Two Great Days of Surf

What a way to wrap up the week! Thursday and Friday saw some of the best waves I've ridden in quite a while roll into North San Diego county. I took an extended lunch yesterday and today, and rode some of the longest, biggest, and fastest waves on my new quad fish.

The new board performed extremely well, and I never felt under-gunned in the bigger surf, even though the board is only six feet. Today, I am sore in a way that is sooooo good.

Up in Newport Beach (which faces to the South more than the beaches here in Encinitas do), the surf was bigger and meaner. I can't wait to see some of the shots from the Wedge, which will probably be completely crazy tomorrow.

Worst Night's Sleep EVER!

About 11:30 pm last night, we had an unusual (for San Diego) display of mother nature's light and sound show, as thunder and lightning pounded us. Ace, our almost 10 year old black lab great dane mutt, was quite upsent with the racket and showed it by panting lightly, knocking over a bunch of stuff in the living room, etc.

The lightning came and went in about 3 waves, and I figure I may have gotten about three hours of sleep last night. Yippee-ki-yai-yai!

Hopefully I'll be able to sleep like a rock tonight, and that the thunder and lightning (while awesome), will only visit again during non-sleeping hours. Thanks you very much for you support and understanding...

Trip to Callaway Gardens

A few weeks ago, I went on a business trip down to Callaway Gardens, GA. I don't go on many business trips (thankfully), and this one was even more unusual as I was able to bring my wife along with me.

My wife and I haven't been away from our kids (together) for more than 12 hours, since our daughter was born about nine years ago. I knew it would be a great break for my wife, and we both thought they would have a good time being taken care of by my parents.

Walking off the plane into the air-condition free terminal (AC was broken), a wall of humid, sticky air nearly stopped us in our tracks. I haven't felt humidity like that since we were in the Florida keys after my college graduation.

The gardens themselves were gorgeous, with flora and fauna up the wazoo. Here in Southern California, we don't have many forests like the South and East does. Seeing the giant trees covered in kudzu vines, going on as far as the eye can see, is quite impressive. We also saw lots of beautiful butterflies (as the pictures illustrate), turtles, and even a doe grazing on the side of the freeway.

While it was beautiful down there, the extremely rural community next to the gardens was an eye opener as well. Downtown pine mountain consists mainly of a two block area. We went looking for a grocery store on Sunday, and were surprised to find the only one closed all day.

We had a nice time biking around the gardens, walking about downtown Pine Mountain, and just having time together. However, when our fourth and final day was up, we were more than ready to come back home. To see more of the pictures, please check out my Callaway Garden photo album.