It was a great trip despite our difficulties getting there. We flew from Los Angeles at about 10:30 pm expecting a 2 hour wait between planes in Washington DC. While deplaning I received an email informing us that our next flight had been cancelled. We found a surly gate agent that offered the choice of flying about 5 hours later to Toronto and then on to Montreal, or we could wait 8 or 9 hours and fly direct to Montreal. We chose the former and set about entertaining ourselves at the airport. We would have left the airport and checked out some sites but according to my phone we couldn’t get anywhere of interest and back before our next flight.

In Toronto we had 2 hours between flights. At least on paper we did. We made our way through customs and took our time checking out anything interesting along the way to our second gate. Back through security and John’s second hands on body search, due to his pacemaker keeping him out of the metal detector. We arrived at restaurant for a meal and a beer. Were not really sure what meal it was, since we didn’t really sleep on the flight from LAX and we’re now three hours ahead, tired and confused we enjoyed the meal.

After the meal it occurs to me to check our boarding pass for our next flight. According to what I was reading that plane had already left.  There was no, “maybe we can run and catch it” about it. It was gone and we weren’t on it. I offered this observation to Robert who had great difficulty accepting the reality of our situation. We paid for our meal and gathered up John who had left us for bathroom break and headed off to get help. Damit! How did this happen? Where did the time go? didn’t we have 2  hours?

We did have 2 hours. But just barley 2 hours. Airplanes start boarding 30 minutes before they leave, plus we waited in the security line and wondered about the airport. In our lack of sleep confused state we simply missed our flight due to fatigue. It was decided this was our only defense as we pleaded for help form the airline to get us to Montreal. Afraid we may need to buy another ticket to Montreal, due to our careless respect for our first tickets, we found help. It turns out that flights from Toronto to Montreal leave every hour, we were booked on a flight leaving in another hour and a half to give us time to retrive our luggage and re-check in. Here we are waiting for our bags to re-emerge after their hands on security check after being removed the the plane we weren’t on.

Thursday was going to be a fine day of sightseeing and getting situated in the city prior to the race. Now it’s been spent on airplanes and in airports. We finally arrived in Montreal at about 8:00 pm and our Limo driver was nowhere to be seen. Repeated calls from Toronto and from the airport in Montreal were met with an answering machine. We were forced to take a taxi (a beat to crap Toyota Camery) to our hotel. The Orbitz travel voucher has all kinds of language on it about how they don’t even entertain the notion of refunds so now I’ve lost $55 due to the cancelled flight and our inability to get on a plane. Crap!

The next few days all went well as we enjoyed the city and the race. The F1 cars are amazing. Here’s an audio file recorded as we made our way to our seats for qualifying.

In our last few hours in Montreal it occurred to me that I was still holding the travel voucher for the failed limo ride from the airport. So I called the limo company again and got the answering machine. Then I turned off my caller ID from my phone and called again. SUCCESS! They answered. I explained that I wanted to use my voucher from our arrival to take a limo from the hotel to the airport, “sure” he said “what time would you like the driver to meet you?” Perfect. Yeah they seemed to be avoiding my calls, but so what, at least we’re getting what we’ve already paid for.

Dinner on Saturday night at Boris Bistro in Old Montreal was great. We made reservations at a place recommend in both Robert’s and my guide books. Boris Bistro on Mcgill in old Montreal.

It was my first time tasting Foie Gras.  All things considered, it was pretty damn tasty. Also on the appetizer selection this might were french fries cooked in duck fat, and Escargot. That’s the Foie Gras in the pastry at the bottom.

I enjoyed duck magret, in an espresso cardamom sauce, John had the braised beef, in red wine and bacon sauce. Robert had the lamb shank confit, tomato sauce and creamy polenta. With wine and the most delicious chocolate mouse, caramel thing it was a fantastic meal.

After that we strolled old Montreal before taking the subway to the Mont Royal area where an entire street was closed to traffic for the enjoyment of strolling from restaurant to bar to bar enjoying sidewalk venders along the way.

Seeing and hearing the F1 cars was fantastic, but this may have been the peak of my visit to Montreal. Very nice.

It’s late Sunday afternoon in Montreal after the Grand Prix Du Montreal. We’ve just returned to our room before heading out to try what reported as some of the best smoked meat sandwiches anywhere. A place called Schwartz’s Delicatessen. looking forward to that.

The race was great success and certainly worth doing, at least once in your life. Montreal is a beautiful city full of friendly people.

Nearly all the 50,000 plus attendees of the race take the subway under the St. Lawrence river to get there. Each train has six cars and half a car holds approximately 60 people. So that’s roughly 1080 people per train. It all flowed amazing well. Montreal handles crowd control amazingly well. As we left the race site on Saturday we saw someone being detained by the police. He was surrounded loosely by 5 or 6 officers as one officer was using his radio. It was clear the individual detained was going nowhere, but at the same time he wasn’t being touched. We joked that to Canadians that may be the equivalent of the Rodney King stop.

John and I, on the track after the race.

Don’t forget to listen to my AudioBoos. Then check out the audio I posted to Posterous. Those both proved to be easier to to a quick post of an audio file or photo from where ever I was. Later I might re-post some of the audio files, (especially the one of the F1 cars speeding past) to this site. Also look for the video of the three of us waiting in Toronto for our bags to reappear after being taken off the flight to Montreal that we missed.

Both Rob and John have passed out as I’m writing this. Seems like this happened yesterday too. Fighting the urge to record them snoring.

We were awoken at 5:00 am (2:00 am Los Angeles) sharp by the sun rising, and shining directly into our hotel room window. We got cleaned up and made our way to the track to pick up our tickets before the the will call trailer even opened. Walking like Zombies we were in our seats by 8:30 am. (5:30 back home).

When I purchased the tickets I didn’t know exactly where our seats would be in the grandstand, only which grandstand. Turns out they’re not the most perfect seats, but they could certainly be much worse.




We watched some Ferrari 430s practicing for a “gentleman’s race” to come. Then it was an F1 practice session, followed by a group of F1 cars that spanned several years of F1 racing. We ate lunch at the track and walked around until the next practice session. We caught glimpses of the track from time to time. Mostly we could enjoyed the sounds of 18,000 rpm motors pumping out 700+ H.P.
Were back in the room now tacking a break before possibly heading back out. Rob just rolled over into what looks like a nap, so who knows for sure.

So far Montreal is really nice place. The people are great. it’s clean and green and seems like it would be fine place to call home. Expect perhaps for the winters.
Not much was accomplished in the picture department today. Okay Rob’s asleep, looks like John’s going to follow him.

We’ve chased the sun at 350 mph and caught her. Crap! There it is coming in through a few open windows. We’re descending into Washington DC after a dreadful 5 hours trying to sleep.

Here we go. John, Rob and I take off in about an hour for our all night flight to Montreal Canada. We’ll enjoy 4 nights and 5 days checking the race events and the local sights.
Stay tuned to my Twitter feed for Audio Boo updates, Posterous posts and maybe a few pictures. I’ll try and record and photograph my way through the day. The posts may all come at once when I reach a wifi access point. So you’ll have to bear with the untimley nature of the updates.
Alright, so long for now. Stay tuned for updates.

A road trip much better suited to younger folks. We left my house at 3:00 A.M. Sunday. We arrived in Monterey at 8:00 A.M. Had breakfast at a local diner and were in the raceway by 9:30. Walking though the paddock areas we were free to enjoy the cars close up. The crowds were not large and it was very easy to move about and enjoy the sights, sounds and even smells of all the old cars assembled there.
I’m very happy with the how my pictures came out. Pretty much every picture from the paddock area was taken with the Lumix LX3. This link will take you directly to my favorite view in my Vintage Races gallery. Use the arrow keys after following the link to advance the pictures.
We left Monterey at about 4 and traveled south on Carmel Valley road. It was about 50 miles of unspoiled California. The road narrowed in places and the center line wasn’t even there. Tight and twisty I’m sure we all wished we were behind the wheels of our own cars.

Driving up to Kevin’s camp I’m always impressed at what a smooth ascent it seems to be. Now I have proof. I had thought that immediately after the hairpin turn the road was much steeper, but apparently not. Check out the vertical profile of this 23 miles of driving.

Ascent to Tahquitz. (Kevin’s camp)

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Here’s a better view of the elevation. Now I can see that at about 3000′ it does get steeper for a time.

While camping near the Santa Ynez river, we came across a baptism in the river. It’s a scene that’s no doubt occurred tens of thousands of times over hundreds of years. Below is a short clip I captured while watching. I’ve learned to really appreciate traditions and gatherings such as this for the continuity they bring to a culture. I see in them a timeless quality that can’t help but connect the viewer/participant to history and to those that have traveled this way before us. Imagine this occurring in this very spot a 150 years prior. The only difference might be the clothes and the digital cameras. Watch the video after the jump.