Last Friday I took a day off to go to Monterey with Mara and Aiden to celebrate our wedding anniversary. I love sea life and fishing, so this is one of my favorite places to visit. Last time we were here it was a spur of the moment trip and we had an hour to check everything out. Not enough time. You need at least three hours.

We started at the jelly fish area. Some of them remind me of the ones that bug Sponge Bob. The popular ones are the bright, lit orange ones. I brought a 50mm lens to capture all the action. Next stop was the Sea Horse exhibit. The magical music was hella annoying. Cool to see the sea horses though. Weird fish I gotta say. Checked out some sharks, tuna, anchovies and I finally saw an octopus moving quick! They’re smart, they are given jars and puzzles with food inside to keep them busy. The scuba dude was entertaining. He had a contract with the sharks that said “as long as you feed us, we won’t eat you”. I saw a lingcod face to face. One of these bad boys forced me to get a lifetime fishing license. Long story, I’ll get to that in another blog. Then we saw the sea otters. You otter go to Monterey!

Grab some food at the Ferry Building or from the food vendors outside
on Thursdays and eat here on the pier. It’s a cool place to chill,
especially when it’s a clear hot day.

Looks like Bart put up some plex to prevent people from hopping over like the Warriors (the movie). I wonder how often it happens? Must be a lot if they invested in these things! I don’t see why Bart police doesn’t just walk down and get the culprits, they have to wait for a train for a fast getaway. Unless they make a run for it when they hear a train getting close. Who knows.

This was at the Trecase station.

Same station, I doubt this is illegal

Here’s a cool character. A lot of piecers used to use that green glow effect back in the day. I wonder how old this is?

Gios was all over the trains going both directions. Very clean and consistent can control.

Back when I was going to SJSU, Reub and I would fish here out on the small boats. A lot of fun stories! I’ll blog about that later.

The day started at 6:30am. While approaching Mark’s house, I saw a dumped 350 (I’ve seen it lower though). That meant Prashant was already there. We loaded up Mark’s wagon and swooped Felix at San Jose. Picked up our tickets at will call, located at Embassy Suites hotel 8 miles away from the race track. I know, it doesn’t make sense… just like the questionable $8.00 will call fee. At another hotel, we grabbed the pimp, laminated parking pass, that got us a spot next to the paddocks! That means less dust on our shoes. Last year my black shoes were brown at the end of the day.

Right after entering the paddocks, we saw the AMA teams working on their bikes. What caught my eye was the giant elephant print on a tent. Must be Team Jordan. Then we killed some time at Alpinestars hospitality.

Later headed out to the Redbull VIP building which had one of the best views of the track. There was also quality food and drinks on the house. Found a spot on the roof which raised my standards in watching races. It’s almost like watching a baseball game in the luxury boxes! You could see more than half the track. All of us shoot Canon, it was dope to have lens options. The race was awesome and the prime seats and amenities made it even more fun. Big ups to Chris and Alpinestars!

It was a long day, but it went by pretty darn quick. There was a lot to see, tons of people and exciting racing! It would be sick to have media credentials. Imagine what kind of photo ops there would be!

Click the thumbnails to start the slide show

First time I brought a DSLR to a race, any pointers?

Here’s a photo I took w/ my new 50mm lens. I got it for the shallow depth of field.

If you know where to get Green Tea Kit Kat’s, let me know! (and don’t say Japan you smartie!)

What is this an R9?

That’s wifey in line at Kara’s Cupcakes. Good stuff! You should try em out.

While waiting, I took a test shot

Me and my sleepy boy…

Mara took this shot while I was grabbing an iced coffee

On the way home we took 280, more lanes and much better scenery than 101.

I read this book, then decided to go to Italy. While at Rome, Mara and
I took the Angels and Demons tour. Amazing to see the sites live. I’ll
post up those pics when I get a chance.