Ann vs. Jason

By Jason

If this post is a bit disjointed, it’s because the past week or so has been a bit busy and we’ve bounced around from one thing to another like a pinball, inside a pinball machine, inside another giant pinball machine.

Last weekend was to be our big trip to Yosemite. We were planning on camping out with some of my coworkers and then doing some mild hiking around the valley while most of them attempted to scale Half Dome. This was going to be Athena’s first camping trip, so Ann spent the week preparing and packing and I spent the week convincing Ann that it wasn’t a crazy idea and that Curry Village is actually quite nice.

This was all planned out when we learned that Todd would be in San Francisco the same weekend. We worked out a plan to drive up to Sonoma on Thursday to meet up with him, then leave for Yosemite Friday right after work.

Then some of the corporate communications people at work told me some news outlets might be interested in doing a story on all the scams using Google’s name and logo… and by the way, Good Morning America will be here on Friday :)

Then Yosemite caught fire.

So on Thursday, we did go up to Sonoma to see Todd and meet Liz. Todd was actually having a bad reaction to some sunburn so we didn’t go on on wine tours, but Athena was her normal charming self and we had a nice visit.

I had to go in to work early that morning for practice interviews and give the correspondent some background over the phone during lunch, but that was okay.

On Friday I did the interview – it was about a half hour of taping but in the end they only used a few seconds. You can see the clip and read the news story and read more about the experience on my blog.

Later that day we found out that wild fires near Yosemite had closed the road to the west entrance and filled the valley with smoke. We had to cancel the trip, but Reid pulled together a last-minute day trip to Angel Island, just north east of San Francisco in the bay.

We carried Athena around with the baby carrier and stowed about a thousand pounds of baby stuff in another backpack. It pays to be prepared, though – Ann had bought a new thermos for the camping trip and it kept us supplied with hot water for milk all day, no problem.

We split off from the main group to avoid the steep trail and walked over to the Angel Island Immigration Station, where many Asian American immigrants were detained. It was a nice walk, though uncharacteristically hot.

The walls of the building have poetry carved in Chinese:

Athena absolutely loved taking the ferry to and from the island. Judging from her reaction, it was the greatest thing she had ever experienced in her 9 months on this earth.

Our fellow hikers included Mike, Beah, Dan, Nelson, Merry, Charlene, Reid, Kolina, Naoko from the Tokyo office, and Andrew from Seoul.

Few people know this but Nelson and Mike are professional catalog models:

The ferry back from Angel Island is amazingly inconvenient. We had to go to Tiburon, then Fishermans Wharf, and then finally back to the Ferry Building where we started our trip.

And here’s one last photo, Athena has learned how to drive:

Ann and I are somewhat exhausted.

By Jason

The second leg of our Easter trip was to Cleveland to see my side of the family.  It had been a while since Mom, Dad, and Ryan last got to see Athena in person and there were of plenty of new people for her to meet, including her great-grandmother.

We flew in just before the customary early Easter dinner.  Athena by this time was an experienced flier.  After a brief stop at my parents’ house we went to Gram and Aunt Linda’s to see everyone.  I was a bit worried that Athena would be overwhelmed by all the people and the attention but she was fine.  Here is Athena’s cousin Luke with her Uncle Ryan and Fake Aunt Laura.

Aunt Sue holds Athena while Ann examines the loot.  We came home with a ton of new clothes and toys.

Gram was overjoyed to hold her great-granddaughter for the first time.  I have to post these two pictures, I especially like the second where they are both smiling and looking off-frame.

After eating we did several rounds of family portraits.  My Nikon D60 is nice enough that we didn’t really need to run off to a studio or hire a photographer.   To be honest I’m not entirely happy with the shots – I couldn’t convince the rest of the family to wait a bit before taking their own photos, so a lot of the sunlight I was counting on was blocked and many shots have people looking in different directions.

I’ve got a bunch more family shots in the Flickr album but I had to post the four-generation shot (above) and the big group photo (below).

Athena and Luke are only a few weeks apart in age and they got along just fine.

It actually took a little while for them to both figure out there was another tiny person there.  In this shot they look like they are playing together with a baby book but at this point they hadn’t really noticed each other yet.

Of course, Athena’s first reaction to anything (or anyone) novel was predictable:

In the end they did interact quite a bit.  Here’s a shot where they were holding hands.

I like this picture of the three of us a lot.

In this rather goofy photo, Ron and Ann test out the hypothesis that two babies together might be as tall as my mother.  Not quite, but check back in a couple months.

Later we headed back to my parents house and met up with Ryan and Jessie, who have their own baby on the way.  Judging by the ultrasound, their kid may already be taller than my mom.

We got to spend some more time with Mom, Dad, Ryan and Laura the next day.  Here’s the correct way to feed a baby:

Here my brother demonstrates his  incorrect, cry-inducing method:

Ryan had already been in town a few days and had cleaned out the closet of our old bedroom.  He found boxes with our old toys, including Transformers and various super hero action figures.  It reminded me of a Christmas morning, somewhere around two decades ago.  In retrospect, we had a lot of toys – though I clearly remember most of my friends having many more.  I guess at that age I judged anything short of the full collection of every available Autobot as insufficient.

Spending time with Mom and Dad:

My Dad quickly figured out Athena’s sense of humor.

This is interesting, though you’ll have to click through to see the full-sized photo to read it.  It looks like a note sent to my Grandmother when she was getting married.  You can see that my sarcasm is clearly genetic.

Later that evening we met up with a bunch of friends at Tommy’s on Coventry in Cleveland Heights.  This is our favorite restaurant, so we always make a point of visiting when we’re in town.  The photo below is the result of Ann asking if someone could hand her something for Athena to play with.  Clearly none of these people are responsible enough to be parents.  We hung out at Jess’ place for a while afterward.

Our last day in town got off to a late start, and we didn’t leave my parents’ house to see Gram and Aunt Linda until much later than we originally planned because all three of us kept dozing.  Athena took an epic, almost 4-hour nap, probably just exhausted from all the excitement.  Ann was actually pretty sick and I (it turned out) was coming down with a stomach virus.

We eventually did get ourselves together and went to Mariachi Coco’s to meet up with even more friends and family.  It’s getting late, so I’ll have to refer you to the Flickr page for photos (to be honest there were so many people that I didn’t get a lot of shots) but it was a great time.  It’s really too bad we couldn’t stay longer and spend more time catching up.

By Jason

Ann, Athena and I spent last weekend in Las Vegas.  Why take a 4-month-old to Vegas?  Mainly to see Dan and Heather, with the side benefit that it’s a short, cheap flight and a good dry run for our upcoming trip to Chicago and Cleveland.

We stayed at Terrible’s Hotel and Casino, which is a few blocks off the strip and had better reviews than a lot of the cheaper hotels on the strip.  The hotel room was nice, but you had to walk through the cramped, smokey casino to get to it.  This seemed to be a common tactic at other hotels too, along with the standard psychological tricks with lighting and layout.

Athena loved rolling around on the big hotel bed:

Ann will probably write a bit more about our adventures in Las Vegas proper, but I wanted to post some photos of our drive out to the Valley of Fire State Park.

The Valley of Fire is less than an hour’s drive into the Mohave Desert.  The sandy tans and green scrub are suddenly broken with red, wind-carved rocks.

In the picture above, note how green the desert looks.  It’s a bit of an optical illusion with the low viewing angle – when you’re higher up, you can see how sparse the vegetation really is.

It’s an amazing place to visit, and a photographer’s paradise.  You can see Dan getting exactly the right angle:

The weather was perfect, too, sunny but only about 65 degrees or so.  There was a fairly strong breeze, which Athena just loved.

Here we are in between shots for a family photo.  You can see the more posed photos in Flickr, but I really love this one because it’s a little more candid.  Note Athena preparing the shove the cloth in her mouth and/or pull it off of Ann’s shoulder, a favorite passtime.

Here are Dan and Heather with more sandstone in the background:

The rocks have ancient native petroglyphs.  Sadly, some of them have been defaced fairly recently.  It takes a special kind of jerk to carve their name over millennia-old artwork.

Here we are on the viewing platform, with the landscape stretched out behind us.  Athena is apparently not afraid of heights.

I really like how this photo of the two of use turned out:

Rainbow Vista is another great stop in the park.  Here you can see bands of different color in the rocks and chasms.   Athena gives the place a thousand-yard stare:

Heather, Ann, Athena and Dan wait for me to get back from my usual wandering:

Okay, now this one is just too cute.  It’s practically cheating:

Dan is not exactly the biggest softie but I think Athena won him over:

I have to end with this shot of a series of fractures that really struck me – are we looking at rock, or the grain of some enormous tree?

I have a lot more artsy photos of the rocks and the desert landscape at Flickr, far too many to post here, so feel free to check them out.

By Jason

Since last weekend was a long weekend we decided to take a trip down the coast to see Monterey and Carmel.  The hotels were pretty booked up (and expensive) so we stayed in nearby Salinas.  Salinas is famous for…  well, not much, except maybe John Steinbeck.  Also, according to Wikipedia Craig Kilborn worked there as a sportscaster before he hosted The Daily Show.

One fun fact not listed in Wikipedia is that there are two Best Western Hotels on the same street, separated by one other hotel.  We almost went into the wrong one before we realized the address wasn’t quite right.

Overall I think we would give Salinas a thumbs-up – it was pretty close to everything we wanted to go see, and we had some really good Mexican at El Zacatecano.  At the end of our trip we also found out that there’s a free shuttle between Salinas and Monterey so we could have even taken advantage of that.

A quick warning:  this will be a pretty photo-heavy post, since I got a new camera, a Nikon D60.  I’ve been thinking about getting a new camera for a while now but I really wanted to get a DSLR before the baby came – that way I can better handle low light and motion.

Our first stop was Monterey, where we visited Old Fisherman’s Wharf.  There was a nice little Greek Festival going on but unfortunately we had already eaten.  The view from the wharf is nice:

We kept passing places that had caramel corn, salt-water taffy, cotton candy, and other sugary goodness.  Ann captured me trying to get the last sugar fibers off the cotton candy stick.

The wharf was worth a stop, probably a bit more touristy than we would have liked but a good place to pick up whale watching tours and such.

On the drive back I couldn’t resist playing with my new camera.  It gives me a lot more options, for example 4-second long exposures at night:

Ann was pretty worn out:

The next day we drove down to Carmel-on-the-Sea with then intention of taking some pseudo-artistic pregnancy photos on the beach.

I like the way this one turned out, specifically the low angle and the way the breeze has Ann’s skirt moving in to the middle of the frame:

We were hoping to pick up a long flowing wrap or a sari to make better use of the ocean breeze but the stores were selling nothing but jackets and hoodies.  I understand that they stock things seasonally, but I can’t imagine we’re the only people on the planet who once in a while want to buy a summer item in summer or a winter item in winter.

The waves were fun to watch but it was in the 60s and the water was pretty cold anyway, so we didn’t do any swimming.

Carmel is a nice little town, it started as an artist community and still has that feel, though the houses are all ridiculously expensive and the shops sell $400 purses and whatnot.

We followed the coast a bit further down to the Carmel River State Beach and took more pictures.  This is the estuary where the river meets the pacific.  The water from the river is clear and and very warm and calm compared to the ocean just a few feet away, so it looked like a great place for little kids to play.

A fun picture of Ann’s shadow:

Our next stop was the top of Jacks Peak, the highest point on the Monterey Peninsula.  You’re able to drive pretty close to the top, but Ann made it up the rest of the trail, so we’re going to say she officially climbed a mountain while pregnant.

Ann gives me a classic skeptical look:

A view of Monterey from the peak.  I made a very large vertical panorama of the view looking towards Carmel, too.

Here’s Ann smiling.  The park was nice, though full of poison oak.  There were a couple places that were supposedly filled with fossils but I didn’t see any, which was disappointing.  Ann thought maybe they were there, but I just didn’t notice them.  I assured her that I know what a fossil looks like.

The next stop on our trip was Cannery Row in Monterey.  There they have not one, but two Thomas Kinkade stores, which meant that I had to throw up twice.  Other than that it was nice, touristy like the wharf but a little bit upscale (meaning more expensive).  We didn’t go to the aquarium, so we’ll have to head back some time to check it out.

It was getting late so we decided to head to the beach for the sunset.  Monterey faces north so we had to go up the coast a bit.  There are miles and miles of beaches but not as many access points as you would think.  We ended up in Sand City, on a big dune overlooking a beautiful beach.

Here’s the sunset.  Because of the often cloudless sky and general haze off the ocean, I’d have to say we have better sunsets in Cleveland, but I’m not complaining.

On Monday we drive back up the coast toward home.  Here’s Ann at the Moss Landing beach.  It was too chilly do take any artsy photos here.

These tiny birds are sanderlings.  They’re pretty entertaining to watch, because when the water retreats they all rush down the beach the look for food, but when a wave comes in they all run back up.

Here’s a photo of the Elkhorn Slough wetlands near Moss landing, this is supposed to be a great place for birdwatching.

We went home and had a little cookout with hotdogs and a greek salad.  We’re probably going to go ahead and count this trip as an early anniversary, too.

I’ve got more photos at Flickr.  You can also see the photos from our trip mapped out by following this link.

Next up, an update on baby names and some democracy, so stay tuned!

By Jason

One of the many cool things about my job is working with folks from all over the world.  Periodically we’ll have people in town from Dublin, Beijing, Hyderabad, and other places.  When Robin (from Beijing) and Tilek (from Kyrgyzstan by way of Dublin) mentioned they wanted to see Yosemite before they left the U.S., I planned a weekend trip to see the national park.  Robin’s friend Lu Lu, also from Beijing, came along as well.

It turns out that it’s pretty hard to find a place to stay in or near the park on a few days’ notice at the height of tourist season.  I looked about 15-20 places and only found two with vacancies.  I decided to go with the Yosemite Lakes campground, just a few miles outside the park, which had a yurt open.  What’s a yurt?  You can see in the picture below.  It’s basically a big round tent, common in Central Asia (including Kyrgyzstan).  The yurts at this campground were pretty nice, with bathrooms, showers, kitchenettes, and even satellite TV.  So we weren’t really roughing it.  It was so convenient that I’m thinking this might be a good place for our baby’s first camping experience some time next year.

We drove in to Yosemite in the morning.  This photo is from the Valley Portal, a scenic spot at the side of the road before you get into Yosemite Valley.  That’s the Merced River below and from this point you can see a couple of waterfalls in the distance.  As always, click on the photos if you want to see larger versions.

We stopped at Bridal Veil Falls and had something to eat at the village in the valley before starting our hike.  We didn’t really get an early enough start to do the famous hike up Half Dome so we decided to hike up the Yosemite Falls trail instead.  The first stop was the bottom of the lower falls.

Here I’m retrieving my hat after it the wind blew it off.  Lucky it landed on rocks and not in the creek.  The hat is from the DVD release of the movie WarGames – Google had a panel discussion with the movie’s writers and it was one of the giveaways.

This is about as close as I got to the bottom of the Lower Yosemite Falls.  There were some people climbing the rocks closer but it was already pretty wet at this point – I don’t think my camera would have survived any more of a soaking.

Next we started the long climb up.  The trail goes back and forth with a series of switchbacks.  It seems like you’re going back and forth for hours.

The trail winds in and out of tree cover.  Every few hundred feet you get another incredible view.  The trail is very well-maintained and we passed people climbing down on a pretty regular basis.  Still, it was a lot less crowded than the trails along the valley floor.

This bright blue bird is, as far as I can tell, a steller’s jay.  They’re related to our common blue jay’s in Ohio and always show up when I’m hiking in all the beautiful parks in the area.  They stay in the shade and don’t like to sit still so this is about the best picture I’ve been able to get.

Here’s a photo from Columbia Rock.  Behind the guard rail is a drop straight down to the valley floor, maybe a thousand feet or so.

Soon after we were able to see the Upper Yosmeite Falls, the tallest waterfall in North America.

The trail took us pretty close to the falls but we decided to so some easy boulder hopping to get a better view.  You can get an idea how far the water is falling in this picture:

This is the spot where we sat for abit to watch the water.  you can see Half Dome in the distance.  We noticed someone climbing the boulders down the slope, much closer to the spot where the waterfall lands, so we decided to make our way down.  It wasn’t too difficult of a climb, just lots of boulders.

We stopped when the rocks started to get wet a slippery.  You can see our reward- a great view of the falls, a rainbow, and Half Dome and the other peaks in the distance.

Here I am above the rainbow.  You can make out the double rainbow in the photo.

And here’s the upper Yosemite Falls from below.

The wind can blow the water around a considerable distance, which we found out the hard way.  Right as we started to head back, the waterfall blew sideways a bit and landed around us, really soaking Tilek.

Our way back up to the trail was a bit more difficult than we planned.  In the tumble of rocks and random tufts of tree cover, we couldn’t spot the exact route we had taken to get down.  We weren’t really lost, since if we went to high on the hill we would hit the granite mountainside, and if we went to low, we would stop at the cliff.  But we needed to get back to the exact same spot because that’s where we had left Lu Lu – he was too tired to make the climb.  We spent about 45 minutes climbing up a bit, getting stuck, then climbing down a bit, then going back up, yelling for him to let us know where he was.  Finally we saw the precariously perched rock from the photo above and turned a corner – only to find Lu Lu listening to his headphones.  He didn’t have a clue we were shouting for him.

We walked back down the trail and had dinner at the food court near the lodge.  We were all pretty exhausted, but when we got back to camp I introduced everyone to the great American delicacy of smores.

You can see a lot more photos, including more landscapes and pictures of the waterfall, at Flickr.

Next up: another day at Yosemite and a visit to Mono Lake.

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.