Lost Lake Butte Trail

Lost Lake Butte Trail is located near Lost Lake within Mount Hood forest. It is about 4 miles round trip in terms of distance and the elevation gain is gradual. Thus it is very family friendly. At the end of the trail, it has a gorgeous view on Mount Hood. It is one of the reason why the trail is very popular.


On this gorgeous weekend with sunny weather, we headed over to Lost Lake to enjoy the sunny day. We got to Lost Lake around 10:30 in the morning after 2 hours of drive. The day use permit was $9. The Northwest Forest Pass does not work here because the property is privately owned and not maintained by Oregon government.

There were already many people here in the lake and the parking lot was quite full. Luckily, we were able to find a parking space just beside the Lost Lake General Store. The general store sells many snacks and drinks, as well as necessary camping stuff. The only thing we did not like is the washroom. The washroom around Lost Lake seem poorly maintained and smelled very bad all the time.

The Lost Lake Butte Trail was a bit hard to spot, but we were able to find it. The trail head was near the entrance to the Lost Lake area. The first portion of the trail took us through some of the camp sites and people were setting up picnic table and grills for lunch.

The trail was quite easy with gradual climb. The elevation gain overall was about 1200ft. After about 50 minutes, we got to the top of the trail. Surprisingly, we did not see anyone here at the top. Perhaps everyone was enjoying their time at the lake. The view of Mount Hood was simply gorgeous and we really enjoyed our time up there with breeze of wind. The only thing that bothered us was the amount of flying bugs buzzing around. It was quite annoying.

The area at the top was not big either. If there were many groups of people up there, make sure you watch where you step and don't fall off the cliff. The surface was occupied by multiple large rocks, so watch your footing as well.

Overall, we enjoyed doing this hike at Lost Lake. After the hike, we enjoyed a nice lunch under the shade at the picnic table in front of the lake. Then we also enjoyed our time on the lake with small rowing boat. We recommend doing this hike in the morning and then enjoy a peaceful afternoon on the lake.

Stawamus Chief Trail

Stawamus Chief Trail is a very popular hiking trail located at Squamish, Canada, which is about an hour North of Vancouver. The trail is located within Stawamus Chief Provincial Park and the trail head is located right off the highway overlooking the bay surrounded by mountains. This trail is rated as a challenging trail due to the elevation gain and use of ladders and chains. However, the top of the trail provides a gorgeous view.


Since we are from Oregon, we definitely want to do this hike. The drive to trail head was very smooth and we got there around 8AM in the morning. As we started the hike, the trail started to climb sharply with wooden stairs and stones. We could feel that we were gaining elevation like crazy. The rocky steps made it a bit difficult to hike due to the wet and slippery surface in the early morning. There were also rocks on the side that could scratch your skin.

The early morning hike really felt good in the woods. We could see light rays shining through the woods and reflecting off the rock.

We got through the first section in about 45 minutes and got to the first detour to go to the first peak. As we hiked on the trail to first peak, we got to the first ladder. The first ladder was simple and easy. Just had to climb up. Then soon after, we got to the first chain. It was our first time hiking on the trail that has a chain. We were very excited. The chain really made it easy to climb, but this just meant that we gained elevation rapidly. The next part is the most challenging part for peak 1. It was ladder follow by chain. This second ladder was very narrow and we could only place 1 foot in the ladder at a time.

After about 30 minutes, we got to the final climb. The final climb was simply walking on the granite rock and just keep going upwards. It was not difficult here. Once we got to the top, the view was breath taking. It definitely felt like we accomplished a lot today. On the backside, we could see the second peak and the farm land as well.

While we were at the top enjoying our food, there were many chipmunks running around picking up dropped food. We saw few people feeding them as well which is not recommended. We also encountered a chocolate Labrador Retriever there. We did not know how he got through the chain and the ladder. Perhaps he found a side trail to get himself up.

We got back down the first peak and were very hungry and decided not to do the second and third peak. The second peak also has chain on the cliff side for people to hold onto. We definitely will want to finish the second peak and third peak next time.

Kirin Seafood Restaurant

Kirin Seafood Restaurant is a high end Cantonese restaurant located in metro Vancouver region in Canada. It has multiple locations just within metro Vancouver including Vancouver downtown and Richmond. The restaurant is known to provide amazing Cantonese Dim Sum dishes. Since we were visiting Vancouver, this was a must go place for us.


We went to the Kirin Seafood Restaurant located at Richmond. There is a parking garage right beside the restaurant but it is a paid parking. Since we were customers to Kirin Seafood Restaurant, we did not have to pay the parking ticket. We simply just had to register our vehicle at the front desk at the restaurant.

The restaurant opens at 10AM and when we got there at 9:45AM, there was already a long line in front of the door. The line was not formed properly with people cutting through from everywhere. It was very unorganized and we hope that the restaurant can do a better job on this in the future. When the restaurant opened, people were rushing in and the manager was telling people that they did not have any table for people who did not have reservation. We did not have reservation but we walked up and asked anyway. The manager told us that if we can finish within 1 hour, she could give us a table. We gladly took the table since we did not plan to stay for long because we still had to drive back to Portland.

We sat down and ordered a pot of Jasmine Tea. Then we placed our order with the server. In general, we ordered, Siu Mak, Shrimp Dumpling, Chicken Sticky Rice, Sweet Custard Bun, Crispy Rice Roll, and Orange Beef Rice Roll. This did not seem a lot but we were quite full at the end.

Siu Mak and Shrimp Dumpling came very quickly as they are popular dish. Kirin Seafood Restaurant did not disappoint. Both Siu Mak and Shrimp Dumplings were huge. Siu Mak came with many ingredients with even a little of caviar roe on top. The pork meat in Siu Mak was very juicy.  Shrimp Dumplings were quite large and completely filled with shrimps in there. We really loved it.

Chicken Sticky Rice came right after. The size of Chicken Sticky Rice was smaller than what we were expecting. It was about half of the size of a regular Chicken Sticky Rice that other restaurants offer. Nevertheless, it still tasted really good and we appreciated that they did not put small shrimps in there.

The Sweet Custard Bun was quite special. The bun had block color with golden stripes on top of it. As we bite into the bun, the hot creamy custard was popping out. It was very amazing.

The Crispy Rice Roll and Orange Beef Rice Roll came last. These rice rolls also came with special sauce to put on top of the dish. We loved the crispiness of the Crispy Rice Roll. It has a lot of texture as we bit into it. We did not like the Orange Beef Rice Roll as much. It just did not fit our taste. It had a bit of pickled orange taste in the beef which we did not like.

Overall, Kirin Seafood Restaurant did not disappoint. We really enjoyed the food there. One thing that we will do next time is to make reservation before we go. So that we will not have to line up with all these people.