Dancing the Night Away 4

One of the things that we as Team LUNA Chix do besides get outside and play is raise money for the Breast Cancer Fund. Our big fund raiser of the year is an event called Dancing the Night Away. Being new to the Team, I had no idea what to expect when we started planning this.

This past Saturday we held Dancing the Night Away - 4, and raised $3900 for the Breast Cancer Fund. Wow. Many many thanks to all the people who came out for the fund raiser, to Tony and Sue Farrow who opened their home to all of us, to Papa C's Catering for all the great food, to the band Coastal Eddy for the great music, to David Vasquez & Ingrid Valdna of Start Dancin' San Diego for teaching Salsa lessons, to Stone Brewery World Bistro for supplying our beer, to Greenline Construction Inc., RBF Consulting, and Scripps Ranch Swim & Racquet Club, for making the tables and chairs magically appear. We couldn't have had such a huge success without you!

Here are pictures from the day of set-up Friday morning.

Back of the house.

Front of the house.

Cathy, Randa, and Rhonda

Friday morning work crew.

Saturday evening the festivities began about 6pm. Because our team is spread out from just north of the border all the way up to Carlsbad, Saturday was in fact the first time all nine of us had ever been together. Cool!

Team LUNA Chix San Diego: Bevin, Chris, Randa, Darlene, Laura, Rhonda, Monica, Denise, Leah

Much of our fund rising came from the gracious donations to our silent auction.






The food was amazing!! There were five stations featuring different cuisines of the world. My favorite was the Mexican. Mmmmm....

The band Coastal Eddy played while people ate dinner.

Our bartender Tom

Shortly after dinner, the dancing began. Salsa dance lessons were offered by David Vasquez & Ingrid Valdna of Start Dancin' San Diego.

Denise and Barry

We've determined that wherever Denise is, well, that's where the party is.

One final look at the silent auction items before the auction is closed.

Socializing before the end of the auction, while the band Coastal Eddy plays.

Aaaand you know it's really a party once the police show up. I got them all bottled water and we took a photo together.

It was a great evening, with good food, dancing, and fun and interesting people all around. Again, we couldn't have done it without the efforts of our whole team of people. If you were there, thank you for coming out and being a part of it. If you weren't there, well, we hope to see you next year!

These are the businesses and individuals who have given their time, goods, or services in support of the Breast Cancer Fund. Please support them, and thank them for their generous donations.

Steve Anear of Swami's Surfing Association for signed surfing prints
Armstrong Garden Center for a “Gardener’s Basket” gift basket
Bella Dora Spa in Carlsbad for a spa gift certificate
Christine Baumann for a gift certificate for reflexology
Cal Pacific Orchid Farm of Leucadia for a beautiful living orchid arrangement
Clif Bar for the "I Love Clif Bar" gift basket of nutrition products and clothing
Rhonda Darling for a Ladies Coach Purse
Bruno Desrochers for two handmade surf racks
Encinitas Fire Department for their generous financial support
Encinitas Surf Boards for the great clothing gifts
FM 94.9 "It’s About the Music” and Brian Musick for tickets to the Padres game.
Fuel Factor Nutrition for Race Day Nutrition Analysis
Greenline Construction Inc for their time, man power and trailer to transport tables
Bill Hughes for 2 tickets to see Dancing with the Stars
Alex Long for beautiful handmade pottery
Luna Vineyards for a magnum size bottle of Sangiovese wine
Mary Lynn for private in-home salon gift certificate
Randa Milljour for the several elaborate gift baskets
Robbie Nelson's Happy Barrels Surf School for gift certificate to surfing lessons
Papa C's Catering for a Catering Party for Ten
Doc Dorian Paskowitz for 2 autographed copies of his book “Surfing and Health”
RBF Consulting for donating tables to our event
L.J. Richards for autographed surf poster and photo
Saris Cycling Group for three 3-bike Car Racks (in Breast Cancer Awareness Pink)
Scripps Ranch Swim & Racquet Club for the use of the chairs
Stone Brewery World Bistro for a dinner for two (and four cases of beer for our party!!)
Deborah Strauhal for 2 gift certificates for massage
Tom for volunteering to be our bartender for the evening!
Superslow Zone for “Minutes a Week – Shape for Life” gift basket
Pat Weber at San Diego Surfing Academy for a 2-hour group of 3 surfing lessons

From the whole San Diego LUNA Chix team...

...thank you.

(Now get outside and play!)

Aug 16 LUNA Mountain ride

The San Diego Team LUNA Chix girls are primarily roadies and triathletes. I'm primarily a mountain biker, and have threatened to take the girls out and bring them over to the dark side... BWAAHAHAHA! Well, my desires have finally come to fruition!

On Aug 16, we take our first official San Diego LUNA Chix mountain bike ride in the Eucalyptus Grove over at UCSD.

UCSD is a great place for a beginner or intermediate ride because there's something for everyone. Whenever someone needs beginner or even interdmediate coaching, I suggest the Eucalyptus Grove, for the wide doubletrack, the winding singletrack, the occasional ruts, and the climbs that go from easy to really challenging.

Leah is my LUNA partner in crime. She has agreed to "lead" this ride with me, even though, God bless her, she's never been on a mountain bike before. Before she even shows up, she has got so many rad points in my book, that I need more pages just to make more entries under her name. Before the end of the ride, I need another volume.

We meet at UC Cyclery in La Jolla and ride over to the UCSD campus. There are five of us, with Leah, Britney, Joy, and my mechanic and good buddy Steve who comes along with us for support.

Before we go, I talk to them about body position. On the mountain bike, you want to have your shoulders square to the trail, your pedals level when you're coasting, your arms relaxed, and importantly, you want to be ready to get off the saddle and stand on your pedals at any moment.



We enter the trail and find a wide area to practice popping the front wheel off the ground. This skill will help them get over obstacles like logs or ruts. Joy is clipped in, and is a bit more experienced than Britney or Leah, so I show her how to pick up her rear tire using her clip pedals. She's on her way to bunnyhopping.

Area where we practice popping our front wheels up.

We continue our ride, and head down the main trail to a section with winging singletrack. I tell the girls to remember: shoulders square to the trail, pedals level, arms relaxed with no death grip on the handlebars, and keep your head up. We stop to look at tricky sections, walking through them before attempting them on the bike.

Steve and Britney

Britney

Joy tackles the hill.

Britney and Leah.

We continue the ride and get to the fun part - the bridges!

Joy on the bridge - she made it all the way across!

Britney

Leah

At the very end of the trail, there's a log we have to jump over. To give some persepctive to how far everyone progressed, here's Leah at the beginning of the ride, learning to pop her front wheel over a stick...



...and Leah bounding over the log at the end of the ride!

WOW! Leah, you totally rock! Leah is a traithlete and this was her first time on a mountain bike. She was a little intimidated by the dirt at first, but by the end of the ride she looked completely comfortable.

Great job everyone!!

Big thanks go to Steve from UC Cyclery who came with us and helped on the ride. Thanks Steve!!

Aug 9 Cabrillo Monument ride

One of the fun things about riding with women from all over San Diego County is that you get to ride in a number of different places. This ride we did followed the San Diego International Triathlon route from Spanish Landing near downtown up to Cabrilo Monument on Point Loma. Here are a few pictures from our ride.

Although it looks like we're doing a "ride in a straight line" drill, I think we all just happened to be on the white line at that moment because there was no traffic behind us.

Climbing up to Cabrillo.

We take a slight detour down to the tide pool.

Chris waves hello!

The group down at the tide pool area: Caitlin, Chris, Bevin, Joanna, Cindy, Laura

At Cabrillo: Joanna, Caitlin, Chris, Laura, Cindy, Darlene

Darlene

Overlooking the bay.

Joanna at the monument area.

Cabrillo monument at Point Loma.

A few notes about the ride:
Be sure to cross Rosecrans at a traffic light. Traffic is unpredictable and can be dangerous in that area.
Entrance to Cabrillo: $3 per person one day pass if you are on foot or bicycle; or $15 for an annual pass. Additionally, the annual pass will allow you to bring 3 people in with you. If you plan to come back, get the annual pass.
There are restrooms and a rest area at the top of the hill near the gift shop.

July 26 Bonita - Eastlake ride pics

Here are some pictures from our Aug 7 ride down in Bonita - Eastlake.

We meet at Donny's Cafe.

Down in Eastlake - wide streets with little traffic on a Saturday morning.

We ride past the Olympic Training Center.

At the county park near the Lower Otay Reservoir.

Joanna at the section where we have to go off-road to get back to Donny's. I promise, I thought the road went through!

Kim challenges me to ride the trail from the top of the hill. I accept the challenge and hike my bike back up the hill.

(video of me riding the trail on my road bike)

It was a fun ride and a great group of people!