LLUSM Family Day & Dedication Ceremony

February 13, 2009

My sister had Family Day at Loma Linda University School of Medicine for the class of 2012. We attended some classes with them, a special lunch, and had a self-tour. There was also a dedication ceremony with the Graduate Program students held in the evening. They received Bibles. Tooks pics of family and friends.

Dedication Ceremony

Road Trip Day 5 January 3, 2009

Doing some catching up...

January 3, 2009

Las Vegas
Red Rock Canyon

Las Vegas was the last stop of the trip. We spent the early afternoon at Red Rock Canyon. In the evening we had dinner and walked some of the strip. We headed back to California late that night.

Red Rock Canyon

Vegas

Road Trip Day 4 I January 2, 2009

Bryce Canyon National Park
Red Canyon

We entered the Dixie National Forest and drove past Red Canyon to get to Bryce Canyon National Park. When we got there we did some minor hiking through a snowy trail. Bryce Canyon was pretty amazing! Loved the reds and oranges that the canyon had, especially with the snow! On the way out of the forest, we stopped by Red Canyon to take some pictures since we drove past it the first time.

Bryce Canyon National Park

Red Canyon

Road Trip Day 3 January 1, 2009

January 1, 2009

Arches National Park

I would say that the Aarchway Inn was the best place we stayed at the whole trip! It was pretty cheap and had a basically all you can eat hot breakfast! It was time to go Arches National Park. As usual the weather was cold! There was snow was practically everywhere in this park! You had to do some hiking to get to an arch. The first stop was the famous Delicate Arch, which is on the Utah license plates. We started to on the hike to the arch. We didn't know how far the hike would be and just followed people. We sort of lost my sister as we went ahead. I think she took another trail when she stopped and we kept going. I don't think there were many trails to get there. We thought she was following us. We took a break right before going up to the top of the hill. The trail was really icy. We reached the top and saw the arch! It was worth the hike! On the way down I slipped on some ice and my camera flung over my head! I should've put it away...I was fine, but I was pretty scared about the camera. The majority of the impact hit the tripod mounting plate on a rock and the card door was open. I didn't see any physical damage. I took some test photos at the bottom and everything seemed to be in working condition. Anyways, we went walked back to the car and didn't see my sister. There's no reception there to make a call so we made our way back to a spot that we see people. We saw people going to and back from the arch but we never saw her. She eventually showed up...We drove around the park trying to find another arch that we didn't have to do so much hiking since it was cold and made it to the Skyline arch and Balanced Rock back near the entrance.

We were actually thinking about driving to Salt Lake City to see the sights and visit BYU, but there was supposed to be another storm coming in. We didn't want to get stuck since we weren't prepared for snow. You see all this snow in the parks and towns, but it never snowed on our trip and the roads were clear, so we luckily never had a problem! Our next stop was Bryce, Utah. There was this one stretch of highway on the I-70 that looked like we were driving in a snowy tundra and the sun setting on that drive was really beautiful!

 

 

Arches National Park

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the way to Bryce, Utah

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Road Trip Day 2 December 31, 2008

December 31, 2008
Horseshoe Bend
Antelope Canyon
Glen Canyon Dam

We started the day by going out to Horseshoe Bend. It was pretty cold in the morning that I couldn't even hold my tripod because it would freeze my hand! There were also patches of ice around. After the short hike was a really nice view! There's no railing to keep you from falling, so you had to be very careful! This is one of the times I wish I had wide-angle lens...We were planning to go to Antelope Canyon right after for one of the early tours, but we decided to stay and enjoy it more. I think we should've went to Antelope Canyon first so that the sun would've been in a better position for photos, oh well...

We made a quick stop to a super walmart. The demographics here was a totally different than LA! I wasn't used to seeing so many Native Americans. It was pretty cool since we were in a different part of the states. We drove back into the city to look for the tour company we made reservations with to get to Antelope canyon. There's like five or so companies that do the tour and we drove to the wrong one at first! haha. We found out we were the only ones going on the tour with this company, so it was just the four of us! After a bumpy ride, we reached the entrance to the canyon to find several vehicles from the other tours were there. We stepped inside and were immediately blown away! This was the best $32 spent ever! The canyon was AMAZING!!! The other groups were leaving so we practically had it to ourselves for a period of time. I was expecting it to be crowded with a lot of people, but I guess not since it was New Year's Eve? We really made use of the time to take plenty of photos! Too bad there were no sunbeams like I've seen in some photos, but it was still incredible! I loved the color in there! I want to go to the other slot canyon tour!

We made a quick stop to a scenic view of the Glen Canyon Dam before another long drive to Moab, Utah. Too bad we didn't get a chance to stop by Monument Valley and some other parks and little touristy places on the way...We spent New Year's Eve and the night the at the Aarchway Inn. It had internet!

Horseshoe Bend

I didn't think I'd get a decent photo of Horseshoe Bend, but his panorama turned out better than I thought it would

Antelope Canyon

Glen Canyon Dam