Sunday, October 31, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Portland: Japanese Garden
The weather in Portland was overcast and drizzly most of the week. But on Wednesday, the sky was cloudless and bright blue.
I had to chair a 7 AM meeting of the "long range planning committee," which comprises all of the former presidents of AAAR. In anticipation, it felt like I was heading for a fraternity hazing, but the session went smoothly enough. I even got a few compliments afterward for my opening remarks about the state of the association.
After the 8 AM plenary, I decided to take off the rest of the morning. Ingrid escorted me to the Japanese garden, which she had toured the previous day.
The garden is located west of downtown Portland. The trip over took about 50 minutes evenly split between a ride on the MAX (light rail) and a very brisk uphill walk.
We spent about an hour at the garden. According to the guide pamphlet, a visiting prime ministers declared this the best Japanese garden outside of Japan. Not that we have any basis to judge, but we definitely found it to be a special place, well worth visiting.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Portland: Willamette River
We arrived today in Portland for this year's AAAR Conference. I'll have a busy work week at the conference while Ingrid has a chance to explore the city.
The flight up is only 90 minutes from Oakland. We took the convenient light rail MAX to the Lloyd Center Doubletree where we are staying. After a sushi lunch, we walked down to the riverfront where there is a nice greenbelt walkway along both banks extending about 1.5 miles near downtown.
There was a big storm along the northwest coast this weekend, hitting Portland and Oakland with a good bit of rain. Here in Portland, everything was wet and for most of the walk we had light rain, not enough to soak us, but rather just enough to create a somber mood.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Half Century: Oakland-Danville-Oakland
Although we had a cool summer, the last month has been punctuated by two or three hot spells that lasted four or five days each. Everything is definitely brown and dry now, waiting for the first rain. After several days with highs consistently in the mid 80s, today the temperatures were perfect for a long ride. My work was under good enough control to take off the whole day. Ingrid and I did a long ride out to Danville for lunch and then rode back in the late afternoon.
Most of the route was along quiet country roads or on paved "rails to trails" multipurpose recreational paths. Leaving our home in upper Rockridge, we first rode through Montclair and then along the frontage road north of Hwy 13 to Lincoln Blvd where there is a pathway leading up through Butters Canyon. After a bit of a climb, we turn right on Skyline and then left on Redwood road for a nice long descent on the south side of Redwood Regional Park. Turn left on Pinehurst, climb again for about a mile and a half (top photo), and then drop down to heavily shaded junction of Canyon Road and Pinehurst. We head east on Canyon Road to pick up the start of the 7.25 mile Lafayette-Moraga trail.
At the eastern end of the trail, we are dropped onto Olympic Blvd. and we ride east into Walnut Creek. A right turn on Newell Avenue leads us to the Whole Foods Market where we pick up the Iron Horse Trail (third and fourth photos) leading us to Danville.
We had a terrific lunch at the Sideboard Coffee shop (411 Hartz Avenue), which is in the historic Danville Hotel building. Ingrid ordered bruschetta and some amazing broiled brussel sprouts; I had a seared-ahi sandwich with ginger and heirloom tomatoes. And food always tastes better after a long ride, so it was spectacular!
For the return, we doubled back along the Iron Horse and Lafayette-Moraga trails and then rode up Pinehurst through the little hamlet of Canyon. A final steep climb over the east-bay ridge line and an even steeper descent down Shepherd Canyon through Montclair and we were home. Total distance: 52 miles. A great outing!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Orange County OC…tober
We spent last weekend down in Orange County. Friday was Mom's birthday and Sunday was a Hamann-family gathering, so that was two good reasons to make the trip.
I left work Friday at noon, walked to a Berkeley car rental agency, and picked up a Ford Focus that Ingrid had reserved (35 mpg and only $100 for the weekend). By 2 PM we were on the road. We stopped at UCLA and took Daniela to a late dinner before driving down to my folks' house in Laguna Niguel for the night. On Saturday, we hung out with my parents: leisurely breakfast, a beach walk at the Dana Point Strand, a fine lunch at the Colisseum at Pelican Hill, and then a bigger family dinner at the Peking Dragon.
We picked up Daniela Sunday morning and spent the midday with the extended Hamann family. All of the California brothers were there: Eric, Martin, Walt, Ernie, and Frank. I got in a walk to the Huntington Beach pier with Walt and Julie and Daniela. At 3 PM, we said our goodbyes and hit the road for the long drive home, arriving back at about 9:30 PM.
These photos say OC to me!
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