White Water Rafting in South Fork of American River

This Memorial Day weekend, I joined Absolute Adventure for a camping/white water rafting trip. The day before, thirteen attendees met for a short hike under Foresthill bridge, the highest bridge in California. Then we went to Mother Lode River Center to spend the night, in preparation for a early start on paddling day.

I waked up at around 7am in Mother Lode River Center's camp site. We were up late the night before drinking beer, eating s'mores, playing "Two Truths and a Lie" and generally having a good time round the camp fire. Unfortunately, I don't usually sleep well while camping and this trip was no different. Carrisa had just woke up and was starting breakfast. She told me I was early, so I went back to my tent and took a nap. I woke up again at 8am, just in time for a hot breakfast of bagel, bacon and eggs.

I had rafted in 2005 at Cache Canyon with White Water Adventures. Cache Canyon supposed to be a class II-III river, but its worst rapid was a class II 1/2. It was so safe, guides were not needed. I had a lot of fun on that trip, and I wondered why it took me a couple of years to get back into the activity.

After breakfast, we met our friendly raft/river guides. Since we had a little time to kill, we toured Mother Lodge's organic garden, learned to make lynards with duct tape, before boarding the ECO bus (runs on recycled vegetable oil!) and took a 45min ride to the put-in point. On the bus, we were given a safety briefing. The basics were similar on all rivers: keep your feet away from the bottom of the river, float feet pointing down river etc. There were also some new instructions, like getting rescue by the throw bag and getting directions from the river guide after falling into the river. The South Fork of American River have several class 3 rapids, so more precautions were needed.

We were on the one day double run trip. Our put in point was at a park. Everyone was encourage to use the facilities, since once the rafting begin, the only place to "go" was in the river. We were then given life vest and paddles. Safety instructions were repeated and simple paddle commands were taught and it's time to paddle!

In the morning, I paddled on the right hand side of the raft, second row from the front. The first major rapid we hit was called "Meat Grinder". It was a rather technical rapid to cross, requiring the raft to move forward, turned and back-paddle.

The river water was still very cold on Memorial Day weekend (most of the water in this river was from snow melt) and I got a good splash even though I was seated in the second row. Any lingering sleepiness was immediately gone!

The rapids kept coming and with a river guide doing the steering, all we needed to do was followed his instructions. It was at this time I realized even professional guides got into some of the trouble I had gotten into on Cache Creek.

I had missed time some turns and had to let the raft go through some rapids uncontrolled, letting the white water pushed the raft along. Karl, our guide, did the same thing. He called it "zen boating":)

I had my raft stuck on rocks and had to jump out of the craft to push it and free it. It happened to us on this trip too. Our raft was stuck on one rapid too, and poor Karl had to jump into the river to push the raft and free it.

The biggest rapid we hit on the morning run was call "Troublemaker". We went into the rapid the right way, but was unable to execute the turn cleanly. We ended up going down the second part of the rapid sideways. While I felt the raft was fairly stable on this rapid, others in our boat thought we were going to flip.

We saw another raft full of private rafters came through Troublemaker. They were not as lucky as us. A couple of rafters fell off the raft as they went through the drop in Troublemaker. We paddled to help one guy to shore, but their boat was speeding down the rapid. We had no room in the raft and had to leave the paddler by the river shore. I wondered how he got home.

After Troublemaker, we were went back to Mother Lode's camp and break for lunch. We assembled sandwiches from marinated artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, selection of cheese and deli meat. Scot, the owner, gave us a talk on environment issues. He talked about plans to build Auburn dam, and how it would turn all the river we rafted in the morning into a lake. He was clearly passionate about environmental issues, but was not pushy about his view point. He just people to be informed about environmental issues and write to their congress person to voice their concern or support.

After lunch, we went back into the river. I switched seats with Bill on the raft and was rowing on the left in the first row. Bill was sick of being splashed by all the cold river water, while I was looking forward to more splashing! I put on a spray jacket, but no wet suit, since the weather was somewhat hot and I rather had an occasional cold spray of water than be hot on flat water.

The two bigger rapids on this stretch of the river were Satan's Cesspool and Hospital Bar. Satan's Cesspool had a sharp drop entering the rapid, and then a sharp turn. We hit the rapid expertly and ran through without much difficulty. Hospital Bar was the last major rapid. By the time we hit this rapid, our boat was paddling very well together and made all the right moves. Again, we ride through the rapid without any difficulty.

After Hospital Bar, the river flatten out. Memorial Day was fairly early in the rafting season and there was lots of flat water between Hospital Bar and the pull out point. To save us the paddling effort and to make some quick bucks, some townies on jet ski came and gave us a tow. Thes jet ski were quite powerful! I estimated about 20 rafts from Mother Lode and another river company were towed about a mile or so to the pull out point by a single jet ski.

After pulling out, we rode the ECO bus back to camp. Everyone was tired, but hyper after a good rafting trip.

The detail rapid description for South Fork of the American River can be found here. A map view can be seen here.

Photos from my trip can be fseenhere.

Back at camp, Carrisa had just started dinner. The rafters took a quick shower and spent the rest of the time playing volleyball. After dinner, we drank beer and played a little frisbee.

During the rafting trip, Karl, our river guide, told us about the local night life hot spot. Coloma Club, or as Karl affectionately called it, the "CC". We decided to check the place out.

The CC's clientele was a strange mixed of people: locals, river guides and rafters from nearby cities: Sacramento and San Francisco Bay Area. It was Karaoke night, and some of the ladies in our group took the stage singing! We danced, sang and really let our hair down.

At about midnight, I started feeling a little tired. I took off back to camp, sat by the camp fire and ate more s'mores, before heading back to my tent for a well-deserved rest.

White water rafting was a lot of fun and I planned to do more river runs.

Stand Up Paddling and Cafe Brasil

I first saw stand up paddling in 2008 Santa Cruz Kayak Surf festival. It was a strange sight. Out in the ocean, far away from shore, were these people standing and paddling. They look really stable and were even able to ride waves!

Well, as some of you know, I am a self-proclaimed paddle junkie. So, when I saw stand up padding lessons offered by UCSC recreation, I jumped at the opportunity.

The meeting time for the lesson was 9am at UCSC East Field House, which was a welcoming change from the earlier starting time for kayaking trips. There I met who I taught was the instructor, Conner. When I first saw Conner, I laughed. He had the the stereotypical surfer dude look. Long blond hair, shoe less, shirt less and laid back attitude. Turned out he was the surfing instructor for UCSC, but stand up paddling lessons were being outsource to Surftech.

This was the first time UCSC offered stand up paddling lessons and Conner himself had not done stand up paddling, so everyone was new to the sports and nobody knew what to expect. The Recreation department suggested everyone wore a wet suit while padding, so all of us loaned suits from the UCSC recreation department. Then, Conner drove us in a department van to Santa Cruz harbor. There was where our lessons were to be conducted.

10mins after we arrived, Rob from Surftech showed up in a van filled with surf board and paddle. He then proceed to pull out about 20 surf board and handing out paddles to everyone.

It was a really hot day, and based on conversation Rob, we were not expected to fall into the water too much, I decided not to wear my wet suit. Apparently, everyone else in the class reached the same decision.

We carried the surf board down the boat launch ramp, then dropped the board in the water. With someone holding on to the board, I slided stomach down onto the board. Once I felt stable, I came up to kneeling position and started paddling away from the ramp to make room for other surfers.

After launching everyone, Rob told us to stand up gently. The board was surprisingly stable in the protected water of the harbor, and I did not have too much difficult standing up. Then, Rob suggested we swaying our hip from side to side to loosen it up. According to him, to will help us get "sea legs", so that we can react to waves and better keep our balance. Obviously, I did not understand the last part. As I started swaying, I fell into water.

It was actually a bit of effort to swim back to my board, since when I fell, I kicked the board away from myself. Once I reach the board, getting back on was quite easy. I was able to reach reach across the board and pull myself stomach first onto the board. Like I said, surprisingly stable, much more stable than a kayak.

We went round the harbor once, then Rob asked if anyone had questions. When nobody said anything, he decided we were ready to paddle in open sea!

The class started paddling out the mouth of the harbor into the bay. We were quite a sight, since there were several college co-ed among us, wearing bikini. A boat passed us on its way into the ocean, and I could hear the couple on the boat talking.

"Henry, this must be your lucky day!" the lady said. "There are girls in bikinis inside the harbor!"

At this time we were near the mouth of the harbor. Another boat sped by, and the wake of the boat caused me to fall a second time:( Luckily outside harbor, water was not as dirty.

Our class paddled to the beach to the right of the harbor (when facing land). We quite a distance away from the beach, so there was not much swell. The weather was getting really hot. Everyone began to lie down on their board and rest, tanning and enjoying the sun.

Conner, the surf instructor, began riding some waves. Obviously, he was able to get the hang of riding wave on stand up paddling board quickly. I saw him ride a few waves and that looked really fun!

Fascinated, I decided to join in. Having not surf before, I was unable to judge the wave. I had paddle in front of a wave, waiting for the wave to catch up. At first, I felt nothing, then a sudden surge which I was unprepared for. My stance on the board was totally wrong for riding wave. My body was perpendicular to the board, with feet on the sides! The board quickly sped up, and like someone had pull a carpet from under my feet, I fell backwards into the sea. The board was washed ashore, with me swimming behind to catch up.

I retrieved the board on the beach, collected my breath and tried paddling out. But the waves in the surf zone was quite strong. I was not having much success leaving the beach :( I would paddle a few feet and be washed back ashore by the waves. Sensing I am in a difficult spot, Conner came to the rescue! He told me to walk the board by my side as far as possible into the ocean, while going directly into the wave front. Then at the point when water was chest high, we "jumped" over a wave front. At this time, he had me kneel down on the board and started paddling back into the ocean, out of the surf zone.

I was a little tired from battling the wave coming out, so decided to rest a little more. The rest of the group decided they had enough sun and started heading back to the harbor. Most people were paddling sitting down or kneeling. I tried paddling standing up, but my legs were tired from all the balancing. Also, my attention was occupied by keeping stable and I could not put as much energy into each paddle stroke. I resorted to paddling most of the way kneeling down too.

After I had paddled into mouth of harbor, I stood up and paddled back to ramp. As I was kneeling down and tried to slide over to land, I was feeling effects of the wave and lost my balance again. Rob reach over with paddle and help me regain stability. I guessed this was a tiring sport!

We helped Rob pulled all the board out of the water and into his van. Then we rode the van back to UCSC.

Overall stand up paddling was a rather fun experience. However, I think I need to do more flat water training before going to sea again. Hopefully, I will be able to do surfing sometime in the future:)

After we got back to campus, I checked the time. It was about 1pm. I decided to try my luck and have lunch at Cafe Brasil, a restaurant which was highly recommended on Yelp, served Brazilian food, immensely popular and had really short hours. This was my third attempt to try this restaurant.

As usual, there were long lines out the door. I decided to get food to go. I knew from reading Yelp review people raved about the Acai bowl. But having spent much of the morning on water, I had also wanted a hot lunch. Therefore, I ordered an Acai bowl junior and the Muqueca, as recommended by the super hot server.

The Acai bowl had granola topping with almonds, over a slush of ice and pureed acai. The Slush was filled with strawberries and banana slices. Sweetness from strawberries and banana matched well with the slight acidity from the acai berries. I could eat this for breakfast everyday!

The hot entree came with a side of a simple green salad with slice hearts of palm. The flavor from hearts of palm was quite unique. It had a little texture with a "fresh spring" like flavor. The salad was served with a balsamic vinegrette.

Muqueca was a seafood dish. Fish and shrimp were cooked in tomato sauce, with a touch of coconut milk. The dish came with side of rice and farofa. The fish and shrimp were nice and firm. The background taste of the tomato sauce with coconut milk was refreshing. I associate the coconut milk flavor curry, accompanied with either heat or lots of spices. Here, the coconut flavor was light and refreshing.

Farofa looked like a pile of sand! (It is actually toasted manioc flour. I checked on the web and no, I don't know what is manioc flour). It tasted like bread crumbs and I didn't care for it.

You can read more review of Cafe Brasil on Yelp.

All in all, a good paddling and food day, with college co-ed in bikini as a bonus. I need to come back to Santa Cruz more often:)

President's Day Weekend 2-Ice Climbing/Hot Spring

We woke up at 5:30am to get an early start for ice climbing. While making hotel reservations, we were told that ice climbers had booked up all of Murphy's Motel. We were concerned there will be no route left if we arrived late.

Our destination for ice climbing is the right side wall in Lee Vining Canyon. This ice wall about a mile hike in from the trail head, which is located on an unmarked road, off the Eastern Sierra end of Highway 120, just before the gates. The road led to an Edison substation, and the trail head is behind the substation. We were the first team to arrive at the trail head, so the early start paid off!

On the trail...

It had snowed the night before, so the trail was covered with new snow. H and I brought snow shoes, while others in our team did not. Therefore, we led the hike in. Walking on fresh snow was very tiring, even with snow shoes. For every step we took, our feet sank into knee deep snow. We had to raise our feet knee high for the next step. Also, the firmness of the snow was quite uneven, and I fell several times on seemingly flat snow. Standing up after falling in the virgin snow was very tiring as well. I used my hands to right myself after a fall, but the hands were pushing into soft snow which did not provide any support.

Ice Wall from far

About 1/4 mile into the trial, we saw another group in our team had found a recently used trail. We switched to that trail and the hike was easier. Then we crossed a shallow stream and I saw the ice wall we were going to climb. It was located about 1000ft higher from where we were standing! It was a rather discouraging sight.

We pressed on. Snow shoes was less useful for going up slopes, so we left ours behind a rock off trail. I followed H's footsteps, and was walking on somewhat pack snow, so it was not as tiring for me. But going uphill in snow was still quite a workout. From previous trips, I had learned to use the front of the foot when planting each step. This really helped with uphill footing in the snow.

Ice Wall closer

Warming up/Free climbing

After another 30mins of hiking, we reached a shallow ridge where we setup down our gears. Three members of our team went to the top of the ice to setup anchor, while the rest of us put on our crampons and waited. Some people in our team had ice climbing experience and warmed up by free climbing on a ice face. I was too scared to tried that.

The hike to the top of the ice was quite difficult. It was a good hour before our rope was lowered. By this time, a few other teams had arrived. The other teams had members that lead, meaning they do not have to go to the top of the ice to setup rope (aka top rope). Therefore, we started climbing at almost the same time as some of the teams that arrived later.

H was the first to get climb. She was pretty fast and was about 3/4 of the way up the ice face when her hands felt very cold. In fact, she could not hold on to the ice tool any further and had to come decent without reaching the top.

Then, other members of our team started climbing as H and I sat and observed the action. They have been doing rock climbing and even though both sports are not the same, it seemed to really help them. Most of them were able to reach the top. As I was sitting there, randomly chatting, I was interrupted by Q, asking if I want to climb. I put on my bravest face and said yes. I was a little excited but also a little anxious.

First, I got tied in. We were using 2 locking carabiners in reverse orientation to tie the rope to my harness. Since our ropes were not long enough, we had tied 2 ropes together. To avoid switching belay, we had move the joint to the climber and I was to carried the bulk of the rope as I climb.

I started making my move. Following Eric's advice, I tried to make the most of each swing of the ice tool and each kick of crampons to ensure I have a good hand or foot hold to conserve energy. Even though the ice tool penetrated less than an inch into the ice, it gave a very good grip. However, my foot hold from the crampon did not feel as secure. As a result, I was holding on to the ice tool very tightly and did not dare putting all my weight on my feet. I later learned that the ice was very good this year. In previous years, the ice may be brittle or soft and climbers did not have good anchoring on the ice with ice tools.

I got up about 1/4 of the way when my crampon gave way. H had to lower me down and re-tie my crampon. Being a first time user, I had not latched the locking mechanism into the right place in the plastic boots:(

I started climbing again, this time with a little more confidence. As I got to half the height, I got scared and asked to be lowered. H refused. "You have barely climbed at all!" She yelled. I soldiered on.

I did another 10-20 climbs steps. While I had a few slipped, I had managed to held on. However, the weight of the rope I was carrying, the end which is normally left to dangle to the ground, began to feel very heavy and I constantly worried I was damaging the rope while trying to gain foot holds with my crampons. I decided I had enough fun for one day and call it quits.

This time, H did not disagree and lowered me down. According to her, I got up to a little more than 1/2 way up the ice surface, and while she thought I could do more, she decided not to push me too much. I got off belay and we both rested.

The remainder of our team made quick work on the ice. These are the experience ice climbers in our group and they got up quickly. In about another hour or so, everyone was done! We had started climbing at about 10am and with 8 climbers climbing, got done by about 3pm. There was a lot of sitting around, and the actual climb was about 30mins.

We packed up our gear and as others were releasing the ropes, H and I departed on our hike back to the trail head first. Going downhill was also tiring because the snow was soft and one had to be careful with footing to avoid falling and sliding down a fairly steep slope, but it was easier than working against gravity.

We picked up our snow shoes along the way and the hike back to the trail head was faster since a couple of teams had come and go before us, the trail was well established and the footing firm.


From the trail head, our team leader M decided to head for Travertine hot spring for a quick soak. Travertine hot spring is located in a state park near the town of Bridgeport. The road to the spring was fairly well maintained. Upon reaching the spring, we saw the outside pool was fully occupied. M was here the day before expertly told us to try the pools in the back. In a trail that went between 2 rocks, were several more pools. Water from one pool overflew into another, so the pool closest to the trail had the warmest water.

Is the mud good for your skin?

The day was starting to wind down, and the weather was actually quite cool. All of us opted for the warmest pool, shared snacks and adult drinks. The bottom of the pool was mud and we joked that it was great for skin care, then talked about bottling the mud back to the city and selling them.

The hot spring had great view of distance mountain on one side, and we enjoyed the views while we soaked. After two hours or so, night had started to fall and we decided we need to get out. It was somewhat cold at this time and getting out of the warm water was a struggle.


We made it back to Lee Vining hotel for a shower. Being Valentine's Day, we had a group dinner at Nicely's. Just some simple diner fare, but after a long day, everything taste great.

Crabbing in Bay Area, Chili crab at Banyan Tree

One night, over dinner, H's friend, HH, suggested we should all go crabbing. Since the Bay Area is well known for its tasty Dungeness crab and this is crab season (the commercial Dungeness Crab season open officially on Nov 15th 2008), H and I happily agreed.

Given this is the first time I have gone crabbing, I looked up the web for some resources. Surprisingly, there wasn't too much good information. All I could find were the following:
Jeff's guide to Crabbing, a Noe Valley Voice story and this SF Gate article.

Armed with this information, I went to Sportmen's Supply and bought a crab trap. The sales staff recommended a bait cage which I bought as well.

Meanwhile, HH bought a pack of chicken drumstick, which he left out in the sun to stink. We would be using those for crab bait.

On Sunday, H and I, HH and his wife and father gathered our crabbing gear, camping chairs, warm jackets and snack before set off. I was concerned about pollution in the Bay water and convinced everyone we should do our fishing off the coast. Since we did not want to pay for fishing license, we had to fish from public pier.

Base on location mentioned in Tom Stienstra's article, we decided to try Princeton jetty on Half Moon Bay. When we arrived, the gates to the jetty were closed, but we were able to get onto the jetty by looping around a nearby building. The jetty was deserted and, at about 2:30pm, the sea water level seemed too shallow for crabbing. We decided not to try fish here.

As we were leaving, we saw a father and son walked onto the jetty with crab traps! We immediately asked about fishing in the area. Turned out, this was their first trip too. We wished them good luck and decided to try another location mentioned in Tom's article, Pacifica pier.

We were much more encouraged when we reach Pacifica Pier. There were many crab trappers on the pier. Figuring we found a good spot, we unloaded our gear, stick chicken drum stick into the crab trap, and slowly lowered the trap from the pier into the water.

After waiting for about 5 minutes, we tried pulling the trap up. It felt heavy! Excited H came and help, but the line just would not moved! Someone fishing nearby commented, "Your cage is stuck! $40 down the drain!"

We were of course quite discourage. H and I tried pulling the rope, and finally the trap became free. There was no crab:( The fisherman then told us to fling the trap far out to avoid the trap getting tangled up with the pillar under the pier. We tried this technique and at least had no problem with tangled traps. Crabs were another issue. We casted the trap 3 to 4 times and nothing was biting.

H went around the pier and started asking others casting crab trap. While there were many crab trapper, no one had caught anything in the past 4-5 hours. Dejected, we huddled up and decided what to do next. Given it was only 3pm, we wanted to try our luck some where else. It was decided we would go to San Francisco.

Our destination was Crissy Field pier, just off warming hut. This pier was located near Golden Gate Bridge, near the mouth of the Bay. We figured pollution would be less compared to other locations in the bay.

Given we had all up given up hope, we decided to use all our bait this time. We stuffed all 6 chicken drum stick into the net and swung it into the ocean. Almost immediately, we saw a seal stick its head out of the water and then dive towards our trap. H told us me and HH to quickly pulled our trap in, since the seals would steal the bait. But, despite our best effort to quickly reel in the trap, it was too late. Only 3 drum stick remained in the trap. We decided to use bait cage for this location.

We secured the bait cage to the bottom of the trap with our only 3 chicken drum stick in them, cast the trap and waited. After about 5 minutes, we decided to pull the trap in. Amazingly, there were 2 small crabs in the trap!

We were overjoy, despite the fact the crabs were too small to keep(The legal limit is at least 4 inches). The location made a big difference and soak time made a big difference. We cast our trap a few more times and let the trap soaked for a good 10 minutes each time. We caught a total of 6 crabs, including one about 5 inches wide. These were all rock crabs. Dungeness crabs fishing is illegal inside the bay:)

We fished for about 2 hours, until the sky started getting dark and it got really cold. Our last 2 cast did not yield any more crabs and we decided to call it a day.

But everyone in our party had crab meat on their mind. We decided to head towards Banyan Tree restaurant in Union City to try their chili crab. The chili crab here was a little too sweet and not spicy enough. I also find the sauce too watery.

All in all though, we had a lot of fun crabbing. We did a quick calculation and decided our bounty did not justify the cost of the trap, bait and gas, but it does make a great fish story.

Kayak Elkhorn Slough

I talked H into kayaking with me in Elkhorn Slough with promises of calm water paddling and abundance of wild life to observe. She agreed.

Our day started like most kayaking trip: early in the morning. We drove to UC Santa Cruz where we met up with my favorite kayak guide, Dave Johnston and the rest of the tour group. From there, we were transported by van to Elkhorn Slough boat launch at Kirby road.

When we arrived, I was surprised to see the pier which we used for launching kayaks last year was in ruins! Apparently, Dave was surprised too. Without a pier, we were forced to do beach launch on the small, gravel filled edge "beach" on the side of the pier.

H and I had some paddling experience, so we launched quickly. Also, I still remembered the paddling route from last year and quickly made our way out of the delta, towards the sea, leaving the rest of the group behind.

The early morning was filled with birds. The majestic white Pelicans was making a rare appearance in Elkhorn slough! These white Pelican would fly close to the ocean surface, then suddenly land in the sea water and make a quick turn. It was amazing to watch. Some were flying so close to our kayak that I was concerned we would be knocked over.

As we paddled closer to the mouth of the river, we started seeing my favorite animal: sea otters. Most of the otters I had seen at Elkhorn slough are quite shy. As soon as they detected us, the otter would dive into the ocean. On this trip, we were lucky to see an otter having a meal. It was trying to break open a shell and we had quite a show:)

The trip to the mouth of the river took about 2 hours. There, we shored for lunch and rested on a sandy beach on the left of the river mouth.

After lunch, we paddled under Highway 1 bridge to see the seals. After that, we paddled back to the launching point.

Due to the date, the falling tides were in effect for our paddle back, so Dave suggested we kayaked back near the edge of the delta, away from the middle of the channel. This eddy current would help us along as we were paddling against the tide.

To further help us along, Dave had a special equipment for this trip: Kayak sail. There was a nice breeze blowing inland. H placed the sail behind her and, with a wind blowing, created a nice back rest for her.

The return trip was rather uneventful. We saw more seals, sea lions and otters. Since we paddle were closer to the edge, the water became really shallow and we were almost stuck a few times. Luckily, we were able to push our way out without having to get out of our kayaks.

Base on gmap.com, this is a 8 mile paddling trip, which took us about 4 hours of easy paddling to complete. It was an enjoyable time on the water.

Central Coast Weekend 2-ATV, Pismo Beach, Morro Bay

On a previous trip through central coast, H and I saw many trucks hauling ATV. H commented she wanted to try riding an ATV at some time.

Turned out, Pismo beach in Central Coast was a mecca for ATV enthusiasts, which was a short drive from SLO. We got off the Pier St from 101 and went into the first ATV store we saw: Steve ATV.

It turned out to be a great decision. Steve was the only store carrying 2 seaters. We rented a 2 seater for 1 hour. We were then directed to the beach area. A shuttle bus would drive us to the dunes, where we would get a quick video introduction and pick up our rental ATV.

The most important rule in ATV riding was we need to wear out helmets at all time. The ATV could not get wet, so we were to stay away from the water at all time. Controlling the ATV was easy. On the right handle, there was knob. By pushing the knob up or down with the right thumb, we would control the speed of the ATV. Turing the handle bar controls the direction of where the ATV went, much like a bicycle.

Both H and I were not the dare devil type, so we took it slow. It was a really powerful ATV and responded to our control immediately. We rode up and down the sand dunes, taking our time approaching the dunes to stay in control and made turns slowly. This was a new experience and we were being careful. H and I took turns doing the riding, shifting our bodies forward and backwards as we go downhill and uphill respectively.

We rented the ATV for one hour and it was more than enough time to experience this sport. We took the shuttle back to our car and drove to Pismo beach down town. Here, we enjoyed fried fish, scallops, shrimp, clams and oysters at Pismo Fish and Chip. The fried seafood was not too heavily battered and tasted very fresh.

After lunch, we walked around the beach area. Since this was Labor Day weekend, the beach area was very crowded. As we walked around the beach town tourist shops, our attention was drawn to a chocolate shoppe, selling chocolate covered worms and crickets. H and I tried a chocolate covered worm. Luckily, we could only taste the chocolate and the texture of something crispy in the center of the chocolate:)

Near the end of our walk in the downtown area, we noticed a long line of people buying chowder at Splash cafe. We were definitely in culinary exploration mode and H decided to wait in line to buy the chowder, while I went to pick up our car. The chowder was thick and creamy, with lots of clams. However, we did not find it special enough to warrant the half an hour wait for takeout.

From Pismo beach, we drove to Morro Bay. We drove by a park and there was an Art Festival going on. We took a walk around the festival, but we not impressed.

From the park, it was a short drive to Morro Rock. We drove around the rock, and enjoyed the bay view. The rock itself was quite big, and the view from afar, with the rock set in the ocean was quite good.

We then walked along the water front, looking at the various shops. There was an interesting store called the Shell Shop, selling various types of sea shells. H bought a large shell to use as soap dish, then added a sea turtle made from shells glued together to give the soap some company.

We were walking along when H saw the arching windows of Morro Bay Wine Seller. It was starting to get dark and she wanted to enjoy the sunset through the window. We stopped by for some wine tasting and had a good chat with the store owner. Turned out, he used to work in restaurant in San Jose. We talked a little bit about how life's different in Silicon valley and central coast and had a great time. Before we left, we asked for restaurant recommendations.

"The Park", he said without any hesitation. "Maegen is a talented chef, you will enjoyed your meal."

With a recommendation like that, we could not resist. We drove back to San Luis Obispo and seek out the restaurant. My review of the restaurant is on Yelp. Overall, it was one of the best meal we ever had.

Central Coast Weekend 1-Paso Robles, Sycamore Springs

H and I spent our Labor Day weekend in California's central coast. Both of us had just returned from oversea trip and wanted to take it easy.

On this Saturday, we decided to do some wine tasting. Sunset Magazine called Paso Robles "The next great wine country", so we were looking forward to our visit.

Our first stop was Wild horse winery. A family friend swore by wines from this winery and I wanted to taste them for myself.

We arrived at about 10:45am, but the tasting room was not yet opened! We went into the tasting room anyway and were greeted by a friendly wine staff, who agree to let us start tasting. We started with the $5 tasting, and added the Unbridled tasting for $10.

After Wild Horse, we stopped by downtown Paso Robles for lunch. As we were walking around, we found Vivant cheese shop. H had always wanted to do a little cheese tasting, so helped ourselves to the free samples. The indoor seating area for Vivant was quite small, but they did have a nice court yard, which in early fall, was nice out. We decided to stay for lunch and ordered a cheese platter. 4 cheese was served, with soft, medium and hard texture and a blue cheese. Fruits, jams and nuts completed the plate.

Our next stop was Eberle Winery. H started feeling sick when we arrived, so we rested in the tasting room and outside in the patio until she felt better.

Eberle Winery's cave tour had gotten very good reviews online and I was somewhat looking forward to visiting the cave. Frankly, the cave was a bit of a let down for me. First of all, it was a man made cave. This cave was used mainly to store wine and felt cold and industrial. Elberle was milking it "cave" for all it's worth. Special wine tasting events, wine dinner could be held in the cave. In an effort to make the space more soft, romantic, lots of design elements were added, including a lovely copper wine wine holder tree which I really like. But personally, I would not hold my event inside this space.

We stopped by Eos winery for a little more tasting before calling it a day. H was feeling hungry and craving Chinese food, so we had a quick/light dinner at Golden Gong.

Why a light dinner? Well, our next stop was Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort. Soaking with a full stomach could be uncomfortable.

Sycamore Mineral Spring Resort is a upscale hotel-spa that also rents their tubs by the hour to drop in visitors. We opted for a private tub, located on a small hillside. There were many private tubs on this hill side, all open aired, but surrounded with a sheet metal fence for privacy.

The tub water was very clear and had a little sulphur smell. When I first entered the tub, the temperature felt great! But at the end of an hour's soak, it felt too hot for comfort.

Rejuvenated, we drove back to SLO and checked out a louge: Native lounge. H and I were not big into night life, so it was a nice change of pace. The lounge is located next to a park. We enjoyed a ginger honey cocktail and champange with hibiscus syrup, while listening to the soft jazz played in a garden like setting. We were lucky enough to score a couch with pillow and throw. It was very relaxing.