Chris Brooks

Van Camping with Rory

2026-03-08T12:49:35-04:00

We took advantage of perfect Napa Valley weather and a new-to-us local campground to steal Rory away for an overnight camping trip.

Rory and Julie snacking

Friend Karen was in town and joined us, using my backpacking gear and our almost vintage Big Agnes tent for her lodging. After picking Rory up from daycare we drove about 25 miles up valley to Bothe-Napa Valley State Park.

The young man is relentless about telling anyone around him where he wants to be: outside! This park didn’t disappoint, though the large patches of poison oak made us wary of letting him wander too much. Lots of ball play in the small parking area near the restrooms. A little bit of zoomie bike riding on the road.

When Rory woke up in the van (middle of the night, morning), seeing how close he was to the surrounding forest he would simply exclaim “outside!”.

Our hiking crew

On Saturday morning we gathered ourselves for a short hike along Richey Creek. He enjoyed the hiking just fine, but all he really wanted to do was hang out by the creek and throw rocks in. Or just gather rocks in a menagerie in preparation for throwing them in.

Bale Grist Mill

After packing up we drove a mile towards Napa and stopped at the Bale Grist Mill, well worth the visit to see a mill operating and producing flour. I’ll be making some bread with purchased souvenir flour today.

Teaching Computer Science in this New World

2026-03-03T13:21:06-05:00

And by “New World” I mean the inflection point that happened at the end of 2025 with Claude Code and Opus. I haven’t been this excited and concerned since the dawn of the web in the early 1990s.

The Big Question as a CS instructor is this: how do I best prepare our students for the future workforce?

Actually the question is broader now as I’m leading an internal AI committee at WOU for our three main programs (computer science, information systems, and data analytics: how do webest prepare out students?

Here’s a dump of big impacts and open questions for our program:

Ignoring AI (and specifically agentic programming) would be a huge mistake. So when do we introduce it? None of us agree that it should be in our intro classes (commonly referred to as “CS 1” though for us it is CS 161/162) but… when? For now we are settling on the junior sequence where we go deeper into web development and test driven development. I do think there’s a place for AI in the early classes though: mainly as a tutor and supplement to traditional instruction.
How do you keep curriculum current? CS has a special burden of upkeep on curriculum, especially for a vocationally focused program like ours. We care what industry is doing right now. Significant annual updates are normal, but now I question if that’s high enough frequency. What I would say today about agent assisted program would be very different than what I would have said back in October 2025.
All of our programs have a team-oriented capstone projects where students work in agile teams using Scrum (1-week or 2-week sprints) to build a solution. For CS students it is a two-term project; for our IS and DATA students it is a one-term project. This lifecycle model is getting turned on its head in our new world: when coding is essentially “free”, the bottleneck becomes quality specification and prioritization. While this still aligns with the core of agile, it requires us to reconsider our overall approach. I did two presentations on this for our students: Part 1 and Part 2.
Speaking of our senior CS capstone, we are going to run an experiment early next term and do an “all-in AI assisted sprint” to help students gain more experience and give them a chance to experience first-hand the new challenges and potentially big payoffs of this approach.
The big question on our students’ minds: are there going to be jobs for junior (aka “early in career” or EiC) developers and IT professionals. We are working closely with our industry advisory board on this and preparing some hopefully helpful guidance for the graduating seniors. Friend and former colleague Scott Hanselman just co-authored a paper at the ACM on this topic: “Redefining the Software Engineering Profession for AI”. I’m bullish here but still think the hiring market will be challenging for a while.

100 Days to Offload

2026-02-26T14:24:03-05:00

I’ve wanted to (1) get back in the habit of writing more often here and (2) re-introduce tags to the blog. 20+ years of content is a lot and my trip summaries aren’t enough for me to navigate my own mess.

I’m joining in the 100 Days to Offload Challenge, thanks to The Autodidacts for showing me the way. Why not join me?

As of the time I’m writing this, you’ll see a nav item at the top called “Tags”. Why not see what I’ve written about #photography? Or #productivity?

My 2026 Theme -- More of the Same

2026-01-14T10:54:51-05:00

It is time for a new yearly theme! Note: I don’t buy the journals, but Myke and CPG Grey popularized the idea of creating yearly themes.

What is a yearly theme? Here’s a summary:

Instead of setting resolutions at the start of the year, you set an overall idea of how you would like to approach each year or season. This then becomes a guide for your personal and/or professional life throughout that period.

This is my seventh yearly theme. Looking back over the past six:

2025: The Year of Strength
2024: The Year of Language
2023: The Year of Mornings
2022: The Year of Daily Better
2021: The Year of Accountable Improvement
2020: The Year of Less

2025 Theme Retrospective

Unlike 2024, 2025 was a smashing success. I don’t love FitBod’s year-end report because it counts any workout I do as part of the aggregate number. I really don’t want to mix in my 1 mile walks to and from the gym in the total count. Still, I know that with very few exceptions (such as when I was backpacking in Patagonia or spending two weeks in Scotland) I did 3 strength training workouts every week. All guided by FitBod, using whatever equipment (or non-equipment) available to me. The bulk of these workouts were at random Planet Fitness locations across the country and our home outdoor gym at Keuka Lake. Three key contributors to this success:

FitBod giving me a workout I can do with the constraints in front of me. This eliminates a key resistance point (and excuse): what exercises should I do?
Julie as my accountability partner: I’m her Planet Fitness Black Card guest, and usually if she goes to the gym I go as well. In Napa this usually means walking the mile to the gym and back from our house, an added benefit as we have a nice warmup and time to chat about the coming day.
My pushup group as accountability partner: about a year ago my consuegro suggested we also report in on our workout status to our pushup accountability group chat. So in January I started sending updates like this: “90/150, workout 1/3”. This created a high level of motivation to finish that count. Sometimes (like Thanksgiving week) this meant doing workouts on Friday and Saturday to complete the trifecta.

2026 Theme

As I engaged with Claude Code via my Obsidian repository (so Claude has access to my journal entries, prior themes, etc.) it became clear that (1) accountability was the #1 factor in success, and (2) all of my themes to date were a simple manifestation of my growth mindset. This is good! Whatever it is that I’m doing, or interested in doing, I want to do well and find ways to improve.

Claude suggested “Year of Deliberate Practice”, and as I reflected on past themes I realized this was functionally identical to “Year of Accountable Improvement”. So, I landed at “More of the Same”. Honestly this might be my last yearly theme - I might just declare this my life theme.

Tactically I’ve decided to continue my deep focus on golf improvement by engaging more consistently with my coach. Claude added a reminder to Things for me to check in every two weeks with new video. My other area of focus right now is guitar, and after some searching online I found a teacher that is working very well one month in.

Can Claude Code play Italy '43?

2025-12-27T10:56:01-05:00

There’s an interesting thread over on BoardGameGeek where folks are discussing use of AI in wargaming, with some focus on spatial state.

Italy ‘43 map with some Python output

GenAI has become very good at helping with games rules interpretation. I lean on NotebookLM for this purpose, dumping PDF rules and playbooks and asking away. NotebookLM hallucinates less and does a better job of updating the model it uses if I keep the notebook around for a time. Custom GPTs that you create are bound to whatever model you create it with and won’t get upgraded (that’s true as of December 2025). NotebookLM hides the Gemini model being used but will switch between models and, presumably, upgrade when the platform gets improved.

This exercise for me wasn’t about rules interpretation: I wanted to see if Claude Code could be a reasonable Italy ‘43 opponent for me by examining the map state and being fed the rules and playbook. I dumped all the content into a directory and launched Claude Code. By “all the content” I mean the rules, Vassal module, and a campaign setup save file.

I also pointed Claude towards a useful Python library, pywargame, which can read Vassal files and extract potential interesting information about game state, such as where all the pieces are.

The Vassal module is just a zip file, so I extracted that so that Claude would have access to all the content: charts, a high resolution map, and the individual counters.

Sample Claude Code interaction

I was encouraged at the start of my interaction with Claude, seeing the self-confidence that is common with GenAI: “I believe I can make reasonable decisions.” I grew concerned though when I saw this strategic analysis on what the Germans should do:

German Strategic Priorities I Would Consider:

Immediate: Counterattack to contain/compress the beachhead before Allies consolidate

Short-term: Delay Allied advance on Naples using terrain

Mid-term: Establish defensive line using mountains and rivers

Long-term: Trade space for time while reinforcements arrive

This is likely a case of the LLM using its textual knowledge of the Italy campaign, but not the actual game state. Problems with this list of priorities include: the Germans are in no position to counterattack at the start of the game, and Naples is already in Allied hands.

By including access to pywargame my hope was that Claude Code would be able to build some tools to make it easier to analyze the game situation and make decisions. The tools it wrote were handy! I had to teach it how to correlate the actual map hex designations with the internal hex grid identifiers, but that was easy.

On turn 1 there’s an initial phase where the Germans can flip a use artillery to “ready” state, and start to build their first fortification. The advice given by Simonitch to beginners is to start these fort builds up on the Gustav Line. This is a likely retreat holding area for the Germans, and the forts cannot be flipped to their completed side until 8 different forts have been started. Given that the Germans can start one per turn, you won’t see a completed fort until turn 9 at the earliest.

Claude tried to start a fort right next to the current Allied line at the bottom of the map. I give it some constructive feedback:

> I think you should reconsider your fort location (remember this going forward): look at “Play Notes”, “Where to Build Fortifications” for some tips. Forts can’t be completed until 8 have been started, so building them too close to the Allied front is likely a big mistake.

⏺ You’re absolutely right - that’s an important lesson. If forts can’t be completed until 8 are started, placing one at 2725 right next to the Allied beachhead would just be wasted effort since the Allies would likely push through before it’s ever finished.

I then had to teach it where the Gustav Line is:

> The Gustav line follows the Garigliano River on the west part of the map, heading diagonally up towards Alfedena and hex 3600. Here are some other hexes just north of the line: 1908, 2308, 2404, 2902. I suggest you start building the first fortification in hex 2504, Monte Cassino.

⏺ Monte Cassino - of course! Historically one of the most famous defensive positions of the entire war. That makes perfect sense. German Initial Phase Orders - Turn 1 (Revised)

Flip ASU to Ready:

Spend 1 Supply Point to flip the 14Pz Corps ASU (hex 2620) to Ready

Start Fortification:

Start fortification at hex 2504 (Monte Cassino)

Next up was to see if Claude Code could make some good initial moves for the Germans. Claude proposed a bunch of… illegal and unwise moves. Illegal because it had moves going through enemy zones of control (ZOCs) and even ZOC bonds. Unwise because the German player needs to be playing a measured retreat, consolidating lines and trying to impede the Allied advance by finding good terrain to hold while waiting for reinforcements. I tried to coach it a bit more:

> Review Turn1-situation.png. This will show you that there are British and American troops in many of the locations you plan to move to, and ZOCs are blocked. Example: there are two british units in 2526, facing off HG-I&II-Pz (armor). You should be able to see this in the inventory from the save file.

⏺ You’re right, I apologize. Let me look at the image and re-examine the save file data more carefully.

⏺ Now I can see the situation much better. Let me re-examine the positions:

Allied positions I can see:

2225: BR 23rd Armoured (3 units)

2526: BR 7A units (2 units) - directly facing HG-I&II-Pz at 2525 (and so on…)

My mistake: The HG armor at 2525 is already in ZOC of British units at 2526. Moving them would open a gap and they’d have to pay ZOC costs.

Let me reconsider. Units already in contact should probably stay in place to maintain the containment line. I should only move units that have freedom to maneuver.

It then proceeded to make a few moves that were more reasonable in the middle of the front line, but then a series of moves at the eastern flank that were illegal and again ignored the presence of Allied troops there.

At this point I aborted. At this stage it is asking too much for a general purpose LLM to track game state like this at such a fine grain. I would probably see better results having it write code for a move generator using the Vassal files and pywargame.

36 Holes at the Renovated Poppy Ridge

2025-12-18T12:27:30-05:00

I did an overnight trip to nearby Livermore CA to play back-to-back rounds on the recently renovated Poppy Ridge.

Coming down 18 at sunset

Jacob and I were familiar with the course: we both played in 2022 (when it was three distinct 9s) and Jacob played shortly after the re-opening earlier this year (but also right after top dressing).

The course is… incredible. Definitely in my top 10 public courses in the country.

Jacob tees off on back 9

Jacob and I played on Sunday, teeing off at 12:20 and barely making it before darkness at 5:10. We were the last two on the 18th green. This is my main complaint: the course is always busy and play seems to always be on the slow side.

The front nine is very welcoming, with a vast fairway on the opening par 5 giving you some comforting cushion as you start your round. The par 5 7th is the main challenge on this nine: a narrow par 5 with a barranca running the right side and a side slope with some trees and deep rough on the left.

One of the many spectacular views in the back 9

The back 9 ramps it up in terms of scenery and challenge. Nearly every hole offers some strategic options, some of them we found accidentally. Jacob only played with me on Saturday, and I met up with a new friend (via The Fried Egg) on Monday. In both rounds I pulled my 7 iron left on the intimidating par 3 14th; and in both cases my ball found the collecting bowl above and left of the green, draining it down to the lower tier of the green and leaving 20’ birdie putts.

Hole 16 will require more play to figure out: unleash and allow yourself to fall down into the green-side hole short and left of this turtle back green? Or layup short and right on the upper plateau, allowing for a fuller wedge approach with some spin to keep the ball on the green (and allowing for a slightly miss hit short shot).

The holes keep replaying in my head, a sure sign of quality and replayability. Hoping to return in February or March when the days are a bit longer again.

Roger Ebert Top Movies of 2025 Composite

2025-12-11T14:19:48-05:00

The Roger Ebert collection of critics just published their individual top 10 movies of the year. This is good discovery material for Julie and me, so I figured I’d make a composite of their list.

The Top 10 Movies Composite

Rank	Film	Score	Lists
1	One Battle After Another	268.0	35
2	Sinners	173.5	26
3	It Was Just an Accident	147.5	23
4	Sorry, Baby	114.0	21
5	The Secret Agent	87.5	16
6	Train Dreams	86.5	16
7	Sentimental Value	70.0	14
8	If I Had Legs I’d Kick You	66.5	12
9	Frankenstein	62.5	10
10	My Undesirable Friends	57.0	9

Methodology

Ranked lists: #1 = 10 pts, #2 = 9 pts, … #10 = 1 pt
Unranked lists: Each film receives 5.5 pts (average of 1-10)
Ties: Points split equally among tied films

The Top 10

1. One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson) – Black comedy action thriller. Named best film of 2025 by the site’s official list. Anderson’s highest-grossing film.

2. Sinners (Ryan Coogler) – Vampire film set in 1932 Mississippi Delta starring Michael B. Jordan.

3. It Was Just an Accident (Jafar Panahi) – Palme d’Or winner. Thriller from the Iranian master filmmaker.

4. Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor) – Black comedy-drama marking Victor’s directorial debut. Starring Victor and Naomi Watts.

5. The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendonça Filho) – Neo-noir political thriller set during Brazil’s military dictatorship. Wagner Moura won Best Actor at Cannes.

6. Train Dreams (Clint Bentley) – Adaptation of Denis Johnson’s novella. Stars Joel Edgerton. Released on Netflix.

7. Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier) – Won Grand Prix at Cannes. Stars Renate Reinsve and Stellan Skarsgård.

8. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (Mary Bronstein) – Rose Byrne won Silver Bear at Berlin. A24 release.

9. Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro) – Gothic adaptation starring Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi. Netflix release.

10. My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow (Julia Loktev) – 5+ hour documentary on Russian independent journalists. 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Desert Adventures for Thanksgiving

2025-12-08T14:04:49-05:00

Julie and I spent about a week away from Napa for Thanksgiving, with our destination Las Vegas and family time. We did things a bit differently this time around.

Scrambling in Red Rock

The primary purpose was still to see Julie’s mom and stepdad, but a few months ago I noticed camping openings at Red Rock National Conservation Area. With the campground only 15 minutes from the house I booked camping Monday-Friday.

This solved a key challenge when we visit their housing development: we can’t park our van at the house overnight. The campground is meager but with a key benefit: very close to some of our favorite hiking spots. Two of the mornings we drove into the loop before 8am (after that you have to have timed entry permits) and scrambled amongst the beautiful red rocks.

Golfing at Furnace Creek

With nice weather and the passes through the Sierras open, we decided to take an extra day on the return and pass through Death Valley. This time we didn’t hike at all: we golfed at Furnace Creek! We only played the front nine but it was a delight: robust coyotes, beautiful wetlands and ponds with birdlife, and a fun and challenging course.

We dispersed camped in Panamint Valley on BLM land, doing a trail run up into the foothills during the crisp cool morning. After driving by Father Crowley’s Canyon we dropped down to Owens Lake where Julie and I both noticed that the causeway roads into the heart of the mostly dry lakebed are open to the public.

Gulls in Owens Lake

We diverted without much map and GPS support and wandered our way west and north through the lake, which is largely a series of pools and wetlands. Saw some new-to-me birds in the wandering from Panamint to Owens Lake: loggerhead shrike, least sandpiper, mountain bluebird, and western grebe.

Viewpoint along the Eastern Sierras

From there we wandered north across familiar territory: Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, Bishop, Mono Lake. The day was cool and glorious, with snow in the mountains but not enough to impede our journey back to the other side. We overnighted south of Lake Tahoe in more BLM land, returning through the foggy and rainy Sacramento Valley on Sunday after Thanksgiving.

Wargaming: Holland '44 and Battalion Combat Series

2025-11-23T14:50:28-05:00

Being settled in Napa, and finally having a good workstation with a wide monitor, I’ve resumed regular online wargaming via Vassal with friends Allen and Doug.

Holland ‘44 turn 5 near Arnhem

Doug and I are playing one of my all-time favorites: Holland ‘44. I played on a big map with fellow WARMAGES almost exactly two years ago. It is somewhat scripted in the openings: Allies do their airborne landings (British 1st, American 82nd and 101st) and try to secure key bridges and crossroads, while running XXX Corps up Hell’s Highway. Germans scramble to stop all this nonsense. I don’t mind this at all in a wargame as it makes it easy to get into, even for beginner gamers.

The game is part of a series of wargames by Mark Simonitch (often called the 4x series) that use a set of base rules and then layer on tweaks specific to the battle at hand. I use “series” loosely here as I think even the designer doesn’t refer to it as such. Maybe they are more of a family of games. The next games I’m going to talk about are a true series, having a core set of series rules that govern 90% or more of all the rules in the various instantiations in the various battle-specific games. I’ve got three 4x games in my want-to-play queue, sitting on my shelf: Stalingrad ‘42, Salerno ‘43, and Italy ‘43.

Various BCS games in Vassal

Allen and I are playing the Battalion Combat Series (BCS), a true series from The Gamers and MMP. This is my third (and fourth as you’ll see) run at a game in this series and I’m committed to playing enough to get it. Allen’s in about the same boat. We’ve enlisted our experienced friend John to join our live sessions (Vassal and Discord) and coach us.

I think the big challenge with BCS is that the combat mechanisms are just so different from the wargaming norms. They aren’t complicated, but the bifurcation between assault capable units (generally infantry) and armor units and how they fight demands a lot of the player. In a good way! Dean Essig (and his successor Carl Fung) put a lot of thought into how to represent combined arms more realistically than other games at a similar scale (see Holland ‘44 above). Armor isn’t just infantry that can go a lot faster on roads.

Oh, and there’s a bunch of stuff in the game regarding command and control of formations that I won’t get into. This “bunch of stuff” is brilliant and lends itself to fun gameplay as well, as players generally alternate between activating different formations. Contrast this with Holland ‘44 where the Allied player does all their moves, resolves their battles, and then the German player does all their stuff.

BCS Valley of Tears

We agreed to play a Valley of Tears scenario for our first go. Valley of Tears was a surprising entry in the BCS family, covering the Yom Kippur war in 1973. A lot of arms and armor that aren’t too far removed from WWII, but certainly a different era. You know: jet fighters, wire guided anti-tank missiles, surface-to-air missiles, and so on. This means the game specific rules introduce a lot of changes from the series rules, such as a mini game conducted each turn to resolve air supremacy and allocate resources between the Sinai and Golan fronts.

So for two guys wanting to get into the BCS system and presumably use our learning of the series rules to play any game in the series, Valley of Tears probably wasn’t the best idea. Example: a key part of combined arms strategy and series rules in BCS is the use of divisional support armor as a resource for assaulting infantry. Imagine an infantry battalion (maybe 3-5 companies of ~100 soldiers each) trying to take a town, with a host of armor allocated by division HQ to support the attack. It might not be the entire tank battalion, as it is potentially divided across a few objectives the division is driving towards. This is support in BCS, and part of staging an effective regular attack is to use it. Also, part of staging a good attack is distracting the enemy’s support armor with your own armor ahead of time (called dropping support) to help out your assaulting unit.

In Valley of Tears, the Israelis don’t use support. Ever. This is part of the design, and accounts for the armor-forward doctrine of the IDF at the time. So for the Israeli player, a big chunk of the rules related to combined arms just gets pushed to the side.

Allen and I made enough mistakes during our first two turns of the short Golan scenario we were playing that we decided to abort and pivot to a different BCS game.

BCS Arracourt

That game would be the Arracourt with the full campaign. Arracourt is designed to be a more approachable BCS game, and was in fact the first one where I pushed around cardboard learning the system. It has almost no game-specific rules, and the entire campaign is played on a single 22” x 34” map. We are just now starting turn 3 (of 13) and having a blast. Still learning how to make things work (and manage formation fatigue!) but this has been a much better experience for us than Valley of Tears.

The Vintage at Brambles

2025-10-28T15:38:33-04:00

I joined about 40 other golfers way up Napa valley to play in a vintage club golf tournament at the newest private golf club on the block, Brambles.

Foggy morning start at Brambles

Jacob and I both joined the lottery for this Fried Egg Golf event, and were denied in the first round. I first sent Jacob a text about Brambles back in the summer of 2022 after reading this article on Golf.com. This might have been the start of Jacob joining me in Fried Egg and golf architecture obsession; I remember us both listening to this podcast about the creation of the course.

So even though we both struck out, there were some drops because of overlapping membership (more on that in a bit) and folks backing out. About halfway through our drive out west Jacob and I each got an email from Will Knights (community manager at Fried Egg) offering us spots. Jacob had a trip to India scheduled that was just too close to the event, but I was free and in town by then so I eagerly signed up after some clarifications from Will. I was worried about my handicap being too high for the event, imagining that it would be primarily scratch golfers. He put my fears at ease.

The format of the event was Ryder Cup style with four clubs competing: Fried Egg, Brambles, The Lido, and The Tree Farm. Each of the three “real” golf clubs are essentially national clubs where members are not likely to be residents of the local area. Turns out some of those members are members of their club (maybe more than one), plus Fried Egg, and had signed up representing more than one team. This is at least one factor that created the extra openings.

Evening practice round

Will gathered all the Fried Egg team on WhatsApp, and a few of us coordinated a practice round on Wednesday at Brambles. The afternoon was magical: I met up with Kevin and Jonathan just after 2pm, and we had the bonus of member James joining us for 18. It was almost like having a caddy with us as he guided us through the loop. We dubbed him our “inside man”.

The golf course played fast on the fairways and, while it could never be called a true links course, it is about as close as you can get without being near the sea. The terrain reminded me of Wild Horse in Nebraska.

Hitting into one of the amazing green sites

The matches were a blast and Fried Egg took the trophy. I earned 2.5 points for the team (with partners for 2 of the 3 matches) out of a possible 3, but honestly the competition was a bit of a sideshow. The course and the fellowship were what made the event special. I made some new friends and new golfing contacts for my wanderings. Fried Egg did a wonderful job organizing and supporting the event and I’m going to look for more opportunities to join in the future.

Birthday Weekend in Monterey

2025-10-22T10:19:24-04:00

After arriving in Napa we regrouped for a long weekend in Monterey to celebrate Jacob’s birthday.

Sunset evening landscape in Monterey

Golf was of course on the docket, with Jacob and I getting to play the recently renovated Pasatiempo, a bucket list Alister MacKenzie course for many folks.

Jacob playing up the fairway at Pasatiempo

We drove separately from the rest of the family to the Santa Cruz area for an afternoon round, about a 90 minute drive from Napa. After a breakfast bagel we arrived at the understated but still posh clubhouse. We took the shuttle to the driving range which runs parallel to the first hole but plays back up the hill towards the tee.

I commented to Jacob that this is probably the closest I’ll get to playing Augusta. The back nine was jaw dropping as it wound around the key terrain feature, a barranca that intersects or runs along just about every hole. The greens had been recently aerated and looked perfect but ran slow.

Exploring the touch tanks at Monterey Aquarium

Saturday was birthday and a day of family fun. We hit the aquarium when it opened, wandered cannery row, and had some tasty fish and seafood for lunch. Our rental house was right near where Monterey Peninsula CC and Spanish Bay meet, and less than a quarter mile from the ocean.

Beach walk

The wind blew up big time on Saturday and we felt it on our beach walk. Lots of tourists driving by as they began their 17 mile road adventure.

Jacob at Spanish Bay

On Sunday we played the Links at Spanish Bay, considered the lesser of the Pebble Beach properties. Our expectations were low after Pasatiempo but the course exceeded our expectations. Next spring they begin a major renovation so it will only get better.

In addition to the beautiful vistas we found a wide range of holes including some layup shorties, reachable par 5s (Jacob had an easy two putt birdie on the first hole), and fantastic green complexes.

Revisiting Bandon Dunes

2025-10-14T14:27:52-04:00

I incorporated a short stopover at Bandon Dunes as we completed our nearly 4 week journey from Keuka Lake to Napa.

Julie at Bandon Preserve

Without requiring a resort stay and with some course flexibility, it wasn’t hard to get tee times. October is still heavy season at the resort (and the prices reflect that) but I was able to get a Sunday afternoon time on Bandon Dunes and a Monday morning time on Sheep Ranch. About a week prior to our visit I added on a Sunday morning play at Bandon Preserve with Julie, our second time playing those 13 holes together.

Julie was much more comfortable playing the Preserve than her last adventure there, and her play was much better. The weather was perfect, the greens rolled true, and we were never rushed by players behind us.

Ocean landscape on Bandon Dunes

That afternoon I played Bandon Dunes, the original Bandon golf course that I hadn’t played since 2007. I think Bandon gets a bit lost in the shuffle with all the newness at the resort, but this course is still so good. The only downside was recently aerated greens creating some bumpiness. I played with two men from Corvallis that made for nice company. The wind was blowing pretty hard but the sun was shining.

The dramatic tee shot at Sheep Ranch

The next morning I returned to Sheep Ranch, the newest 18 hole course. I last played Sheep Ranch on our Thanksgiving outing about 2 years ago. I was paired up with a family: a mother, daughter, and son. Daughter just finished her collegiate golfing career at Tulsa, and son is a scratch player or close to it. Enjoyed seeing them compete and play nearly error-free rounds. Mine was not error-free, but still so much fun.

Pacific Coast Wanderings

2025-10-07T18:16:59-04:00

After leaving Olympic National Park we slowly made our way south, exploring the wild and winding Washington coast towards Astoria.

Golfing with Julie at Peninsula

We spent two nights near Aberdeen, one at a very hospitable winery and the other at an RV park. It is unusual to see an RV park on Harvest Host but it seems like a reasonable way to use unsold inventory. They got 10 bucks and change from us for showers and a grey water dump.

I golfed at the very mediocre Highland Golf Course, the first I’ve ever seen that has permanent preferred lies in the fairway. They likely have no budget for effective grass growing and trimming other than on the greens. Still a nice walk.

A special tree on Long Beach

Next we moved to the end of the Washington coastline on Long Beach peninsula. We’ve been here many times over the years; in the early 2000s Cape Disappointment State Park was a regular camping spot for our family. We stayed at the Peninsula Golf Course, a short walk from the beach. They also have a nice restaurant.

We spent four nights in Portland, two in northeast where I was reunited with friends and boardgames. Honestly it was too short; we usually spend at least a week. Allen and I wanted to play golf but got rained out, and with more buffer we could have rescheduled. We prioritized the national parks and golf (hehe I prioritized the golf) so we pre-loaded our preferences. Maybe we’ll take the short flight back up sometime this winter.

The Florence dunes

After an tasty Saturday breakfast in McMinnville with my division chair at WOU we turned south and west and drove to the Oregon coast. We stopped in Florence just past the south jetty to hike up to the top of the massive dunes and look over the area we took the boys to back in the 2000s. Back then we took a ride on a giant dune buggy and did some lake fishing for trout.

A stroll on Bullards Beach

Our destination was Bandon and the Bullards Beach State Park, familiar territory for us. I spent 90 minutes or so practicing golf at the resort, including playing 7 or 8 holes of the recently renamed Charlotte’s short course situated in the practice area. The beach walk before dinner was magical: low tide, a lonesome California gull, agate rocks, and partial sand dollars.

Olympic National Park

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After an overnight in the fairgrounds in Port Townshend, we drove across the peninsula to park at the Ozette Triangle trailhead. This would be the start of an overnight easy backpacking trip along the Pacific coast.

Starting our backpacking adventure

A park ranger was in the parking lot when we arrived. I thought he might be monitoring the trailhead, but he was waiting for a helicopter to come and haul out the waste from the latrines. We didn’t see the copter come in there but we would later in the day as they serviced the coastal sites.

Hiking trail through the coastal forest

The hike in was an easy, flat wooded trail with plenty of boardwalks and steps to avoid the muddy marsh spots. Pacific wrens sung to us as we worked our way to the coast, with barking sea lions taking over as we crested the final slope to the ocean.

Trail bunny

Hiding along the path we saw a little rabbit which Apple and Seek both identified as a snowshoe hare, but I’m unconvinced: more likely a juvenile eastern cottontail rabbit.

Our camp at Cape Alava

Our camp was just above the beach and on arrival the tide was going out. Merlin was picking up black oystercatcher calls so we quickly setup and wandered the beach. This area is rugged, with deep squishy kelp beds on the beach with 100s of thousands of flies swarming (millions?). I was surprised with the flat shore water, broken by the nearby barrier islands. The bulk of the sea lions were out at one of the islands, but a sole big male was perched on a nearby rock and continued to call out. I did spot the black oystercatchers, along with lots of cormorants (pelagic and double crested) and gulls.

Sunset from our campground

Sunset was beautiful and the winds were calm. We slept well. It was nice to do a quick trip to checkout our gear (mainly Julie - she hadn’t been for a few years). This is bear country so we used our bear canister to store all the food and smellable stuff, stashing it 100 yards away or so from camp overnight.

The hiking the next morning was slow going along the coast. This area is best done at low tide and we departed about an hour before the low point. The rocks were big, chunky, and slippery at times, plus there was plenty of tree fall blocking the easy paths.

Petroglyphs along the beach trail

We purposely went slow at Wedding Rock to seek out known petroglyphs near the forest line. We found several, some very different than anything we’ve seen before. Apparently they aren’t that old - maybe 300-500 years, so much more recent than anything we see in Cedar Mesa.

After three miles along the coast, we turned back to complete the equilateral triangle and head back to the parking lot.

We backtracked up to Clallam Bay then cruised down 101 to the Hoh River area to find a camping spot at the Hoh Rain Forest area of Olympic National Park.

Bull elk in Hoh Rain Forest camp

This was a great camp, crowded as all of the national parks have been, with a mix of easy short hikes and starting points for deeper backcountry exploration of the Olympic mountains (including summiting Olympus). On our first walkabout through the campground we (and about 50 other campers) encountered a giant bull elk with quite the harem feeding along the road.

Resting along the Hoh River

Our hiking adventure was a jaunt up the Hoh river trail, an easy walk through the rainforest. Our turnaround point offered a nice opportunity to relax in the rocks along the river.

A Drive Through North Cascades National Park

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A plan to backpack in North Cascades followed by another overnight to explore some short hikes fell to the wayside as we encountered significant smoke and very poor air quality.

Camped near Lake Roosevelt

The night before we changed our plans from camping at a Spokane area golf course to get closer to North Cascades. I found a spot on Roosevelt Lake near Grand Coulee. The weather was perfect and it was nice to have the time and space to get our backpacking gear in order.

Laser show at Grand Coulee Dam

This also meant we could see the Grand Coulee Dam! And the nightly laser light show! An impressive engineering feat. Not as visually dramatic as the Hoover Dam but still massive.

Hazy vista in North Cascades

The next morning as we drove to the Easy Pass trailhead we grew very concerned about the air quality. The further west we got and the higher we climbed, the worse everything looked. Neither of us were interested in a 3,000 climb to what would likely be no payoff view because of the haze. So we did a dry by and enjoyed some beautiful overlook views.

Our ferry to the peninsula

I scrambled to see if we could modify our ferry destination and get over to the Olympic Peninsula two days earlier than planned. And, swap in a new backpacking trip in cleaner air. I could so we did, taking the ferry from Coupeville to Port Townsend. There we found a camping spot at the fairgrounds. Thanks to Mod Pizza we didn’t have to cook on what seemed like an endless day of driving.