Friday Nite Relays!

While your other friends are going out to dinner, heading to the bar, or watching movies, your real friends are riding bikes on Friday night!

Trails at St. Louis.  Be there!

Friday, December 18- 7:00pm meet at Dole St trail exit to ride bikes up the hill or if you'd rather drive, 7:30 meet under powerlines by dirt jumps (on trail).  FYI, the parking lot closes at 6:45, so don't park your car in the lot.  Front light and helmet are mandatory, rear light is recommended.

Race Entry Fee: None, its just for fun.

Race Format:  Teams of 2 will race a short course, tagging off every lap.  Each team must complete 10 laps.  Laps times are estimated at ~ 2 minutes and include some climbing.  The winning team gets a small prize.  Cross country bikes recommended, DH or CX bikes would be ok.  If you don't have a teammate, come race anyway.  Single riders will be paired at the race start.

Race Timing: None, its just for fun.  We'll try to keep track of the race leaders, as best we can.

Race Bonus: To keep track of laps (since I want to race), each rider must pick up a playing card at a designated point of the course.  The team that assembles the best poker hand (best 5 out of 10 cards) will win a small prize.

Race After Party:  Bring some cash and join us at Yogurtland after the event.

**WEATHER ALERT- We have rain forecasted for Thurs and Fri.  If its actually raining, and the trails are wet at 3pm on Friday, the Friday Nite Relays will be rescheduled for January.  Check here for cancellation information.  No update will be posted if the races are ON.

Questions? stew zero two five seven at gmail dot com.

Honolulu Fish Auction

Sideburnz and I woke up at 4:45am today. It was FAF Monday. FAF stands for Fish Auction Fun. It was fun, indeed. The Honolulu Fish Auction is well documented on the linked website, so I won't retell its history.

We watch the fish get weighed and tagged, and then they were loaded on to pallets with ice (see above and below) for display. The display aspect of this auction is very unique- I think the only other display auction for tuna is in Japan. Then, a bunch of prospective buyers from restaurants and fish markets browse the selection. The auctioneer moves through the fish one by one, selling the fish to the highest bidder. All of the prices are per pound. We saw fish ranging from 10 cents to 6 dollars per pound. We learned about long-line fishing and how to judge a high quality tuna from a low quality tuna. Today's catch was 58,000 pounds- big eye tuna, yellow fin tuna, skipjack tuna (aku), moonfish (opah), red snapper (onaga), shark, striped marlin- Yowzers!

Above is a photo showing the sections of fish that are judged for quality- a slice from the tail lengthwise, crosswise, and a core sample.

Here's Sideburnz listening intently to the Assistant Manager of the fish auction.


And the kids.Here's an Opah and one of the kids (can you guess which is which?)


Sideburnz, Dr J, Dr T, Dr S, and some shark. Opah at the very bottom.

The early wakeup time was rough, really rough. I've since recovered and think the fish auction was fantastic. Maybe we'll have fish for dinner tonight.