Hello My Fellows

I will resurrect this blog soon. There have been so many circumstances that make me being unable to update this blog (due to being lazy and busy lol). Please accept my apologies and hope my readers will still enjoy reading my works here in the soon future once again.

Ontario, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal - Canada

Finally, it's my time to take a real vacation after my hard final exams. Since my parents came to my graduation ceremony, my dad suggested that we all should go to Canada for a nice vacation. I honestly didn't know much about Canada, so I decided to visit Canada by getting a tour program for convenient purposes. I used the tour service from Tour4Funs, which is unexpectedly good.

After long searching, I decided to pick a 4-day tour program that heavily emphasizes on Niagara Fall. I and my family spent almost 2 days around Niagara Falls and then spent the rest of the tour at Toronto, Ontario, Ottawa, and Montreal respectively.


Niagara Falls:
My folks spent very long hours on the bus, going from Manhattan to Niagara Falls in the first day of the tour. But the long wait on bus is worth because Niagara Falls are really gorgeous. Here are some photos at Niagara Falls:

Niagara Falls at Night

The most remarkable thing to do here is Maid of the Mist. You will get on a boat and be brought closely to Niagara Falls. It is very exciting (a rain coat is provided).

Maid of the Mist

At the afternoon of day 2, we got on the tour bus and went to Toronto.

Toronto:
We visited Canadian National Tower and Nathan Phillips square.

CN Tower

The View on the Top of Canadian National Tower

Nathan Phillips Square

At the beginning of the next day, we went to 1000 Islands, located at the border between Ontario and New York.

1000 Islands:
There are about 1,800 islands in this region. Some are a bit bigger than others. Some are very very tiny (yet they still consider them islands).

1000 Islands

 There is a sad story behind a castle, one of the architectures in this area. There was a wealthy man who devoted a lot of his wealth to build a castle because he wanted to have a good time with his beautiful wife in the castle. Sadly, his wife died from illness before the castle finished, so there was no one ever lived in that castle.

The (sad) Castle

At the end of the day, we were heading to Ottawa, the capital of Canada

Ottawa:
We visited the Canadian parliament in Ottawa. It's so beautiful.

Parliament Hill

Parliament Hill

We didn't spend so long at this city because it is very small and does not have many remarkable things to see. Montreal then became the next journey right after the visit at the parliament.

Montreal:
I was so surprised when I arrived at Montreal because the tour program brought me to St. Joseph Cathedral, the largest catholic church in North America. Father Andre is the founder of this church and his heart is still preserved as the dead wish from father Andre. There are many miracles happen for ones who visited and prayed. For example, some has been completely cured from cancer; some can walk again even though the leg injury was permanent and incurable.

St. Joseph Cathedral

I decided not to take a lot of photos here because I had only half an hour allowed to be here. I mostly spent my time praying inside the church.
In the afternoon, we went to the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

Olympic Stadium

The view from the Top of Olympic Stadium

I actually spent almost 6 days for this trip because I spent a lot of time flying from LA to New York and the other way round. I think one should visit Niagara Falls at least once in a life time because its beauty is grand and unique. Hope you enjoy my narrative trip here :D

Kouraku Restaurant, Little Tokyo - LA

Nothing is better than having good food after intense final exams. I've looked for a new place in Little Tokyo and found this Japanese place as my new favorite. It offers delicious Japanese food for decent price. The typical dishes here are Yakisoba, Katsudon, Ramen just to name a few.

Katsudon (Pork Cutlet)

Yakisoba

The only negative thing in my opinion is that this place accepts only cash. If you are comfortable with that, this is a must to try.

They serve Sake and Japanese beer too. This place closes at 3 in the morning (except Sunday), so it could be a good place to have late meals along with a nice conversation with your friends.

Las Vegas & Hoover Dam, Nevada

My spring break has finally come! I found a good chance to visit Las Vegas as well as Hoover Dam. I planned to see shows in Vegas at night and went to Hoover Dam in the next morning. I booked my schedules for Cirque Du Soleil and Phantom of the Opera shows.

Cirque Du Soleil Mystere and Phantom of the Opera tickets

Hoover Dam

I was really impressed with the services Treasure Island offers to its customers. I made an embarrassing mistake about booking the online ticket; I booked my Cirque Du Soleil show for the next week after my spring break instead of the day of my visit at Las Vegas. I found out my mistake about 10 minutes before the show at the front gate. One of the staffs notified and brought me to the ticket office. Then she canceled the next-week ticket and gave me the ticket for the show that was about to happen. She even offered me a better seat than my original ticket. The service offered by Treasure Island is my most remarkable memory among my spring break trip.

Here are some photos I captured during my busy schedule, just 2 days 1 night, in Vegas and Hoover Dam:

Venetian

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New year

Now it might be late for Christmas and new year occasions but let's hope for a better year yet to come. Here are the photos I took during Christmas and January, 1st to show how many places in LA celebrate these special events.

Live Show at Universal CityWalk, LA

New Year Fireworks, Marina Del Rey

3rd street Promenade, Santa Monica

Americana, Glendale

St. Anne Church

The Grove, LA

Cafe Mak, Koreatown - LA

Cafe Mak, located in Koreatown, is a coffee/tea room for someone who might looking a place for quietly study, drinking, and relax. The atmosphere of the store is nicely decorated. They serve tea, coffee, and wine but very expensive prices to make up with those nice looking surroundings. I stayed there for 4 hours doing my own things, such as facebooking, emailing, gaming, reading, etc.
Here are some pictures of the place:

I paid 12 bucks for this Tiramisu cake and Sencha tea pot:

Overall, this place gives quiet, relaxing experience to me. This place is indeed a good place for any couples or friends to spend time on special occasions, such as Christmas (if disposable incomes allowed).

Mendocino Farms, West Hollywood - LA

After the final exams that own me badly, it's time to seek for good food again. I'm told to try Mendocino Farms's sandwiches. Nothing I can say but so gooooooooooood.

“Not So Fried” Chicken 

Today I got “Not So Fried” Chicken. According to its description, roasted chicken breast rolled in Mendo’s “Krispies” with herb aioli, whole grain mustard slaw, tomatoes, and pickled red onions on toasted ciabatta with a side of chipotle BBQ sauce.

The special thing about this sandwich is its BBQ sauce. I can say it is the best BBQ sauce I've ever had. I will return to this place another time for sure.

More info, http://mendocinofarms.com/