Chicago's 'The Bean'

One of Chicago's most popular tourist landmark is the ultra-modern, silvery, bean-shaped structure, officially called The Cloud Gate. It is located at the Millenium Park at downtown fronting Chicago's skyline. The picture shows our Chicago hosts Ruby's high school classmates Pearly Unto-Castro, Teresa Luga-Kadusale, and Hope Suasin.

This structure is nothing but amazing. You get near it, and it becomes a huge curved mirror. Look at Chicago's skyline reflected across 'The Bean'.

Inverted House at Niagara

At the Niagara, Toronto side, along the strip, we ecountered this house. The architect was probably drunk when he designed this. The foreman was worse for blindly following the design, hence this result. Seriously, this is an eye-catching landmark. Good idea for tourism. Neat!

Whampoa's boat building

One of the unsual sights in Hongkong is that building in the shape of a huge boat in Whampoa area.
This area was an old shipyard, transformed into a residential area.
Perhaps In honor of its history, a huge boat-building was constructed which is actually a department store.

Orange County Fair

There is a fair at Orange County.
There were a lot of huge animals.
Huge elephants. Huge horses. Huges goats. There was food to savor, too.It was a nice place to have fun with children.
Going to the fair in August 2010 were Macel, Felix, Ruby and Joshua.

Dining at Denny's

Finally, after more than a decade I ate in one of the many Denny's chain of diners in the U.S.
After arriving, from LAX, we were brought by Oning and Sandra Yee for breakfast at Denny's
I have fond memories of Denny's.The first time I came to the U.S. about a decade ago, I had a classmate who really liked to come to Denny's to eat.
So we ended up coming several times in this diner.
That was in Dallas.
Denny's, as I recalled, was an eat-all-you-can affair..But this breakfast we ordered egg, pancakes and sandwich.
I had a feeling of deja vu.
A lot of memories came rushing in my head.

Tuktuk

Tuktuk is the popular three-wheeled public transport rushing, squeezing throught eh congested streets of Bangkok.
Tuktuk is the countrpart of the pedicabs or tricycles in the Philippines.
There are variances though.
The tuk-tuk is right in the front-middle of of the vehicles main car.
So the tuktuk does not have a "side-car".The tutktuk has a reverse gear, triccles don't.
The tuktuk serve a convenient purpose off the main Bangkok streets.
There are the main public transport system like the rail, the taxis.
The rail stations are far from each other.So the tuktuk serves the routes in between.
The tuktuks come zooming in teh streets, sometimes disregarding traffice rules.
If you want to get from one place to another, the tuktuk driver knows it and he will take you "door-to-door".
I had to try driving a tuktuk. I couldn't resist.
The tuktuk is one of my memorable Bangkok expeirence.

Laundry chores

When in the United States, doing your own laundry is one of the chores one can't do without.Nobody will do your laundry except yourself.
There are public laundry shops where you can do your laundry.For instance, if an apartment does not have its own laundry facilities, then laundry will have to be done in a commercial shop.Commercial laundry shops in the U.S. are different from those in the Philippines.
In the Philippines, commercial laundry can be picked up and delivered. All one does is pay.
In the U.S., one does his own laundry.More than a decade ago, the first time I did public laundry, coins were used. One just drops coins into the machine washer/dryer.
The last time I went to a commercial laundry, it was far more automated.The machine washers and driers now use sleek, smarter cards, like ATM.
They automatically compute.You buy the consumable cards.
It automatically deducts for every use.
It would take you at least one hour and a half to do laundry.Its a chore one has to schedule.