THE CONTAINER HOUSE 2002

CONTAINER HOUSE
was built in just 90 days by my father and I in the hot summer of 2002. Three 45 ft aluminum containers on the second floor provided approximately 1000 sf ft in a 2bd 2ba configuration along with a 400 sq ft deck facing the river on one side and a large commercial vineyard on the the other.


This provided plenty of room for the Spiderman Pinball Machine.


The 9.5 ft high containers allowed 8 ft 10 in high ceilings and big openings for oversized windows and oversized 3 panel commercial french doors.





Heating became a pressing issue with Jax joining us on November 5, 2002.





Alas, my dreams of using radiant heat from plastic tubing PEX strapped on the bottom of the container was abandoned soon after the inside temperature reached 40 degrees.





One major issue was how to seal the roof after the three top containers were bolted together. I decided on ordering an oversized vinyl tarp which covered the top in one solid membrane and protected glued down rigid insulating foam.








Had I the call to do this again, I would still use the tarp, but I would have planted a lawn and sprinkler on top to deaden the sound from the occasional heavy rain and provide cooling and better insulation.

GETTING MARRIED IN ITALY 1999

This was Helen's first trip to Europe. We had spent three months making arrangements through the Italian Consulate in San Francisco to get married in Italy and finally were successful on September 29, 1999 in the Sala Rossa of the Palazzo Vecchio in little town called Florence.

The Italian marriage vows deal with more practical things such as housing and child rearing rather the the death do us part stuff. Overall, it was a terrific experience as is being married to Helen and raising our little travel warriors. Today we live about 100 miles South of Florence in Assisi.

SPAIN - MOROCCO 2000

Spain represents the finest in the world's contemporary architecture IMHO. Those Spaniards just have the daring that the rest of the world just is too afraid to venture into. Antonio Gaudi is the genius that the fearful or ignorant or both irresistably mock. Seriously... Casa Mila or some sheet rock and stucco monstrosity?



Even the great architects from American have to go there ply their trade. Bilbao was the site of the new Guggenheim which is simply breathtaking. This was our first Frank Gehry other than his home in Santa Monica. Even the EMP in Seattle is a mere Target store compared to this.

Morocco in the pre 9/11 world revealed some truths to us even then. Rather than build a fresh water system, this culture would rather spend their time praying that someone else will provide it. Some women are kept in absolute ignorance thinking that the United States is just miles away and is fully inhabited by criminals as seen only in Walker Texas Ranger reruns.

CHINA - TIBET - EVEREST 2000

Mt. Everest
aka Qomolangma basecamp which Helen and I reached in November of 2000 half way through our China trip remains the all time highlight of our travels. Perhaps to some this is merely a freak geological formation. To me it is a living breathing creature which to date has killed over 190 climbers trying to conquer its summit. This picture is from our window at the Rhongpu guest house.

Recently, there has been an explosion of climbers causing it to become congested and ironically more dangerous as climbers must now wait for slower climbers to get out of the way. Last week there was a report of a climber who had summitted, but on his way down less than 1,000 feet from the summit, he hit a snag and was in trouble. At least 40 climbers walked past him on their way up, but none would give up their climb to rescue him.

This has made me rethink any desire to summit myself. I knew that if I tried, I would probably die. Climbing within a pack of climbers would be like a sled dog who view never changes. However, this recent event proves that I would be seeing nothing but assholes both literally and figuratively.

On our way out, we stopped by in Tingri for a cup of tea. As we chatted, an old man reached into his bag a pulled out some old fossils of sea creatures. Having shown him only enough interest to appear courteous, he disappointingly put them away. Then it hit me like a lightning bolt... these fossils took millions of years to rise from sea level to this altitude.

The Potala Palace is generally the place most people recognize when they think of Lhasa, Tibet. We ran in to many a Tibetan pilgrim eager to push us out of they way so that they could be first to crawl under a table which would somehow enrichen them. Somehow we felt that the religion of Buddhism as practiced by these pilgrims has somewhat lost its original meaning.

As of July 1, 2006 a train runs from Shanghai to Lhasa. I love train travel. When I took the Golmud to Lhasa 33 hour bus ride with Helen back in 2000, I had heard that the track building over the Himalayas was technically impossible.

The Silk Road was a journey I had wanted to take since the early 1980's. Back then the journey was by bus to Kashgar just a few miles from the Afghanistan border. I had heard from an Austrailian girl named Mandy that they had the best ice cream in Kashgar. That was a good enough reason for me to go there.

The Chinese kept insisting that we fly. We kept on insisting we take the trains. Taking a train through the Gobi where we sleded on giant dunes, meeting the Uighers and walking into the local markets was something the a tour (AMEX Tour to Kashgar $10,000 plus per person) was not going to permit.

EGYPT - GREECE - TURKEY MAR/APRIL 2001

Giza is only a few miles from Cairo and in the warm March of 2001 this traveler was walking with a cane and complaining of knee problems. The dry heat of Egypt was agreeable.
But we did not push our luck and did not descend to Luxor below the Middle Nile. Since then there is no more cane and a lot more travel.



From Cairo, we ventured North by train to Alexandria to the town Alexander The Great ordered built and named after himself but never saw. As it turns out, several months later, the same train caught fire and killed hundreds of passengers. The cause of the fire was reportedly the use by a passenger of a propane stove to boil water for tea.

From Alexandria, we had the pleasure of waiting all night at the airport for an Olympic Airline jet to take us to Athens. We got to witness first hand as the Egyptians physically threatened the poor station agent after the jet never arrived.

OUR MIGRATION TO ASSISI

So we settled in Assisi in March of 2004. Within days of arriving in Italy, we learned that Matteo would soon be joining us in the following October so we had lots of preparation to do. As our international health insurance would not cover a pregnancy within the first 12 months, we were pretty much resigned to having to foot the bill ourselves... What can you do?

Housing in Italy was first priority and we soon found the perfect place on Via San Benedetto. Apparently somebody built a tower about 800 years ago and then between then and now some else built another tower next to it. In the 1900s, the Cardelli family bought the towers and in the 1970's the top portion was expanded and modernised.

THAILAND - CAMBODIA February 2006

Thailand - Cambodia

in February 2006 was the perfect location to escape the cold weather in Assisi and meet up with grandpa George Yuen.

Besides, the fishing season was over back in San Francisco.

Originally, we had planned to travel with the Italian Explorers Francesca and Pippo, but at the last minute, Francesca developed a case of the shingles.

In Bangkok, we met up with an old friend Eva King. We had met up with Eva, her husband Alex and her son Raymond last year in Florence during one of their family vacations. Eva and I go way back to my post law school days in Beijing.

We flew into BKK at 6am and later that night Jax and I went to pick up grandpa. We waited 6 days down in Pattaya for some hope that Francesca and Pippo could join us. The kids loved the beach, the kites, the cocodrillo and I loved the quite family time. Luckily we switched hotels from the A-One to BJ's Holiday Lodge otherwise sibling number 3 may not be with us now.

The crossing to Cambodia at Poipet, Thailand was a rugged adventure for all of us, especially the boys. We met up with a character who was from Oakland who had been a customer at George's Restaurant back in the 70's and had a Grandfather who knew grandpa.

The 3.5 hour taxi ride to Siem Reap outside of Angkor Wat was reminiscent of the roads on our Everest trip back in 2000 before the babies. After exploring the Angkor complex on our 3 day passes, we retraced to Poipet and trained to BKK to take the overnight train to Chiangmai in the North to visit Elephants, Monkeys, Orchids and King Cobras.

SAN FRANCISCO May 2006

Jax's 1st Bass
was caught on this short trip back to the Bay Area to see the folks before number 3 joins us. I casted out, but Jax hooked it and reeled it in... honest.

A pilgrimage to the Jelly Belly Factory with Nikki was a must do.

A visit with Uncle Scot and meet his fiancee Ky-Van at the Cheesecake Factory in Palo Alto.

KFOG KABOOM ! fireworks on Uncle John's sail boat.



A Japanese dinner with cousins Kenley, Mary Bonita and Megan.

ALASKA CANADIAN HIGHWAY JUNE/JULY 2001

The ALCAN (Alaskan Canadian Highway) required a vehicle that could hold up to the harsh roads and be able to transport Helen's four pre-teen nephews, my dad, Helen, myself and still have room for Aunt Nancy, Mike Driscoll and all of our gear. The fuel stations were fairly distant and it was common thinking that we would lose a tire or two, and certainly a broken windshield on this 5 week trip.

The original plan was to buy a school bus, paint it up like a Zebra and outfit it like a safari vehicle. The bus was acquired through a bit of online research and was never a disappointment. Little did we know that the school bus would soon be incarnated into the Freedombus in the post 9/11 world.

On our way up, we hit and killed a delinquent dairy cow in St George, BC. This held us up a few days, but we were back on schedule in three days thanks to some locals who were quite handy. Another shocker was after I had pulled intona filling station, placed the green vinyl covered fuel pistol into the bus and started filling. Those tricky Canadians used the green vinyl cover for Premium instead of Diesel fuel. Luckily I caught the error half way full. The Canadian attendant said, "funny, that's the second time that has happened today."

All said, we made it up to Anchorage in time to meet Nancy and Mike. We stopped to see Mt. McKinley on our way through to the Arctic Circle to catch the summer soltice.

Next was the Salmon and Clam hunt down along the Kenai and our favorite Soldotna. Arick Chan's patience paid off with a few nice reds out of the Kenai River. Thank goodness for the ubiquitous Fred Meyer.