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The House Selling Process Has Begun - Saturday, April 13, 2024
Until now it's just been something we'd been discussing, but now the plan has been set in motion. Yesterday we met with our real estate agent and signed the listing contract to begin the process of selling our house.
We're using Susanna as our agent again. She was our buyer's agent when we bought this house 10.5 years ago and though she's not working as much these days, she was touched when we reached out to her. We're grateful to have her help and expertise, and by yesterday evening she had already reached out to her HVAC guy, gardener, and handyman, and also picked out items from Home Depot that she wants to have installed.
Susanna is coordinating all the logistics of fixing up the house, and she's going for small but impactful improvements like painting the front, painting baseboards and trim, removing ceiling fans, tuning up the air conditioner, painting doors, painting bathroom cabinets, and replacing cabinet handles in order to make the place look more modern. She said that painting the whole house is not worth it since most of the paint still looks fine. Priscilla and I don't have to do much other than be home for the contractors and declutter and pack up stuff. Susanna is trying to save us money, and she asked for only 2% commission but offered to lower it to 1.75% if we use our own furniture for staging. Most of our furniture looks fine and she said that the stuff that staging companies provide is not always in the best condition, so her proposal seemed sensible.
Previously, Priscilla and I had thought we'd be using Redfin due to the lower commissions. But we read some poor reviews of the level of service that Redfin provides. In going with Susanna and getting a discount because of our previous relationship with her, we're getting a better rate than what we'd get with Redfin, and much better service. What a win!
We also thought that we'd have to rent a container and pack all our stuff and move out prior to listing, but now we get to stay in our house and avoid having to book a lot of hotel nights. It might make sense for us to be in a hotel during the two weeks that the house will be shown, since it'd be a lot of overhead to come back each evening and tidy up, pack up, and be out the door again in the morning, but we'll see. Either way, though there is a lot that needs to be done, Priscilla and I have the easy part. I guess this is why people like having a dedicated agent.
Susanna thinks that we'll be able to list the house four weeks from now. I think the process could be delayed if the pest or home inspection discovers things that need to be fixed, but Susanna is also on top of her game. So if there's a delay, I don't think it will be much.
So yesterday Priscilla and I went from having a fuzzy timeframe to having a more defined, accelerated schedule. Supposedly the closing process typically takes 30 - 45 days, so we could be moving out in June. At that point, we'll probably want to move down to SoCal and be in a hotel or Airbnb until we can find and buy a house. So that likely gives us two months to spend time with our family and friends here, and hit up the places that we might not have the chance to visit again. Time to get cracking!
We're using Susanna as our agent again. She was our buyer's agent when we bought this house 10.5 years ago and though she's not working as much these days, she was touched when we reached out to her. We're grateful to have her help and expertise, and by yesterday evening she had already reached out to her HVAC guy, gardener, and handyman, and also picked out items from Home Depot that she wants to have installed.
Susanna is coordinating all the logistics of fixing up the house, and she's going for small but impactful improvements like painting the front, painting baseboards and trim, removing ceiling fans, tuning up the air conditioner, painting doors, painting bathroom cabinets, and replacing cabinet handles in order to make the place look more modern. She said that painting the whole house is not worth it since most of the paint still looks fine. Priscilla and I don't have to do much other than be home for the contractors and declutter and pack up stuff. Susanna is trying to save us money, and she asked for only 2% commission but offered to lower it to 1.75% if we use our own furniture for staging. Most of our furniture looks fine and she said that the stuff that staging companies provide is not always in the best condition, so her proposal seemed sensible.
Previously, Priscilla and I had thought we'd be using Redfin due to the lower commissions. But we read some poor reviews of the level of service that Redfin provides. In going with Susanna and getting a discount because of our previous relationship with her, we're getting a better rate than what we'd get with Redfin, and much better service. What a win!
We also thought that we'd have to rent a container and pack all our stuff and move out prior to listing, but now we get to stay in our house and avoid having to book a lot of hotel nights. It might make sense for us to be in a hotel during the two weeks that the house will be shown, since it'd be a lot of overhead to come back each evening and tidy up, pack up, and be out the door again in the morning, but we'll see. Either way, though there is a lot that needs to be done, Priscilla and I have the easy part. I guess this is why people like having a dedicated agent.
Susanna thinks that we'll be able to list the house four weeks from now. I think the process could be delayed if the pest or home inspection discovers things that need to be fixed, but Susanna is also on top of her game. So if there's a delay, I don't think it will be much.
So yesterday Priscilla and I went from having a fuzzy timeframe to having a more defined, accelerated schedule. Supposedly the closing process typically takes 30 - 45 days, so we could be moving out in June. At that point, we'll probably want to move down to SoCal and be in a hotel or Airbnb until we can find and buy a house. So that likely gives us two months to spend time with our family and friends here, and hit up the places that we might not have the chance to visit again. Time to get cracking!
Japan, Round 2 - Thursday, March 28, 2024
For international travel, our regular cadence has been one trip every two years. Before last year's Japan trip, we hadn't done one since 2019 due to the pandemic (Priscilla doesn't count our 2020 cruise to Ensenada as international). Since she felt gypped, we agreed that we'd do another international trip in 2024. We settled on Japan again because prices are still cheap, the exchange rate is even better now (about 150 yen for $1), and because we enjoyed our time last year.
We departed last Sunday and the day was pretty grueling. We got to SJC a little after 9am and headed to The Club for breakfast. Brandon and Josephine from church were already there; they were on our flight but unlike us, they were going to visit different cities in Japan for a whole two weeks. Our trip was 10 days and we were only staying in the Greater Tokyo Area this time, since the JR pass is a lot more expensive now and it wasn't economical to get to cities like Kyoto.
The flight was around 11 hours and was pretty uneventful until the last half hour. Tokyo was getting 40mph winds that day and there was so much turbulence during our entire descent. The wind was so bad that we had to abort the first landing attempt and re-ascend and circle around. The plane was shaking so much right until it touched down on the runway. This was the worst turbulence I've ever experienced and my stomach was quite upset. Another minute of that and I probably would've thrown up. At least a couple other people did.
At Narita, there was a lot of waiting. Half an hour to get through customs. Half an hour to get the Pasmo transit card (preloaded with 1,500 yen with the 500 yen activation fee waived), which is similar to the Suica card but only available to foreigners. At least there was no wait to get food from the Lawson convenience store at the airport; we each got a couple things since we hadn't eaten much on the flight.
Odaiba and Tokyo:
Then we took a Keisei train and a Yurikamome train (2 more hours of travel) to get to our hotel at Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel. The room was pretty small, just a little bigger than the room at Ibis Styles in Kyoto last year. We got more food from another nearby Lawson for dinner, and then we were pretty tired so we turned in "early". We woke up in the middle of the night because of jetlag, but we were still able to get 6 cumulative hours of sleep.
The next morning, we had a buffet breakfast at the hotel. It was 2,200 yen per person and the food was pretty good, though the buffet we had at the Hilton Tokyo Bay last year (free because of our Hilton Gold membership) was better. There was a decent variety of western and Japanese food, fish, meat, vegetables and more. I liked the gyūdon and sauteed bean sprouts the most.
After breakfast, we walked over to Odaiba and did Joypolis. We did most of the attractions, but I had to skip a couple of them because I don't do well with spinning rides. I liked the Sonic Athletics game where I competed with 7 others in track and field events. I had the raw speed but I came in 3rd overall because I suck at timing my button presses (for the long jump and hurdles). :p
Joypolis was okay but it's more Priscilla's kind of place than mine. I liked our time afterwards a lot more - we walked around the area and saw the Statue of Liberty, Unicorn Gundam statue, Odaiba Kaihin Park, and Daiba Park.
We started Wednesday with breakfast buffet at the hotel again. They didn't have the items I liked from the first day, and the place was more crowded, so we decided that we wouldn't do the buffet again the next day. After breakfast, we walked to Odaiba and crossed the Rainbow Bridge (terrific views) and walked over to teamLab Borderless.
Borderless was amazing! A lot of the art moves between rooms and it changes periodically. Some of it even reacts when you touch the wall. Every room was masterfully done. The room we liked most was the one with a 360 degree projection of celestial bodies in space. It periodically transitions through different scenes and the one that has crows flying through space is really something else. The other rooms that were terrific were the one with the forest of LED light strips hanging from the ceiling, the one with lighted metal balls moving around a track, and the one with hundreds of spotlights choreographed to music.
We also liked the tea room (only 600 yen for most of the teas) where you sit in a dimly-lit room and a projection shines into your tea cup. The projection shows flowers growing in your tea and then the petals all scatter when you pick up the cup. You watch as the petals blow away and fade once last time when you pick up the cup to drink for the final time. I thought it was a poignant metaphor for the beauty and fleetingness of life.
Borderless was truly moving and inspirational. At first I didn't see what the big deal would be, but I'm really glad that we did this. Priscilla paid $78 for the Joypolis and Borderless package through Klook, so each was around $20 per person. I don't think it was worth it for Joypolis, but it definitely was for Borderless!
Hakone:
On Thursday, we took the Yurikamome and then a JR train to get to Odawara. We picked up the Hakone Freepass from the train station and walked around Odawara Castle Park and also got some produce from the grocery store at the train station. The tomatoes in particular were really good - they looked like regular tomatoes but were very flavorful, almost like heirloom. Way better than all the tomatoes we get at grocery stores back home. Compared to the US, produce in Japan seems to be more expensive but higher quality. Even the hard-boiled eggs we bought at the convenience stores had orange yolks; hens in Japan are apparently fed a more balanced diet, while hens in the US are fed mostly corn and soybean.
From the train station, we took the free shuttle provided by our hotel, Hotel Indigo, to Hakone. This is a boutique hotel and they're very service oriented, which we're not accustomed to, though Priscilla didn't mind. This was by far the nicest hotel during our trip, and Priscilla redeemed all of the travel points in our respective Capital One accounts to book this. The room was quite large and had a lot of amenities, including a private onsen on the balcony and sliding wooden doors between the living area and the bathroom area that blocked out light. Since this day was mostly a travel day, we didn't do too much walking - we just walked 2.5 miles along the side of the Hayakawa River near the hotel.
Hakone is known for its hot springs, and every room at this hotel has an onsen. There was a 150 yen onsen fee (so just $1) per person per night, and we made good use of it since we used our onsen each of the three nights that we were there. The water is supposed to have healing and rejuvenating properties, and I did detect a slight sulfur smell one night, so it's probably the real deal.
The next day, we walked up some really steep steps to get to Gora Station, and from there took the Hakone Tozan Cable Car and then the Hakone Ropeway up the mountain. There are four consecutive ropeway lines, and once you crest the ridgetop of the Owakudani valley, you're treated to a gorgeous view of Mount Fuji in the distance and the sight and sulfur smell of the volcanic steam vents below. We stepped out at the lookout point to admire the landscape and peek at the gift shops. There were lots of shops selling black eggs, which this area is famous for and are said to add 7 years of life, but people say they just taste like regular eggs. Instead of eggs, we opted for black ice cream, which just tasted like vanilla. This place seemed like a tourist trap, but at least our ice cream was only 400 yen.
We took the ropeway down to Lake Ashinoko and did the pirate ship cruise to get to the southeast side of the lake. We went to the Heiwa no Torii, a famous torii (traditional Japanese gate) out on the water, but there were too many people in line waiting to get a picture, so we just took a picture from the side. After a quick lunch at Lawson, we found our way to the Kyu Kaido, a portion of the historic Tōkaidō road. The hike was very rugged due to the steep terrain and the large uneven cobblestones, and it was a little more difficult since we weren't wearing hiking shoes, but at least we did it in the eastward direction going downhill. Going the opposite way would've been quite challenging.
At the start of the hike, we were looking at the map on a sign and were met by a girl who looked to be in her early 30s. We ended up hiking together since we were all planning to visit the Amazake Chaya Tea House around the midpoint of the trail. We learned that she was from Perth, Australia and was on her second day of a 30-day backpacking trip through Japan. She gave us some travel recommendations for Australia and we chatted a bit when we settled down at the tea house. Priscilla and I had the amazake (sweet rice wine) and the sesame seed mochi. The tea house apparently has been operating for 400 years, and the recipe for the amazake is still the original. It's non-alcoholic and is sweet without sugar. After staying a bit, we exchanged well wishes and Priscilla and I continued on our hike while our friend waited for the bus.
We hiked to the eastern end of the trail in the town of Hatajuku, completing the approximately 3 mile length of the Kyu Kaido. East of the tea house, the trail gets more technical, including steep stairs with shallow steps, and occasionally crosses and even merges with the modern road. Finally, the old trail pretty much disappears once you get to the residential part of the town. We walked along the residential road for a short while, but it was a semi-busy road and the shoulder was narrow, so we decided to catch the Hakone Tozan Bus back. The bus took us to the Yumoto Station, and from there we took the Hakone Tozan Train, famous for its switchback railway, back to Gora Station. All the transportation that day was covered by the Hakone Freepass.
Saturday morning, we splurged and did the breakfast buffet at the hotel for 3,729 yen per person. Priscilla didn't mind doing this since she could get it credited on her Capital One Venture card. They had some fancier items that I didn't really care for, but I was still able to find some things that I liked that also agreed with my stomach. It was raining a good part of the day, so we stayed in the hotel and I caught up on work emails until the early evening, when the rain stopped and we hit up the Hayakawa River trail for a short walk again. Priscilla had originally planned for us to do more activities with the Freepass, but it was nice (for me at least) to have some downtime.
On Sunday, we used the Freepass once more to visit Hakone Gora Park. This wasn't the best time of year to visit since rose bushes and most trees weren't in bloom yet, but it was still nice to wander around the gardens and also see the plants in the greenhouses. Regular entry is 550 yen per person, and I don't think we saved money on all our activities by getting the Freepass, but convenience is worth something as well.
Afterwards, we took the hotel shuttle back to Odawara Station and checked into our new hotel at Toyoko Inn. We'd wanted to walk around Odawara Castle Park again but didn't on account of the rain. So we just chilled at the hotel and then went to Yoshinoya for dinner - our first time eating at a restaurant this trip. We were able to order more adeptly compared to last year. Yoshinoya in Japan is way better than Yoshinoya in the US. You get dine-in service, they give you complimentary tea and free refills on rice, food is made to order, and they don't have silly American desserts like cheesecake. And dinner here was only 1,453 yen - less than $5 per person!
Yokohama:
After stuffing ourselves from the free breakfast at Toyoko Inn (not bad selection for free) on Monday, we took a JR train from Odawara to Yokohama. We visited the Cup Noodles Museum and learned the story of the founder, Momofuku Ando, who invented instant noodles after a string of failures. It was neat to learn how he came up with the idea of flash flying noodles to dehydrate them after watching his wife fry up some tempura. We also hit up Chinatown for Priscilla to get some light bites. On the way back, we stumbled upon a fresh squeezed orange juice vending machine and had to try it out of curiosity. For 350 yen, the machine squeezed 4 oranges to make a cup of juice. The oranges rolled down a track and were loaded one by one onto a gear-like wheel, getting pressed between two wheels as they rotated towards each other. This was probably the coolest vending machine I've ever seen.
Tuesday saw us stuffing our faces for breakfast yet again. Priscilla got the breakfast option when booking our Yokohama hotel, The Square, for two nights. All the eating helped us not be hungry until dinnertime. It was raining fairly hard, but we walked over to Animal Touch Minatomira at the World Porters mall to go feed and pet animals. We liked the room with the capybaras, toucans, lemurs, and a sloth the most. At 1,800 yen per person plus 1,000 yen for 6 feeding vouchers, this was the most expensive activity we did.
Afterwards, we rode the giant Cosmo Clock 21 Ferris wheel, which Priscilla had booked for $4.26 per person. The ride lasted 15 minutes and gave us a nice view of Yokohama, though sadly we couldn't see far in the distance because of the rain and fog. But the coolest thing is that the Ferris wheel lights up at night with LEDs on every spoke. Its regular mode of operation is counting up the seconds of each minute, but every 15 minutes there's a 5-minute light show with different colors and patterns. Really a sight to behold. And our hotel room on the 15th floor had the perfect view of it! This was my favorite thing in Yokohama.
There's an OK Store a stone's throw from the hotel, so we went there for groceries and to the Hama Sushi restaurant there for dinner. This restaurant is really cool - you check in at a kiosk and it tells you what table to sit at, then you order individual items using a tablet and they are whisked to your table on a conveyor belt. The tablet plays a little jingle when your item arrives. It was really cool to see how everything was so coordinated and just worked seamlessly. Utensils, sauces, and a tap for hot tea are provided at the table, so there are no waiters. If the cashier was replaced with a self-pay option, you'd really not have to talk to anyone! We spent 1,804 yen here and got mostly full, and we had a second dinner from stuff we bought at the grocery store. I felt like the sushi was a splurge, but it still came out to only around $6 per person! What!
Wednesday, our final day, we stuffed ourselves at the hotel buffet one last time before taking JR trains to get to Narita. Learning a lesson from last year, we hit up the duty free shops first to get Tokyo Bananas (for my coworkers) before they ran out. We were able to use the remaining balance on our Pasmo cards and the rest of our cash here. We then got some light bites at the IASS NOA lounge. They had miso soup and some dehydrated seaweed and tofu that puff back up when added to soup; I wondered if those had been dehydrated through the flash frying method! The flight back was thankfully uneventful, though I wasn't able to sleep much and I developed a massive sore throat shortly after getting home. Looks like I'm catching a cold, but at least I got sick on the last day of travel, not the first day.
Overall, I'm glad that we went on this trip, though like last year, I was getting city fatigue and travel fatigue a few days in. Having some downtime definitely helped, even though some of it was because of staying at the hotel due to rain. I guess we didn't do as much this year, and that includes going to convenience stores even more this year. We got to see some cherry blossoms this time around; most of the trees were still bare, but some had started blooming.
Priscilla once again did a fantastic job with planning all aspects of our trip, including knowing the exact fare we would need for each train ride (mainly just to know how much we needed to load on our Pasmo cards), and getting some of our hotel stays, breakfasts, and some activities credited from her Capital One card. The total cost of the trip was around $2,250 and after credits, we spent around $1,775. Not too shabby given that the flights alone were $1,026.
Japan does so many things better than the US and there are a lot of things I will miss, but for now I'm glad to be home and I'm looking forward to catching up on rest.
We departed last Sunday and the day was pretty grueling. We got to SJC a little after 9am and headed to The Club for breakfast. Brandon and Josephine from church were already there; they were on our flight but unlike us, they were going to visit different cities in Japan for a whole two weeks. Our trip was 10 days and we were only staying in the Greater Tokyo Area this time, since the JR pass is a lot more expensive now and it wasn't economical to get to cities like Kyoto.
The flight was around 11 hours and was pretty uneventful until the last half hour. Tokyo was getting 40mph winds that day and there was so much turbulence during our entire descent. The wind was so bad that we had to abort the first landing attempt and re-ascend and circle around. The plane was shaking so much right until it touched down on the runway. This was the worst turbulence I've ever experienced and my stomach was quite upset. Another minute of that and I probably would've thrown up. At least a couple other people did.
At Narita, there was a lot of waiting. Half an hour to get through customs. Half an hour to get the Pasmo transit card (preloaded with 1,500 yen with the 500 yen activation fee waived), which is similar to the Suica card but only available to foreigners. At least there was no wait to get food from the Lawson convenience store at the airport; we each got a couple things since we hadn't eaten much on the flight.
Odaiba and Tokyo:
Then we took a Keisei train and a Yurikamome train (2 more hours of travel) to get to our hotel at Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel. The room was pretty small, just a little bigger than the room at Ibis Styles in Kyoto last year. We got more food from another nearby Lawson for dinner, and then we were pretty tired so we turned in "early". We woke up in the middle of the night because of jetlag, but we were still able to get 6 cumulative hours of sleep.
The next morning, we had a buffet breakfast at the hotel. It was 2,200 yen per person and the food was pretty good, though the buffet we had at the Hilton Tokyo Bay last year (free because of our Hilton Gold membership) was better. There was a decent variety of western and Japanese food, fish, meat, vegetables and more. I liked the gyūdon and sauteed bean sprouts the most.
After breakfast, we walked over to Odaiba and did Joypolis. We did most of the attractions, but I had to skip a couple of them because I don't do well with spinning rides. I liked the Sonic Athletics game where I competed with 7 others in track and field events. I had the raw speed but I came in 3rd overall because I suck at timing my button presses (for the long jump and hurdles). :p
Joypolis was okay but it's more Priscilla's kind of place than mine. I liked our time afterwards a lot more - we walked around the area and saw the Statue of Liberty, Unicorn Gundam statue, Odaiba Kaihin Park, and Daiba Park.
We started Wednesday with breakfast buffet at the hotel again. They didn't have the items I liked from the first day, and the place was more crowded, so we decided that we wouldn't do the buffet again the next day. After breakfast, we walked to Odaiba and crossed the Rainbow Bridge (terrific views) and walked over to teamLab Borderless.
Borderless was amazing! A lot of the art moves between rooms and it changes periodically. Some of it even reacts when you touch the wall. Every room was masterfully done. The room we liked most was the one with a 360 degree projection of celestial bodies in space. It periodically transitions through different scenes and the one that has crows flying through space is really something else. The other rooms that were terrific were the one with the forest of LED light strips hanging from the ceiling, the one with lighted metal balls moving around a track, and the one with hundreds of spotlights choreographed to music.
We also liked the tea room (only 600 yen for most of the teas) where you sit in a dimly-lit room and a projection shines into your tea cup. The projection shows flowers growing in your tea and then the petals all scatter when you pick up the cup. You watch as the petals blow away and fade once last time when you pick up the cup to drink for the final time. I thought it was a poignant metaphor for the beauty and fleetingness of life.
Borderless was truly moving and inspirational. At first I didn't see what the big deal would be, but I'm really glad that we did this. Priscilla paid $78 for the Joypolis and Borderless package through Klook, so each was around $20 per person. I don't think it was worth it for Joypolis, but it definitely was for Borderless!
Hakone:
On Thursday, we took the Yurikamome and then a JR train to get to Odawara. We picked up the Hakone Freepass from the train station and walked around Odawara Castle Park and also got some produce from the grocery store at the train station. The tomatoes in particular were really good - they looked like regular tomatoes but were very flavorful, almost like heirloom. Way better than all the tomatoes we get at grocery stores back home. Compared to the US, produce in Japan seems to be more expensive but higher quality. Even the hard-boiled eggs we bought at the convenience stores had orange yolks; hens in Japan are apparently fed a more balanced diet, while hens in the US are fed mostly corn and soybean.
From the train station, we took the free shuttle provided by our hotel, Hotel Indigo, to Hakone. This is a boutique hotel and they're very service oriented, which we're not accustomed to, though Priscilla didn't mind. This was by far the nicest hotel during our trip, and Priscilla redeemed all of the travel points in our respective Capital One accounts to book this. The room was quite large and had a lot of amenities, including a private onsen on the balcony and sliding wooden doors between the living area and the bathroom area that blocked out light. Since this day was mostly a travel day, we didn't do too much walking - we just walked 2.5 miles along the side of the Hayakawa River near the hotel.
Hakone is known for its hot springs, and every room at this hotel has an onsen. There was a 150 yen onsen fee (so just $1) per person per night, and we made good use of it since we used our onsen each of the three nights that we were there. The water is supposed to have healing and rejuvenating properties, and I did detect a slight sulfur smell one night, so it's probably the real deal.
The next day, we walked up some really steep steps to get to Gora Station, and from there took the Hakone Tozan Cable Car and then the Hakone Ropeway up the mountain. There are four consecutive ropeway lines, and once you crest the ridgetop of the Owakudani valley, you're treated to a gorgeous view of Mount Fuji in the distance and the sight and sulfur smell of the volcanic steam vents below. We stepped out at the lookout point to admire the landscape and peek at the gift shops. There were lots of shops selling black eggs, which this area is famous for and are said to add 7 years of life, but people say they just taste like regular eggs. Instead of eggs, we opted for black ice cream, which just tasted like vanilla. This place seemed like a tourist trap, but at least our ice cream was only 400 yen.
We took the ropeway down to Lake Ashinoko and did the pirate ship cruise to get to the southeast side of the lake. We went to the Heiwa no Torii, a famous torii (traditional Japanese gate) out on the water, but there were too many people in line waiting to get a picture, so we just took a picture from the side. After a quick lunch at Lawson, we found our way to the Kyu Kaido, a portion of the historic Tōkaidō road. The hike was very rugged due to the steep terrain and the large uneven cobblestones, and it was a little more difficult since we weren't wearing hiking shoes, but at least we did it in the eastward direction going downhill. Going the opposite way would've been quite challenging.
At the start of the hike, we were looking at the map on a sign and were met by a girl who looked to be in her early 30s. We ended up hiking together since we were all planning to visit the Amazake Chaya Tea House around the midpoint of the trail. We learned that she was from Perth, Australia and was on her second day of a 30-day backpacking trip through Japan. She gave us some travel recommendations for Australia and we chatted a bit when we settled down at the tea house. Priscilla and I had the amazake (sweet rice wine) and the sesame seed mochi. The tea house apparently has been operating for 400 years, and the recipe for the amazake is still the original. It's non-alcoholic and is sweet without sugar. After staying a bit, we exchanged well wishes and Priscilla and I continued on our hike while our friend waited for the bus.
We hiked to the eastern end of the trail in the town of Hatajuku, completing the approximately 3 mile length of the Kyu Kaido. East of the tea house, the trail gets more technical, including steep stairs with shallow steps, and occasionally crosses and even merges with the modern road. Finally, the old trail pretty much disappears once you get to the residential part of the town. We walked along the residential road for a short while, but it was a semi-busy road and the shoulder was narrow, so we decided to catch the Hakone Tozan Bus back. The bus took us to the Yumoto Station, and from there we took the Hakone Tozan Train, famous for its switchback railway, back to Gora Station. All the transportation that day was covered by the Hakone Freepass.
Saturday morning, we splurged and did the breakfast buffet at the hotel for 3,729 yen per person. Priscilla didn't mind doing this since she could get it credited on her Capital One Venture card. They had some fancier items that I didn't really care for, but I was still able to find some things that I liked that also agreed with my stomach. It was raining a good part of the day, so we stayed in the hotel and I caught up on work emails until the early evening, when the rain stopped and we hit up the Hayakawa River trail for a short walk again. Priscilla had originally planned for us to do more activities with the Freepass, but it was nice (for me at least) to have some downtime.
On Sunday, we used the Freepass once more to visit Hakone Gora Park. This wasn't the best time of year to visit since rose bushes and most trees weren't in bloom yet, but it was still nice to wander around the gardens and also see the plants in the greenhouses. Regular entry is 550 yen per person, and I don't think we saved money on all our activities by getting the Freepass, but convenience is worth something as well.
Afterwards, we took the hotel shuttle back to Odawara Station and checked into our new hotel at Toyoko Inn. We'd wanted to walk around Odawara Castle Park again but didn't on account of the rain. So we just chilled at the hotel and then went to Yoshinoya for dinner - our first time eating at a restaurant this trip. We were able to order more adeptly compared to last year. Yoshinoya in Japan is way better than Yoshinoya in the US. You get dine-in service, they give you complimentary tea and free refills on rice, food is made to order, and they don't have silly American desserts like cheesecake. And dinner here was only 1,453 yen - less than $5 per person!
Yokohama:
After stuffing ourselves from the free breakfast at Toyoko Inn (not bad selection for free) on Monday, we took a JR train from Odawara to Yokohama. We visited the Cup Noodles Museum and learned the story of the founder, Momofuku Ando, who invented instant noodles after a string of failures. It was neat to learn how he came up with the idea of flash flying noodles to dehydrate them after watching his wife fry up some tempura. We also hit up Chinatown for Priscilla to get some light bites. On the way back, we stumbled upon a fresh squeezed orange juice vending machine and had to try it out of curiosity. For 350 yen, the machine squeezed 4 oranges to make a cup of juice. The oranges rolled down a track and were loaded one by one onto a gear-like wheel, getting pressed between two wheels as they rotated towards each other. This was probably the coolest vending machine I've ever seen.
Tuesday saw us stuffing our faces for breakfast yet again. Priscilla got the breakfast option when booking our Yokohama hotel, The Square, for two nights. All the eating helped us not be hungry until dinnertime. It was raining fairly hard, but we walked over to Animal Touch Minatomira at the World Porters mall to go feed and pet animals. We liked the room with the capybaras, toucans, lemurs, and a sloth the most. At 1,800 yen per person plus 1,000 yen for 6 feeding vouchers, this was the most expensive activity we did.
Afterwards, we rode the giant Cosmo Clock 21 Ferris wheel, which Priscilla had booked for $4.26 per person. The ride lasted 15 minutes and gave us a nice view of Yokohama, though sadly we couldn't see far in the distance because of the rain and fog. But the coolest thing is that the Ferris wheel lights up at night with LEDs on every spoke. Its regular mode of operation is counting up the seconds of each minute, but every 15 minutes there's a 5-minute light show with different colors and patterns. Really a sight to behold. And our hotel room on the 15th floor had the perfect view of it! This was my favorite thing in Yokohama.
There's an OK Store a stone's throw from the hotel, so we went there for groceries and to the Hama Sushi restaurant there for dinner. This restaurant is really cool - you check in at a kiosk and it tells you what table to sit at, then you order individual items using a tablet and they are whisked to your table on a conveyor belt. The tablet plays a little jingle when your item arrives. It was really cool to see how everything was so coordinated and just worked seamlessly. Utensils, sauces, and a tap for hot tea are provided at the table, so there are no waiters. If the cashier was replaced with a self-pay option, you'd really not have to talk to anyone! We spent 1,804 yen here and got mostly full, and we had a second dinner from stuff we bought at the grocery store. I felt like the sushi was a splurge, but it still came out to only around $6 per person! What!
Wednesday, our final day, we stuffed ourselves at the hotel buffet one last time before taking JR trains to get to Narita. Learning a lesson from last year, we hit up the duty free shops first to get Tokyo Bananas (for my coworkers) before they ran out. We were able to use the remaining balance on our Pasmo cards and the rest of our cash here. We then got some light bites at the IASS NOA lounge. They had miso soup and some dehydrated seaweed and tofu that puff back up when added to soup; I wondered if those had been dehydrated through the flash frying method! The flight back was thankfully uneventful, though I wasn't able to sleep much and I developed a massive sore throat shortly after getting home. Looks like I'm catching a cold, but at least I got sick on the last day of travel, not the first day.
Overall, I'm glad that we went on this trip, though like last year, I was getting city fatigue and travel fatigue a few days in. Having some downtime definitely helped, even though some of it was because of staying at the hotel due to rain. I guess we didn't do as much this year, and that includes going to convenience stores even more this year. We got to see some cherry blossoms this time around; most of the trees were still bare, but some had started blooming.
Priscilla once again did a fantastic job with planning all aspects of our trip, including knowing the exact fare we would need for each train ride (mainly just to know how much we needed to load on our Pasmo cards), and getting some of our hotel stays, breakfasts, and some activities credited from her Capital One card. The total cost of the trip was around $2,250 and after credits, we spent around $1,775. Not too shabby given that the flights alone were $1,026.
Japan does so many things better than the US and there are a lot of things I will miss, but for now I'm glad to be home and I'm looking forward to catching up on rest.
A Busy Two Months - Saturday, March 16, 2024
Call it... February frenzy and March madness?
Over the past couple months, it feels like I've done a lot and also not done a lot at the same time. Where does the time go?
After my large project wrapped up in November, my workload at work has been manageable. The first week of February, our business unit started requiring employees to come into the office four days a week. I'm typically a lot less productive in the office - there are so many distractions in the form of meetings, people asking for help, having to walk around to use the bathroom or get food, and overall just not having long blocks of focused time. Last week, I was so behind on interrupts that I decided to just take a WFH day so that I could focus, and I was able to close/dispatch 50 tickets in our triage queue. Granted, I ended up working some extra hours that day, but there's no way that I could achieve that level of focus in the office. Leadership really needs to understand that everybody works differently and that people, and thus the company, benefit from flexibility.
Since I have to be in the office, I make time to go running with Frank almost every week. We ran together sporadically before the pandemic, but starting at the beginning of 2023, we've been running together after work one or sometimes even two times a week, with each run averaging around 5 miles. It's a good way to stay accountable, though he already runs most days each week, unlike me.
Two Saturdays ago, I participated in the annual RealOptions Walk for Life 5k race. Our church participates every year, though most people do the walk instead of run. Thanks to the generosity of our church, our team raised over $19,500 to support the work of RealOptions. This was my fourth year doing the 5k and I ended up getting 1st place out of 65 runners this year, though my time of 21:34 was slightly worse than my time of 21:31 from last year. It just depends on who shows up - when I first participated in 2018, there were 8 people with a time under 20 minutes! I had been hoping to get a time under 21 minutes, and my personal goal is to be able to run a sub-20 minute 5k, so I have a long way to go.
The day after, Priscilla and I sang in the combined choir during the combined service at church. We had 6 people total from the English congregation joining the regular choir members from the Chinese congregation. I think this was a record turnout from the English side! We sang an arrangement of "Then Sings My Soul" by Mary McDonald, which is a little different from the traditional hymn. It was actually kind of fun, and it was awesome hearing how the four vocal parts came together in a beautiful composition. I was actually the one who suggested joining, as Priscilla was thinking that I wouldn't want to do it. I guess I'd be okay with doing something like this again - but not on a regular basis, Priscilla!
On the home improvement side, I've been working on replacing the old blinds in the spa room and gym room. I ordered some basic blinds (still not cheap at $230) from blinds.com and I've had to find bits of time on random evenings to get the brackets installed. One of the windows is not totally square and so one of the brackets isn't flush with the other one. Since the design of these blinds makes it so that they just sit inside the brackets without being tightened down, the entire assembly wobbles when pulling on the lift cord. I'm trying to see if I can get something to act as a shim to sit inside the bracket so that the headrail doesn't have as much room to move vertically.
We're leaving for Japan tomorrow and need to spend today packing and getting things ready. After we get back, we'll try to find a real estate agent to get information on selling our house. We're thinking of listing with Redfin due to the lower commissions. There are still a lot of things we need to fix including reglazing the showers, replacing a toilet, painting (definitely exterior and maybe interior as well), cleaning grout, cleaning patios and walkways, landscaping, finishing the drip irrigation, and more. So we might not even list our house until May or June. We just have to take it one day at a time.
Over the past couple months, it feels like I've done a lot and also not done a lot at the same time. Where does the time go?
After my large project wrapped up in November, my workload at work has been manageable. The first week of February, our business unit started requiring employees to come into the office four days a week. I'm typically a lot less productive in the office - there are so many distractions in the form of meetings, people asking for help, having to walk around to use the bathroom or get food, and overall just not having long blocks of focused time. Last week, I was so behind on interrupts that I decided to just take a WFH day so that I could focus, and I was able to close/dispatch 50 tickets in our triage queue. Granted, I ended up working some extra hours that day, but there's no way that I could achieve that level of focus in the office. Leadership really needs to understand that everybody works differently and that people, and thus the company, benefit from flexibility.
Since I have to be in the office, I make time to go running with Frank almost every week. We ran together sporadically before the pandemic, but starting at the beginning of 2023, we've been running together after work one or sometimes even two times a week, with each run averaging around 5 miles. It's a good way to stay accountable, though he already runs most days each week, unlike me.
Two Saturdays ago, I participated in the annual RealOptions Walk for Life 5k race. Our church participates every year, though most people do the walk instead of run. Thanks to the generosity of our church, our team raised over $19,500 to support the work of RealOptions. This was my fourth year doing the 5k and I ended up getting 1st place out of 65 runners this year, though my time of 21:34 was slightly worse than my time of 21:31 from last year. It just depends on who shows up - when I first participated in 2018, there were 8 people with a time under 20 minutes! I had been hoping to get a time under 21 minutes, and my personal goal is to be able to run a sub-20 minute 5k, so I have a long way to go.
The day after, Priscilla and I sang in the combined choir during the combined service at church. We had 6 people total from the English congregation joining the regular choir members from the Chinese congregation. I think this was a record turnout from the English side! We sang an arrangement of "Then Sings My Soul" by Mary McDonald, which is a little different from the traditional hymn. It was actually kind of fun, and it was awesome hearing how the four vocal parts came together in a beautiful composition. I was actually the one who suggested joining, as Priscilla was thinking that I wouldn't want to do it. I guess I'd be okay with doing something like this again - but not on a regular basis, Priscilla!
On the home improvement side, I've been working on replacing the old blinds in the spa room and gym room. I ordered some basic blinds (still not cheap at $230) from blinds.com and I've had to find bits of time on random evenings to get the brackets installed. One of the windows is not totally square and so one of the brackets isn't flush with the other one. Since the design of these blinds makes it so that they just sit inside the brackets without being tightened down, the entire assembly wobbles when pulling on the lift cord. I'm trying to see if I can get something to act as a shim to sit inside the bracket so that the headrail doesn't have as much room to move vertically.
We're leaving for Japan tomorrow and need to spend today packing and getting things ready. After we get back, we'll try to find a real estate agent to get information on selling our house. We're thinking of listing with Redfin due to the lower commissions. There are still a lot of things we need to fix including reglazing the showers, replacing a toilet, painting (definitely exterior and maybe interior as well), cleaning grout, cleaning patios and walkways, landscaping, finishing the drip irrigation, and more. So we might not even list our house until May or June. We just have to take it one day at a time.
Purging is Fun - Monday, January 22, 2024
In my previous blog entry, I mentioned that Priscilla and I are planning to move back to SoCal this year. Not one to scramble to start on things at the last minute (well, usually), I've been having us preemptively get rid of things that we don't want to take with us when we move. I don't like having a lot of stuff and so I've always liked getting rid of stuff, but this has given me renewed motivation and greater opportunity.
I started with my old textbooks from college that I thought I would read again someday. I've had some of those for almost 20 years and I don't think I've opened any of them since finishing the respective classes. Well, our local library was happy to (or reluctantly, I don't know) accept those for donation, despite them probably being out of date.
I also filled up an entire paper grocery bag with papers to recycle. This included old handouts from courses at work, old Sunday school notes, old music sheets from worship, and manuals for stuff we didn't have anymore. And that's not including the hundred or so papers with personal information that went to the shredder. I've also scanned a lot of these papers so that I can retain a digital version.
I also collected several expired medications and took them to CVS for disposal. Apparently they have a bin there, though I had to ask the pharmacist to unlock it. I guess they don't want people throwing just anything in there.
In just the last two weeks, I've given away so much stuff online. Most of it went to people on Nextdoor, though I've also given away a few things on Freecycle and Buy Nothing. The full list of stuff: blackout curtains, a Paint by Number set, single place dining ware (left by our last renter), the black faux leather futon that we bought after getting married, hygiene items that Priscilla got for free, floating candles, a purse, some yard stuff to one guy (he originally came for my 32 gallon garbage bin but I also gave him an animal trap and tiki torches), ski goggles, percussion pad and drum sticks, wicker basket drawers (we bought these for our renters), an ottoman with a matching footstool, our old Tuft & Needle full size mattress that we used for only 2.5 years, my old Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS sound card, 8 COVID antigen tests, resume paper, a Starbucks mug (this was the most popular item), and two 1-quart cans of paint that we were thinking of using to paint the fireplace but never did. And during this time, Priscilla gave away her bread maker, lots of burritos that she got for free from Safeway, and miscellaneous food items from the pantry.
Whew. We also want to give away our other garden furniture: the BBQ grill, patio table and chairs, and the wicker chest that's just holding the cushions for the patio chairs. We think we want to keep our portable fire pit, though.
Before we move, we'll also want to give away our pantry cabinet and secondary fridge (we also bought those for our renters), as well as our dining table and chairs. Priscilla has always wanted a dining table bigger than the one we have, i.e. one that can seat more than 4 people. We're hoping that the new house we buy will have more space, so no use in taking the old table with us. But we'll probably keep using this stuff until it's time to sell this place. And our sectional sofa, complete with a large depression in the spot where Priscilla sits every day, will probably be tossed during the city's annual cleanup in May (so that gives us sort of a soft deadline). We're guessing that nobody's going to want it, but who knows, since a lot of the stuff I've given away I also thought nobody would want!
Every item we get rid of brings us marginally closer to moving. We've been in the Bay Area for over a decade, but the timing and circumstances feel right to move back. We're mainly just waiting for the right house to come on the market. It all feels a bit surreal. During this time, we need to trust in God's timing and know that all will work out the way He intends. We should also not forgot to enjoy the time we have here, whether that's spending time with coworkers and church friends, visiting our favorite restaurants after hiking/running at our favorite open space preserves, or even just in finding satisfaction getting rid of things that we realize we never really needed that much in the first place.
I started with my old textbooks from college that I thought I would read again someday. I've had some of those for almost 20 years and I don't think I've opened any of them since finishing the respective classes. Well, our local library was happy to (or reluctantly, I don't know) accept those for donation, despite them probably being out of date.
I also filled up an entire paper grocery bag with papers to recycle. This included old handouts from courses at work, old Sunday school notes, old music sheets from worship, and manuals for stuff we didn't have anymore. And that's not including the hundred or so papers with personal information that went to the shredder. I've also scanned a lot of these papers so that I can retain a digital version.
I also collected several expired medications and took them to CVS for disposal. Apparently they have a bin there, though I had to ask the pharmacist to unlock it. I guess they don't want people throwing just anything in there.
In just the last two weeks, I've given away so much stuff online. Most of it went to people on Nextdoor, though I've also given away a few things on Freecycle and Buy Nothing. The full list of stuff: blackout curtains, a Paint by Number set, single place dining ware (left by our last renter), the black faux leather futon that we bought after getting married, hygiene items that Priscilla got for free, floating candles, a purse, some yard stuff to one guy (he originally came for my 32 gallon garbage bin but I also gave him an animal trap and tiki torches), ski goggles, percussion pad and drum sticks, wicker basket drawers (we bought these for our renters), an ottoman with a matching footstool, our old Tuft & Needle full size mattress that we used for only 2.5 years, my old Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS sound card, 8 COVID antigen tests, resume paper, a Starbucks mug (this was the most popular item), and two 1-quart cans of paint that we were thinking of using to paint the fireplace but never did. And during this time, Priscilla gave away her bread maker, lots of burritos that she got for free from Safeway, and miscellaneous food items from the pantry.
Whew. We also want to give away our other garden furniture: the BBQ grill, patio table and chairs, and the wicker chest that's just holding the cushions for the patio chairs. We think we want to keep our portable fire pit, though.
Before we move, we'll also want to give away our pantry cabinet and secondary fridge (we also bought those for our renters), as well as our dining table and chairs. Priscilla has always wanted a dining table bigger than the one we have, i.e. one that can seat more than 4 people. We're hoping that the new house we buy will have more space, so no use in taking the old table with us. But we'll probably keep using this stuff until it's time to sell this place. And our sectional sofa, complete with a large depression in the spot where Priscilla sits every day, will probably be tossed during the city's annual cleanup in May (so that gives us sort of a soft deadline). We're guessing that nobody's going to want it, but who knows, since a lot of the stuff I've given away I also thought nobody would want!
Every item we get rid of brings us marginally closer to moving. We've been in the Bay Area for over a decade, but the timing and circumstances feel right to move back. We're mainly just waiting for the right house to come on the market. It all feels a bit surreal. During this time, we need to trust in God's timing and know that all will work out the way He intends. We should also not forgot to enjoy the time we have here, whether that's spending time with coworkers and church friends, visiting our favorite restaurants after hiking/running at our favorite open space preserves, or even just in finding satisfaction getting rid of things that we realize we never really needed that much in the first place.
Home for the Holidays - Monday, January 1, 2024
You know how the song goes. There's no place like home for the holidays.
For the second year in a row, Priscilla and I stayed home for Christmas since we made an extra trip to LA in July ("Christmas in July") in addition to our usual trip for Thanksgiving. Despite not traveling in December, we had a pretty eventful holiday month. Here are the highlights.
We went to WinterFest at Great America on December 1. We both had the Gold pass this year due to me getting an award at work. It was nice to see all the lights and the holiday magic, though it was a little sad to see that the "It's Christmas, Snoopy!" show had been updated and no longer has the scripture reading from Linus. It was an impressive show in its own right, just not the same and felt a little empty without referencing the real reason for the season. We did a couple rides - RailBlazer twice and the holiday version of the Barney Oldfield Speedway, the latter at which we learned the lyrics to "The Twelve Days of Christmas" due to signs and decorations they had up.
Priscilla visited Great America again last week to get food one last time, since she had the dining pass for the year. The Great America app said that she's been there 53 times this year, and that's not including the days where she visited twice (once for lunch and once for dinner). She's definitely gotten her money's worth from that pass.
I took two weeks off work to make up for the four weeks of overtime that I put in when I was scrambling to get my big project done. I'll take a couple more weeks off when we go back to Japan in March. I got back to work the week before Christmas, which was a light week. And then nobody was really working the week between Christmas and New Year's. So, while I've been doing some work here and there, it's been a good time of getting away and focusing on other things.
Unfortunately, I was battling a cold during two of those weeks, and it seems to have turned into a mild case of pneumonia. I'm almost over it now, but progress has been slow.
We attended my business unit's holiday party on December 15. For the second year in a row, it was held at The Plex in San Jose. We enjoyed the food (and got a decent amount to take home when they brought out the takeout boxes at the end of the night), hit up the arcade, and did a good amount of roller skating. This was a familiar and predictable holiday party and I can see how some people would be turned off by that, especially since the parties of yesteryears were no-expenses-spared amazing, but we enjoy this venue. We don't mind the simple things.
Throughout the last month, we've been better about meeting up with people. I ran 10 miles at Rancho with Yang, we had dinner with the Leongs the first week of December, ate with Sharon during church lunch, I had my third and final training session with Brian (through the service auction at church), we had Christmas dinner with Uncle Kenway and Aunt Susan and her family, did respective Zoom dinners with my parents and Priscilla's parents, and Sharon and two of her daughters came over the day after Christmas and we walked and ate ice cream. And Tracy came over tonight for dinner and then we walked around the Willow Glen Holiday Lights. Unfortunately, visiting on New Year's is apparently a little late, since a fair amount of the lights were turned off. Our previous visits there were on the 28th and 27th, so I think that's what we'll have to do next time.
But there might not be a next time for us, at least in the near future. Priscilla and I have been talking about moving back to SoCal to be closer to family, particularly since her parents are getting to the age where they're starting to need more help with things. Weather is a big factor for me and I wouldn't enjoy living in the San Fernando Valley where summers get pretty hot. But we've been eyeing a city called Camarillo in Ventura County since it's semi-close to family while still providing some separation, homes are more affordable there (most places we've looked at seem to be between $800k and $1.2 million), and the weather actually seems to be better than where we are now. Camarillo is more coastal and it's not in the San Fernando Valley, and it doesn't get as hot in the summer and doesn't get as cold in the winter compared to Santa Clara. The crime rates are lower as well. It's not the perfect place, but no place is, and it would seem to suit our needs. I'm pretty sure that my manager would let me work remotely since three of my coworkers are fully remote. Priscilla thinks there's a chance that her workplace can shuffle job duties so that she can also work remotely, but it remains to be seen.
We're thinking of moving this year once the right house comes on the market. So far, I haven't really liked any of the houses that have shown up on Redfin, though I have more criteria than Priscilla. Hopefully inventory will pick up in the coming months. But I don't think we'd really want to buy anything before our Japan trip. We've also been discussing whether to sell our current house first and the logistics around that.
At any rate, moving will be a big change. I've been in the Bay Area since 2008 and at RBF since 2009 or 2010. Priscilla married into the church in 2012 but, even so, has been there longer than most people. Though we're not super close to people here, we do have valuable friendships that we will miss. Who knows whether we'll be able to cultivate the same level of relationships when we move, even if we end up going to Priscilla's old church (which would be a 30 minute drive, doable but not ideal). And we've worked hard to make this house a home over the last 10 years; moving and going through that process again will be no small effort. So much is up in the air, but we do think we're intent on moving. We've been in the Bay Area together for nearly 12 years, but it didn't take long to come to this conclusion once we started seriously discussing it. The timing and circumstances just felt right. So we'll see how things go.
On a final note, my home improvement project for the past two weeks has been to install motorized shades in the family room. The wand on our old blinds broke and we had to operate them by climbing onto the couch and turning the mechanism by hand. Not great considering that we operate those blinds a couple times every day. The blinds also never worked that well. So I did some research and decided that I wanted motorized shades, and I found a company on Yelp that quoted me $1,700. But I found some shades on Amazon that came out to $400 when I selected my dimensions and options, so I decided to order those and attempt to install them myself. I had to remove the old blinds and patch the holes, and the first time I installed the new shades, the drywall anchors that were included started pulling out of the wall. The shades are mounted on the underside of the window frame and the anchors didn't provide much holding strength when used vertically. So I had to remove everything and patch those holes as well. I ended up buying 2-inch screws from Home Depot and used those to attach the mounting brackets to the window frame, with an inch of each screw secured tightly in the header of the wood frame. Those brackets aren't going anywhere now. So now we have some pretty useful shades that are programmable and can even be operated using a voice assistant. Priscilla loves the shades and loves telling the Google Home to open and close them. This was something that was time and money well-spent, and it should also enhance the appeal of our house when it comes time to sell!
I think it's been a productive month and a meaningful year. I hope that we can be intentional about how we spend our time, who we spend it with, and where we spend it, so that the new year is equally as purposeful.
For the second year in a row, Priscilla and I stayed home for Christmas since we made an extra trip to LA in July ("Christmas in July") in addition to our usual trip for Thanksgiving. Despite not traveling in December, we had a pretty eventful holiday month. Here are the highlights.
We went to WinterFest at Great America on December 1. We both had the Gold pass this year due to me getting an award at work. It was nice to see all the lights and the holiday magic, though it was a little sad to see that the "It's Christmas, Snoopy!" show had been updated and no longer has the scripture reading from Linus. It was an impressive show in its own right, just not the same and felt a little empty without referencing the real reason for the season. We did a couple rides - RailBlazer twice and the holiday version of the Barney Oldfield Speedway, the latter at which we learned the lyrics to "The Twelve Days of Christmas" due to signs and decorations they had up.
Priscilla visited Great America again last week to get food one last time, since she had the dining pass for the year. The Great America app said that she's been there 53 times this year, and that's not including the days where she visited twice (once for lunch and once for dinner). She's definitely gotten her money's worth from that pass.
I took two weeks off work to make up for the four weeks of overtime that I put in when I was scrambling to get my big project done. I'll take a couple more weeks off when we go back to Japan in March. I got back to work the week before Christmas, which was a light week. And then nobody was really working the week between Christmas and New Year's. So, while I've been doing some work here and there, it's been a good time of getting away and focusing on other things.
Unfortunately, I was battling a cold during two of those weeks, and it seems to have turned into a mild case of pneumonia. I'm almost over it now, but progress has been slow.
We attended my business unit's holiday party on December 15. For the second year in a row, it was held at The Plex in San Jose. We enjoyed the food (and got a decent amount to take home when they brought out the takeout boxes at the end of the night), hit up the arcade, and did a good amount of roller skating. This was a familiar and predictable holiday party and I can see how some people would be turned off by that, especially since the parties of yesteryears were no-expenses-spared amazing, but we enjoy this venue. We don't mind the simple things.
Throughout the last month, we've been better about meeting up with people. I ran 10 miles at Rancho with Yang, we had dinner with the Leongs the first week of December, ate with Sharon during church lunch, I had my third and final training session with Brian (through the service auction at church), we had Christmas dinner with Uncle Kenway and Aunt Susan and her family, did respective Zoom dinners with my parents and Priscilla's parents, and Sharon and two of her daughters came over the day after Christmas and we walked and ate ice cream. And Tracy came over tonight for dinner and then we walked around the Willow Glen Holiday Lights. Unfortunately, visiting on New Year's is apparently a little late, since a fair amount of the lights were turned off. Our previous visits there were on the 28th and 27th, so I think that's what we'll have to do next time.
But there might not be a next time for us, at least in the near future. Priscilla and I have been talking about moving back to SoCal to be closer to family, particularly since her parents are getting to the age where they're starting to need more help with things. Weather is a big factor for me and I wouldn't enjoy living in the San Fernando Valley where summers get pretty hot. But we've been eyeing a city called Camarillo in Ventura County since it's semi-close to family while still providing some separation, homes are more affordable there (most places we've looked at seem to be between $800k and $1.2 million), and the weather actually seems to be better than where we are now. Camarillo is more coastal and it's not in the San Fernando Valley, and it doesn't get as hot in the summer and doesn't get as cold in the winter compared to Santa Clara. The crime rates are lower as well. It's not the perfect place, but no place is, and it would seem to suit our needs. I'm pretty sure that my manager would let me work remotely since three of my coworkers are fully remote. Priscilla thinks there's a chance that her workplace can shuffle job duties so that she can also work remotely, but it remains to be seen.
We're thinking of moving this year once the right house comes on the market. So far, I haven't really liked any of the houses that have shown up on Redfin, though I have more criteria than Priscilla. Hopefully inventory will pick up in the coming months. But I don't think we'd really want to buy anything before our Japan trip. We've also been discussing whether to sell our current house first and the logistics around that.
At any rate, moving will be a big change. I've been in the Bay Area since 2008 and at RBF since 2009 or 2010. Priscilla married into the church in 2012 but, even so, has been there longer than most people. Though we're not super close to people here, we do have valuable friendships that we will miss. Who knows whether we'll be able to cultivate the same level of relationships when we move, even if we end up going to Priscilla's old church (which would be a 30 minute drive, doable but not ideal). And we've worked hard to make this house a home over the last 10 years; moving and going through that process again will be no small effort. So much is up in the air, but we do think we're intent on moving. We've been in the Bay Area together for nearly 12 years, but it didn't take long to come to this conclusion once we started seriously discussing it. The timing and circumstances just felt right. So we'll see how things go.
On a final note, my home improvement project for the past two weeks has been to install motorized shades in the family room. The wand on our old blinds broke and we had to operate them by climbing onto the couch and turning the mechanism by hand. Not great considering that we operate those blinds a couple times every day. The blinds also never worked that well. So I did some research and decided that I wanted motorized shades, and I found a company on Yelp that quoted me $1,700. But I found some shades on Amazon that came out to $400 when I selected my dimensions and options, so I decided to order those and attempt to install them myself. I had to remove the old blinds and patch the holes, and the first time I installed the new shades, the drywall anchors that were included started pulling out of the wall. The shades are mounted on the underside of the window frame and the anchors didn't provide much holding strength when used vertically. So I had to remove everything and patch those holes as well. I ended up buying 2-inch screws from Home Depot and used those to attach the mounting brackets to the window frame, with an inch of each screw secured tightly in the header of the wood frame. Those brackets aren't going anywhere now. So now we have some pretty useful shades that are programmable and can even be operated using a voice assistant. Priscilla loves the shades and loves telling the Google Home to open and close them. This was something that was time and money well-spent, and it should also enhance the appeal of our house when it comes time to sell!
I think it's been a productive month and a meaningful year. I hope that we can be intentional about how we spend our time, who we spend it with, and where we spend it, so that the new year is equally as purposeful.
Another Typical Thanksgiving - Wednesday, November 29, 2023
As in previous years, Priscilla and I went down to LA for Thanksgiving. We drove down Thanksgiving Day, leaving around 7:15 am and traffic wasn't too bad. We got to her parents' place and had a late lunch, then brought them to my parents' place where Aaron and his family were already there. Lauren's parents were also there, as they moved from China and have been living with Aaron and Lauren in their in-law unit.
Lauren's parents don't speak English, so I had trouble communicating with them. Her dad has his learner's permit and Aaron has been teaching him to drive. I guess he had a license in China, but driving here is a little different. Our niece has gotten better with math - she was playing with a cash register toy and likes counting money. Maybe she'll be an accountant one day.
My parents made a turkey and Aaron and Lauren made another. Priscilla's parents, per their own tradition, supplied a chicken and a duck from Sam Woo. So we had no shortage of meat. No dessert though, since people are now having blood sugar issues.
During our time in LA, we stayed two nights at Priscilla's parents' place and two nights at my parents' place. I helped her mom and my dad, respectively, with computer stuff. And we went to church at CCAC and ate at the Galleria food court afterwards with Gina, Weber and Crescentia. After that, Priscilla and I walked around Northridge Park and I got to remember some childhood memories from when my mom used to bring me and my brother there.
We drove back up Monday morning and only hit a few brief slowdowns on the road. Of course, my mom made a ton of food for us to take with us, and she also bought me sodium-free peanuts from Trader Joe's since she knows I like those. She is too loving, on everyone. So much so that she was feeling slightly under the weather because she's always serving others instead of sleeping enough. I can't really criticize, because while I too don't sleep enough, I have a long way to go in the area of service to others.
It was a very typical trip in pretty much every way, but it was still meaningful. Even though we don't really do anything exciting, the time we spend with family and friends is precious.
Lauren's parents don't speak English, so I had trouble communicating with them. Her dad has his learner's permit and Aaron has been teaching him to drive. I guess he had a license in China, but driving here is a little different. Our niece has gotten better with math - she was playing with a cash register toy and likes counting money. Maybe she'll be an accountant one day.
My parents made a turkey and Aaron and Lauren made another. Priscilla's parents, per their own tradition, supplied a chicken and a duck from Sam Woo. So we had no shortage of meat. No dessert though, since people are now having blood sugar issues.
During our time in LA, we stayed two nights at Priscilla's parents' place and two nights at my parents' place. I helped her mom and my dad, respectively, with computer stuff. And we went to church at CCAC and ate at the Galleria food court afterwards with Gina, Weber and Crescentia. After that, Priscilla and I walked around Northridge Park and I got to remember some childhood memories from when my mom used to bring me and my brother there.
We drove back up Monday morning and only hit a few brief slowdowns on the road. Of course, my mom made a ton of food for us to take with us, and she also bought me sodium-free peanuts from Trader Joe's since she knows I like those. She is too loving, on everyone. So much so that she was feeling slightly under the weather because she's always serving others instead of sleeping enough. I can't really criticize, because while I too don't sleep enough, I have a long way to go in the area of service to others.
It was a very typical trip in pretty much every way, but it was still meaningful. Even though we don't really do anything exciting, the time we spend with family and friends is precious.
Dallas Trip - Friday, November 24, 2023
In October, Priscilla and I went on a 5-day trip to Dallas. And, more so than on previous trips, almost nothing went as expected!
Why Dallas? Priscilla likes to find places that have cheap flights and then plan the trip around that. Round-trip tickets to Dallas were just $101 on Spirit Airlines. Also, she wanted to visit the Capital One Lounge at DFW again. And there was a treetop obstacle course called Go Ape in Plano (20 minutes from North Dallas) that was the main incentive for me, since I'd always wanted to do one of those.
We departed Saturday morning and the flight was a little over 3 hours. Spirit is a budget airline that charges for everything, so we didn't have snacks on the plane. We did of course stop by The Club at SJC before our flight, and we effectively had dinner at a lounge at DFW called Plaza Premium. The food at the latter was pretty good!
We took the shuttle to Thrifty to pick up our rental car. We had booked the manager's special, the cheapest option, and to our surprise and somewhat horror, we were given a Chevy Bolt EUV - an electric vehicle! Apparently, Thrifty is owned by Hertz, and 10% of Hertz's fleet is electric. We'd had no prior experience with EVs, and vacation in an unfamiliar area was the worst way to get up to speed. But more on that later.
It was around 8pm when we checked into our hotel at the Holiday Inn Express. We walked to the nearby Walmart (nearby meaning a mile away) to get a few groceries for our trip. And that was pretty much it for the day - just a travel day.
The next day, we drove up to Oak Point Park in Plano where Go Ape operates from. The obstacle course is 30 feet up in the tree canopy. The height made me a little nervous at first, but I quickly got over it and started focusing just on how best to get through the course. Some obstacles required some strength and endurance, but there was nothing too crazy, except for one impossibly hard obstacle that I and others had to zip through instead of doing "properly".
Priscilla did the hard obstacles with me since we missed a transition point where she could've taken an easier route. She was tired by the end of Course 3, so she sat it out while I did Courses 4 and 5. That was too bad since Course 5 was easier than 3 and 4 and had arguably the most fun obstacle - the Tarzan Swing. Hopefully we can do something like this again and both make it to the end!
After Go Ape, we drove over to a nearby business park to charge the car. There was only a level 2 charger there and it was pretty slow, but it was the best thing we could find nearby. We'd found it using the ChargePoint app, which seems like the main way to find public chargers outside the Tesla network. We walked over to a nearby plaza where there were a lot of Asian stores including 99 Ranch and 85 Degrees. After a long lunch and a leisurely walk about, we returned to the car and found that it had charged 31 miles over 2.5 hours - barely enough charge to cover our trip to Plano and back.
The next day, we did some sightseeing in Downtown Dallas. We first drove around trying to find a place to charge, but the two free chargers at City Hall were taken, the one inside a residential garage was broken, and one was supposedly inside a public parking garage but we didn't want to go in since you had to pay starting from the first minute. We eventually just parked the car a mile from downtown, not charging. Our trip had become all about finding places to charge and we were failing. I can't see how widespread adoption of EVs is viable. The charging infrastructure is just not there.
Since it was lunchtime, we walked over to the Dallas Farmers Market and perused the different shops before deciding on jerk chicken at a Jamaican place. It was decent but wasn't as good as Back a Yard in San Jose, which in turn probably can't hold a candle to food in actual Jamaica.
After lunch, we walked around and saw the Giant Eyeball, AT&T Discovery District, JFK Memorial, Pioneer Plaza, and City Hall. And that was it for the day. A pretty low-key day, but I guess that's how we roll.
It was raining most of Tuesday, so we just stayed in the hotel and did work instead of visiting Fort Worth like we had planned. But the rain let up on Wednesday and we were able to walk around the Fort Worth Stockyards for an hour before returning to the airport. We missed the daily cattle drive, but we saw the longhorns in their pen afterwards. The Stockyards felt a little touristy and I wouldn't really call this place a must-see, but it was fun enough to walk around and explore.
We had decided to just return the car to Thrifty undercharged and pay the $35 fee. A minor fee to avoid a lot of headache. We returned the car with around 40% charge remaining, but interestingly, Thrifty never charged us the fee. Maybe they felt sorry for us, or just didn't want to process it.
Finally, back at the airport we headed straight to the Capital One Lounge where, after a 10 minute wait, we enjoyed a variety of hot food, sparkling water, and desserts. We tried to also visit Plaza Premium but the place was packed and we weren't able to get in before our flight. Which was fine because we were pretty full from the previous lounge!
Overall, this trip wasn't as restful or as eventful as we had hoped, but it was enjoyable and memorable in its own way. I'm writing this a month late because it's been insanely busy at work, with me putting in a lot of overtime to wrap up a large project that's been on the books for too long. Priscilla has already booked a trip to Japan for next March, so hopefully during that trip things will go a bit more smoothly and I won't have to think about work.
Why Dallas? Priscilla likes to find places that have cheap flights and then plan the trip around that. Round-trip tickets to Dallas were just $101 on Spirit Airlines. Also, she wanted to visit the Capital One Lounge at DFW again. And there was a treetop obstacle course called Go Ape in Plano (20 minutes from North Dallas) that was the main incentive for me, since I'd always wanted to do one of those.
We departed Saturday morning and the flight was a little over 3 hours. Spirit is a budget airline that charges for everything, so we didn't have snacks on the plane. We did of course stop by The Club at SJC before our flight, and we effectively had dinner at a lounge at DFW called Plaza Premium. The food at the latter was pretty good!
We took the shuttle to Thrifty to pick up our rental car. We had booked the manager's special, the cheapest option, and to our surprise and somewhat horror, we were given a Chevy Bolt EUV - an electric vehicle! Apparently, Thrifty is owned by Hertz, and 10% of Hertz's fleet is electric. We'd had no prior experience with EVs, and vacation in an unfamiliar area was the worst way to get up to speed. But more on that later.
It was around 8pm when we checked into our hotel at the Holiday Inn Express. We walked to the nearby Walmart (nearby meaning a mile away) to get a few groceries for our trip. And that was pretty much it for the day - just a travel day.
The next day, we drove up to Oak Point Park in Plano where Go Ape operates from. The obstacle course is 30 feet up in the tree canopy. The height made me a little nervous at first, but I quickly got over it and started focusing just on how best to get through the course. Some obstacles required some strength and endurance, but there was nothing too crazy, except for one impossibly hard obstacle that I and others had to zip through instead of doing "properly".
Priscilla did the hard obstacles with me since we missed a transition point where she could've taken an easier route. She was tired by the end of Course 3, so she sat it out while I did Courses 4 and 5. That was too bad since Course 5 was easier than 3 and 4 and had arguably the most fun obstacle - the Tarzan Swing. Hopefully we can do something like this again and both make it to the end!
After Go Ape, we drove over to a nearby business park to charge the car. There was only a level 2 charger there and it was pretty slow, but it was the best thing we could find nearby. We'd found it using the ChargePoint app, which seems like the main way to find public chargers outside the Tesla network. We walked over to a nearby plaza where there were a lot of Asian stores including 99 Ranch and 85 Degrees. After a long lunch and a leisurely walk about, we returned to the car and found that it had charged 31 miles over 2.5 hours - barely enough charge to cover our trip to Plano and back.
The next day, we did some sightseeing in Downtown Dallas. We first drove around trying to find a place to charge, but the two free chargers at City Hall were taken, the one inside a residential garage was broken, and one was supposedly inside a public parking garage but we didn't want to go in since you had to pay starting from the first minute. We eventually just parked the car a mile from downtown, not charging. Our trip had become all about finding places to charge and we were failing. I can't see how widespread adoption of EVs is viable. The charging infrastructure is just not there.
Since it was lunchtime, we walked over to the Dallas Farmers Market and perused the different shops before deciding on jerk chicken at a Jamaican place. It was decent but wasn't as good as Back a Yard in San Jose, which in turn probably can't hold a candle to food in actual Jamaica.
After lunch, we walked around and saw the Giant Eyeball, AT&T Discovery District, JFK Memorial, Pioneer Plaza, and City Hall. And that was it for the day. A pretty low-key day, but I guess that's how we roll.
It was raining most of Tuesday, so we just stayed in the hotel and did work instead of visiting Fort Worth like we had planned. But the rain let up on Wednesday and we were able to walk around the Fort Worth Stockyards for an hour before returning to the airport. We missed the daily cattle drive, but we saw the longhorns in their pen afterwards. The Stockyards felt a little touristy and I wouldn't really call this place a must-see, but it was fun enough to walk around and explore.
We had decided to just return the car to Thrifty undercharged and pay the $35 fee. A minor fee to avoid a lot of headache. We returned the car with around 40% charge remaining, but interestingly, Thrifty never charged us the fee. Maybe they felt sorry for us, or just didn't want to process it.
Finally, back at the airport we headed straight to the Capital One Lounge where, after a 10 minute wait, we enjoyed a variety of hot food, sparkling water, and desserts. We tried to also visit Plaza Premium but the place was packed and we weren't able to get in before our flight. Which was fine because we were pretty full from the previous lounge!
Overall, this trip wasn't as restful or as eventful as we had hoped, but it was enjoyable and memorable in its own way. I'm writing this a month late because it's been insanely busy at work, with me putting in a lot of overtime to wrap up a large project that's been on the books for too long. Priscilla has already booked a trip to Japan for next March, so hopefully during that trip things will go a bit more smoothly and I won't have to think about work.
Washington DC - Friday, September 1, 2023
It'd been a while since someone in our group of high school friends got married (the last person was me!), but this past Sunday we got to see David and his fiancée Steph tie the knot in Silver Spring, Maryland.
As this area is close to Washington DC, this was a good excuse for me and Priscilla to travel and do some sightseeing. The last time I visited DC was on a family road trip, perhaps when I was in middle school.
Most of my friends got there on Thursday or Friday, but I didn't want to take too much time off work, so Priscilla and I flew out Friday night on a red eye. We flew American Airlines (because we have points) from SFO to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), with a layover at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). At DFW, we visited the Capital One Lounge, which is quite the premium lounge, though we only had around 15 minutes to eat before we had to get to our connecting flight. We arrived at DCA on Saturday around 11am. We managed to get a little bit of sleep on the two respective fights, but it wasn't quality sleep. Doing a red eye with a layover is tough.
DCA conveniently has a metro station right there, so we took the metro and then walked a mile to get to the Capitol Hill area. Steph works at the Library of Congress and was supposed to be gathering people there for a tour at 1pm. Priscilla and I got there at that time, but we were the first ones there and had to wait a bit for everyone else.
I enjoyed seeing the library and learning about some of its history, though my favorite part was looking at the architecture and reading the different quotes around the Great Hall while Priscilla and I were waiting for people to arrive. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see anything behind the scenes on our tour. We didn't have time to visit the reading room, either.
Afterwards, our small group walked to the US Capitol through the tunnel from the library. We got into one of the last tours of the day, but the tour felt a little short, maybe because the building was closing.
After that, we took the metro up to Jongro Korean BBQ in Wheaton-Glenmont, a few miles from our hotel in North Bethesda. David had invited us all to dinner there, so I thought it was just going to be our small group of friends, but it turned out he had invited 40 or so people. We had 6 people at our table and so the food on the grill had to be split up many ways, but at the end we were all decently full.
On Sunday, we made our way over to Brookside Gardens in Silver Spring where the wedding took place. David had booked a premium shuttle to ferry guests over, but only a few people actually took advantage of it. Brookside is a public garden that also has a small outdoor venue for events. The wedding was quite streamlined with no bridal party, no hymns, no candle lighting, and a fairly short sermon. It felt pretty low-key and totally reflected the bride and groom's personalities. There were around 100 guests.
It was getting warm and DC is very humid, and there was no shade at the venue, so perhaps it was a blessing that the wedding was over so quickly. We all then made our way over to the reception at Fogo de Chao, located very near to our hotel, and there we ate way too much meat for the second day in a row. David had half-jokingly told me to come to the wedding/reception wearing pants with an elastic waistband.
Not ones to let the fun die early, David and Steph had invited everyone to their place for the afterparty, stretching from afternoon till night. But Anton, Richard, Raymond and I decided to first head down to DC and rent bikes to bike around the National Mall. It was pretty cool seeing the different memorials and being able to get to them quickly. Afterwards, we headed back to Silver Spring and rejoined the rest of our friends (and Priscilla) and a few others at David and Steph's place. Priscilla and I stayed a couple hours but then booked an Uber back to our hotel, as it had been a long day and we were still jet lagged from the previous day's travels.
For breakfast the following morning, we met up with our friends one last time at the Original Pancake House. David and Steph were there too, her sitting with her friends. Afterwards, we all went our separate ways, one person flying out shortly after and another having flown out the day before. It was nice hanging out with our friends for 2.5 days straight, but it was also nice finally having some time for me and Priscilla to explore on our own!
We took the metro down to DC again and dropped our stuff off at our hotel there. Then we visited the Museum of the Bible, which some church friends had highly recommended. The museum has an impressive collection of old Bibles and other manuscripts, interesting displays making good use of multimedia, and an amazing walk-through experience on the Old Testament story. It was really well done. The place was also not crowded, likely due in part by there being an admission fee.
After that, we had about 45 minutes to tour the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum before closing time. We kind of rushed through it but felt like we got the gist. The place was super crowded, a little surprising since it was Monday, so it was hard to get a good look at things. I guess that's what happens when a museum has free entry.
After a late lunch/early dinner and some resting at the hotel (mainly waiting for the weather to cool down a little), we ventured out again to walk around the National Mall. Our hotel was about a mile from the east side of the mall. We walked around the Washington Monument, World War II Memorial, Reflecting Pool, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the Tidal Basin, George Mason Memorial, and finally the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. It got dark by the time we left the Lincoln Memorial, but it was nice exploring the Mall in a different light and getting to spend more time at each place than I was able to while biking. The place that made the most impact on me was the wall at the Korean War Veterans Memorial that's engraved with the reminder that "Freedom is not free". Words to live by.
On Tuesday, it was time to pack up and head back to the airport. On the way, we stopped in Crystal City and had brunch with my coworker Spencer who moved to DC several months ago. It was great catching up, and Priscilla enjoyed discussing travel tips with him, as he is an avid traveler.
For the return trip, we had a layover at DFW again but the final destination was SJC instead of SFO. Unlike the last time, this time around we had ample time to rest at the Capital One Lounge and enjoy all the food without rushing to our connecting flight. We finally got to SJC around 8pm and had a small dinner at The Club before they started closing up. A pretty tiring day to end a pretty packed four days of travel and activities. I needed an extra day off work just to shake off the exhaustion. But I'm glad that we went to be part of David and Steph's special day, spent so much time with friends, and saw some of the many things our nation's capital has to offer.
As this area is close to Washington DC, this was a good excuse for me and Priscilla to travel and do some sightseeing. The last time I visited DC was on a family road trip, perhaps when I was in middle school.
Most of my friends got there on Thursday or Friday, but I didn't want to take too much time off work, so Priscilla and I flew out Friday night on a red eye. We flew American Airlines (because we have points) from SFO to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), with a layover at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). At DFW, we visited the Capital One Lounge, which is quite the premium lounge, though we only had around 15 minutes to eat before we had to get to our connecting flight. We arrived at DCA on Saturday around 11am. We managed to get a little bit of sleep on the two respective fights, but it wasn't quality sleep. Doing a red eye with a layover is tough.
DCA conveniently has a metro station right there, so we took the metro and then walked a mile to get to the Capitol Hill area. Steph works at the Library of Congress and was supposed to be gathering people there for a tour at 1pm. Priscilla and I got there at that time, but we were the first ones there and had to wait a bit for everyone else.
I enjoyed seeing the library and learning about some of its history, though my favorite part was looking at the architecture and reading the different quotes around the Great Hall while Priscilla and I were waiting for people to arrive. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see anything behind the scenes on our tour. We didn't have time to visit the reading room, either.
Afterwards, our small group walked to the US Capitol through the tunnel from the library. We got into one of the last tours of the day, but the tour felt a little short, maybe because the building was closing.
After that, we took the metro up to Jongro Korean BBQ in Wheaton-Glenmont, a few miles from our hotel in North Bethesda. David had invited us all to dinner there, so I thought it was just going to be our small group of friends, but it turned out he had invited 40 or so people. We had 6 people at our table and so the food on the grill had to be split up many ways, but at the end we were all decently full.
On Sunday, we made our way over to Brookside Gardens in Silver Spring where the wedding took place. David had booked a premium shuttle to ferry guests over, but only a few people actually took advantage of it. Brookside is a public garden that also has a small outdoor venue for events. The wedding was quite streamlined with no bridal party, no hymns, no candle lighting, and a fairly short sermon. It felt pretty low-key and totally reflected the bride and groom's personalities. There were around 100 guests.
It was getting warm and DC is very humid, and there was no shade at the venue, so perhaps it was a blessing that the wedding was over so quickly. We all then made our way over to the reception at Fogo de Chao, located very near to our hotel, and there we ate way too much meat for the second day in a row. David had half-jokingly told me to come to the wedding/reception wearing pants with an elastic waistband.
Not ones to let the fun die early, David and Steph had invited everyone to their place for the afterparty, stretching from afternoon till night. But Anton, Richard, Raymond and I decided to first head down to DC and rent bikes to bike around the National Mall. It was pretty cool seeing the different memorials and being able to get to them quickly. Afterwards, we headed back to Silver Spring and rejoined the rest of our friends (and Priscilla) and a few others at David and Steph's place. Priscilla and I stayed a couple hours but then booked an Uber back to our hotel, as it had been a long day and we were still jet lagged from the previous day's travels.
For breakfast the following morning, we met up with our friends one last time at the Original Pancake House. David and Steph were there too, her sitting with her friends. Afterwards, we all went our separate ways, one person flying out shortly after and another having flown out the day before. It was nice hanging out with our friends for 2.5 days straight, but it was also nice finally having some time for me and Priscilla to explore on our own!
We took the metro down to DC again and dropped our stuff off at our hotel there. Then we visited the Museum of the Bible, which some church friends had highly recommended. The museum has an impressive collection of old Bibles and other manuscripts, interesting displays making good use of multimedia, and an amazing walk-through experience on the Old Testament story. It was really well done. The place was also not crowded, likely due in part by there being an admission fee.
After that, we had about 45 minutes to tour the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum before closing time. We kind of rushed through it but felt like we got the gist. The place was super crowded, a little surprising since it was Monday, so it was hard to get a good look at things. I guess that's what happens when a museum has free entry.
After a late lunch/early dinner and some resting at the hotel (mainly waiting for the weather to cool down a little), we ventured out again to walk around the National Mall. Our hotel was about a mile from the east side of the mall. We walked around the Washington Monument, World War II Memorial, Reflecting Pool, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the Tidal Basin, George Mason Memorial, and finally the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. It got dark by the time we left the Lincoln Memorial, but it was nice exploring the Mall in a different light and getting to spend more time at each place than I was able to while biking. The place that made the most impact on me was the wall at the Korean War Veterans Memorial that's engraved with the reminder that "Freedom is not free". Words to live by.
On Tuesday, it was time to pack up and head back to the airport. On the way, we stopped in Crystal City and had brunch with my coworker Spencer who moved to DC several months ago. It was great catching up, and Priscilla enjoyed discussing travel tips with him, as he is an avid traveler.
For the return trip, we had a layover at DFW again but the final destination was SJC instead of SFO. Unlike the last time, this time around we had ample time to rest at the Capital One Lounge and enjoy all the food without rushing to our connecting flight. We finally got to SJC around 8pm and had a small dinner at The Club before they started closing up. A pretty tiring day to end a pretty packed four days of travel and activities. I needed an extra day off work just to shake off the exhaustion. But I'm glad that we went to be part of David and Steph's special day, spent so much time with friends, and saw some of the many things our nation's capital has to offer.
New Phone, Who Dis? - Thursday, August 17, 2023
Well I held out for as long as I could, but after using the same phone for 6.5 years, I've finally moved on to something newer.
Okay, technically we had two ZTE Axon 7 Minis that I bought in 2016, and I switched to the spare one (which was Priscilla's but she gave it up for a Samsung Galaxy S8) a year and a half ago, but the point still stands. This phone wasn't made to be easily serviced, and every time I pried it open to fix something, a small piece of something would break off. The antenna finally got so damaged such that I could make calls but not receive them (though some might call that an anti-spam feature). The phone was also getting sluggish and some apps were no longer available due to the old OS. So while I like keeping things running as long as possible and am averse to buying new things, buying new parts to keep the phone operable no longer made sense.
I was set on sticking with Android and I still wanted a small form factor. I also needed NFC to be able to badge into the parking garage at work, and I wanted a headphone jack since I sometimes use wired headphones when on calls. According to the phone finder at GSM Arena, there were only 4 phones that fit all my criteria. I ultimately settled on the Asus Zenfone 8. The Zenfone 9 and 10 would've also checked all the boxes, but I didn't want to pay more for something newer.
Though it's two years old, the Zenfone 8 turned out to be a pretty decent phone. Most of the hardware is way better than my Axon 7, responsive times are great, and the battery life is terrific. I've gone 4-5 days between charging, though my usage tends to be low overall. The phone even has an FM radio, requiring headphones to be plugged in to act as an antenna. I don't know if I'll actually use that, but it's pretty cool to have.
On the downside, though the phone has stereo speakers, they don't sound as full as those on the Axon 7, which has some phenomenal speakers. So I'm still using the Axon 7 to listen to podcasts and music when working in the backyard. The other couple downsides are that the front pinhole camera is punched into the top of the screen (instead of being in a bezel above the screen like on the Axon 7), and the notification LED is on the bottom of the phone, making it harder to notice.
I had several apps where all the data was stored locally, and all but one of those was able to be migrated using the Android Setup Wizard. Unfortunately, the wizard failed to copy some things the first time, and it doesn't allow you to run it again without factory resetting the phone.
Overall, I'm really happy with the upgrade. Priscilla had been telling me for a while to replace my aging phone. There isn't going to be a perfect phone for me, but the Zenfone comes fairly close.
Okay, technically we had two ZTE Axon 7 Minis that I bought in 2016, and I switched to the spare one (which was Priscilla's but she gave it up for a Samsung Galaxy S8) a year and a half ago, but the point still stands. This phone wasn't made to be easily serviced, and every time I pried it open to fix something, a small piece of something would break off. The antenna finally got so damaged such that I could make calls but not receive them (though some might call that an anti-spam feature). The phone was also getting sluggish and some apps were no longer available due to the old OS. So while I like keeping things running as long as possible and am averse to buying new things, buying new parts to keep the phone operable no longer made sense.
I was set on sticking with Android and I still wanted a small form factor. I also needed NFC to be able to badge into the parking garage at work, and I wanted a headphone jack since I sometimes use wired headphones when on calls. According to the phone finder at GSM Arena, there were only 4 phones that fit all my criteria. I ultimately settled on the Asus Zenfone 8. The Zenfone 9 and 10 would've also checked all the boxes, but I didn't want to pay more for something newer.
Though it's two years old, the Zenfone 8 turned out to be a pretty decent phone. Most of the hardware is way better than my Axon 7, responsive times are great, and the battery life is terrific. I've gone 4-5 days between charging, though my usage tends to be low overall. The phone even has an FM radio, requiring headphones to be plugged in to act as an antenna. I don't know if I'll actually use that, but it's pretty cool to have.
On the downside, though the phone has stereo speakers, they don't sound as full as those on the Axon 7, which has some phenomenal speakers. So I'm still using the Axon 7 to listen to podcasts and music when working in the backyard. The other couple downsides are that the front pinhole camera is punched into the top of the screen (instead of being in a bezel above the screen like on the Axon 7), and the notification LED is on the bottom of the phone, making it harder to notice.
I had several apps where all the data was stored locally, and all but one of those was able to be migrated using the Android Setup Wizard. Unfortunately, the wizard failed to copy some things the first time, and it doesn't allow you to run it again without factory resetting the phone.
Overall, I'm really happy with the upgrade. Priscilla had been telling me for a while to replace my aging phone. There isn't going to be a perfect phone for me, but the Zenfone comes fairly close.
Taking to the Skies - Tuesday, July 25, 2023
I haven't been great about keeping up with previous coworkers, but last Friday I was able to catch up with Maciek in person for the first time since he left the company three years ago. Seems like he's doing well and staying busy. He's still into jumping out of planes, but now he also flies them, as he got his private pilot's license this year. So when we arranged a hangout, we decided to make it more fun and flew up to Sonoma for half a day!
We picked Sonoma because neither of us had been there and because it was a relatively short flight (around an hour including safety checks and taxiing). We flew in an American Champion Citabria out of Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose.
We landed at Sonoma Valley Airport and were the only plane there the whole time. This small airport is owned and operated by Vintage Aircraft Company and they let the public land there for free. The airport is untowered (has no control tower), so the protocol was that we announced our landing on a designated frequency to inform any nearby planes. But during our time there, we were the only visitors. Maciek said that it was because everybody else was at Oshkosh, an annual airshow and the world's largest.
We did a 20-minute biplane ride with Vintage Aircraft. They have several different planes including a WW2-era Boeing PT-17 Stearman that we rode in, which was faster than our Citabria. You have to book in advance, which allows them to get the plane ready. This plane has an open cockpit with a modified front seat fitting two people (though it's very cozy) with the pilot in the seat behind. Since you're in the open, it's pretty windy and a radio is not feasible. Flying without a radio is apparently still allowed in Sonoma.
The biplane ride took us around the scenic Sonoma countryside. Everything looked green and fairly flat. Since it was pretty windy, I started getting queasy due to all the turbulent air going into my nose, and the queasiness stayed with me pretty much the rest of the day. The ride was $418 after a 10% cash discount. It was fun enough, but I don't know if it was worth the money, especially since we had our own plane.
Next, we headed over to Sonoma Skypark, a short 5 minute flight away. We pretty much took off from Sonoma Valley Airport, made a left turn, and landed at the Skypark. There's a guy, Eric, who lives in a unit there and has a hangar with antique planes, and Maciek had made arrangements for us to take an informal tour. It was cool learning more about small planes, though most of it was over my head.
The Skypark has a truck that pilots can borrow, but that day was one of the few days that the truck was in use. But Eric was kind enough to give us a ride into town. We walked around downtown and looked at the pricey menus of the restaurants there before finally deciding on the less pricey food at Mary's Pizza Shack, where we had a late lunch. We hung out in the area for a couple hours until it was early evening, then took a Lyft back to the Skypark.
We flew out west over the Bay, around Golden Gate Bridge, and over SF before heading down the peninsula. It was awesome seeing the city landscape from the air. Everything looks closer together when you're looking down from a higher vantage point.
As we neared San Jose International Airport, we were directed to fly pretty much right over the airport. Maciek explained that the airspace directly above an airport is safest because any planes taking off or landing are passing below, not through that space. We finally got back to Reid-Hillview a little past sundown.
I'm really glad that we got to hang out and I was able to scratch my aviation itch. I'd previously thought about getting a private pilot's license, but the trip helped me realize that it's not quite for me. I had a romanticized view of how flying would be, like it would just be you and the open sky. In actuality, the cockpit seems like a noisy place - on top of the constant roar of the engine, you're constantly talking to air traffic control or listening for what others are doing. Even while just flying, you're communicating with ATC to coordinate your passage through their airspace. And when we did have the opportunity to talk, I couldn't always hear Maciek too well through our headsets. Not a great place to have a conversation.
Our trip definitely gave me a greater appreciation for those who fly. There's a ton of work that goes into it and a lot of experience involved in making flying safe and enjoyable. It's not that I don't want to put in work, but rather that I have a lot of other things I'd rather do that will keep me busy for a long while. My stomach also prefers being on the ground. So while I learned a lot and had a lot of fun and wouldn't mind doing a trip like this again, I'm okay with this just being a bucket list thing. I'm grateful for experiences like this and friends to share them with!
We picked Sonoma because neither of us had been there and because it was a relatively short flight (around an hour including safety checks and taxiing). We flew in an American Champion Citabria out of Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose.
We landed at Sonoma Valley Airport and were the only plane there the whole time. This small airport is owned and operated by Vintage Aircraft Company and they let the public land there for free. The airport is untowered (has no control tower), so the protocol was that we announced our landing on a designated frequency to inform any nearby planes. But during our time there, we were the only visitors. Maciek said that it was because everybody else was at Oshkosh, an annual airshow and the world's largest.
We did a 20-minute biplane ride with Vintage Aircraft. They have several different planes including a WW2-era Boeing PT-17 Stearman that we rode in, which was faster than our Citabria. You have to book in advance, which allows them to get the plane ready. This plane has an open cockpit with a modified front seat fitting two people (though it's very cozy) with the pilot in the seat behind. Since you're in the open, it's pretty windy and a radio is not feasible. Flying without a radio is apparently still allowed in Sonoma.
The biplane ride took us around the scenic Sonoma countryside. Everything looked green and fairly flat. Since it was pretty windy, I started getting queasy due to all the turbulent air going into my nose, and the queasiness stayed with me pretty much the rest of the day. The ride was $418 after a 10% cash discount. It was fun enough, but I don't know if it was worth the money, especially since we had our own plane.
Next, we headed over to Sonoma Skypark, a short 5 minute flight away. We pretty much took off from Sonoma Valley Airport, made a left turn, and landed at the Skypark. There's a guy, Eric, who lives in a unit there and has a hangar with antique planes, and Maciek had made arrangements for us to take an informal tour. It was cool learning more about small planes, though most of it was over my head.
The Skypark has a truck that pilots can borrow, but that day was one of the few days that the truck was in use. But Eric was kind enough to give us a ride into town. We walked around downtown and looked at the pricey menus of the restaurants there before finally deciding on the less pricey food at Mary's Pizza Shack, where we had a late lunch. We hung out in the area for a couple hours until it was early evening, then took a Lyft back to the Skypark.
We flew out west over the Bay, around Golden Gate Bridge, and over SF before heading down the peninsula. It was awesome seeing the city landscape from the air. Everything looks closer together when you're looking down from a higher vantage point.
As we neared San Jose International Airport, we were directed to fly pretty much right over the airport. Maciek explained that the airspace directly above an airport is safest because any planes taking off or landing are passing below, not through that space. We finally got back to Reid-Hillview a little past sundown.
I'm really glad that we got to hang out and I was able to scratch my aviation itch. I'd previously thought about getting a private pilot's license, but the trip helped me realize that it's not quite for me. I had a romanticized view of how flying would be, like it would just be you and the open sky. In actuality, the cockpit seems like a noisy place - on top of the constant roar of the engine, you're constantly talking to air traffic control or listening for what others are doing. Even while just flying, you're communicating with ATC to coordinate your passage through their airspace. And when we did have the opportunity to talk, I couldn't always hear Maciek too well through our headsets. Not a great place to have a conversation.
Our trip definitely gave me a greater appreciation for those who fly. There's a ton of work that goes into it and a lot of experience involved in making flying safe and enjoyable. It's not that I don't want to put in work, but rather that I have a lot of other things I'd rather do that will keep me busy for a long while. My stomach also prefers being on the ground. So while I learned a lot and had a lot of fun and wouldn't mind doing a trip like this again, I'm okay with this just being a bucket list thing. I'm grateful for experiences like this and friends to share them with!