Henry W. Coe State Park, Morgan Hill, CA

Here's a little info on this place from Wikipedia...
... [HCSP] is a state park of California, USA, preserving a vast tract of the Diablo Range. The park is located closest to the city of Morgan Hill, and is located in both Santa Clara and Stanislaus counties. The park contains over 87,000 acres (35,000 ha), making it the largest state park in northern California, and the second-largest in the state (after Anza-Borrego Desert State Park). Managed within its boundaries is a designated wilderness area of about 22,000 acres (8,900 ha). This is officially known as the Henry W. Coe State Wilderness, but locally as the Orestimba Wilderness. The 89,164-acre (36,083 ha) park was established in 1959.^[1]

If you didn't catch all that, this is a big park. It's full of trails, paths, wildlife, and best of all MOUNTAIN LIONS!!!

Ok, maybe not full of them, but I did see a bobcat during my short trip. I also know they have a very popular tarantula time of year each fall. Can you spell, f-u-n!

It really is a very pretty park, great for a long walk, overnight, or even mountain biking.

A deer or two greeted me on arrival...

If go in the summer (or possibly any time of year), bring water!!! Wear sunblock. Wear sturdy shoes. You may want to wear pants and tuck your legs into your socks (ticks). If you think you might get lost, just stay on the main trail.

AT&T Park / San Francisco Giants, San Francisco, CA

Even as a lifelong Cubs fan, when one is invited to a suite for an evening of baseball, one attends. I could not say no to a night at AT&T Park, to see the Giants take on the Reds.

It's a very nice ballpark. I now wish I'd seen more of it. We were kind of whisked up into the suite-level area from the street entrance, and didn't really wander much further during the game. If I were to go back to this park (Cubs stand in July!), I'd like to see much more of the concourse level and outfield areas.

 Can't beat the views.

I very much liked this lit-up concourse outside the stadium.

Mission Ranch & City Beach, Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA

After a visit to the Monterey Aquarium (HIGHLY recommended), I found myself needed some sights, drinks, and food. Luckily, local helpers got me back to this place below. I also very much recommend Mission Ranch for views, their patio, their service, and even an overnight (they have modest rooms/cabins available). I'm already planning to head back here for riding and an overnight, soon.

Dinner starts at 5pm, but you can get a cocktail starting at 4pm...

They have sheep out there!!!

Wow, stuffed pork chop, with bacon and chorizo. Wow.

The greenery here is some of the nicest and most lush I've seen in all of NorCal so far. Walking the grounds before or after dinner is a nice way to see much of it up close.

After hitting the Ranch, you're close enough to the public beach in Carmel-by-the-Sea, so why not hit this too?! It's a no-brainer.

Man, if you're even close to this area, visit.

One more - The Food!!! Milan, Italy

I was reminded recently that I didn't ever post about all the amazing food from the trip to Italy this past March/April. I wanted to show off two kinds of eats -
1. Food served in our corporate office, provided by a local caterer for our meetings
2. Food from local restaurants

I'll show section one, then section two below. To be clear, both types were very very good. I ate as much as I could, if not clean-plate-club every meal.

At our office:

 Home-made Lasagna, molto bene!

 Chilled Beef Roast with Tonnato Cream

Home-made - "Little Cannons" with perfectly/extra dark caramelized sugar on top

From local restaurants:

 More than OK in my book.

 Pork "Milanese"

 We had so many courses this not... I'm not complaining though...

 Must have - Limoncello

I mean, if it's good enough for Julia Roberts... and look at that oven!!! Mama mia!!! Gleaming.

Win Tunnel, Morgan Hill, CA

The title of this post is a play on words - it's a low-speed wind tunnel at our office, but we have come to call it a "win tunnel" as riders from around the globe, in many disciplines of cycling, use it to get faster on their bikes and literally win races.

It was an impressive look at a pretty high-tech piece of machinery. Have a look yourself...

The "screen" you see above is actually hexagon-shaped filter that smooths and straightens the airflow as it enters into the wind tunnel. Think of this as the rear screen of a big box fan you'd use in the summer. It's better for measurements if the airflow is clean and steady as it comes in.

This mannequin is a literal mold of another co-worker. It is used as a "test dummy" for bikes, clothing, helmets, etc.

This is just one of the ~12' fans that are located at the rear of the wind tunnel. The fans work in unison to pull the air from the front to the back of the tunnel.

The carbon fiber shrouds of around all six fans smooth that airflow and were entirely built/molded in-house.

We were allowed to stand in the tunnel while in operation, up to about 60MPH. It's not so easy to stand there, that's for sure.