Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Malibu Creek

Trip to Malibu Creek State Park. We set out to do this loop that ended up being just killer; about a 2,000-foot climb then descent, and about 16miles around. Steep as hell, too.

Oh well; it was fun!

Here, Patrick sets off alone in the desolate wilderness...



Oh, wait! It's Memorial Day! The trail is packed with families!



Most of them were headed here, to Rock Pool, seen in a high-tech composite photo:

Thomas in front of Rock Pool:



Climbing away from Rock Pool, trying to shortcut back to the stupid trail. Oops.



On the way up:



In an old truck left over from the show MASH. This is one of their old locations, and they left a few props:



"Out of my way. Honk!"



Then it started to get steep:



That's too big for any dandelion to be! What's the idea?



Yeah, then it was really steep...for a long time.



This section of the trail is called the Bulldog Motorway. Here's what it looks like in 3D, courtesy of Google Earth:





Thomas wills himself up the mountain:



Thomas 15 minutes later. Progress slow.



Climbing to the tippie-top:



View from tippie-top:



Patrick at summit:



Thomas at the same:



Cool road. "We could have driven up here?!" Corral Canyon Road, to be precise.



Patrick finds a cistern or something that looked like it came from an old antenna station.



Patrick on a spirit quest:



Now it's the downhill kind of steep!



Abandoned house. We saw 4 ghosts, 2 mummies, and a zombie in here. They were nice, though.



Get it? I'm acting like there's a fire in the fireplace! But there's no fire! Hilarious.



This was actually part of the trail. Somehow neither of us fell in.



Deer grazing at sunset. Pretty. We asked them to get closer and stand together so we could take a better picture, but they pretended not to understand us.



Finally we reach the car, and, after 7.5 hours and 16+ miles, Thomas enters into a state of reflective meditation:




Patrick wanted to do the whole route again, but took pity on his brother:

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Rest of My San Francisco

So before the madness of Bay to Breakers, I had some nice normal time in San Francisco.

Here I am on a historic cable car:



This street's super steep:



Cool view of Alcatraz:



Karlo, Andrew, and Shea:



So steep it has stairs!



The gang in front of Lombard Street:



I felt that there weren't enough pictures of Lombard Street in the world:



Walking up L.S.:



View from Coit Tower:



Four-second exposure on Bay Bridge:



Olden-times Karlo in Berkeley:



Olden-times Thomas:



And here are a couple of videos:

1. My ride on the cable car.

2. Snippet of us at Coit Tower.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Bay to Breakers 2009 video collection

The Bay to Breakers 2009 video collection:

1. Tortilla tossing at Mission and Spear.

2. Reaching the starting line.

3. Pour beer on my camera.

4. 9:45 in the morning.

5. We found Christina.

Bay to Breakers 2009!

So 2009 was my first Bay to Breakers, and it was amazing. Thanks to everyone who encouraged me to go. What a great event. What a cool city.

Here are the photos I took throughout the day.

The tortilla tossing at Mission and Spear. Check out the video too.




Thomas's short-lived camo water wings:




Baby storm trooper! Cute!




Karlo faces the starting line with calm confidence:



Receiving a paint handprint from a stranger. That handprint is now sunburnt onto my bely.



I thought this headhunter crew had pretty sweet costumes.




"Hello stranger. Why are you kicking me?"




Karlo puttin' in some face time for FM94.9:




In my head I'm on a boat:




The view looking down Fell. Damn thassa lotta people!




Pit stop at Christina's place for PBR and bowler hats:




Karlo gets kicked in the butt:



I'm Thomas Meaney, and I approve of this famous view of San Franciso:




Karlo and Andrew at Alamo Park looking for Shea:




A dj wrote her radio station's URL on me. I seem really proud.




Cousin Corey's old street!




Surveying the crowd at Clayton and Fell:




Hey SF, nice botanical garden...but it can't phase these guns.




I love the completely disinterested passers-by. It's San Francisco: people probably pose like that all the time.



Oh boy:



"No way!"




The dramatic finish! We turned right. We probably should have turned left and headed for the Beergardens. I didn't even see that at the time. Of course, then I'd have completely missed my flight.




Joe still wearing his war paint: