London Calling

Sup everyone? Well just another work week, but back from travel.

I was out in Ohio two weekends ago for a little work, but had some time to hang out with a mutual friend Stephi. She's one crazy chick! Her old military buddy John was also hanging out; he had just escaped Houston when Ike came rolling in.


Had to get a picture with the CL car for RyGy.... VROOM!

Then I was off to London for the week. I am in London now every few months that I normally do not take the camera out.

In the background is the O2; this is directly across the Thames River from my hotel in Canary Wharf. The venue holds concerts, restaurants and other exhibits; last year I went and viewed a King Tut exhibit. You can also see the The Greenwich Meridian Line, Longitude 0° (the laser light) from the The Royal Observatory. See the link for more details, but just look at a globe to understand.

It was a long week at the office in London so I slipped out Friday to my favorite steak house in Europe; a nice Argentinean restaurant with the best in wine, meat and sunset views.

Back here at home I was able to escape for the day and hike up to Boney Mountain... what a view!

Labor Day Weekend... all 7 days!

Hope ya'll had a great holiday weekend... yeah I know it was last weekend, but I decided to make it a nice long weekend. After travelling for work the past few weeks, I needed to close summer out with a bang.

As with past Labor Day Weekends, Ryan and I headed up to Nick's for a little fun in the sun. And as usual Nick, Sara and Ava are the most gracious hosts. Nick has all the toys for the river, lake, dirt fields and what can be stacked in his garage.

We started the weekend out on the river scooting around, pelting each other with sand and water. Always a good time.

The star of the weekend was of course Ava. She keeps Nick in line and provided us with laughs, smiles and a whole lotta props (I will explain later).

The weekend always has laughs and to help Ryan and I, Sara's friends Holly and Tish joined in the fun. Those props I mentioned before, well here are some of them.

I am still having flashbacks of our couch session... monkey, horse, backpack... I had an AWESOME time.

Ryan and I decided to combined our annual camping trip up to the Sequoia National Park with the holiday weekend. Tuesday we headed south and up into the mountains.

Our preferred spot is north of Lake Isabella near Peppermint Creek campgroup. These are primitive sites... no potable water or toilets for the laymen, but there are natural pools and water slides.

The is also the Needles fire tower, one of almost 500 towers in California back country. Unfortunately the tower was not manned (or should I say wo-manned) this trip. Dad used to take Rick and I up here to camp and fish... now I take my friends to enjoy. Thanks Dad.

Peppermint Creek is just that, a creek, but it offers a great break from doing anything. The views are spectacular and the water is nice and cool.

There are plenty of pools to choose from; some you can jump into, slide into, some have waterfall filling them and others are just big enough to sit in. Spending all day down in the pools can be quite exhausting and sometimes the sun and fun can bring out some great nights.

Here's Ryan is showing me to to fend off a bear with a wooden katana; he insists that you must show the bear you mean business... one of may successful fireside discussions we had.

Well that briefly sums up the holiday weekend. More to come later...