact, I found myself dressed a little too warm. Of course, that was easier to bear. The third night was also rather uneventful.

The wind suddenly grew very strong by the fourth (and our last) day. As a result, the temperature did not build up throughout the day. Even as the night fell, the wind grew even stronger. We prepared for our worse night of camping yet. However, it was not the cold which kept waking us up. It was the wind. The winds were so strong that we seriously feared, individually, if our tent could hold up. While I didn't think the wind had enough strength to blow the tent up, I still had this vivid image in my mind that the tent would collapse on us while we slept. (Fortunately, the tent held still and stood firmly on the ground the next morning.)

The next morning, as we were packing up, a few ice pellets fell on us. We were glad we were about to leave, as I am still not confident I could survive a night of winter camping with our gears. We were really fortunate: even if we didn't shorten our stay in Grand Canyon (see this post), it would still had been our last night of camping -- our original plan was to move into sheltered (and heated) lodging on that night.

Back from Grand Canyon / Las Vegas

Daniel and I spent last week (for a total of 8 nights) vacationing in Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. I'll upload pictures tonight and chronicle some notable events over the next few days.

Our original itinerary:

• Arrive in Vegas on May 17 around noon.
• After a short grocery run, drive to Grand Canyon immediately.
• Stay at Bright Angel Lodge, inside Grand Canyon National Park, for one night (May 17-18).
• Camp at Mather Campground, inside Grand Canyon National Park, for four nights (May 18-22).
• Stay at Maswik Lodge, inside Grand Canyon National Park, for one night (May 22-23).
• Drive to Las Vegas on May 23, visit Hoover Dam en route.
• Stay at South Point in Vegas for two nights (May 23-25).
• Leave Vegas on May 25 around noon.

Notice how I emphasized "original"? That's because we got a little forgetful along the way...

Actually, "forgetful" may not be entirely correct. You see, the planning of this trip was mostly done by Daniel. Even though he asked me for opinions and told me about the plan from time to time, I was blissfully ignorant. All along, I thought we were staying in Grand Canyon for 5 nights in total (Bright Angel + camping). On the other hand, once we arrived in Grand Canyon, Daniel became blissfully ignorant of the dates.

The end result?

On May 21, we kept discussing how we were leaving Grand Canyon the next day. In actuality, we had pretty much exhausted places to visit and things to do on the South Rim. Furthermore, the weather was beginning to turn foul. As a result, there wasn't much of a "wish we have more time" feelings.

By the evening, we were riding the free in-park shuttle bus back to our camp site. As the bus passed by the Maswik Lodge, I casually asked Daniel which of the lodges inside the park is the cheapest. Back when we were planning, I vaguely remembered Daniel mentioned we would be staying at one of the lodges without private bathroom, but we had changed our plans (thus, reservations) a few times so I had lost track.

Then it dawned on him: our last night at Grand Canyon was supposed to be a lodge night instead of camping!

After (only) a few days in Grand Canyon, Daniel had already lost track of date and time. While he mentioned that, he mistakenly thought we would be staying in a lodge that night (May 21) thus we were supposedly already out of the camp site. That would pose a huge problem, as check-out time for camp sites is noon, and it was already 6PM when we realized that!

My memory, however, hadn't completely failed. I had a vivid memory of our camp site check-in process, and I was 100% sure we had the camp site until May 22. I whipped out my cell phone, the only reliable timekeeping device we had on hand, and verified it was May 21, so we didn't have to worry about being kicked out of the camp site.

However, the dots still didn't connect -- if we were to leave the next day (May 22), and we had the camp site until then, did it mean we double-booked? Or did we have an extra day we didn't know we had?

The mystery was solved once we reached our car, where we kept all the reservation details. To our relief, we didn't double book (so, no money wasted). However, the reservation clearly stated we could cancel without penalty up to 48 hours before, and it was already past that.

We devised two plans.

• Plan A: Stay the extra day, relax, and join any and all available free ranger programs to kill time.
• Plan B: Talk our way out of the reservation (without penalty), and leave for Vegas the next day.

Obviously, we tried Plan B first. We went to Maswik Lodge's reservation desk and asked for a cancellation. When the lady behind the counter asked why we were cancelling, I couldn't think of a plausible excuse immediately. Fortunately, Daniel filled in for me: "My wife is pregnant and she is tired." While both parts of the statement were true, he chose to omit the actual reason why I was tired -- I went on a hike for 6 hours in that morning!

Random Conversation: Montreal Smoked Meat

Daniel: What did you have for lunch today?
Me: Montreal smoked meat sandwich.
Daniel: How was it?
Me: It's OK.
Me: When you had some of the best smoke meat before, any other regular smoke meat is just an imitation. :D
Daniel: ROFL
Daniel: so yim jim! (腌尖 = 挑剔 = picky)
Me: LOL
Me: But that (smoked meat from Schwartz's) was SOOOO good! :D

Between a Peach and a Lemon

According to this graphical depliction of the average size of a baby growing inside the womb, my baby is about the size of a lemon right now. Maybe that explains the recent bouts of morning sickness and aversion to dairy products?

"O", That's Expensive!

With my Vegas/Grand Canyon trip coming up in a few days, Daniel and I had been asking for advice on what to do in Vegas -- we aren't big on gambling after all.

Well, the quickest ways to spend money in Vegas, beside gambling and shopping, are shows and food. After some soul searching (it's needed when your wallet is not bottomless), we decided to watch a show has a higher priority than having a fancy meal. Daniel thinks fine dining in Vegas is a little overrated:
"It's freakin' desert! The ingredients won't be fresh!" "and We can
have good food anywhere, but shows are different." are two of his
comments on food vs. show.

We asked around for show recommendations, and the general concensus was "O" by Cirque du Soleil, since the show has synchronized swimming thus cannot be easily replicated anywhere else.

Next comes the tickets. Apparently, the official Bellagio/Cirque du Soleil website actually has the cheapest tickets around; most other websites have the same tickets up to twice as expensive. Although by "cheapest", we're still looking at prices starting at around $110 USD for balcony. Worse yet, the only days we're in Vegas was during the Memorial Day weekend in the States, so the best seat we could find on the official site were on the row second furthest away from the stage. I hate to admit, but my eyesight isn't as good as it used to be (and I refuse to wear glasses thus far).

Alternatively, I found some a pair Orchestra seats (the most expensive section) on Expedia for $185 CAD each, which isn't too bad a markup when compared to the offical site's pricing of about $170 USD. These tickets, even if they're available, go for over $200 USD each on other sites.

It was hard to decide which set of tickets to get. The price different was almost enough to foot a bill at The Buffet at Bellagio (but Mike, who first suggested the buffet because it's the best one in Vegas, said he got food poisoning when he ate there). Eventually, we decided to go with the Orchestra seats. I still think they're expensive, but it's probably the last time we get to spurge on entertainment for two.

Happy Mother's Weekend!

This past weekend was full of Mother's Day festivities -- c'est la vie when there are two sets of parents to please.

We decided to treat my mom and grandma on Sunday by cooking for them at our place. Since we didn't buy any additional gifts, we decided to spurge on the food and went meat-shopping at Cumbrae's on Saturday.

Before we started shopping, we went over to Pastisserie la Cigogne, a few shops to the south of Cumbrae's, for our Saturday brunch first. I chose the tortiere with a side salad, and Daniel had a chicken liver pate sandwich. Daniel said the sandwich reminded him of Paris, though with some strong willpower, he actually skipped out on the obligatory espresso after the meal. (I wish he hasn't, since I can't justify ordering one myself.)

Over the brunch, we had to find justifications to spurge even more on food: the cakes at la Cigogne were all very inviting, and Hollywood Gelato is right next door to Cumbrae's! Our final decision was to buy a cake at la Cigogne to have with my mom on Sunday, and bring some gelato to Daniel's parents' place that night.

The experience at Cumbrae's was... full of indulgence? It took us a long time to decide on what type of meat (and cut) to buy. They had Wagyu steak (looked like T-bone) priced at $45.99/lb. I was tempted to try, but eventually decided against it, since I'm not supposed to eat meat that's not well done (in fear of all the bad bacteria like salmonella and E. coli), and it seems like a little wasteful to not try the steak with at least a little rareness (rarity?).

We ended up buying two pieces of veal rib chops and a strip of pork tenderloin. We also wandered over to the frozen food section, and Daniel commented that he has never seen such expensive mac-and-cheese, at $6.99 for a single serving. (For comparison, I went to Wal-Mart on Sunday and saw a pack of 9 KD mac-and-cheese for $6.97.)

After we bought the meat, we wandered back to la Cigogne to buy the cake (after lots of drooling, I picked the one called "Intense"), then went to Hollywood Gelato and bought a 1L box with half hazelnut (Daniel picked that, thinking his parents' palettes are pretty conservative when it comes to ice cream), and half key lime pie (I was thinking of something citrus).

We went home to drop off the meat and the cake, then we headed towards Daniel's parents place. For some peculiar reason, his mom decided to host the Mother's Day party at her own home instead of letting us treat her. She said it was a celebration of all female in her household now being moms. (I immediately pointed to Jessie, who just had her 3-year-old birthday party last week, as the exception.) Although, in all fairness, the bulk of the meal was barbecue, and as Daniel says, "man owns the grill" in the household.

Over the dinner, I discovered Jessie is very big on carb (both rice and yam) and meat, while trying to avoid veggies at all cost. Both Daniel and I both thought it was very normal, though for some reason, Daniel's mom couldn't understand why: "all my kids loved veggies and drank lots of water!" Daniel disagreed silently, but she didn't pick up that signal...

Oh, and did I mention Jessie, with her big little belly, loves ice cream? However, she can't really stand the coldness ice cream... what an oxymoron.

When the time for the gelato came, I asked them to guess the flavours. Without tasting, they guessed the very traditional chocolate and vanilla. Even after tasting, Daniel's mom still had problems getting the flavours, which I thought were pretty obvious, especially the hazelnut. Eventually, Marshall got the hazelnut, and guessed second one as lime, which we deemed close enough. It turned out the two flavours of gelato we picked were both good individually, but didn't work well together. And we had a hard time explaining the "key lime pie" flavour to Daniel's mom: "it's based on a pie, called 'key lime pie'. 'Key' because it originated from a place called Key West in Florida. 'Lime' because the pie is made with lime. (Oh, and it has pine nuts in it!) No, it's not 'pine', it's 'pie', like 'apple pie'."

Sunday rolled along, and we had our mind set on getting the live lobsters which were on sale at Dominion's over the weekend at $6.99/lb. The deal was so good that even my brother, all the way in Seattle, knew about it and suggested to me (although I already learned about it during my weekly flyer reading on Friday). However, by the time we went to two different Dominion's, the lobsters were all sold out. I can't say I was surprised, with all the Chinese in the general area we visit.

So, no surf 'n turf. At least we still have the premium meat and the cake to impress my parents. Both types of meat were seasoned with a simple herb (thyme for the pork tenderloin, and rosemary for the veal), salt and pepper. On the side, we had vegetable roast (dead simple), and for carb, scalloped potatoes cooked in milk, cream and cheese (we saw this dish on Food TV a while ago and were delighted to find a way to sneak in more calcium). Both types of meat were first pan-seared, and then finished in the oven. We made a portobello sauce for the pork tenderloin, which was probably the least successful part of the meal, as we didn't have time to reduce the wine, and the wine was not dry enough overall, resulting in a sauce too high in acidity.

We first tasted the veal chop. My mom initially thought it was lamb chop, as the shape, size, and colour were very similar. The meat was tender and juicy and light -- I knew it was gonna be good when it kept sizzling in the oven! As we ate, Daniel and I explained to my parents that this veal is lighter because it was milk-fed, and further explained the difference between milk-fed and grain-fed veal to them.

Then, as we dug into the potatoes, we explained how it was cooked, and how it was a way to sneak in more calcium (LOL). We also explained the vegetable roast to grandma, who seldom had non-Chinese food. She was a big fan of both the potatoes and the veggies!

As the portobello sauce was ready, we explained it was a sauce for the pork tenderloin, and explained the portobello mushroom. Mom, although knowing what portobello is, erroneously called it different names at first (oyster, abaloni); we eventually corrected her and showed grandma an uncooked one. Her comment? "I don't see this at Chinese grocery stores!" *sigh*

We were pretty full after the entree that we decided to take a break before hitting the cake. In typical Grandma fashion, she started working on the dishes why we were talking! I stopped her by telling her we'd use the dishwasher after we're done. Then, fully knowing we still have the cake (I *hope* she got the message, since I kept repeating!), she started nagging my parents to leave, saying we'd all have to go to work the next day. Of course, my parents had no intention of leaving, since I told them I have a $30 cake waiting for them to dig in!

At la Cigogne, I picked the "Intense" for two reasons: it has a mix of fruitiness and chocolate flavour (according to the description), and it was the prettiest cake among the ones available. So, when we opened the cake, they were all in awe, including Daniel, since he didn't know which one I ended up with (we spent a few good minutes before I could decide). We felt obligated to take a few pictures of the cake before cutting it.

When Mom was cutting the cake, she was wondering if the flower on top of the cake was edible. She took the flower out and started splitting it, pedal by pedal, among everyone. Turns out the flower was made with white chocolate, with the floral pattern printed on it. Mom and grandma was amazed. On the side of the cake, there were a few dark chocolate pieces with thin golden stripes printed on them as well. I recognized those as chocolate at the first glance, though grandma kept wondering what those were, even though I kept telling her those were chocolate! I'm starting to wonder if she filters out half of what I say...

On top of the cake, there was an additional piece of "something" -- turns out to be phyllo pastry with some red food colouring on the top, I guessed right before actually tasting again -- draping over half of the cake. We didn't know what it was at first, and decided to cut and eat the uncovered part of the cake first. The cake had a very strong contrast of berry (mostly raspberry) and dark chocolate, both flavours very intense (hence the name). Grandma's comment? "This cake must be very expensive, because it's very chocolaty!" Mom: "Of course! Cindy kept saying it was $30!" (Another proof Grandma's not been listening to me...) Me: "Yeah, this meal is built with money! :D"