It's her ears. It always has been...

It's unquestionable that Beagles' charm comes from their floppy ears. That's really what makes them special and unique. I love Sally's ears because not only are they floppy, but they also hold up when you flip them over. During this weekend, I decided to play with her floppy ears and see how many different pictures I could take with her ears. The funny thing is that she didn't even move an inch doing this game!

Cozumel, Cancun and Isla Holbox - Recap

We spent a good 8 days traveling south to Cozumel, Cancun and Isla Holbox where we dove, snorkled and drank lots of cervezas. Many of you are probably thinking to yourself "didn't they just come back from Thailand?" Well, we love to travel. For me, traveling lets me enjoy two of my passions, eating and photography. I am starting to wonder if scuba diving is becoming another reason for traveling... =)

This trip is unlike many others that Jenny and I have taken in that we really had no idea what we were going to do. Joanne did all of the trip planning and Jenny and I just joined in the last minute. We knew we would be diving in Cozy, snorkling with whale sharks in Holbox, and madly searching for a beagle named Tux in a Holbox grocery store, but that's about it. So it was a nice treat to be able to go with the flow and soak it all in without any expectation.

Kudos to Joanne and her great trip planning skills 'cause we had an awesome time. The dive shop in Cozumel was super friendly (they even gave Andy bigger air tanks because he was always the first to run out of air), the beaches in Cancun were spectacular, and our hotel in Holbox (Posada Mawimbi) was second to none. Maybe going forward, Joanne should just plan all of our trips and keep us on our toes or fins.

Since I've posted my pictures through Ofoto, I figured I'd highlight some of the pictures that I really liked during this trip.

This is the VillaBlanca Pier in Cozumel, right across the street from our hotel. We took a nice stroll to this pier after dinner. One of my favorite times to take pictures is right after sunset. The colors are just incredibly rich.

Being able to take photos under water has really allowed me to enjoy scuba diving even more. I love this shot because the fish looks like torpedoes swimming by.

One of the main reasons we went to Holbox was to snorkel with the whale sharks. It was really an amazing experience. They are the largest fish in the ocean, but luckily for us, they only eat plankton and krill. You have no idea how excited I was when this whale shark started heading towards me. After a long 2+ hour choppy boat ride search for this massive creature, and tossing over several cookies along the way, this picture has made it all worth it. This is by far the biggest sea animal I've see.

I am a huge fan of shadow shots. Every photobook that I've made, I've always end it with a shadow shot of Jenny and me holding hands entitled "love is walking hand in hand" (our wedding theme). For this coming book, it'll be this shot and the title will be "love is scootering together, street to street."

Doesn't this look like a Corona commercial? This is from Mawimbi beach where we relaxed on hammocks.

Of course, sunsets are a photographer's dream. I love the sun's gradients in this shot.

Besides pictures, we captured some videos during the trip. Here are a few highlights..


Here is a video of our night dive where our dive guide picked up an octopus and tried to show it to us.



Here is a video of the nurse shark swimming by.



Here is a video of the giant whale shark.



Here is a video of Newt performing a 360 degree flip in mid-water!




Here is a video of Jenny doing a 270 degree back-flip during her safety stop.



Here is a video of Joanne doing a backflip. She did so well until the last second.



Here is a video of us at the Columbia dive site. This dive contains mostly swim-thrus where we swim in and out of big giant boulders. You can see from the video that the guy in front of me kept kicking me with his fins 'cause it was such a tight swim-thru.



Here is a clip of me back rolling into the water. I had trouble during this entry because I lost my left fin. You'll see in the video that I was struggling and at the 18th sec of this video, you'll see my bare foot!

Filoli Garden

The weather was beautiful on Saturday and what better way to enjoy it then to visit a flower garden. We visited the Filoli Center (Fight, Love, Live) with the Chou and the Lee family. Though spring time would have been a better season for flowers, there were still plenty of pretty flowers to see.

Here are some of the pictures Andy took during our visit:

The Lo's, Lee's and Chou's.

The group was excited to find Andy who was always lagging behind.

The door knob of one of the entrance gates.

The plants were very friendly.

One of our favorite shots of the day.

Lavender garden

4th of July BBQ

One of the great American traditions that we particularly enjoy is the celebration of our Independence Day with a barbeque. This year, we invited five sets of families to join us for some good grubbing (The Lo's, The Kwan's, The Lee's, The Chou's and The Li's.) We also got a chance to celebrate Jenny's mom and Newt's mom's birthdays. Happy Birthday!

We had a wide variety of foods, from Teriyaki Salmon, Tandoori Chicken, to Korean BBQ Tri-Tip, and Peanut-Sauce Noodles. For dessert, we had fruit salad, a delicious cake and an attempt on a chocolate fountain.


After dinner, we strolled over to Leo J Ryan park to watch the Foster City Fireworks.

Newt and Joanne loading some corn onto the grill

Andy setting up his charcoal.

We almost had "Smoked Steven" for dinner.

The Big Kids' table.

The Young Adults' table.

The birthday cake for Mrs. Chou and Mrs. Lee

The mothers were pleasantly surprised.

Fireworks along the lagoon