For the river cruise curious

For the first time, Mrs Notthat and I took a river cruise. We chose the American Cruise Lines seven day/six night Columbia River cruise that (sort of) starts in Portland, Oregon. Two other couples Mrs Notthat knows were also on the cruise, which was nice since we would get together and go over the day's adventures.

Executive Summary

Since this is going to be long, I thought I'd start with a section explaining what makes river cruises different than ocean cruises. (Note that this all applies to American Cruise Lines - I assume most of their river cruises are similar, but it's likely that other companies, particularly those river cruises in Europe, are very different.)

Boat size

The boats (or ships - we had a fierce discussion about what the difference is, and it seemed to stall on "ships can carry a boat," which frankly is very unsatisfying) on river cruises are WAY smaller. You won't find water slides, swimming pools, massive buffets, or casinos on them (there was a fitness center though, and several places to lay out in the sun if that was your thing). Ours had a capacity of 180 guests (and likely around 40 or so support people). That's fewer people than is on one floor of an ocean cruise.

I loved the smaller size. Nothing feels overwhelming and you do tend to see the same people a lot, which is generally a good thing. One thing that surprised me a little bit is that you are pretty unlikely to see any kids on board. There was one person I saw that might have been under 21 - the vast majority were retired like us. There were a fair number of canes, walkers, and a few wheelchairs. (Note that this boat had elevators - there were six floors, and not having elevators would have made this a dealbreaker for many, including me at this point. If that's a dealbreaker for you, be sure to check what your boat has since not all have elevators.)

We were on the 4th deck, which turned out to be conveniently located close to the two lounges.

I'm prone to motion sickness, especially on boats, but when I took an ocean cruise many years ago, I had no issues. But since this was a smaller boat, I was a bit worried that I might have issues, but again, there were none. There were times that the water was pretty rough, but the boat always stayed calm.

No massive buffets? How do you eat?

Actually, you eat very well. There is a proper sit-down dining area that covers the three main meals and a cafe that has quicker, simpler options (burgers, hot dogs, breakfast sandwiches, and such) for breakfast and lunch. And there are two lounges that at happy hour have snack type foods, one of which has quick breakfast options and a small fridge with sodas and such and a couple small racks with snack type items (chips, trail mix, and that sort of thing) that are available 24 hours. 

The dining area has open seating and a menu. There are waitstaff that take your order and are wildly polite and patient. The menu options for lunch and dinner usually involved three or four main course options (one was often vegetarian) and two or three dessert options (including a variety of ice cream flavors). For dinner, there were also options for appetizers - a soup and a salad of some sort.

The food was almost always very good. The portions were not huge, but generally were just right. And if you wanted a bit more, you just had to ask. It was actually surprising how you could request special items and customize your meal. It wouldn't always turn out quite correct, but most of the time it worked out well.

Happy hour? How expensive is alcohol on these things?

Sit down. If you've been on an ocean cruise, this is likely going to be a huge surprise - all alcohol is free (well, included in the price). For lunch, dinner, happy hour, and just about any other time, you can choose from a wide variety of adult beverage options. I was a bit shocked - I expected there to be pretty specific locations and times where you could get a drink, but you could almost always get what you wanted. 

What about entertainment?

There were a number of onboard lectures and such. There was a couple, Llib and Arual (not their real names), who both provided happy hour music and gave several lectures on cruise related bits, including the Lewis and Clark expedition, and local history and town orientation. 

Every night at 8:30 there was some form of entertainment, and the entertainment was always, well, very entertaining. For the first and second nights, we had Oiram (not his real name) who was ridiculously good at playing the piano and throwing in a lot of humor.

Oiram playing the piano with one hand and a trumpet with the other. At one other point, he put a cover on the piano and played a pretty complicated song with the keys all hidden. Pretty wild!

The third night was a guy in a cowboy hat and a guitar who played lots of shortened country songs and was also very funny. The fourth night was another guy with a guitar (no cowboy hat) who was also very entertaining and funny. The fifth (and last) night, we had a guy, Kram (not his real name), doing lots of physical things (juggling and such) while making us laugh. 

The entertainment was all very good and a perfect way to end the day. 

Ah, but river cruises are a lot more expensive, right?

I don't have enough experience to do a deep dive into this, but the simple answer is "sort of."

The upfront cost is significantly higher for a river cruise, which makes it seem like a bad deal, but once you factor in that just about everything is included in that price, like drinks, onboard wifi, transfers, and tips, it evens out a bit. Maybe even works out to about the same cost. On the one ocean cruise I took, the cost for these "extra" things was pretty shocking. I personally prefer just having all that stuff included.

The only extras were some of the excursions. There were always some included excursions that gave you free entry into a variety of museums and such. We bought a couple of the bonus excursions and enjoyed them (details later). 

The only other thing to mention is that they do try to get you to sign up for another cruise, offering you a discount (15% in our case). You can easily ignore these attempts - they were not like a high-pressure timeshare sale - so it wasn't a big deal. (Mrs Notthat is not one to miss a deal though, so we are now signed up for an Alaska cruise next summer.)

And now for the details about our trip

Map showing the various important bits of the cruise. (You should be able to double-tap or double-click the map to see it larger.)

One thing I found a bit odd, but is likely normal for these sorts of things, is that the first night of the cruise was actually at an Embassy Suites near Portland's airport. You were on your own for dinner that first night (there was a happy hour with a lot of finger food, but you had to buy your drinks, although we were all given coupons for two free drinks) and breakfast the next day was the standard hotel included breakfast, which was plenty good. 

Doing it this way makes it easy to deal with people flying in from all over. We arrived at the hotel by about 2 PM and were able to check in to our room early. We then grabbed lunch - there wasn't much to do in that immediate area, so we just hung out and met up with the others.

Note: Due to the current airport chaos, we considered driving to Portland, but we had already booked our flights long ago, and it would have meant having to pay for parking the whole time. It turned out the airports worked out fine and flying was the best way to do this, but man - I hate flying so I would have been happy to do the 10-12 hour drive and figure out the parking.

The next morning, we loaded up in busses to go to the boat, with a stop along the way to see Multnomah Falls. (The actual embarkation/debarkation point was in Stevenson, Washington, which is about 40 miles upriver from the airport and, importantly, on the other side of Bonneville Dam, which I'll talk about later). 

Multnomah Falls - if you look VERY hard you can see Mrs Notthat on that bridge. I would have loved to join her, but my hip was not having it.

Once we got on the boat, we got to see our room, and it was very nice. There was a nice balcony with a table and chairs (sadly it was almost always too cold to sit out there), a king size bed, and a functional bathroom. 

Getting onto the boat for the first time.

We then had our first meal on the boat then sat through a safety presentation (which was mostly just telling us about the various options on the boat - I don't remember seeing any lifeboats, but we did have life vests in our room). At around 2:30 PM, we left the dock and headed upriver to The Dalles (where we arrived at around 7:00 PM).

Looking out our sliding door onto our balcony and the view.

The Dalles

First of all, that really is the name of the town, including the "The." It was a very interesting place, and we would have happily spent the day exploring its various museums and such (not to be missed was the National Neon Museum - I missed it but Mrs Notthat loved it). 

Mrs Notthat and I signed up for the e-bike excursion in the afternoon. It turned out there was only one other couple that had singed up, and they were pretty nervous about the e-bike concept. (Mrs and I had no previous e-bike experience, but learned the basics pretty fast and had a blast. One of the other two really struggled with there being two modes of getting power, and I was really afraid she was going to bail on the trip, but she stuck it out and seemed to eventually work out how the bike worked. It didn't help that the bikes would turn themselves off when we paused for a view.) 

Much of the trail was shaded. It was loosely along the Columbia river, with lots of amazing views.

An example of the view. 

Heading into the tunnel bit.

For those of you that want to know more about the specific area we rode.

The paved trail we were on was five miles of an old highway, including a few tunnels and some hills, that we went out and back on. On a normal bike, my hip would have been very unhappy, but man, the e-bikes made this a breeze. 

We left The Dalles (man that's still weird to type) at 5:30 PM to head to Kalama - we went from the cruise's furthest upstream point to the furthest downstream point over night. And at about 10:00 PM, we started the process of going through the Bonneville Dam lock.

The Bonneville Dam lock

There are a number of dams across the Columbia River. These provide electrical power, flood control, and a bit unexpectedly (to me), a way to deal with rapids and small waterfalls by basically just drowning them, making much more of the river navigable than would otherwise be available. If a goal is to let relatively large boats through, you needed to provide a way to go around the dam, and that's done with locks that're similar to those in the Panama Canal.

Shortly after the night's entertainment wrapped up, many of us went out on the front deck to watch as we navigated the lock. It was pretty great that this happened at night at a time we could watch it.

As we got close, two large spotlights came on.

The lock lane is getting closer. We are going pretty slow at this point.

Getting closer to the lock's "dam."

At this point, we are tied up to the side of the lock. At the top of the photo, you can see the lights from the river level side of the lock. We are basically sitting on an elevator made of water that will lower us about 70 feet.

Mrs Notthat supervising the process.

The water is being drained from the lock and we are dropping!

We are now at river level, and the gates are opening.

Open wide!

And we are off! The whole process took about 45 minutes (including the slow crawl in and out of the lock). 

We actually went through this lock again a couple nights later, on our way from Kalama to Hood River. This time, it would be at about 2:00 AM, and even though it would be the opposite process - raising the boat to lake level - there was no way we were going to stay up for that.

Kalama - gateway to Mt St Helens

We arrived at Kalama at about 4:00 AM. This was the first night that the boat was moving as we slept. I think most slept well, but some of us struggled a bit. You could hear the muffled sound of the engines, and if they had been a constant drone, it would have been fine. However, once in a while there would be a surge of noise and a bit of vibration. This was all pretty minor and most slept through it, but I struggled a bit. 

At one point we went past Portland. I was awoken by what felt like strobe lights. When we closed our blackout curtain, there was a small slit left and the lights of Portland managed to squeeze through just briefly, but Portland has a lot of lights, so it was like flash bulbs going off.

At Kalama, Mrs Notthat and I had singed up for a "dot painting" class. In the afternoon, there was a free Mt St Helens tour that was an hour bus ride to some interesting sounding visitor centers and such, but we were a bit tired, especially after staying up for Lockapalooza, so we stayed on the boat for the afternoon. 

Dot painting? Seriously?

Just off the dock at Kalama was a small mall of sorts, called the Mountain Timber Market, with a number of restaurants, breweries, gift shops, and other things. One of those other things was something called the Dot Painting Gallery, where they hold classes primarily aimed at the cruise ships. (I believe American River Cruises has around six boats running up and down this river - some go further than others, but each of these towns has areas that cater to the passengers.)

There were eight of us in the dot painting class, and you will likely not be surprised to learn I was the only guy there. I'm pretty sure some in the back row expected me to start eating the paint before we got very far. Our instructor, Anitsirhc (not her real name, but she is apparently internet famous), nervously kept her eye on me, just in case.

Our tools and starting canvas. The web-like pattern is to provide a guide to help us stay symmetrical - once you are done you can wash the pattern off after the paint dries. 

We were creating a geometric design called a "mandala" (Canadian for "lines are boring"). The tools included several different sizes of glass rods and several smaller tools with different size balls on their ends. By the end, that nice white napkin on the left became quite a mess.

My start. We were given prompts on what colors to use (which a lot of us ignored) and which tool would produce the best results (which most of us paid attention to, at least in the beginning).

By now it's really starting to look like something. We learned to "walk the dot" (making those progressively smaller dot trails) and to "drag the dot" (making those small teardrop shaped things - this was a skill that I really struggle with).

My final result, after the lines have been washed off. There was a point where we were told to go for it and add whatever elements we wanted. The instructor can't be blamed for this result.

Mrs Notthat's final result. We were all using the same colors, but she decided to completely ignore the red. I really thought they both came out very nice!

Mrs Notthat bought me a kit to play with during my upcoming surgery recuperation. And yes, Princess the Wonder Dog should be a bit worried that I might decide to see how she would look with dots all over. 

Wrapping up Kalama

We spent a bit of time looking at the totem poles near the dock - there was a very large one that could no longer safely stand, so they decided to lay it down, floating above the center of the mall where we did the dot painting.

A very big totem pole laying down in the mall. 

A couple of still standing totem poles. There should have been more, but they were out being reconditioned.

I stayed in the boat for the afternoon while the others headed out to explore the town. 

At 10:00 PM, the boat left the dock and headed back up river to our next stop, Hood River. This was going to be an all night trip involving going back through the lock.

Hood River

After the previous night of trying to sleep while the boat was cruising, I was a bit worried about doing that again the next night, especially since this would mean going past Portland's lights again and going through the lock. In the end, we upped our curtain closing game, so the lights were no issue, and the assorted cruising noises, including the lock transition, did not keep me awake at all - I got a very welcome good night's sleep. The boat arrived in Hood River at about 7:30 AM.

There were a number of fun sounding excursions out of Hood River (including the chance to feed and pet an alpaca and another shot at the e-bike thing), but it was not very nice out in the morning. Not a heavy rain, but a drizzle. 

Fun thing - we found out while riding the bus to downtown that there had been a 5K that morning, which explained why there were so many cars in the harbor's lot so early. If we had known about this, Mrs Notthat would have likely ran it, although as it turned out, the actual course was on the paved trail that we had previously done the e-bike ride on, so there would have been a shuttle bus ride to/from the start/finish. And it likely would have been a bit moist out. So maybe it was better that we hadn't known about it.

After going to downtown on the local loop bus (the cruise often had a bus or two that would loop around two or three stops so that we could jump on and off to see a variety of things that would be too far to walk to), Mrs and I spent the afternoon walking out to a museum near the dock. 

The boat stayed put overnight, 

Off to our last stop, back where we started in Stevenson

At 12:30 in the afternoon, we started the short trip from Hood River, OR to Stevenson, WA. Once there, several went off to check out the shopping opportunities. 

The three shoppers returning from downtown Stevenson.

The next morning was going to be pretty early since it was debarkation day. We were told they had 2.5 hours to get the boat ready to head out that afternoon with a whole new bunch of passengers. The rules were we had to set our luggage out in the hallway before going to bed and be out of our room by 7:30 AM at the latest. 

We woke up early on that last day to rain. It had felt like a minor miracle that we had so few issues with rain given the time of year, so having some on that last day was not an issue at all. 

It was about a 60 minute mostly scenic (so many waterfalls!) bus ride from Stevenson to the Portland airport, with a bit of rush hour traffic as we got close, but we still ended up at the airport about five hours before our flight. We could not check our bags into the airline though until four hours before our flight. This gave us a bit of time to do some last minute optimization of the packing. 

The was no Global Entry there (as there had been in San Francisco), so Mrs Notthat was forced to use the same TSA lines as me. And again, as had happened on the way out, I had to go through a pat down. (On the way out, I had left my watch on, but they were sure I had something in my pocket. I didn't.) This time they thought I had something at the bottom of my pants zipper. Weirdly, they said they would be happy if I took my shoes off so they could X-ray them. 

I swear they are just making this stuff up half the time. (They made me collapse my cane both times so it could go through the X-ray machine. Fun thing, when getting to my seat on the plane I asked what I should do with my cane and they said it had to go in the overhead bin unless I had the window seat, which I did. In that case, just put it out of the way next to the window.)

And in conclusion…

This was a fun trip! It would have been a lot more fun if I had a non-cranky hip - there were several excursions we would have taken if I had been able to manage the required exertion. (We booked this cruise long before I knew I had a hip issue that was going to require surgery a week after we got back.) 

I think doing the trip a bit later in the year would be better since it would be warmer and we could better take advantage of our balcony and the sun deck. (The trade off likely would be needing to fight off the bugs though.)

I think a river cruise is not for everybody, but it is perfect for someone like me that doesn't want all the hoopla and wildness of those huge mega-ships. For you runners, maybe you could compare this to running a local 10K vs. the Boston Marathon - two different experiences that attract very different people.

Give me the local 10K any day.

That's it - move along…

PS: I really didn't stress enough how great the crew was on this trip. They all were astonishingly good at what they were doing, and were desperate for us to be having a great time. From the tour of the pilothouse to the dining room to the entertainment - it was rare that we had any doubts about what was going on or what our options were. And I forgot to mention that I got a distant second place in a quiz about the Masters golf tournament!

PPS: One thing I had forgotten - when we arrived at baggage claim in Portland, we knew we were to go out and take the hotel shuttle. But there was a person there holding up an American Cruise Lines sign. I said "hi" to her and she looked at her clipboard and said "Welcome Mr Notthat (not your real name) to Portland! Once you have your bags I'll take you to where your shuttle will pick you up!" This was totally unnecessary, but it really made us feel like the cruise was already starting, kind of. A very nice touch.

Brazen Racing Almost New Year's Eve and New Year's Day

On January 1 in 2010, Brazen Racing held their first New Year's Day event. I ran the 10K that year, my first Brazen race, first trail race, and first 10K (I had walked a Marathon a few months earlier, so this was my second race of any kind). At the end of 2011, they added the Almost New Year's Eve event (and actually, that year it really was on New Year's Eve), pairing it up with their NYD event to make a fun way to kick out the old year and bring in the new one. 

Since then, I'd run that pair of races 10 times, missing the NYE event the last three years since it's always on a Saturday, and I was always booked that day with Byxbee parkrun. However, I'd never missed the NYD event, and had run it 14 times. (Note that both events were cancelled once due to COVID and the NYD event was cancelled in 2023 due to an epic storm that closed the park.)

With the Baylands parkrun shut down this year, I finally had the chance to run both events again, so Mrs Notthat and I signed up for the 5K for both events.

The NYE event started at Lake Chabot in Castro Valley (same place as the NYD event), was switched to Quarry Lakes in Fremont for a few years, then moved back to Lake Chabot. For the 5K, the Lake Chabot course is completely paved mostly out-and-back with some rolling hills, lots of trees, and wonderful lake views. (The 10K is a mostly out-and-back with The Bridge of Death and a challenging climb, while the Half Marathon goes around the lake, counter-clockwise on NYE and clockwise on NYD.)

What's all this about Streakers?

At the end of 2010, Brazen realized that three runners had run all 15 of their events that year, and decided to honor those three runners by giving them a permanent bib number, a couple shirts with that number on them, and a framed display with the medals from all of that year's events. (Actual streaker goodies have changed throughout the years.)

It was astonishingly cool. 

Little did Brazen know that they were starting something that would grow to be an epic undertaking, both on the runner's part and on their part. The next year, 18 people ran (or volunteered) at all 21 of that year's events. The NYE event has become known as Streaker Graduation Day - in 2017, Mrs Notthat and I graduated in a class of 52 new streakers, along with 38 returning streakers, all having participated in all 27 of their events that year. Yes, 90 people participated in all 27 Brazen events that year - astonishing!

Mrs Notthat and I on the red streaker carpet!

Our streaker shadow box (we opted for a combined one). We supplied the medals, and the bits around the edge are taken from the medal ribbons. (They no longer do these boxes.)

This year 36 people struck. Streaking is much harder than it looks like it should be. You really have to work hard to avoid having a vacation or some other event derail you. We found it challenging, and only did it one year - many have done it multiple years - several have done it ten or more times! There have now been 335 individual streakers that have struck (streaked?) a total of 645 times!

The Almost New Year's Eve event for 2025

It was a beautiful morning. Sadly, we failed to arrive in time to watch the graduation or get in on the annual streaker photo, but we got to wear our streaker shirts!

Mrs Notthat and I just before the start.

It was fun seeing so many people that we hadn't seen in a very long time. (My last Brazen race was 2025 NYD - Mrs Notthat's was Western Pacific in 2024.)

Mildly interesting, at least to me

To nobody's surprise, I have a spreadsheet that tracks a lot of things about the races we've participated in. There are also a few bonus spreadsheets that I've let get a bit out of date. 

One of those tracks how many Brazen races we've participated in, either as a runner or volunteer. I hadn't updated this one since mid-2022, so I decided it was time. Once I was done, I realized that when I ran the 2025 NYD race, that was the 200th Brazen race I had participated in! I would have bragged about that so much if I had known! (For the record, that was 182 races run and 18 volunteered at. This also counts 6 DNFs.)

All of that is to say that this was the 201st Brazen race I've participated in. For Mrs Notthat, it was her 168th.

Back to the NYE race

The actual race was uneventful. Most of the course is drenched in tree shade, but occasionally you would break out into a sunny section, which felt very nice.

The Canadian in the shade but also showing off the sunny lake view.

As I was pulling into the aid station, Ekim, not his real name, was really hoping to see some soda-can action (IYKYK) involving The Endorphin Dude (who is the one holding a "platter" of drinks). Amazingly, sodas did not come up at all!

Egroeg, not his real name, at the 5K turnaround. Note the conflicting arrows on the signs. Many teeth were gnashed.

After the turnaround, you get to head back through the aid station!

And that's about it for this race. There were 224 5K finishers (517 across all distances). Mrs Notthat came in 4th out of 8 in her age group while I was 11th out of 11 (I walked the 5K).

The New Year's Day event for 2026

Remember when I typed how beautiful the morning had been for the NYE event? The NYD event chose to make up for that. It was decidedly moist. Not a downpour, and no meaningful wind, but a steady rain made me very happy that the 5K course was entirely paved. (There was a time when I would have loved attacking a muddy trail in the rain, but man, that time was a decade or so ago.)

As opposed to the NYE event, the various awnings were very popular for postponing the inevitable drenching that you were facing.

 

Standing under a tree was almost as effective as standing under an awning.

Water Dumper was a fun volunteer position!

There are always great lake views, but there is something special about those views on a rainy day.

This waterfall was nearly dry at the NYE event.

The aid station volunteers were wildly enthusiastic - rain did not dampen their cheers, which could be heard a half mile away!

The 5K turnaround - note the synchronized arrows! No gnashing teeth today!

Nats, not his real name, loves flat and fast courses. He ran the 10K which, not only is NOT flat or fast, but in the rain, partially becomes a slip 'n slide. (Not to mention the Bridge of Death he had to cross twice!) Nats now has an epic trail race adventure to brag about for years to come, and ended up bringing a significant chunk of the trail home with him as proof.

The rain stopped just long enough for my traditional NYD photo with The Canadian. I've worn that thing on my head at this event 14 times now. 

There were 198 5K finishers (444 across all distances). Mrs Notthat ended up 2nd out of 10 in her age group! I ended up 5th out of 5 (again, I walked, but this time stopped to take a lot more pictures, even though wet touchscreens make taking pictures with a phone an adventure, and took nearly five minutes longer to finish than on NYE).

Let's wrap this up

We did it! Mrs Notthat and I finished our NYE/NYD events in glorious, if a bit soggy, style. My 15th NYD and 11th time running both events!

My medals, bibs, and pretty worn out NYD headgear.

As Brazen does at several paired up events each year, there is a bonus middle medal if you do both of the events.

It was so much fun catching up with so many of the Brazen regulars. It was also fun experiencing the Brazen race day experience - they create such a fun atmosphere, even in a steady rain! A huge thanks to Brazen Racing and all the amazing volunteers that made these events such a blast!

That's it - move along…

What's going on with Byxbee parkrun and the new Baylands Nature Preserve parkrun?

As many of you know by now, the Byxbee parkrun, for a while the only parkrun in California, has been paused. In its place, a new parkrun has started about a half mile away - the (wildly wordy) Baylands Nature Preserve parkrun. 

Why was Byxbee parkrun paused?

Byxbee parkrun ran for six years and hosted 250 events. Shortly after it held its first event, the park was told that at some point "soon," work was going to begin on the tidal gate that was crossed as part of the course. After the COVID shutdown, parkrun was told the work was imminent, so for the restart in the summer of 2021, the course was changed to avoid that tidal gate. 

This change meant the course went from a single out-and-back to a double out-and-back. Some liked the change while others were not so thrilled - having a turnaround on a gravel trail is a bit risky since slipping is common and falling on gravel is never fun, so going from having one turnaround to three turnarounds increased that risk significantly. But you got to see everyone multiple times!

And guess what - that work on the tidal gate never started.

This summer, three projects were about to start. None of them directly impacted the Byxbee course, but they all added significant challenges:

• The tidal gate project was FINALLY going to get started. While the current course was not directly impacted by the work, the workers would need to drive on the course, potentially causing issues on event day. (Spoiler alert: As I type this, this work still has not started. Heavy sigh…)
• The Palo Alto Water Treatment Plant, which is next door to Byxbee Park, started a project that took away two lanes and a LOT of parking along Embarcadero Road - the event's primary parking option. This made attending Byxbee parkrun quite challenging - parking was always a bit difficult and required a 10 minute or so walk, and this made that worse, now requiring a 15 minute or so walk.
• The Treatment Plant also started work on a flood prevention levee right next to the event's start/finish area. Again, this did not directly affect the Byxbee parkrun course, but placed a lot of loud construction equipment very close to it, closed an access trail (forcing people to either walk in the street or cross the street to use the sidewalk), and resulted in periodic partial closing of lanes on the road.

I know, this is a lot. It shows the work areas, the two Byxbee parkrun courses, and the parking for the new Baylands Nature Preserve parkrun.

All of this added together made it challenging to try to hold the event at Byxbee Park, and the park rangers, who supply the Byxbee parkrun permit, requested us to move, at least until these projects are completed.

Oh! When is that work going to be completed?

Well, that's a good question. It could be as little as six months for some of the projects (the levee and tidal gate projects are at the whims of the winter storms and tide charts) and maybe up to two years for others. Note that all of these projects are being done by outside agencies - the actual parks are not involved in the work at all, just in dealing with the fallout.

Tell me about the Baylands Nature Preserve parkrun

First, this is casually being referred to as the Baylands parkrun, since Baylands Nature Preserve parkrun is a mouthful. Calling it the BNP parkrun is a little confusing and potentially problematic with other groups using those initials, and BayNaP parkrun is just too weird.

The parking, briefing, and start/finish area.

The overall course.

There are several very good things about the Baylands parkrun, compared to the Byxbee parkrun:

• There is quite a bit of nearby parking. If you get there a bit early, VERY nearby parking. 
• It's a single out-and-back course. Even better, the turnaround is on pavement - no more slipping on gravel as you try to get that new PB.
• You still get to go along the water and see lots of water birds (and birders watching the water birds). 
• You also get to go alongside the runway of Palo Alto Airport - some will like that (kids love it) and some will hate it (it can be a bit noisy), but the weirdness of running across near the end of the runway just as a plane is taking off over your head is kind of cool. 
• There's a golf course after the airport - the event is generally done before the golfers are set loose, but it's kind of fun to pass time looking for errant golf balls laying along the side of the trail.
• By a very small amount, the course is flatter. (But, and I can't stress this enough, is technically downhill from the turnaround - just not much.)

There are also some drawbacks, compared to the Byxbee course:

• The toilet situation isn't as nice - there are two porta-potties, in two different directions, that are each a few minutes walk to get to. (If you know you need a toilet, one thing you can do is, when you first arrive, drive into Byxbee park, use the nicer toilets, then drive over to Baylands.) A bonus nice toilet is available not far from the turnaround - if you get to the halfway point and find you really need a toilet, you can go a bit past the turnaround and find one there.
• The trail is narrower than the Byxbee trails in places, and also some stretches have more tripping hazards than is ideal. You'll notice that the event goes through some trouble to get people spread out very quickly and strongly encourages you go single-file.

The event still starts at 8:00 AM, and getting there a bit early is a great idea, both to get good parking and having time to make a toilet run if needed (although even the "bad" parking is better than the good parking at Byxbee parkrun).

Now that there have been two events on the new course (as I'm writing this), the process is becoming a bit more routine with few tweaks. Feedback has been mostly positive with many preferring this course. 

An open question is what sort of impacts winter storms might have on the event - this area is a bit more prone to flooding durning king tides, especially if they coincide with a big winter storm, than Byxbee Park is. That's an issue to be faced later though. 

In the end, all agree that this new event and course is way better than the other option, which was to not have an event in the area at all.

That's it - move along…

PS: If you've never done it, take the time to wander out on that boardwalk that extends from the Lucy Evans building. It's always accessible, even when the building is closed, and it's fun, in that special way of boardwalks! 

PPS: Over by what I labeled as "Parking 4," there's a boat dock! So yes - this event is accessible by boat! (I think this is officially called the Sail Dock - there's a pier that you use to walk down to the dock. People carry kayaks and such down there. Boating to a parkrun event has got to be pretty epic!)

Attending a Jeopardy! taping, take six

To help celebrate the 44th anniversary of our first date (of course that's a thing!), Mrs Notthat and I headed back down to Culver City (motto: "What is not LA") to attend a Jeopardy taping day. As we did last time, we signed up for the morning session, which covers three shows and lasts until about 2 PM, then once we were escorted back to the parking garage, we got back in line to see if there were seats available for the afternoon session (two shows) - and there was! (When you sign up for tickets, they really don't want you to sign up for both of a day's sessions.)

So we ended up seeing a week's worth of shows taped in one day. It's a long day - the actual show taping goes fast, but you spend a lot of time before and after the shows just waiting. (The morning session has bonus waiting since the players are getting to practice on the stage and the audience isn't allowed in until that's over.)

I don't know why I thought this would be a great shot - I was just killing time while waiting to be let into the studio.

The shows themselves went great, as usual. It's always remarkable to see how polished the team is that puts these shows on, and how quick and smart Ken is as he banters and drives everything. 

At the end of each session, before we're escorted back to the parking garage, they do a raffle drawing (actually, two drawings). Each audience member gets a raffle ticket with a number on it. We've attended six sessions and never really come close to getting drawn (there are maybe 100 or so people with tickets). During the morning session, after the second show, the couple behind us had to leave, so they gave their tickets to Mrs Notthat. She now had four tickets to play with.

And wouldn't you know it - one of the four tickets hit! The odd thing was that she wasn't sure whether it was one of her tickets or one that the couple had given her. 

The prize was a home edition of Jeopardy, but what people seemed to really want was the bag!

As we were leaving, a couple that had been behind us in the check in line mentioned how close they had come to winning - their tickets were the ones right after ours, so the winning ticket was one of our legitimate ones and not the bonus ones from the people left early. (BTW, I had no idea leaving early was an option - I really don't know how that would work since they won't let you just randomly wander around the buildings.)

That was pretty cool, other than Mrs Notthat having to carry that bag all the way back to the parking garage, get it through security, hang on to it through the second session (we did not take any tickets for the afternoon session), and answer many questions about where she got that bag!

Cooler though, was when the second ticket was drawn - it went to the woman sitting directly in front of her!

So here is a hack showing basically how the seating works (the number of seats is not correct, but is good enough for my purposes).

You should be able to tap/click to see this bigger. The yellow seats with D and A are where we sat. The ? was the person who won the second drawing.

As I've mentioned before, as a general audience member, where you sit is completely controlled by the audience security team. Generally, if you are on the left side, you won't end up on TV in that opening swoop shot, but you will be around families and friends of the contestants, and sometimes will get to see/talk with those that lose an early game. (You can also often see them between games in the gallery area behind all the seating - it's a little wild seeing someone who just lost, standing around talking to their family.) If you are near the center or on the right side, you will likely get TV time. 

We've been seated in a lot of different areas - it really just depends on how many guests there are and the whims of the security people. (I used to think they would take how you were dressed into account, but I no longer believe that.)

Imagine our surprise when we came back for the second session and ended up in the same seats we had for the first one! (Small odd note, the guy sitting next to us said he thought I looked like Phil Jackson, super successful coach of the Bulls and Lakers. Weirdly, I've heard that before, but he's 12 years older and eight inches taller, so I have trouble seeing that. Mrs Notthat found him a bit annoying since he was pretty chatty, especially about sports.)

It's uncanny. Even Mrs Notthat can't tell the difference.

And now comes the coolest/weirdest of all; when they did the raffle drawing for the afternoon session, the first number drawn went to the woman sitting in the seat in front of Mrs Notthat! Again! 

And that's about it. The shows we watched should air the week of October 20th, during which time Mrs Notthat will be visiting the UK, so we won't get to watch them until she gets back, which is OK (I may take a peek or two just to see if we are recognizable in the opening swoop shot though). 

Ken always says just before he leaves a session that you shouldn't let people know that you were at the taping of the episode that's currently airing, and you'll seem like a genius since you'll know most of the questions. The trouble is, by then there's no way I'll remember much at all from the taping - I'll maybe recognize some of the players and one or two questions, but mostly it'll be like watching them for the first time. 

October is the taping of a bunch of Celebrity Jeopardy episodes. Sadly, we won't be able to go down to see any of that, but it's a style we have yet to see live. It's funny how many poo-poo Celebrity Jeopardy since the questions are easier and the celebrities are often people you've never heard of, but I think it would be fun to see live. (As I type this, I only see tickets available for one CJ taping though.) Here is the link if you want to see the taping schedule and possibly head down yourself.

That's it - move along…