A digital travel diary. · WP v1.08 · Updated
Since it was still September (Red Sticker Season ends on October 1), I decided to refresh my off-road motorcycling skills with Brian Garrahan. I enrolled for a two-day seminar in his Into to Dirt class with Garrahan Off-Road Training.. . The two-day class takes place in Hollister SVRA, CA and Brian Garrahan provides all of the dirt bikes. He mostly uses Honda CRF150F and CRF230F…
Read More: Intro to Dirt in Hollister SVRA (with Riding Notes)
I have never mountain biked at Monte Bello OSP in Palo Alto, so I went with the local South Bay Mountain Biking Meetup.. . I arrived at the Monte Bello parking lot around 9:40 am, ready for the 10:00am bike ride. I had changed both of the tires on my Specialized S-Works bike. I did not realize that these tubeless tires needed to be re-sealed…
Read More: Biking Monte Bello OSP
We planned to hike some trails near Stinson Beach (Mt. Tamalpais) for a while. While I have hiked Mt. Tamalpais with the Sierra Club in the past, I have never walked the proposed Dipsea Trail.. . The Dipsea Trail is at Highway 1 and Arenal Avenue in Stinson Beach.. . Since our friends ran late, we stopped by the nearby Parkside Cafe for breakfast. We…
Read More: Hiking Dipsea Trail at Stinson Beach
On Labor Day, we explored the beautiful Point Lobos State Natural Reserve and then traveled to Carmel-on-the-Sea for beach activities and lunch.. . . . Surprisingly, the drive to Point Lobos was faster than expected. Reaching Point Lobos took about 80 minutes (instead of the usual 2 hours).. . . . However, when we arrived, the main parking lot at Point Lobos State Reserve was…
Read More: Hiking Point Lobos State Natural Reserve
Today, we decided to hike the beautiful Big Basin Redwoods State Park near Santa Cruz, CA.. We have not hiked there for over 15 years and wanted to know what, if anything, has changed.. . The drive to Big Basin Redwoods from San Jose was uneventful. I drove on Highway 85 west, followed by Highway 9, south to 236. The narrow, twisty road was not…
Read More: Hiking Big Basin Redwoods
Alex has been working hard over the past year to learn to read and write Hebrew in preparation for his upcoming Bar Mitzvah at Chabad San Jose.. . He spent many Monday afternoons with Rabbi Aaron Cunin, Sipi, Jonathan, and his fellow students learning the portion of the Torah he would be reading. He also had to learn to read ancient Hebrew.. . . .…
Read More: Alex’s Bar Mitzvah
Today, we decided to explore the beautiful Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. To avoid early morning traffic on Highway 17, we woke up early and headed to the park around 9:00 am.. . It's one of the few California State Parks that allows dogs. Last week, we went to Shoreline and were disappointed to learn that no dogs are allowed, as it's considered a wildlife…
Read More: Hiking Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park
In the morning, we quickly packed and headed to beautiful North Lake Tahoe at around 8:00 a.m. There was very little traffic on Highway I-680 and I-80, and we arrived in Truckee (just west of Lake Tahoe) at 11:30 a.m. (a 3.5-hour drive).. . . . Since we were hungry and tired from the long drive, we ate lunch at Marty's Cafe - a well-rated…
Read More: Beautiful Lake Tahoe
Today, we planned to enjoy our favorite beach near Santa Cruz - Manresa State Beach. Since it does tend to get crowded (with minimal car parking), we decided to leave early, stopping briefly at our local Whole Foods to get sandwiches for a picnic lunch.. . . . The traffic heading on Highway 17 was unusually light at 9:00 a.m., and we arrived at Manresa…
Read More: Boogie Boarding on Manresa Beach
Friday, July 1, 2016. . It was finally time for our dream vacation to Bora-Bora in French Polynesia. We had heard many stories about it being the "most beautiful" place on Earth, and we wanted to see it ourselves.. . . . Our journey began with a flight from San Jose to Los Angeles. We landed at Los Angeles (LAX) airport in the evening, then…
Read More: Breathtaking Bora-Bora, French Polynesia
Thursday, June 30, 2016 . . . . . . We have always wanted to revisit Universal Studios, especially the Wizarding World of Harry Potter exhibit. We decided to stop there for one day in Los Angeles on our way to the island of Bora Bora in French Polynesia (Tahiti).. . . Our Southwest WN2235 flight was initially scheduled to depart at 6:20 pm from…
Read More: Universal Studios Hollywood
After our usual delicious breakfast at the Little River Inn in Mendocino, we drove to Montgomery Woods State Natural Reserve near Ukiah.. . . . . The drive from Mendocino to Montgomery Woods took over an hour over a twisty 2-lane road with many potholes.. . . . When we arrived, we found a relatively small parking lot but still managed to park our Sienna…
Read More: Hiking Montgomery Woods State Natural Preserve
The drive from San Jose to Mendocino was tedious, with multiple accidents on US-101. We started our drive at 10:00 am but arrived at Little River Inn, near Mendocino, at 2:15 pm.. . . . . . After checking in, we headed for Mendocino, hoping to find a restaurant open for lunch.. . . . After looking at a few places downtown, we settled on…
Read More: Fort Bragg and Mendocino
Today, we attended a performance of Dartmouth Middle School's Spring Concert - the second concert in 2016. Alex played trumpet in the Jazz and Concert bands, and we were eager to observe his performance.. . . . . The Jazz Band opened the concert with "On Green Dolphin Street" and continued with "Rock This Town." Alex played the trumpet and sounded good.. . The Beginning…
Read More: Spring Concert at Dartmouth Middle School
Today, we saw a TheatreWorks production of Cyrano. Cyrano is based on a play by Edmond Rostand and adapted by Michael Hollinger and Aaron Posner.. . . . The roles of Cyrano, Roxane, and Christian were played by J. Anthony Crane, Sharon Rietkerk, and Chad Deverman, respectively. It takes place at two times: Paris and Arras in 1640, and then Paris in 1655.. . I…
Read More: Review: “Cyrano” at TheatreWorks (Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts)
Our Norwegian Airlines flight D85052 from Malaga, Spain, to Stockholm, Sweden, departed on time from Malaga's airport at 2:30 pm.. . We landed in Stockholm, Sweden, right on time at 6:45 pm. We collected our luggage, which took 15-20 minutes, and then decided what to do. We all felt rested from our vacation in Spain and had the energy to explore a new city.. .…
Read More: One Night in Stockholm
Saturday, April 10, 2016. . Our drive from Zahara to Ronda, Spain, covering the beautiful Spanish countryside, was short and uneventful.. . . . . We arrived at Parador de Ronda Hotel in our little Opel Meriva rental car around 1:00 pm.. . . . . . After checking in and dropping off our bags, we decided to stroll through Ronda to find a decent…
Read More: Exploring Ronda
Monday, April 4, 2016 . . . . . We arrived at Seville's San Bernardo train station at around 8:45pm from Granada, Spain (where Alex and I started our Spain trip). We took a taxi from San Bernardo train station to our Airbnb apartment rental in downtown Seville.. . . . . Our Airbnb apartment was on the main Calle Francos street, with many boutiques…
Read More: Splendid Seville
Friday, April 1, 2016. . . Today was the start of my short family vacation to Spain, with the first stop being Granada, followed by Seville, Ronda, and finally Malaga. . . Inna and I prepared a very complicated European vacation focusing on southern Spain. Since Inna had more time and flexibility, she would depart earlier to see Barcelona and Madrid. In contrast, Alex and…
Read More: The Long Road to Granada
After many weekends of rain (and park closures), I finally had great weather to ride my 2013 Honda CRF250R off-road motorcycle at Metcalf Motorcycle Park. . . . I arrived early, around 09:00, and the park was already busy (but the parking lot was only partially complete. I unloaded my dirt bike, filled it with gas, and put on my riding gear.. . . .…
Read More: Dirt Biking at Metcalf