Saturday was spent going down to Monterey with friends
octantis,
okojosan,
kattything,
yoru and
tsuminaki to see the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Yoru was brave enough to ride down on the back of the GoldWing, while the rest went in Octantis's car. I took them one of the pretty-but-longer ways through Uvas canyon and over Mt. Madonna, then down Highway 1.
It was a pretty laid back day, which was just what I needed. Lunch at BubbaGump Shrip was good, even for a non-fish-eater like me (I had their fried chicken). I got to chat with a handful of other biker-folk, and ambled around the aquarium at my own pace with my camera. For some reason I was slightly uninspired, photographically... I didn't take all that many frames, and what I did take were mediocre at best. This is most likely a sign I need to just get out and shoot more to get back into the photo groove.
Pictures from the day-trip are here on the imageserver as always. I didn't post them all because they didn't all come out and I didn't get permission from everybody in our group to put their mugs online. The last thing I want to be is one of those 'paparazzi friends' that people always feel they need to duck from, for fear their picture will end up posted everywhere. I only put it up when the folks involved say it's cool. If you ever see me with a camera and you don't want your picture taken, just let me know; I respect that.
We stayed until the aquarium closed, which meant the sun had gone down. Yoru wasn't equipped to be a cold-weather passenger, so she squeezed into the crowded backseat with the others and rode home in Octantis's car. Like a dork I'd forgotten to pack extra layers. They were sitting out aside the motorcycle, but in my worries to find my box-o-earplugs for my passenger I'd forgotten to stuff 'em into the bike. It hit about 36 degrees in Coyote Valley, 3/4 of the way home. At speed that's something stupid like sub-20-degree, and here I was in a t-shirt under a fair-weather riding jacket. Thank you, Mother Honda, for the glory of heated grips! Even with the grips and the windshield, though, I did a job on myself. Just before getting home I started to feel A-OK and overly happy/bouncy/silly -- and warm. I knew for a fact I wasn't warm, I just felt it. Were I any farther from the house I would have stopped and taken shelter for a while to warm up. It took about an hour of warming up in the house and eating a little dinner before my body let me know I'd given it core-temp issues, by going into this rather interesting uncontrollable-shiver stage I've not done since I was a little kid. It didn't last long, though, and I warmed up quick enough in the house.
As was mentioned in one of their journals, I showed the gang There(tm) and abused their optical nerves with way too many convention photos. When they took off for the night I took a seriously hot shower and then happily slept like a log for 10 hours.
It was fun -- but next time I need to repeat the mantra to myself as I pack the bike: All The Gear, All The Time. Brrr!
And, for those of you who didn't go check the imageserver, here's one excerpt. A silly shirt spotted on cannery row:

It was a pretty laid back day, which was just what I needed. Lunch at BubbaGump Shrip was good, even for a non-fish-eater like me (I had their fried chicken). I got to chat with a handful of other biker-folk, and ambled around the aquarium at my own pace with my camera. For some reason I was slightly uninspired, photographically... I didn't take all that many frames, and what I did take were mediocre at best. This is most likely a sign I need to just get out and shoot more to get back into the photo groove.
Pictures from the day-trip are here on the imageserver as always. I didn't post them all because they didn't all come out and I didn't get permission from everybody in our group to put their mugs online. The last thing I want to be is one of those 'paparazzi friends' that people always feel they need to duck from, for fear their picture will end up posted everywhere. I only put it up when the folks involved say it's cool. If you ever see me with a camera and you don't want your picture taken, just let me know; I respect that.
We stayed until the aquarium closed, which meant the sun had gone down. Yoru wasn't equipped to be a cold-weather passenger, so she squeezed into the crowded backseat with the others and rode home in Octantis's car. Like a dork I'd forgotten to pack extra layers. They were sitting out aside the motorcycle, but in my worries to find my box-o-earplugs for my passenger I'd forgotten to stuff 'em into the bike. It hit about 36 degrees in Coyote Valley, 3/4 of the way home. At speed that's something stupid like sub-20-degree, and here I was in a t-shirt under a fair-weather riding jacket. Thank you, Mother Honda, for the glory of heated grips! Even with the grips and the windshield, though, I did a job on myself. Just before getting home I started to feel A-OK and overly happy/bouncy/silly -- and warm. I knew for a fact I wasn't warm, I just felt it. Were I any farther from the house I would have stopped and taken shelter for a while to warm up. It took about an hour of warming up in the house and eating a little dinner before my body let me know I'd given it core-temp issues, by going into this rather interesting uncontrollable-shiver stage I've not done since I was a little kid. It didn't last long, though, and I warmed up quick enough in the house.
As was mentioned in one of their journals, I showed the gang There(tm) and abused their optical nerves with way too many convention photos. When they took off for the night I took a seriously hot shower and then happily slept like a log for 10 hours.
It was fun -- but next time I need to repeat the mantra to myself as I pack the bike: All The Gear, All The Time. Brrr!
And, for those of you who didn't go check the imageserver, here's one excerpt. A silly shirt spotted on cannery row:
no subject
Date: 2003-02-10 09:59 pm (UTC)