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It seemed like it would never come. We had planned a great vacation to San Diego for months, and it seemed so far off. After a busy start to the summer (buying a new house, running a mission trip, working, taking classes [Kim, not me]), it was finally the beginning of August.

You really can’t argue with the weather: sunny with a high of 75, every day. We covered about 800 miles in southern California, including a stop at Petco Park to see the Padres play. Tim Stauffer (UR ’03, we were in an intro music class together in college) started for the Padres that night, and it was the first time I had seen Tim pitch in person since the spring of ’03 out at Pitt Field. The bullpen couldn’t hold off the Braves, so Tim ended up with the L that night. This was one of his first pitches of the night:

The last evening we were in town, we ventured up to Sunset Cliffs to watch the sun fall off the Earth. It never disappoints.

More pictures on Flickr

I’ve got plenty of new pictures from the summer, so it’s time to start fresh with Picture of the Week.

Back in July, my brother and I decided to spend an evening watching baseball. With the departed Braves long gone from Richmond, we hit I-95 south to Petersburg. The Coastal Plain League features college players in a wood-bat summer league throughout southeast Virginia and the Carolinas. This was pure baseball. It was a great evening for baseball, just a hundred or so fans, and a comeback, extra-inning victory for the hometown Generals. Who knows, maybe we saw a future MLB All-Star that night.

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This is one of my first ventures into HDR (high dynamic range imagery). It takes images at various exposures and combines them together to more accurately depict the true picture you see. More of my HDR images on Flickr.