2003 Long Beach Triathlon

I did my second triathlon this last weekend up in Long Beach, CA. It was still a sprint distance but it was longer than my triathlon in Mission Bay with a 1/2 mile swim, 11 mile bike & 3 mile run. I did the race with my friends, Chad & Fatima. It was their first one.


The ocean swim for this triathlon was freezing. It almost knocked the breath out of me when I first jumped in and my ears felt ice cold. I had to keep switching which side I breathed on to give each of them a break. If I was surfing I would be wearing a wetsuit in water this cold, but I don't have the right kind of wetsuit for swimming.


The bike section was a loop that you had to circle twice past the Queen Mary. That was nice because I was able to spot my friends as I passed them on my second trip around.


I felt much better in my run than I did in my first triathlon. I think it because I was more mentally prepared for the tough transition from the bike to running. It was nice that it was a very flat run course that swung out and back on a long jetty jutting out into the harbor. Afterwards we went to breakfast and each of us ate a huge meal. We were starving.

Mission Bay Triathlon Post

Long Beach on Dwellable

Joel's Harley

My brother, Joel, bought himself a Harley Motorcycle. It is pretty cool.

Eastern Europe Photos

Here are the three sets of pics from my trip to Eastern Europe

The Link:

Eastern Europe Pictures on Facebook

Eastern Europe Trip - Final Part

This is my last night in Budapest. I have a early flight in the morning.


Last night I had a really good dinner at a nice Hungarian restaurant and as I was coming out I bumped into a guy named Tomo from Montenegro, one of the smaller areas of the former Yugoslavia. We ended talking for awhile about our two countries as we walked down the street. He has been working in Budapest for awhile in a restaurant. We ended up stopping at a bar and getting a beer and talking some more until about 1am. He was a real interesting guy.


Earlier that evening, I was buying a postcard at a little street-cart when I noticed that the kid was playing hacky sack with himself while waiting for customers. After I bought the postcard we ended up kicking the hacky sack around together for about 45 minutes. His sister and her boyfriend who owned the cart ended up coming over also and we had a nice little circle going. I don't what else to say but I was having a blast.

I guess I will wrap up with some random sights I have seen the last day and a half.
-- I saw a man with no arms driving a three-wheeled motorcycle with his feet.
-- A group of kids break-dancing under a bridge. They were pretty good.
-- On Margaret Island in the middle of the river, they have a crowded jogging track that surrounds it. I was resting on a bench and watching all the joggers when a guy jogged by holding a sword and shield and wearing metal armor covering his shoulders and arms. I still am curious about the reason.


Well I am off to visit my last part of the city. A section of town that Tomo said was a cool place to hang out and get a cup of cappachino.

Eastern Europe Trip - Part 3

I just got back from one of Budapest's famous thermal baths. It is in good walking distance from my hotel and is inside a giant building along the Danube river. They supply you with a tiny white apron to wear inside, but I wasn't feeling that adventurous so I wore my trunks instead. I felt like I was inside the baths from the first James Bond movie with Pierce Brosnan. High ceilings, sculptures, pillars, and art deco tile-work everywhere. I thought about also getting the $5 massage when I was at the ticket counter, but I am glad I didn't after I saw the masseur. Heh! :) They also had a nice sun terrace and unique little wave pool.


I arrived in Budapest yesterday by train. It left Prague at 9:00 in the morning and arrived in Hungary around 3:00pm. Since this was a day trip I was able to enjoy the countryside along the way. Lots of yellow sunflower fields! I got a little travel sight-seeing bonus because the train went right through Slovakia and its capital along the way. It was a fun trip because there was a young Czech girl going on a business trip to Slovakia in my train compartment and we were able to talk awhile about the Czech Republic and Eastern Europe and she was also pointing out the flood damage from the previous summer to me along the way. She speaks 4 languages (boggle) and works for a French development company. I like talking to Europeans because they are always very aware of world events and not afraid of speaking their opinions about them.


I have been living on Goulosh with bread dumplings since I arrived in Prague and now also in Budapest. It tastes so great and I can't get enough of it. Hmmm! I think I will have it again tonight. :)

I enjoyed Prague but I mostly did the usual tourist stuff. I did help a blind women to the side of the road, somehow she had lost her way and kept bumping between several taxis that where parked in the middle of the street. She didn't speak any English but no one else seemed to be helping. I also saw a guy wipe out on a scooter taking a sharp turn on some slick cobblestones. He must have been very embarrassed and not very hurt because he jumped right up and took off real fast. I think he should of given a little bow to the crowd, but Oh Well!! Beside that, nothing too interesting happened there, maybe that will change here in Budapest. I am off to visit the Buda Castle, supposedly they have an underground Labyrinth you can visit at the castle. I hope it is a cool maze I can get lost in.


I will visit Statue Park tomorrow. It is where they put all the old communist statues they took down in Budapest after the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union broke up. Sounds interesting.


I haven't been able to get hot water yet in my Budapest hotel room. I think I will speak to the desk clerk about it when I get back. These cold showers have been a little too brisk!!! :)

Only two days left of my trip.

Eastern Europe Trip - Part 2

I arrived in Prague after a being awakened by the train conductor with a breakfast tray and a steaming cup of coffee. I was lucky and got the three-bed sleeping compartment all to myself for the night. I was woken up only once when the Passport Check and Custom officials came aboard around 1 am. It was nice to get another stamp in the ol' passport.

I had another bit of luck when I arrived, for some reason I got bumped out of the 3-Star hotel I was booked for into their 4-Star hotel down the street. That's Fine with me! :)


The visit to the Salt Mine the previous day was very interesting and I couldn't resist taking a lick on one of the passage walls. Diana, the polish girl on my plane, had told me she had done it, so I had to try it myself. Luckily I was carrying a bottle of water with me. My group ended up hiking down about 400 feet to the third level. The mine was full of statues that the miners had carved by themselves over the centuries. The ride back to the surface was quite fun as nine of us squeezed into a tiny metal cage-like elevator and wooshed up the mine shaft to the surface in complete darkness.


After the Salt Mine, I went to a nice Polish Restaurant that was recommended by the two British guys I met at the mines who have been living in Poland for a year teaching English. They mentioned this special lard spread that comes with the bread, saying it was very good, but obviously very bad for you. I was very hesitant to try it when they brought out the little pot of it. It looked like they had emptied out the grease pan into it with little chunks of who-knows-what inside. Anyway, I spread a little bit on a slice of bread, took a bite, and almost died. Never again!! :) The cheese, meat, & potato dumplings made up for it afterwards.

The highlight of my trip so far has been going out Thursday night in Krakow. I had seen the main tourist attractions of the town but I really enjoyed hanging out and talking with the locals. My biggest memory of the night was being squeezed into a booth with 4 very drunk, but very friendly Polish guys who knew about 5 English words between them. They kept sharing a plate of french fries with me as we struggled to talk to each other. I think they wanted me to drink vodka with them also but I was already pretty buzzed on beer. The polish girl who was in the group I had been playing foosball with earlier kept smiling and laughing good-heartedly from the bar as she watched me try to communicate with these guys. I ended up talking with her for a long while afterward. She is a Flight Attendant on Polish LOT Airlines, so she spoke very good English.

Anyway, it is a bit rainy here in Prague right now, but walking along wet cobblestones in a European city just seems right.

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I visited the Prague Castle today up on the hill. It had great views of the city and I watched the changing of the guard outside. I stopped on the way down and had an excellent panini and some cheese cake in a little cafe before visiting the Museum of Medieval Tortures. It was a good thing I ate first or I would have lost my appetite for awhile.


Prague is excellent city to just wander around in. The sun came out today. I saw this nice little Czech restaurant last night right as it was closing. I think I will eat there tonight.

Tomorrow I am going to check out the Alphonse Mucha Museum, the Czech Art Nouveau artist. I saw an exhibition of his in Balboa Park before and loved it.

Eastern Europe Trip - Part 1 (Poland, Czech Republic & Hungary)

Well I am into my second day in Krakow, Poland and I have had a fun, crazy time so far.

My trip started out adventurous with me getting to the airport in Krakow in the middle of nowhere and everything was closed. I got lucky and a pretty Polish girl, Diana, that I met on the plane offered to drive me into the center of town to my hotel. I found myself crammed into a tiny, beat-up Russian car drinking Polish Vodka (it had piece of wheat in the bottle) with her three friends who had come to pick her up. She had just arrived home after working in Dubai for a year and her friends were real excited to see her. Her girlfriend was trying to teach me how to say, "I love you" in Polish as we got kinda lost trying to find our way to the center of town, but we arrived with a lot of laughs to my hotel. They had me take a picture of them in front of their Russian car which they nicknamed the "Russian Limousine".


The next day I walked to the Train Station, where I must of looked very lost trying to find the correct train to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp when a older man offered to drive me out there for a reasonable price. After a little apprehension I accepted and I found myself in a little beat-up Polish car that sounded like it wouldn't make the hour-and-a-half drive out to the camps. The Polish countryside was beautiful though. My guide had a good English vocabulary but it was very interesting to talk to him because he seemed to only use nouns when he talked. Heh! He pointed out all the interesting sights on the way, and he had a funny habit of telling me exactly how far everything was from the center of Krakow in kilometers.

It was a good thing I took the guy's offer because the two main camps were both a mile apart and both a good couple miles from the little town's train station. The camps were very interesting but also depressing, but my guide took me all over each and gave me a lot of detailed information I might of missed on my own. I remembered a lot of the buildings and views from "Schindler's List", a good movie which was filmed there.


On the way back we talked about the Polish economy, his favorite classic-rock bands, and how much different electronics cost in the U.S. versus Poland. We also had to stop for a second time to put another quart of oil into his little car with its interesting zebra-patterned seat covers. He dropped me off in town at a little restaurant-bar where he helped me order a Polish meal and a beer. It was some kind of breaded pork-chop with potatoes. Very Good!!!


After a short nap, I went back exploring the main Market Square. After a cappachino to wake myself up I wandered into a bar where I met another American from Northern California playing darts with his three Polish friends. We all ended up over at the foosball table where we played for rounds of beer. Naturally my team kept winning :) until about the twentieth game where I started to get pretty buzzed from the strong polish beer. That bar closed so we all ended up at underground Irish Pub with many levels. I ended up finally leaving around 4:30am as the sky started to lighten into morning. I had a fun time talking to the interesting people.

I feel a little hung over this afternoon, but I just got done exploring the Wawel Castle built on top of an ancient "Dragon Cave" where according to Polish Myth a shoemaker was able to kill the dragon by feeding it tons of sheep with their wool soaked full of water. I might have the story wrong though. :)

Now I am off to explore the Royal Salt Mines in the nearby hills, and then I catch a night train to Prague.

Robert's Bachelor Trip to Laughlin, Nevada

I drove out with Chad and Scott to Laughlin, Nevada on Memorial Day Weekend for the Bachelor Party of our friend Robert. He is getting married next month and then he is going to Iraq for a year with the Army Reserves.

We all stayed at the Edgewater Hotel & Casino. What is cool about Laughlin is that you get the gambling of Vegas but you also have the outdoor activities of the Colorado River flowing alongside the casinos and Lake Mohave right up the road.


The first day we rented a speedboat and cruised around on Lake Mohave and did a little wakeboarding. We also found a nice cliff to jump off of while checking out all the little inlets along the lake shore.


I drank more beer this weekend than I normally drink all a year. We had a fun time gambling (mostly blackjack), cruising along the boardwalk and going to the dance club at the Golden Nugget. John was able to get us in the VIP entrance so we didn't have to wait in the huge line.


Jeff brought his own boat and we cruised the Colorado River on our last day. The river water below the dam was freezing. Robert ended up passing out on the riverbank after pulling an all-nighter at the blackjack table.

Las Vegas Trip - Jordan's 21st Birthday

I just went to Las Vegas for the weekend with my father and two of my brothers, Jake and Jordan. Jordan turned 21 the day we got there and he was eager to gamble for the first time. He had a good case of beginners luck and was doing quite well for himself at first, but he ended up losing it all before the end.


I am not a big gambler myself but I won about two hundred dollars between placing a five dollar bill on the 0, 00 of the roulette table and a lucky slot machine pull while we were waiting to see the "Blue Man Group" at the Luxor. It was a good show and the buffet at Luxor is always good.


While driving around Las Vegas, Jordan spotted a concrete stormwater channel he wanted to try and skate.

Glamis Sand Dunes Trip #3

I had a good time out at the Glamis Sand Dunes this weekend. It was nice and sunny though it was very windy on Saturday. Blayne's new dune buggy is very powerful and fast. I kept whooping and hollering, I couldn't contain myself. It was very fun.


This time I remembered to completely zip up my tent when I set up camp. Last time I closed the entrance but left the mesh widows uncovered. Later, I found the entire interior of the tent and my sleeping bag covered with a fine dust which had sieved through the fine mesh covering the windows. That sucked.


We went on a real fun night ride out to Competition Hill. A very steep, high dune that everyone races up real fast. I went up a few times with Blayne and then with Jeff. Jeff was able to make it up the hill in his Jeep Wrangler. It was allot slower and scarier but very cool.


I rode back to camp in the Jeep Wrangler, but Blayne accidentally led us off the main Sand Road into the Dune Field. We had a crazy time going down many really sharp and steep razorbacks in the Wrangler. We almost got stuck once but were able to power out. All the dune buggy riders were congratulating Jeff on his amazing driving skills when we got back to camp.


I also went on a long ride with a ATV Sunday morning. It is very beautiful out in the dunes, like being on the moon.

Scuba Diving for Lobster in Solana Beach

Chris and I went scuba diving for lobster in Solana Beach, CA this weekend. We had to go buy a lobster license at Big 5 Sporting Goods and then we headed down to Fletcher's Cove.


It was a beautiful sunny day so we were boiling hot in our wetsuits as we got our equipment ready. The water was freezing when we entered the ocean, but it was nice to cool off. We didn't have to go very far out as we were able to find lobster around twenty feet deep.


We had to look in the cracks of the reef to find them. Chris was great at spotting them in the dark crevices and fearless about sticking his hands in there to grab them out. They were fierce little buggers and fought hard to avoid getting put in his bag. A couple got away and took off over the ocean bottom really fast. I was surprised how fast they could go when they wanted too. I tried to grab one but missed it.


Chris had to check each lobster with his measuring tool to make sure they were over the limit before sticking them in his bag. We had to let two go because they were too small but we ended up with four nice ones that we cooked up in a big pot of boiling water.

Mount Whitney Pictures

Here the rest of the pictures from my hike to the summit of Mount Whitney.

Here is the link to my Facebook photo album:

Mount Whitney Pictures on Facebook

Hiking Trip to Mount Whitney’s Summit

Christine Prowd and I just hiked to the summit of Mt. Whitney (located in the Southern Sierra Nevadas in California) at the end of September. It is the highest mountain in the lower 48 States at 14,497 feet (4,419 meters)


It was a 22-mile hike to the summit and back and it took us 15 hours, around 7 hours to get to the Summit and 8 to get back down. We had an overnight pass and we thought about splitting the hike in two and staying the night in a tent at Trail Camp but we decided it would be easier to pack lighter and do the whole hike in one day. I had a pair of hiking sticks but our backpacks were mostly filled with water bottles, food and a sweater. (I also included aspirin to fight altitude-induced headaches.)


We stayed the night in Lone Pine down in the valley and got up early at 4am and drove up to the Trailhead that starts at 8,637 feet. It was interesting hiking in the dark with only our flashlights but the trail was well marked so we didn’t worry about getting lost. Because it was dark, the only memorable part of the first few miles was hopping from rock to rock over the small creeks that crossed the trail in several places.


The sky started to lighten around the time we passed Outpost Camp after hiking almost 4 miles to 10,360 feet. The first real landmark we reached in the daylight was Mirror Lake. It’s a small still lake that the trail snaked around before climbing to leave the tree line behind. This is also where the trail started to get rockier, but it was well maintained and gave the appearance of a rocky staircase at times.


It was about a mile before we reached Trailside Meadow. It’s a pretty moss-filled meadow with a small stream running through the center of the little valley. We still felt strong a mile later when we reached Trail Camp at 12,039 feet. We took a short break and ate a snack before attempting the 99 Switchbacks that rose steeply up into the fog above the camping area. We checked out Consultation Lake and the other small pools around the camp before we continued on.


It started to lightly snow as we started up the 99 Switchbacks that lead up to the Trail Crest, but there was no wind and we were warm from our hiking so we didn’t worry about it. As we ascended the switchbacks, some people on the trail started to turn back as the snow fell heavier, especially at the Cables where the trail got steeper and a little icy. We had a quick talk about joining the others and turning around, but we still felt good and decided to push on.


I actually enjoyed the “infamous” switchbacks that I had heard so much about. Hiking up the steep face as the valley spreads out below you gives a great sense of forward progress and accomplishment. We had to take occasional stops due to lightheadedness and to keep hydrated, but the views were great and we could sometimes make out the summit through the falling snow and fog to our right. I enjoyed the snowfall, it made me feel as if I was climbing Mt. Everest or some other snowy peak and it kept us cool. My boss had climbed Mt. Whitney last year and had complained about the heat from hiking under a blazing sun.


The temperature would soon change as we reached the Trail Crest at 13,777 feet after hiking 8.5 miles. As we reached the top, a brisk and cold wind that had been blocked by the mountain range hit us in the face as it blew eastward from the Sequoia National Park. While the wind was unwelcome as we stood on the border of the park, the view of the large valley spread out before us on the other side was amazing. It was a pretty severe drop off down to the Hitchcock and Guitar Lakes far below.


The trail descended down a bit before rising again as we hiked along the back ridge of Mount Muir toward the sharp needles. The trail was very icy and it was getting very cold. I started to wish that I had packed some pants. We were mostly concentrating on warm thoughts as we hiked this section but the trail got interesting as we reached the Needles. The icy trail narrowed in the “windows” between the needles with sheer drops on either side. If someone should happened to slip, it would be the quick way to get back down to Trail Camp which I could see far below in the gaps between the needle-like spires.


After the passing the needles we could finally see our destination, the tiny hut in the distance on top of the flat summit of Mount Whitney. It was about a mile of zigzagging up the back of this final peak but we finally made the top at 14,497.61 feet after 11 miles. It was a little anti-climatic because the peak was fogged in but it was nice to enter the stone hut and get out of the wind and chat with several other climbers inside. We stayed about an hour on the Summit resting, eating lunch and signing the register. I was very grateful when a fellow hiker gave me a knitted cap that he had bought in Peru to help me keep warm on the decent.


The descent was tough but mostly uneventful. The sun came out for a while after we crossed back over the Trail Crest and started to descend the switchbacks. We got our first clear view of the mountain range we had just crossed and had a chance to warm up again as we left the wind behind which boosted our energy levels. By the time we reached Trail Camp the clouds returned and snow started to fall once again.


The last six miles of the descent was the toughest. The snow fell thicker and thicker until you could barely see out in front and my ski-injured knee was starting to ache. My hiking sticks really helped on the descent as I would step first with my good leg and lower the other taking some of the weight with my arms. (The next day my triceps were really sore from the amount of work.) The sun set as we reached the tree line again and passed Outpost Camp.


The rest of the way was mostly a blur as I daydreamed alternatively about the heater in my car, getting eaten by a bear or collapsing on the bed in our hotel room down in Lone Pine. The last mile seemed an eternity until we stumbled into the parking lot at the Trailhead around 8pm.


We Made It!!!!

Colorado River Camping - Picacho

I went camping to the Colorado River last weekend with my boss, Blayne,Carrie and their children. Jeremy, Chelsea and Forest came out with me to the river for the first time as well. The camping grounds at Picacho State Park are named after Picacho Peak, a nearby ancient volcano. You can see the far-off volcanic peak from the river.


Jeremy learned how to wake-board on this trip. He was a fast learner and was able to get up pretty quick. We had a fun float down the river with a few rafts that we tied together. I had one of the worst back slaps in my life when I fell backward into the water trying to stand up on the rubber raft. Yowza! It really stung.


We did another night hike up to the natural rock arch in our flip-flops. Not so bad going up, but it can get a little slippery on the way down. It is only a small arch, but you can still see it from the river up on the hillside. Some nights we hike over to the graveyard to check out the old tombstones from the gold mining frontier days.


We also had two wave runners with us this trip. One of them was great, but the other had a balance problem and liked to tip over easily unless you could get it up to speed quickly. That was fairly easy with one person, but almost impossible with two people.


Casey and Corrin made some headwraps and started calling themselves "Queen" and "Princess". It was pretty funny to watch them messing around, balancing on the wooden rail.