When we were last in Hong Kong, Nicholas asked Pokin’s brother Pokong why he’d never come to visit.
Then he told him to come.
Then he told him to come on the most American day possible.
Fourth of July.
So Pokong finally came to America. He had exactly two requests:
- Drive a Cybertruck.
- Shoot guns.
Simple enough. But Nicholas doesn’t do simple. Nicholas does “we have a week and I have a plan.”
The Narrows#
First stop: Zion National Park.
If you’re going to show someone America, you don’t start with strip malls and fast food. You start with a canyon so deep it makes you feel like a speck. PoOn and Eric came along too, because Pokin’s family travels in packs.
We stopped at Valley of Fire on the way out. Red rocks, blue sky, 110 degrees. Classic Nevada welcome. Then we drove to Springdale to set up camp near Zion.
Next morning, everyone geared up. Rented the canyoneering boots. Rented the walking sticks. The Narrows requires you to literally walk through a river inside a canyon, and the rental shop knows it.
And then we went in.
The Narrows is one of those hikes where the trail IS the river. You’re wading through the Virgin River with canyon walls towering on either side. It starts ankle deep. It does not stay ankle deep.
At first everyone hiked together. Then Nicholas and Eric took off, leaving the Yeung siblings to go at their own pace. As one does.
Deeper in, the canyon gets serious. The walls close in, the light gets weird, and you start to understand why people fly across the world to walk through a river.
We were not the only ones with this idea.
The group also went biking through the park, because apparently walking through a river for hours wasn’t enough exercise.
On the way out, we stopped at Checkerboard Mesa.
Ghost Town, Dinosaurs, and a Cave#
The next day, everyone was trying to figure out what to do. Nicholas didn’t like the plans. So Nicholas took over.
He found a ghost town. An actual abandoned pioneer settlement with a schoolhouse and log cabins and everything. Pokong seemed cautiously impressed, in the way that someone from Shenzhen looks at a 150-year-old wooden building and thinks “we’d have replaced this by now.”
Then we saw dinosaur tracks. Real ones. In the ground. Labeled and everything.
And then, because the day wasn’t full enough, Nicholas found a cave.
The desert out here does not mess around.
The American Experience#
Pokong did get his two requests. Nicholas took him shooting. From what I heard, the guns scared the absolute bejesus out of him. Nobody got hurt, which is apparently the bar for a successful shooting range visit.
The Cybertruck driving happened too. PoOn came out for that. There was a photoshoot. I’m told it was very cool. I wouldn’t know, because nobody brought me.
But the real American experience? That’s the food.
Pokong came to America for a Cybertruck and some guns. He got a canyon, a river, a ghost town, dinosaur bones, a cave, a bear, tacos, and the realization that Nicholas does not know how to plan a simple week.
I think that’s a win.