Wisetrips Travel Blog

When I showed Inna the newly available Amazon Colorsoft (Color E-Ink) Kindle ebook reader, she was eager to try it and upgrade from her older Paperwhite . There was an Amazon Black Friday sale that made the new Kindle ($169) an attractive purchase. Read in color – The new 7" Colorsoft display is high-contrast and easy on the eyes, with paper-like color that brings covers and content to life. …

On Wednesday, November 26, I found some reasonably priced tickets ($200/ticket for floor-4 seats in Masonic using StubHub ) to Sarah McLachlan's Better Broken Tour at The Masonic  in San Francisco (for Friday, November 28, 2025, at 8:00 p.m.) Though I have been a fan of Sarah's music for a long time, I was not sure what to expect at her concert. Here is a video clip of Sarah playing " Gravity " o…

After seeing the beautiful Manet & Morisot exhibit at the Legion of Honor Museum, we decided to hike the nearby Lands' End trail. See the Google Maps link for directions. We started our hike around 15:30 from the grounds of the Legion of Honor Museum, following the coastal trail. There were lots of people on the trail (probably families trying to burn off excess calories from the previous day's Thanksgiving din…

For our day out in San Francisco (Friday, November 28), we decided to stop at the Legion of Honor Museum to see the new Manet & Morisot exhibition.  This is the first major exhibition dedicated to the artistic exchange between French Impressionists Édouard Manet (1832–1883) and Berthe Morisot (1841–1895). Manet was the era’s great pioneer of modern painting, and Morisot, the only woman to exhibit under her own name …

For Thanksgiving, Inna decided against cooking and instead selected the nearby Lele Kitchen restaurant for the main dinner. She made reservations for Thursday, November 27, at 16:00. We ordered the Thanksgiving "Trust the Chef 7-Course Menu" as follows: Bread (freshly baked from a 38-year-old starter) Pie Tees x2 (Boris, Inna) Oysters x1 (Alex) Chestnut Soup x3 Trout Draniki x2 (Boris, Alex) Mushroom …

For silent practice and travel, I decided to purchase the Donner Hush C Nylon Electro-acoustic guitar  from Amazon. This guitar can be easily disassembled, fit into a minimal, thin travel case, and be brought with me on flights. It has a built-in headphone amp, powered by a removable 9V battery. According to Donner: 【Comfort & Versatility for All Players】With a 46mm nut width, C-shaped neck, and smooth satin f…

Today, Inna and I attended a concert by  Mashina Vremeni  (Машина времени) at the Fox Theater in Redwood City. The concert was scheduled for 20:00, and we were looking forward to seeing the group again. I had never been inside Fox Theater, and it's not a bad venue. Parking was relatively easy to find. Inna purchased excellent seats in row G, and we had a perfect view of the band.  The band started out a bit sluggis…

After a short stroll around Vasona Lake, on a beautiful fall day in San Jose, we decided to eat an early dinner at our favorite Orchard City Kitchen in nearby Campbell. I booked the 17:15 time slot on OpenTable, but it was unnecessary since that time was not busy. After sitting outdoors, we looked at the updated menu and ordered the following items to share: Appetizer: Chanterelles & Parsnips Salads: Frisee &am…