On Sunday I dropped Stephanie off at the airport for her latest trip to China. Then I went to Tina’s for long games day. I had a good time playing with Jonathan in Feast for Odin. I would have preferred to play Mage Knight, but it worked out that I could meet up with Lindsay, Kevin, Debby, and Andrew for dinner. The Mage Knight game was only about 2/3 of the way through when I left. I won Feast, but that wasn’t a bit surprise as I had played before and Jonathan was doing it for his first time. He did really well, and saw the strategies I used and copied them. That led to some blocking of spaces I wanted as we were trying to use most of the same actions.
At dinner we had some tasty Indian food. I really enjoyed the Tandori Chicken, but it was more of skillet than clay pot. We went to Lindsay’s afterward and Andrew had thought ahead and brought swim trunks for me to wear to the hot tub. We talked about doing a movie night and I set up some methodology for deciding what to watch.
We went hiking with Steph’s coworkers and SO’s (Kaijen, Michael, Pete, and Julie). We went up to Windy Hill, and thankfully this time there wasn’t rain. We also started at the bottom, which was easier to get to as we didn’t have to drive on Old La Honda. I hate that road, and usually drive further to get to La Honda so I don’t have to deal with the one lane, blind corners, and bikers everywhere. The temperature was perfect, and there was lots of sun, which we were prepared for. As per usual I was faster going uphill than most of the others, but much slower going downhill. The knee brace I’ve been using helps a ton, but I’m still careful when going down.
After the hike we went to Rong’s place to watch Akira and My Neighbor Totoro with her and Riley.
We had Shabu Shabu with Kevin, Lindsay, Debby, and Andrew. We were late because I chose poorly on my way to get there, and there was a ton of traffic. The food was pretty good. Steph and I did some trades for the things we liked more, and the others got the giant plates of meat. To be fair Andrew got the giant plate, and the others got the big plates of meat. They were going to se ‘It’ afterwards, but Stephanie and I decided we would rather go home and watch The Defenders. Debby got some red noses for them to wear to the movie, but Kevin declined from what I hear.
I signed up for a food delivery service, that sends fruits and veggies on a weekly basis. The first delivery came in on Wednesday.
I am so far happy with the first box. I’ve cooked most of it already, and had people over for dinner to share in the bounty. I cooked roasted peppers (from the garden, not delivery), guacamole, turmeric chicken, potato leak soup, steamed beets, and sliced up veggies for chips.
It all turned out well and I really enjoyed hanging out with everyone who came. I am especially glad that Steph gets to see these people before she ships out to China again.
Stephanie and I went to Atlanta for Jeff and Katie’s wedding. I got there a few days earlier than her, and spent some time with the family. The original plan was to spend time in Birmingham to see Nana, but that fell through as planning for the wedding took precedence. We ended up walking around a bit and I helped around with random chores. I cleaned my parents porch and helped Jeff install a ceiling fan.
We went to the rehearsal on Friday evening, and it was a pretty relaxed affair. We walked around a lot. Mitch, Katie’s brother, and I walked around the most, as we were seating lots of family members. We then went to the rehearsal dinner, and it was delicious, but loud in the small room. Stephanie landed and I grabbed some leftovers for her. I managed to time it perfectly with getting to the hotel as she was checking in. We had an early night as we were both pretty tired.
The next morning I let her sleep in as I had to get to the groomsman activities. We met up at 11 at Jeff’s hotel room and watched a sports game. I felt a little like the odd man out, but it was still a good time. We got to the venue right on time, and I stole a bit of time to talk to Nana and say hi to Fred. I had made a silly birthday card for Nana, which was a popup flower. The wedding was gorgeous, and everything went well. We did lots of pictures afterwards. Stephanie was tired at the reception, so we went outside and sat on the porch. She took a nap in a rocking chair while I participated in the garter toss. It went much better than last time. Not only did I not get a black eye, but I caught the garter.
The next day we went to the botanical gardens and had some tasty chocolate. There were a few stations spread around serving different chocolate things. My favorite was a chocolate cheese, which was surprisingly good. I took Steph to the airport, and on the way we stopped by Holman and Finch and the High Museum.
Monday was interesting, as Irma was coming through Atlanta. The power went out in the early afternoon, and it stayed out until lunchtime Tuesday. Nothing too exciting happened when the power was out, and when we drove around on Tuesday morning, we saw that much of Atlanta was without power. There weren’t too many trees down, but a whole lot of branches were down.
Wednesday I helped Kim with some packing, then Levi Lowrey came by and got a guitar from my dad. They played a bit together, and Levi played some on his new guitar as well.
I got the airport with plenty of time to spare, since the traffic was lighter than expected, and the line at security was less than five minutes. I was soooooo ready to get back home after nearly a month of travelling.
Back in Redwood City, my kitties were happy to see me. Steph was too.
I decided I would visit Stephanie since she had some advance knowledge of when she would be in Hong Kong. I got the tickets before she had exact days so I got there a day and a half early. The flight was pretty long, but I got really lucky and there wasn’t anyone in the middle seat. The sunrise out the window was also very pretty.
The train ride to downtown was also pretty. I went to the hotel and dropped off my bags before heading up to the peak. I walked around, as they had a really nice path that nobody else was on, and then grabbed some dumplings at one of the restaurants in the peak viewing building. The tram ride up and back was also very nice. I was surprised how much undeveloped land there was so close to such a huge city.
That evening I took the ferry to another area. I walked along the waterfront and grabbed some peking duck pizza. I somehow got the table right next to the water, and right at sunset. I got to watch the ferries and boats, as well as a pretty impressive thunder storm go through.
As I finished dinner and went home, the rain stopped. I made it back just before the rain started again.
The next morning I decided to watch a few videos on where to wander around and they recommended an area called Mong Kok. I went there for breakfast/lunch and got some of the egg waffle, boba, and some delicious soup dumplings.
I got the 8 flavor combo, as well as an extra order of the garlic, of course.
I then headed to the gondola on Lantau Island. It was an amazing view, and it led to a really fascinating area, with a giant Buddha statue, a few really nice walking paths, and a monastery.
I took the train back and got to the station as the sky opened. Again once I got off the train and had to walk the rain had stopped and I got to the hotel to pick up my back and meet up with Steph without issue. That is where my luck ran out. On the walk to the Ritz Carlton it rained pretty hard. There were a lot of sections of the trip that were above ground and uncovered. I probably should have taken the subway to the building, but I was unaware of exactly where the Ritz was, as it’s location on google maps wasn’t quite right.
I got there about half an hour before Steph and waited in the lobby. She showed up, and we checked in. I met the contractors she works with, and we all headed to dinner at an Indian restaurant that she knew. The food there was pretty good, and we had a good conversation. I was pretty tired, and they also talked a lot about work, so I didn’t contribute all that much to the conversation. We headed back to the room and each got a nice soak in the luxurious tub. The view from the room was amazing.
The next morning we had breakfast with Steph’s coworkers and headed to PMQ with them. We got to PMQ way too early, and wandered around for a bit. We found a cute little temple, and Steph put out some incense. We had a brunch at Yum Cha, and then went back to PMQ for some shop browsing.
We then went to the tailor so Steph could try on her shirts, and we found a place close by for some congee. It was fantastic.
We went back to the hotel before dinner to relax a little. Steph and I went to the pool area, and it was a very nice pool and hot tub. They also had all sorts of sauna and relaxation equipment in the changing room areas. Had the clouds and fog not been there I’d expect the view to have been amazing. After relaxing we went to dinner at a Thai place Steph knew of. We were all tired at that point so we went back and went to sleep pretty early.
The next morning Steph and I grabbed breakfast, then she went to the spa for a few hours. When she was done with the spa we had high tea in the restaurant in the lobby. It was very nice.
We then went back to the room to cuddle for a while, and watch some Netflix. We then went out to dinner at a Ramen place with Trevor. The food was amazing and it was the same chain as the restaurant we ate at in Japan, Ichiran. They had the same style concentration booth. We then went to Glo Station, a multiplayer VR room. It wasn’t the puzzle room that was promised, but a wave shooter. We lost on the boss, as we didn’t actually know what we were supposed to be shooting at. It was a great time despite losing and it not being what we expected. The set up was also really well done with the multi person tracking.
The next morning I had the last breakfast with everyone as they were about to head back to the factory, and I was going to airport that afternoon.
This was a good trip, and I was happy to spend so much of it with Stephanie.
My brother’s bachelor party was a pretty low key affair, being that it was mostly a LAN party. I enjoyed it a whole lot more than had it been a traditional bachelor party.
The flight there was uneventful, albeit a little late. The MARTA ride north had great sunset views.
I accidentally missed the station because I was writing an email, but Jeff was nice enough to wait and pick me up when I got back. I hit the trains just wrong as the one I needed back pulled away as the train I was on pulled up. It ended up being about a 30 minute delay. We got to Jeff’s and had dinner with my Mom and Dad. They brought over some tasty Thai food.
The next morning Jeff’s friends started showing up, and we eventually got to the gun range. Jeff brought a small arsenal, as did his friends.
I shot a little, but not very much. I was most impressed by the difference the suppressors made. The guns with suppressors made a click sound, and the ones without were deafening.
We then headed back for a round of games before heading to Taco Mac. It was a nice dinner and we met up with the rest of the party there. We came back to play games, and had a good time of it. I played a bit of everything, but the FPS’s weren’t my thing. I did really well in Mario Kart and Rocket League; only losing those to people who play them regularly.
The next day We went to my parents place and hung out. I played cards with my dad, and Kim came over with my niece Grace. This was my first meeting with Grace, and she was cute.
We had dinner and watched Game of Thrones, then I grabbed a Lyft for the airport.
Steph and I decided we’d go to the Grant Tetons National Park for the Aug 21 Solar Eclipse. I hadn’t experienced a full solar eclipse before and heard it would be nice, but I hadn’t expected it to be as amazing. I also realized the difference between totality and 1% is huge.
We started off by flying into Salt Lake City, getting a rental car, and grabbing some dinner. After dinner we drove up to Idaho Falls where I had found one of the only hotels that didn’t change their prices for the eclipse.
We stayed there one night, then went into the Grand Tetons National Park the next day for some hiking around the lakes there.
We stayed in a fantastic Aribnb that night, and went for the big hike the next day.
The total hike was 13 miles, with 4600 ft vertical. The first part through the granite canyon, and absolutely gorgeous.
The stream running through the canyon was flowing pretty nicely, and we had to cross over lots of side streams. We then came into several miles of wildflower fields.
Eventually we made it to the summit, just in time to take one of the last trams down the mountain.
We finished up the hike and met up with Adam at the tiny house cabin. The cabin was adorable, and the size of a trailer. I was so tempted to get one. We went into town for a nice dinner, did some grocery shopping and hung out in the cabin for a bit.
The next morning we went to view the eclipse at the visitor center, and managed to get the final parking spot. We walked around for the few hours before the eclipse started, then got in line for the big scope just as the eclipse started. We got to see the small sun spots. We got out the nice eclipse wine our Airbnb host had given us, and had it with some nice cheese and crackers. We watched the eclipse progress and it started getting colder. At totality I was amazed. The entire area was dark, with the sky being in an odd state of not light and not dark. We could see the planets, including Mercury and Mars. We saw some stars as well. The horizon looked like a soft sunset for the full 360˚. The most amazing part, however was the sun. It was possible to see the solar flares and corona, with the size being much larger than I had expected.
After the eclipse we went back to the cabin for a nap. We hung out there until it was time to go to town, where we did two escape rooms. We did well in both, and almost had the best time for the second room, despite taking no clues. The rooms were very well done. http://www.exitusjh.com/
We cooked some pasta for dinner and had an early morning to get back to the bay area. Adam stayed a few more days to enjoy the park without us. I had a great time and would love to do something similar in the future.
Kevin and I played an MTG draft at Game Kastle last night, and I did horrifically. He won.
I did win my last matchup with my deck hitting perfectly. But I will spare everyone the details.
Lindsay joined us and read her book while we were drafting, and was nice enough to grab some teaspoon for me. We went to Pho Vi Hoa for dinner before the draft and had a nice conversation. I enjoyed the evening, as it was the only truly social thing I had done that week.
It's an Exciting World 