Seeing Taylor Swift from Zone 4
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Getting Taylor Swift’s Era Tour concert was highly competitive if you wasn’t aware of that yet. We were trying to affordable tickets at So-Fi stadium in LA, but failed. Luckily, Taylor added a new date for unlucky fans like us, so we were able to get two 50 dollar tickets at Zone 4 of So-Fi stadium. How far were the seats from Taylor Swift? The answer is far enough that you wouldn’t want to pay more than 50 dollars. Still, So-Fi is very equipped. Their huge screen around the stadium made us feel so close to the stage. 3 hours went by so fast!
Once we arrived in SAN, we took a train to our friend’s house in San Diego. Tonmai and Fai are Poy’s friends since he went to Scripps research institute for his Ph.D. They took us to several places such as La Jolla tide pools, Tacos stand, and Tonmai’s workplace which is next to the ocean.
We were then headed to LA to stay at the royal century hotel to see Taylor’s concert on the next day. When the day came, we wore our Taylor t-shirts, friendship bracelets, and heart-shaped glasses (all of these were Poy’s idea). We then went to Inn-n-Out to fill up our energy before the concert.
The concert were held at So-Fi stadium, which does not look so big from the outside. However, on the inside, it can serve up to 70,000 people. This is because the stadium was expanded in a more vertical direction instead of the horizontal direction as in a traditional stadium. The opening singer on August 8, the day we went to, was Gracie Abrams. She was so charming! Then Taylor Swift walked in and people started screaming out of their lungs. The show went by so fast that we couldn’t believe it was 3 hour long!
Not only that we went to see a good concert in this trip, we also got to see Poy’s friends in California. Waan also came see us on the last day and brought us to her favorite northern Thai food spot. She even brought us very close to the Hollywood sign. We were so grateful for our friends who let us stay with them and treat us with good food.
This trip was part of Poy’s trip to Champaign while he was studying at Oxford. He stayed in Champaign for a month to write a thesis. From time to time, we made a short trip to places near Champaign. We also got to pick apples at the Curtis apple orchard before he flew back to England to finish his Ph.D.
The Canadian Rockies had never truly been on our radar, not for lack of awareness, but simply because we never imagined we’d have the opportunity to visit Canada. That changed entirely when I was invited to the prestigious Women in Numbers workshop at the Banff International Research Station. Seizing the moment, we decided to turn this milestone trip into a grand adventure, arriving a few days early to explore not just Banff, but a stunning circuit of five neighboring national parks, including, Jasper, Yoho, Glacier, Mount Revelstoke, and Kootenay.
One of the most popular National Park routes that Poy and I hadn’t tackled yet was the Utah ‘Mighty Five.’ We’d heard nothing but non-stop hype from friends, and after checking off several harder-to-reach destinations, we decided it was finally time to go for it! We initially tried to squeeze in Great Basin National Park in Nevada, but a car shortage at the Las Vegas airport left us with an electric vehicle. As it turns out, there are no non-Tesla charging stations near Great Basin (aside from one incredibly slow charger), so we pivoted. We ended up focusing solely on the five Utah gems, which actually made for a much more relaxing, less rushed experience.
There are not many national parks that are ideal to visit in winter, except for those in the desert. For this Christmas trip, we chose three desert national parks, namely, Petrified Forest, Saguaro, and Joshua Tree. In addition to these, we also stopped by some of the most iconic landmarks in Arizona’s desert landscape, including Horseshoe Bend and Monument Valley. It was a dry, sandy, and breathtaking Christmas. One that turned out to be truly memorable for both of us.
Despite the polar vortex that swept through Illinois, we decided to visit Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, driving from our home in Champaign. Along the way, we got to meet some friends in Cincinnati and Akron. In fact, we didn’t stop only at Cuyahoga Valley; we also continued on to see a much bigger set of falls in upstate New York—Niagara Falls. Everything was freezing cold, but the fresh snow somehow gave the entire trip a magical atmosphere.