Macumber Macblog

Kayleigh turned 6 on September 21st and we showered her with gifts and took the family to a place called Incredible Dave’s. This place had indoor bungie jumping, lots of kid-friendly “games” and play areas with big inflatable castles and the like. There was a climbing, sliding, tunnel maze kind of apparatus that the kids played in. Pretty neat place.

   

All the kids are getting too big for their current iteration of bicycles so we will probably be asking Santa to refresh their bikes come Christmas-time. That ought to be fun. The photos from Kayleigh opening her presents and birthday cake are here.

written by mark

The Red Bull Moto-GP came to Indianapolis on the weekend of September 13th. This was a very eventful weekend because Hurricane Ike’s residual weather was making its way up to the Ohio river valley. Instead of riding my motorcycle up to Indianapolis for the races in heavy winds and a torrential downpour, James and I went up in the car on Saturday and stayed the night and went to the track on Sunday. The Moto-GP race was abbreviated to 20 laps due to standing water in places on the track. The 250cc race was cancelled altogether. Valentino Rossi won the Moto-GP race (note: and eventually goes on to win the 2008 Moto-GP championship, his eighth).

James and I went to all the vendor tents on the infield and still managed to have a good time despite the weather. I got a picture of James with Rossi’s M1 motorcycle and we had plenty of track-food and things to do.

Unfortunately, while we were at the track 80mph winds were devastating Louisville and we came home to no electricity. We were without power for 5 days due to Hurricane Ike. We fared much better than most places which lay in its path but Ike’s destruction downed trees and lines as far north as the Cincinnati-Dayton area.

written by mark

On our last day we slept-in. We grabbed the free breakfast (omelet!) and then headed out to Laguna Seca so I could take a look around. We drove right-in (only have to pay if you are camping or if there is a race going on). We drove on the access roads around the track and then stopped into the souvenir shop. It was a lot larger track and much larger park than I had realized. Unfortunately they had the service road which leads to the Corkscrew fenced-off so I was not able to get back there. I did get to tour over half of the sections of the track though.

  

The rest of the photos from Laguna Seca are here.

From the track we drove through Salinas and then up HWY101 to San Jose. In San Jose I drove Melissa around the Cisco campus; specifically by all the campus buildings on Tasman and then up McCarthy. Up at McCarthy Ranch we stopped for lunch at In-N-Out Burger where I had two double cheeseburgers, fries and drink. Melissa agreed that they make one tasty burger.

From San Jose we left for the Embassy Suites at SFO (South San Francisco). I wanted to get up there before 101 got too jammed-up and we made it to the hotel with plenty of time to rest and regroup before dinner. I didn’t have high expectations for our last meal on the trip because I didn’t particularly want to venture down to Palo Alto or up to San Francisco since we needed to leave so early the next morning. Since this has been a pretty charmed trip all the way around it stands to reason that we stumbled upon a killer sushi restaurant in San Bruno called Sunny’s Sushi. It was in a strip mall and San Bruno is not exactly the most eclectic area but it was really good. I had a sashimi sampler and 4 rolls with miso soup. Melissa had some of the aforementioned sushi and a vegetable tempura. It was super fresh, quick and cheap. Couldn’t have asked for more.

written by mark

We got up early Monday morning and ate our last breakfast in San Francisco. By nine we were on the road and took HWY1 all the way down to Monterey. We stopped a couple of places to take some pictures and filled up on coffee.

  

So this day was pretty packed. We checked-in early to the Embassy Suites in Seaside, CA and then we drove down to the Del Monte Shopping Center and picked-up some chocolate and took a quick tour of the Apple Store there. From there we drove down Lighthouse Avenue to Cannery Row and did some walking and took some pictures of Monterey Bay. We saw several sea lions but I couldn’t get a glimpse of any of the sea otters that have come back to the area. Melissa picked up a few gifts and we read a little about the history of Cannery Row. John Steinbeck wrote about the rough-and-tumble sardine canneries in his novel about the area and apparently this stretch along Monterey Bay has a very long history.

From Cannery Row we went on the epic 17-Mile Drive around the Monterey Peninsula. Saw lots of breathtaking coastline along with Spanish Bay, Spyglass Hill, Cypress Point and Pebble Beach golf courses. Above is one of our several photos of the Lone Cypress which has apparently been living on that rock for over 250 years. Melissa and I both couldn’t help but notice the mansion houses in the area. Reminds me of a line I read in a book recently …

“Son, when a Muslim grows up in India and he sees a man living in a big mansion high on a hill, he says, ‘Father, one day I will be that man.’ And when a Muslim grows up in Pakistan and sees a man living in a big mansion high on a hill, he says, ‘Father, one day I will kill that man.’”

The author’s point being that when we feel like wealth (or any particular goal) is attainable, we focus on the steps necessary to achieve that goal. Conversely, when people are made to feel like they are locked-out and that their goals are unattainable – they tend to want to destroy things (or have a good old-fashioned revolution). All this made me decidedly hungry.

So after we did 17-Mile we drove through Carmel and it was bustling. At this point we had been going all day and headed back to the hotel to rest-up and get ready for dinner.

A guy at the hotel recommended we try Tarpy’s and we went with that. Man, it was good. I had a Campechano (calamari and shrimp) and Melissa had roasted artichokes (artichokes are a big crop in the area) for appetizers. I had a serious bone-in ribeye and Melissa had Sea Bass for our entre’. We split a huge strawberry shortcake for dessert. Strawberries are also prevalent in the area and we had been enjoying them with breakfast nearly every day on the trip.

All the photos we took are here.

written by mark

Today is Melissa’s birthday and we started out with another good breakfast at the hotel and then jumped in the car and drove up to Fort Point at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge on the San Francisco side. From there we drove along the western edge of The Presidio, along the coast by Baker Beach, down El Camino Del Mar, through the Golden Gate Park and eventually into Haight-Ashbury. I had an awesome burrito at a Taqueria on Haight Street (had to). We walked up and down Haight and stopped into a few of the shops. Melissa bought a kewl tie-dye shirt and we bought a few more gifts.

There was a major walkathon for Breast Cancer taking place at Golden Gate Park and the path apparently included Haight-Ashbury as there were a lot of women wearing pink. There were also a few nice bikes participating which flew the pink ribbon colors.

On the way back from Haight-Ashbury we drove down Lombard Street and hit the famous twisty section (again). We parked the car at the hotel and I caught a little football while we rested.

Later in the afternoon we walked down to Chinatown where there was a big festival (Moon Festival of some sort) going on in Chinatown. IT WAS PACKED. I have never been to southeast Asia – but I feel like I have.

We walked back to the hotel, re-grouped and then walked to the North Beach / Telegraph Hill area for some Italian food at a great little place called Ristorante Ideale. They have AWESOME desserts. We also had this nice zuchini appetizer. I had lasagna and Melissa had pumpkin ravioli. Good stick-to-your-bones food.

All the photos from the day are here.

written by mark

On Saturday Melissa and I woke up early and ate a big breakfast. The fruit has been good every morning and we have been making the most of it. We walked down Bay Street to the cable car line for Powell-Hyde Streets and bought a day pass. We took the car down to California street and caught the California line up to the California Memorial Masonic Temple and Grace Cathedral.

 

At first the Masonic Temple was locked-up and I had to settle for taking pictures through the front door. After we went down California heading west we came back on the cable car and noticed that some people were bringing in boxes and the front doors to the temple were open. We jumped off the car and I managed to get into the Temple long enough to take some photos of the Emile Norman mosaic that dominates the foyer.

 

After hitting a few more hills on California Street we took the cable car down through the financial district and got off at the end of the line at the Embarcadero. We shopped at the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market and bought a few more gifts. Neither one of us felt like taking the ferry to Alcatraz, so we took the F line (tram) down the Embarcadero back to Fisherman’s Wharf and grabbed lunch at Cioppino’s. I had shellfish saute and Melissa had crab cakes. I think it was at this point Melissa came to realize that you have to work really hard to find a bad meal in SF.

After lunch and the inevitable metabolic crash, we went back to the hotel room and recuperated a bit.

Later in the afternoon we went down along the North Shore through the Presidio and then crossed over the Golden Gate Bridge to have dinner at the Scoma’s on Sausalito Bay.

All the photos we shot that day are here.

written by mark