Carlsbad flowers

Had the day off today and decided to do a small road trip to see the flowers in Carlsbad. They usually bloom for about 6 weeks and I didn't want to miss out on it. There were lots of flowers, row upon row upon row.

Fields of flowers.

Some roses - there was a rose garden with a variety of roses. Most I've never heard of before and some of the colors were quite impressive.

Sunflower and a bee if you look close enough. There was a sweet pea area with many colors of sweet peas. I never knew they flowered with so many colors since I've only seen the white flowers. It was amazing. Plus, they had built a maze from the sweet pea fence.  

One of many roses - this is called 4th of July.

Yup, that one on the left is a flower although I'm not sure what it is. Some of the flowers looked like they were plastic and in the gift shop there were some plastic flowers that looked extremely real.

Even I turned into a flower...

It took a few moments to realize this was the huge flower flag that has been advertised as the largest US flag in the world made of flowers.

Here are the red and white stripes of the flag...

And here are the blue flowers in the flag...

This is an older picture I snagged from the internet of an aerial view of the flower bed flag. Quite amazing.

This is also an aerial view of the field of flowers. It's an older photo that was next to the history of Carlsbad flowers. Most of these flowers are cut and sold, some of the seedlings are sold off as well.

C Phase and Weekend Events

It sure has been a busy weekend! Well deserved too... I've been studying for my 'C' Phase test at work for the past week. Took it last Tuesday and passed! Although we are given 12 hours to complete the test, it took me almost 11 hours. Now, I'm studying for my QRB (Quality Review Board). It's scheduled for next month and we need to have everything we ever learned in the past year memorized... well, at least it's open game to the interviewers. So I've invited my 8 immediate supervisors and they will interrogate me on how well I know my job including procedures, emergency shutdowns, laws/ rules/ regulations, how a piece of equipment works, how I would isolate the equipment, etc. Definately much more difficult that going to the Soldier/NCO of the Month board while in the military!

We have these tests as competence training as well as formal operator training. In my area, there are 5 positions so once we complete the first job position, we'll have to start all over with the A, B and C phases as well as and QRB on the next job. With 5 positions, my area has a 5 year plan on making it to the first line supervisor's job. Idealistically, it is roughly one year per job but some people have taken longer - most people have taken longer due to not wanting to go to the next job and partially from the trainer being backed up in training so there is a waiting line on who gets trained next.

I've also been going to a chiropractor these past few weeks. It's a bit different going to her since she's also an applied kinesiologist. She's fixing my feet but also other things and says everything is related to each other. I just came to her to have my feet fixed - my feet are getting flatter and flatter. I thought I would give her a try first before a podiatrist. But since everything is connected, she's also working on knee, shoulder and back pains. And even more so, ever since I started working at the oil refinery I've been lacking sleep. As a result, along with stress my eyes have been twitching. I thought it was okay for a while that I just needed more sleep but now - well, lets just say it's a male dominated field and they think I'm flirting with them! Seriously... But I told the chiropractor about the twitching and she did some massage thing to my head amazingly the twitching has gone away about 90% of the time!

And the massage thing... that's an understatement. It's more like torture. It really hurts alot and told her so! She just said I could call her Dr. Pain... but I told her I'd call her Dr. Torture instead... and the sadistic thing is, is that she likes her job! It's a good thing this pain stuff is actually making me feel better. She stated it was better than her last job... while in school she needed some income so she was an autopsy assistant and got to drill holes in people's skull. I think I picked a really strange doctor.     :(

On the other hand, there is a foot bath available. It's recommended and part of the package you purchase. It's interesting. It's called ionic foot detox where you put your feet in this tub of salt water and the machine detoxes you. I wasn't sure if it was real or a hoax since there are several scams out there stating that this really works. There are 8 colors on the spectrum and each color represents various problems within your body. Everytime I go in for an appointment, I get a foot detox... so the first time the water was extremely colorful. The second time I wasn't sure if it was real or a scam so for 2 days prior, I ate bacon for breakfast... and sure enough the water turned black. Which means my liver is having a difficult time processing that bacon and of course, there were other colors present.

It is interesting to see. Although I'm still kind of amazed at how it works - or if it really is working. Part of the scam is there are various dyes in the probe and spits out the colors only pretending to work. Which I guess is why I ate so much bacon! I guess it does work I'm just not sure if I'm all the way convinced it is actually working... if that makes any sense.


Friday, April 16
Now you can see I needed a well deserved weekend of fun. Work offered all the employees tickets to see the grunions. Every year little fish called grunion swim up to shore from Santa Barbara all the way down to Baja Mexico to lay eggs. I'd never seen a grunion before and wanted to check it out. Grunion look similar to smelt and there are open and closed seasons to catch these fish. It was closed season when I went but I had heard grunion tastes like smelt - which I've eaten sashimi style growing up as a kid.

Literally, hundreds of grunion come to shore to lay egss. It takes 9 days for the eggs to hatch and they come to shore at the full moon when the waves are high and the eggs hatch right before the new moon high waves return to shore. If the grunion lay eggs any time before or later, the waves will wash all the eggs away. One female will lay about 3,000 eggs over a 2 month time frame.

Grunion are noctural - at least they come to shore later at night. We got there around 8PM and we didn't get to see them until midnight and later. They can remain out of water for about 20 minutes but by that time a wave would come up and return them to the ocean.

In this picture, you can see the female laying the orange colored eggs (fish on the left). The only people that could catch the fish out of season were the researchers. And even they had to follow the fishing rules... grunion can only be caught by hand - no nets, buckets. The researchers came from couple of Universities to finish their dissertation.

The female grunion come to shore and dig themselves into the sand. They will only lay eggs when males are present. If no males are present, the female will catch the next wave out and come back to shore and try again.

The female digs itself into the sand while the males will surround her and release their sperm, called milk. It sure was dark out there. I had to be alittle bit coordinated to hold 2 flashlights and the camera... one flashlight just wasn't bright enough. Most of my pictures turned out really dark like in the first photo.



Saturday, April 17th
A friend of mine and her kid have never been to a Renaissance festival. This is similar to the ones I've attended in Gilroy, while attending school in San Francisco. This fair was alittle more boisterous that I'm used to and alcohol was flowing. People dress up in old Rensiassance type clothing and vendors sell swords, battle axes, clothing, various foods, etc. It's kinda neat to go to if you've never been.

This guy was making thread to weave into a carpet.

Lots of people were present - this is the second weekend it has been open. Various food booths offered lots lots food choices.

They all liked to parade around together.

There was even a Queen that was carried in the parade.

And a jousting match and sword show.

My friend got caught as a chicken thief.

We spend the whole day at this event watching the shows, eating various foods - regular fair foods and checking out the vendors. Then as a treat, we all went to a close by drive in movie theater. A definate 'oldies' day!

Sunday, April 18

Can't say it was a great weekend unless there has been, yes, you got it - a bike ride! I realized in my procrastination in studying moments that I haven't really had a chance to ride my bike very much this year. Just alot of work and even more studying and finishing school course work. (Yes, they also have classes for us to attend as well - lots of training!) We followed Pacific Coast Highway all the way down to Dana Point then onto Ortega to a place called Tom's Farm. Leaving the house, there was a 20% chance of rain today but no drops actually falling on the ground; therefore, perfect riding weather! It was alittle cold along the coastline and I had brought all this extra warm clothing but didn't need it. It was my first time going from start to finish on Ortega highway with 30 miles of curves and twisties. There are two biker bars along the way and we usually end of stopping at one of them but this time around, we went straight through. With the perfect pace, no cars in front of us... what a ride!

Tom's Farm used to be a big biker hangout but not so much anymore. There are alot more families that attend. It's a large place but seems like on the weekends every parking spot of full. There are usually arts, crafts, snack shops, petting zoo, live band, a train that takes you on a ride through the property, a horse and carriage - a pretty neat place to hangout for the day. It's really hot in the summer months with little shade.

The ride started off with cool weather on the coastline and heated up quickly in the inland empire area. When we got to Tom's Farm the water fountain sure looked like a nice spot for a swim!

HD 105th pic

Isn't it amazing that sometimes you do something and forget all about it? Then get reminded of it and you realize wow, that was quite a while ago!

I was in the Harley-Davidson store the other day - yes, they were open on Easter. I took my neighbor and her kid with me for the Easter egg hunt. She had never hunted for Easter eggs before and was quite excited. Luckily, they were the plastic ones filled with various HD memorabilia, coupons and candy. The store even made breakfast - first come, first serve but they colored the pancakes various colors. The neighbor and kid were both too scared of the pink and blue pancakes to try any.

But anyway, couple of years ago Harley-Davidson turned 105 years old. At the time, I was a biker member of this store - meaning they send an invite to all their events. This particular event was to gather together to form the numbers 105 out of people. The HD store even rented a helicopter to take a aerial photo of us and submit it to the HD magazine. We were informed that we'd be emailed a copy and they were pretty sure it would make it into the magazine. Well neither happened and I forgot all about it... until Easter.

They have a lounge area where customers can just hangout. During the egg hunt, I just happened to see the photo and was actually surprised. So here it is two years later. Can you spot me?

I'm in the "0" third from the top on the left.

Kogi

Last night, a friend and I hunted down a taco truck. Not just any taco truck but the newest fad in SoCal. My friend's co-workers have been urging her to hunt down the taco truck because the food is so so so wonderful. I had a sample of a quesadilla before and wasn't too impressed but was informed it is not the same if you eat it the next day - it's better fresh.

By hunting down, I mean you can either drive around the neighborhood or you can go online and be at the designated location when they show up. They are tracked on GPS so you just type in the information and the blog will tell you where the truck will be.

I've been helping her house hunt and we happened to be in the neighborhood where this taco truck would be from 6-9PM. We got there at 530 - it was either go home and return or just wait 30 minutes. We waited and thankfully, we noticed there was a go-kart business near by and went inside to check it out. We didn't notice the truck had arrived until 607 and by that time there was at least 50 people already in line.

So this taco truck is so special because it's Korean food but fusion style - with Mexican food. So you have Korean ingredients like kim chee inside of a quesadilla or Korean spicy pork inside of a burrito or taco. Interesting concept. But the reason I was so interested was that after 3 months, 1 truck turned into 3 taco trucks and now a year later with business so successful, they will be opening a restaurant. The grand opening is this Wednesday. Amazing! What makes this food so special? I wanted to check it out myself and see what was so good about this food.

By the time we ordered and got our food, it took 1 1/2 hours. 730PM and there was still a long line behind us and more people showing up just for this food. Amazing! I really don't understand either. There were only a few people like us who ordered lots and left with a bag. But there were other people waiting just as long as us only for 2 tacos or a burrito. I don't understand why someone would wait that long for only a burrito or only a taco. And I still don't understand. The food was hot (temperature) versus left over and cold but I just was not impressed. My best friend asked me how we ended up standing outside of a taco truck for food that really wasn't that good, spent alot and froze outside in the cold wind. I really don't know but people really like it.

Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve

Whew! It was a very cold day out today - maybe 60 degrees out... and with the wind and traveling on motorcycle, it was very cold, perhaps in the 40's.  We started out at our regular meet up spot in Long Beach then headed north on I-405. And AGAIN, a very dangerous interstate lately. There were 16 of us heading north when all of a sudden I heard a largest bang and crack sound. I instantly thought one of use got hit but when I looked around I didn't see anything. A few of the women were not riding but driving in a trail vehicle and later told us a bathtub came out of nowhere and was bouncing across the interstate. Whew! Good thing we were missed or it couldn't done quite a bit of damage to any of us and our bikes! A bathtub?!?! Wow.

 We met up with another portion of our group, adding 3 more women and the actual person that created this ride. We went out to Lake Hughs and the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve. I had never seen a poppy reserve before and this was my chance. There were quite a few people out in fields of poppies - I was a bit surprised since it's Easter.

We stopped for lunch at the Rock Inn, which was built in the late 1920's as a getaway retreat for movie celebrities. It was an inn, trading post and post office back in the day. This area was built way before I-5 and had a lot of curves and twisties that could make driving a long chore getting from Southern to Northern California. After Interstate 5 was built, the local economy went downhill since people preferred the fast straight away of the interstate versus the country back hills.

Rock Inn - kind of a biker bar, but many passersby stop for a nice hot meal.

On the way back, we preferred the less cold route home... and even that was cold. The wind was extremely cold. We passed by Vasquez Rocks, named after Tiburcio Vasquez, who still remains controversial to this day. Some people see him as a defender of Mexico trying to restore California to Mexico and others view him as an outlaw who frequently hid in this rocky area from the law. Over 100 movies, television shows and music videos have used this area as a backdrop. We didn't stop at this location but only rode by.

These images of Vasquez Rocks were taken from the internet.

Then for more excitement, there was a 6.9 earthquake from Baja California. Luckily, we were all on the road and didn't feel a thing. From the reports, there was a 5.1 aftershock and people felt the earthquake all the way north to Santa Barbara and as far east as Phoenix, Arizona and as far south as Tijuana, Mexico.

Driving

Whew! Driving can be hazardous down here in SoCal. The past few nights I've been working graveyard shift and it's been quite difficult coming out of being sick and able to sleep all day to working a 12 hour shift! The second day is always difficult and I was really tired. I usually drive in the fast lane - regardless of the time of day. It's just easier and there are less road hazards - since most of the slower folks drive in the right lanes, more debris is also on that side.

Since I was so tired and getting off work at 430AM, I decided to drive in the slow lane - the right lane... and of course, I was distracted by police lights on the off ramp and the next thing I knew I had run something over. I didn't think it was that bad but after a few seconds I knew I had a flat. I didn't want to pull over since the first thing that came to mind was it's very dark, there are trees on the side of the highway and back in the late 90's, the comedian Bill Cosby had a son that was shot to death as he pulled over on that very interstate for a flat tire. Hell no, I wasn't going to get out of the car and began cheering my little car on to make it home... 5 more miles to go.

Unfortunately, the car kept slowing down and pretty soon I was only able to go 40mph... I saw an emergency call box on the side of the road and finally had gotten out of the bad neighborhood area of that interstate and pulled over. You'll see my tire and be amazed the rim wasn't ruined! I know how to change a tire but as I pulled onto the shoulder I noticed many vehicles change lanes and swerve towards me, pass me by and return to their original left lanes. I don't understand why people would swerve except that my hazard lights drew them in. And I could feel the wind of their vehicles - cars, trucks, semi trailers - rock my car as they sped past. Nervous that I was going to get hit from behind or hit if I changed the tire, I made a phone call. Thankfully, AAA service tow truck came out 20 minutes later and the guy changed my flat in 5 minutes. And thankful the AAA representative remained on the phone line until the tow truck arrived. Strange though that the number I dialed was routed to Austin, Texas and not some Southern California tow service.

Then yesterday, I woke up early and went tire shopping. I was a bit lucky that I did get that flat... I checked all my tires and the tread was missing on two of them! That 3rd tire was just replaced a few years ago when I first moved here - again, I had run something over and got a flat. Since I've been forgetting to rotate my tires, the tire center person said that tire would probably last 6 more months... so, 4 new tires later I left the store and went to work graveyard shift.

Which reminds me... I-405 is quite dangerous... about a year ago I was driving around with a friend of mine after work, around midnight. There was a huge roll of carpet right in the middle of the road! I saw the car ahead of me swerve but didn't know what they swerved around until I had run it over and was pivoting on it. Someone must have called it in since only a few minutes after that the California Highway Patrol (CHP) was on scene trying to get my car off the carpet... and up the road from that was a mattress and a dresser.

Yup, so the spare tire is on the car and the flat tire is really a missing tire! I still have no idea what I ran over. But whatever it was after 2 miles of driving, the tire just shredded off.

Ride the new year

Feb 1, 2010

Falling behind already in the new year. I haven't had much of a chance to get out and ride. It's been very busy at work and the weather hadn't been cooperating very well. We had rain storms for almost 2 weeks. It flooded a couple interstates and cities. There were a few tornados as well. Yeah! Tornados in SoCal... who would have thought? They flipped some vehicles and boats over but I'm not sure about people damage.


And now it's already February! And this is my first ride of the New Year. Went up to Malibu with a friend of mine. Last minute planning and I was glad for the company. Rode up Pacific Coast Highway and nice cool weather, not too much traffic - course it was a Monday afternoon and we stopped at a biker hangout called Neptune's Net, which had pretty good food.

New Year

Running late as always, lately... but  Happy New Year!

Looking back, 2009 sure went fast. Day by day, it seems like time passes so slow but weeks and months just flew by extremely quickly this year. Quite the roller coaster ride, there were ups and downs throughout the year like the excitement of a possible new business and opening a restaraunt, to selling out my portion of of the restaurant, to leaving the restaurant industry completely for a total career change, going on my first Iron Butt mini ride of 1,000 miles in 18 hours and last minute mini vacations. 

There will be some definate long rides planned out for 2010. I'm quite looking forward to them!

I hope everyone has a great 2010. Best wishes to you all.

Oceanside

Dec 20, 2009

Last minute getaway with a friend of mine. I didn't want to drive too far but wanted to get out of town for the weekend. We decided to go to Oceanside... only a few hours away and about a half hour north of San Diego. The weather was abit overcast but still nice enough for shorts and a t-shirt, well maybe a sweatshirt.

Oceanside pier was right in front of our hotel room. Very nice view!

Kind of overcast all weekend but it still made a nice relaxing weekend that totally went too fast.

View from the pier.

On the pier some pelicans decided to hangout by the bait shop. Amazingly, there were a lot fo fishermen and women out fishing for sardines. We watched a few and as soon as they dropped the hook they would catch a fish. You could see the fish too jumping in the water just waiting to be caught.

Different day but probably the same pelicans.

Me at the beach.

We wanted to go snorkeling and had heard there was a great place in San Diego but the day was very windy. We ended up just walking around and spotted several baby seals still with fur resting on the beach.

San Diego is home to Camp Pendleton, a Marine base so there were all sorts of planes and helicopters out.

Sunset in San Diego.