Down the Rabbit Hole

(screenshot from  https://www.restaurantmaligne.com/ ) Anna and I have always looked for opportunities to eat delicious food. During our most recent trip to Monterey , our research led us to Maligne, a restaurant in Seaside, CA. The restaurant is located at the corner of Broadway Ave and Hillsdale St. We were expecting Danville or Walnut Creek vibes (e.g., brightly lit streets with a bustling restaurant scene). Instead, we drove into a quiet city where the shops were closed when we arrived. The corner street lamp highlighted Maligne's minimalist (or brutalist) concrete façade (it was hard to tell; I'm not an architecture expert).  Maligne is small, with about 10 to 12 tables (if I remember correctly). The distance from the door to the open kitchen and the dining area was so short that I felt awkward standing there, not wanting to seem like I was ogling at people eating their dinner while waiting an hour for my family's table to get ready. To me, the wait meant that this res...

I have not walked outside in ages! It shows that because I gained weight, my complexion is pasty, and my most recent physical exam and lab test results indicate that I need Vitamin D. My medical provider prescribed walking outdoors to exercise and get some sunshine.  Back in the Philippines, I used to walk or jog around the farms at IRRI in the afternoon. These days, however, I can't do afternoon jogs around my work's campus because I have to pick up my son from daycare. I walk outdoors early in my lunch period.  In this photo, the winter cold hadn't set in yet so I just had thermals under my scrubs. To keep me entertained, I listened to Dolly Parton talking about her childhood and her parent (thanks to the Apple Fitness+ Artist Spotlight). The Bowers and Wilkins Px7 S2e headphones were comfortable to use during my walk: it didn't pinch my ears despite my eyeglasses; the memory foam ear pads were so soft; the ambient pass-thru technology allowed me to hear Dolly's n...

  Lone Cypress I have been to Monterey Bay with my family three times before. I visited Cannery Row's shopping district with Mommy and Daddy on my first visit. On my second visit, the whole family drove here on Christmas and had dinner at Carmel-by-the-Sea . On my third visit, we finally visited the aquarium (but Donan was asleep for most of our visit). Since we've seen the Cannery Row area several times, we decided to explore Pebble Beach on my fourth trip back. This community on the Monterey Peninsula is famous for its world-class golf courses. We had a Hawaiian fusion lunch at Roy Yamaguchi's restaurant at the Inn at Spanish Bay while admiring the view of the Monterey coastline. Then, we followed the 17-Mile Drive along the Carmel Bay coast, enjoying the view of the rocky outcroppings and the birds that call this place home. We also saw several sea lions swimming off the coast (Anna mistook them as dolphins). We stopped briefly to view the Lone Cypress, a Monterey Cypre...

A few years ago, I was walking through an exhibit about outbreaks at the Smithsonian Museum. Little did I know that my life (and the whole world) would drastically change because of SARS-CoV-2 (aka COVID-19). Aside from giving birth during the early part of the pandemic (and being indoors most of the time), my career shifted towards public health microbiology . The Smithsonian exhibit about outbreaks featured influenza and how easily it can be transmitted from various animals to humans. A strain called H5N1 is known as avian flu because it is found typically in domestic poultry in Asia. According to the exhibit, this strain is not known to be spread from person to person. Instead, humans usually get it from exposure to sick or dead birds. Epidemiologists are most concerned about H5N1 (or any other strain of avian flu) infecting another animal AND a flu strain from a human infecting the same animal. The flu strains' genetic material may recombine and become a brand-new strain that...

Spina Farms Pumpkin Patch appeared on my Instagram feed in early October. It's the perfect pumpkin patch for a child whose current favourites are dinosaur toys, pumpkins, and trains. Anna and Daddy wanted to see it, too, so we visited it on Indigenous People's Day. Just as the reviews promised, this pumpkin patch was packed! Students on a field trip, families on an excursion (like us), and friends on a day off trooped to what has become an annual tradition in the Morgan Hill region. It was an enjoyable trip: I wrote about what I liked about Spina Farms and what I didn't. The good Spina Farms has perfected the combination of interests that attracts children of all ages (and their parents or teachers) to visit annually; for example, it has animatronic dinosaurs, flying pumpkins, confusing corn mazes, colourful flowers, and sculptures of giant insects.  Godzilla was on hand to welcome guests of all ages, too! T he parking area is well-organised and can accommodate many visitor...

Anna, Donan, and I watched  Fleet Week  from Fort Baker last year . Since we enjoyed our experience, we organised a trip to see it again from the same point this year. After Mass and lunch, we drove to Sausalito, intending to take the exit that would have taken us to Fort Baker. However, the queue for that exit was close to two miles long; we missed the exit because I had thought that the queue wasn't for that exit just yet. And so, as we passed by our supposed exit, I quickly decided that we were going to watch the Blue Angels from an even better area: Crissy Field ! The Blue Angels whizzed past us as we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge . Anna and Donan had a great time watching them fly by as I tried to concentrate on watching the road. Some pedestrians on the bridge stopped to take videos of the aerial presentation. As I entered Crissy Field, I realised there was an even worse traffic jam because cars were parked on the road (the drivers and passengers just hopped out to watc...