Mammoth Lakes weekend

So what's the strangest thing you might see in a small-town 4th of July parade? It's between Darth Vader, Chewbacca, a Storm trooper, a leopard (mascot) in a cherry picker, and an overweight Smokey the Bear.

Still, it was a beautiful weekend.

under the pier

surfing and torrey pines

Today is a classic San Diego day. It's February and still sunny and in the high 70s. Wake up as the sun is coming up to go surfing with a friend and the waves aren't anything special, but the water feels awesome and the water and sky are totally clear. Then get home, quickly change and spend the afternoon hiking around Torrey Pines with Nikos and a friend. Tonight we go and try a new wine bar in North Park. It's just been an awesome day.

February 2009

We walked around La Jolla Shores this weekend.  I don't think we've done that for a few months.  It was really nice.

High Speed Rail for California!

Californians did it!  On election day (past Tuesday), Prop 1A passed, which included a bond measure to fund up to $10B towards the creation of a new high speed rail system which will go from San Diego to San Francisco, linking Los Angeles and other major CA cities in between. 

http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/

If the state can really make this work and get this operating and completed by 2030 I will be one happy camper.

Pacific Beach Raft Party

It was a year ago today that an incident in Pacific Beach basically brought the issue of drinking on the beach to an end For years people were allowed to drink on the beach and as a result, P.B. was the place to be for the 4th of July, or Labor Day, or just about any other day. However, several months after the infamous Labor Day Riot the city voted on a booze ban and ever since, the beach has been a much quieter place. The SDSU students and the twenty somethings have to go to the bars on Garnet or a house party before heading down to the sand. A few people have protested the ban, but right now it looks like the ban will likely stay.

So what is person to do if they want to go have a few drinks while they're at the beach? Well, buy a raft, of course! It seems a group of hold-outs are still trying to keep the dream alive in PB, so to make up for the booze ban and the fact that the PB Block party is long gone, they've started PB Raft parties.

If you get a chance, read the "Details" box for the specifics of the laws and how they suggest not getting busted. It's very funny.

gumball 3000

The Gumball 3000 was in town yesterday.