The Life of H. Ernest Chen

Monday, July 01, 2019

Superbloom

Spring Break 2019!!! Onions and I decided it was time to explore Southern California. The plan was to spend a couple days in Los Angeles and then camp on the beach between LA and San Diego. First stop, the California Poppy Reserve to see the Superbloom.

It did NOT disappoint. Although along the road on the drive to the reserve there were different flowers of different colors that were more spectacular.

Splashes of purple.....picture some yellow thrown in an that was what we saw along the drive into the reserve.

We finished the drive and day with Korean BBQ in Los Angeles!

I GET Korean BBQ now.....and I'm a fan. It's all about the side dishes (lots of pickled veggies) and making sure to order a side of cold noodles with the tasty sweet soup!

Sunday, June 30, 2019

Class of 2019 Advisees -- Graduated

Prom 2019

Finishing my fourth year at LWHS...my advisees are seniors and so I chose Prom as my chaperone duty for the year. I asked Onions to the Prom and he said...YES!

As an added bonus, the prom was held at the Aquarium of the Bay and we all know Onions loves fish and sea life.

So chaperoning involved hanging out at the Aquarium, looking fish and other sea life!

Oh, and hanging out with students. Here's what I learned. Girls don't have much experience in high heels. Therefore, by the end of the evening many have taken them off and are walking in bare feet, however, their planning hasn't taken this into account and their dresses drag on the ground and therefore walking around holding their dresses up.

And some boys dressed up in the spirit of the venue.

The best part was on the lower floor there were tubes through which you could walk around and see the fish and sharks swim over and around you.

Our official prom photo!

Manresa and Pinnacles

For a couple years, our friend Mary has been saying that camping at Manresa State Beach Park (just south of Santa Cruz) is a stunning experience. Mary was able to score us a camp site on Memorial Day weekend (she had to get online exactly six months in advance) and here's the sunset we got.

Your Onions walking on the beach at sunset shot.

We spent lots of time hanging out with Mary, her family and friends, but alas, no pictures were taken.

About an hours drive from Manresa is Pinnacles National Park.

It's an remnant of volcanic activity that has been shifted north along the San Andreas fault.

The view from Condor Gulch Overlook

Looking east.

Looking south

Apparently the BEST part of the hike was into those rocks, but for some reason, my legs weren't feeling it and so we hiked back down without scrambling along the rock cliffs.

Our second day camping? We drove into Santa Cruz for brunch.

Onions spent time studying for his exam, I went to the movies and we drove up to the UC Santa Cruz campus to take a look.

Saturday, June 29, 2019

Salesforce Tower

Back in February, I was reading one of the SF blogs I read (ok it's SFCURBED) and there was a link to get tickets to visit the Ohana Floor (the observation deck) of the recently completed Salesforce Tower, the tallest building west of Chicago. And, as you see, we had a BEAUTIFUL, clear day.

415 Mission Street....The Salesforce Tower

After a 39 second elevator ride up to the 61st floor, we were welcomed to Ohana floor. Turns out Salesforce uses Ohana as a way to refer to their employees as "family."

Here we are going clockwise around the Ohana floor......starting with the Transamerica Pyramid, Coit Tower and Alcatraz.

The Embarcadero, the Ferry Building and Treasure Island.

Bay Bridge

So the Ohana floor is open to ALL employees of Salesforce during the workday to come up, breath the air of the indoor garden, grab some food at the grill, or coffee from the barista and to enjoy the view.