UpTake Launches Public Beta

One of my side projects is working with a new travel search website called UpTake, which is coming out in public beta today. There are plenty of travel content websites out there, but UpTake has an important differentiator. It enables…

Quiet Hotel Rooms

I am generally a pretty light sleeper, although since I’ve been a dad I often simply pass out from exhaustion when I’m traveling. When I stay in hotels, I am often frustrated by the poor soundproofing of hotel rooms. I…

NYT on San Francisco Vegetarian Restaurants

A couple of weeks ago, the NYT ran a lengthy article on vegetarian restaurants in San Francisco, spotlighting Greens, Millennium, Herbivore, Cha-Ya and Cafe Gratitude. I’ve never tried Cha-Ya, so I’ll have to check it out. Of the others, Herbivore…

Mendocino Anniversary Trip: MacCallum House, Cafe Beaujolais, Mendocino Cafe, Living Light Cafe and More

Lisa and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary in Mendocino, my favorite tourist destination of all time. Great scenery, great food, lots to do. This time, we stayed at the MacCallum House right in town, which turned out to be…

Mineral Restaurant, Murphys, California

Over the years, we have found vegetarian restaurants in some wacky/unexpected places, but Mineral Restaurant ranks up there as one of our most surprising discoveries. Mineral Restaurant is a high end vegetarian restaurant designed to compete with other five-star Northern…

Wunderlich County Park

I have three main criteria for a great local hiking park: interesting enough to warrant multiple visits, reasonably quick to drive to, and no entry/parking fee. A number of parks along the 280 meet these criteria, but three stand out…

Israel Trip Recap

A recap of all of my Israel trip-related posts: * Israel Tourist Destinations * Israel Trip Reflections * Israel Hotel reviews * Frommer’s Israel book review * Haifa University Search Engine Conference Recap

Israel Trip Reflections

It’s a little late, but I made a list of contemporaneous observations during my Israel trip 6 months ago. In no particular order: * In Israel, places have been built, torn down, and rebuilt, in many cases over the course…

Climbing Everest…in Shorts?!

People do so many stupid stunts nowadays (and usually throw the video up on YouTube for everyone to see) that it takes a lot for a stunt to be impressive, but this one floored me. Wim Hof, a Dutch mountaineer,…

Frommer’s Israel

My decision to join Epinions was motivated significantly by ideology. Simply put, I was sold that it was better to make decisions predicated on the collective wisdom of multiple trusted contributors than on the guidance of any single product reviewer….