Nikhil and Annika ran in the Tustin Dino Dash 5K.  Nikhil crashed through the 20 minute barrier.  This was Annika’s first time at the Dino Dash.  There were about 2000 runners in the race.  You can see Annika in the green shirt in the back of the picture.

Here is Nikhil near the finish on his way to a 19:25 time.

Here is Annika after the run with Mom.   Mom and Dad were down for the weekend to watch the race and visit the grandkids.

Here are Annika, Nikhil and their friend Colby.  Annika got a 24:50 time and a second place medal for her age group.

The full results are posted here (overall 5K) and here (age division awards).

The kids dressed up at school for Halloween before going out for the night.

They have gone from being princesses, angels and cartoon characters to ghoulish vampires, ghosts and devils!

Here is Annika with her friends.

The best part was the haunted house in Serrano.

Here they are counting and sorting their loot at the end of the night.

A couple of weekends ago, Nikhil and Annika ran at the Mt. Sac races.  This is the largest cross country meet in the US.

Here is Annika finishing up her 2K race.  She finished in the top 15 in a field of about 100.

Nikhil’s race was a 3K and even more competitive with a lot more hills that Mt. Sac is famous for.

Here is the starting line with well over 100 at the line.

This is the first of several long hills.

A great race experience with a truly competitive field!

Nikhil and Annika ran a 3K and 2K at the  Wildcats meet at the Wild Animal Park in Irvine this past weekend.

Here are a couple of pictures.

Here she is with her 5th place medal finish among the sub-bantam girls.  She got a 9:20 something time for the 2K improving by about a minute from her last race.

They both have races this coming weekend at Mt. Sac.  Nikhil has a race in the Sweepstakes Varsity race on Friday afternoon and they both race on Sunday.  We have a weekend of running and driving!

Last weekend, Nikhil and Annika ran at a meet in Corona – the first one of the season.

Nikhil ran a 3K race and finished in 12:25.

Annika ran her very first cross country race.  It was a 2K that she ran in about 10 minutes and placed 10th.

During the summer, I have been taking a group of boy scouts on a series of road rides to enable them to earn their Cycling Merit Badge.  We started with a series of 10 mile, 15 mile and 25 mile rides – two of each.  Last weekend, we capped it off with a 50 mile ride thru Tustin, Irvine, Newport Beach and Huntington Beach – and back!  We rode along the beach for parts of it and also enjoyed the Back Bay on the way back.

Here we are at the half way point in Huntington Beach at the Dairy Queen.

This is a view of the Back Bay.

It made for a very long day, but we all did it in about 5 1/2 hours.  Pretty amazing!

On one of the days, we went to a zip line “park” run by Canopy Safari.  It was about an hour’s drive into the jungle from Manuel Antonio.  It started out with about a 20 minute walk up the hill.   From there, it was about 20 zip lines down and a couple of rappel lines.  Here are some pictures.

After each zip line, they hurried us through to the next one.   It was loads of fun as you can see from the expressions….. but I must say, it was all a bit too “sanitized” for my liking.  Guess you have to do it once but, I would go back for another river ride instead!

On one of the days in Costa Rica, we went white water river rafting on the Savegre River.  Our tour was conducted by the Amigos Del Rio group.  We chose the full day adventure down the Class 3 rapids of the Savegre River.  The adventure started with a bus ride to a way point about an hour outside of Manuael Antonio.  From there, we climbed into a 4 wheel drive hum-vee type vehicle for another hour drive deep into the rainforest.

Here are some pictures from the adventure.

We started off slowly and then hit some major rapids.  It definitely looks scarier than it felt at the time.

They referred to this section of the river as La Boca del Diablo or the Devil’s Mouth.

There was also another section of the river we got to “surf a hole” – a technique where you are paddling upstream against the flow of the river and keeping up – too cool to describe.

We were fortunate to have a great tour operator and boatman (Ramirez) leading our raft.  Only a few of us fell out of the boat and were quickly rescued!  This was an amazing and thoroughly enjoyable day on the river.

We just got back from a week of vacation in Costa Rica.    This time we rented a beach house in Manuel Antonio Beach.  Manuel Antonio is a small beach town about a 3+ hour drive from the capital city of San Jose in Costa Rica.  We rented a car at the local Budget and drove the 130km to our slice of paradise.

Here are some pictures of the kids on the beach behind the house.

Each day we built a (bigger and bigger) sand castle in the hopes of battling the high tides.  Each morning we would come out to see the waves had wiped clean our hard-work!

One of the features of the beach house was the daily monkey crossing.  We got to see a troop of monkeys crossing thru the back yard.  The monkeys would stop by pretty much every afternoon for plantains and flowers.

In between the beach and the monkey sightings, we enjoyed the wonderful backyard and pool.

During the week, we also did a day of white water rafting and one day of a canopy tour.  I’ll post those pics separately.

Cross Country season started and Annika and Nikhil ran their first 5K’s of the season at the Guy Poncy Memorial 5K held at Anaheim Stadium.  Here is a link to the race results which were not easy to find!

Nikhil picked up where he left off last year and ran a 20:41 (6:40 pace).  Last year at this time, he got just over 26 minutes.  It was a very cool course and the kids got to run on the field inside Angel Stadium.

Annika ran her very first 5K with a goal of 30 minutes.  She sailed through that and got a 28:49 and got 3rd place overall in the 14 and under Girls Division.  Too much fun!

Here she is with her medal!

After the race, I took the kids to the Angels dugout for a group picture.

Now that school is out, the kids have been going to the beach every week.

Here is Annika playing in the sand for hours at a time.

Here are the boys being cool.

Here are Madhu’s kids Maya and Kiran from last week when they were here.

Here are a couple of pictures of our beloved Clancy.  We are looking for a new Smooth Collie puppy – just like Clancy but with a lot less hair to maintain.

Here is a picture from the Pasadena meet a few weeks ago that one of the other parents sent over.

This is Nikhil running in the 1500M race (I think)!

Annika ran her last track meet of the 2009 season.  She got a big PR in both the 1600M and the 800M events.  Here she is on her way to a 7:34 mile.

Today was the SCMAF state meet in Downey.  Nikhil ran the 800M and Annika ran the 400M and 200M.

Here is Nikhil on the podium after coming in 3rd with a 2:36.

Here is Annika powering her way thru another PR on the 400M race.

She had a 4th place finish and a medal in the 400M but just missed the medal in the 200M.

Mom and Dad had come down from the Bay Area to watch their grandkids run!  This was Annika’s last race of the 2009 track season.  Nikhil still has the Junior Olympics to look forward to in a couple of weeks.

Last weekend, we took advantage of the Disneyland birthday offer and went back to Disneyland.  Here is a rare picture of Vikram and Annika in true harmony!  This is why they call it the happiest place on earth.

Here is Nikhil, Vikram and Anjali on the Matterhorn ride.

Today was the county meet in Laguna Niguel.

Annika surprised us and placed 2nd in the 400M and 3rd in the 200M.  She got a 10 second improvement in her 400M time and another PR in her 200M as well.

Nikhil did very well also finishing 4th in the 800M and improving his time to 2:35.  Both move on the the SCMAF county meet coming up in May.

I just got back from a week in Hong Kong and China.  

This is a view from my hotel room at the Sheraton overlooking the harbor.  In the center on the other side of the bay is the convention center and on the far right is The Peak.

From our base in HK, we went into mainland China to the cities of Shenzhen, Guangzhou and a couple of other smaller cities.

Going into China was much like visiting India or Nepal.  Lots of cars, smog, traffic and people.  Life is difficult with tremendous amounts of construction in every direction.  This contributes to the daily traffic jams and smog.

After a couple of tough days enduring the travel and food, our host took us to Mission Hills for a wonderful lunch. This is billed as the world’s largest golf course with over twenty courses in the complex.  It  is truly an experience reserved for the uber rich in China.  

There are some fabulous homes along the golf course.  It is comparable to Pelican Hills in Newport Beach.

On my last day there, we got to do some sightseeing around Hong Kong.  We visited the Floating Dragon Restaurant by taking a small ferry. We had a quick lunch and continued on to our next destination.

For the next stop, we went to Repluse Bay where I dipped my feet in the water and shopped at the Stanley Market.

Here is one of the many temples.

Finally, we went to the Peak for dinner and a view.

Another picture from the top of the peak.

We took the boys to Laser Quest in Fullerton for their birthday party.  Here are some pictures from the afternoon. Each got to invite four friends.  They had home made cake and In-N-Out for lunch.

Anjali also took them to Disneyland’s California Adventure which was offering a “free” day on your birthday promotion deal.

Last weekend we went to Phoenix for a track meet with Nikhil’s club.  He ran in the 3000M and 1500M.

He PR’d in both events and crashed thru the 6 minute mile pace for the first time in the 1500M with a time of 5:30.

Here he is with his teammates before the 15000M.

His 1500M and 300M times place him in the Top 40 in the country on Elite Youth.  

His two teammates are 5th and 10th in the rankings in the 1500M and 2nd and 3rd in the 3000M.