I was just beginning to think that we would never get any snow this winter. Normally, we would have at least one or two rounds by now, but somehow this year we made it through mid February without any trace of the magical white fluffiness! Granted, it had been very unseasonably warm, but I have never seen an NC winter with no snow ever since I moved here.
Finally, on Thursday night, we were blessed with a whopping 2 inches of snow! 😆Having grown up in a tropical climate, I can’t help getting excited every time I see snow. 😊One thing I love about living here in North Carolina is that we do have the change of seasons, and I get to enjoy that without having to endure the harsh winter. For me, a few rounds of snow per year is just the perfect amount. I was getting worried that the inevitable effects of climate changes from global warming had robbed that from us forever, but I’m glad to report that’s not the case, not just yet anyhow!
Joel and I made our traditional snow pilgrimage, as we usually do every time it snows. And here are the beautiful sceneries from all around our neighborhood for y’all to enjoy! 😍
We went back to join our Winter Series Hiking group at Duke Forest on Sunday. This research forest spans across 3 different counties. Besides serving its purpose as research and educational resources, it also offers recreational benefits for those of us living in the area. The gravel trails here are nice and wide throughout the entire route, with occasional gradual climbs.
อาทิตย์นี้เรากลับไปเดินป่ากับเพื่อนๆกลุ่มเดิมจากโปรแกรมเดินป่าหน้าหนาวที่ Duke Forest ที่นี่เป็นป่าสำหรับการศึกษาวิจัยของมหาวิทยาลัย Duke แต่เปิดให้คนทั่วไปอย่างเราๆมาใช้เพื่อกิจกรรมนันทนาการตามอัธยาศัย ทางเดินที่นี่โรยกรวดไว้อย่างดี แถมกว้างขวางสะดวกสบาย ส่วนใหญ่เป็นทางตรงไม่วกวน แต่มีบางส่วนที่ลาดชันเล็กน้อยให้ได้เรียกเหงื่อกันบ้าง
There are signs detailing the types of trees and landscaping specifics for each different section.
Clear road signs everywhere, so no chance of getting lost here!
ถนนทุกสายมีป้ายบอกชื่ออย่างชัดเจนไม่ต้องกลัวหลง
As the name suggests, the majority of the path took us through a forest of trees. The trail cuts across New Hope Creek a couple of times – the one at Wooden Bridge gives an optional side track that winds along the creek. We didn’t get to do that this time because it was flooded over, according to our hike leader Joe Miller.
ทางเดินที่นี่พาเราเข้าป่าตามชื่อที่เรียกไว้ มีสะพานไม้เชื่อมส่วนที่ตัดผ่านลำห้วย New Hope Creek คราวที่แล้วที่มาเราเดินลงทางแยกริมห้วยไปชมวิวริมน้ำได้ แต่คุณหัวหน้ากลุ่มบอกว่าทางข้างหน้าน้ำท่วมกลบหมด เลยอดไปกันคราวนี้
We saw some signs of Spring along the path.
ระหว่างทางเริ่มมีดอกไม้ให้เห็นประปราย
This week we clocked in at 4.55 miles, which took us about an hour and a half. Temperature was nice and cool in the 50s throughout the entire hike!
Joel got an invitation from our Get Hiking Triangle MeetUp group for an MST hike this past Saturday. It was for a section we had never been on, so we decided to go with that instead of our usual Sunday hike with the Winter Series, which was scheduled to be at Umstead Park this weekend – a trail we have hiked many many times before!
The hike started at 9 am, early for us, but still we made it to the meeting point just in time. From the parking lot on Highway NC 50 by Falls Lake, we shuttled to our starting point at NC 98 and started our hike back to the car. According to our hike leader, Joe Miller, this is supposedly the longest uninterrupted stretch of the MST along Falls Lake. The weather was quite chilly 🥶in the 30s when we left, but warmed up somewhat as the day progressed.
About a mile in, we came across this section of the trail that was completely flooded over by the big storm ⛈just the day before. We had to walk way off course trying to find a good spot to cross. Most of the men in our group just jumped over, but it took quite an effort for a few ladies and I, with our short stumpy legs 😭, before we could manage to cross. Turned out this was just one in many of the tough spots we encountered during the hike! I was glad to confirm that our old hiking boots were indeed waterproof as advertised!
The hike turned out to be one of the longest we had done in recent memory, not to mention the hardest! Joel and I had such a hard time, both because of the distance, and also because of how sloppy the trail was. 😓On our regular hikes with the other group, we usually finish first, many times way before the others. But with this group, we struggled to keep up, and lagged so far behind at times they had to stop to let us catch up. I came home with super muddy pants and shoes as my souvenirs! 😆
This week we went back to Horton Grove Nature Preserve in Bahama for our Winter Series Hike. The last time we were here, it was the end of Spring and I had a heat stroke 🥵 at the end of the hike. This time, the temperature was a lot cooler at 60 degrees, so there was no need to worry about that at all!
When we were here back in Spring, the meadow was lush and green – a stark difference from this time when there was not much to see in the middle of winter… But beauty in nature is really all around, you just have to look for it! 😆
I never really thought of hiking as a dangerous activity, until now… About a third of the way into the hike, I heard the sound of the wind, and was just thinking about how windy it was, on such a clear day. The next thing I knew, something landed right next to me with a loud thud! I screamed 😱and jumped before I realized that a branch, about the size of Joel’s arm, had broken and fell. It missed my head by about 2 feet or so. I was too spooked and forgot to snap a picture of it. 😅This lady behind me saw the whole thing and she kept saying how lucky I was!
We clocked in at 4.6 miles in just a little over one and a half hours. Despite the close-call with the fallen tree limb, we did have a great hike! 😆And I’m still looking forwarding to going back out there in the wild again next week. But perhaps we ought to avoid Horton Grove…that’s two strikes out of two recent hikes! 🙄
This Sunday’s Winter Series Hikes took us back to the Mountains-to-Sea trail (MST) at Falls Lake in north Raleigh. The weather was similar to last week’s at around 50 degrees – perfect hiking weather for me! We did a shuttle hike, which means we carpooled and drove to one end of the trail, then hiked back to the other end. The very first time I heard the term, when we started hiking with this group a few years ago, I kept thinking that a shuttle was going to come pick us up and drop us off 😊, but learned (with slight disappointment) at the end that there would be no shuttle… 😆
We started off at the end of Possum Track Road, then made our way back to Bayleaf Church Road. The trail was very well marked – there were several signs along the way.
เราเริ่มออกเดินกันจากสุดถนน Possum Track Road และเดินกลับมาที่ Bayleaf Church Road ที่นี่เดินไม่หลงแน่ๆเพราะมีป้ายคอยบอกตลอดทาง
It offers numerous views of Falls Lake. And we can spot certain signs that hinted Spring might be here sooner than we expected. 🙄
มีวิวทะเลสาบ Falls Lake ให้เห็นตามทาง และต้นไม้ใบหญ้าเริ่มจะมีสีสันขึ้นมาให้เห็นกันบ้างแล้ว สงสัยฤดูใบไม้ผลิปีนี้จะมาถึงเร็วกว่ากำหนด 🙄
Quite a few rusted debris along the way…
มีซากปรักหักพังให้เห็นอยู่ประปรายตามทาง…
This time, we clocked in at 6.11 miles, and it took us a little over 2 hours.
We had an interesting Saturday volunteering as part of this weekend’s bottling crew at Mystic Farm & Distillery in Durham. We took a tour there a few months ago and Joel loved it so much that he thought it would be fun to sign up for the task. We got an offer earlier in the week and decided this would be the perfect way to start off our weekend! 😆
We woke up early and reported for duty promptly at 9 am. Once there, while waiting for the guys to finish setting up the bottling line, we got to enjoy shots of sweet and aromatic Mystic Bourbon Liqueur in their cozy lounge – such a great way to warm up for the arduous task ahead! 🤪
They spent a few minutes explaining to us briefly about the entire process. Then, the crew was divided into different groups, each for the different tasks. Joel and I got assigned to labeling.
My main task was to catch bottles coming out of the heat shrink machine, inspect them to ensure they were properly sealed, then set them on a table ready to be labeled by Joel. I thought I got an easy job, then quickly realized that it was no joke, when shrunk-wrapped bottles started to come flying out and one almost fell from the conveyor belt before I could catch it! 😳 In the end, another lady stepped in to help when we realized there was simply no way I could transfer bottles and inspect them fast enough at the rate they were coming out!
Joel’s job was to man Martha, the labeling machine. He would take a bottle I set out on the table, lay it on a mold, first on its back, pump the foot pedal to apply the back label, then flip over to the front to apply the front label. Towards the end, I decided catching bottles was a bit too stressful for me 😣, so I switched over to grab the readily-labeled bottle and smooth them on to get rid of air bubbles before passing it over to the boxing team instead!
After a hard day of work, we were rewarded with the fruits of our labor 😉 – a bottle each of the Heart of Mystic single-barrel bourbon whiskey, from the batch we just finished!
หลังจากที่ตรากตรำทำงานมากว่าครึ่งค่อนวัน ท้ายที่สุดเราก็ได้รับค่าเหนื่อยเป็นเหล้าเบอร์เบินวิสกี้ Heart of Mystic คนละขวด แกะกล่องมาจากที่เราเพิ่งแพ๊คเสร็จไปหมาดๆนี่เอง 😉
All in all, we had a lot of fun. Mystic seems like a really great place. These people truly love what they do and are serious about their products. They only make a few things and make them extremely well. You can really taste the quality in every sip 🥃.
They also have a beautiful farm 👨🌾 where they grow their own wheat and corn for the distillery. They even keep their own bee hives 🐝 for the honey they use to blend into their bourbon. Speak about dedication, that’s it, right there!
This Sunday our Winter Series Hikes group took us back to Little River Regional Park in Rougemont, which is just north of Durham. The weather couldn’t be more perfect at exactly 50 degrees. We started off on South River Loop, then took Ridge Trail to North River Loop.
โปรแกรมเดินป่าหน้าหนาวอาทิตย์นี้พาเราไปเดินกันที่ Little River Regional Park ที่เมือง Rougemont ซึ่งตั้งอยู่ทางเหนือของเมือง Durham ไปเล็กน้อย อากาศเย็นสบายกำลังดีอยู่ที่ 50 องศาฟาเรนไฮต์ หรือประมาณ 10 องศาเซลเซียส เราเริ่มต้นกันที่รอบวงเลียบแม่น้ำตอนใต้ จากนั้นจึงไปต่อที่เส้นเชื่อมสันเขาที่นำเราไปจบที่รอบวงเลียบแม่น้ำตอนเหนือ
One unique feature of this park is that they set up this thing called Planet Walk at the start of the trail. There are pictures of all the planets in our solar system. Not only are they ordered by the actual sequence they are located in real life, but the posts for each are also separated by the distance intentionally scaled to depict how far they actually are from each other. This came in handy on the way back, when we were trying to gauge how far we were from the finish line! 😝
ที่นี่เค้ามีจัดนิทรรศการเล็กๆเรียกว่า Planet Walk ไว้ให้ดูกันเพลินๆระหว่างทาง เป็นภาพของดาวเคราะห์แต่ละดวงในระบบสุริยุปราคา ตั้งเรียงลำดับตามตำแหน่งจริง และแยกจากกันด้วยระยะห่างตามอัตราส่วนที่ย่อลงมาหลายเท่า เพื่อแสดงให้เห็นว่าแต่ละดวงอยูห่างจากกันแค่ไหนในชีวิตจริง ขากลับก็ได้รูปดาวพวกนี้แหละมาช่วยกะได้ว่าเกือบสุดทางรึยัง 😝
The trail just got renovated and they added stone paths to some of the sections to help us avoid the sloppy bits. It snaked nicely along ‘Little River’ which did not look so little this time because of recent rainfall.
We spent our last full day in Texas touring around Dallas. Biggest thanks to our dear friends, Nat and Jerm, who provided us not only cozy accommodation with an added bonus in the form of two cuddly puppies but also chauffeur service and guided escort throughout the entire weekend. We had the best time – wish it was a longer stopover, but it just means that we’ll be due back for another visit soon! 😉
As usual, we started off the day with an awesome meal at Niwa Japanese BBQ. The meat they served was melt-in-your-mouth tender and the other dishes were tasty too. Like all our other food experience here, everything was perfect from start to finish!
เราเริ่มต้นวันเสาร์ด้วยอาหารมื้ออร่อยกันเช่นเคยที่ร้าน Niwa Japanese BBQ เนื้อย่างที่นี่นุ่มแบบแทบจะละลายในปาก แถมบริการสุดยอด เป็นอีกประสบการณ์ร้านอาหารที่ไม่มีอะไรให้ติจากต้นจนจบจริงๆ
After lunch, we spent the next few hours walking around this area called Deep Ellum. The best thing about this neighborhood was its abundance of beautiful murals. Unlike Austin, where we had to drive around hunting for the street art that was scattering all around town, here, they have all the goodies neatly clustered together within a few blocks. It would be an understatement to say that I got a little carried away snapping all the beautiful shots! 😊
อิ่มเสร็จเราไปเดินเล่นกันที่ย่าน Deep Ellum ที่นี่เป็นศูนย์กลางแห่งภาพจิตรกรรมฝาผนังโดยแท้ แถมจัดมาอยู่รวมกันให้ดูได้แบบสะดวกๆ ไม่ต้องขับรถไล่ตามหาอย่างที่ Austin ดูแล้วสวยไปหมดเลยถ่ายรูปซะเพลิน 😊
Besides street art, Deep Ellum has a lot of other cool things all around!
We ended our grand tour with another wonderful Thai meal in Irving. Originally we planned to dine at Nalinh Market, which I found through plenty of raving reviews on Yelp. When we got there, we were told that they were out of ingredients and were closing down. But they did send us to Saap Saap just down the street, which the guy there said was his mom’s restaurant. And it did not disappoint. Everything we got was super tasty. And the menu offers a variety of authentic dishes not usually seen at other Thai restaurants here in the US.
We finally got back to hiking again with our first hike of the Winter Hiking Series this weekend at Jordan Lake. The weather was perfect at 70 degrees, it was really hard to believe this was really a winter hike! 😆 We started off on the blue loop at the New Hope Overlook Trail, then continued on to the red loop afterwards.
เรากลับไปเดินป่ากันอีกเป็นครั้งแรกของปีเมื่อวันอาทิตย์ที่ผ่านมา โปรแกรมเดินป่าหน้าหนาวคราวนี้นำเราไปกันที่ Jordan Lake อากาศเย็นสบายกำลังดีอยู่ที่ 70 องศาฟาเรนไฮต์ หรือประมาณ 21 องศาเซลเซียส แทบจะไม่น่าเชื่อว่านี่หรือคือหน้าหนาว 😆 เราเริ่มเดินกันตามเส้นทาง New Hope Overlook ซึ่งเริ่มจากรอบวงสีฟ้า แล้วไปต่อด้วยรอบวงสีแดง
Joel was all geared up in his shorts and t-shirt. It had just stopped raining when we started off, so the trail was, to borrow our hike leader Joe’s favorite terrain description term, ‘sloppy’ 😝 in some areas. It did give us several close-up views of the lake, and we spotted a few boaters out and about, enjoying the unusually warm winter day like we were!
The woods were still mostly brown and barren, although we did spot some bright green moss and a bunch of mushrooms along the way. If this crazy weather pattern keeps up, we might see spring arriving a lot sooner than usual this year! 😐
We clocked in at 5.24 miles which took us almost exactly 2 hours. But we did burn more calories than usual because of the warm and humid weather and the fact that the trail included several steep hills! 😅
We celebrated our arrival in Fort Worth with a sumptuous Thai meal at Thai Charm Cuisine. The pictures did not do them nearly enough justice, but trust me that this was one of the most authentic Thai food we ever had outside of LA & NYC. That bowl of boat noodle soup can easily rival what you can find at a street stand in Bangkok with no question asked!
The next morning, we switched gears to Japanese with an awesome spread at Hatsuyuki Handroll Bar. Every bite was so perfectly made we were happy with just about everything we ordered. I wish we have a place like this back at home! 😔
เช้าวันรุ่งขึ้นเราสลับรางไปลองอาหารญี่ปุ่นกันดูบ้างที่ร้าน Hatsuyuki Handroll Bar ซูชิทุกคำที่สั่งมาสดอร่อย แถมยังราคาเป็นมิตร เสียดายบ้านเราไม่มีร้านอย่างนี้มั่ง 😔
After brunch, we took a tour around to get another taste of Fort Worth, no pun intended! 😉 The biggest tourist attraction is no doubt the Fort Worth Stockyards cattle drive, which is held twice a day every day, at 11:30 am and 4 pm. We got in a full-blown tourist mode and paid $5 each to ride one of the long horns. You can totally see the difference in how much Joel and I enjoyed the experience from our pictures! 🤣
หลังจากอิ่มท้องก็ได้เวลาไปเดินเที่ยวเมือง Fort Worth จุดท่องเที่ยวหลักของที่นี่ก็คือพาเหรดขบวนปศุสัตว์ที่ Fort Worth Stockyards ซึ่งเค้าจัดไว้ให้ชมกันทุกวัน วันละสองรอบ รอบเช้าเวลา 11:30 น. และรอบบ่ายเวลา 16:00 น. ระหว่างรอขบวนเราเลยถือโอกาสไปลองขี่วัวฆ่าเวลา ถ้าดูรูปใกล้ๆจะเห็นได้อย่างชัดเจนจากสีหน้าคนขี่ว่าสนุกแค่ไหน 🤣
This former livestock market area is now considered a National Historic District, with many old buildings, restaurants, bars and shops for tourists to satisfy their needs for Western wears. 🤠
Besides the Stockyards, another popular attraction is the Water Gardens, featuring cascading waterfalls that descend into a central pool. The coolest part were these concrete platforms that allow you to walk through the entire structure while enjoying the surprisingly loud 😆 hum of rushing water and occasional cool drizzles.
Our friends took us to this cool shop called Doc’s Records & Vintage. It was a warehouse stocked full of vinyl records, of course, but also an eclectic assortment of vintage treasures including magazines, clothings and other collectible items. I had a lot of fun walking around and exploring here!
After sightseeing, it was time to get back into the food scene. Our dear friends took us on a gastronomic tour where we got to sample all the best dishes Fort Worth had to offer. Seared baby octopus and roasted shishito peppers from Shinjuku Station. Fried chicken plate at Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken. And last, but not least, brisket, sausage and bacon burnt end samples, and loaded potato skins from Heim Barbecue.
จบรายการกันด้วยของกินอีกเช่นเคย เพื่อนรักที่รู้ใจของเราพาไปลองชิมอาหารจานเด็ดต่างๆของเมืองนี้ เริ่มต้นด้วย ปลาหมึกจิ๋วทอด และพริกชิชิโตะย่าง จากร้าน Shinjuku Station ไก่ทอดจากร้าน Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken และตบท้ายด้วยแซมเปิลบาร์บีคิวเนื้อ ไส้กรอก และเบคอนย่าง แกล้มด้วยเปลือกมันฝรั่งทอดที่เสิร์ฟมากับเนื้อย่างและซอสเนย จากร้าน Heim Barbecue
Weirdly Wonderful World 