23 May 2003 - 28 May 2003
Another gathering on the West Coast, this
time Thomas Chow is our host. Kelly & Salina drove from San
Francisco, while Teddy &
Catherine, Simon & Jamie, and Anthony & Pat drove down from
Vancouver, Canada.
Kelly & Salina live the furthest from
Portland, so they had to have a head start (left San Francisco 12:10am)
on the driving. Simon & Jamie left before noon, in time
for a round of golf upon arriving Portland. Since they knew they would
have to wait for Teddy & Catherine for dinner, they had some
snacks at Burger King along the way. Teddy and Catherine could not
leave earlier as they had to make sure no complication arise resulting
of removal of wisdom tooth of their son.
Kelly & Salina arrived around noon. The first
arriving party has the advantage of picking the guest room. The suite
features a king size
bed and private bathroom facility. After fixing a quick lunch of beef
chow fun (乾炒牛河) and a short nap afterwards, Bernardette took Kelly &
Salina for grocery shopping. By then, Tom and Bernardette had already
returned from Costco and had bought and filled a propane tank.
There
are two to three Chinese operated seafood stores along the region
of 82nd Street between Foster and Powell. The seafood pricing was very
reasonable and comparable to those in San Francisco.
Tom waited at home for Simon & Jamie's arrival. While the
grocery shoppers were deciding what to buy, Simon & Jamie joined Tom
for a round of golf upon arrival, as there is no sense to waste time.
Kelly, Salina, and Bernardette returned around
6:30pm and started on the dinner preparation. Dinner menu:
- rock cod fish head
soup w/ tofu 石狗公魚頭豆腐湯
- Dual taste of geoduck 象拔蚌兩吃
1. stir fried geoduck tail 油泡
2. spicy mix geoduck head 椒鹽
- spare ribs with bitter
melon 苦瓜排骨
- Crab with curry sauce 咖哩炒蟹
- lotus root stir fried with
Chinese sausages (pork + duck liver) 蓮藕小炒
Teddy & Catherine arrived around 9pm and dinner served upon
their arrival. After dinner, Simon and Teddy started their long waited
Karaoke contest. The rest had quite a treat by their pro-quality
singing.
Kelly & Salina were then busy preparing the sweet-bun dough for
the next morning:
12 x pineapple topping
(a.k.a. "So Pay Bau") bun 菠蘿酥皮飽
10 x cocktail filling
(a.k.a. "Guy Mei Bau") bun 雞尾飽
5 x red bean paste filling
bun 紅豆飽
All stayed up till 3am before retiring to each's bedroom. Tom and
Bernardette's kids are attending schools in California. Simon &
Jamie
took the boy's room, and Teddy & Catherine took the girl's
room. Pictures.
After having fresh-out-of-the-oven buns for
breakfast, Tom gave a tour of the neighborhood include the dock along
the Willamette
River bank. Afterwards, the gang took 2 cars (thanks to Teddy and Tom
for the driving) to visit the nearby Columbia River Gorge.
According to geologists, erupting volcanoes, rivers of lava, tortured
upheavals of earth, raging floods, and massive landslides over
the past 40 million years created the Columbia River Gorge. First stop:
Crown Point State Park (Vista House) after passing Lewis and
Clark State Park off I-84. The towering cliffs, cascading waterfalls,
and panoramic vistas bring millions of visitors annually there.
One has to be there to appreciate the breath-taking view above the
gorge. Next stop: the fabulous Multnomah Falls, a very popular
tourist site. So popular that the parking area was full. Kelly and
Salina took a quick hike up to the cross-bridge to enjoy the magnificent
view of the river.
After the Gorge visit, all had lunch at Golden
Ocean Restaurant, compliment of Simon. With body energy fully charged,
the gang drove
south to Woodburn Outlet Mall for some tax-free shopping. Tom, Simon,
and Jamie left around 5pm to meet Anthony and Pat, who were
arriving for their first golf swing. While the golfers enjoying
their time on the green, the rest continued their shopping quest at the
outlet mall and later at Frys Electronics.
The two parties converged again around 8:30pm at
Golden Ocean Restaurant for dinner. Post dinner Karaoke took place as
soon as
the gang made it back to Tom's house. Thanks to Catherine, the gang had
green bean soup for dessert. The Karaoke singing and partying
concluded around 2am. Tom's exercise room temporary converted to a
sleeping quarter for Anthony & Pat. Pictures.
All enjoyed a traditional Chinese breakfast:
- pork and thousand yr egg
congee 皮蛋瘦肉粥
- stir fried rice flour
rolls 煎腸粉
- chow mein with yellow
chives 豉油皇炒麵
Tom showed us his Wah Yan collections:
- 1968-1971 Star's
- Wah Yan blazer
- a file binder
- a Golden Jubilee tote bag
Simon was the model putting on quite a show for
trying on the blazer as he is the most fit (in terms of body dimension)
person among
all the guys.
After breakfast, the gang split up into 3
parties: The Chows, Chengs, and Laus headed for the golf course. The
Tams headed to Frys and
Woodburn outlet mall to continue their tax-free shopping quest. The
Changs drove downtown to do grocery shopping for the evening's
9-course seafood dinner finale.
- half-shell oysters (2 dozens) 帶殼生蠔
配 雞尾笳醬, Tobasco Sauce
- sea weed salad, jelly fish, and mini-octopus
appetizer plate 錦繡拼盤: 海蜇, 迷你八爪魚, 海帶絲
- stir-fry cuttle fish with greens 碧綠花枝片
- mushroom and pike maw soup with yellow chives 海皇魚肚羹
- lobster served wonton noodles 龍蝦生麵
- sautéed abalone, sea cucumber and mushroom
鮑魚海参冬菇
- scallop and straw + dark mushroom over bean spouts 瑤柱扒豆苗
- streamed rock cod (2-1/4 lb) 清蒸海上鮮(石班)
- crab meat yee-mein 蟹肉乾燒伊麵
The Changs returned around 2:30pm and started the
food preparation. The Tams had a great time shopping and returned around
4:30pm. Catherine spent the next hour or so cleaning and preparing the
half-shell oysters. The golfers enjoyed their afternoon at
the club house for coffee/tea in addition on the green. They returned
around 5:30pm in time for the dinner.
Dinner served around 5:45pm! Due to request from
some meat eaters, the left over from yesterday's spare-rib with bitter
melon
(苦瓜排骨) was added to make a 10-course meal.
After a photo session, it was around 7:30pm. The
Chengs and Laus packed up their belongings, waved goodbye and headed
back to Vancouver. The Tams were going to leave with their
Vancouverites, but Catherine convinced Teddy over dinner that
it would not be very healthy to drive for 6 hours with stomach
full. Salina, Catherine, Bernardette, and Teddy spent the next
hour on dish washing and other cleanup tasks. Tom was busy
catching up his emails and chatting with his kids. Teddy could not
wait to start playing with his new electronic toy -- Linksys Wireless
Access Point and Wireless PCMCIA for his laptop. Kelly
was busy making won tons for a future meal. Pictures.
During breakfast, Tom suggested due to rainy
weather forecast and small craft advisory, crabbing would not be
possible.
A convoy made up of 2 cars started heading west towards the Oregon
coast. First stop: Nike Factory Store
at Seaside. The gang continued their tax-free shopping fun. Then the
shopping stays alive at a near by outlet mall, until the point that
everyone's stomach was grinding. A few sprinkles falling from the sky,
but the gang was optimistic that Kelly & Salina's
presence would keep the rain away. After a short drive from
Seaside to Astoria, the gang arrived at the marina where
Tom's 25-ft yacht is docked.
All were starved from the long drive and
shopping, the gang had their "finger licking good" KFC chicken meal on
board Dana2.
Tom got busy setting up the boat and Bernardette helped on the rest of
the boating procedures, while the curious and excited
Changs and Tams looked on.
Prior to departure, safety briefing was
given to all passengers: location of life vests and procedures to follow
in the event of emergency. Verrooooooommm! At the touch of a button, the
engine started instantly by Captain Tom. With the help of Bernardette,
Dana2
slowly made her way out of the dock and the marina. After passed under
the Oregon Coast Hwy bridge, Dana2 gradually picked
up speed heading northwest and turned east upon reaching Columbia
River. Captain Tom also brought the yacht close to a couple
buoys where sea lions call home. After a close watch of sea lions,
Captain Tom turned west towards the ocean. The Changs and
Tams all took turn posing in the captain's seat. After setting cruise
speed of 9 knots with westerly (225 ~ 235) heading, he put
on his tour guide hat explaining marine life and different tide
characteristics. The weather was cooperating. Even the slight rain
encountered at the outlet mall decided to take an afternoon break.
Besides, there was hardly any wind along the river.
Kelly enjoyed the opportunity to be at the wheel
for about an hour. Captain Tom showed Kelly some of his hi-tech
navigation
gear (e.g. GPS), but Kelly preferred to relying on the basic
dead-reckoning technique: compass heading, fixed reference points, and
his pair of eyes looking out of the window. About reaching the edge of
Pacific Ocean, Dana2 made an U-turn back to Astoria.
Captain Tom took control over when approaching the marina. After some
careful negotiation inside the marina, Dana2 returned to
her docking spot around 6pm. Teddy and Catherine had a long drive home
ahead. They thanked the Chows for such a wonderful treat
on Dana2 and waved goodbye. As soon as the Tams hopped into their
mini-van, rain started to come down! The Changs kept the
Chows company while Tom & Bernardette carried out the post-boating
procedures.
All enjoyed a memorable river cruise. Thank you
Tom & Bernardette! Simon and Anthony, you guys missed out big time!!! Pictures.
After a brief breakfast in the morning, Tom &
Bernardette had to take care of their business. Kelly & Salina drove
to the
nearby Columbia Gorge to pay the magnificent natural beauty another
visit. First stop was the most popular Multnomah Falls. The Changs
hiked up the 1.0 mile trail from the base to the top of the fall. The
weather was again perfect, very little sun and a light breeze made
the climb relatively pleasant. The view was just fabulous: the river
and the mountains in Washington. On the way up, a plus-size lady
required some medical attention. After some treatment by two rangers,
she seemed to be doing fine, perhaps just short of breath.
About 1 hour of climb, the Chang made to the view point overlooking the
Multnomah Creek water flowing underneath to a point
of no return: down the 800~1000 ft cliff . The hike down took about 23
minutes. The best of all, the trail was pretty much empty
which made the hike less stressful.
After a brief break and a hot dog (they ran out
of polish dogs, dawn!) snack at the deli shop, Kelly and Salina drove to
Horsetail Falls
for a short hike. Then on to Wahkeena Falls for another hike. Due to
short of time, this last hike of 0.2 miles was only to the cross-bridge
before heading downhill and driving back to Tom's house for dinner. Tom
and Bernardette were still busy taking care of business
at their office in Tigard. The Changs took a short nap inside their
garage as the door into the house was locked.
Instead of going to have dinner at the nearby
McDonalds, the Chows and Changs decided to stay home and had a simple
won ton
noodle (雲吞麵) and vegetable (蠔油菜心). After dinner, it
was time for the Changs to pack their stuff and start loading onto their
Focus. Tom was so
nice to let the Changs had the opportunity to enjoy "behind the wheel
of a Corvette" experience. A short fuel stop at Woodburn exit,
non-stop drive from Portland to Ashland. It was 11pm by the time they
checked into a Best Western Motel there. Pictures.
After a light continental breakfast at the motel
(not bad, at least better than the complimentary breakfast at a motel in
Hanover, NH about a month ago), Kelly & Salina loaded up their Focus
and continued their journey south towards California around 10am. A
couple hours
later, the beautiful Mt. Shasta came into view. Unfortunately, due to
lack of time, visit to this popular scenic site has to take a rain
check.
They made it home around 4pm. Pictures.