Scuba diving at Channel Island

H and I went to Channel Islands National Park, near Santa Barbara, CA for a scuba diving trip. In fact, this trip was the reason I got certified. Since this is my first dive after certification, I was quite excited, but also a little nervous at the same time.

We booked our dive boat and rented scuba gear through http://www.calboatdiving.com/. This saved us a little work, as the rental gears were delivered directly onto the dive boat:)

We woke up at about 6am and boarded the Spectre dive boat at 6:30am. While the Spectre had beds below the deck for sleeping but we did not sleep there. H tried on her last trip but found the bunks smelly. I toured the lower deck and noticed the same thing. In spite of the crews effort in forcing air below the deck, the sleeping quarter still reek like musty damped cloth.

After checking in with the dive master, we were each assigned a dive station. We inspected our rental gears, then sat down for a leisurely, cooked to order, breakfast in the galley. Channel islands are about 12 miles from the mainland and it took the dive about an hour to reach there, so there's plenty of time to relax before the first dive.

On this day, we were diving on the mainland side of east Anacapa Island. Our first dive site was Landing Cove Point. The captain informed everyone to get ready about 20mins before reaching the site, so we were all ready to go when we arrived. After a quick site briefing from the dive master, we were on our way!

The dive began with a giant stride entry off the side of the boat. During our lessons, we had done giant stride entry in the swimming pool only. Here the drop was about 1m. It was a little terrifying thinking about this drop... The actual entry went fine though.

From the side of the boat, we swam to the back of the boat and descended following the anchor line. Since this was my first "real" dive, we decided to take it easy.

There was a kelp forest under the water. We swam around the kelp forest. There were many marine life, including Garibaldi, star fish and sea urchins. The visibility was about 40 feet, and there was not much wave. It was a great day to dive!

As we slowly used up air in our tanks, we found ourselves floating to the surface slowly. Both H and I dumped all the air in our BCD, but was unable to stay submerged. We had to swim back to the anchor line and pull ourselves down. We dive for another 20mins, until I ran out of air.

We boarded the dive boat was via a platform on the back of the boat. We knelled on the platform while Mike, the dive master, remove our fins. We then climb up a ladder to get back on deck. Mike saw how I was struggled with buoyancy and suggested a buoyancy check. I crossed my leg and dumped all my air, then sank to a eye level. I was carrying the correct amount of weights.

After the first dive, both H and I felt our throat were dry from breathing air from the tank. I had similar problem during my lessons, so both of us drank lots of water before our next dive.

The second dive site of the day was at Cathedral Cove. This dive site is partially over a kelp forest and a sandy beach. We dive along the edge of the sandy beach and kelp forest. There was a group of playful sea lion in the sandy beach area that were swimming to check us out! It was less than a meter from me.

There were also lots of sea cucumber, Sheephead fish and a school of small shiny fish. We were also able to stay dived the whole time and a great time. Again, I ran out of air before H and we had to surface. H continued diving near the platform, while I got out of my scuba gear and snorkeled with her.

After this dive, it was time for lunch! We were served barbecue tri-tip, with bread, beans and orzo. It was delicious!

After lunch, the captain announced we would be diving in the same spot. H and I were a little disappointed. We wanted to see some other sites. We decided to skip this dive and relax instead.

We took off our wet suit and dipped in the hot tub. But the hot noon sun and the hot tub was too much for me. I ended up sleeping in the galley.

Our final dive site of the day was the Canyon. This dive site had features of underwater valley, deep canyons with sidewall. It was still mostly kelp forest. I saw a beautiful blue snail like creature with bright orange "fur". I found out later it was a nudibranch: Spanish shawl.

There were more star fish, sea cucumber, sea urchins and shell fish with different colors. It was amazing.

Again, I ran out of air before H and we surfaced. H swam on the surface with the rest of her air and I joined her with my snorkel. The ocean life on the surface was not as exciting as the bottom of the sea, but still it was quite interesting.

After the last dive of the day, we took off our wet suit and soaked in the hot tub again. It was about 3pm and the sun had started to set. It was nice relaxing in the hot tub after a fairly tiring day. I always thought I was a strong swimmer, but I was tired with the underwater kicking, as well as carrying the weight belt and tank.

The trip back to the mainland was fairly uneventful. We saw oil rigs in the distance. The only thing missing were dolphins. H saw them swimming along the boat on her last trip.

After we docked, we were able to leave all our rental gear on board and drove to Oxnard, where we spent the night. We showered and then grab a quick dinner at "Hook, Line and Sinker". We ordered a grilled Mahi Mahi and Kamikazi salad with Yellowtail. Dinner was decent, but we were so tired that we did not do anything after dinner. Just hit the sack and slept.

It was a wonderful but tiring first dive trip for me. Conditions were perfect, not too hot, water was relatively warm, no wind or waves. I saw some interesting marine life and beautiful colors. The variety of the dive site was somewhat limited, but that just means I have more to explore on future trips:)

San Francisco Beer Tour

After watching Beer Nutz-San Francisco, my brother and I decided to spend July 4th to visit all the bar/brewery mentioned in the show.

Unfortunately, we were unable to get tour reservation at Anchor Brewing. Also, Magnolia Brewery was somewhat out of the way. In its place, we added Thirsty Bear brewery.

Our first stop was Beach Chalet. Located at the edge of Golden Gate Park, right next to the Pacific ocean, Beach Chalet is housed in a beautiful historic building, upstairs from the Golden Gate Park visitor's center. The restaurant had large windows facing Ocean Beach, looking out into the Pacific. Even though it was a foggy day, we enjoyed the view.

Beach Chalet offered 6 beers on their circle of ale selection: Hefeweizen, IPA, ESB, Red, Porter and 2 other beers I don't remember. Our favorite was the ESB, with the IPA a close second. The banana flavored Hefeweizen was actually decent, but I am not a fan of fruit beer in general.

The second stop of our beer tour was Rouge. Based out of Oregon, this brew pub had a San Francisco outlet located in North Beach. We ordered a 4 beer tasting set consisting of 200m IPA, Dead guy Ale, American Amber and a dark beer. We found the beer at Rouge too "hoppy" and not quite our taste. Their IPA, in particular, was too bitter. This was unusual, given I generally like a little hop in my beer.

Next stop was San Francisco Brewing Company. They did not have a taster set, so we ordered a small glass of all their beers: a lemony Hefeweizen, Albatross Lager, Emperor Norton Lager, IPA, Esteam, Brock, Ale, Stout and Porter. The Heferweizen here was too tart, in a bad way, so we quickly gave up on that. Both lagers was good. We especially like Emperor Norton. More malty than hop, it was a good change of pace. Their dark beers were all very strong. The stout was almost undrinkable. We liken the taste to Chinese medicinal stew. The porter was also bitter, but had a mild sweet after taste to make it more palatable.

Both Rouge and San Francisco Brewing Company are located a "touristy" North Beach. On most tables, we saw people with guide books enjoying their brews. Both venue were located in older buildings, but these buildings were not very well maintained. Instead of charming, both locale felt a little run down.

18 beers later, we came to the third stop of our tour: Thirsty Bear. Located next to the now defunct Hawthorne Lane restaurant, Thirsty Bear is located in the more modern/hip part of town. As we were tasting beer and having dinner, a steady flow of young professionals were coming in for food and drinks as well.

Thirsty Bear brew 8 beers: larger, wheat, brown ale, golden vanilla, ESB, IPA, Stout and the season brew Belgium white. Golden vanilla was quite special. It had a strong vanilla flavor on the nose and went down smooth. The Belgium white was golden in color, but had double the alcohol of most beer. It was quite good too.

We also ordered food off the Spanish inspired menu: grilled asparagus and spring onion with romesco sauce, ceviche and Valencia paella. The grilled vegetables with romesco sauce was great. The ceviche liquid was too tart, and overcame the sweetness of the seafood. The paella was tasty, but a little watery. We would prefer if it had a socarrat(the crusty bottom).

Our last stop of the night was 21st Amendment. Located near the base ball park, the brew pub looked modern. 21st Amendment offered the 8 beers: Blonde, Watermelon wheat, motor oil, darkness, cherry cider and 3 more which I could not remember.

I was looking forward to this stop because 21st Amendment offered a watermelon flavored beer. H's favorite fruit is the watermelon and I was wondering if she would enjoy the beer.

Unfortunately, at this time, both of us were feeling quite full from all the beers. We had paced ourselves and not drank on empty stomach, so we were not drunk or even high. But empty calories are still calories. Between the 2 of us, we could not finish the taster set! The watermelon beer came with a wedge of watermelon which gave the drink a strong watermelon smell. Upon removal of the garnish, we could still detect a hint of watermelon on the nose. I would have enjoy it more in a different occasion.

The cherry cider was not something I enjoy. It tasted like NyQuil.

We walked around the ball park area after our drinks before heading home.

Thus end our San Francisco beer tour! 34 types of beer in a day. This is definitely a personal record, one I don't want to break anytime soon:)

Chihuly at De Young Museum, Beethoven Symphony No. 7

H and I planned a cultural weekend. I bought tickets to the San Francisco Symphony during their January sale. Then, about 2 weeks ago, I learned that there is a Chihuly exhibition at the De Young Museum. Since we were already going to the city, we decided to watch the exhibition on the same day.

My first exposure to Dale Chihuly's glass sculpture was his installation in Bellagio in Las Vegas. H remembered seeing his work at Monterey Bay Aquarium and was intrigued as well.

We arrived at the Museum a little after 2pm. Since it was H's first trip to De Young, we walked around the compound a little to admire the copper clad structure. Since the copper skin will turn green due to oxidation (think Statue of Liberty) to better blend with the surrounding park at some later time, I thought it would be nice for her to view the Museum in its current copper-golden shade.

Since our tickets for Chihuly were timed for 3pm, so we had time to wonder around the museum a little. H was impressed by the Mammouth ivory among the America arts exhibits:)

Finally, at 3pm, we entered the Chihuly exhibition. The first exhibit was a series of long thin white tubes with pale red base. The glass took on organic shapes and in the reflection looked like strange, white tree branches.

The next exhibit, I called the "Falling leaves". Here glass were blown into round disc with folds, almost like flower petals. The petals had shades of autumn leaf colors.

The next room was filled with Native American weaved bowls and throw. Among these artifacts were glass bowls, with earth tone. The bowls were not perfect, and I felt like I was looking at hand made bowls from clay, shaped after open gourds.

There was also a room filled with flower petals. These glasses had soft, pastel colors, and the reflection of the glass on the walls looked like a Monet painting.

Another piece was what I called "Purple goo dripping up from tree". Here water droplet shapes of purple glass was placed on dried fallen tree trunks. The droplets seem to be falling up away from the tree against gravity.

There were also 2 wooden boats, one filled with colorful glass balls, the other filled with random shapes. H and I joked that the exhibition had too many art work and not enough space that they resort to bazaar style of presentation.

In another room was a series of heart shaped glass sculpture. Both H and I do not like the series of pointed glass tubes that formed these heart, so we walked through this room quickly.

In the next room, the glass sculpture was placed on a glass see through ceiling. Light shine through the glass artwork, creating a colorful reflection on the ground. Again, H and I felt the display was too busy. It was a good idea, but the exhibit would probably benefited from more space.

Final, the last room consisted of various stand alone display of glass sculpture, set on the ground. Some had pointy tubes, like the heart exhibit, while others have tulip like leaves shapes.

Images from the exhibition from Bayareadragon.com

Overall, we liked the organic shaped of the glass sculpture and the soft natural colors. These shapes and colors transform the glass sculpture into something familiar, but at the same time mysterious. We also felt the some art installation was too busy and if the pieces were spread out more, we could enjoy individual glass pieces better. Here's a review by Mercury News, as well as SFGate.com.

After the exhibition, we took the elevator to the top of the tower. There, we enjoyed the areal view of Golden Gate park and the San Francisco skyline.

After visiting De Young Museum, H and I walked around Golden Gate Park a little before dinner.

Since we are going to Davies Symphony hall after dinner, we stopped by Indigo for a quick pre-concert meal. There, we enjoyed a grilled salmon with herbed orzo and spring vegetables, as well as a pan roasted pork tenderloin with corn, mushroom and broccoli rabe. H felt the tenderloin was a little tough and the sauce too sweet. I liked the herb orzo and fresh vegetable in the salmon dish, as well as the straight forward preparation of the fresh wild salmon. More about the restaurant at Yelp!

The program for the concert was Seht die Sonne by Magnus Lindberg, Chansons de Jeunesse by Debussy and Beethoven's 7th Symphony. Seht die Sonne was a modern piece, but had some elements of classical "depart and return" tone system, so it was fairly pleasant. We did not enjoy the Debussy piece as much.

Beethoven's 7th symphony was a big, exciting, fast paced piece of music. The conductor had only one little pause between the four movements and the final movement was a exhilarating whirl wind of music. We left the concert hall on a high note. Here, a critic disagree with my take on the concert.

Our last stop of the night was at my favorite wine bar in San Francisco: the Hidden Vine. After a day filled with exhibition and performance, we came here for a little port wine tasting to savor the sweet life:)

SCUBA Open water dive: Dive 4

Sunday started at 7am, much like Saturday. One more dive and I would be certified!

This dive went fairly smoothly as well. The most challenging skill was mask removal and clear. All of us preformed the skill without any difficulty. As we were preforming the skill, I saw a bird dived into the water to fish. That was pretty cool!

Again, after our skill session, we toured around a little more. This time, I did not run out of air:) Everyone had some difficult controlling their buoyancy and our instructor decided to ascent.

We did some final paper work and by 9:30am, I was done!

SCUBA Open Water Certification: Dive 1-3

I woke up at 5:00am to go to Monterey peninsula. After 3.5 weeks of class room lessons and pool lessons at Diver Dans, it was down to 4 open water dive before I get my PADI Open water diver certification.

H and I arrived at Breakwater Cove at 6:45am. The first dive of the day was at 7am. I quickly changed into wet suit, setup my scuba unit and got a site briefing from my instructors, Kirk and Alexia. The weather was warm by Monterey standard and the water barely moving. It was a great day for diving!

Breakwater cove is also a very popular dive spot for beginner diver. I did not count, but there must be another 3-6 groups of beginner divers. I could tell the other groups were beginning divers since only people who are trying to get certified will do surf entry and exit on an otherwise calm beach:)

My open water dives went fairly smoothly. We did all our drills correctly the first time, and after each session had some time left over to tour around. And the skills we learned came in handy too. I tend breathed out of my nose, especially when on the surface, so I always fogged up my mask. Mask flood and clear was especially useful for me:)

On one of the tour, my dive buddy accidentally kicked my regular out of my mouth. Visibility at our dive site was not very good and since none of us were navigating, all three students were swimming very close to our instructor. Given we are all beginner and have limited buoyancy control, that was bound to happen. I was actually rather calm, looked up, snatched the regulator, purged and continued swimming! Just like the drill!

Overall though, I am still fairly nervous in the water. Twice, our group had to surface because I was running low on air. I considered myself a decent swimmer and still cannot understand why I have this fear of the water.

We finished our three dives a little after noon. I went to the hotel to shower, hung out my wet suit and rest.

Dinner was at my favorite restaurant in the Monterey peninsula: Passion Fish. H and I shared a tasty Dungeness crab cake to start. For entree, we ordered a red wine braised beef short rib and baked wild Alaskan Salmon. Surprisingly, the braised short rib was excellent and even more tasty than the salmon. Please read my review on Yelp! for more details.

Paddle for Life 2008 and A's baseball

Last year's Dragon Boat race was so much fun, I decided to do it again this year:)

Once again, Xilinx formed a team to participate in the Second Annual Paddle for Life Dragon Boat Festival. This year's race is held in Jack London Square in Oakland, and the date was chosen to coincide with the Fifth of May according to lunar calendar: the traditional date for Dragon Boat Festival(端午节).

H's interest was piqued by my talking about Dragon boat paddling for weeks leading up to the race and she joined a team to paddle as well.

We reached Jack London Square at about 8:40am. The Xilinx team had set up a 3 huge tent space, which we shared with Lucy's Party Boat. Marvin, the Xilinx team captain, is dating Lucy:)

The fist race for Xilinx was at 9:45am. We were competing for the JLAC Silicon Cup. Also in the race were IBM, Intel and Agilent...basically other hi-tech companies.


We did our warm up, and marshall for the race. But the race was delayed from the start. One problem with the Jack London Square location is the loading dock was quite small. Also, the starting line was located at a dock further inland from Jack London Square and the ending line was located at Jack London Square. Every team therefore needed to paddle the entire length of the race course just to get to the starting point.

In the first race, Xilinx came in 3rd place, beating Agilent, but behind IBM and Intel. We started strong, but our synchronization was lost during the ramp up and that was when we fell behind. Our drummer told us we responded well to the middle power pieces, but this being a short course (only 300m), we were not able to make up for loss time. It wasn't even close, as we lost by almost a boat length.

Everyone joked that we have important business relationship with IBM and Intel, and didn't want to ruin it, so we let them off easy.

Meanwhile, H was racing with the VISA team. Their first race was against Clorox, Gatorade, Shell and AT&T. I was unable to see the start, but the VISA team was last at the middle of the race and never caught up.

I went back to the tent and got an interesting news. The Xilinx team will be racing against Lucy's party boat! And Marvin was going to drum Lucy's party boat for this race. Everyone had a good time teasing Marvin about where his loyalties should lie:)

As we ate lunch and prepared for our second race, the VISA team had their second race too. I met H at the marshalling area, and she told me VISA came in last in their second race too:(

We came in 3rd again in our second race, losing to Shell and MSAC Brute Force. We started poorly this time, as some of us missed the starting call, but paddled pretty much in time all the way. Unfortunately, we still lose by almost a boat length. We did beat Lucy's Party Boa though. Some of their paddlers had a few beers during lunch and it showed:)

Soon after our de-briefing, VISA was marshalling for their final race. One of their team member had to leave early, so I volunteered to be a hired gun for the VISA team. This race was for the division 8 final.

At this time, the wave at Jack London Square had really picked up. The race was therefore shorten to 250m, and the starting call was really fast. According to H, the VISA team had not practised together before the race, but their synchronization on the last race was quite good. I was happy to report, with me in the lineup, the VISA team came in first!

As soon as I got out of the boat, it was time for Xilinx's last race. We were racing in the division 3 finals. Again, even though we had pretty good form throughout the race, we came in 3rd again! It was quite disappointing. Marvin observed the race and commented our stroke rate was too slow. But we were having synchronization problem all day, so our drummer was reluctant to increase the stroke rate.

Overall, I still had a good time. The location at Jack London Square, though, had a major flaw: the tent area was not near the race course. While resting in the tent, we were not able to watch the competition.

Pictures of the Xilnix team can be found here and here.

After the race, H and I had a quick dinner in Oakland's Chinatown and drove to the McAfee Coliseum. H had gotten free Athletics tickets from work!

We were seated in a club suite just off first base. The last time I watched a baseball game in person was back in 1998, so this is special.

Unfortunately for us, the A's were not so special:( They gave up a home run on the first pitch of the game, committed an error, didn't have very good pitching and was soon down 0-5.

We sang "Take Me out to the Ball Game" during the 7th inning stretch, then decided to call it a day. H and I were both tired from the paddling and being out in the sun, and the A's certainly was not making things interesting.

Cherry picking at Brentwood

H and I went to Brentwood to pick fresh fruits. Brentwood is located about an hour from South Bay and is known for its u-pick orchard.

At this time of the year, cherries are in season. We left south bay at about 11:30am. Our first stop was at Pomeroy Farm, since it was located closest to the freeway.

From Marsh Creek Road, the trees in the orchard looked bare. There was a 5lb min for u-pick and we were concerned if we could meet that requirement. As we entered the farm, we were told there were still fruits on trees in the back, which was where we headed.

Both Bing cherries and white Rainier cherries were grown at Pomeroy. This year, the Bing cherries tasted sweeter than the Rainier, probably due to the unusual weather pattern of wet winter/dry spring/cold spell that we had lately. We filled our bucket with a mixture of Rainier and Bing, while tasting fruits from the trees.

After picking a 5lb load, and feeling full from all the snacking, we headed out of Pomeroy farm to pick other fruits.

As we drove around, we saw Bacchini's Fruit Tree. They offered blackberry, loquarts, pluots and peaches. We stopped.

The farm had a row of loguarts trees, which were totally bare. We were done with cherries, so tried the pluots, which was in season. We also tried some peaches, but they were not quite ready. We also tried our hand at blackberry picking. Blackberry was very difficult to pick. We had to search for riped berries and the trees were full of thorns.

We went to a few more farms, but did not pick anymore fruits.

After hanging out in Brentwood a little longer, we decided to head back.

Dinner was at Little Sheep Hot Pot. After a whole day of eating fruits, the warm broth of the hotpot felt very soothing.

After dinner, we walked around Lake Elizabeth at Fremont Central Park to ease our overly stuffed stomach.