Blog: Entries Tagged With 'travel'

The qualities that Priscilla considers when determining what place we should travel to next, in order of most important to less important:

1. Cost of airfare
2. What airport lounges we'll be able to visit
3. What free hotel nights we can use
4. The activities that will be available

Because she feels like we don't travel enough, and because Frontier Airlines was having a sale on flights to Denver, Priscilla was all too happy to book another trip for us. Flights from Burbank to Denver were $26, a steal by any measure. Of course, Frontier has its downsides and we had to rebook after they canceled our original flight, but at last we made it to the Mile High City last week.

The rest of the day was spent getting settled: picking up the rental car, getting a few grocery items from Costco, and driving to our hotel in Golden. We wanted to be in Golden due to its proximity to hiking, though that can probably be said about most places in the Denver area.

I had originally wanted to do an all-day hike in a more remote area, but those places tend to be at a higher elevation and, as I would later find out, are still getting snow at this time of the year. So we were consigned to doing two shorter (well, my definition of "short") hikes over two days.

So on Day 2, we hiked at Red Rocks Park, Priscilla doing 5 miles and me doing another 2.5 miles on top of that. The rock formations there were pretty unique and made for a scenic hike, and it was cool to see the famous outdoor amphitheatre. We hit up the gift shop and Priscilla bought a keychain that will be this year's Christmas ornament.

After hiking, we drove over to Downtown Golden to get lunch and walk around some more. The downtown area looks really nice, and they have a creek that's full of water and a walkway on both sides. It was similar to the San Antonio Riverwalk but less commercial. We even saw someone paddling around in a kayak.

We hiked at Green Mountain on Day 3. Priscilla was not fond of the elevation, but we finally made it to the summit. The scenery was beautiful and the panoramic views were lovely. The whole area was filled with green grassy hills, and to the west in the distance, we could see the amphitheatre at Red Rocks Park. There were small mountains as far as the eye could see, and behind those rose the snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains.

In the afternoon, we headed over to Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge (which is not in the actual Rocky Mountains) to do the wildlife drive. It was a warm day, and perhaps as a result, we didn't see a lot of animals out. Priscilla had downloaded a podcast that narrated the 11-mile self-guided drive. We saw what appeared to be buffalo off in the distance, a field of prairie dogs, and a couple deer resting beneath a tree. The visit was a bit of a letdown, but I know that timing matters for these kinds of places.

That evening, we checked into the Staybridge Suites near the airport, which would be our home for the final two days. We had a small but functional kitchenette, and they even upgraded us to a two bedroom, two bathroom suite! It was cool to have two sides, but we ended up not using the other side since we didn't want to make more work for housekeeping.

Day 4 was Meow Wolf's Convergence Station. It's hard to completely describe what Meow Wolf is, but perhaps I'll call it an eclectic collection of immersive art, a thematic universe with an unfolding story.

We bought the QPass (RFID) card so that we could interact with consoles and unlock the story. But because it was a Sunday, the place was crowded and we weren't able to get our hands on everything. I appreciated the huge amount of work that went into creating this place, but I felt like it was a one and done kind of experience. The abstract, artistic style at teamLab Borderless in Tokyo was much more our cup of tea.

After Meow Wolf, we walked over to Downtown Denver but didn't do too much. Downtown Golden was a lot nicer; for instance, the river trail in Downtown Denver didn't have as much water and was a little run down.

Monday was our last day and was essentially just travel. We hit up the Capital One Lounge (courtesy of Priscilla's Venture X card) at Denver International Airport before flying Southwest back to Burbank. The lounge was fine, but I couldn't eat most of the food and I felt like the counterpart lounge at DFW had more food options and amenities. Priscilla, of course, is happy with anything she can get for free.

Overall, Denver was fun enough and I'm glad that we got to do a couple popular hikes. But what would really be up my alley is an all-day hike/run where I can explore and feel like I'm challenging myself. Priscilla and I agree that I can do that on my own while she hits up a coffee shop and explores the town for the day. Whether one of those days is really in the cards is going to be up to me.

We last visited the Bay Area in October for me to say goodbye to my coworkers and for us to see friends and family. We thoroughly enjoyed our time up there, but we thought it would be longer before we visited again. However, last week we found ourselves visiting again.

The main reason was to go to my uncle and aunt's place to retrieve our guitar and keyboard, which they had graciously let us store there during our move. Priscilla needed those to practice since we're starting to help out with worship at our church, with Good Friday being our first time serving in this way. We always had a feeling that we would reprise our roles playing piano (her) and drums (me) for worship after joining a new church.

So the previous Friday, after our morning gym session, we drove up the 101, stopping at our new halfway spot in Atascadero for a short break. We got to Mountain View in the afternoon and I joined up with Frank to go running. We ended up running 8 miles on the Stevens Creek Trail like old times.

We stayed up in the Bay for four days, which gave us plenty of time to see people and get stuff done. We stayed two nights with the Chans, having breakfast with them on Saturday, then two nights with the Leongs, having breakfast with them on Tuesday. We also caught up with the Yehs for a late-night hangout, did lunch with Albert and Ruth, dinners with both pairs of my uncles and aunts, and dinner with Tracy at Google. Plus talking to a lot of people at church for 3.5 hours until our voices were sore. Whew. Thankful for all the people we've gotten to know and their generosity in letting us crash at their houses (several families had previously offered).

We also had time to get the prongs on Priscilla's ring adjusted at Shane Co, and also hike Mission Peak on Monday. Hiking Mission Peak once a year has been our annual tradition, so we (I) thought it would be cool to do it again this year during our trip. Will we keep up this tradition going forward? I guess we'll see. Priscilla is as thrilled about it as I am about traveling in general.

We've also been busy helping parents, both remotely and in person. The cadence for now is to visit Priscilla's parents about once a month, and we saw them yesterday and fixed a lot of things around the condo.

Her dad's dementia is getting progressively worse, and during the last visit we helped them fill out and get notarized a Durable Power of Attorney and Advance Health Care Directive for each of them. We also bought her dad a medical ID bracelet which he lost within a day. We also ordered a bracelet with a tracker that's difficult to remove, so hopefully that will be better. There's the doorknob cover to prevent him from wandering that I mentioned in a previous post, and yesterday I installed a keyed lock for her mom's bedroom to help prevent her dad from going in there and taking things. He's also been breaking things around the condo because he can't figure out how they work. He seems to have clarity less than half the time, and usually when he talks, his communication is all over the place and nobody knows what he's trying to say. It's sad seeing him decline and not be able to do a lot of the things that he used to, but I have to remind myself that this happens to just about everyone as they age - whether it's our bodies or our minds breaking down. I myself have been having a lot more aches and pains in the last few months, so I'm getting to experience things through a new perspective.

Things are the most difficult for Priscilla's mom, of course. She feels like she's being driven crazy daily due to his actions and him frequently talking about seeing/hearing people in the condo. Priscilla and I have it easy, relatively speaking, though I'm sure that will slowly change as we start helping them more. We have to remember that we're here to love and support them, and this is what we signed up for when we decided to move back down.

Because Priscilla constantly has the travel itch, and because she keeps forgetting how much land sickness she gets after a cruise, she signed us up for another cruise to Ensenada last month. This was our third time cruising there, the previous time being in 2020 a month before the world shut down. How things have changed since then.

We stayed at Jo-Ann and her sister's condo in San Pedro overnight, and they kindly brought us to the Long Beach Cruise Terminal the next day. After waiting in lines for a good while, we boarded our ship, the Carnival Firenze. This is a newer and larger ship compared to Carnival's Fantasy-class ships that we've sailed on previously.

We went straight to the Lido Marketplace for lunch, avoiding the crowds that were mostly checking into their muster stations. After lunch, we reported to ours, but they just asked if we had sailed before and knew how to put on a life jacket, and then they signed us off. I don't know if they were supposed to bypass the safety briefing like that, or maybe they figure that people don't pay attention to or remember the briefings anyway.

We had time that afternoon to do the adventure course on the top deck. It wasn't as exciting as the treetop courses we did at Go Ape and Highline Adventures, but it was still cool to see this new addition. Here, your harness is tethered to a rail system and you're able to change freely between an easier side and a harder side at each platform. Kudos to Priscilla for pushing through her fear of falling and making it to the end.

The next day was supposed to be Catalina Island, but it ended up being our day at sea due to strong winds that made docking infeasible. Unfortunately, the wind also made for some choppy waters, and the ship was swaying a lot. I had to go back to our stateroom and lie down, but that day we still managed to eat a lot, work out, walk around the track on the top deck, and watch the Color My World music show which was beautifully done. We had dinner at the upscale Michelangelo Restaurant, and the prime rib and molten chocolate cake were divine.

Fortunately, the wind had subsided the next day and we were able to go ashore at Catalina (Avalon). We hiked 10 miles around the town, the Wrigley Memorial & Botanical Gardens, and the Trans-Catalina Trail. I did a couple bonus miles and hiked to the Lone Tree Point on the south side of the island, where I was treated to breathtaking views of the coastline below. The trails this far out were also fairly devoid of people.

Ensenada was the following day, and this time we just did a zip lining excursion with Desert Nest. A bus brought us to their basecamp outside town, and then two vans took our group of a dozen people up to the nearby hills. There are five successive zip lines and the views were decent. I have to admit that zip lining was not as exciting as I was hoping, but I guess the experience is more about the views than the inherent thrill of the ride. Maybe also because we were not permitted to do it hanging upside-down like our guides were doing.

After we got back to town, we walked a mile around the Port of Ensenada but otherwise didn't have too much time or inclination to do much. We don't care to eat in town because there's plenty of food already paid for back on the ship. When we were walking along a street with merchants trying to get tourists to eat at their restaurants, I even said "ya estamos llenos" ("we're already full") to a lady, which was true because we'd eaten a big breakfast. I guess we like being boring when traveling.

There were a couple things that had changed this time around. One our first cruise in 2009, all the pictures being taken of people got printed out and hung on the wall to nudge people into buying. I always thought this was wasteful. I'm not positive but I think even in 2020 they were still doing this. Now, to cut down on costs, you just view your pictures through the Carnival app and purchase prints there. I don't think there's an option to purchase digital versions of the pictures, though. Maybe in a few more years.

The other difference we encountered was that reservations to the restaurant are now made through the app. They also don't give you a printed menu by default (though you can request one), instead making people pull up the menu on their phones. A little less personal, but it again cuts down on costs and is better for the planet.

Priscilla ended up having land sickness for a few weeks after the cruise, while mine was minor and lasted only a few days. The trip was fun enough but I was reminded that I'm not really a cruise person. Priscilla, on the other hand, enjoys being able to try different things and having all our needs taken care of. I don't think she's really itching to do a multi-month around the world cruise anymore, though doing another short cruise in the future seems to still be on the table.

This past Sunday, I got to do the Monterey Spartan Sprint at Toro Park with 4 other guys from RBF: Joe, Wilson, Kelvin, and Frank. It was the first time doing a Spartan Race for all of them. I really enjoyed the camaraderie of doing the race with a group. During the race, we repeated the infrequently used joke that RBF stands for "Really Buff Friends" - somewhat fitting given that we've been training together (well, sporadically at least in my case).

A few of the ladies from our church did this race last year (go them!), so this year was the guys' turn. I haven't been training as much this year, definitely not as much as I was two years ago when I did a Spartan Trifecta with Dan, and I had gotten injured at the gym earlier in the week due to overstressing the joints. So I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to do some of the obstacles, but I ended up having no pain on race day and was able to complete all the obstacles successfully except for the spear throw. During practice in the morning, I stuck the spear 3 out of 5 times, but I just couldn't get it during the race.

Overall, the race seemed less difficult compared to what I've done before. The men's sandbags were definitely 60 lbs since that's what it said on the bags, but the gravel buckets for the Bucket Carry felt around that weight or slightly lighter, which is odd because I thought they were supposed to be 80 lbs. And my bag for the Hercules Hoist felt noticeable lighter than I remember it being before. Or maybe they had heavier weights for the Super (10k) but reduced them for the next day's Sprint (5k)? Some of these impressions are probably subjective, but what was definitely true was that all of the major obstacles had penalty loops (where you run a short distance) instead of burpees for failing obstacles. Kind of takes some of the challenge and the uniqueness away, IMO. But I can appreciate that Spartan wants to make the race more appealing to more people, and the Sprint in particular tends to be the first Spartan experience that first-timers have.

Everyone in our group failed at least one obstacle, but we all did great overall. And the training paid off - for instance, thanks to our practice with the rope that Joe bought, everyone was a pro on the Rope Climb!

After the race, we hit up The Butter House in Seaside for brunch. Everyone else headed back home afterwards in order to be able to make it to Sunday Evening Fellowship, but Priscilla and I drove over to Monterey so that we could walk around the area one more time before our upcoming move. We walked almost 7 miles between Old Fisherman's Wharf, Cannery Row, and Lovers Point. The weather was perfect and we got to see sea lions, harbor seals, otters, and got to relax and enjoy views of the ocean.

The weekend was nice - spending time with people, conquering the race together, and seeing some sights like in years past. What a great way to spend one of our last few weekends before we move.

For international travel, our regular cadence has been one trip every two years. Before last year's Japan trip, we hadn't done one since 2019 due to the pandemic (Priscilla doesn't count our 2020 cruise to Ensenada as international). Since she felt gypped, we agreed that we'd do another international trip in 2024. We settled on Japan again because prices are still cheap, the exchange rate is even better now (about 150 yen for $1), and because we enjoyed our time last year.

We departed last Sunday and the day was pretty grueling. We got to SJC a little after 9am and headed to The Club for breakfast. Brandon and Josephine from church were already there; they were on our flight but unlike us, they were going to visit different cities in Japan for a whole two weeks. Our trip was 10 days and we were only staying in the Greater Tokyo Area this time, since the JR pass is a lot more expensive now and it wasn't economical to get to cities like Kyoto.

The flight was around 11 hours and was pretty uneventful until the last half hour. Tokyo was getting 40mph winds that day and there was so much turbulence during our entire descent. The wind was so bad that we had to abort the first landing attempt and re-ascend and circle around. The plane was shaking so much right until it touched down on the runway. This was the worst turbulence I've ever experienced and my stomach was quite upset. Another minute of that and I probably would've thrown up. At least a couple other people did.

At Narita, there was a lot of waiting. Half an hour to get through customs. Half an hour to get the Pasmo transit card (preloaded with 1,500 yen with the 500 yen activation fee waived), which is similar to the Suica card but only available to foreigners. At least there was no wait to get food from the Lawson convenience store at the airport; we each got a couple things since we hadn't eaten much on the flight.

Odaiba and Tokyo:
Then we took a Keisei train and a Yurikamome train (2 more hours of travel) to get to our hotel at the Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel. The room was pretty small, just a little bigger than the room at Ibis Styles in Kyoto last year. We got more food from another nearby Lawson for dinner, and then we were pretty tired so we turned in "early." We woke up in the middle of the night because of jetlag, but we were still able to get 6 cumulative hours of sleep.

The next morning, we had a buffet breakfast at the hotel. It was 2,200 yen per person and the food was pretty good, though the buffet we had at the Hilton Tokyo Bay last year (free because of our Hilton Gold membership) was better. There was a decent variety of western and Japanese food, fish, meat, vegetables and more. I liked the gyūdon and sauteed bean sprouts the most.

After breakfast, we walked over to Odaiba and did Joypolis. We did most of the attractions, but I had to skip a couple of them because I don't do well with spinning rides. I liked the Sonic Athletics game where I competed with 7 others in track and field events. I had the raw speed but I came in 3rd overall because I suck at timing my button presses (for the long jump and hurdles). :p

Joypolis was okay but it's more Priscilla's kind of place than mine. I liked our time afterwards a lot more - we walked around the area and saw the Statue of Liberty, Unicorn Gundam statue, Odaiba Kaihin Park, and Daiba Park.

We started Wednesday with breakfast buffet at the hotel again. They didn't have the items I liked from the first day, and the place was more crowded, so we decided that we wouldn't do the buffet again the next day. After breakfast, we walked to Odaiba and crossed the Rainbow Bridge (terrific views) and walked over to teamLab Borderless.

Borderless was amazing! A lot of the art moves between rooms and it changes periodically. Some of it even reacts when you touch the wall. Every room was masterfully done. The room we liked most was the one with a 360 degree projection of celestial bodies in space. It periodically transitions through different scenes and the one that has crows flying through space is really something else. The other rooms that were terrific were the one with the forest of LED light strips hanging from the ceiling, the one with lighted metal balls moving around a track, and the one with hundreds of spotlights choreographed to music.

We also liked the tea room (only 600 yen for most of the teas) where you sit in a dimly-lit room and a projection shines into your tea cup. The projection shows flowers growing in your tea and then the petals all scatter when you pick up the cup. You watch as the petals blow away and fade once last time when you pick up the cup to drink for the final time. I thought it was a poignant metaphor for the beauty and fleetingness of life.

Borderless was truly moving and inspirational. At first I didn't see what the big deal would be, but I'm really glad that we did this. Priscilla paid $78 for the Joypolis and Borderless package through Klook, so each was around $20 per person. I don't think it was worth it for Joypolis, but it definitely was for Borderless!

Hakone:
On Thursday, we took the Yurikamome and then a JR train to get to Odawara. We picked up the Hakone Freepass from the train station and walked around Odawara Castle Park and also got some produce from the grocery store at the train station. The tomatoes in particular were really good - they looked like regular tomatoes but were very flavorful, almost like heirloom. Way better than all the tomatoes we get at grocery stores back home. Compared to the US, produce in Japan seems to be more expensive but higher quality. Even the hard-boiled eggs we bought at the convenience stores had orange yolks; hens in Japan are apparently fed a more balanced diet, while hens in the US are fed mostly corn and soybean.

From the train station, we took the free shuttle provided by our hotel, Hotel Indigo, to Hakone. This is a boutique hotel and they're very service oriented, which we're not accustomed to, though Priscilla didn't mind. This was by far the nicest hotel during our trip, and Priscilla redeemed all of the travel points in our respective Capital One accounts to book this. The room was quite large and had a lot of amenities, including a private onsen on the balcony and sliding wooden doors between the living area and the bathroom area that blocked out light. Since this day was mostly a travel day, we didn't do too much walking - we just walked 2.5 miles along the side of the Hayakawa River near the hotel.

Hakone is known for its hot springs, and every room at this hotel has an onsen. There was a 150 yen onsen fee (so just $1) per person per night, and we made good use of it since we used our onsen each of the three nights that we were there. The water is supposed to have healing and rejuvenating properties, and I did detect a slight sulfur smell one night, so it's probably the real deal.

The next day, we walked up some really steep steps to get to Gora Station, and from there took the Hakone Tozan Cable Car and then the Hakone Ropeway up the mountain. There are four consecutive ropeway lines, and once you crest the ridgetop of the Owakudani valley, you're treated to a gorgeous view of Mount Fuji in the distance and the sight and sulfur smell of the volcanic steam vents below. We stepped out at the lookout point to admire the landscape and peek at the gift shops. There were lots of shops selling black eggs, which this area is famous for and are said to add 7 years of life, but people say they just taste like regular eggs. Instead of eggs, we opted for black ice cream, which just tasted like vanilla. This place seemed like a tourist trap, but at least our ice cream was only 400 yen.

We took the ropeway down to Lake Ashinoko and did the pirate ship cruise to get to the southeast side of the lake. We went to the Heiwa no Torii, a famous torii (traditional Japanese gate) out on the water, but there were too many people in line waiting to get a picture, so we just took a picture from the side. After a quick lunch at Lawson, we found our way to the Kyu Kaido, a portion of the historic Tōkaidō road. The hike was very rugged due to the steep terrain and the large uneven cobblestones, and it was a little more difficult since we weren't wearing hiking shoes, but at least we did it in the eastward direction going downhill. Going the opposite way would've been quite challenging.

At the start of the hike, we were looking at the map on a sign and were met by a girl who looked to be in her early 30s. We ended up hiking together since we were all planning to visit the Amazake Chaya Tea House around the midpoint of the trail. We learned that she was from Perth, Australia and was on her second day of a 30-day backpacking trip through Japan. She gave us some travel recommendations for Australia and we chatted a bit when we settled down at the tea house. Priscilla and I had the amazake (sweet rice wine) and the sesame seed mochi. The tea house apparently has been operating for 400 years, and the recipe for the amazake is still the original. It's non-alcoholic and is sweet without sugar. After staying a bit, we exchanged well wishes and Priscilla and I continued on our hike while our friend waited for the bus.

We hiked to the eastern end of the trail in the town of Hatajuku, completing the approximately 3 mile length of the Kyu Kaido. East of the tea house, the trail gets more technical, including steep stairs with shallow steps, and occasionally crosses and even merges with the modern road. Finally, the old trail pretty much disappears once you get to the residential part of the town. We walked along the residential road for a short while, but it was a semi-busy road and the shoulder was narrow, so we decided to catch the Hakone Tozan Bus back. The bus took us to the Yumoto Station, and from there we took the Hakone Tozan Train, famous for its switchback railway, back to Gora Station. All the transportation that day was covered by the Hakone Freepass.

Saturday morning, we splurged and did the breakfast buffet at the hotel for 3,729 yen per person. Priscilla didn't mind doing this since she could get it credited on her Capital One Venture card. They had some fancier items that I didn't really care for, but I was still able to find some things that I liked that also agreed with my stomach. It was raining a good part of the day, so we stayed in the hotel and I caught up on work emails until the early evening, when the rain stopped and we hit up the Hayakawa River trail for a short walk again. Priscilla had originally planned for us to do more activities with the Freepass, but it was nice (for me at least) to have some downtime.

On Sunday, we used the Freepass once more to visit Hakone Gora Park. This wasn't the best time of year to visit since rose bushes and most trees weren't in bloom yet, but it was still nice to wander around the gardens and also see the plants in the greenhouses. Regular entry is 550 yen per person, and I don't think we saved money on all our activities by getting the Freepass, but convenience is worth something as well.

Afterwards, we took the hotel shuttle back to Odawara Station and checked into our new hotel at Toyoko Inn. We'd wanted to walk around Odawara Castle Park again but didn't on account of the rain. So we just chilled at the hotel and then went to Yoshinoya for dinner - our first time eating at a restaurant this trip. We were able to order more adeptly compared to last year. Yoshinoya in Japan is way better than Yoshinoya in the US. You get dine-in service, they give you complimentary tea and free refills on rice, food is made to order, and they don't have silly American desserts like cheesecake. And dinner here was only 1,453 yen - less than $5 per person!

Yokohama:
After stuffing ourselves from the free breakfast at Toyoko Inn (not bad selection for free) on Monday, we took a JR train from Odawara to Yokohama. We visited the Cup Noodles Museum and learned the story of the founder, Momofuku Ando, who invented instant noodles after a string of failures. It was neat to learn how he came up with the idea of flash flying noodles to dehydrate them after watching his wife fry up some tempura. We also hit up Chinatown for Priscilla to get some light bites. On the way back, we stumbled upon a fresh squeezed orange juice vending machine and had to try it out of curiosity. For 350 yen, the machine squeezed 4 oranges to make a cup of juice. The oranges rolled down a track and were loaded one by one onto a gear-like wheel, getting pressed between two wheels as they rotated towards each other. This was probably the coolest vending machine I've ever seen.

Tuesday saw us stuffing our faces for breakfast yet again. Priscilla got the breakfast option when booking our Yokohama hotel, The Square, for two nights. All the eating helped us not be hungry until dinnertime. It was raining fairly hard, but we walked over to Animal Touch Minatomira at the World Porters mall to go feed and pet animals. We liked the room with the capybaras, toucans, lemurs, and a sloth the most. At 1,800 yen per person plus 1,000 yen for 6 feeding vouchers, this was the most expensive activity we did.

Afterwards, we rode the giant Cosmo Clock 21 Ferris wheel, which Priscilla had booked for $4.26 per person. The ride lasted 15 minutes and gave us a nice view of Yokohama, though sadly we couldn't see far in the distance because of the rain and fog. But the coolest thing is that the Ferris wheel lights up at night with LEDs on every spoke. Its regular mode of operation is counting up the seconds of each minute, but every 15 minutes there's a 5-minute light show with different colors and patterns. Really a sight to behold. And our hotel room on the 15th floor had the perfect view of it! This was my favorite thing in Yokohama.

There's an OK Store a stone's throw from the hotel, so we went there for groceries and to the Hama Sushi restaurant there for dinner. This restaurant is really cool - you check in at a kiosk and it tells you what table to sit at, then you order individual items using a tablet and they are whisked to your table on a conveyor belt. The tablet plays a little jingle when your item arrives. It was really cool to see how everything was so coordinated and just worked seamlessly. Utensils, sauces, and a tap for hot tea are provided at the table, so there are no waiters. If the cashier was replaced with a self-pay option, you'd really not have to talk to anyone! We spent 1,804 yen here and got mostly full, and we had a second dinner from stuff we bought at the grocery store. I felt like the sushi was a splurge, but it still came out to only around $6 per person! What!

Wednesday, our final day, we stuffed ourselves at the hotel buffet one last time before taking JR trains to get to Narita. Learning a lesson from last year, we hit up the duty free shops first to get Tokyo Bananas (for my coworkers) before they ran out. We were able to use the remaining balance on our Pasmo cards and the rest of our cash here. We then got some light bites at the IASS NOA lounge. They had miso soup and some dehydrated seaweed and tofu that puff back up when added to soup; I wondered if those had been dehydrated through the flash frying method! The flight back was thankfully uneventful, though I wasn't able to sleep much and I developed a massive sore throat shortly after getting home. Looks like I'm catching a cold, but at least I got sick on the last day of travel, not the first day.

Overall, I'm glad that we went on this trip, though like last year, I was getting city fatigue and travel fatigue a few days in. Having some downtime definitely helped, even though some of it was because of staying at the hotel due to rain. I guess we didn't do as much this year, and that includes going to convenience stores even more this year. We got to see some cherry blossoms this time around; most of the trees were still bare, but some had started blooming.

Priscilla once again did a fantastic job with planning all aspects of our trip, including knowing the exact fare we would need for each train ride (mainly just to know how much we needed to load on our Pasmo cards), and getting some of our hotel stays, breakfasts, and some activities credited from her Capital One card. The total cost of the trip was around $2,250 and after credits, we spent around $1,775. Not too shabby given that the flights alone were $1,026.

Japan does so many things better than the US and there are a lot of things I will miss, but for now I'm glad to be home and I'm looking forward to catching up on rest.

In October, Priscilla and I went on a 5-day trip to Dallas. And, more so than on previous trips, almost nothing went as expected!

Why Dallas? Priscilla likes to find places that have cheap flights and then plan the trip around that. Round-trip tickets to Dallas were just $101 on Spirit Airlines. Also, she wanted to visit the Capital One Lounge at DFW again. And there was a treetop obstacle course called Go Ape in Plano (20 minutes from North Dallas) that was the main incentive for me, since I'd always wanted to do one of those.

We departed Saturday morning and the flight was a little over 3 hours. Spirit is a budget airline that charges for everything, so we didn't have snacks on the plane. We did of course stop by The Club at SJC before our flight, and we effectively had dinner at a lounge at DFW called Plaza Premium. The food at the latter was pretty good!

We took the shuttle to Thrifty to pick up our rental car. We had booked the manager's special, the cheapest option, and to our surprise and somewhat horror, we were given a Chevy Bolt EUV - an electric vehicle! Apparently, Thrifty is owned by Hertz, and 10% of Hertz's fleet is electric. We'd had no prior experience with EVs, and vacation in an unfamiliar area was the worst way to get up to speed. But more on that later.

It was around 8pm when we checked into our hotel at the Holiday Inn Express. We walked to the nearby Walmart (nearby meaning a mile away) to get a few groceries for our trip. And that was pretty much it for the day - just a travel day.

The next day, we drove up to Oak Point Park in Plano where Go Ape operates from. The obstacle course is 30 feet up in the tree canopy. The height made me a little nervous at first, but I quickly got over it and started focusing just on how best to get through the course. Some obstacles required some strength and endurance, but there was nothing too crazy, except for one impossibly hard obstacle that I and others had to zip through instead of doing "properly."

Priscilla did the hard obstacles with me since we missed a transition point where she could've taken an easier route. She was tired by the end of Course 3, so she sat it out while I did Courses 4 and 5. That was too bad since Course 5 was easier than 3 and 4 and had arguably the most fun obstacle - the Tarzan Swing. Hopefully we can do something like this again and both make it to the end!

After Go Ape, we drove over to a nearby business park to charge the car. There was only a level 2 charger there and it was pretty slow, but it was the best thing we could find nearby. We'd found it using the ChargePoint app, which seems like the main way to find public chargers outside the Tesla network. We walked over to a nearby plaza where there were a lot of Asian stores including 99 Ranch and 85 Degrees. After a long lunch and a leisurely walk about, we returned to the car and found that it had charged 31 miles over 2.5 hours - barely enough charge to cover our trip to Plano and back.

The next day, we did some sightseeing in Downtown Dallas. We first drove around trying to find a place to charge, but the two free chargers at City Hall were taken, the one inside a residential garage was broken, and one was supposedly inside a public parking garage but we didn't want to go in since you had to pay starting from the first minute. We eventually just parked the car a mile from downtown, not charging. Our trip had become all about finding places to charge and we were failing. I can't see how widespread adoption of EVs is viable. The charging infrastructure is just not there.

Since it was lunchtime, we walked over to the Dallas Farmers Market and perused the different shops before deciding on jerk chicken at a Jamaican place. It was decent but wasn't as good as Back a Yard in San Jose, which in turn probably can't hold a candle to food in actual Jamaica.

After lunch, we walked around and saw the Giant Eyeball, AT&T Discovery District, JFK Memorial, Pioneer Plaza, and City Hall. And that was it for the day. A pretty low-key day, but I guess that's how we roll.

It was raining most of Tuesday, so we just stayed in the hotel and did work instead of visiting Fort Worth like we had planned. But the rain let up on Wednesday and we were able to walk around the Fort Worth Stockyards for an hour before returning to the airport. We missed the daily cattle drive, but we saw the longhorns in their pen afterwards. The Stockyards felt a little touristy and I wouldn't really call this place a must-see, but it was fun enough to walk around and explore.

We had decided to just return the car to Thrifty undercharged and pay the $35 fee. A minor fee to avoid a lot of headache. We returned the car with around 40% charge remaining, but interestingly, Thrifty never charged us the fee. Maybe they felt sorry for us, or just didn't want to process it.

Finally, back at the airport we headed straight to the Capital One Lounge where, after a 10 minute wait, we enjoyed a variety of hot food, sparkling water, and desserts. We tried to also visit Plaza Premium but the place was packed and we weren't able to get in before our flight. Which was fine because we were pretty full from the previous lounge!

Overall, this trip wasn't as restful or as eventful as we had hoped, but it was enjoyable and memorable in its own way. I'm writing this a month late because it's been insanely busy at work, with me putting in a lot of overtime to wrap up a large project that's been on the books for too long. Priscilla has already booked a trip to Japan for next March, so hopefully during that trip things will go a bit more smoothly and I won't have to think about work.

It'd been a while since someone in our group of high school friends got married (the last person was me!), but this past Sunday we got to see David and his fiancée Steph tie the knot in Silver Spring, Maryland.

As this area is close to Washington DC, this was a good excuse for me and Priscilla to travel and do some sightseeing. The last time I visited DC was on a family road trip, perhaps when I was in middle school.

Most of my friends got there on Thursday or Friday, but I didn't want to take too much time off work, so Priscilla and I flew out Friday night on a red eye. We flew American Airlines (because we have points) from SFO to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), with a layover at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). At DFW, we visited the Capital One Lounge, which is quite the premium lounge, though we only had around 15 minutes to eat before we had to get to our connecting flight. We arrived at DCA on Saturday around 11am. We managed to get a little bit of sleep on the two respective fights, but it wasn't quality sleep. Doing a red eye with a layover is tough.

DCA conveniently has a metro station right there, so we took the metro and then walked a mile to get to the Capitol Hill area. Steph works at the Library of Congress and was supposed to be gathering people there for a tour at 1pm. Priscilla and I got there at that time, but we were the first ones there and had to wait a bit for everyone else.

I enjoyed seeing the library and learning about some of its history, though my favorite part was looking at the architecture and reading the different quotes around the Great Hall while Priscilla and I were waiting for people to arrive. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see anything behind the scenes on our tour. We didn't have time to visit the reading room, either.

Afterwards, our small group walked to the US Capitol through the tunnel from the library. We got into one of the last tours of the day, but the tour felt a little short, maybe because the building was closing.

After that, we took the metro up to Jongro Korean BBQ in Wheaton-Glenmont, a few miles from our hotel in North Bethesda. David had invited us all to dinner there, so I thought it was just going to be our small group of friends, but it turned out he had invited 40 or so people. We had 6 people at our table and so the food on the grill had to be split up many ways, but at the end we were all decently full.

On Sunday, we made our way over to Brookside Gardens in Silver Spring where the wedding took place. David had booked a premium shuttle to ferry guests over, but only a few people actually took advantage of it. Brookside is a public garden that also has a small outdoor venue for events. The wedding was quite streamlined with no bridal party, no hymns, no candle lighting, and a fairly short sermon. It felt pretty low-key and totally reflected the bride and groom's personalities. There were around 100 guests.

It was getting warm and DC is very humid, and there was no shade at the venue, so perhaps it was a blessing that the wedding was over so quickly. We all then made our way over to the reception at Fogo de Chao, located very near to our hotel, and there we ate way too much meat for the second day in a row. David had half-jokingly told me to come to the wedding/reception wearing pants with an elastic waistband.

Not ones to let the fun die early, David and Steph had invited everyone to their place for the afterparty, stretching from afternoon till night. But Anton, Richard, Raymond and I decided to first head down to DC and rent bikes to bike around the National Mall. It was pretty cool seeing the different memorials and being able to get to them quickly. Afterwards, we headed back to Silver Spring and rejoined the rest of our friends (and Priscilla) and a few others at David and Steph's place. Priscilla and I stayed a couple hours but then booked an Uber back to our hotel, as it had been a long day and we were still jet lagged from the previous day's travels.

For breakfast the following morning, we met up with our friends one last time at the Original Pancake House. David and Steph were there too, her sitting with her friends. Afterwards, we all went our separate ways, one person flying out shortly after and another having flown out the day before. It was nice hanging out with our friends for 2.5 days straight, but it was also nice finally having some time for me and Priscilla to explore on our own!

We took the metro down to DC again and dropped our stuff off at our hotel there. Then we visited the Museum of the Bible, which some church friends had highly recommended. The museum has an impressive collection of old Bibles and other manuscripts, interesting displays making good use of multimedia, and an amazing walk-through experience on the Old Testament story. It was really well done. The place was also not crowded, likely due in part by there being an admission fee.

After that, we had about 45 minutes to tour the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum before closing time. We kind of rushed through it but felt like we got the gist. The place was super crowded, a little surprising since it was Monday, so it was hard to get a good look at things. I guess that's what happens when a museum has free entry.

After a late lunch/early dinner and some resting at the hotel (mainly waiting for the weather to cool down a little), we ventured out again to walk around the National Mall. Our hotel was about a mile from the east side of the mall. We walked around the Washington Monument, World War II Memorial, Reflecting Pool, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the Tidal Basin, George Mason Memorial, and finally the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. It got dark by the time we left the Lincoln Memorial, but it was nice exploring the Mall in a different light and getting to spend more time at each place than I was able to while biking. The place that made the most impact on me was the wall at the Korean War Veterans Memorial that's engraved with the reminder that "Freedom is not free." Words to live by.

On Tuesday, it was time to pack up and head back to the airport. On the way, we stopped in Crystal City and had brunch with my coworker Spencer who moved to DC several months ago. It was great catching up, and Priscilla enjoyed discussing travel tips with him, as he is an avid traveler.

For the return trip, we had a layover at DFW again but the final destination was SJC instead of SFO. Unlike the last time, this time around we had ample time to rest at the Capital One Lounge and enjoy all the food without rushing to our connecting flight. We finally got to SJC around 8pm and had a small dinner at The Club before they started closing up. A pretty tiring day to end a pretty packed four days of travel and activities. I needed an extra day off work just to shake off the exhaustion. But I'm glad that we went to be part of David and Steph's special day, spent so much time with friends, and saw some of the many things our nation's capital has to offer.

Our 11-day trip to Japan has come to an end, and what an eventful, fun, and tiring trip it has been! I'm currently writing this on our Zipair flight back to San Jose. The plane has power outlets, USB charging ports, and free WiFi. The flight to Japan was a grueling 11+ hours, while the flight back is only 9 hours (jet streams FTW). Thank God for that, because my body and mind are exhausted, and it's 6pm Japan time and 1am Pacific time. I've just barely gotten over my jet lag from flying to Japan; reacquiring jet lag now will be a doozy!

Priscilla has done an amazing job chronicling our day-to-day activities, so my post will just be a summary of the major things we did.

This was our first international trip since COVID. Priscilla couldn't wait for us to travel internationally again, and she was originally eying Portugal, but flights to there were pretty expensive. Then she found flights on Zipair, a budget airline, that were $470 per person roundtrip from San Jose to Tokyo. That's insanely cheap and was too good to pass up, and since she'd always wanted to go to Japan, we (she) decided to pull the trigger. I don't care for travel as much as she does and I'd rather be at home than running from place to unfamiliar place, but she did all the research and planning for this trip and all I had to do was just enjoy it with her - and she was accommodating of my preferences, so I really can't complain.

Tokyo:
So last Monday, we took an Uber to San Jose and departed on Zipair, headed to Tokyo's Narita International Airport. Because it's a budget airline, they find ways to charge extra for every little thing (so it's amazing that the WiFi is free - maybe it's because they don't have entertainment screens on the seat backs). Each checked bag costs around $50, and if your bag weighs more than 15 pounds, you have to check it. So we made the effort to travel with just backpacks. It was actually not too difficult, and we did laundry halfway through the trip so that we didn't need to bring too many clothes.

We forgot to fill up our water bottles before the flight, and of course Zipair charges for water, so we ended up paying for three bottles of water. Lesson learned.

Since Japan is 17 hours ahead of Pacific Time, it was Tuesday when we landed. Going through the health checkpoint and customs was pretty quick since we had submitted information in advance through the government's Visit Japan website. Everyone else on our flight seemingly did the same. After customs, we had to exit out of the secure area and then there was only one lounge available to us and it only served drinks. Since we weren't able to get food there, we had to get lunch from a Lawson convenience store - the first of many during our trip. There are vending machines and convenience stores everywhere in Japan, and the big convenience stores seem to be Lawson, Family Mart, and 7 Eleven. We went to Lawson the most since they had this premium onigiri with grilled salmon that I really liked. It was a nice way to get something to eat without spending too much.

So then we took the Disney bus to our hotel at the Hilton Tokyo Bay. Tokyo's Disneyland and DisneySea are there, as are several really nice-looking hotels. Our room at the Hilton was pretty nice and spacious. DisneySea was the biggest thing we would do in Tokyo, so we stayed at the Hilton for three days because it was convenient to have a place to leave our baggage during the day.

For the three days that we were at the Hilton, we ate at their breakfast buffet since we got it for free from our Hilton membership. The buffet was amazing! There was so much food, including a salad bar and various hot foods. Our favorite item was the salmon sashimi with onions; I had to take out the onions due to my gut issues, but Priscilla was happy to eat them as long as there was salmon to go with it. We filled up our stomachs at the buffet so that we didn't need to eat much the rest of the day.

So on Wednesday, after a big breakfast, we took the JR train for the first time. Tokyo is huge and they have so many train lines, and it was intimidating trying to interpret route maps, use the ticket machines, and get to the right platform. It didn't help that signage is mostly in Japanese with small English text underneath. But we managed to make our way from Tokyo Bay to the Tokyo JR Station, and then to the famous Shibuya district. We explored Shibuya and walked through a few stores (most of which were several stories tall), and visited a store called Tokyu Hands that my coworker raved about. Hands is like a cross between Target and Daiso and they really have something for everybody, and we spent the most time in the games section playing with different puzzle games that were pretty challenging. I ultimately bought a metal puzzle to complement my collection. When we got back to Tokyo Bay, we explored the Ikspiari shopping mall and had dinner at an Italian restaurant called Saizeriya (going to Japan to eat Italian food, heh) and got produce at a grocery store. For some reason, our credit card didn't work at Saizeriya; not sure why, since it worked everywhere else that accepted cards.

Thursday was our DisneySea day. We thought that since it was a weekday, there wouldn't be too many people. Nope, there were a ton of schoolkids there; not sure why, since as far as I could tell, it wasn't a school holiday. We did several rides and saw a show, but we skipped the Soaring and Toy Story Mania rides because the lines were way too long and we did those rides at California Adventure last year. Probably the best ride was Journey to the Center of the Earth - (spoiler alert) it's a dark ride that starts off dramatic but slow, but the end is exhilarating as your car gets launched out of the "volcano" like a rocket! But perhaps more enjoyable than the rides was the spectacular theming throughout the park, particularly around the Mediterranean Harbor area at the center of the park. It got pretty cold in the evening, so we sought shelter at the Cape Cod Cook-Off eatery while we waited for the 7:40 nighttime show. There was a lot of seating in the cafeteria area and not too many people, so we were able to relax there for an hour while we enjoyed a tea and clam chowder. Restaurant food in Japan is generally pretty reasonably priced, and we were surprised that the food at DisneySea wasn't noticeably marked up. That place felt very welcoming to us cold, weary travelers.

Around 7:15, we headed out to try to get a spot to see the "Believe! Sea of Dreams" nighttime show, put on at the Mediterranean Harbor. Thousands of other guests were already there, so it was hard to get a good spot to stand, though we finally found a spot not too far from the harbor. It helped that we're tall-ish and could see over people, heh. The show was phenomenal! It was hard to grasp the story, especially since the narration was in Japanese with no translation, but it was more or less about the battle between good and evil, interweaving stories from Aladdin, Frozen, Coco, Moana, and more. There were huge boats wrapped with LED displays, speedboats with giant stars on them, light projections on the hotel behind us and on the mountain on the other side of the harbor, music, and fireworks. It was a bit of sensory overload but came together in a beautiful, uplifting way. I guess Disney does still have some of that magic left.

Kyoto:
On Friday, we departed Tokyo and took the Shinkansen, the high-speed train, to Kyoto. We activated our 7-day JR passes on this day. This relatively affordable pass is only for foreign visitors (i.e. not available to Japanese citizens) as the government's way of promoting tourism. We got our money's worth from the pass, as that trip from Tokyo to Kyoto would've been around half the cost of the pass. We checked into our hotel at Ibis Styles, where we would stay for the next five days. Our room there was the smallest hotel room I've ever been in. Space was definitely lacking, but we were saving a lot of money by staying there, so we made it work.

We had dinner at Yoshinoya near the Kyoto JR Station. The format is different from the Yoshinoyas we're used to. Here, you seat yourself at the counter, and menus, chopsticks, and sauces are all in front of you. You order there, eat there, and then pay at the register when you're done. It's optimized for efficiency, and the typical customer seems to be lone Japanese travelers popping in for a quick meal. The menu was all in Japanese, so we had to use Google Lens on Priscilla's phone to translate one item at a time. It took forever to look through the menu and decide what we wanted. The employees not speaking much English didn't help, either. When it came time to pay, we had a hard time understanding when the worker was trying to tell us that they don't accept credit cards. We kept wondering why the machine wasn't registering our card and thought it was a repeat of the Saizeriya incident. Apparently, the only cards accepted here are debit cards.

On the topic of the Japanese language, we had learned a few key phrases but otherwise didn't understand any Japanese that was spoken. Most people we interacted with understood at least a little bit of English, probably more so in Tokyo than in Kyoto. The people at the hotels all spoke mostly fluent English. Same for the people at airport and train station kiosks. Restaurants were where we had the most trouble, particularly in Kyoto, but signs and menus typically had English translations, and pointing at things never fails.

So the next day was our trip to Arashiyama, a rural district just 15 minutes away by train. We walked 11 miles there, starting with the Bamboo Forest which, since it was morning, wasn't too packed with tourists yet. We continued on through Arashiyama Park and then, because I'm crazy, hiked to Mt. Ogura on a semi-beaten dirt path that soon turned into a not-beaten, ambiguous path. At some points, we were hiking on the edge of a steep hill, where a misstep could mean a long tumble down. We sometimes had to hold onto tree branches and roots to keep from falling. But we eventually encountered a section where someone had marked trees with red tape to assist hikers in finding the trail, and we ultimately made it to the top of the mountain. The Mt. Ogura summit was pretty underwhelming and was basically just a clearing in the forest with some signs.

There wasn't a good way down the mountain and we certainly didn't want to return the way we came, so we walked down a road where fortunately there weren't too many cars, until we got to the north side of Arashiyama. There, we visited the Adashino Nenbutsu-ji Temple and took some pictures in their own mini "bamboo forest," free of the crowds that characterize the touristy part of Arashiyama. We continued north and found a traditional ryotei establishment named Ayuchaya Hiranoya, where we enjoyed cherry blossom tea and a couple light bites while sitting on tatami mats. We then walked through the touristy part of Arashiyama again, walked across the Togetsu-kyo Bridge, walked along the river, and then toured the Kimono Forest on our way back to the train station. Arashiyama was quite nice and I really enjoyed the scenery, particularly the places not swarming with people. When we got back to the Kyoto JR Station, we ate at Yoshinoya again. Unlike last time, we pulled up the English menu on our phones (we found out we just needed to scan a QR code on the front of the menu), and we had the right amount of cash ready when paying. Showing real progress after learning from our mistakes!

On Sunday, we took another JR train to Nara. This was a little further away (50 minutes) but well worth the trip. We explored Nara Park and did the thing that probably most people come here to do - fed the deer. Vendors in the park sell stacks of rice crackers for 200 yen, and we bought one and walked around the park. Most visitors congregate near the western entrance of the park, so the deer there are overly fed, but as we went further into the park, the deer got hungrier! The deer furthest into the park would swarm us once they saw that we had food. They were pushy but always gentle. We saw signs warning about deer kicking and butting people, but maybe that only happens if you don't give them what they want! After walking through the park, we hiked up to the Mt. Wakakusa summit and enjoyed the wide, sweeping views of the city from there. In all, we walked 10 miles that day.

The next day, we had lunch at Sushi no Musashi, a conveyor belt sushi restaurant inside the JR station. This was our first time at this kind of restaurant, and Priscilla in particular really enjoyed the experience, as it's something she always wanted to do. We then took a JR train to Inari (around 10 minutes) and walked to the Mt. Inari summit at the Fushimi Inari. It had rained earlier in the day and we went in the afternoon, so there weren't as many people. This is a popular place for photos, and we were able to get some photos without people in the background. We enjoyed walking through all the torii, though it was sad seeing some of them having wood rot at the base or even completely cut down. We walked up to the summit, though it was so unremarkable that we didn't know at that time that it was the summit. I think there were just one or two businesses up there including an ice cream place. We did 7 miles of walking here.

On Tuesday, we were surprised that it was lightly snowing, despite the weather report not mentioning it. We took the subway from Kyoto to Shijo; this was not a JR line, so our pass couldn't be used for this. From Shijo, we walked to Mipig Cafe, where we had a 30-minute reservation to hang out with their mini pigs. We had to put all our stuff in a locker and then go upstairs, where we sat on the floor, put a blanket over our laps, and then in no time we were swarmed by half a dozen mini pigs! They really seem to like people, perhaps if just for the body warmth. I thought it was a little boring just sitting there having pigs on my lap, and I didn't really like getting pig hair on my clothes, but Priscilla really enjoyed the experience. Unfortunately, contrary to the name of this place, their (free) vending machine dispensing drinks was broken, so we weren't able to get any of the drinks that are customarily included.

We then walked over to the nearby Nishiki Market to get small bites at various vendors, and then walked over to Maruyama Park. It was pretty cold and the snow started coming down more heavily here, so we had to seek shelter under an umbrella until the snow let up. It was pretty cool, though. Prior to Kyoto, we've never really seen actual snow falling in person.

Finally, we walked over to Kiyomizu-dera and decided to pay the 400 yen per person for entry. That place was pretty nice, though the large crowds really detracted from the experience. Apparently, it being a weekday, cold, and snowing is not enough to dissuade many people from going! Halfway through the campus is a soup restaurant, seemingly the only place where you're able to sit. That marketing strategy certainly paid off because it got us to eat there. We shared a bowl of soba and fried tofu soup while sitting on tatami mats, a break from the 10 miles we would walk this day.

Tokyo again:
On Wednesday, it was time to say goodbye to Kyoto and hello to Tokyo for one more day. We took the Shinkansen back to Tokyo, this time going to the Shinagawa station where we then took the local JR line to the Hamamatsucho station. We checked into our hotel at the Intercontinental Tokyo Bay, which we got for free thanks to our IHG card. We checked in early but they still had a room for us, and they upgraded us to a deluxe room with a terrific view of the bay and the Rainbow Bridge! My coworker had recommended walking across the bridge, so we did just that. We had to walk 1.5 miles just to get to the bridge. The view from up there was amazing, but it was pretty chilly and windy, and we saw only a few other people crazy enough to be walking the 1-mile length of the bridge with us. Once on the south side, we checked out Daiba Park (not many people there) and then Odaiba Kaihin Park, the latter where there's a small beach and a Statue of Liberty. The views of the bay from there are stunning! We ate at the Yoshinoya there, go figure. There's so much to do on Odaiba, which is actually a man-made island. But we didn't feel like we had the time, so we headed back to the bridge, only to find that the pedestrian route was now closed! Online, various sources say that the bridge closes to pedestrians at 6pm during the winter, but the guard pointed us to a sign that said that the bridge closes at 5:30. We got there at 5:34. That was frustrating, as I don't see a valid reason why the bridge should be closed at all. There are fences preventing pedestrians from falling over, and there appears to be lighting along the pedestrian paths. We had to pay to take the Yurikamome train back to our hotel. I wasn't very happy about this but Priscilla was, since her feet were hurting due to us having walked 44 miles over 5 days. Okay, I guess that's a lot.

Finally, today was our travel day back home. After a brief walk around the IHG courtyard (mainly because I woke up feeling dizzy and needed some fresh air), we packed up and took the train to the Tokyo JR Station, and then the Narita Express from there to the airport. It was only when we were in the security line, taking our electronics out of our bags, that we realized, to our horror, that we didn't have our iPhone. Priscilla's mom gave her old iPhone 10 to Priscilla, and since it has a much better camera than our phones do, we had been using it to take pictures during our trip. The Find My app showed that the iPhone was back at the hotel, and we used a payphone to call the hotel (we had to learn that we didn't need to dial the 81 country code, but we did need to dial the trunk prefix of 0 first), and they confirmed that housekeeping found the phone. The Narita Express trip was about 50 minutes each way, and we didn't have the time to go back to the hotel, so hopefully the hotel will be able to ship the phone to our home address.

Thankfully, going through security was pretty smooth, as they just use metal detectors and then they watch you turn around in a circle with your hands above your head (that was kind of fun, haha). Customs was equally as smooth - the agent just asked if we bought any duty-free items, and then we scanned our passports. But then the "fun" started again when we tried to go to two airport lounges, only to find that the first one was no longer operating (the Google Maps entry was out of date), and the second didn't accept Priority Pass. We were directed to another lounge near our gate which fortunately did take Priority Pass. It was nice to sit there and enjoy some rice curry and soba noodle soup, a reprieve from the earlier chaos.

After eating, we had about 10 minutes to pick up some gifts from the duty-free shops before our boarding time. My coworker had asked me to pick up Tokyo Bananas for him, but the two closest shops were completely out of those. We saw lots of Tokyo Bananas on our way through the airport, including at those two shops, so I didn't expect them to all disappear. But apparently, popular items can disappear when a lot of people are passing through close to the departure time. So we ran down the terminal to the next shop, and I think they had some Tokyo Bananas there, but the line was insanely long and we had two minutes before boarding. We didn't want to chance it and try to find another shop even further away, so we just ran back to one of the shops closest to our gate and picked up the Tokyo Bananas Pie version (seems like it's not as popular, so we'll see if my coworker wants it) and five boxes of various flavors of Kit Kats. This cost 5,100 yen, which was the exact amount of cash that we had left (we started with 24,000 yen and I used up all of our odd coins yesterday). It was great that we got rid of all our cash, as we would otherwise have to pay a fee to convert back to dollars. We then dashed over to our gate... only to find that the flight was delayed. Shortly after, the boarding time was pushed out by 50 minutes. Sigh. Had we known this, we probably could've gone back to the hotel and we definitely could've found another shop in the terminal, but we couldn't have possibly known. Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans. At least we remembered to fill up our water bottles before boarding this time.

Final thoughts:
So today did not go as planned, but I'm glad that we're on the way home now. I kind of did just write a summary of each day, but there was so much that happened each day! I feel like we did more on this trip than we've done on previous trips, and a lot of that involved just finding the right train to get from one place to another (thank you Priscilla). This trip has been fun but also a bit frenetic, and I haven't really felt rested. Maybe that's why I woke up feeling dizzy this morning.

Tokyo and Kyoto are huge cities, and there are crowds just about everywhere. You have to constantly maneuver around people when walking through the train station, and the crowds don't seem to let up at any time during the day. The trains are typically full and, except for the Shinkansen where we reserved seats, there was usually no sitting room on the trains we got on. On one train, a bunch of people got on and we were completely packed in like sardines. It was hard to find grocery stores selling fresh produce until we really looked for it, and even then, the produce options there were a little limited and pricier than back at home. And everything is packaged in plastic, even single pieces of produce. There are probably some advantages to that, but it felt wasteful. And the convenience stores were definitely convenient, and we ate some onigiri from there just about every day, but I wouldn't want to eat like that for an extended period of time. By our fourth day in Kyoto, I was getting city fatigue and a bit of travel fatigue in general.

There are a lot of great things about Japan, of course. The trains were nearly always on time. The roads are clean and in good condition. We didn't see much litter anywhere. People seem to prioritize society over individuality. It does help that they're a pretty homogeneous society. People tend to not want to stand out. Pretty much everyone wears a face mask, even when outside. Most people were wearing dark clothes, certainly not bright clothing drawing attention. And most of the cars I saw on the road were white, followed by black. I didn't see a significant percentage of cars of another color. People are very polite and frequently bow as a gesture of mutual respect. We soon found ourselves doing the same. It's crowded, but people somehow maneuver around each other in an orderly fashion. We never got bumped into in all our time walking through crowded spaces. Crime is rare. We felt safe walking around dark places at night and counting money in public. Even in the bustling cities, I saw lots of bikes just parked there without being locked up. Sure, there seem to be cameras everywhere in public and in every private business as well, and those probably deter bad behavior, but I have to imagine that people behaved this way before the era of mass surveillance as well (the Big Brother thing is an entirely separate discussion). They have a culture of respect that seems to be taught from a young age. Even the kids at the breakfast buffet were well behaved. Whenever we did hear a child making a lot of noise, it turned out to be a non-Japanese child.

On that note though, the Japanese as a whole do seem to be more reserved. They seem to not make small talk with strangers or even verbally acknowledge them (like in an elevator). At DisneySea, there was barely any applause at the end of the show, though that might've also been because after what seemed like the finale, the show kept on going and it wasn't clear that the end was actually the end. But I think the point still stands.

No society is perfect, and there are things that I think the Japanese don't do as well, but those things are few and far between. On the whole, I really admire what I saw in Japanese society, and I wish that Americans would take some cues from them. Can you imagine if our cities were like this? Maybe some of the small ones are, but the big ones?

Whew. I wrote a lot more than I thought I would. Our trip is over and I can't wait to get back home, drink lots of water, go to Costco to get groceries, and get back to a regular life, jet lag notwithstanding. We should be getting back around 8am Thursday, so the whole day will essentially reset. I'll need a vacation from vacation, but this trip has been meaningful and I'm glad that we did it. Ask me in 1.5 years if I'm down for an international trip again.

Yesterday, Daniel and I did the Monterey Spartan Super at Toro Park in Salinas. I did this course last year as well, and it was all the same obstacles in mostly the same order, with the following exceptions:

* The 4' Walls on the map didn't appear on the course. Instead, there was a 5' wall that people had to get over to get into the race corral.
* The longer 45lb sandbags were replaced with 60lb disc-shaped bags at the Sandbag Carry.
* The Bucket Carry was longer this time. After ascending a small hill, it looked like you were headed back down to the start, like how it was last year. Instead, you then rounded a corner and had to do another uphill segment. Surprise, suckas!
* The bags at Hercules Hoist looked a little bigger this year. The volunteer said that they were 100lbs this year. It was 90lbs last year.

I went into the race not at full strength. Five days earlier on Memorial Day, I did the Murph Challenge (1 mile run, 100 pullups, 200 pushups, 300 squats, 1 mile run) with Daniel and two other church guys. We didn't use a weighted vest, and we partitioned the exercises into 20 sets of 5 pullups, 10 pushups and 15 squats, but still it was brutal and I was sore for the next fews days. I was still just slightly sore going into Spartan, so I'm pretty sure that I wasn't fully recovered.

On Olympus, only four obstacles in, I didn't have the strength to keep myself on the wall properly. So I ended up supporting myself using my knee and kind of dragged myself across the wall. On Hercules Hoist, most of the guys seemed to be having trouble. I was able to use my bodyweight to get the bag most of the way up, but then my grip was shot and I had to pull my body further back while holding onto the rope for dear life in order to get the last couple inches. I wasn't sure if I got the bag all the way up or if I had a couple inches left to go, but the rope wasn't budging any further - so either I got it, or I had reached the point where pulling my body back was no longer effective. My forearms were pretty taxed as a result, and I had to bail on the next obstacle, Multi-Rig, one ring short of the bell. And that's one of the easier obstacles - ugh! But at least I successfully stuck the spear at the Spear Throw - the first time ever, which I was elated about. The "spear throw" (broom handle with a tennis ball on the end) training we've been doing at the park has paid off, and it was helpful that we got to the event early and I was able to throw a spear a few times at the practice zone.

I did notice that the carries felt easier than last year. The bucket carry was tiring but manageable, even though it was longer this year. Same for the sandbag carry. Had I been carrying last year's 45lb sandbag, I'm sure I would've owned it. I can see how training and multiple Spartans have paid off in small ways.

So my official time was 2:47:29 which put me in the 30th percentile, placing 1006/3364 overall, 818/2262 for males, and 146/353 for my age group. Not terrible, but I know I could've done better. Next time, for one, no hard workouts at least a week before a race.

Will there be a next time, though? With this race done, I've completed a Spartan Trifecta and feel like I've checked off a big milestone on my bucket list. I do enjoy the races and they give me a reason to train. But I have other goals that I want to train for, like being able to do a Murph faster (my previous time was around 75 minutes), being able to run a sub 6-minute mile and better, and building strength and getting back up to my ideal weight. Maybe I can come back to the races someday when I'm faster and stronger, but for now, there's so much else I can do.

So the rest of the trip was jam-packed with activities. On Friday, Priscilla and I drove down to Monterey and visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium (using our friends' guest pass) and watched the penguin and sea otter feedings, then walked over to Fisherman's Wharf and met up with Daniel and his family for dinner at Grotto Fish Market. On Saturday, Priscilla went with Daniel's family to breakfast and the Monterey County Youth Museum while he and I were racing. After the race, we all had lunch together at Pacific Bowls and Rolls (pretty decent poke bowl portions) in Downtown Monterey. Then in the afternoon, we all went down to Carmel Beach and watched the kids play in the sand and run from waves. Daniel's neighbors and their kid, who were also in town, joined us there and we all went to dinner at Flaherty's Seafood Grill & Oyster Bar (decent fare, a little pricey but reasonable for Carmel prices). Priscilla and I spent a little under $200 over the course of 4 consecutive meals, which is a bit more than we typically spend on food when traveling. We usually like to pack food and, when we do eat out, we tend towards the cheaper places. But eating out is a normative vehicle for spending time with people, and it was nice hanging out with people for most of the weekend.

Today, Priscilla and I just walked around El Estero Park (close to our motel) before heading home. We were pretty tired after the long weekend and got a quick lunch and took a nap shortly after. Traveling and activities certainly have their place, but at the end of the day for us, there's no place like home.

This week Priscilla and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. We've been through a lot during this time - she left her home in LA and relocated to the Bay Area to be with me, we got an apartment, I changed jobs once, she changed jobs more than once, we bought a house, had several renters over a six-year period, we've served on the worship team at church, been in small groups, seen friends come and go, gone on walks almost every day, done lots of hiking, and we've traveled to many places across the state, country and world. It simultaneously feels like hardly any time has passed and also like a meaningful ten years have passed. We've made plenty of mistakes and this isn't the best life that we could be living by far, but I'm content. And there's no one I'd rather have spent this ten years with.

This week we were down in LA to celebrate our anniversary and to be with family. It was also my mom's birthday, so all the more reason for family to get together. We spent the first three nights at my parents' place and the latter two nights at Priscilla's parents' place. We saw Aaron and Lauren and the kids twice and got to see their new house, and our niece actually talked to me a good deal this time. The time with family was pretty low-key as always, but we enjoy the normalcy.

The rest of our time was spent in Hollywood! We went there three days in a row - for the Warner Bros. Studio Tour, then to watch Everything Everywhere All at Once (it was interesting but really weird) at Grauman's Chinese Theatre and walk along the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and finally to go to Universal Studios. We'd bought the Go City LA pass and chose those activities. Originally we had wanted to do Catalina Island as one of the activities, but the ferry hours were pretty inconvenient (7am arrival and 4pm departure). And when we bought the pass, the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens was available as one of the activities, but at some point it was dropped and only remained available with the more expensive pass. So we scrapped Huntington from our plans and replaced it with seeing a movie at Grauman's. The expression about best-laid plans is all too fitting in today's day of rampant inflation and skimpflation.

The Warner Bros. Studio Tour was cool. Our guide was very knowledgeable and drove us through the campus and pointed out building after another that was used in the filming of some show or movie. We got to see different sets for a TV show in one of the sound stages. I couldn't place most of the things the guide pointed out because my familiarity with TV and film is limited, but I appreciated seeing all the work that goes into set design to the finest detail. The tour ended with a self-guided portion through DC and Harry Potter exhibits; most of that was kinda meh, but I really liked this one display that uses forced perspective to make it look like Hogwarts letters are swirling all around you, where the attendant used our phone to take an awesome-looking picture.

Universal Studios doesn't have as much stuff as Disneyland, so we had time to do all the rides and see both of the shows. It brought back some memories of the times when my mom would bring me and my brother there. I guess the last time I went there was in 2004 when I brought my grandfather there. A bunch of things have changed noticeably, like Jurassic Park now being Jurassic World with some technological upgrades, Back to the Future replaced by The Simpsons, no more Backdraft, and the Backlot Tour now branded as the Studio Tour including two attractions requiring 3D glasses. The two shows running were Universal's Animal Actors and WaterWorld (there's also the Special Effects Stage show, but that wasn't operating on the day of our visit). The execution of both shows was great, though the trainers in Animal Actors had occasional difficulty getting the animals (mostly the dogs) to obey commands on the first try. It's gotta be a hard job. And the stunts and effects in WaterWorld were spectacular - this was probably the only attraction that I enjoyed as much as an adult as I did as a kid. Overall, Universal was fun, but the motion sickness I now get on thrill rides mars the experience, and I've for the most part outgrown the desire to go to theme parks. Priscilla probably would not mind still going every now and then.

Last week, I was working hard to get new sprinkler valves installed for the front lawn. Our irrigation system didn't have a manual shutoff, so I had to have the city shut off the main so that I could install a manual shutoff valve. Then I had to replace the old, leaking sprinkler valves. The task was difficult because the pipes were installed almost right next to each other and at weird angles, so I had to rework the design with very little clearance. There were also tree roots growing everywhere. I also discovered a sprinkler head next to the valves, buried under landscaping fabric, which meant that that area got a good soaking every time the sprinklers came on (that might explain all the roots). I had wanted to put in PVC and drip irrigation in the back before our trip so that our backyard plants wouldn't die, but I ended up only being able to finish the front and had a neighbor water the back while we were away. But at least the hard part is done and I can work on the back at my leisure (well, we're going to LA for a few days in July, so I guess that's my new deadline).

So overall, we didn't do anything really special to celebrate, but we're fine with that. The traditional gifts for the 10th year anniversary are aluminum and tin symbolizing the strength and resilience of the marriage, and while we don't really give each other gifts for special occasions, one can say that our marriage is just as comfortably boring, and just as dependable, as those metals.

A mere six weeks after Daniel and I ran our Spartan Sprint down in SoCal, it was time for our San Luis Obispo Spartan Beast. We were not fully prepared and we got our butts handed to us in different ways. But it was a lot of fun.

On Friday, Priscilla and I drove down to Atascadero and met Daniel and his family at the Airbnb that we'd rented. The house was pretty spacious and had a lot of amenities. Their kids in particular liked the toys and the trampoline. After we got settled, we drove down to San Luis Obispo 25 minutes away. We walked around the downtown area and had dinner at Firestone Grill (I had tri-tip and it was delicious) and got ice cream from McConnell's. The downtown attractions that we saw - Bubblegum Alley, SLO Museum of Art, and the walkways around the creek - were all pretty short. It seemed like a laid-back town and everyone we interacted with was really nice.

While Daniel and I were running on Saturday, Priscilla joined the rest of Daniel's family in visiting Avila Valley Barn and more sights in SLO. They got a pie from the farm that had really good crust (I didn't care so much for the filling). And on Sunday, we drove over to Morro Bay and did a short kayak trip after Daniel and I decided that we weren't sore enough from the race. We kayaked to and walked around the sandbar close to Morro Rock, a place that Priscilla and I visited with friends 10 years ago. Afterwards, we got lunch at Giovanni's Fish Market; Priscilla and I got a clam chowder bread bowl and fish and chips (fries). The fries were amazing - very crispy; everything else was decent but nothing to write home about. After we said our goodbyes, it was time to head home.

Alright, back to the Spartan Beast. In the spirit of self-improvement, here as always are my notes about the course.

Over Walls (4' Walls): Easy warmup.

Inverted Wall: Easy, with the usual gap between the rungs and the wall providing a good place to grip.

Monkey Bars: Used the hand to hand technique as usual.

Barbed Wire Crawl: Part of it was grassy, so I was able to roll without getting too dirty.

7' and 6' Walls: Easy with the heel hook technique, though I found that I'm able to swing my right leg higher than I can my left. Or maybe that's just what I'm used to.

Hurdles: These were on a slight slope, adding an extra challenge. I got over these clumsily but twisted my left shoulder (it was fine after a few minutes).

Tube Crawl: Exactly as it sounds. Might've been the easiest obstacle I've ever done. The tubes were completely dry, but maybe in some venues they're filled with muddy water?

Armer: Possibly the same weight stone as with Atlas Carry, but the handle made this easier.

Tyrolean Traverse: My initial plan to do an upside-down crawl along the rope immediately went out the window when I found that I couldn't keep the other leg on the rope when lifting one leg off. So instead, I kept my legs locked around the rope and pulled myself along using my arms. The high socks I had on protected my legs from rope burn, but this motion was pretty rough on my hands.

8' Wall: Was able to jump up and grab the edge with an inch of clearance, so I didn't need to do a running jump and kick off against the wall.

Pipe Lair, Helix, Z Wall: All straightforward.

Olympus: Used mostly the holes and used a reach across technique when possible, making short work of this obstacle. Definitely a lot easier than when I did this for the first time during last year's Super.

The Box: A lot of people were having trouble with the ropes, but I ignored the rope and just jumped and hoisted my way onto the platform without much effort. The benefits of being light.

Spear Throw: Failed again when the spear went to the left of the target. I took two retries since it wasn't too busy, and I managed to stick it on the final attempt. Each time, I threw a mostly decent arc, so the "spear" training (with a tennis ball on the end of a broom handle) I've been doing with Daniel has been paying off. I just need to adjust the aim. I still did my 30 burpees since you're really only allowed one try.

Atlas Carry: Was able to lift the stone using a sumo deadlift, so I didn't need to roll it onto my knee like before.

Multi-Rig: Rings, horizontal bar, then ropes with no ball on the end. I thought I'd have trouble with the ropes, but I was able to maneuver from one rope to the next without sliding down. Guess the grip training has been paying off.

Bucket Carry: The bucket felt noticeably lighter compared to the one on the Sprint. Could just be variations in how much the volunteers fill them.

Beater: This was on mile 11 and my calf was starting to cramp. When I jumped up to grab the bar, a paralyzing pain shot through my calf. I had to rest for 10 minutes before I could do the obstacle. This sucked because this obstacle is pretty much all upper-body. I saw a couple others suffering from calf cramps here as well.

Bender: The cramps didn't deter me too much from swinging my feet up to help me get over this obstacle.

Stairway to Sparta: When I did this during my Super, the obstacle involved jumping and grabbing the top of a slanted wall and pulling yourself up. Pretty basic. But on the Beast, there was that (smooth) wall panel, plus another wall panel above it with climbing holds. So you basically had to jump up, grab the holds with your hands, pull yourself up and grab a higher hold, and then you'd be high enough to get your foot onto one of the holds. There was a volunteer there who gave most people a boost, but I wanted to do it on my own (as Spartan races are technically supposed to be done). I had a couple failed tries at grabbing the holds without falling, but I was finally able to do it and get my foot high enough to allow me to climb the rest of the way up. In terms of absolute difficulty, I'd say this was the hardest obstacle on the course.

Rope Climb: My hands were pretty roughed up by now, but using the S-hook took me to the top without too much trouble. My fingers held up without bleeding, unlike last time.

Twister: Going backwards made this quick, but my hands were starting to feel it by this point.

Plate Drag: I initially picked a bad lane where halfway down, the sled got stuck behind a mound of dirt. At least it wasn't just me - the next guy also had trouble with that lane. With my grip strength suffering, I had to borrow Daniel's gloves and pick a flatter lane to complete this obstacle.

Sandbag Carry, Vertical Cargo Plus, Slip Wall: Not too bad. On Slip Wall, we had to run up the ramp a little more than I remember doing on the Super, but the lack of a Dunk Wall this time kept things dry.

Hercules Hoist: My hands were completely raw by this point and my grip strength was gone. I tried twice, but not even the gloves helped me pull the bag all the way up. 30 burpees.

A-Frame Cargo: An easy obstacle to end with, with the finish line straight ahead. Boy was I glad to be done!

Aid station placement was excellent and I didn't need to drink water at every station. Much/most of the course consisted of uneven ground, and I rolled my right ankle around the halfway point, leading to pain whenever I landed at an angle on that foot. After that, I had to run a little slower in order to keep the ankle stable. But Daniel started cramping a lot in the last couple miles, so we both needed to slow down. The first 10 miles were all easier obstacles, and the last 3 miles contained the harder ones. With our injuries, the race got exponentially harder at the end!

My final time was 4:20:32, putting me in the 33rd percentile, placing 605/1857 overall, 496/1233 for men, and 109/266 in my age group. I didn't do badly, though I should've been able to do better. I'm glad that the training that I've been doing has shown some results, and I think I can go gloveless on a Super, but for a Beast, I seem to need that extra advantage from gloves since so many of the obstacles are hard on the hands. Once I do the Super in June, I'll be done with the Trifecta. I do enjoy the races, but I think I've gotten my Spartan fix and don't feel like I need to sign up for more anytime soon. I'm not that competitive, and the cost and overhead of the races are a bit much.

I'm glad that the hardest race is done with and I'm glad that we got to spend time with our friends and their kids. It was a tiring weekend and my arms and legs are quite sore now, but it was time well spent.

Because no amount of travel is too much for Priscilla, she made us go to South Lake Tahoe for the weekend of my birthday. I prefer to spend my birthday at home catching up on housework, whereas she likes to go out, so she entices me with hiking as a compromise. I'd been to Tahoe in the winter 3 times for a company ski trip but never in the summer, so I didn't mind (too much) going there for summer hiking.

So that Friday, we made the 4.5 hour drive to Econo Lodge in South Lake Tahoe, where we would be staying for the next two nights. Our plan originally was to go to Kiva Beach to do some kayaking first, but I'm bad at leaving the house early. So instead of visiting the beach, we consigned ourselves to walking around Heavenly Village, walking through Harrah's, Harveys and Hard Rock (and at the latter, we hung out for a bit under a gazebo at the pool area when there was nobody else there), and walking by Lakeside Beach outside the fence since we didn't want to pay to go in. Obviously, we like to do things that don't cost money (and the hotel was booked using travel points).

The next day, we drove up State Route 89 to visit Emerald Bay. What a sight! The most majestic vantage point was one short segment of Route 89 where the shoulder of the road slopes down towards the water below and it looks like you're surrounded on most sides by water - Emerald Bay on the north, Cascade Lake on the south, and Lake Tahoe on the East. There were a lot of cars already parked along Route 89, so we had little hope that we'd be able to find parking in the main Emerald Bay lot. So instead, we parked on the shoulder halfway between Eagle Falls and the Bayview Campground. We took pictures at the "mid" Eagle Falls - a spot just below the road but above the Lower Eagle Falls. Then we did the short hike to see Upper Eagle Falls and then the longer hike to Eagle Lake, entering into what's known as Desolation Wilderness. It was less than a mile from the upper falls to the lake, but it was a little tiring because of all the rock steps. Definitely not like the packed dirt trails that we're so accustomed to when hiking in the Bay Area.

Eagle Lake was so picturesque! You have the trees and mountains in the background and crystal-clear water in the foreground. We stayed here a bit and ate some of the salad we brought before continuing on. At this point, Priscilla would've been fine with heading back the way we came, but I as always wanted to do a longer loop. Well, this loop ended up being a little over 8 miles and took us nearly 7 hours to complete because of the elevation gain, the rock steps, and the altitude. At one point, Priscilla felt lightheaded because of the thinner air. But she pushed through (with many breaks) because she knows I enjoy hiking and that's what compromise looks like.

This is one of the most scenic hikes that we've done. Everywhere you look, there are trees, canyons, lakes, and blue skies all around. Plus some mountains still capped with some snow. We ran into a fair number of people during most of the hike, but that didn't detract too much from the experience.

On my own, I also stopped by Granite Lake and Cascade Lake and Falls. Granite Lake, about a third of the size of Eagle Lake, was just off the beaten path but nobody else was there. It was nice to be able to gaze at the lake in total solitude. Cascade Lake was viewable from the Cascade Falls Trail but was not directly reachable; there are some houses on the north side of the lake (lucky them), reachable only by private road. The trail terminates by Cascade Falls, and while the view of the falls from there is likely not as grand as when viewed from the front, I was still in awe of the beauty and power of the waterfall. I sat near the edge of the falls for a few minutes, watching the water flow down the cliff below and marveling at the beauty of the landscape. For a while, there was nobody else around. Just me, sitting there in appreciation of nature, cares momentarily forgotten.

The last stop was Inspiration Point, a vista point with its own parking lot, looking down towards Emerald Bay. I rejoined Priscilla there, but we didn't stay for too long, as we'd already been treated to better views along the hike. So we headed back to town and picked up pizzas at Base Camp Pizza to replenish the calories we'd burned during hiking and then some.

Monday morning after checking out of our motel, we stopped by the Tahoe Trout Farm, the part of the trip that Priscilla had been looking forward to the most. She's more into fishing than I am, so I let her do all the work while I took care of the online research when it became evident that our method of baiting the hook was consistently allowing fish to get the worms without getting hooked. After a lot of lost worms and after one more adjustment, we finally caught a 13-inch trout! We'd been given a metal pipe to hit the fish with to humanely kill it, but after several hits, the fish was still not dead. It was sad to know that we probably caused the fish more pain than necessary, so if we do something like this again, hopefully we can learn how to kill the fish properly.

The final stop before heading home was the Kiva Picnic Area where we had lunch, followed by a short walk around the adjacent Tallac Historic Site (the buildings were not open on the day of our visit). The drive home was somewhat difficult as we were both tired, but we made it back home at last.

We had a good time in Tahoe. If it were practical, I would probably have wanted to stay longer and do more hiking/trail running in Desolation Wilderness and other spots. The scenery is so beautiful and there's so much to explore. I'd also want to kayak at Emerald Bay to Fannette Island. And there's so much to see all around the lake - the southern area is just a tiny portion of it. Priscilla would say that these are the best years of our (remaining) life, that we should be traveling more, and that we already have enough to have financial independence given our relatively modest lifestyle. I, on the other hand, feel that we go on a good number of trips already. I don't enjoy the actual travel and being away from home, but once I'm there, I enjoy the places that we get to see. And I feel that we don't have enough yet to be financially secure and that it would be difficult to take a lot more time off work. So I guess we're still trying to find that balance and compromise.

Priscilla loves traveling, and perhaps cruising in particular due to the aspect of everything being taken care of. And because I'm married to her, I occasionally have to go along with her crazy schemes. So three weeks ago we took a 4-day cruise from Long Beach to Catalina Island and Ensenada aboard the Carnival Inspiration. At least we got it free thanks to credit card points; all-in-all, it would've been $600 something otherwise.

This was my third cruise overall (all of them with Carnival) and my second cruise to Ensenada, the first one being in 2009 when Priscilla's parents brought us there (but we didn't do Catalina that time). Priscilla was particularly keen to include Catalina this time because it's where I proposed oh so many years ago.

So on Monday, we flew down to Long Beach Airport and Ubered to the Long Beach Cruise Center where we boarded the ship. The next morning, the ship docked off the Catalina coast and we had to take a ferry to get to shore. We walked around Avalon, which was in a quiet, sleepy state, perhaps because it was a weekday. We hiked up the same trail that we tried hiking up last time (where I had proposed), except this time we made it to the top! Priscilla had brought proper footwear this time and was resolved (or more like resigned) to get to the top, not because she likes hiking, but because she knows how much I like it. We enjoyed the scenic ocean view on both sides of the island, and had a local there talk a lot to me, before we continued along on a route down the mountain.

The route down took us to the Wrigley Memorial and Botanic Garden through the rear entrance, where we were able to enter without paying a fee. I got that tip from another local who struck up a conversation with me when we were at Vons getting sparkling water (those locals really like to talk!). We were able to enjoy the memorial and garden before heading back to the ship. Altogether our trek was a little over 10 miles - not too shabby, especially for Priscilla.

Ensenada was the next day, and our time there started with a 1-hour horseback ride with Rancho los Bandidos, an excursion booked through Carnival. We joined around 18 others riding single-file on a trail in the mountains above the city. The views were great, but the pace of the horseback riding was pretty slow. I did get a lot of chafing from the times when the horse was running, due to me bouncing up and down as a result of not knowing proper technique. So I guess there's an upside to the pace being mostly slow.

Priscilla's feet were sore from the day before, so we only walked 4 miles around Ensenada before going back to the ship. We briefly passed through the area with touristy shops but were scared off by all these guys wanting us to check out our their respective souvenir shops. We didn't have a pre-planned route, so most of our walking was through nondescript parts of town. But along the way we managed to pass through the grounds of the Riviera de Ensenada, Plaza Cívica de la Patria (a park with busts of the heads of three historical figures), and Ventana al Mar (a park along the harbor near where the ship was docked). I wish we had done more walking, but next time we should probably have a plan, or at least some idea, of the places we want to visit.

The day afterwards, Thursday, was the day at sea. We went around the track in the morning (I mostly ran, Priscilla mostly walked), learned how to fold towel animals at a session, worked out at the fitness center for the third time during the cruise, and enjoyed the Motown musical Motor City in the evening.

I definitely ate a lot and often on the cruise (though my waistline would disagree). We always had breakfast and lunch at the Lido buffet, and we got burgers from Guy's Burger Joint a couple times. For dinner, we ate at the dining room except on the last night. We found that the quality at the dining room was hit or miss, and service was extremely slow. A lot of the same food was at the Lido buffet. And unlike with our previous two Carnival cruises, there was no longer a night when lobster was on the regular menu at the dining room. Lobster tail was on the menu as a $20 item, but of course we didn't want to spend extra money. Since there was no free lobster to look forward to (we were able to preview the next day's menu), we skipped the dining room and ate at the Lido buffet on the final night.

On Friday, we disembarked after breakfast and walked along the Long Beach waterfront to Yard House, where we had a couple unmemorable appetizers. We weren't too hungry and I was also starting to get sick (which happens often when I travel), so I didn't feel like ordering more.

Speaking of cruises and getting sick, there's been a lot of news/panic lately about the coronavirus outbreak that originated in Wuhan, China, and everyone on the Diamond Princess cruise ship was quarantined in Yokohama as a result of passengers being infected. Fortunately, things haven't gotten too bad on this side of the planet (though reading about shoppers snatching up all the basic provisions at Costcos may make one wonder). Based on my symptoms, I only had the common cold. Unfortunately, Priscilla later caught it from me. Plus she had prolonged land sickness (MdDS) to deal with, lasting much longer than it has in the past for her. And she'd already booked the same cruise for her and her parents for later this year. Fun times!

The quality of the cruise could've been better. But it was still nice to get away for a few days, have food always taken care of, work out when I wanted to, and have some time to catch up on writing Yelp reviews (Priscilla had spent some credit card points to get the unlimited Internet package since she knew it would keep me sane). I guess I do get the appeal of cruising. I'd be hard-pressed to want to go on a 3-month cruise around the world, but a 4-day cruise to a couple places where we have some cool activities planned, ones that don't involve chafing on my rear end? Sure, sign me up.

Priscilla and I took a vacation to Barcelona from February 23 to March 6. Why there? Mainly because she wanted to go somewhere international, and non-stop flights to Barcelona were pretty cheap ($350/person round trip on Google Flights with Iberia Airlines, contracted out to Level). So on Saturday, we boarded an 11-hour flight from SFO en route to BCN.

Day 1:
It was Sunday when we arrived. We took Aerobús to Plaça de Catalunya (the city centre), then walked to our Airbnb, a 6th floor apartment in a neighborhood close to La Rambla. Markets in the city are closed every Sunday, but restaurants are open. We ate dinner at a tapas place near our Airbnb, La Viena Blanca, which included patatas bravas (these are pretty common in Barcelona) and bombas picantes, the latter which we liked the most.

Day 2:
We first stopped by La Boqueria, the outdoor market, and bought zumo (fruit juice), an empanada, and a dish with potato and cheese. We bought groceries from Carrefour Market (we would end up visiting several times during our trip). We then joined five others at Foodie Experience Barcelona and learned how to make paella, sangria, and crema catalana from our welcoming host, Carmen. Each of us was given a different task, and mine was to make the sangria. We all got to cook our own crema catalana dish with a blowtorch. And then we got to eat everything! This was so fun and educational and was one of the highlights of our trip. We walked to Plaça de Catalunya for a free Gothic Quarter walking tour, but we were the only tourists there because it was not peak-season, so the guide canceled the tour. So we spent the rest of the day back at our Airbnb taking it easy.

Day 3:
We elected to start using our 3-day Barcelona Pass on this day and used it to visit 5 museums: Casa Batlló, Egyptian Museum of Barcelona, Casa de Les Punxes, Casa Milà, and the Museum of Modernism. So tiring! My favorites were Casa Batlló and Casa Milà, both designed by famed Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí. His works are so creative and inspired, yet also thoughtfully functional.

Day 4:
We used our pass to see the city via the hop-on, hop-off bus (Barcelona Bus Turístic). The first stop we got off at was Parc Güell, a park designed by Gaudí. We decided not to pay to see the buildings there, but walking around the park and admiring the viaducts was enjoyable and relaxing. Our next stop was Camp Nou (the home stadium of Futbol Club Barcelona), where we toured the stadium from the locker room inside to the press boxes up top. Very cool. Then we got off at Poble Espanyol, where we walked around the quaint village, saw a film about how people in different regions of Spain hold celebrations, and visited a modern art museum. The village was pretty quiet and a third of the shops were closed, not that we minded. Finally we walked over to the nearby Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC), which was closed for the day but had a really photogenic exterior.

Day 5:
The morning began with a 2.5-hour walking tour of the Old Town (I learned quite a bit about architecture), followed by L'Aquàrium Barcelona (they had a cool oceanarium but everything else was meh), Las Golondrinas for a boat tour of the city shoreline, and Museu de Cera (wax museum). All these were included with our Barcelona Pass. We definitely got our money's worth from that pass (it cost €116 and we used €226 worth of benefits).

Day 6:
We had originally planned to do a day trip to Sitges (a coastal town) on this day, but instead decided to take a rest day. And Priscilla's idea of a rest day is to eat, so we got tapas from Quimet & Quimet, pinchos from La Tasqueta de Blai and Blai 9, and finally chocolate con churros from La Churre. Each place was good in its own way, but we liked the quality of the food at Quimet & Quimet the most. Their signature dishes were the most enjoyable: mussels and caviar, and salmon with yogurt and truffled honey.

Day 7:
This was our day trip to Girona, another highlight. From Plaça de Catalunya, we rode a bus for a little over an hour to Girona, a city that feels like a mini Barcelona. Our guide Guillermo gave us a tour of the old part of the city including the outside of the Girona Cathedral and old Roman fortifications. Priscilla and I had time to explore on our own while most of the group headed out to another town (Figueres) on the optional part of the tour. We had seafood paella at Via Augusta (was ok) and explored everything from the city's distinctive bridges to walking atop the Roman wall. There's much to enjoy in the old part of the city, but the sweeping views from atop towers along the walls were probably my favorite. We ended our day trip by strolling through Parc de la Devesa before reuniting with the tour bus.

Day 8:
The day started with a couples photoshoot in the Gothic Quarter, from which we got some nice, professional-looking photos. Many museums in Barcelona are free to visit on the first Sunday of the month, and since this day was that, we visited MUHBA and enjoyed seeing the underground remains of the ancient Roman city of Barcino. Next, we tried to visit the Picasso Museum but found that tickets were sold out (they need to be reserved online ahead of time). So we consigned ourselves to finding lunch and settled on Taperia Princesa, where we had some decent tapas.

Day 9:
This was our day trip to Montserrat, which was my favorite part of the entire trip. Priscilla had purchased ToT Montserrat passes from Expedia which paid for everything: subway and train fare to get there, a cable car ride up the mountain, unlimited use of the funiculars, lunch (unfortunately the buffet place was closed, so we were only able to get selected items at the cafeteria), and admission to the Museo de Monserrat. Admission to the monastery is free, and there we enjoyed the grand architecture and saw the famous Virgin of Montserrat (La Moreneta) statue. We did the hardest hike up to the Sant Jeroni lookout point (and were rewarded with amazing panoramic views) and took a funicular back down to the village. We revisited the monastery towards the end of the day, after the tour busses had left, and were pleased to find the place almost empty. I enjoyed Montserrat for the hiking and architecture, both of which there are plenty of. If I could, I would stay overnight in a hostel here so that I could explore the area over the course of two days.

Day 10:
Priscilla liked Quimet & Quimet so much that we went back again for brunch. We had the two signature dishes again plus a few other things, but the signature dishes were still our favorites. Afterwards, we walked over to La Sagrada Familia for a pre-paid tour from a company called Visit Europa Today. Our guide Isaac had a deep knowledge of the place, but more importantly, his passion for the history and culture of La Sagrada Familia was evident. The tour was very helpful, as there's so much history that you would otherwise miss. My favorite part of the church was the polychromatic stained glass windows, which bathe the inside in a flood of multiple colors. The church was designed by Gaudí, who drew his inspiration from nature. Maybe that's why his works speak to me on a personal level. After La Sagrada Familia, we made an impromptu visit to the Arc de Triomf and Parc de la Ciutadella (I enjoyed the beautiful fountains at the latter) before eating at La Viena Blanca again.

Day 11:
This was the last day of our trip and consisted pretty much of walking to Plaça de Catalunya, taking Aerobús back to the airport, and a 12-hour flight back home. The end of the flight was pretty turbulent and made me nauseous, and I arrived home still dizzy on top of being extremely tired. There's no place like home!

Barcelona was really enjoyable; the flights there and back less so (I don't enjoy being cooped up on a plane). We went when it wasn't peak season, fearing that the weather would be a little chilly. But it turned out to be fairly comfortable. The city is unfortunately known for pickpockets, so Priscilla and I tried to travel light with our valuables in inner pockets. We left the suitcases at home and managed to fit everything inside of two backpacks, my laptop bag, and a tote bag for food. We brought a few day's worth of clothes, and Priscilla washed our clothes at the halfway point during the trip. It's surprising how much space you can save when you really try to avoid packing non-essentials.

Maybe more so than on past trips, we tried to incorporate rest time so that we wouldn't feel overwhelmed. I think that helped me enjoy the trip more. Also, Priscilla tirelessly cooked food almost every day (hence the reason we went to Carrefour so frequently), so that helped us save money. Our total cost for this trip was $2605, cheaper than our trips to Hawaii and Ireland. And after travel credits from credit cards, it was $2127. Which seems very reasonable, all things considered.

Barcelona is a polyglot city with Spanish, Catalan and English seeming to be the predominant languages. The people that we interacted with there generally seemed to understand English, but once we got out of the city, it seemed like a smaller percentage of people spoke it. Priscilla and I had tried to re-learn some Spanish leading up to the trip, but I felt that my vocabulary during the trip was pretty lacking. It was enough to get by, but only barely. Every day I would pick up a little bit more Spanish, and sometimes Catalan since some signs were only in Catalan. Trying to learn a new language is hard enough, let alone two new languages at the same time! Google Translate was an invaluable tool.

Would I want to live in Barcelona? Not really. The city is pretty dense (1.6 million within city limits, making it the second most populous city in Spain) and felt busy. I can only imagine that it would be even busier during the peak tourism season. There is also a lot of graffiti around the city, including on historic buildings. Apparently graffiti there is associated more with free expression and political dissent than gang activity, but it was still off-putting to see, especially on buildings of historical importance.

But would I want to live somewhere else in Spain? Somewhere smaller and quieter? Maybe for a short period of time. The weather during our trip was nice and the food was generally a little cheaper compared to back home. But the most appealing thing would be being immersed in a culture and having to pick up the language. I probably wouldn't want to live there long-term, but staying for a couple months learning to get by might be fun. It aligns with my desire to learn to do life better. I've been spending more time learning Spanish since the trip, and Priscilla is planning for us to take a cruise to Mexico early next year. Hopefully by then my vocabulary will extend past just the menu at a restaurant!

Yesterday I did my third Tough Mudder, this time in Lake Elsinore. I opted for this one after the March SoCal event was cancelled due to excessive rain and mud (the irony).

So Friday night, we flew down to Santa Ana/Irvine, got our rental car, met up with Raymond at Pokenoya, walked around the Orange County Great Park (we wanted to get on the hot air balloon but it was shut down early due to wind conditions), and drove to our hotel in Lake Elsinore. The hotel was pretty ghetto but we chose it because it was 0.8 miles from the Lake Elsinore Diamond where the event was. So the next day, Priscilla just drove me down the street and dropped me off right at the venue.

After the event (which I'll elaborate on in a bit), we drove back to Irvine and checked into the Hilton by the airport. In the evening, Raymond picked us up and we went to Aaron and Lauren's place to hang out with them. But we didn't see the baby since she'd already gone to sleep. And finally on Sunday, we went to church at the Saddleback Irvine South location (we walked there from our hotel) before flying home. It was a pretty eventful weekend, so we hit the hay early.

So back to the SoCal Tough Mudder. Checkin and bag drop were pretty quick, though that was perhaps because I had an earlier wave time (9:00) and got there at 8:20, so it hadn't gotten too crowded yet. The format was pretty similar to the NorCal event a month ago, though the Full route here didn't involve doing two laps and repeating some obstacles. Unlike my previous two times, I ran this one solo (hard to find people crazy enough to sign up with me, especially if it involves travel). It was definitely more fun with a team, but since I was able to set my own pace, I chose to run most of the way and finished in just over 2.5 hours. But my legs started cramping at mile 8, and I'm not sure if that was due to the tight compression socks that I was wearing. On the positive side, the socks did prevent a lot of (though not all) grit from getting in.

There were 21 obstacles on the Full route. Like with NorCal, the first obstacle was Kiss of Mud 2.0, ensuring that everyone started off with their entire frontside covered with mud. On Hero Carry, I paired up with a big guy and it was challenging carrying him on my back, mostly because his damp legs (from the previous obstacle) kept slipping from my hands. So he started carrying me about 20 feet before the switch point.

Blockness Monster was again a lot of fun, though most people didn't turn around and grab the block on their way down, which reduced throughput by a lot. SoCal had one obstacle I've never done - Tower of Tire, where people had to climb over a wall made of giant tires stacked three layers high. Pretty easy.

Mud Mile 2.0 was easier than it was at NorCal. Most people were able to get over the first two sections without help. The remaining sections required minimal help - just one person giving one hand from above.

Having had experience from a month ago, I breezed through Kong Infinity and Funky Monkey, though my technique still could use work. Cage Crawl was again a bit vexing, but I was doing ok until near the end, when the cage got pretty close to the water and then my face had nowhere to go but under the water. I then started freaking out and pulled myself through as fast as possible while getting water up my nose and down my throat. I can see how this could be a dangerous obstacle - I honestly wonder if anybody's come close to drowning.

On the next obstacle, Just the Tip, I got further than I did at NorCal, making it past the knobs and pegs in the middle. But on the latter half, it was too painful to keep holding onto the wood edge, so I bailed. I actually ended up losing some skin on my palm here. The guy after me completed this obstacle pretty easily, and he said that the trick was to keep the arms hanging loose instead of doing the cat grip that I was doing. In keeping the arms loose, the grip would probably also be relaxed and rely mainly on the tip of the fingers, which explains the name of the obstacle.

Arctic Enema was pretty cold, but I really felt it after getting out. That's when the shock wears off, I guess. And speaking of shocks, Electroshock Therapy was the next obstacle. I tried to carefully weave through the wires but still got hit twice in the back. I crouched to get under some of the wires, and the announcer compared me to a baby bird crouching in a nest and said that somebody should come and put regurgitated food into my mouth. I think this was the same announcer who in 2014 commented about me making sweet love to the mud! At least I didn't crawl through the mud on all fours this time.

Immediately afterwards was the final obstacle, Happy Ending. People were really good about forming human ladders and didn't seem to have the trouble that people were having at NorCal. I was able to get up pretty quickly thanks to some heroes at the bottom. And with that, upon crossing the finish line, my third Tough Mudder was complete.

I had fun, and it was great to see everybody tackling the obstacles and giving it their all. But I'm probably not going to sign up for another one unless somebody asks me to run with them. I don't really enjoy getting dirty, the overhead of getting to the events is a bit much, and the nature of the obstacles lend themselves to completing them with people you know. I do still enjoy the obstacles and the athleticism, and I'd like to try Spartan Race, which is intended to be more individualistic and competitive. But that will have to wait since I have an ankle injury, wrist pain and a GI condition that I'm trying to recover from. My biggest obstacle, apparently, really is myself. But these are hurdles, and hurdles are meant to be conquered.

Well hello there. In case you haven't noticed, it's 2018. I'm now just writing my first blog entry for the year, which is by far the latest that I've started in any given year.

I might try to say the dearth of blog posts is because some of the experiences I used to blog about I now instead write about on Yelp, but that's not quite the entire picture, is it? Whereas in college I'd write about nearly every class, every encounter and what I'd be doing on holidays, nowadays my writing is limited to infrequent highlights of the year, at best. Granted, some of my earlier posts were just a few words long and resembled a Twitter feed before Twitter was even a thing, but what's changed? Could it be that I've simply grown tired of writing about my life? That the novelty of having an active blog has faded? Or could it be that I'm at the stage in life where people commonly settle into a routine where not much changes from day to day, or even year to year?

"Hey, long time no see! What's new?"

"Oh, well, I'm still at the same company I've been at for the last few years. We did some traveling last year and this year. Still playing drums for church. Not much else."

Is this why people feel like life just flies quickly by and is over before they know it?

I don't want that to be my life. There's more to life than work and even more than the sporadic vacation to an awesome place. What am I passionate about, really?

Well, let's get the yearly highlights out of the way, since they do matter. Last December, Priscilla and I contributed a good chunk of money to help her parents buy a condo close to their church, so now their drive to church is 7 minutes instead of 40. Since her parents are retired and her mom spends a lot of time helping church people, this was a logical step. Her mom spends a lot of time at the condo but her dad prefers staying at the house (I completely sympathize with him), but they're trying to get him to commit to moving to the condo so that they can live there full-time. It'll mean serious downsizing, which will be difficult to say the least.

In June, Priscilla and I visited Chicago. I was awed by the architecture and the human ingenuity behind it. Some highlights of the trip were an architectural river cruise, Navy Pier, Buckingham Fountain, Maggie Daley Park, the Field Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and visiting Skydeck at Willis Tower when there were no lines due to heavy fog.

Then last month, we went to Seattle and visited a couple airport lounges (Priscilla loves using her Priority Pass and American Express Platinum card to get into lounges), the Seattle Art Museum, Pike Place, the Museum of Pop Culture, and the Amazon Go store which is an amazing technical feat. We also spent a whole day with Nathan and Andrea and their very energetic toddler at their church, house and two restaurants. We stayed with them longer than planned, but it was the most rewarding part of our trip.

Five months from now, we'll be visiting Barcelona. We're spending a few minutes a day learning Spanish, hoping to better immerse ourselves in the culture when we visit, and hoping to better remember and utilize the Spanish that we learned in high school. I took three years of Spanish in high school and quickly forgot almost all of it. Sad.

This year, I've taught myself more about cars. It was just a year ago that I knew almost nothing about car maintenance, and cared almost as little about having it done. Once it sunk in that this was not a good long-term approach, I started researching more about what maintenance items needed to be done on our old cars. My cheapness, as well as my mechanic's reluctance to fix everything on my nearly 30-year-old car, made me decide to learn to fix some things myself. YouTube, after all, is a great teacher. On the Taurus, I solved an idling issue by cleaning the IAC, diagnosed and replaced a faulty multi-function switch, replaced the fuel filter, and replaced the valve cover gaskets. The car is not designed to be easy to work on, especially since it has a bulky V6 engine. On the other hand, the Corolla is designed nicely, down to the little things like all the bolt heads being 10mm. I haven't had to do as much work on the Corolla (it's a very reliable car), but I did replace the spiral cable behind the steering wheel (the dealer wanted $700 to replace it; I did it myself using a $12 part from eBay), diagnose and replace a faulty compressor clutch relay, and replace the spark plugs. I never imagined I'd learn so much about vehicle maintenance, but YouTube and Haynes/Chilton repair manuals have gotten me far.

So back to the issue of passion. Where is mine? As much as some people claim to be passionate about their jobs, I can't honestly say that I'm passionate about mine. I have a great job with awesome teammates, and I generally enjoy the work that I do. But at the end of the day, it's just a job that's a means to an end, and not something that I live and breathe. A tow truck driver (whose services I enlisted - see above about not taking good car of my car) once told me, "If you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life." That guy claimed to love his job that much. I don't think that will be me. Work is not what fulfills me.

I guess what I enjoy is learning skills and then putting them into practice. I think that's what kept me interested in working on cars - learning a skill to solve a tangible problem. Given enough time, there are a few things I want to do. I'd like to get better at running, trail running in particular, and be able to easily run an ultramarathon. Running the 30-mile Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail is on my bucket list. I'd like to learn to sail and get an ASA certification; being able to charter a boat from SF to Angel Island or even be 100 miles from shore for a week sounds great. And I'd like to learn to fly a plane and get a private pilot license. But these are goals, not passions.

Honestly, I don't think I've found a real passion yet. Maybe I'm still trying to get in touch with myself, to figure out who the real me is while working on the things I think need adjustment. But one thing's for certain - I want to make sure that (what are hopefully) the middle years of my life are meaningful, a time of growth, and not just gone in the blink of an eye.

Another year has unceremoniously come and gone, and while 2016 was a prodigious year for us in terms of activity, the same cannot be said of my blogging habits.

So for the benefit of posterity (or, more likely, my future self), here are the highlights from 2016.

At the end of April, Priscilla and I went up to SF to celebrate our anniversary. We got free entry to the California Academy of Sciences, de Young and the Exploratorium, courtesy of our friends' Chase Private Client card. We stayed a night at the Grand Hyatt for free, courtesy of Priscilla's credit card rewards. And we rode Uber and Lyft for free due to a signup promotion. Not a bad deal for an anniversary weekend!

At the beginning of June, we went to Carmel to celebrate our birthdays. We hiked Point Lobos and stayed a night at the Hyatt Carmel Highlands, again for free. We spent some time exploring Fisherman's Wharf the next day before returning home.

In mid-June, Sarah got married, so we drove down to LA and got to spend some time with family. Sarah got married at Bel Air Presbyterian Church, which has a really beautiful building and campus. I got carpal tunnel that weekend, presumably triggered by the driving, but that cleared up after a couple weeks of wearing a brace and trying to not type much. The joys of getting old.

Our all-church retreat was at Redwood Christian Park in August. It was about the same as the last time we were there, except Priscilla and I were in a family cabin this time instead of in a suite. We hiked to the cross in the nearby hills, and even got to do rock climbing this time around. The rock climbing was difficult and I didn't see anybody make it to the top of the "medium" difficulty route. Our retreat speaker was Pastor Alton from Berean Mission Church, and his messages encouraged us to live as a steward, a disciple-maker, a child of God, and a pursuer of Christ.

After the retreat, when trying to look for productive things to fill my time with, I came across a fitness mobile game called "Zombies, Run!". Definitely more productive than sinking all my time into an MMORPG. I played it for a month and ultimately quit due to the game always restarting when being run in the background, but during that time I bought some gear for running including bluetooth headphones for listening to music. In October, I bought a heart rate monitor to use with Strava, as well as a yearly subscription of Strava Premium. I really like Strava's Beacon feature, which allows me to share my real-time location data with Priscilla, and the Heatmap, which shows my running and cycling activity as a colored heatmap. I've also been more motivated to rack up running badges on Strava, which are admittedly easier to get than cycling badges. Apparently, badges and points, even if they are virtual, are the key to my heart.

So in trying to maximize my Strava achievements, I've been trying to do more runs and hikes. In 2016, I went on a total of 29 hikes; Priscilla a couple times fewer. My favorite hike this year was Mount Diablo in September. The panoramic views from the top were amazing. I went with Priscilla and Tracy and we did a 15-mile hike, and they were pretty tired most of the way up, but we slogged through it and I later designed die-cast medals for them for making it to the top.

We drove down to LA for both the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Both were a good time of getting together with family and friends. We hiked with Victor and Sally during the Thanksgiving break, and ate with my Van Nuys friends and hung out with Raymond during the Christmas break.

During the Thanksgiving weekend, I bought new phones for myself and Priscilla. I got us both the ZTE Axon 7 Mini which, despite the name, is quite a large phone. This phone is better than our old ones in nearly every way, and we've enjoyed no longer having to deal with the frustrations of having a cheap smartphone.

During the rest of the holiday leading up to and following New Year's, I took the time to get housework done and look for contractors to help overhaul our front yard. I'd like to rip out the neglected plants we have and put in drip irrigation so that I can plant something that will be low-maintenance. With any luck, and a bit of money, we will have a nice looking front yard yet.

I have no doubt that the new year will be exciting and productive in its own capacity, but I'm hoping that it will be equally as restful. There is a saying that in the beginning of your life when you are young, you have energy and time, but no money. Then in the middle of your life, you have money and energy, but no time. Finally, towards the end of your life when you are old, you have time and money, but no energy. Well I'm clearly in the middle of my (anticipated) life, as I wish there were more hours in the day to do everything that needs to be done. I guess what I need is more downtime!

Since I've been on an unintentional blogging hiatus (another way of saying "neglecting my blogging duties") since August of last year, here's what's happened since then:

On the CI team at Pure, we had two college interns join us from June till September: Celia and Candice. I was their mentor, and the three of us worked on a project called the Artifact Cache, a system for caching build artifacts. The interns did well for their role, but we ended up extending an offer to just one of them, who initially accepted but later declined due to having moved up to San Francisco. Overall, it was a pleasure working with them, and our team learned a lot process-wise and what expectations to set on both sides of the fence.

In the middle of September, Priscilla, Christine and I flew up to Seattle to visit Nathan and Andrea, who had moved up a few months prior for Andrea's new job at Microsoft. On Saturday, we explored Pike Place, Chihuly Gardens and Glass and the Sky City restaurant at the Space Needle. On Sunday, we went to their church and did some hiking at Snoqualmie Falls, which has a beautiful waterfall. We flew back on Monday, but not before getting a tour of Microsoft.

On October 7, Pure IPO'd! Most Mountain View employees gathered early in the morning to watch the livestream of the opening bell at NYSE. The day was filled with much partying and food and little work, but the next day was back to work and business as usual. Since then, not much has changed, except for the fact that our options can be exercised for real shares of stock now (still in the 180-day lockup period until April).

Shortly after the IPO, our newest team member Maciej joined CI, and I served as his mentor. I've learned a lot about Docker and related technologies from him, and it's been a good pairing. So far we've used Docker to deploy a cron runner service and an HA-environment for our CI web applications.

Last December, Aaron and Lauren tied the knot at their church in Laguna Hills! I was the best man (returning the favor), and I didn't say anything too embarrassing during my speech, so presumably it went well. Priscilla and I drove down for the weekend and then drove back to the Bay Area on Monday. So for once, we were in the Bay Area for Christmas and New Year's and were able to spend those holidays with Uncle Kenway, Aunt Susan and her family.

It's been a busy few months, and with many things going on in 2016, it's sure to be a busy next few months as well!

Because we haven't traveled enough this year, Priscilla and I visited Portland from last Friday until the following Monday. Actually she had scheduled this trip before deciding to schedule Hawaii, but that was besides the point.

So Friday morning, we landed at PDX. We liked how the airport was well-laid out and had lots of restaurants and shops - in some places it looked more like a mall than an airport. We made our way to the Alamo counter only to find a sign saying to go outside and wait for a shuttle. A shuttle came shortly and brought us to the Alamo lot a mile away, where the agent said we could choose any of the economy cars. There were actually only two left in the lot, and we picked a blue Kia Rio.

Our first stop was Forest Park, where we hiked 5 miles. I was really impressed by how much greenery there was everywhere. We had a late lunch at The Waffle Window, which we thought was just ok (the waffles weren't crispy). We went to Costco and got a cup of chilli and four salads, two of which we ate that night in our hotel room at the Holiday Inn Express.

Saturday morning at 11am, we met up with our tour guide Erik from the Secrets of Portlandia free walking tour. We met in front of the Pioneer Courthouse, and our first stop was the Pioneer Courthouse Square just across the street. The square is nicknamed "Portland's Living Room" and is the site of 300 events a year. We walked past the Teachers Fountain, where our guide explained that it's legal to swim in many of Portland's fountains, and they're purposely designed to be swimmable. We walked through the South Park Blocks and learned about the Abraham Lincoln statue there. We walked past The Heathman Hotel (which is supposedly haunted), the Portlandia statue (whose image rights are owned by its sculptor, so its image can't be used commercially), the Elk Fountain, and Mills End Park (aka Leprechaun Park), which holds the Guinness record for the world's smallest park. The park is a mere 452 square inches but continues to be the site for St. Patrick's Day festivities. People even get married here.

Food carts, the Keep Portland Weird sign and Voodoo Doughnut were our final stops during the tour. The tour was quite informative and we learned a lot about Portland's history and culture.

Afterward, Priscilla and I got food from different food carts - I went to a place called The Cultured Caveman, while she got a pita taco from a Mediterranean place. We walked to Powell's City of Books, a huge book store occupying an entire city block. We stopped by a coffee shop called Public Domain to get some coffee before hitting up the International Rose Test Garden, a public 4.5 acre garden which has 10,000 rose plantings representing 600 varieties. Minus all the people, what a beautiful and serene place! We had some really good Mediterranean food at Nicholas Restaurant, and ended the night watching the Starlight Parade on TV back at the hotel. Apparently lots of people set up chairs along the parade route in downtown, because when we were walking through during the day, we saw lots of chairs already set up where people had staked their claim!

On Sunday, we hiked around and saw the Wahkeena Falls and Multnomah Falls, just two of the many locations along the Columbia River Gorge. We parked right off the road by the start of the trail up to the Wahkeena Falls, and it was a short 0.2 mile walk up to see the falls. The water flows down in a series of steps, and you can get pretty close and get misty.

We then walked over to the lodge in front of Multnomah Falls; walking turned out to be a good idea because it was extremely crowded there with lots of people waiting for parking spots. It was very touristy with a restaurant, snack shop and gift shop. It's a short walk up to a bridge at the base of the falls, but you can continue the rest of the 1.2 miles to get to the top of the falls. The view isn't great from the top since there are some trees obscuring, but at a little over halfway up, you get a nice view of the Columbia River. Plus, the all uphill hike makes for good exercise! I really enjoyed both of these, but I think my vote is in favor (only slightly) of Multnomah Falls. It's a lot taller than Wahkeena, and the pattern the water makes is very distinctive. From in front of the bridge, you can see the main waterfall behind the bridge, as well as a smaller one in front. This was my favorite outdoorsy activity during the trip!

We had a restful remainder of the day and watched a lot of Shark Tank back at the hotel. We even worked out at the hotel's gym, which had only an extremely basic set of equipment.

It was raining on and off on Monday, but we managed to avoid most of it during the times that we were outside. We had lunch at a place called Shut Up and Eat, picked up donuts from Voodoo Doughnut Too (their second location, which had no line) to bring back home, and walked around a Catholic sanctuary called The Grotto. The gardens there are beautiful, and they have an upper level atop a cliff that costs $5 per adult to take an elevator up to. We enjoyed walking around up there and enjoying the view from the meditation chapel. Finally in the evening, we returned our rental car and boarded a plane back to San Jose.

Portland was a lot of fun, though on Sunday my skin started breaking out again like it did in Hawaii, only this time a week earlier into the trip. Perhaps I haven't had enough downtime from traveling, though us having walked around in the sun for a couple hours the previous day, and it being too warm at night, might've also had something to do with it. But I think at this point, I really just need rest. Aside from there being lots of fires at work to put out, June should be a restful month, and I hope to have some time to finish up some Yelp reviews and home repairs that I've been putting off.

Priscilla, her parents and I went to Hawaii from February 20 to March 2. I'm only writing about it now. I guess you can say that I've been busy, and that when I try to multitask, it's easy for me to let things fall by the wayside. Here's one step towards turning that around.

Friday, 2/20
Because her parents had never been to Hawaii, we (Priscilla) wanted to take them before they get too old to travel. So on Friday at 8am, we headed off to San Jose Airport for our flight to Honolulu. Our plan was to visit Oahu for six days, reliving some of the things that Priscilla and I did the first time we visited for our honeymoon, and then something new afterwards - Kaua'i for five days.

Upon landing in Honolulu, we got picked up by Star Taxi and taken to the Aqua Bamboo Waikiki, where Priscilla had arranged our stay at a rental unit owned by a guy named Norman and his wife. We had an early dinner at Marukame Udon (of course), watched a music show at the Royal Hawaiian Center, walked around Waikiki and bought food from Food Pantry. So far, all familiar activities.

Saturday, 2/21
The next morning, we got a rental car from Budget and hit up Manoa Falls, a short hike out in the jungle where parts of LOST happened to be filmed. It was really cool hiking through the jungle, and the first half of the hike was mostly flat, but there was a small ascent in the second half over terrain that was narrow, rocky and sometimes muddy. Priscilla's parents had a more difficult time with this portion, but they forged ahead and made it to the end eventually. People on Yelp had called this an "easy" hike, and for me and Priscilla it was on the easy side, but had we known exactly what to expect, we probably wouldn't have brought the parents here.

The falls at the end were a bit underwhelming - just a small trickle down the face of a small cliff; I guess it just wasn't rainy season. But it was definitely a memorable hike!

After Manoa, we did something more manageable - visiting the Dole Plantation for Dole Whip and the pineapple cutting demonstration. No pineapple maze this time, as they've raised the admission fee to something like $15. We visited a beach at North Shore, took a wrong turn on the way back and ended up at the spot where the food trucks congregate. Hono's Shrimp Truck again! We got three plates of shrimp and Priscilla's dad got a fish sandwich from the McDonald's across the street (he's funny). On the way back to Waikiki, we went to Walmart and picked up a multi-box of Hawaiian Host chocolate-covered macadamia nuts to give to friends.

Sunday, 2/22
The next day, Priscilla's parents went on a bus tour and visited Pearl Harbor while Priscilla and I took TheBus to Hanauma Bay and swam (me)/snorkeled (Priscilla) with the few fish scattered here and there. The beach was quite beautiful but it was sad for me to later learn that the now-brown coral used to be colorful but was killed due to human activity.

We rejoined the parents for early dinner #2 at Marukame Udon, got more groceries from Food Pantry, and watched TV back at the hotel.

Monday, 2/23
We went to the Royal Hawaiian Center the following day and attended a session where we learned huli huli massage, went to a storytelling session given by a docent, and did lei making with Aunty Bella's, where I, for whatever reason, was better at lei-making than Priscilla.

In the evening, we took a bus up to Paradise Cove, our first-ever luau! Our guide, Cousin Kai, was hilarious and a really down-to-earth guy who likes to keep it real. At the luau, we were welcomed with shell leis and found some games (like spear throwing and bowling with a rounded block of wood), a 2-minute canoe ride, and beautiful scenery. The blowing of the conch took us to different portions of the evening's activities - a hula lesson that a few selected guests got to participate in, a shower of flowers from atop a tree, pulling in the fishing nets, hula dancing, hukilau on the beach, more hula and the unveiling of the pig that had been cooking in the ground for hours, and finally the nighttime dinner and show, where you don't eat till you're full, but eat till you're tired.

The dinner was so-so; can't say that I was really enjoyed having non-traditional food like spaghetti and fried chicken, and I tried the poi at Cousin Kai's suggestion and can't say that I really cared for it. The nighttime show was entertaining, and the fire dancer was really talented (I think he'd won first or second place in some legit competition), fearless, and probably just a little bit crazy. All in all, a fun luau!

Tuesday, 2/24
On Tuesday, we hit up the Royal Hawaiian Center again for hula and ukulele lessons, respectively. I was equally unadept at both, but it was fun. Back at the hotel, I did a bit of swimming while Priscilla and her mom relaxed in the hot tub, and then the four of us went to see some hula put on by dance troupes at the free Waikiki Beach Hula Show. We picked up dinner from Me's BBQ on the way back to the hotel.

Wednesday, 2/25
We spent this whole day at the Polynesian Cultural Center! Maybe because it was a weekday, the place was not as crowded as the first time when we went. It was fun like the last time, but the island of Tahiti was a notably smaller production this time around with just a single dancer. The Gateway Buffet was again fine, and the HA: Breath of Life show was enjoyable as ever.

Thursday, 2/26
After checking out of our hotel, we boarded an Island Air plane for Lihue Airport on Kaua'i! After getting our rental car from Avis, we ate poke at Pono Market, popular with the locals, and visited the Kapa'a Beach Park nearby. Priscilla and I walked a bit of the paved path while the parents napped. We bought groceries from Cost-U-Less and checked into our room at the Aston Islander on the Beach - quite a charming place located in a beautiful spot (aren't they all?) on the beach. Each room has a PS3 in it, and there are two DVD/game rental kiosks downstairs, so I played some PS3 Minecraft (my first time really playing it) and we watched Big Hero 6. We got dinner at TC's Island Grill in the shopping complex next to the hotel.

Friday, 2/27
While Priscilla's parents spent the day around the hotel, Priscilla and I rented a kayak from Kamokila Hawaiian Village and did the kayak + hiking trip to see the Secret Falls. The falls were slightly more impressive than Manoa Falls, and there was a pool in front of the falls where people were going in. Priscilla and I stood right under the falls and let the water rain on us - it was like taking a big shower! We saw Opaeka'a Falls from a lookout point on the way back. I swam at Wailua Beach in front of the hotel, which I would not recommend. People generally say you shouldn't swim at non-lifeguarded beaches on Kaua'i because of the fierce currents, but the currents at this beach were not bad and the water was shallow - I could stand on the ground even 200 feet from shore; but the worst part was all the coral that I kept being pushed into, which gave me some cuts. Yeah, not a great swimming spot. Dinner was at Tiki Tacos, and the tacos were just ok.

Saturday, 2/28
This was another outdoorsy day for me and Priscilla, and we made the 1-hour drive to Waimea Canyon, sometimes referred to as the Grand Canyon of Hawaii. We drove along the two-lane highway 550, ever so often taking pictures at photo op spots along the way. We hiked the Canyon Trail, which was only a 3-mile hike but had lots of inclines (Priscilla didn't enjoy that part). On our hike, we saw a small waterfall and had lots of gorgeous views of the canyon. I would love to come back here.

We made a short stop at Kaua'i Coffee Company, sampled several flavors of coffee and took a guided tour. The place had a gift shop and a visitor's area with a movie about the plantation playing, and felt more touristy than Mountain Thunder on Big Island. We had dinner at Kaua'i Ramen (a Chinese ramen place) on the way back, and at night was when my skin started breaking out.

Sunday, 3/1
Like with our trip to Europe several years ago, I found out again that my body doesn't like it when I've been traveling for several days. I think the combination of not drinking enough water, not getting my normal dose of vitamins and healthy foods, and travel-related stress causes my body to freak out, which manifests as hives all over my body. This time around it was all over my arms, legs and neck. It took a few weeks to fully dispel, but I learned a valuable lesson for the next time we travel.

So on Sunday, being in a bad condition to go out, I spent the whole day in the hotel room, playing Minecraft on my computer after I bought it. Hooray.

Monday, 3/2
This was our last day, and after checking out of the hotel, we had Pono Market and made a short visit to Kapa'a Beach Park again. Priscilla's mom got a coconut from a vendor, and we all agreed that it wasn't the most fresh. We returned the car, took a shuttle to the airport, and all got on a plane bound for San Jose. I had the next day off from work and dropped Priscilla's parents off at SJC again for their return trip to LA.

Overall we all had a good time, though Priscilla's dad's stomach is a little weak and he can't eat everything and has to use the bathroom frequently. He was always a good sport, but it was clear that certain parts of the trip were hard for him.

Kaua'i was definitely interesting in contrast to Oahu. It felt slightly less touristy than the Big Island, even though life seems slower and more relaxed on both. Priscilla had planned full day's worth of activities for Oahu, but we sort of winged it for Kaua'i. I wouldn't mind coming back to Kaua'i, but hopefully we'll do a bit more research and I'll keep myself from getting sick next time!

The wifey and I celebrated our second year anniversary over in Half Moon Bay this past Saturday. Only a 45 minute drive from our home, it's a lot closer than I thought. We'll have to go there more often!

Our first stop was Spanish Town on Highway 92 at the entrance to HMB. There we found large dinosaur statues, a ton of fountains, statues, pots and birdbaths that, according to a shop attendant, are handmade from around the world. Pretty cool place, and it was fun seeing rows and rows of unique stuff and finding more rows around every corner.

We made our way over to Half Moon Bay State Beach and paid $10 to park right at the edge of the beach. It was chilly outside, so we sat in the car and ate sandwiches while we watched people flying kites and a large group of Asians congregating for a BBQ.

After lunch, we walked south along the HMB Coastal Trail and sat for a few minutes at Poplar Beach, a small self-serve beach with no amenities. We continued past the Wavecrest Open Space, a large empty grassy area, until we reached our destination beach - Redondo Beach (not to be confused with the city by the same name in LA County).

Redondo was my favorite beach - somewhat secluded due to not being directly accessible from the road due to steep cliffs, with beautiful long stretches of white waves and squiggly patterns in the sand. There was a beautiful country club mansion resting atop the plateau that I really enjoyed as part of the scenery.

After the beach, we took a walk along downtown (Main Street), stopped at a coffee shop for Priscilla to get her caffeine, and rested at the quaint John L. Carter Memorial Park. We stopped briefly at a soap/fragrance/gift shop for Priscilla to look around, and we wanted to go to a feed shop that had a sign saying "The best place in town to pick up chicks," but sadly they had closed when we passed by on the way back. Lastly, we found the Spanish Town Historical Society Jail a small block off Main Street. The jail was built in 1911 and was restored in 1990 as a museum, with visiting hours unknown. Inside are only two jail cells, harkening back to a time when things were smaller and simpler.

For dinner, Priscilla had bookmarked two places: Mezza Luna, a nice Italian place, and some low-key Indian restaurant. We'd decided ahead of time on Mezza Luna, and we were glad we did, because on our walk along Main Street we passed by the Indian restaurant which was run out of an old-looking house that did not look too appealing. Then again, you know what they say about judging a book by its cover, so maybe next time.

We really enjoyed the food at Mezza Luna. Priscilla had alfredo with chicken, and I had a healthier form of chicken stuffed with vegetables. The mussels we ordered as an appetizer were flavorful and fresh, and the broth they came in was great for dipping bread into. For dessert, she ordered a chocolate cake and I ordered a mango gelato. Both were great, but each of us liked the other's dessert more than our own.

We took a short walk around the marina after dinner, and then it was time to head home. Dinner including tip was $82, meaning we spent a total of $92 on our anniversary trip. Not too shabby, considering we had a great time and were able to do/see lots of things. Till next time, Half Moon Bay!

Slight change of plans: rather than me and Priscilla going down to LA for Memorial Day, her parents came up.

For Priscilla's birthday, they came up on Thursday, May 23. They visited their friends in Petaluma on Friday, and the four of us made the drive up to Sacramento on Saturday. Priscilla's been meaning to make us visit Sacramento, and her parents' spontaneous decision to visit made for a convenient time to take that trip.

On the way, we had lunch at Denny's, where I played the crane game and won a duck! We stopped at the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield, where went on the free factory tour. Though the tour runs daily, factory operations don't happen on weekends, so our tour consisted of listening to our guide talk and watching videos of the manufacturing process. Still pretty cool. We also had free samples from the sample bar!

That evening, after checking into our room at the Fairfield Inn in Natomas, we walked around Old Sacramento and admired all the old western-style buildings and had dinner at Railroad Fish and Chips, somewhat of a hole-in-the-wall place. But the deep fried shrimp and fish were simply divine!

Sunday afternoon, we visited the Capitol Building and went on a free tour. It was interesting to learn that San Jose was the first capital of California after it became a state. Vallejo served as the next capital, then Benicia, then finally Sacramento. We visited the Assembly Chamber, modeled after the House of Commons in England, and the Senate Chamber, modeled after the House of Lords. After the tour, we posed for pictures outside of the governor's office in the Capitol annex. Too bad he wasn't there!

We tried to visit the Stanford Mansion for another free tour, but the building was unexpectedly closed. We had a late lunch at Shoki II Ramen House, where we each ordered a large ramen without knowing that "large" there would be HUGE by any other place's standards! Quite full after lunch, we somehow dragged ourselves over to the Sacramento County Fair, where we saw everything from a hypnotist show, variety show, an art, game and puzzle area, mechanical bull riding, and a huge building where livestock was being kept to be auctioned.

Finally on Monday, we visited Sutter's Fort and saw a live cannon firing, musket firing and blacksmith demonstration. It was cool learning more about the history of the area and about John Sutter, whom I did not know was from Switzerland! We were homeward bound after lunch at The Sandwich Spot, pretty tired after a full three-day weekend's worth of activities.

My birthday was slightly more low-key, and Priscilla and I celebrated it over two days. This past Saturday, we hiked at the Sawyer Camp Trail at the Crystal Springs Reservoir in San Mateo. That was followed by lunch at Espetus Churrascaria, where we finally got to use the $100 giftcard that Justin and Vicky gave us as a wedding gift!

Today I took the day off from work and used that time to go to the junkyard and get a parking brake release handle+cable to replace the one that broke on my car. It's nice to have an easily-releasable parking brake again. ;)

Priscilla and I had our buyer's agent submit an offer on a house that we're looking at in Santa Clara. Our agent expects up to 30 offers on the place, and without having made an extremely competitive offer, we probably won't get the place. It's just not a great time to buy right now.

Priscilla took a half-day and we used that time to get chores done and go to the gym. We had dinner at Ramen Seas, our new favorite place on Murphy Street that we've been to four times in the last two months.

We've definitely been keeping busy! And there's lots more lined up for the rest of June!

Weekend trips galore! That's what we've been doing these past few weeks. From March 23-24, Priscilla and I were up in Napa, and this past weekend we were down in Monterey.

The Napa trip was started by meeting a rep from a timeshare company at the Santa Clara Travel Expo. She promised us airfare and a two night stay in Hawaii and wine tasting for two, in exchange for attending a 90-minute timeshare presentation at their resort in Napa. So in March, we made the 1.5 hour drive up to Napa.

We found the presentation a bit sketchy, and apparently so did lots of other people who posted their experience on Yelp. We were given travel vouchers for a company that also has bad reviews (so we might not use it) and a buy one get one free coupon for wine tasting (not exactly what we were promised). No matter, we ended up going to one of the wineries listed on the voucher, Falcor Winery, and really enjoyed it. The wine was strong, the host was super friendly and helpful, and he gave us a tour of the whole winery. They even waive one tasting fee per bottle of wine bought, so we bought a 2008 Chardonnay with a nice butterscotch flavor.

We had dinner at Hilo Hawaiian BBQ, a place with decent food that resembled L&L. But they were cheap and didn't give us cups for water. That night we enjoyed walking through downtown Napa, and we stayed at the Fairfield Inn in nearby American Canyon to save money. $100 after tax for a large room with a kitchenette, sweet!

The following morning, we hiked at Skyline Wilderness Park and enjoyed visiting Lake Marie at the end of the hike, even though we took a wrong turn initially. Before heading home, we had lunch at Tarla Mediterranean Grill, and the food and service were sadly mediocre.

Fast forward to this weekend. Our one year anniversary is coming up in two weeks! Can't believe we've been married for almost a year now. Time sure flies. Originally we had planned to visit Monterey on our anniversary, but Deborah, Priscilla's maid of honor, recently got engaged and announced that her wedding would be on the 27th (her fiance is in the army and shipping out to Afghanistan soon). Since we didn't want to miss their wedding, we pushed our Monterey trip up by two weeks.

So on Saturday, we visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Our church friends have an annual membership that provides them with two transferable guest passes, so they often let their friends use their guest passes to get into the aquarium for free! That's a savings of $35/person each time!

The aquarium was very enjoyable, albeit crowded. I particularly liked the psychedelic 1960s-themed jellyfish exhibit and the feeding held in the Kelp Forest. The otters were by far the most fun to watch. What a great place to visit!

Dinner was at a small, one-man-show place called Paprika Cafe. There was only seating for about a dozen people, but we got there early and missed most of the crowds. Service started getting slow as the place filled up. I felt bad for the poor guy. Ah, the Yelp effect.

We stayed the night at the Comfort Inn for $130. That room was pretty small, motel sized. And that was one of the cheaper places to stay in Monterey, sheesh! What's up with Monterey being so expensive?

The next day we hit up Point Lobos National Reserve, where we enjoyed a beautiful 5-mile hike through serene forest and along magnificent rocky coasts. Easily the most scenic hike we've been on to date. For lunch, we headed over to Fisherman's Wharf and ate at The Grotto Fish Market, where Priscilla had a coupon that gave us a free cup of clam chowder with purchase of an entree. We got a 1/2 pound crab and shrimp plate for $20, which included a cup of clam chowder, meaning each of us were able to have a cup. We also ordered 5 raw oysters. The food wasn't spectacular, but it was enjoyable. I enjoyed walking along the wharf and sampling the clam chowder from a few different places, even though I felt bad for not buying.

And hence concludes the past few weeks of fun. As mentioned, we'll be going to LA in two weeks for Deborah's wedding, and again for Memorial Day to spend some time with our parents. So the traveling is far from over this summer. I'll need to catch up writing my Yelp reviews while I can!

I've always wanted to see the Bahamas. And now I have, thanks to Priscilla's travelholism and her parents generously paying for a cruise to the Bahamas for the four of us.

Last Wednesday, Priscilla and I flew from San Jose to LAX, where we rendezvoused with her parents and caught the red eye flight to our layover at Dallas/Fort Worth, and then the morning flight to Jacksonville, Florida. From there, it was a short shuttle ride to the Port of Jacksonville, where all the cruise ships sail out of. Our ship was the Carnival Fascination, and this was the second time I've sailed with Carnival. Once we passed through the TSA-like security checkpoint (minus full body scanners), we were on the ship and enjoying lunch on the Lido deck.

This time around Priscilla signed up for "your time dining," which gave us more flexibility in allowing us to eat dinner in the fine dining hall on own schedule. The food options were fine indeed - escargot was one of the starter items, and for the main course it was difficult having to choose between the lasagna bolognese, pan-seared tillapia fillet, chicken a la grecque, cinnamon pumpkin and veggie pot pie, or the braised beef briskey in gravy. I finally opted for the chicken, though we ended up ordering a few different main courses and sharing. Sharing is caring!

And how can a night be complete without entertainment? At night we caught the welcome show, where our cruise director Paul gave some introductions and a mini-comedy show. Two other comedians also did short routines, a preview of the longer programs that they would do the rest of the cruise. Fun times.

Friday at noon, we disembarked at Freeport, our first stop in the Bahamas. There wasn't a lot to do in town and we didn't sign up for any shore excursions, so we just walked around the small shopping plaza and Straw Market where there were tons of vendors selling souvenirs catering to tourists. It seemed like the same kind of stuff you could buy anywhere else, minus the logos that read "Bahamas" and whatnot. Priscilla did buy two postcards for herself, and her parents bought a souvenir magnet, but overall the stuff there just didn't interest us.

Not to be deterred, I looked around at our food options - I wanted something authentic. I passed on an authentic-looking (as much as possible) shack selling seafood for exorbitant prices - a $20 fish sandwich wasn't my thing. We passed by a bar that was offering $1 shots, which was cool but their food looked pretty Americanized. Finally, we took a look at the menu of a place called Senor Frog's, a seemingly pretty popular place for tourists. They touted their authentic Mexican food. Wait, Mexican food? I must be in the wrong country! Their menu had things like a fish taco plate for $17 - loco! We had lunch back on the ship.

The attire for fine dining that night was dressy. After dinner, we took advantage of our swanky looks to take photos at the various professional photo stations set up on the venue floors. Finally, we caught a night show called "Divas" in which male and female performers danced and did a cover of many popular diva songs. Two particular performers, both guys, really stood out in their vocals. The show was pretty cool.

Having learned our lesson from Freeport, when Saturday rolled around and our ship docked at Nassau at 8am, we had tickets (purchased through Carnival for $70/person) for a "sea and see" excursion. A short walk into town brought us to a ferry that took us on a harbor tour. We saw mail boats (the method of mail transportation between islands), bridges carrying traffic over the harbor to Paradise Island, and waterfront mansions owned by celebs including Tom Cruise, Chuck Norris and Oprah (who has two properties next to each other).

Our ferry was met out in the water by a semi-submarine and we transferred over for a short sea tour. Our tour guide threw rice overboard to attract fish, and we sure saw a lot of them! Everything from grunt fish, ballyhoo and yellow snapper. We didn't see any sharks, unfortunately.

The third part of our tour was onboard a bus, which took us past Bay Street, the police station, a Methodist church, the Parliament buildings and the Supreme Court. We stopped for 20 minutes at Fort Fincastle and the Queen's Staircase. The bus tour felt pretty short, and we ended earlier than the brochure claimed. Booo.

We then walked through the Nassau Straw Market, stopped at McDonald's to use their WiFi (and bought a crispy chicken sandwich so that we didn't look cheap), and then finished up the afternoon at the free Junkanoo Beach, where we just sat on the shore due to not having swimwear. We didn't eat any real food in Nassau, but we did buy a coconut from a shack at the beach for $5. I liked how they chopped off the shell on one side right in front of us, and stuck a straw in there for us to drink the coconut water. Everybody in the cities we visited accepted U.S. money, and supposedly the Bahamian dollar and the U.S. dollar have a one-to-one exchange rate.

Nassau was interesting. It had a small town feel but did have a steady amount of cars on the street. The buildings aren't dirty but do look worn with time. The aggressiveness of the locals trying to sell taxi, sightseeing and other services kind of put me off. We certainly didn't experience this kind of aggressiveness in Hawaii! Though perhaps that aggressive desire for our business could've been used in our favor as a bargaining tool had we been interested in their services (we might've scored a better deal than we did through Carnival).

Back on the ship after dinner, we briefly visited a piano bar and listened to a really talented guy playing requests from a list. Then we looked at our photos from the night before that were posted in the photo gallery. We were pretty tired after that long day, so we then called it a night.

Sunday was the day at sea. After waking up late and having a light breakfast, we went to a towel-folding session, where we learned how to make some of the towel animals that the cleaning staff had been making and putting in our stateroom every night.

After lunch, Priscilla and I went to a comedy show called "The Game of Love" where our cruise director picked three couples from the audience, two senior couples and one newlywed couple, and asked them questions to see how well they knew each other. The result? Pretty well overall for each couple. The show was hilarious, thanks to our wise-cracking cruise director.

In the evening we caught another show called "Motor City," a dance and musical performance that went through a few decades of oldies music. I liked this one better than "Divas" and loved the singing and all the costume and background changes. I think this show is done by the same performers that did "Divas." They actually had both shows playing that night and Friday night. Mad props to those performers for having to memorize songs and choreography for two different shows in the same night!

Monday morning after breakfast, it was time to debark! The debarkation process was pretty smooth, and most of the time spent waiting (15 minutes?) was waiting to get off the ship. Various shuttles were waiting to take people back to the airport, and we caught one for $10/person. Our flight from Jacksonville to DFW wasn't for another five hours, so I used that time to get caught up on friends' Yelp reviews. Our flight from DFW to San Jose was rough at almost four hours long! We finally got home around 8:30pm and were pretty exhausted.

Overall it was a fun trip, but we could've done more in the Bahamas. I learned that I don't really enjoy stuffy plane rides, and even on a cruise I get restless when there's not much to do. I also gained four pounds temporarily, even though we were going to the gym every day. Just something about being in the midst of so much good food every single day makes me want to eat a lot despite my body telling me to slow down. I don't think I could handle a longer cruise; four days was already plenty. It was fun, but I'm glad to be back home.

Sadly, this blog entry about our Hawaii honeymoon was written a month after getting back from Hawaii. Being busy writing a ton of Yelp reviews (all linked here) has been part of why it's taken so long to finish writing this entry, but I still don't have a great excuse. I just needed to sit down and force myself to do it, which, evidently I've now done. So without further ado, I present to you our adventures in Hawaii in this super-long wall of text, which I'm sure all of you are going to read in one sitting, word for word.

After a "mere" four months of being married, Priscilla and I went on our honeymoon to Hawaii! Now I know that couples typically go on their honeymoon shortly after the wedding, but we had a few reasons for not following convention. First, with all the wedding planning we had to do, we didn't even want to start thinking about the honeymoon till much later. Second, we wanted to allow ample time for us to transition from an LDR to marriage, and for Priscilla to adjust to life in the Bay Area. Finally, we wanted to avoid the summer peak travel season in order to save some money.

Originally, we were thinking of visiting just Oahu, but somebody mentioned to us that Big Island has the only active volcanoes amongst all the islands, so we decided to visit both islands in this trip. Kona and Hilo are the two main cities on Big Island, and we decided to stay in Kona because it's less expensive. On Oahu, we stayed in Waikiki, which is pretty much the place tourists stay. We planned our trip from Friday, August 31 till Sunday, September 9. This gave us two full weekends and a holiday (Labor Day), meaning that we would need to take off only 5 days from work to have a 10-day trip.

Day 1 (Friday):
So at 7:40am on August 31, we took off on an Alaska Airlines flight bound from San Jose to Kona. We went with Alaska because they had a better fare than Hawaiian Airlines, strangely. The in-flight snacks were pretty decent: we were given drinks three times (I was introduced to pog and ordered it twice), a macadamia nut cookie, and a free Mai Tai. The flight was about five hours long, and we landed in Kona at 10am due to the 3-hour time difference.

After picking up our rental car at Enterprise, we drove to Costco and got two loaves of bread, sliced turkey, sliced salmon, and sliced cheese. It was cool to see regional items like surfboards for sale here! Some prices were extremely high compared to back at home, like a 2.5lb bag of Spinach selling for $10 that back at home sells for $4. Our first taste of Hawaiian prices.

We then checked into our hotel, Keauhou Beach Resort. Since Priscilla had told them we were on our honeymoon, we got a free upgrade to a king size bed, a better view of the ocean, and a free gift of a stone picture frame. Our room wasn't modern-looking but it was quaint. We made sandwiches, then drove quite a ways to Mountain Thunder, a coffee plantation where we got a free tour. It was cool seeing all the machinery used in coffee bean sorting, and our guide Taro was pretty knowledgeable and interesting, but it would've been cooler if we got to see some of the machines in action. We bought an expensive bag of 100% Kona coffee (supposed to be really good).

By now, I was learning why people say that Hawaii has slow drivers. Just about everywhere on Big Island, we would get stuck behind somebody going at or below the speed limit. Granted, slow drivers exist everywhere, but I think they're more apparent in places like Big Island where roads often are one lane in each direction. Drivers in Hawaii did seem to be nicer than what I'm used to, though.

Anyway, after Mountain Thunder we went to Walmart, since we decided that it would be good for me to have a pair of shorts in humid Kona. We went to the Safeway next door to get tomatoes for our sandwiches and nectarines, then returned to the hotel and had more sandwiches. We ended the evening by swimming in the hotel pool. We were the only ones there, probably because it was raining! But rain isn't really an issue when you're already in the water. ;)

Day 2 (Saturday):
After a nice, hot breakfast at the hotel, we drove two hours to Ka Lae (South Point), the southernmost point in the United States. We parked at the South Point Cliff Dive and looked around and saw people deep-sea fishing and swimming in the water below the cliffs. We took a stroll in the direction we thought would take us further south, found a rocky beach area and went out into the water. I got my shoes soaked after venturing out onto a rock and failing to dodge a wave. =( We didn't know exactly where the southernmost tip of Ka Lae was, but it turns out we were about 400 feet from it. Doh! But we can still say we've been to Ka Lae.

We then continued up the coast, stopped at Punalu'u Bake Shop for a malasada (tasted like a normal donut; I don't see what's so special), and then made our way to the Punalu'u Black Sand Beach, which had coarse black sand and really sharp rocks (not good for swimming). There was a turtle sunbathing on shore. It was so still that I didn't know whether it was alive until several minutes later when it moved slightly to escape the rising tide.

Lunch was at a vegetarian place called Cafe Ono near the town of Volcano. Lunch was locally-sourced and delicious. We tried to pet the goat out in the backyard, but it started headbutting us because it was hungry/cranky.

The last activity of the day was at the Volcanoes National Park, where we saw steam vents, the Kilauea crater volcano, and a tunnel that was formed by lava flowing through the ground. It was cool, but I wish we were able to get closer to the lava. Supposedly you have to take a helicopter tour if you want to see lava.

Day 3 (Sunday):
This day we took the northern route across the island. The highway on the west shore ran across black volcanic rock, on which lots of people have piled white rocks to form names and pictures. We stopped along the highway and "borrowed" some rocks from words that were illegible, and made our own heart with "A + P" inside (the first of many).

The first stop on our list was Akaka Falls, where we enjoyed some scenic views around the walkway loop. For lunch, we got chicken and fish wraps and smoothies at What's Shakin', a touristy place off the beaten path. The smoothies are the real deal, made largely with fruit grown right on the farm in back of the restaurant. This place sells double entendre soap and other funny gag gifts.

Next up was Rainbow Falls, which wasn't as much a sight as Akaka Falls, especially since the rainbow wasn't out. The last item of the day was the Pana'ewa Zoo in Hilo, a small zoo where admission was free. We went there mainly to see a live feeding of the white Bengal Tiger, Namaste. However, we found that Namaste wasn't in the best shape due to old age, being unable to stand for more than a few seconds on his hind legs. It was such a sad sight to see him struggling and limping, so we skipped the feeding and checked out the rest of the zoo. There were birds of various kinds in cages, reptiles in tanks, anteaters, and a petting zoo which was unfortunately not open that day.

Day 4 (Monday):
We took a free language culture class after breakfast at the hotel. The class helped us understand how to pronounce Hawaiian words and the meaning behind words like "aloha" and "haole." We learned how the written language was brought by missionaries; prior to that, Hawaiian was an all oral language. A consonant never directly follows a consonant, an apostrophe separates two vowels into different syllables, and a macron over a vowel draws out its length.

We went snorkeling at Kahalu'u Beach Park, where Priscilla got bitten by the state fish - the reef triggerfish, known in Hawaiian as the humuhumunukunukuapua'a (a word we had coincidentally just learned in our language class). Apparently that fish is very territorial and doesn't like humans standing in its nesting area. Priscilla was so honored to have been bitten by the state fish and couldn't stop bragging about it afterward. She was also a lot better at snorkeling than I was. I had trouble keeping water out of my snorkel tube, and my goggles constantly got fogged up.

It was then time to say aloha (goodbye) to the Big Island and aloha (hello) to Oahu. We returned to the Kona Airport, where we boarded our 45-minute Hawaiian Airlines flight to Honolulu.

The difference between Oahu and Big Island is like day and night. Big Island was very scenic and serene, while in Honolulu I felt like I was back in LA, and in Waikiki with all its high-rise hotels, I felt like I was in San Francisco. We were picked up from the airport by a shuttle driver who was really entertaining and knew a lot about the island. He told us about some of the places to see around Waikiki, how there are ABC Stores everywhere, and how only recently China has surpassed Japan to claim the largest percentage by ethnicity of tourists to Hawaii.

We checked into our hotel, the Waikiki Sand Villa. That place wasn't nearly as nice as Keauhou and they were unable to fulfill our request for a courtesy room upgrade. The room was smaller than the one we had at Keauhou, had less furniture, and the decor was drab. Well we wanted a budget hotel, and that's what we got.

That night we had dinner with my friend Nessa, whom I know from an online MMO, at Old Spaghetti Factory at the Ward Center. The decor there was grand. Taking TheBus to get there was, however, not so grand, as that bus neither displayed nor announced the names of each stop. I had to ask the driver where the Ward Center was, and we ended up getting off one stop too early since the Ward Center is a very large place and has multiple stops. Taking the bus back to our hotel was much easier, as that bus announced every stop.

Day 5 (Tuesday):
I had gotten sick from traveling and not drinking enough water or getting enough fruits, so we tried taking it easier this day. Still, we had a tour that we'd already paid for to go on. Our bus tour took us around Waikiki, Punchbowl (we were let out once to see the statue of Kamehameha I), National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (we saw it all from the bus), and a couple hours at Pearl Harbor. At Pearl Harbor we toured the outdoor exhibits and visited the Arizona Memorial, a white memorial on the water next to the sunken U.S.S. Arizona, which requires a short ferry ride to get to.

After getting back to Waikiki, we had lunch at Marukame Udon, a pretty decent udon place with great prices. I got the regular niku (beef) bowl. Yum! We got some oranges and water at the ABC Store nearest to our hotel. Eating those oranges really helped me get much better by the next day.

Day 6 (Wednesday):
This is the only day we had a car rental. We got a swanky Chevrolet Impala LTZ from Budget, which had a rental office located inside the Hyatt. My dad had given us the address of his family's old house in Honolulu, so we stopped there in the morning to take some pictures. We were afraid of staying too long, as it's weird from somebody else's point of view for some random person to be taking pictures of their house. We found our way to the Dole Plantation and watched a pineapple cutting demonstration, got dole whip, and did the outdoor maze. Priscilla and I competed to see who could find all eight relics in the maze first. We were given complete maps of the maze, but I handicapped myself by not allowing myself to look at the map, save for determining each relic's approximate location. This handicap proved too much, as I ended up at the same relic four times and was unable to find them all without giving up and using the map. Needless to say, Priscilla won by quite a bit.

For lunch on our way up to North Shore, we stopped at a parking lot where shrimp trucks are parked. Priscilla got a plate of shrimp from the famous Giovanni's Shrimp Truck, while I got mine from Hono's Shrimp Truck. I liked mine better because I got more food than Priscilla for $1 less. We stopped by Matsumoto's Grocery Store for Priscilla to get shave ice; I didn't really care for it, but I did eat the ice cream at the bottom.

We stopped at Hale'iwa Beach Park to take some pictures, then at Waimea Beach to relax some more. We hadn't brought our swimwear so I was in jeans and tennis shoes. I built a sandcastle too close to the water, and the waves washed over my feet unexpectedly when the tide rose, so my shoes got soaked for a second time. Joy.

Before returning the car, we stopped by Walmart in Honolulu to get macadamia nuts to bring back to our friends and family. Unfortunately, the less expensive trays of chocolate covered macadamia nuts were sold out; we should've bought them in Kona when we had the chance, and I think they were also slightly cheaper there. We ended up getting two 3-packs of nuts in a can: Kona coffee glazed, milk chocolate, and milk chocolate toffee.

Day 7 (Thursday):
The Royal Hawaiian Center offers a bunch of free events including a ukulele lesson four times a week. We tried to make the one this morning but were late and missed a good amount of it. So instead, we just walked and waited around until the dance and singing performance put on by the Polynesian Cultural Center - a small sample of the full experience one would have at the PCC.

We had lunch at Marukame Udon for the second time, followed by swimming at Kuhio Beach, the main beach in Waikiki. Even though it was off season, the beach was still very crowded. Makes sense, since it's the only beach in town, and Waikiki is the tourist capital of Hawaii. I noticed a surfboard rental place on the beach, so on a whim I suggested that we rent surfboards. I pretty much used my surfboard as a giant boogieboard. Catching waves was pretty difficult, but a guy out on the water gave me some pointers and I caught a couple waves at the end. However, I was still using the surfboard as a giant boogieboard - no standing up for me. I was still better than Priscilla, which makes up for me being so much worse than her at snorkeling!

The last major event of the day was back at the Royal Hawaiian Center, where we caught a hula lesson and learned the dance moves for a song about a rainbow. There was a large crowd participating - maybe 100 people, and only a handful of guys. I'm pretty sure all the other guys were slightly better dancers than I was.

For dinner, in addition to sandwiches, we got a steak plate from HiSteaks, a to-go steak restaurant inside of a Food Pantry near our hotel. We got the terriyaki sauce. The steak was pretty good - tender and flavorful.

Day 8 (Friday):
We made sure to get to the ukulele lesson early this time. There weren't as many people here as there were the day before, and the instructor turned out to be the same nice lady who gave the hula lesson! We learned a few chords and Priscilla got pretty good by the end of the lesson - such a natural! A lei making class was next. I thought it'd be kind of lame, but it was actually pretty interesting! It was put on by Aunty Bella's Lei Stand, the oldest lei stand still run by people of Hawaiian heritage. They use quality flowers grown right on the islands of Hawaii - the same flowers that we got to make our free leis with. People usually have to pay $20 or more for leis like the ones we made, hah!

For lunch, we had a steak plate from HiSteaks again. Priscilla was addicted to that place. This time around we tried the lemon/butter sauce, which I liked a little better than the terriyaki sauce (but both were good). We took The Bus in the afternoon to Diamond Head State Monument and walked up the road to the park. It was about a 45-minute hike to the top of the crater, where we had an amazing view of the coast and Waikiki. I'm really envious of the people who live nearby who can come here to hike regularly!

We then walked a good ways to Rainbow Drive-in for dinner. However many hundreds of calories we burned from all that hiking and walking, we probably gained right back from all the fried food at this place. We ended up throwing some away since it was just way too much fried stuff for our stomachs to handle. We got some adequate pastries from Napoleon's Bakery and then called it a night.

Day 9 (Saturday):
All of day 9 was spent at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Our booking included transportation, and our guide, Cousin Leon, was hilarious and interesting. We visited six villages in the park: Samoa, Aotearoa, Hawaii, Fiji, Tahiti, and Tonga.

The guys at the Samoa show were hilarious- climbing trees for coconuts, cracking open coconuts, making fires, and making jokes all the way. At Aotearoa, we watched a cool dance where people tossed sticks to each other, women gracefully swung poi, and we even played some games on the lawn afterwards. At the Hawaii village, we listened to traditional and modern Hawaiian songs and watched a girl dance hula to them. At Fiji, each audience member was given a hollow stick and we helped make music by banging them on the floor. At Tahiti, we watched a volunteer female audience member do the grass skirt dance, and volunteer male audience members do the chicken dance. This one volunteer happened to be from one of the Polynesian islands himself and was a really good dancer. Finally at Tonga, we listened as the guys here played these large drums. The lead drummer asked for three volunteers from the audience to help play drums, and they were hilarious. Especially this Chinese guy who didn't understand English very well but had a very entertaining stage presence. There was a canoe pageant at noon, where dancers from each village danced on a flat canoe on the river running through the PCC.

Dinner was held in one of the many dining halls. The buffet was excellent - there was plenty of Polynesian-style food, and we left really, really full. At the end of the night was the "Ha: Breath of Life" show, which features one storyline through the six different cultures that we'd seen earlier in the day. The dancers had a lot of costume changes, there was always a lot going on, and the show made good use of stage props and video screens. The choreography and execution were excellent, and the fire dancing with guys spinning flaming torches was utterly amazing. Though we wished that our visit was longer, it still took up almost the entire day.

Day 10 (Sunday):
Sunday was our flight back home, and we didn't do too much. We swam in the morning after breakfast (the pool had a cool island off to the side, creating a narrow channel between it and the edge), checked out, and got to Honolulu International a couple hours before our 2pm flight. The flight was five and a half hours long, but due to the time zone change we landed in San Jose around 10pm. We were pretty exhausted and it took me a few days to fully recuperate mentally. Like needing a vacation from vacation, people say.

Summary:
Hawaii was thrilling. It was a place where the pace of life seems a lot slower despite our feeling rushed to see lots of different things. I learned a lot (I think) about the culture and about the idea of ha, cherishing one's family and friends, sharing that breath while we are still able to. We'll probably visit a lot of other places before we make another trip to Hawaii, but I can't wait until next time!

This past weekend I went on a cruise to Ensenada with Priscilla and her parents. It was tremendous fun! And Priscilla paid for it, so how could I refuse? =)

On Friday we drove down to San Diego where we boarded the Carnival Elation and set sail in the evening. All of Saturday was spent at sea, on Sunday we made landing at Ensenada from morning till evening, and Monday morning we made it back to home port.

Here are some highlights from the cruise:

• Good food available 24 hours a day. Great food in the evenings in the sit-down restaurant where everything from the bread to the potatoes to the broiled snapper was fine-tuned just right.
• Formal dining night where we got to dress up really swanky and had lobster for dinner.
• Two hilarious stand-up comedy routines by comedian/biker Russ Nagel. PG-13 and R-rated versions.
• Spin - a sort of musical that showcases various cities where different music genres were born.
• An outrageous hypnotist show where the funniest part of the show involved the hypnotist turning one guy into a shoe-loving kleptomaniac, making him steal and hide the shoes of anybody he put to sleep.
• Pris and I getting our pictures taken by professionals in front of various backdrops along the ship's promenade deck.
• Guys vs. girls Family Feud, in which the girls won after trailing the guys 0-200 something because of a scoring rule nobody seemed to know about.
• Tasty tacos and authentic (I think) chips, which were three times as thick as the chips I'm accustomed to, in Ensenada.
• Being approached on the street every 20 feet by people trying to sell necklaces, clothing, luchador masks, food, horse-drawn-cart rides, buggy rentals and sight-seeing excursions.
• Buying a necklace for Priscilla from a street vendor, and haggling the price from an initial $5 down to $2, but I think we still got ripped off. =)
• Getting a different towel animal every night when the cleaning staff would clean up our staterooms!

I'm back from Europe! Our 17-day tour was extremely long and tiring, yet fun and insightful. Here are the highlights of each day:

Day 1 - June 21
3-hour flight from Los Angeles to Houston, then 9-hour flight from Houston to London. First time flying longer than one hour. Tried unsuccessfully to sleep in the plane to reduce jetlag. Found the TV displays behind every seat very cool, but the games were horrible and laggy.

Day 2 - June 22
Met our tour guide, Liming Pan. Since the tour was supposed to be conducted in Mandarin Chinese, I was glad that she actually conducted in English and translated in Mandarin. In England we toured the Windsor Castle, the largest inhabited castle in the world, and the oldest in continuous occupation. Stopped for pictures in front of Buckingham Palace, toured the Tower of London and saw the Crown Jewels, and the adjacent Tower Bridge.

Day 3 - June 23
Eurostar train to Brussels, Belgium. Saw the Manneken Pis, a famous fountain statue of a boy urinating. Had mussels lunch in the Grand Place, the central marketplace. They looked at us funny when we asked for tap water, and they wouldn't allow us NOT to order bottled water. They took a long time preparing the food and since we had a tight schedule, we had to ask for a to-go box. This was also something they had no concept of, so they packed everything in a plastic margarine tub. Drove to the Netherlands, stopped in front of an old windmill for pictures, and took a canal cruise in Amsterdam.

Day 4 - June 24
Visited a diamond cutting/polishing factory in Amsterdam where we saw a lot of expensive diamonds, including a 2-carat selling for 32,000 euros. Drove to Cologne, Germany where we visited its Cathedral. Took a cruise on the Rhine River, and had pig knuckles and non-alcoholic beer for dinner.

Day 5 - June 25
Toured the Heidelberg Castle, learned about the construction of cuckoo-clocks at a shop at Lake Titisee in the Black Forest, stopped for pictures at the Rhine Falls.

Day 6 - June 26
Explored the center of Lucerne, Switzerland. Visited some large shops selling watches and Victorinox knives. Saw the Lion Monument, a memorial to the Swiss Guards killed during the French Revolution. Saved money on lunch by getting food from a supermarket, which was a large building with two stories and an escalator. Had a meager Fondue dinner that cost 170 Swiss Francs (about $144).

Day 7 - June 27
Visited Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein, a tiny country I never knew existed. Saw the ski jump, the Golden Roof, and the Swarovski store in Innsbruck, Austria.

Day 8 - June 28
Explored Salzburg to see sites where "The Sound of Music" was filmed, and the house where Mozart was born.

Day 9 - June 29
Toured the Schönbrunn Palace, often dubbed the Austrian Versailles, in Vienna. Went on a drive through the city to see the Vienna Opera House, and the Hofburg and City Hall buildings.

Day 10 - June 30
Took a ferry to Venice, explored the city, took a gondola ride through the Grand Canal and smaller canals, walked on the Rialto Bridge, saw the Bridge of Sighs, and stood in the plaza of St. Mark's Basilica trying to woo pigeons.

Day 11 - July 1
Saw two replicas of Michaelangelo's David statue in Florence, the Duomo, Piazza della Signoria, and wandered through the huge Peruzzi leather store.

Day 12 - July 2
Spent the first half of the day in Rome, where we toured St. Peter's Basilica and St. Peter's Square in the Vatican City, the Colosseum, Constantine's Triumphal Arch, the Roman Forum, and the Trevi Fountain. The rest of the day was spent traveling to the city of Lucca in Tuscany, where we had a four-course Tuscan dinner at our hotel.

Day 13 - July 3
Went onto the grounds of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Lost five euros in video poker at a casino in beautiful Monte Carlo, Monaco. Traveled to the French city of Nice where we walked along the completely rocky Mediterranean shoreline.

Day 14 - July 4
Explored Avignon, the residence of seven popes during the Avignon Papacy. Had lunch at a McDonald's where the lines were incredibly slow because people don't get out until they've received all their food at the register.

Day 15 - July 5
Arrived in Paris in the afternoon. Went up to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower, took pictures of the panoramic view of the city, and took the stairs all the way back down. Took a cruise on the Seine River where we saw Notre Dame and other sights. Had escargo and goose liver in a five-course French dinner.

Day 16 - July 6
Toured the interior and a bit of the gardens at the Versailles Palace. Saw many statues and paintings, including the Mona Lisa, at the Louvre Museum. Posed for pictures in front of the Arc De Triomphe. Wandered around the huge Galeries Lafayette department store.

Day 17 - July 7
Our homebound flights from Paris to Houston, and Houston to Los Angeles.


Some things of interest that make Europe different from the United States:

• Everything from homes to roads and vehicles to meals is smaller in Europe.
• For large vehicles like coaches and semis, their speed limit on highways depends on the amount of tax paid. The higher the tax, the faster they get to drive. This is done to try to control air pollution.
• Commercial drivers are also required to take a vacation day every so often, and cannot drive more than a certain amount of hours each day. Their vehicles are equipped with instruments that keep a continuous record of operation and speed, and are readable by law enforcement.
• Toilets are in many areas called water closets (often abbreviated WC), and many have flushing switches that can start and stop flushing on command to save water.
• An umbrella is an essential thing to carry, because rain is very unpredictable. It might be clear one minute and pouring heavily the next, and vice-versa.
• Euro banknotes vary in physical size- the larger the denomination, the larger the dimensions. I'm guessing this is to expedite recognition and sorting.

Whew. So what was Europe? Incredibly fun. Incredibly tiring. Definitely worth it. I don't think I'd ever want to go on a trip like this again though, at least not for so long! In a tour things feel rushed and you don't get much free time to take everything in at your own pace. But I had a good time. Now I can say that I've been to all these places.

Europe also made me appreciate things in the United States that I've taken for granted. Like sunny weather (it rained almost every day for the first two weeks), free water in restaurants, not having to pay to use restrooms, and the relatively low cost of living. Even concerning housing- I thought prices of houses were high in California, until I saw places in Europe where people pay much more, for flats.

So that was the trip in a nutshell. Now it's back to reality once again.

It's now morning and we're in Florence, Italy. I'm using the Internet in my room through the TV with a wireless keyboard. It should cost 8 euros but the service has been spotty so they're not charging us for it.

So Italy has been.. hot. We've been walking outside for hours each day and I've got plenty of sunburns despite having sunblock on. Other than that, seeing all these places has been awesome, and slightly overwhelming. We're on to France tonight after visiting Pisa and Monte Carlo. Maybe I'll gamble more than the $2 that I played in Las Vegas..

I finally managed to get my hands on a free computer at the hotel we stayed at last night. This is harder than it might sound, since everything in Europe (at least the tourist spots) costs money - and lots of it. You can't get tap water in restaurants for free, you have to pay to use the restroom (which they call a water closet or W.C. for short), and the list goes on and on.

So that's the short update for now. Europe has been fun but extremely tiring. We're in Salzburg, Austria right now and will be headed down to Italy in a couple days. A few days in Italy and a few more in France and will conclude the trip. Ok.. I'm done. It took too long to write this because this computer uses a German keyboard layout. More blogging when I get back home! Or if I find another free computer.

Tomorrow morning I'm off to Europe for 17 days with Priscilla and her parents. We're going with a tour through 11 different countries. It's going to be mad fun, and equally as tiring. And definitely expensive. But they do have cute chicks over there. So bon voyage!

Wow, I've been neglecting this blog a little. I don't think I've gone more than a week this year without posting something, let alone two and a half. I guess I'm just enjoying vacation too much. ;)

I've taken spring quarter off, for reasons that I won't go into here but friends are well-aware of. Suffice it to say that I've been using my time pretty productively, uh.. for the most part. I'm back at home, and having time off to read, relax, do programming, and enjoy the company of others is quite nice.

I'm still working at my tech support job because I promised them I would stay till the end of spring, but I had them compact my hours into two days so that I don't need to commute as much. And I take the bus, so I don't have to deal with the hellish 405 rush hour traffic. Whatever guy came up with the idea for carpool lanes is a genius.

Last Tuesday and Wednesday I was with Priscilla and her parents in fabulous Las Vegas. The night we arrived, we walked down one side of The Strip and back up the other side. We were staying at the Circus Circus hotel at the north end and walked all the way to the Excalibur at the south end - nearly the entire four miles of The Strip. I never knew Las Vegas was so... dirty. I was surprised to see so much of the sidewalks under construction, and we couldn't walk five feet without seeing ads for hookers on trucks and in things that resembled newspaper dispensers (interestingly I never saw a dispenser for actual newspapers), and call girl cards strewn about the ground like confetti at a festival, and shady-looking people, who would never in their life pass for call girls, trying to hand them out. We ended up getting back to our hotel at 4 in the morning. Yeah, walking The Strip and taking pictures of all the flashy buildings was fun, but I wouldn't want to do it again, at least not the whole length of it...

So the next day, being a little tired, we stuck to the hotel. We checked out the mini-circus area where they had some pretty cool shows every half hour, the two most notable ones being where one guy was using just one hand to balance upside-down on top of another guy's head, and some chick being twirled from a tall pole like a tetherball, held by only her hair. That didn't look quite fun, but she seemed to enjoy it enough.

Finally, somewhere in there Priscilla and I decided to hit the casino. Since we have no game whatsoever and are cheap, we avoided the tables and played $2 in slot machines. And lost it all. Then we put $2 in DDR at the arcade. And lost there too.

So that was Vegas. It was fun seeing her parents' neurotic side in taking a billion pictures of everything that blinks, and I had a good time. I don't know if I would want to go back, but if I did, I'd better find out beforehand where all the good shows and hangouts are. And maybe learn how to gamble.

Ok, I guess blogging after a hiatus isn't so hard after all, once you finally get around to starting. Just look at how much I wrote. If you did manage to read through it all, I give it up to you. Give yourself a pat on the back.

Priscilla and her parents wanted to get me (as in pay for) a US Passport so that I can travel abroad and come back to the US without being detained, interrogated, and shot... or whatnot. It was supposed to be a surprise, but she accidentally blurted it out on Thursday. So yeah, that's what we did yesterday.

I really annoy people sometimes with my pickiness and habit of questioning authority. Sometimes those are good qualities to have, but other times it does more harm than is really necessary. There's always a way to disagree with and confront people in a way that is productive. I need to find that balance.