Visiting Cancun 2

In addition to gourmet food, there are many amenities at the Resort: pools, private beach, gym, organized activities.

On the beach

Even though the beaches are private for each resort, one can walk through beaches along the whole coastline. The first day of arrival, we stayed at the resort for the afternoon, and swam in the ocean with very strong waves, for a short time. The boys played frisbee afterwards, Lily and I walked over a mile along the beach.

Another favorite activity for Lily and I was resting on the beach chairs listening to the sound of waves, watching the blue sky, floating clouds, the ocean  and enjoying the Sunshine.

With ocean on the east, it is also a good place to see Sunrise. We did not see a pure Sunrise due to clouds on the horizon at Sunrise time, nevertheless we stayed on the beach in the early morning hour (7:15 am or so) see spectacular change of lights, and took in salty ocean breeze.

Indoor Activities

Lily and I stayed outdoor most of the time. But the boys did enjoy some indoor activity - one went to Gym a few times, and the other had a sport massage!

Christmas Celebrations

The resort organized almost daily evening program for guests - including dancing, singing, and exercise. On Christmas eve there were simulated gambling and professional singer performance. On Christmas day, there was a pinata for children There were also opportunities to have pictures with Santa. 

Visiting Cancun - 1

Instead of going skiing this winter vacation, we decided to go to somewhere warmer - the family chose Cancun Mexico. We booked an all-inclusive resort in Zona Hotelera on a "7" shaped barrier island, which was developed in 1980s, pacific ocean on the east, and a lagoon on the west, right outside the city of Cancun. Interestingly Cancun means snake nest in Maya.

Security

I was little bit worried due to all the negative news about crimes against tourists in Mexico. I was told by a tour promoter at airport that zona hotelera was the safest place. While being driven from airport to the resort, I saw federal police presence at a public beach near the south entrance to the hotel zone. There were police patrolling the beach on Christmas day. During our stay there, we did not feel insecure at any time; the police presence from time to time just added assurance that everything was under control.

Gourmet food 

Gourmet food was a important part of the all inclusive resort. There are three sit-down to order formal restaurants at the Omni hotel and resort - La Pina Grill (Mexican food) , La Vista (Asian food)  and Davinci (Italian food). We had 5 course dinner at each of the restaurants - delicious food, good service.

The first dinner was at La Paloma - a buffet. The restaurant was dark, food was so-so. We had our second dinner under the moon on the beach at La Vista; both food and service were good, the sight of full moon and sound of waves made it unique. The Christmas eve dinner was at La Vista; both the dinning hall and servers were dressed for the occasion. Da Vinci restaurant was the most formal and elegant restaurant, Lily was thoroughly impressed

There are also sushi bar and a Mexican grill by the pool, a buffet restaurant and a few pool side bars.

We had plenty of sushi and drinks there. I tried margarita but did not take it well - felt dizzy and had rash after the drink. My favorite drink was pina colada. 

Note:

1. A valuable tip I received from a fellow tourist on the shuttle from airport to the resort: make dinner reservations at the formal restaurants as soon as possible - they are popular all the time, at Concierge.

2. Book travel from a trusted agent makes life easier. We used Costco travel. Their contractor at Cancun was very good and reliable.

  

Uneven Shoe Wear

Last Sunday, Lily told me she noticed her shoes wear fast, and right shoe wears faster than left shoes. The first cause came in mind was that she put more weight on the right foot. In addition to this, the running route selection, road surface condition etc could be reasons as well. I noted that we run counter clockwise most of the time during our morning exercises. I checked my running shoes, same observations, but less pronounced difference between the two shoes - which could be explained by her more frequent runs, longer distance, faster pace ...

In addition to physiological reason, running counter clockwise seemed to be another main reason. To check on this hypothesis,  I look at my walking shoes since walking is more random, times to turn left or turn left should be about the same thus the two shoes should wear about the same. For me, during my daily 1-mile after lunch loop walk, I actually alternate walking clockwise and counter clockwise. But the same wear pattern is observed, so walking/running counter clockwise is not a main reason for the uneven wear between the two shoes.

Checking internet, most answers to uneven wear are by chiropractors, and are physiological - one leg is slightly shorter than the other, one's spine is not straight, or misalignment of hip and pelvis  ....there are also claims that heart is on the left, so the left shoe should wear more - not the case for us.

How to solve the problem of uneven wear   unlike tires, we can not rotate shoes. But we can do the following:  a) if one leg is slight shorter than the other, put insole in one shoe with shorter leg may solve the problem; b) if spine is not straight or hip/pelvis misalignment, go see a chiropractor; c) randomize walking directions.

Ignore it if it does not bother you physically and psychologically 😊

                                      

Running shoes  - right shoe wear more (half year usage, more intensive)

                   

                                  

Running shoes - right shoe wears more  (~ 3 year usage )

Bay Area: places less traveled

Instead of the popular places in Bay area, such San Francisco Downtown, during our trip we went to places less traveled. In addition to treasure island, UC Berkeley campus, we also hiked on bay trails, east shoreline of the bay area - McLaughlin Seashore state park, Albany Bulb, and HQs of Google, Facebook and Apple

Bay trail is an ambitious of project for bay area, when completed, it will be about 500 miles long! We only walked portion of trail #12. The trail is long, may be better suited for bike ride if one wants to finish even a sector in a day. The HQ of Tech Giants really showed their characters - Google has an open campus, in fact they have tourist guide stations on campus, a lot of trees, beach volley fileds and a big multi purpose track & field park across the street from its main buildings. Facebook has a big campus, ugly building - looking from outside, they are kind of cheap on branding - the entrance sign for the company is made from canvas from Sun Microsystem's sign ! Apple's HQ at 1 infinite way is a closed complex, though looked much nicer than Facebook's. The much hyped Apply Park for its airy, openness design turned out to be closed campus as well. Some people used drones to peek inside the enclosure wall.  

                           

 Bay Trial, map #12

Albany Bulb 1

Albany Bulb 2

Albany Bulb #3 - Mudflats

McLaughlin Seashore State Park

Oakland 

Oakland - downtown in the center back

Full view of SF bay from Berkeley Hill

Google HQ

Google HQ Campus

Facebook Entrance Sign was made from Sun Microsystem's 

Facebook, 1 Hacker Way

Ugly Facebook Building

1 infinite loop - Apply HQ

Apple Park is isolated from surroundings by concrete wall

Apple Park outskirt

Walking on Berkeley Campus Thanksgiving Day

After one full day rain, the smoke was gone, the sky was blue with white clouds. It was a beautiful day on Thanksgiving day at Berkeley. 

Sather Tower 

We walked the campus around Sather tower: as the university was on holiday, there were not too many people on campus. By observation, most people on campus were actually tourists or family members. It was a very beautiful surroundings when there is no extremists' rally there. We passed by University library, Oriental Culture Center, Materials Building, Biological Science Building, then hiked to Big C which is right at the Summit of The Berkeley Hills/Charter hill, elevation close to 1000 ft. We had a leisure pace, and took a lot of pictures of the campus and the San Francisco Bay - Bay Bridge on the left, SF downtown in the center, and Golden Gate Bridge on the center right. 

The round trip of our hike was about 12 km in 2.5 hours including a break at the only opened tea house on Bancroft way, and a light lunch at Plearn Thai kitchen. We then went to Whole Foods to pick up pre-ordered Thanksgiving dinner to get ready for our Thanksgiving dinner away from home.

What a great day it was  - the whole family together enjoy the splendid outdoor and a delicious turkey dinner.

Sather Tower

View of Berkeley Campus, SF Bay with Golden Gate Bridge in the back

Sather Tower Court Yard

Material and Mining Building

Biology Building

Foliage

The university library

University Emblem 

Big C

Bay Area - view from Berkeley Hills