Peter Donohue's Personal Blog

Galapagos - land and water

2011-01-03T09:24:00.000-08:00

Ok, I saved the best for last. The birds in the Galapagos were interesting, but I am more of a mammal/reptile/fish person.

Ok, when one thinks of the Galapagos, they likely think of the giant tortoises. Even the name "galapagos" is Spanish for a type of horse saddle, which some of the tortoise shells look like. So figured I'd start with some tortoise pictures...

(click on any picture to see it in higher resolution)

Here is a close up of another tortoise's head. Do you think he looks a bit like ET?

There are farms in the area that are in the traditional range for these tortoises, and often have a lot of tortoises there. So along with growing crops, they charge a small fee for tourists to walk around and see tortoises. We did have to have a naturalist/guide with, but much of what they were doing is keeping the tourists from bothering the tortoises. Though we could still get pretty close.

When we got off the bus, our guide immediately perks up his ears, tells everyone to be quiet and motions us to follow him. We wondered what was up, as we were headed a different direction than most of the other tourists. This was what he was headed for...

The male is much larger than the female, so you can barely see her.

Check out the video of these guys - make sure you have your speakers on for full grunting effect...

Off to the sea again - there were sea turtles all over the place in the Galapagos. Here are three in one picture, taken while snorkeling.

Here is a video of one that was not bothered by my swimming next to him:

Here is a pair of white tip reef shark seen while kayaking. These guys mostly feed at night, so rest in the shallow reefs during the day.

Galapagos shark seen while snorkeling. This guy was about 10 or 15 feet down by a sea stack. I don't remember if I caught a glimpse, or was told they were there by our guide, but I dove down and saw them and got a couple of photos. It is hard to tell size in this photo, but he was maybe 5 or 6 feet long.

Marine iguanas resting on a lava rock shoreline. These are the only iguanas in the world that swim out into the ocean to eat seaweed (most iguanas live and eat on land). The small ones are females, where the large, green one is a male (lucky guy).

Marine iguana swimming - as seen from above. Caught this picture while kayaking. This guy was headed back to shore after feeding.

Marine iguana that we saw swimming as we snorkeled. This one was also heading back to shore. I tried hard to find an iguana eating underwater, but never saw one.

One of the many friendly sea lion looking to play as we snorkeled. Our guide said that the younger ones often like to play., They will swim around you, sometimes looking to have you chase them, and sometimes they would want to chase you. So you would swim underwater and do flips and such and they would stay near and play.

Here is a video of me playing with another sea lion.

Galapagos - Birds

2011-01-02T10:12:00.000-08:00

I have a lot of photos from the Galapagos - too many to do in one posting here. So I had to find a way to break them up. Given that Darwin seemed to focus on the finches of the Galapagos as a key part of his theory of evolution, it only seemed fitting I start with bird photos. Though he may have started with finches, they weren't standouts in my mind, so I don't have any finch photos here...

Picture of the blue footed booby, which is endemic to the Galapagos. One of those animals you have to see when you are there. There is also a red-footed booby, but we didn't get to see those.
ps - actually, I think it is spelled "bubi", but that doesn't allow as easily for the corny jokes and t-shirts about booby watching and all.
(click on any picture to see higher resolution version)

Continuing with the booby/bubi pictures - this was a surprise catch for a photo. I just blasted away with the camera (actually, we had 3 cameras with us) and took almost 2000 photos. Sometimes you flash through a photo and don't see something at first. This is one of those - I didn't see the booby diving until I did a second review of the photo. Very streamlined shape that the bird is able to get into.

This was another lucky shot - and with a basic point and shoot camera at that. This is the same booby shown diving, but after he had his meal and was now flying back up to make another dive on some poor unsuspecting bait fish.

Yellow warbler on some volcanic rock at a beach. These guys were all over the place and perhaps take the function of pigeons in our country, as they were always around watching to see if some scrap of food would drop from us humans.

Frigate birds. During breeding, the males have large red pouches that they inflate to attract a mate. But I am not sure they would be trustworthy mates, as they get much of their food by stealing from boobies.

Better check the immigration status of these American Oyster Catchers. They do look a little different than the ones we have in California (I don't think ours have the white chest/undersides, but they do have the bright red beaks). Always loved the name "oyster catcher" - a catcher to me refers to catching something that moves, yet oysters don't move.

Well, this one isn't a bird picture, but is in the sky. This was a shot of our inter-island flight between San Cristobal and Isabela Islands. The airline that runs these flights has 2 planes - a 5 seater and a 7 seater. Our group of 11 required both. And I got to sit in the co-pilot's seat (that guy with the stripes on his shoulder is our pilot).

I wasn't really a good choice for this, as I am a bit large. Whenever the pilot banked the airplane, the yoke (or whatever they call the steering wheel) on my side whacked me in the knee. And he had to push my knee out of the way to adjust the tail flap fine tune adjustment. And if I stretched my legs, I would be pushing on the pedals (which I am sure would not be a good thing to do). So I spent much of the flight trying to stay still.

Ecudador Highlands

2011-01-01T11:38:00.000-08:00

Some friends signed up for the Galapagos & Otavalo Highlands Trip through REI, and let us know about it. Was expensive, but we decided this was on our bucket list, so signed up to join them. Another couple we often do things with also signed up, so our little group was 6 of the 10 people on the trip. This post shows some photos from what we saw in the highlands near Quito, Ecuador, where we started our trip.

Hiked around the Cotacachi-Cayapas caldera early on in the trip. 6 mile hike, but made much harder by being at some 10,000 feet in altitude. This is north of Quito, near Otavalo.

(click on photos to see larger size)

Andean condors that we saw on the hike. Given that there are only 60-70 of them in Ecuador, we were looking at some 3-4% of the total population. Also saw some eagles in the area.

Spent a night at the Termas de Papallacta hot springs resort, which is east of Quito. Hotel is at some 12,000 feet in altitude. Drove uphill from there to do a hike at Lagunas de Banos. Soaking in the hot tubs was quite nice, but the water was a few degrees cooler than the onsens in Japan.

In the highlands of Ecuador, the driving style was a bit more aggressive than we were used to, particularly when passing. This was a switchback area going down a gorge - did seem to be newer pavement than many of the other areas. But potholed roads sure didn't slow them down. And the signs and lane striping all seemed to be suggestions, not requirements (notice how the bus I am in is smack in the center of the road).

This is cuy - something that is a specialty of the Andes. In English, it is called Guinea Pig. We had heard about it on an Anthony Bourdain TV show, and made a point to try it. Tastes a bit gamy, but not that bad. More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_pig#As_food.

Galapagos photos to come in another post.

Winter issue of California Kayaker available

2010-12-15T12:26:00.000-08:00

The winter issue of California Kayaker Magazine is available for download from the website or to be read online by going to www.calkayakermag.com/magazine.html. Contents include skills article on using a Greenland paddle, gray whales, whitewater run on Rancheria Creek, how to make swimbaits, dry storage summary, outfitting your boat, and much more...

Rights of Navigation Question

2010-11-06T09:40:00.000-07:00

I went out to Yellow Bluff in Sausalito yesterday (Friday, November 5) to take photographs of kayakers playing in the tide rip that forms there on strong ebb tides. Saw something which I found to be disturbing, which I wanted to run by others and see what they think.

Note - to see a larger version of the photos, click on the photo and then under "Actions" click on "View all sizes". Flickr changed the system, so this is not as easy to do as it used to be.

This picture above shows the Yellow Bluff tide rip from the bluff. Current is going from left to right, and creates a choppy condition in this location. There are 3 kayakers in the rip, though at least one the boat is of a coloring that is hard to see.

The rip is the roughly triangle shaped patch of rough water you can see. On the right side (as we look at it) is calm water - that is an eddy and the water there is actually going the opposite direction from the rip. The calmed water outside of the choppy water is going the same direction as in the rip, but doesn't have the underwater geography causing the current to form any waves there. Plenty of open water out in the Bay for boats to get through - this is not an area of limited navigation.

Kyakers go to play in these waves. When conditions are right, there is a train of waves that slowly moves forward in the rip, which the kayaker can surf. But there is also a lot of chop, so a place where even experts need to constantly work to control their boats. When I am in the rip, I keep a good distance from other kayakers for safety reasons.

Empress of Sausalito, a 90 foot commercial tour boat that does Bay Cruises, parties, etc., looking to run straight through the rip. I took notice because I was surprised such a large boat would be that close to shore and it also looked like he would go close to the kayakers.

Still approaching the kayakers. This is looking like he is going to be much closer to them than I would care for.

Close up to show how close he got. The three paddlers were all experienced, so able to control their boats - but what if they had been more novice and got thrown off by the chop (or the Empress' wake)?

Empress of Sausalito continuing on to (presumably) its dock in Sausalito. Thankfully no one bumped into another.

Here is a PDF summarizing the rules of navigation. I would say that the Empress was overtaking the kayaks (all where facing the same way, though the kayaks were not making any forward progress against the current, so this could be argued) and that it would have been against Rule 8 for passing so close should a collision have occurred.

So, what do you think? Do you think the Empress put the kayakers at undue risk? If so, what could the kayakers do different next time to help reduce this risk?

ps - one reason I am posting this is to provide specific info for future reference on the Empress, as others have mentioned times they have had close calls with the Empress. Those times are hear-say. But should a situation happen in the future, by putting what I saw on the web, there will be some public info that could possible be used to show a history.

Fall issue of California Kayaker Magazine is available

2010-09-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

The fall issue of California Kayaker Magazine is available for download from the website.

More whales from kayak

2010-07-16T12:06:00.000-07:00

Heard reports of lots of ways out in Monterey Bay chasing huge quantities of krill, so decided to check it out. Matt K. was nice enough to join me, which was good, as we would be going very far out (over 5 miles from shore - see track in picture to the right).

Two videos I took are below. The videos are of different individuals, so may not even be the same type of whale.

Some conversations going around as to what type of whale they are - blue, humpback, or fin are the most common mentioned. The first video (showing the fluke) looks to be a blue). The second video has a larger dorsal fin than would be expected for a blue, so perhaps is a fin whale. But fin whales don't normally show their flukes when they dive, and this guy did. And no reports of fins in the area from the whale watch boats. Maybe a humpback? But I got some shots of a humpback in the same area a few years ago, and there were much smaller than this (video clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2CQeeX9mqQ).

Summer issue of California Kayaker Magazine is available

2010-06-10T10:33:00.000-07:00

The summer issue of California Kayaker Magazine is available for download from the website. I am very happy with the content of this issue - the writing was good, and there is broad coverage of various types of kayaking. Wish there were a few more advertisements to help pay the bills, though - hopefully that comes in time.

Whale seen while kayaking

2010-06-03T22:04:00.000-07:00

Been a while since I posted. Sorry about that. Next issue of the magazine is almost ready to print, so to celebrate I went for a paddle during the day yesterday. Came across a gray whale in the bay. Got some decent photos and videos.

I have seen a few dozen gray whales over the years while paddling, but these were probaly the bets photos and videos I have ever gotten. And didn't hurt to have the very scenic Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

Good camera? Good price?

2010-05-09T20:51:00.000-07:00

What do you think? Is this a good camera and a good price? Looking for a "basic" DSLR. This one comes with 1 lens.

And is this "starter kit" (case, DVD, etc.) any good?

I'm a publisher

2010-04-03T21:49:00.001-07:00

Been a while since I posted something here. Sorry about that.
久しぶりにブログに書いた。ごめん。

I have been busy because I started a new business - a kayaking magazine. And the first issue was just published! It can be downloaded from http://www.calkayakermag.com/CaliforniaKayakerMag-Spring2010.pdf
会社を設立するので忙しかった。出版されたばかりのカヤックの雑誌だ。　http://www.calkayakermag.com/CaliforniaKayakerMag-Spring2010.pdfからダウンロードされる

Good deal on a waterproof camera

2010-02-05T16:35:00.000-08:00

Found a good deal on Amazon for a waterproof camera - a Pentax Optio W80 for about $175! Normal sale price is more like $250, and I think retail is about $300. Here is a link to the cameras at Amazon.

I have had an older version, the W20, for many years now and have been very happy with it. So I have ordered one of these guys as an upgrade for myself. It has arrived and I look forward to trying it out this weekend.

To see how the older W20 worked, I used it as a comparison point for reviews I did of the Oregon Scientific ATC-2K and the GoPro Hero 3.

Note - the prices aren't listed on the main screen, and it does seem to change some (I got it for $170, with free delivery and a free memory card). I suggest adding all of the ones that don't have prices listed to your Cart, then viewing the cart to see which is cheapest (removing all the rest).

Seabrew Paddle

2009-12-25T17:45:00.000-08:00

Went on the Sea Brew (Sea Kayaking for Hebrews) Christmas Day Paddle. I guess for Jewish people on the east coast, they go for Chinese food and the movies on Christmas day. Out here, no need to stay inside, so Danny Forer has started an annual tradition of a paddle to Angel Island. I may not be Jewish, but I am also not an active Christian nor have family nearby that I need to go do the Christmas thing with, so I joined them.

The paddle started at Sea Trek's beach in Sausalito, but I decided to paddle over from San Francisco. Maybe it was the spare the air day? Or maybe it was to save the $5 toll on the Golden Gate Bridge? No matter - that is what I did. My GPS track is below.

I was worried about the currents. Supposed to be a relatively strong tide, maxing out at about 2.5 to 3 mph at 10:30 or so. I was paddling from one side of the bay to the other, so would have to use ferry angles (paddle at angles to offset a current going sideways).

As you can see in the picture below, it was a pitiful day to be out. The currents caused huge waves, as did the wind. And a huge number of pleasure craft and sea lice (jet skis) out. Hard to believe we dared to go out in these waters... (click on picture to see the waves in their huge awesomeness that Glenn Nunez and Dennis Holton had to fight)

Danny and his lady friend checking out the tourists from the water between high braces...

Glenn paddling along Angel Island just outside the surf zone after lunch...

And for those that do consider today to be some sort of religious holiday, here's a little nautical season's greetings from the Maritime Museum...

Boring job for a cop

2009-12-24T18:14:00.000-08:00

Sometimes a cop has to hang out and wait until someone comes along to arrest. Even on Christmas Eve, this is an important job to do.

This spot provides a good view of a stop sign that I guess people run too often. And it is likely a 25 mph zone, so speeders may be common also. Thankfully, I made a full stop at the sign, and didn't speed, as I biked by today.

It helps to have a supply of coffee and donuts for the wait until the next speed demon decides to blow through the stop sign...

But, mannequins don't get bored in jobs like this...

Of course, not everyone is happy with the jobs the cops are doing. Maybe this gentleman has gotten one too many tickets from the mannequin?

Recent happenings

2009-12-22T21:11:00.001-08:00

Two recent things going on:

First is that I am working up a business plan for a kayaking magazine called California Kayaker. Web site is www.calkayakermag.com. Print magazine, glossy paper, photo heavy - all distributed for free at kayak and sports retailers. Kind of like Cycle California!, but for bikes. Actually, better paper and more photos and articles, so maybe a better comparison would be a California version of Wavelength. Not sure if it will come together, but if so, first issue will be in the spring.

Second - I also may be posting from time to time on a blog that some folks from my Japanese group started called Sustainable Trivia. http://sustrivia.blogspot.com/

ps - Special thanks to Brian Warkentine who made up the logo for California Kayaker!

shinto lights?

2009-12-08T17:18:00.000-08:00

Saw this a few blocks over - a "torii" gate covered with Christmas lights. The gate is a Japanese shinto symbol, where the lights are from Christian roots. Does that make it "shintian" or "chrinto"?
私のうちの近くにある店は鳥居がある。その店は鳥居の上にクリスマスのイルミネーションを置いた。辺だろうか？鳥居は神道だ、でもクリスマスはキリスト教だろう。

I don't fully comprehend the sign on the middle. The main character looks like "憩", which means rest. But it is 1 stroke different, so probably not that.
間中な物の意味をあまり分からない。漢字は「憩」だろうか？

Adrenaline side of sea kayaking

2009-11-06T09:29:00.000-08:00

Kayaking is much like mountain biking - you get out an enjoy nature, but there is also a challenge side of it. My last post showed part of the nature side of kayaking, with lots of animals. But many of those pictures were taken from flat water - be like seeing animals from the paved bike path in Yosemite.

So, to show that other side, I made a similar video of the more adrenaline side of kayaking - basically, where the water is not flat.

As with the animal video, there are many more exciting times I was not able to get on video, not for the least reason that I couldn't stay upright while filming in some of the conditions...

A few pics also:

Video of Animals seen while Kayaking

2009-11-06T09:16:00.000-08:00

I have posted short clips of animal videos in the past, and some (like the 4 second video of Mobulas/Manta Rays jumping) were very popular. Figured it was worth compiling them into a single video.

There are many more animals I have seen, but did not get on video. A prime example being that I have seen literally dozens of gray whales, but don't have any decent video clips (actually, not even any decent photos) of them taken while kayaking.

Here are some photos of animals...

bike or kayak? / 自転車かカヤック？

2009-10-24T18:42:00.001-07:00

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。

Rubber Boa

2009-10-19T22:22:00.001-07:00

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。

View out my window today

2009-10-08T19:27:00.000-07:00

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

Another Mendo trip

2009-09-28T13:04:00.000-07:00

I took another trip to Mendocino for some sea kayaking. Excellent rock gardening there, with lots of caves and tunnels. Below are some pictures and a video compilation from the trip.

Bill V. getting close to a blow hole.

A great heron hanging out on the kelp beds.

A couple of oyster catchers, showing off their reddish-orange bills.

Video compilation of some highlights from the trip:

New York City

2009-09-04T13:14:00.000-07:00

Went to NYC over Labor Day weekend. Lots of tourist stuff, plus a chance to visit my dad (who lives about an hour north of the city). Had decent weather. Some pics below:

Times Square at Night. I like how they removed a bunch of lanes of traffic and made it into space for pedestrians. Definitely much more tourist friendly.

Brooklyn Bridge with the Manhattan Bridge in the background - from the Brooklyn side.

Statue of Liberty - looks like her torch is burning the clouds off.

View downtown (towards Wall Street) from the Empire State Building

A WWI Era boat we took a cruise on with my dad.

2009-07-27T12:22:00.000-07:00

Went to Mendocino last weekend for a weekend tour/lessons with Eskape Sea Kayaking. We had used them when we first started kayaking, and learned a lot. Now we are going to their more advanced classes/tours (and they are one of the few kayak companies that does tours/classes at this skill level).

Conditions were pretty big for the entire weekend. For non-kayakers, that means the swells (waves caused by storms way out to sea) where quite large. Radio was reporting it as 8 to 10 feet. Made some areas too dangerous to go near, but also made some of the areas protected from the direct effects of swells to be fun to do.

Lots of caves/arches/tunnels to paddle through. They had various challenge levels, from super easy to ones that you needed to time the waves so that you didn't get slammed into a wall (or the ceiling).

I made a quick video showing some of the highlights from the weekend.

Kayak lessons

2009-06-29T08:54:00.001-07:00

It has been a while sine I posted - sorry about that.

Sylvia and I attended a kayak class led by Derek Hutchison and Wayne Horodowich, called Beyond the Cockpit (there is also a video out on it, which we also own). Good fun, and interesting to expand kayak skills.

The goal of the class is to teach you that while a kayak at first feels a bit unsteady and you feel you need to keep your balance above the boat, there are ways to let you extend your balance to the side or (with the help of a friend) even stand up in your boat. The picture above are of Sylvia being assisted by Derek Hutchison as she stood up.

That skill didn't have a lot of practical value, but another similar skill does. It was formed by kayakers trying to find a way to fix a damaged boat while on the water. The traditional method would have the kayaker get into the water while the second kayaker would fix the boat, but that would often leave you with a hypothermic kayaker. Derek developed the method shown in this picture that has the kayaker sit on the front deck of the rescuer's boat. Once the second kayak is brought on board, their is amazing balance. When Sylvia and I did this, I was able to stand up without trouble and I don't think I could have flipped Sylvia even if I tried. This skill is useful should you need to fix a boat, get something out of one of the main hatches of a kayak, or just take a break and stretch your legs.

Many of the skills were not as photogenic, but still quite useful. Things like extended paddle brace turns and such. More skills to have in my bag of tricks when kayaking.

England / Ireland trip

2009-06-08T20:31:00.000-07:00

Had a great trip to Ireland and London. Spent a few days in Dublin, then rented a car to drive to the south west (counties Kerry and Cork). Then to London for a few days before returning home.

Some things we learned:
- the weather in Ireland is awesome, even though everyone says that what we experienced was not normal. I think they are lying in the hopes that we don't all move there.
- weather in London sucks.
- best not to try to pronounce anything written in Gaelic. For example, something spelled as "Laoghaire" is pronounced "Leery"
- street signs must have been invented in America, as they aren't used in either Ireland or England.
- driving on the left isn't as hard as it looks, though shifting with the left hand felt weird. Only made a full lap around 1 roundabout when I couldn't get to the right exit.
- Irish dog owners are worse than Americans when it comes to cleaning up after their pets.
- Brits are much like the Japanese - public drunkenness on the subway in the evenings is normal.
- celebrities in Ireland can walk around with common folks without worries of being hassled. They may even plop down at the table next to you at a restaurant. Someone like, say, Bono. Without any entourage. Nor sunglasses or hat or anything to try to hide their identity.
- potatoes are served at ever meal in Ireland (except breakfast, which is all meat).
- Ireland would be a great country to kayak in.
- Irish roads are narrower than American driveways.
- the Irish like to take a 28 ounce steel ball and throw it down a road (yes, these same narrow roads, and one that still has traffic on it), then chase after it. 2 people throw the balls, 2 people place clumps of grass for the guy to aim at, and few dozen people bet on it. The betters stand down where the ball is going so they can better see how far it goes, along with test their dodging skills. They call this bowling.
- Heathrow has this way of trapping you there - not very efficient to get through. But it traps everyone, so increases the chances of bumping into someone you know while there.

Some pictures below.

There are stone circles all over Irelend.

This castle has marks from cannonballs

Good scenery

The Irish exercise their racehorses by dragging them behind powerboats

British fort

Sign to remind the tourists

More good scenery

What, no bowling alleys?

Jim Kennedy of Atlantic Sea Kayaking

House guest at a B&B in Skibberreen.

Rock of Cashell

View through an ancient island home for monks towards another island.

Puffins are cute

Short video clip of another cute puffin

Not the place to be driving an RV

Lots of these all over Ireland

Christine and Sylvia at a British Pub.

Legalize Pot?

2009-05-05T18:06:00.000-07:00

It was interesting to hear Governor Schwarzenegger call for talks on legalizing pot in California. Not something I expected to hear from a Republican's mouth. And a poll makes it seem like the majority of voters agree with this, so maybe it will come true.

Truthfully, the medical marijuana system that is in place is a mess. And I blame the Republicans for this. They have for years insisted that there is no medical benefit to marijuana. But this insistence has also meant they have suppressed or stopped medical studies on the drug.

The population in California has not believed the Republican stance - it was plainly obvious to them that it is a drug that does have an impact on the body. So they have voted in place medical marijuana rules allowing its use. But because it is a kluged together system, it isn't as strongly enforced as drugs purchased from pharmacies. And I think most expect that many are getting pot from the medical marijuana sites for recreational purposes.

If Republicans didn't try the "just say no" response to marijuana, perhaps it would be classified and controlled as a real medical drug, rather than the system we have now.

Strange yacht

2009-04-16T15:16:00.000-07:00

I went for a paddle today, and came across a weird looking yacht. It was a catamaran, but each hull seemed very skinny. And the center of each hull was separated (so it looked like there were 2 hulls on each side). This seemed weird, especially because I thought the length of the water line greatly affected efficiency in going through water, so splitting the hull like that would make it more inefficient.

Google has the answers to everything, including this. Found a web site on this type of ship:
http://www.yachtsilvercloud.com/index.html

GPS track of the trip is below. Covered about 11 miles. I was listening to the VHF radio as I went to track ships, so I could avoid them. Found out (after I had gone around the Island) that one of the main passages under the bridge on the east side of Treasure Island is closed to boats due to the construction - the same area I had just paddled through! Oops. Now I know. Will avoid that if I do this paddle again.

Currents in San Francisco Bay

2009-03-24T19:07:00.000-07:00

For those that don't believe that the San Francisco Bay can get strong currents, check out this little video clip I took on a paddle last week:
先週カヤックに乗ったビデオだ。サンフランシスコ湾の潮流だ。

Based on the chart, it is about 30 feet deep at this spot. That is a lot of moving water!
チャートによると深さは10メートルぐらいだそうだ。　流れの水は多いだろう。

Under the Golden Gate Bridge and a few other places (like Yellow Bluff) are know for strong currents. Not this location.
ゴールデンゲートブリッジの下の潮流は有名だ、でもその所は有名じゃないだろう。

This is where I was at/私はここにいた:

View Larger Map

Unintended consequences

2009-03-14T18:23:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about unintended consequences recently. First came up with this government stimulus plan, which includes a lot of road work. Roads generally have finite lives (let's say 20 years, for easy math), at which time major repair work would be needed. I wonder if 20 years from now there will all of a sudden be a lot of roads needing repairs, which undoubtedly we wouldn't have budgeted for?

This also came to another one of Obama's goal - universal health care. I seem to have many friends who would love to retire, have saved a bit of money and all, but aren't retired. When asked, the limiting factor appears to be there need for health coverage. So, if Obama does get universal health care of some sort in place, will we have a sudden surge of folks in their 40s and 50s retiring? Will there be so many that it would impact the economic output of the economy?

Baja Kayak Trip

2009-01-23T16:38:00.000-08:00

(英語だけーすみません)
I know I already posted some photos of animals from this Baja trip, but here is the info on the trip itself.

The trip came about at the last moment. An email was sent to all participants of the Golden Gate Sea Kayak Symposium offering a discount on a Sea Trek trip where the goal was to circumnavigate Carmen Island, off of the town of Loreto. 6 days to cover the 60+ miles, and required a decent level of kayaking skills. I had been to Baja before and knew about how beautiful it was, so knew another trip down would be fun. My personal goal was to see as many whales as possible during this time, as this area of the Sea of Cortez has a lot.

We arrived on Tuesday to find a lot of white caps and heavy winds out of the north. The area was experiencing a Norte, the term they use for these strong north winds. This is not good for kayaking. Nortes can last for days, so it was not clear how this would affect us.

Day 1:
Wednesday was our first day on the water. We launched from Puerto Escondito, which is a protected harbor a half hour south of Loreto. Paddled out past the mouth and found the Nortes still going. Jim Kennedy, of Atlantic Sea Kayaking, then put us through some drills to get us used to the wind and waves. We did things like spinning around in the waves, passing our paddles below our boats, etc. This was all quite useful at helping us become more comfortable in the waves.

After that, we paddled across to the first island, and then surfed down to the south end of the island, where we made camp on a beach. Paddled about 6.7 miles in total. Did see a whale spout in the distance, but could not identify it.

Day 2:
Day 2 was a slow start - we didn't get on the water until after 10. We rounded the island, and had the most fortuitous conversation:
Sara (guide) - "Keeps your eyes open, as this is a good place to see whales"
Michael - "Like that one" (as he points to a whale a few hundred yards away). I think it was a humpback, but we weren't 100% sure. Definitely not a blue or fin whale - not big enough for one of them.

We then crossed to Carmen and started along the south side, where we made camp. Completed only 10.6 miles, which made me wonder if we would be able to circumnavigate the island (as we would need to do about a 12 mile daily average to do so). But the winds were still around, so that was slowing us down (though an earlier start would have allowed us some paddling time before the winds got bad).

Day 3:
We paddled on this day to the old salt mine (now a hunting lodge) in the large bay you can see on the map. We got an early start, and had the goal of getting there for lunch. Visited a large cave along the way. Winds came up again as the day progressed, and were very strong headwinds as we made the final (slow) push to the beach. Jim had us do a pace line for part of this, which was a good way to keep our minds off the winds. 12 miles paddled. No whale sightings.

The paddling so far had been on the leeward side of the island, and after this we would be even more exposed. So with the winds we had seen, I think everyone came to the conclusion that we would be better off not trying to circumnavigate the island.

Trip got a bit interesting here. We had been watching a ship out in the ocean that we couldn't identify. Didn't look like a fishing boat, plus the area is a marine reserve (so fishing boats shouldn't be there). After looking at it with binoculars, I thought it might be military, but couldn't think of a reason why the navy would be here. Turns out it was military on drug interdiction duties. They had chased a drug runners' panga to the same beach we had landed at. The drug runners abandoned their boat. One was captured, but they were still searching for the other. We found this all out when the navy searched our panga (twice).

After we had dinner (and after dark), a "local" came to pay us a visit. We thought it was someone from the hunting villa at the far end of the beach. Next thing I know, our guide was quietly telling us to walk away from our campsite for a while. Then we find out the person was the second drug runner looking for food, water, info, etc. He thought he was on the mainland, so was surprised to hear that he was on an island. We did not give him what he was after, and feared he may come back at night to take the boat, so we changed plans and got permission from the folks at the hunting camp to stay there. We tried to contact the navy on the channel they gave us, but they seem to have gone home for the night.

Day 4:
We had a late start, as we needed to get ourselves together after the unexpected change of camp. But now that we decided not to make the circumnavigation, this wasn't a problem.

Just before we launched, a Humbolt Squid beached itself just next to our boats. Unbelievable. We had fresh squid for dinner! Picture of the squid, along with of other animals, can be seen in a separate blog post.

We decided to shoot for a beach on the channel between the two islands, as this should give us excellent whale viewing opportunities. Winds changed directions such that we had (another) head wind to deal with. But by afternoon, the winds were gone (for pretty much the rest of the trip), making for some pleasant paddling. Completed just over 17 miles, though we were towed for about a third of a mile (the section marked in pink on the map above). Saw some very large whales in the distance as we paddled, which we later determined to be blue whales. Very cool - never seen those before. Also came across a pod of dolphins just as we were getting to the campsite.

Day 5:
Day 5 was a play day. We were now close enough to Puerto Escondito to be able to easily make it in a day, so we decided to relax. Morning (late morning) was a nature hike. Afternoon was some skills exercises in the kayaks. I forced everyone to come out on to the water faster than they probably wanted by going out alone to practice rolls, then blowing a roll and having to swim. Turns out the paddle float I had wasn't one I knew how to use, so I had trouble getting back in (I could inflate it, but didn't figure out how to seal it - so had to do the recovery quickly to finish it before the paddle float was deflated). I did make it back in, but not before Jim was in his boat and working his way out to me (not even having zipped up his PFD, so he was obviously rushing - sorry Jim). Worked on various strokes after that. The pod of dolphins returned, so we took a break from from our exercises to watch them.

Also took a break to watch Juve, the local guide, catch trigger fish by hand (no nets, hooks, or spear guns) while skin diving. Having him around definitely made for some fresh seafood every day! Video below was a "Chinese fire drill" (kayakers switched boats while on the water) so that the boat loaded with his fish could be brought back in.

Good thing we did make this a play day, as the panga had motor problems. 2 of the guides paddled back to town to arrange for another panga to come out and get our gear and tow our panga back.

Saw 2 whales from the beach in the morning before we got ourselves going. 1 set were sperm whales, and we didn't identify the other set.

I didn't track how many miles we did while doing the exercises - probably a few miles.

Day 6:
Last day is always depressing, as you don't want to leave. We paddled across the channel and poked around the cliffs on the smaller island. Then looped around to a beach for lunch. Made the final crossing to Puerto Escondito to find a cooler full of cold beer waiting for us. Then back to the hotel and a much need shower. 10.4 miles for the day, and about 60 miles for the trip.

Didn't see any whales while padding, but on the drive back Mike saw something in the water. We pulled over just in time to see a humpback breaching. Amazing! The whale kept breaching for 10 minutes or so as we watched. He was slowly heading further away from us as he did this, so after a while we decided to continue on to town.

Overall, an awesome trip. Great people to paddle with, great fresh seafood caught on the trip, and a great location. This post (and the post on animals) just covers some of the basics of what we saw and experienced - lots more I didn't mention.

Animals from Baja

2009-01-21T09:08:00.000-08:00

I am back from a week of kayaking in Baja. Here are some photos of various animals we saw.
カヤックをしにメキシコのバハから帰った。　動物の写真だ：

Tarantula / タランチュラ:

Stingray / スティング・レイ:

Scorpion / サソリ:

Pufferfish / フグ:

Pelican taking off / ペリカン:

Moray Eel that was lured out of the rocks to eat some fish scraps / ウツボ:

Humbolt Squid (he tasted yummy!) / ダイオウイカ(美味しかった！):

Crabs / カニ:

Bottlenose dolphins /バンドウイルカ :

Pelicans, cormorants, and blue footed boobies / ペリカンやウや青い足の鳥:

Clams / 貝:

Video of hermit crabs / ヤドカリのビデオ:

GGSKS

2009-01-21T09:07:00.000-08:00

Before I went to Baja, I took part in the Golden Gate Sea Kayak Symposium. 3 days of kayaking lessons and fun. Below are some videos and pictures:

Kayak Surfing in Yellow Bluff during the Tides class:

Rock Gardening off of the Headlands - me abandoning my attempt to go through a cave because a large set of waves came in:

More photos and video clips are at http://picasaweb.google.com/donohue.peter/GGSKSJan09?authkey=LYHSNzj9T2Q#.

Testicles bring money?

2009-01-02T11:56:00.000-08:00

I do work for a small Japanese company that imports hand made ceramic soaking tubs to the States. The last time the guy in Japan came to visit, he brought me a gift of a small ceramic statue of a tanuki, an animal in Japan often called a raccoon dog. It was made of ceramic in the same area as the tubs, and came with a description of the 7 lessons of the raccoon dog (describing why it looks like it does):

Sedge Hat - be always careful not to become bankrupt
Charming Face - affability is important to a merchant
Big Paunch - be quick in a decision
Sake Bottle - being satisfied with a simple mean calls virtue
Account Book - trust first
Testicles - money will come and multiple by a wise use of it
Large Tail - the end crowns all

Interesting reasoning.

Met a local celebrity

2008-12-13T18:34:00.000-08:00

I went for a paddle on Friday with folks from the local sea kayak club. As we were launching from Jack London Square, Doug McConnell showed up and started filming segments for a future episode of the outdoors show he has. Watch his show on NBC11 after the Super Bowl (so on Super Bowl Sunday), and you may see me amongst the kayaks in the background at some point during his show (where he is talking about some discount card or something).

I didn't feel so bad about asking for a photo after another kayaker asked to borrow his shirt to clean their glasses (kayaking clothes are made of materials that aren't good to use to clean glasses, but cotton is great for this).

Below is a picture of him as he did one of the takes required to film the shot segment.

Breaking news - Santa trade sled for boat!

2008-12-04T14:05:00.000-08:00

I went for a paddle today, and saw something shocking! Santa was trying out his new boat. Seems he had to replace his sled with a boat, as global warming was melting all the snow.
今日カヤックに乗った。びっくりした！サンタさんは新しい舟を試乗した。地球温暖化で雪解けなので、そりに代わる舟だ。

Actually, it was the Dolphin Club taking photos for their web site or Xmas card or something like that.
実はDolphin Clubというスイミングクラブのクリスマス・カードの写真を取っている。

Paddled up to the Golden Gate Bridge, and then back to Pier 39. Not as many sea lions hanging out there today as there normally are. Also, less tourists watching them as per normal.
ゴールデンゲートブリッジに行って、シーライオンを見にピア39に行った。前よりシーライオンは少ない。観光客も。

Bike camping

2008-10-21T09:49:00.000-07:00

Some friends reserved the Black Mountain Backpack Camp last weekend, and invited us up. This is their annual Autumnal Festival. They bring a lot of gear up and even make dinner and breakfast for us.

Sylvia and I had never bike camped before, so were not sure if we could carry all our gear. We were able to get it all together, though this trip was a little easier for us as we didn't have to carry cooking gear or much food. So we loaded up the panniers we have and headed off.

Our load was actually rather small compared to some of the other folks. Seems there is an unofficial contest to see who can bring the most gear up by bike. Includes one couple even bringing a couch with them. And our hosts bringing lots of wine, food, and even an extra tent that is large enough for everyone to hang out in should it get cold or start to rain.

Not sure how to explain the name of the book she is reading... And, no, she doesn't live in the Castro...

They are back

2008-10-09T17:32:00.001-07:00

A year ago, I posted about the Blue Angels being in town. Well they are back... I took a break and watched one of their practice runs.
１年前にブルー・エンジェルス(アメリカ合衆国海軍所属のアクロバット飛行隊)の事をブログで書いた。また来た。今日休んで、予行演習見た。

Angel Island camping

2008-09-23T18:50:00.000-07:00

Some friends were camping on Angel Island for a week, and invited me to join them. I was able to join them for one night. Angel Island is in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. Rather than take the ferry over, I decided to kayak out to the island and back.
友達はAngel Islandで１週間キャンプした。招待してくれた。Angel Islandはサンフランシスコ湾の中葉なのでカヤックで島に行った。

Our campsite had great views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.
いい景色だった。サンフランシスコやゴールデンゲートブリッジ見えた。

We had great weather while we were there. Fall is definitely the best weather in San Francisco. The fog goes away and the temperature is pleasant. It was good that it was this way, as our campsite would have been cold if there was wind and fog!
いい天気だった。サンフランシスコの秋の天気は１番いいと思う。　霧が愛し、気温がいいし。霧や風の場合はそのキャンプ場は寒いので、良かった。

Below is the GPS track of my route. I paddled in a clockwise direction.
私のGPSの路線だ。右回り行った。

Definitely a fun little trip.
旅行は楽しかった。

Limantour Paddle

2008-09-12T21:27:00.000-07:00

I took today off of work and went for a kayak trip by myself. I went up to Point Reyes and launched off of Limantour Beach. I had heard that there was a lot of wildlife here, including humpback whales, which I hoped to see. Video below is some of what I saw.
今日仕事を休んで、一人でカヤックに乗った。ポイント・レイエスのリマントウル・ビーチで進水した。最近そこで多い野生生物（クジラとか）があるそうだ。見たい！下のビデオはそこからだ：

I did see a humpback whale in the distance, but did not get any photos or videos of it.
遠方にザトウクジラ見た、でも写真もビデオも取らなかった。

Gray Whales presentation / コククジラプレゼンテーション

2008-08-04T15:26:00.000-07:00

I had to do a presentation for my Japanese class, and I decided to do it on Gray Whales
プレゼンテーションさせた。カヤックから見えるコククジラの事にする。

-------------------------------------------------

コククジラはカリフォルニアの海岸沿いから見られます。写真を見てください。大きいですね。でもちょっとみにく醜いと思います。その瘤は皮膚に亀の手です。
Gray whales are one of the whales that can sometimes be seen off of California’s coasts. As you can see in the pictures, they are pretty large. They are also kind of ugly, as these bumps on their skin are barnacles.

回遊ルートは長いです。アラスカ州のベーリング海からメキシコのバハまでです。
Their annual migration route is long. It goes from the Bering Sea near Alaska down to Baja, Mexico.

夏にベーリング海はコククジラの餌場です。コククジラはヒゲクジラで、エビやカニを食べます。
In the summer, they are up in their feeding grounds near Alaska in the Bering Sea. They are baleen whales, and feed on small animals, like shrimp and crab.

１１月ぐらい、子鯨のためにメキシコのバハに行きます。その時、カリフォルニアの海岸のそばを通ります。
Then around November, they swim past us on their way to Baja, Mexico, where they breed.

２月か３月に雄鯨と子鯨がいない雌鯨は北の餌場に戻ります。
Then in February and March, the males and non-breeding females head back north to feed.

そのクジラは海岸沿いから１マイル以上なので、見にくいです。
These whales are generally about 1 to 3 miles from shore, so can be hard to see.

でも子鯨がいる雌鯨は４月ぐらい戻ります。オルカから子鯨の守りなので海岸沿いの近くで泳ぎます。オルカは時々子鯨を食べます。
The females with calves return around April. The females and babies stay very close to the shore, to protect the babies. Killer Whales often will try to eat the babies.

だから海岸と舟から４月に見やすいです。私はこの数年コククジラを見にカヤックに乗りました。
This makes them relatively easy for people to see in April, both from shore and from boat. So the past few Aprils, I have gone kayaking in areas where we may see Gray Whales.

一番いいところはSan Mateo郡のPigeon Pointでしょう。１号線からライトハウスを見えるところです。一番上の写真は私です。写真は私とライトハウスです。
The best place seems to be off of Pigeon Point, which is on the San Mateo Coast. It is at the lighthouse that you can see from Highway 1. The picture shows me and the lighthouse.

風がない日がいいです。そして波が低い日もいいです。
You also want to go at a time when there is not much wind nor waves.

クジラを見つけるにはクジラの潮吹きを探します。たまには潮吹きの音を聞けます。
To find a whale, you would look for the whale’s spout. Sometimes, you can also hear their breaths.

この写真はライトハウスから取った。カヤックの人は私と彼女です。
This picture was taken from the lighthouse, and shows my girlfriend and I watching a whale surface.

この写真は近くで取りました。
This picture is a close up picture.

クジラは4,5回息吹きのために浮上しています。最後の浮上にクジラの尾びれを見せて深く潜ります。その後１０分以上水中で過ごします。
Whales will surface about 4 or 5 times for air. On the last time, they will sometime show their fluke as they dive deep. Then they stay underwater for over 10 minutes.

あの霧はクジラの潮吹きです。
The mist you see in the picture is the whale’s breath.

下の写真はTomales Bayにいる探索浮上しているクジラです。英語で「spy hopping」です。そのクジラは辺りの様子を調べています。
The bottom shows a whale “spy hopping” in Tomales Bay. He is checking out his surroundings.

その写真よく亀の手を見られます。
You can really see the barnacles in this picture.

４月に海岸にいったら、クジラを探してください。
If you are near the ocean in April, look out and see if you can see whales.

Disappointed / 失意

2008-07-25T17:52:00.000-07:00

My plans for this weekend were to go camping in Mendocino and do some advanced sea kayaking. We were signed up for a trip where we would paddle in to sea caves. This takes a bit of skill, but is also very exciting, as many of these caves can only be accessed by a sea kayak.
週末はキャンプしにメンドシノ岬に行って、カヤックに乗る予定だった。カヤックで海食洞に入る。スキルが必要だ。でも色々な海食洞はカヤックだけで入れるので、とても楽しい。

Unfortunately, on Wednesday I hurt my back. I have been to the chiropractor 3 times already, but my back still has not fully recovered. So we have canceled the trip.　I am very disappointed.
でもあいにく水曜日に背中を痛めた。３回カイロプラクターに行った。でもまだ回復した。ドタキャンになった。とても失意だよ。

ps - the photo is of me going through an arch earlier this year / 写真は今年前半にアーチを通過中の私だった。

Road Trip - Car Mileage

2008-07-10T13:55:00.000-07:00

When I bought my Subaru new, I think they said it got about 27 mpg on the highway, and 22 in the city. I had heard that these estimates are usually a little high, and this matches the fact that on most trips I only was seeing 24-25 mpg (though I was usually getting 22-23 around town).

But last winter, we did a road trip to Albuquerque. With the higher gas prices, I went through the car and did all the little recommendations to improve performance (adjust tire pressures, etc.). I also took the Yakima roof rack off. We seemed to have much better mileage on that trip than I was used to.

So for this trip, I decided to track the mileage. I found a way to stuff both bikes, 2 kayaks, and all our gear for 2 weeks inside the car (with just enough space to see out the rear view mirror), so again removed the roof rack. The vast majority of this was highway miles, though there was a significant amount of time in the parks at much slower speeds (including stop and go). We did have a day of driving around Yellowstone with the kayaks strapped to the roof, and a few days around Ketchum with the Yakima rack back on so we could carry bikes). The weather was warm, so we had the air conditioning for just about the entire 2 weeks. And we may have, um, exceeded the speed limit from time to time.

The results were surprising. Over 3578 miles, we averages 28.25 mpg! That's 5758 km and 8.3 liters per 100 km for those who prefer metric. Wow, my little car is not as fuel inefficient as I thought.

Road Trip Part 3 - Ketchum, ID

2008-07-08T16:25:00.000-07:00

We finished the trip with a week in Ketchum, ID (home of Sun Valley ski resort). Some friends had rented a house for the week and planned to do a lot of mountain biking in the area, so we decided to join them.
旅行の最後の部分はサンバレースキー場のアイダホ州のケチウムだった。友達は借家した。

We did a lot of biking, along with 2 days of paddling (once on a lake, and once on the local river).
マウンテン・バイクしたり、カヤックに乗ったり、した。

Picture to the right is of Sylvia riding through a field of wildflowers / 右の写真はシルビアと野の花:

Paddling down the Big Wood river / 川でカヤック乗り:

Fox / 狐:

Riding through the aspens / アスペンの木立:

Riding through an area that burned last year / 去年火事によって荒廃した森林所:

A herd of sheep coming through town / ヒツジの群れ:

Road Trip Part 2 - Glacier

2008-07-08T15:07:00.000-07:00

Second part of our trip was to Glacier National Park, which is up on the border with Canada. This park was formed by glaciers, so has very beautiful mountains. There are still a few glaciers left (though they are getting smaller each year), but we could only see them from a distance. This park also has a lot of wildlife in it.
2番目はカナダとの国境に接しているグレーシャー国立公園だった。氷河がある、でも少ない。そして氷河はだんだん小さくなる。

We did 2 long hikes, and a half day of paddling on the lake we stayed near. Below are some videos and pictures.
２日長くハイキングした。そして半日カヤックに乗った。

View from our hotel window / ホテルの窓からの景色:

We saw this moose while doing one of our long hikes / ハイキングの途中でムース見た:

Sometime wildlife is so hard to find. This female big horn sheep was walking through the hotel's parking lot / 雌のビッグホーンヒツジ:

Picture from our paddle / カヤックからの写真:

Mountains on the other side of the park / 国立公園の東側の山:

I wanted to see a bear while hiking, and in the last 100 yards of our last hike, we finally saw this guy / ハイキングの途中で熊見た:

Road Trip Part 1 - Yellowstone

2008-07-08T14:38:00.000-07:00

Loaded up the Subaru and went for a 2 week road. The first part of the trip was to Yellowstone National Park. The park is known for its thermal activity (it is on an old volcano) and wildlife.
車で２週間の旅行すた。まずは野生生物や熱活性で有名であるイエローストーン国立公園だった。

We did 2 days of paddling, and spent a lot of time visiting the scenic spots. Below are some videos and pictures.
２日カヤックした。そして景色を見た。

Boiling Hot Spring / 沸騰している温泉:

Getting hailed on while kayaking / 霰とカヤック:

Me soaking in a thermally heated stream (water was bathtub temperature) / 私は温泉の小川に入った:

Buffalo grazing / 放牧のバッファロー:

Black bear foraging for food / アメリカクロクマ:

And of course, lots of thermal activity, including seeing the most famous geyser - Old Faithful / オールドフェイスフル:

Military buildup

2008-06-15T21:09:00.000-07:00

There is a military buildup going on in the quiet little town of Portola Valley, and few people know about it. A gentleman named Jacques Littlefieled decided to start restoring armored military vehicles a while back, and has compiled quite a collection. Actually, this is the largest personal collection of vehicles in the world. It is not a museum, and they can be viewed only on special tours, which a friend arranged.

Actually, I first heard about this during the first Gulf War. There was a newspaper article about a person who was having trouble getting a SCUD missile through customs. The article then went on to talk about how this person lives in Portola Valley and collects military equipment.

We viewed the collection in 4 of his warehouses, which turns out to be maybe half of his collection. Amazing! It is a good thing he is rich, as he has a staff of 6 who restores them to new condition (many of them come in as little more than scrap metal, often requiring that they piece together a few different ones, plus manufacture a lot of replacement parts, in order to get 1 complete unit).

Oh, the picture below does show a SCUD missile in a launcher, so he did get it through customs. He actually has 2 of them.

Last picture was taken by a friend - though, how much of a friend could he be if I am willing to aim 4 machine guns at him! 8-)

Safari

2008-06-10T10:40:00.000-07:00

I have wanted to go to Africa and go on a safari. Well, my birthday was last weekend, and my girlfriend took me on one.
アフリカへサファリ旅行したかった。先週末は私の誕生日だったから、彼女は連れていってくれた。

Well, we can't leave home for long. And air fares are frightfully expensive. So instead of going to Africa, we went to a place called Safari West in Sonoma, which tries to recreate the experience on their 400 acre preserve. We were driven around on vehicle that are just like the type used on Safaris in Africa and saw a variety of animals, some from very close up. It was a lot of fun.
でも暇がないし、航空料金は高いし、アフリカへ行かないでソノマ・ヴァレーのSafari Westと言うサファリパークへ行った。サファリの車で色々なアフリカの動物を見た。楽しかった。

New kayaks

2008-06-01T22:53:00.000-07:00

Sylvia and I are taking a trip in about a month to Montana and Idaho, including Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. We are bringing bikes, so don't have the space to carry our regular boats also.
1カ月近くでシルヴィアさんと私はモンタナ州とアイダホ州に旅行する予定だ。イエローストーン国立公園やグレーシャー国立公園で見物する。自転車を持って行くので、カヤックを持って行かない。

But we wanted to be able to paddle around some areas on this trip. We saw inflatable kayaks on sale at REI, so decided to pick up a pair. After paddling our regular boats last Saturday, we then inflated these and gave them a try. They work fine, and should be a lot of fun on the trip.
でも湖でボートを漕ぐことがしたい。REIというスポーツ用品店でインフレータブル・カヤックは発売中だ。買った。土曜日普通のカヤックに乗ったのあと、その新しいカヤックを乗った。良かった。その旅行で楽しみにしている。

Though I may need to figure out how to inflate mine more so that I don't sink the rear end of my boat (though maybe I should just lose some weight).
でももう少し私のカヤックを膨らませたほうがいいだろう。さもなければ体重が減ったほうがいいね。

Kings Canyon N.P.

2008-05-28T11:23:00.000-07:00

Went to Kings Canyon National Park last weekend with some friends to do some hiking. It rained for just about the whole weekend, which was unusual for this time of the year. And at the higher altitude, there was snow.
先週末友達とハイキングしにキングズキャニオン国立公園へ行った。今ごろの天気にしては異常に雨が降った。週末中だった。山の上に雪があった。
　

Car free kayak trip

2008-05-15T18:39:00.000-07:00

We have a heat wave coming through right now, with high temperatures over 90 degrees in SF. When this happens, they often announce that the day will be a spare the air day, where they want you to not drive and take other steps to keep pollution down. So I did my part by going kayaking without driving to the water with my boat.

I am lucky to live reasonably close to the water, where I can kayak. But, we have little storage space where we live, so I keep the kayaks down near the bike shop. We are going away this weekend for some kayaking and camping, and with the expected spare the air days where it would be better not to drive, I decided to get the boats yesterday and store them on the roof of the car.

But the heat is also when I would want to be on the water, so I went for a paddle anyway. I loaded the boat up on the kayak cart I have, placed my gear in to the cockpit, and walked the 8 blocks from where I was parked to the water. I am sure a few people did double takes, as seeing someone towing a 15 foot long kayak down the sidewalk isn't something that one sees often.

I did a quick lap around Alcatraz, and then poked around the various wharfs. Out at Alcatraz, it appears the cormorants can not read the sign telling them to stay off the island, as quite a few have set up house there.

There has been a lot of talk recently about not scaring nesting sea birds, so I did my part and gave them space. But, annoyingly, a sailboat went by right after me and spooked most of the birds.

Also did my good deed for the day by picking up various pieces of floating trash, like plastic bags and foam. Some folks on a docked sailboat at Pier 39 and some fisherman at Fisherman's Wharf were both nice enough to allow me to leave the garbage with them to be disposed of (so I didn't have to carry it all with me).

Tomorrow is also supposed to be hot, and if I can free up some time, I may go for another paddle.

Who is it? だれですか？

2008-05-13T08:38:00.000-07:00

A friend sent me this photo - quite interesting. Who do you think it is? Click here to see the result.
友達がEメールした写真だ。面白い。だれだろうか？ここでクリックして、本当のを見る。

Recent sighting

2008-05-07T11:01:00.000-07:00

About 2 weeks ago I was biking across the Golden Gate Bridge and saw something interesting. Happened to have a camera with me...
約２週間前に自転車でゴールデンゲートブリッジを渡りつつ、面白いものを見た。デジカメをたまたま手元にあった。

Short walk for peace

2008-05-02T17:12:00.000-07:00

I went for a bike ride today. Had 2 goals - to get a long ride in (was on a scale at my doctor's last week, and decided I could use to lose a few lbs.) and to see if I could see any migrating gray whales (I looked, but they hid). So I biked to Stinson Beach and back.
今日Stinson Beachへ自転車に乗った。体重のために運動しなければならないと思う。そして今鯨は北方へ移動するので、見たかった（でもあいにく見なかった）。

While I was stopped and watching for whales, a guy walked up to me pushing a cart. He stopped and chatted for a while. Seems he is walking from Mexico to Canada to "build bridges of understanding, love, and compassion with non-violence, global peace, and unity at the core." If you want to follow his travels, he has a Blog at http://peacesteps.net/.
鯨を探す間に人は歩いて来て、話した。大義名分の下でメキシコからカナダへ行っている。すごい！http://peacesteps.net/

Before this, I did see a turkey with her brood on the side of a road in Mill Valley. Wasn't sure how defensive she would be when I biked past her (I've known geese to attack), but she let me pass.
前にMill Valleyに野生のシチメンチョウとシチメンチョウの子を見た。

Review - GoPro Hero 3 Camera

2008-04-17T16:30:00.000-07:00

I picked up a Go Pro Hero recently. This camera appealed to me, as it has a better waterproof rating than the other cameras I have (usable to 30 feet, versus 5 or 10 feet for the others). It is a relatively simple camera, without a digital view screen and saving all pictures and videos onto a memory card, all in a waterproof box with buttons in the right places.

Summary - Pros
+ Inexpensive (under $150 at Amazon)
+ waterproof and rugged
+ Simple to use
+ Decent battery life
+ Good for basic action videos and photos which don't need high resolution
+ comfortable to wear

Summary - Cons
- no vibration stabilization
- no software to edit/trim videos
- Not high quality video
- microphone is muffled in the box
- helmet mount is expensive if bought separately

Details:
My comparison point for this camera is a Pentax Optio W20(though if you are looking for one of these, you may want to instead get the W30 version, which is newer and only a few bucks more than the W20). I have used the Pentax for both still pictures and video for a year or two now, and it does decently at both. But I have been worried about its waterproof qualities in some of the stuff I do (like snorkeling or if I get hit with a wave). The GoPro Hero3 intrigued me as a camera that many even work for some SCUBA diving.

Test - Video Comparison
To test the quality of this camera, I had the GoPro strapped on my wrist and held the Pentax in my hand. I turned them both on at pretty much the same time, holding both and taping the same thing. Started in the darkness of my garage, then stuck them outside in the bright sun, shook them a bit to see how they handled that, then back into the garage. Played back both videos on my computer to compare.

GoPro Digital Hero 3 Video Sample

Pentax Optio W20:

The result on the whole, the Pentax had better video quality. First, the Pentax has image stabilization, where the GoPro does not. And the Pentax tapes at 640x480 at 30fps, where the GoPro is only 512x384 at 30fps. Lastly, the Pentax seems to handle darkness better than the GoPro. But, the quality would be just fine for use on Youtube or similar.

As a plus for the GoPro over the Oregon Scientific ATC-2K, which I reviewed before, is that the GoPro has a optical viewfinder, so you can better aim the camera when holding in your hand for your pictures and videos. But it does not have a digital view screen, so you can't review your pictures/videos on the camera after you take them.

So you can make the comparison yourself, you can download the video clips in un-edited, native form.
- Pentax's Video file (12 Megabytes)
- GoPro Hero3 Video File (9 Megabytes)

Still Photos
I took both cameras up to the roof and took roughly the same picture with each.

GoPro Still:

Pentax Still:

In small picture size, they look about the same. About the only difference was the Pentax was better able to capture pictures in the dark areas.

But the GoPro Hero 3 is only a 3 megapixel camera, where the Pentax is a 7 megapixel camera (though the sample picture was taken in 5 megapixel mode, what I normally use). GoPro's pictures are fine for the web or viewing on a computer, but the resolution is a little low for trying to print.

My GoPro seems to have a small streak on the lens, which I will have to try to clean off. It does seem like it would have a greater chance of getting dirty, as there is both the lens of the camera the lens of the waterproof box which you need to keep clean.

So you can make the comparison yourself, you can download the still photos in un-edited, native form.
- Pentax's Still Picture (2 Megabytes)
- GoPro Hero3 Still Picture (0.5 Megabytes)

Test - Battery Life:
To test the battery life - I turned the camera on and started taping. My goal was to see which would run out first, the 2 gigabyte memory card or the rechargeable AAA (NiMH) batteries. The batteries were the first to die, after about 45 minutes of taping (where the 2 gig SD card can hold about 54 minutes). Perhaps if it was a fresh charge (these same batteries were used for the photos and other video clips used in this review), it may have gone the full 54 minutes, though I think they would still be short.

Last thoughts:
I would pay more for better video quality in the camera. Either a higher resolution, a faster saving speed (so it can get the 30 fps claimed), or some sort of shake stabilization would be good improvements and worth paying some more for. But for an inexpensive camera that is very waterproof, this is a great little camera.

Definitely get an SD card to go with it. Because the photos are small in size, you can probably get away with a smaller SD card (I used a 256mb card I had sitting around at first), unless you take a lot of video clips.

There are different models of the GoPro camera, such as the Helmet Hero and Motorsports Hero. They all use the same camera, but have different quick release attachment mounts so you can attach the camera to helmets, handlebars, flat surfaces, etc. I would be interested in the helmet mounts, but it is a $70 kit (where if I bought the Helmet Hero, it would have been only $30 additional over the price of the regular camera).

3 cameras, 0 whale pictures

2008-04-13T19:17:00.000-07:00

The gray whales are migrating north from Mexico to Alaska now. The waves were predicted to be low on Saturday, so it seemed like good conditions to go paddle and try to view some whales. So we launched early Saturday morning from Pigeon Point. We had 3 cameras with us, so we could hopefully get some good photos.

Shortly after launching, we did see a mother and calf. They would surface for air a few times, and then dive for a minute or two. It was a game to try to predict where they would surface next.

We followed them for a while. Some of the others thought they were going faster than they were, so lost track of them. Sylvia and I stayed back (or were just slower), and ended up being close to where they were, so had some decent views of them surfacing a a half dozen times or so.

Unfortunately, even with 3 cameras between the 2 of us, we got no good shots or video clips. The picture above, which Sylvia took, almost caught it - I marked the whale with a red arrow (that is me in the yellow boat to the right of the picture - yes I am holding my camera up and trying to take a photo, and no it didn't come out...).

We have gone whale watching before, and which I wrote about last year at this Blog post from watching gray whales in the same area and this post where we went to watch humpback whales in Monterey. Got better pictures both times.

Below are 2 photos from this trip last weekend that did come out. One shows me, and the other shows Sylvia and one of the other folks on the paddle with us.

Oh, the indignity!

2008-04-10T11:52:00.001-07:00

This is not how a fine beverage like Guinness should be treated!

Kayaking Point Lobos

2008-03-23T21:52:00.000-07:00

Went with some friends to Point Lobos to go kayaking. The waves were a bit high, so we didn't paddle as long, nor try to rock garden as much, as we had hoped. I took a couple of pictures (below).

At the end of the paddle, I did play at the launch point for a little bit. Brian and Janet caught some of it on film, and made the video below.

Do The Test

2008-03-17T22:25:00.000-07:00

Interesting awareness test - can you pass?
面白い気付いていることのテスト-合格できる？

Riding the swells

2008-03-10T22:49:00.000-07:00

We went paddling last weekend off of Half Moon Bay. There were 6 to 8 foot swells reported, which are not that large for ocean waves. But they do make you go up and down a lot.
先週末Half Moon Bayでカヤックに乗った。外洋うねりの高さは2メートルごらいだった。

Kayaks are very stable, so these swells are not really an issue. They won't knock you over, but when you are in the trough of the wave, you can't see anything around you besides water.
カヤックはしっかり安定しているので、そのうねりは困らない。

After the paddle, we watched a talk at Half Moon Bay Yacht Club on a new book - The Islands of San Francisco Bay. This book covers the 45 or so islands in the bay, with a particular focus on the nature found on the islands. The author was there and showed us some of the beautiful photos. We liked it so much that we bought the book.
カヤックの後、新刊書のプレゼンを見た。サンフランシスコ湾の島の本だ。多いいい写真がある。

We did get to see a beautiful sunset after the presentation.
プレゼンの後、美しい夕焼けが見た。

Snowy weekend in the mountains

2008-02-28T17:51:00.000-08:00

I went with some friends last weekend to the mountains south of Lake Tahoe to snow shoe and cross country ski. While we were there, it snowed a lot. Can you tell what is in the picture to the right, which was taken towards the end of the snow storm? Click here to see a picture out the same window before the snow started.
先週末友達とタホ湖の南の山に遊びに行った。そこに滞在している間、大雪が降った。右にあるの雪の終わりごろに取った写真には何か見られるか？　同じ窓から一日前の写真はここにある。

The picture to the left was out the back door of the cabin, which wasn't getting any use during the winter.
左は家の裏口の写真だ。その裏口は冬にあまり利用しない。

What's wrong with this picture?

2008-02-16T09:04:00.000-08:00

I went kayaking on Thursday with a friend. Found some interesting conditions to paddle in. Part of it is shown in this picture - can anyone tell me what looks weird?
木曜日に友達とカヤックした。面白い状況があった。その状況はその写真で見ることができるだろう。状況をかるか？

We paddled out past the Golden Gate Bridge toward the Ocean. Had a nice view of the moon rising behind the bridge on the way back in.
ゴールデンゲートブリッジの下で漕いだ。帰ったとき橋の後ろ月を見た。

Sylvia did good!

2008-02-10T18:48:00.000-08:00

We use various types of water bags when we kayak camp, but prefer ones that are flexible so they can fit in the odd spaces of a kayak. The top of the line one is the MSR Dromedary line of water bags. But they are expensive - a 6 liter one is some $35.
カヤックのキャンプする時色々な水袋を使う、でも曲げやすい形のはいいだろう。一番いい水袋はMSR Dromedaryだ。でもとても高い(普通１つは＄35ぐらい）。

Sylvia was up in Canada a few weeks back and saw a sale of 2 for $10. The catch was they were missing part of their cap. She bought them figuring we could find some way to fix it.
2,3週間前にSylviaさんはカナダにいた。2つは＄10の安売りを見た。でも水袋の栓がなかった。2つ買った。

My first step was to contact the manufacture and see if they do sell them. They say they do, and the part is only $0.25 per piece (we need 2), but they have a minimum order of $10. Rather than going through the hassle of doing an oder, they just sent me out the parts for free! Yeah - 2 Dromedaries for $10!
MSRの会社をメールした。その栓を売る。とても安いー１つは＄0.25だ。でも注文は$10以上から受け付ける。だから会社は無料で送ってもらった。すばらしい！

How different

2008-01-19T21:06:00.000-08:00

Guinness Draught and Guinness Stout - besides one coming in a can and the other a bottle, how are they different?　I have always thought that Guinness is Guinness, but they appear different.
Guinness DraughtとGuinness Stoutはどう違いますか？ GuinnessはGuinnessと思いました、でも違うようです。

Review - Oregon Scientific ATC-2K video camera

2008-01-10T13:00:00.000-08:00

For Christmas, I was given an Oregon Scientific ATC-2K waterproof digital video camera. It is a relatively simple camera, without a view screen and saving all videos onto a memory card. But what appealed to me is that it comes with necessary straps and brackets to attach to most anything, including both a bicycle handle bar and a helmet.

Summary - Pros
+ Inexpensive (under $100 at Amazon)
+ Attaches to most anywhere with provided straps and brackets
+ waterproof and rugged
+ Simple to use
+ Decent battery life
+ Good for basic action videos which don't need high resolution

Summary - Cons
- no vibration stabilization
- no software to edit/trim videos
- Not high quality video
- Not that good for use as a hand held
- microphone is basically useless

Details:
My comparison point for this camera is a Pentax Optio W20 (though if you are looking for one of these, you may want to instead get the W30 version, which is newer and only a few bucks more than the W20). I have used the Pentax for both still pictures and video for a year or two now, and it does decently at both. But it is not great for action shots where I am in the action (the Pentax needs to be held, as it doesn't have mounting brackets). I have tried a few attachment methods to get it to work on a kayak, but never really liked how they worked.

So when I saw the ATC-2K, I was intrigued. Low price and able to attach to most anything, so a couple of hints to my girlfriend and it appeared under the Xmas tree.

Test - Video Comparison
To test the quality of this camera, I turned it and the Pentax Optio W20 on at pretty much the same time, holding both and taping the same thing. Then played back both videos on my computer to compare. Being the ATC-2K is a dedicated video camera, I was hoping it would be as good, if not better, than the Pentax (which is meant to be a still camera first, but with video capabilities).

Oregon Scientific ATC-2K:

Pentax Optio W20:

The result on the whole, the Pentax had slightly better video quality, but both were in the same range. I think it was the image stabilization from the Pentax that made the difference. I have also found times with the ATC-2K that it wasn't getting the full 30 fps, but instead had dropped down to 20-22 fps for some reason.

So you can make the comparison yourself, you can download the video clips in un-edited native form.
Pentax's IMGP3726.MOV file (14 Megabytes)
Oregon Scientific AVI_0103.AVI file (8 Megabytes)

Interesting, I feel this camera should come with some sort of video editing software. This camera is best used (IMHO) as something you start taping before you do something, and stop taping when you are done, and then later edit out the stuff you don't want to see (like the fumbling with the on off buttons). But this requires some software to edit it. Thankfully, I have the software that came with the Pentax, which works just fine.

Test - Handlebar Mount
Below is a video clip I took of a road bike ride as I descended down a hill in the Marin Headlands, with the camera mounted on my handlebars using the handlebar mount provided.

Overall, not that good. The road shudder came straight through. And the microphone only picked up the sounds of the bike vibrating. Perhaps if it was on my mountain bike (with a suspension fork and fat tires to smooth it out), it may be better.

Test - Helmet Mount
Here is a video clip when I had it attached on my helmet while riding some single track (in Waterdog Park, Belmont, CA). Figured this would be a tougher test than if I used the camera when kayaking, as my head would likely move a lot more on the bike ride.

I think I am happier with the helmet results than with the handlebar results...

One downside is that I installed the camera on the side of the helmet, so I could use the strap that wraps around the helmet. I had to tighten my helmet down a lot to keep the weight of the camera from shifting one side of the helmet down. A tight fitting helmet, or something like a full face helmet, would prevent this.

Test - Battery Life:
To test the battery life - I put a fresh charge on the batteries, installed them, and then turned the camera on and started taping. My goal was to see which would run out first, the 2 gigabyte memory card or the rechargeable AA batteries I used. The card ran out first at about 1 hour, which was what I hoped for. I guess without a view screen, it is very battery efficient.

Interesting, even though I didn't stop and start the video during this test, there were 2 files on the memory card. The first video was 45 minutes, with the remaining 15 minutes on a second file. I guess there is a file size limit or something.

Last thoughts:
I would pay more for better video quality in the camera. Either a higher resolution, a faster saving speed (so it can get the 30 fps claimed), or some sort of shake stabilization would be good improvements and worth paying some more for. But for an inexpensive camera that is small, waterproof, and can be mounted most anywhere, this is a great little camera.

Definitely get an SD card to go with it (probably best to just spring right for the 2 gig card), as the built in memory is only large enough for a few minutes of video.

Holiday travels

2008-01-03T21:13:00.000-08:00

My mother lives in Albuquerque, NM, so we decided to go visit her for the holidays. Rather than flying, we thought we would drive out and do some sightseeing.
母はニューメキシコ州のアルバカーキに住んでいるので、休日に母に会いに行った。見物ために飛行機の代わりに来るまで行った。

So we first drove to Vegas。 We saw the Cirque du Soleil O show, which was amazing (but also amazingly expensive). Ate too much at buffets also.
まず、ラスベガスへ行った。Cirque　du SoleilのOショーを見た。すごいだった、けど高かった。そしてビュッフェで食べすぎた。

After Vegas, we went to Albuquerque. While in Albuquerque, we visited Sante Fe to see museums. And we also took the ram to the top of the to Sandia Peak (over 10,000 feet in altitude) to do some snow shoeing. It was snowing pretty hard while we were snowshoeing.
ラスベガスの後にアルバカーキに行った。美術館を見にサンタフェに行った。そしてトラムでサンディア山脈に登って(高度3000メートル以上)、スノーシューズ(雪上を歩くための靴)した。そこで大雪が降っていた。

The video below shows me being a bit goofy in the snow:
したのビデオはばかの私だ：

After Albuquerque, we stopped at the Acoma Pueblo (Native American reservation on the top of a mesa), Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest National Park, Walnut Canyon, and Death Valley.
アルバカーキの後にアコマのプエブロ・インディアンやペトリファイドフォレストやグランドキャニオンやデスバリーに行った。

Petrified Log/化石木:

Grand Canyon/グランドキャニオン:

Death Valley, the lowest point in the US/デスバリーはアメリカの一番最低高度の所だ:

Coyote in Death Valley/デスバリーにいるコヨーテ:

View of Death Valley from Dante's Point/Dante's Pointからみるデスバリー:

Definitely a fun trip.
とても楽しかったよ。

Fox or Coyote?

2007-12-11T15:17:00.000-08:00

Saw this guy in the Presidio last weekend - I think it is a coyote, where Sylvia thinks it is a fox. What do you think?

He looked at us for a minute, and then went back to looking for food (ignoring us). He definitely didn't mind us at all, though once another person came along walking a dog, he paid a lot of attention to them. And as the dog approached, he decided to run away pretty quickly. Felt like we didn't disturb him, but the dog did.

Maybe smoke smell isn't that bad...

2007-12-11T15:15:00.000-08:00

From Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle:
日曜日のサンフランシスコの新聞によると：

One of the first victims of Scotland's recent ban on smoking in pubs was 35-year-old Stewart Laidlaw. In March, Laidlaw was banned from Thirsty Kirsty's pub in Dunfermline after numerous complaints about his "excessive flatulence."
スコットランドのパブに禁煙令を定めたばかりでStewart Laidlaw(３５歳)は犠牲者だ。３月にLaidlawさんはThirsty Kirstyというパブから追放された。多すぎる鼓腸の苦情も出ていたから。

The gaseous Scotsman admitted he's had the problem for years, but apparently no one in the pub noticed until cigarette smoke stopped masking the stench.
Laidlawさんは何年も前から鼓腸だった、でも禁煙令の前に（たばこの煙のにおいが多いので）鼓腸のにおいを嗅げなかった。

Audi Driving Experience

2007-12-02T08:56:00.000-08:00

Went to the Audi Driving Experience last Friday, which is billed as a chance to try the new Audi on a race track. We did the free, 2 hour introductory course.

During this program, we drove just about every Audi model they sell. They paired us off (my girlfriend was my partner), and put us in cars. The first thing we did was a simulation of an emergency high speed lane change, where we had to rush up to a set of cones and then make a quick, emergency turn into the lane to the left (preferably without hitting any cones). We did this with A6s, and each of us got to do it twice (though I could have used a 3rd run, as I clipped a cone on both of my runs).

Next was an emergency stop, such as what you might have to do if someone steps out on to the road in front of you. This was a test of the anti-lock brakes. We did this with A4s (video below shows the instructor showing us how it is done - we then went out and did it after that).

Then we went on a short Autocross course, where we swapped between an A8, an SUV, and the sporty little A3. This is me driving in the A3 - I accidentally hit the wipers as I was doing the sharp turn.

After this, we put on helmets and went out on the Infineon (Sears Point) track in A5s for a couple of laps. This wasn't a race - instead we followed the instructor in a line while he explained how best to take the course.

We were supposed to stay within 1 to 3 car lengths from the car in front of us, but I just couldn't do that. I guess it has been too many years of driving on the street where you need to keep more distance between you and the car in front of you.

There were a few cars we didn't get to drive, including the 450HP R8, the TT, and the car shown below...

Definitely was a great experience.

what is worth money

2007-11-25T10:27:00.001-08:00

On Friday, my girlfriend and I walked down to the new Apple store on Chestnut Street in San Francisco. Friday was "Black Friday", so all the stores were very busy, and Apple was not an exception. But being their first day, they had extra specials and were also giving away free T-shirts to the first people to go in. We did make it in time to get T-shirts.

I don't use Apple products (not even an iPod), and this was actually the first time I was in an Apple store, so the T-shirt doesn't excite me too much (plus it is too large). So I placed one of the shirts up on Ebay for sale on Friday. Now, with 5 days still to go, someone has already bid $20 for this shirt!

With the shirt the wrong size for us, the fact that we already have too many T-shirts, and that we would have to carry them with the other items we bought (nothing at Apple, but at other stores), we did consider not taking the shirts. But now that it looks like it has some value, I am glad I did take them.

How much do you think the shirt will go for?

日本語を話せる人へ：ごめん、英語だけで書いた。

Live near fast food

2007-11-02T07:23:00.000-07:00

Goo.ne.jp is a web site in Japan that is similar to Yahoo. They do surveys, including a recent one on what foreign food stores do Japanese people wish was near their homes.
Gooは先週海外チェーンの店舗のランキングに関する調査を行いました。そのことを来週プレゼンテーションしました。

Haagen-Dazs / ハーゲンダッツ
Starbucks / スターバックス
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts / クリスピー・クリーム・ドーナツ
Subway / サブウェイ
Burger King / バーガーキング
Taco Bell / タコベル
Hard Rock Cafe / ハードロックカフェ
Wendy’s / ウェンディーズ
Cold Stone Creamery / コールドストーンクリーマリー
OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE / アウトバックステーキハウス

There are some interesting results to this. For example, the number one choice was Haagen Dazs, which doesn't have stores in Japan, as far as I know (but is available in just about every convenience store and grocery store). Similarly, Taco Bell is #6, and also doesn't have stores in japan (excwept on American military bases).
おもしろかったです。１番はハーゲンダッツです。でもハーゲンダッツは日本の店があまりないと思います。米軍基地以外タコベル（６番）も日本にある店がありません。どうやって知っているか分かりません。

Number 3 is Crispy Creme Donuts. This is a total fad in Japan right now. They opened their first store less than a year ago, and only a few weeks ago opened their second store. Very much in the news, with pictures of lines around the block.
３番はクリスピー・クリーム・ドーナツです。去年の１２月、クリスピー・クリームの日本第1号店が開店しました。２号店は２週間前です。新しいチェーンです。多分ニュースで見た、でも食べたことがないでしょう。流行のものでしょう。

Burger King is number 5, but interestingly McDonalds is not on the list. I think this may be because McDonalds are already all over the place in japan, so they don't need to wish to live near one (they already do).
バーガーキングは５番です、でもマクドナルドはランキングに入っていません。びっくりしました。マクドナルドはバーガーキングより人気だと思います。あちらこちらにあるので、もうみんな日本人はマクドナルドの近くに住んでいるでしょう。だから欲しくないかもしれません。

The ranking system is kind of strange. They give the most popular choice a score of 100, and then give the other responses in relation to this. This tells you how popular in comparison different stores are, but doesn't tell you the overall popularity of the choices (do half the people want to live near a Haagen-Dazs, or just 2%?).
いったいその序列法を使っていましたか。ハーゲンダッツは１番人気です、でもどれほど人気か分かりません。何パーセントを書いたほうがいいでしょう。

new bridge

2007-10-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

The weather was beautiful yesterday, so I took the day off of work and went kayaking. I launched from Crissy Field and made a loop around Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island, passing close to Alcatraz on the way back.
昨日いい天気だったので、仕事を休んで、カヤックに乗った。Crissy FieldからTreasure Islandの周りを漕いで、Alcatrazの近くに通った。

I saw the construction for the new section of the Bay Bridge. They are definitely making progress, but I suspect it will be a few more years before they are done.
Bay Bridgeの架橋工事を見た。進んでいるが、もう２,３年かかるだろう。

The bridge on the right is the old bridge. It is not seismically safe, so is being replaced.
右の橋は古い。耐震性のないので新しいのに取り替える。

Fall Colors

2007-10-15T15:48:00.000-07:00

Sylvia wanted to see the fall colors, so we went to Grass Valley/Nevada City last weekend.
彼女は紅葉を楽しみたかったので、先週末Nevada CityとGrass Valley(シエラネバダの丘陵地帯)に行った。

Inside the towns, there were trees with good colors. I think these trees were imported from places like the east coast. The native trees do not have nearly as much color as these trees.
町の中にいろいろなカエデ色々カエデがある。その木は東海岸から移植したと思う。自生樹木はあまり紅葉の色がない。

In this picture, Sylvia was trying to look like a Japanese person, with her cell phone camera. There was pretty good colors in the background.
彼女は携帯のデジカメを使って、日本人っぽいだろう。背景にきれいな木だった。

Blue Angels

2007-10-04T12:56:00.000-07:00

I was working on a presentation that I am giving next week, when I started hearing the loud noises of jets flying around. This weekend is an air show, which includes the Blue Angels, so I figured it was them practicing. So I went up to the roof to check it out, and confirmed that it is them.

They are basically just flying around. No stunt or formation practice yet - I suspect that will be later today and tomorrow.

Kind of hard to get back to working on my presentation with all the noise.

Edit:
With all the noise, I gave up on trying to work and went down to the waterfront to watch. They did run through their performance and I captured some pictures.

Wilderness First Aid

2007-09-30T19:50:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I took a Wilderness First Aid class with the local kayak club. This class varies from the standard first aid/CPR class in that it assumes that professional help (like an ambulance) won't be able to arrive for over an hour　(perhaps even days), where in normal circumstances they can be there in about 10 minutes. So we needed to be able to make sure that a patient survives for longer periods, and also that we could transport them out.
先週末に荒野の応急手当の授業を受けた。その授業と普通な応急手当の授業はちょっと違う。普通のは緊急救助を呼ぶことから来るまで１０分ぐらいです。荒野の応急手当は１時間以上です。長い間に負傷者を生かしておかなければならない。

The class was 16 hours in total and covered many different things. We also had many practice sessions, including some with blood makeup used. I definitely learned a lot.
その授業は１６時間かかった。色々なことを教えた。よく学んだ。

The class took place at the Presidio Yacht Club, which is at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. We definitely had great views.
その授業はゴールデンゲートブリッジのふもとにPresidio Yacht Clubにあった。橋がよく見える

If you are interested in wilderness first aid classes, the company that provided the training was Foster Calm.
Foster Calmという会社は教えた。

Columbia River Water Trail - Basics

2007-09-17T12:09:00.000-07:00

Columbia River Water Trail - Trip

2007-09-17T12:08:00.000-07:00

This is a multi-part posting related to the paddle we just did down the Columbia River Water Trail. The parts are:

Part 1 - Basics of the trip
Part 2 - the Trip
Part 3 - Animals seen
Part 4 - Resources for others interested in this trip
Part 5 - Some pics of me that Brian took

すみません。英語だけです。

Part 2 - The Trip:
We started the trip a bit late, as my car had some problems on the way up. That was resolved and we drove to Oregon, arriving late in the evening. Stayed at a hotel and then went to the launch ramp the next morning (after 2 wrong turns), getting there a half hour late (not a great start to the trip).

We loaded the boats, which was a challenge. There is a limited amount of space in the boats, and we made the best of it. This is a picture into Sylvia's rear hatch.

We finally launched at 1 or 2, and enjoyed a strong (5 mph) current heading the direction we wanted to go. This allowed us to complete about 10 miles in the first afternoon, keeping us on schedule for our trip. The currents were amazingly strong, coming from San Francisco where currents down a stream don't really exist (just tides). Here, the tides don't play that much of a part until you get close to the ocean.

This process continued for the first few days - us padding for a few hours and covering a lot of ground due to the current. We would then stop, set up camp, relax and cook dinner.

The campsites were almost all on beaches. Some were semi-developed, and had fire rings, toilets, and/or picnic tables. Others were undeveloped. All were very nice.

The weather was very good for us. We had rain one night (while we slept) and some drizzle the next day, but other than that it was sunny for the first week. The last few days, once we got close to the coast, were foggy. And the winds mostly did not come up.

We did eat well during the trip. The first few nights we had fresh foods. Then after that, we did our best with dried foods (like rice and pasta) and canned foods. We did get lucky one day when Brian was given a large, fresh salmon fillet from a fisherman he helped. And we also found plenty of ripe blackberries just about everywhere we went.

Similar to tides not playing as much of a part, same with salt water. I couldn't taste any salt in the water until our last day of paddling - so fresh until 10 or 15 miles from the ocean. This surprised me, as in the SF Bay Area, salt reaches more than 50 miles.

Tides may not have played much of a part, but ships do. There is a major shipping channel in the river, and we need to make sure we are out of the way of the tugs with barges and open going ships.

The photos shown here, plus more photos and video clips, can be seen http://picasaweb.google.com/donohue.peter/ColumbiaRiverTrip.

And if you have software that can work with .GPX files from GPSs, you can download our track here. Final stats were 174.7 miles, moving time of 52h 32m 29s, average speed of 3.3 mph, and max speed of 11 mph (I don't believe this one, though I wouldn't be surprised to see an 8 or 9).

Columbia River Water Trail - Animals

2007-09-17T12:07:00.000-07:00

Columbia River Water Trail - Resources

2007-09-17T12:06:00.000-07:00

This is a multi-part posting related to the paddle we just did down the Columbia River Water Trail. The parts are:

Part 1 - Basics of the trip
Part 2 - the Trip
Part 3 - Animals seen
Part 4 - Resources for others interested in this trip
Part 5 - Some pics of me that Brian took

すみません。英語だけです。

Part 4 - Resources:
This trip was quite fun, and recommended. It has many things going for it that would allow someone with a little kayak camping experience to complete it. Added to this is some useful information out there which would help you along the way.

One book that was quite informative for us was the book The Lewis and Clark Columbia River Water Trail: A Guide for Paddlers, Hikers, and Other Explorers (click link to see this book and its reviews at Amazon). This book provides information on launch sites, camp sites, etc., and was useful enough day to day that Brian and Janet brought it with them on the trip.

The other product that we found helpful is the Fish-N-Map Company's Columbia River, Lower (Bonneville Dam to the Pacific Ocean) map. This fold out map is printed on waterproof paper, so I was able to keep it on my deck most of the time. It provided details that the book didn't, such as what areas would be above water at low tide. Not as detailed as the official charts, but this trip would require some $1000 in charts, where this map was under $10.

And of course, the Internet has some resources. Specifically, the web site http://www.columbiawatertrail.org/ has a lot of useful information. One of our paddle partners found this to be a bit too static, with information that seemed out of date in places, so he put together a Wiki for this watertrail at http://columbiariverwatertrail.gotoes.org/index.pl, which lets people add or change the content. To start with, the places we stopped at are posted in it.

All of these above don't provide a detailed enough picture needed, so local knowledge is needed. The local kayak shops and kayakers provided a lot of helpful information. Some shout outs:

The first source was Steve ("Flatpick" on paddling.net), who lives in the area and used to be an owner of Alder Creek Kayaks. He humored me and continued to provide responses to my dozens of emails.

Sandy ("PaddlePirate" on paddling.net) - It was good meeting you at Government Island, and thanks for the info you had.

Alder Creek Kayak and Canoe - great retail store right on the water in Portland. We were able to hire them to do the shuttle for us to get us back from Cape Disappointment to Bonneville (a 3 hour drive). They also provided a lot of useful information for us.

Scappoose Bay Kayaks - the owner went way out of his way, even giving us his cell phone number and offering to get us anything or come out in his boat to pick us up in an emergency. And while we waited there for the tide to turn, he let us use their showers. This shop does have an option if you don't want to do the trip on your own or have less time - a guided/supported 2 to 4 day trips of the lower half of our trip.

Skamokawa Kayaks - these folks let us hang out and wait for the tide to turn, along with provide a lot of info on options for camping and where to go for the last leg of the trip.

Brian has made a Columbia River Water Trail Wiki, so people can add and update information for future paddlers.

Some thoughts to keep in mind if you do this trip:

The current above Portland is almost all related to flow coming from the dam. They vary based on rain and how much power they need to generate. Perhaps this can be used to find a time with more favorable currents.
Go downstream. The flow from the dam is enough that you would be greatly challenged to make it upstream from Portland.
The time for tides change by 50 minutes (later) every day. The time for tides also get earlier as you get closer to the ocean. Turns out that if you travel about 20 miles downstream, these two factors offset each other. So if you time your trip so that high tide is mid-morning, you will get an ebb tide for every day (not some important above Portland, but very important after Longview).

Columbia River Water Trail - Pics of Me

2007-09-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

Gear for trip

2007-08-31T20:55:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned earlier this week, I am heading out for a trip. My girlfriend and I are joining some friends as we paddle down the Columbia River Water Trail. We drive tomorrow to Portland, so tonight we are finishing our packing. The picture shows what we have packed so far.
旅行する。あさってカヤックに乗って、Columbia River Water Trailする。明日車でポートランドに行くので、今晩荷造りをしなければならない。写真は持って行く物だ。

Two questions come to mind when I look at this - will it be enough for 13 or 14 days on the water? And can we fit it all in to our boats?
質問二つがある。十分だろうか？カヤックの中に入れるか？

Actually, this is not enough. My girlfriend's clothing and the food we have in the fridge are not here.
実は十分じゃない。彼女の服と冷蔵庫野中にある食べ物はあそこにない。

See you after the trip!
また旅行の後！

taking a trip

2007-08-27T15:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry that I haven't posted anything lately. I haven't really been doing much new or exciting recently.
最近あまり日記を書かなかった。ごめん。あまり面白い事しなかったから。

Earlier this month, I did go on a kayak camping trip with some friends, but this was basically the same as one I did last year and wrote about here.
今月友達とカヤックでキャンプした、でも去年同じ旅行した。

I am preparing for a long trip, that starts this weekend. I am going with my girlfriend and 2 friends on a kayak trip down the Columbia River, from above Portland to the Ocean. This trip will be about 150 miles and we plan to cover it over 2 weeks time. I am definitely looking forward to this.
今旅行の準備している。今週末からコロンビア川でカヤックする。ポートランドの上流から海まで（240キロメターぐらい）の予定だ。２週間かかるだろう。楽しみにしている。

I did get out last Thursday. I had heard from a friend that humpback whales were feeding near the shore in Monterey Bay, so I took the day off and went for a paddle. I did see a whale, which is always exciting. Some pictures and videos can be seen at:
友達によるとモンテレー湾の海岸の近くにザトウクジラがいるそうだった。先週の木曜日仕事を休んで、他の友達とモンテレーへ行って、カヤックした。鯨を見たよ。写真とビデオはここに置いた：
http://picasaweb.google.com/donohue.peter/MossLandingWhaleWatchPaddle

Oh, I won't be checking email or the web during the 2 weeks I am away.
ああ… 旅行の２週間にメールを読まない。

Bat Rays

2007-07-31T16:07:00.000-07:00

I took my kayak out from Redwood City today for a short paddle. Even though it is an urban area, there is plenty of wildlife around.
今日レッドウッドシティーのマリーナでカヤックに乗った。都市部なのに、多い鳥獣がいる。

One thing that really excited me was to see bat rays. There is one sandy beach that I have seen them feeding at twice now, so I guess it is a feeding area for them.
バット・エイを見たのは私を興奮させた。前にその砂浜にエイを見たので、餌場だと思う。

I also saw many birds and harbor seals.
そして海鳥やゴマフアザラシをみた。

Downieville trip

2007-07-26T18:02:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I went with some friends to Downieville, up in the mountains. We had 3 days of mountain biking, followed by swimming in the river and eating and drinking way too much. Definitely a good weekend.
先週末友達と山にあるDownievilleに行った。三日マウンテン・バイクしたり、川で泳いだり、食べすいたり、飲みすいたり、した。良かった。

	This is a picture of me riding down a trail. 私は山道で自転車に乗った。
	Here I am doing a rope swing into the river. The building in the background is the hotel we stayed at. 私だった。バックグラウンドのビルは泊まったホテルだ。

There are many more photos on this Flickr page and videos on this Google Picasa page.
沢山写真はこのFlickrのウェブページにある。ビデオはこのGoogle Picasaのウェブページにある。

Lake Tahoe camping trip

2007-07-10T17:28:00.000-07:00

I spent all of last week up in the Lake Tahoe area. At night I camped, and during the day I hiked, biked, or kayaked. It was a lot of fun.
先週タホ湖でキャンプ旅行した。自転車に乗ったり、ハイキングしたり,カヤックに乗った。とても楽しかった。

Pictures are at　/ 写真はそこに置いておいた：
http://picasaweb.google.com/donohue.peter/LakeTahoeTripJul07

How to clean this shirt?

2007-06-18T12:43:00.000-07:00

Back in January, I wrote about confusing laundry care labels. I found another which has me even more confused...
１月に選択の仕方のラベルをブログで書いた。今そのシャツの洗濯し方が分からない。「ドライクリーニング専用」と「ドライクリーニングするな」と書いておいた。

whale watch

2007-06-10T13:16:00.000-07:00

I went on a whale watch trip for my birthday on Saturday. The weather was great, with the expected fog burning away to give us clear, blue skies. And we did see humpback whales not far from the Farallon Islands.
誕生日のために土曜日ホエール・ウオッチングした。天気予報によると霧だそうだった、でも天気は良かった。Farallon島の近くにザトウクジラを見た。

The whale even gave us a wave at one point...
鯨は手を振った...

This trip was on a whale watching boat (not on a kayak). We left San Francisco and went out to the Farallon islands, which are about 25 miles off shore. There is a lot of wildlife there, including many sea birds, seals, sea lions, etc.
船から（カヤックじゃない)だった。サンフランシスコからFarallon島まで４０キロメートルぐらい行った。そこに鳥獣は多い。

Sylvia's brother captured a great series of pictures of the whale's fluke.
Sylviaさんのお兄さんは鯨の尾ひれの一続きの写真を取った。すごいね。

That pretty much covers it...

2007-06-08T12:39:00.001-07:00

Yup, it is time for another birthday...

Google Maps - Street View

2007-05-31T19:13:00.001-07:00

Google has added a "street view" to some cities on Google Maps. This allows you to see a picture of the location, along with the map. They drove a car around and took pictures in all directions, and linked these pictures to their maps.
GoogleはGoogle Mapsの中に通りの眺めが入った。地図と近所の写真がある。

But they have also captured other things with their pictures. Some people complain that the pictures show inside their windows. Other caught people doing interesting things. Such as:
建物と一緒に色々な写真がある。時々窓からのぞける。そして面白いやり方だ。例えば：

What is this guy doing/その人は何をするか？ Maybe he left his keys home/鍵を忘れた? Then again, maybe not/その反面、忘れなかったか？

Is this guy, um, watering the plants/植木に水をやる?

Advertisement in Las Vegas/ラスベガスの広告

Here are some Stanford students, studying hard.../スタンフォードの大学生はいつも勉強しているね。

Inland whales / 内陸の鯨

2007-05-18T10:06:00.000-07:00

All my efforts to see whales, and some swim right past me. Right now, there are a pair of humpback whales up near Sacramento. This is more than 70 miles inland from the sea.
いくら鯨を見に行くのに鯨はのそばを通った。今ザトウクジラ２頭はサクラメントの近くにいる。海から１１０キロ以上だよ。

The whales are injured. Hopefully they can be lead back to the sea and recover. In 1985, another humpback, nicknamed Humphrey, did come inland, though not as far, and was lead back to sea and has been seen alive since.
鯨は病気だろう。海に帰って、元気になると願っている。1985年にハンフリーというザトウクジラは海から泳いだ。でもハンフリーより遠いだった。ハンフリーは海に帰って、数年後に海で見かけた。

Las Vegas

2007-05-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

I was in Las Vegas all of last week for a trade show. One of my clients, AQUAPAL USA, was displaying their Japanese soaking tubs and hand wash basins at the Kitchen Bath Industry Show, and I was there to help them out. The products are all hand made ceramics from Shigaraki (near Kyoto). The show went very well for the company.
Kitchen Bath Industry Showの見本市のために先週ラスベガスへ行った。AQUAPAL USAというお客様は日本のお風呂と手洗器を展示した。手造りの信楽焼き物だ。見本市はよかった。

On Wednesday, we had dinner at a restaurant in the Hilton. There were interesting pictures in the bathroom there.
水曜日の晩Hiltonのレストランで食べた。Hiltonのトイレには面白い写真だった。

Because I was so busy, I did not gamble at all while I was there. When I was waiting to leave at the airport, I tried to play the slot machines with the change in my pockets, but the machine do not accept coins (dollar bills only).
とても忙しかったので、ギャンブルしなかった。空港でスロット・マシンに小銭を入れたかった、でもコインを入れられなかった。ドル紙幣だけ入れられた。

See whales from kayak

2007-05-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

Every year, Grey Whales migrate past California. In December and January, they are heading south to Mexico to breed. In March, the males head north to Alaska to feed. The females with calves follow in April. The mothers with their babies stay very close to shore, so they can avoid Killer Whales (which will attack the babies). This makes it easy to see them.
毎年コククジラはカリフォルニアのそばを通る。季節分娩のために１２月と１月にメキシコへ移動する。雄鯨３月にアラスカへ移動する。雌鯨と子鯨は４月に移動する。雌鯨と子鯨はキラー・ホェールを襲うことを防ぐために汀線の近くにいる。

On Wednesday, there wasn't much waves or wind, so the conditions were very good to kayak out in to the ocean and try to find whales, so I took the day off from work and went with some friends to Pigeon Point to kayak.
水曜日波が短く、風があまり吹かなかったので、鯨を見やすかった。だから休暇を取って友達とPigeon Pointへカヤックに乗りに行った。

We did get lucky. We saw at least 3 pairs of mothers and calves. They are hard to photograph from a moving kayak, so the pictures are not that good. Often you mostly see and hear the puff of spray from their breath. If we are reasonably close, we would see their backs. We did not see their flukes (tales) at all. (Note - the third picture was taken by the trip leader, Bart Selby, not I - thanks for letting me use the pic!)
見たよ！6頭以上見た。カヤックから写真を撮りにくいので、あまり良くない。撮は鯨の噴気孔だけ見られる。近ければ、背部も見られる。(３番目の写真はBart Selbyを撮った写真だ)

many snakes

2007-04-26T17:52:00.000-07:00

I went for a mountain bike ride this afternoon to the Marin Headlands. It must be warming up, as while riding I saw 4 snakes. They have come out of hibernation and are now out hunting.
今日の午後Marin Headlandsにマウンテンバイクに乗った。乗りながら蛇４匹を見た。暖かくなるだろう。最近冬眠から出てくる。

2 were garter snakes (one shown in the photo on top) and 2 were gopher snakes (the lower picture).
２匹はガータースネーク(上の写真）で２匹はインディゴヘビ(下の写真)だ。

Actually I saw 5 snakes. The 5th snake was in the talons of a flying hawk.
実は５匹を見た。５匹目は飛ぶ鷹の爪の中にいった。

San Francisco Craziness

2007-04-08T18:04:00.000-07:00

Went to watch what has become an Easter Day tradition - a tricycle race down Lombard Street. 　It is called Bring Your Own Big Wheel (BYOBW). 　Definitely weird. This is another only in San Francisco moment...
イースター・デーの伝統になったことへ見に行った。ロンバート街にあるBring Your Own Big Wheelというレースだ。Big Wheelは三輪車だ。可笑しいよ。それはサンフランシスコだけにのことだ。

Here are two videos I took from today:
今日私が取ったビデオだ：

Details on the event can be found at this web site.
レースのことはここにある。

Interesting wine label

2007-04-01T22:13:00.000-07:00

Recently, I went with some friends to the Bonny Doon Vineyard for some wine tasting. I bought this bottle of Riesling because of its Japanese-inspired label. I normally drink red wines, but I did like the taste of this white wine.
最近友達とBonny Doonというビニァドというへワイン試飲をしに行った。日本の方のラベルがあるので、リースリングブドウを買った。いつも赤ワインを飲む、でも白ワインの中に美味しかった。

The label shows a woman on the front, and Mount Fuji and cherry blossoms on the back. When you look through the bottle, it looks like the woman is resting in front of Mount Fuji, which is erupting with cherry blossoms coming out. It makes a nice image.
ラベルの前は女の人の絵がある。後ろには富士山と花見がある。ボトルに目を通すと、山の前に休んでいる女の人の画像だろう。火山から桜が流れ出た。良かったね。

Interesting things from Baja

2007-03-27T09:35:00.000-07:00

Here are some interesting things I saw on the trip to Baja last week...

This was in Loreto, Mexico, before we started kayaking. It was right on a main street in front of a store. I guess I never had seen one of these used as a planter before.

Ok, at first glance, you may not be able to figure out what is interesting about this picture from La Paz. A hint is that it is related to the handicap ramp. If you look closely at the bottom of the ramp, you'll see that the ramp does not go all the way down to road level, but instead ends at the curb, where they then painted the curb blue. So someone in a wheelchair on the road would not be able to go up this ramp.

Actually, I don't know how anyone in a wheel chair would go up the ramp. Perhaps if they parked their car right there and put the car's ramp on the blue, but this doesn't seem likely as the parking spot designated for handicap people is a little further down the road.

I guess they don't get that much rain in La Paz, so use their aqueduct (which are meant to allow rain water to flow past town without flooding the streets) as roads during the dry season. Hopefully the folks parked there are able to move their cars before any flash floods come along.

This was an interesting way to park a boat in the La Paz harbor. I think this boat is a keel boat, so has a lot of weight in its keep to keep it from flipping. This weight would make it difficult to get out of the sand, as it would be too heavy to lift. I guess they have to wait for enough tide to come in to float it out, but I don't think the tide would come in far enough to do this. Maybe this boat is permanently parked there.

I think this may give a new meaning to the term "car grill".

Baja / Sea of Cortez kayak trip

2007-03-26T07:29:00.001-07:00

My girlfriend and I joined a kayak tour last week in the Sea of Cortez. The tour would cover about a third of the distance between Loreto and La Paz, Mexico, by kayak. Along the way, we would camp, snorkel, hike, etc. Here is a description of the tour from the outfitter's site. The picture is of me in my rental kayak.

The area was beautiful, and there was a lot of wildlife to be seen. One of the most impressive times is when we spotted manta rays jumping from the water. We went to the area they were jumping from and found that there were hundreds of mantas just below the surface. Below is a picture I took when I aimed my camera straight down, and another of a ray jumping just off the bow of a kayak:

If the photos aren't good enough, here is a short video clip of them jumping...

We also saw many dolphins, both from kayak and from the motor skiffs - including these which we right in front of me:

Below is a video of some playing in the wake of out motor skiff:

There were also a lot of fish to be seen when snorkeling, such as those in this picture:

We did see a pair of whales (we think fin whales) and also a shark jump out of the water, but I was not able to get a photo of either. One of the reasons we chose this trip was the chance to see large whales - particularly blue or fin whales. So we were very happy when we got to see these guys.

On land, it is a desert, so we saw lots of cactus and desert wildlife. Here are two of the more interesting (and dangerous) finds:

And I am sure these fish wish they weren't found on land, but I was happy that they did - they sure tasted good! Various people went fishing during the trip, and many different fresh sea foods were eaten (fish, scallops, lobsters, etc.). We even had the luck of seeing a school of Jacks (small tuna) chasing sardines, and one woman was able to catch one.

Here is a picture of many of the folks as we watched to see if the whale would surface again:

And some general scenery shots:

I uploaded over 300 photos to Kodak Gallery, for those that want to see more. (EDIT - I redid this so you don't need to log in to Kodak Gallery to see the photos)

Overall, it was a great trip, and hard to return home from.

Problems with Gmail

2007-03-16T16:20:00.000-07:00

Google has been a great company or me. Lots of good tools that I use.

But recently there seems to be problems with Gmail. Some people have sent messages to me, and these messages are bouncing with a message saying I am over Gmail's quota (where I am not - I am only at 14% of quota). I also sent an email to a friend, and got the same error message back (Laura - I was trying to tell you thanks for the info on Mexico).

Ok, I have a weird system. Emails are sent to my singlespeed.org address. This forwards them to Gmail (which has a good spam filter process and allows me to get messages when I am traveling). I then download to my computer from there. But I don't think funky process is at part of this.

I went to Google's site to see if I could send some sort of error report, and it seems that they don't provide a way to do this. Huh? No customer support? That isn't good.

Hopefully they fix the problem and people can reliably email me again soon.

kayak videos

2007-03-13T09:22:00.000-07:00

My girlfriend and I went with a friend to Point Lobos, near Monterey, last weekend for some kayaking. At the end of the trip, I took some video clips of us playing in the waves at the beach, and posted those on Youtube.
先週末友達と彼女とMontereyの近くにPoint Lobosへカヤックに乗りに行った。ビーチで遊んで事をビデオして、Youtubeに置いた。

The yellow boat is my friend Brian. I am in the grey boat.
黄色のカヤックはBrianさんだ。グレイ色のは私だ。