Category: Slice of Life

Camping at Choke Canyon State Park, TX

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The day after Thanksgiving we took the kids camping to a new place for us: Choke Canyon State Park. It’s located between San Antonio and Corpus Christi, about three-hour drive from our house. We really enjoy camping and since we have all the gear it’s easy to go spur-of-the-moment. Going the day after our Thanksgiving feast wasn’t a problem at all. We went basic with the meals, just stopping at the supermarket to fill up our cooler with steaks, breakfast sandwiches, bread and deli meats/cheese. And of course we had to have s’mores!

The campsite was pretty nice, but it’s mostly RV campers and only a couple of people in tents. But it was ok. The only downside was that most of the RV campers left the lights on at their campsites all night. Plus there was also the constant hum of electric appliances. It was kind of fun seeing all the lights strung up at the campsites (I have never camped at an RV area before). I only wish they would have turned off the lights when they went to bed. It would have made the star photos a bit better.  But, the bathrooms there were super-clean since I think most of the people at the campground prefer to do their business in their RVs. Just a guess.

Anyways, the camping was fun as usual, with a nice campfire, steaks, and s’mores. I bring my BBQ grill when we go camping, so we have a nice controlled cooking fire, and then we have the campsite fire pit for the larger campfire.

I woke up at about 1:30 AM and decided to take some photos of the night sky. Luckily I remember to bring the tripod on the trip! It was a lot of fun! I wish the kids would have joined me, but I didn’t really want to wake them since they were snug in their warm sleeping bags. I did manage to get a few decent photos and see one shooting star before retiring back to the tent at 2:30.

The next morning after breakfast, we headed down to the lake and did a little fishing. We didn’t catch anything or even get a nibble, but we were able to see a huge alligator sunning himself on the bank. It was pretty impressive!

The camping trip was just one night, but it was fun and nice to visit a new place. I can’t wait for our next camping trip! Please enjoy the photos below.

Snacktime, Choke Canyon State Park, 2014
Snacktime, Choke Canyon State Park, 2014
Our Campsite, Choke Canyon State Park, 2014
Our Campsite, Choke Canyon State Park, 2014
Around the Campfire, Choke Canyon State Park, 2014
Around the Campfire, Choke Canyon State Park, 2014
Night View, Choke Canyon State Park, 2014
Night View, Choke Canyon State Park, 2014
Night Sky, Choke Canyon State Park, 2014
Night Sky, Choke Canyon State Park, 2014
Writing with Light, Choke Canyon State Park, 2014
Writing with Light, Choke Canyon State Park, 2014
Morning, Choke Canyon State Park, 2014
Morning, Choke Canyon State Park, 2014
Big Gator, Choke Canyon State Park, 2014
Big Gator, Choke Canyon State Park, 2014
Fishing, Choke Canyon State Park, 2014
Photo info: SONY SLT-A77V, 10mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO50
 Fishing, Choke Canyon State Park, 2014

Too Cold to Run

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Yesterday I ate a ton of pizza at Conan’s with my friend Scott so I was looking forward to a long evening run in the neighborhood. But when I went out, it was too cold! It was about 50ºF and windy.

I told myself that I should at least run the first leg of my normal route and see if I warm up. I ran a couple of miles, but my face was so cold I decided to cut the run short and try again during the day. (Maybe I need some winter running gear?)

Looks like it will be lovely weather for a lunch run today!

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Noodling Around on the Guitar

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This past “bachelor summer” I bought an inexpensive classical guitar for myself to play. I haven’t really played guitar before (I’ve played keyboard and bass a bit), but Koa has taken a year of lessons and it looked so fun and sounded great. I thought I could have some fun noodling around on the guitar too. And yes, after watching a bunch of YouTube videos and practicing a bit, I could actually play some chords that don’t sound half bad!

I realize that with my current level of commitment I won’t ever excel at guitar, but even at my beginner/hobbyist level there is a lot of value for me in playing my ~5 chords. Look out, here comes a list!

Playing my guitar:

  • exercises a new part of my brain
  • improves hand-eye coordination
  • stretches out the fingers
  • is relaxing!

I also like to goof around on my bass guitar which is also fun. The problem is that I need to plug into an amp, and I don’t have a proper bass amp anymore. It just doesn’t sound right going through a tiny practice amp.

But what is neat about playing both guitar and bass is that you can sort of piece things together between the two instruments, and when things click and make sense, it’s a nice thing. It’s kind of obvious since they are essentially the same instrument, but it is still really satisfying to make the connection.

Satisfying enough to bring a huge smile to my face.

Classical Guitar
Classical Guitar

Rainy Run

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Just returned from a 4.4 mile run. There is a huge storm coming tomorrow so I wanted to get a run in this evening. When I left the house it was barely drizzling but after about 5 minutes, I was running in the rain. I splashed through a few puddles and got my feet soaked. I thought it would suck.

But it was so fun!

I felt like a kid playing in the rain.

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Running Machine

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One common thought that enters my mind as I am running my daily route is a kind of fun way to think of how my mind and body are related. In Haruki Murakami’s book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Vintage International), he compared the human body to a beast of burden, in that if you stress your muscles, they will complain at first but then eventually comply to the extra effort. I have for a long time thought of my body as some kind of machine or robot, sort of like one of those Japanese giant robots, where my brain is the pilot of this running machine, and I have to keep watch on the functions of the different parts of the machine.

The pilot keeps tabs on the status of my knees, ankles, leg muscles in general, breathing, and hydration level. For the most part, I let my body run on auto-pilot, never needing to actually adjust my speed (except when crossing intersections), and just monitor the statuses. My breathing also never really changes except when I go on a long uphill. It’s actually fun to notice that my body requires more oxygen, and imagine the “pilot” order the body to inhale and exhale with more force and more speed. Then at the top of the hill, the body goes into a “recovery mode” and the heart and breathing rate drop back down to normal.

Since I have been nursing a sore knee the past month or so, the pilot’s control center is a little more lively in that his status displays show some damage to the right knee. I am visualizing a picture of my body as if it were viewed by a heat-sensitive night-vision-goggle type of thing or MRI. When my knee hurts, that part of the scan is glowing red. And sometimes my shoulder would get a little sore before it loosens up, and I’d imagine the pilot in my brain having to monitor that part of the machine as well.

It’s really bizarre what goes through my mind sometimes! But I think it’s actually kind of fun too, and just another aspect of running that makes it so enjoyable to me. I never know where my thoughts are going to take me, but I always end my run feeling way better than at the beginning.