Category: Slice of Life

Solo Trip to Big Bend National Park

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 19mm, f/8, 1/500 sec, ISO200
 “Sana in Big Bend” Big Bend, 2020

Today I started a 3-day/2-night solo trip to Big Bend National Park. This is my fourth time to visit, and second time to backpack and camp in the Chisos Mountains. Because of the current pandemic, I plan on not stopping to visit any small towns except to fill up gas. In fact, with the online reservation system for campsites, you can now print your backcountry permit at home and go straight to the trailhead, which was what I planned.

I started my drive at 3:30 am which wasn’t a problem for me because I was so excited. I chose to leave so early for a couple of reasons: first, there is road construction happening in the park right now, and the road I need to use is open from 11 am – 1 pm, so I wanted to make that window; and secondly I wanted to start my hike to the campsite early so that I could take my time and not push myself too hard.

The drive east was unexpectedly very wet and rainy and the rain stopped as the sun rose which made for some really nice cloud formations. 😊 I really enjoyed the drive, listening to music and podcasts, and looking at the scenery. Lots of people think this stretch of highway is mind-numbingly boring, but I love it.

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 19mm, f/4, 1/680 sec, ISO200
 “Morning Clouds” West Texas, 2020

My timing worked out great, and I arrived at the park at around 11 am and was ready to hike at a little after noon. That would give me plenty of time to reach the Colima 2 campsite, where I would be staying for two nights. The hike in would be the toughest of the trip because I have to carry all my water in with me, and I calculated that 6.1 liters would be a good amount to take. But that amount of water is heavy: almost 13.5 lbs! Also, the hike is mostly uphill, with an elevation gain of 1,800 feet. But with the early start, I could take plenty of breaks and go slow.

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 19mm, f/8, 1/160 sec, ISO200
 “Fork in the Trail” Big Bend, 2020

The hike was tough but fun, and I really enjoyed myself. I saw several other hikers on the trail, and almost everyone masked up when passing. My route took me up the Laguna Meadows trail, which is the trail we hiked in the other direction on my previous trip. It’s also the more gentle trail up to the campsite – farther in distance, but the elevation gain is spread out making it less strenuous.

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 19mm, f/16, 1/250 sec, ISO200
 “High Chisos” Big Bend, 2020

I arrived at the campsite at 4 pm, which meant I hiked for about 3 hours and 45 minutes, including breaks. I had plenty of time to set up camp and relax a bit before making dinner and settling in for the night. As expected, I was exhausted, and as soon as it got dark and the stars came out, I was asleep. 😀 A good day!

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 19mm, f/4, 1/100 sec, ISO320
 “Arrival at the Campsite” Big Bend, 2020

Stollen Season

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 19mm, f/3.6, 1/100 sec, ISO1600
 “Stollen Factory” Cedar Park, 2020

Some of you may know that my wife, Mariko, is a baker. For the past few years she has sold Stollen to a small number of people, but this year the production has ramped up and she’s selling much, much more. So we’ve had baking sheets, cooling racks, mixing bowls, and of course Stollen all around the kitchen. It’s pretty neat to see the whole process, but wow… it’s a lot of work!

The Stollen itself is amazingly delicious. Once you start eating, it’s hard to stop. My daily photo doesn’t do it justice, so I stole a few of Mariko’s photos:

Photo info: FUJIFILM X-T10, 35mm, f/2, 1/75 sec, ISO250

Photo info: FUJIFILM X-T10, 35mm, f/2, 1/70 sec, ISO400

Photo info: FUJIFILM X-T10, 35mm, f/2, 1/80 sec, ISO200

I hope you had a nice day! またね～

Chili Time

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/100 sec, ISO1600
 “Chili Gohan” Cedar Park, 2020

The request from Mariko came in for me to make chili, and I was happy to oblige. 😊 The photo above shows Mariko’s bowl of “chili-gohan”, which is essentially chili over rice (gohan means rice in Japanese). From there, you can top it with whatever you choose.

Mariko and I both went with jalapeños, cilantro, Mexican sour cream, cheese, avocado, and a fried egg. I’m not sure what Bay and Koa had, but below you can see Koa’s bowl. His preferred method is to mix everything up. Not the prettiest, but to each his own!

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/35 sec, ISO3200
 “Koa Style” Cedar Park, 2020

Too Much Soup

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/55 sec, ISO3200
 “Too Much Soup” Cedar Park, 2020

At dinner tonight, Bay filled my bowl almost to the brim with miso soup. Mariko told me long ago that there should be a couple of centimeters of space left from the top but Bay knows I love miso soup and I guess he felt it was more efficient to just give me a big serving instead of getting a second helping. 🤷‍♂️

For the record, I prefer the extra two centimeters!

Broken Baseball Glove

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5, 1/1000 sec, ISO200
 “Broken Glove” Cedar Park, 2020

Koa has been using the Rawlings baseball glove that I bought way back in 1990, and one of the leather straps snapped when we were playing catch the other day. We reinforced it with some zip ties and it stayed together for a couple of more weeks, but another strap broke and it’s too difficult to repair easily. I guess after 30 years, all the straps are pretty weak so I think its time to retire the old glove. I know you can buy new leather strips to fix it so I’ll keep the glove in case I need a project to work on.

I think it’s time to get a new glove for Koa!

Shabu-Shabu and a New Kovea Stove

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/20 sec, ISO800
 “Shabu Shabu” Cedar Park, 2020

We recently purchased a new portable stove: the Kovea Cube Stove. I think it has a really cool, compact design, which is nice because it should stay cleaner from drips and splatters than our older, wider stove. Mariko says it’s a popular stove with lots of accessories, for instance, you can replace the know with a stylish wooden version. I was unable to actually find any accessories other than a carrying bag, but I’m guessing the market in Asia is larger.

One thing to note is that the burner sits higher than other stoves, so the pot is elevated an inch or two more than you may be used to. I could see the higher design of the Kovea Cube Stove being more convenient for camping, where you might not have a regular table to use. Honestly, though, I didn’t really notice the difference when we used it at the dinner table.

Our first meal using the stove was shabu-shabu, and it was delicious! In the afternoon, I used our Waring Pro Professional Food Slicer to prep the pork slices for the dinner. Buying pre-sliced meat from H-Mart is convenient, but can be a bit pricey, so we like to buy a large piece of pork butt from HEB, and slice it ourselves which the food slicer makes easy. Pro-tip: freeze the meat before slicing and you can get a nice, thin cut. Since shabu-shabu pork is meant to cook in the hotpot for only a few seconds, a thin cut is best, maybe around 1 or 2 mm thick. For yakiniku, pork belly at 3 or 4 mm and beef at 4 or 5 mm is what we prefer.

Hotpot or yakiniku using the portable stove at the dinner table makes for a fun meal, and everyone can take park in cooking – a great way to bring the family or friends together. I definitely recommend trying it if you haven’t already!

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5, 1/13 sec, ISO6400
 “New Burner” Cedar Park, 2020

Fountain Pen Lineup

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/35 sec, ISO800
 “Ink Change” Cedar Park, 2020

Today I changed up the lineup of my fountain pens a bit. I still love my Lamy Safari with broad nib, but have been enjoying the Pilot F nib more lately. Although I have several cheap Jinhao pens, only the Lamy and my Pilots have ink in them now, so maybe it’s time to pare down the collection and give the Jinhaos away.

Here’s my current lineup:

Although I have 4 colors, I like to limit a page to just 2 or 3 if I can. Any of them work well as a 3-color set, but 4 on a page will reveal a clashing pair, in my eyes. It may seem like a silly thing to mention, but I think it’s fun to think about these little things!

I hope you had a great day. またね～