I've broken this trip up into its own pages. There were 8 of us on this trip - Shauna, Chris, Roee, Neal, Anneke, Jeff, Erik, and myself. We did quite a few dives - Roee and I dove together and logged 16 dives. It was a lot of fun. We keep talking about the great diving and the countless mosquitoes. Yes, the diving was really great - look at the pics to see the cool stuff we saw. And yes, the mosquitoes really were that bad. Just ask us about my ear, Roee's forehead, or Chris' back. It sure makes for more stories though! Special thanks to Shauna and Chris for all the knowledge from your previous trip and all the hard work in planning, making arrangements and organizing! It was a great time!
Nice diving, but BAD boat ride! Shauna and I suffered through one of the roughest boat rides either of us have been on as a Pacific storm made the ocean look very angry and what is normally a 6 hour ride to the island took almost 11 hours and we rocked and rolled in every which direction. Fortunately we didn't have to deal with it going both directions. The diving was nice - we had probably almost 50 ft vis with nice kelp forests to swim through.
Thanksgiving was up in Alameda this year - we drove up Thanksgiving morning and had dinner with Julie, Sanh and family - 18 people total! Cooking was fun. I think everyone got to take part and we had so much good food! It was fun to play with Aidan and James throughout the weekend. Steve and Jeanine came down on Saturday and we had a nice visit and a good lunch! On the way home, we stopped briefly at Downtown Disney. The weekend went by fast!
Dave came down from Irvine to visit, and Garnet and I took him out on a tour of San Diego Bay where we went under the deck of the Midway, then went by the Star of India before heading out to Train Wheels. The conditions for the dive weren't the greatest - actually they were pretty bad - but we had a good time and enjoyed bouncing over the swell just off the point and then the wake of some of the big boats that crossed in front of us on the way back in the bay.
Roee and I went flying after (sort of during) the San Diego wildfires of 2007. We were limited to flying along the coast, but we got to see quite a bit of the damage up in the Oceanside area. We got rained on while we were flying, but the fire was still burning to the east and to the southeast. We were also treated to some nice views of the sun peeking through the clouds.
Garnet, Roee and I went to the Miramar Airshow. The Thunderbirds flew here for the first time in 35 years. It was a fun day to wander around and look at airplanes and watch them fly and make lots of noise!
I went with Jodi, Jo Anne, George and John to St George. We all ran great marathons under perfect running conditions. We had a lot of fun, shopped and ate a lot, then headed to Bryce Canyon where we did some hiking (hobbling) around and drove around the park. Then we spent a couple of days hiking around Zion National Park. We climbed up Angel's Landing on Monday, and did a lot of other hikes the park offered on Tuesday before heading to Vegas. We stayed at New York New York, visited Paris and the Bellagio before parking for awhile at the Irish pub at NY/NY. On Wednesday morning we enjoyed the pool environment, then went to the M&M's store and wandered around a little before having a huge filling buffet at Rio before heading home. It was a fun and successful trip!
Garnet and I went out on the boat for a dive at Train Wheels. It was Big Boat day in San Diego Bay. We saw the USS Nimitz return from deployment. We went around the Midway before heading out for a nice dive - great conditions. On the way back in, we raced a huge cruiseliner headed into the bay. We even picked up a crab pot someone lost. As we were leaving, we saw the USS Lincoln head out of the bay, perhaps signaling the end of Fleet Week.
Roee and I went to Coronado to watch the Red Bull Air Races as they made their stop in San Diego. It was fun to watch all the planes race through the pylons. Afterward, I went and met with Rob, Jodi, and Bill at the Padres game. They lost to Colorado - and Colorado kept on winning, right into the playoffs.
Some random pictures from a dive out off the Marine Room and another to Scripps Canyon.
I decided to have a nice skewed weekend getaway, offset from normal Labor Day traffic and went to see Cape Cod. The flight from Baltimore to Providence provided nice views of Philly and NYC. I drove to West Yarmouth and hung out around Hyannis on Sunday night and Monday morning. Monday afternoon I took a ferry to Nantucket. Parts of it reminded me of Catalina, but also it was quite different. I thought Nantucket was more away from the water and it was harder to tell I was on an island. I walked around town for a bit, then rented a bike and rode across half of the island. That's a bit harder to do at Catalina. Eventually I ran out of things to do so I caught an earlier ferry back. On Tuesday I went to Chatham and Provincetown and wandered around in the limited time I had left. I drove a little through the National Seashore outside of Provincetown - beautiful area. Then I drove like mad all the way back to Providence to catch my flight home. Packed quite a bit into a short time, but had fun exploring.
It was Sean's birthday, so a group of us (Bill, Jodi, Rob, myself, and of course, Sean) went to Corvette Diner for a late lunch. It was nice to be inside as it was one of the hottest days of the summer in San Diego, and it really didn't feel like San Diego. Happy birthday Sean!
I went to San Jose on a business trip to do our SAP certification testing and go over our product with the technical support team. While I was up there I got to meet up for dinner with Lindsey one night and headed up to Alameda for dinner with my family another night. We did a late celebration of my birthday - thanks guys! On the flight home, it was such a beautiful day for flying - got great views of the Northern Channel Islands, Catalina, San Clemente, and views of San Diego on the approach.
This was the summer Catalina trip that Shauna and I had started planning back in May. It finally came time to go, and we had an absolute blast. We had a great group - Shauna, Roee, Garnet, Dave, Neal, Anneke, Tony, Julie, and myself. 9 people with dive gear, tanks, weights, weekend clothes, and a sleeping bag for the tent cabins up at Hermit Gulch...it was quite the gear intensive weekend and we upset our fair share of taxi drivers! After a quick ride across the channel on very calm seas, we arrived in Avalon and promptly headed to the Casino Point Underwater Park and went for a dive. Our weekend was off to a good start! After the dive we split up between checking into camp and checking in for Saturday's boat diving. After a long wait up at camp, pizza showed up for dinner, and then we went for a night dive. We were led toward the Suejac by a shovelnose guitarfish, saw a bunch of horn sharks, an abalone, among other things. After the dive we headed back to camp and the day was done. On Saturday I got up and went for a fairly uneventful and boring run, then we went down to meet the King Neptune. On the way out, we were greeted by a bunch of dolphins, and we watched a bunch of them play in the bow wake. What a way to start the day! We dove Twin Rocks, Bird Rock, and Torqua Springs. We had a fun day of diving and great service from the crew of the King Neptune. Afterward, we met up at camp with Neal and Anneke who dove Casino Point and had joined Moses for an afternoon dive. For dinner, we went to the Sand Trap restaurant down the hill. Sunday morning I went for a much more entertaining run - found a fire road that took me down toward town, then went up and found some nice views of Avalon from above. Then we did 2 relaxed dives, which were my favorite 2 of the trip. We found a bunch of octos on the first dive. Near the end of the dive we found a scorpionfish that moved slightly when we got close and it scared a moray eel out of a hole - it came flying out and swam quickly into other cracks and it didn't take long for us to lose it again. The 2nd dive we all went together - a group of 9...the vis was great and the water was warm. We found a few morays in one spot, including Neal pointing out 2 in one place. We enjoyed just swimming through the kelp with the light from the sun shining through. We saw yet another octopus, and toward the end of the dive Tony and Julie had brought a few bags of peas and the fish went nuts. It was fun. After the dive, the only order of business left was to get ice cream, which we did before boarding our ferry to ride back to Dana Point. Thanks to all that came and made it a great weekend!
I flew right seat with Roee in the afternoon after the half marathon. We did some local practice work, and did a number of circuits around Montgomery Field afterward. I tried to get pics of MYF from various directions and some stuff on the ground - including the controversial building, the OE tent sale, the Chargers practice field, and Qualcomm Stadium. It was a fun afternoon - thanks Roee! We went out for a dive afterward, but I figured I'd just go enjoy the dive and not take pictures - so instead we played a game of lobster-ball (like paintball but with lobsters) - we saw a lot of stuff too - a fun, but tiring day!
Ahhh...nothing like getting up at 4am, driving to the zoo parking lot, and riding a bus to Point Loma to run back to Balboa Park. This year's AFC Half Marathon was definitely the hottest one I've done. The sun popped out of the very minimal cloud cover while the national anthem was playing and very shortly after the gun went off and we were off. Running on Harbor Island drive by the airport was the worst with the sun in our faces for several miles. Climbing up 6th Ave at least we had some shade from the buildings, but it was really hot by then. I actually pulled out a decent run - no PR, but I wasn't really expecting one. It was nice to see everyone and socialize before and after - congrats to everyone!
Shauna, Chris and I went for an early morning dive at the Cove on Saturday. It was the longest dive any of us had ever done at 99 minutes. We fought a fairly strong current that wanted to take us toward Point Loma, but we finally managed to make it to the buoy where we started on the best cove dive we've done. Just minutes into the dive we started seeing all the tope sharks that everyone has been reporting for weeks. We saw them fairly consistently throughout the dive - probably a couple/few dozen of them. We also saw a bunch of barracuda and fish you normally see in the kelp. Not sure what was up with the half eaten fish though - curious to know what took a bite out of it. It was a super hot day, so it was fun to be out in the water. Great dive!
We had a fun team building event - went from my normal office to my other office, La Jolla Shores! We had a nice lunch, some fun and games on the beach, followed by a sand insect building contest - like a sand castle building contest, except we built insects. Our team built a butterfly, another built a dragonfly, and another a ladybug. The dragonfly team won a free kayak rental from the host company putting on the competition. After all was said and done, Dave and I went for a dive. We came up quickly on Vallecitos Point - saw a pipefish, batray, a bunch of nudibranchs, some mating treefish, and the strangest finding was a mutant starfish - 6 arms? It was a fun day all around!
This was the annual trip to Baja. We had a really fun group this year, and I think everyone had a good time. One of the strange new things this year was when the gate got closed on us to break up our caravan at a toll plaza. We did the usual Saturday morning kayak and hike to the top of the hill, an afternoon dive, a big dinner, and Sunday at La Bufadora, breakfast, a walk around the shops, the blowhole, and an afternoon dive. We actually had a good lunch this time - and a good thing too since it took a couple extra hours to get home. A nice, fun trip - great weekend - thanks to all that came! Let's do it again next year...
Jodi, Rob, Bill, Sean and I went to the Padres game. It was made interesting as Bonds was chasing the home run record. He was at 754 and it was fun to watch everyone boo him intensely and all the flashbulbs with every pitch thrown to him. He didn't tie the record that night (tied it the next night). Oh yeah, the game was exciting too - the Padres came from behind to tie it late and win it in extra innings on a walk off home run!
Well, the flood saga went on - the line from the refrigerator to the sink somehow magically got broken and gallons of water went under the new floor, causing the new floor to get taken out again. The saga might be over...maybe.
I got bored one afternoon and decided to get out of the house. Garnet and I went down to the zoo to wander around. We watched a polar bear build itself a bed then go to sleep in it, a hippo run laps around the same track over and over, otters jump out of trees, and lots of other fun stuff. A nice day to get out...I should really do that more often.
Took the day off work and went up to LA with my sister and mom to visit family. Over dinner we were trying to figure out some of our family tree, and realized that is quite an undertaking!
In the morning, Garnet and I took Shauna and Chris to the Yukon. The same group of boats that were there the week before were there once again. That meant lots of divers on the wreck, including one guy who tapped me on the head and asked for directions to his "up" line, to which I just shrugged my shoulders because I had no idea which boat he was from. Nice dive - lots of various nudibranchs. In the afternoon, Shauna's friend Jenny was in town so a huge group turned out for a dive at the Shores. We all forgot how bad parking can be on a hot summer afternoon. But eventually a group of 9 of us headed for the North Wall. Roee and I buddied up and did the dive along the north and way north walls. We saw lots! It must be nudibranch season because they were everywhere. After the dive a bunch of us went to TGI Friday's for dinner. It was quite tiring, but a fun day!
Dan, Meg, Meg's dad Dirk and I motored out early on a cloudy day to the Yukon. We were soon joined by lots and lots of divers from commercial boats and other private boats. It was metridium city. We started toward the stern and worked our way over the rudders and props and headed over to what used to be the deck and moved forward. It was a nice dive - lots of hermissendas along with the metridiums.
The 4th of July was on a Wednesday, so it was a strange day off in the middle of the week. Shelly and Tiffany came over real early in the morning and we wandered over to Scripps Ranch, under cool temps and foggy skies to run the Scripps Ranch Old Pros 10k. It was the fastest I've ever run around the lake, and I forgot how long that dam is. But it was fun and meeting up in the beer garden for a few beers at 8am...hmm. Then I had a BBQ with a few friends over - it was hot by the grill, but it went well and I think everyone had a good time. Nala got plenty of attention - she seemed to like laying out on the lounge chairs after everyone had left.
I ended June and started July by doing a couple of dives over the weekend. On Saturday, Chris and I did a dive at La Jolla Shores, starting out at the main wall and heading south. We saw a lot of cool things and I found an old pair of sunglasses. On Sunday, Roee, Garnet and I went out to Train Wheels. We went into the crevice and out the top, then headed south. At the safety stop, we found a gigantic purple striped jellyfish, that was about 2 ft across.
Dan, Megan and I went on a Reefseekers trip to Santa Barbara Island via the Great Escape. We did an overnighter on the boat, woke up in the morning, and started diving soon after. The first dive site we went to had spectacular vis, probably 60 feet or more. We enjoyed swimming in the kelp forest, looking at all the nudibranchs, fish, a couple sea lions, an eel, and big lobsters. The second dive wasn't really a dive - the crew decided there was too much current and recalled the divers that were in the water. Megan had to do an extra climb up the ladder as she was one of the first in the water and they stopped the rest of us. So we moved on to another site where it really reminded me of the Coronado Islands - lots of urchins, sea stars, a bit more barren with less vis, but we saw quite a few large angel sharks and big sheephead. The final dive of the day was at a location with a ton of sea lions. We spent the first quarter of the dive or so just watching them play all around us. They were pretty much everywhere! Afterward we did some swimming along the island's edge looking for a cave that was supposed to be out there, but never did find it. The sea lions were the highlight of the dive though. After that we had lunch on the 5 hour ride back to dock. It was a nice trip, good to get away and see a new island! What's next?
Charlie, Chris, Charles and I did this dive together into South and Sumner branches. It was swell shark city down there, along with some nudibranchs, rockfish, sculpin, and even a moray eel that I only briefly because a huge sheephead swam into the crack and covered it up! It was a nice evening to dive and summer is definitely about here.
Dan, Megan and I motored from Shelter Island's boat launch to the Train Wheels. It was a nice, flat day out on the ocean. There were a lot of sea lions in the bay and along the way out to the site. The top layer of water was very murky, but down at depth the visibility was nice but it was pretty dark. There was quite the variety of nudibranchs, tons of starfish, and some nice kelpfish. We spent most of the dive in the "crevice" looking at the small stuff. The last picture made me laugh because it was pretty murky at the safety stop where the picture was taken and that was how Dan and Megan looked through my mask there too.
Dave A and I left work early and went and did a dive at La Jolla Shores. It was a really nice dive - 20-30 ft visibility, and lots of things to see out. We saw lots of navanaxes, a small horn shark, nudibranchs, lobsters, crabs, a big halibut, sole, and many other little things. The unfortunate finding was a rotting, dead batray. We had overflight of lots of formation flying pelicans afterwards.
Roee, Stacey, and I went on a weekend flying and camping adventure to Oceano, just south of Pismo Beach and San Luis Obispo. We got great views in the LA area of all the airports since we were up at 10,000 ft on the way up and 9,000 ft on the way back. We even got some unique views looking down at airliners that came under us. In Oceano, we became regulars - going to the same couple restaurants for our meals, and getting to know folks at the airport and seeing the same business vehicles around town. I took an early morning run to the Pismo Beach pier. We got entertainment from watching cars get stuck on the beach and were amazed at how the beach resembled the freeway at rush hour with so many trucks and RVs on it. We rode ATVs out on the sand dunes for a couple hours. It was a fun, relaxing trip, and we need to find more airports nearby that have campgrounds on the field!
These are the handful of pictures I took at Dan's post doctoral defense reception. Thanks to Dan's family for the invitation and hosting the celebration - and of course, a huge congratulations to Dan! (apologies for the grainy-ness of the web photos - I'll get originals to you)
There was supposed to be a huge swell but it never showed up, so Garnet and I at the last minute decided to take the boat to Shelter Island and launch from there. We headed for Train Wheels, and were treated to a fabulous dive! Once again, very cold, but I found a mask, then a boat anchor, and we saw big sheephead, lingcod, the usual assortment of nudibranchs, kelpfish, sea hares, sea cucumbers, colorful anenomes, etc. The coolest part was we had a family of sea lions hanging out with us the whole dive - 5 of them - from the moment we showed up at the site, throughout the dive, and while we had lunch before we departed the area. They are so graceful underwater and fun to play with. I captured a couple good videos, but am still not yet posting videos.
Shauna, Chris, Roee and I met up for a night dive at the Shores. There was a thick red ride layer down to 30 ft, and under that it got nice and clear, and nice and cold. We went looking for a wolf eel that had been reported at Vallecitos Point. We kind of missed Vallecitos Point initially, but made it there eventually. There was no wolf eel to be found. I did find a tiny baby octopus that had to be no bigger than my thumbnail. That was pretty cool. There were a lot of cusk eels out too. It was a nice dive - and the water temp at depth was 30 degrees (51 vs 81) colder than in the tropics the week before!
Went to Sea World with Jodi, Bill and Rob. It was a lot of fun. You can't go to Sea World and not see Shamu, and we ended up seeing both Believe and Shamu Rocks. We also saw the Pets Rules show and got to see many of the exhibitions and displays. It was a lot of fun, and a nice day to be out. My camera even survived the Journey to Atlantis and all the water we plowed into. Lots of good videos, perhaps to be posted someday.
Wow, what a vacation! Garnet, Roee, Charlie, Dave and I took advantage of a totally unbelievable deal on Southwest and flew out to South Florida for a few days of that warm, tropical diving! The first day you couldn't ask for better conditions - clear, warm, calm as can be. We saw all sorts of sea life and I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. We did 4 dives, including the Spiegel Grove, which actually was my 500th dive - not a bad way to accomplish that one. The wreck is so large it makes the Yukon seem like a baby! We had a huge dinner at Cafe Cubano, which we recommend to anyone headed out there. A large storm blew through Sunday night, bringing high winds and even a tornado warning for Miami-Dade County. It kicked up large seas and horrible conditions on Monday, so we called it and decided to head down to Key West to play tourist. We had a fun time exploring the town, and were amused that the sun setting over the water draws a huge crowd. The street performers put on some good shows after sunset. We were particularly amused by the one we ended up at. The night scene in Key West I hadn't seen before, so it was neat to observe. Tuesday we were back in the water for some more great diving. I saw a turtle on the Eagle - that pretty much made my trip. We saw so many other cool things, but that is such a rare sight to me that I had to chase it all the way down to the sand on the wreck of the Eagle to get a decent look. Between dives, I said something I never ever thought I would say - "Let me get back in the water so I can warm up". There was enough of a wind blowing in that 75 degree air that I was cold, and jumping back into 80 degree water fixed that in a hurry. We dove a deep reef with some current running and really enjoyed the variety of stuff it provided. After diving and some pool time, we headed up to Miami Beach to take in that scene. All we can say is beware of restaurants that put out deals that say there may be some restrictions. In particular, we recommened nobody ever go to the Sea Cafe. They run a total scam there and their service is horrible...and they put a big tip in every bill up front. Yeah, don't go there - ever. That more or less marked the end of the festivities on this trip. We loved the lack of a headwind on our flight home and arrived in San Diego 40 minutes ahead of schedule, talking about when we're going to go back and do it again. Anyone else want to join us next time?!
I went up to the Bay Area for a quick weekend trip to visit the family. We went to Sonoma to a place called Train Town on Saturday. The kids seemed to have a good time, though they were a little tired. We drove around Napa afterwards and stopped at a winery. It was a nice, quick weekend getaway.
Garnet and I drove up through some of the worst LA traffic I've seen, a big rainstorm, and met up with Ray and Dave S up in Shafter for the Warbirds in Action Airshow at Minter Airfield. The weather turned real nice for the show, but the previous day's weather had disrupted the schedule since some of the planes came in late. We saw a lot of cool warbirds and had a good time. On Sunday it rained again, and I went down to Redondo Beach to visit Dave T and Terry. We went to Hermosa and Redondo Beach. Afterward, I went to visit Big D at The Ranch - we had a great time catching up and hanging out. I got home late Sunday night in another downpour of rain, just like the trip started. A great weekend!
Roee, Garnet and I did a little flying around town. We did some touch and gos at Montgomery, went down the VFR Corridor, some touch and gos at Brown, and came back to Montgomery IFR. It was a fun day.
Garnet and I went up and met Dave at Shaw's Cove for a couple of dives. It was our first time at the site. It was a bit on the surgy side, but the dive site is pretty cool - there are a lot of things to see and a lot of cool rock formations to swim around. I found a moray eel that thought about eating my camera it came out so far and we saw what may have been the biggest bat ray I have ever seen but it was in a hurry and I couldn't catch up to get a picture of it. Well, I tried and ended up with a picture of green murk that I decided wasn't worth posting. Lots of sea hares, fish, sea stars...it was nice to visit a new site.
Jodi, Bill, Rob and I went to the Padres home opener. It was a fun experience but unfortunately the Padres came up a bit short in a comeback attempt in the bottom of the 9th. We discovered a couple of cool places on 9th Ave. We had dinner at Little Hawaii before the game and after the game went to Java Jones, which is a neat coffee place that just opened a couple days before. Cool places, friendly folks, go check them out! Thanks Jodi and Bill for the invite and getting tickets!
Garnet and I went to the north end of the Point Loma Kelp Beds to Three-Fingers Reef. We decided the site was nice enough that we decided to just stay there and do a second dive. There were lots of big rocks with lots of colors and growth, kelp, and a variety of fish. It was a nice dive site that we'll have to go back and revisit. At the end of the second dive, we encountered a really strong current that made getting back to the boat quite a challenge!
Michelle and I went to Catalina. On the way over there were probably hundreds of dolphins jumping around all around the boat. I don't think I've ever seen so many of them at the same time! We did a couple dives at the Casino Point Underwater Park and a day of diving off the King Neptune. We ended up down near Two Harbors, and learned the reef just outside of there has the most fish you'll see just about anywhere! The visibility was a bit less than normal there, but it was still some nice diving and a fun trip!
I went up to visit family in the Bay Area. We kind of forgot about St. Patrick's Day. We mostly relaxed and did some catching up and played with the kids.
Dave was visiting me from Orange County and we had gone out to breakfast. When we got back to the house, everything changed for the next couple of months. It had been one of the coldest nights in San Diego in a number of years, and it froze over and burst the pipe to the addition to the back of the house. Well, when the water unfroze, it ended up creating a spectacular waterfall into my family room. There was over a half inch of water on the floor when we got to it. I ended up on the news in stories about the deep freeze, and it took a couple of months to get everything fully repaired. I ended up with a new floor throughout the house, and the drywall and ceiling had to be redone. I ended up living in a hotel for about a week and had everything moved out of the house in February while some of the stuff was done. It was quite an ordeal. Thankfully, insurance was good about everything.
Jodi, Bill, Jocelyn, Robert, John, Jeanine and I went to Mammoth for a few days of skiing. We spent the first day skiing in visibility comparable to the visibility I get in the ocean scuba diving in San Diego. Blizzard! The wind was howling and the entire mountain was closed just after 2pm because it was just too dangerous to be out there. Instead, we enjoyed playing lots of drinking games watching the Academy Awards. The next couple days of skiing were much nicer than the first day. We had a very enjoyable time despite the weather. Always good company. Thanks Jeanine for organizing!
I went out to Palm Springs and rode my first century - the Tour de Palm Springs. It was surprising to me that after running races where you get goodie bags, numbers, timing chips, and all sorts of things, at the bike ride they handed out just a wristband and a map. Simple. I highly recommend this ride to anyone looking for an organized ride. The volunteers and aid stations are unbelievable! I can't say enough about how friendly and helpful the volunteers are and how much stuff they give you at the aid stations. People were stopped having lunch at the 52 mile station. The pre-ride pasta dinner the night before was entertaining - bands, auctions, all sorts of things going on. The whole experience was enjoyable even though I had to go all by myself.
Garnet, Michelle and I went out to Wreck Alley on Superbowl Sunday, figuring it wouldn't be too crowded. It was nice out there. We visited the Yukon, and then the NOSC Tower. We were visited by some dolphins during the surface interval, and by a sea lion after the NOSC Tower dive. The Yukon is covered in metridiums and the NOSC Tower in colorful anenomes.
On a really flat day on the ocean, Garnet and I took the boat out to the GPS coordinates for the Train Wheels, not knowing what we would find. Well, we found...train wheels! On the way out, we found a bunch of dolphins, which was a nice way to start the day. The dive site is really nice, with some big vertical walls and lots of growth and color, along with a nice kelp forest on top with a variety of fish. Too bad the camera ran out of batteries during the dive. On the way back, we found a couple whales. The water was so calm there were a lot of boats out whale watching.
After the Carlsbad Half, Michelle and I went diving at La Jolla Shores. We went around Vallecitos Point, and had a nice dive. There were a couple nice octopus that gave some photo ops.
I ran the Carlsbad Half Marathon, which was kind of a disaster. I almost missed the start of the race because I got stuck in some serious traffic. Then the race itself didn't go all that well since I felt pretty awful the whole way, but I made it! Afterwards a group of us went out to eat breakfast, which was by far the best part of the whole experience!
Dan, Megan and I went for a night dive at the Shores to check out the collapsed walls and check out the new terrain. We were greeted by several horn sharks as we swam around, saw a couple octopus in holes in parts of the wall that weren't affected, and saw quite a few other cool things along the way. The walls to the north weren't really affected that much, but to the south it is quite different.
I flew to Chicago on New Year's Eve and welcomed in 2007 on the Navy Pier watching the fireworks over Lake Michigan. It was actually warmer there than it was in San Diego at the time, surprisingly. There was a cool thing called Winter Wonderfest that was going on at the Navy Pier. I went for a run on New Year's Day and saw what used to be Meigs Field that is now a park that doesn't look that appealing. How sad. I spent New Year's Day at the Museum of Science and Industry before flying home at night.