Resident Tourist

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirates' festival for me

2007-06-17T19:09:00.000-07:00

I went to the Vallejo Pirate Festival today. It was kind of cool - didn't know there were such things as pirate festivals and never expected to see one here. I took a lot of photos. Click here to see the slide show. Ahrrrr!

(Ignore the "read more" link below - this is all there is to this post)

Mother's Day, 2007

2007-05-13T21:02:00.000-07:00

Another wonderful Mother's Day at Catherine's house in Sonoma. Good food and a very quiet relaxing day.

Thanksgiving 2006

2006-11-26T19:56:00.000-08:00

A very lovely Thanksgiving this year thanks in part to a surprise visit from Cousin Thea all the way from Ireland. Some of Thea's Irish friends have asked, "Just how big is a Thanksgiving turkey anyway?" Well, just look at Thea in the photo below.

(No captions on the slide show but hopefully the photos are self-explanatory.)

Soap Box Derby in Vallejo

2006-10-15T15:00:00.000-07:00

I heard on the news this morning that there would be a Soap Box Derby in front of the Library. I decided to go take some photos.

Someone at the event saw me photographing the racers as they went by and kindly told me how the race works. The gist of it is that 2 kids race at a time. The total weight of each car and driver is made to match. After the first race, the cars are brought back to the starting line to race again. The drivers switch lanes and they switch wheels, too. They race a second time and the total times of the 2 races are added together to see who won.

I wonder why the cars have to carry the same weight? Galileo proved in his famous experiment on the Tower of Pisa that a 10 lb and a 5 lb weight dropped at exactly the same time will reach the ground at the same time because the effect of gravity is the same on each, regardless of weight. Perhaps weight is a factor in variables such as drag and wind, in which case it would make sense to have vehicles of the same weight. Then you're left with the skill of the drivers as being the main variable.

In any case, it looks like a lot of fun and something that families do together.
Click here to see the photos (If you like surfing music, turn on your speakers.)