Fall Trip to Nevada & Arizona

Photos Slideshow

Photos

Had a few days to spend with the family in Vegas, highlight of the trip was taking a helicopter to the Grand Canyon, the Skywalk was eerie and exciting. Baylee wanted to go to the Titanic exhibit at the Tropicana, It was interesting to see actual items that was recently brought up from the sunken Titanic. The next exhibit was a little gross, we went to see the Bodies exhibit at the Luxor, amazing to see how complicated the body is.

Link to Slideshow in Picasa Photos

Via Arte at the Market Place

Took Baylee & Megan to the Market Place today to see Via Arte, the Talent was amazing.

The Girls had a blast.

Amtrak Century 2008

Great ride last month, My Brother and his friends completed the 2008 Amtrak Century, it was a blast, 100 miles of Southern California coastline. Cycled by 2 Pro surfing events, I did the ride in 5:30 min My Brother did it in 5:15. Hope to be there next year.

San Jose - Santa Cruz

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The girls wanted to check out the beach, I went to San Jose and experienced the one in only Computer Museum. This is were most of the Tech giants started (Silicon Valley), also went to the World head quarters of Apple computer, the campus was over 4-6 blocks , very clean.
It was very easy to punch in addresses in the GPS and get to places fast, it was like you had a friend or relative that lived in the area and could get you around fast and efficient.

Rogue River, Del Norte

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Made it to the mighty Rogue, wildlife abounds along its path. Took a Boat ride up the Rogue, Very exciting. specially when the boat does 360s on the way up and down. Ask Baylee… Stayed with the giants, the Redwood Giants in there National park. It was amazing to see how large this beautiful forest shows itself. Stayed on the Beach in Santa Cruz, the waves were crashing all night long, made you sleepy but aware.

Burney Falls, CA -Humbug, OR

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Tahoe was great, crisp and sunny and the town was empty, after a few days we headed North to a more remote area, Lassen Volcanic Park, located a 100 miles north of Tahoe, on the way to Lassen we stopped in Susanville to take Baylee to a Medi-center, while in Tahoe she was going through the forest and climbed on a tree, we figured she received a spider bite or multiple bites, she had a allergic reaction and her arm swelled up and she had trouble moving it, we thought it would be practical to check with professionals before we were hundreds of miles from any proficient help, they gave her some meds and she was okay after three days, we finally made it to Burney Falls, about 30 miles north of the Lassen Volcanic Park, it was amazing to see all the water seeping through the volcanic rock, The falls were remarkable, the next day we went to Lassen Volcano, the paved road went up to nearly 9000 ft., Beth & Baylee stayed at Base camp, I went to the top, it was very unique to deal with snow in June. After a 3 days we made it up to Oregon, we stayed at 2 remarkable state parks, Capo Blanco,& Humbug, the state parks are usually the most protected and prime land to stay at. Off to the mighty Rogue River today. Looking, to catch some fish

Trip to Tahoe

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Trip to Mammoth/Tahoe
Photo slideshow

Off to the north, looking forward to cooler weather. We took the 395 route on the eastside of the Sierra Nevada, boy was that a treat, the section close to Mt Whitney reminded me the Grand Tetons. The only challenge we had was the wind that picked up before we reached Bishop about 30-35 mph, this was not fun with a long trailer, and could of been dangerous. We started looking for a place to stay close to Mammoth area, My Dad recommended Twin lakes, but we missed the turn out, so we decided to keep moving and after the long steep climb, the Truck did very well, 35 mph and never heated up.
We arrived at June Lake around evening , and there was only a small amount of space to park a trailer, we keep moving around the Loop and to our surprise came up on a giant Bear, very healthy looking , walking across the road, he looked at us like why are you bothering me when I’m trying to find food. The next corner we arrived at a Lake called Silver lake, Baylee said they call this lake Silver because how the Snow on the mountains reflect off the water, I think she was right, It was a very beautiful lake, around 7-8 thousand feet above sea level.
The next day we rolled over to South Lake Tahoe, Found a nice campground and went biking and walking. When I reflect over the last few days, I think of how much the trip is costing due to the rising fuel cost, one place we passed the Reg. unleaded was 5.09, wow and Ouch, But when I think of being outdoors with the family and experience the most beautiful places on earth it is well worth the extra 700-900 expense, also the good news is that most of the parks are empty.
My navigation on this trip is somewhat easier than previous trips I borrowed a GPS street pilot from my dad, boy I’m hooked on this device, this instrument is truly amazing, it will tell you exactly where you at any time, but the feature I enjoyed the most is when hit the button to find gas stations it will show you list of all the stations in that area, just hit the GoTo button and it will instruct you how to get there. I will get one of these in the future; this is a must, no more going in circles when trying to find something, especially when you have a trailer behind you.

2nd Largest city in North America

Okay, that's enough, 3 trips to Los Angeles in three weeks, this should be my fix for a couple of years. It was still exciting to to be with the family and enjoy the garment district and Universal Studios again. Bought a couple of suits in the Fashion district, nice Italian replicas half the price, I'm sure there made in China, but I want to keep things around my household consistent. The excitement of this trip was seeing all the Holly production taking place downtown, next to where we stayed (The Omni) they were shooting a Music video , closed off the street and it was live, these post production guys work there tail off, it was shot at night, well lit with colors, they washed the streets to give it a wet look, it was amazing to watch.
Slide show of some Photos - All shot with a 50mm Prime lens.


Video with Audio from Animoto. Turn it up - Go full screen

ROSEbowl08

Amazing to be at the Rosebowl and reflect over the last 80plus years the events held in this simple large stadium, from the many College bowls to the Superbowl and Olympics. It was exciting and eerie at the same time.

The long-established Rosebowl, Largest crowd 106k-wow close to Soccer

My Bro... 2nd visit, first was a Metalica concert in the late 80's

The Girls that cheer the team

The 08 Bruins practiced tonight and was trying to figure out there roster amongst 15000 fans.

What a reflection of past and present

TRIP "The City of Angels"

We had a great trip to Los Angeles, I took Beth and Baylee for our 21st anniversary, we checked out the Jewelry District, Russian District, Olivera Street, and spent Sunday at Universal Studios. Tried to take some interesting photos, what was amazing, when I was taking a couple of shots of the U.S. Bank Tower, the tallest building on the west coast, security came from what it seemed from nowhere and told me no pictures of this building (9/11 has changed allot of things). On the tech side I noticed that in the Jewelry distict allot of the merchants were streaming TV from there home country, seemed like allot of bandwith consumed, also in russia district all the stores had only MP3 audio, thousands of comercial pressed disks in the MP3 format. Not one CDA format, WOW.

*Slideshow of other Photos*

Rocket Day

It was exciting to be at the 2008 Rocketfest show at Baylee school, the whole class had a opportunity to launch there self made rockets at school.

100 rockets was shot off today. Very fun to watch 100 kids scream as the rockets shot into space.

Photo Slideshow

20 Mile Ride

Testing my cam, on my 20 mile ride, Over a hour of footage squished into 2 minutes. Some strange looks on the bike path when people notice I had a cam.

(5Mi) Brock,Baylee, and Biking

Baylee wanted to go for a ride so we took off to the park and decided to take a journey to her friends house. It was her best friend Megan. Some photos on the way.

Fist shot was taken on the bike path with my Cell phone camera, Second shot was taken over the bridge, looking out on the Railroad tracks. On mile 4 Baylee had a flat, the next mile was tuff, or I should say slooow going...

We made it to the Ott's house, some 5 miles, the weather was great, we saw 2 cottontails , 3 squirrels, tons of runners and bikers.

Danny's so so sweet TREK, very light & Beautiful. My friend has 994 miles on his bike as you can see. Its time to celebrate when he reaches the 1000 mi. mark.