Right after defending my Ph.D. dissertation, I needed a real vacation. I decided to visit California and visit my cousin there, and also visit some of the national parks. I visited Kings Canyon and Sequoia national parks. Although I wanted to see Yosemite, but couldn't due to requirement of day pass, which I didn't collect before. Anyway, this gives me some motivation to visit California again. Honestly speaking, I didn't like California that much the first time I visited, perhaps due to Los Angeles being a chaotic big city. But this time, I grew some more liking to California. The scariest thing happened while climbing down from Sequoia, my brake pads had gone! But I managed to make it to a small town, repaired the brake pads and safely made it back to home. I hiked a trail called Little Baldy Trail in Sequoia, it had amazing view on top. I also did a very short hike at Kings Canyon, called Zumwalt Meadow Loop Trail. Overall, I really liked the views of Kings Canyon. The Canyon was so deep and the river through the canyon looked like a string from the top. I was lucky to hit Sequoia on a weekday when there was no crowd at all and I got the trail almost entirely to myself. There was a very nice lake from my way to Sequoia to Visalia (a small town), called Lake Kaweah. I stayed at two small towns during the trip: Visalia and Frenso. I also stayed at San Jose and loved the downtown Palo Alto. On my way back, I passed through the famous golden gate bridge. Then I stayed the night at Medford, Oregon. On the way to Medford, I saw the beautiful Mount Shasta. The drive from San Jose to Seattle was very pretty, I first saw mount Shasta, followed by Mount Hood, Mount St. Helens, and, finally, the majestic Mount Rainier!