I love to race :)

Kindra and I started a tradition last year of racing every year at the Balboa Park 3 mile/8 mile race in early August. This year Bill and Karen came too and it was a family event. Due to my spider bite incident I decided to run the 3 mile course with all of them because I hadn't put in enough distance training. (The 8 mile course is so awesome and I recommend it to everyone because you hit almost every part of Balboa Park. You run in open space, over the main bridge, by the 163 freeway, through the front part of the zoo, and by all the museums). We had a lot of fun at the race. I followed the leaders in front of me in the wrong direction (memories of doing this in High School with McDonough at Central Park in Santa Clara) but still had a great race. Kindra took over 4 minutes off her time from the year before and looked super strong. Bill and Karen came in about four minutes after Kindra and looked great for their first race in awhile. Amir came and snapped some photos. A great Saturdaya morning for everyone!

I think these ladies are on steroids :)

Amir had a two for one coupon to the Acura tennis classic at La Costa Resort in San Diego and since we were both priviliged to be on summer vacation we headed to La Costa for a little tennis action. I had been to a women's match once before at Stanford when I was 17 and I don't remember the ladies having so much power. We had great seats to watch three of the top 10 ladies in the world and then we got to see Venus play. It was awesome seeing these ladies hitting the most amazing shots. What a great way of spending the afternoon!

This type of fun hurts so good

In preperation for our Mt. Whitney hike towards the end of August, Ryan and I drove to the highest peak close to San Diego, Mt. San Jacinto. San Jac overlooks Palm Springs to the east and all of inland east LA to the west. Ryan and I took off pretty early to get on the mountain at a good time. The hike went by pretty darn fast on the way up. We chatted about life, history, politics and anything. The top was awesome and we chatted it up with a dad and his son. The way back down started to drag a little and the last 4 miles were very tiring (as to be expected). Ryan and I drove as fast as we could to Temecula so we wouldn't crash from being tired and so we could eat some In-n-out. By finishing the 15 mile hike in less than 8 hours, I knew I would be able to make it up Whitney!

Kindra and I's mini-vacation

Kin and I took off for 5 days at the end of July for a little trip to one of our favorite places and a new place. Disneyland was awesome. We got park-hopper passes and went on a bunch of rides we had never been on or forgot about at California Adventure and breezed through lines at Disneyland all day long. Pretty sweet day with some good Disneyland snacks in the middle.

The next day we were off to a 3-day excursion to Catalina Island. Being away with Kin was the best part of the trip. The island was fun but we expected a beautiful beach and got the smallest beach in the world. I guess it's hard to compare beaches when you have seen the beaches in SD and Australia. It didn't really matter how small the beach was because Kindra and I were both heavily invested in reading Harry Potter. We ate great food, had extra dessert everyday, explored the island by foot, vehicle, and even bike. Not to mention Kindra kicked my butt on a little miniature golf. All in all, a great escape with my wifey!

That Black Widow was sneaky!

Sometime between Yosemite and our trip to the Bay I got a "non-venemous" bite from a venemous spider called a black widow. This picture can't even come close to how bad my leg looked. Basically, the thing you are looking at leaked gunk for 60 hours straight and my leg was bright red from my knee to my hip. After all that I only had a hole in my leg that I could stick a pencil in if I wanted :) I am fine and it's healed now, so basically it gave me a two week vacation (on my summer vacation) of sitting on the couch watching movies!

Bay Area McGurk Love

I am a complete slacker who has all these awesome events to update about and have somehow kept it till I am super busy with school. :) It doesn't matter because I am updating now so enjoy.
In the middle of July Kindra and I flew up to the wonderful Oakland airport and had a weekend in the Bay with the whole McGurk clan. We had great times together eating great bbq, walking the streets of Frisco, and hanging out in the Mateo (San Mateo to you non-residents or family of residents!) Kindra and i look forward to the next time we will all be together. It will probably be at Christmas. At least we get to look forward to the McGurk family olympics year 2!