Playa Del Carmen – March 2017 (Xel Ha)

A couple of days after our shopping trip in Playa del Carmen we made a trip to Xel Ha. This was the first thing we planned when we decided on Playa Del Carmen. We also had a visit to an ancient Mayan ruin, Tulum, scheduled, but our transportation to the ruin and then the park was a couple of hours late, so we decided to skip Tulum in order to have more time in Xel Ha. That was definitely a good decision. Xel Ha means mixing of the waters in the Mayan language. The park is spring fed fresh water lagoon with an outlet to the ocean that has been blocked. It is a great place to spend the day snorkeling. The buffet was pretty decent too.

We decided to head right to the far end of the park to start our snorkeling by floating down river. We road bikes to the launch point of the river, checked out snorkeling gear there, and then got in the water. The river is a channel of very clear water through very thick mangroves.

It is a relaxing float swim through this area. The water source that feeds this river is from a nearby spring.

At the end of this float you come out into the main bay area. The water here is brackish a mix of fresh water and salt water.  There is plenty of sea life, and some fun things along the shore including cliff jumping and short ziplines into the water.

We had 3 brave souls who jumped from the cliff…

I barely had time to turn on my camera to catch Nicole’s jump.  Good form, no water up the nose on this jump.

 

Jenny didn’t hesitate a second and got a good strong jump. You can see the anticipation on her face as she is about to hit the water. Nice form and not too big of a splash. Hopefully not too much water up her nose.

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My brother Tracy jumped with the most enthusiasm and of course the biggest splash!

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We all did one of the zip lines. Unlike the previous zip lines I’ve been on this is not a harness ride as you have to jump off at the end… or at least that is the way it is supposed to go. You have a choice to sit on a swing like seat, or to grab a bar and hold on for the trip down the zip line. The seat seemed like a little less fun, and the bar definitely seemed more manly, so I went on the bar.

I was a little behind everyone else in line, so I was last up. Ran the 2-3 steps to the edge of the platform and jumped forward to get some good speed. What I was not expecting is that the cable had quite a bit of slack, so I shot off the platform then fell down 4-5 feet before hitting the bottom of the slack. Then my hands slipped of the bar and straight down I went. Luckily I missed the concrete footing the platform was set on. Embarrassing and not much fun. A couple of months ago there was a video of a very large guy doing a similar if not the same zipline and the same thing happened to him. Lots of unkind comments on that video!

I could not let that be my only memory of ziplining at Xel-ha so I swam around and took a second shot at it. Same bar, different technique! I walk to the edge with as much weight on the line as I could put by “pulling up” on the bar. This time there was no big drop, and I zipped down the line…

and into the water.

Not a huge thrill, but much more satisfying!

After this we swam over to where the buffet was and had a great meal. Less fancy than our resort, but it was really good. After lunch we went right back in for more snorkeling.

My underwater camera (a GoPro knockoff) was new and I had not used it before. My brother had a snorkel mask with a mount on the mask, and his GoPro (the real one) was acting up – battery would not charge, so he loaned the mask to me. Unfortunately I either put the camera on tipped up too much or adjusted it that way in the water. The idea is that where you look the camera looks too. So at the end of the day I thought I had a couple good videos of a ray passing under me and plenty of fish. Instead I had a few videos of the water in front of my head, with partial glimpses of what I was seeing. After this trip, I got a floating handle to hook the camera too. I’ve used this setup several times since then, and it works pretty well for me. I like being able to see what I’m capturing.

I can’t believe that I am still working on posts for our vacation we went on 19 months ago. I’ve been very busy, but really no excuse for how long it took to get this post. I still have one more post for our trip to Cozumel – one of our favorite days in Playa del Carmen. Then I have a lot of other things I need to post about. I better get on it!

Yosemite (September 8-10 2016 – Day 2)

On our second day in Yosemite, we got going at a reasonable time. It was still pretty cold in the morning until the sun had a chance to warm the place up a bit. Bridal Veil Creek Campground is at an elevation of 7000 feet so expect it to be a little colder than some of the campgrounds at lower elevation. We had coffee and a warm breakfast to help us warm up though.

The plan for day two was to head down into the valley to explore and to do the short hike up to the bridge below Vernal Falls. This would be our only full day in Yosemite for this quick car camping trip so we wanted to make the best of it. Our first stop on the way down to the valley was at the iconic Tunnel View stop. Don’t pass this parking lot up if you are coming in to Yosemite from the south. If you are not drive up here anyway. No visit to Yosemite is complete without seeing the valley from this angle!

It was a hazy fall day, so the valley features are blurred, but if every picture I took from this place was under the same conditions it would be a bit boring. So I love this picture as much as any I have taken from Tunnel View. Also take note of the yellow/dead trees in the foreground. Although the main Yosemite Valley area was mostly unaffected by the bark beetle when we visited in September 2016, the surrounding areas were affected and some areas you could see from the high roads leading into the park from the south were absolutely devastated. As I write this there is a huge fire, the 2017 Detwiler fire is raging west of Yosemite. Although I fear this fire could easily rage through these areas damaged by the bark beetle I have mixed feelings about it. Some area have 50% or more dead trees and so I don’t know what else could clear this many dead trees. I feel for the residents in this area who may lose their homes and I hope everyone involved stays safe, but unfortunately large fires in California are inevitable over the next several years until these large swaths of dead trees are cleared.

Our plan for our only full day in Yosemite was to hike up the John Muir/Mist Trail to at least the bridge below Vernal Falls. This part of the trail is fairly easy and paved to the bridge. It does have some steep parts, but walking up through the rocks and trees is worth it.

We came down at the end of our 2010 Panorama Trail hike in 2010. I thought back to that hike when I saw Dave walking backward up the trail.

In 2010 we had not done much training to prepare for the Panorama Trail hike, and we were really feeling it in our calves by this part of the trail. The youngsters (Sean and Matthew) were doing fine, but Dave, Richard, and I were feeling it. I don’t have pictures of us lower on the trail to Vernal, but I do have a picture of the 3 old guys on the Mist Trail just below Vernal Falls.

We would not go that high on the trail on this trip, and there would be much less water on Vernal, but this is a beautiful trail no matter what the conditions are. This time there would only be a trickle of water coming over Vernal Falls and even that was barely visible from the bridge.

We had our lunch on the rocks just past the bridge. As usual the squirrels, and birds were very interested in our food. We headed back down from this point and back to where we parked at Curry Village. Yeah I know they renamed it to Half Dome Village, but I’m not interested in what it says on the signs! It will always be Curry Village to me.

We did some souvenir shopping at Curry Village and the Main Yosemite Village stores, and then decided to get Pizza. It was fortune for us that the Pizza Parlor at the Yosemite Village was closed, because that lead us back to Curry Village to the Pizza place there. The pizza was good, but the real win was the lighting on the canyon walls when we got ready to leave. We stopped on the side of the road just outside Curry Village. From there we saw quite a show. Half Dome and North Dome were lit to a Golden Glow.

A deer was grazing on grass just a little ways off the road.

And the moon was just about to set behind Glacier Point.

With a little zoom, it was much more impressive…

As much as I love those pictures, my favorite picture of the trip would be a drive by picture at Tunnel View on our way back to Bridal Veil campgrounds. It was getting late and we still had a ways to go to get back to our campsite, so no one really wanted to get out to look take a second look. I snapped this picture from the car.

Normally I try to get up to the wall and leave everyone out of this picture. What I like so much about this picture is the people. The smiles, the families… this is really what I love most about Yosemite, sharing it with family and friends.

The lighting was great though, so I parked and ran up for one more picture, without the people.

Beautiful, but I like the first one better. We got back to camp, started a campfire and braved the cold for a few hours of visiting. Unfortunately we would be breaking down camp in the morning and heading home. It was a short, but fun trip, and we are always glad to hang with Dave and Wendy! We will definitely be back to Yosemite and I would love to stay at Bridal Veil Campgrounds again. I think our next visit is likely to be a back-country trip though. The High Sierra Camps most likely (just added that to the Bucket List not long ago). All the joys of a backpack trip without the backpack!

Yosemite (September 8-10 2016 – Day 1)

This was my fourth time in Yosemite in 6 years and fifth time overall. Although the place was the same, each visit was unique. This trip was planned early in 2016 as a quick car camping trip. Although our trip in 2011 had been in August, and this was just one month later, we knew that the visit would be much different. In 2011 there had been tremendous amounts of snow, so we had to delay our planned July trip to August to allow the snow to clear from the back country trails we planned to backpack on. With all that snow, the waterfalls were still roaring in August. We knew that 2016 would be very dry as we were coming off not one but four years of drought. We love the waterfalls of Yosemite, but that is not all we love. Yosemite valley is the most beautiful place I’ve ever visited and that was no different in September 2016 than it had been any of my previous visits.

The reason for the timing of our trip was that our friends Wendy and Dave Claman were coming to Southern California to visit with family at Disneyland. We would meet them immediately after their visit to Disneyland and drive together to Yosemite. We had car camped in Yosemite in 2010 and 2016 at a campgrounds well outside the valley, Hodgdon Meadow. In fact the campsite these 2 years were right next to each other. Hodgdon is about 20 miles from the valley, but it is a beautiful campgrounds and was, at least in 2010, a beautiful drive to the valley. By 2016 two major fires had devastated the areas both north and south of Hodgdon Meadow campground. However, we made reservations there again as that was the only campgrounds available when we finally decided to “do it” and worked out the details.

When we arrived in Yosemite’s southern entrance we had to skip seeing the Mariposa Grove of Sequoias again as the grove was closed for renovations designed to protect the huge trees. I’ve seen the other 2 groves of Sequoias in Yosemite the Tuolumne and Merced Groves, but wanted to see the Mariposa Grove one of these days. We planned to head straight to the valley, but decided at the last minute that we would turn toward Glacier Point before heading to the valley.

Glacier Point has some of the most spectacular views anywhere in Yosemite. It is almost surreal all of the spectacular things you can see from there. It is hard to put a scale to all that you are seeing. Of course Half Dome catches your eye right away.

To the right of Half Dome you can see well into the distance many of the high Sierra snow-capped peaks.

Take a closer look lower in the same view and you can make out both Vernal and Nevada Falls and parts of the Mist Trail.

Although I’ve been to Glacier Point before, it was usually a quick trip or the start of a hike or backpacking trip. I’ve never taken the time to explore Glacier Point beyond the area right in front of the gift shop. That first area you walk up to from the parking lot is actually the trail head for the short paved trail to Glacier Point. The views don’t change much as you walk toward the point, but there are “things of interest” all along the short trail if you walk back toward the true “Glacier Point”.

The first stop on the short hike is the Geology Hut. It is a small stone structure with awesome views.

If you watch close along the trail you are likely to see some wildlife even though it is a paved trail with tons of people walking on it. I got a good shot of this raven taking a rest.

There are lots of opportunities for pictures when you get to the actual “Glacier Point”, but you’ll have to squeeze in to the crowd.

There are a few places to pose for pictures that are less crowded, like the famous overhang rock just a short walk off the end of the Glacier Point trail.

I found another way to cut the crowd out though…

and as you can see with the “crowd” back in the shot, it was much safer than overhang rock.

Jenny humored me and posed on a flat rock between the upper and lower viewing areas at Glacier Point.

While at Glacier point we decided to see if there was any “space available” at the Bridalveil
Creek campgrounds which is beside the road on the way back down from Glacier Point. That was a very good idea! Since we got there relatively early on a Thursday we were able to choose from quite a few camp sites. We got a nice site near the middle of the campgrounds, but very private. Bridalveil Creek campgrounds is a very nice place with plenty of large trees and some areas of rocks that are pretty cool too. We initially wanted a site by the rocky area as they seemed even more private, but they were also smaller and we had two vehicles to park and planned to set up 2 fairly large tents for the 5 people in our group. But in the end we loved the site we finally selected. There was plenty of room to park, level ground for our tents, and a reasonable walk to the bathrooms.

We set up camp, collected some fire wood for the camp fire, made dinner, and settled in for the night. I love sitting around the campfire sharing memories and making new one. I’ve been friends with Dave for more than 40 years, so there are lots of memories to talk about. One other thing was a bit unexpected about this trip and this campground. It can get really cold at Bridalveil Creek Campgrounds at night in September. The unexpected cold weather cut our campfire time down a bit, but still a great time. We would head down into the valley in the morning, but I’ll do a second post for day two.

Check out this page listing all of my Yosemite National Park posts: Yosemite National Park Posts

Maui (October 2015) (Part 6 – Last Couple Days in Maui, Roadside Beach and Black Rock Beach)

We slowed things down for the last couple days in Maui. We spent both days at the beach and tooling around Lahaina. On Friday we spent most of the day at Black Rock Beach. We got very lucky at the small public parking lot near the Sheraton Resort. Just as we pulled in a car was leaving, so we nabbed a terrific parking spot. We set up our chairs on the beach and hit the water. We headed toward the black rock area. There were several people jumping off rocks there. I was not interested in climbing up there but my friend Dave jumped off a couple of times. I had bought a disposable underwater camera, one of the few things that still uses film. I tried to get pictures of him as he hit the water, but the camera was not that sensitive. In fact I had a really hard time telling when it actually took a picture – no click!

Jenny got one picture of me under the water.

The other pictures we took like that did not turn out. We really have grown used to being able to look at the pictures we take immediately on our digital cameras. At some point I would like to get a good underwater enclosure for my digital camera. Until then I’ll have to go back to hoping the pictures I take are good.

We swam over past the end of the protected area of black rock beach to an area with nice coral. The coral was not the best I’ve ever swam above, but it was pretty nice. The waves “fairly gently” moved us in and back out from the shallows near the edge of the water. I say fairly gently because every so often a bigger wave would come in and push quite a bit harder. I backed off regularly to be sure that I would not be pushed into the rocks.

I love gliding over coral. It feels like you are visiting a different world. I’m very comfortable in the water and could spend hours floating in an area like this. Twice while I floated in this area a turtle passed by. Both times I followed behind the turtle as it swam over the coral. My goal was to get a picture of a turtle and the state fish of Hawaii, the humuhumunukunukuapua’a together in a single picture. I didn’t miss my chance to get several shots of the turtles while I waited. I got a couple good shots of the first one as it passed over the coral.

I really like the lighting for this shot of the second turtle.

Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to get the turtle and fish together, but I did get this picture of the humuhumunukunukuapua’a swimming near a bluespine unicorn fish.

After a couple trips into the water and plenty of time on the beach we decided to get drinks and pupus at the pool bar at the Sheraton. I definitely recommend spending some time there the next time you are in Maui!

That night we had dinner at Kimo’s in Lahaina. I really recommend this place for the food, the location, and the service. The view from our table wasn’t too bad either.

On our last full day in Maui we decided to really go casual. We grabbed the boogie boards and drove away from Lahaina along Honoapiilani Highway until a spot grabbed us. This was the unlikely spot we chose to hangout, swim, and boogie board along Honoapiilani Highway.

The beach was a bit rocky, the road a bit close, and the surf a bit shallow, but we had a great time and managed to slow the day down as much as possible. Although it might not look like much from the road we had a place to set up the chairs without walking far, and without fighting a crowded beach. There was one other family near us, but that was it. We were also able to set up under a tree, so we had some shade. The tree also helped frame some nice shots of the beach.

But it was more a day for relaxing than taking pictures. Right before we left unfortunately Jenny cut her foot on a rock under the water. It was a pretty bad cut. The only good thing about it was it didn’t happen on our first day! We got some first aid items on the way back to the condo, fixed her up and enjoyed the rest of the night visiting and doing some last minute souvenir shopping in Lanai.

On the last day we had arranged to meet a local man at the airport to get a turtle he carved for us during the week. We had met him on the street in Lahaina. I was a bit unsure of how well the turtle would turn out but we were very happy with the end result.

We decided to give him a nice tip on top of the agreed upon price.

It’s been a year since we went on this trip (yes I’m way behind on my blog posts). I’m really glad we decided to visit all the different islands rather than just going back to Kauai again. We loved Kauai and will definitely visit there again, but our next visit to Hawaii will most likely be to the big island of Hawaii and Hawaii Valcanoes National Park. It may be a year or two before we can put that on the schedule. Until then we’ll have lot’s of good memories from this trip.

To see all our Tropical Vacation Posts go to our Tropical Vacation Posts page.

Maui (October 2015) (Part 3 – Wailea Maui)

We decided to hit the beach again on day three in an area that we had not visited yet. We had considered some of the condos available on VRBO for the Wailea area. Wailea is in the southwest part of Maui at the base of Haleakala. This part of Maui has lower priced condos, hotels, and restaurants than Lahina, and the beaches north of there. It is less tourist focused, but still has some terrific beaches.

We initially decided to get a late breakfast at Kihei Caffe across from Kalama Beach Park. However, it’s a popular place and had a very long wait. On the recommendation of the hostess we changed our plans and went around the corner to a much less busy, but still highly rated South Shore Tiki Lounge. Our late breakfast turned in to an early and very relaxed lunch. We drove by a couple beaches that did not quite do it for us. Not enough beach or sun, but still a little bit of paradise.

We finally got to the end of civilization as the road started to be surrounded by lava fields and cactus. We decided to turn around and checkout Mekena State Beach park. This was a winner. There was plenty of parking, and a (long) path to the beach. We took some chairs, boogie boards and the rest of our stuff with us and set up on the beach. There were still pretty thick scattered clouds when we got there.

But it didn’t take long for the clouds to clear away, except a few hanging over Lania. The sky turned a beautiful blue and we settled in for a nice long afternoon at the beach.

Of course it was still unusually hot and humid for October in Hawaii. The sun was very bright in the late afternoon.

But we had the cure for the heat and the sun right in front of us. The beautiful warm waters of the Pacific Ocean. We went back and forth between relaxing on the beach and swimming and boogie boarding in the water. A classic day on a tropical beach!

As it got later in the afternoon, it was time to head out. Dave and Wendy had wanted to try the Mai Tai’s at Monkeypod Kitchen, so we stopped there on the way home. We had been eating and snacking at the beach so we just ordered pupus. The mai tais were definitely unique with a honey lilioko’i foam on the top. We enjoyed the mai tais a bit more than the pupus, but that was OK, as I said, we weren’t really that hungry. We got one group picture…

before heading outside to see the sunset.

Then we drove back to our condo in Lahina to rest up for our next day in Maui. Although we planned to visit a well rated snorkeling place in the morning, the weather would not cooperate with those plans. The nice thing about Maui though, at least during our visit, is that it might be raining hard in one area, but sunny and clear in another. My next post will cover what we did instead of snorkeling.

To see all our Tropical Vacation Posts go to our Tropical Vacation Posts page.

A Few Days in San Francisco (Day 2 – 27 July 2014 – Pier 39 and Marin Headlands)

We started the day enjoying the full kitchen and views from the condo we had rented on VRBO. After enjoying breakfast, processing 4 people through the single bathroom, and visiting for an hour or two… we decided to see if we could catch the cable car down to the Fishermans Wharf area. After waiting just a few minutes we decided to start walking along the cable car line toward our destination. It was mostly downhill and just a little over a mile walk. I love the Victorian style row houses that line the hills on many of the residential streets in this part of San Francisco.

So many examples of historic and well maintained homes really give San Francisco a unique atmosphere that I haven’t found anywhere else in America. As we got closer to the water, we decided to forget the cable car and take a more direct route to Pier 39. The older part of Fisherman’s Wharf is interesting too, but I like the food options, and general buzz of people on Pier 39.

We did a little shopping in some of the shops and then decided to have lunch at Neptune’s Waterfront Grill & Bar (no longer the same restaurant) at the end of the pier. We got a table with a great view. We could not only see Alcatraz Island…

we could also see the sea lions basking on platforms beside the pier.

The food was good, the beers refreshing, but this meal was really about the view of the bay!

After lunch we decided to head back to the condo to get the car so we could go checkout the Marin Headlands area. To get to this park, take the first exit (Alexander Ave) past the Golden Gate Bridge. Then go left toward 101 South (under the highway). Don’t go back on the highway – take Conzelman Rd instead to get to the Marin Headlands. There are other things to see here and some decent hikes, but we were there to see the spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the bay, and San Francisco. We made a couple stops, the first was about halfway up to the main view area. There were some nice flowers growing here on the side of the road.

But the best views were from the top of the road, just before the tunnel. The only problem we had was that a marine layer of low clouds/fog was continually blowing past us, making it hard to get a clear picture. While it might not have been the best conditions for good pictures, it was very cool to be there under those conditions. With patience I was still able to get some good shots including the panoramic picture at the top of the post, this view of the Golden Gate Bridge…

and a similar view with a couple of familiar faces.

We drove through the rest of the park, but didn’t make any stops. We would love to do some hikes along the coast in this area next time. As we headed back toward the city, Wendy mentioned that she wasn’t feeling well and would probably stay at the condo rather than going to dinner. We decided to walk to Chinatown for dinner since it was only a few blocks from the condo. The restaurant was just OK, but I enjoyed my first walk through Chinatown in San Francisco.

We took it easy the rest of the evening and planned to get up early the next day to bike across the Golden Gate bridge. I’ll cover that in my next post…

Previous post in this series: A Few Days in San Francisco (Day 1 – 26 July 2014 – Cable Car Museum and Dinner on Nob Hill)

Next post in this series: A Few Days in San Francisco (Day 3 – 28 July 2014 – Part 1 – Biking the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito)

A Few Days in San Francisco (Day 1 – 26 July 2014 – Cable Car Museum and Dinner on Nob Hill)

I did a planning post for this short trip to San Francisco in March. Although the trip did not go completely to plan, we had a great time and have a lot of reasons to return soon and often. We had found a place on Vacation Rental by Owner (VRBO) that was centrally located and on the Cable Car line. It was a historic looking building, with an updated 2 bedroom apartment. Since the building was right on the corner of Jackson and Mason there were actually multiple cable car lines that ran right past our front door.

There were nice views from the bay windows in the living room and one of the bedrooms, but the best view was from the roof of the building. I took the panoramic photo at the top of the post from there.

We settled in quickly and decided to walk up the hill to the top of the Nob Hill district for dinner. The Cable Car Museum was just one block from the apartment in that directions so we took a detour through the museum on our way to dinner. It was a quick walk through. Not only are there historic cable cars to see…

but you can see the inner workings of the huge cable system that keep the cars running safely up and down the hills.

On the way up the steep hills on Mason St between Jackson and California we started to question our decision to walk! It was only 4 blocks from the Cable Car Museum to The Big Four restaurant where we had decided to eat, but we all felt the burn by the time we got there. We also realized that we had already forgotten the code, and the printed out paperwork with the code on it so we could get back into the apartment! Jenny gave the owner a call while we walked and left a voicemail with her. Even though the restaurant was a bit more upscale than we had originally been looking for, it had great reviews so we decided to splurge a bit on our first night in San Francisco. The atmosphere was amazing. We had a few drinks in the front before being seated in the dining area. The detailed woodwork was impressive throughout the restaurant. Not long after we ordered the owner of the place we were renting and now locked out of called back. Jenny kept it short, but was explaining what happened and thanking the woman for calling back when an older lady next to us made a very snide comment something like “We don’t need to hear that in here.” A waiter standing very nearby, it almost seemed like he was watching over this older couple, immediately came up and let my wife know that cell phones are not allowed in the restaurant. She finished up and got off the phone. The restaurant was fairly loud and there were several conversations going on at all times including at our table where we were catching up on things with our friends Dave and Wendy while waiting for our food. I could tell Jenny was upset by the woman’s comment, so I leaned toward their table and mentioned that “We really had not needed to hear her very rude remark either.” Our food came shortly after that and we quickly relaxed and got back to enjoying our meal. The older couple finished up before us and as they were getting ready to leave the lady slid over on the bench we shared with them and tried to apologize for her comment. I say “tried”, because she obviously did not know how to apologize, and it quickly turned into a lecture on proper cell phone etiquette. Now she had rudely interrupted our meal twice… I was at a loss. I should have thanked her for her rudeness and poor excuse for an apology (I wish I had), instead I was polite and said, “I hope you enjoyed your meal, have a good night.” I think she actually looked a bit taken back by the comment. A couple of minutes later my wife must have decided there was something she wished she had said too… she got up to go find the woman to have her say. Luckily for the woman my wife never found her.

The walk back down the hill to our apartment should have been easy, but we needed to stop at a store to stock up for the morning. Unfortunately that took us west and down the hill in a different direction. That meant a climb before we could head back down… and we were carrying several bags of supplies. The exercise did us no harm, and we were soon safely back in our apartment. We did some more catching up before heading to bed. We opened the windows to enjoy the summer breeze. The cables for the cable cars run 24 hours a day and once we opened the windows the noise was very noticeable. Luckily, the owners of the apartment had installed two full sets of double pane windows (4 panes total) in every window, so when the windows were closed we could only just barely hear the cable.

Next Post for this trip: A Few Days in San Francisco (Day 2 – 27 July 2014 – Pier 39 and Marin Headlands)

End of Summer 2014

This year, 2014 was a long hot summer in Southern California. It is always hard to tell exactly when a summer ends in San Diego. I usually call a summer over when we have several cool/cold nights in a row and the rainy season starts. This year San Diego’s summer was longer than usual and ended, by my definition, between mid November and the beginning of December. So 2014 was a long and very busy summer for us!

We started out the summer by finishing up our training hikes for our Grand Canyon rim to rim hike. We did at least 9 “Afoot and Afield in San Diego” hikes in April and May of 2014, including a really good training hike up El Cajon Mountain in temperatures near 90.

The Grand Canyon hike was just one of the highlights of this summer for me. It was my second rim to rim hike at the Grand Canyon and I applied all my lessons learned from the previous hike to make this one even better. What really made it special for me was that I did it with my wife. She had led me up Half Dome in 2011, having done it several times herself before, so this was my chance to share a special and challenging hike with her. My cousin and youngest son also came along. The hike definitely lived up to the “challenging” label, but it was also a special experience in one of the most spectacular places I’ve ever visited.

This was our 4th summer with season passes to the Green Flash Concert Series at Birch Aquarium above the Pacific in La Jolla. We have never been disappointed by the music at any of these concerts, they have a very laid back crowd, good food and adult refreshments, but in the end it’s really all about the location, the view, and usually a spectacular sunset!

We were so busy with other things, that we decided to get tickets to a few less concerts than usual this summer, but we still made time for some of our favorites like Jack Johnson, Dave Matthew, Steve Miller, and Journey. We also saw James Taylor at the Hollywood Bowl. Seeing him has been on my bucket list for years. One of my all time favorite singers! Although we had decided to slow down a bit when it came to concerts, we didn’t feel like we could afford to miss seeing Paul McCartney at Petco Park in San Diego either. He had not had a concert in San Diego since 1976, and we both loved the Beatles, so… we made the time and spent the money for this one!

The staycation we planned for Oceanside went even better than planned. Although we love to travel, we wanted to get our family together for some fun this year, and this seemed the best way to make that happen. We rented a 3 bedroom condo in Oceanside with my wife’s brother Randy and all but one of our combined 9 children came for at least one day during the week we stayed there. We also had other friends and family join in the fun. We had plenty of beach time, BBQ’d some Juicy Lucy’s, enjoyed some terrific homemade fish tacos thanks to our nephew Brian, sailed in Oceanside harbor, kayaked at La Jolla shores, played a few drinking games, roasted some marshmallows at a campfire on the beach, and enjoyed a terrific ocean view all week! This turned out even better than we had hoped and we will be doing this again in the future.

We were so busy this year that I’m still catching up on posts for some of our activities. One post I still haven’t gotten done is for our trip to San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, also in July of 2014. We had a great time with our great friends Dave and Wendy on this trip, seeing some new sites, and having some new experiences in two of our favorite places. Of course there are still lots of things we still want to do so we’ll just have to go again sometime soon! I’ll put a link to the post here when I finish it… until then, here is a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge I took from the Marin Headlands.

We also had a great time visiting Iowa and Nebraska again this year. This has been a regular summer trip for us. Most of my family lives in Iowa, and even though my wife’s family is from the Los Angeles area, her sister Wendy lives in Nebraska. So luckily we both have reasons to make this trip as often as we can. This year we attended a nephew’s wedding (always great to have an event that brings a lot of family together in one place) in Iowa, went to Nebraska to visit in the middle of the week, and returned to Iowa to celebrate my Mom’s 75th birthday! Although there was a lot more running around we had a great time. Family is very important to both of us!

I was also able to spend a day in Copenhagen this summer at the end of a work trip to Denmark. It was well worth the cost in money and time to add this to the end of my trip. I’m not sure if I’ll get back to Copenhagen again, but hope to travel with my wife to Norway at some time in the future, and it would be a nice side trip to visit both Denmark and Sweden while we are there. Nyhavn was one of my favorite parts of Copenhagen and I found myself drawn back there several times during my short visit.

Although those were the major highlights of the summer, we found ourselves having to squeeze in some other things where we could. We had annual passes to Disneyland that we thought would fill in some open weekends. Instead we found ourselves struggling to find a free Sunday to get up there. We also happily “squeezed in” a couple days a week to spend with our new Grandson Cash! He has been in fact the major highlight of 2014! It’s amazing how much a baby changes in 9+ months. We have loved being part of his life and can’t wait to see all the changes 2015 bring.

We actually have very little planned for 2015 so far. This is intentional. We found that we were so busy this summer that we ended up being pretty inflexible when opportunities came up. We hope to return to Yosemite this year, but won’t formalize that plan until we can schedule campsites. My daughter is getting married in July – really big plans there! Beyond that we hope to be available to spend as much time as we can with our family and friends next summer. I can’t imagine a better plan than that!

(Final Note: This will be my 200th post once I push the publish button. Although it seems I have less and less time to maintain this blog, I still enjoy writing here as much as I ever did. So maybe I’ll use some of that “flexible unplanned time” to spend a little more time here…)

Dave Matthews – September 5, 2014 – Sleep Train Amphitheater Chula Vista CA

This was our 3rd trip down to Chula Vista to see Dave Matthews. We had fairly good seats in August 2010 and had the most fun of any of the concerts we went to that year. In September of 2012 we got tickets for the lawn, which is about as far away as you can get, but we brought a blanket, and had a fun and relaxed night. This year I was on it! I was waiting as the Citi presale started and got in really early. I was really happy when my “best seats” search came up with tickets for GA-PIT! We have been there before standing for Kings of Leon in 2010 and with seats for Sheryl Crow (and Kid Rock) in August of 2011. For Sheryl Crow we got really lucky with front row seats in the center of the stage!

The lesson we had learned in 2010 at the Kings of Leon, is that standing in tight quarters for a few hours can lead to very sore feet. So the next general admission – standing concert we went to we decided to get Dr Scholls gel inserts. It was great that time and every time since. If it weren’t for gels, we would likely avoid standing sections at concerts! Neither of us could find our gels the weekend before so we went out to get new ones. The morning of the concert (Friday) we decided we should be prepared so we cut down our gels to put them in our most comfortable shoes. We were both struggling to get them in. I’m pretty sure that Jenny was the first one to figured out that her old gels were already in her boots! I’m glad I checked before I gave her a hard time. All I could say was, “Oops, mine too!”

We got to Sleep Train a little early, but had to wait at Will Call to get our tickets. We settled in to a place to stand about 50-60 feet away from the center of the stage. The crowd was excited but mellow. Once the band came out some were more mellow than others. A guy standing right behind me started yelling as soon as the band started to play… “F***** Yeah – Give me some of that”, nonstop. The band was opening with an acoustic set, in fact Dave Matthews was singing all by himself for the opener, Little Red Bird and this guy was yelling at the top of his lungs about a foot from my ear. He was jumping around and banging in to everyone around him. I get being excited, we had great tickets, and the music was starting. However, after about 45 seconds of this, with no end in sight, I started to worry this would not end. So rather than turning around and getting angry with the guy, I turned around started jumping up and down with the guy and joined in with his yelling. It took him a while to get it. I think he even tried to give me a hug, but eventually he took a breath and the guy with him said, “Can’t we just watch the show”. I replied, “Exactly!”, turned back around and enjoyed the music. This guy got fired up a couple more times, but at a much more tolerable level from that point on.

The second song was a very energetic acoustic version of Bartender with just Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds. This songs starts with some unique guitar sounds with the help of a steel slide, monk-like chanting, and has a spiritual feels throughout the song. If being served wine by a bartender could only lead to resurrection we’d have one more reason to drink more wine!

Although it was an acoustic set the full band was still out there for most of it. I would love to see more of the acoustic stuff! One of my favorites of this set was a song I had not heard before, Old Dirt Hill. As usual they played it much differently than the video I link to, but that is a great reason to see Dave Matthews live. I really love the lyrics to this song.

A couple of songs later came a fairly mellow song, Snow Outside. A song of how we change with commitment, and what we bring to a life together with another person. I have a reasonable video of it, but not the full song, and not as good of quality as the one I linked to, which had a very similar vibe.

This was followed by Tripping Billies. I got a reasonable picture of Boyd Tinsley’s solo during this song. It’s hard to get a good clear picture, when he’s playing. Lot’s of motion!

The electric set started with Minarets. After only about 30 seconds of “F**** Yeahs” from the the screamer, who had somehow ended up right behind me again after the break, he quieted down again. It was much less irritating since this was the electric set, and somehow it almost seemed to fit the moment. Still glad it didn’t go on for long!

There was a bit of a break after the first song, with Dave Matthews giving us some one liners. Of course that fired up the screamer’s “Give me some of that”… I was relieved when the final one liner came “OK, everyone take your medicine”, and the song When the world Ends kicked off.

The next song they played is my favorite Dave Matthew song to dance (really more just moving along) to – Seven.

Apparently Dave Matthews likes to move to this song too. I got a good picture of him moving and pointing out into the crowd.

Just a couple of songs later, they played my favorite song to sing along with – Crush. I got a couple of short videos of the song, but I ruined the intro to the first video by singing along. Never a good idea for me to sing near a mic! The song has a great violin solo near the end, that was absolutely amazing live.

The next song, Digging a Ditch, has great lyrics. The song is is slow… deliberate and calming. A good anger management – take a break – be alone and clear your mind song! After a couple of energetic songs, it is also a good one for the band to cool off with!

A few songs later, toward the end of the electric set the band played a very dramatic (including the video backgrounds) of Drunken Soldier. I got some great video of the song and was able to get this screen cature… love it when you can see the sweat!

Drunken Soldier transitioned into a mellow, jazzy introduction for the Lovely Ladies as they joined the band on stage.

There were few more songs to finish out the electric set, all with the Lovely Ladies, including a great cover of Sledgehammer to close out the second set.

Dave came out alone to start the encore with a solo performance of Some Devil. A very simple but powerful song that quieted the crowd and got us ready for the next three songs of the encore.

The next song, So Much to Say, was one of the few songs that I recorded more than 30 seconds of. I had a full 3 minutes recorded. If I had know how good the video would turn out I would have finished recording the complete song. I love the way this song starts, very simple, staccato guitar rhythm and Dave Matthew’s voice. The simple white lights were perfect for this song intro.

The lyrics are about holding pain inside, and this leads to a very cool transition in the song. “Keep it locked up inside, don’t talk about it… talk about the weather!” Then the beat, changed, the rest of the band joined in, and even the lighting transitioned.

The song’s vocal ends with a chorus of “So Much to Say”,

but the song’s instrumentals just transitioned straight into Anyone Seen the Bridge. I either snapped this picture of Dave Matthews and Boyd Tinsley during that instrumental or during the next song Too Much.

I left my camera in my pocket for much of the encore, just enjoying the music and the night. A little dancing with Jenny, and a very satisfied feeling at the end of the show. What a great band, what terrific entertainers! This well definitely not be my last Dave Matthews concert!

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Note/Credit: Although I had quite a bit of video of the concert, putting everything in order, especially a couple of months later, would have been difficult without looking at the set list for this show. Most of my videos are partial songs as I like to capture the feel of the concert but still want to be able to just put the camera away and enjoy the moment. I did find several full song recordings from this concert and I linked to those versions of the songs when I found them. One that didn’t fit into the post was this one that included, Don’t Drink the Water and Drunken Soldier. It’s a little rough, but I like it, reminds me of being there!

One Day in Copenhagen – Part 2

We had covered a lot of ground on our very early morning 3 hour walking tour of Copenhagen. After I dropped my coworker at the airport and turned in the rental car, I took the train back to the hotel for a nap. I knew I would be limiting my options for the rest of the day, but it had been a long week and we only had about 4 hours of sleep before going out to walk around that morning. Although I planned to nap for 2-3 hours it was closer to a 4 hour nap and after 1 in the afternoon before I got back up. A shower cleared away the grogginess from the nap. It no longer looked like rain, but there was a cool breeze as I walked back over to the train station to head back downtown Copenhagen. I decided to ride past the first downtown station at Kongens Nytorv and to get off at the Nørreport metro station. As I walked out of the station I was surrounded by an overwhelming number of people on bikes and bikes parked everywhere. If you’ve never been there, it is hard to explain just how many bikes there are in the city of Copenhagen. I’ve looked through all my pictures and none of them come close to showing the sheer number of people on bikes and the number of bikes parked in every part of the city. Just outside the metro station there were several two level bike racks. This is a picture of just one of the bike racks nearby.

The Nørreport metro station is near Rosenberg Castle, but it was nearly 3 before I got there and I didn’t want to take the time to do a tour, if I could even get in one at that point. I decided to check out some of the other parks/gardens we had not walked through during our early morning walk. The first one I walked into was Botanisk Have (Botanical Garden). There is an amazing variety of plants in this garden including waterlilies in the pond near the center of the garden.

I could also see the reflection of what looked like a large greenhouse on the pond. I later found out that this is one of the Faculty of Science buildings for the University of Copenhagen.

My favorite part of the Botanical Gardens was a fairly large hill with a meandering cobblestone path, a man-made stream (water feature), completely covered in very unique plants. I took several pictures the showed the paths and stream close up…

and with a wider perspective.

Most if not all of the unique plants in the Botanical Garden were labeled.

I wasn’t keeping notes, but I don’t remember seeing the same plant twice. There was quite a large variety of plants.

As I walked along the winding pathway…

I discovered favorite clusters of plants…

sneak peaks of the unique buildings…

and wider views of the unique buildings over very unique looking plants!

As I made my way toward the Kastellet the next park I walked through was Østre Anlæg. There was a long angled pond in the middle of the park surrounded by trees. A much less formal and more kid friendly park than the Botanical Gardens.

As I exited Østre Anlæg I crossed the street to a market area near a metro station. I decided to go in a get a sandwich and drink to enjoy as I walked around Kastellet. As usual there were tons of bikes parked in front of the metro station.

I crossed the street again to the park path around Kastellet. I found a bench not too far along the path and had a seat to enjoy a late afternoon snack. I had a pretty nice view of the old windmill inside the fortress.

Although we had walked partially around the Kastellet on our early morning visit we had not walked all the way around and it had been too early to walk inside at 5 in the morning. I started my walk about where we had left off earlier and walked across the moat bridge…

to the south entrance.

I carefully read the brief description of Kastellet, its history, and the fairly long list of rules for visitors.

Inside the fortress walls are cobblestone streets between old red barracks.

and at the other end of the street a view of the Commander’s House.

Rather than walking out the south entrance, where we had already walked in the early morning, I decided to walk up the ramp to the eastern fortress walls. At of the five points of the star-shaped Kastellet, well at least the two I visited, is a cannon for defense of the fortress! This is a view of the cannon from the point of the Prinsessens Bastion.

Not only was there a cannon, but they were prepared with a neat stack of cannonballs, just in case!

You can walk all the way around the bastions of Kastellet, but I decided to just walk the eastern portion of the fortress from the south entrance back around to the north entrance where I had entered. I took my time and enjoyed the views inward and out across the moat. There were several types of wild flowers including these red poppies.

My Grandmother was in the American Legion Women’s Auxiliary for 50 years. I remember wearing a red Remembrance Poppy wrapped around a button on my shirt every Memorial Day growing up. Poppies have been a symbol of remembrance for soldiers who had sacrificed their lives in war since World War I. A poem “In Flanders Field”was in large part responsible for this association. Seeing these poppies growing on the sides of the Kastellet’s bastions brought a lot of memories back.

As I write this post it also brings up other fond memories of my Grandmother. My Grandmother, Mother, and my Aunt Betty visited us in Oahu in the early 90’s. We had a great time, but two things stick in my mind in particular. The first was a visit to the North Shore. It was the winter so they got to see the really huge surf that the North Shore of Oahu is so famous for. On the one beach we visited my Grandmother asked me if I would be going in for a swim. I looked at the waves which were very strong 6-8 feet swells with a big shore break and said that I better not. About 30 seconds later a young local girl walked past us. She could not have been more than 10 years old, maybe younger. She walked right into the water and swam out past the break to ride the swell up and down. I looked at my Grandma and said, “Well I guess I probably could go in…” She smiled and I got in the water. It looked a lot worse than it was. At another beach it was an even a little calmer and my Grandmother, in her late 70’s got her feet and legs wet in the water also!

The second story involved her service in the Women’s Auxiliary. While they were visiting us we went to the main Air Force Exchange at Hickam. In those days, they checked ID’s as you entered and you had to sign in guests if they did not have a military ID. As I signed them in, the woman at the door let them know that they could not buy anything and that I would get in trouble if they tried to. I’m not sure what we were looking for, probably just getting a few things for the beach. Anyway, after about 15 minutes I heard my name called over a public announcement, with instructions to come to the checkout area. My Grandmother had tried to buy a few things, nothing big. The clerk was explaining why she could not pay for her stuff and my Grandmother was explaining that she had been in the American Legion Women’s Auxiliary for 35+ years and she thought it would be OK. I bought the stuff for her, she got to share the pride of her service, and I got a warm and lasting memory of my Grandmother!

There was a different model of cannon at the Gevens Bastion, and a view of St Albans Anglican Church where we had started our walk that morning.

As I left the star fortress of Kastellet, I turned east toward the water’s edge, then south to walk back toward Nyhavn on a slightly different path than we had taken on our earlier walk. As I approached the summer palace of Amalienborg, an impressive building to the east across the narrowing channel caught my eye. I later learned that this was the Copenhagen Opera House.

As I turned and walked toward the entrance of the square in the center of Amalienborg, I stopped at a fountain to get this picture of the water rising from the fountain with the Marble Church visible on the other side of the square.

I didn’t enter the square as we had been in there already, but I wanted to see Nyhavn with businesses open, and filled with people. Actually I couldn’t get enough of Nyhavn, before I left Copenhagen I would visit there at least 4 times. The skies were still cloudy, but the buildings are so brightly painted it is hard to tell.

I walk the length of Nyhavn this time, and checked out some of the history of the place. One of my favorite places was this Gelato Shop!

After the Gelato, I decided I needed to walk some more so I walked through the Strøget shopping district. Although these shops were open also, I was more in a walking mood than an shopping mood. I enjoyed the architecture and fountains of the Strøget area…

and there were some unique coffee stands.

However, I decided to just pass through and check out another park before the sun set. Ørstedsparken was one of my favorite parks in Copenhagen. It may just have been the early evening lighting, but I found the park relaxing, and very beautiful. I decided to head toward a walking bridge in the middle of the parks large pond.

As I walked toward the bridge I was glad that it had drawn me deeper into the park. The views as I passed around the pond/lake were spectacular. On one side of the lake the dark greens of the plants and their reflection on the water contrasted with the white buildings in the distance.

As a passed the bridge and continued my walk around the entire lake the greens brighten, there were more flowers. This looks like a completely different place, but it is was just a different side of the same park.

I had to cross the bridge before heading out of the park to see more of Copenhagen.

As I left the park it was starting to get darker, but I was not ready to head back, so I decided to head toward the Metro Station at the Forum which was past a series of lakes. When you see these on a map it looks like a portion of a river. It even feels like you are crossing a bridge over a river as you pass between the lakes on the road. As I passed between two of the lakes on a broad road I noticed an older lady feeding some swans. I don’t think I’ve every seen this many swans in one place before!

The rest of the walk to the Forum St Metro Station was pretty boring. I got on the train intending to head back to the hotel, but when I got to Metro stop at Kongens Nytorv I decided to take another look at Nyhavn. It had started to get very dark, but I was able to get this photo of the large anchor at one end of Nyhavn.

Then it was time to head to the hotel for a good night’s sleep. I had a long flight the next day. Since I turned in so early I woke up fairly early again the next morning. I decided to check out of the hotel, check my bag with the concierge and head back to Nyhavn one more time to get that coffee I hadn’t been able to get the day before. I got off the train at Kongens Nytorv (Kings New Square) station again. The metro station is on one side of the square and Nyhavn is on the other. There are some beautiful building around the square. Because there was construction going on in the center of the square it was hard to capture the beauty of the whole place, so I took some close-ups of some of the buildings. The metro exit is very close to the Hotel D’Angleterre.

I crossed the square on the south side and got a closer view of the front of the Royal Danish Theater.

The coolest part of this building were the domed ceiling above the second story balconies on the front of the building. Very ornate.

I walked down the “less busy” side of Nyhavn and found an open cafe. I had a pastry and coffee and talked with a mother and daughter from the US who were heading out on a cruise later in the day. The weather wasn’t forecast to be good, but they had booked months ahead! I wished them luck on the weather and started heading back to the metro station. It was time! I got a couple more good pictures with my phone. One showing a very nice docked sailboat.

Then a final picture of the colorful buildings lining this small harbor.

My one day in Copenhagen had absolutely been worth the delay in heading home and the few hundred dollars it cost me to stay an extra night and day. The city of Copenhagen is beautiful, and the culture is very different from San Diego’s. I had planned to hit a few of the main tourist spots – Kastellet, Nyhavn, and Strøget. Kastellet and Nyhavn were awesome, Strøget was OK, but since I wasn’t planning to do a lot of shopping, not on the top of my list. I would definitely like to visit Copenhagen again. Maybe as part of a trip to Norway and Sweden! The big surprise to me was how much I enjoyed the city’s many gardens. They were well maintained and very lush for a place with such a short growing season! I highly recommend a walking tour of Copenhagen’s gardens if you are lucky enough to spend some time there.