A digital travel diary. · WP v1.08 · Updated
With recent surfing in Ventura, Alex and I were ready to return to surfing at "The Hook" in Capitola. When we arrived at 2:30pm, finding parking was difficult. After a few go-arounds, I found a parking spot on Opal Cliff Drive.. . . . After I parked the Lexus RX350, we waxed our boards and headed for the Hook. The waves were rolling nicely, but…
Read More: Surfing at The Hook
It's been a while since I could windsurf at Coyote Point. The wind had been inconsistent and quite gusty. . . . This time, I drove up, expecting to try my new Exocet RF81 foil board, but the wind was much higher than expected. It blew 17-20 knots at the beach and 23 knots in the channel. . . . . . . I rigged…
Read More: Windsurfing Coyote Point
It's been a long time since we last visited Santa Barbara (September 1, 2012), and we decided to revisit the beautiful city during the July 4 Independence Day weekend.. . Since I had loaded the car the previous day, we could depart early (before 08:00), avoiding the usually heavy holiday traffic.. . . . On the way there, we planned to stop at various scenic…
Read More: Road Trip to Santa Barbara
For a while now, I have been intrigued by all of the windsurfing foilers and kiteboard foilers at Coyote Point and Crissy Field. They seemed to sail fast, even under less-than-ideal wind conditions. After talking to a few sailors, I decided that it would be a great addition to my current windsurfing setup to have a foil board and a windsurfing foil for marginal or…
Read More: Foiling on Exocet RF81 with Slingshot Fwind Foil
After reviewing the iWindsurf.com weather forecast, I determined that the best place for wind on Saturday would be Crissy Field or Treasure Island.. . . . I decided to drive to Crissy Field, which was closer and more convenient. When I arrived around 13:30, the wind was just picking up. Windsurf's station at Anita Rock was reporting 14-15 knots. When I looked at the other…
Read More: Windsurfing Crissy Field
For Father's Day, Inna surprised me with a dinner at the Black Sheep Brasserie in Willow Glen. I selected the hard Washington Apple Cider for drinks, but I did not like it (it was too sweet). Inna tried one of the unique cocktails - the Lava Flow Punch - and she liked it a lot.. LAVA FLOW PUNCHST. BENEVOLENCE RUM | GIFFARD BANANE DU BRÉSIL…
Read More: Dining at Black Sheep Brasserie
In the morning, I planned to stop by the Boardsports Shop in Coyote Point to participate in the Windsurf Foiling demo hosted by Wyatt Miller of Slingshot.. . . . . . 2019 SLINGSHOT WINDSURF, KITE & SURF FOIL DEMO & BBQ SAT 6/15. with special guests: Wyatt Miller & Maui Mike*Bonus – we will have the 2020 Slingshot SLING WING for demo as well.…
Read More: Windsurfing Sherman Island
With time running out for the once-a-year Bouquets to Art Show at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, we decided to visit the beautifully arranged flowers next to fine paintings and sculptures.. . . . We had difficulty finding parking when we arrived at Golden Gate Park, near the de Young Museum. Eventually, we found an open spot and walked to the museum. A…
Read More: Bouquets to Art at de Young Museum
Having sailed on my 1999 Mistral Flow Classic 276 for 19 years, it was time for an update. I tried out the Fanatic Freewave STB 95-liter version at the ABK Windsurfing Camp on Sherman Island in July and thought it was a nice board but lacking volume for lighter wind days.. . The Stubby, as it is affectionately known, has a unique outline with no…
Read More: Windsurfing Coyote Point
The sorry state of the world gives us a new reason to appreciate the depth of feeling so powerfully, so ingeniously embedded in "Fiddler on the Roof," the much-loved and much-revived 1964 musical comedy that is touring the country and visiting San Jose from May 21 - 26, 2019.. . . . . The touring production, currently playing at the San Jose Center for the…
Read More: Review: Fiddler on the Roof at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts
Although I have seen Aladdin previously at Disney's California Adventure Theme Park, I have never seen the entire production on stage. Since Inna also wanted to see it, I purchased 3 tickets for the Aladdin Touring show at San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. . . . I would have preferred to have seen the musical on Broadway (since Broadway shows tend to employ…
Read More: Review: Aladdin at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts
After many weeks of constant rains, it was finally time to mountain bike in my favorite local Almaden Quicksilver County Park. . . . . . . The whole park was as green as I've ever seen it. Here is my Strava.com feedback: . . Ride . Biking Almaden Quicksilver . 8:45 AM on Sunday, April 14, 2019 · Santa Clara County, California . Distance…
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After a long, rainy winter, we visited Filoli Gardens to observe and photograph the latest blooming flowers. According to Filoli, the following flowers bloomed: tulips, camellias, and daffodils.. . . . When we arrived at around 1:00 p.m., we had to circle around the parking lot a few times to find an open space. Having parked the minivan, we queued in a long line to…
Read More: Early blooms at Filoli Gardens
On the spur of the moment, Inna purchased tickets for the Klezmer musical "Old Stock - A Refugee Love Story," playing for only 2 days at the Bing Hall at Stanford University. . . . . . A brief Synopsis according to Sydney Festival:. A dark, funny and high-energy klezmer-folk tale inspired by the real-life story of two Romanian Jews seeking refuge in Canada in…
Read More: Review: Old Stock – A Refugee Love Story
I originally purchased tickets for the Cirque du Soleil Volta production on Wednesday, February 27. Still, Inna had an evening class scheduled, and I was forced to sell our tickets to the show.. . . . . . However, a bit later, Inna found tickets for the March 12 show and purchased them. . We really enjoyed the show and all of the incredible acrobatics..…
Read More: Review: Cirque du Soleil Volta
Plot Summary:. . With the Spanish-American War over, newspaper sales were down, and Joseph Pulitzer decided to increase the price that newspaper boys pay for 100 newspapers from 50 to 60 cents. The boys (many of them orphans), loosely organized, decide to strike to force Joseph Pulitzer (and other newspaper publishers) to back down. With the help of Governor Theodore Roosevelt, the newsies eventually prevailed..…
Read More: Review: Newsies at Bellarmine
After waking up around 6:45 a.m., I showered and dressed for snowboarding at Alpine Meadows. Carlo and Susan - our hosts at the Truckee Airbnb - prepared a delicious breakfast for us: yogurt, scrambled eggs, hot coffee, and tea.. . . . After breakfast, we drove to Alpine Meadows, arriving at about 8:12 a.m. The drive was supposed to take 25 minutes, but it took…
Read More: Alpine Meadows Powder
A few months ago, I purchased 2-day Squaw Valley lift tickets for a planned trip to Truckee, CA. However, due to the extreme snowfall, all of the roads to Truckee were closed.. . After our recent epic snowboarding trip to Mammoth, we decided to head back to Squaw Valley (before the warmer temperatures melted all of the freshly fallen powder). My plan was to head…
Read More: A Soggy Day at Squaw
For the past 25 years, I have been a big fan of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy ( a swing band), and I thought that Inna and I would enjoy seeing them play their set at the Uptown Theatre in Napa, CA.. . . . The show was scheduled to start at 20:00 but was delayed until 20:45. The band was in fine form and played…
Read More: Review: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
My son has always talked about the beautiful powder conditions at Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort, but I never had the opportunity to go there. However, with his high school ski week vacation from February 17-22, I decided to see if it would be possible to visit Mammoth Mountain.. . At first, I considered driving there, but the 6.5-hour trip from San Jose would be tedious…
Read More: Chasing Mammoth Powder