We had our first sail on our impulse buy at a garage sale sail boat today. It was also Hazel’s first time sailing ever, and mine in quite a few years.
I learned to sail in elementary school, and sailed regularly with my family until college, but since then haven’t done as much. I’d go occasionally with my parents, but a boat was out of the question for a long time.
Last fall we saw a boat at a garage sale, stopped to take a look. It was too small for our …

Last weekend I did the L’etape de California.

From the website:
“L’Étape du California provides serious recreational cyclists the opportunity to ride a complete stage of the Amgen Tour of California – and the most challenging stage of the 2011 race at that. Riders will cover the same route as the professionals on Stage 7 of the Amgen Tour of California, from the City of Claremont to the Mt Baldy Ski Area. The route is breathtaking in its beauty and difficulty, covering some of the most …

Many years ago, I used to be quite an avid runner. I ran regularly with a wild group of fun folks, the Hash House Harriers. Through that group, I ended up meeting Michelle, and we ran quite some number of marathons together. All on dirt, mostly tough courses. I ran a couple without her, and then Kim and I ran a couple. Then I stopped. I did some running in training for some triathlons, but …

My father, Malcolm, and step-mom Deborah invited Kim and I out to Utah for a long weekend. Unfortunately, Deborah wasn’t able to make the trip, she was missed, but we had a good time anyway.
We spent a fair bit of time wandering Salt Lake city, checking out the capital, downtown, and the temple. We sampled some good food, and enjoyed catching up. We also had a great day snowshoeing in the gorgeous mountains just outside the city. Good times!

Kim and I planned and led a beginner friendly climbing trip to Joshua Tree in Feb. We drove out through rain, but the weather was pretty nice at the park. Cold, but nice.
We had fun climbing, ate well, and enjoyed everyone’s company. Aside from some tents trying to join the space program, the weekend went off without a hitch. It felt good to be back on the rock.
Many of the photos were from mitzi.  Thanks.

Kim and I had a great weekend. We did a bike tour, on the tandem, from San Juan Capistrano to San Diego and Imperial Beach.
We set out from San Juan Capistrano Sat. morning. It was grey and cool, and I was a little nervous as we headed out. We cruised towards Dana Point, and then pretty much hugged the coast all the way to San Deigo, through San Clemente (where we stopped for our favorite tacos), Oceanside, Encinitas, Del Mar, Leucadia, La Jolla, …

A few months ago, I found some cheap fares to Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands. Kim and I decided to spend our thanksgiving there, and had a great time.
Rarotonga feels to me much like Hawaii in terms of the ocean life and the geography and plant life, though it’s much smaller than most of the Hawaii islands we all think of. It’s surprisingly undeveloped, no big hotels, no golf courses, I didn’t see a single chain store or restaurant I recognized, and mostly pretty affordable, with the exception of food, …

Ok, calling it Mexico makes it sound more exotic than it is, but I had a fun weekend diving. Headed to San Diego with my friend Mitzi. Kim was invited, but declined due to an aversion for cold water. Saturday we did three dives at the Islas Coronado on the dive boat, the Lois Ann. It was three of the best cold water dives I’ve ever done. Visibility was in the 50 foot range at times. Sea life …

Kim and I have been enjoying our tandem a lot lately, and decided to try a century (100 miles) ride. The ride we picked was the Death Valley Century, which is exactly 108 miles. I know 108 doesn’t sound much longer that 100, but its 8% harder than a regular century. It’s like paying sales tax.
Last weekend we headed to Death Valley, CA, to do the ride. We probably didn’t train as much as we should have, …

I went to San Deigo to participate in a triathlon.  It was 70.3 miles, consisting of a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run.   It was in support of Challenged Athletes Foundation, and thanks to the generosity of my friends and family, we raised nearly $2,500 to assist in providing facilities, equipment and support for athletes with disabilities that want to play, run, swim and do many of the things we all take for granted.  A very deep and sincere …