[ Home ] [ Contents ] [ Search ]

Rhine in Fremont
[ Rhine in Fremont ] [ Divas ] [ Big Game--Not Quite ] [ BoxofChocolates ] [ BeachGolf ] [ All The Way ] [ For Your Eyes Only ] [ LittlePutter ] [ WooCanCook ] [ Dive Dive Dive ] [ BeachBum ] [ Freedom ] [ 13thDayXmas ] [ Peter Pan ] [ Tiger ] [ Black Diamond ] [ Aloha ] [ Walkathon ] [ Big Sur Walk ] [ 4x4 Anniversary ] [ Sausalito ] [ Alaska ] [ China ] [ Stanford 2000 ] [ French Laundry ] [ Snowshoe Yosemite ] [ BestThingsInLife ]

#1: Rhine in Fremont?

11/11/1999

Yes, I know it's now quite year 2000; however, why wait to celebrate my 39.99th birthday? So I officially kicked off a year of adventures today on November 11, 1999. I took Veterans Day off as a vacation day, and Theresa has it off as a holiday. We have been debating about what do what ever since we woke up to read the newspaper this morning. Since today is sunny and warm, we decided to take our bike out for a spin.

Between Theresa and I she is really the bicycle "manic," at least when she was a kid. The next time you see her you have to ask her about how she loved to take apart and then re-assembly her bicycle all the time. You also have to ask her about the time that she broke her head open, and it was a good thing that a neighborhood man saw the accident and brought her home with blood streaming down her head...but that's another story. Let's me tell you more about my bicycling experience.

I was a wimp. As as kid I never rode bicycles. I don't know why. Maybe my parents did not want me get ran over by a car in a busy neighborhood in Taiwan. My earliest memory of bicycling is when I was in elementary school I was brought by our maid's brother to a native temple festival on the back seat. It was festive and noisy at the festival. I think I ate a lot of interesting local Taiwanese cuisine.

The next time I had a "run-in" with a bicycle was when literally I was hit by a bicycle while walking home from my elemantary school in Taiwan. I just remembered that I flew up in the air for several feet before landing. I did not get hurt. However, my mother had to pick me up from the police station as the policeman was questioning the bicyclist. I think he was delivering ice--believe me, you don't want to argue much with a person carrying an ice pick :-)

The next time I was on a bike it was at the school yard at my grammar school Our Lady of Lourdes in Oakland, Ca (http://www.oakdiocese.org/parishes/parish70.htm). Jack Yoshino, one of my classmates, let me ride his ten-speed around the school yard. I actually did not kill myself! However, I never rode again--as I always seemed to be busy with high school, college, work, etc.

So for a long, long time, I did not get the chance to enjoy bicycling until a few years ago when Theresa and I vacationed at Toronto, Canada (http://travel.yahoo.com/Destinations/North_America/Countries/Canada//Cities/Toronto/) and also Niagara Falls (http://travel.yahoo.com/Destinations/North_America/Countries/Canada//Cities/Niagara_Falls/) . We thought it may be fun to do some bicycling. It was fun riding in Toronto on the Island and also near the Beach. It was particularly fun riding along Niagara Falls and River. I must admit that God must be smiling on me, since I did  not break my head open even though I was rather wobbly on the bike and was not even wearing a helmet. Such foolishness! Call it beginner's luck.  Right after that fun-filled vacation Theresa and I both bought mountain bikes.

One of our favorite rides happens to be near our house. We call it Rhine in Fremont. Okay, we are exaggerating a bite--okay maybe a lot. It's actually the Alameda Creek Regional Trail. This is an easy trail as it's flat and paved. It's about 10 miles from the Fremont foothills to the San Francisco Bay. Click here (http://www.ebparks.org/parks/alameda.htm) for more information.

Rondo hates it when we go bicycling, because he does not get to go hiking. However, today he did not have a choice since he was still recuperating from his bladder stone surgery a week ago. He was a trooper though. I think he was ready to go up Mission Peak in Fremont even though he was still wearing this Elizabethan collar that prevents him from licking  his 12 stitches. Doesn't he look pathetic with his "satellite TV antenna?" :-)

We said goodbye to Rondo. I was ready to go, especially with my Intel Pentium II bicycle jersey on.

Fortunately for us we lived just a couple of miles away from the head of the Alameda Creek Regional Trail.

Doesn't this remind you of Rhine in Germany?

See, we even have trains, just like the Rhine.

Okay, I know we are not in Germany when I'm reminded by the white painted NILES sign on top of the hill. Can you see those white dots in the hills?

Here is a panoramic shot that's composed of five pictures. Pretty cool, huh?

So we don't exactly have vineyards along the bank along the Rhine in Fremont. However, we did see some fruiting trees. I remember that when we moved into our house 5 years ago we were trying to plant this kind of tree. I think it's called a strawberry tree.

After about 10 miles we were near the estuary, where fresh and salt water meet. It's Hayward hills in the background. Sorry, there don't seem to be any castle around here like the Rhine in Germany. At most we saw the library at Hayward State University.

Don't worry. I did not shrink after all the vigorous pedaling. I was kneeling down as I set my camera down on a bench to take a self-portrait.  Theresa was busy drinking water.

As you can see that we had a gloriously sunny day. The temperate was perfect for a brisk ride. This is the Coyote Hills. Normally I like to ride around Coyote Hills in order to get to San Francisco Wildlife Refuge. However, today we decided to go all the way until the end of the Alameda Creek Trail.

We were getting close to the end of the trail. Here was a look back toward Fremont hills. You can just barely see Mission Peak, which will be an upcoming adventure.

Here we were at the end of the trail!

I liked the interpretive sign showing us some of the birds around. Normally we could have ridden much further on top of the levee around the Leslie salt pound. However, the levee road was closed for the next two years for repair. So we will come back another day. So we started back. Since by this time we were starving we decided to take a detour to Newark to one of our favorite Vietnamese noodle shop: Nguyen Vu.

You know Internet is for real when even a small noodle shop has its own WEB site (http://www.nguyenvu.com/)!

With much apology to Alex (my eldest brother who works at Starbucks Coffee headquarter in Seattle as a director for food product technology research and development), Theresa and I ordered  one of our favorite drinks: iced Vietnamese coffee with sweet, condensed milk! Yummy.

Yes, I know this is a noodle shop. However, I was in the mode for something different. Remember for my 39.99th celebration I want to do something new and different. So I ordered a rice plate with combination of pork, shrimp, spring rolls, and pickled vegetables. I even tried out the fish sauce. It was delicious. I almost forgot about my sore buns. :-)

On the way home we also rode past Ardenwood Historic Farm (http://www.stanford.edu/~wellis/ardenwd/). It's a fun place to bring children to pet some farm animals as well as attending an afternoon tea party.

We rode on Paseo Padre Blvd to home. For most of the way there was a wide bicycling lane. There were a few harrowing sections where we have to share the road with cars. You know, I hate the nagging feeling that some stupid drivers one of these days will just plow me under a fender. I just read too many stories about hapless bicyclists getting hit from behind. I hope I'm just paranoid. Here was Theresa ready to cross Decoto.

Almost home. We were now crossing Mowry.

So what's so interesting about this soccer field at the California School for the Deaf and Blind? What's interesting about this picture is the hills behind. Have you notice that the hills to the right is darker? This is because of the recent Fremont fire. Our house is actually right below where the huge brush fire finally died down.

Let's me take a short diversion.

SHAKE 'N BAKE

On 10/16/1999 Theresa and I were having dinner with my Mom and Dad. We just finished a delicious fresh crab dinner. We were about to relax and play some Mah-Jong when my brother who lived just several blocks away called me up. He said, "Stephen, you better come home and get Rondo. There is a fire." We wasted no time and drove home as quickly as possible without getting pulled over by the highway patrol. At first we thought it's nothing, especially the news on the radio indicated that the fire is really one freeway exit away at Vargas. When we got to Fremont at 8:30pm we were quite concerned when we saw the sky was darkened with all the smoke and soot. Theresa was really worried when we got to our neighborhood and saw a police blockade. We were forced to park outside our neighborhood and walked to our house.

That night the wind was extremely strong and warm. It was fanning the fire right toward our house! We did not want to take any chances so I sprayed down the backyard deck and the house with a power washer.  I guess it's moment likes this we get to realize what's really important. Well, other than each other we were ready to evacuate our dog and four birds. Theresa was packing up all the photo albums. Guess what I took? I took my floppy disk that has the back-up Quicken data and also my Palm V! Nice and simple! The funny thing was that when Theresa packed up all the stuff, Rondo went into the car and was ready to go. He did not want to take any chance! He waited in the car for 30 minutes before finally giving up. He then waited inside the house with us. At that time the air was very smoky.

Here was the fire burning on the hills behind our house at 9pm.

Some of the homes in our immediate neighborhood were threatened as the fire was burning right up to the fence line.

At 10pm the fire was still going strong and getting closer to us. Fortunately the firefighters made a fire break, and the fire finally was under control around midnight.

Next morning Rondo and I surveyed the damage. The small hill closest to us two houses away was safe. However, the hill behind it was completed charred.

Here is a view of the blackened hill from our backyard. For days afterwards we could smell the soot.

San Jose Mercury Headlines:

650 ACRES CHARRED IN HILLS
BRUSH FIRE SPARES FREMONT HOMES

Anxious, sleep-deprived residents surveyed the blackened hills above their Fremont neighborhood Sunday and counted their blessings.

No injuries were reported and no homes were damaged in the fast-moving fire that broke out Saturday night and scorched 650 acres before firefighters extinguished it early Sunday morning.

EUCALYPTUSES BLAMED FOR FREMONT FIRE
TOWERING, OIL-LADEN TREES PROVIDE EASY FUEL FOR FAST-MOVING BLAZES, SAY HILLS RESIDENTS

Fire officials still don't know what sparked the wildfire that threatened hundreds of homes in Fremont this weekend, but residents are pointing to a culprit -- thick clusters of eucalyptus trees.

The fire -- the biggest in city history, officials say -- appears to have started Saturday night in or near a stand of quick-burning eucalyptuses on Vargas Road, and came close to igniting another grove of the oily trees along Canyon Heights Drive. Fueled in part by the eucalyptuses, the blaze streaked across quickly out of control.

Unfortunately they never found the cause of the fire...

So that was the excitement in Fremont recently.  This is the Bake part of the story, but what's the deal with Shake 'N Bake?

I realize now that Theresa and I live in a Shake 'N Bake house. We are right in between brush fires and the Southern Hayward Fault.

In fact, by using this map at (http://www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/eqmaps/pickcity.html), I found out that a 6.9 magnitude earthquake on the Southern Hayward Fault will produce the highest severity level, VERY VIOLENT, on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Shaking Severity Level! Let's hope that I never have to do a photo journal on that.

Yes, I made it home, and the house is still standing! I guess no earthquake nor brush fire happened while we were gone. Whew!