Ann vs. Jason

By Jason

After our trip to San Francisco, we decided to go from cityscapes to open space.  One of the benefits of living in the Bay Area is being close to so many different environments, including vineyards and forests with giant redwood trees.

We took a hike around Portola Redwoods State Park.  The first challenge was crossing Pescadero Creek.  Because creeks can flood in the winter, they don’t leave the footbridges out all year, but we lucked out and found a fallen log to cross.

The trees are really amazing, and it’s hard to get a sense of scale from the photos.  They often have hollowed out spaces near the roots and some you can walk right through.

The last challenge was crossing back over the creek to get back to the ranger station and parking.  At this crossing we weren’t as lucky – no fallen bridges, so we had to cross barefoot.  The water was cold – ridiculously cold.

Then it was off toward Saratoga for some wine tasting.  This area isn’t as well-known as the Napa Valley but it’s worth the trip.  The winding roads and views are great.  Here you can see the suburbs of San Jose from the Savannah-Chanelle vineyard.

By Jason

Ryan and Laura came by about a week ago and we gave them our world-famous, patented tour of the Bay Area.  By which I mean we took the opportunity to go a few places we’ve never been before.

On Saturday we went to San Francisco.  We didn’t have a lot of specific plans, just a list of a few things we’d like to do.  We ended up wandering through Chinatown and eating at a Thai restaurant there.

Next we walked up Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower, which has great views of the bay, the bridges, and downtown.  It’s really worth going to, the neighborhood around the tower is built up and down the hillsides with a few parks put in place where the grade is too steep for cars.

From there we decided to walk down to the waterfront and see if we could catch a ferry or take a quick tour of the bay.   This was also definitely worth it, though Fisherman’s wharf is a bit too crowded and touristy.  The boat went out past the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz, with a corny prerecorded “Captain Nemo” narrator.  It’s funny, but he didn’t sound Indian to me.

We took a cable car back up the hill toward Chinatown.  Cable cars are really fascinating, they’re pulled by cables running under the street and have to be turned around by had at the bottom the the hill.

Finally we took a brief walk down Valencia Street in The Mission.  There are some interesting shops and restaurants there, but it’s not really a major destination in and of itself.  We met up with Ahan and Julie for dinner at an Indian restaurant.  Everyone was fascinated by the Bollywood music videos projected on the wall.

You can see more photos on my Flickr page.

I’ll write about our next trip, to Portola Redwoods State Park, a little later.

By: Ann

After months of pondering which video game system to get, we finally made the plunge and got a Wii (sorry Ahan). It’s made by Nintendo. I absolutely love it. For years and years I longed for another Atari. My video gaming skills never made it past the Atari. All the other video game consoles are pretty difficult for me to work. There must be some kind of disconnect in my brain, because I really have tried using all of these systems (Nintendo, Playstation, and X-box). With the Wii, you use a controller in a way that is interactive with the t.v. Swinging the controller this way and that with little button pressing is much more my style compared to “up, down, up down, A, B, A” stuff that has to be done out of pure memorization.

There are many good things about the Wii.

1. It can connect with the internet.

2. You can get current news (national and international) and weather updates.

3. The Mii channel is where you can create different characters. I have already created characters for most of Morrison-Newman-Mesner clan. I know it sounds a little silly, but seeing all the miis (characters I’ve created) on the t.v. screen doesn’t make me feel so lonely when I see my mii interact with all the other miis on the t.v. screen. Now we only have to meet people in real life to add more characters (and have an actual social life).

4. You can look at photos on the Wii with an SD card.

We’re not the type of people to sit down for hours playing video games, but this Wii was a nice gift for both of us. Jason’s working hard at his new job. I’m working hard at my job and studying for the NP boards. We both have been scurrying to get rid of excess boxes throughout the condo before Ryan and Laura come. I have created a nice outlet for us to blow some steam off throughout the week.

If you have a Wii, please feel free to email us your console number (it looks like a credit card number). I will be happy to email back to you our console number so we can exchange info via the Wii.

Sorry. No pictures of us, yet, playing the Wii. We will try and provide some pictures soon.