On the Behavior of (Certain) Cyclists

Regular readers know that, while I ride a bicycle, I generally disdain cyclists - by whom I mean the matchy-matchy Spandex(TM)-clad riders who behave like they own every inch of the rideable world. The crappy behavior of cyclists and the general population's hatred of them has been written about over and over and over again, so there's no point in my beating that dead horse. Instead, here's a little light commentary on a few of the quirky cycling characters I know.

First, let me talk about Dan (not his real name). When I first started hanging around with the local cycling crowd Dan was really friendly and welcoming. He's a great guy and super friendly, so it pains me to say anything less than positive about him. But he's a little weird. For one thing, his friendliness extends a little bit too much to total strangers. As he rides down the trail he'll shout out compliments to people he passes, "Oh! I love the way your jersey matches your bike!" or just give a big hello. For whatever reason, when he shouts Hello he really accentuates the syllables so it comes out as "Heh-lauuuw!", with the second syllable pronounced to rhyme more with "cow" than "crow". I think if I was alone on the trail and some cyclist came up from behind me and out of nowhere shouted "Heh-lauuuw! Your shirt is a really pretty color!" I would be creeped out. But really, he's just being friendly.

Even though I'm no longer commuting anywhere, I sometimes get up early and ride to the early morning bike commuter "coffee clubs" held around Arlington just for a little socializing. Dan attends those coffees too, and I'll sometimes run into him on the trail on the way there. I hate running into Dan on the trail. As already mentioned, he's a very friendly, gregarious guy and when he bumps into you on the trail he'll want to ride next to you and talk. Here's the problem - he's a fast rider and wants to keep up his fast pace on the ride to coffee. I'm a slow rider, particularly at 6:30 AM and so in this scenario Dan is faced with two contrary impulses: to ride with me and chat while also to continue riding faster than I can keep up with. The net result is that by having a conversation with me while incrementally riding faster and faster, he's implicitly pushing me to ride faster than I want to - or even can. He also pays no attention to traffic signals (noe that "Cyclists who go through red lights" is one of the 15 types of hated cyclists in one of the linked articles above) and he gets impatient when I stop at intersections. Over time I've gotten pretty comfortable with saying, "Dan, you just ride ahead and I'll see you there." Sometimes I have to says it two or three times.

Am I done complaining about Dan yet? Not quite. Some mornings I'll be riding on my way to coffee club and suddenly I'll sense a presence behind me. When you ride with other people it's cool to ride close behind another rider, "drafting" them to take advantage of their slipstream. In fact, advanced riders will take turns drafting each other to give whoever is non-lead a break. But sneaking up and drafting behind someone you don't know or who is unaware of your presence is a jerk maneuver ("Stalkers" who do this are another of the 15 listed types of hated cyclists). I don't like that he does this. Sometimes, if I either haven't noticed him or am pretending not to have sensed his presence, he'll shout out, "Is that Jesse I see in front of me?", or something of the sort. Creepy gregariousness is not what I'm in the mood for at 6:30 in the morning. Ever. BTW, if some rider has the audacity to pass Dan on the trail, Dan will chase them down and stalker draft them. I do not approve.

But enough about Dan. Let me move on and complain about George (again, not his real name). George is a guy I actually choose to ride with. He's a good guy too, but first of all, he's another one who assumes he has the right of way all the time (see reference to "Cyclists who go through red lights"above). But bigger than that, he's a loudmouth. For example,. it's generally considered polite to warn people when you're about to pass them on the trail, usually by ringing a bike bell or calling out, "On your left!" George goes well beyond that with something like, "Hey. Three cyclists passing on your left. Thanks for moving over and giving us room." It's not easy to tell whether George's "thanks" are sincere and when they're sarcastic. The way he shouts them they sound sarcastic and I've seen people do something of a double take when he yells a comment at them. 

The other day George and I were riding towards Hains Point. We were riding side by side on a little-trafficked section of road, and truth be told he was riding over the center line and so was a little bit into the oncoming lane. Another cyclist - in full Spandex regalia - was coming in the other direction. The other guy had the whole traffic lane to maneuver in so George wasn't really any threat to him, but George was in fact encroaching onto his side of the road. The other cyclist motioned for George to get back over to our side of the yellow line. George shouted, "Thanks for the reminder!", which again may or may not have been sincere. The Spandex guy took it as sarcasm and responded with, "F*ck you!" I think this was the case of two cyclists both behaving a little badly. In any case, George seems to have no idea his tone and demeanor are provoking these reactions, and I don't know exactly how to coach him politely.

And that's just two of the cycling characters I know. I think the world would be a better place if we all were a little more sensitive to each other's needs and feelings. Clearly, cyclists, even the nice ones I hang out with, have a ways to go in this direction.

Robertson Mountain Hike

 On October 19th, hoping to catch something near peak foliage, I drove out to Shenandoah National Park to do some hiking. Looking at places to hike, I saw Robertson Mountain mentioned as a neglected gem - overshadowed by nearby popular hikes like Old Rag.

You can approach Robertson from the valley (here and here are listings for that hike) but I chose the somewhat easier (though about the same length) hike from Skyline Drive. I parked at the Limberlost parking area (about mile 43 on Skyline Drive) and started out on the Limberlost Trail, which it turns out is one of the accessible trails in the park - it's flat, smooth gravel. It was chilly when I headed out and I started out bundled up in my puffy jacket, wool hat and light gloves. After a little bit, Limberlost intersects with the Old Rag Fire Road, which, being a road, was pretty easy hiking by the standards of Shenandoah. I mean, the trail is wide and flat enough to drive a truck down - something I saw proof of when a forest ranger pickup truck passed by. I'm nervous about a lot of things when I hike, one of which is losing the trail. This is particularly true in autumn, when even the most obvious trail can get obscured by leaves. It's pretty damn impossible to lose sight of a forest road, so I was able to relax about that particular issue on this hike.

Pretty spot on the way up

The fire road intersects with other interesting trails along the way. If I had started earlier in the day or at a time of year when the days are long, I could see extending this hike via a side excursion down the White Oak trail or even bagging both Robertson and Old Rag mountains in one hike. As it was, I continued on my planned route, noticing many of the various trails that intersected the fire road but actually almost missing the Robertson Mountain Trail. There is a trail marker at the intersection of the fire road and the Robertson Mountain trail, but it's sort of off to the side - possible to miss if you're lost in thought while hiking.

The big vistas weren't quite at peak, but individual leaves were beautiful. My new iPhone 13 takes amazing close-up photos!

The trail up to the mountain is unblazed and fairly steep. According to my Strava log, you climb about 500 feet in a little less than a mile (in contrast, hiking up from the valley you climb 1,500 feet in 1.5 miles!). When I got to the top I found the expected rock outcropping at the peak. Here's another thing I worry about while hiking. I don't have a great sense of direction, and it's easy for me, while exploring the rocks at the top of such mountains, to get totally turned around and have no idea where I came in. If there are several trails leading to the peak I can get confused about which one I came in on. Because of this, I took out a red Buff I had in my bag and tied it around a tree right next to the trail I had come in on.

A marker to help me stay unlost

I explored the rock outcropping at the peak, but didn't find any vista. I felt kind of bummed - like maybe this is one of those views that's only good when the trees were bare. It was still a nice hike, but I was a little bit disappointed about climbing a mountain and not getting a view. I explored around the peak area some more; I didn't find any view, but I did find a campsite, where I sat down and had lunch. While I was eating my lunch I spotted a guy coming out of the rock outcropping at the peak. As far as I could tell, there was only one way in and out of the rocks, and I hadn't seen him arrive, nor had I seen him while I was up on the rocks - so he must have been on some part of the rocks I had missed.

After lunch I climbed back up the rocks to try and find where this other hiker had been, and lo and behold - I found an area I had missed before, with a lovely, expansive view of Old Rag and the valley below. The spot was warm and sunny, as well. I unbundled a bit and walked around taking pictures, then sat for a bit just enjoying the view.

View at the top

Bald on Night Mountain (apologies to Mussorgsky)

Shiny!

The hike back was just the reverse of the hike in - except that I stayed on the fire road all the way to the parking lot. On the way out I made a quick stop at the Skyland Lodge. I'm rarely in this section of the park and I wanted to see what the lodge was like (nothing special). I also wanted coffee, but the line was too long. I stopped at a couple of the overlooks on Skyline Drive, then headed home. I did eventually get my coffee, along with a soft pretzel, at a WaWa Market on the way home. Ted and I are big WaWa fans, and we both particularly like their pretzels. Coffee and a pretzel may seem like an odd combo - but not if it's WaWa.

Looking west from a Skyline Drive overlook

BTW, one thing I didn't worry about, but perhaps should have, was bears. When I posted photos from the hike on Facebook, a friend commented that she had been hiking that trail just a week earlier and had had a close encounter with a a bear!

Western Maryland Rail Trail

This was the incredible shrinking trip. I had originally hoped to pull off an overnight bike camping trip. Unfortunately, as the date approached I just couldn't motivate myself to prepare for a camping trip, which is a lot of work no matter how many times you've done it before. So I changed to the idea of doing a day of biking, staying over in a hotel, then a day of hiking. But really, who wants to stay in a hotel in these COVID times, particularly in areas which may not take it seriously? And let's face it, given the political signs around town I'm not at all certain this is an area that gives much weight to pandemic precautions. Also, as the date approached, the weather, while great for biking (cloudy, though warm), wasn't great for leaf peeping - so I decided to put off the hiking portion and just do a cycling day trip.

Yeah, maybe I wouldn't want to stay in a hotel in this town

So here's what it came down to: a roughly 50 mile one day bike ride. I would start in Big Pool, MD and ride out the C&O Canal towpath for about 25 miles to the western terminus of the Western Maryland Rail Trail, which pretty much parallels the C&O, then take the WMRT back. The C&O is a rough gravel path, while the WMRT is paved - I figured I'd do the harder riding first.

Big Pool has a nice parking lot for trail users. Unfortunately the bathrooms were still locked at 8:30 AM. Fortunately, there were bushes. I grabbed the Biffy Bag out of my glove box in case more serious bathroom needs were to arise later. I set out on the WMRT and was able to transfer to the C&O Towpath after less than a mile (turn left at the scary "I Voted for Biden" Halloween display).

This is scary, but not in the way they intended

This part of the C&O Towpath is pretty rutted (other sections have been recently resurfaced and are much smoother). I soon figured out this was going to be slow going - and a bumpy ride on a bike with no suspension and relatively narrow tires (I'm running 35 mm tires). Still the scenery is lovely and the riding wasn't all that bad. The only challenge was the muddy parts, through which the bike would slip and slide. At one point I hit a stick in a muddy area. I started to feel the bike slide out from under me, but I instinctively powered through it somehow. I remember years ago I had the same feeling riding a motorcycle around a corner on wet fallen leaves. I could feel the bike start to slide out sideways. For whatever reason I instinctively hit the throttle, which turned out to have been the right thing to have done. The power pushed me through the turn and the bike recovered. When I came to a stop at a traffic light the driver who stopped next to me said he saw me slide and was sure I was going to go down. But I didn't then and I didn't now.

C&O Scenery

The ride was pretty uneventful for a while. I rode along, taking in the scenery, looking at the river, checking out the hiker/biker campsites as I went by (only one was occupied). Then at one point I suddenly got that sinking feeling that the bike wasn't riding right. I looked down, and sure enough, my rear tire was going flat. Fortunately, I had brought along two extra tubes, tools and my brand new air pump. Unfortunately, my new pump didn't fare that well. The pump has two settings - one to pump higher volumes of air, but at lower pressure, and another to pump at higher pressure, but lower volume. The idea is that you fill the tire using the high volume setting, then finish it up pumping it to full pressure with the high pressure setting. Unfortunately, the mode switch jammed and so I was stuck on the high pressure setting. I got the tire pumped up well enough, and in fact let a little air out of the front tire to give myself a cushier ride. As I resumed riding I noticed how much smoother the ride was with the tires a little soft - I should have done this at the beginning of the ride. I guessed that the rear tire was probably still below the recommended minimum pressure of 55 PSI, but it was close enough. I rode on, a little concerned that I had already had a flat and still had a lot of miles to go.

Changing a tire on the C&O trail

About five miles later I started to hear a weird squeaking sound form the rear of the bike. I had put one pannier on the bike to hold my layers of clothing, food, camera, etc. When I looked back I found it swinging back and forth - barely fastened to the bike. My panniers are old and aren't quite a fit for my current rear rack (which is also an antique). The bags hook onto the top of the rack with two hooks, and then there's a third hook at the bottom. Well, the bottom hook had bent out of shape so it was more of an L shape than a hook shape. It had slipped off the rack, which allowed the bag to start bouncing around, which had then allowed one of the top hooks to come undone. The squeaking I had heard was the bag swinging back and forth on the one remaining hook. Once again, I stopped. I pulled out my multi-tool, bent the bottom hook back into shape, and reattached the back. I rode on.

At the ruins of the kilns at the Round Top Cement Mill

The C&O is a fun ride in part because of the remnants of its past - the various canal locks and other infrastructure. My favorite spot on this ride was the ruins of the Round Top Cement Works, a business dating to the 1830's. Apparently it thrived for many years - the cement used in building the Washington Monument comes form here. The business ran into problems thanks to several major fires (it appears that for a business that operated eight large kilns, their fire safety practices may have been a little lacking). In any case, around the turn of the 20th century there was a third major fire, plus the world was shifting away from limestone-based cement and towards using the exciting new product of Portland Cement. Round Top went out of business, but the kilns remain. 

The rest of the ride was free from mechanical problems. As I got towards my destination it was a little hard to tell where the connection points between the trails were. I didn't want to miss the final connection and blithely keep pedaling west, so I switched trails at C&O Lock 56. When I got on the WMRT I realized I wasn't at the end - it turns out I jumped the gun - the western terminus of the WMRT wasn't for another two miles of so. But that was OK. 

By this point it was lunchtime. About a mile into my ride back I came across a parking lot which had a picnic table. I stopped there for lunch, the main part of which was leftovers of last night's leftovers of the previous night's Indian food - doctored up with vegetables and cashews. Yum! While I was eating a woman on a recumbent trike rode in to take a break and use the Porta-Pot. She and I chatted for a minute. Her trike was all rigged out with a cargo rack and had a couple of water bottle holders, whereas it's hard to carry anything on Valerie's trike. Her setup gave me ideas on how to rig up Valerie's trike to increase its cargo capacity.

Now that I was back on pavement I figured I could pump the tires up a bit. My pump was still half stuck, but fortunately I had a Plan B - CO₂ cylinders. As a alternative to a pump, people carry compressed CO₂ cylinders and a little adapter head to connect the cylinder to the tire valve. I had one of these - in fact, I realized I had two cylinders with me, which made we more willing to use one up. I usd the CO₂ to fill both tires - though when I got home, I realized they were both still low. Heavens knows what pressure I had been riding at on the C&O. One thing about using gas cartridges - if you remember learning the ideal gas law in physics, you'll know that the gas gets cold as it is released from high pressure. By the time I finished putting air in the tires the valves were covered in a thin layer of ice! I packed up and rode on.

I guess riding the C&O had taken a toll on me. As I rode back both my tush and hands started to hurt. I found myself shifting both sitting position and hand position almost constantly. Things were starting to hurt. When I reached the town of Hancock I decided to make a stop. This allowed my body to get a break, and I bought and consumed my secret ride weapon - a cup of caffeinated coffee, purchased from The Fractured Banana ice cream shop. I don't drink caffeine on a regular basis, so when I do it really is like a video game "power-up". I did, I must say, resist the enticement of the ice cream. I drank my coffee and rode on.

Coffee outside The Fractured Banana

A few more miles of riding, and I was back at the car. Total mileage was about 47 miles (I figured on 50 for the day, but came up a few short because I jumped the gun and turned around at Lock 56 rather than the western WMRT terminus). Good ride, comfortable weather, and exploring a new trail.

 

A Magical Day on Belmont Bay

Belmont Bay has been one of my favorite places to paddle since way back at the beginning of my kayaking explorations. The setting is beautiful, the bird life is outstanding, and it's a no muss, no fuss launch - you can pull right up to the launch beach to unload. The launch is car-top only, so you're not dodging power boats Frogger style. 

The launch at Mason Neck State Park

In the days before blogs I kept notes on my paddling in a written journal and my first entry for paddling at Mason Neck was from my second visit there, on 7/25/1999. The entry mentioned, which I had forgotten, that Mason Neck was the first place I launched my very first kayak. It's a special place for me. I think it's a special place for a lot of people.

My choice of Mason Neck for this particular outing was to do maintenance on a geocache I had placed on little Conrad Island, across the bay near the powerboat channel. I'm not really doing much with geocaching anymore, and this is the last active geocache I maintain, but it's one of the few "hydro" caches - ones which can be reached only by boat in the area. People like it, so I like to keep it active. The water was glassy as I paddled across to the island, which as usual, was a mess of bird refuse - half-eaten fish, guano and feathers - as well as poison ivy. As I paddled across I spotted two bald eagles, one in mature plumage, and one still in immature brown plumage, perched on a branch sticking out of the water. You rarely see eagles down at the water line, so this was kind of special. The immature eagle flew off, but i got a picture of the mature one. Once at the island, I replaced the log (paper people are supposed to sign to prove that they've found the cache) then headed out towards the river.

Eagle by the water near Conrad Island

Mason Neck is always a good place to see eagles. It's rare that you visit there without seeing one, but some days are just ridiculous. As I paddled along I saw eagle after eagle after eagle, so many so that eventually I stopped counting. Eagles are rock stars within the bird world, but I shouldn't ignore their fellow Aves. As I made my way I also saw great blue herons, cormorants, ducks, geese, ospreys, and all those tiny wading birds that I can't identify. 

As I paddled along the western side of the Mason Neck peninsula I spotted another eagle at ground level, standing along the shoreline, fishing, I guess. As I turned to get a better look I inadvertently flushed two more eaglesI hadn't noticed, which took off from the bushes and flew away. The first eagle, though, remained on the beach. He seemed to be holding one wing down a little bit, but to tell you the truth I have no idea whether that was normal eagle posture or whether it indicated an injury. In any case, he didn't fly away. In fact, he stayed put and allowed me to approach. I got as close as I felt like getting, eventually stoppinga bit offshore because I didn't want to cross the line into harassing the wildlife. The eagle hopped from the beach to a branch, but generally stayed put. It stared at me. I stared at it. I snapped a million pictures. It felt like some sort of animistic spiritual experience, like maybe this eagle was a sign that the new year (the Jewish new year starts next week) was going to be a good one. Realistically, the thing's thoughts were probably along the lines of, "Big Creature approaching! Danger? Worth giving up food to get to safety?", but it felt like more. Eagles are really big, by the way and have powerful looking claws and beaks. If this thing had decided to defend itself and attack me I could have wound up in bad shape - all the more reason to "social distance" from it a bit. Eventually, mesmerized though I was by this majestic bird, I decided to back away and leave it in peace. I continued on my way and was still saying, "Wow! Wow! Wow!" to myself in my head over my eagle encounter when I stumbled across a field of lotus plants in full bloom. Yes, apparently there are lotus plants growing wild at Mason Neck and I was happily surprised to spot a bunch of gorgeous yellow flowers poking out of the water. I stopped again, this time to ogle the flowers. I've seen lotus blossoms at Kenilworth Gardens in DC, but it's different to be out on the water with them. Again, beautiful.  And of course, there were more eagles along the way - two in a tree here, one in a tree there. And herons. I half expected to round the point and find a leprechaun sunning himself on the beach,

Approaching the eagle

I really was this close

Into the lotus blossoms

Lotus blossoms

I had already been out on the water longer than I had planned and so once I got to the mouth of the bay I turned around and headed back. I didn't see my eagle friend on the way back - either he had flown off or I just missed him.

Two more eagles - most days, this would be the "money shot"

And another

And a fine looking heron

Once I got back I was walking up the hill to where I had parked my car when I noticed an odd fruit smooshed on the ground. Omigod! Paw paws! For years I've been hearing about paw paws, which grow wild in the mid-Atlantic. Paw paws have a storied history - native Americans enjoyed them, Lewis and Clark ate them on their journey, there are towns named "Paw Paw" in several states (mid-Atlantic cyclists will be familiar with the Paw Paw Tunnel on the C&O Canal tow path, located near the town of Paw Paw, WV), and there's even a kid's song about them. Paw paws supposedly taste tropical - sort of like banana, sort of like mango, with a custard-like texture. I've heard so much about these amazing wild fruits and every year I swear to try and find some - and every year I forget to do so. This year I had recently seen a post online about how paw paws are coming ripe, and as usual had promptly forgotten about it. But here they were - staring me right in the face. Actually, they were a little above my head out of my reach (where's Tall Tom when you need him?) so as I drove out I stopped the car under the paw paw tree and was able to reach some by standing on the door sill. So on top of an amazing eagle encounter and the beauty of wild lotus blossoms, I can now cross off the bucket list item of finding wild paw paws. As I write this, I realize that said paw paws are still sitting in my paddling bag, as of yet untasted. As soon as I wrap up this entry, I'm off to the kitchen to taste my paw paws! 

Back at the launch there were butterflies all about

 

California - Part 3

7/12/21

Our last full day on the west coast! I guess we were running out of things to do, a little bit. In the morning, Valerie stayed back at Ted's apartment while he and I walked the nature trail around the outside of the Facebook campus, which is very close to Ted's place. Facebook occupies what used to be Sun Microsystems' headquarters, and we discovered (while searching for a geocache, of course) that the back side of the Facebook sign at the entrance to the complex still says Sun Microsystems. That's no accident. Sun was at one time a premiere computer brand, but they tanked in the dot-com crash of the early 2000's as dot-com companies went bankrupt and dumped their used Sun computers on the market at low prices. The company never recovered and in 2009 was swallowed up by Oracle. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg intentionally left the Sun sign there as a reminder to his employees never to be complacent, even when it seems you're on top. On our walk we also noticed that while the campus is fenced in, there are gaps in the fence and gates which are unlocked - I hope that Facebook does a better job of data security than they do of physical security (kidding - I'm pretty sure they don't!).

At Facebook

A relic of the Sun era around back of the Facebook sign

After our walk we picked Valerie up and returned to the Stanford Mall, as Valerie wanted to buy more bars of a honeysuckle soap she had found there. Stanford Mall is where the high end shops are - the Hermes, the Cartier, etc. But still, nothing which couldn't be found at the Tysons Galleria or thereabouts. I figured that in an area with so many super-rich tech people the local mall would hold yet another level of even more expensive stores, selling things like the $300 t-shirts favored by the aforementioned Mark Zuckerburg. I guess those stores are hidden away elsewhere, and if you have the money to wear $300 t-shirts, it doesn't matter if the stores are conveniently located at the mall as you probably have staff to go out and buy them for you.

Stanford Mall

The three of us walked around separately - the mall is outdoors and makes for a nice stroll - then met for lunch. We were browsing the menu at a salad place when one of the employees fairly rudely shooed us away. Apparently, in looking at the menu the restaurant had placed at the entrance we were blocking other customers. The employee said there were other menus we could look at inside, but in fact the next place to see a menu was at the counter where you ordered, and by trying to take time to look at the menu once we were at the front of the line we were once again deemed guilty of holding up the line (BTW, the place was half empty and there was no line - just one other party behind us waiting to order). I started to vent a little at the staff member who was making us feel pretty unwelcome there. All she had would have had to have done at that point to calm things down would have been to say something like, "I'm sorry - please take your time." But she didn't, but fortunately for her my family, which is more used to my playing the conciliatory role when other family members are upset about poor service, shushed me, thereby sparing her from my very mild wrath. We ordered and had our salads (which were just OK). After lunch Ted and Valerie went out to pick fruit on the Stanford campus (there are orange, lemon and citron trees there!) while I stayed home and read my book and by the time we got back together everyone was once again in good spirits.

We were by then tired of restaurant meals and so whipped up dinner from Ted's fridge - pasta with asparagus, and veggie "chicken". Then we packed our bags.

7/13/21

All I can say about this day is that we got up early, Ted drove us to the airport, and we flew home (my first flight on a 787 Dreamliner!). The flight was initially expected to get in early, but due to the need to circumvent a wall of storms (we flew all the way down over Alabama to get around the storms) the flight wound up arriving about a half hour late - but the routing was good - nary a bump along the way! I'll also mention one other thing about flying these days: right now, COVID protocols require that all passengers wear masks at all times, except when they're eating. People complied quite well on our flights - but then came beverage service, that part of the flight where everyone takes their masks off at once to have their drinks and eat their little snacks. So FAA rules make sure you're safe throughout the flight except for the twenty minutes when everyone is breathing on each other while eating. Hmmm. Time for on-board beverages to be served in mask-friendly Fauci-pouchies? And pretzels to be replaced by similarly packaged smoothies?

I'll make one other parting observation. Where we live is not quite walkable, but most of our daily trips are 5-10 minutes away on local streets (or are doable by bicycle) - the supermarket, Target, Home Depot, doctor visits, and so on. Silicon Valley is definitely much more spread out. Ted's location is pretty centrally located, but just about everything requires hopping on the highway for an exit or two. In place of our 5-10 minute trips, his are 15-25, which makes a difference. Particularly when gas costs a dollar more than it does in Virginia. Whenever Valerie and I travel these days we evaluate the place as a possible retirement destination. Silicon Valley passes many tests - good healthcare (go Stanford Healthcare!), lots of restaurants, great weather, diversity - but carries serious negatives of total car dependence and insane cost of living, with houses costing roughly double what they would in already expensive Arlington. Hmmm.  

 

California - Part 2

 

7/9/21

Friday was another outdoor adventure day and followed pretty much the same contours as the previous day, except that Valerie opted out of the physical exertion. Prior to the trip I had planned on hiking at Point Reyes National Seashore (which Ted had previously visited and found quite beautiful), but as with Monterey, once we got to California I decided to cut down on the driving time and opt for something closer to "home". I think I might have felt differently if we had rented a car and were doing some of the driving, but we were relying on Ted and his aging two door Honda Civic for all our transportation, and I really didn't want to make too many demands on him as our chauffer. So Ted and I decided instead to hike at Ed Levin Park in Milpitas, not far, as it happens, from where we had rented kayaks the day before. On our way out we dropped Valerie at the Stanford Shopping Center - she was happy to spend the day hiking the mall while we hiked the mountains. After dropping her off we headed for Ed Levin, in the foothills of the Diablo Mountains. I smiled at the incongruous park name - in a place where just about everything is named in Spanish after some saint or other (San this and Santa that), this park, named after a former Santa Clara county supervisor, had a very Jewish-sounding name.

At Point Reyes we would have been treated to lush ocean scenery, but the Diablo Mountains are dry and desert-like. The Tularcitos Trail looked like someplace where ill-fated settlers would be found crawling on all fours, gasping for "water! water!" before collapsing into the dust. After reviewing the warning signs (rattlesnakes!! mountain lions!!), we headed up the trail. The trail was pretty vertical and it was an unusually hot day by Bay Area standards (well above 80 degrees), so we took it slowly. As my initial shock at the barrenness of the landscape wore off, I began to see the beauty of the desert setting. Ted, needless to say, had researched the geocaches in the park ahead of time and we paused here and there to find caches as we hiked. Geocaches were pretty easy to find in this environment: when you're hiking through low scrubby grass and suddenly come upon a lone tree, and your app tells you that there's a geocache in the area, chances are it's in that tree. That's a lot easier than caching in the woods of the northeast - though, given the rattlesnake warning, I was unwilling to stick my hand into little crevices searching for geocaches.

Ed Levin Park is also known as a hang-gliding spot and we got to see some hang-gliders (they may have been para-gliders?) as we hiked. We went far enough up that they were launching below us, and from our high elevation we got some pretty views of the valley below.

Another reason I wanted to hike close to home base was the big secret of the trip - that we had arranged a surprise birthday party for Ted! Well before the trip, Valerie had the idea of trying to pull off a surprise party. I contributed by finding contact information for Ted's work friend Audris. Valerie reached out to her and the two of them did the rest. We arrived at the restaurant, supposedly for with a reservation for just the three of us - but when we got there about half a dozen of his work friends and other friends were waiting for us. We had a great dinner, Ted got presents, and thanks to Audris, there was even cake! Ted was genuinely surprised.

7/10/21

This was Ted's actual birthday. I decided to step back and not be prescriptive about activities on Ted's actual birthday - particularly since I had planned the previous two days and had also already made plans for the following day. As a result we got a slow start to the day and eventually defaulted to going over to the nearby IKEA to browse around. Now, I find the idea of going to a national chain store as a vacation activity to be FÜKIHN KRÅYZEE (or maybe that was the name of one of the IKEA sofas we looked at?), but we went - and to tell you the truth, we had fun just because it was great spending time together. We even tried on (and Ted bought!) hats made of the signature IKEA blue bag material, and of course we ate at the IKEA restaurant, which offered two different varieties of veggie meatballs (the curry ones were really good, BTW). 

Lunch at IKEA

Stylish hats

On the way home we stopped to take pictures at the crow statues in Palo Alto. These are an installation by artist Sylvi Herrick, I believe at her residence. Previously, Ted had said that you have to sneak onto someone's property to see them, but they are on the front lawn and after looking at the artist's web site I believe they are meant to be interacted with by the public. Having had a couple of busy days, we took this one a little slower and after the crows we went back to Ted's to relax for a bit. 

For dinner we went out to Ted's other restaurant choice, Doppio Zero in Mountain View. We headed to Mountain View a little early and spent some time browsing the shops on Castro Street, then at the time of our reservation (reservations recommended - all the restaurants are quite busy, like the pandemic never happened, or is totally over) we headed to the restaurant and were seated at a pleasant table outside. I must say, the food was excellent - one of the best pieces of salmon I've ever had - though the service left a little to be desired. Our waiter was a harried guy from New York (we could tell by his accent and attitude). He never took our drink orders, and in general seemed too busy to waste time on things like waiting on his tables. He did, however, take the time to tell us about all the important positions he had held in New York restaurants.

Robots are everywhere - including delivering food on Castro St.

After dinner we took a sunset stroll through Baylands Park and visited Ted's office, which was of course deserted on a Saturday night. Since most everyone has been working remotely for the past year, the place has an abandoned sort of vibe to it, as I imagine many offices do these days. Then it was back home.

Sunset at Baylands

7/11/21

I always love seeing live music, and thanks to playing in Great Northern I've gotten back into the world of the Grateful Dead, so when we started planning our trip I looked up what, if anything, was scheduled at Terrapin Crossroads, a small music venue in San Rafael owned by Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh. Sure enough, they were just opening post-pandemic and Melvin Seals and JGB (a carrying on of Jerry Garcia's side project, the Jerry Garcia Band) were playing a two day engagement during our stay. I grabbed tickets to what I knew would be a sold out show. Our plan for the afternoon was to head up to San Rafael for the concert, but first ... more Frisbee.

Ted had described Sunday morning Frisbee as a laid back, Sunday in the park feel, which was indeed the case. After a good pancake breakfast at home we headed out and set up under a tree to watch all the young tech bros (and a couple of tech women) through the Frisbee around. Throughout the trip I was concerned about my lack of opportunities for daily exercise (Ted's neighborhood is just skeevy enough that I didn't feel really comfortable going out for early morning runs there) and so once again I took a walk while Ted played. I came back to find Valerie interrogating the players during a break. After Frisbee we stopped to grab sandwiches (Erik's this time - the Bay area has some great sandwiches!) for lunch and headed back to Ted's place so he could get cleaned up. Then we drove up to San Rafael.

Upon arrival at Terrapin Crossroads we were met with quite a hippie scene - sort of like the parking lot of a Grateful Dead concert in miniature. As I expected, the crowd inside was more of a normal bunch, but the folks hanging out were hippie flotsam and jetsam, either selling stuff (tie-dyes and the like) or maybe just hanging out outside to hear the music for free. This show was outdoors on the "beach", which is genuinely waterfront, if not a true beach (the venue has an indoor stage as well). Lots of people, sunshine, palm trees, good vibes. Several people with whom I chatted mentioned that this was the first live music they'd seen since the beginning of the pandemic, making me all the more appreciative of the way venues in the DC area (particularly right in Falls Church) managed to keep music going throughout COVID with socially distanced outdoor shows.

Grateful Dead themed motorcycle outside of Terrapin Crossroads

Melvin Seals and JGB at Terrapin Crossroads

At one point I heard people behind me talking about New York. I turned around and recognized well-known Grateful Dead photographer Bob Minkin, who I sort of have a connection with. He's from Brooklyn and is childhood friends with a couple of musicians with whom I used to play in New York. I introduced myself and we chatted for a bit. I also spoke with a woman named Alicia who owns the store Land of the Sun in Haight Ashbury. It was funny - at first was a little hesitant to tell her we'd been to the Haight since it seemed like a cliché touristy to have done, but then it turned out she owned a shop there :) It was another hot day and Valerie took shelter in the shade and wound up chatting with a woman who, while she had lived in the Bay area for years, had spent part of her childhood just around the corner from Valerie's childhood home. Weird. It was a good show, though I spent much of it worrying that Ted and Valerie weren't having a good time because (a) it wasn't their kind of music, and (b) it was hot out. We left just before the last song to beat the crowds out.

We had driven up the East Bay side to get to San Rafael, but on the way home we drove through the city so we could stop at Toy Boat Dessert Café. The first trip Valerie and I took together when we were dating was to San Francisco. On our last night in town, while killing time before our flight home, we wandered into a neighborhood dessert place in the Richmond District called Toy Boat. We were feeling the magic of new love and ever since Toy Boat has been special to us - we try to visit whenever the family or subset thereof is in SF. The restaurant almost closed during the pandemic, but fortunately was rescued by another local restauranteur (it's now Toy Boat By Jane). We all got ice cream (a real treat to get ice cream for the second time in a week - since we're all normally watching our diets for one reason or another) and of course, took pictures. Then we went over to Chinatown and ate dinner at a vegetarian Chinese restaurant (ha ha - I'm turning them all into veggie eaters), which was quite good. After another eventful day, we headed home to Ted's place, a little sad that we had only one more day all together.

Toy Boat 2010 with David

Toy Boat, 2001

Inside Toy Boat, 2021