Long time friend and dive buddy, John, shares this photo of himself taken while visiting the pyramids in Egypt. I’ll bet you thought they were bigger…

Feeling the financial pinch? Giving up on ever taking that European vacation? Dan Piraro suggests this budget alternative…

Following up on Monday’s post about the spread of airline add-on fees for everything from peanuts to baggage and aisle seats, U.S. airline Southwest is resisting the trend — and picking up a lot of extra business — by sticking to their business model. The airline ran this ad in the Wall Street Journal (click to enlarge):

It reads “Don’t #$*!% me over” followed by “Southwest is the only airline that accepts this coupon” and the clever tag line: “Fees don’t fly with us.” More   (Hat tip to Teddy and Billyum!)

James sent this ‘toon. It reflects the current air travel environment with beleaguered airlines employing tactics used successfully by telephone and utility companies to bolster their bottom lines — add-on fees. The strategy is to remove all perks and comforts, then gradually reintroduce them as part of an à la carte menu of fee based options. Baggage fees were first, presumably to test the water, and now there’s talk of charging a premium for aisle and window seats.

Where will it end? It won’t, not unless passengers decide not to fly at all. Vacation train travel, or simply staying home, seem more attractive options every day.

Of course, business travelers are stuck between a rock and a hard place, and the airlines will likely continue to stick it to them. But even business travelers will cry uncle at some point. Or will they? More likely, corporate America will simply pass on the additional costs of doing business to consumers.

Friends Noah and Jamie will be hiking Yosemite’s famous Half Dome in a few days and I want to wish them a successful trip. Jamie’s posted a good deal of information about their planned 17-mile trek on her blog and it looks as though they’re well prepared for a memorable adventure!

I’ve been teasing Jamie to watch out for Yosemite bears, so this ‘toon won’t be lost on her. Good luck, guys! We can’t wait to hear all about your trip! And Noah: Maybe a few pics I can post?

As locals know, Caltrans has been gearing up to repair the “Boat Section” of Interstate 5 that runs through downtown Sacramento. The project begins today and will last about seven weeks. The aggressive schedule, aimed at completing the project months sooner than would normally be the case, involves closing lanes so that repairs can be performed around the clock, seven days a week. That means traffic snarls for commuters as they struggle to get to and from downtown Sacramento during construction.

The California Trucking Association created a helpful construction calendar to help motorists plan their movements through this essential corridor and my good friend, Michael, was kind enough to offer it to IM readers that may be impacted. (Download a pdf copy.) For more information about construction, lane closures and commute alternatives visit fixI-5.com. Visitors can register for email alerts, view live camera images, link to commute alternatives and monitor the up-to-date project schedule.

Dawn and I are back from our anniversary vacation in southern California. We had a wonderful time and took lots of photos. I hope to process them this weekend and post some for your perusal next week. Meanwhile, regular postings resume today. And hey! What’s with the early summer temps?

Thanks to those of you that sent your well wishes for our anniversary. Your kind thoughts were deeply appreciated!

Dawn and I are heading south to celebrate our 7th anniversary. We plan to visit some old haunts, see some old friends, relax and enjoy ourselves! I doubt we’ll even look at a computer while we’re gone, so posting will resume after we return and have time to process photos. Comments will be reviewed/approved then, as well.

Meanwhile, why not take this opportunity to check out the “archives” or “photo albums” and catch up on posts you might have missed!?

When we vacationed last July with Cindy and Ray, Cindy had just bought a mobile GPS to help her navigate our Sacramento>Carmel>Yosemite>Folsom road trip in case our cars became separated. As I recall, she had some problems with it… beginning with getting it to stick to her windshield and later with its disagreeing with the fancy schmancy GPS in our car. So when I saw this Randall Munroe ‘toon, I immediately thought of them… and the wonderful memories came rushing back.

No matter how high local gas prices climb, there will always be some place where they’re higher. For example, here’s a shot taken last week in San Francisco, and you can bet it’s higher this week…

There now. Feel better?

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and LONDON, England (April 1st, 2008) – Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Virgin Group today announced the launch of Virgle Inc., a jointly owned and operated venture dedicated to the establishment of a human settlement on Mars. …

For thousands of years,
the human race has spread out across the Earth, scaling mountains and plying the oceans, planting crops and building highways, raising skyscrapers and atmospheric CO2 levels, and observing, with tremendous and unflagging enthusiasm, the Biblical injunction to be fruitful and multiply across our world’s every last nook, cranny and subdivision.

An invitation.
Earth has issues, and it’s time humanity got started on a Plan B. So, starting in 2014, Virgin founder Richard Branson and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be leading hundreds of users on one of the grandest adventures in human history: Project Virgle, the first permanent human colony on Mars.

The question is, do you want to join us?
Ever yearned to journey to the stars? You can learn how to become a Virgle Pioneer, test your Pioneering potential, or join the Mission Control community that will help develop the 100 Year Plan we’ve outlined here.

Interested? Complete the questionaire to see if you’re a suitable candidata. Questions? Check the FAQs. Read the hundred year plan. More

A follow-up photo album of 44 images taken during our getaway to Stinson Beach with friends Michael & Sisko and Candy & Rob. All were taken with the Nikon D2Xs and Canon Digital Elph pocket cameras. Although Dawn was a little under the weather, this was one of the most relaxing getaways we’ve enjoyed. Heartfelt thanks to Sisko and Michael for making it possible.    (See also Part 2 and Part 1).

Today’s post is a photo album of more images taken during our getaway to Stinson Beach (see Friday’s post). I haven’t processed all the images Dawn and I made - I’ll post another album this week.

Thanks to all of you that commented about Friday’s images. I hope you enjoy these as well.

“Forgive me, gentle readers… it’s been seven days since my last post…”

It’s true. We drove to Stinson Beach last Thursday with four dear friends for a long weekend and some much needed “R&R”, and it’s taken me most of this week to catch up with myself and get back in the swing of things. Obviously, the decompression worked!

For those of you unfamiliar with Stinson Beach, it’s a little beach community in Marin County, California, with about 750 residents. A popular day trip for people from the San Francisco Bay Area and for tourists visiting northern California, it’s near such attractions as Muir Woods National Monument, Muir Beach, and Mount Tamalpais. It has a long beach with occasional opportunities for surfing, although the water is cold and fog is common throughout the year.

In 2002, a surfer was attacked by a 12-15 foot great white shark while surfing off Stinson Beach. The young man survived, but received more than 100 stitches to close his wounds. The attack was the second in Stinson Beach since 1998 and the 13th in Marin County since 1952. The surf off Stinson Beach is within an area known as the Red Triangle, where there have been an unusually high number of shark attacks. Needless to say, we stayed out of the water!

Our friends had the use of a beautiful beach house and invited us to share the weekend with them. What a rare treat! I won’t go into detail about what its owners refer to as their “beach house” — a luxury home by most people’s standards — but we enjoyed a panoramic view of the ocean and fell off to sleep every night listening to the surf just 16 steps from our back door!

Needless to say, Dawn and I took a lot of photos of the beach and the little towns of Stinson Beach and nearby Bolinas. We even visited the Point Reyes Lighthouse. It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend with good friends, no cell phones and no itinerary. I’ll try to get more images posted once I’ve had time to process and assemble them into an album. Meanwhile. I hope you enjoy these. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge.

I’m always fascinated and often amazed by sandcastles. Not the kind we all built as children - primitive creations made at the beach with wet sand, a bucket and maybe a Dixie cup - but those produced by what I’ll call “professional” sand castle builders. They sometimes create their works of art at the California State Fair but are more often spotted drawing a crowd along popular beaches.

I happened across this image the other day of a comparatively modest but very romantic sand castle built as a marriage proposal to “Sarah”. I couldn’t help wondering if she answered “yes” (how could she not?) and so I did some ‘net surfing to try and find out. Sadly, I didn’t find an answer about Sarah, but I did learn that sandcastle proposals are a staple in many castle builders’ portfolios. Who was first? I wonder…but I digress.

In the process, I came across a really nice collection of notable sand castles at Travelburner. Surprisingly, it includes the wedding proposal (There are still romantics in the world!) along with nine others. Check them out. Like I said… I’m often amazed!

By the way, if you’re “Sarah” (or know her), I’d love to hear your “story”…