Steph and I joined a large group at the Symphony and Dance Libre show, Including Adam, Amit, Leyan, Andrew, and Debby. It was a pretty decent show, but I was feeling restless that evening for some reason. We had a decent dinner beforehand at Three in San Mateo, that had great service and great sauces. The appetizers were the best part of the meal by far, with the flaming cheese being both entertaining and delicious. I thought the sauces were fantastic but the bases were a little lacking. The steak didn’t have much of a flavor besides balsamic sauce, and the bread wasn’t terribly good, but for the cheese on it. I still had a great time there, especially with Steph.
This was a great time in the city with Nick and Sarah. Steph and I took the train and rode our bikes to the Caltrain and took that to the City. We rode our bikes along the bay, and to the pier. There was a farmer’s market around the pier and we got some food there before continuing on to the exploratorium. We got inside and Nick and I almost immediately got distracted by one of the exhibits, it was a horizontal spinning plate that you could put small plastic wheels onto. The wheels would roll along the plate and if you got it right would stay on and make interesting patterns. We stayed there longer than the girls would have liked. We then went to see many other interesting exhibits, including some geysers that were constructed to go off at 20-30 minutes depending on height, there was a room that had photo-reactive walls, there was an infrared camera to see how hot things were. It was a great time, and I’d be up for going again.
After that we went to Nick’s place and washed our hands a half dozen times because of all the exhibits that everyone had been touching. Then we went to the Ethiopian place near where he lives. The food there was amazing, and the bread they had was better than any other’s we’d had before, because it was made with the Ethiopian starch instead of wheat. It was a great time.
Steph and I went to the birthday party of an old coworker from Zynga. Jack lives in Hayward, so we drove over and took a board game called Gauntlet of Fools. We played that a few times, which I think people enjoyed, then we headed out to go on a short hike very close to Stephanie’s parents house. There was a lot more open space than I had first thought, with the hill we saw from the parking lot being just the tip of the iceberg. We walked around for about an hour, and it was getting cold and late so we headed back. The view from on top of the hill was very nice.
Steph and I went down to Cupertino to a Paint Nite of a diving scene. I did a side view, with most people and the original being a bottom up view. Steph had a lot of really well done fish, I went a little overboard with things to include in the painting. In my painting there is an otter, a turtle, a jellyfish, a trigger fish, a kelp forrest, and a diver looking at an octopus. Stephs is much more elegant, with the turtle being prettier and all the little fish and corals around the outside being more detailed. She also had a lot more contrast between the background and the silhouette, which I think is also nice.
Steph and I went to Karaoke with Leyan, Kevin, Lindsay, Andrew, and Debby. We had a great time, and got to sing all the songs we wanted. There were a lot of Christmas classics going around. I really enjoyed singing “Chestnuts Roasting” as well as “Baby, it’s Cold Outside.” The “Baby, it’s Cold Outside” song is so creepy, but I really love the way the harmony and counterpoint in the duet, despite the words to the song. Steph got really into a few of the songs, and I thought it was adorable. I did a few of my classic karaoke songs like one of LMFAO’s, one from Billy Joel, and American Pie. Lindsay brought an interesting drink that was purple with sparkles and it had a decent amount of alcohol in it. It wasn’t all that tasty but it still hit the spot. I had a really good time and would love to do it again.
The night dive was my favorite dive in Belize. We went to the protected area Hol Chan, and saw a lot of things. There were a ton of rays, an eel, a massive hermit crab in a conch shell, an octopus, and a lot of fish following us for food. The red snapper was eating other fish that we shined our lights on. There were a bunch of fish following us that were interested in the worms congregating around the lights. I stayed behind and played with the group of smaller fish by trying to stay really still and watch them eat the worms. I got one worm in my ear, and it wriggled around for about 15 seconds before leaving, it felt really strange.
We took a day trip to the Lighthouse reefs, which includes the Blue Hole. We did one dive in the Blue hole and two dives on the reefs nearby. There was a nice break for lunch at one of the nearby islands, which was a habitat for the red footed boobies. The video below is a summary of the three dives, about 2 hours, taken down to about 6 minutes. The dives on the lighthouse reef were nicer than the dives close to San Pedro, with more fish, and more interesting formations.
The island for lunch with the red footed boobies had a few giant iguanas, frigate birds, and massive hermit crabs. The hermit crabs weren’t as big as the one we saw on the night dive, but still about the size of a baseball.
We had a great time diving near San Pedro. Steph did a total of 7 dives around the reefs there for day dives that are compiled into the video below. We picked out all the good parts, so from the 7 45 minute dives we have about 10 minutes of video. I didn’t do all the dives because I had headaches for one, and ear issues for another.
We took a night in Belize city and had dinner at the Best Western there since everything was closed on Sundays. The food wasn’t that great but the little bed and breakfast we stayed at, D’Nest Inn, was really nice. The furniture was old but decent, and the patio next to the river was nice. We played with all the catfish that were in the river. Supposedly there were manatees living in the river, but they didn’t come by while we were there. We caught a flight to San Pedro out of the international airport, and the pilot had to stop by the Belize City Municipal Airport, which was the shortest flight I’ve ever been on.
The island of Ambergris Caye was nice, and the City of San Pedro was cute. I was surprised that there wasn’t more of a city center, but that made for many more places that you could find restaurants. The nicest place we found was a breakfast and lunch place called Mesa Cafe. It was run by an adorable Australian couple, and we had a great time chatting with them and eating their delicious food. The Mesa Cafe was also one of the few places that we found with a decent vegetarian selection.
We were staying at the resort called Ramon’s Village. The place was very nice, and they upgraded us to one of the nicest rooms. We had a wonderful time at the resort, and the breakfasts were delicious. There was a delicious pastry called fry jacks, which we had with most breakfasts, and I enjoyed opening them up and stuffing them with the omelettes. We didn’t spend much time on the beach, as I was avoiding getting burned at all costs, but we did spend a good bit of time in the shaded beach chairs. We also got a couples massage, which worked great for me, but they didn’t go deep enough for Steph.
It's an Exciting World 