After trying to fix her expresso machine (which she ended up managing in the end, and it was no small feat), Jennifer found out about repair cafés, and after going to one in Mountain View, we went to the one it was based after and that is in Palo Alto: Repair Cafe Palo Alto
They had lots of volunteers helping to try and fix a bunch of things. Some were harder than others. They were surprisingly well equipped and went from fixing weed wackers to clothes:
we tried the CD player we had and that skips sometimes. Sadly it was nothing obvious, so we didn't succeed
fans are more of my league
multiple typewriters
other volunteers helped with clothes
and of course bikes
It was nice to see all those volunteers being able to help people out.
Jennifer found the water lantern festival, which is a floating version of the chinese lantern festival where flying lanterns can cause a problem in airspace with planes everywhere.
It wasn't a bad idea per se, but sadly the organizers didn't seem to have a clue about wind and picked a place with the launch area south of the lake. Unsurprisingly, everyone put their lanterns and they didn't go anyhwere. It was quite underwhelming...
Given the wind, people went to a dicy slope to try and launch from the side of the lake. It made things a little bit better, but it was still mostly against the wind:
Most lanterns were stuck at the launching point, how silly:
We had never seen Monster Trucks in real life, so when I heard they were coming close to home, I figured it would be fun to go check it out.
It was impressive and fun to watch.
had never been to levi's stadium before
it's both small and big
the trucks had fun shells
a bunch of them
They had those 3 events:
Head to head races, which were maybe fixed a bit, or not
2 wheel balancing for points
Freestyle for points
For freestyle, they just went all out, including backflips until they ended up stuck on their back, or with a flat tire:
too much fun = flat tire
It was definitely worth going once, although by the end, we felt like we got it, and probably don't need to go back. Still, we enjoyed it (outside of the cold wind for Jennifer).
Jennifer read about Mt Umunhum, which has an access road I had driven by before on spirited drives, but didn't actually know it was there. We went to check it out and the drive there and up was already part of the fun :)
Once at the top, there is a small visitor center. It used to be a radar site to detect invasions, and was eventually shut down and left to rot. Eventually it was re-habilitated close to its original aspect and turned into a small park with nice views.
The 4 peaks of the bay area, Mt Umunhum, Mt Hamilton, Mt Diablo, and Mt Tamalpais.
The park is actually a very short walk, but the viewpoint is good on a clear day. There are a few signs you can read and an audioguide you can get on android:
Mt Hamilton across the bay
Old radar building that was used to detect potential enemy planes coming from the pacific
Respect to the native americans who used to live here
