Saturday, October 24, 2009

bike or kayak? / 自転車かカヤック?

I've been asked a few times now basically the same question - if I could only choose 1, would I choose biking or kayaking. People seem surprised when I say I would choose biking.
友達は前に「自転車かカヤックーもし一つだけ選んでどちか?」と聞いた。 人々は答えに驚いて、答えは自転車だよ。

There are a lot of similarities between the two. They get you out in nature. And both can be made more challenging by trying to go over rocks and such. And both can involve a lot of upgrading and equipment purchases...
自転車やカヤックは大体同じだろう。外でする。そして挑戦的だ。両方は沢山高い物を買える。。。

But kayaking has a lot more prep and cleanup involved. With a bike, I can just grab the bike, put my clothes on, and go ride (often right from home). With the boats, I have to get the boats from storage (they are too big to keep at home), get the gear together, drive to launch point, load up gear on boat, go paddle, rinse boat and gear after paddle, drive home, and then put boats back in storage. It would be much easier if I stored the boats at a place where I'd want to paddle, but still would be more work.
でもカヤックの用意や方付けのほうが難しい。自転車の事、自転車を取って、乗る。 カヤックは収納スペースへ行って、車の上にカヤックを置いて、海や湾へ行って、乗る。その後、カヤックをきれいになって、車の上にカヤックを置いて、収納スペースへ行く。カヤックは長すぎるから、家の中に置かない。

Not sure which Sylvia would choose, but after today's paddle, I suspect it wouldn't be kayaking. We paddled from Aquatic Park to Sea Trek (Sausalito) and back. A bit of fog, which increases concerns of getting run over by some inattentive boat. And from Point Blunt (Angel Island) to Alcatraz, we had a slog where we barely made 1.5 mph due to waves and headwind. She was not a happy camper.
シルヴィアさんはカヤックや自転車を選ぶか分からない。でも今日はカヤックを選ばないと思う。今日の旅行はとても難しかったから。

Of course, it is nice to not have to choose...
でも、選ばない事はOkだろう。

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Monday, October 19, 2009

Rubber Boa

I went to Tahoe last weekend for some riding and viewing the changing colors of the trees. On one ride, we came across a snake across the trail. I had never seen one like it before, and wasn't able to tell what it was right away. But after I came back, I checked around with others and did some research and found that what I saw was a rubber boa (Charina bottae). Exciting to have been able to see one of these.
先週末タホマウンテン・バイクしたり紅葉を見たりしに行った。 自転車に乗ったとき、蛇を見た。その蛇の一種を見たことがないので、何の種か分からなかった。変えた後調べた。 ラバー・ボアだった。楽しかった。

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Thursday, October 08, 2009

View out my window today

Sometimes interesting stuff passes by while you are working at your desk. I am glad I have a window to look out of.

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