Adventures

Jack’s Birthday and a Short Hike

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.

January 7, 2015 0

Paint Nite

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.

January 7, 2015 0

Karaoke

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.

December 28, 2014 1

Belize Night Dive

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.

December 20, 2014 1

Lighthouse Reef, Blue Hole, and Red Footed Boobies

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.

December 20, 2014 1

Belize Day Dives

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.

December 20, 2014 1

San Pedro Belize

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.

December 20, 2014 0

Black Hole Drop

Out of all the adventures at Caves Branch this one was the most lack-luster. The hike was pretty tough, with it being steep and muddy. We made decent time, with only a few stops, and got to the rim of the sink hole. I was the first one to get strapped in, and I got a good 5-10 minutes to look down into the hole from half hanging off the edge before they had Steph ready to go. It was a great view of a fascinating cave system. I wish we had time to go through the caves a bit more, although we were a little caved out at this point. Steph and I were followed by two couples and a group of two guys that were on the hike with us. A large group of people were behind them, but luckily we were in a separate group and could hike out without waiting. The lunch was the typical tortillas, veggies, cheese, and meat. The other women were concerned about doing the drop, but everyone enjoyed it when they were done. The first video is Steph and I doing it, with the other videos being the other people in our group and some interesting things we saw at the bottom of the sink hole.

December 15, 2014 1

Tikal

Steph and I did a day trip to Tikal, getting up at 5:30. The night before we had been allowed to stay in one of the nicer rooms. The main thing I liked about it was the standard outlets for power. The rooms were surprisingly nice, as they could easily sleep 6 people, and had balconies viewing the river.

We had a long drive to Tikal, in Guatamala, with a pass through the border checkpoint and switching cars. The two people we went with weren’t particularly pleasant, and we were glad that they left us mostly alone. I got the feeling that Edgar, the guide, didn’t care for them either. The man of the couple was a know it all who kept trying to tell Edgar about Mayan ruins and what things meant. Edgar was a good sport about it, but handled it by being quite. I would much rather have listened to Edgar giving the tour than the other guy, and we did get some great stories from Edgar when the other couple was off exploring on their own. I was amazed at the temples, but the most amazing construction was the man-made mesa that the entire complex sat on, with water reservoirs in between the mesas. We got a good number of pictures of the wildlife as well and it was amazing to see the temples, housing, and construction. I would have liked more time at Tikal just to wander around and explore everything, since the complex was so expansive we had time to just walk through everything before having to leave.

The wildlife around Tikal was amazing, and we got to see toucans, spider monkeys, howler monkeys, a red breasted falcon, turkeys, humming birds, the ‘royal rat’, and a quadimundi.

The food on the way there and back was decent, with the hot chocolate being amazing for breakfast. I really enjoyed the trip, despite the other couple there.