Sunday, October 12, 2008

Fleet Week 2008

This weekend was fleet week in San Francisco. Fleet week is a gigantic air show/recruiting event put together by various military authorities. These pilots got some skillz, and pretty sweet flying devices. The setting of their performances is exceptional of course (SF Bay) - all in all a great time in the city. The pictures don't do it justice, and the sound is a big part of it.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Xterra Nevada 2008


Last weekend Goeric and Cedric competed in Xterra Nevada. This is a beautiful race with a crisp swim in Lake Tahoe, a stunning bike loop (Flume trail & Tahoe rim trail) and a hilly x-country run. At least that was the original plan. It was very cold and windy on Saturday morning, so much so that the sheriff's department decided to cancel the swim for safety reasons. Hence we traded our wetsuits for running shoes and a duathlon-type running start. I struggled on the bike, probably due to a mix of the effects of the guelsome cold and lack of practice, and Goeric along with ~50 others passed me on the 21.7 mile (34km) loop in the mountains. I made up few positions in the run, but it was a little too short to matter.
Here are a few pictures of the event. We will be back next year - stronger, faster, further.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Safari in Tanzania


We spend the last week in Tanzania, visiting a few of the major parks of the north. It was the dry season (so no mosquitoes, and lots of dust.) The whole thing started poorly, with a full day of waiting at Nairobi airport for the "delayed" Precision Air flight to Kilimanjaro. This was going to be our only logistical mishap on that trip, which is pretty much exceptional for African travel, so no complaints here.
After landing at Kilimanjaro international and meeting our guide, we drove to Lake Manyara, our first Park. We got there late at night, so our first "Game Drive" was to happen the next morning. The first game drive is a thrilling experience, because every sighting is a huge excitement (human nature, the amazement wears off after the 30th time you run into an elephant.) We saw a lion sleeping in a tree which is a strange behavior this park is known for. It really does not make much sense for me to describe things, you just need to check out the pictures.
In the afternoon we drove to Tarangire, our second park. We stayed at the Swala tented camp, incredibly luxurious. The food was exceptional (some dishes were decorated with fresh strawberries (!!), this is a tented camp in the middle of the bush. Craziness. There is an artificial
waterhole in the camp, which attracts elephants that spend their time hanging out in the camp. Turns out lions get thirsty, too, so at night a pride of lions came by and tried to convince the three large male elephants to let them have a sip or two. No luck, as the elephants did not bulge. Instead, one lioness decided to go for the herd of impalas that was grazing right next to our dinner table (needless to say we were eating outside: no fences, no walls...) As the impalas dispersed, the unsuccessful lion seemed to hesitate for a second to go for our plates of lamb shank (or was it our own shanks?), but then trotted back to her pride. Exciting. All night we heard the confrontation between lions roaring and elephants trumpeting, in the morning the positions were unchanged, the elephants were drinking and the lions had retreated into the tall grass.
After Tarangire, we visited Ngorongoro (long drive!), which I don't recommend during peak season (it's a zoo for dutch and french tourists) followed by Serengeti. During the drive to Serengeti we encountered an elephant in musk. This was by far the scariest encounter and you can check out this video of us ducking inside the Land Cruiser as the big male tries (and succeeds) to intimidate us. Another cool video shows a cheetah jumping off a tree it had climbed onto, which is not supposed to happen (cheetahs can't retract their claws, so they are pretty poor climbers). And here is a big cat scratching its back. Our most amazing sighting in Seregeti: Vincent Boone, a good friend from Belgium, in the Land Cruiser right next to us stopped to see a bunch of elephants tearing down trees. Small world...

Many, many game drives later we were heading back home with a ton of memories and vivid images of the amazing fauna of East Africa. We ended up spending 6 days on safari, and that is way sufficient. You sit in a car all day long, so even though the scenery and the sightings are amazing, you get tired of it at the end. Mixing it up with some physical activity like climbing Mt. Kili is probably a good idea. I hope you get to do this, it's truly amazing.


A few tips we gathered:
We can't speak from experience since this is the only place we went on Safari, but from our pre-trip research it seemed that Tanzania has some of the least spoiled national parks, as the Safari industry has developped later than in South Africa or Kenya. Not sure how true this is, but in any case we found the Parks to be immaculate and developed in a very respectful manner

When to go
August is the middle of the dry season. This has a few advantages (no mosquitoes, no rain) but it also means you won't see the large herds of wilderbeest (=gnus) and zebras in the plains of the Serengeti. You will see these animals, just not the huge numbers you can see there in January.
From discussions with locals, it seems that February is an interesting time to go, as there are many calves and cubs, and the grass is green, so it is much easier to spot the animals that are optimized to blend in with the golden grass of the dry season (most big cats. gazelles, etc.)
If you want to experience the migrations of 1M+ wilderbeest, you should go to Serengeti in May when they start their movement northwards. You may be treated to a "river crossing" although there is a lot of luck involved there, as the crossing times are pretty random.

Medical stuff
Before you go to East Africa, you probably need to update your immunizations, and possibly take prophylactics while you are there. Check the CDC website for requirements and recommendations. We were there during the dry season so although I took Malarone (a no-side effect antimalarial drug), it was probably useless as there were barely any mosquitoes. We also brought DEET and stopped using it after the first two days. This may be different if you are going during the rainy season, however.
For personal comfort bring lots of sunscreen, and I wish I had brought saline solution for my eyes and nose. It is very dusty, and rather windy during the dry season, so your nose and eyes dry up badly.

Zurueck nach Wien


We celebrated my dad's 60th Birthday in Vienna with the whole family. I had not been back for 15 years, and it was Maureen's first time in the imperial city. We all stayed together at a "Heuriger" very close to our old appartment. Since I could not sleep due to jetlag I got up at 3 AM and ran through our old neighborhood for a few hours: it was weird seeing the sights from when I was a kid (Primary school, day care, old church, grocery store where I used to pick up rolls on the weekends, park we used to luge and ski, etc.)
Vienna is a beautiful city, if you have not been you should go. It is truly classic without flamboyance, and romantic without the cheese. A few pictures.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Dansk Kalifornik



We drove to Santa Barbara last weekend for Nathalie and Olav's wedding. We stayed in the town of Solvang, puzzling... I actually saw tourists from Europe, Japan, Kansas and more flocking the (danish) one-dollar stores and (danish) pizzerias and pie shops, the whole thing remains a mystery. Absurd.

Saturday, July 05, 2008

4th of July


We spent the 4th of July in the town of Columbia, an original mining town turned state park on the way to Yosemite. If you have been on thunder mountain at Disneyland, imagine this the size of a small town and you'll get a feel for what this place looks like.
The town has a nice airport (used by tankers for fire fighting operations) and a beautiful fly-in campground with spacious campsites in the shadow of giant oak trees. it's first-come first-serve, but even on this holiday weekend there was still plenty of room left (~9 aircraft for 25 sites).
We landed at noon on Friday. There are a few hills around the airport, and I botched my approach after changing my mind about which way I would land (the preferred runway seems to be 17 when there is little wind), I ended up slipping the plane all the way through final.
The state park is a 10min walk from the airport, and after setting up our tent we walked to the mining town. Everyone was out and about, celebrating in red, white and blue. Plenty of good ol' fun, with a pie eating contest, a greased pole contest, needle in a haystack, nail pounding, cake walks, bucket brigade and a fire engine exhibition. Very exotic!
Following Arnold's request their was no firework display at night, so we snuggled into our sleeping bags early for a delicious 12hour night. Here are a few pictures of the trip

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Sophie in San Francisco & Biking in the Wine Country


Sophie came to visit us for 10 days and re-discovered San Francisco and Northern California. After a sporty first day (a unplanned biking through the steepest hills of San Francisco), we had a busy week, full of American adventures: biking through golden gate bridge, bay tour in a Cessna with Cedric the pilot, American BBQ, blues concert, good food, and biking through the wine country. We spent the last week-end in Healdsburg, with Trystan, Beth, April, Eric, Misha, Steve, Marisa, Sophie, Cedric and I and tried as many wines as we could, following Misha in his quest to get drunk, and trying to bike safely through the vineyards and wineries.

For more pictures: Sophie's trip, our pictures from Healdsburg & Misha's.
Maureen

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Auburn International Triathlon


Goeric and I competed in Brad Kearns' Auburn International Triathlon on Sunday. This is one of the most scenic races in the area (scenic=hilly and twisty=tough). Ray had been the instigator of the whole adventure but had a last minute "bike accident" and had to bail. To his credit he and Robbe still came down to Auburn to cheer us on. It was really warm this weekend (107F/41degC) so things got a little hot on the bike and then really toasty on the run. The race started as anticipated, I exited the water a little before Goeric, and then he caught up with me on the bike. Unfortunately for Goeric, his brake came loose and started dragging against the rim. This added handicap allowed me to stick with him, then pass him and pull away in the last 10 miles (he stopped a few times to try to adjust the bike). The run was brutal. Really hilly. Really hot. I don't recall running a slower 10K, ever. Still waiting for the official results, guessing a 2h50 for Cedric and a 3h12 for Goeric. Pictures.
update: official results ; Goeric's pics

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Boston Marathon


We took the red-eye to Boston this Saturday and spent the weekend visiting the "most historical" of US cities. Beautiful weather made for a great time: we walked the Freedom Trail on Saturday, then visited MIT and Harvard with tour guide Misha on Sunday, who had flown in that morning. On Monday, I ran the 112th edition of the Boston marathon. This the oldest, and by some measure the most prestigious, Marathon of modern times (the first was held in 1897). This event is a huge circus, the whole town mobilizes for this and although the participant count is not that large (25,000 runners) the organization outshines any race I have ever been to. The runners are shuttled to Hopkinton from Boston in a gigantic convoy of hundreds of buses, waved through traffic by police as if we were royalty. The Athlete's village in Hopkinton is rather "rustic", basically a bunch of tents with runners trying to stay warm in the morning fog. Note to prospective runners: if I have to do this again I would time a later arrival, as the two hour wait in the cold thoroughly chilled me down.
At around 9AM starts the he usual pre-race routine: judicious timing of port-a-potty visits, tightening of shoes, warm up jog. I feel horrible, as the cold made my legs super stiff and numb, but I try not to think about it and join the huddle of my fellow runners in corral 1. Gun goes off at 10AM and off we go. The excitement, combined with the fact that the course is a slight downhill for the first few miles makes most of us start way too fast. I reach the first mile marker after 5:45min, here goes my well thought out plan to run a perfect 6:15 pace. Right around the first mile marker I see Lance Armstrong and his entourage, there are so many people bunched up around him that the narrow course makes it difficult to pass. Of course my secret objective is to beat Lance, so I get overly excited that I passed him so early and keep moving way too fast. My average pace over the first 6 mi (10km) is 5:55 (3:40min/km). I am mad at myself and my legs are killing me, this is the dumbest marathon start ever. I decide to force myself to stay behind a guy who "feels slow" and after a few trials I find the perfect pacer who runs a clockwork 6:17 per mile. I promise myself to stay behind him for the next 10 miles, no matter what. This was the right decision as my legs loosen up a little and the next 10 miles are uneventful. My first half time is 1h19, the Wellesley girls are crazy (runners actually do stop to kiss them) and I am thinking that this next half will be a world of pain. The Boston course is rather difficult, because of the "Newton Hills": a series of 4 hills between miles 16 and 21, a time when most of us are running on fumes. On top of the first hill my legs show signs of seizure, which is a bad omen with 10 miles to go. I slow down a lot knowing that if I actually seize up the race is over. There is roadkill all over the place, runners limping along the side of road (including a few pros), reminding us to take it easy. In the third hill I see Misha and Maureen (actually I barely see them, I was pretty "focused" at that point) and I am thankful I have made it this far and still no sign of Lance catching up. Heartbreak Hill is the last of the 4 hills. It is very painful, but its legendary reputation had increased my expectations and so it turns out to be not that bad. Now we are in the 20-something miles, it finally feels like we'll get there. My legs feel terrible, I keep telling myself to slow down "you can loose a minute or loose the race" is the mantra. The crowds get huge as we get into Boston, so it's hard to take it easy, I run a mile in 6:15 on cheers. Pretty stupid. A couple of bumps but a mostly flat road gets us into downtown Boston, it's complete mayhem in the city 100s of thousand of people lining the streets, the last 2 miles drag on forever but I turn around (for the first time in the entire race) and see no signs of Lance. Let's enjoy this. Slow down. A lot. Finish line.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Cabo Wabo


For Maureen's 25th birthday, we made the trip south of the border to discover what all this cabo fuss was all about. Lots of silliness, two large casas and more booze than our old bodies could handle. Here are the pictures. Breaking news: misha's pix.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Disneyland



We spend this Tuesday at the happiest place on earth. It was a ton of fun. We had the park to ourselves at night. A few pictures.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

We got snow - lot's of it!


It has been unusually wet and cold in San Francisco lately, which translates to a ton of snow in the Sierras. We flew to Salt Lake a few weeks ago to get a taste of "The greatest snow on earth" and I doubled down for epic skiing in Squaw during the Product Team Ski Trip. Several feet of powder. Very satiating. Here is proof (tilt your head sideways for this one) of knee-deep greatness, as well as a bunch of pics:

Sunday, January 20, 2008

San Francisco Bay Trail Ride


Disappointed by the snow conditions of last weekend, we decided to plan a bike ride for MLK weekend. We settled on the Northern part of the San Francisco Bay Trail, a network of trails that is supposed to allow you to hike/bike all around the bay area. The full length will be well over 300miles when completed (but as it turned out, we are not at that stage yet...) Misha, Mike, Maureen and I set off from the ferry builidng at 9h40AM on Saturday. After crossing the Golden Gate bridge and leaving behind the familiar neighborhoods of Sausalito and Tiburon, we ventured into uncharted territory on our way to meet up with Jeremy (he had taken the Bus to Novato). When I say uncharted, I mean it rather literally as I was using a crappy printout of the Bay Trail maps, big mistake. I will take the time to write up my suggested route and post it here for future generations of adventurous bikers, and this route will definitely include certain "adjustments" to the route recommended on the website above.
Summary of Saturday morning: magnificent ride through Marin county, a beautiful loop around China Camp, and then things got ugly. We reached John F McInnis Park,where there were supposed to be a dense network of paved trails leading north to Ignacio (and Jeremy). The reality looked like this (more pictures to come once Misha uploads his):
and involved mountain biking for 45 minutes through marshland, scaling a 40 inch pipeline and driving through a US army restricted airfield. Of course all this offroading claimed the fist mechanical of the day (puncture, Maureen). Needless to say we arrived late and the restaurant we were supposed to meet Jeremy at for lunch had closed. We filled up at an Italian restaurant (Grazie on Grant), and hurried back on our way in order to beet the sunset. The afternoon riding was mostly Highways (37, 121, 12), not great but at least we were going at a quick pace. Unfortunately, we had a string of bad luck (3 flats in 90 minutes) and we were caught in darkness on Old Sonoma Road. 45 min of scary night riding later (we had two lights to share amongst the five of us) we were quite pleased to see the Marriott.
The second day was uneventful, we left late (11AM) after stocking up on tubes and truing my back wheel at a local bike shop, destination Berkeley. The ride was mostly Highways, and roads through crappy industrial neighborhoods, but there were occasional highlights such as the stretch north of American Canyon, the ride through Valejo, the crossing of the Carquinez Bridge and the stroll along the Richmond seashore. Total mileage: just shy of 145miles (233km). Pictures.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Christmas & New Year 2007 in Belgium


The Dinosaurs museum with our nephews and nieces

The Village People at St Idesbald - New Year 2007