Tag: California

Carpe Diem, Spring in CA

Adventures in the Past Few Months

Our calendar has been packed the past few months with short adventures and weekend trips, all flavored with a strong dose of short notice spontaneity and disorganization. With the project shutdown and layoff I felt the need to take advantage of every single day between the announcement of the project shutdown and the end of my notice period when I would be officially unemployed. It was such a whirlwind of last minute plans we even packed for trips that never happened!

Tahoe Northstar

Our adventures began with a last-minute trip to Tahoe Northstar. We booked our stay at 10 PM the night before leaving  yet still managed to travel in style. I rented a Tesla Model Y to try out self-driving during the long (for us) trip up to the mountains. The car added some fun for me, though I’m not sure the kids noticed much difference. Continue reading “Carpe Diem, Spring in CA”

Camping, Winter to Spring 2021

As of last January, we had 4 camping trips booked. Our goal was to get out and use the new VAN and enjoy some travel despite the pandemic. Looking back I think we did well to anticipate and beat at least part of the reservation rush since in November I was able to easily find spots for all our trips through May which was the end of the 6 month window allowed for bookings. For later bookings we are limited to the few days that come available at each morning at 8 AM, 6 months out.

Our 2021 camping season didn’t start well. The first trip in late January to Calpine Fire Lookout was canceled due to state COVID restrictions. We’re thankful the Forest Service protected us by canceling our solo stay in a one room fire lookout station in the middle of nowhere with no other camping facilities within a few miles. The fire lookout is open for use now, alas dozens of subsequent attempts to find an available reservation have failed, until today, so we’re now reschedule for a two night stay the week of Thanksgiving.

 

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3 weeks at the beach, Capitola, CA

Since the pandemic began, I watched my coworkers’ locations change throughout the year. Some moved permanently out of state to places like Montana, Michigan, New York and Texas. Others have moved within the state but out of the Bay Area, also for the long term. And most seem to have done some extended traveling. It was nice this past summer to have some routine going to work in the labs and having a normal workday again, but after talking to another engineer on the project who doesn’t do lab work and who spent three months working from Hawaii it’s hard not to get a bit jealous. He told me because of the time zone he was off work by 3:30 PM every day and spent the afternoons surfing.

My current job will never be fully remote, although I can do much of it from anywhere, and Megan’s clinic days mean that for now at least, we can’t easily move to Hawaii. But I’ve been feeling all along during this pandemic that I don’t want the opportunities it presents to pass by  unnoticed since it is (hopefully) a very unique situation and time. So with this as context, when Megan asked for some input on a weekend beach rental for my birthday this year, I asked why not go for a month instead.

 

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Time off, 11/23/2019 – 01/06/2020

Two weeks into my planned company shutdown / paternaty / sick leave I started to really feel checked out from work. The first week off was company shutdown for the week of Thanksgiving and between the holiday and some other activites it still felt busy. The second week when everyone else was back at work I was still checking in daily and getting a few texts and calls for support. After this though, work communication slowed down and I really got into the swing of being away from work.

A colleague of mine (Foo Hooi Lee) reguallary takes all of his vacation between Thankgiving and the New Year in order to travel back to Malasia for a few weeks each year. In years past I haven’t had the nessesary time banked to pull this off but thanks to Jane and Apple’s paternaty leave policy this year I had the hours. I talked to Behnam about my plan for this back in July and he agreeded provided the AS platform was stable and I had a good software release process established which Hesam or Dan could take over while I was out. The big 2019 demos were planned in mid Decemeber and early January so it would be hard to justify leaving if we still had a fragile software platform. So over the course of the fall I worked a lot with this in mind and in early Novemeber we agreeded things were in a good enough place for me to take the whole block of time.

 

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S is for San Francisco, Bay Area, CA

8/24/2019 – 9/1/2019

For summer vacation this year we planned a local trip to San Francisco and Bodega Bay. Leading up to the trip we considered a few other options including Hawaii, Yosemite,  and a more involved Northern California roadtrip but decided on the simplest itinerary:

  • 4 nights at home with a day trip to Santa Cruz
  • 2 nights at Presidio Lodge in San Francisco
  • 2 nights at an ocean side rental North of Bodega bay
  • 1 night back at home to recuperate

     

By the time we made up our mind the trip was only about a month away and we nearly missed getting our desired locations due to their occupancy getting booked. Luckily it worked out though. Continue reading “S is for San Francisco, Bay Area, CA”

Sailing Trip, San Francisco Bay, CA

         *  .                      *
     .      *    .      *   .
 .            .       .    *       .
                  .   *    .        .
  .       *  .  .   .   .       .
              .    .   *     .
    *    .    .   * .       .    *
             .    .  . * .
      .   *   . .  .  *   .
               .   .   .
 .    *     .    . . *   .     *  .
         .     . .  .   .     .

“Stab it! Stab it! Did you get it? Stab it!” *

“Ahh… I’m trying”

“Alright! Nice! Now pull it back and cleat it.”

This was the end of the scene that played out in Ayala Cove on Angel Island this Labor Day as we were hooking up to the mooring balls to spend the night on our sailboat for the first time outside of a marina. I was driving trying to get the boat into position and Megan was hanging off the bow, attempting to use our boat hook to feed the line through the loop on top of the floating mooring ball.

Just before the actual mooring, we had docked at the day use slips in order to flake out the ropes and go over the sequence of tasks needed to moor the boat. The state park service expects all boaters to connect to bow and stern balls and after a failed attempt at bow first, we made a mid operation change in order to tie off the stern first which ended up being a better sequence.

Since the motion of the boat is restricted once attached at one end, it makes sense to back up to one ball while keeping the bow pointed toward the second forward ball. Then, once the stern line is passed through, you can simply motor forward and pick up the bow connection. The currents from Raccoon Straight tend to swirl through the cove which makes this difficult for many, but we had planned ahead and arrived at slack tide when the currents would be minimal.

We managed to get both lines attached on the second try and shut off the engine. Megan did a great job with our boat hook to feed the lines and I managed to keep the boat pointed in the right direction. This was the culmination of about 6 months of solid effort to get here. Continue reading “Sailing Trip, San Francisco Bay, CA”

The signs of fall, Sunnyvale, CA

Every year the signals that fall is coming arrive in a few specific ways. One of the first occurred last night. Megan and I rode our bikes over to our favorite local sushi restaurant for dinner. We both finished work late so we didn’t leave the house until 7:15 or so. Along the way we stopped for a minute to admire an unusually red setting sun and then continued on to get dinner without thinking much more about the time of day. It was while locking up the bikes and walking inside that the signal came about. I realized I didn’t have my bike lights, and would need them by the time we finished eating.

Every spring, after emerging from a long season of bicycle commuting in darkness, the time comes when I roll into the driveway before its dark enough to really need all of my flashing lights. I still have them on board and clipped to my pack for most of the spring, although regular use and charging starts to fade away.

 

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Big Oak Flat backpacking, Yosemite NP, California

Before even moving to California my cousin Matt and his wife Jan had recommend a backpacking trip in the Trinity Alps which they had been on when living in the Bay Area. Finally after almost 2 years living in California and only a single trip to the mountains, Megan and I arranged for a 4 day weekend with the plan to head up North and visit the Trinity Alps and the lakes Matt and Jan had liked so much. Two weeks before the trip however, I realized this place is 5+ hours away, which given our typical pace would take us at least 6. We also both admitted that although the lakes look nice, we’ve seen alpine lakes many times before in Colorado.

Also before moving to California, I had decided that, for some reason, I wanted to visit Yosemite only in the winter, reserving a summer time trip for sometime in the future since I didn’t like the idea of the huge crowds. Two winters have come and gone though and we still hadn’t made the trip, and I didn’t have a real reason for avoiding the summer anyway. So 3 days before leaving we checked a guide book out from the library, decided on a trail based solely on permit availability and hiking distance, and then spoke with the backcountry office the next morning to get formally registered.

 

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Half Marathon, Santa Cruz, CA

Race times:

Megan = 2 hr 3 min 46 sec

Jon = 1 hr 50 min 50 sec

Megan set a goal last fall to run a half marathon, her longest distance run to date, before turning 31. She also convinced me to join her. We started training in early November 2016 and the race wasn’t scheduled until April 2017, so we had plenty of time.

 

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