Day 2 of the Santa Cruz trip had two main components.

First, the Mystery Spot <– more pictures.

This is a mysterious and mystical 150 foot circular area of the forest where strange things happen.

Level surfaces aren’t necessarily level, and the laws of gravity seem to have taken a vacation. People lose and gain height depending upon where they are standing, and generally things are just odd.

I am quite a skeptic, but there were two things that did seem more than just odd to me at this place. First, there was a pendulum hanging in the house that swung more in one direction than another, and was difficult to push in one direction. Second, was that at one point I was taller than 3 people standing to my right, but when they moved to my left, we were all the same height even though we were all standing on a level surface. Spooky. If you haven’t been - it’s 45 minutes of entertainment for $5. Doesn’t get much better than that. (Even if it is a hoax)

After the Mystery Spot, we made our way to the second main stop of the day, the Beach Boardwalk <–more pictures.

Unfortunately, the boardwalk rides are not open during the week, after Labour Day. That wasn’t a huge deal - we enjoyed walking around and seeing (and hearing and smelling) the sea lions and the folks playing volleyball on the beach.

There were roller coasters, haunted houses, ski lifts, and all sorts of fun little shoppes that would have been interesting to see had they been open.

It’s definitely a place to go on weekends or during the summer time when it’s hoppin’ with high school and college kids on break.

We also drove around the city a bit and saw this.

There really aren’t any words to describe this.

Moving on.

Day 3 is up next, with a trip up the California coast on Highway 1, through Half Moon Bay and to Pigeon Point Lighthouse.

Rachelle is currently on sabbatical from work, and so I thought it would be fun for the two of us to have some R&H time away from Sacramento…and what better spot within driving distance than Santa Cruz?

Well, I’m sure there are other great spots, but I had never been to Santa Cruz before, and she hadn’t been there since she was a wee little girl (decades ago :-)), so off we went.

Our first exceptional experience was driving behind a Ferrari. But not just any Ferrari, a numbered Ferrari. 171 of 198. How incredibly pretentious. Wahoo for midlife crisis purchases.

We decided to stop for lunch at the Elephant Bar, but first we had to pass by this guy…the harbinger of holidays - Hellaween that is.

Spooky. Scary. Frightening. But um, creative I guess.

Anyway…

We made our way down to the Santa Cruz area, up through the redwoods and eucalyptus trees and to our hotel/conf center destination - Chaminade.

Pretty place overlooking the forests and the city. The bellboys were very friendly - overly so perhaps…we thought maybe not a lot of patrons talk to them, but since we did, they were very talkative with us. And they were cute as well.

Here are a few shots from our room, the view, and a nature walk we took around the facility…stay tuned for Day 2 when we visited Santa Cruz and the Beach Boardwalk, and Day 3 when we drove up the California Coast.

(More pictures from Day 1 are here)

I just got back from a 3 day trip to Santa Cruz, and unfortunately did not have internet access while there (nor any time to get online anyway).

But I’m home now, and am putting together all my pictures from the mini-vacation. Look for something mildly interesting tomorrow :-).

Early in the morning of 11 September 2001, I was making my way to the Sacramento airport for a flight to Austin, TX. I used to be the Diversity group contact for my company, and we did quite a bit of recruiting there at one point. I was heading down to Texas for a recruiting event, and to meet with some of the Diversity Club leaders - trying to build an ongoing relationship with the school.The plane was in the air for a couple hours when the pilot announced that the FAA was grounding all aircraft. No other reason than that, but that we were being diverted to the nearest airport which was in Salt Lake City. Within an hour, we were on the ground.

As I stepped out of the plane and into the airport, I noticed that all of the televisions had been turned off, and there were very few people waiting around. I was on the phone at this point talking with the company travel agency, who informed me that they were able to reserve the last available Hertz car (some huge tub of a vehicle) at the airport, and they had found a hotel room for me just south of the city.

I was not really all that concerned - I hadn’t heard the full details of what had happened on the east coast, and since we have a facility in the vicinity of SLC, I figured that I could get some work done while I waited to hear what was happening.

At the time - the only details that were available came from people around me who were on their mobile phones and relaying information from friends and family members who were apparently watching the news on their end. All I heard was that a plane had flown into one of the towers - at that point I don’t think anyone knew to use the word terrorism.

I found the hotel, then made my way to the remote office building, logged in, and opened the news. I seem to recall that most of the online news sites were having performance problems (understandably), but after a moment I was able to see the problem. There were a few voicemails on my mobile line, so I made contact with friends and family members to let them know that I was ok - just in a different part of the country than I had expected to be.

We cancelled the recruiting event, and for the next 4 days I worked from Salt Lake City, waiting for the flights to re-open so I could get home.

This sounds rather petty, but my first priority after getting there was finding a sushi restaurant. Don’t ask why. I don’t know. That’s just what I needed to do in order to feel comfortable.

Unfortunately, several days passed and I was not able to be rebooked on any flights - which were only just beginning to open up. So I did what I had done back in 1996 - got in the car and drove across the country. Except this time I was only driving from SLC to Sacramento instead of Raleigh, NC to Sacramento.

On my way out of town, there was a massive train crash in the area - I saw one of the pieces of train up on top of another piece of train, black and on fire. Since all the cops were busy with that, I drove to Sacramento as fast as I could, and made it in about 8 hours. That was the second time I have driven that exact stretch of road, and I hope that I do not have to do that again.

So that’s where I was on 9/11/01 - where were you?

Note: This post is in the form of a photo travelogue.

On Sunday, 9/9/07, David and I took a mini photography road-trip to Rancho Seco, the former nukular power plant south of the Sacramento area.

The property is owned by SMUD, and includes a recreational lake where you can fish for 8-eyed trout and the like.

Actually, having a recreational lake near a nuclear plant is not all that new or fascinating. My dad often goes fishing at the Shearon Harris plant near Raleigh. I can’t recall ever eating anything from the lake, but it’s very likely that I have a bit of uranium residue floating around in my bones somewhere - and after driving incredible close to the plant yesterday, I probably have a bit more.

This was the second time in my life that I’ve been near a nuclear power plant, which is instantly recognizable wherever you are, by the twin water cooling towers and the main reactor building (which sometimes has a domed roof and looks like a bullet).

I won’t say that these things freak me out, but the hypochondriac side of me could absolutely feel all those little pierces of radiation blasting through the side of the jeep and into my body.

I never claimed to be sane, so just go with me here.

We ventured as close as we could get, which turned out to be a parking lot that was in need of significant repairs - they will eventually get around to fixing it when this place is converted over to natural gas energy (which is apparently the direction, according to David’s research).

We wanted to go visit the recreational lake just to take a few pictures, but decided that we’d rather not spend $5 for 5 minutes of driving around a parking lot, so we u-turned out of the place and drove north into wine country.

Well actually, we didn’t have to drive very far, because the entire area around the power plant is now absolutely COVERED in vineyards. And I’m not talking about 5 or 6 scattered vineyards, I’m talking about one huge one that went on for miles and miles, completely covering the landscape. The vines were so close to the water towers that if they hadn’t been trimmed back the entire side of the thing would have been crawling with cabernet.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I want to drink radioactive wine. This rich, full-bodied Cotes du Seco has all the peppery uranium aromas, black cherry, cassis, and argon flavours and a long half-life complex finish of a fine Seco wine and is a perfect accompaniment to redneck cooking. Mmmm, mmmm good.

We passed through the um, wine country, then up toward Plymouth where the real vineyards are. Places like Montevina, Karmere, etc. reside outside this teeny tiny little town that has exactly one cafe, one carousel, and one truck with a permanently attached American flag.

We ate at a little cafe (I had the vegetarian tamale and a crab cake while David opted for the foccacia sandwich with dead animal).

We both tried, what is advertised (on the label) to be the Great American Root Beer. It was not great; I can only assume it’s American based on where it is bottled; I can attest that it vaguely tasted like root beer.

At this cafe we also discovered (pictured in the background) Frambois. David loves that stuff - raspberry infused port, and it’s somewhat difficult to find. It’s bottled by Bonny Doon and is quite delicious over ice, with cream or on ice cream (which is a combination of ice and cream I just realized). Highly recommended if you like sweet dessert wines.

Just down the street was the coolest part of the town…an old carousel that is now used as a catering spot for your favourite events like wedding receptions and birthday parties.

The art on the interior is of a woman leading her son toward a group of kids who are celebrating a party - a birthday I assume. The decking is spread out with chairs and tables, and it appears to offer a pretty unique location for events - very cool spot.

Topping our trip off as we left the Plymouth area, we can’t forget the permanently affixed American flag on the red truck.

I really don’t think I need to say much more on this one.

Finally, we made our way up toward Placerville, back onto Highway 50 and in the direction of home.


But of course no trip would be complete without a message from Jesus, who has apparently moved on to billboard advertising now as part of his global marketing campaign.

1. You are browsing the extensive gift shop at Cracker Barrel while waiting for a table (because the food there is just that good - and actually, their biscuits and gravy are D-licious).
2. You realize that boys in North Carolina get branded toy trucks and farm equipment from Santa. That brand is John Deere. Their product line is vast - barns, clocks in the shape of tires, pail shaped serving dishes, camping lanterns, and even green and white checkered table cloths.




3. You realize that it’s perfectly normal for a little girl from NC to wear this shirt and no one thinks twice.

As I start to look at re-branding this blog, I wanted to take a moment to call your attention to what I feel are 16 of the most interesting posts that have flowed from my brain in the last couple of years. You may not find all of them hilarious or funny, as many of my posts tend to be, but you might find them interesting.

Insightful, inspiring, informative. The 3 I’s of blogging. Well, interesting as well, so really the 4 I’s of blogging. My four eyes. You get the point.

So without further or farther adieu or adoo, here I present them for your review:

1. Back before my wordpress migration, I did a 5 post series on the 2006 Out and Equal Workplace Equality Conference. You can start at the beginning when Rachelle and I arrived in Chicago, enjoy our adventures at a disgusting restaurant called Stetson’s, and revel in the magnificence of us meeting Mr. Sulu of the Enterprise.
2. Continuing on the multi-post theme, who could forget the 5 days of Victoria, BC. Not only did I finally get to meet Bobby Apperson, but we once again experience the awe inspiring Butchart Gardens.
3. Next on the list is an informational page about the Randompedia, the Random Encyclopedia. Are you looking for things you’d never find in wikipedia? Look no further/farther.
4. A pivotal point in my life centered around an event in November 2006. NaNoWriMo, the writing competition to complete a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Well let me tell ya, I didn’t just complete it, I blew it out of the water in 12 days then started on the next one! Here’s the post that started it all. (And the post about my first book published on amazon.com)
5. Ready for something spooky and scary? How about the story behind one of my favourite holidays? Hellaween! (I also shared the true history of Valentine’s Day too, but it’s not one of my favourite holidays because it’s not really a holiday. However, Easter is.)
6. The list wouldn’t be complete without at least one GLBT informational component, and what better than a warning that you should not do business with the gays. Ok, maybe two components - especially a warning about hate crimes.
7. The Hellaween season continued with a quick movie review. Some of you might recall the 8 Films to Die For series, and specifically, the movie Unrest. Yeah - I tried to forget it too. Here’s the review.
8. One of the longest series posts that I’ve done here is the Childhood Journal. After receiving a stack of old notebooks from my parents, I realized there was a goldmine of interesting writings from yours truly back when I was a wee little boy. Here’s the one that kicked it off, which includes a link to the entire series.
9. Ok, so GLBT is a common theme here, and so I should probably fill you all in on what it means to be a Friend of Dorothy.
10. Want to know how to make the world a better place? Try Star Trek.
11. I don’t just care about making the world a better place, I also want to make your lives and relationships better. Who knew that you could learn so much about a relationship from your toothbrush?
12. One of the most popular posts I’ve ever done was about throwing a wine party. It’s really quite easy, and I’ve provided simple instructions on making it a memorable event.
13. Some of you were probably wondering when I’d get to this one, and number 13 is probably appropriate for it. That’s right, it’s my American Idol series.
14. Time for a meme. I’ve done quite a few of these, so I’ll lump some together into #14. What’s on your iPod, iTunes Meme, and What’s On Your Desk.
15. Sometimes it’s important to share your dreams. For some reason I felt compelled to share one of my most bizarre ones with you.
16. Finally, I provided more education, in a post on 8 Quick Tips for Aspiring Amateur Photographers. We don’t just provide entertainment here, we also educate.

So there you have it. 16 posts (actually 22 but in a list of 16) that resonated with me and with my readers (based on a very scientific process that I developed just for this post). Have a great time browsing around, and remember that these are just a sample of what we have to offer here at Digital Heath.

Also remember - safety first!