We did an escape the room with George, with this one being themed ‘Escape the Jail’. I won’t say any particulars about it since that would be a huge spoiler, but we did really well. I was able to help out with multiple parts of it, and we made it out with 4 some odd minutes to spare. It was a really fun time, and I’ve also been enjoying the black letter lab puzzles that George and team are doing. We had a great lunch before the escape in Japan town, since we thought the escape was just next to there, but this one was a number of blocks away, so we just barely made it in time.
On March 5, Steph and I went to meet up with Hai, Mark, Michael, and Kaijen in SF at Urban Putt. It is a place where you can drink and mini-putt. I had a great time, as it was what amounted to lots of Rube Goldberg machines.
This state park was really nice. The camp sites were nestled back in the woods, and the old air strip on top was great for watching the sunset. We got there Saturday morning and did a nice hike in. Part of the Canyon Trail was washed out, so it was a little treacherous. Hai and Mark turned back and went up the Fire Road at that point, but we got to camp at about the same time. The group we were with was really nice, including Steph, Hai, Mark, Michael, Joey, and Ryan. We played some exploding kittens on the air strip while watching the sunset. A little cotton tailed bunny hopped by while we were playing. Just after sunset the fog really started to roll in and walking the half mile back to camp was like walking through a horror movie, especially with all the red light from the headlamps lighting up the fog. It was getting pretty cold so we called it a night early.
The hike out was pretty uneventful, and seemed a lot faster than the hike in. It might have just been my imagination, but we also took the Fire Road back and didn’t stop for lunch/snacks/rest breaks. It was also a downhill hike back, whereas the hike to the camp was mostly uphill.
I’ll add in some pictures when I get them. I didn’t use electronics the entire time we were there, but Hai took a lot of great pictures.
Steph and I joined Nick in his shared cabin for a weekend of skiing/snowboarding in Tahoe. We went to Heavenly the first day and I sat out the second day when the two of them went to Kirkwood. I really enjoyed most of the runs, but the traverses were terrible, and at one point I had to hike a couple hundred yards through powder, which wasn’t pleasant in the least.
A lot of other people we knew were there that weekend, including Andrew, Debby, Riley, Rong, and Adam. Kevin and Lindsay also came to Tahoe, but they were staying in the casino and not on the slopes. After the skiing we had dinner at Capisce? and it was pretty tasty. Then we played a few rounds of Codenames and a lot of the triple wheel slot machine. It was a good time all around. I relaxed a lot on Sunday and got caught up with work. I also got some more shelves for our kitchen. I really enjoyed having the day to myself.
Steph and I were joined by Irene, Tina, and Jeremy for a nice paint nite. I got a mixed coffee drink, and decided to go way off from the guide once the background was done. I really liked how the kitties turned out and bonus points if anyone knows who the person is in my painting.
We took Valentines weekend in Las Vegas with a lot of friends. This was originally planned as just a friends trip, but it ended up turning into a bachelor/bachelorette party.
The flight there was delayed by 4.5 hours. This was due to the fasten seatbelt sign not working, which they didn’t fix. Instead they just said, “we’re going flying anyway, and you just can’t get up during the flight.” We made it there just barely in time to go to the spa. Steph was a little late to her massage, but not too bad. We didn’t have time beforehand to check in, so we did that after and went to dinner after a short nap.
Dinner was at Bar Masa and the food was pretty good, but no dish really stood out as fantastic. It was a pretty massive group of close to 30 people, and we all had a good bit of sake. The night progressed up to the suite, where four guys dressed as teenage mutant ninja turtles came up, and we played a lot of codenames. Steph was sleepy since we had to get up early so she left around 1am, and I stayed until about 3am since I had slept on the flight.
The next day we went to brunch at Bardot, where Steph got the largest French toast I’ve ever seen.
We then went up to George’s room and played some more Codenames with Tom and Irene. I really enjoyed spending time with them, and will have to have them over some time. We then went to a nice dinner at Milo, followed by some gambling at Ellis Island. They were giving out $10 in free slots play, which was interesting. It took a while for everyone to figure it out, but they did. Debby was the one who enjoyed it the most by far, as you can see in the poorly shot video below (Sorry for portrait).
After a 4.5 hour delay on the way in it was annoying to have a 4.5 hour delay on the way out, which included a long wait on the runway because one of the AC units was broken, but they decided “we’re going to fly anyway.” Not sure how I’m feeling about Jet Blue after this trip.
Stephanie and I went to Whistler in Canada for a weekend of Snowboarding (me) and Skiing (her). We met up with a group of people including Rong, Riley, Emily, and Emily’s family. It was a pretty good time, and we stayed at a rather nice vacation rental.
We took a gondola there that stretches between the two mountains, Whistler and Blackcomb. It was an amazing view, and once we got the glass bottom gondola. Looking down was pretty interesting, and we couldn’t actually stand on the glass.
Stephanie wasn’t terribly comfortable until near the end, and I was pretty rusty myself. There were a lot of points I would have liked to go a bit steeper, but the paths that Steph chose were challenging enough for me. The others were pretty good at the skiing part. The only thing I would really liked to have done is go up to the glacier and snowboard down that. It sounded like the kind of thing I’d really enjoy: huge area that is decently steep. There are a lot more videos that we took with the go pro on my youtube.
Pretty much the entire way there and the entire way back I was using my phone for the Gear VR. It was a really nice way to pass the time while travelling. The only strange part is when the vehicle turns the screen registers it as turning. It might actually be good for motion sick people since the screen responds exactly to the motion.
We got to Kochi pretty late and just went straight to the hotel. It was New Years Eve, so we had planned on staying up late and partying. We got there and Lindsay was able to get us into the roof party, despite one woman insisting that it was sold out. Lindsay even got us a discount because the package deal of a room and the party wasn’t on the website.
We had a pretty good night. Lindsay won a dance contest.
The only stop we made was to get some bootlegged alcohol, made from coconut juice. It wasn’t that great and wasn’t from the cleanest of places
I didn’t feel too unsafe because the fermentation process was proceeding cleanly.
We saw a fantastic sunset, and got some much needed sleep in the well sealed cabins. I only got a half dozen bites from the mosquitos, but that is why I was taking anti-malaria pills.
The next morning we went back to Kochi and got a hotel for the time before the flight. We walked along the beach some and got to see them take in the Chinese fishing nets.
Lindsay left at 4pm, so Steph and I grabbed some dinner and a nap before heading off to our flight at 1am.
The flights were really long, and not too bad. Steph and I switched seats halfway through the long flight, and she really didn’t like the middle seat with the broken recliner. I can’t blame her since it was really uncomfortable. I wasn’t able to sleep in it very much, but the window seat she gave me got me a decent amount of sleep. Her parents were there to pick us up when we got back and it was nice of them to make us some soup for dinner. Steph was completely gone the whole ride back, but she managed to stay up until a decently late time.
The flight to India was really long…
It took four flights to get me from Atlanta to Bangalore. I went through Chicago, over the North Pole, through Delhi, through Chennai, and then to Bangalore. I had to go through security at every airport and customs in Chennai. Lindsay met me at the airport and we headed back to the hotel for a nap. A few hours later we went back to pick up Steph as she got in. We had a short night’s sleep, and slept in quite a bit. We eventually checked out an hour late, and grabbed a quick bit of food at the close by McDonalds. We got the Indian versions, made of Aloo and Paneer.
We made it to the next hotel, which was about an hour and change away. We checked in then went to see the town, and get some much needed coffee. We walked a bit around one of the nicer areas and found a Cafe Coffee Day that Lindsay liked. We got our much needed caffeine and then talked through what our plan for the trip was going to be. While walking along the streets we noticed cows just wandering around and standing in the middle of the road. Everyone just went around them. With as crazy as the traffic was, cows weren’t even close to the biggest hazard.
We then went for some really oily massages called ‘Ayurveda’ massage. It was a very interesting and unique experience that I would not want to repeat. The massage wasn’t that unpleasant, but the constant oily feeling afterwards wasn’t great. They do let you shower, but it isn’t western standards. We had a nice Indian meal after that and called it a pretty early night.
The next day we went on a tour of the city, with a really amazing guide. In the morning we went to a snake temple that was built to appease all the snakes that were displaced from the filling in of lakes in Bangalore. They served the most delicious meal we had while we were in India.
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Near the snake temple were sari looms, and they were incredibly loud
Just down the street from there was a well known coffee/tea house, so we stopped by to get a drink
After that we went to the central marketplace. It was very loud with people going everywhere. There were large piles of trash around because someone had not been bribed to take it away. There were so many flowers in the lower area, and Steph got some Saffron, which I was dubious about.
We then went to a Sikh temple and learned a little bit about the Sikh traditions of taking care of the community, which I strongly approve of. Their meals, housing, and education social policies are very good, and are done on a scale that is mostly sustainable. Their religious practices aren’t for me, but the social policies are nice.
We had lunch hosted by a local family that was distantly related to the royal family that once ruled the Bangalore area. They were very nice, and cooked a dish ‘Kofta’ that was delicious. We liked it so much we decided that in the cooking class we were going to be taking later we would have to have that included.
We then headed to the temple to Kali, which was pretty disturbing. They had animal sacrifices, locks to cast curses, and a black cat owned by a transvestite. The whole place wasn’t that scary, just really creepy.
The nexts stop was Pottery Town. This was an area that was known for making pottery, and consisted entirely of a labor caste that converted to Christianity to get out of the caste system. They had a lot of pots everywhere, as well as all sorts of clay figures. We found one room full of nativity characters.
A short drive away was one of the slum areas, which the guide referred to as the nicest slums. The area was mostly buildings with a few tarps here and there. We stopped by an area for women who take trash and weave it into usable products. Lindsay got a day bag there, with Steph and I just donating for a tour of the facility. It was a very interesting area.
Lastly we stopped by Washerman’s Valley an area in almost all Indian cities that has the old style of cleaning clothes. They wring water out of the clothes and beat them against rocks to force out the dirt and oil. This is a very cheap way of getting laundry done, but destroys the clothes pretty quickly.
We called it a night and went to an interesting Mexican restaurant, which was decently good tex-mex.
The next day we headed to the park, followed by a nice cooking class.
Manjus recipes – 1-5-16, 6-44 PM
We then went to the plane to Kochi
It's an Exciting World 