Half Moon Bay

Today we headed to Half Moon Bay to head to the Dog Beach for the morning before having lunch at the Half Moon Bay Brewery.  The Brewery had been on my to do list for a few years and it didn't disappoint.  The place is dog friendly which was perfect, so we took Oscar with us to sit on the patio.  We tried the IPA, the Pale Ale, and the Summer Ale and each of them were nice!

Here's some pics from our day:

 

 

After lunch we headed up North on PCH and while driving through Pacifica we noticed a huge line out side this Orange Train Car that was called Gorillas BBQ.  I looked it up on line and it turned out to be quite the popular place:  Gorillas BBQ. 

We  then headed back to HMB to head to the Distillery which is also dog friendly and has an awesome patio overlooking a great view of the Pacific Ocean! 

The rest of the pics can be seen here: Half Moon Bay - 8/14/2011.

US Open of Surf 2011

For the last three years I've had a chance to head down to Huntington Beach to camp out on the pier and watch the US Open of Surfing.   Every year it seems to get bigger and bigger with more and more people showing up. 

This year I got up early every day and headed to my spot on the pier to catch 4 days worth of action, mainly the Men's Rounds 2-5. 

My favorite part of the days were the early mornings before the competition started when the pros practiced their tricks and surfed freely. I had the opportunity to catch some video of a few barrel rides and some aerials that they probably wouldn't of tried during competition.  I was especially excited to get some more pictures of Kelly Slater who is considered by most to be the Michael Jordon of Surfing.  The dude is a legend.  I also enjoyed watching Dane Reynolds and Kolohe Andino do their thing.

A sample of some of the pics I took can be found at my US Open of Surfing 2011 Flickr set.  I'll be adding more to it as I go through all my pictures as there were so many good pictures to choose from. 

Kelly Slater Playing with a Dolphin

While Kelly Slater was surfing at the US Open of Surfing 2011 in Huntington Beach 1,000's of people came to the beach to watch the legend do his thing including this Dolphin who had been hopping out of the water while the competition was going on.  Kelly noticed it and paddled out closer to get a better look.  I was able to snap this picture:

Mountain Bike Ride - Biship Ranch

I recently took my mountain bike out for a ride through the Bishop Ranch Hills off of Bolinger in San Ramon, CA.  The trail started off a little too steep for me to ride, so I had to walk my bike up the first 50 yards or so of the trail.  Once I got up the initial ascent I was able to start the ride.  The trail that turned onto had a lot of dips, turns,  and some great views of Mt Diablo and the San Ramon Valley.  My ride back down the steep part of the hill resulted in me going over my handle bars and doing 3 somersaults as I tried to brake at the last 30 yards before the end of the trail.  I was fine except for some of the flesh on my elbow, shoulder, legs. 

The trail began with this nice view of the sun beginning to set behind the oak trees:

Once I got to the peak of the hill I had these views of the sun shining on the Mt Diablo and the hills of the San Ramon Valley:

Here's a picture of part of the trail with the starting to set behind the hill:

Here are my stats and info from the ride:

Name:		Bishop Ranch San Ramon
Date:		Jul 26, 2011 7:18 pm
Map: (valid until Jan 23, 2012)		View on Map
Distance:		4.84 miles
Elapsed Time:		1:16:35
Avg Speed:		3.8 mph
Max Speed:		25.1 mph
Avg Pace:		15' 49" per mile
Min Altitude:		474 ft
Max Altitude:		977 ft
Start Time:		2011-07-27T02:18:16Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	37.749596º N
	Longitude:	121.963113º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	37.749574º N
	Longitude:	121.963155º W

Humming Bird

Here's a pic of the Humming Bird that has taken the feeder on our porch over as his territory.  I tried to get a picture with a slower shutter speed to capture the blur in the wings, but it didn't really work out.  I did however get this pic with a higher shutter speed while using my speedlight:

More pics can be seen at: Humming Birds

Yosemite Valley Bike Ride

Last weekend we decided to head up to the Brosius Hide Out (my parent's cabin) at Pine Mountain Lake in Groveland, CA. 

We headed up on Friday night so we could spend our Saturday fighting the crowds in Yosemite.  July weekends in the Yosemite Valley can get pretty crowded and this past Saturday was no exception.  It was a complete Zoo near all the easy access sights.  It was especially crowded near the Yosemite Falls because they are really roaring right now and it is pretty easy to access by shuttle. 

We decided to try and avoid  the crowded areas and just ride our beach cruiser bikes around the bike trails in the valley.  The bike trail circles the valley, so it made for some nice sights, but there were also some patches of the trail that went by the various shuttle stops where it got pretty congested with clueless, lost looking people who are oblivious to space.  I always get a kick out of the people who see me coming towards them on my bike, look right at me as they walk right into the middle of the bike path, and then have a confused look on their face when they see me have to hit the breaks to avoid hitting them.  It cracks me up at how frequent this happens. 

Well anyway, it was too crowded to drive around the park.  Next time I go to Yosemite, I'll stick to my normal plan of hitting it up on a week day.  I only took a handful of pictures this time from my bike:

The rest of the pics can be seen here: Yosemite July, 2011.

Iron Door Saloon

After 8+ years of heading up to my parent's cabin in Groveland, I finally got to hang out at the Iron Door Saloon.  Time and time again during each trip to the cabin I would keep saying that I wanted to hang out and grab a drink there, but I until last weekend I had never made it.  Most of the time we would either end up having a BBQ at the cabin, having pizza from Two Guys Pizza, or I'd be too tired from a day at Yosemite that I'd just want to relax on the couch.  Finally, after a day in Yosemite last Saturday we headed to the Iron Door Saloon for some food and drink.  The food was good and the character of the place was everything you'd expect out of the oldest running bar in CA.

I didn't have my camera with me, but I did manage to take a few pictures with my phone:

From Main Street HWY 120

The Bar

Landmark

Dollars hanging from the ceiling. 

A quick history lesson on the Iron Door Saloon: 

The Iron Door Saloon is located in Groveland, California, about twenty five miles from the entrance of Yosemite National Park. According to its proprietors, is the oldest continuously operating saloon in California. It remains a popular tourist stop on the main road between The Bay Area and Yosemite.

The name "Iron Door" comes from the saloon's front doors which are made from solid iron. The inside of the saloon is what you would expect from a typical historical saloon with the original bar intact. The roof is adorned with dollar bills and other historical artifacts. Live music is played on the weekends.