Continuation of back in the blogger saddle...

As I stated yesterday, I will continue on with the previous post in today's post.  Topics on the agenda are:

Reggae on the River is coming up the first weekend in August
Tour of Napa Valley 100 bike ride is the last weekend in August
JP and Kim are getting married in SoCal
JP's bachelor party

Reggae on the River, if you do not know, is one of the largest raggae festivals in the world.  It's held each year at French's Camp in Southern Humboldt County, California each year, the first weekend in August.  I've attended 10 out of the last 12 years.  I'm looking forward to camping with some close friends and listening to some of the best reggae artists world wide.  I'm hoping that I will be responsible enough to take lots of pictures as well as notes as to my experience so that I might post them here.

I'm planning to leave on Thursday morning, early, so that I can arrive at the campgrounds about 10 am.  This means being prepared on Wednesday night and leaving at 6 AM or so in the morning.  Preparations should be easy as it's been the same each year for the most part and it's only 5 days of camping.

While there, I hope to get down to the river for some swimming and do a little hike before the show starts mid-day Friday.  From there on out it's party party party.

Once again, I'm out of time but will continue on tomorrow...

Back in the Blogger saddle...

I've been shirking my blogging responsibilities over the past few months for various reasons, one being that I'm the only one reading this damn thing.

Anyway, I'm promising myself that I'll do a better job writing each day.

So, while I was out, the follow cool stuff happened to me:

Went to Hawaii for about 6 days
Enjoyed the Tour "Day" France <-- said like Bob Roll my favorite bicycle commentator.

Some fun stuff that is on the horizon:

Reggae on the River is coming up the first weekend in August
Tour of Napa Valley 100 bike ride is the last weekend in August
JP and Kim are getting married in SoCal
JP's bachelor party

So, went to Hawaii...  The wife had to go for work so I tagged along.  We arrived on a Friday at 11 am local time.  It felt weird riding in the cab from the airport to the hotel, like I was coming home and everything was familiar.  I guess the feeling comes from taking the same cab ride 10 times over. 

After the usual hassle at the front desk, we were off to our standard room at the Princess Kaiulani.  Not that it matters much, but this is the first time in a while we've had a standard room.  We had made reservations about 3 days in advance so nothing was available as an upgrade.  Anyway, it's not like you spend much time in the room.  

So, first on the agenda was shopping as it's not a vacation until you shop (note the sarcasm).  I always enjoy visiting a few of the same shops each time we vacation here and one of my favs is the Honolua Surf Co.  Picked up a new pair of board shorts and a tee.

Saturday and Sunday were reserved for sitting under the umbrellas on the beach at the Moana Surfrider chillin out.

On Monday and Tuesday,  Karin had to work so I got to play.

On Monday, I rented a scooter and went to Diamond Head, over toward Hanauma Bay, and then back around through Honolulu and Waikiki.  Diamond Head is always a favorite as it involves a little exercise to get to the top.  It was very muggy on that Monday, so I was sweating up a storm by the time I got to the top.  Luckily there was a great breeze at the top and I was able to cool off before the trip down.  After Diamond Head, I traveled toward Hanauma Bay and Koko Head.  It was mostly just to see the area again because I really wasn't up for snorkling.  On the way back toward Waikiki, I stopped at the base of Diamond Head and watched a few people out windsurfing.  It was a marginal day, so no one was really rippin it up.  I sure wish they had a rental shop on the lee ward side of the island,  not that I mind sailing in Kailua.  I then figured I ought to get to returning the scooter and get my but to the beach.  But on the trip back I got creative in my navigation and got lost.  I got to see parts of Honolulu that probably weren't necessary on that 30 minute jaunt.   The rest of Monday and Tuesday were spent on the beach under an umbrella or on a floaty out in the water.

Wednesday was a day to pack up and hang at the beach before catching a red-eye flight back to SF.  The unfortunate part about coming home was I had a meeting at 10 am on Thursday and my flight to Chico wasn't to arrive until 12:30.  So, after sleeping 3 hours on the flight home, I rented a car and drove home, arriving at 9 am.  this left me enough time to shower and get to work.

Anyway, the misery of returning to work and regular life were quelled by the fact that the Tour de France began 2 days later.  Oh joy!  OLN had each days stage televised 4 times daily.  The race was fairly uninspiring the first 10 days barring one French rider who showed major tenacity.  As has been the case for the past 5 years, Lance took command once the race arrived in the mountains.  As suspected, Lance won his sixth in a row, besting all other cycling greats.  Though now thought of as the greatest rider of the Tour de France, Eddie Merckx is widely thought of as the greatest of all time.

Well, my time is up today tomorrow I'll have to finish up on the exciting aforementioned topics.