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