General Blog

ur latest travels – my mom decided to sponsor the entire family for a trip to New York City, up to Christmas Eve. And that’s good – I haven’t been there since I was seven. And it would be a good test of JB’s resilience – given her injury and the complications that came from it. Okay, so you gotta understand – this was one packed day. Up at 3am, on the road for the airport by 4am, in the air by 6am, and in New York shortly after 8am. Interesting to see this city (this ‘living reef’ as HG […]

ong day today – took the subway first thing out to Battery Park where we caught the ferry to the base of the Statue of Liberty. Interesting that the last time I was out here, when I was seven, it was cold and bleak, too. Anyway, got to check out the monument’s museum and all the cool things there. Also got to go all the way up to the top of the pedestal (all 176 steps, which is nothing compared to my 14th floor office at work – like after a fire drill when the lobby is packed with everyone […]

fter Sting, it’s hard to top it but we had a really good day. It was misty and rather cold, but still doable. The morning broke drizzly and cold, with JB, me, my mom and sister boarding a carriage on the border of Central Park. Through the efforts of Flash the Horse, we circled around the interior of this vast yet beautiful greenspace (yeah, Orlando, thanks for developing the old navy base into Baldwin Park (i.e. Nob Hill for the rich, rather than greenspace for everyone). Not many people were out, so we huddled under our carrage blanket, looking out […]

won’t say it rained that day. But it was ark weather. The front hit on our final day. JB had agreed (with some prodding) to walk with me over to the Hudson to see the museum carrier Intrepid, followed by a walk across the city to Grand Central Station (something she wanted to see). She should have argued better. At first it was fine – we both had umbrellas and it was raining. But was we got closer on the carrier, it came down harder and harder. Soon our legs were getting wet, my arm (from holding her hand) was […]

echnically, the part about waking up Hell happened the day before. I’d been up early the day of travel, cross the country to California, the Earth’s rotation working against me. So a long day of effort. Got into San Fran in the early afternoon, ate dinner at a little Pub along Haight (and two dark-lager pints)  and I crashed at 6pm – felt like 11pm – lights out. And I woke up to blazing heat and pounding noise. Hell! Turns out the AC in the house we rented was set hot. And some busker was across the street doing amplified […]

oday was a big off-site family deal, everyone into the van and go. And for this, we wheeled out Moby Dick (the massively unwieldly van) and headed out towards the bay. Best yet, the weather had broken gloriously and the sky was a radiant blue. After a three-point turn-around or two, we finally got ourselves dropped on the Golden Gate Bridge’s south side park. From there, we snapped our pictures of that massive bridge (the same ones you’ve seen everywhere, even here) and then started out across it. Now, the west side, it’s only for bikes. Our side is pedestrians. […]

ith day-long rains predicted (where’s that drought I heard so much about?), our first trip (stepping around the sing-along hobos outside) was down Haight to Robert’s (aptly named) Hardware where we bought a tiny flash light (for late-night suitcase digging) and an umbrella (duh!). As we came out, we realized that right across the street was a cool looking bookstore. After taking the place apart brick by brick ($150 later) we returned back to the apartment to drop off our swag (the ‘boes had drifted off to their day occupations, leaving their gin bottles and urine stench behind). Then we […]

ast day and then I can get back to my crazy work and life. Rainy all day, but just drizzly in the morning, which was good – went out to the Muir Woods (with all those majestic redwoods). JB and I did the long trail and I was gratified to see her keeping up (even in the parts that were flooded or muddy). I hid under my umbrella and she her hood and we got through everything just fine. The ride back (combine a massive passenger van, twisting mountain roads, driving rain, fog, dragons, whatever) was a nail biter. We […]