Great to have Bryan Kearney with us this week, and lucky me, he played trance that was more melodic trance than hard/tech trance, which I loved :)
TFSF's Sony Jacob opened the night for us:
we celebrated Sony's BD
I even made a screen for him :)
he even got cake
Nice to see friends and happy crowds:
Bryan Kearney nicely did a meet and greet with a few contest winners and then took over for a great 3H set:
Great to start TFSF's new year with Blastoyz at Public Works for his US club touring debut, yeah for us!
Martin Cisco opened for us, including a great new mix of Gamemaster:
it was Anna's Birthday celebration too
glad to re-unite with friends
Anna had many friends come for her BD:
After Martin, Triode took over:
Then Blastoyz came and took over around midnight:
he nicely did a meet and greet
shots!
Blastoyz even got a cake :)
Back on the dancefloor to meet people and enjoy the sets.
And then got to enjoy Blastoyz's psytrance:
wonderful lasers
Thanks all for the great night. Here is a short video summary:
this year is definitely a good wet year. Xmas had big dumps, downed powerlines and closed roads, and as soon as I got home from France, there was enough of a dump that it was worth going for a quick trip. Carson Spur was closed, so I had to take 50 and while my original plan was to go to kirkwood, Ovidiu gave me intel on Heavenly that it was worth trying to go there instead and do some frontside runs (side country):
even early on a friday morning, chain control caused a 45mn traffic jam :(
well done guys for blocking traffic so much
snowplow escort that wasn't really necessary
I stayed on the Califonia side and managed to find parking close to the gondola to meet Ovidiu and Rick after confirming the Gondola had just opened (they parked on the nevada side which I generally avoid going to :) ):
several lifts no running yet, so the lines were long
back for more
nice views
Fire Break Runs:
For Day #2, I went to kirkwood, by then I had of course missed the fresh tracks from Day #1, but given the firebreak runs, that was not a big deal. Driving there was not a huge deal, but there was already a good line getting in the parking lot when I arrived:
my car has become a lot more chatty :)
lots of cars trying to get in
Despite the parking getting full quickly, the resort didn't feel too full. Snow coverage was excellent. Chamoix was not even a problem, anyone could go without even trying hard:
snow was still good and a few stashes here and there
given the few lifts running, we had mild lines
running the wall for the first time this season
the wall ridge opened and I was able to drop it the first time this season too
liftie humor :)
very windy on top
sunny at times
But with 60mph+ winds, being on the top of the mountain was painful. Once I went up cornice and wanted to ride the ridge to drop skier's right, but the wind was so strong and I was being pelleted by ice/snow in the face, so I aborted:
that's snow/ice being blown around
by dropping the wall, I was able to get to the snow cave, sheltered from the wind
lenticular cloud, showing the strong winds
After some good runs, I went home. Glad to get such good snow in January!
It had been about 15 years since I last went to Versailles, and I kind of forgot how it was, as well as was surprised at how it now almost sells out now and advance tickets sell out before the day of, thankfully I was able to get tickets the day of onsite, event though the website said they were sold out. Visiting Paris has gotten complicated and a bit ridiculous...
Getting there from the east side of Paris takes a while since it's quite a ways out by mid range train and it just happens that during those days there was another strike, so there were a lot fewer trains, thankfully getting there worked out in the morning (on the way back, after missing a train, getting uber back was expensive, but way faster):
10mn walk from the RER station
Visiting the main palace wasn't too terribly busy:
the most famous room
Ironically while the Versailles gardens are way better in the summmer, I actually prefered the palace in the Louvre. The gardens are huge but not as impressive in the winter when most things are dead. A 20mn walk way is the Trianon, other quarters away from the main palace, not as impressive to visit:
And that was it for Versailles. It still took a good 5H to visit between getting tickets, going through the gardens and visting the somewhat skipable Trianon residences. It was fun, but soemeone short on time can appreciate the royal rooms inside the Louvre, just as much, if not even more.
It had been 15 years since I last went to the Louvre, apparently not even a full day. This time I planned to do the full 13H you can do on a friday, unfortunately arrived almost 1.5H late and by then the lines were already terrible: 5H line outside for the main tourist entrance, and 2H for the "fast" underground entrance for those with tickets. And advance tickets were sold out days in advance anyways. Getting in was a bit challenging, but I managed as always :)
ridiculous line already
all this to go through the security gate which I guess wasn't there before
Eventually got in and had aroud 9H to see most everything, still a lot but manageable if you're efficient. This time I started with the underground ruins of the castle that used to be in the place of the museum:
before
after
really cool that they only found this semi-recently when digging for extra galleries
Lots more to see:
Then was time for the main museum, lots of rooms:
the audioguide wsa quite cool, based on a nintendo 3DS with geolocation
quite cool
I never take selfies :)
found my fellow leo :)
unexpected statue :)
Paintings came next:
the room with Mona Lisa was packed with people trying to take selfies
for this
all these people
More rooms still:
inside joke :)
The King/Castle section of the Louvre is better than Versailles in my opinion:
And more to see still, by then the day was getting a bit late, got to see almost everything before they started closing around 21:30:
While in Paris, le Jardin des Plantes had beautiful illuminations. It reminded me of Dubai Glow Park. It being France, they actually put work into the science part, showing interesting insects and even microbes:
First night, I went to Odeon with my dad to see an interesting play. It was sold out and I didn't have tickets, but I was able to get one from someone who had a spare when I got there and got to see the play:
fun restaurant across the street with tables in ski gondola cabins
The next evening, I spent a bit of time in Paris and walked around to see the lights and Xmas houses before seeing a show that was a cross between circus and a play:
A few days later, went to Paris again to meet some school friends for lunch:
plenty of random nice churches, popped in a few on the way
small cars are always fun :)
Great to see Rani, Laurent and Franck
went back out to see a few lights
cool Xmas houses, always fun to see
The next day, I went out during the day for more sightseeing staring with the center of Paris:
all the locks removed around the seine river are now ending up here?
after 'a few' stairs :)
funny that the streets around are still open to cars somehow
I tried a drawing for the first time
Interesting smile-smirk :)
Back to 1er arrondissement, the seed and plant store is always fun to see:
Conciergerie was next, lots of history in that building that used to be a jail during the kings and french revolution. It also contains documents from the first republic (yes, France has 5 republics and constitutions, so that it's in better shape than the US whose constitution is hard to update for current times):
very cool sand structures
the video guide was interesting and showed views of how the place used to be
Sainte Chapelle is a beautiful churh but very hard to get into due to its location in the palace of Justice
Then a quick trip to les jardins du louvre et l'arc de triomphe du carousel:
The nearby festivities had the big ferris wheel with great views, and another Xmas fair:
arrived just in time for sunset
nice views
I went with the seared foie gras burger :)
more overpriced nougat
yes, I went for a bumper car ride, those don't suck and have proper power
I was able to find the last lime bike available and barely get it by reserving it with my phone before someone else was able to snatch it, and biked like crazy to get to Obelisque just in time, literally down to the minute. A bit too close for comfort, but it worked out:
I then tried to complete my plan to get to Effeil tower, which was done by lime bike again since the whole city was gridlocked. Even biking was hard due to the number of pedestrians everywhere and all streets blocked with cars all stuck. But I made it:
The following day was a good day to see les grands magasins boulevard hausman and Google:
Thankfully it was a nice day for a change, good time to go to the eiffel tower:
I tried Batobus, not the best viewing but easy to get on and off
After getting off the boat, a semi random walk to see some sights:
another random church on the way
This interesting bit is the biggest piece of the wall that used to be around Paris:
And ending at Place des Voges with interesting art as always:
And that was the end of a good trip:
The flight home was nice until we failed to land in SFO due to terrible weather:
so we had to land in Sacramento
after a multiple hour stop in Sacramento, finally landed in SFO
But once in SFO, the torrential rain had not stopped and caused a landslide on hwy 280 with fallen trees in the middle of the freeway, so it took a while to get home:
Fun to be back to San Jose Civic after a couple of weeks, this time for Jason Ross and multiple other DJs that played various kinds of dubstep. Not my usual music, but fun to do something different:
Nice to see my friend Kepik open
some pretty dope visuals
Jason Ross was last, and did a great job
It was definitely an interesting mix of dubstep and other things. Different and yet enenjoyable.
Video Summary:
I had a few days before Xmas and Hawaii's big island sounded like an
easy trip, and fun with the recent lava flows, so I went there a few
days and did 8 dives over 3 days.
On the first day, I did a couple of dives with Big Island Divers in the
afternoon/evening to see the Manta Rays. The Manta Ray Night Dive is
spectacular as always:
Short Video:
Long Video:
Water hovered between 27C and 25C even at night, which was borderline
cold for my 3mm wetsuit, but thankfully I didn't get cold (I added a hood when not moving
much).
The next days, I did 2 more dives with Big Island Divers in the morning:
Kona Shore Divers was super nice to take me last minute for 2 more dives in the afternoon just
before the Luau I had that night:
The 3rd morning, for my last hours in Kona before driving to Hilo, 2 more dives with Big Island Divers:
It had been a while, but since I had a good excuse to go spend a few days in Hawaii and the Big Island sounded like a good idea thanks to the recent lava flows. Unfortunately those lava flows stopped a few days before we arrived, so not very exciting pictures, but it was still a fun flight.
The only downside was the price of $500/h for C182+CFI, it's 60% more expensive than flying in CA, which is already not cheap.
I had to look up my last flight, it was in 2009: Flight Around Hawaii's Big Island
Here is the flight this time:
Anyway, I'm glad there was a single flight club left on the island with a single plane left able to take 3 people (C182):
I had to wait a bit before takeoff:
Kona is the main airport on the big island
finally taking off
Kona has boats, snorkling and diving
The full tour of the island takes time, even in a C182, it was 2.8H total. It was nice to see the stark contrast between the different sides of the island:
my trusty copilot/CFI, who thankfully did all the radio and airspace work
even the kona side had older lava flows
beautiful waters too
more lava flow
stark altitude contrast
south tip of the island
After a while, we finally arrived to volcano national park:
crater road used to go around, but the volcano grew and took the road away
Jagger Museum is now closed because it's now on the edge of the crater and was damaged by earthquake
After a few loops, down chasins of crater road:
cool road to nowhere (after lava flow)
After that, got to Hilo and did the rest of the island loop:
lots of bridges
many waterfalls
Waipo valley
And finally back to Kona airport after 2.8h, also clearly built on top of a lava flow:
Not cheap, but it was fun to do this flight again after 13 years ;)