Jerusalem

My time in Israel was quickly running out, and I had been working so much that I did not have a chance to see any of the other famous historical places. So, I decided to try and squeeze in some sights after work in the evening. Jerusalem was only about a 45 minute departure from my normal route home from Kiryat Gat to Tel Aviv, so I took the scenic detour and arrived at dusk. In all honesty, I think this city looks best at night, as the ancient stone buildings bask in modern artificial light.

The Old City

East Jerusalem

The Western Wall

I ventured to East Jerusalem to take some B&W shots of the stone streets. I did not know at the time that this was not the safest neighborhood to be walking around at night alone. I could sense I was being followed by 3 men. I tried to keep walking to keep my cool. Unfortunately, the street dead ended, and I was forced to turn around and walk towards the 3 men I believed to be watching me. They began speaking to me, however it was either Arabic or Hebrew, so I had no clue what they were saying to me. I ignored them and kept walking. As I passed by them, they grabbed me from either side and attempted to rob me. After a short scuffle, I managed to break free and ran as fast as I could. I held tight on my camera as they were trying to pull it from my possession. I was especially concerned since I had just splurged on a new Cannon DSLR 18MP just days before the trip. Later, someone reminded me that I should have been more afraid for my own safety....however, at the time, I gotta admit I was thinking more about my belongings and somehow knew I would be able to hold my own (although it did not even cross my mind that they may have weapons). I must say that all the martial arts training in grad school was worth it in this brief moment. It's not that I went Chuck Norris on them, but the training gave me great confidence and even better body awareness/presence in difficult situations. A couple swift moves to break their grip was all it took to avoid a potentially dangerous situation. After running to a safer area of town, I found a nice restaurant and sat down to treat myself to an amazing meal. Somehow I felt I deserved it or that I was celebrating getting out of such a situation completely unharmed. I just sat there for awhile after the meal, alone, enjoying the view of the city at night, and thinking, "damn, I am lucky, and I have been through some cool stuff, and I have seen a lot of cool things in my life". As I am always rushing through life to see more and do even more, it sometimes takes something drastic for me to stop and reflect on what I am actually doing here. And then I quickly slipped back into my old self and resumed walking around taking pictures at night like a fool (albeit, now staying in safer parts of town)....I hope you enjoy the pics as much as I did taking them! :)

I saw a car that barely made it up this steep road

a typical street in the Old City

the exterior walls of the Old City of Jerusalem

After exhausting the safe areas of Jerusalem, I ventured towards Bethlehem....however it proved to be a little rougher than Jerusalem. After my encounter in Jerusalem, I thought it would be best just to do a quick drive through Bethlehem and not get out of the car to take pics. Also, I didn't have a GPS, so I was winging it old skool style with a paper map.....which screams tourist....so I didn't venture far. After driving by a burning dumpster (below), I concluded that I had experienced enough adventure for one night and drove straight back to Tel Aviv to the safety of my posh hotel. Sometimes you gotta know when to say when...and quit while you are ahead.

OK, I did actually get out of the car once in Bethlehem at night...but only to capture this dumpster fire

(one more final Israel blog coming soon)

Tel Aviv, Israel

After finishing the Hood to Coast race (previous post), I jumped on a flight Monday morning to head to Israel for a work trip. Intel has a newly built chip fabrication (fab) facility in the town of Kiryat Gat, located about 1 hour south of Tel Aviv. If you were watching the news around that time, you would know that Kiryat Gat is in the southern region that was getting hit with rockets from Gaza. Luckily, they agreed to a cease fire a few days before my departure.
So I proceeded with my scheduled trip to Israel for an internal company audit to make sure their local fab is setup correctly and running according to spec before they start running production material. Audits are more fun when you are the one on the auditor side of the equation. :) My schedule was hectic, but I did get to squeeze in a few hours of sight seeing during my week long trip.

the Mediterranean Sea near Tel Aviv

the view from my hotel room in Tel Aviv (23rd floor)

walking around Tel Aviv, you will find a mix of old and new buildings:

the city at night

While I was visiting, there was an ongoing protest against the high taxes and high cost of living. For instance, when you buy a car in Israel, you pay over 100% tax on the car. On top of that, gas costs about $8.50 per gallon. Housing prices rival those of the most expensive American cities. Many middle class citizens struggle to make ends meet, despite having well paying jobs. The locals protested by living in tents in public areas of the city.

Finally, on September 3rd, there was an organized protest in which 400,000 people participated. It was the largest protest in the history of Israel. After getting home from work in the evening, I took my camera and hit the streets to immerse myself in the action! I can honestly say that I have never observed so many people concentrated in one area. It was great to be a part of this historic event.

of course I found some drummers to hang out with

It started getting late (the protest did not start until 10PM), so my jet lagged body forced me to retire to my hotel room before seeing the end of the festivities....besides, I had to get up at 6AM for work the next day......I was working through the weekend and I had been working the previous days from 6AM to 1AM and 6AM to 3AM....it's the Intel way ;) Time for some well deserved sleep.

(more Israel blogs to follow)

Hood to Coast

On August 25-26 Emily and I participated in the 2011 Hood to Coast (HTC) Relay with a team of Emily's co-workers. Emily was team captain, so I was able to weasel my way onto the team at the last minute due to some injuries that forced a teammate to dropout a week before the race. HTC is a 200 mile running relay that starts at the top of Mt Hood and ends at the small Pacific coastal town of Seaside, Oregon. Each team has 12 runners split between two shuttle vans. The runners take turns while the vans leapfrog to the next exchange point. Each runner completes 3 sections and each section varies from 4-8 miles, so you end up running about 16-17 miles over the course of a day. The fun part is that there are no breaks in the race....it goes through the night. We started early Friday morning and finished Saturday afternoon. It was an amazing challenge and a great experience. Running through the pain on a back country road at night with just a headlamp to dimly light the way can take you to some places in your head that you didn't even know existed. If you are a runner (and I don't claim to be), then this is an event that you will look forward to doing again. I think I only slept about 2 hours in the van, yet I logged a pace 30 seconds per mile faster than my usual; I guess those late nights on call for work have prepared my body to function at peak performance no matter what time of day. :) ....or was it the Redbull and an energy bar for breakfast?

gearing up the team van (van #2) at our house before the race...in case you can't read our spoof corporate motivational signs they state "blurring Vision", "wavering Commitment", and my fav "begging for an Execution".....which pretty much sums up how you feel after running 17 miles on hardly any sleep!

looking to the start in the morning

powering through my first leg - a rolling 5.87 miles

exchange to teammate Chris (Emily's former manager)

donning the reflective vest for the night run

night exchange point - somewhere in the middle of nowhere, Oregon

Em running at 3AM

Em hands off the baton after finishing her night run

then we got stuck in traffic from all the vans...sometimes the runner beat the van so we had to get out and run an extra mile or so to make the exchange in time for the next runner

vans waiting at the exchange point

people get creative on where to sleep - this guy had a full matress in the back of his truck

Em heading down the final stretch to the coast to bring us across the finish line!

the AGX12 team

at the finish on the beach - time to party

after the race, we got massages then sat on the beach and just soaked in some sun and the views

Registration just opened up for next year......we just need to find 10 crazy friends to do it with us again.

Extreme Sports

This summer, we decided to get a little more adventurous with our outdoor activities. Along with the Kerns, we rented some quads to ride in the Tillamook Forest. They have over 200 miles of trails, so we did our best not to get lost in the woods.

looking my best with helmet hair and body armor :)

Em getting technical on some rough trails

we rode to the top of a mountain and had a panoramic view of Tillamook Forest

The next weekend, Emily scored some free tickets through her work for us to go see the Mtn Dew Tour (an invitational event sort of like the X-games). As we drove through the parking lot, I caught a glimpse of Olympic Gold Medalist Shaun White hanging out at a makeshift trailer. Unfortunately I could not get my camera ready fast enough to get a pic of Shaun.
My favorite events were the dirt and street bike events:

I only wish I could do a double tail whip off a jump this big!!

we had suite tickets for the indoor events....sweet!

Visit to San Fran in August

We're finally getting a chance to catch up on blog posts! It looks like we're about a month behind, but we'll get there eventually. I visited San Fran back in August for my weekend of MBA classes. Renee and Danny were great hosts, and my trip happened to coincide with a visit to SF by my Uncle Bill and Aunt Jackie (Renee's parents whom I grew up with in St. Louis). I love my MBA class weekends because they give me an opportunity to get to know my classmates further and they give me a chance to visit with family!

Naomi and Nina are growing up quickly. Naomi started kindergarten and Nina is definitely getting into the chatty stage. I have to say, I'm really impressed at how articulate Nina is...when she says "boot", she really articulates the "t" sound at the end. During this visit, my name was "Boot" ;)

My Uncle Bill kept himself busy during the visit by offering to help plant some of the garden in front of the house. The girls had some fun helping out with their little shovels.

Naomi decided it would be cute if her and Nina decided to wear matching pink dresses. I loved it! They gave me a little fashion show.

Nina singing some karaoke!

Renee has this amazing ice cream attachment for her Kitchenaid mixer and made us all some delicious blackberry ice cream made out of yogurt. It was healthy and tasty!

The girls love it too! I can't wait to visit SF soon to see the girls again...I love being able to spend time with them.

To cap off this post, I want to end with a picture of my group in my MBA program. The Babson MBA is focused around a lot of group work, and I spend a lot of time each week on the phone with these guys. Luckily, I think they're all great to work with, and we have a strong group bond on both a personal and professional level. I only have this group for 7 more weeks (we're already 6 months into the program!), and then we switch to entirely new groups. I've really enjoyed the program and what I've learned from it - I've met some top notch people from the program and feel that I've developed some friendships that will last for the next 40 years and beyond.