My oldest brother had the day off today so we spent it with him and my mom with the first stop being the bowling alley. It was great to have some laughs there, while staying socially distant from the other bowlers. I think they kept a couple lanes between the parties which was nice, and we noticed them wiping down the bowling balls and chairs when people left. Although it feels sometimes like we’re back to normal, the truth is that COVID-19 is still ever-present, with new variants making the rounds. 😐
We worked up a big appetite so we went to Pancho’s in Manhattan Beach for some excellent Mexican food. My chile verde burrito was huge and luckily I have two teenager who helped me finish it. 🌯
Photo info: Apple iPhone 12 mini, 1.55mm, f/2.4, 1/200 sec, ISO25 “Panchos” Manhattan Beach, 2021Photo info: FUJIFILM X-E4, 27mm, f/2.8, 1/17 sec, ISO2000 “Chile Verde Burrito” Manhattan Beach, 2021
After our late lunch, we went back to my parents’ house to relax a bit before eating dinner (so much food!) and then settled in for a nice long mahjong session. Lots of fun!
Today we drove from San Francisco to Torrance, where we’ll be staying with my parents for the next week. It was nice to arrive there before dinner so that we could enjoy a Father’s Day meal with the rest of the family who live in Southern California. ♥
We ordered a ton of yummy Hawaiian food from Ono Hawaiian BBQ, opened up some presents, and got to spend some real quality time catching up. Mariko and the kids haven’t seen everyone since 2019 so it was a special day.
Photo info: Apple iPhone 12 mini, 1.55mm, f/2.4, 1/350 sec, ISO25 “Foggy Scene” San Francisco, 2021
This morning I checked off a little bucket list item: running across the Golden Gate Bridge. I woke up before the family and drove alone to the Battery East parking lot (there was only one other car there) for a 6:30 am start. It was chilly and windy, as expected, but I was hoping it would be sunny. Unfortunately I would not see the sun because of the famous San Francisco fog. Oh well, it was more appropriate this way I suppose!
Photo info: Apple iPhone 12 mini, 1.55mm, f/2.4, 1/120 sec, ISO25 “Golden Gate Signage” San Francisco, 2021
The distance is not very far (only a couple miles each way) and the total round-trip run from the parking lot to the lookout parking lot on the Marin side (including picture-taking) took less than an hour. The east side sidewalk is reserved for pedestrians while the west side is bicyclists only. I saw only one other runner on my way across to the Marin side of the bridge, but on the way back I saw maybe 6 runners and 6 walkers. There were many more cyclists, though… I’d estimate about 25 total, including a poor family of tourists who appeared to be dragged out by their father to brave the cold, wet, wind. It didn’t look fun for them. 😉 I smiled as I thought of my family who were sleeping warm and snug in their hotel beds at that moment.
With the run finished, it was time to get down to business and visit a couple college campuses! First on the list was UC Berkeley. Because of COVID-19, the buildings are closed and campus tours have been cancelled but the campus grounds are still open so we walked around the campus and got a good feel for the area. The sun was shining bright, but the temperature was a very nice 76° F / 24° C. The UC Berkeley campus is really cool and the store was open so Koa bought a Cal hat.
Next, we grabbed some lunch at Berkeley Bowl and then headed over to Palo Alto to visit Stanford. Koa really liked the campus and he bought another hat at the store.
Next on today’s agenda was a visit to a friend’s place to pick up some cooking materials for Mariko, and then ramen at Orenchi Beyond. It was delicious! Definitely recommend. And a perfect way to end another long day in the Bay Area. 🍜❤
This morning we did a very touristy thing: we visited Alcatraz Island. It was a quick ferry ride from Pier 33 to the windy former prison, and there we toured the many buildings, listened to an audio tour of the cellblock, and learned about the Native American occupation. It was fascinating!
Photo info: Apple iPhone 12 mini, 4.2mm, f/1.6, 1/5000 sec, ISO32 “Approaching Alcatraz” San Francisco, 2021
The island was also a fort in the 1800s and then a military prison, before becoming a Federal Penitentiary. It also brought back memories of watching the 1996 movie The Rock, so we put that on our list of films to rent and watch with the kids.
I need to mention the breakfast we had at Sweet Maple in the morning. It was awesome! I had the Savory Soufflegg Skillet, which had shrimp scampi on an egg soufflé. Delicious! We also tried some of their “Millionaire’s Bacon” which was also tasty, but bordered a bit too closely to beef-jerky to me to be truly amazing.
Flight delays! Today we spent many hours sitting in the airport waiting to get out of Austin to fly to San Francisco via LAX. The mechanical problems with the plane meant that we arrived in San Francisco five hours later than planned, but we made it! (And we were all reimbursed nicely by JetBlue for the inconvenience)
This is the first time since the pandemic started that we traveled by air, and apart from the mandatory masks and social distancing, it felt just like normal. We’ve all been vaccinated so we feel comfortable traveling now. (If someone in my family was unable to get the vaccination, I’d probably not be traveling, though.) The reason for our trip to California is to check out a few universities that Koa is interested in attending, and of course to relax, sight-see a bit, and visit family.
During the flight I watched Nomadland, which is one of the movies I am interested in. I’m actually halfway through the book on which the movie is based, so it was really neat to see the big-screen adaptation. The movie was great! And the book (so far) is also excellent. They really give you a lot to think about.
Our Austin-to-LAX flight was delayed about four hours but we didn’t miss our connection at LAX because it was actually the same plane flying the second leg of our journey, so we just had to deplane, wait for the cleaning crew to do their thing, and then re-board. The LAX-to-SFO flight was less than an hour (yay!), then Mariko picked us up from the airport and we all went to our hotel which is very near to Pier 39.
