Occasionally Interesting, often not

Was in HK in early November, and did a side trip to Kyoto. While in HK, ate at a number of good places, including Lei Gardens for dim sum in Elements, and Yung Kee, a well known place in Central. Also hit a couple of the private club dining rooms, at the Chinese Club, and the Shanghai Fraternity Club. Did some street food too, focusing on curry fish balls at various stalls around town. Best one was near Fai Yuen Gai, the well known discount shopping street in Mongkok. Just now back in HK for a quick Christmas trip. Flew out of SFO the evening of 24th, and was very surprised to run into a huge traffic jam getting to the terminals. Fortunately for me, not too many people heading to the international terminal, but quite an extended delay for those going to the domestic terminals ... the traffic jam stretched out onto the part of the road that also serves as an entrance to 101. Those in the know could have just caught the airtrain from the international terminal to get around the jam, but ...

This is a belated trip report, from a trip during August. Here's the executive summary: flew to Anchorage, stayed at the Spenard Hostel, close to the airport (http://www.alaskahostel.org), drove down to Seward, camped at PTARMIGAN CREEK for two nights, hiked up the Exit Glacier (one bear and some dall sheep), ate at the Exit Glacier Salmon Bake, took a day cruise with Major Marine (http://www.majormarine.com) and saw a big pod of orca, ate at a bbq place in a railroad car, drove up to Denali, drove into Denali on their bus to Wonder Lake Campground, did a hike to McKinley Bar on the river, did another hike to the top of Stoney Dome, saw the peak of Denali on the 3rd morning, saw a bunch of wildlife from the bus (moose, elk, bear, sheep, eagles), then returned to Anchorage to fly home.

Just returned from a nice weekend trip that included camping at Mercey Hot Springs, off I5 on Little Panoche Rd. Originally, the trip was going to be a camping trip to Pinnacles National Monument, with a side trip to Mercey Hot Springs, but on the way down, we thought we'd call them and see if they had any camping sites. They did, so we booked. And so we headed directly there, down 101 to 152E to I5 to the Little Panoche Rd exit. The scenery is central valley barren on the way there, but Mercey Hot Springs is a little oasis. It's far from luxury, but if it's the rustic, relaxed feeling you're after, this is a great place. The main pool and soaking tubs look quite recently done. There's a sauna building with two shower/facilities rooms, 5 campsites, 6 cabins, a clothing optional hot tub area, and parking for RVs. We were in one of the camping spots, #5 to be precise. It's the end one and a nice, more private location. When we arrived to set up camp, around 5pm, t...

We came away from Sectionals in Carmel with a 2-1 record, taking 2nd place (one better than last year!). The lament, however, is: could have, should have ... we lost the first match on Friday to the eventual winners, Fair Oaks West from Santa Clara, by a slim 2-3 margin, without Scott at #1 singles, and with two captaining decisions that might have changed the outcome to a win. But nevertheless, all in all, a very good weekend, and to tell you the truth, I'm glad not to continue to have captaining anxieties all the way up to the end-of-October Nationals. By taking 2nd place, we got an invitation to a tournament to be held next March 11-13, at the Mission Hills Country Club in Palm Springs, during the 1st weekend of the Indian Wells tournament. That tournament annually invites all the Sectionals runners-up to play, and waives their $500 entry fee (going to Nationals costs $500/team to enter, as well as the travel/accommodations costs). Those of us in Carmel all thought that this tou...

We recently went to Fabric 8, in the Mission, which is a gallery that hosts a street food cart gathering. On the day we went, the had Soul Cocina, the creme brulee guy, a cookie/cake person, and someone who made some chicken dish. We had a couple of dishes from Soul Cocina, one was a north african dish, with octopus, and various other things. Quite good. I had a dandelion stew. Sounds kind of revolting, but it was really tasty. We had earlier found a really good parking spot, so after walking back to the car, re-thought the idea of leaving, and decided to wander around. Lo and behold, pretty close by was the Marsh Theater, showing something called "Geezer". Performed by Geoff Hoyle. Hey, that name rang a bell, and yes, it was the guy I remembered. He's apparantly more famous for being Sniff the Clown at the Pickle Family Circus, but I never saw him with them; I had earlier seen him perform on TV, with Bill Irwin. This piece was a mix of autobiography, ruminations on death...

This past weekend, took a drive into the Delta (the Sacramento River delta, that is), to pay a visit to Grand Island Mansion (http://www.grandislandmansion.com), to scout as a potential wedding venue. Getting there is about a 90 minute drive from SF. Traffic through Pittsburg was heavy, where the freeway goes from 4 lanes to two. Stopped at the local In and Out for lunch, but paid for it later. The mansion and its grounds are very nice. Ideal for weddings, with room to roam, and a nice outdoor ceremony location. When we were there, a wedding party was just starting its preparations for the evening. On the drive back, we headed a different direction from our arrival route, and ended up taking two ferries. These ferries are operated by the State of California, and are part of the road system. We surmised this because the short trips are free. One of the ferries we saw on our way up, and thought we'd take on the way back. The 2nd one we just happened by and decided to take. A couple o...

So much for writing more than travel reports. Here's a trip report from Seattle, over President's Day weekend. Trip was instigated because travelzoo.com advertised a very cheap fare from SF to Seattle, so I jumped on it. Then did Priceine for the hotel. Got the Sheraton, right in downtown, which turned out to be a great location, just a few minutes walk down to Pike Place Market, and also just across the street from the zipcar that we rented for a jaunt up to the Boeing factory. We arrived in Seattle in late afternoon on Saturday. Weather was showery. We took the Grey Line bus from the airport, since it conveniently has a stop at the hotel. The driver was quite talkative, though we were sitting somewhat back, so didn't get involved. He mentioned the Purple Cafe as we passed it, and said it was very popular. So when dinnertime came around, we walked there, but they said 1.5 hrs wait. The backup was Shucker's, in the Fairmont. Earlier, we had seen on opentable that there ...

Up until now, I've sporadically written only trip reports in this blog, but I realized recently that blogs can be the modern day equivalent of diaries, albeit more public, and as I was trying to reminisce about what happened in 2009, I realized that at my advanced age, it would be helpful to do a "dear diary" entry for events less momentous than big trips, to be able to capture a more detailed picture of what's been going on with me. Let's see how it goes.