2022 Visit Chung Family in Los Angeles
(11/17/2022 - 11/20/2022)
2022 Visit Chung Family in Los Angeles(11/17/2022 - 11/20/2022)
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On Thursday, November 17th, 2022, Brian and Katherine travelled from Austin Texas to Los Angeles California to visit Katherine's Parents Ki (기) and Yong (용) for a few days, and see Jason Knight and Alex and August. Click on any picture below for the highest resolution photo that exists.
The first picture below is "Red Parking" at Austin International Airport (AUS). Technically it is "Row K Level 1" in blue parking, but airports aren't known for being really clear on these things.
We walk across the street into the Austin airport terminal, and we need to go up one level, and we step into the elevator and are faced with this interface (see below). Now, airports are TERRIBLE at signs, and elevators in any location have terrible UI. When you find an elevator in an airport, you are going to have trouble. Now look at what we have below. The "OPEN" and "CLOSE" buttons are the only clear symbols, but the UI designers decided those were the only ones they label. On the other hand, this elevator only services two floors, so either "B" means "Upper Level" and "T" means "Lower Level" or "B" means "Upper Level" and "T" means "Lower Level". In the end, what everybody must do is roll the dice and try one of them. Then wait 5 minutes, and if it doesn't work try the OTHER button. Now normally you might infer which is Upper and which is Lower from the position of the buttons (higher button means a higher floor). But not here, the UI designers went out of their way to put "B" and "T" on the same level. And of course, all of this could be fixed with one strip from a label maker in that big open area above all the buttons saying: "Press button B to go up, press button T to go down." For bonus points, translate it into Spanish on a SECOND label strip below that one saying, "Presiona el botón B para subir". And this isn't just figuring this out once, this is in an airport so BY DEFINITION half the people are visitors that have never seen this before.
We arrive in Los Angeles, and Hertz gives us a car displaying some sort of warning on the dashboard. I took a picture as we were leaving the rental area just in case they accused us of killing the car, when we told the guy in the booth about it he said "ignore all warnings".
This is the view of Katherine's parents' backyard and beyond. They look out over the "Rolling Hills Country Club Golf Course". You can see the lake (water trap) about dead center of the picture.
At 1am in the morning, I took the picture below from about the same spot, showing the night views over Los Angeles. You can see the moon in the sky and also the moon reflected off the lake.
Below is a picture of the dining area breakfast nook, and kitchen area. Ki is in the back corner.
Below is a panorama of the kitchen and main great room. Ki on the left, Yong on the right coming in from outside.
They do not have chandeliers, which I like the fact that they do not have chandeliers. Only recessed lighting.
Their home has room for three cars, the garage below fits two cars but they put only one Tesla Model S (85D) in the middle of this garage. They have another garage with 1 car spot.
A close up of my foot (in white sock) and the outdoor shoe situation. They keep the traditional "no shoes in the house" Korean household rule here.
I saw some robotic self propelled golf carts out on the golf course, and Yong is showing me how it drives itself around through the remote control in his hand.
A close up of one part of the robotic golf caddie.
Folded up (not in use) the picture. The brand is: "MGI ZIP NAVIGATOR AT - ALL TERRAIN". Link here: https://mgigolf.com/products/mgi-zip-navigator-at
Below is the front entrance to their home. Over the night, we had some animal digging in the flower beds, Yong and Ki are surveying the damage.
Below you can see the destruction the animal caused overnight. Ki is sweeping up.
Unhappily looking at the flower bed damage.
For brunch/lunch one of the days we were visiting, we went to the "Rolling Hills Country Club" and one of the restaurants there.
Stepping back, a picture of the Rolling Hills Country Club entrance:
Lunch at Rolling Hills Country Club.
As we were leaving, Katherine pointed out this plaque on the wall inside the Rolling Hills Country Club and Golf Course. See below. Her mother (Ki) has won the woman's golf championship more years than any other person, 6 years of wins:
At night we went to BCD Tofu House: https://www.bcdtofuhouse.com/ at 1607 Sepulveda Blvd, Torrance, CA. Map Link: https://goo.gl/maps/Zk65Wk9g6B4BD9am9
The menu of BCD Tofu House below.
In Korean dinners, there is often a collection of small dishes on the table to share called "banchan" (Korean: 반찬). These accompany the meal. Although I would call the fish below more of an appetizer.
Breakfast at the Chung house, I'm drinking coffee, the rice roll ups are called "Gimbap" (Korean: 김밥 - usually heard as "kimbap") and there are spicy peppers filled with sausage and battered and fried.
I like the picture below because of the Backblaze mug Ki uses. :-)
This is just random note taking.... their home has a "Rinnai RU160iN" hot water heater (and they have the little "Control-R WiFi Kit" on it. The "RU" in that means it has a hot water Recirculation Unit, but it had not been turned on so their water took a long time to get warm. We turned it on and installed the WiFi app to control it.
On Saturday, 11/19/2022 we met up with (in picture below left to right): Alex Knight, Katherine Chung (who is pointing out she is the shortest person there) August Knight, and Jason Knight at "La Cabana Venice" at 738 Rose Ave, Venice, CA. Map Link: https://goo.gl/maps/3dUFL7sUPCw5jG8v7 Alex and August are both 6 feet tall now, which is amazing to us.
Final picture as we take off from LAX Airport on the way home. Bye bye!
That's it! That's all the pictures and movies.
Possibly Useful Things to bring to Los Angeles next time: (this isn't for you! Stop reading!
I'm old and forget things.)
- ask parents if they have any electronics issues so we can bring supplies
- alcohol wipes to clean hands for eating
- bring small label maker to label elevators in Austin Airport and other
airports
- stop on the way there for hand soap, shampoo, mouthwash
- long pants to get into fancy dining in country club
- Kimchi causes gas, bring GasX
- bring "over the door" hooks for bathroom (remember the doors are very tall)
- possibly bring permanent hooks to hang in bathroom
- bring bench for shower (or order it to be delivered when we are there)
- white noise machine or fan for guest bedroom
- possibly small folding table for guest bedroom for electronics recharging
- possibly small power strip for electronics recharging (on small table)
All done!