Two “baby” hikes. For our last day in Tahoe, we decided to go on a hike that the kids would be able to do. After some research, I decided on the Cascade Falls trail. A baby hike of just 1.4 miles out and back. The beginning of the hike looked promising with a wide and … Continue reading Cascade Falls & Eagle Lake Trails
After yesterday’s 10-mile hike, we decided to take it easy today. Spent the day at Meeks Bay paddling the day away. Rented boards from SUP Tahoe - highly recommend these guys They racked up the boards on top of the minivan for us Whiling away the hours on the lake
We were supposed to do stand up paddling today, but due to high winds we postponed it to tomorrow, and I made the last-minute executive decision to move up our Mt. Tallac hike to today. As a result of the last minute change, we ended up starting our hike very late - 11AM, instead of … Continue reading Mt Tallac Trail
We finally made it up to Lake Tahoe after having lived in CA for the past decade. Joe had always wanted to check out the place, but for some reason I’ve always felt there’s something better than going to a lake. For me, lakes are for fishing, swimming and, subsequently, contracting some kind of brain-eating … Continue reading Rubicon Trail
It took 5 weeks to finally get my cardiovascular conditioning back to baseline. Short runs had felt so tough week after week that it had me wonder if I had developed long term lung damage from possible COVID last year. However, the last 2 runs have finally reassured me that I’m back in shape. I … Continue reading I’m Baaaccckkk
That’s the 2021 Boston Marathon cutoff, the amount of time needed under the respective qualifying times in order to enter into the in-person race this October. This is the biggest cutoff ever, due to the much smaller field size. In prior years, BAA took around 26k qualified runners, but due to COVID concerns this year, … Continue reading 7:47
Month 7 of retirement. The first 4 months of retirement involved mostly traveling for me, so the reality of retirement really didn’t hit me until after I came back from Taiwan. There were some adjustments in the beginning, but I’ve finally fallen into a nice routine after I started running again. There’s no such thing … Continue reading Do Whatever, Whenever
With travel beginning to thaw, the industry is pulling out all the stops these days to try to get people to sign up for their rewards cards. With Delta’s 90k sign-up bonus, Capital One Venture’s 100k, and Amex’s 75k, it can be hard to decide which one to sign up for. After some research, I … Continue reading Points and Miles Traveling Part Two
This is the year of traveling for “free”, thanks to credit card points and mileages accumulated. We have 4 upcoming domestic trips, between the end of May and the end of October, all covered by points and miles (I’ve decided to hold off on international trips for as long as the US requires Covid testing … Continue reading Points and Miles Traveling
My racing shoes arrived today! This is the same shoe that Eliud Kipchoge wore when he broke 2 hours in Vienna, Austria. I don’t plan on setting any records, but hope that these shoes will make it easier for me to cross the finish line. Additionally, I hope these (like the 1st generation Nike vaporfly … Continue reading Nike Alphafly Next%
It’s been a year since I last ran. Suffering from burnout from running and non stop training for the last 8 years, I was toying with the idea of giving myself a break from running. Back in April of 2020, the California State Parks (including my training ground) closed due to the pandemic, and that … Continue reading Back To The Old Haunt
Going home! It’s been a while since we’ve traveled to a place where we’re happy to be going home. There’s nothing wrong with Morocco, but we think Turkey ruined it for us. Our trip to Turkey was absolutely one of the best (a close second after Botswana and Tanzania), and after having just been there … Continue reading Traveling Back To The US
Most important thing to take care of today was to get our Covid test, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to return home. A dizzying and confusing array of breads and pastries. Not sure if I was having breakfast or afternoon tea. We got to Meknés an hour later and found a crowd outside the testing … Continue reading Chefchaouen – The Blue City
First order of business today was to get our Covid test in order to get back to the US. Breakfast at the riad. Carbs on top of carbs, paradise for a carb lover. Unfortunately, I’m not one of them. After arriving at the public Covid testing site, we realized that the turn around time was … Continue reading Fez And A Bonus City
Yesterday was the 6-hour walking tour. Today is the 7-hour car trip from Marrakech to Fez. Before leaving Marrakech, we stopped by the Majorelle Garden, which was closed for the last 2 days. Normally a popular and crowded garden, we had the whole place to ourselves thanks to the fact that there are hardly any … Continue reading Marrakech to Fez
Our tour guide, Yousef, met us at the riad shortly after breakfast for our 6-hour walking tour. Before retirement, we always felt the need for a vacation after returning home from vacation, because the trips were always packed to the hilt so that we could see as much as possible. Since we’ve retired we’ve approached … Continue reading Marrakech – The 6-Hour Walking Marathon
After conking out for 11 hours last night, we woke up refreshed and ready to go. Breakfast at the hotel Casablanca is a modernized city, and wasn’t exactly what we were looking for on this trip, so we were pretty happy to leave and move onto the next city, Marrakech, which is a 3-hour drive … Continue reading Marrakech – Day 1
We got off the flight completely jet lagged. Morocco is 8 hours ahead of California, and we didn’t get a chance to adjust while in NYC. With hardly any sleep on the plane, we landed in Casablanca bright and early in the morning ready to go to bed. Watching the sun rise over the Atlantic … Continue reading Casablanca
Our Morocco trip was booked back in late 2019 for April 2020. With the pandemic, the trip was postponed. Since this trip was booked pre-retirement, the duration of the trip was only for a week, which is short by today’s standards. Morocco is open to US travelers, albeit with restrictions. First, we had to test … Continue reading Pandemic Travel – Africa Edition
The first leg of our trip to Morocco involved flying domestically from the West Coast (LAX) to the East Coast (JFK), since Royal Air Maroc had cut out all direct flights to Morocco except for the JFK route. Domestic travel is nothing like international travel. The crowds! Everyone, minus the grandmother, is traveling! Had we … Continue reading LAX to JFK Flight
