41st Annual Liberty Bell Open

On the Martin Luther King's long weekend, I went to the 41st Annual Liberty Bell Open.  Same as the National Congress, it is a tradition to me.  This time I peformed OK, scoring 3.5 out of 7 rounds in the U1900 section.  In the first day, I did not play very well.  I only got half point out of 3 games.  The half point came from the first round by tieing to U1900 co-champion named Louis.  The next game I carelessly bludered away a knight.  In the third game, I lost when I had a big advantage.  I got pretty upset about that.  In the next two days, I got 3 points out of 4 games.  I win one and tied one each day.  This was probably because that my opponents were not very strong.   Well, an OK tournament comes to the end.  The next big tournament will be Amatur Team East in Feburary.  Be sure to see my blog about that event.

BTW, on the new Feb 2009 top 100 list, I am #8 for Age 9 group ( See the list here ).  I am pretty happy about that.

2008 Holiday Vacation Part 2

After 7 days curise, my Disney adventure was about to begin.  We went to Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Universal Studios.  At Epcot, we rode Mission Mars, Ellen's Dream, and lots more.  If you look at the map, there is a circle.  Around that circle, there are "countries".  We tried different foods at each country.  In Mexico I got a quesadilla and nachos with cheese.  In Japan, I got sushi.  In China, I got noodle soup.

In the second day, we went to Animal Kingdom where my favorites were Dinosaur, Primeval Whirl, and Kai River Rapids.  Guess my lunch.  Well if you guessed a giant turkey leg, you are correct. That turkey leg was like 1 ft high.

The last day was the best.  We went to Universal Studios.  There, we rode Men In Black-Alien Attack, The Simpsons, Shrek, Disaster and much more. There was a Fear Factor Live show where people had cockroaches near their head and people drank sour milk mixed with bugs.  Even though all of the rides were great, I liked the Simpsons Ride the most. No wonder we waited two hours for it.

On the 31st, I didn't want to leave, but sadly I had to.  Our plane ride was great until the landing at Philly.  The wind was very fierce and when we touched the ground the plane actually wobbled a little bit.  Well, even if this vacation has ended, I know there will be a next one.

2008 Holiday Vacation Part 1

On Dec 18 2008, we woke up really really early, about 5:00 AM. Why? It is a long story.

After checking everything in the house, setting up the security system and locking every door, we headed to Philly International Airport.  We made a quick stop at Orlando to change the flight. The plane ride was good and we got to Ft. Lauderdale around 2:oo PM.  We rented a car at the airport and got settled at our hotel in no time.  In the next two days, we went to the Gator Park and Chess Hall Of Fame in Miami, and Butterfly World in Ft. Lauderdale.  This is just the beginning of our exciting vacation.

Now we went on the cruise.  We spent the first whole day at sea.  It was very windy on the top deck and the funny thing was that my mom's glasses got blown away and she didn't even notice it until we were about to go on the elevator.  We looked for it, but we didn't find it.  We ended up finding it later in the lost and found box on the third day.  I also joined a club where I made three friends named Bryan, Jason, and Daniel.

The next day, we arrived at Cayo Laventado, Dominican Republic.  The ship wasn't docked and everybody used tender boats to get there.  That was very slow.  We went though a short vendor street and got to the beach to play.  The water was very clear and warm.  The fun part was shopping on the way back to the boat.  I was amazed how the prices could go down so much if you bargain with the sellers.   I bought a giant conch shell and two small ones for five dollars (the starting price was twenty dollars).  So I guess that was a good deal.

Our second stop was Tortola, British Virgin Islands.  The different thing there is that they drive on the left while we drive on the right.  How do I know?  I went on a tour bus which took us to some cool and beautiful sight spots including the highest point of the island and a beach where we went swimming.  When we were back on the bus after swimming, there was a problem.  Our tour bus got blocked by other buses so that it took a while to get cleared up.   Finally we went back on the boat in time to change and catch the formal dinner.

On Christmas Eve, we got to St. Maarten.  One half of the island is controlled by the French and the other by the Dutch.  It was all good until we went on the French side where we got stuck in a traffic jam and missed two viewpoints.  It was a very frustrating ride.  When we got back to the dock, the tender line was really long so we went to get some freebies.  I got a 1ct topaz worth about fifty dollars.  I ended up trading it for a 1ct midnight sapphire which is worth about one hundred dollars.  Looking back, I don't think St.Maarten was such a failure because we actually went back with the most souvenirs than from the other islands.  After I came home, I did some research and saw when the plane lands or takes off, it blows people right off the beach beacuse the beach is right next to the airport.

On the fifth day of the cruise, we were at sea on the way back.  This time it was different because it's Christmas!  Santa came and gave us presents. That night's Christmas dinner was supposed to be special. I got lobster but it was very dry.

Our last stop at Nassau, Bahamas, in my opinion, was the worst.  Because we got there in the late afternoon, we only went to the beach. We tried to get freebies there, but all we got there for free was a charm.  All the other shops were closed and the straw market didn't have anything we really wanted so we went back on the boat to eat our last dinner there.

The next day we arrived at Ft. Lauderdale at 7:00 AM.  We all woke up ealry and had a quick breakfasts.  Our train to Orlando is at 12:00 Noon.  We do not want to be late.  We decided to take the laugguge by ourself so that we can got off the boat first.  In the end, we arrived three hours early at the Amtrak station.  The train ride from Ft.Lauderdale to Kisimmee took 6 hours.  We finally got there around 7:00 PM.   

Continues on part 2