The Bay Area can get very boring very quickly for non-outdoorsy people. San Francisco is fun but small, and the South Bay is basically a big suburb. I wanted to explore the area but it was hard to find routes that are actually worth the drive. I decided to come up with day trip routes around the Bay Area that can be a good excuse to leave the house and do things with friends other than hiking in the woods.

Day Trips is a result of an attempt to build routes that are good enough by creating a collage of non-touristic and sometimes unknown attractions that would not catch interest otherwise. As a non-outdoorsy resident of the Bay Area, I am happy to share the full and growing list of Day Trips together with the quote below.

i don't like cities that attract a lot of "outdoorsy" types. if the city is good enough, you shouldn't want to go hiking every weekend.

— Sam Adler-Bell (@SamAdlerBell) February 3, 2021

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My dad’s little family library had Jack London novels but I never had any interest in spending time on London fiction. However, in my last trip to Turkey, I was catching up with a high school friend who happened to ask very detailed questions about Oakland and mentioned that he would love to visit one day to see where Jack London lived. It turns out that he is a big London fan. As soon as we finished our drinks, he took me to the nearest bookstore and bought me a little present, a Jack London novel: Martin Eden. I finally got to read it a couple of years ago and decided to make Jack London an excuse to travel around with my friends.

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It’s been quite some time since I came across the Greene Street project online. NYU’s Development Research Institute did a study to understand the historic development of a block in Manhattan. This particular block had witnessed wealthy residents, sex workers, artists, and many more over the past 400 years. Here is a short video summarizing the study and a link to more information.

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Russian Colonization route is inspired by the book that I received as a birthday gift, History of the World Map by Map. I was excited to read Russian Empire’s attempt to found colonies in California in the 19th century. I got curious to find out whether there were remains of Russian settlements nearby that I can visit. I was lucky to find out that Fort Ross had been waiting for me!

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It might just be my IndieWeb filter bubble talking, but I think there is a renewed interest in personal websites. A lot of big social media giants are falling out of favor, and it becomes cool again to own a space on the web rather than being one of a billion usernames.

A cool article on recipe parsing.

Roughly 75% of websites users choose to import are easy to parse, but for the remaining 25% a more advanced technique is required.

Last year I read the book Walkable City by Jeff Speck and I finally found some time to write about it. Walkable City is a great book for those who are frustrated by the lack of walk-friendly cities in the states.

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Every day fans and followers reach out to learn about the websites/blogs/podcasts I follow to stay up to date with the tech & business world. So if you are ready to do some reading about reading, here you go:

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This website is just amazing!

Noparkinghere.com was created by Josh Vredevoogd to help communicate how LA’s parking policy impacts the climate, housing, and transportation challenges facing the area.

The SmartSlab Table signals the arrival of intelligent materials in furniture design and architecture, unlocking a wide range of potential applications – in this instance, a table that can warm plates, cool a drink, and even cook a meal.