Adventures

Birthday Weekend!

Today is my 30th birthday, and to celebrate I took 13 of my friends, and a +1 to hang out in a cabin near north lake Tahoe for the weekend.

We got up there around 6pm on Friday, with a 5.5 hour drive. We expected it to be a lot faster, but I vastly underestimated the amount of traffic that would be around Sacramento. The cabin was nearly perfect for the 16 of us to hang out and sleep comfortably. The only issues were that the downstairs was figid, and the bunk room had two people that snored/sniffled on Friday. Thankfully the snorer moved to the downstairs room and the sniffler took a bunch of antihistamines, so Saturday people got better sleep.

We did a MTG draft Friday evening, as well as a round of Terraforming Mars. Others did karaoke on the system George brought, and did a puzzle of a puppy and kitty. There was also a hot tub on the back balcony that overlooked Sugar Bowl. It was a really nice view, and Jeremy was kind enough to offer drink service of a mixed fruit daiquiri from the fruit Lindsay brought. I wish I had written down the proportions because it was phenomenal.

For the draft Kevin ended up winning when we finished up Saturday morning. Andrew had a hard time with the draft based on position and the decks he opened. It is hard to do well when you open off color and land rares. I got a lot of really amazing cards, but didn’t have the deck come together for a consistent strategy. Saturday morning Kevin and I also did a one on one sealed. I got insanely lucky and opened two planeswalkers (Chandra and Nissa). I won the first and third games with him scooping as soon as the second one came out.

Saturday morning was a great morning. George did a phenomenal job on the eggs, and Tina cooked the bacon. It was a lot of fun to have everyone together, chatting, and relaxing.

A dozen of us left at 12:30 for some whitewater rafting. We didn’t get on the river until around 2:30, and then got off around 3:45. It was a lot of fun, and even though it wasn’t challenging it was exciting. Jeremy was the only one to fall in, but it was for a matter for seconds, as the guide had him in the raft before he even registered what happened. I was in the front of one of the rafts, with Steph, Riley, Rong, Andrew, and Debby.

While we were on the river, Lindsay and Kevin took a walk along Donner Lake, and Irene and George went into Truckee.

When we got back it was time for some hot tubbing, and we relaxed for a bit while people trickled in from their coffee stops on the way back from rafting. Lindsay and Kevin had done a great job with the potato and leek soup. Lindsay even was kind enough to grab extra potatoes when the ones I brought turned out to be green. Andrew was kind enough to take over as grill master, and Debby ran logistics for the meats. I was really happy that the two of them helped out so much with that.

After dinner Brian got out the cheesecake that he had brought for me.

I was really glad everyone who was able to join for the weekend. It was a great time, drama free, and a memory I will not soon forget!

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May 22, 2017 0

Wednesday in Yosemite

Stephanie and I had a great mini-vacation. We drove to Yosemite Tuesday evening and stayed in the Majestic/Ahwanee/Historic Hotel. It is a gorgeous place. As we arrived at the valley, the moon was out and full. The valley shone with a gorgeous light, and I really wish we weren’t so tired, or we could have pulled off to the side and taken it in more. I may have to go back on another full moon. We met up with my uncle Fred and aunt Karin. They were great fun to talk with in the morning. We then went to the Vernal falls hike together. Stephanie and I continued on past to the top of Nevada Falls, then back down the John Muir trail.

There was an amazing amount of water flowing, and the hike up to Vernal falls was soaked with the spray coming off the falls. All that spray, mixed with a nice sunny day, made for some spectacular rainbows.

Close to Nevada falls was a small waterfall coming down directly on the path. We walked along the railing for a few hundred feet, right next to a drop of a few hundred feet. It was exciting, but not something that was terribly safe.

We met up with Fred and Karin to go to the lower Yosemite falls, then hiked back to the Majestic Hotel for drinks and dinner. It was a delicious dinner and the conversation was excellent. Stephanie and I wanted to stay until the moon came out, but that would have meant getting home around 4am. Instead we started the drive back and got home at around 11:30.

It was a good trip and I’ll post pictures when I get them.

May 18, 2017 0

Uncle Fred’s and Karin’s Visit

I had a great time with Fred and Karin. We got to eat at all the places I loved, and they enjoyed them as well. They lamented that there was no Burmese place in Birmingham, because they liked Rangoon Ruby so much. I have to admit that Rangoon Ruby is my favorite restaurant, so I can understand their lamentations.

We went on a great hike in Rancho San Antonio, and got a great view of the bay.

We also went to Oakland and got a good look at the bonsai garden there with Karin giving us a guided tour of what all the techniques were that were being used and a good bit about the history of the garden.

April 8, 2017 0

Cuba

Steph and I took a few days in Cuba after the Mexico trip since we were so close. It turned out pretty well, and I’m really glad we got to see it before a lot of the new construction completed. The city was an interesting mix of semi-new and old things. There was also a huge mix of well kept vs. not, and little of the kept state had to do with age.

The place where we stayed was very nice, Casa Densil. The owner Ezio, was nice and helpful. The rooms he had were full of what I would consider antiques, but they were the kinds of thing that people there were used to using everyday since they hadn’t been getting many imports. The cars were somewhat as we expected, with the 50’s taxis. There were also a number of newer cars going around from the 80’s and 90’s. Most of those cars were European or Asian, none from the US of course. The food was pretty good. We went to a Swedish Cuban Fusion place for the first two nights called Casa Miglis. The second night we tried to get into the top restaurants, but they were fully booked. The second rated restaurant was in an interesting building. It was an old shopping mall that had the bottom two floors completely empty. It was clear by the nice marble everywhere that it at one point had been upscale. The restaurant was on the third floor, but there was no signage for it. The only thing that gave it away was a guy standing out front that said we were in the right place when we looked confused. I don’t think he worked there, just hanging out. Many of the streets had people and families just hanging out on the sidewalks. There wasn’t really internet or TV so that is the primary pass time, sitting around and talking. The communities seemed pretty strong. We noticed one night there squares where buildings had been torn down and park benches installed on the concrete slabs. They were full of people on tables, which we found odd since there wasn’t internet. We didn’t ask but I’m pretty sure they were setting up local networks for file sharing.

The flight back was rough. The flight from Cuba to Cancun was delayed by 3 hours, and then the flight from Cancun to SFO was delayed by 15 hours. Not the longest I’ve had to wait for a flight, but still rough. The kitties were so happy to have us home.

December 24, 2016 0

Mexico 2016

Steph and I joined a Diver Dan’s trip to Mexico. There were two locations for the trip: Xcalak, close to Belize, and Puerto Aventuras.

Xcalak was a really nice beach area, and the dive shop was pretty, but we got there at the same time as a group of new interns. The DM’s were trying to get everything ready and teach the interns at the same time. We had a great guide Mathias, and he was able to keep things going mostly smoothly for us. The first day Steph got sick after the first dive and we went back in. The second day we did a nice first dive, then tried to exit the barrier reef. During the exit the boat was hit by a massive wave that washed over the deck. Most people were knocked from their seats, and much of the boat gear was knocked overboard. Steph and I were hit hard by the wave, and we kept our seats, but to our detriment. Steph got cuts on her hand from holding hard to the bench, and I got cuts on my leg from hitting against the same bench. We circled back to pick up the first aid kit from the waves, and got a bit patched up. Steph went diving with a rubber glove on, filled with antiseptic. I stayed on the boat and helped pull things out of the water. Steph’s dive computer was gone for good, but its depth sensor had just broken anyway. Not a huge loss.

The place we stayed, Casa Paraiso, was really nice. I liked the view, and they had clearly put a lot of effort into making it really nice, despite not being able to get all the best materials.

We then trecked up to Puerto Aventuras and got situated. The next day we got to start the cavern diving with Under the Jungle. Our guide was the owner Natalie. This was the real reason Steph and I had come, and it was amazing. The first day we didn’t get the good light effects, since it was cloudy. We did get nice light effects for a few days we were there. During the cavern dives we were paired with Pej, the 6’5″ guy and his wife Lili. They were a fun couple to talk to, and Pej might listen to more audiobooks than I do.

We had a great time on the beach, and found a swim up bar. I love swim up bars, disproportionate to how fun they actually are. We ended up there two nights of the time we were in Puerto Aventuras.

December 24, 2016 1

Atlanta for Thanksgivings

Stephanie and I went to Atlanta for Thanksgivings week. We were only there Monday to Friday, which was just about the right amount of time. I was able to talk with my parents, and I got lucky in getting a gift for my dad that he really liked. My mom also appreciated it. We played codenames, and I think they liked it.

Fred and Karin showed up on Wednesday, and we got to talk a lot about many things. They will try to come out and visit early next year. It is possible they will combo it with another trip they are planning to Oakland. It will be nice to show them around, and I think they’ll enjoy it greatly.

One morning we hiked Stone Mountain. Stephanie seemed to enjoy the activity. I certainly liked it, and the view was a lot clearer than I was expecting.

Other than that it was mainly lots of eating and chatting. We enjoyed Holeman and Finch. It had really tasty food as usual.

I really appreciated how Stephanie interacted with my family nicely, despite it being overwhelming for her I’m sure.

December 9, 2016 0

Boating with Mayfield

We went on the O’Neil Catamaran in Santa Cruz with Mayfield and it was a really nice time. We saw harbor seals on our way out of the harbor, then otters around the kelp beds. We made our way over to the Santa Cruz pier, and it was of course covered with Sea Lions. We then headed out to deeper water, and saw a number of humpbacks. They were very pretty. We had a pretty relaxing time, and it was nice to talk to Mark, Hai, KJ, and Michael.

October 24, 2016 0

Company Vegas Trip

I’m leaving all the work stuff out as usual, but there was plenty of fun that didn’t involve work. Some of us hit up the hot tub before going out for the evening. After getting out a lot of us were just hanging out and drinking near one of the craps tables that the others were playing at. It was a lot of fun, especially with the faux bachelor party bets that Cory and I were making. I bought a tiara that said “Birthday Girl” on it and whoever lost a given bet had to wear it. The bets ranged from who would do something first, to hi/lo, to even/odd, to challenges. I think we ended up with Cory having a slight lead, despite him ending the night with the tiara.

Stephanie got there Friday evening and we relaxed in the room for a bit before joining the others at dinner. It was a nice event, and brunch the next day was also pretty good. We went to see one of the most amazing shows I’ve ever been to, O. The whole thing was in a giant tank of water, and they used it to full effect.

We flew back on Sunday and didn’t do anything for the rest of the day.

October 11, 2016 0

Escape the Puzzle Room, Beach Blanket Babylon, and Coi

Steph and I had a lovely day in SF starting with an Escape the room in Japan town. When we got there a festival was going on, and it made me really happy that we didn’t need to find parking. The room was designed for 11 people, and we only had 7. We ended up doing pretty well given that number difference, but we made one critical mistake and that cost us the round. I had a great time doing it, and was really happy I got to work on the puzzles I did.

Then Steph and I broke off from the rest of the group and went to Beach Blanket Babylon, which I thought of as Non Sequitur, the Musical, with HATS! It was amusing, but I don’t think I’d go again.

We had some time to kill before dinner so naturally we went to eat. We stopped by the Stinking Rose for some garlic bread, garlic ice cream, garlini, and roasted garlic. The roasted garlic spread on the bread was amazing.

Coi was a fantastic experience, and we got some fantastic food. One of the really unique things they had was the tea pairings, which Steph got. I got the California wine pairing and was not disappointed. They had some neat art on the walls that were MRI’s of different foods in cross sections. I was able to guess 3 of the 4 plants, an steph was able to guess the animal.