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I met a guy who runs some of KISS (the band)’s marketing at a conference and he sent me the coolest Christmas card ever.

Well… We put up our tree…

I managed to smuggle some secret footage of the square dancing that went on at Kate & Gary’s wedding this summer.

Click on share - it’s Clearspring-enabled (blatant self-promotion), so you can send it to your friends.

OPA Racing came to Patchogue last weekend for the Battle on the Bay. I took some pics and movies (below) of some of the races.

On our final night in Catalina, we decided to hike up the eastern side of Avalon and get some night photos. It’s a maze of hilly roads and walkways on the east side, but we eventually found our way to the top of Upper Terrace Road

One thing we discovered was just how many dead pixels the old Nikon camera has. I count about 7 that only show up in dark shots. Terrible.

Lucky thing we had the Canon. I used a mini-tripod to set it up for long-exposure shots, which worked out well.

Another lucky animal encounter happened on this trip as well. We were walking back home when suddenly we spotted a deer about 10 feet in front of us. We moved slowly, and to our surprise, it actually came closer, probably to about 3 feet of Robyn. It was so dark that we didn’t get many good shots, but we did manage to get some proof.

You can see the full set here.

On Wednesday, Robyn and I rented a 15HP boat and took a self-guided tour north along the coast from Avalon.

At this point, cruise ships had been anchored off Avalon for a couple days, so it was interesting seeing them dominate the landscape. We got a few shots up close on our way back to port. For some reason, it’s a little unnerving putting around in a dinky little boat next to something so massive on the water. I first got this feeling while navigating around container ships down in Singer Island, and there it was again.

We made our way north, dipping into coves and interesting places, trying to find the edges of kelp gardens where the most sea creatures hang out. As we explored north, we saw random yachts anchored out in the middle of nowhere, and some gorgeous sailboats with people climbing high up the masts and diving into the water.

Again, we bought a disposable waterproof camera and developed the shots to CD. Photoshop made them decent looking, and we got a few really amazing ones. We were extremely lucky to spot a bat ray trying to hide itself in the sand, and we followed it around for a bit. Though it swam away when we got close, it never got scared enough to completely take off. Boy, could it camouflage itself well in the sand though. All you could see were its eyes!

As we started for home after a great morning of snorkeling, probably the most memorable event of our vacation happened. We were just cruising along, when a sea lion popped its head out of the water and swam in the opposite direction. We couldn’t believe it, but I quickly whipped the boat around and started following. It was tough to anticipate where it would pop its head up next, but sometimes we could see its shiny body sliding beneath the surface. We tailed it for probably 10 minutes trying to get movies and pictures, and we came out with a few decent ones.

On Tuesday we went on a guided kayak tour down to a location called Frog Rock. It was just a nice casual kayak along the coast, but what made it stand out was that we saw a bald eagle perched on a branch right by the beach we stopped at. It sat there for maybe fifteen minutes before it swooped down, grabbed a fish in one go and flew away to enjoy its meal.

I think we’re too far south for this eagle to be Stephen Jr.

Robyn captured a video of the eagle nabbing its fish. Unfortunately, it’s a little far away (you’ve got to look REALLY hard with YouTube’s crap resolution), but it’s cool nonetheless.

On Monday after our snorkeling trip, Robyn and I hiked up Chimes Tower Road on the west side of Avalon and took some shots of the city, the chime tower, and surrounding harbors. We then walked down to the Casino - a structure built in the 1920’s that houses the theatre, formal ballroom, museum, and gym - and took some external shots there.

See the full photoset here.

That night, we went to see the Bourne Ultimatum at the Casino Theatre. I have never been in such an amazing space to watch a movie, and unfortunately all I had with me to take pics was my iPhone. The entire theatre was bathed in red, and there were art deco accents and murals adorning the walls. It was quite a sight. Hopefully you can get an idea from the low-quality pictures I took.

On Monday, Robyn and I went on our first official guided excursion off Catalina. We signed up for a 2 hour snorkeling trip, which would take up to 6 people in a boat to a strategic location and guide them on a snorkeling tour. We got lucky and were the only people who signed up for the early time slot. So it was just us and Captain Rob.

This turned out to be a great intro to the underwater life of the island, and taught us that the protected side of the island was quite safe to snorkel and swim on. But this trip was not the most exciting snorkeling we did - that came on Wednesday. However, on this trip we saw plenty of Garibaldi, which are the official saltwater fish of California, amazing kelp gardens, and a lobster hunting food from under a rock.

We bought a Kodak disposable underwater camera to take pictures, knowing full well that they would be trash compared to the digital camera pictures we’ve been snapping above-water. But we had no choice. Turns out, they really were crap, but after a bit of color-correction in Photoshop, I got them looking quite good, if a bit grainy.

Immediately after arriving at Catalina Island on Sunday, Robyn and I dropped our bags in the room, grabbed our wetsuits, bought some sandwiches to go, and ran down to the pier to rent a boat. After all the traveling, and the heat at the wedding, we needed to get into the water fast.

Boat rentals were actually pretty reasonable. $130 for 4 hours for a 10HP and $150 for 4 hours for a 15HP. On Sunday, we rented the 10HP - and it was just fine for putting around - but on Wednesday we wanted to explore more locations and I wasn’t thrilled with the 10HP’s inability to plane, so we upgraded.

In our rush to get out in the water, we neglected to rent any snorkeling gear. Since we weren’t familiar with the island or the safety of the waters around it at that point, we regretted that mistake. We would have liked to scan the bottom where we anchored to make sure there wasn’t anything that was going to eat or impale us. But it turned out there was nothing to worry about anyway. Regardless, we spent a bit of time with large zip-loc bags over our heads (a child-safety nightmare) trying to peer into the water. Yes we have pics of this, but we look too idiotic to put them online.

The water temp was about 68 degrees - chilly enough that our wetsuits made us quite comfortable, and allowed us to hop in and out of the water without dealing with temperature changes. We spent the hours swimming at a few sites along the island, eating lunch (actually more like dinner) on the boat, and generally winding down.

Check out all the pics here.

Here’s a video of us setting off from Avalon for the first time: