Irrelevance Glorified

I feel really bad, but I’ve actually been sitting on these pictures for months. Specifically, since about Christmas. That’s when my good friend Yusuke visited with his wife (Megumi), kid (Itsuki), and sister-in-law (Kaori), and Yusuke’s parents visited from the Chicagoland area, converging on the West Coast in a compromise that benefited me (and Cameron) greatly. I’ve spent a lot of travelling time with Yusuke’s family, since they were in Japan for both of my visits (in 2003 and 2006), and they more or less treat me like a member of the Nakane’s, so I’m totally up for a road trip when they’re in the area. We spent our time mostly in San Francisco and the Monterey Bay area. Here are a bunch of pictures and videos that I’d taken at the time. I always start these trips thinking I’ll take a lot of memorable pictures, but true to my anti-social nature, afterwards I look through my pictures and realize that I didn’t really take a lot of pictures of people. Mostly, I hate herding people together to get their picture. Luckily, Yusuke and his dad, Masaki, sent me their pictures, which has made up for things somewhat.

Hit the jump for the pictures; you can also hit my Flickr Set and YouTube Page for the individual pictures and videos, with the requisite geotagging.

Since Yusuke arrived on a separate flight from the rest of his family (a highly recommended approach when your wife is traveling transpacific with a small child), Cameron and I picked him up from SFO and grabbed some lunch, and then drove around the city a little. Here’s some witty banter while we traveled down Lombard Avenue, aka the curviest street in the world. Aren’t we witty?

 

I don’t know how to describe Yusuke’s facial expression (it kinda reminds me of Dieter from Sprockets, but here we are at Cascal’s Restaurant in Mountain View. You can also see Yusuke’s dad Masaki in this picture.

 

As is customary upon the first time meeting a small child, Itsuki was passed around.

 

This is actually a pretty representative reaction for any woman that’s been in my lap.

 

Itsuki couldn’t quite walk yet, but she could definitely stand. Perhaps it was all the sangria that was interesting her.

 

I do like the look of wonder. I think asian babies pull it off better than other ethnicities, though.

 

It was the week of Christmas, although December in California seems so odd compared to my years in Illinois. Sure, there are Christmas trees and all (in hotel lobbies), but without it being cold and perhaps snowy, it’s just not the same.

 

The next day, we took a little tour of South Bay, and visited the Stanford campus. You’ll have to forgive the ghastly white balance; it was still stuck on tungsten when I took this picture. This is Stanford’s quad-like lawn area, which is pretty in its own way (but not as collegiate as Illinois’).

 

I find the best response to someone taking your picture is to take a picture of them. Not everyone can handle such a transition from offense to defense, and they may lose their nerve. From left to right, here’s Itsuki (in stroller), Kimiko, Megumi, Yusuke, and Kaori.

 

Because I’m lazy, forgetful, and a big nerd, I often take pictures of plaques next to pieces of art or display cases. That way, I can read the supporting information later, at my leisure. Usually, the subject of the plaque is either the next picture or the previous picture, so I can also remember what I was taking a picture of.

 

As promised, the subject of the plaque.

 

This is a view of the North facade of the Stanford Memorial Church. For some reason, I thought Stanford had Jesuit leanings (you know, St. Stanford?), so I was somewhat surprised to see that it was non-denominational. Although, looking at that facade, it’s kinda like, “all denominations, as long as you believe in Jesus”. Also, when I was typing denomination, I kept typing demonination. I find that oddly fitting.

 

It took me this long to figure that I needed to change my color balance. Also, Itsuki does not appear to be a morning person.

 

One of the plaza’s on Stanford campus. Hoover Tower is visible in the background.

 

The battle of picture taking continues.

 

In the interest of full disclosure, Yusuke presents the other side of the argument.

 

Yusuke took this nice picture of a lemon (lime? orange?) tree on the Stanford campus. The Japanese visitors seemed to be very impressed to find these. It may be the fact that it’s December.

 

After Stanford, we headed down to Monterey and Monterey Bay.

 

Yusuke took this nice picture catching a hummingbird in the act. I tried my best to get a video but he was much quicker on the trigger and caught a picture before the hummingbird disappeared.

 

Yusuke took this fantastic picture on Monterey’s Fisherman’s Wharf. This Santa is advertising whale-watching tours, I believe. Kimiko is in the background, probably checking out some sea lions below.

 

This shrimp-like thing was in one of the tanks at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Like a stupid American, I didn’t learn anything, and couldn’t tell you what this creature actually is.

 

I believe this tank was illustrating how artificial things, like concrete pilings or a pier, can serve as nice substrates for sealife.

 

There was a portion of the Monterey Bay Aquarium that had a simulacrum of a shore, with shorebirds to boot. These may, in fact, be red-necked phalaropes. They see hundreds if not thousands of people every day, so these guys have no fear of humans. It was fun to be able to take a picture so close.

 

This crab seems to think I’m some sort of wiseguy.

 

Monterey Bay Aquarium has a really nice jellyfish exhibit, with special toroidal tanks that allow the jellyfish to drift indefinitely.

 

Many of the jellyfish we saw happened to be swimming upside down. I’m not sure if they were aware of this.

 

I don’t remember if the colors I see here are due to the fact that the ambient light is interacting with the translucent skin of the jellyfish, or if the jelly is creating them itself. Either way, it’s pretty.

 

Some of the jellyfish there exhibited bioluminescence. Still pictures really don’t do it justice, so you have to take video.

 

One of the highlights of the aquarium is a large tank with a bunch of otters in it. A couple of times a day they have a little exhibition where they feed the otters and get them to do things. Cute human things. With their hands.

 

I love large tanks of water with schools of fish.

 

That night, we had dinner at Bubba Gumps Restaurant. I had never heard of this place before….I don’t think I’ve ever seen a restaurant that has capitalized so completely on a movie. Anyways, while we were waiting for the car to arrive after dinner, Yusuke performed some parenting.

 

The next morning, we headed out on 17-mile drive to enjoy some scenery. The drive is along the coast, of course, and there’s a decent amount of sealife out there. Here, you can see some seal lions on a rocky outcropping off shore. The sea lions always seem like big slugs to me. They’re probably not, though, considering they swim in salt.

 

I enjoyed this picture from a mathematical perspective. It’s like a series of parabolas.

 

Feeling stressed? Just play this on repeat or something. Unless you are stressed because you just went through a hurricane or something.

 

I like this picture because I look taller than Yusuke.

 

It’s sharkmanseal! Half shark, half man, half seal!!

 

We took a bunch of stops along 17-mile drive, and this is one of them. It had been a little rainy over the past few days, so it was quite puddly.

 

I didn’t think this would work, but actually the telescope suggested this. It was hard to tell from the naked eye, but that rock out in the surf was teeming with birds and sea lions. Apparently, sea lions, having longer front flippers, are able to climb up onto rocks, while seals are limited to doing the worm to get up onto beaches.

 

Here we are at Ano Nuevo State Park, to see some elephant seals. You can actually see some, if you look closely. But the points of this picture are the buildings in the background. Back before 1950, that little isle was connected to the mainland, but over time the ocean eroded the land in between. Since this area became a haven for elephant seals, they decided to just abandon the buildings.

 

Here is the largest elephant seal I saw at Ano Nuevo. I was probably about 15 away, albeit on a platform above him. Most of the elephant seals I saw were just chilling out on the beach, scratching themselves, and belching. It kinda reminded me of a guy watching television on his couch.

 

Since these seals moved at such a frenetic pace, I decided to take a video of the wild action.

 

All of the male elephants are in constant battle for the ladies. So while they don’t exactly cooperate, they do kinda passively hang out like this. I’m pretty sure these guys are alive, but they seem to spend a lot of time conserving energy.

 

The elephant seals really didn’t care that we were around. Our tour leader just lead us around them. Thanks to the fact that there are no more California grizzly bears, and protection laws, they have no natural predators on land.

 

Yusuke took this picture of one of the elephant seals. I think it’s because of the eyes, but this seal’s face looks creepily human. The way that the nose obscures the rest of the face makes it look like a giant alien mouthless face.

 

Closer to the water, there was quite a bit of posturing going on with the elephant seals. In this video, you can hear one seal giving the business to some other seal that apparently caused him some offense. The lady elephant seals like manly male seals who can make loud noises.

One thing I have to say about Itsuki, she does eat with gusto. Here, she’s curious about fries.

 

I think Yusuke looks a lot like Ross from friends in this picture. Also, I think Itsuki is trying to eat me. We’re having lunch at Duarte’s in Pescadero.

 

I actually have no idea what Itsuki has in her hand, but it must be pretty appetizing because Cameron is angling to get a bite.

 

Satisfied with portions of the central coast, we headed back up to San Francisco to catch the Golden Gate bridge before it got dark.

 

A view of the Golden Gate bridge from the Vista Point.

 

These girders never get the credit they deserve.

 

Here is Yusuke and some random guy we got him to stand with. First up, an obligatory shot of him with the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

This is really not the Golden Gate Bridge’s best side, but you work with what you’ve got when there’s fading daylight and a limited vista point.

 

For this picture, Kimiko decides to join in the party.

 

You know, the San Francisco skyline actually doesn’t look that impressive from this distance.

 

Megumi, Itsuki, and Masaki pose for the Golden Gate.

 

Look! A levitating baby! For anyone who question whether or not Itsuki is levitating or not, I dare you to find any wires holding her up.

 

I also took a picture of the bridge, unsullied by actual people.

 

After the Golden Gate bridge, we stopped by the Industrial Light and Magic campus and took a picture of the fountain in the courtyard. Very classy, George Lucas. (photo credit Yusuke)

 

You might think that the hotel shampoos and soaps are just meant to be put in your hair. You would be wrong.

 

I wouldn’t say I’m ‘good with children’. In fact, I’m more or less terrified of accidentally breaking someone’s kid. So, me "playing" with Itsuki is more or less giving her a newspaper to play with (which she loved) and keeping her from rolling off of the bed.

 

I think cablecars are a bit overpriced at $5/ride, but man, when you see the size of some of those hills along the path, you start to think it’s worth it. I was most surprised to see how…manual these cable cars were. At the end of the line, there is a large "lazy susan" type circle that the operators use to turn the cable car around. It’s wonderfully analog.

 

Here’s a picture Yusuke took of the queue to get on the Powell street cable car.

 

Here are Kimiko, Kaori, and Megumi on the cable car, going from our hotel on Powell street up to Chinatown. Normally, I’m distrustful of buses, but since the cable car has tracks I feel that there will be less of a chance for surprises. You always think you can hoof it in San Francisco…until you find out that your destination lies on the other side of a hill.

 

Is it just me, or does this look wrong to you? Hey, I don’t know. Maybe there are a lot more Jewish Chinese than I can imagine. But this area of the dim sum place we tried (New Asia, in Chinatown) just seemed odd to me.

 

Here is a view of Lombard street from rather far away, with the curviest region in the world up at the top.

 

I don’t know if those sea lions have any right to be on this pier…but I’m pretty sure that no one wants to tell them to move. Squatter’s rights!

 

We visited Alcatraz Island, and before hitting the audio tour, we wandered through some of the “exhibits” about the prison. Here is a Tommy gun being displayed. I admire the amount of grips on this gun. Everyone likes options.

 

While some of us where at Alcatraz, Masaki and Kimiko and Cameron watched Itsuki. This is just a cute picture.

 

This region of Alcatraz was dedicated to preserving artifacts of the prison experience. It was rather claustrophobic, though, with low, narrow passageways.

 

The guard tower at Alcatraz. There was a lot more…up…on Alcatraz than I expected. The climb from the docks to the actual prison blocks made for a decent hike.

 

The audio tour was actually pretty nice, and included interviews with former inmates. I was just amused, perhaps unreasonably so, by the fact that the Face Detection on my camera totally recognized 4 faces here. Ha ha, stupid camera, those are just pictures!

 

When you arrive at your cell for the first time, you find a blanket, some sheets, and a copy of the rules.

 

Meanwhile, Cameron looks like he’s in a commercial for japanese babies.

 

Itsuki loves America! Well, specifically, Itsuki seems to enjoy the Aquarium of the Bay.

 

Itsuki appeared to really enjoy the starfish at this exhibit.

 

The aura and mystique of Alcatraz is ruined, perhaps, by the presence of all the tourists.

 

This region of the cell blocks is for bad prisoners. These prisoners had less recreation opportunities here, although I don’t know if you could call it “solitary confinement”.

 

If you were extra special bad, you were put into dark cells like this for solitary confinement. The former inmate on my audio tour said that the only way to amuse yourself was to bring a button in with you. Then close your eyes, drop the button, and try and find it. Repeat until you are done being punished. Otherwise you’ll go crazy with boredom.

 

This cell is supposed to be an example of the sorts of things that prisoners would do to spend their time and personalize their cells. Painting, carvings, knitting. Sure, these guys were felons and murderers, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t like to knit.

 

Apparently, one of the worst things about being a prisoner on Alcatraz is that you could see San Francisco, so close, yet so far. Kaori and Megumi are in the foreground.

 

This is where the warden and the guards could live when they were on the island. This building hasn’t exactly been well maintained.

 

When prisoners tried to escape from Alcatraz, they made up dummy heads and put them to bed to keep the guards from noticing their absence until the morning. If this is actually representative of what they used to trick the guards, I’m very impressed with their improvisational skills.

 

I think it would have been funnier to have a “Don’t Pick Up Hitchhikers sign”.

 

This is the view looking back at Alcatraz from the ferry.

 

After the Alcatraz tour, we headed back towards This Christmas tree was set up near Pier 39, I believe. It had a sort of mesmerizing effect on me….I just had to approach.

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