A quick preface/disclaimer/warning: I put this post together from a few of my journal entries. They were written in near real-time while I was experiencing the death of a man who I didn't know. He died near my family's lake house last weekend, where I've been spending this summer.

Saturday, 9 June 2018

Saturday started out like any other day. I woke up around 9:30A.M., took a shower, ate breakfast, and read in my hammock on the dock. After eating a late lunch I went back down to the dock to shave my head. When I got there I noticed a massive storm sitting over the lake to the north and west. It began thundering so I went back up to the house. My brother Price and I started planning his bachelor weekend.

The sky darkened with clouds as the storm made its way south. The wind picked up and was blowing off the lake, towards our house. There were whitecaps on the lake and our windows rattled with a few gusts of wind. Waves were breaking onto the dock. Lightning was flashing on the far side of the lake. It wasn't raining.

Price and I looked out the windows and noticed that two boats - a pontoon boat and a speedboat - were meeting a pair of kayakers out on the lake, maybe 100 yards off our dock. The pontoon boat floated between us and the kayaks, blocking our view of them. This was all far enough away that we couldn't see what was going on, so Price got our binoculars. I could see people on the boats, and the two kayaks were vertical and mostly underwater. The boats were floating north and neither seemed to have their engine turned on. But nobody was trying to get the kayaks. Or the paddles. There were lifejackets in the water. There wasn't anybody else on the lake. Something seemed off.

Price walked down to our dock when the boats floated out of eyesight (some of our trees block the view to the north, so we couldn't see anything after the boats floated past our neighbor's dock.) Melinda, our neighbor to the south, walked over to meet him. After a minute or two I heard sirens. As I walked down to the dock, Price was running up to the road to meet the firetruck.

When I got to the dock Melinda looked very concerned. She told me that she thought someone went under. That took me a second to process, but there wasn't any time to think on it because the two boats were driving towards our dock.

The speedboat arrived first, on the north side of our dock. On board was a woman, her brother, and three children. The man helped to keep the boat from slamming into the dock, as the wind and waves had not calmed down. I helped the three kids and the woman off the boat. I took down my hammock so it wasn't in the way.

The pontoon boat arrived next with two young couples and a woman on board. Price helped tie it up to the front of the dock. The woman got off first, crying and in shock. Another woman got off and looked at me with the widest eyes, a look that I won't soon forget.

The first woman was met by an EMT who walked her to an ambulance. She and her husband had fallen off their kayaks and into the water. Her husband drowned.

At this point the firefighters had arrived on our dock. One of them got in the speedboat to go back out to where the man drowned. An ambulance was parked in Melinda's driveway. Police officers arrived in plain clothes because they had all been enjoying the weekend and were not on duty.

Slowly more and more emergency personnel showed up. The Sheriff. His lieutenant and deputies. More firefighters. More officers. They took our statements. Price and I put folding chairs out for the two couples who were in the pontoon boat.

The two kayakers had been out on the lake for the day. They were on the far side of the lake when the storm began rolling in. They decided to make their way to the other side of the lake - where our house is, and near where they had put the kayaks in - which is almost a mile across. Neither had a life jacket on, and neither knew how to swim well. They were panicking and paddling hard.

They flagged down two boats when they were about 3/4s of the way across. A wave knocked him out of his kayak. He grabbed her kayak, flipping her out. The people in the pontoon boat threw all of their life jackets towards him. He wouldn't put one on. He was panicking. They got her onto the boat. When they went back to get him he was gone. This all happened in the moments before Price and I looked through binoculars to see the kayaks vertical in the water.

The emergency personnel cleared everyone off our dock. Sheriff Hancock asked Price and I if they could use our dock and our yard and we said of course. The dive team showed up and used the pontoon boat, which was a rental. Boats from the Department of Natural Resources were gridding the search area with sonar. Off-duty police officers who were on their personal fishing boats joined in the search.

A light rain began.

I walked up to the house to calm down and drink some water. I started writing. "They're currently still searching. It's 7:09 PM. He went under at probably 4:00P.M."

I met Mercedes. She was in the speedboat. I helped her and the three kids off when they got to our dock.

I met Zach, he went kayaking with him three weeks ago.

I met her cousin. She was thankful we let the family sit on our porch, which was out of eyesight of the local media who had arrived.

Police tape was strung across our yard and into Melinda's yard, on the side of our house facing the road. The Sheriff's Command Center RV was parked in our driveway. The dive team's pickup truck was parked in our yard by the dock.

The young couples that were on the pontoon boat were brought back to the marina where they rented it from to get their car. We've since only spoken to them via text message.

The dive team packed up after sunset, around 9P.M. They’ll be back at 6:30A.M. Price and I walked down to our dock, which was quiet except for the boats still gridding nearby. Two police officers were there. They told us at least one will be there all night. The rental pontoon boat was tied up to the end of our dock.

I didn't sleep well that night. I was mostly up thinking through too many what-if scenarios.

Sunday, 10 June 2018

Price and I went for a walk, maybe around 10A.M. When we were out we heard and then saw a helicopter flying up and down the shoreline of the lake and then back to the search area off our dock. It was the Georgia State Patrol, who were called in to assist in the search. We were out for about an hour. On our way back in we could see the enormity of the recovery effort. In addition to the Sheriff's Command Center, there were at least five other vehicles in our front yard and another five down by our dock. A fire truck was parked on the street. Across the street were at least ten vehicles. A few media vehicles were parked along the street. A tent was setup near the Command Center with food and drinks.

I met Jason, his brother. He arrived late at night and slept in his car in our driveway.

I hadn't fully processed the situation, so instead of sitting inside I walked over to Melinda's to talk to her and her husband, Eddy. I watched the helicopter flying directly overhead. I watched the boats on the water, the divers in the water, the people all over our dock and our yard. I met a county commissioner and some folks from the Sheriff's office who I talked with for a while.

A cadaver dog arrived and went out on a boat. I’m not sure how that works but I believe it's trained to bark if it smells a human. Since there were other boaters out on the lake the dog's senses were thrown off and it was barking quite a bit. The dog was biting at the water that went past the boat, which is something our family dog used to do.

I spent four or five hours on Eddy and Melinda's dock. The Sheriff came over to chat at one point. It was after 9P.M. when they called off the search for the day. Price and I went back up to the house, and to take our minds off things we watched a Tig Notaro standup on Netflix. I barely made it through without falling asleep. I slept like a rock that night.

Monday, 11 June 2018

On Monday morning around 8A.M. Price and I were sitting on the porch swing. The emergency personnel were just getting started for the day. The helicopter was circling the lake when the pilot spotted him floating. We watched the boats - two pontoon boats for the divers, a few DNR boats - all converge very quickly. Sheriff Hancock walked up towards us and, giving a thumbs-up, told us they'd found him. He walked Jason to a neighbor's dock where the wife and other family were waiting.

The helicopter landed in a nearby yard. The boats slowly made their way back towards our dock. Holding on to the front of one of the pontoon boats were two divers in the water. They were holding onto an orange bag. The coroner showed up and backed his truck to the steps that lead down to our dock. The divers carried him out of the water and onto our dock, then up to the coroner.

The divers packed and cleaned our dock. The coroner drove away. The Sheriff walked up and thanked us for the use of our yard and dock.

In no more than an hour the pickup trucks and the SUVs were gone. The Sheriff's Command Center RV was gone. The police tape was taken down. The family left. The boats drove away.

Price and I walked down to our dock for the first time since Saturday. We moved the fenders back to the side of the dock. I put my hammock back up and laid in it for a while.

The man was a body builder. He was around 6'5" 250lbs, all muscle. It took less than a minute for him to go under. There was nothing Price and I, or anyone else, could have done. The people on the two boats that met them did everything they could have.

If you're on the water, please have a life jacket available - one that is fitted to your body size. Learn to swim. Learn to tread water. Learn to float. Understand how quickly this could happen to even the strongest person.

Later in the week Price and I were in Florida to celebrate our niece's sixth birthday. We went out on a friend's boat with six kids and three other adults. It was our first time on the water since this whole experience. The kids all had life jackets on, and there were enough on the boat for the adults. I found myself double checking, even though I'd been out on this boat with these people before and it probably hadn't crossed my mind. Having grown up around boats and on the water, these things are second-nature to me. We had a lovely time.

The water will always be a part of my life. It makes me happy and calm. I feel most relaxed and peaceful when I'm swimming or sailing or on a beach. Last weekend I was reminded of the power of water.

Today is my last day at The New York Times. Working here for the last two years has been the most incredible experience of my career up to this point. I have learned so much, I have grown as a person and as an engineer, and I have worked with the best damn team that I could have asked for. I will miss you all greatly.

Tomorrow I get to start an adventure that I have wanted to go on for many years. I've waited for this, preparing financially and professionally for the day that I would feel comfortable leaving a steady income and jumping into a big unknown. I will be traveling for most of the year with few concrete plans, which is exciting and scary and I can't wait.

If you want to follow along I will be posting regular updates here and on my Instagram and YouTube accounts!

Day 10 of the trip was the last day we were in Japan. You can watch the video on my YouTube channel.

Our Airbnb hosts had a lovely breakfast prepared for us when we woke up.

James had to leave super early that morning, but Nicole, Paul, and I decided to go into Tokyo one last time to see the Imperial Palace and eat lunch. The palace was closed but we got to walk around the grounds.

We then got on the Narita Express train to take us to the airport. I said goodbye to Nicole (who I would see the next day because we're roommates) and Paul and headed to Terminal 2 for my flight back to NYC.

This is the final video of the Japan 2017 Series! Look forward to a lot more travel content to come later this summer, as I'm leaving my job this week to start a new adventure.

On day 9 of the trip we headed back near Tokyo for our last night in Japan. You can watch the video on my YouTube channel.

Our bullet train left Osaka Station at 1:43PM and we arrived in Tokyo around 5PM. We then headed to our Airbnb in Chiba, which is on the north side of Tokyo and closer to Narita Airport, which we'd all be going to the next day.

The house we stayed in was a lovely traditional Japanese home where a family of three lived. The mother and daughter were learning English together, and one of the ways they practiced was by giving guests a tour of their house.

We headed out to find dinner, but on a week night this far outside of Tokyo most places were closing early. We ended up in a mall that was eerily empty but had some snack food to try out. For dinner we of course chose the place that spoke zero english, and google translate wasn't much help. The meal ended up being really good though.

Afterwards we walked in the rain to an American bar which was run by a Japanese-speaking Persian man. At the bar we watched the movie Bartender starring Tom Cruise, and enjoyed our last night in Japan.

On day ten of the trip: we leave our Airbnb and head into Tokyo one last time, before making our way to the airport to fly home.

On day 8 we travelled to Osaka, where we ate the most delicious meal of the trip and also rode on a ferris wheel. You can watch the video on my YouTube channel.

We left at 11A.M. to head to Kyoto Station. Our Japan Rail train left at noon, and the trip to Osaka was about 30 minutes long.

After arriving we made our way to our Airbnb, then Nicole and I went out to get massages. We had to make appointments for later in the day, so we wandered around a pet store in the meantime.

We all then met at a restaurant for dinner. We chose a place that served okonomiyaki, which is a grilled pancake / omelette from heaven. The restaurant had a map where customers could pin where they were from.

After dinner we went to ride on a ferris wheel!

Brandi then left for Thailand, so we said goodbye to her and then went back to our Airbnb to do laundry.

On day nine of the trip: we take yet another train ride, and stay with a family for our final night in Japan..

During the second half of day seven we visited two shrines in Kyoto. You can watch the video on my YouTube channel.

Before getting to the shrines, Nicole and I went in search of an afternoon meal. Most restaurants close between 2 and 5P.M., so all we could find was a cafe that had some alright spaghetti.

The first shrine, Kiyomizu-dera, was under renovation so we could only see part of it.

All of the the buses were packed on account of it being tourist season, so we decided to take a taxi to the next shrine. That shrine, Fushimi-inari, is famous for having thousands of gates winding through trails in the woods. The cicada bugs were really loud here too.

Afterwards we tried to get into a fancy restaurant but it required reservations, so nicole and I split off to get tacos while Brandi, James, and Paul went to eat at a hotpot restaurant.

On day eight of the trip: we eat okonomiyaki in Osaka.

My team at The New York Times built the 2017 Holiday Gift Guide on the same platform that we build How To Guides. It took effort from product, design, editorial, and engineering, and you can read about how we did it on the Times Open blog. I wrote the fun section titled "API and Data Model Updates".

We began day seven of the trip eating street food at Nishiki Market in Kyoto. All of us tried some interesting food, and we wandered around the little shops in the market as well. You can watch the video on my YouTube channel.

Nicole tried a fried octopus ball and did not enjoy it. Paul was very adventurous and tried just about everything.

After we'd had our fill we all got ice cream or slushies then went back to our Airbnb to take naps around 2. When we woke up we were hungry for a full meal but unfortunately most restaurants close at 2 and open again at 5. Nicole and I went to find a cafe that might be open. We found a place that had some okay spaghetti which held us over for a while.

During the second half of the day we visited a couple of shrines.

On day six of the trip we hiked to a waterfall near mount fuji and then traveled to Kyoto. You can watch the video on my YouTube channel.

We woke up at 4:15A.M. to watch the sunrise, because we were told that it is the best time to see Mount Fuji before the clouds roll in.

After eating breakfast, we packed our bags and left them in the front office of our villa. We needed to store them for a few hours while we went on a hike to a local shrine and waterfall. The shrine was a 15 minute walk from our villa, and the waterfall was a 30 minute hike from there.

After cooling down at the waterfall, we decided to walk down the road that led back to where we started instead of taking the trail down. We also met a solo traveler from Luxembourg who hung out with us for a few hours.

When we got down to the road we were pretty hungry so we found a place to eat lunch. We were told to try the local Yoshida Udon Noodle which is only available in this area. It did not disappoint.

We then got caught in a downpour, so our villa was nice enough to send a van to pick us up and take us to the bus stop so we could make our way to Kyoto.

The 3:20P.M. bus ride was about 45 minutes long, and took us to Mishima station where we got on a bullet train. This bullet train ride would be our first on the trip. The train ride was a couple of hours long, and we got to Kyoto around 8P.M.

On day seven of the trip: we eat street food at an outdoor market in Kyoto.

On day five of our trip we leave Tokyo and travel to Mount Fuji! You can watch the video on my YouTube channel. It took us most of the day, and a few trains, to get there, but the views of the countryside were worth it.

To get out of Tokyo, we first took the local subway to Shinjuku station, where we got on a Japan Rail train at 1:30PM. This train took us about an hour outside of the city to Otsuki station.

Once we arrived at Otsuki station, we waited for our 3:15PM train towards Kawaguchiko station. This trip took about an hour as well, and we made many local stops while passing through smaller towns along the way.

At Kawaguchiko station, a van from our hotel was waiting to pick us up. When we got in the van, we were informed that we were being taken to a supermarket, and that we had 30 minutes to buy groceries for dinner and breakfast. Apparently, the few restaurants that were nearby closed early and opened late. The supermarket was a godsend because they had real peanut butter!

After we unpacked everything at our villa, we walked across the street to Lake Kawaguchiko. Typically the clouds part after sunset, unveiling Mount Fuji, so we waited by the lake and took in the scenery.

We got back to our villa after dark and made dinner. I believe it was some sort of burrito / stir-fry hybrid. We also found out that we'd accidentally bought alcohol-free beer. Oops.

After dinner we played cards, then went to the hot spring baths at our hotel. There were separate rooms for men and women, and we had to get naked and take a shower before getting in. Apparently the water was directly from the lake, and meant to have healing powers.

On day six of the trip: we hike to a waterfall, we leave Mount Fuji, and we ride on our first bullet train!

On the fourth day of the trip I met up with my cousin who was also in Japan, and we went to Tokyo Skytree. You can watch the video on my YouTube channel.

Day four was our last full day in Tokyo. We took it easy since the next morning we were leaving for Mt Fuji. My cousin Lauren and I met up and spent part of the day together. She wanted to check out Shibuya Crossing so we went back there. We then got lost trying to find the sushi restaurant the rest of the group was at, but eventually made it.

We spent the afternoon wandering around the Imperial Palace (which was closed) and running into a popup Oktoberfest, before heading to the Tokyo SkyTree Tower to get a birds eye view of the city at night. Tokyo SkyTree was pretty neat, and showed how huge a city Tokyo is. I'd be interested to check that view out during the day.

After saying goodbye to Lauren, I headed back to the house. Unfortunately I didn't get any video, but we then went to a local bar for a couple of hours. We had a very fun conversation with the bartender and another guy there, using their bit of english, James' bit of Japanese, and a lot of assistance from Google Translate. It was a great evening.

On day five of the trip, we leave Tokyo and make our way to Mt. Fuji!

On our third day in Tokyo we attend the Shinjuku Eisa Matsuri Festival, walk around the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, walk through Shibuya Crossing, and see the Sumida River Fireworks. You can watch the video on my YouTube channel.

I woke up around 8AM today, so I got a lot of sleep. I was still laying in bed at 9:15AM, and everyone else is pretty tired as well. We have two festivals to go to today so we are taking it easy this morning. We left around noon to go towards the Shinjuku festival. We hung around there for an hour or so watching the drum and dance performances. It was possibly the hottest day of the trip, and incredibly humid, so we only lasted so long in the crowds.

To cool off we headed to the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. I bought a lemonade for 350 yen and we got in for 200 yen. We walked around for an hour or so, before heading to Shibuya Crossing, one of the busiest intersections in the world. We stopped in the Starbucks that has a view of the crossing from above so we could take some video. There's a timelapse in the video I linked at the beginning of this post.

In the afternoon some rain set in so we went to find some food. I didn't realize how long it'd been since I'd last eaten so I was getting a little out of it and rather hangry. We found a nice place though and the noodles and shrimp hit the spot.

Newly energized, we walked to the Sumida River Fireworks Festival. Sort of. We walked down a street next to the park the fireworks were at because there were so many people. There was zero standing room, and the police were making sure nobody stood in the street so we had to keep walking. It also was raining on us. When we left we had to walk past one subway station because there was a mob of people trying to get into it.

We went to Ropongi Hills for dinner. Turns out it's a really expensive area so we went to a German place. I got a beer and pesto German noodles with smoked salmon. We headed home around 11PM.

On day four of the trip I meet up with my cousin and we check out Tokyo SkyTree.

On the second day of the trip we explored Akihabara, Tokyo, The Miraikan Science Museum, and Rainbow Bridge. You can watch the video on my YouTube channel.

We left around 10AM to make our way towards Akihabara. Our first stop was a giant 6 story arcade. It was loud, smelled like cigarettes (smoking is still allowed indoors in Japan), and dark because there weren't any windows. We walked through all of the floors, and some of the group tried out a game or two.

After wandering around some more we ended up at a Maid Cafe. It wasn't lunch time yet so I had a waffle with ice cream. They didn't allow filming so we couldn't get video or pictures. I didn't quite understand the Maid Cafe thing, but James and Paul went back later in the trip and had more authentic experience. Our next stop was the Don Quixote, a multi-story Walmart-type store that has tiny aisles and anything you could need.

We'd had our fix of the area, so we took a driverless monorail over a bridge and to The Miraikan Science Museum. On our way over we saw people dressed up in Mario character costumes driving go-karts down the street. At the museum we saw a demo of Asimo, Honda's robot that can walk, kick a ball, and hop on one leg, among other things.

When we left the museum we saw that we were near a BMW driving experience course so we stopped to watch people drive cars around cones. It seemed rather lame, or the drivers were timid. From there we walked to a mall to sit inside and relax because it was really hot and humid outside.

After spending an hour or two at the mall we regrouped and made our way to Rainbow Bridge. When we got there it wasn't lit up, and an internet search told us that it only lights up during a certain time of year. We did, however, sit on the beach and enjoy a nice view of the Tokyo skyline and a lot of really colorful boats out on the water.

At this point it was way past dinner time so we went to a ramen place then made our way home. I picked up some bananas at the supermarket across the street from our house, dumped my camera card onto my computer, and went to sleep.

On day three of the trip we attend a couple of festivals.

On the first full day of the trip, James, Brandi, and I explored Ueno, Tokyo while waiting for Nicole and Paul to arrive. You can watch the video on my YouTube channel.

After waking up at 5AM local time and being unable to fall back asleep, I put on my eye mask and laid in bed for a couple of hours. After we all decided that sleep wasn't going to happen, we left our Airbnb around 9AM to head to the Ueno Zoo. The train/subway ride was 30-45 minutes.

The Ueno Zoo is in a massive park with a museum, a few shrines, some statues, and the biggest standalone Starbucks I've ever seen. We primarily went to the zoo to waste time while waiting on Nicole and Paul to arrive later in the day, but we were also there to see the giant panda. Along with the panda we saw a polar bear, tiger, elephants, birds, and gorillas.

After the zoo we wandered around the area for a bit, stopping by a shrine. We then made our way to get lunch at Cocoichiban, a chain curry restaurant. I ordered the vegetarian curry with spinach and eggplant, and a scrambled egg. Spicy level 2.

From there we walked to a nearby lotus pond that was at least 5 acres in size if not larger. It had a floating dock which we could walk out onto that was surrounded by lotuses. We spent some time there, still waiting on Nicole and Paul to land, then headed to see Tokyo Dome City. On our way there we stopped by another shrine.

Tokyo Dome City was FULL of k-pop fans. I think there was a signing or something to get ready for upcoming concerts, but people were lined up for autographs or pictures in what looked like at least a two hour line. After spending an hour or so people watching, we walked to Tokyo Station to meet Paul and Nicole!

We walked around some fountains near the Imperial Palace, then headed back to our Airbnb to drop bags off. After hanging out for a bit we set out looking for dinner. I was getting really tired at this point but was also hungry. It was probably 6PM or 7PM.

It took us probably 30 minutes to find somewhere to eat. We passed another shrine that we walked through, then landed at a local spot where they spoke zero English. We used the Google Translate app to sorta read the menu but that didn't work. Luckily the waiter knew salmon, tuna, octopus, and sashimi so we ordered those roles and a sashimi plate.

I was fighting off falling asleep at this point, but we made it back to the apt. I dumped the footage from that day onto my computer and then fell asleep immediately.

On day two of the trip we explore Akihabara and Rainbow Bridge.