US trip -Orlando, Colorado and Utah- Part 2

After staying 1 nite at a super crappy and eerie cheap hotel called Crestwood Suites, we packed up and leave for Denver, Colorado.

Went to the United Club lounge at Orlando airport to rest and drink some coffee while waiting for the plane to depart at about 7am. A funny thing happened when he asked the recep guy at the lounge whether there are any Macdonalds around the airport (coz we wana eat some Mcdonalds breakfast), and the guy replied, "sorrie, dun think there are any Macdonalds here." and then he added "Macdonalds not good for your health" I burst out laughing. He's very funny, and then he smiled and said "we have healthier breakfast here at the lounge, like fruits and cereals"

 Interior of the lounge, very quiet and relaxing

 the juice and coffee bar,

and the healthy breakfast....haha....

Flight to Denver was about 3.5hrs and a 2 hr time zone difference, i think. From the airport, we took a shuttle bus to the car rental center and managed to get a white Toyota Camry with a California licence plate.

Then, its a 4 hrs drive to the hotel at Alamosa, gateway to the great sand dunes. 

Guess what Hubby found along the way? A Jack In The Box fastfood! He is so happy coz its been more than 1.5 years since he last eat it. His all time fave food- teriyaki rice bowl is still in the menu! Alas~ my throat at that moment had become so painfully swollen, that it hurts to even swallow my own saliva or to talk. I can't eat my fave curly fries or any of the burgers. I cursed myself to this day for not being able to eat what I want at that moment! However, I need to eat some food so I can eat my panadols to control the fever, so I just eat a bit of salad.

 Its a grilled chicken salad and its huge! Taste quite nice surprisingly.

Entrance to the Grand Sand Dunes National Park

 Approaching the sand dunes

Everywhere is just a vast expanse of land, snow capped mountains in the backdrop and a very blue sky.

Gosh~, its really cold!

 Tried sliding down a sandy slope....

 The sand dunes is really huge and even had ice in some parts of the sand.

We tried climbing the two highest dunes, it was like climbing Mt Everest. Guess it becoz of the high altitude, the air is very thin and we had to stop and rest after climbing 20 steps coz we are already giddy and panting for breath. I felt my legs are so heavy and every step took me so much effort. I just concentrate on reaching my 20 steps so I can stop and catch my breath and get my breathing back to normal before continuing. Its by far, the toughest trail I ever done for all National Parks.

 Ice on sand....Hubby moving on....

 Looking back where we came, the trees at the border of the sand is where we parked our car.

 More breath taking views of the dunes.

Stopping for a break...need food for energy....

Looking miserable....and shag...

Lying dead on the sand, too tired to move.

 Feels good lying in the sand, dun wana move...

 Quiet moment to ponder..?

 tranquil desolated beauty...

Backview of Hubby, still a long way to go.

  Approaching the highest point on the dunes

After reaching the highest point, we spent less than 5 mins on top coz Hubby had height phobia.

That's me sliding/walking downhill. Its so much easier now.

I conquered my Mt Everest!

Surprised to find ladybird in the middle of a sand dune. A sign of good luck, I hope!

US trip -Orlando, Colorado and Utah- Part 1

Was back from the US trip and was MAXIMUM burnout. Slept for 2-3 days straight and finally able to start recovering from a very serious flu I got during the trip. Had never been sick for a very long time, with no doc or medicine. (just surviving on store bought cough mixt) As I was telling Hubby, this trip is really more like a test of my mental and physical endurance, such as finishing a 9km climb hike to the highest sand dune and doing a challenging 3 hr ranger-guided hike, while being sick with flu, throat inflammation, cough and fever in freezing cold temperatures. Been blowing bloodied goo from my nose and coughing out bloodied mucous for more than 2 weeks. Im glad I survived. Well, guess what din kill you makes you stronger. And thats what I did gained.

 Waiting at the airport, cant wait to get out of this place!

 After a torturous 12 hr flight and a very rushed transit from Philadelphia, we finally arrived in Orlando. The airport was decked with Halloween decorations. Lotsa spiders, cobwebs, etc surrounding the baggage claim area. Even the hotel we checked in later was decorated with Halloween stuffs. Very fun~

After settling the P.O Box at the post office and the bank (which refused to issue Hubby a new card...crap), we finally settled for some dim sum near our hotel. Its been more than a year since we had any dim sums....sighz...there are no dim sum restaurants in X.

 Went crazy and ordered so much food. Surprisingly, we managed to finished it all, guess we really missed eating dim sum. Ordered salted fish and chicken fried rice, 'fen chang' with prawns.

 Fried carrot cake,

 Wanton soup with 'xiao bai chai'

 'Har giao' -very nice

 lotus leaved wrapped glutinous rice

 YES! my fave 'char siew bao', been missing you for a year!

 'siew mai'

Finally checked into Hampton Inn and Suites. V good hotel, free parking, internet, printing and b/f for just about $50+/nite.

Hubby was very excited after we settled the P.O Box coz that very night, he started his amazon shopping. He LOVES amazon shopping very much. For the next few days, we just shopped at the outlet malls and other shopping malls since its Columbus Day. If possible, we tried to buy it after the Denver trip, so we wont have to carry all that weight around. Discovered that at SuperWalmart, they sell cloth by the yard, fat quarters and many other sewing accessories and trims. Its SO cheap! I have been paying 2-3 times the prices buying them at etsy websites and 10x the prices compared to X! OMG!!! 

Lunch at the outlet mall. The pizza and clam chowder tasted so good, the crust is thin and crispy, one of the best pizzas I ever eaten. Tasted so much better than the pizza we ate at an Italian restaurant at EPCOT Disneyland.

 Dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. Its the poshest looking Viet restaurant I ever seen, however the food is just average.

 Fried soft shelled crabs

Ordered a small bowl of pho but it turned out to be so huge! Like a wash basin! Only managed to finished 3/4 of it. 

 Dinner at a Thai restaurant. Finally, had some decent fried tofu, crispy outside and SOFT inside. I missed these type of tofu, the only tofu i can find in X are so hard and tough and my mouth gets tired from chewing them.

 Tom Yum soup, I asked for VERY spicy. Its decently spicy enough but the ones from Thai Express is much spicier.

 Fried red snapper fish, quite exp but since we haven had red snapper for a long time, its worth splurging. 

 The good old Macdonalds~! It tasted so good when you haven had it for half a year....Hubby is more interested in the McRibs burger. Btw, US also having the Monopoly Macdonald game and we played it, thinking we stand a better chance of winning since we are traveling 3 states, so we have been eating Macs in Orlando, Denver and Utah, but sadly, din win anything.

Everything seems to taste so much better in the States after staying in X, eating crap...
There are still many food I havent get the chance to eat yet, (coz of the illness), like Popeyes chicken, LJS, Wendys, Cheesecake Factory, Ruby Tuesday, Joe's Crab shack...etc. Argghhh!! So frustrating! *_*