shopping, ride

We did a bunch of shopping: Mr Mopps, TJs, the bike shop (for cheap gels), Tokyo Fish Market, Acme bread. After resting and trying to get Zoe to take a nap for a while, I went to the best bike shop in the east bay (Montano Velo) where they let me demo the revelatory Moots Compact. I did a quick spin up Tunnel, and I very much enjoyed the bike and wheels (Mavic R-sys). Some day. Also, despite not feeling 100%, I managed to improve on my somewhat embarrassing time up Tunnel. Tomorrow is the big flight!

stanford

I had lunch with my old boss in South San, and gossiped about our respective institutions and cycling (he is also a cycling guy). From there, I drove to Stanford to check out the newest and brightest source of X-rays around. It is very, very impressive







An older instrument:

And then into the usual mess of Bay Area traffic. wheee.

Dinner at Ajanta and then beers and port with Terry and Ben. It was really great to see and talk to them both and actually hang out at a bar (which does not happen very often anymore).

Mortar, Studio

Zoe ate bagels this morning, which she LOVED. She kept requesting more "créme" (cream cheese) and was equally excited about the lox.

Ian came by shortly afterwards, and we went up to Indian Rock and Mortar to throw ourselves at various problems. I felt pretty good and actually did a few sections of Nat's that had always felt really hard to me. Next came lunch at Vik's Chaat, which has moved down the street into a much swankier space. Since we were nearby, we dropped into Wrench Science to ogle all the fancy frames before meeting up with the parents and Zoe at my Dad's studio. Zoe was working on some new oil paintings (!) when we arrived. Earlier, she had gone with my mom to the little farm, and then eaten lunch with the parents at an East Oakland favorite

Lawrence Hall O' Science!

My friend Steve and I went to the Lawrence hall of science with kids in tow, after driving up to the steam trains and getting rained on (and discovering that they open at 11:00, not 10:00!). The Hall was awesome as usual, with lots of hands on things for the kids. The only hiccup occurred when Steve and I excitedly brought the kids to one of the dinosaur rooms, and discovered that small children are inexplicably terrified of giant animatronic dinosaurs that roar, snap their jaws and lash their tails. Weird! Zoe and Kiran were both terrified of the dinosaurs, of course, and did not want to get any closer. They clearly have a more developed sense of self preservation than the adults, who were pointing and saying "coool!". Anyway, there were many other fun things to do, and we all had lunch at Top Dog. Excellent.





Next came the studio, where Zoe had her first foray into oil painting! She looked like a hazmat worker with all the gear we put on her, but the result was impressive.



From the studio, we went to the Berkeley Bowl, home to the LEAST positionally aware people on the face of the planet. Seriously, when there is just enough room for one person to get through an aisle, it makes sense to occasionally look behind you to see if you are backing people up for twenty feet. On the plus side, they had ripe cherimoya!

Finally, it was Kirala time. Living in France, you don't find yourself pining for food very often, because the food is excellent (duh!). However, there are some things that I have not been able to find. Chief among these are sushi. Kirala is one of my favorite sushi places outside of Tsukiji, so I am probably a little spoiled. Therefore, a stop at Kirala is always required when I am back in Berkeley. This time was special, because it was the first time that Zoe was big enough to come to the sushi bar with us. We ordered her standard kid fare: Kappa and Tekka, which she happily ate (the sushi chef recommended Ikura next time), but she surprised us all when she pointed at the Saba, and indicated that it was hers! Saba is not what is considered a "beginner" sushi: it is a bit fishy and has a thick skin on it. From there, she went through all the adult sushis, which impressed the sushi chef so much, that he made two very special Zoe sized sushi! I actually was watching him when he made them, and was thinking to myself that they looked really, really small. I did notice that he seemed to be putting more effort into this sushi than the rest, even stepping back and surveying the symmetry of the tiny maguro in a sea of Hinoki.

Death Ride

Ian and I did the Berkeley Death ride: a few of the steeper ways up to the Grizzly peak/Skyline ridgeline linked together. It's not as bad as some of the death ride variations i have seen, and not close to the nifty 1050, but still hard. Marin Ave. is just ridiculous, and was a pretty poor way to start the day. After that, we picked off the other climbs: South Park, Centennial, Toyonal without too much suffering. We weren't breaking any records, but we weren't going slow either. Unfortunately, the BPD had closed off the road down to Tunnel after Toyonal, so we took Centennial down, and then rode up Claremont. At the Claremont 4 way... more cops! And these cops were total jerks. I watched in awe as one of them walked up to one unfortunate person's car and yell at the driver. Most of us just got the standard patronizing BPD treatment. So we couldn't finish the death ride, but we did most of it. We did the Euclid climb to make up for it. I found out later that the road had been closed because a cyclist was killed by a car on the road a few hour earlier. It goes without saying that the media blamed the cyclist. One report actually wrote that the cyclist "rammed" the car. No word on whether there were any recent bullet rammings in Oakland on that day.

Kenji's show, Frog Park

Some time ago, someone told me about a great children's park under the 24 freeway. I remembered vaguely where it was supposed to be, so I thought it would be fun to take Zoe there. It is in a slightly unlikely place, right next to the raised 24 freeway, and next to a vast "chiodrome" as the french call them! Despite this, it is an kid's oasis complete with a water course, well kept lawn and play structures. The centerpiece is a magnificent wood play structure, with slides, swings, giant plastic spider webs and all manner of secret kid passageways. Zoe learned how to slide down a pole, which at this point involves her swinging over to the pole, death gripping it, and then hand-over-handing down the pole while giggling maniacally. Another wonderful place that we managed to miss while we were living here, I guess.




After that, we rested before the day's main event: Kenji's show at the Triton museum in Santa Clara. We left early to avoid traffic (yes, I am back to thinking about traffic and how to avoid it again) and got into the carpool lane for most of the dismal trip down 880 to the South Bay. As we approached San Jose, I found myself looking around at signs of small tech companies, thinking that somewhere in that warren of office parks, some nerd was probably coming up with the Next Big Thing. Should it surprise me that the tech revolution was spawned in such uninspiring surroundings? I'm undecided. Anyway, after some excitement getting to the general area of the museum, we ended up at a REALLY good ramen joint called Orenchi ramen. We arrived before it was open, and since we were in a hurry, got back in the car to find somewhere else to go. Just as we loaded up, a raft of Kenji's people arrived, like some kind of Japanese adhān. They were coming in from every direction and on foot and in cars. We decided that it would be better to stay, and see what the fuss was about. By the time they opened, there was a huge line going well out the door. And this is at five thirty! The ramen was great: it tasted like there was miso in the base, and the noodles were firm and delicious. We also ordered some smaller things like grilled octopus balls (tako yaki) and fried chicken, which were also excellent. It was a fortuitous find, and I'll definitely be going back if I am in the area again. From there, it was off to the museum. The show looks amazing; one of the best that I can remember, and I have seen a lot of Kenji's shows! As usual I was running around trying to remember peoples names and corral Zoe. Zoe had a great time, and it was nice seeing a lot of Kenji's old friends. I'm proud of him and mom for putting together such a great show.

Academy of Sciences

We headed into SF to visit the Cal Academy today. It really is a fantastic museum, and Zoe loved it.






She even got to touch sea stars, which was very exciting. She was, however not a fan of the automatically flushing toilets, which scared her and were soon deemed "mechante".

From there, I picked up a borrowed bike, which has aero bars. My knees hit them when i get out of the saddle, but moving them even a little is strictly verboten. Not terribly useful. At least this one is better than the mountain bike and actually has bottle cages!

Finally, Chez Panisse! The duck confit and the caramel truffle ice cream were fantastic. Kenji's fig tart was also excellent.



Finally, climbing at the gym and seeing some climbing friends. The seeing of friends part was fun, but not the falling off moderates part. Gotta get back in shape somehow! I hope it does not involve abstaining on things like duck confit, because that's just not going to happen.