Elaine said:  elaine.fleming@mac.com: was pure happiness, not smart ass or evil

Day 1 – River to Gold Rock Ranch:

Day 2 – Gold Rock Ranch, across the Dunes, to Pine School:

Day 3 – Pine School to the El Centro pool, to Westside School:

Day 4 – Westside School, through Plaster City, to Vallecito Camp Ground:

Day 5 – Vallecito, up Banner Grade, to Julian and Spencer Valley School:

Day 6 – Spencer Valley School, through Black Canyon, to San Pasqual School:

Day 7 – San Pasqual, to yummy breakfast, to the coast!

Here is a link to all of my pictures on Flickr. 

15% sand

Gusty winds

Sand everywhere

200 people

1 bathroom

Mythical sleep

Get up

Ride 54

If you are interested in seeing the source files and playing with the maps yourself, download the free Google Earth here, then grab all the .kmz files.

Here’s an overview of the whole ride. Each color is a different day:

Here are the individual days:

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

Day 4:

Day 5:

Day 6:

Day 7:

This is a little better:

Here’s our model:

I’ll try to blog on the trip, but I don’t know about Internet connectivity in the cacti.

Me, Erin, 75 ten year olds… I know how to spend a week off, baby!

Well, it wasn’t sand, it was the window right behind my head slowly shattering (can something slowly shatter?) and the sand sound was the safety glass cracking. Something had flown up from the road and tagged the window HARD!

More glass carnage at this link.

Oh yeah, when we finally got to Big Jim’s BBQ, it was CLOSED ON MONDAYS!

Some days it doesn’t pay to get out of bed…

Congrats Eggo and Renia!

I’ve added a blog for Aidan at aidan.declan.net

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7
Yes, I know how to delete pictures, but I just can’t! I’ve been hanging out with librarians too long to destroy cultural value!

Nathan woke up at some point and became a photo model.  And dog toy:

Ok, there’s “liking” dogs:

and “LIKING” dogs:

“What?!?  This is how he hugs!”

Never do something like this when I have a camera and a blog. 

I can’t stop!

So, Blogosphere?  Is it wrong for a man to… 

Mark’s gonna kick my butt.  Thankfully, we only see each other every 15 years, so I can take Tai Kwan Do or something by then.

We went to take in some of the sights of Philly.  First stop at South Street:

Why don’t they heat the East Coast?  We needed to stop for strength:

MMMMmmmmm!

Gotta love a samwich with neon stuff in it.  Actually, it was great.  We learned that Cheez Wiz is the proper cheese to get on a Philly Cheese Steak.  We went with the provalone.

Apparently Mark is funny, because I think Nathan is laughing.  I’m sure it is at me.

He’s trying hard NOT too, but Mark’s just too darn funny when he’s making fun of me.  Too bad I don’t have incriminating pictures of him with dogs.

Here I think forward in time to when I will blog about my buddy Mark:

Actually, I’m just enthralled by the selection of crepes.

This is Ben Franklin’s house:

Ok, it MIGHT be.  It looks old and stuff.  ACTUALLY finding Ben’s house might have been work.  Ben DID live in Philly, right?

Guy on a horse:

This was at the Rocky I – IV memorial building.  Up there on the steps is where the Rocky statues isn’t anymore.

WK buddy Jacob Beach met us for lunch at Penn Station.  Dig the tie!

The plan for the day was to train down to Philly to meet up with my old college buddy Mark Fischer.  After riding the rails, then the light rails, Mark picked us up at Norristown:

ALL the chicks wanted this dude.  Yeah, him.  Wait til you see what he does with dogs…

Mark’s son Lucas and wife Lisa (you figure out which is which):

Which led to the inevitable knife fight:

I won but I STILL had to pay.

Our hotel was right across the street from the Natural History Museum, so that’s where we headed next.

This is the Milky Way.  Or something:

This is the lung from a dinosaur who smoked to much.  They all did, hence the extinction:

There were many dioramas.  Diorami?  Shadowboxes.

This specimen wall was really neat:

I’m proud of this picture.  The room was very dark, simulating being under water.  Which was cool until they removed all the air and everyone suffocated.  Not really.  I had to dink with the exposure settings and make the camera really still on a bannister to make this work.  My 10 yr old could do it with a tripod.

We weren’t sure why there were exhibits from the movie Aliens, but hey, that’s part of Nature too:

Here’s a picture where I did NOT master the art of keeping the camera still.

This is here to make you even more impressed that I got the whale shot above.  Impressed?  So is Nathan!

GAMERA!!!!!

Highlight of the trip for me!

Ok, this one takes some explaining:

When Nathan was little, he was fascinated with dinosaurs, and would often challenge me to a dinosaur fight.  To be a dinosaur, you had to make claws with your fingers.  Since everyone knows that the Alasaurous has three claws, and the Tyrannousaurus has two, one of us would have to have three fingers out, while the other had two if we were to have a proper battle… HEY!  You’re not completely captivated by what I think is a GREAT story!?!  Neither was Nathan.  Or Elaine.  Pfft.  Since I take all the pictures, I get to say what’s interesting.  Buncha…. (Declan wanders off muttering to himself.  Does that a lot lately.)

Meanwhile, Nathan goes back on vacation:

We got a good view of the Lady:

Got some nice shots of the city as well:

When we got off the ferry, we passed through Battery Park:

Nathan wants one of these:

We then walked up toward Ground Zero, passing this sculpture that was pulled from the wreckage:

Then we wandered north. I was cold and bought a cool NYC toque:

Stylin’!

We will miss the weather that allows little or no coat-age.

We got to Denver then La Guardia, arriving around 11p. Goodness, it was cold. My ears nearly froze off. My west coast blood couldn’t handle the 18F temp, and I got reacquainted with Wind Chill. Thankfully, I still had my Triple Fat Goose winter coat from my midwest days!

Since it was so late, we’d set up a hotel in Queens, by the airport. There was a Caribbean place down the street and we had some shrimp and plantains, then hit the sack.

Next morning, we took a car into the city. I played with my camera on the way in:

We were too early to check in to the Hotel Excelsior (great place to stay in the Upper West Side), so we checked the bags, got the concierge working in finding us Spamalot tickets, and went for a walk. We were right next to Central Park, so we walked next to it and crossed in near the south side:

Nathan found a huge pike of cocaine to help defray the cost of the trip:

What’s a topiary?

Next, we kept travelling south on Central Park West. This made me wish I’d watched The Late Show in the last ten years:

Showed Nathan Times Square. It’s even cooler at night.

Next, we hit The Empire State Building:

I told all these people to move so I could get a better picture. They just honked at me. Lots of honking in NYC. They must ban hand guns out there.
I took a kazillion picture from the top.

Some day I’ve got to read that book that came with the camera:

He’s smiling on the INside. Actually, his face had frozen.

Ah, here he is, doubled over in hilarity:

Neat shadows on the boy:

After this we walked north, passing by the Ghostbusters building:

Imagine how cool this picture would be if I had a tripod:

Ah, HERE’s Times Square at night:

Deep down, he’s impressed. Really.

Already saw these 2 great posts:

A New Years Gift from the Cohn Restaurant Group

The four Cohn Group Restaurants are offering 3 course meals at a mere $20.06 per person. I’m so there!
You have a choice of:
Prado at Balboa Park – (619)557-9441
Mister Tiki Mai Tai Lounge/Gaslamp – (619)233-1183
Dakota Grill & Spirits/Gaslamp – (619)234-5554
Kemo Sabe/Hillcrest – (619)220-6802

You can go to one or you can visit all four!
To view the special menus visit http://www.cohnrestaurants.com/cohn/cohnrestaurants/20.06MenuSpecial.php

Restaurant Week

If there is a restaurant out there that you have been desperate to go to but lacked the funds or the timing was just off, in only 2 weeks time you will have your opportunity to try it out. The second annual San Diego Restaurant Week kicks off on the 15th and will sadly end on the 20th. Participating restaurants have a special three course menu for $30 per person. There are more than 125 participating restaurants. For a complete list, visit www.sandiegorestaurantweek.com.

Here’s Matt with Gabe, who is in his birthday shirt (thankfully NOT birthday suit!):

He’s my tacky date:

I thought she was kinda hot…

Matt and Megan made tacky food too! But it was classy. Pig-in-the-blanket made with hoity toity sausages, peanut butter and banana sandwiches made with caramelized bananas, tater tots, and Spam and cheese on toast. Not sure how that was classy, but it was!

We all played 90s Trivial Pursuit. As usual, Amanda was kicking everybody’s butt, but they had to leave to deal with babysitting issues, so they automatically lost!

It was a fun night. We got yelled at by some neighbors for being too loud. At 11 PM. On New Year’s Eve. Communists.

Here’s Nathan at the steering wheel:

Nathan did a great job driving, clocking 15 – 20 hours on the trip. I’m sure he felt very fortunate to have Mom telling him what to do from the passenger seat, and Dad screaming “SLOW DOWN!!!” from the back back. Erin was in the back offering color commentary.

At some point I was told to “Zip It and Go with the Flow,” so I spent a lot of time playing CivIV and trying hard not to look out the windshield. Not an easy task for a control freak. Also, the French and English teamed up and beat me up in Civ, so I was pretty grumpy.

We stopped off in Santa Barbara to check out UCSB:

I wanted to see an neat interactive map display I’d heard about at the Library, but it wasn’t up yet. Good excuse for another road trip.

We stopped for 2 nights at Solvang, a town I’d heard about as a great biking location and the setting for the movie “Sideways.”

Here Nathan and Erin show their interest in seeing the sights (or ever getting out of a hotel room before noon):

Man, kids these days. In my day, we went out and played in the fresh air. When it wasn’t snowing, or raining, or tornadoing. On those days we played video games on proper consoles, not these tiny, dim, hand held contraptions. Well, I DID have a Merlin…

Ok, here’s the obligatory Solvang “ain’t we all Dutch and stuff” set of pictures:

Jeez! Even away from the hotel room, they gotta be pushing buttons!

More pictures from the first leg of the trip here.

On Friday, we zoomed up the coast and just made it to our 3p tour reservation for Hearst Castle. I had always wanted to see the place, AND we got a new camera for Christmas, so I was very excited to get up there and take some neat pictures:

Well, there ya go! Nice pictures, eh? NO!!! SOMEone SAID she had the camera when she had to sprint in to make sure the tour bus didn’t leave as Nathan parked. Well, SOMEone ELSE was sure he heard her say she had it. Or he was just delirious from a 3 day diet of Doritos and envisioning his fiery death on an interstate.

Here’s a link to flickr’s “hearstcastle” tag. There are 2224 pictures there. I’m sure mine would have been better. Sniff.

The mansion is wonderful! I highly recommend checking it out.

Nathan was tired from driving, and it was getting dark and foggy, so I took over the drive to San Francisco. One thing we learned on this trip is that Highway 1 is GORGEOUS during the day when there is light and it is not dark. And foggy. And wet. Sigh… It was a stressful drive, but we made it and hit the sack at the Wharf Hyatt.

The next morning we all hopped out of bed and got moving to see the sights and take advantage of as much daylight as possible!

YEAH RIGHT! For some reason, these people thought they were on vacation or something. The boy sleeps as well as he drives:

And the mom and girl are pretty good at it too:

Well, at some point, we got out to see the sights:

Erin had her first cable car ride:

I think she liked it:

Nathan really needs a haircut:

Oh, wait, that’s not him. Here he is:

We finally relented and let him get a sword. Hey, if you can drive a car, you should be allowed to hack off people’s heads, right?

He was overwhelmed by the choices:

He finally settled on a $15 Kill Bill knockoff. Now lets see if his mom ever lets him take it off the wall.

Erin also enjoyed shopping in Chinatown:

More pictures from Christmas Eve in San Francisco here.

Christmas in a Hotel!

Nathan refuses to be totally awake, but he’ll at least sit up for presents:

Erin loves manga:

Elaine gets a tiny present:

Then we headed out for the traditional Christmas meal of Dim Sum:

And got some cloudy picture from the top of the parking structure. See how happy Nathan is to be awake!

More pictures from Christmas day.

Day 3 in San Francisco

Since we’d been in SF for 3 days, and we were staying at the Wharf, we thought we should actually go look at it. This is a crappy picture, but it’s proof we were there, right?

Here we enjoy a view of the sea lions at Pier 39. I think Nathan’s yawning…

Ah, now’s he’s more awake!

Is he smiling? We’re not sure… Erin is tho!

Nathan and I always love going to see the Bushman in SF. He’s the guy on the bottom left, hiding behind a few branches waiting for people not to notice him. Then he goes “BOO!” We can watch him for hours. Here’s a picture of him with a victim:

Mom and Nathan watch the fun:

More pictures from Day 3.

We got home late on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Joe and Lorah Gross came to visit. Joe and I took a killer bike ride up some of our San Diego mountains:

Nope, that’s not Joe, but he looks a lot LIKE Joe, kinda. If I’d have been thinking, I’d have asked for a picture actually WITH Joe, but I was too tired from climbing that mountain to think. The lady with us is Grace. Oh, and the fake Joe is Jack, a buddy of Joe’s who has actually ridden the Furnace 508, which I hear is a way that bikers can add even more pain to the whole experience.

Joe took some neat pictures of us actually moving:

That’s the next cover of Bicycling Mag!!!

More pictures from this ride here.

Heh, I’m gonna get in trouble for THIS one!!!

December in San Diego (you can tell cuz I’m wearing a windbreaker… )

This morning, 12/15, at 7:27am, Leah gave birth to our daughter, Kara Rose
Notarus. Mother and daughter are doing fine, and Kara is remarkably
calm for someone directly related to Mark.

Kara was 21″ long, and 6lbs 14oz.

Yesterday was a fun day. Leah’s water broke early in the day, so mild
that we’re not even sure when. She had a regularly scheduled
appointment at 5:30pm, where they said “You’re going to the
hospital!”. We leisurely packed everything we own into the CRV, and
headed in, arriving at the hospital around 7pm. We had a comparitively
easy night, with mild contractions until about 5 in the morning, when
they introduced some pitocin. Active labor started about 6:30.

Mark and Leah

This guy is at EVERY party!

A proud mommy:

Careful, Erin’s eyeing your presents!!!

More pictures.

53.5 miles later and we were back at Robertos and SORE!

Here’s a Google Earth .kmz of the ride.

I know I’m a big guy, but should a seat bolt fail like that?

Now I’ve got one more part to add to the kitchen sink in my Camelbak…

Here are some views out the hotel window:

Got a nice sunset here:

The North Saskatchewan River runs right through town:

The conference was interesting, Edmonton wasn’t really. Maybe I wasn’t there in a good season, but I don’t see any good reason to go back.

Here’s a Google Earth .kmz file for the Escondido North ride this weekend.

Escondido North Ride

biking, San Diego

Here’s her official website.

Congrats Lemsons!!!

http://www.pioneer-eur.com/eur/product_detail.jsp?product_id=10148&taxonomy_id=25-38

The DEH-P7400MP is not specifically listed as compatible with the CD-IB100, and there are some limitations. Individual song navigation is almost impossible – you have to scroll down from the top of the list. If I want a specific song, I unplug it from the car, select it using the iPod’s interface, then replug it in. Play starts right back where I left it. This works well for long, recorded radio shows.