A digital travel diary. · WP v1.08 · Updated
After hearing our friends' favorable review of "Something Rotten," I decided to see it in San Francisco's Orpheum Theater (if I could get reasonably priced tickets). . . Today, on Sunday, September 3, when I checked my iPhone's TodayTix app, I realized that some seats could be available at the $40/ticket price. At 09:00, I got the $40 Rush tickets (which turned out to be…
Read More: Review: “Something Rotten” at Orpheum Theater
When our friends suggested hiking at Butano State Park, I was surprised to hear about it - since I never heard of it before. It was only 80 minutes away from Los Gatos (so nearby).. . . . When we arrived, we decided to follow some of the suggestions from Alltrails.com:. Start from the Park Entrance parking lot. Follow the Six Bridges trail south toward…
Read More: Hiking Butano State Park
As the weather was scorching, I mountain biked the Saratoga Gap and Peters Creek trail in Saratoga (starting at the Vista Point parking lot at Highway 9 and Skyline Boulevard).. . . . . I arrived just before 9:05 am and rode my 2011 Specialized S-works FSR with newly built wheels. The rear tire flat has been fixed at Silva Cycles.. . The trail started…
Read More: Biking Saratoga Gap and Long Ridge
Today, my wife and I saw Constellations at TheatreWorks of Mountain View.. . . . I had never heard of this particular play and thought it might be a musical, but it turned out to be entirely different.. . The basic idea of the plot is to imagine a universe where all possibilities are explored sequentially. In this incarnation, the two main characters, a beekeeper…
Read More: Review: “Constellations” at TheatreWorks
It was Alex's first day at Bellarmine College Prep, and he was very excited. After two days of orientation (Friday, August 18, and Monday, August 21), his classes finally started. . . As parents, we also had to attend Parent Orientation, where we learned about all the activities freshmen attend. Bellarmine had a very nice "Parent Mixer" for us to prepare us.. . . .…
Read More: First Day of High School
Today, I was fortunate to witness a Lunar Eclipse. Although the weather started out initially cloudy, it cleared up before 10:15 am (when the total eclipse was scheduled to occur). . . . . . . During the total eclipse, the sky went dark in Oregon but not completely opaque in Sunnyvale. . . . . . . . .
Read More: Watching the Lunar Eclipse
Today, I decided to go for an excellent mountain biking ride at Almaden Quicksilver County Park.. Unfortunately, halfway through the bike ride, I heard a loud whistle as my rear tire lost air pressure and turned flat. Since I was using tubeless tires, I expected my rear tire to self-seal automatically, but this did not happen on my ride. My WTB Werewolf rear tire went…
Read More: Biking Almaden Quicksilver County Park
As the weather was sunny and mild, I decided to try to mountain bike the Saratoga Gap and Peters Creek trail in Saratoga (starting at the Vista Point parking lot at the intersection of Highway 9 and Skyline Boulevard).. . . . I arrived just before 10:00 a.m. and rode my 2011 Specialized S-works FSR with newly built wheels.. . The trail started with an…
Read More: Biking Saratoga Gap and Long Ridge
In the morning, after checking San Francisco and Santa Cruz weather, we decided to drive to San Francisco's Presidio and hike around to the Golden Gate Bridge.. . . . We have previously hiked the Lands End Trail, but we wanted to try a different hike this time. After looking at the list of possible hikes on Alltrails, we decided to hike the Presidio Promenade…
Read More: Hiking Presidio and visiting The Legion of Honor
In the morning, we ate our last breakfast at the Premier Inn. I again selected the "Continental Breakfast" while Inna and Alex ate full hot breakfasts. I mainly ate cold cereal and a few pastries with coffee, while Alex and Inna ate some scrambled eggs.. . After breakfast, we quickly packed our belongings and checked out of the hotel. Once outside, I ordered UberX for…
Read More: Returning to Oakland
It's been a long time since I windsurfed at Sherman Island in Rio Vista, so I was excited to rediscover my old windsurfing spot (when I lived in Sacramento).. . . . The iwindsurf.com predicted 20+ knot winds on Saturday and Sunday, so I tried it out. Lately, I have been chiefly sailing at Coyote Point - since it's the closest location to my work…
Read More: Windsurfing Sherman Island
Today, we saw a TheatreWorks production of Hershey Felder's Beethoven. . . . The production primarily focuses on reminiscences of a Beethoven acquaintance while playing pieces of some of his most famous compositions, such as Moonlight Sonata, Pathetique, parts from Choral Symphony No. 9, and, of course, Fur Elise. . . . . . We enjoyed the concert, and Hershey Felder beautifully played Beethoven's famous…
Read More: Review: “Beethoven” at TheatreWorks (Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts)
Once the rains in San Jose finally stopped, I returned to mountain biking at Almaden Quicksilver Park and surrounding trails. However, I noticed that my rear tire was constantly losing pressure.. . . . . . . . At first, I took my 2011 Specialized FSR Stumpjumper S-Works FSR Carbon to Trail Head Cyclery. The mechanic there redid the rear tire. However, one week later,…
Read More: Return to Mountain Biking at Quicksilver Almaden County Park
Who knew that there was a nearby wildlife refuge in North San Jose?. . Steve Stolper suggested I join him on his bird-watching hike on the Mallard Slough Trail at the Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge in Milpitas?. . We met Steve at 1751 Grand Blvd, Alviso, CA 95002, where a parking lot leads to a small Educational Center.. . . . We saw many interesting…
Read More: Bird watching at Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge
After 25+ years of windsurfing on 20-year-old gear (1996 Ezzy Transformer sails, Aluminum Chinook booms, and PowerEx masts), I returned to the sport with new, modern gear.. . . . I found an excellent deal online at Isthmus Windsurfing, where Jon Massman was able to help me build a new quiver of sails based on 2016 Ezzy Elite sails and Ezzy Masts.. . I purchased…
Read More: Windsurfing Coyote Point on new Ezzy Elite sails
Our first stop in Ferndale occurred during lunchtime after we had hiked at Humboldt Redwoods State Park nearby.. . . . At first, we stopped by Ferndale Pizza, where Alex ordered and ate an entire pepperoni pizza! I ordered the Fettuccine Alfredo (which was well prepared), and it filled me up.. . After lunch, we decided to stop by at Humboldt Sweets. Yelp indicated that…
Read More: Kinetic Sculptures Race in Ferndale
After waking up at 7:00 am and quickly showering, we dressed and headed for breakfast at our Best Western Plus. I was surprised at how busy it was at 8:00 am; everyone had the same idea of getting an early start on breakfast.. . . . There was not a lot of variety at Best Western (but at least it was free), so Alex decided…
Read More: Hiking Humboldt Redwoods State Park
On Saturday, May 27, we started our long drive from San Jose to Garberville and Shelter Cove (aka the Lost Coast).. . There was a lot of traffic on I-880 and US-101, so we stopped by for lunch at a well-regarded (according to Yelp) eatery - Sarah's Sweets and Eats in Petaluma.. . I ordered a delicious Pastrami Reuben sandwich, while Inna ordered the Monte…
Read More: Exploring the Lost Coast
Since Friday, May 26, was a Juniper Holiday, Inna and I decided to see Monet's "The Early Years" exhibit at San Francisco's Legion of Honor Museum.. . The drive there was uneventful, though finding parking was a challenge. There were several intriguing sculptures in the courtyard of the museum. The sculptures looked like they were made from wet clay - yet they were solid.. .…
Read More: A Day out in San Francisco
Since our 16th engagement anniversary was on May 5, we decided to revisit where I first proposed to Inna - at the Benziger Winery, atop the hill that overlooks the winery.. . . . We enjoyed strolling around Benziger Winery's gardens, looking at the beautiful flowers.. . . . We saw a few frogs lurking about in the nearby lily pond, ribbiting. Inna took lots…
Read More: A Grand Day Out in Sonoma