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A collection of 27 posts

Yosemite 2023

We've been to Yosemite National Park during the Memorial Day holidays two years in a row. Yosemite discloses different appearances throughout the year, but May is often regarded as the best time due to its abundant water. That's why we visited on Memorial Day last year and got indescribable impressions

California Superbloom 2023

California Superbloom 2023

Every Bay Area news station (probably all California's also did) seemed to say about this year's super bloom in California. Although we saw a glimpse of it in Pinnacles, we thought that it could be a big reward for having the unusual atmospheric river of this year. So, we decided

Pinnacles 2023

Pinnacles National Park is the smallest National Park in California (5th smallest in the US). We were there last year and had a great time, and this year, we visited there again as the Spring came to the Bay Area. We learned a lot about the Park on our last

Tomales Bay and Point Reyes

Tomales Bay and Point Reyes

We've been to Hog Island Oyster Co. restaurant in Napa. It was the best oyster in my life. We were pretty surprised when we had raw oysters because it was so fresh - no fishy taste. So, when I learned its HQ is at Tomales Bay, within two hours' distance

Calistoga 2023

Atmospheric rivers are still torturing the Bay Area these days. I heard from many that California's high tax rate was the price for perfect weather. While preparing the 2022 tax return, I'm wondering if I could ask the IRS for a tax refund for bad weather, though I wonder if

Channel Islands National Park - The Year End 2022

Channel Islands National Park - The Year End 2022

It was already two months ago, but my family's last journey of 2022 was to Channel Islands National Park. I love to visit places where macOS version names came from: e.g., Yosemite, El Capitan, Mojave, Big Sur, and Monterey. And consequentially, this time was Ventura. Ventura was a small

San Diego - The Year End 2022

San Diego - The Year End 2022

It's been a while now, but We've been to San Diego at the end of last year. The great weather would be the greatest pride of the Bay Area. But it had been a little different story this winter, and we wanted to have a year-end in a warmer place.

Thanksgiving Road Trip 2022 (3)

Thanksgiving Road Trip 2022 (3)

4. Monument Valley To many gamers, Monument Valley reminds a faerie game that was developed by Ustwo Games in 2014. So, when I heard there was a real place named Monument Valley, it attracted my attention, and it was also a great chance to visit there because The Valley was

Thanksgiving Road Trip 2022 (2)

Thanksgiving Road Trip 2022 (2)

3. Arches National Park The way from Bryce Canyon to Arches National Park was about 4 hours and a half drive through I-70. The road was imposingly well-managed (and another unexpected credit for the Red State), and I was surprised by its speed limit of 80 mph (130 km/h)

Thanksgiving Road Trip 2022 (1)

Thanksgiving Road Trip 2022 (1)

Setting out on a road trip on Thanksgiving has gotten to my family ritual since we moved to the US - even though the tradition started just last year. Last year we ran over 2000 miles through Las Vegas and Grand Canyon. We decided to complete the outer Canyon loop

New York

I attended Programmatic IO 2022 NY last month. It was my first time in NYC and even my first in the US East. I arrived at SFO around 5 am, a little tired but also excited. The airport was already full of people. It's already normal; I couldn't get any

Lassen Volcanic National Park

Lassen Volcanic National Park

During the last Labor Day weekend, we went to Lassen Volcanic National Park. It was established as a National Park in 1916 and is an active volcanic area - the last eruption was from 1914 to 1917. It always makes me tired to get out of the Bay Area on

Seoul 2022

I couldn't have written posts these days because I visited South Korea last month (since I last visited there two years ago). It was a little more than three weeks, but I had never imagined three weeks would go so fast; I had only a few days without an appointment.

Seattle 2022

Last week, I visited the Seattle office. Many of my co-workers are in the Seattle office, and as we've been growing so fast, it was an excellent time to put new names to their real faces. When I first visited the Seattle office, it was in 2018, and the office

Programmatic IO 2022

Programmatic IO 2022

I've been busy for the last few weeks: both for work and private. The word 'busy' comes to us as a synonym of tiredness, but sometimes of energy or vitality. And for me, that was the latter because I could've been on a business trip - after a long time

Napa 2022

Last week was my daughter's Spring break. We hadn't had any plans, but suddenly, it came up to me that it could be an excellent time to visit Napa. I'm not sophisticated at wines. I used an online wine service nakedwines.com [https://us.nakedwines.com//] and enjoyed the service.

Death Valley

Death Valley National Park [https://www.nps.gov/deva/index.htm] always has been a place on my bucket list. We planned for it two years ago, but we had to change the plan for a family issue. As the pandemic seemed tolerable, we decided now was the time to

Pinnacles National Park

Pinnacles National Park

Last President Day weekend, I've been to Pinnacles National Park [https://www.nps.gov/pinn/index.htm]. Pinnacles National Park is the smallest National Park in California, and it is only one hour and a half driving from my home (Palo Alto). Luckily, we could book a tent cabin for

Big Sur 2022

Last Friday, I visited Big Sur. It was a weekday, but my daughter didn't have a class that day so that we could enjoy the less crowded beach. It is my pleasure to have one of California's most beautiful coastlines within a 2-hour driving distance. 0:00/1× We left

Thanksgiving Road Trip 2021

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Thanksgiving Road Trip 2021

My parents are visiting the US to have family time held off for a long time. My parents are not active persons; they don't have much travel experience. Their favorite must be seeing their granddaughter (they literally raised her), but I wanted them to have new experiences. So, I planed

Lake Tahoe

My last summer vacation was at Lake Tahoe. It was my first visit to Tahoe. I heard a lot about Tahoe from many friends (mainly about the Wintertime for skiing) and articles (not only tour guides but do you know the TCP Tahoe [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCP_congestion_

Patrick Stewart

In the early 2010s, I used a service called Everpix. It was a cloud photo service that I could save my photos and view/manage them in any device. Nowadays, iCloud Photo or Google Photo is ubiquitous, but there was no one like that, and I loved the service.However,

Travelling during the pandemic

Travelling during the pandemic

My daughter and I arrived in Korea a few days ago. We’re currently under 14-day self-quarantine. I couldn’t imagine what a journey during the pandemic looks like. But my daughter graduated from elementary, and now it’s her summer break, and we’d like to have a family

Takako Ohta 35th Anniversary Live

Takako Ohta 35th Anniversary Live

In my last business trip to Tokyo, I couldn’t buy a flight ticket for my schedule. So, I had to take a plane for three days ahead of my original plan. It was a rainy Sunday morning when I got to the Haneda airport. I took on a limousine

Exhibition: Hinamatsuri

Exhibition: Hinamatsuri

Although I have not done the last cour anime wrap-up, (and I’m not sure I can do that…) I can tell one thing. My best pick of the previous cour is “Hinamatsuri.” And I got to know there is a small exhibition for Hinamatsuri [https://www.acgateway.com/ex_