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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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Sep 13

Finding Her Voice Through Artificial Intelligence

by ccue

Since last year, my day job has been about Artificial Intelligence (AI), more specifically Generative AI. I believe AI is a real deal not just for its utilities but also for its many game changing potential on human needs. I spend time sharing tips and encourage more to use the technology for their benefits. I spend a decent amount of time in an effort to democratize AI. 

The most beautiful AI interaction turns out to be in a situation when I least expect it to be.

Soon reaching its 100 years old, International Toastmaster Club has over 200,000 members in more than 14000 clubs in more than 140 countries.Toastmaster is all about communication excellence, and for 100 years and counting, Toastmasters have been expressing themselves better, practicing, and evaluating in a fun club environment, shining all around the world. Once a distinguished Toastmaster club president, I stay as an active Toastmasters, making speeches occasionally. 

A few months ago, I could not be more surprised to find a new member with speech disability joining the club. Let’s call her Lady M. Lady M makes unrecognizable squeaks, her hand movements are sporadic, her facial expressions are different, her muscle movements are obviously compromised. That constantly reminds me of the limitation and likely hardship she encounters. Her presence brings that tiny discomfort that no-one really wants to show.

Over time, Lady M has proven to be an enthusiastic member. She is very brave. She wants so much to participate, including the table topics where one gets a short prompt to deliver a one to two minute impromptu speech response. Technology has come to her aid. She can type up her thoughts in group chats instead of speaking. Yet, her chats are hard to comprehend, the sentences are grammatically incomplete, and we cannot make sense of the words. Needless to say, most, in the club, have felt uneasy because of our limitations to interpret meaningfully what she has shared.  We have been candid to share that we do not understand. She is not deterred and has kept participating to my utmost admiration. 

Something happened in one recent meeting. In that meeting, I hosted the table topics. I called out a few club guests, gave them prompts, for them to deliver an impromptu speech.  I was about to conclude, when I got a glimpse, on the zoom window, that lady M was waving vigorously to get attention and to participate. I ended up posting the prompt in group chat for her to post a response. The reply was equally incomprehensible. AI has come to our aid this time. The president came up with the idea to use AI.  Rather than reading out the group chat of Lady M word by word, the president copied and pasted to the AI ChatGPT, and asked AI to help us to comprehend.  Afterwards he read out the AI-enhanced impromptu response.  How well has AI interpreted lady M? Judging by the reaction of lady M, it came across that, AI has read her mind better than any human toastmasters attending at the time. I have not seen lady M happier. That expression of feeling heard and feeling understood made a beautiful face.

Maybe we are bound by our learned grammar, words and languages. AI has gifted us this ability to better understand each other without that boundaries.  

A week after, at the Club, lady M was there again. This time, she shared that her father just passed away. In times of life’s most difficult moments, we hope her participation with the help of technology has brought her comfort and courage. We found her voice through Artificial Intelligence. 

About Learning ai Dear Diary Misc. Public Speaking / Toastmaster public-speaking

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Jul 31

Books are loyal friends

by ccue

There are many book lovers in the world. I am one. I am not enthused about book clubs that need us to read the same book at the same time. Why? There are just so many genres to read about, each book reading pattern is as unique as the readers’ fingerprints. Just like friends, if you pay attention and don’t transport your memory of their younger days to their present days, the friends change subtly over time too. Those changes are often reflected by the kinds of books they are reading.

Just like good friends, good books don’t go away. May you find one or two, from the following reviews, that you are interested in reading right away. For all the others, I hope it is not whether you will read them, but when you will read them.

The Worth of Water
By Gary White and Matt Damon

We are in a world with abundance that is so unevenly distributed. We can all relate to what life is like to spend hours every morning to get buckets of murky water to survive.

This is a book that gives concrete paths to solve the water and sanitation problem. 

  • Supporting microloans, a sustainable market-based approach, can help hundreds of millions to tap into existing water infrastructure to give them water, and allow them to use the time to go to school or to earn more income. 
  • Supporting resourceful teams to help utilities improve operations and find more paying customers to keep investing in better infrastructures in urban areas. 
  • Supporting Governments, wealthy nations and NGOs can reach the poorest , most rural regions.

Check out the book or the water.org. It feels immoral to do nothing for the billions who happen to be born somewhere without water and sanitation.

Night Train to Lisbon
By Pascal Mercier

Raimund Gregorious teaches classical languages at a Swiss school. Everyday is the same routine, down to the minute until one day. On his way to school, he saved a beautiful woman, who was about to jump off a bridge. This one day, he questions his life and leads him to an extraordinary book about an extraordinary person, Amadeu De Prado, in Portugal. He boards the last train to Lisbon. His adventure turns into unbelievable discoveries of deep human connections as he retraces the life of Amadeu, his families, his loved ones, and his comrades. 

Life is not what we live, but what we imagine living. At times dreamlike, at times unreal, this is a book that stirs your mind to reveal something new to yourself.

In Limbo 
By Deb JJ Lee

For those who have immigration experience, over time, they recognize that immigration is a multi-generational journey not an event. It is an experience that sends a person, the families and future generations to an alternate universe where the new universe offers contrasts in family values, morals and cultures.

Beautifully narrated and illustrated, this book shares the journey of a first generation Korean American how she copes with the challenges of family relationship, identity uncertainty, loneliness and friendship. 

Many first generation Asian American will resonate with the growing up of the protagonist Deb. It is a good read for both their parents and them to appreciate the multi-generational implications of the migration.

Poor Charlie’s Almanack 
By Peter D. Kaufman

Charlie Munger is almost 100. He died a few months ago. His wisdom,  humor and fatherly advice have lived on in his speech and his book. He said “acquisition of wisdom is a moral duty”.  

His commencement speech to the USC Law Graduates, to advise them on a good life, particularly resonated. His speech is full of gold and offers values for anyone.  Here are some of his worldly wisdom. 

  • The safest way to get what you want is to try to deserve what you want.  You want to deliver to the world what you want to buy if you were on the other side.  It is a golden rule. 
  • Be a learning machine.  Develop a multi-disciplinary knowledge in important domains:  business, psychology, math and history. 
  • Hard work and strong work ethics are essential.  As obvious as it is, we often forget it when things are not going well.

Mr. Munger continues to advise us in this universe even though he has moved on to another universe.  Hope you will not miss the advice.

Influence 
By Robert B. Cialdini

The abundance of knowledge and information overload overwhelm the smartest of all. This is an era of short cuts to influence decision making. It is a world where relationship building could get you further than the traditional intellectual and emotional intelligence. First published in 1984, the latest edition in 2021 continues to capture the psychology of persuasion. 

If you are a compliance professional to influence others or you are someone who doesn’t want to be tricked by these psychological shortcuts, this book makes an important book to read. 

For shortcuts to the book, the seven shortcuts include “reciprocation”, “liking”, “social proof”, “authority”, “scarcity”, “commitment and consistency”, “unity”. Or you can ask the large language model, chatGPT, Gemini and the like, to give you a summary to decide where to deep dive into.

You may also be intrigued by the author on the importance of preventing the abuses or misuses of these shortcuts, so as to keep the shortcuts working effectively for the majority.

The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin 
By Benjamin Franklin 

You may be familiar with Mr. Benjamin Franklin as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, a drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence. I discovered so much more of his impact on my daily lives after reading his autobiography. 

Written by Mr. Benjamin Franklin from 1771 to 1790, this unfinished account of his own life remained relevant if not more relevant with the US state of affairs. 

The first set of notes is a letter that started with “Dear Son”, where Mr. Franklin talked about his lifes, his younger days, the lessons learned, the business and the errors he has made. The discourse is candid and particularly touching to share life lessons from father to son. 

The second set of notes was written a few years later.  It listed out the 12 moral virtues + humility. Mr. Franklin created a “spreadsheet” to practice the virtues and tracked his progress. He had expected to acquire the habit of one virtue each week, and ended up taking a year to cycle through the 13 virtues. His design and rigorous progress tracking on virtues are amazing to read and to practice.

The last set of notes illustrated his printer business and his public services. His setup of public libraries, his establishment around the concepts of firefighting and military has impacted all of us living in the United States. His kite experiment, to demonstrate the connection of lightning and electricity, once again reminded us the importance of multidisciplinary knowledge to better understand the world. 

It is a book to read, also a book to read multiple times.

異類矽谷 By 鱸魚

Every single day we are missing the people, the places and the events around us. Being in Silicon Valley for decades, I have the illusion I know about the area, until it becomes obvious that there are so many new discoveries waiting. In his unique lens, the author 鱸魚 shares absolutely delightful anecdotes that transport me to a more beautiful, more diverse, more humane Silicon Valley beyond the technology, the tech start-up, the magnificent seven  and the venture capitalists. 

His message will stay with me for a long time – Silicon Valley is a colorful puzzle that provides spaces for everyone to participate and there is such a broad spectrum of possibilities for everyone to have a role in it. Such contrasts make up a beautiful landscape. 

This is a book for everyone to relate to Silicon Valley, including those who are too busy to notice the stories, and those who live far away. 

I am enchanted by the author and his Silicon Valley stories. I subscribe to his blog and can’t wait to read his new book 我失敗的美式生活 (I fail in living the American life).

About Learning Book Review - English Book Review - English, Chinese, Computer, Literature... Chinese Dear Diary Literature... Misc.

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Jul 3

The Budapest Experience

by ccue

Budapest is a hidden gem with abundance of beauty and versatility. Many may not know where Budapest resides on the map. This is another reminder that quality and a well-known name often don’t go hand-in-hand. 

Budapest is a 6-hour train ride from Prague. Prague and Budapest both have beautiful settings with a river snaking through the city, and bridges connecting the two sides of the city. Budapest is formed with Buda and Pest on either bank of the Danube River. The Danube River has been immortalized by The Blue Danube Waltz musical piece which casted a romantic spell to the cities on its path.

The principality of Hungary was established around 895 AD.  Budapest, capital of Hungary, blends the historical past and the modern presence beautifully. The capital city comes across as underrated. It has the potential to attract more tourists, and play a bigger role on the world stage. Budapest has the making of a world-class city, with its history, vibrant community, central location and growing infrastructures.   

Our airbnb was located on the 2nd floor of a building on Budapest’s major thoroughfare, Váci Utca. Its location could not be better. The unit is spacious, with a small kitchen. The building features a distinctive architectural design with residential units, in yellow paint, on the peripherals, enclosing a spacious central open area. It has a dated elevator on one side, and another non-functional creepy elevator on the other side of the complex. Some of the residential units have barred doors. With the number of units in the buildings, we were further intrigued that we did not run into many residents. The whole setting felt like a scene in a spy movie with actions happening in the central open area. We even had a power outage the first morning, due to the construction work of the city, that added another unexpected twist.

Budapest is another walkable city. The Chain bridge, connecting Buda and Pest, took us to the Buda side of the city. The square, made up of the Matthias Church and the Fisherman’s Bastion, is touristy for its obvious beauty and the many look-outs of the river Danube and the Parliament over on the Pest side. The Fisherman’s Bastion is a place that beautifies your photos with its castle-shaped monuments , the inner arch windows and the various overlooks. We settled in the cafe, to enjoy the view, before testing our feet to climb up  hundreds of spiral steps to the tower of the Church. 

You can pack a lot in one day in Budapest, or do little with no goals on another day. Budapest is a city to enjoy at a pace that fits you. 

For a change in rhythm, we fit in a lot of things on the second day in the city.

We started the day with breakfast at the beautiful Cafe Gerbeaud. Cafe Gerbeaud has a storied history since its creation in 1858, a meeting in Paris that decided the cafe succession, a change of regimes, and then a return in 1984. The breakfast, pleasing to the eyes and palate, lived up to its history. Their sweets made wonderful edible souvenirs. We ended up getting a few boxes of Cognac Cherry bonbons. The Gderbeaud filled cat’s tongue chocolate would be another great souvenir choice.

The delightful breakfast gave us just the right fuel for our first stop of the day : Szechenyi Bath House. Széchenyi is one of the greatest statesmen in Hungary’s history, within Hungary he is still known to many as “the Greatest Hungarian” for his reforms. The Chain Bridge, an impressive dual-use bridge connecting Buda and Pest, was named after him. His name was particularly familiar, as its three syllables and letters could be disguised as a Chinese name in English. The Széchenyi bath house reminds me of the Turkish bath houses. The Széchenyi bath house has both indoor and outdoor swimming pools, whirlpools, indoor thermal pools and all kinds of spa in a Neo-Baroque and Neo-Renaissance architecture. We dipped in pools and spas that are included in the tickets. I felt lighter, relaxed, with more clarity, on my way out.  I ranked this among the top highlights in Budapest and highly recommended spending half a day in the bath house. 

We loved supporting the business of Chinese dim sum and cuisines everywhere we visited. After the bath house experience, we had some time before the Parliament Tour. This local Chinese dim sum restaurant Taste of Canton gave us another delightful and above-expectation experience. We were impressed with the dim sum that was hand made by the talented wife of the owner.

Located along the Danube River Bank, the Parliament is visible everywhere. If the outside is magnificent, the interior design is dazzling with an unusual royal ambience, beautiful artwork and lots of gold (40 Kg of gold). Our reservation was a bit late, and thus we ended up following a Spanish tour of the Parliament, and could only grasp simple terms like “Thank you very much for the visit”. The language barrier did nothing to affect the interior magnificence.

A couple of hours before the Danube night cruise, we selected Costes from our list of fine dining restaurants for an early dinner. The restaurant design was pleasing to the eyes, the service was first class, the waitresses were endearing and elegant, the cuisines were charming to the eyes and the palates. It was a real hidden gem, not to mention, that in our odd hour dining, we were the only dining parties as if we had reserved the whole restaurant for ourselves. The Costes downtown restaurant, inside the Prestige hotel Budapest, is better than some established Michelin restaurants we have visited. I recommend it to everyone who visits Budapest, and wish that it would keep up its excellence.

The night cruise was an hour of floating along the Danube River.  What a beautiful city as the bridges, the buildings light up in the dark! The most excitement came when the cruise offered a view of the Hungarian Parliament dancing in gold glitter and a reflecting image on Danube. We can totally imagine a cruise that just floats on the Danube with a sight of the Parliament for the whole hour; the tourists would still enjoy it. This Hungarian Parliament in Budapest easily occupies the top position as the most beautiful Parliament in the world, and I cannot think of a distant second. That concluded the busiest day we had in Budapest.  We absolutely enjoyed it.

The busiest day was followed by another slower day at our own pace, and an evening Opera at the Hungarian Opera house.  

Central Market Hall is a multi-storied farmer market, where you can check out groceries, meat, poultry, seafood, spices and bakeries. The paprika and honey are good choices for affordable and special gifts. There are quite a number of locals shopping here too. We enjoyed our stroll there, making it a nice  place to visit for an hour or two, to learn more about the locals.

Outside of the New York Cafe, there was a sign to claim itself as “the most beautiful cafe in the world”. The cafe has over a hundred years of history, with architecture and sophisticated design reminiscent of the Renaissance style with beautiful marble columns and elegant chandeliers. We expected a long line but in the moments we arrived, the line was short. The live music added to its charm. To accommodate the many visitors, we felt there was effort to maximize its occupancy with a high density of tables. The waiters, waitresses and musicians were dutiful but came across as dispassionate. We saw one customer being declined on a request to change the table, and ended up walking out of the cafe. It was a worthy visit and the interior definitely lives up to the most beautiful cafe and the food is good. It was just a small pity that the “software” did not quite match up with the “hardware”.  

The Hungarian Opera House takes the  beauty of interior decoration to the next level. The best way to appreciate the Opera House is to watch an Opera inside. That was exactly what we did, and we paid about $25 per person to catch the Boris Gundov opera. The ticket, for the high quality opera in a world class Opera House, is almost ten times cheaper in Central Europe as compared to the US. We sighed about how little has been and will be done in the US to democratize arts and culture. While this opera has been performed a handful of times in New York, few in the US are familiar with the history of this Russian Czar Boris Godunov(1552 – 1605) and this famous opera that has been remade a few times. For the night, I had that feeling that the producers creatively injected new elements into the classic opera. In some scenes, there was a laptop, there was a guy wearing modern jeans, there was a mouse in a maze. That left a strange taste. Overall I enjoyed the stage, the opera and above all, the amazing Opera House. If you have more days in Budapest, please don’t miss watching an Opera inside the Opera House. Afterwards, we had dinner at this oldest restaurant in Budapest near our airbnb. It reminded us once again that history and quality did not always have a correlation.

Our last day in Budapest, we visited the Great Synagogue. The admission pricing is surprisingly steeper than the Opera House. I particularly like its history about how the Jews worked hard to integrate into the local Hungarian society, extended flexibility in the architecture of the Synagogue, and creatively raised funding by assigning numbers to pews and selling the seat.  

From its beautiful cafes, the not-to-miss Bath House, to the most beautiful Parliament, the elegant Opera house, and the romantic river Danube, Budapest has so much to offer. Despite its myriad attractions, it’s a mystery why this city isn’t as renowned as Paris or London.

This concluded our Central Europe 2024.   Check out the full itinerary at Let’s go travel Central Europe.

Dear Diary Misc. Travel

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Jun 21

The Prague Experience

by ccue

Prague and Berlin are only a four-and-a-half hour train ride from each other.  The train ride from Berlin also transported us to a different time and space.

Prague feels like a medieval fairyland with beauty that charms you over and over again. It is the most beautiful capital in the world.

Marriott Prague, our choice of stay, is in a great location, minutes walk to Old town, but far enough to be quiet. It is almost like an US embassy in Prague – comfortable, safe and modern and with an abundance of traveling Americans. 

The Old town has a town square surrounded by medieval buildings, the pink-colored Palladium shopping mall and a bundle of welcoming eateries. Further down the town square, is the Old town hall tower, with the medieval tower clock at its southern side. It presents a 30-second show of the procession of the twelve apostles set in motion at the top of each hour. With or without the show, the tower clock is a picturesque place to visit and is packed with tourists. The record tourist density does little to erode its charm and rare beauty. There are all kinds of shops but magically, the whole place does not come across as commercial. Among the narrow alleys crisscrossing the main attractions, there are endless discoveries of shops and beautiful buildings. I particularly enjoyed the toy stores, the chimney cake stores, and the Swarovski crystals stores. 

The narrow alleys open up to the Charles Bridge. Charles Bridge is the oldest stone bridge in Europe, constructed from 1357 to 1400 AD, connecting the east and west side of Prague. The beauty of the bridge certainly has stood the test of time. On our first evening of arrival, we strolled across the pedestrian-only Charles Bridge around sunset time. The dome-shaped castle, the gothic-style Vitus Cathedral across the bank looked inviting. The glittering lights and the mystical reflections over the river Vltava were dreamy. We came back the next morning to retract the same route. The early morning was tranquil and once again we were transported to a different time and space.  

The Baroque library at Klementinum  is arguably the most beautiful library. It is among the very few things that I am determined to visit after seeing the pictures of it. Klementinum started as a monastery in the medieval period, then transformed into a Jesuit college before becoming an observatory with a beautiful library. Famous astronomers Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe both spent important years here. The library and the astronomical clock tour needed an advance reservation. The narrow spiral staircase took us to the library floor, and we could only take pictures and view the library from its entrance. I tried imagining sitting there, and studying old books. More stairs awaited to get us to the astronomical clock. At the top of the tower, we were treated with a 360o view of the most picturesque Prague.

After seeing the Castle and Vitus Cathedral many times from afar, we crossed a bridge over river Vltava to  visit in person. There are plenty of vista points along the way. 

No-one would mind walking in Prague all day long. When our tiring feet complained, we took Bolt in Prague, the Uber-like app. Three Bolt rides cost us less than $10 in total. The fare for Bolt is a better reflection of the cost of living in Prague for locals than the price we pay for meals and stays.

On a cool evening, we watched the Okamžik circus in a park. The park was lively with local people. We walked past a climbing wall with people having fun climbing up a wall. There  was a skatepark with youngsters practicing skateboard tricks. The circus was inside a tent set up in the park. The show was in Czech. The cast put on a great performance to cross the language barrier. We recommend the show to fellow tourists. 

Palladium, just a few minutes walk from Marriott, made a perfect shopping venue on another evening. We pleasantly discovered many unfamiliar to us, making it differentiable from US shopping malls. As much as I enjoyed Palladium, I preferred the narrow alleys in the Old town for an endless exploration. It was also in those shops that I found the wooden musical box with music by František Smetana, the father of Czech music and a wooden cage puzzle.

Shopping is not limited to Palladium and the Old town. Farmer markets in Prague, located next to the river Vltava, are open on Saturday. We went there to experience the local street food and the produce, before settling down in a cafe, with a circular door, enjoying coffee while appreciating the river scene. 

One morning, my spouse and I decided to walk from Marriott to the Jewish quarter in an alternate route. The route started with very modest neighborhoods and ended at a street with super luxurious stores like Patek Philippe watches and a few jewelry stores.  After a few turns, we were back in a square, which was a look-alike of the Old town. We thought that we went to a parallel universe and Prague has two copies of the Old towns. It turned out that Jewish quarter and the Old town are just within minutes of walking. This stupidity and the hilarity will stay with us for a very long time.

Bond cafe was yet another funny experience. The Bond movie “Casino Royale” had a few shots made in Prague. The cafe was close to our hotel, so my daughter and I decided to meet up in the Bond Cafe after some shopping. I was late but my daughter was not anywhere to be found as I entered the Bond Cafe. This time, it was not a parallel universe. There are two bond cafes within a few minutes of walking. The bond cafe is decorated with many Bond movie pictures. We had the best pancakes in the Bond Cafe. We definitely recommend it as a great meeting place, but get the exact address ahead of time. 

If you choose to go to just one cafe in Prague, Cafe Imperial makes the top choice. The cafe, dated over a hundred years ago, has an art deco structure with many small tiles painted with different colors and styles. The design reflects its history. Yet it is so meticulously maintained that its beauty and cleanliness never stop impressing us. The cafe serves full meals. I recommend you make an advance reservation, try the beef cheeks main course and the chocolate “bomb” surprises as dessert, with additional rooms for the very beautiful cake desserts on display. 

The Prague cafes make perfect places to rest, to have a tea time, to write a blog, to write a story, to write a book. 

We went to Ginger and Fred restaurant at the Dancing House, to watch the sunset in this beautiful city. Ginger and Fred restaurant is a fine restaurant. Yet I found the food served at the no-frills, down-to-earth workers’ cafe Česká kuchyně  and the chimney cake (Trdelník in Czech) everywhere on the street to be more special and memorable. 

Prague is a city you won’t get tired of, you will take pictures of the same medieval scenery repeatedly, and the scenery will still make your heart jump a bit. 

If there is a ranked list of the most beautiful capitals, Prague has to be among the top. 

Dear Diary Misc. Travel

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Jun 9

The Berlin experience

by ccue

I have a few Berlin associations. During the pandemic years, I read the book “In the Garden of Beasts – Love, terror and an American family in Hitler’s Berlin”.  It told what life was like in Berlin in the late 1930s for the family of an American scholar, also an ambassador. Life was glamorous, political and difficult. It made a good book to see the city before World War II and the US/Germany dynamics back then. In my neighborhood, outside of a public library, there is a piece of the Berlin Wall. With the historical significance of the Berlin wall, it is intriguing that people walk past without stopping, I have yet to see anyone stopping to take a picture there, except me once. These two however are not my favorite associations with the city. My favorite impression of Berlin comes from its world-renowned Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Berlin film festival.  

Berlin has a lot of culture. I cannot think of another day with more arts and music, than this first full day in Berlin: Berliner Philharmoniker performance in late morning, Neues Museum and Museum Island after, followed by East Side Gallery/Berlin Wall. My spouse and I reserved two tickets at the Berliner Philharmoniker. The tickets cost us $25 per person, way more affordable in Berlin than San Francisco. The Philharmoniker building tells little about the world-class acoustic and magnificent organs inside the  performing venue. The concert hall sells one of the best morning snacks that we recommend for all concert-goers. The ushers are courteous and gracious. We got inside the concert hall with plenty of time to settle down, take some pictures before the performance started. It was a performance of Aurel Dawidiuk and the Karajan Academy. Dawidiuk, the organist, performed beautifully in solo, followed by the duo with woodwind performers, before joined by a mini-orchestra of the academy. Rather than being overcome by jet lag, I was absolutely energized by the music. It has been a long time since I enjoyed a concert so much. The Berlin Philharmoniker certainly lives up to its reputation. I would not hesitate any bit to return for other performances. We just didn’t have that luxury as a tourist. 

Museum Islands came next on this cultural day. We walked past the picturesque Berliner Dom (Cathedral) next to the river Spree. It was a weekend of free admission to museums. The Pergamon Museum was unfortunately closed due to safety concerns. The Neues museum is totally worth a visit. We enjoyed the world famous exhibits in the Neues museum: the most beautiful Nefertiti_bust (1345 BC), the feat of engineering Berlin gold hat (900 BC), Berlin green head (396 BC), the mystic wooden cult figurines (5th Century). 

Our daughter then joined us to appreciate the murals and the messages at the East Side Gallery/Berlin wall.  

Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Europa & Berlin Bikini 

Advanced reservation, with in-person proof of id, is required to visit the Glass Dome atop the Reichstag (Imperial Assembly) building. We started the self-guided tours as we walked up the spiral slope inside the large glass dome. The headset is  a smart device which seemingly can detect our position and play the audio automatically and appropriately. We took all the time we wanted to appreciate the 360° view of the Berlin cityscape, to learn about the construction of the glass dome, as well as the recent history of the country. Brandenburg gate is just minutes of walk from the Reichstag. With the construction, it became more of a meeting place, though the murals on the walls of the gate would still be worth a brief look. 

We picked a German restaurant nearby for a family lunch. It served the woodruff green-color beer and the raspberry pink-color beer alongside the familiar German cuisine of sausage, pork knuckles. Beer is a water substitute for many of our meals in Berlin. Berlin Beer seems to taste better too.

Berlin arguably offers the best Turkish food outside of Turkey, due to its sizable Turkish population. After shopping at Europa and Bikini shopping centers, we enjoyed a Turkish dinner. As much as we like trying the German cuisine of currywurst, the pork cutlets, the pork knuckles, they are just a bit too meaty, so  the Mediterranean Turkish meals come across much healthier and make a better choice as everyday food. 

Fine dining at Facil 2-star Michelin, Sanssouci Palace 

It was my birthday. We took the subway to the Berlin film festival area. Facil, a 2-star Michelin restaurant was our choice of fine dining for a family lunch. The restaurant, located inside the five-star Mandala Hotel, is elegantly decorated but not over-the-board. It is inviting while giving out a relaxed elegance. The service is attentive with considerations to leave us alone to have our own conversations and to enjoy the dish. The dishes are all pleasing to our palates and to our eyes. The price performance is superior over the Michelin restaurants in the Bay Area. The restaurant became my new favorite. If you are in Berlin, check out Facil.

After lunch,  a combination of trains and Uber took us to the rather “remote” Sanssouci Palace, at Potsdam. It is not a convenient stop. Sans Souci translates to no-worry in English. And the palace was in some romantic scenes in a recent Korean TV drama hit “Queen of Tears’ ‘ we just watched. It made for a fitting stop for my birthday. 

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Berlin is not a picturesque city like some other European capitals. Berlin is versatile in big ways. People, we encountered, are courteous, educated, reserved without attempting to be overly familiar. It reminds us of NYC. Every time we are in NYC, we find new things to do, new places to visit, new cafes to relax in, and new shows to watch. Berlin, like NYC, is a city of endless discovery.

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Jun 9

Let’s go travel Central Europe

by ccue

Like many travelers, I am more often attracted to visiting new countries and new cultures miles away from where I live. It is a guilty pleasure to count the number of countries traveled. 

I cannot think of a better birthday treat  than traveling with family to charming and beautiful new countries for the first time. In this fortnight, we visited three capitals in Central Europe: Berlin, Germany; Prague, Czech; Budapest, Hungary. 

Over the years, I came to enjoy the travel experiences more than checkbox as many attractions as possible. I became aware of my “spotty” and non-photogenic memories. And I no longer have the energy of youth. The children need their space. The four of us had some sub-itineraries that fit in our preferences and travel styles. If you are like me, I find a flexible itinerary works the best to experience what each city is famous for, and find time for at least one fine dining and some shopping.  

With this approach, we fixed the  travel logistics weeks before. We identified a good list of attractions and made a very small set of cafes and ticket reservations. Our travel itinerary remained open until the day.

There is no direct flight from SFO to Berlin. For the convenience and price-performance, we decided to fly from SFO to LHR (Heathrow airport)  in London, transition to the much modest STN (London Stansted airport)  via a 90-minute shuttle, and fly from STN to BER (Berlin Brandenburg airport). We allowed plenty of time for airport to airport transition. Just hours before departure from San Francisco, our flight from SFO to LHR was canceled. The notification of cancellation arrived after midnight local time, and it took a few hours of scramble to get a different airline and different flight to get to LHR within an hour of the original arrival time. Drama aside, we arrived at Berlin as planned.

May | Central Europe : Berlin, Prague, Budapest

  • Day 1, May 3, SFO to LHR, STN to BER (24 hours with 8 hours of layover in London) 
  • Day 2 to 6, Berlin, Germany; stay at Adina Apartment Hackescher Markt
    • Day 2, arriving, BBQ kitchen dinner
    • Day 3, Berlin Philharmonie performance; Neues Museum and Museum Island; East Side Gallery/Berlin Wall
    • Day 4, Reichstag Glass Dome tour;, Brandenburg Gate; Europa & Bikini shopping center, dinner 
    • Day 5, Facil Michelin 2-star; Sanssouci (no worry) Palace
    • Day 6, Berlin Hlf to Prague Hl.n (~4.5 hours)
  • Day 6 to 10 , Prague, Czech; stay at Marriott Prague
    • Day 6, Old town; Charles bridge at dusk
    • Day 7, Old town; Charles bridge in early morning; Klementinum library and astronomical clock tour; city library; Prague castle; Circus in the park
    • Day 8, National museum; Wenceslas square; Cafe Imperial early dinner; Palladium shopping
    • Day 9, Farmers’ market; Old Town Shopping; Bond cafe; Dancing house dinner
    • Day 10, Train to Budapest, with stops at Brno (where Gregor Mendel and his peas experiment to discover heredity) and Bratislava, Slovakia   
  • Day 10 to 14, Budapest, Hungary, stay at airbnb on Vaci Utca
    • Day 10, arriving from Prague; check in airbnb on Budapest’s major thoroughfare Váci Utca 
    • Day 11, Anna cafe breakfast; Buda castle; Castle district; Fisherman’s bastion; Matthias Cathedral; Vigvarju restaurant dinner inside Concert Hall
    • Day 12, Cafe Gerbeaud breakfast; Szechenyi bath house; Hungarian Parliament tour; Costes dinner; Danube night cruise
    • Day 13, Taste of Canton (粤之味) Chinese Dim Sum; Boris Godunov at Opera house and shops
    • Day 14, Dohány Street Synagogue tour, BUD to LHR

There is the commonly asked question “which city do I like the most?”. I found these cities are all charming in their own unique ways, each bringing once-in-a-life moments for me and my family to cherish for a very long time. Here I share my experience in each city. 

Check out the blogs on the Berlin experience, the Prague experience and the Budapest experience.

Enjoy our Central Europe Attractions video.

Dear Diary Misc. Travel

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Apr 26

Book Reviews of AI and diverse reads

by ccue

Artificial Intelligence has arrived. 

In the AI-powered world, the Large Language models, Gemini, ChatGPT and the like, can summarize a book, give a nutshell of things, answer questions, and even analyze a book together with you. It is impressively powerful. It meets the ever raising expectations of what it can do. AI writes book reviews well too. I am sure that AI can do a better writing job after it digests trillions of words which I never would be able to. 

Let AI have the better ability in reading and writing. There is no existential crisis about it. I am pleased to keep the enjoyment of reading a book at the speed of a snail. I have the choice of my own interpretation of a book, the intent of its author and writing the book reviews.

You look like a thing and I love you
By Janelle Shane

It is a book about how Artificial Intelligence works and why it’s making the world a weirder place. With the hype of generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), it feels like eras have passed since this book was published in 2019. The ChatGPT / Generative AI debut is however not a baby born out of nowhere. The breakthroughs in computing, memory and storage power, the leap in machine learning and the focus in data science are all important notes leading to the Generative AI crescendo in November 2022. Many of the “how it works” are as relevant now as in 2019. 

This is a highly engaging and informative book. AI has already arrived. The best way to go forward with AI is to understand it – understand what problems AI can solve, what issues AI can create, and what can we do to manage the situations.

This book will endear you to AI, and why there’s every reason to be cautiously optimistic.

Never let me go 
By Kazuo Ishiguro

In a dehumanized world of dystopia, what would the experience of growing up, falling in love, making friends and the sense of mortality be like? The novel starts with a mystery that the protagonist is a carer unlike any carers we are familiar with. She takes care of different donor patients who need to recover from donations, and at times multiple donations. As the protagonist recalls her school lifes, her friends, her guardians and her years as carers of her closest friends, the readers discover a dystopia, unlike anything we have seen. In that world, their growing up, their relationship and mortality still resonate. 

Song of the Cell : an exploration of medicine and the new human
By Siddhartha Mukherjee 

Mr. Mukherjee is among my favorite authors. His book is always well researched and is a joy to read. Cells make up everything in our body. There are step jumps in our knowledge of the cells and there are still more to be discovered. Mr. Mukherjee perfectly combines the technicality of the deep complex topics and the poetic touch of his personal experience. Through his writing, the scientists, the doctors and the patients each come alive with their own unique characters. It is a book that requires focus to read, pause, and resume. As I finish the last page of the book, I feel there is so much in it that I would like to start all over again. 

Reading his book not only gives you a good set of knowledge of the topic. Reading his book  gives ideas on how to write a technical topic filled with beautiful personal stories, each with a human touch. It is these human touches and their stories that endears us to the doctors, the scientist and the new scientific discoveries about the cell. 

Determined. A science of life without free will
By Robert M. Sapolsky

The initial chapters of the book are pretty dense as the author introduced the framework among the free will, deterministic, nondeterministic, predictable, unpredictable together with different terminologies and how our brain works in neuro-science terms.

Halfway into the book, I got the gist of the author’s position and his argument. There is no freewill or there is much less freewill than what we think we have. Our behaviors, decision-making, failures, and successes are results of our nature (genes) and nurture (environment, family, friends and societies). 

So what? Why did the author, professor of  biology, neurology, neurological sciences, and neurosurgery at Stanford University suspend his teaching commitments, and spend time to write about the topic?

The second half of the book would provide the answer.

Do you believe that illness is a punishment of evil acts of our doing? Do you believe that schizophrenia is caused by bad parenting? Do you agree that people committing crimes deserve  the most severe tortures so justice is served?  Society has changed a lot in many things.  Depending on whether it is a “Yes” or “No” to these questions, we see the world with different degrees of empathy and compassion with one another. 

If more people agree to no free will or limited free will, there will be more support to change the education system, the justice system, and the moral system. The author conveys that we don’t need to be heartless, and judgmental to others with less fortune. There can be better systems and societies. 

This book has been named one of the best books by the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.

I suggest reading it with patience, taking breaks and taking as much time as needed. I get a lot a lot out of the book, and it gives a new perspective of many things around us.

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Mar 25

Let’s go Messi, Inter Miami, Ft Lauderdale, Florida 

by ccue

The March plan for Florida was simple: buy expensive soccer game tickets, fly to Ft Lauderdale, see god. I am talking about Messi. Soccer is at best the distant fourth popular sport in the US after football, basketball and baseball. Yet, Messi has become the most popular US athlete since joining Inter Miami CF last July. He is 36 years old. In the demanding contact sport of soccer, he is as aged as a dinosaur. His star power peaks further after he won the World Cup for Argentina. With the diminishing opportunities to see Messi magic live, there is little time left to earn the bragging right “we have seen the soccer GOAT”. Injury and retirement can happen any moment. He did not play in the Hong Kong stop of the pre-season world tour. He has only one or two seasons playing for Inter Miami. These cemented our plan to go catch him. Until the game starts, it is anybody’s guess if Messi would show up on the pitch. 

We pushed luck to our side by following what the Inter Miami coach said : “The Concacaf Champions Cup will be the most important game(s) of the year”. Messi is more likely to play in home games in Ft Lauderdale, Florida. Few know Inter Miami narrowly won the game against Nashville last season to grasp the first ever team cup, in the nail-biting penalty shootout. We bet that if there is any game Messi will most likely show up, it will be this Concacaf game featuring Inter Miami vs Nashville in Florida.

We still needed luck after lining up the stars. Luck was on our side. 

The game time was 8:15pm. Before the pilgrimage to see Messi, we visited the Everglades National Park (NP) located slightly over an hour’s drive away.  

Everglades NP is unlike any other NP we have visited. It has limited parking spaces, and we had to wait for enough cars to get out before we could get in. We waited for about an hour. The time went by fast.  There was this couple of colorful Halloween pennant dragonflies hopping around, inviting us to picture them. There was this peaceful stream of water. The visitor center was within a short walking distance, making it arguably the shortest walk to any NP visitor center from the entrance station. The visitor center has exhibits and gifts that help to kill time with meaningful information.

The Everglades NP is unique in another way. It is not hikers friendly. There are some paved roads, little trails, and hardly any shades. In May, we felt the warmth already. Instead, the park offers a 2-hour tram ride every hour, and a bike rental for visitors. The tram-ride is first come first served. It was a very enjoyable ride, with diverse geological landscape, alligators of all sizes, lovely blue herons, elegant egrets, colorful purple gallinule and muscular anhinga. It is one of the best NP to visit without prior planning. The park is full of life especially in this season of Spring.

We rested in the hotel briefly to build up the energy for the Chase Stadium pilgrimage.

We arrived at the Chase Stadium about 3 hours before the game time at 8:15pm. We were hardly alone. There were families. There were several food trucks outside. There were boys playing soccer and I was hit by the soccer a few times. It was a lively atmosphere. No-one seemed to be in a hurry. Truth be told, we expected the fan zones to have more activities for the fans like other sport events. We expected better food choices. We expected better facilities for the over $200 per person ticket we have paid. The stadium looked dated too. 

The impression did not improve, when we got into the stadium with over an hour to spare. We were surprised that the gift store was no more than a line for the most enthusiastic fans. It was just a place to order exactly the products you have in mind. There was no shopping experience. It was a buying experience. We were surprised with the portable toilets. We were surprised with the limited food choices inside the stadium. 

With little to visit, we were among the earliest to take our seats. We had plenty of time to take pictures. After some waiting, the visiting Nashville team started their warm-up first, followed by the Inter Miami home team. From the practice, we could guess the starters. It felt like waiting for the dream to come true to see all four ex-Barcelona stars (Messi, Suarez, Alba, and Busquet) as starters. We were lucky. The Messi effect was felt through the stadium every time his name was mentioned by the announcer, followed by the “Messi” chanting. 

The Inter Miami vs Nashville Game started on time as expected. Inter Miami scored the first goal within the first 10 minutes by Suarez with an assist from Messi. It was a beautiful play. Everyone in the stadium was on their feet, with cheers, drumbeat, drum roll, and firework. What a moment. Shortly after, Messi scored himself. The Nashville team played well enough to keep the atmosphere tense and keep us in suspense. As the second half began, I noticed Messi had that uncommon hands-on-knees position that came across as strange at first. Within seconds, he turned over his captain armband to another Inter Miami player, and walked towards the bench. Simultaneously, the substitute board was raised, and he was substituted. I sensed that he may have an injury and the substitute was unplanned.  

We have watched the soccer god play live – Messi assisted, scored, and then seemingly injured. What an unbelievable experience of a lifetime. It was not quite the same as checking the bucket list of watching the World Soccer Cup live. This one seemed even sweeter. We felt that we watched on behalf of the many HongKongers who were heartbroken when Messi did not play in the Inter Miami pre-season stop in Hong Kong. That Messi Mess in Hong Kong was something to be forgotten.

Before we flew out the next afternoon, we took a 45-minute airboat ride at the Sawgrass recreation park. The lobster claw scoobies served in the Coconut Seafood were exceptionally delicious, and spent some time on the Ft Lauderdale beaches. The beaches, the bars and the lounges screamed to tell us that this was the Spring break week of the college students.  

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