Friday Fun Post – 50mi Bike Ride & Beach Trip

So I missed out on getting the post out on Friday since I had some friends in town and we decided it was time to go to the beach.  We headed out to Palm Beach State Park in Watsonville, CA.  It was fun seeing my little guy kind of get into the water this time, though he mostly just wanted to roll around in the sand.

2010 07 23 015 Friday Fun Post   50mi Bike Ride & Beach Trip   San Jose California portraits, weddings, and sports photography

It was the first time my friends little girl had seen the ocean & gotten to touch it since they live in Utah.

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This is the reason why he is now nicknamed, “The Sandman”

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Normally at home there isn’t a pile of sand he jumps on like that.  He normally finds me lying on the ground and does the same thing, landing on my chest.  Sometimes he’ll catch me as I’m lying down near the couch, and he’ll leap off the couch and onto me.

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On Saturday I decided I was going to do my first 50mi bike ride as training for my Yosemite ride next year.  My route had about 40mi of flat/basically flat pavement and 10 mi of climbing.  I rode from my house to Henry Coe County Park Headquarters, and then back home.  I felt pretty good at the top of the climb, but the major headwind on the way home almost did me in.  I did make it in 3:28, which I was very happy about.

Watsonville Criterium 2010 – San Jose California Sports Photographer

It was a great day for a race.  I haven’t had the chance to photograph many crit races, and I forgot how fun they are.  Quick course, lots of turns, and lots of opportunity to photograph the racers.  It was warm out there though, and I was wishing that there was a little more shade out there for me to hang out at.  It seems the shade is always in the spot I don’t want to photograph at, and never where I plan to photograph.

I was able to catch the first big crash at the finish line, but I missed the second one where the medics were called out.

I also ended up having to head home early, so I only got the first couple laps of the womens race, and I missed the Mens 1/2/Pro race.

Race photos can be found here:

Watsonville Criterium 2010

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Friday Fun Post – Am I Crazy? And a Trip to Yosemite

So the other weekend I drove to Yosemite with my mother/father in law, my wife, and our kid to drop off my in laws as they were off on a 3 week hike of the John Muir Trail.  On the drive home I got to thinking to myself, “My in laws are hiking the John Muir Trail, they (and my wife) last year hiked to the top of Half Dome.  My wife has done a trail marathon in addition to other 5k, 10k, and half marathons.  Its my turn to do something crazy like that.”  So while we were driving down Hwy 120 I decided I was going to ride my road bicycle from my house in South San Jose over Tioga Pass to Lee Vining.

According to the route I drew up in Google Maps, my friend and I are looking at an approx. 240 mile ride, climbing approx. 18,000 ft over 2 or 3 days.  It looks like I’ve got some major training to do in the next few months, since we’ve got the ride tentatively scheduled for sometime in May.

Otherwise we had a pretty good trip.  Our two year old decided after his nap he wanted to throw a big tantrum, but after he got to pet some dogs he was better.

A few random photographs from the trip:

View of Upper Yosemite Falls from the car as we were heading into the Valley.

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We camped out at the Wawona campground for the night and let Adam do what he loves doing – playing in the dirt.

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My in laws as they were about to leave on their hike.

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Adam loves water, and this was his reaction as he saw the Yosemite falls before we hiked to them.

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Yes, he climbed all the rocks on his own, I was just there making sure he didn’t fall.

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In the midst of tantrum #1 from being too tired and needing to take a nap.

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This little guy posed for us for a little while.  I was wishing I had my 70-200 instead of just my 85mm f1.4 lens.

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And this is why he is called the “Dirt Monster”

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