Author: Mark Dizon
April 18 - May 2, 2022
It has been a very busy two weeks. I was in Colorado Springs, Colorado for Space 200 training. I completed that course on April 22 and flew back to Santa Barbara, California the following day. I spent the following week completing some of my out processing for my upcoming permanent change of station (PCS) and one of the biggest items on my list was shipping our vehicle. The closest military Vehicle Processing Center (VPC) is in Los Angeles, California so I had to drive three hours down there on a Wednesday to drop off my vehicle for shipment. My wife Mayra was with me so we spent the day walking around Union Station after dropping off our car until we had to board our train back to Lompoc, California. It was a great time exploring that part of the city and I was able to capture some images.
Union Station Los Angeles
Information Booth
Jalama Beach view from the AMTRAK
The highlight of our week was the start of our trip to Monterey, California. We drove up the California coast via the Pacific Coast Highway the morning of April 29. The Pacific Coast Highway is one of those bucket list items and this was our second time driving it. It's always a joy for me to drive this road. The scenery is just beautiful and the weather was California perfect. We will definitely miss this drive. It took us about four hours to get to Carmel-By-The-Sea with a stop for lunch in Big Sur.
Carmel-By-The Sea is a beautiful small town right before hitting Monterey. We stopped here to walk around for a bit before continuing on to check-in at our hotel at the Naval Post Graduate School (NPS), Hotel Del Monte. Herrmann Hall (formerly called Hotel Del Monte) at the NPS is probably one of the best military hotels we have stayed in. The building was built in the 1880s but the rooms and amenities are very modern. We booked the executive room and it was amazingly clean, comfortable and came with an awesome view. We highly recommend this hotel for anyone that has military access to the NPS.
Mayra and I met up with our good friends Karen and Nick the following day. We spent the day exploring the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Cannery Row with their son Dylan. It is always a great time hanging out with long time friends especially with their son Dylan. Monterey Bay Aquarium is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and protecting marine wild life especially around the Monterey Bay area. All ticket proceeds go to wild life preservation and marine research. After our aquarium tour, we walked around Cannery Row and had lunch at the Fish Hopper. We ended ordering two Rib Eye Fish Platters which was a lot of food! It came with two lobster tails, a whole crab, shrimp, scallops, salmon and a rib eye steak! After lunch we had Turkish coffee and some desserts before Nick and Karen drove back home to Sacramento. We'll be seeing them again next year when they come visit us in the Netherlands.
The culminating event of our weekend was on Sunday when Mayra and I attended the IMSA Laguna Seca race! We love racing and motorsports! This was our first ever live racing event and it was a spectacular experience. We woke up early at 0600 to get to the venue right before the first race of the day started. Just the drive up to the track was already very exciting. The atmosphere was phenomenal! The sights, sounds and smell of cars and the teams was amazing! I love how us fans are right there in the paddock with all the IMSA teams and you can see drivers, mechanics, engineers and owners just walking along side normal fans. I had my camera ready as we walked to the grand stands to watch the Porsche Carrera Cup race.
As we were walking in the paddock area, I was approached by one of the amateur driver's mom and she asked if I would be available to take photos of her son Shehan who had podiumed in third place the day before in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo series. I told her yes and I thought this would be a great opportunity to do some photography. So Mayra and I went on to watch the Porsche and Lamborghini races at the main stands on pit straight then we went on to experience the IMSA Grid Walk. This event is where the race organizers allow all the fans to walk through the pits and experience all the race cars close up and also meet the drivers and team members. This was an absolutely great experience!
We made our way up to the Corkscrew (a famous turn in motorsport) after to get ready for the start of the main race. There are plenty of trees in this area of the track and it provided plenty of shade from the California sun. The grid consisted of prototypes and grand touring cars. We were mainly cheering for the grand touring cars (GTD) but the addition of prototypes made the race more interesting and challenging. Pfaff Racing's Porsche dominated the GTD cars and won the race from pole to finish. The overall winner however was the LMP1 car of Wayne Taylor Racing. Overall, this was a great experience for Mayra and I. We will definitely attend more live racing events once we get to Europe.
After the race, we had a quiet dinner just outside the NPS at a local tavern. We enjoyed our last night at Hotel Del Monte as we prepared to drive back home to Vandenberg but only for a night. Our next adventure is to the island of Oahu, Hawaii to visit our family. Until the next IMINT report.
