Dawn patrol

Me and the Missus both up and at 'em before dawn? On a Friday??

Crazy!

Fair weather though, and slated to stay that way all weekend. Tain't bad for a NorCal February.

The only question is to race or not to race. NorCal crit (in Santa Rosa) on Sunday, and the Tour of Cali starting too...I'm inclined to race I think.

Happy Friday to all

The ferry is so civilized...

Sunset over the SF skyline with the port of Oakland on the side

You don't get that view (or a bike rack) on BART, as much as I do appreciate BART

and a bunch of people just got on board at Alameda with pillows - headed for the huge annual SF Valentine's Day pillow fight I'm guessing

OK, I'm just blogging because I finished my book (guns germs and steel, thanks Sam) and I have nothing better to do.

Good pic though, no? Time to stare at it instead of typing...

Polo grounds not a secret...

Saw Roaring Mouse team guys and a couple Freewheel bike shop (edit: found out one guy's name is Josh) guys out this morning.

I was doing my first batch of intervals for the year (5x5' on, 2' off at just over threshold, and yes they hurt plenty, thanks...).

This guy was just plain ripping around on his TT bike though. Fun to watch.

It was so windy even aquatic park had whitecaps in it though. Nearly blew over headed to work :-)

Happy Valentine's day to all

I guess spring has sprung in SF

Didn't even realize this tree at the GGPark polo grounds was a cherry tree

Hard to miss it today though...

TGIF!

(a pond near the golden gate park polo grounds)

Here's hoping everyone gets their ducks in a row for a good weekend.

Looks like House of Pain tomorrow (7:15am @ Montclair Peet's) then maybe cheering at cherry pie Sunday.

cheers

Some commutes are prettier than others...

The morning commute today was a recovery ride after what looked to me like the first proper (as in painfully fast) POO ride of the year last night.

Recovery rides are always good for taking the scenery in, and ya gotta admit, a commute in San Francisco sure is scenic...

Cheers

Back from Africa

We're back in Oak-town.

It was a whirlwind tour with 37-hour travel stints each to get there and back, then a blitz through South Africa (Cape Town and surroundings), Zimbabwe (Victoria Falls), Zambia (Livingstone Island), and finally Botswana (Linyanti and Jao).

Teresa and I are wildlife-lovers, and we stayed in wildlife areas the whole time we were in Botswana, so I have to say that was my favorite. But really just about every part of the whole trip was amazing.

Hopefully I'll have time to write it up more soon and post some other pictures, but until then you'll have to be satisfied with this picture of a wild leopard that we managed to track down (literally, using footprints) on the last day we were in Botswana.

We were approximately 10 meters from this cat, but it was pretty safe because was keeping its eye on a couple of spotted hyena slinking back to their den after what the tracks indicated was a blood-spilling altercation between a lioness and her cub. Oh, and there was a fish eagle (one of the largest eagles around) in the tree in the background. And a herd of Lechwe in the field just behind the tree. And...and...just a ridiculous amount of wildlife, really.

Can't make any of that up :-). We were all just sitting there in awe, taking it in.

I hope I get to go back.