Adam & Charlene

Red Door Animal Shelter

2009-01-21T14:44:00.003-05:00

www.reddoorshelter.org/

We are starting to volunteer
at this shelter b/c we love
all the cats!

Our first day was Saturday...

Ready to explode

2009-01-16T12:22:00.001-05:00

(x-posted on my art blog...)

here is some new, in progress work from the last 3 weeks...

happy holidays!

2008-12-26T10:47:00.004-05:00

Happy Holidays everyone!

Charlene and I had a great
pre-holiday visit from Korwin
and Kelly Smith and Becca Cressel.
(We hoped they would get snowed in
leaving on xmas eve and all, but
only every other flight was canceled,
and not theirs!!!)

We gave them the winter Chicago
tour and enjoyed our evenings
in away from the 3 degree temps
and swirling snow.

Yes, Char and I are spending xmas and
new years alone, but with all our
friends and family in our thoughts.

all the best to all of you!

new paintings

2008-12-09T17:05:00.000-05:00

I just posted two new paintings on my art blog

www.adamfung.blogspot.com

Lakes

2008-12-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I forget we live just a few
blocks from one of the largest fresh
water lakes in the world.

In fact, if you combine Lake Superior
and Lake Michigan, as some lists do,
because:

Lake Michigan and Lake Huron form one
hydrological unit; their surfaces are
at the same elevation, and the water
flows in either direction in the
channel separating them.

Then we technically live next to the
world's largest body of fresh water.
Ok, Lake Michigan does drop to number four
on the list if you divide them up, which
is what I think I'll do from now on.

Another interesting fact for you Lake junkies,
8 of the top 12 Lakes are in Canada and the US.
We're Lake crazy up here in North America!

Anyways, I walked down to the beach this morning
and took some pictures. They are below. Its
a wonderful vista, the closest, largest, natural
thing we have in the part of the country to the
mountains in the west. The lake vista is calming
and meditative - I think I'll head down there more.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-03T14:04:00.005-05:00

We made the 10hr trek up to the far far
north of MN, Ely. The main attraction was
Wendy and Ryan's famous turkey dinner, meeting
the new penguin in the family-Molly and seeing
our almost-eskimo-friends.

Oh, and the opportunity to get Mukluks at
the local store!

Spain FOTOS!

2008-11-28T00:35:00.005-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm finally getting
around to posting the
Spain fotos, no small
feat let me tell ya'.
By that I mean, sifting
through over 3,000 pics
(between Korwin and I)
to bring you the best of
Espana took some serious
editing. Be thankful!

So click on the link below to get to
our Picasa Album!

winter seasons autumn end.

2008-11-17T14:10:00.004-05:00

The beginning is always so exciting.

A crispness in the air, that feels clean
and shocking.

Surprising snowflakes falling out of the blue.

Feeling bigger then normal because of the new
jackets and layers.

Best of all, getting to visiting friends and
have friends visit for the holidays!

Check back late Feb. for the flip side, the winter
too long blues :o)

We are there!

2008-11-05T11:18:00.005-05:00

We are there. Victory.

Our next president spoke:

"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer."

After enduring a way too long election cycle
Charlene and I jumped for joy with about 124,998
other people in Chicago's Grant Park last night
when it was announced we would have a new, hopeful,
intelligent leader of our country to replace the old
worn out tired bumbling genius that is George Bush.

(we are there, at about the tall fuzzy american flag in the background)

Seriously, it was amazing to be at ground zero last night, witnessing a
euphoric crowd that I truly thought symbolized the "real America",
multi cultural, hopeful, intelligent and wanting to be a better country. Oh,
and not wasting a chance, vendors selling necklaces, shirts, buttons, stuffed democrat donkeys, all emblazoned with our new pop star, who happens to be our next president!

Everywhere you looked it was a crowd of young, old, black white, everything.
We talked to two Italians that were standing next to us, Charlene and the
woman who both couldn't vote but had waded through thousands of people to
stand for hours to see the Obama victory. We saw people crying, lots of
digital documentation, and amazingly calm crowd control.

My legs ached, my body was drained from millions of internet election stories,
walking door to door in NW Indiana trying to squeeze out every single vote and
the roller coaster of emotions from being involved with a major turn in the road
map of history. As our train chugged north back to Rogers Park last night I
was able to let out a simple sigh of relief.

It felt good and I said to myself we are there, the place we've been working
for and imagining and wanting for way too long.

Photo Tour : our new home

2008-10-26T17:36:00.014-04:00

This is our new home, 1669 W. Farwell Ave. #1N Chicago, IL

Enter into the living room

Looking into the kitchen from the living room

The kitchen bar and dining room to the left

The dining room

Bathroom (from Dining room, also connects to our bedroom)

Master bedroom

Kitchen, door to deck

View from our deck into neighbors yard

Stairs to lower level

Base of stairs, guest room to right, studio/bdrm 3 to left

Guest room

Guestroom bathroom

Studio, north end

Studio, south end

Espana II

2008-10-24T09:36:00.006-04:00

Well, I kinda fell off the blog bandwagon over the summer
and on our trip I only managed one post! Disappointing huh?

Here is the rest o' Espana that I left off...

From Almeria we headed up the southern coast basking in
the sun drenched Mediterenean, snorkeling, swimming and
of course out door tapas dining. We stopped in little
white-washed towns like Mojacar and then wove our way
up the coast to Valencia where we ate a gigantic paella
and saw an amazing futuristic science and arts complex,
looked like space ships had landed in the middle of this
port town. From Valencia we scooted into Barcelona, my
lasting impressions were the Gaudi architecture and a magical
light, music and water show at the fountains in front of the
royal palace. From Barcelona we trekked into the depths of
the Pyrenees. Not very many towns can match Torla for its
"idyllic, on the side of the hill, in the shadow of huge mtns
with picturesque stone houses and rustic restaurants". We
hiked abandoned old towns, green valleys and alpine vistas
in our few days in Torla. After brief stops in Jaca (for the
pastries) and Pamplona (no bulls) we found ourselves in the
Basque area of Espana - it's capital, Bilboa. Bilboa is a
wonderful example of how art can really turn around a city.
The Bilboa Guggenhiem put this city on the map and it never
looked back. It was one of my favorite cities, maybe only
after Granada. The food was great and the Guggenheim was
an incredible place to look at art. One night in Burgos
and then we were back in Madrid (after a shockingly quick
outlet shopping stop- Camper shoe outlet!!). The Smiths
left the next morning and Charlene and I wandered Madrid
the next few days, lovely squares, the Prado, lots of Churros
and then we flew back to our new home in Chicago- oh after a
unplanned night over in the lovely Cleavland airport area-
talk about culture shock!!!!!

I will post pics on my picassa album once I whittle down the
2,000 plus. But it promises to be an eclectic assortment, just
like our experiences across the Iberian peninsula!

ESPANA !

2008-09-15T12:08:00.002-04:00

We are on the road in Espana.

Hang on here we go...

Charlene and I flew into Madrid
on Tuesday AM, our travelin´mates
picked us up at the airport in our
rented car and we took off to Ubeda.
We stayed the night in Ubeda, a small
Spainish town amidst the olive trees,
walked lots of cobblestone streets and
enjoyed our first round of tapas. The
next morning we hit the road for Cordoba,
where we saw the mezquita, a cathedral
turned mosque turned cathedral. After lunch
we were again on our way to Sevilla, a dense
urban center with an engaging mix of old and
new. We drove (well Korwin drove) the barely
one car thick lanes and tried and tried to get
to our hostel, finally parking and making our
way through the labrynth of the city centre to
our beds for the night. We toured Sevilla the
next day, shopping, eating, flamenco watchin´
and royal castle visiting. An early start, jump
started by a quick caffe con leche, the next morning
found us in Jarez ,
a sherry and brandy making center where we toured
the wineries and walked our way around plazas, winding
streets and basked in the near coastal sun. Onward
to Cadiz, a city that juts into the Atlantic, we found
lodging at the local parador ( state run historic hotels
often in old castles), we looked out of our rooms to see
the blue blue sea, ate lots of fried fish, and wandered the
squares and lovely beaches.

Resting up for a big drive the next day we headed
to Granada, via the coastal roads and severely rising mountains.
Gibralter rose into our horizons and we literally scraped our
way up the crazy roads to see monkeys, old bunkers, precipes
and find ourselves in a British coloney. The brief detour
yielded again to the road, we rose from our new friend the
Mediterrean Sea level into the dry low mountains that sheild
Granada from the sea. We stumbled into our hostel here in
Granada yesterday evening, stocked up on dinner and rose
early, pre dawn, for a magical visit to the Alhambra, an amazing,
sprawling,beautiful palace and castle layered with Moorish and
Spanish and British history. A deep breath and a siesta were in
order and now we´ll search our the Morroccon side of town and some
graffitti artists enclaves before visiting a neighborhood that also
has cave dwellings.

Whew!

Tomorrow we head to the beach, near Almiria, on the Mediterrean. We´ll be there resting up and planning out the next couple
weeks of our trip.

Things are happening

2008-09-02T16:15:00.003-04:00

This is "the" week.

We are hoping to close the deal
on our new condo in Chicago on
Friday the 5th.

Then we'll move all our possessions
(minus a couple of cats who will be
vacationing at a neighbors apartment
in South Bend), 90% of which are nicely
boxed and stacked in our living room right
now, on the 6th and 7th.

Monday morning we'll catch a flight
out of South Bend to Madrid, Spain
to meet up with our traveling partners
of Thailand fame, the Smiths of Seattle.

It's been a hard workin', busy, sunny summer.
This is like the final sprint of a marathon...
grueling but that finish line is oh so close.

If we don't collapse from excitement/exhaustion,
next week you'll see a few posts here from our
road trip around the wonderful country of Spain!

Our bags are packed ... again.

Summer timezzzz UPdates!

2008-08-01T10:33:00.004-04:00

Charlene and I have been off the blogging for a while.

Thats about to change. Cuz' we're done with our summer
naps and ready to make some moves.

Literally.

We trekked down to TEXAS for a Ross family reunion
in between San Antonio and Austin (we visited both
cities as well)- which was very relaxing and warm!

We've solidified our travel plans with the westcoast
Smiths (Kelly and Korwin). We're headed to Spain,
September 8th-Oct.1st. Our plan is to roadtrip the entire
sun-and-tapas-filled country. (I love saying tapas!)

Charlene just accepted a new job in Chicago for October.

We are also in the process of closing on a condo in Chicago's
far-north side. 6 blocks to the beach, parks, Evanston,
lots of authentic Mexican groceries/eateries, and about
a 22 minute train ride to down town our new place will
come fully loaded with a guest room, in house studio
for Adam's painting endeavors, exposed brick and lots
of other lovely perks.

1669 W. Farwell Ave. Chicago, IL, 60626

Here are some pics from other units in da' building:

Our unit will span two floors but is all two-by-fours and dust right now,
so here's hoping they can build it all out by our due date! Essentially
it's a vintage shell with totally new insides.

Thats "all" for now, a power packed update if you ax me, but check
back for more consistent updates in the weeks to come!

Workin' hard here in South Bend

2008-05-10T12:03:00.001-04:00

Sometimes you just need a power nap!

Good Design

2008-05-01T09:34:00.004-04:00

Just received my new laptop, it looks like this:

I have always been a Mac admirer but never owned one.
Mainly b/c I had access through my Universities to
Mac labs, but with graduation looming in a couple of
weeks I thought it was a good time to get my own set
up.

The bottom line is that these are well designed, intuitive
and perhaps to some- most importantly- pretty attractive
looking machines!

Art Chicago Paintings

2008-04-19T18:15:00.003-04:00

I don't usually mix in the art side of things here on
the Adam + Charlene blog, but I thought I'd post these
here instead of my usual art blog- since the images will
go up on my portfolio page soon anyways. Not to mention
painting has been all I've done in the last 9 months!

These are four small paintings I just finished for Art
Chicago, which is a few giant floors of international
galleries - each with a booth.

It was refreshing to scale down from five feet square to
a nice 12 x 12 inches!

1. Shroud, 11 x 14 inches, Oil on Panel, 2008

2. Break up, 12 x 12 inches, Oil on Panel, 2008

3. Presence, 11 x 14 inches, Oil on Panel, 2008

4. Hidden, 12 x 12 inches, Oil on Panel, 2008

View from the Dogsled (by Charlene)

2008-01-25T10:18:00.000-05:00

In the freezing temperatures that can be found in Ely, we decided to end the year with a day of dogsledding. The Lindsay’s bundled up their city folk (Kelly, Korwin, Adam and I) and we headed off to the local dogsleddery.

In the span of a few hours we became somewhat-competent dog assistants. We helped get approximately 50 dogs from a yard into small cages on the transport truck. Then we assisted to get the dogs off the truck, safely into their harnesses and finally linked into their respective places as part of their dog teams. If you have any familiarity with a large group of dogs, you may begin to imagine the barking frenzy that this experience was. The only time the dogs stopped barking was when they were running. In that silence, we flew over miles of trails, watching the snow covered trees pass overhead. It was beautiful and the dogs were amazing.

Our team was made up of 7 dogs. At the front we had two lead dogs, followed by a solo dog, another team of two, then the steering pair closest to the sled. The sled could take 2 people. One passenger sat on the sled, zipped up in a sleeping bag and canopy while the driver stood on the back of the sled. The driver was in charge of steering the team and giving the dogs verbal commands including “hike” to go and “wooooooaaa” to slow and stop.

With a little sunshine, a warm lunch, great friends and a dog team that was super-crazy-insane-excited about running through the woods, it was a remarkable last day of the year.

The Holidays

2007-12-24T14:08:00.000-05:00

Happy Holidays to everyone and our fellow bloggers!

Charlene and I are in South Bend for Xmas with Charlene's
parents, Donald and Jennifer Fung. Then we'll head up to
Ely, MN to spend New Years with our friends Ryan and Wendy
Lindsay as well as the Smiths from Seattle.

What are you doing???

I am back from Antarctica, with about 500 pictures
in hand. So I'll slowly be going through and editing
them and eventually posting. For now, here are a few:

new camera

2007-11-21T10:19:00.000-05:00

I just purchased a new Digital SLR camera.
I needed something heavy duty enough for
documenting my artwork and for my trip to
Antarctica. I leave Dec. 7th, two weeks from
today! It's a Canon 40D. I started out
taking some shots of the elusive house
cat:

Cutting Edge(Korwin, I see your ridiculousness and raise you...)

2007-10-03T08:22:00.000-04:00

So I thought if Korwin gets to post about
his shoe purchase,we all should. Here's my
ridiculous shoe post. - Adam Fung

Since Charlene has had a few days off in
between jobs she has been roving about
South Bend's shopping areas often calling
me for opinions on domestic items..this
call was about shoes though. I had been
looking for a store to buy my annual pair
of Adidas Samba's - to no avail.

The Samba's are great because they are extremly durable,
slightly sophisticated and you can still do stuff in them,
like play soccer. So I thought this call from Char was
about the Samba's. She had finally found them...no. But-
she did find a pait of shoes she liked AND they were having
a sale- buy one get one half off! So I hurried on over to
the store and after some serious browsing I found these guys:

Now, these Puma 5000m's are way more outspoken and spikey then
the usual Samba's. But they are comfortable, lowcut and if there
is ever a need- I've got spikes on my feet. And ya'know, since
I got them so cheap (50% off of the CLEARANCE price) I think I'll
still get my Samba's.

A West Coast Wedding

2007-09-03T14:10:00.000-04:00

I just got home from my quick trip to the west for my pal, Krista’s wedding.
She married a Kiwi, Tim Plews and will be living in New Zealand with him.
The bride, groom and wedding were beautiful!

I was lucky enough to squeeze in some quick visits with
my parents, my parents-in-law and some friends.
I never feel like I have enough time
but what’s that saying about having fun?
Home made dinners, exploring new homes, girls nights,
karaoke, great ethnic food and getting excited for a
friends wedding definitely makes the time fly by.

I haven't lived in the West for a couple of years
but part of me always feels like I'm leaving home
when I step onto the plane leaving the coast.

We tried it raw

2007-08-27T20:49:00.001-04:00

I’ve been seeing information about raw foodism in health books in the last few years. The general idea is that a raw food diet consists only of food, which have not been heated above 38 degrees Celsius. The reason for this is because heating food to a higher temperature, will start to break down and destroy important enzymes, vitamins and minerals that are in the food.

I got an amazing recipe book by Carol Alt called ‘the RAW 50’ and convinced our friends, the Methods, to join us in making a totally raw food meal. I am happy to say that we did not eat a bowl of salad. Instead we had a red pepper curry soup, broccoli cheddar cannelloni, and quintessence vanilla pudding with fresh berries.

Some direct quotes from the table:

Sara ‘this ain’t like mama’s pudding, folks’
Derrick ‘cannelloni…..bologna’
Char: these flavors are amazing
Adam: “ it feels like a lot of fiber “

The group consensus is that we enjoyed our meal. Yes, we plan to do it again soon but are not considering becoming raw foodies yet. To anyone considering this switch…it’s good to know that sashimi is a raw food!

Over Everything

2007-08-22T20:45:00.001-04:00

Adam and I wanted to share a picture of our new painting.
We were exploring the Ukrainian district of Chicago
with our friend April, who just moved to the city.
Right across from her apartment,
we found a painting studio with a closed sign but
the door was open and a passing man told us to
'go right in....Quang loves company when he paints'.
We were quickly introduced to Quang
who was painting several pieces on the floor of his gallery
space/studio/living space. I really liked some of his work and we
decided to buy 'Over Everything'. You can check out his website:
www.quanghong.com

Year 2 Anniversary

2007-08-12T22:24:00.001-04:00

Char and I recently celebrated our 2nd year
of marriage (July 30th to be exact).

To mark the day we decided to try a local restaurant
that had rave reviews... " Yesterdays ".

It was a tasty dinner: some baked brie, huge slabs
of steak and a gigantic chocolate soaked cake dessert.

Oh, did I mention that they sung to us? Yes, the
widely popular "happy anniversary .. to you " song.
Doesn't ring a bell ? Imagine, "happy birthday" with
a few key words changed...same tune of course. Doesn't
get better then that does it? Wait a sec, I almost
forgot, they insist you wear very strange hats while
the sing to you! The food was terrific
and we won't forget the evening!

McCormick Painting/Commission.

2007-08-05T15:28:00.000-04:00

I was commissioned to do a small piece by a friend.
They really liked my "boat" series and my "iceberg"
series; so they asked if I could do both? I gave it
a try and this is the result. I've titled this piece
"Encounter". (click to enlarge)

we like hockey

2007-08-01T22:36:00.000-04:00

Char has been meaning to post this pic
for a long time. We are looking forward
to getting back into roller hockey once
the ND people get back in September...

(thanks to Don Ross for the protective
Birthday present, Char's itching to get
back in the rink)

Elkhart County 4-H Fair.

2007-07-23T20:27:00.000-04:00

With our friends Sara and Derrick Method as guides we went
to the Elkhart County Fair because we thought we needed to
raise our cholesterol levels by 2000%. It was a beautiful sunny
Northern Indiana day and we beat the crowds on "free Sunday".

Charlene and I started out by having a 1/3 lb burger from one of the
local groups that sells food to raise money. Although dwarfed
in size when on the grill next to the famous "Pounder" patty
it did not disappoint.Char came back with a pile of curly fries
that we also devoured. Barely 120% full we decided that our
inaugural Deep-Fried Snickers Bar was in order.

To work up an appetite for some ice cream we walked vigorously
through the animal barns. Sheep, Goats, Llamas, Beef cow, Dairy
cow, ducks, chickens, Rabbits, you name it on the farm we seen
it! After some strawberry vanilla swirl ice cream from the Dairy Bar
we continued our trek through the rides and commercial building
(a perfect place to purchase any home improvement service or
massaging device). Some frozen lemonade quenched our thirst at
we rounded the corner to get our bag of mini-donuts and since derrick
couldn't finish his foot-long corn dog we helped out with that.
All set to leave the Fair we paused, we had missed something...
what was it? Oh- an enormous Elephant Ear slathered in cinnamon
sugar and powdered sugar.

Only an annoying couple who wouldn't stop calling Derrick "Dave"
b/c he looked like there son, saved us from more culinary treats.
We had to leave. And so we rolled on out to the parking lot....
and into the sunset.

((Pictures on our Picasa Album - link on the left))

Back in Southie.

2007-07-20T09:36:00.000-04:00

Getting used to "regular" life again.
It's been nice actually- to wake up in
you own bed, after a couple of months on
the road, seems reallll comforting.

Char is back at work and I have been
prepping (filling nail holes and applying
a prime coat of paint) my 5 x 5 foot panels.
I have to do 11 of them, so hopefully I'll
start painting in about a week.

Meanwhile- I've made some changes on the blog
here. Check'em out. I also started a Picasa
web album for all our photos. It's a lot easier
to upload them there then on the blog. So in the
future I'll probably put a post here with a sample
photo and then upload the majority of our photos
on Picasa (link on the left).

We are going to the Elkhart County Fair this saturday
so look out for some animal pictures! haha.

Bangkok-Hong Kong-LA-Chicago-South Bend.

2007-07-13T09:36:00.000-04:00

After the longest Thursday ever, we are home.
We left Bangkok at 830am on Thursday the 12th
of July. Crossing the international date line
kept us in the "same" day- despite over 20 hours
of flying! We had the priveledge of being picked
up at the airport by our friends Valerie, Sean and
Koral. Val had our car so we then drove the 2 hours
back to South Bend, arriving at about 1am Eastern Time.

Charlene and I had a wonderful trip but I think being
back in our own "space" energized us - and seeing our
cats still alive and well was exciting as well- because
we started looking through our mail, showering, playing
with the cats, etc! Anyways, I am about to upload all our
pics and then will update the blog as well as creating a
online album somewhere!

Thanks for following along...

Goodbye Koh Samui.

2007-07-09T22:16:00.000-04:00

Well it is time to say goodbye to
Samui. We've had a great 5-6 days
here (island time kinda melts the
days together). Last night we went
out to a Brazilian steak house-all
you can eat- so we were stuffed full
of tons of different meats!

We have been busy getting the finishing
touchs on our tailored clothing (shirts
and suits for me!), scootering around the
island, seeing waterfalls, kyaking trips
to the nearby Marine National Park, and
generally enjoying ourselves...haven't been
able to upload pictures so that might have
to wait a few days - b/c we'll be home by
Friday!! Crazy to think our journey is almost
done.

We will be in transit to Surat Thani this evening
by ferry and then we fly to Bangkok Weds AM.

Samui, Thailand.

2007-07-06T00:21:00.000-04:00

So we've reached the last week of our almost
two month journey around "Australasia". Yesterday
we flew from Bangkok to Surat Thani, which is on
the southeast pennisula of Thailand. Then we took
a bus to a ferry that took us to Koh Samui ( 5 hours
total travel time from Bangkok airport to our place
we are staying...at.).

Koh Samui is an island in the gulf of Thailand. After
the Tsunami that hit Phuket the growth in Samui accelerated
greatly and now is a major tourist destination. So there are
tons of nice resorts mixed in with smaller Bungalow type
operations. We managed to find a sweet deal though, a group
of houses that are owned by Europeans as vacation homes
which in absentee they rent out. So now we (korwin, kelly, charlene
and I) have a big aircon'd house with a pool, restuarant, beach, etc.
just down the path! We are on Lamai beach (Hat Lamai).

Today we are going to continue to enjoy the lovely ( a good
breeze is nice for the humidity) weather and probably
scooter around the island- trying to decided when we'll
get our tailored clothes made, go snorkling, go kyaking,
find waterfalls to swim in, eat lobster on the beach or
maybe eat gigantic prawns (the size of small cats!), or,
ok, i'll stop there. It's the last week of our vacation
so I'm sure we're going to splurge a bit :o)

Pictures up, soon as when we get'em!

Trekking in Northern Thailand.

2007-07-03T06:42:00.000-04:00

For the last 3 days we've been trekking in the mountains
of N. Thailand. It was really amazing; waterfalls, dense
jungle, hillside villages, water buffalo, bamboo rafting,
elephant riding and even a cave thrown into the mix; BUT
we got really sick (korwin,kelly, char and I) the first
night, so we were fighting food poisoning the last 2 days!

We are all almost recovered now, but our stomachs still feel
funny and the smell of food is not as tempting as before the
bouts of well, puking and squat toilets,etc!

Chiang Mai, northern Thailand.

2007-06-30T21:55:00.000-04:00

After meeting up with korwin and kelly in Bangkok
we took the night train to Chiang Mai (12-14 hours).

We are staying at the Libra Guesthouse. They are great
hosts here, helping us book a trek, giving us directions
around the city and cooking us wonderful food.

Chiang Mai is a really old city, in the past it was kinda
laid out like a castle, so there is a old city wall inside
a moat that surround the old city. We rented scooters and
drove around the chaos that is the city. Driving scooters
is amazing, but also a challenge in Thai traffic! After
negotiating the city we headed out to Doi Suthep, a larger
peak with a Wat (temple) overlooking the city (about 16 km
outside the city). It was exhilleratiing driving scooters up
a huge mountain and even more so coasting the whole way down!

Later in the day we went to the "Saturday Market", which was one
of the best markets we've been to (and we've been to a lot!). After
a brief rest at our guest house we went back out to the big night bazaar.

We are literally leaving for our guided trek in a few minutes...3 days,
2 nights in northern Thailand's jungle. We will be doing bamboo rafting,
elephant trekking, hiking, and seeing/staying in local villages. They carry
most everything for you and cook you meals, etc, so we are very excited about
that!!!

Can't wait to post pictures and give more details, but we are off!

Back in Bangkok...

2007-06-28T22:23:00.000-04:00

Charlene and I went to an Elephant Conservation Camp
on Koh Chang yesterday. It was a great experience: we
got to bathe the elephants in a deep swimming hole,
ride them through the jungle and feed them. The elephants
were really gentle and it was amazing to get up close
to such huge animals! Our elephant was 47 years old, about
middle age for an asian elephant and her name was "shirley".

After the elephant camp we caught a ferry to Laem Ngop and
then a truck taxi to Trat and then a Bus to Bangkok. Was about
7 hours total travel time...good actually b/c we hit everything
right on departure time.

We stayed last night near Khao San, the big backpackers area in
Bangkok and today we are just going to wander around for the AM
until we meet our Seattle friends, Korwin and Kelly Smith. We'll
be travelling with Mr. and Mrs. Smith for the next two weeks- to
Chang Mai in the north and then to Koh Samui which is an island
in the southwest gulf. Now that you all have your maps out :o) we'll
be taking the overnight train (2nd class sleeper car, aircon) to Chaing
Mai tonight from Hualampong Station in Bangkok!

Will update pictures ASAP. Hope all is well in your part ~~of the world!~~

Koh Chang, Thailand.

2007-06-26T00:56:00.001-04:00
We've spent the last few days here on Koh Chang,
located on the southeastern side of the Gulf of
Thailand. Koh Chang is an island and national park.
Great beaches, lots of Bungalows and small restuarants.
We are planning on doing an Elephant trek/day and some
mopeding around the island. Right now its raining like
crazy!!!

We have a front row seat to the weather though, since our
small Bungalow is literally just above high tide on the beach!

All for now...more soon.

Bangkok, Thailand.

2007-06-23T00:40:00.000-04:00
Charlene and I made it into Bangkok from Perth (about a 9 hr. flight).

Bangkok is a crazy, chaotic city. Much more sprawling
and jumbled then I imagined. After being in Tokyo last
year I thought I would be prepared for this Asian city-
but it's much more raw then Tokyo.

We spent our first day traveling by river to some
historical sites, really the best was the 'Reclining
Buddha- a super huge, super long golden Buddha in Wat
Pho. The Chao Phraya river is a hub of transport and
hotels and markets and ... lots of stuff. So it was
a good introduction to Bangkok.

We hit Khao San, the backpackers street where you can
get anything and everything. Then we went to the shopping
district (think Times Square, Shibuya, Magnificent Mile,etc).
There is this HUGE mall called MBK which is all Asian stores
(although they cater to some tourists) which we wandered through
for hours. In the same vicinity there are more Western style malls
as well. We met some Australians in MBK and then as we were leaving
on the Sky train they were sitting right next to us! So we tagged
along with them to this night market called Patpong.

Patpong is the place to haggle with people. You can barter in some
other stores and usually in the markets but Patpong is fierce-b/c
there is bascially a million stalls selling really similar goods the
competition leads to very "flexible" prices. We watched as our new
friend Jess bought fake bags, watches etc, usually getting a 50%
discount from the initial offering...

We collapsed back at our hotel, the Bossotel, that night. It was
a great location, near the sky train, tiver transport and not to far
from most things by taxi. The next day we met up with a friend from
Canada who is living in Thailand/Bangkok for now. Lynlee met us at
the Chatachuk Weekend market- which is GIGANTIC!!! We spent the
afternoon there wandering around all the stalls (sweating alot) and
then went to the tallest tower in Bangkok to get some 360 views of
the sprawling metropolis. After a Thai massage and an Indian dinner
we part ways.

We crashed again at our hotel after a pit stop at the always convenient
7-11 (they are EVERYwhere) for icecream and water and snacks!

Perth, Western Australia.

2007-06-20T00:39:00.000-04:00
We've spent the last week here in Perth
with Charlene's brother's family.
Leo and Anne as well as the two kids-
Jessica (4 and a half) and Oakley
(2 and half); have been wonderful hosts.

We've explored Perth and it's parks,
Fremantle, some beaches, the Perth
Zoo and did some bush walking at
Whiteman Reserve.

It's also been a good restful week (even
though i had a cold!) and allowed us to
ship some cold weather gear home and get
some stuff sorted out for Thailand.

Bangkok, here we come!!!

The GREAT Ocean Road and meeting Gran.

2007-06-14T00:43:00.000-04:00
We took off to the west of Melbourne to
Uncle William and Aunt Beth's time-share
near Torquay, which is the beginning of
the famous Great Ocean Road. After a night
there we headed over to Charlene's Grandmother's
house, known as "GRAN", for a couple of nights.

Gran and Aunt Lorraine (One of the 3 sisters that
include Char's mom-Jennifer and Aunt Beth )
stuffed us full of food on numerous occansions
including a lovely lunch out in the town, Colac.
We played games, looked at lots of old pictures
and ate lots of Tim-Tams. It was great to meet
them and once we hit perth I'll have a met all
of Charlene's Australian Family.

After we rolled out of Gran's (literally stuffed
with food) we headed down to the western end of
the Great Ocean Road (GOR), near Port Campbell to drive
the coast back to Torquay. Driving the GOR means
lots of stops to see amazing rock formations and
pounding surf. We would jump out and run down
some steps, snap some pictures or just watch the
waves, catch our breath and then hop back in the
car and head east.

Some of the highlights: "The 12 Apostles", "London
Bridge", "The Grotto", "Blow Hole", "Loch Ard" and
more. All in All, its an amazing drive along lots
of winding roads and in the summer it would be even
better as you could have lunch and swim on all the
amazing beachs.

We went back to Torquay that night then headed
back to Melbourne to catch our flight to Perth the
next day...

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

2007-06-08T20:52:00.000-04:00
We arrived in Melbourne a day early and suprised Aunt Beth and Uncle William at their house. They had not read our email about the early arrival! In an attempt to get cousin Felicia home from the gym to suprise her we accidently made her think someone had died! Oops. Anyways, Charlene's relatives were very accomadating and welcoming. The next day we wandered around the city of Melbourne. With the Yarra River interesecting it, tons of tiny (hidden) lanes filled with shops and restaurants, and the attention to the arts I thought it was a fine city! We met up with Charlene's other cousin Ben and his wife Rebecca for dinner that night and stayed with them for the weekend in their fabulous new home.

Bournda National Park, New South Wales, Australia

2007-06-06T20:44:00.000-04:00
From Canberra, Charlene and I headed to the coast again. Our destination: Bournda National Park. With a lagoon, lake, dunes, rocky coastline, gorgeous beachs and huge surf it is certainly be a haven for sun lovers, nature enthuists and surfers. Well, only in the summer. Instead we had the place to ourselves. But with (very) hot showers, sprawling campsites, empty beaches, Kilometers of hiking and lots of wildlife who were we to complain? We also got up close with a couple of the local kangeroos!

Naturally there were a few beach towns around so we grabbed some delightful fish n' chips for dinner. With good food and some hot coffees so we weren't exactly roughing it...

Canberra, the capital of Australia.

2007-06-04T22:17:00.001-04:00
Today we are in Canberra, it's a smallish city with lots of green parks,etc. It's a fairly new capital of Australia, about 60 years old. They are constantly reminding you of the fact with slogans like - "THE capital of Australia, YOUR capital of AUSTRALIA,etc. One great thing is the loads of free museums and interesting Parliment buildings to see.

The A.C.T. (Australian Capital Territory) was created because Melbourne and Sydney, the two largest cities, both wanted the capital tag when the states of Australia Federated around 1901. So the compramise was the A.C.T. in the highlands of the Snowy Mountains and far from the coast (by Australian standards)- so a lot of the politicians barely maintain a residence in Canberra!

Also of note, the city's design. Based on the "Garden City" model (see Washington DC, USA), the city was designed by Burley Griffen, a student of Frank Lylod Wright. It is full of circles, round-abouts and parks. You never feel like you are in big city except for one tiny section of businesses and hotels. There are some great avenues and sight lines throughout the city, usually connecting places of importance or major natural landmarks(like mountains or lakes).

We enjoyed our stay in Canberra, but it is super cold ( 9 celsius was the high) and we suffered a bit of information overload from all the musuems! Thankyou to the National Library for the free internet though!

Blue Mountains

2007-06-03T22:00:00.000-04:00
From Sydney Charlene and I headed out to the Blue Mountains.

The Blue Mountains are only an hour or so from the city, so
they are super accessible and offer tons of short hikes, most
start from the ridge area (which is where the main road is)and
drop quickly into the large canyon. We did a couple of great hikes
including one that circled the famous "3 sisters" rocks.

We drove to Oberon which is near the Jenolan Caves (which includes
a stretch of road that I hope I never see again, super skinny, with
tons of switchbacks) and then on to Canberra the capital of Australia.

On to Sydney, Australia

2007-06-02T21:33:00.000-04:00
We flew from Auckland to Sydney, a nice short flight!!

Sydney was great!

Charlene and I trekked around the city, took a ferry across the
bay to Manly, a small beach community and ate lots of good food
(as always). We really enjoyed the botanical gardens (with giant
bats in the trees!) and the art museums had lots to offer.

We stayed right in the heart of the city, so we walked everwhere
but enjoyed the ferry rides the best !

Rotorua to Waitomo Caves to Auckand

2007-05-31T20:55:00.000-04:00
We drove from Rotorua to Waitomo Caves to do a little cave exploration.
Which amounted to: us wearing stinky wet suits, doing a quick rapel into the cave entrance, sloshing through freezing cold water, sitting in an inner tube (in freezing cold water), seeing lots of glow worms,and then climbing out (in the cold
evening) and taking a shower in a shed! It was a hilarious (but cold) time.

We then decided to drive straight to Auckland so we could sleep there and get up and be ready to explore the city straight away.

Auckland is a great city- small enough to get around easily but large enough to offer a host of interesting activities, not to mention lots of great cafes. Well, actually NZ is pretty well full of great cafes. We set out for 'Kelly Tarleton's Ocean World' which also has an Antarctic section with penguins (I loved it b/c you get to go through the penguin area in a faux SnoCat!!). We also managed to swing by the art museum, fish market, the big tower (that's the official name...i think..ha) and relax b/f our flight to Sydney, Australia.

Hikin', Hot water and Chips!

2007-05-28T06:21:00.000-04:00

So we've spent the last couple days cruisin' around the central North +
North East NZ Island area, by foot, by car and often by the water.

We've had a blast with Krista and Tim (and the Plews family have been
wonderful hosts), always good to see old friends in new countries
- thats what I've always said.

Some random photos:mostly hiking (er, NZ = tramping/walking),
Rotorua area thermal sites (Kerosene creek- a hot water creek!)
and Luge / hillside fun.

Oh, and tonight, we marked our farewell evening with a gi-nor-mus
fish and chips dinner. The highlight: Kumara chips, a NZ sweet potato
(but not as sweet as our N.American version).

Surfin' New Zealand!

2007-05-26T02:36:00.001-04:00

Today we got up at a normal hour and went surfing! It was my first time and Charlene had been a couple of times before. Although the weather here is nice it is only about 50 degrees so it was good we had wet suits. Our new friends Tim and Mark gave us a few pointers and a lot of pushes (to get us started into the waves since we have weak arms!)
and we were on our way. The waves were quite tame - but perfect for learning on.

Later in the day we travelled inland and saw lots of great sites, Lake Taupo, Huka Falls, bubbling mud pools and hot flowing streams that you can swim in!

Now we are about to have a BBQ of fresh seafood that Tim's dad, David, caught today. Its exciting to have super fresh seafood after being in the landlocked midwest!

The beginning of our travels...

2007-05-25T17:21:00.000-04:00

May 23: Charlene and I started at South Bend and took the South Shore train into Chicago,
a quick 1 block walk to the L and we were on our way to O'hare. We got to the airport
a few hours early, well actually about 4 hours b/f our departure but we couldn't really kill any time in downtown Chicago b/f we had 25 pound back packs and a couple of smaller
day packs! Eventually we took off and transferred at LAX (what a dump of an airport!) to our Air New Zealand flight. The Air NZ flight was wonderful, great seats, entertainment centers right there in your seat, helpful staff, etc. We took off at 930ish pm and after a 13 hour flight (only about 4 sleeping!) we arrived bright and early in Auckland...except we had lost a day! It was Friday and we had left Weds night!

May 25: We went through customs which went smoothly, although NZ is super careful of any outside biological material entering into their country- so our tent and hiking boots were carefully checked for dirt...they didn't check us though, maybe they didn't know we had been through LAX? We took showers at the airport (yes!) and then got our 89' corrolla that we rented under the title 'el cheapo' from the "EZY Car renta" place. It runs great...got used to driving on the left.

Then we headed up to the Waitakere (NZ mostly uses the Maori names for places which are not easy to pronounce...I think this one is "why-tack-er-ree") Ranges, a great national park just outside of Auckland. It looked like a wonderful place to hike around and I would recommend it as a good place to get your initial bearings when you first land in NZ, we didn't have time to really explore it though- we did have a great breakfast of savory muffins and lattes in Titirangi, the gateway town to the Waitakere Range.

We were headed to Whakatane (Fahk-ah-tah-ne) to meet up with our Canadian friend Krista. So we meandered through the North Island flatlands and coastal hills for about 4.5 hours, stopping at little towns and snacking in cafes until we finally arrived in Whakatane!

Conclusion: The people here are super friendly and the landscape is a cross between tropical and mountainous with a bit of a english country side look to it...

August 2005: Headed east, WA,ID,UT,WY,NB,IW,IL,IN!

2006-09-17T23:24:00.000-04:00

July 2005: Adam and Charlene Fung get married!

2006-09-13T20:00:00.000-04:00

This was our wedding day!

July 30th, 2005.

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The Hycroft manor looked out onto the urban landscape set against the local mountains.

It was a lovely North West day. We had lots of friends and family join us to celebrate. That evening we headed up to Whistler and the surrounding mountain resorts to relax for a couple of days before we said our goodbyes to Vancouver, Bellingham and Seattle friends. Then we (sadly) packed up our Uhaul truck and moved to South Bend, Indiana so I could start graduate school at the University of Notre Dame.

Well, the real kicker was that Charlene hadn't recieved her Green Card yet so we were seperated for another six months. We told people we had a 'trial seperation' :o)

May 2005: Engagement Photos!

2006-08-02T12:27:00.000-04:00
A spring day, in Vancouver, BC, 2005. Our photographer, Jane, did a practice session for the upcoming wedding.

Welcome!

2006-08-02T10:45:00.000-04:00

Thought we would give Blogger a shot for publishing our photos. We are currently using a Canon Powershot S400, 4 megapixel point and shoot. For now, it works ok. In the future we might have to upgrade to get higher quality images. I'm hoping to publish groups of photo (ie- from hikes, travels, etc) and some snap shots from our daily life as well. Stay tuned!

Oh, yeah, thats us, Charlene and Adam. And those are the Fung cats: Pebbles and Sketchy!