A digital travel diary. · WP v1.08 · Updated
For our family day, we decided to try playing Bocce Ball at the local Campo di Bocce restaurant and Bocce ball game center. I made reservations for 1:30pm (90 minutes of playtime) on Sunday, October 2nd.. . . . While playing Bocce Ball, we ordered a few appetizers and entrees from the restaurant.. . Alex selected the following dishes for himself:. Garlic Bread. Caesar Salad.…
Read More: Campo di Bocce, Los Gatos
For my birthday, Inna surprised me by making reservations at the newly opened Bywater Restaurant in downtown Los Gatos. Since this restaurant was newly opened by David Kinch, the famous chef of the 3 Michelin-star rated Manresa (also in Los Gatos), we were eager to have a bite there.. . When I lived in Houston, CA (after graduating from Georgia Tech), I got used to…
Read More: The Bywater Restaurant in Los Gatos
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
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
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 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)
After purchasing my Honda CRF250R dirt bike, I realized I needed additional training to get more comfortable. I repeated the Intro to Dirt class with Garrahan Off-Road Training in Hollister Hills SVRA, CA.. . The class was initially scheduled for Sunday, March 13. However, Brian moved the class to Saturday, March 12, due to the rainy weather.. . . . . On Saturday, March 12,…
Read More: Intro to Dirt at Hollister Hills SVRA
Today, we returned to Filoli Gardens in Woodside to see many beautiful flowers in bloom. Despite it being late February, many flowers bloomed in Northern California.. . The last time I visited Filoli was in May 2011; it looked very different from how it looks today. In February, many flowers (such as roses) had not yet bloomed, but others, like dandelions and early tulips, were…
Read More: Filoli Gardens, Woodside
It's been many years since I played Paintball (last time in Sacramento), and I was eager to try it again in San Jose. I remember how much fun it was (but painful when getting hit by paintballs).. . LivingSocial offered an enticing proposition for Santa Clara Paintball ($17 admission for up to 4 players; paintballs are extra).. . As Alex was eager to try Paintball,…
Read More: Santa Clara Paintball
I have recently had the pleasure of seeing the OdyseeO Cavalia show in San Francisco. This equestrian show is very similar to Cirque du Soleil productions. The horses and riders do various stunts throughout the show.. . . . . . There are 60+ horses used in the show, ranging in age from 4 to 17. In addition to horsemanship, a few other stuntmen perform…
Read More: Review: OdysseO Cavalia
Kirkwood has always been one of my favorite Lake Tahoe ski resorts (from when I lived in Sacramento).. . . Since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, I have not snowboarded or skied there (Kirkwood being too far away). Kirkwood is ideal for advanced/expert skiers and snowboarders and doesn't usually feel crowded like other resorts (like Sierra-at-Tahoe, Squaw, or Heavenly).. . . . .…
Read More: Snowboarding Kirkwood
After the Potted Potter show, we had dinner at a nearby restaurant. However, finding parking was a struggle, and I drove round and round. Eventually, we settled on Chubby Noodle at 2205 Lombard Street - a quirky little place that serves exciting dishes.. . . . We ordered a "Spicy Garlic Fried Chicken" entree, "Korean Pork Tacos," a "Duck Wrap," and a "Green Papaya Salad.".…
Read More: Chubby Noodle in San Francisco
Today, we went to see the performance of Potted Potter at San Francisco's Fine Art Museum.. . . . Potted Potter is a parody by Daniel Clarkson (Dan) and Jefferson Turner (Jeff), taking on the ultimate challenge of condensing all seven Harry Potter books (and a real-life game of Quidditch) into seventy amusing minutes.. . . . Dan and Jeff try to cover one Harry…
Read More: Review: Potted Potter
Ever since I discovered Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox on Youtube.com, I have enthusiastically supported his modern song arrangements.. . When I attended Lehigh University, one of my electives was to study Jazz. I enjoyed the music of the '20s and '30s, especially Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday. It was disappointing to see how current Jazz had turned into elevator music, ala Kenny G.…
Read More: Review: Postmodern Jukebox at Warfield