oliviatamccue

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Dec 25

A must-visit destination: New York City

by ccue

I have been to New York City (NYC) quite a few times. I went there many years ago. In my first visit, I had the visceral reaction to compare it with Hong Kong, both world-class cities. I was already biased, but objectively, the city was dirty, old, chaotic. I could find all kinds of New Yorkers, including homeless people, others with a questionable state of mind. Most people keep it to themselves, and if you asked locals for directions, you would be lucky to have one who got you an answer. There were many varieties of people in the subway. Sometimes, I had to tone down my already limited senses to avoid discovering rodents or real shit. All in all, it was not comfortable nor visually striking to be in. Most visits I left unimpressed with an unresolved mystery why it was widely considered as the top of the world. Undeniably NYC has a lot to offer with city charm, and energy in the city. Is it overrated? 

My spouse and I stayed for 3 weeks, for the simple reason that our children are now New Yorkers. This time, we really enjoyed our stay. A big part is parental bias to like the city that our children are in. There are other reasons too, including the studio we stayed in, the holiday spirit, and that we experienced living in the city rather than sight-seeing in the city. 

We stayed at a studio near Union Square, like a New Yorker. The studio is a few minutes walk to many subway lines, and a few minutes of walk to Union Square markets. It is within easy walking distance to the Greenwich area, the SOHO, the Chelsea markets and the China Town. It makes one of the best locations to experience Manhattan. 

We shopped at the just opened Christmas markets. On the first weekend when the Christmas market was open, it was jam packed on the weekend at Bryant Square. Since then, we have been to the Union Square Market and Bryant Square market multiple times. They carried similar merchandise. We like the Union Square market better. Bryant Square market was just too crowded. 

Our energy sets the ceiling on the places to shop and to explore. The city finally makes some effort to improve the subway. Most subway stations look a touch cleaner. Many times I got on, a survey would pop up on my cell phone to ask about my wait time, and my experience. I still ran into some “diverse and unpredictable riders” but I accepted it more as a by-product of freedom and diversity.

The weather made a difference too.  It was comfortable and sunny in mid November when we first arrived. Other than a bit dry, the weather was almost perfect and made the best season to be in the city.  Most days were sunny. We experienced how the city went from autumn with fading fall color to the windy winter after some rain. 

There are such a variety of cuisines within walking distance or a subway ride. To name just a few, we enjoyed a French breakfast, signature tea set at Prince Tea House, many lunches at rustic Chinese restaurants, authentic Hong Kong cafe, Mediterranean snack, Korean food, NY bagel, Shake-Shack burger,  hot pot dinner, and Schmackary’s cookies after dinner. Our stomach sets the limit to the many foods we would love to try. 

We took advantage of the cultural side of the city too. We went to see the “Tosca” Opera at the MET. The cast was so wonderful, the slanted stage setting was so well done, that I did not need to be much of an Opera audience to feel connected to the show. We enjoyed it a lot. We were lucky this year to watch Opera at the Budapest Opera House, and a few months later at the MET. 

There were some waves about the new “Sunset Blvd” musical with its use of technology and how the male singer shows up on the street to sing after the interlude. After watching the original movie, I really like the plot and look forward to catching the musical on Broadway. The show was sold out. Maybe I was expecting Hollywood glamor in the cast, costumes and stage. I was expecting a bring back of Hollywood before our generations. It was none of the above. There were no glamorous costumes to wow. The main performers were bare feet. The others wore everyday clothing. The stage was unstaged in a minimalist style. The cast was made up of a diverse set of performers. It was refreshing for the first half hour with some good singing. As the musical went, there were no reflections of what Hollywood was like then. The effort to be different, to be modern stood out. The live camera broadcast with the singer singing in the street caused a stir.  All in all, it was a  budget production that displays unique creativity but not quite the spirit of the plot. I don’t need to be a seasoned critic to recognize the brilliance of this A-grade production. We experienced that brilliance as we watched the just released “Wicked” movie a few days later. 

I commuted to different offices like a New Yorker on many days. I paid $10 for a cup of overpriced but incredibly palate-pleasing specialty coffee and appreciated the warmth in holding the cup.  I strolled in Central Park. I walked blocks after blocks at the pace of New Yorkers. We spent a relaxing afternoon in SoJo Spa in New Jersey. We didn’t need to plan our days—there was always something to do, places to explore, and restaurants to try.

I’m finally starting to understand why NYC is the, not one of, city that draws people from all over the world. It’s becoming clear why NYC is a must-visit destination.

Concerts Dear Diary Misc. Travel

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Dec 23

For all tennis lovers: Tennis Camp at Pebble Beach.

by ccue

I was single. I brought my tennis racket when I went on business trips to the US.  That was the Ivan Lendl era. That was a long time ago. Many things have changed including having two children in their twenties. The Roger Federer era has come. The next generation of Alcaraz and Sinner rivalry is just at the beginning. What has not changed is I still enjoy tennis. I cannot catch up on the years lost during the years of child rearing.  I have not given hope.  I hope I can get back to the game and play more.

This year, my spouse and I signed up for a Nike Tennis Camp at Pebble Beach.  We were very looking forward to it, until it created a conflict for the WAVE hike. We finally made the Tennis Camp the last weekend in October. The camp is for intermediate level, for people at or above 3.0 in the play scale. The few weeks before the camp, we played once or twice a week in practice, so as not to embarrass ourselves. I enjoyed the practice, clearly my shoulder and my tennis elbow both gave some whisper that it could become noisy with more playing.

The Pebble Beach Lodge is pricey and can be over $1000 per night. Considering the little time we would stay inside, we found a nearby Airbnb in the Carmel area. 

The Airbnb host gave us permission to check in an hour early before we checked in to the Tennis Camp on Thursday. This Airbnb check-in turned out to be the simplest ever, there was no passcode, no key, we passed two garden gates, and walked in. The host left a guidebook on the table, giving us everything to know about restaurants, spas, markets. We could tell the unit has some years on it, but it was well maintained inside and outside. There was a small backyard, which made a great small BBQ party during the warmer season. In autumn, the inside of the unit looked more inviting. We did not have much time  before checking into the Tennis Camp in the afternoon. Little did we know the simple check-in turned out to have a catch.  More on this later.

We need to go through the scenic 17-mile drive, a toll road, to get to the Tennis Camp. The codeword to drive on the 17-mile scenic drive for free is “Tennis Camp”. The Tennis Camp area has many well groomed courts, including a couple of clay courts, and a tennis store with friendly staff. The tennis area is right next to the beautiful Pebble Beach golf course, along the Pacific Ocean. The you-know-what-number hole is right next to the parking lot of the Tennis Camp. For the weekend, we felt at home in the Carmel and Pebble Beach neighborhood. We experienced the feeling of living in the beautiful area.  

The camp goes from Thursday afternoon to Sunday morning, giving us a 2-hour play on Thursday, a full-day 9 to 4 play both Friday and Saturday. If that is still not enough, it includes a Sunday free play too. We checked in the Tennis Camp and met other fellow players. Many gave subtle messages that they came to play tennis not for social reasons. We were among the few who were rookies to Tennis Camps. These Tennis Campers were not particularly enthused in making friends, except for a few that came in singles, who may have a different agenda.  All-in-all, all the campers love playing tennis and can play hours of tennis.

We were sent to a court to join another 2 players to play doubles. After a few rotations on the courts in the afternoon, we got a sense of the playing levels. Most other players had better double techniques, played regularly, and often played in some forms of ladder. My serving skill and ground stroke is not too scrappy either. Most campers are from the Bay Area. There was one group from Canada. Most came with friends. There was one 20-something who came on his own. He was the best in class. On the last day of the camp, he beat one of the younger coaches. My spouse and I were arguably the most obvious recreational players. We hardly played doubles. We hardly play for the past years, other than in the few weeks prior to the Tennis Camp. We never play in a club. Yet we can play. Tennis players were famous for their competitiveness on court. We observed a few.  I was both anxious and excited. My major anxiety is whether my shoulder and elbow could hold up throughout the camp. I would later find out.

When we returned Friday morning, each of us were set up to rotate over a number of coaches. Each coach focuses their 30-minute sessions on different techniques, from serving, ground strokes, rally, overhead, to strategies. After about three hours, we went to the Pebble Beach clubhouse for lunch. It is about a 10-minute scenic walk besides the famous golf course. The Pebble Beach clubhouse is usually reserved for members. The Tennis Camp has made special arrangements to get us in. Lunch is good. The view of the Pacific Ocean and the 18th hole is memorable. We took as many photos as possible while respecting the privacy of other diners.

Out of the blue, I got a call from our Airbnb host while enjoying the delicious lunch at the Pebble Beach Clubhouse.  I was informed that we checked in the wrong Airbnb unit. Could there be a bigger OMG moment? We checked in the unit next to our assigned unit. It was a better one. We were embarrassed yet relieved to find out “our” unit was available, and the host gave us a “free upgrade”. After a few days, I gained enough courage to find out whether it was our mistake or it was an instructional error. It turned out to be the latter. Despite this gaffe, both the host and I gave 5-star ratings to each other.

After the scenic lunch, we were back for our afternoon. The afternoon started with coaches playing in doubles with each other, to walk us through double skills and tactics. It was particularly insightful for us, non double players. There were three choices afterwards: a single group, a clay court group and some other groups. We decided to check out the unusual combination of clay courts, California and Pebble Beach. We enjoyed the experience. My shoulder and elbow held up barely, and that got me anxious about Saturday.  

The Tennis Camp ended each day before sunset, leaving us the evening to enjoy.  Carmel-by-the-sea and the Pebble Beach area are great places for great restaurants. We had one of the best Italian food at the La Bicyclette restaurant.

Saturday started about an hour late, due to the rain. The morning was similar to the day before, and we were sent to a number of 30-minute sessions. The rotations were such a great setup, I could come back to the camp, just to pick the brains of the different coaches. We had a shorter lunch to make up for the late start. Everyone brought their own lunches.  The afternoon was competitive, where we matched with different doubles partners and played different opponents. We played 10 games each. Every game we won would count towards our score. The one with the highest scores got the bragging right. We did not play every single person. The camp organizer was thoughtful to match us with people of similar levels, to make the matches competitive. My hands hardly held up. Every server was a doubt and almost a struggle. I did not want to disappoint my double partners. As such, I ended up serving the best in my own life, despite the situation. I scored some games, but far from the winner of the contest. It was a beautiful moment in that group picture. My body somewhat held up. I learned so much about the doubles positioning, and so many other tips we could put in our single play. As a tennis lover, it was just a treat to have a chance to play tennis and only tennis for the last three days.

We were treated to a group dinner at the Inn at Spanish Bay. The dinner tab was included in the Tennis Camp fee, yet the menu and the wine provision were generous. After watching the beautiful sunset, we arrived at Roy’s at the beautiful The Inn at Spanish Bay.  We settled in one of the tables. Most campers took some time to change to their dining dress code. They looked so put together that it took us a while to recognize each other! The food was so good. The ambience was memorable, the conversations flew. We spent so much time on tennis courts for the last three days. After the dinner, we were on different paths again.

My spouse and I are enthused to put the tips in practice, play more. We would love to be back in another tennis camp, likely in another beautiful venue. 

Truth is the first few weeks after the camp, my shoulder was giving me fits. I had to patiently wait for its recovery. After a few more weeks of slow-as-nail improvements, I decided to check it out. I was suggested to do a few therapy sessions to strengthen my shoulder muscles. Luckily, there was no injury. Rather, I overused the shoulder muscle. 

Tennis Camp at Pebble Beach is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Few things are more rewarding than spending time doing something you love for hours and days.

I enjoy playing tennis. I am patiently waiting to play more and more.  

Dear Diary Misc. Tennis Travel

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Dec 13

Hike of a lifetime: The WAVE

by ccue

It has been a busy few months.

In September, we did the Wave hike that only a rare few have ever experienced. In October, we did our first ever 3-day tennis camp at the beautiful Pebble Beach, California. In November, we had our 3-week “longest” visit to NYC.

The Wave is a once-in-a-lifetime hike (https://thewave.info/) in Arizona. 

The Wave makes a dream destination for hikers. It is otherworldly, unique and unforgettable that I can stay there for days, and still be in awe of its natural beauty. Its photo tells a thousand words, but it pales compared to in-person experience.

The Wave in Arizona became widely known after Microsoft featured it as the default desktop wallpaper for Windows 7 on July 22, 2009. Fast forward fifteen years, many recognize the pictures but very few know about the place even fewer have visited the Wave. Why?  It may have to do with its being managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rather than the more well known National Park Service (NPS).  It may have to do with its accessibility.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages the Wave. BLM manages one in every 10 acres of land in the United States, including vast stretches of desert, grasslands, sagebrush steppe, coastal areas, and some forested lands . The National Park Service (NPS) manages US National Parks. The Wave is not part of any national parks. BLM and NPS both oversee public lands in the U.S., but their purposes and management differ. BLM manages vast areas of land (mostly in the western U.S.) for multiple uses, and emphasizes a balance between resource use and protection. BLM often leaves the wilderness alone where you can explore. There is no lodge, often no marked trails, lucky to have a parking lot or restroom. You are more on your own. 

NPS, which operates many world-renowned U.S. National Parks, offers recreational enjoyment while prioritizing conservation and strict protection. National Parks are more developed with visitor centers, with more infrastructure, more facilities, more accessibility and designated hiking trails. NPS makes the park enjoyable for generations while preserving them.

BLM operates Coyote Buttes, which includes The Wave, and limits visitation through a permit system. The Wave, being operated by the BLM, stays intact over millions of years. With only a daily maximum of 64 people getting the permit to explore the area, the human footprints are kept to the minimum. The least human footprints help the highest order of preservation. The Wave permit is hard to impossible to get. The permit can be obtained through an advanced lottery system, or a daily try-the-luck walk in. The advanced lottery system is simple. It opens four months before your trip date. You have the whole month to apply with a maximum of three preferred dates. The lottery is now open for April 2025 Permit. 

My first recorded lottery was dated March 2020. I did not try every month, as summer could be dangerously hot and winter could be harshly cold in Coyote Buttes. I only drew for the months with more forgiving weather. I did at least six attempts in the past four years. On June 3, 2024, I received this email: “Coyote Buttes North Advanced Lottery (The Wave) Lottery Results Announcement – Congratulations!”. It was an amazing feeling of a long forgotten dream coming true when I least expected it. Many tried for years, even decades, and are still trying. It is the closest we ever get to the Wilderness, seeing the same sceneries as the dinosaurs. There is no way that I will pass up on this.  We accepted the lottery results. 

A few weeks after accepting the winning lottery, BLM mailed us the permit and some directions for going to the Wave from some trailhead. It was like eleven pictures with detailed descriptions we can use to get from the trailhead to the Wave. It even states that markers placed by visitors may not be on the most direct path to the Wave. If we miss a picture and a turn, who knows when we will discover the miss and then backtrack. In short, we are on our own. We are too old to feel that getting lost, without a functional cell phone to contact outside, is an adventure. The Wave, as beautiful as it is, can be challenging and life threatening. It needs wayfinding skills and decent physical fitness to navigate through the vast wilderness. We are not confident wayfinder in the wilderness. We need to carry at least a gallon of water in a terrain of mostly sandstones. Even with the information provided by BLM, we decided to find a tour guide. The tour agency is very clear that we need to be prepared to walk 7+ miles in the rocky desert terrain, exposed to the elements. (In hindsight, we probably can figure out the navigation with some misses and backtracking, but then we will be focused on the navigation than the landscape)

My group of 4 had three months to get fit. We started our once a week training hike to get fit. From early August to a week before the Wave, we did 6 training hikes at Coyote, Upper High Meadow, and Stephen E Arbors Loop at the popular Rancho San Antonio of South Bay. The 4 hour training hike covers 8.4 miles with 1686 ft elevation.  That is not quite the 7+ hours Wave hike. To build more confidence, I also did some stairmasters during the week. We felt ready.  

The Wave has an elevation of over 5000 ft.  We arrived at page, Arizona a day prior to the Wave hike. It helps acclimatize to the elevation. There is just so much to do at Page, Arizona and its proximity. We did a short beautiful hike at the Beehive Trail, sometimes called the New Wave. We felt ready.  

September 21 was the big day. The tour guide Tyler picked us up at 5:15am. We were half awake. It was cold. Tyler is a local. He knows the area really well. He is cautious and prepares his body well with frequent sips of water during the one hour drive there. After all, he must look after us in unexpected circumstances. The first half of the drive is on a smooth freeway. The outside was dark and peaceful. Along the way, there is zero signage to tell Wave’s existence. I think it is intentional to hide it from the public. Without the experience of Tyler, It would be so easy to miss the turn to the unpaved side road to the Wave trailhead. The road becomes unpaved and gets tougher after the turn. We did not see another car until we got to the parking lot. It was too dark to see animals. We did not find any visitor center. Instead, there was a logbook, we registered our group in a log book. That log book is likely the communication protocol for the park range to figure out if everyone leaves the Wave, or gets trapped in the Wave. The pink permit was attached to my backpack all the time.

It was overcast, it was cool. There were tiny showers from time to time. It made the perfect weather for a hike. We did not need to consume much energy to overcome the sun. For the first few hours, we had the wilderness for ourselves. We did not run into another group. It was quiet and peaceful. The tour guide helped us with the better routes and avoided slippery terrains.

Along the path, there was this big rock that was shaped like a hamburger. Some rocks that looked like cauliflowers, and some just looked like human brains. Because of the shower, we found a few tiny water bodies, with some tadpole shrimps. These tadpole shrimp species have existed for hundreds of millions of years and are likely to exist after we are long gone.

The blue sky was missing that morning. The cooler weather was a blessing. We were also rewarded with different colorings of the terrain. The red rocks, the subtle green and blue color of the terrain came out indescribably beautiful under the cloudy sky. 

The Wave is under the “black line”







We  arrived at the Wave entrance in about three hours. It felt surreal to finally be in the Wave after all these years of lottery, all these weeks of preparation. The photo may disguise the Wave as soft, curly and smooth. In reality, it is formed of incredibly hard sandstones. We enjoyed just staying there to appreciate and had a lunch break. After  lunch, Tyler, our tour guide, took us to different “vista” points and an area with the dinosaur footprints. 

The sun started to show after lunch. As much as we wanted to enjoy it for more  hours, it was time to hike back. We saw a few small groups without a tour guide. They were all busy navigating and we wondered how many backtracking they would experience.  

As confident as we felt about the direction and the distinct landmarks on our return trip, we soon realized that we could easily mix up the Teepees and Twin Buttes landmarks with many other look-alikes in the wilderness. The size of the landmark changes too with the distance we are from it.  The landscape changes too. The look and feel of the landscape changes too with the weather. 

We hiked for almost seven hours for the round trip hike to the Wave. We signed out on the trail-head register before leaving, so concluded the Wave Hike.  

The Wave hike is up there as the top three hikes of my life, if not the top. I am going to cherish the beauty and the once-in-a-lifetime hike for the remaining years.  I am missing it already.  

Dear Diary Misc. Travel

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