The Great Solar Eclipse of 2017 crossed the continent, from Oregon to South Carolina, and gave millions of people the chance to witness one of the most awe-inspiring events in the natural world.

But you had to be within the "path of totality", a narrow band across the earth's surface several thousand miles long but only about 70 miles wide. Outside that band you would only see a partial eclipse, not a total eclipse.

And there is no such thing as a "partial total eclipse", despite the impression blogs and the news media might give. I honestly think that's why so many people misunderstand the utter beauty of the spectacle; they may have seen a partial eclipse in the past that was total somewhere else, and even though they weren't in the path the news kept gushing about it being a total eclipse, so they assume they must have seen a total eclipse and just didn't find it all that impressive.


Posted by Dan 08/29/2017, revised 09/06/2017

Since competing in one a year ago, Kim has become quite serious about triathlons! Here is her latest outing, competing at the Chicago Triathlon. Way to go, Kim!!

Posted by Dan 08/31/2005

Nik completed his final race for the Cal Poly cycling team, the Wheelmen. The Western Collegiate Cycling Conference's final race of the 2011 Mountain Bike season was hosted by Cal-Berkeley at the Bailey Bike Park course.


Nik racing down the slalom course at Bailey Bike Park


Posted by Dan 11/14/2011

After tearing ourselves away from the glorious life on Koh Tao, Nik and I made our way up the country to the green hills of northern Thailand. We spent close to a week in the busy-but-friendly city of Chiang Mai, where we met up with the Chiang Mai Hash House Harriers. H3 is a worldwide network of people who like to run and drink beer. I'm not gonna bother trying to explain, because I can't really. But it's a group of fun people, and everyone "chases the hare," running a marked route that has false trails and intersections at which you must find the correct path. And you drink beer. Fun people, running, beer. Yeah, that's a simple little nutshell. So we got to join in on 2 hashes while we were in Chiang Mai, both of them out of town in the beautiful region surrounding the city. Quite an enjoyable way to see that part of Thailand :)

Nik and me, stopping for a quick photo whilst chasing the hare through the hills around Chiang Mai.

After our stint in Chiang Mai, we voyaged further north into the hills to the wonderful, happy little town of Pai. Pai had been previously recommended to us by numerous friends and acquaintances along our journey, by travelers whose opinions we trusted. Sure enough, we found our kind of atmosphere in Pai! It's a small community tucked away in the hills, where the locals are smiley,friendly, helpful, and happy, and the travelers in the community are good travelers - they are travelists.

Posted by Whitney 10/31/2008, revised 11/09/2008