Author Archives: Mark Fox
Chicago
Stopped in Palm Springs on the way home from Salton Sea to watch Chicago the night before the Superbowl. They were pretty good, the trombone player looks to be about 90 so he is an original as well as a few others. Barb had to fly to London the same…
Salton Sea
The air is so smooth here you can fly at 2:00 in the afternoon. So I cut a line, tore 3 tabs on the glider and split my prop on take off. This guy I never met, Dave Jewel walks up and says “I can fix all that in about…
Imperial Sand Dunes
My First Paragliding Tandem
Olympic Volleyball Tryouts
Barb said it wouldn’t be any fun, but she was wrong. Then she tried to dump me for these 2 guys The goofiest look ever
Sailing on Melody’s 53rd Birthday
We had a 28 footer rented out of Santa Barbara sailing center. Someone ran it into a reef so we got the 50 footer upgrade at no additional cost. Had to scrape up 8 people to crew it.
Hiking to nowhere
Melody took us hiking to some mysterious place called punch bowls and we never found it. The best entertainment was her falling down
Young kid rocking it at at the San Mateo County fair
Panama Panic
Three new friends from Panama on their 4th day of training. The self-proclaimed leading student, was feeling spunky that “today was the day” for his first solo. So confident waking up this morning, he was cocky enough to wear his Iron Man shirt in more than a pretentious fashion. This…
Placerville
Went to go have dinner with my friends from Thiokol Mike Evans and his wife Miranda, with some bar art first Stayed at historic Cary House Funky little town
Glenn Park
Very windy and they ran out of beer right when the headliner started. How is that possible as a vendor ?
Valley Springs Fly in Apr 2016
0:36 – Motor hiccups, should have aborted 0:46 – Power drops to 50% (can’t climb at 50%), pucker maneuver between trees 🙁 0:59 – Lift feet to avoid branch 🙂 1:10 – Full power restores 1:42 – Finally high enough to feel good about backing off full power, running fine…
Watch This
After my PPG flight yesterday morning, I was heading into Valley Springs for Lunch and this was blocking the road. With a Rocket Scientist in charge of recovery operations what could possibly go wrong ?
Punk-Ass-Bitch
A retired sheriff threatened me, called me a punk-ass-bitch, called the cops on me, and then I won. In my days, lots of people have called the cops on me for various reasons and mostly no reasons. My sister still holds the record – but I digress. This last Friday…
Computer History Museum
Barbara and I hung out for 3 hours at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. This museum is really cool and everyone in the bay area should visit it if you get a chance. The zip drive got one little spot on the wall and the caption said “didn’t…
My Day Yesterday
Went to go fly my paraglider in the morning. Starter rope broke. Ace Hardware for replacement and tools. A guy offered to help. Went to his house. Fixed it. Told him I had 3 hours to kill until the evening flight. He took me sailing on his 33 footer. Seals…
Hiking McNee State Park
Superbowl City 50 Opening Day
San Francisco has a week long party with live bands. We made it here for the opening day the Saturday before Super Bowl weekend. It is a small venue and the lines were pretty crowded during the day for the NFL activities, we couldn’t get into any of them. Kids…
Back in San Fran
Having Pizza at one of our favorite watering holes in San Mateo – Mavericks Note to self – they have the best pizza crust around
Cocoa Beach Christmas Boat Parade
Cocoa Beach Christmas Boat Parade – A glimpse of the sights and sounds inside the command center with 1 driver, 3 captains, and a teddy bear.
Quite the imagination….
Anniversary 2015
Barb and I on our 22nd wedding anniversasy (with Melody) There is a hidden wine country on 128 between Cloverdale and Mendocino. It reminds me of the old days Sonoma, when wine tasting was free 🙂 Skunk Train, Glass Beach, crashing art exhibit parties, hanging out…….. …..and the most angry…
Restart on the Fly
So here is this guys first solo flight….he hits the kill switch on inflation (we have all done it). Then the instructor restarts it while he is running. I have never seen that done before. When I asked the instructor “What the hell was that? Have you ever done that…
Oakland Octoberfest
Someone opened the gates in Oakland on Saturday. Maybe the most people I have seen at a street festival in CA.
No Bueno
So yesterday afternoon, 2 students ran straight into trees with perfectly good equipment 🙁 I was standing next to this guy when he took off, thinking what the hell is he doing ?…..He wont clear those trees! He didn’t. Injury assessment; Knee = minor, Pride = major The view from…
Reno Air Races
Beers on a floating dock on Lake Tahoe Pearl Harbor reenactment Reno air races with Astronaut Hoot Gibson winning (again) Loosing at Blackjack 🙁
My Morning
Am I supposed to feel guilty about Barb working all the time when I am doing this kind of stuff ? A 1 hour flight this morning. In the last frame you can see the landing strip and my car, but the GoPro ran out of juice before landing 🙁
Russian River Festival
Russian River Jazz and Blues Festival. We went on Saturday to the Jazz day. Weather was supposed to be hot and ugly, but an overcast lingered around all day and made it perfectly comfortable. Highlights included: $100 a night for a cabin at River Bend Campground…no sheets, pillows or blankets…
Milbrae Art Festival
Probably the longest one I have ever seen. Too hot and crowded…so we headed to Pacifica
Golfing Half Moon Bay
Game of Inches
You have to look long and hard to find someone with a dicier take off than me, but this guy managed to this morning 🙂
Beer Mile
I talked to the guy who won the 1st heat. He said he had been “training” for this event with IPA’s so that the Budweiser’s would be easier to keep down. The announcer was hilarious. California is a little kooky. I stayed on the sidelines.
Eden Balloon Fest 2015
Another PPG Failure
So this weekend I was 0/9 on successful takeoffs, despite perfect weather 🙁 This thing is not going to beat me ….not yet anyway. Notice the extreme concern, and Olympic-sprint of my wife at the end of the video (who was filming me)…. as she realized I just crashed 🙂…
Kite Festival
Kite Festival in Berkeley today. Here is a tip for all my friends who’s career paths have led them astray to the final resting place as a realtor (or air conditioner salesman – you know who you are). Watch the guy with the bubble for kids. There is hope –…
Cocoa Beach Sunrise
Street Art – San Rafael
Went to a San Rafael yesterday looking for something to do and avoid the millions at the Pride Festival. 100 Street artists using chalk and 12 square foot road canvases. Seems a shame the city street workers wash it all away tomorrow 🙁
Lily’s 1st Trip to California
Lily’s 1st trip to California: Science Center, Yosemite, Mariposa Grove, Beach, Botanic Gardens, Kite Flying and goofing off.
Frustration in PPG
After 5 failed attempts the night before, the next night on the 1st launch it appears that the right side lines got caught in the ground shrubs and the whole glider rolled over, cut a few lines and split my prop 🙁 Warning – PG -13 for Adult language Of course…
Giants vs. Braves
We bought nosebleed tickets to go see the Giants play for $37 via Oracle. The pre-game bar is attached to the stadium, so you walk right to your seat from there. Our seats had a nice view of the bay but not so good of the players, so we sneaked…
Kite Surfing on the Bay
Memorial Day 2015
A VERY busy Memorial Day weekend: a train ride to Bakersfield, a concert with 50 artists, a day in Morro Bay, drive up the California Coast, and a concert with Bette Midler. The highlight is I taught the 2 of them how to salute. Bakersfield – Ambrosia, Foreigner, Juice…
Horse and Double Rainbow
On hold for an afternoon Powered Paraglider Flight….due to….ummmmm…. weather Nice distraction though
More Bubble Research
I had to run a test to see if I could efficiently pump water 10 feet high to allow the bubble solution to gravity feed on to the ropes. So I used a tree as a test. The 1st set up worked great. Two older ladies walked by and asked…
More PPG Training
This week I got 2 more flights in, this time without any blood, jammed fingers, or scraped legs. So I call that progress. As students, we try to help each other learn, by shooting video of each other. On this one the camera man almost got taken out (me) 🙂…
Campbell, CA
Looks like the summer street parties this year start at Campbell….never heard of that town before but it is on the way to Santa Cruz 40 minutes away from Foster City One of the more unique things at the art show, funky dolls
Steamies
I read an article on the best bars near Caltrain stops, Steamies close to my stop was one of the top 15…this was our 1st visit. They are obviously used to locals and not a lot of newbies but they were very nice to us. We will go back –…
Rick Smith in San Francisco
My friend Rick Smith and his wife Gale are out visiting us in San Fran for vacation…..so far the usual activities; Irish coffee at the Buena Vista Sea Lions at pier 39 The pretty side of Alcatraz This was weird, only 3 guys are left living who…
Joe Bonamassa Concert
Barb and I went to Joe Bonamassa last night in Sacramento, it was a great concert. I almost totally screwed up, 20 minutes from Sacramento Barb looked at the ticket to see if anyone else was playing with him as a warm up. I had grabbed the wrong tickets –…