Blog

What better way to ask your loyal readers’ forgiveness for slow posts than to send in my nephew Benjamin with his adorable smile. These shots are from the fantastic family weekend on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. I’ve got some amazing shots (including a dramatic lightening show)…but you have to be patient…more business travel in the meantime 🙁

OK, well…after looking through my pictures and Jeff’s, I’ve decided that I like Jeff’s pics of Benjamin better. Anyway…Hi Ben 🙂

I got a couple of requests for pictures of jellyfish sans people. Unfortunately, I didn’t take too many of those, but I think these came out nicely.

On Sunday, Jeff and I took Matthew down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium to meet up with our friend Paolo, who had driven up from LA. It seems that the rest of Northern California had the same idea. Monterey was a zoo, with screaming children everywhere. Nevertheless, it was fun to see Paolo. The aquarium is pretty darn fantastic as well…particularly the popular jellyfish wing.

Yes, today I flew to Chicago, and since the “Windy City” seemed a bit pedestrian for a blog title, I looked for a more colorful nickname for my host city. (“Gem of the Prairie” was out after I had to sit in *!#*!+#@ traffic on the way from the airport!) Still, tonight’s hotel window photo could very well be the most picturesque yet. I’m at the Hilton Suites with a beautiful room overlooking Lake Michigan. Not too shabby.

This evening, my buddy and coworker Steve scoped out a new restaurant for us: aigredoux. I had a fantastic heirloom tomato and goat cheese appetizer, followed by a buttery shrimp accompanied by a flavorful lemon-Parmesan risotto. Desert was a mouth-watering sticky toffee cake.

To wind down tonight, I was having fun looking at some of the more bizarre photos from Bay to Breakers. For example…this guy. I mean, in any ORDINARY situation, a man dressed in a caveman outfit carrying a video camera would be downright CREEPY.

I love these next two photos. These two guys had rigged up a rickshaw out of an old leather chair. At this point in the race, they had pulled this thing almost five miles. Then…tragedy. Standing along the route, we heard this incredible POP, like someone had set off a large firecracker. Well…it was a tire blowout. And these guys trudged on, with 2.5 miles still to go!

This is a fun photo. The sexy bee women, closely followed by a very un-sexy naked/fat costume. Great juxtaposition.

And finally, for sheer lunacy…a bee and a banana wrestling for control of a football…as they roll down a hill in the park.

Today, some 60,000 runners, walkers, and drinkers took to the streets of San Francisco for the 96th annual Bay to Breakers. The route crosses our 7-mile wide city from the shadow of the Bay Bridge, through Golden Gate Park, and finishing along the Great Highway at Ocean Beach.

So, for today’s post, I present a cross-section of the wacky walkers as they passed through the Park. These die-hard striders dress in everything…and nothing…a true Only in San Francisco event. The seeded runners began at 8am…and the inebriated walkers were still making their way past 2pm. This is basically a city-wide block party.

I tried to trim the photos down to just a few, but really, these were just too fun. Enjoy.