Tour of California Bike Race

Chris and I spent the weekend in Southern California. We had great weather (I sunburned my nose) and a very relaxing jaunt around Ventura County. I flew into Los Angeles on Thursday and was lucky enough to have lunch with friends [and former coworkers] before heading off to an orthodontist appointment later in the afternoon. Gosh, I miss you guys (Waterstone people, not my orthodontist) and it was nice to stop by for a quick visit. It's hard looking for jobs up in Seattle when I automatically measure them up to my former workplace. What other company takes breaks to do group pushups and lunges around cubeland? Truly awesome.

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Following my appointment, I had a few hours to kill so I popped into the Santa Ana Zoo for a brief visit. The zoo is tiny, with an overabundance of monkeys, but they have a delightful farm area, complete with goats, geese, turkeys, and pigs. Is it just me or do other people find turkeys to be incredibly unattractive animals?

Not that I've ever wondered, but I now know what it looks like when a goose tries to eat your camera. Afterwards, I picked up Chris from the airport and we drove up to Ventura for the night. The next morning we headed over to the small town of Solvang (best known as the location of the movie Sideways) to watch the Tour of California Bike Race. It was a great day, full of bicycles, winding country roads, and good food. The next day we drove over to Santa Clarita for another day of bike racing before heading back to the airport and up to Seattle. Thus inspired, we did our own mini race on Sunday as participants in the Bainbridge Island Chilly Hilly Ride. We had a delightful time and I am sore in places I didn't even know existed. Pictures of the chilly hilly to follow.

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I don't want to bore all you non-bicycle people out there with photos of bikes (and more bikes), so for the select few of you that are actually interested in seeing the photos (perhaps one or two of you, at most), I've linked the photo album, complete with captions. Here is another way: If you don't recognize any of the following people, you probably won't be interested in seeing the pictures in the album.

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Levi Leipheimer

David Zabriskie

Carlos Sastre (last year's Tour de France winner)

Some random Team Quick Step guy who I can't identify but makes an awesome pictureOh, hey, look at those two! I recognize them! [I guess there are a few pictures of us thrown into the mix, in case you get tired of looking at famous cyclists]

Bike photos from the Tour of California HERE.

(Or Click on the Photo Below)

2009 Tour of CA