Fireworks anyone?

Today we celebrate Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness!
:P

It was a long tiring day at work today. Okay, I chose to stay back late to finish up what's left of my computer model, but I also got shot with some big time arrows in the process, sigh.... Anyway, I was just staring at my window's background to chill. That picture is the Tongass Narrows in Alaska, taken 2 years ago in the summer. It's really been quite a while. We got East Coast Park, miles and miles of endless man made beach lined with artificial foot paths..... The skating's good, but somehow it can't match up to Tongass Narrows, Mount St Helens, Poing Reyes, Squaw Valley and the likes. I guess the only nature you can find here is Ubin and Bukit Timah Hill, but that's more like tropical rainforest full of mosquitoes! The only time I was ever swarmed by mosquitoes in the Land of the Free was when I was hunting for the tallest tree in the world at Redwood National Park.

Yeah, bet I never told you about that one. I went to Valley of the Giants and Redwood National Park for the first time with KH on a road trip. We were hunting for the tallest California Redwood, which is incidentally the tallest tree in the world. Found one which was the tallest but had been felled, and another at the Valley which was the next tallest before they discovered one at Redwood National Park. So we drove up to Redwood National which was some miles away but it started to get rainy so we headed back. And we also tried to find the Mouth of the Klamath River on the way, and I so do not recommend that to anyone who doesn't own a 4WD. Basically the dirt road is more dirt that I've ever imagined! Basically just completely strewn with 40mm aggregates, I think I must have messed up my suspension and tire axle real bad on that road. Anyway, a year later, after KH had gone to Stanford, I returned with my parents to hunt for the tallest tree again. Basically there are a few supposed "tallest trees" which are almost the same height except one gets hit by lightning and loses the title etc. We saw almost every one of them (xcept the one with the 5 mile walk) but the last one, called Big Tree, had mosquitoes all over the place. That's when we decided enough is enough.

Anyway, to digress for a moment, I saw this guy skating some weird skates on Sunday at the Park. Basically his skates had 2 wheels on each skate and they were aligned sideways. So he skates sideways like skateboarding, so weird!

Back to reminiscing about my adventures in the Home of the Brave since it's the 4th of July. Skiing really is the Pursuit of Happiness haha, I don't think skating can even come close. Not fast enough, actually hurts when you fall etc.... I still remember my first Black Diamond. I was on a ski trip with TBP in the winter of 2002 and we decided to go to Squaw Valley. The other choice was Donner, which costs only like 20 bucks for the lift ticket but come on, once a year trip you gotta go to Squaw! Anyway, I took the lift right up to the top, and everyone got out on the left, it was kinda crowded. I took a look at the right, looks empty, looks doable. Sign says "for advanced skiiers only" with a black diamond, one way down only. What the heck, I went for it, and never looked back! It was so so fast, but friendly and wide, and the bowls were so huge! I can never forget those bowls. The K2 olympic run was amazing. I tried all the peaks, there was one u had trees around u at the top too haha! And another with gates which were double black, i saw some dude rushing through and almost followed in, but you can't miss the gates, its suicidal! Just round the next bend i saw the cliff behind the gates and I was so lucky I didn't try my luck there.... Some people like the terrain park, but hey, it's all black diamond for me!

I think we should all pursue Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. That makes life so much more worth the living than just money or power.....