When the toll on the Golden Gate Bridge was raised to $5 a few years ago, I thought that was expensive. But given that it is a national landmark and it is world famous, I thought perhaps if any bridge deserved the high cost, it would be the one. When we were in New Jersey and were traveling to the Long Island, we had to cross a bridge that cost $9.50. I thought to myself, I wouldn’t want to cross this bridge often. Unfortunately for people who need to go to JFK airport, they need to cross that bridge from the mainland. So I felt a little better about our toll. A few weeks later, we took a ferry from Nova Scotia to Prince Edward Island and were told that it was free and fee (around 50 Canadian dollars) would be collected when leaving the island. We thought we got a good deal as we would be driving off the island via the Confederation Bridge instead and how expense could a bridge toll be. We were wrong! (see below) Now I have a deep appreciation for our cheap toll! Just curious, anyone knows any more expensive bridge toll?

I need to take a short break from writing about the trip because of kid activities, works, house remodeling and outdoor season. I probably will write less frequently in this coming month. Thank you for taking your time reading and commenting on my blog. I think there are still about 50 posts to complete the trip. My goal is still to complete the trip story by the end of this summer.

We saw some pictures of Bruce Peninsula National Park in Ontario before the trip and was impressed by its scenery but wasn’t sure if we would want to drive an additional 500 miles to see it. However, after arriving at Ontario, the choice was obvious as we found out that we could take a boat across the Lake Huron at Tobermory, therefore, without the extra driving. We were excited with the opportunity.

We arrived at Bruce Peninsula National Park early Friday morning to get a campsite and, to our surprise, it was full. We went into Tobermory and found a private campground instead. After set up the tent, we went back to the Park to do some hiking. We hiked out to the lakeshore on the Horse Lake trail and was greeted with a great view, crystal clear blue water and rocky shoreline. We hiked on the Bruce Trail (The longest footpath in Ontario) along the shoreline. It was beautiful and quiet.

There weren’t many people until we got to an area known as Grotto. There were lots of people down by the beach, either lying for a suntan or playing in the water. We had a great view from above. There were also many people diving off rocks into the beautiful Georgian Bay below. It must be refreshing to be swimming in a lake that felt like an ocean in size but without the smell of the sea.

The hike along the coast was rocky with the trail paved completely in rocks. The park was clean and the water was clear and warm for swimming. No wonder there were no camping sites left. This place looked like a great place for kayaking as well, a quiet lake with many beautiful rock formations. Next time when we come back, we will be doing some kayaking. We completed our loop hike along the Marr Lake trail back to our hiking starting point. It was a beautiful hike.

After walking through the Vietnam Memorial, we visited the Lincoln Memorial. I have always admired Lincoln for bringing an end to the slavery but I learned this time that the abolition of slavery was a byproduct of the civil war. Lincoln had said, “I would save the Union… My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and it is not to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.” I was surprised but it was the right thing to do. It was important to keep the country together first then there would be time to take care anything else afterwards. We had him to thank for the strong America we have today.

Korean War Memorial was up next. This was a war America and many other nations helped South Korea to fight off the North Korea. Although everyone may have defended the South Korea for its own reasons, it was still a noble cause. The memorial had a bunch of soldiers in their full military fatigues with their rifles. Korean War, if there is such thing as a good war, was considered a successful war. As a result, M.A.S.H. comedy was such a hit. There was also a wall with faces of 2000+ service men and women supporting the war sandblasted on it. It was not as a somber memorial as the Vietnam one.

Then there was another new memorial, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. This one was my favorite as it told many stories through statues and plaques. Back in the 30’s and 40’s, lives in America were not so rosy. I can only imagine what the Great Depression was when people lost their life-long saving and unemployment rate was over 30%. That was a difficult time for FDR and everyone. Then there was the World War II. If we had lost the World War II, the world would be very different now.

Another new memorial, George Mason Memorial, was just beyond the FDR Memorial. George Mason is called “The Father of Bill of Rights”. The original Bill of Rights gave us the first 10 amendments of the United States Constitution. The freedom we enjoy and take for granted today came from the high price of American Revolution. We have so much to be thankful that sometimes we forget. All these memorials and monuments are a great reminder of past struggles. We all should come visit here every few years.

We finally arrived at American Museum of the Natural History. I was looking forward to spending some time at the museum but soon we discovered it was not a good idea. Kadia would run around and we lost the sight of her a few times. After about 30 minutes, we gave up and headed for our cousin Robby’s house. We will just have to come back to see all the museums when the kids are older.

Washington DC is a great place for students and people who like history. There are a lot to see at the National Mall and they are all free. It had been 9 years since I was last at Washington DC during the cherry blossom season that year. It has the highest concentration of memorials, monument and museums which can take many weeks to see them all. I was looking forward to going back there again to see great museums and memorials such as National Museum of Natural History and National Air and Space Museum.

We arrived there by Metro on a Friday morning. The first place we visited was Washington Monument. I noticed there were as many people there as last time we visited when there was a long line to go to the top. Soon I realized that tickets were required to go up to the top. Unfortunately the tickets for visiting the monument was all gone for the day. I didn’t remember that we had to get tickets ahead of time for Washington Monument the last time I visited the place. Perhaps it was due to the impact of the 9/11.

As we headed toward the Lincoln Memorial, there was something different from what I remembered. Right before the Reflecting Pool, there was something new: World War II Memorial. It was opened in 2004 and it honors the 16 millions who served in World War II and over 400,000 who died defending freedom. It has a pool in the middle with two half circles of granite columns enclosing the pool on two ends. Each stone column represents a state or a territory of United States who had people participated in WWII. It was a beautiful architecture piece and it was special because I felt peaceful there unlike many other memorials.

We next visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. A simple V shape granite wall with names of military people who died fighting the Vietnam War. One wall points toward the Washington Monument and the other points toward the Lincoln Memorial. There were over 58 thousand names on the wall and there were still many names listed as MIA (Missing in Action). I felt for all of them. It was a war that cannot be won just like the current Iraq war. I understand the need to defend freedom and hard to watch others suffering but we need to find a better way than interfering with the business of other countries. There probably will be an Iraq Memorial the next time we visited there with thousands of people dying needlessly and. So sad.

When we arrived at Markham to visit our friends, Harry and Jennifer, in Markham, Ontario, we asked them where we could go to do some Chinese food/snacks shopping. We were surprised to find out that Markham has the North America’s Largest indoor Asian Mall, Pacific Mall. We knew that the nearby Toronto has a large number of Chinese population but didn’t expect to find the largest Asian mall here. We found out from there where it was and decided to visit and to replenish our Chinese food supply.

One thing we missed on the trip was the availability of Chinese food. Although we like to eat many different types of food, Chinese food and snacks are still among our favorites. Therefore, whenever we had a chance such as in New York Chinatown, we would restock some of our favorite Chinese snacks, things that did not require refrigeration and wouldn’t go bad easily. Luckily tofu, my favorite food, has become popular enough to appear in almost all the supermarkets. I couldn’t imagine making through this long trip without having tofu at all.

The mall reminded me of some malls in Asia but of course, although the largest in North America, it was still relatively small. We enjoyed the food court there and munched on some of small shop dishes there. They even had my favorite Tofu flower however it only came in sweet flavor not salty. The owner said when he first started out with salty flavor but business was bad until he found out Cantonese liked sweet kind so he only had sweet flavoring now. It was a welcome change from our own cooking. We also visited a Chinese snack shop there to pick up a few of our favorite snacks: dry plum, mango, tofu jerky, beef jerky, haw flakes and balls for example. However, there was a big shocking surprise.

Most of us know that Asia is known for its lack of control on copyrighted materials. Over there, one can buy a pirated DVD for less than 1 US dollar. Some software costing hundreds of dollars in US can be obtained for less than 10 dollars there. The quality varies: you get what you pay for it; it wouldn’t work at all sometimes. It is illegal but governments there usually don’t do much about it. However, here in the Pacific Mall, there were a couple of stores selling pirated DVDs in the open. I thought Canada has the same kind of tough laws on piracy but they somehow must tolerate this to allow it to operate as such. I asked Harry about it and it seemed that there were occasional crackdowns but never seriously enough to shut down the business.

We were happy with our newly acquired Chinese food and felt like the trip was just beginning again. I know for any future trips, we need to plan our route so we will visit a Chinese grocery store at least once a month to satisfy our craving for food that we grew up with.

Finally the day, May 21st, arrived for us to leave on our trip. After many months of planning, this was it, the beginning of our 112 days trip. Our plan was to leave around 11 AM but the packing took a lot longer than we expected. We packed up most of our existing dry food, cleaned out and unplugged the refrigerator, gave house keys to neighbors and turned off the water heater. For nearly 4 months we would be living off our van so we didn’t want to forget major things. Although we could buy anything we forgot, it would be better not to.

We ended up leaving around 2 PM. We stopped by at both of our parents houses to say goodbye. We thought that this trip would be hard on them because they wouldn’t get to see their grand-children for a long time. As we left the Bay Area, it started to rain. This was highly unusual as the Bay Area hardly ever rain from May to October. Some might have interpret it as a bad omen but we welcomed it and treated it as a harbinger of many surprises we would encounter on this trip.

We stopped by for a visit with our friends, Steve and Sylvia and their new-born son, Tyler in Sacramento. It was dark by the time we left their house, heading for our first stop at Lake Tahoe. It rained hard for most of our drive up to Lake Tahoe. The visibility was bad at times and I almost wanted to stop and find a place to stay. We pushed on because we knew highway 50 well from many years of skiing trips. We finally arrived at Lake Tahoe around 11 PM. Originally we had a plan to camp the 1st night but it was too late and wet so we found a Days Inn for the night. Both kids were asleep already.

It was a good first day as it taught us that it might not be a good idea to drive at night. We made a conscious decision not to drive at night to reach our next destination and we didn’t. Also, as we already had to change our plan just on the 1st day, we no longer had to abide by our plan. We were free to explore and let the trip to take us places instead of us taking the trip. Both decisions were crucial for our trip as they provided safety and flexibility we needed for the trip.

Originally when we started to plan our trip, our route stopped at Maine. Then we read a magazine which rated Cape Breton as the 2nd best National Park in North America and also one of 10 must go destinations in Canada. However, it would add at least another 1500 miles or 4 extra days of driving to go out there and back. We weren’t sure we wanted to drive that far to see Cape Breton even though I had heard that Nova Scotia was rugged and beautiful. It would still be a long drive to just see one thing. We couldn’t decide until Susan saw some pictures of Hopewell Rocks on the internet: it seemed to be an interesting place to see and it was about a half way on the road to Cape Breton. That settled it.

We arrived at Hopewell Rocks in early July. We were disappointed right away as it was a big attraction with a huge parking lots and amusement park like ticket booths to guard the entry. We were hoping that it was a hidden treasure and we would have to hike miles to see it but it was not to be. Hopewell Rocks is located in the Bay of Fundy where the highest tide has been recorded in the world. On the average, the Bay of Fundy has a 50 feet tidal range. The Hopewell Rocks are the famous flower pot rocks that are totally immersed in water during high tide but reachable on foot during low tide.

We paid our money to get in; the tickets were good for 2 days to allow visitors to see both a low tide and a high tide. Right away there was an interpretive center with some history about the geology and natural history of the area along with the inevitable gift shop. There was also a children playground there where we had our lunch. It was a fun place for kids and we had to drag Kadia out of there to walk toward the flowerpots. The trail was well-maintained and paved with a few scenic overlook. It was just a little past the low tide so the coast look barren with many people wandering down below.

Soon we arrived at stairways where we hiked down to the beach of Fundy Bay. The famous flower pot rocks were there for us to explore along with hundreds of others. We knew we had a couple of hours so we walked along the beach to explore other areas. The beach was flat with almost no discernible slope so the water was far away. The shoreline was a mixture of small rocks and large sands. There were some areas that were muddy where few adventurous kinds would venture out to. We walked until we reached an impasse with huge boulders for us to carry the kids through before we slowly made back to our entry point where we sat and waited for the tide to come in.

Once the tide started to come in, it came fast. Because the beach was relatively flat, each feet of rising water would cover perhaps 20 to 40 feet of land. We sat and watched the water swallowed up the flower pot rocks and soon many kayakers appeared to go among them. That was definitely a fun way to see the rocks. Next time we will definitely try that. Soon we were ushered out of the area to go up out of the harm way. We watched as the tide soon reclaimed the beach and the ocean triumphed again.

Millions of species have become extinct but only a handful of them appear in our daily lives as if they were still alive. And of them, no species captures more imagination more than the dinosaur. It must be the size. My cousin, Christine, told me about the Royal Tyrell Museum in Alberta being one of the best dinosaur museums in the world so we made our way up to Drumheller after the Waterton Lakes National Park.

As we drove close to Drumheller, we began to see land formations similar to what we saw in Badlands National Park. It was the Canadian Badlands similar to the Badlands National Park we visited a few weeks ago on the trip. I didn’t know that badlands stretched that far north but it made sense. This was the area that a lot of dinosaur remains have been uncovered. And it made sense to have a world class dinosaur museum in Drumheller.

When we got into the town, we were greeted with the world biggest dinosaur (see picture on the right). We camped at the Rivergrove campground across from the big dinosaur. The next morning, we visited the Royal Tyrell Museum. It was situated at the edge of a vast area of badlands, a source of unlimited dinosaur bones. The museum was huge and filled with many varieties of dinosaur bones. We also learned they had dinosaur bone digging expeditions, something would thrill children and adults alike. I found the expeditions to be enticing and would definitely like to go back there when Kadia and Bryden are older. Kadia was thrilled to see many dinosaurs, running back and forth going from one to another.

We took a hike at the badlands right next to the museum. I found badlands interesting with its many different hues of colors. Badlands were named so because they presented difficult obstacles for pioneers to travel through in the old days, but they seemed to be innocent and inviting to visitors like me. This barren ground preserved the richest collections of dinosaur bones in the world. As we walked around the trail in the badlands, knowing that there may be dinosaur bones beneath our feet made the hike unique. We were walking on the same ground where dinosaurs roamed millions of years ago. If there ever is a time machine, I would like to travel back there to see for myself.

Which one of the following has the most visitors per year? Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, or Mall of America? The answer is Mall of America and it is not even a close race. It has more visitors per year than the other 4 combined!

We are not into shopping. The 1st time I heard of Mall of America was when they built a Great Mall in the Bay Area and said that it rivaled Mall of America in size. Since then I have also heard that it was popular and attracted millions of visitors a year. Therefore we decided to visit it when we were at our friend, Steve’s house in Big Lake, MN.

The mall was big and crowded. I think it was well-designed with an indoor amusement park in the middle and 4 levels of shops on the outer perimeters. I liked the design because it allowed me to cut across the middle to get to the other side of the mall quickly. The idea of putting an amusement park in the middle was the stroke of a genius. With Minnesota being one of the coldest places in USA, the mall provides a winter haven for the region. It was far better than the Great Mall both in designs and in the quality of shops.

We spent a couple of hours there, bought a pair of sandals for Kadia as she grew out of the old pair, Kadia got behind a kids-size 18-wheeler, and played at LEGO store there. I can easily see people spending a whole day there, having fun and spending money but it was not for us: it was too crowded and, although there were some unique shops, it was still just a shopping mall disguised as an attraction place. Well, they did a good job as we got suckered into it.