Midway in the Background

Reflection

Another boat on the Bay.

Morning on the Big Bay

Not quite still enough to get a mirror reflection, but nevertheless, The Big Bay is always beautiful.

Palomar Mountain Observatory, Part 2

In 1947, Palomar Mountain Observatory shipped the current telescope mirror from Pasadena to Palomar Mountain. The concrete disk pictured above was used as a "dummy" mirror to test the structure and strength of the mirror. That mirror is big!

Palomar Mountain Observatory

We spent some time at the Palomar Mountain Observatory recently. Caltech built this observatory in the early 1900's and it is still a wonderful research facility today.

Rain!!

We haven't had appreciable rain at my house since last April. And while I might not call what we got this past weekend "appreciable," it was at least enough to see a sort of a puddle!

Air Races - Qualifiers Pt. 3

This is a final shot (well, actually there are a couple of hundred more.....) of the Red Bull Air Races. To complete the qualifying run, each pilot made two trips through the course. On race day, additional air acrobatics were required throughout the course.

Air Races - Qualifiers Pt. 2

Another shot of the qualifying races. This is a shot of the Red Bull plane. Each pilot did a qualifying run, with the 8 fastest racing on race day.

Air Races - Qualifiers

Wow - to say that these pilots were impressive doesn't even begin to tell the story. This is a shot of one of the pilots in the Red Bull Air Races doing a qualifying run. They fly upwards of 200 miles an hour 10 - 20 feet above the water. Really fast! Looked like a lot of fun too!

Air Races!

This weekend San Diego is host to the Red Bull Air Races! These air races are a sort of acrobatic obstacle course race for airplanes. They are being held over San Diego Bay, which should make a fantastic backdrop for photos.

The Coast Guard has restricted much of the Bay to boat traffic because of the planes flying over the Bay (safety first) but if you had a boat, the unrestricted areas are certainly the best views of these races. We'll be trying to get some shots this afternoon... maybe I'll have something to post tomorrow! If not, here's a shot from Wednesday's practice from "Photographs of San Diego".

Happy Anniversary Sweetie!

These are the beautiful roses that my favorite guy sent to me today for our anniversary.

(I couldn't do justice to the flowers with the camera I was using and the inadequate lighting, and my inability to hold the camera just right.... but they are just gorgeous)

This is a shot of a chandelier at Marina Village, a place that hold meetings, training, conferences, weddings.... anything that needs rooms. I was wandering around there the other day, waiting for an event to finish, and liked the way this looked.

Where there's smoke...

This is smoke rising from the recent Pine Fire. The fire, in eastern San Diego county, burned close to 2,200 acres and burned for 5 days before it was 100% contained. The cause of the fire was determined to be an illegal campfire, cost approximately $1.3 million.

Here in Southern California, we are always hyper-aware of fire danger. This year, a particularly dry year, we are holding our collective breaths that we don't have a repeat of the 2003 fires.

"Miss Budweiser"

Here's a look at how big these boats are - this is "Miss Budweiser," a frequent visitor when the races were sponsored by Budwesier. These days, though there is always a large audience, sponsors seem to be hard to come by.

This photo was taken on our wedding day, four years ago this coming Thursday. :-)

More Thunderboats

Today we find out who is the fastest! The Thunderboat Regatta in the past was sponsored by Budweiser. Tomorrow I'll show you a picture of their famous boat.

San Diego Thunderboat Regatta

This is one of the super-fast boats that is racing around Mission Bay this weekend in the San Diego Thuderboat Regatta. I used to live across the Bay from the races and the roar of the engines is something to hear.

Almost four years ago, my husband and I were married on Thunderboat weekend. Unexpected coincidence - we aren't racing fans and chose the date and place before we realized that there was a huge event in virtually the same place as were having our wedding. Our biggest problems turned out to be pretty small in the grand scheme - traffic was messy and though we were concerned that the races would obscure our vows during our outdoor ceremony, the races ended an hour before our ceremony started. And the races provided an interesting photo-op for us! More on that next week.

Mission Bay Sights

Fishermen at low tide in Mission Bay....

Peaceful Day on the Bay

This Great Egret enjoys the peace of Mission Bay this morning. This weekend will be much different.