Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!  Went into work this morning from 8-12 to feed the seahorses and the mola mola and then headed back home to open presents.  Got to open presents out on the porch in the 65 degree sunshine with A Christmas Story playing in the background.  Got a bunch of great gifts from the fam back east and now just chillaxin till dinner later tonight.

I hope everyone is having a very Merry Christmas!!!

Ride #2

Went for my 2nd ride this morning out to Pebble Beach.  We ended up going 40 miles, doubling my mileage of my first ride!  It was a gorgeous morning with the sun shining, the wind blowing, and the whales just a mile or so offshore.  We went from Seaside down the bike path through Monterey, into Pacific Grove to Asilomar and all the way through 17-mile drive just past Pebble Beach, turned around and headed back to Seaside.  It was exactly 40 miles and my legs were feeling it pretty good on the hills those last 5 miles.  It was fun and a great workout and I look forward to going even further next time!!

Borrowed Wheels

I borrowed a road bike from some friends down the street, a couple that Megan met through the running group in town.  I got to try it out for the first time this past Saturday morning and outside of the 38 degree weather it was pretty fun.  We went 16 miles, hit a couple of hills, and stopped for breakfast with some friends on the way.  We will be going out again this weekend too but for at least 20-30 miles this time!

Thanks Jan for getting it all sized up for me!

Happy Holidays!

This is the first Christmas I will be spending away from my family.  It is quite depressing actually but I'm a very lucky person and have a special someone to be spending the holidays with instead.  It's been a hectic week trying to make sure that I order all of the presents in time for them to get sent to the east coast.  And the past couple of weeks have been filled with holiday parties and junk food!!!  I cannot wait to start training again after Christmas.

Here are some pics from the past couple of parties:

Revised Movie List

I'm making some necessary updates to my all-time fav Christmas movie list (ref: 2010 List) with just a few changes.  First off, after watching Elf a number of times already this season I've decided that it is more than qualified to move up a few rungs on my ladder.  I think Will Ferrell is absolutely hilarious and I could literally watch this movie every single day during the Christmas season.

"Santa, here??  I know him.  I know him!"
"Buddy, how are we gonna get the star on the top?"

This movie truly embodies the spirit of Christmas and makes you appreciate your family and loved ones that you have in your life and are lucky enough to spend the holidays with.  Elf you have now moved from #6 up to #3.  What about A Christmas Story you ask?  Well unfortunately that has moved down a couple of spots to number 4 with A Charlie Brown Christmas making its way up to #2, congrats Charlie Brown; of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you're the Charlie Browniest!

So the 2011 List is as follows:

1. How the Grinch Stole Christmas

2. A Charlie Brown Christmas

3. Elf

4. A Christmas Story

5. Christmas Vacation

6. It's a Wonderful Life

7. Home Alone

8. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Jim Carrey)

9. The Santa ClausE

10. Gremlins

One good thing is that I have watched the Polar Express, a movie that I had never seen before and I thought it was pretty good.  It would be even better in an IMAX theater but it was still a good movie.  Unfortunately I don't think any of my "Almost Made It" movies are going to move up but if any of them have a shot it's probably Rudolph since I honestly cannot remember the last time I watched Gremlins.  And I just watched Rudolph last week!

Less than 2 weeks!  Happy Holidays!

Party Season!

With the holidays among us there have already been a number of holiday parties with a handful more in the coming weeks.  This past Wednesday was my department's holiday party, held at the Heritage Harbor Conference Room which is technically a part of the aquarium but on the other side of town.  It was a pretty nice party with a lot of good food and apps and a TON of desserts.  We could only stay for a little over an hour though because the Relay for Life Kickoff event was the same night so, being on the committee, I had to attend.

Then last night we went to a friend from work's holiday cocktail party as well and had a blast!  This week we've already got 3 parties lined up; one's a running club party, then an ugly sweater party and one of Megan's friends is having one on Sunday.

Happy Holidays!!

Family Visit

My sister and her friend Kortnie came to visit me last weekend and we had a blast.  They flew in Thursday night with a box full of canolis from Mike's Pastry!  Thanks Dad for picking those up and to Betz for making sure they made it safely across the country!

Friday morning we got up and went into the city of San Fran.  We got to see a lot of touristy locals like the Painted Ladies, Union Square, China Town, North Beach, we walked up Lombard Street to Coit Tower, down the Embarcadero to Pier 39, and ended at Ghirardelli Square.  We then took a cable car back to Union Square and saw the tree all lit up and then jumped in the car and headed back to Monterey.

Saturday we went out to breakfast at my fav place the Old Monterey Cafe on Alvarado St.  From there we did the 17-mile drive and had lunch at Pebble Beach (thanks for my $26 salad Betz!) We went into Carmel after that scenic tour ended and Betz and Kort were able to do some window shopping.  Megan and I headed back to Monterey for a bit to get some stuff done and then met up with Betz a little bit later but not much else went on that night; although I did enjoy a couple of delicious pizzas from Giannis...I guess nobody else was hungry!

Sunday they came into work and I showed them around the aquarium.  They got to help me feed the octopus and Betz had a pretty close encounter with the younger female.  She will tell you she was attacked but what really happened was that as she was about to feed the octo chased after a couple of rockfish, scared them up on the side of the tank, and then proceded to grab one and eat it right there in front of us!!!  Betz's high-pitched scream outweighed my laughter and amazement.  It was a pretty incredible experience that I had never seen before.

After we were done walking around the aquarium we went to the local sushi place on Lighthouse Ave called Crystal Fish.  That way the girls got their California sushi.  But that was the last trip on the tour of Monterey and we had to head north to the airport from here.  It was a very brief trip but absolutely great to see my sister who I miss terribly!

Turkey Day Weekend!

I hope everyone had a great Turkey Day!  We went to a couple of different places after I worked from 7-2.  The first place we went to was a friend of Megan's here in Monterey.  We had a very 'California' dinner with sushi, veggie kabobs, avacado salad, veggie soup, and then some apps.  It was all very good but a much different Thanksgiving dinner than I'm used to.  Thankfully we got to my friend Heather's place later that evening and had our turkey, stuffing, scalloped potatoes, cornbread, mashed potatoes, brocolli casserole, and a bunch of other amazing foods as well!!!  I even made an apple pie and a chocolate pie...delicious!

Overall it was a pretty darn good holiday.  I got to talk to the fam at night and we even wore our turkey hats that my sister sent us...thanks Betz, they were a huge hit!  On to the Christmas season!

Post-Race

I'm so happy when my body lets me know that I'm alive...through the throbbing and shooting pain up my calves!!!  But luckily it is only my calves that are tight/sore today, everything else feels great.  I don't have any quad issues, hamstring issues, shoulder issues, my body feels amazing outside of the lower legs, which I pretty much expected anyway.  I'm ready to rock out another race soon though so I need these limbs to heal up quickly so I can get back out there and ride the high mileage I've been putting on them.  As for future races there's a possibility of a 10k in a couple of weeks and then a slew of races in January to choose from.  If I'm feeling back in form I'll probably run the 10k just to see how I do since I don't know if I've ever run one.  And then in January or February it's time for another half-marathon and whatever else I jump into!  I love that I'm hyped up about it again, such a great feeling.

And with the Pats destruction of the Chiefs tonight (we don't need to talk about the 1st quarter) it is a great evening!

Life is good...

Big Sur International Half Marathon

Over and done with, finally!  With all of the worrying about the weather it turned out to be an outstanding day for a race, even getting hot at one point but mainly sunny and cool.  I ran my fastest race I've ever ran for this distance setting a PR of 1:30:13!  This beat my previous PR of 1:35:06.  I won't say I felt great the entire race, my calves were tight for the majority of it, but I definitely pushed myself throughout all 13 and if I coulda hit the small hills a little harder I could have broke 90 minutes.  I had a enough push left at the end though to pass a bunch of people and finish strong.  This was a great way to re-motivate myself because I honestly was not sure I could keep up this pace for all 13 and now that I know I'm capable of it I'm ready to go out there and beat it.  I'm very glad that the hard work paid off.  I'm ready to take a short break, let my legs heal up a bit and then get out and get going again!

Race Weekend

Race weekend is finally upon us!  Only a couple more days (44 hours I think) until the gun goes off.   The weather is not looking promising at this point, rainy and cold but that won't stop the race from happening.  It hopefully won't be as cold as my first marathon with rain, sleet, and 40 degree weather; it should at least be in the 50s but the sun doesn't even rise until 10 minutes before the start.  I'm still thinking positively that the rain will hold off until after we are done so cross your fingers for all of us!

Today I went for my last run before the race, a nice easy 3.2 and tomorrow I'll rest all day and try not to think about Sunday.  The expo for the race is from 12-6 this afternoon so I'll go pick up my packet, shirt, and any other goodies they have for us.

It's gonna be an exciting weekend!

Relax!

My post yesterday caused some concern and it was not meant to.  A friend of mine and I were discussing this topic as she is also from the east coast and has frustrations with some of the west coast peeps we are around from time to time.  I did not get in to any fights, arguments, or strong discussions with anyone and was just voicing an opinion of mine.

Please don't worry, I'm a big boy!

East Side!!!  Go Pats!

East vs West

The granola, tree-hugging, over-sensitive, pot-smoking, peace be with you, let us all be friends attitudes of these west coast sissies is starting to get really annoying.  I'm tired of being told I'm mean, rude, don't care enough and too sarcastic.  Maybe all you Californians should toughen up a little bit, grow a set, do some hard work sometime, and get your damn job done instead of complaining all the time.  I'm from the East Coast where things move a lot faster, we work a lot harder, look for conflict because we find it entertaining, our pizza is better, we are die hard sports fans and we don't eat avocados with EVERYTHING!

Suck it up buttercup!

http://www.greenbook.org/marketing-research.cfm/east-coast-versus-west-coast-stereotypes

http://www.holytaco.com/drunken-argument-friday-east-coast-vs-west-coast/

Sweet Victory

Nothing beats a Patriots win over the J-E-T-S SUCK SUCK SUCK!  Not the prettiest game at first but the defense came to play today with Andre Carter's 4.5 sacks (Patriot's record) and Ninkovich's 2 INT along with offensive help by the monster Gronkowski.  Things looked pretty good in the second half as Brady turned it around and they kept the Jets defense on the field and tired.  Another record set today was by Belichick/Brady with 117 wins, making them the winningest coach/QB tandem in history.

Next up: Kansas City Chiefs at home on MNF

Go Pats!

Patriots vs Jets

Tonight the Patriots enter the Meadowlands, aka MetLife Park in New Jersey to take on the New York Jets for the 2nd time this season.  This should be a pretty good game with the Patriots having one of the best offenses against the Jets' strong defense.  The Pats have been struggling as of late on both sides of the ball but need to step it up tonight in order to take sole possession of the AFC East.

Go Pats!

Costume Winners

There was one bonus of dressing up like Ken and Barbie for Halloween and that was that we won an online costume contest on Facebook.  Prize??  We won two tickets to the Best of Blue festival this afternoon from 1-4 at the Del Monte Hangar at the Monterey Airport.  This is an event with 50 wineries from the area along with several food trucks handing out samples along with selling full meals.

It was pretty fun, the food was great and we even saw the KION News weather girl, Tamara Berg..no I didn't get my picture taken with her :(

Thanks to Megan for entering us, I can't believe we won!

Rain Go Away

Had a Relay for Life meeting last night to talk about our 2012 goals for teams, money, number of survivors, committee members, etc.  It went pretty well and even though there weren't a great number of us, those of us that were there are all psyched and ready to get this show on the road.  Our next meeting is our Kickoff meeting the first week of December which is where we invite all of the past captains, participants, sponsors, and survivors to join us for a get-together and introduce ourselves.

This morning I woke up to the sound of rain which isn't going anywhere for a few days.  This means I probably won't get out for a run but might hit up the gym and use the treadmill instead.  It's also Veteran's Day today so a big thank you to all of our service men and women, our vets that have fought long and hard since WW1 and hope we take this day (as we should everyday) to remember those that have made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedom.

God Bless America!!

Dive Crazy

Got to go diving in the Monterey Bay Habitats exhibit today.  Bret and I did the 7-Gill feed and then a brief maintenance dive afterwards.  We were in the water for 69 minutes and the water was probably around 57 degrees.  In case I haven't talked about the 7-Gill feeding dives before it is when two divers go in and pole-feed the 7-Gill sharks, hand feed the dogfish, leopard sharks, bat rays, and giant sea bass and broadcast food around the exhibit for the rockfish.  This dive takes around 40 or so minutes now that we have to try and feed the bat rays.  After the feeding dive was done we cleaned a couple of areas in the exhibit and 69 minutes later we were frozen and running low on air so we had to call it a day.

The rest of the afternoon was a bit hectic as I only got about 20 mins to mow down some food and then had to meet with my boss for an hour to catch up on a few things.  After that I got to feed the smaller molas we have in holding and that was pretty much the end of my work day.  There was a going away 'party' for a woman who had been working in husbandry for many, many years and is now unfortunately battling cancer.  She'll still be around in a volunteer guide capacity helping out the public and such and told me that if I didn't say hi to her on those Thursdays that she'd kick me!

I had to get in a run straight from work and left around 5:20 in the direction of the running club that was leaving for their run at 5:30.  I eventually caught them as they were running towards me and we headed off for a pretty quick run, 6 miles for me in total.  Only 11 more days till race day and I'm feeling pretty good about it.  I'll probably get a couple easy runs in and a longer one Saturday.

One more day left to the work week!

Good Coach Lombardi Quotes:

• "Mental toughness is essential to success."

• "The difference between a successful person and others in not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will."

• "I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle-victorious."

Too Perfect

Found this excerpt from Wingshooters (page 81) on my desk this morning:

"But when I did connect, when the ball hit the center of the barrel of the bat and flew out into the field, I felt a sense of joy and freedom as powerful and true as anything I've ever experienced.  If you have never felt the resistance and connection of a bat hitting a baseball; if you have not heard the crack of the bat split an autumn afternoon; if you have not watched the ball sail through the open air and settle into the fresh-cut grass, you have missed one of life's purest feelings of achievement.  Hitting a ball is like catching a piece of the sky and sending it back up to itself.  It's like creating your own crack of thunder.  And stopping a ball -- especially a grounder you have to reach for, or a line drive that should have flown past  your glove -- is like catching a bolt of lightning."

How perfect is that paragraph huh?  If you have never played the game of baseball and don't understand or cannot relate to these words then trust me when I say this description is spot on, perfect.  I miss playing baseball and I miss playing as a kid in the fall with the crisp autumn air and stopping that line drive at third base or hitting the ball on the sweet spot.  I played ball from when I was about 6 years old until I was 18, then a few years in college, and one season when I was living in Florida at age 26.  I might not have been the greatest ballplayer but I never loved playing a sport as much as I did baseball.  I never understood a game better than I do baseball.  I cherish the history of the game and how it has evolved from the late 1800s up till the present day and get upset when these overpaid athletes cry, whine, complain, and gripe about not getting paid enough or not getting enough time in the field because I would give anything to play even for just one day in the major leagues.  I wish ballplayers of today had the heart and soul of the old timers that would pitch double headers, play in the rain, play for the love of the game and not the paycheck that was handed to them. 

Nowadays you can't get a pitcher to go a complete game and you can't get a guy off the D.L. unless his agent tells him it's ok to do so.  Back then they played because they all thought they were the best and they wanted to go out and prove it to everyone else.  They woulda played for peanuts if they had to; only to go out there on the last day of the season, take on a double header with an average of .399 (would have been rounded up) and not care about the stats but instead go out, risk it and go 6-8 and finish out the season with a .406 average.  You tell me which player today would play the last game of the season if he was hitting .400??  Nobody...only Ted Williams.

Some people say baseball's not a true sport because they're all too busy eating fried chicken, drinking beer and playing video games in the dugout.  To them I say try and hit a fastball, attempt a curveball, catch a line drive or even just a pop-up, steal a base, strategize about how to get runners home, pitch nine innings, try walking off the field after making an error or the most amazing play ever...then tell me you aren't playing a sport.

Some good Ted Williams quotes:

"A man has to have goals - for a day, for a lifetime - and that was mine, to have people say, 'There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived."

"Baseball gives every American boy a chance to excel, not just to be as good as someone else but to be better than someone else. This is the nature of man and the name of the game."

"If I was being paid thirty-thousand dollars a year, the very least I could do was hit .400."

Case of the Mondays

Busy day at work today with a bunch of people out all week on a collecting trip in Catalina.  I got to dip my toes in jellies again but still had a lot of seahorse stuff to get done before my coworkers get back tomorrow from Chicago.  One positive from the day was that we now have Zebrasnout Seahorse babies!!  Only ten of them but still pretty good news considering this is a species that I have never seen reproduce before.

Had my last speed workout today before the race which is on the 20th.  Next week I'll just be doing a bunch of easier runs along with a lot of icing and maybe some rest.  This week I'll finish off my normal runs with an easy run tomorrow, a tempo run Wednesday, easy Friday and a shorter long run Saturday.

I hope everyone's week is starting off well!

Daily Updates

So I've been keeping this blog for over a year now and only been writing when I have gone on some awesome experience, ran a race, traveled somewhere and whatnot.  Recently though I've been so busy with work and training that I haven't really been getting out and about on any big adventures, somewhat limiting my inspiration for writing to you all.  To change that I will be writing something every day to keep you up to date on at least one thing I've done during the day.  This may be just a picture, a quote/joke, a frustration, feeling, a real quick work update, etc. but it'll at least be something.  And also don't forget that I can be followed on Twitter as well (@imcpayne).

Today's quick note:
11/6/11

Got to dive in the Monterey Bay Habitat this afternoon to do the 7-Gill feed with my friend Erin, who is the gallery owner of the exhibit.  We were in the water for 47 minutes and the sharks ate really well, all of the rockfish were active and we even got the bat rays to feed!  It was a long, cold dive but it went really well.  After the dive I got myself a coffee and a sandwich and continued on with my day.  This evening Megan made a very delicious dinner and then we went and soaked our legs in the hot tub.  We came back and had some Ben and Jerrys, watched some tv and now I'm off to bed.  Thankfully I was unable to watch the Pats upsetting loss this afternoon...2 in a row going into the Jets huh??  Awesome!

Quote of Day:
"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."
- E.E. Cummings

Relay for Life California 2011

I got back from another Relay for Life conference on Saturday called the Relay Committee Academy in Gilroy.  It was pretty much the exact same stuff I learned at the conference in Anaheim a month earlier but on a much smaller scale.  This one was just for the relays in the Silicon Coastal North region, about 15 or so relays.  I learned a few new things and a couple new ideas but they also went over the final numbers for the state of California (not each individual team, but just the state as a whole).

I did find out the week beforehand though that my team, West Coast Family Ties raised $3,515.50!!!  That was 3x our original goal and we are aiming even higher this coming year.  A ginormous thanks to everyone who helped us achieve that number last year!!!  The fundraising has already begun for 2012 and ANY help would take us a LONG way!  You can also join our team as a VIRTUAL TEAMMATE and even if you are on the other side of the country you can join up with our team and start raising your own money...give it a try, the more the merrier!!!

nk you to all the volunteers, donors, supporters, and survivors who helped to make this year a success!

$31.7 Million raised 427 Relay For Life events 32,275 Cancer Survivors honored 214,572 Participants 16,960 Teams

Seinfeld

As a (very) belated bday gift for Megan I took her to see Jerry Seinfeld who was performing here in Monterey last weekend.  It was worth every dime.  Mario Joyner opened up for him and was also pretty funny.  Mario Joyner has been in a bunch of different movies and tv shows but never as a lead actor.  Jerry came on after 30 minutes of Mario and he came out swinging!

He started off by talking about how much of a process it is to physically end up at a comedy show...the purchasing of the tickets, finding people to go with you, where's the venue, where to park, what to eat beforehand, what to do afterwards, where are we gonna sit, etc...and that every person at some point was realizing how much of a pain in the ass this entire process is!!!

He covered other topics such as energy drinks (5 hour, redbull, coffee), social media (FB/twitter), playing shows in small towns, being a dad, playing golf (or NOT playing) and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember.

Some Memorable Quotes (not exactly word for word but you get it)
- Facebook is really whoring out the word book.  As if Tommy and Donna's drunken vacation to Cabo is anything like Moby Dick!
- Talking about coffee: Yeah go off and enjoy your 3rd world dirty bean water!
- I hate it when I go to a new town/city and some [pause for moron yelling out the name of a local restaurant]...A-hole tries to tell me a GREAT place to go eat...You gotta go here, it's GREAT!!!  It's never great...it's never even really that good.  Have you ever been caught between that place where something is great and crappy at the same time??  You go to a ball game, get a cold hot dog on a bun that's not toasted from an ex-con...what do you say when you eat it???  This is GREAT!!!
- 5HR energy:  Why do we need 5 hours of energy?  Who's working from 1-6???  And why is it so small?  As if you are SOOOO tired, all you can physically handle is something THIS small.

I'm having trouble remembering a bunch of other stuff but as it comes to me I'll keep making additions.  He was absolutely hilarious though and had me off my seat for the hour he was performing.  I highly recommend going to see him if you get the chance!

Halloween is Here!!

The Halloween season is here and as one of my favorite times of the year I will be attending at least three costume parties!!!  I'm pretty sure I'll be going as the same thing to all of them as the audiences will most likely be different.  The original idea was for me to be Superman (up there in the mix of my fav. superhero) and Megan was going to go as kryptonite.  Unfortunately for us a Superman costume was harder to find than expected and had I ordered it online it wouldn't have arrived before our first party.  SO the second idea was from Megan and she wanted to do a Barbie and Ken theme with the possibility of adding her friend Mel to the mix.

At first I was a bit hesitant but then thought well if we are going to do that then we've gotta have a sub-theme as well.  At first it was going to be Barbie and the Rockers but then I suggested doing Barbie and Ken from Toy Story 3.  If you haven't seen the movie don't worry I'll post the clip on here.  Anyway, we went to Goodwill to find either rocker costumes or Toy Story costumes and Megan immediately landed a solid piece of the Toy Story Barbie, so that's what we went with.  After a couple more stores to add some final touches we came up with this:

What you cannot see are Barbie's bright pink high heels!!!

We went to our first party on Friday night; it wasn't a late night as Barbie had a 100-mile (yes 100 MILE) bike ride Saturday morning and I had a 14 mile run.  We will most likely be attending another party this Friday and then one on Monday, Halloween day.  I've been told that I need to show more chest and I also need to pop my collar more...by Monday we'll be totally in character!

It's Official!

I am officially a California resident.  It only took a bit over a year but I finally caved and got my license and new Cali plates.  Technically I don't have the license yet but it should be in the mail this week or next.  I had to take a 36-question written exam that I thankfully passed but that was the only thing that took long.  This is the Focus' 3rd state plate in 6 years and is not the 4th only because I moved out of New Hampshire right before I was going to go get it.  The Focus has almost 140,000 miles on it and still going strong (knock on wood) but hopefully will not be taking any other state plates anytime soon.

Long 4 Weeks!

Boy have I been busy over the last four weeks.  Since it's been a while I'm going with the Cliff Notes version of my last month...I got back from Hawaii on the 12th.  That trip ended on a very high note as my last small boat fishing trip involved a plethora of fish, one last tiger shark, and of course getting snagged on the giant island of Hawaii.  I got back from Oahu later in the evening on a Monday night and had to be back at work Tuesday morning.  That first week back was tough catching up on everything, including sleep but it was also very nice to be back to reality.  I think I was getting too comfortable with life on the ship so the timing was perfect for a reality check.

The following weekend, Sept 16-17 Megan and I drove up to Lake Tahoe for the Tough Mudder, Nor Cal.
She was volunteering and I was running the race on Saturday the 17th along with my friend Brad who I know from college.  We ran together at UNE for a couple of years and this was the first race since then.  I can't really call this a race because it was a team event that was untimed.  There were 8 of us and we tried staying together as a team but half of our team was incredibly out of shape and probably shouldn't have been doing this event.  After mile 5 it was just 4 of us and that's pretty much how we finished it out.  It was 12 miles long up a mountain climbing in elevation from ~6000ft - 9000ft.  The obstacles themselves weren't very tough and involved anything from jumping into an ice bath, 10,000 volt wires, a 15-ft. plunge, wall climbs, barbed wire, and even some snow!  It was a great time, I'm glad I did it, but it was more hype than tough and I probably wouldn't do one again.

The weekend after that was the California Relay for Life Summit in Anaheim.  Each team in the state sent two representatives from their committee to this conference.  I was asked to go and represent the Team Development member of our Monterey Peninsula Relay.  This 2-day conference was such an experience.  I truly wish I could be around people with the same positivity all the time!  There was a lot of information thrown at us but I learned a ton about working with team captains, my teammates, sponsors, and how to fund raise more efficiently.  At times it was an emotional rollercoaster due to the speakers and stories that were being shared but there was a ton of energy with over 900 people together for the same cause...more birthdays!  Please help me out again this year by donating to West Coast Family Ties!!!

The next weekend was a long, somewhat brutal hike from Big Sur Station into Sykes Hot Springs.  Megan and I had never been backpacking before and this was one heck of a way to get started.  I had run 10 miles in the morning before we left which didn't help much.  It was 10 miles in and took about 5 hours to traverse this huge mountain and get down to the river.  It was a bit frustrating at times but luckily we didn't kill each other, we eventually landed a place to pitch our tent and then enjoyed the hot, sulfur-smelling water for a while before heading to bed.  We awoke at 6:30 and did it all over again only the way back was only 4 hours.      We were exhausted when we got back and it was nice to have gotten it done but we probably won't be doing it again.

This past weekend was the first weekend I had to just relax and not worry about having to be anywhere at all.  So Friday was a chill day and yesterday we took out the stand-up paddleboards and then I chillaxed the rest of the day...so THAT is a quick summary of what I've been up to over the last 4 weeks.  California still amazes me every time I get to go out on a new adventure...

Life is Good!

up next: It's Official!

Patience

Sorry to whoever has been awaiting more blogging...I've been wicked busy trying to get caught up on life since I got back last Monday.  I'm going to try to get some done either tonight or tomorrow.  You can always sign up to get these through your email so you don't have to keep checking back...and make sure you start officially "Following" the blog as well.

Thanks for your patience and I'll be back soon I promise!!!

Epilogue

My perfect day continued on with a lull in the fishing for a while after all of the excitement.  It did pick up again though and I managed to land 6 fish before we packed up the bait and started to head back to the ship.  On our way back though we wanted to do some trolling so Kurt, the local fisherman on board let a line out on his regular rig and was trying for small yellowfin tuna, shibi.  They are all over the area and cause quite a stir at the surface so they're easy to find.  He hooked up immediately and then let me reel it in so I could feel what it was like.  I got that one to the boat and I'm counting that as my #7 on the day! 

He let me cast out again and same deal, hit right away only this time, just seconds after the tuna hit the line I saw this big red splash and then a large tail flip out of the water and splash down...a shark had just hit the tuna!!  I couldn't believe it.  Kurt starts yelling to reel it in as fast as I can so that he doesn't lose his lure so I'm reeling it in and the shark is chasing after it!  The head of the tuna is still attached to the hook and the damn shark is coming straight for the boat.  It got close enough to determine that it wasn't a tiger shark but we couldn't tell exactly what species it was.  I got the lure on board with the head of the tuna attached (picture to follow once I get back) and everyone found that to be quite amusing.  I put another line out but that same shark hit it again, putting up a great fight but eventually it took the lure and broke the line.  Although Kurt had just lost a $20 lure he was still in good spirits and said that's fishing.

We got back on the Sette a little bit later and my day improved even more with a phone call to Megan and while telling her about everything a pod of Pilot Whales swam by, one younger one was even breaching for me.  It was an absolutely perfect day. 

Life is good...

My Fishing Story

Most fishermen (and women) have that one story they like to tell, the one that blows all other fishing stories of theirs away and one that over time goes from a three minute recollection to an epic tale between man and animal.  I don't fish very much and definitely do not call myself a fisherman at all. Im just a guy who is lucky enough to do what he loves and that happens to involve fish and when I am extremely fortunate, fishing.  Today I got to go fishing...today I got my fishing story.

Instead of staying on the ship to help with the normal plankton tows I was asked to help out on the smaller boat fishing surveys. It is bottom fishing that is focusing on a species of snapper, opakapaka.  Other large bottom fish are sampled as well but that is the main catch. We got lowered off of the main vessel and took off in our 16' speed boats with twin 90 Hondas on the back. Once we found our spot we put in and waited to see if any fish were around. I caught the first two fish of the day, two Uku. Things then started to die down for a bit as a dolphin was checking things out and even stole a fish from us.

We moved away from the dolphin and eventually we started to get going again.  I let my line down and after a few minutes or so felt a tug.  I hit the auto reel and anxiously awaited my mystery catch as it travelled the 500+ feet to the surface.  Just as we started to see the catch a silvery sheen appeared to be following it. This shiny blur started to take shape into something we all started to recognize. And even though I was trying to concentrate on the fish coming up I couldn't take my eyes off what ended up being a ten foot tiger shark chasing after my catch!

"It's a tiger shark!," I yelled.  "Get the fish, get the fish.  Grab the line! Don't let it get the fish!," is all I kept hearing.  I grabbed the line and pulled up as fast as I could as the shark swam up only a couple feet from the boat.  It wasn't swimming very fast and I'm pretty sure that if it wanted the fish it would have taken it.  The enthusiasm that had been building up inside all afternoon finally erupted as I couldn't believe what just happened.  My initial thought was how much I couldn't wait to tell my dad.  I expressed these feelings to the other guys on board and the captain then proceeded to pull out his cell phone.  "Call your dad.  Tell him what happened," he said to me as he handed me the phone.  So I called my dad and told him about my insane afternoon and he was the first person to hear my fishing story.

This was the fish I pulled up!

And that was just the beginning of one of the best days I've ever had...

Shell-less Snail?

Wednesday we found a pelagic nudibranch,  in a bunch of our tows. I'm sure most of you aren't familiar with nudibranchs, nevermind pelagic ones but they are some of the cooler marine animals you will ever see. A very simple explanation is that it is a snail without the shell. And this particular one is a more pelagic rather than benthic animal.

I had never seen a pelagic nudibranch before and it absolutely blew me away. The colors of blue that were covering it were mesmerizing. We were able to take a lot of pictures of one of them before letting it go. Very cool stuff!

Pelagic Hippo!

Yesterday we caught our first seahorse. I am not 100% sure of its species but we are thinking Hippocampus fisheri.  It is a pelagic seahorse which means it swims and drifts through the ocean instead of its benthic cousins that hang out on plants and reefs.

As of this morning it is still alive and kicking. It is even trying to feed on live copepods we caught in our nets. We wont bring it back to the aquarium unless we find more and it has a purpose. Otherwise we will take a ton of notes, pictures, video and try to gain an understanding for how this species lives.  I'll keep you all updated on its status.

First Cobb Trawl

Last night was our first Cobb Trawl of the trip. Basically we throw a big net behind the boat at certain depths for a couple of hours and see what we can catch. From an aquarium stand point we are looking for jellies and cookie cutter sharks, a rare and difficult species to hold in marine aquaria.

This trawl pulled up a lot of interesting fish and onsets but no jellies of interest and no sharks. We caught a lot of squid, shrimp, lantern fish, a hatchet fish, some flatfish, lizardfish, some box jellies and pelagic tunicates. You can google all of these fish if you're interested. What we caught we all in the smaller larval to juvenile stages. We even caught a couple of leptocephalus larvae; one that was almost a meter!

Our night lighting attempt was of no success either but we will try again tonight. So far this morning we have already caught a couple of jellies we are going to try and get larvae from onboard. We just launched the second tow so I will keep you informed as to how the day goes.  The wind is picking up wicked so hopefully that won't effect our catch at all.

Plankton Tows

Just off the big island doing some plankton tows. We've been catching a lot of larval fish and inverts. The water is an indescribable blue color and clear as day. We are doing a tow every hour until about 4.  Tonight we are going to start with our larger trawls and bring in some bigger animals.

This morning I got to use the treadmill before we got started. I only had time for a couple of miles but it was better than nothing. Its a sauna though in the "gym" so we'll see how much I get down there. With all of the food they're feeding us though I better keep running or I'm gonna be gaining a few pounds. We even had strawberry shortcake for dinner; how's a man supposed to pass that up?!

Ok back to work.  I'll let you know if we catch anything cool tonight!

Bon Voyage!

Just got on board and loaded all our gear onto the Sette. Now we are just hanging around for a bit, getting used to the ship and we should be getting underway in about an hour. It has internet access but mainly just for email.  There is an exercise room so I will hopefully get some running in. There is also a tv room and a theater room and we have a cable hookup so hopefully I wont miss the Pats opener! This is gonna be a great experience and cannot wait to start catching fish!

Kona Brewing Co.

View from KBC.  Had to eat some apps to hold us over before dinner. We hadn't eaten all day. Went to the aquarium before the brewing co.  Small place but still a pretty nice aquarium. 

Off(shore) I Go!

Headed off to Hawaii tomorrow morning for 17 days.  I will be on the NOAA ship Oscar Elton Sette for a 15-day trawling cruise off of Kona.  I fly into Honolulu sometime in the afternoon tomorrow and then have to get settled, put our stuff on the ship and then we are headed to dinner and hanging out Saturday night.  We get on the ship around 1:00 Sunday afternoon and then we'll be on board for 15 days.  I'm going with a guy from work and we are piggy-backing on a trip that will be doing mid-water and surface trawling, looking for fish larvae, cookie cutter sharks, jelly fish and whatever else we can find.

We get off the ship on Sunday September 11 and then fly back to Monterey on Monday afternoon.  I'll be sure to take a TON of pictures and keep a journal so I don't forget anything when I blog about it when I get back.

Aloha!

Chris

What SUP?

Get it???  Drove down to SoCal Thursday night to pick up a couple of used stand-up paddleboards.  Our initial stop was in Irvine, only about 6 hours south of Monterey.  We stayed at a friend of Megan's for the night and then kept going south Friday morning.  We had to pick the boards up in Oceanside, another 45 mins south at around 12:30.  We got down there at 11:00AM so we had some time to relax at the beach and enjoy the sun we hadn't seen in a long time.

12:30 came and we arrived at the place we were picking up the boards with some butterflies in the stomach due to the uncertainty of the condition of them and whether or not this was a good idea.  After checking out the boards though we decided to go for it and now we own our own personal stand-up paddleboards!  They are foam boards that came with a leash and paddle and I strapped them to the top of Megan's Forrester with about 50' of rope; they weren't going anywhere!

From Oceanside we kept traveling further south to San Diego, another 45 minutes.  We stopped at Coronado Beach at the Hotel del Coronado and waited until my friend Mike was home from work.  We got to their place around 4, caught up, cooked out and then went to the Padres game.  The Padres were playing the Marlins.  We had pretty good seats and the Padres managed to pull off a victory!  We only stayed this one night in SD and had to head back north Saturday morning.  It was a nice abbreviated trip but well worth it if not only for the sun alone.  We made it back to Monterey safe and sound with the boards in one piece and even though it took me almost 25 minutes to untie them from the roof, I'm glad I went that extra mile to secure them.  It pays off to have boating experience!!!

I'm feeling more and more Californian every day!  Life is good...

Quick Catch Up

I haven't written in a while so I thought I'd do a quick re-cap of the last couple weeks.  After getting home from my insane vacation I had one of my best weekends here in Monterey.  On the Wednesday after I got back I went to see E.T. in the outdoor theater in Carmel!  E.T. was supposedly the first movie I ever saw in the theater and has been a life-long theme of mine in my family growing up.  It is still a movie I love dearly and what a great way to finally see it in a theater.  I brought my Reese's Pieces for everyone to enjoy and despite it being Spielberg's re-do of the movie with a bunch of new scenes, a CGI E.T. and no guns it was still a great night.

That Friday night I finally got brave enough to go ocean swimming!  There is a group in town called the Kelp Krawlers that go swimming a few times each week.  On Fridays they meet at Lover's Point in Pacific Grove (only 10 mins from my place) and swim about 1/2 mile or so through the kelp.  It was quite an experience swimming through kelp and wasn't easy.  The water wasn't as cold as I thought I'd be and my brand new wetsuit kept me very warm and buoyant.  It was a good first swim and now I've been a few other times since.  I swam 1 1/4 miles on the Tuesday night swim following this Friday one, the furthest I'd ever swam.  The Tuesday night swims are at a different spot, sans kelp so it's much easier to just relax and go at your own pace.

Saturday morning started with my very first bootcamp.  I have that Tough Mudder in a month and needed to start doing something a bit tougher than just running.  It was only an hour class but it was a serious reality check!  It was a great workout and I was sore as heck the next day.  That afternoon I finally went SCUBA diving in a recreational setting.  A friend of Megan's is certified so we decided to go down to San Carlos beach which is only 3/4 mile from my place.  Our first dive was on the breakwater which is basically a jetty that shoots out passed the USCG station and is home to numerous sea lions (most of the time.)  We saw some amazing animals, no mammals, but a great number of sea stars, jellyfish, sea cucumbers, nudibranchs, crabs, and rockfish all living in and amongst the kelp beds and rock walls.

After warming up we went out on a second dive on the other end of the beach where there was supposedly a large pipe and a field of metridium (http://www.scubamonterey.com/infometridiumfield.html).  We found the pipe immediately and followed it to its end and then headed almost due north towards where the metridium were supposed to be.  Thankfully we found them and they were incredibly impressive.  What was most impressive though were the swarms of Pacific sea nettles that were swimming all around us.  It was almost a bit unnerving at first but such a magnificent sight, especially for a jelly enthusiast!

Since then it's just been a little running and I started on the track again, beach bonfires, work, swimming, catching up with old friends and even got a Giants game in last week!  One specific thing I did want to elaborate on was the Make-A-Wish Foundation's request for my coworker Alicia and me to show an 8-year old girl around the jellies area on her 8th birthday on August 8th...triple golden bday!  It was a very moving experience for everyone and Bella loved what we showed her and her family.  We even got to bring her down to the seahorses because Bella mentioned that they were some of her favorite animals.  Everyone was extremely pleased with the experience and it is a day I'll never forget!

Life is good...and it keeps getting better.

Wicked Good Summah Vacation (Part 6:Alicia and Luey Get Married!)

Saturday July 23, 2011 Alicia Hazard and Luial Gilbert got married.  It was a beautiful ceremony at the Owasco Country Club on my favorite place next to Fenway Park, Owasco Lake.  It was a short ceremony but the tears were flowing and you could easily see how much these two love each other.  Despite the excessive heat it was a perfect late afternoon.

The maid-of-honor gave the greatest 'speech' I have ever heard at a wedding and I have been to a TON of weddings.  She did a rap to the tune of "Ice, Ice, Baby" and it was phenomenal!  It was the first time that I have ever seen the best man's speech be filled with more sentiment and less humor (albeit there was still a lot of humor in his) than the maid-of-honor.

Once the laughter died down it was time to eat!  The food was great, the DJ rocked, there was no drama and everyone had a good time.  The DJ even said that the next time our family had a wedding he wanted to be invited because he had never seen a family get so crazy out on the dance floor!!!  With an open bar we were worried that our normal "finish every beer on sight" challenge would be tarnished.  But our very large family and very thirsty friends were up for it and we successfully drained the Owasco Country Club of all of their beverages!  Absolutely classic...

With the beer gone and the party dying down there was really only one more thing to do, cake fight!  I may have started this one by putting cake into my sister's face.  I was then on the receiving end and was soon realizing that there were a number of different cake fights taking place!  We all headed back to the hotel for the after party and even though everyone else wanted to go to bed around 2:00AM I didn't want to.  I knew that going to bed meant my vacation was over and that it would be another entire year until I would get a chance to spend time with all of these people that I love spending time with.  I know they probably don't realize it but I cherish every moment I get to spend on that lake, in that town, and with each and every one of them.

It's very hard to say goodbye to my NY family so I had to just take off in the AM without seeing anyone.  But even as hard as it is saying goodbye to my distant family it was even harder saying goodbye to my immediate family.  This was a very long vacation and I started to become comfortable being back with everyone I'm so familiar with.  The toughest part was knowing that I might not be back to the east coast for another full year. 

I flew out of Logan at 7:30 and arrived in San Francisco around 11:00PM  I then had to wait for a train and got my 2 hour drive underway.  I arrived home in Monterey a little before 3:00AM and was at work at 7:30.  I was absolutely exhausted but it was well worth it and one of the best vacations I have had in a long time.

Until next year New England!

Wicked Good Summah Vacation (Part 5: Auburn Here I Come!)

Thursday morning I got a rental car, a powder blue Hyundai deathtrap and headed for Auburn, NY for my cousin Alicia's wedding.  Before I headed towards the lake where all of Alicia's fam/friends were hanging out I went to my other cousin (on the other side of the fam) Scott's place.  It was about 100 degrees with 90% humidity so we immediately jumped into the pool.

From the pool we went to my cousin Beth's son's baseball game.  DJ is only 7 years old but he plays with the big kids on the 8-9 year old team.  His team lost but he had a heck of a game and even had a 'triple' with 2 RBIs!  When the game was over we left for our annual night out on the town.  Little did I know how many problems this would cause for me in the future, but I don't really care and it was an incredible night!  Despite the constant heat and humidity we managed to hit up a couple of different places, met up with my sister and cousin Mike, and closed down a bar until 3:00AM singing Sweet Caroline and Shipping Up to Boston into the early morning! Our stomachs grumbling by now we decided to stop at a local pizza place and grab a pepperoni.  That pizza didn't stand a chance!

In the AM we went over to my Aunt's place for more pizza (breakfast pizza).  After breakfast we went back over to Scott's place and hung by the pool until we had to check into our hotel.  At 3:00PM we left Scott's and checked in before dinner, got cleaned up, dressed and went to dinner with the immediate fam.  The festivities that night were at the lake and we had a ginormous fire along with pretty good fireworks!  This was my 4th of July celebration due to the piss poor efforts in Monterey.  It was a night filled with 30-person flip-cup, brief games of beruit, slap-the-bag, amongst other numerous shenanigans.  On our safe passage back to the hotel (thanks Nance!) AJ managed to start a "Pizza, pizza, pizza!" chant.  Just what my stomach did NOT want, but of course it happened.  We got back to the hotel and then walked over to the pizza place.  I ordered yet another pepperoni and we brought it back to the hotel.  Brian, a main conspirator in the "Pizza" chant didn't even get a slice cause he was sleeping by the time we got back...what a great night, God I love NY!

Next up: Wedding #2!

Wicked Good Summah Vacation (Part 4: Killing Time Between Weddings)

After Mike's wedding I had from all day Sunday until Thursday morning to catch up with other people from home before I had to head to New York for wedding no. 2.  Sunday started off on a great note when we went to breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  It was my friend Erik, his wife Amber, my friend Pat and his fiance.  I ordered biscuits and gravy, a pretty simple order I thought.  After waiting for almost 45 minutes I had gotten up to go to the bathroom.  As I came back to the table the food was there and as I looked down at my plate I noticed something missing...I had 3 biscuits, no gravy!  Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight!  My friends told me they ran out of gravy but they should have some more brought out quickly.  The waitress then came up to the table and I told her that something was missing.  She responded by saying it will be out shortly only to come back a few minutes later with, "I have really bad news.  The gravy isn't going to be ready for another 20 minutes."  HA!  I then responded with "I have really great news, this meal is free!"  Not more than three minutes later and guess what I had in front of me, thats' right, gravy!!!  Funny how that happened right after I said it was free.  She proceeded to question if I still wanted it off the bill and obviously I said yes.  It was the first time in my life I never left a tip...horrid service!

The rest of the day was a great time to catch up with the fam and dad made us a nice big dinner (ribs, chicken, a couple different types of salad...all good stuff).  After dinner we made some s'mores over the firepit that had very rarely been used.  Dad proceed to try and burn the neighborhood down but after we got the flames under control it was time to flame the mallows!  The rest of the night was spent chillaxing, watching movies, and getting some much needed rest.

Monday morning I drove up to Rockport to meet up with a buddy from the New England Aquarium.  We went on a quick dive and due to me getting the dive flag tangled up in a lobster pot and sucking air trying to fix it we turned back after hitting 71'.  It was a quick dive, not much to see except a few lobsters, flounders, and schools of fish.  With the dive basically a bust we went back to his place and ate some burgers and chicken on the grill.  Monday night I got a chance to catch up with my aunt, uncle, and cousin and then just relaxed the rest of the night.

Tuesday I got to meet Boston Bruins' defenseman Andrew Ference who was signing autographs to promote the new championship DVD.  It was at the local Stop N' Shop and he was a wicked nice guy.  He wasn't like most athletes that just sign and pass, but instead was talking to everyone.  I got three DVDs and a poster signed...pretty sweet!  That night I headed into town and met up with my friend Jess for about an hour before I went to the aquarium.  At the aquarium I checked out the new exhibits and then met up with everyone afterwards.  It was yet another typical crazy, epic night out with some amazing people that I miss greatly.

Wednesday I spent the day packing up and then at night my sister, dad, a couple friends from high school and I went to the Lowell Spinners, a single-A ball club of the Red Sox.  It's a small ball park so there aren't really any bad seats (no matter what Chris D. says) and there is all kinds of advertising throughout the stadium.  One advertisement that stood out to us was for a mobile food website that you could order from the vendors with. All you had to do was choose what you wanted online, pay with a CC and they delivered the food.  So obviously we had to try this (especially at the behest of my sister!) This poor girl came to our row with 7 beers and 2 orders of chicken tenders!!  A-MA-ZING!  Of course we had to order a 2nd round and the same poor girl came down again, sweating her butt off...good stuff.  That night we all went out into Lowell...that's about all I can say about that night.  We definitely had fun though and it was a great way to spend my last night in Massachusetts for a long time!!!

Next up: Off to New York I go!

Wicked Good Summah Vacation (Part 3: Mikey's Wedding)

Saturday July 16th, 2011 Michael Linehan and Sara Goblinger got married!!!  The ceremony was very nice, it was outside at Mike's parents' house and Mike's friend Matt from high school was the officiant.  Matt did a great job with sentiment and humor as he read allowed the vows that Mike and Sara will share for the rest of their lives.

Apres le ceremony we had more pictures to take while we watched in envy of the guests eating the appetizers and drinking the free beverages.  Once pictures were done we went through the introductions, the first dance, I gave a phenomenal speech and finally we started eating.  The food was delicious and set up buffet style with steak tips, chicken, pasta salad and a few other things as well.

Once everyone was done stuffing their bellies it was time to get on the dance floor!  At first I was a bit hesitant to get out there because the only people dancing were Sara's relatives but finally I got out there.  It was a pretty good time and the music was rockin' our sox off!

The dance party started dying down around 9 and then people started moving into the pool.  The pool party ended abruptly after "that guy," and no it wasn't me, pushed one of our friends into the pool right into a group of girls.  Trying to avoid the helpless ladies Pat tried to jump over all of them but unfortunately nailed two of them in the head, one of them being the bride.  That was a quick end to the evening!  Even with this minor hiccup everyone had a really good time and it was a great chance to catch up with old friends.

Congrats to Mikey and Sara!!

Wicked Good Summah Vacation (Part 2: Rehearsal Dinnah, Jet Lag, Speech, and Pics)

I finally arrived back home around 2:00 or so after dropping the guys off at Mike's parents' place and had about an hour to relax.  The rehearsal dinnah was at 4:00 so I arrived promptly at that time and was introduced to the bridal party along with other friends and family that were present.  The rehearsal itself was pretty straight forward and quick and with no hiccups we got through it and started shoveling food in our bellies!

On the menu; pizza and beer!!!  Rehearsal dinners are always a great way to meet new people and get to know who is most important in both the bride and groom's lives.  Around 7 or so both Mike and Sara had to head off to hang out with her side of the family so I took off soon after that.  At this point I was toast!  I hadn't really slept at all since I left California and it was finally catching up to me.  I got home around 7:30 and went straight to bed.    This was almost around the time I'd be taking a quick nap after work.  I was sound asleep for a good 6+ hours when I woke up, wide awake with only one thing on my mind...the speech!

I had kept telling myself I'd have time to do it here and there but never got around to it.  The good thing is that this is a speech I've been writing in my head for a long time.  I wrote what I thought was a pretty decent rough draft at 3:00AM and by 5:00 or so I was back to sleep again.  I had told Mike that I would be at his place around noon in time for the 1:00PM limo that was taking the entire wedding party to where we would take pictures.  I didn't wake up until maybe 9:30 and of course I had to re-read my speech.  I emailed it to my sister to have her read it over and then we made some changes and it was good to go.

By 11:30 I was finally out of bed and had to light a fire under my butt to get ready.  I made it over by 12:45, threw my shirt, pants and tie on (ok Matt tied it for me) and was ready to go.  We hopped in the limo and went over to the Lowell Historical National Park for pictures.  This was a great taste of Lowell as we were in and amongst some old mills and plenty of locals!  Pictures took about an hour and a half in the hot sun and thankfully plenty of shade and then we jumped back in the limo, popped open a bottle of champagne, and were now ready for the ceremony!

Next Up: Mikey Linna's Wedding Celebration!

Wicked Good Summah Vacation (Part 1: Mikey's Bachelor Party)

I just recently returned back to Monterey after an 11-day vacation in Massachusetts and upstate New York.  I flew out of San Francisco on July 13th on the red-eye and arrived in Boston a little before 9AM on Thursday the 14th.  My flight was initially delayed due to the fog in SF but then further delayed because of a tire change needed on the plane.  Outside of the screaming baby (it really wasn't that bad) the flight was a typical 6 hour flight to Boston on Virgin America and as usual I couldn't sleep.

There were two monumental events bringing me back east; Mike Linehan (a best friend from college) was getting married on the 16th in Mass. and my cousin Alicia was getting married on the 23rd in NY.  The timing could not have been any more perfect.  Alicia had planned her wedding first so when Mikey was planning his July wedding I graciously asked for it to be either the week before or after Alicia's so that I could make it one big trip; so thanks Mike and Sara!

As one of the groomsman in Mike's wedding I was responsible for setting up the bachelor party.  If this wedding had happened about 6 years ago I think things may have been different but I took a more mature approach to it and didn't do anything too crazy.  Thursday afternoon was when the bachelor party was supposed to start, with lunch at the Beer Works in Lowell and then off to the driving range in Tyngsboro, MA.  I was going to pick up the guys at Mike's parent's place around noon and we'd head out.  Unfortunately with the flight delay, and the bus to train to home commute I didn't walk through the door until almost 11:00.

Dad had picked me up at the train station and of course wanted to catch up on everything that had happened over the last 7 months.  And I wish I had had the time right then to tell him all about it but I had to start getting ready to head out.  I ended up picking the guys up around 12:45 and after briefly saying hello to his 'rents we were off for lunch.  While looking over the menu Mike's friend Ben was telling us about how he'd been eating healthy and lost weight and yadda yadda but we told him it was Mikey's bachelor party so that he could ignore all that for one weekend!  And man did he EVER!  He ordered the DOWNTOWN CROSSING BURGER*

(TWO 10 oz. grilled Black Angus patties, topped with cheddar cheese, bacon & sautéed onions.⁾  I almost had a heart-attack just watching him eat it, but he destroyed it and we were all proudly disgusted!

Once lunch ended we headed up for Max's Golf in Tyngsboro to not only hit some balls but pick up our friend Erik who was getting dropped off around 3:00.  After exhausting our desires to become pro-golfers we took off for the big city of Boston.  We checked in at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel (not nearly as nice as I had expected) and then after cleaning up set off for a heck of a night.

We left the hotel around 6:00 with a 7:30 dinner reservation and hit up the first bar we could find along the way, Flashes Cocktails!  We are still unsure as to whether or not this was a gay bar, but there's definitely a good chance it was; either way we had a good time and GREAT service!  Off to dinner to we went and landed at Jacob Wirth's, one of the oldest establishments in the city.  With a pretty basic menu and cheap drinks we were able to accommodate everyone's tastes.  Once we were done stuffing our gullets and getting harassed by our waitress we started walking for our first Irish Bar called Solas (a recommendation of the waitress).

As Solas got old we decided to head to Crossroads Irish Pub on Beacon St.  Here we got to play some beruit against some cocky college kids and see if the old men still had anything left.  Thankfully Mike's friend Matt and I did!  We almost won but due to my LeBron James' 4th Quarter impressionism we lost in the finals.  And even though Mike and Erik were knocked out pretty quickly it was a great time...I even got to catch up with my friends Lia and Jess, two very nice surprises that evening! 

It was a long night so the next morning we needed some serious fuel to get us through the rest of the day.  I had just the place in mind, The Breakfast Club!  I've talked about this place before (RE: Missing You) and it still delivered the best breakfast around.  The guys were very pleased with the way that morning began and how the bachelor party ended...and outside of the horrible traffic on the way home it was a really great time...and with that I'm retiring from planning bachelor parties!

Next up: Rehearsal Dinner and impending jet-lag!

Celeb Sighting!

Just saw Steve Young in the bathroom. That almost makes up for the delay but I highly doubt it is gonna make up for the infant in the seat next to me. 

Hatred for Flying

Right now my plane is having its tire changed. Are you kidding me? Its almost midnight here and I'm looking out the window at mechanics actually changing the tire on our plane. The original arrival of 7:20am is now pushed back until at least 9:00. Im guessing we wont get in till 10. Awesome...I love flying.

Boston You're My Home

Sitting in the airport in San Fran waiting to fly home to Beantown for 12 days.  I'm going home for a couple of weddings, possibly a dive in the Rockport/Gloucester area, and to catch up with a bunch of friends and family.  One of my best friends from college is getting married this coming Saturday, July 16th and my cousin Alicia is getting married the following weekend in upstate New York on the Finger Lakes.  I'm very happy for both couples and cannot wait to have a blast at both weddings!  I fly in at 7AM and then the festivities for the bachelor party begin at noon.  I'm going to be wiped by the end of the day but it'll be worth it.

After all of the wedding stuff this weekend I'm gonna be able to take it easy on Sunday then diving on Monday.  Tuesday I'm heading into Boston to meet up with some friends from the New England Aquarium and Wednesday night I'll be going to the Spinners game and then hopefully out in Lowell with some Bedfid Keds!  Thursday I head to New York and then Friday/Saturday is wedding stuff on the lake.  I have a feeling it's going to be hard to leave but not living there gives me a greater appreciation for everything I'm missing out on.  I'm sure I'll have plenty to write about because it will be a vacation filled with numerous adventures!

GO BOSTON!

Camping Voices!

I went camping this past weekend in Sequoia National Park and it was quite an adventure.  I went with my friend Megan who was invited by her friend who was with her husband who was with some other friends...so I was very much removed from this crew.

We left early Friday morning in order to get up to the campsite mid-afternoon.  It turned out to be a 5-hour drive through Fresno and into the campground.  We went through the park gates at 12:15, paid our $20 park fee and then made our way up to the campsite.  By 12:40 we were stuck in traffic.  The one and only road from the southern entrance only opened up on the hour due to construction, so we sat and waited for a good 20 minutes until they opened the road and we could continue our way to Dorst Creek.  We finally got up to the campsite around 1:30 and set up our tent (a 3-person REI steal!).

After getting everything settled and all of our food in the bear boxes (used to keep all food and scented items out of harms way from the local black bears) we ventured out to find the largest tree on the planet.  The General Sherman tree is 275 feet tall, 103 feet around at the base, weighs 1385 tons, 2200 years old and 52, 500 cubic feet making it not the tallest or widest, but largest by volume on the planet.

This was our only sightseeing adventure for the evening.  We came back to the campsite around 6:00 and some people from the group we were with were starting to arrive.  Everyone else was staying through till Sunday so they could afford to get in later in the evening.  That night we didn't do too much, just made a fire and ate some food.

Saturday morning was a day set up for hiking.  The guy in charge of setting this all up wanted to leave by 8:00am to head out on a 12-mile hike.  This meant we all had to get to bed early to be well rested for a long day.  After falling soundly asleep I was of course awaken by a couple of idiots that came into camp at 2:00AM and were not even trying to be quiet.  They were on the wrong campsite, they put their stuff in the wrong bear box, were swearing up a storm and had absolutely no consideration for the fact that other people were sleeping.  They were not campers.  They did not know what camping voices were and it was really annoying, but whatever it is what it is.

Then at 6:00 in the morning Megan's friends got up along with a few other people and again everyone was talking like it was 2:00 in the afternoon.  Absolutely no respect for the fact that everyone else except the five people outside were still trying to sleep in.  After trying to fight waking up for about an hour I finally said screw it and got up.  Everyone still thought the game plan was to leave at 8:00 so people were trying to make breakfast, eat, and get ready to go.

At 8:00, Megan and I along with her friends were more than ready to go and had probably been ready for about 20 minutes now.  A good number of other people were also ready to go but of course the 'leader' of this trip was not even close.  They were still eating breakfast.  Megan wanted to go find some bears since we thought we'd be waiting a while so we walked up the hill (about 1/4 mi.) and as the shuttle to the hiking spot drove by us on its way into camp we passed on it because we thought there was NO way the rest of the group was ready.  As we realized that there were no bears in sight we turned around to go towards the shuttle stop.  As we are walking back we passed the shuttle yet again on its way out of the camp, now heading to the hiking spot and who do we see waving goodbye to us in the window but Megan's friends.  Yeah...we missed the shuttle...awesome.

As it turned out this worked out for the best and we ended up squeezing ever so tightly into some other peep's Prius.  We got to Wolverton at the base of the Lakes Trail where we proceeded to head off for Pearl Lake.  This was supposed to be a 6.2 mile hike in to the lake and was deemed EASY by some people in the group.  It definitely was not a difficult hike and after running the brutal half-marathon from the weekend before this was a cake-walk.

We passed through some incredible areas with large trees, creeks, and views of the snow-capped mountains. We got about 4 miles in and hit a big snow covered area...yes, that white stuff we usually only see in the winter at home.  This turned out to be quite the inconvenience for everyone because we couldn't find the trail...PANIC, PANIC, PANIC!!!  Oh my GOD we can't find the trail we HAVE to turn back!!!  OR maybe we could have just walked over the snow, found the trail, and then continued on for the last mile plus that we had.  But no, we spent the past two hours hiking up this mountain only to turn back 1 mile away from our goal.  Seriously???

Anyway we turned around, headed back and after briefly cooling off (icing my leg) in the brook we eventually made our way to the shuttle.  Megan and I had a long drive back to Monterey so we had to get to camp and pack everything up.  Overall it was a good time in a very scenic area but we didn't see even one bear, no lakes, no waterfalls...Sequoia 1 Payne 0.  Next time I'm going in a much smaller group and I'm finding some GD water!  This is a huge area and there was just too much to see in one day.  The views of the mountains though were spectacular and I will easily be persuaded to go back.