Cycle the Marina and SAKE tasting!

We cycle a lovely route along the East Bay waterfront. Mum gets to fully use her folding bike, shifts and all. Here she is at the Golden Gate Fields Racetrack with SFran city and the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.


We cross the pedestrian bridge to Albany- Berkeley.


And see some interesting things along the way, like this white egret...


... John Lennon


Yoko Ono? naw, this drawing is much prettier.

And we see flying lizards! A big banner flown off a plane.

So Kai and Gramma take a break at the lake in Berkeley to play at the play structure there while Greg and I cycle off to a nearby Takara Sake SHO CHIKU BAI headquarters for some sake tasting.

Check out the feng shui in this place! Sho Chiku Bai stands for Health, Strength and Beauty (look for the bonzai, bamboo, and flower stamped on the bottle).

Sake-making vats. We learned that the reason why the headquarters were established here is because of the rice grown here and the temperature/ climate due to the California fog to make their precious sake.

This ball of what was once "fresh" cedar leaves, are hung at the door of the sake-maker to indicate the making of a new "non-aged" sake. As the leaves turn from green to brown, the sake is aging, and finally to deep brown does this indicate a matured sake and ready for sale.

We tour the museum first and then watch a video next.

Huge sake-vats.

The inside of one of the vats. And coins there likely for hopeful wishes.

Later we taste test 12 different sakes! Rice samples are presented before us.

The silver award winners were in bottled in champagne-sized bottles. Greg and I didn't particularly care for it. However we really enjoyed the "unfiltered" sake. Some even tasted like plums, raisins, nutter butter (as a tourist described it), and lichee fruit.

And when the sake tasting wasn't enough- Greg marched back into the museum to try and squeeze out a few drops from the vats...

Arleen, in zen.

Greg and Arleen, tipsy. And Greg purchases a few bottles and takes it home.

As we cycled back, we saw our friend Joel kitesurfing, do a jump...

...and then get tangled up.

Greg runs out to assist with the landing. So how does one "bow-tie" a kite? Only metro Joel would know. hee hee.

Cycle Richmond to Berkeley Marina

Kai just loves to cycle. Here he is with mama cycling in her bedroom slippers.

March 8, 2008 Saturday

Here we are at the Richmond Marina to have a picnic with the Bienert Family. But first, the exercise and then we eat fly kites, cycle and eat again!


Kai and Lukas? Who knows what those boys are doing in the bushes...



I try to fly the multi-kite that Rolf brought back from China for Kai. It flies well, but does not go high like Lukas' kite here.


(kite photo credits to Ute)


We cycle as far as the Berkeley Marina to the SeaBreeze Restaurant and it appears that Kai had a temper outbreak with Lukas.


Hanging out, catching some sun rays.


And when we couldn't handle them anymore, we chained them down.


But the diamond lollipops worked better. The boys do a "cheers"!

Greg daddy and Kai on a tandem cycle at the race tracks.

Cycling the Marina and what smells like rotten eggs & tastes like custard?

27 Feb 2008
Another beautiful day. Us 2 geeks, Dad and I, went to Harbour Freight store in Pleasant Hill where we found nick-knacks of all types (i.e. tools, wires, plugs, electrical gadgets, etc.) We both walked out with an armload of stuff and Dad was still in the salivating mode. Afterwards, we went to Fry's and salivated (again) over the computer and techie stuff when I realized I was becoming just as bad a "gadget-geek" as my father-in-law was. We had left 9:30 that morning and barely made it back home to pick up Mum and Kai and meet Greg at the marina by 2:30. (Gadgets are really distracting, you know!)


We were an odd gang of cyclists on the marina along Richmond to Albany, as we did not ride a standard bike. Greg and Kai rode the recumbent trike, Dad and I the tandem, and Mum the folding upright bike.
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Dad scared the bejesus out of me as he navigated the tandem! He tried to maneuver around tight corners, go between metal poles on the path, weave around pedestrians, and then worked me like a horse and had me cycling harder than my fair share! Later on he tried out the trike (he wondered why it was more difficult to ride- he may have realized that Arleen's gerbil legs were no longer there to assist him). And I was left with a semi-sore throat from screaming and laughing so much riding that scary tandem with him.
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We went to the Pacific East Mall to find dinner and Dad's curiosity and wanting of Durian fruit. Durian fruit is prohibited on the Singapore trains. Why? It is as big as a coconut with spikes that can make you bleed, and if you can get past its smell of rotten eggs- it tastes as smooth and sweet like custard. The question is- is it really worth it? Well to a lot of Asians it is!

I've overheard Mum warn Dad not to eat that around her as she would get queasy- and Dad responded by telling her he would eat it in the bathroom with the fan on. (Acknowledge that there is a hint of sarcasm between the two in this conversation...I quietly left the room.)

Rollerblading Labor Day at Rosie The Riveter-

Labor Day- September 3, 2007

Kai has his first shot in rollerblades- and was getting pretty good at keeping his feet straight as daddy pushed him along.

We rollerbladed at Rosie the Riveter, the World War II Home Front National Historical Park at the Richmond Marina. This was also the same place we kayaked on Mother's Day. This new park embellished on the changes at the waterfront and for the city of Richmond as it entered the WWII phase. Women entered the work force while men went to war.

Remember this infamous poster? Meet Rosie the Riveter...

Greg stands with rollerblades over work boot soles embedded in the sidewalk.

Kai and Arleen at the Richmond Marina waterfront.

This time we were smart enough to put a bike helmet on Kai while rollerblading at pretty fast speeds.