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Kenny's Pictures, Batch No. 13
This batch covers the second half of 2002, which was my first year in Monterey. It has taken forever to update the text, I know, but it's here now. They include cool trips like hiking up Half Dome in Yosemite, various festivals in Monterey, and various road trips to Sacramento, the Southwest National Parks, and my culminating New Years' Trip to Japan and Taiwan.

Hiking Excurions, July 2002
To train for the long 4700' elevation gain of the Half Dome hike, Neil, Jeff, and I "trained" for it by doing a number of hiking trips around the Bay Area, including Mt. Tam and Mt. Diablo (well we didn't scale the peaks, but hiked in the area). I think the Mt. Tam hike was a 1500' elevation gain.

Half Dome Hike, July 27, 2002
Ah, yes, the mother of all hikes. Here is our summer weekend trip to Yosemite to hike Half Dome. A total of eight of us went, and we all made it to the top! Well almost all of us :-) I still need to plan for another Half Dome trip, perhaps sometime in the future.

Trains and Stations, Summer 2002
Two thousand and two was a big year for me and trains. I tried to take the train as much as possible when planning to go down to LA. Here are some pictures taken from the Coast Starlight, Pacific Surfliner, and Metrolink trains.
Pacific Grove Car Show, September 6, 2002
My adopted "hometown", well not really, but anyway, showcases cars every once in a while. It was kind of a nice surprise to come home and notice all these nice automobiles parked on the main drag. I only lived about a block and a half away. It's a really small town.
Big Sur, September 2002
One of the jobs I had to do in Monterey was go down to Big Sur every once in a while. Usually, I'd drag a camera... just in case.
San Juan Bautista, October 2002
The mission at San Juan Bautista is where they filmed parts on a Hitchcock movie. I can't remember which one. Shining? Birds? I don't know, I haven't watched enough of them. It's a cute little town of about 1,750 people, in San Benito County, pop. 52,000.
Empire Mine SHP and Nevada City, October 2002
This trip was really quite a treat. I was up in Sacramento for an entire week for the transportation planning academy (sponsored by Caltrans) and that weekend I stayed in the area and headed for the hills. I went up to the northern Sierra foothills and visited Nevada City and Grass Valley, and hung around there for a day. It was a big mining city and especially booming in the late 1800's. It still retains much of that charm today, albeit somewhat decayed.
Southwest Trip, November 2002
This trip was such a treat. I had an itching to go visit the National Parks I visited while I was younger, and finally I resolved to go the weekend before Thanksgiving. I tried to get a bunch of my friends to come with, but they were all busy with school or work. Finally, Dana decided she could go, and we drove down to LA and rented the car and took off. What ensued made great and fond memories.
Assorted Fall Activities, Fall 2002
Weekends can get kind of boring in Monterey, so you have to find things to do. Here are some of the things that I did to make the weekends more enjoyable. And also, the nice pictures that they produced.
Tahoe Ski Trip, December 2002
For my coworker Christina's birthday, she organized a ski trip to Tahoe. Unfortunately, there was no skiing to be had. Still, we made the best of it, and it ended up being quite fun. Why ski when you can play Scrabble and Cranium? (especially when there's a blizzard)

Japan - Taiwan Trip, December 2002 - January 2003
At the end of the year, PJ and I decided to go visit our friend Andrew who was doing the JET program in Japan. And, since we're in Asia anyway, why not also tack on Taiwan? So these are some pictures from that trip - mainly to the Kansai region of Japan (we didn't visit where Andrew actually lives cuz it's Out There) and Taiwan.

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Created by Kenneth Kao.