Like the bonehead I am I forgot my camera. I guess when i was fumbling around at 6 AM to go I did not think of it. However it was a great day. We went hard from about 8:30 in the morning to 6:30 at night. We did stop twice for about 15 minutes. Needless to say i was tired. The highlight was sitting on a tiny ledge about 3 feet long and it stuck out from the side of the rock about two feet on a downward sloping angle. That little space for two guys about 250-300 ft in the air. I leaned over and it was literally straight down. It was quite the experience!

Titled: "TRAD CLIMBING 101"

Hey all, just wanted to drop a post letting everyone know of my day coming up. On Friday a friend and I are going to be taking the day off work and headed to this place call Tahquitz. It is about a 500 ft rock on the side of a mountain. The style of climbing that we will be doing is called Trad (short for traditional). Normally there are things bolted into the rocks however in Trad climbing there is nothing and you bring gear to stick on the cracks in the wall and that attach to your rope and that is what keeps you from falling. My friend is a good climber and knows what he is doing which is good because I have never done Trad climbing myself so it will be an adventure. The rock is about 4 or 5 pitches, depending on where you are going up. A "pitch" is where a guy climbs up a certain distance while he is being belayed by a guy on the ground, then he anchors in and belays for the guy below him to catch up. That would be one pitch. You do that all the way up the rock. The most dangerous part is called the "lead". Understandibly, it is the one going first and "leading" the second. It is dangerous mainly because the "lead" has to climb above the last anchor that was placed, so if they fall, they not only fall back to the last anchor, the fall the actually twice the distance. I wont be leading so if I fall, the belay will keep me tight so I wont really go anywhere. A big fall would be if somone is say 15 ft above their last anchor and so if they fall they fall the 15 feet down to the anchor and then since they were 15 above it they still have another 15 feet of rope, so they fall a total of 30 feet before the rope catches them. Here is an example of what I am talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhwDkVmvjC8 so a 30 ft fall a couple hundred feet above the ground is quite the rush.

Dont worry, it seems crazy but is actually pretty safe if everything is done properly. I will try to bring my camera and get some pictures. It will be a fun day.

Oh, and I forgot to mention one quick thing from the baseball game. During one of the innings the big screen in left field was showing a bunch of fans as they always do. I looked up and noticed an incredibly beautiful woman was being shown on the screen all by herself. I thought, "Man, if I weren't married I would like to meet that girl..." then suddenly I noticed the girl looked awfully familiar. Wait a second! This is the girl next to me.
Yes, Kelly made the big screen cut. Apparently the rest of us weren't good looking enough to be put on the screen. Can't blame them though.

One of my good friends from Westmont, Kevin, is a in law school and is an intern in at a law firm that has great Dodger tickets. Kevin invited Kelly and I to come watch a game. It was hot but the Dodgers won 9-3 so that made it not so bad. The seats were great. We were about 13 rows deep directly behind the Dodger's dugout. I took a few pictures to show where we were sitting.


Here is one last picture from the 4th. Kelly in the white, and to no surprise is making a face at the camera.

As some of you may remember from our posts last year, the 4th of July is quite the experience in my neighborhood. Kelly and I hosted a party and picniced out front where we lit our own fireworks and then watched the city's fireworks show. Earlier in the day, Kelly and I, plus two of our friends, rode bikes down to the beach. It was quite the chaotic experience. The pennisula in Newport Beach eventually shuts down and does not allow cars in or out. Basically, it turns into a huge party. We left before it got too crazy though to head back to our house.