pasadena sky with palms

another sweet sky from our hometown here in pasadena, california.

more skywatch friday right here.

one more from lightning point

there is something special about sitting around the campfire with friends. what a good time.

july theme day: empty

this shot is from my recent camping trip. an empty sky can also be a beautiful sky... although, the moon is hanging there, so i guess it isn't quite empty.

hundreds of other bloggers are working with today's theme.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

by the way - HAPPY CANADA DAY!

camping at lightning point

on saturday i went up into the san gabriel mountains for a midsommar celebration. we had a great time celebrating the summer sun and what is to come. i'll post a few more pictures from our time.

happy birthday!

today is my wife's birthday.

she is the most important person in my life and i can't believe how lucky i am to be her husband. i can't wait to explore another year with her.

serious subject matter

on thursday night i had the privilege of attending a lecture from three eminent christian thinkers on the subject of torture. dr. glen stassen, professor of ethics and dr. al dueck, professor of the integration of psychology and theology here at fuller seminary were joined by dr. david gushee, professor of christian ethics at mercer university who is in town to teach a class entitled 'perspectives on social ethics'.

coincidentally i've had the pleasure being enrolled in this class and it was enjoyable to hear him interact with two fuller professors (one of whom he has already authored a book with).

the night had some difficult subject matter, and alarming statistics about how much of our society has embraced the use of torture in interrogation. all emphasised a hope that can be found in dialog and interaction with those whom we feel are different than us. they encouraged the attendees to become leaders in social justice instead of passive members of society - especially in instances where human rights are being violated.

this is a long winded post, but if you are interested in learning more about what we talked about or getting involved in a faith-based innitiative for ending torture, check out evangelicals for human rights.


free speech is something we often take for granted in this country. today around the world, bloggers are taking a stand in support of free speech - something that the people of iran and their sports heroes are currently fighting for.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

orange grove shopping center

not the first time this sign has made an appearance on the blog - going back to the friday neon series. i'm up in the mountains doing a little camping right now, should have a few pictures when i get back.

pasadena city hall on the horizon

for more skywatch friday photos, click here. happy weekend!

ipa festival at lucky baldwins

the last thing i want to talk about from last weekend (which is now 4 days in the past) was to head to lucky baldwin's for their india pale ale festival. for $8 you get your first selection and a festival glass, which can then be re-filled for $3 or $4 depending on which beer. far from the most incredible deal out there, but i'm a sucker for ipa's, and their list includes several i've never had including port brewing's 3rd anniversary ipa (pictured above).

i heard that the festival was extended until this weekend, so stop by either of their locations.

make music pasadena

what a cool concept - a free concert spread out all across the city with hundreds of up and coming artists from around the world. don't you wish your city was as cool as pasadena?

i was really impressed with red molly - pictured above - and the set that they performed at the levitt pavillion. and it made me pretty excited for the upcoming summer concert series which will be held in the same location. i also headed over to one colorado for mirah.

more from my busy weekend coming up tomorrow.

live h2o concert at the magestical roof

i'm sad to say i had never even heard of this place, so when i got home i did a quick google search and found that one of my fellow bloggers had already covered this super interesting part of town. check it out here.

this past weekend they were having a concert for the living waters and the waters of darfur. pretty cool. i was also intrigued by this garden structure with hanging magnifying glasses...


more from pasadena's super busy weekend coming up tomorrow...

and the winner is...

this beautiful peice of chalk art was the winner of the 2009 best in show at the pasadena chalk festival. amazing stuff - especially considering the fact that the artist was still working on it late into the afternoon.

so much was happening in town this weekend that it is going to take me all of this week to post about it, so hang on to your hats while i try to catch you all up on life in pasadena...

happy fathers day - in chalk!

happy fathers day to my dad and to all of the fathers out there. enjoy your special day!


the 2009 pasadena chalk festival is happening right now. i checked out some of the artwork in progress yesterday, but i would suggest going back today to see the finished products. some really cool stuff. go check it out if you are in the area.

pasadena scottish rite

i must plead ignorance here. i have almost no knowledge of freemasonry, and most of it comes from wikipedia. but this certainly is a striking building, what with the stone, the huge doorway, the egyptian figures out front, and the stained glass windows. the pasadena organization has their own website, right here.

by the way - if you haven't already visited my friend eric's blog to read his comics, you really need to do so. like right now. go. now. do so with this link. i think they are brilliant.

unknown building

i need some help on this one - the only signs in the area seem to indicate that this is part of cal tech. is that correct?

more sky watch friday can be found here.

today is the final day of my bicycle/ballpark tour. check out my journey right here.

greetings from the road

yesterday's route took us along the old route 66, including this completely abandoned section where we posed for a picture.

of course, you can follow the full journey right here.

pasadena from above on a dreary day

just a taste of pasadena's june gloom.


see the sign at the bottom? you'll be back. as will i, eventually i'll make it back to pasadena but for now i'm riding my bike. follow my journey here.

shish kabab and falafel along washington

i've never been, but i need to correct that.

follow me this week as i ride my bike to 5 minor league ballparks in 5 days.

a little jacaranda, a little traffic light.

i really like how the sky came out in this image - faint pinks and blues - fun stuff at the intersection of shoppers lane and cordova.

follow me this week as i ride my bike to 5 minor league ballparks in 5 days. it's going to be a blast!

christmas lights and purple trees

the jacaranda trees are back in purple force, and wouldn't you know it, the trees along lake avenue still have their lights on. which creates quite a unique effect as you drive along.

and along with the purple blossoms come the purple blog posts...

glimpses of south pasadena
hometown pasadena
pasadena daily photo
stan's blog
here's a new one - hoecki in usa
and this one - eye level pasadena
and one more - like narnia

and even our friends jill and nate in kenya

let me know if you also have shots of the blooming jacaranda and i'll add you to the list!

power lines

clean and simple image. 'nuf said.

from here...

exam week is done, and the summer quarter doesn't start until the 22nd, so what am i up to? i'm combining my love of bicycles, beer, and baseball (remember my love of the letter b?) in to one fantastic journey. and you can follow my journey right here.

more sky watch friday right here.

happy weekend everyone!

city hall from a new perspective

yesterday i mentioned that i visited ann erdman at city hall. this magnificent reproduction of the building plans hangs in the foyer to ann's office. i thought it was quite striking - actually, i want one for my own.

this is where the magic happens.

pasadena is fortunate to have a fantastic public information officer. she writes a very interesting blog and even hosts a weekly contest - of which i recently won! ann was extremely welcoming, and like my fellow blogger petrea, she offered to give me a tour of some of the lesser seen angles of city hall.

i liked this building before, but i like it even more now! visit ann's blog for your own chance to win a prize - and a chance to see a part of town that you don't normally get to see!

today's picture of the room in which city council meets includes my tour guide of course, as well as flags from the usa, california, pasadena, and our sister cities.

green street restaurant

one of our favorite restaurants in town - it's a shame that i haven't given them a plug until now. you should all go.

4.7 miles back down

from the top of inspiration point we headed back down the mountain, and as you can see from the sign, we had a significant walk back down.

i hope you enjoyed journeying through echo mountain with us over the last few days.

yucca in full bloom

such a strange plant. spiky and green on the bottom with a massive trunk that blooms brilliant white flowers.

look here.

inspiration point includes a helpful system to locate significant landmarks in the valley below. here we see tim demonstrating the system - simply pick the destination of your choice and take a look! unfortunately the cloud cover meant that every tube pointed directly into the marine layer.

viewing the marine layer from above

at inspiration point you can get an incredible view of the san gabriel valley, but on the day we hiked up there we could only see a big pillow of cloud cover.

more skywatch friday photos can be found here.

remains of yesteryear

the top of echo mountain contains the remnants of the mount lowe railway and the buildings and hotel that used to exist on top of the mountain. little remains beyond the foundations and some old machinery, but it is still worth checking out if you are in the area.

it is an incredible place to walk around and take in some local history.

unknown planet

compare this image to yesterday. can you believe this is the same hike? sure, the marine layer is still hanging in the air, but the terrain looks completely different. awesome.

echo mountain and inspiration point

on saturday we journeyed to the top of lake avenue and spent the day hiking in the mountains. the marine layer (or may gray if you please) stayed with us for most of the day which made for really pleasant hiking weather and really fascinating photography. over the next few days i'll share more images from our trip.

june theme day: feet

welcome to june. warm and sunny, right? only a few days left in fuller's spring quarter! time to start going to the beach to let your feet feel the sand and surf.

there are hundreds of other city daily photographers working with today's theme.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

the urban farmer

in the midst of auditing a fantastic class called creation care and sabbeth economics, i've decided to turn our balcony into something of a garden. it is modest right now - only a few herbs, a bell pepper plant, and two tomato plants - but it's a start!

may gray

for our first spring in pasadena we kept hearing that we were avoiding the dreaded "may gray" which turns into "june gloom". we didn't really know what that meant, but we do now. we're smack in the middle of scenes like this one - this image is of our mountains (which usually look something like this) but you can barely tell because of this facinating marine layer that decends on pasadena every day.

paseo colorado plaza sky

welcome to another installment of skywatch friday (more of which can be found at this fantastic website).

by the way - pasadena is about to experience a really cool event - old pasadena restaurant week. check it out, it's for a good cause.

oh, and one more thing - i'm working on a future bike ride. follow my journey here.

colorado boulevard

boulevard is a funny word. and it doesn't look like it is spelled correctly even when it is. part of pasadena's historic old town district. as i recently learned from wikipedia, "the intersection of fair oaks ave and colorado blvd in old town is the zero-zero, east-west, north-south postal division of pasadena." fun stuff!

eat your vegetables!

broccoli and cauliflower on display at the saturday farmer's market.

jpl building

snapped this one of a building on our recent visit to nasa's jet propulsion laboratory. i have no idea what building this is, but i like the way it looks.

twin palms

one of pasadena's upscale old town restaurants - apparently this one used to be owned by kevin costner. i've never been, but i hear the prices are fairly reasonable, and how cool is it that there are actually two palm trees sticking out of the twin palms restaurant?

climbing up lake avenue

this photo is actually above pasadena - in altadena actually - a town which some of my fellow area bloggers recently raved about.

the humans are dead

i got to experience new zealand's fourth most popular folk parody group last night. that's right, flight of the conchords, live and in person! the l.a. show sold out faster than we hoped, so we were forced to drive north to santa barbara to fulfill our burning desire for musical comedy.

a fun time for sure! if you have no idea who the flight of the conchords are, you need to give your head a shake, and then watch this...

hazy sky

more sky watch friday can be found right here.

farmers market carrots

bounty from the saturday farmers market - can you get yellow and purple carrots in your town?

cupcakes and a wedding

this weekend we traveled to virginia for my cousin's wedding. my mom and my aunt made hundreds of cupcakes for the reception, and of course we were roped in to the process of icing these treats. chocolate, vanilla, red velvet, carrot cake - so much work, and such a tasty end result!

a great trip, and a wonderful wedding. congrats you two!

the pasadena playhouse

viewed from a side that doesn't get much attention. those who have visited before know that you enter on the other side. i love how the color they picked for the lettering matches the sky.

welcome to pasadena?

i've never understood who's brilliant idea it was to build a massive industrial area right beside the 110 highway for visitors to see RIGHT when they pull in to town. or did the highway come second?

maybe i need some insight from our locals.