The Best Places In San Diego!

Rancho Bernardo High School’s Cole Hamels, a 2002 graduate, will be the starting pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies’ in Monday night’s Game 5 of the World Series. Should the Phillies win the game, they will be the winner of the World Series. (I’ll be cheering for them since they’re my old hometown team!)

Cole Hamels is a 24 year-old left hander who won the MVP of the National League Championship when the Phillies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers to reach the World Series. Cheer him on tonight as he seeks to win his fifth game in this post season. The Phillies are odds-on favorites to win due to the strength of their #1 pitcher, who won Game 1 of the World Series.

Hamels is not the only major leaguer from Rancho Bernardo High School. All-Star Hank Blalock of the Texas Rangers is a 1999 graduate. They are just two of the 33 major league baseball players from San Diego who played in 2008.

Let’s cheer on San Diego’s own Cole Hamels as he seeks to secure the Phillies’ first World Series since 1980. Who knows, he may just secure the MVP of the World Series as well. The game will be at 5PM on FOX5.

Read more about Cole Hamels from the Philadelphia Phillies web site.

For the next couple months, we will see one of the fastest sailboats in the world navigating San Diego Bay.  The BMW Oracle Racing Team is in town with their brand new trimaran boat. The 100 foot sail boat with 148 foot mast is docked behind the San Diego Convention Center.

The America’s Cup competitors from BMW Oracle will be working to acclimate themselves to the new boat as they prepare for the next racing season.  You can read more about the planned stay in San Diego from the Valencia Sailing blog and view pictures of recent practices held in San Diego Bay on the BMW Oracle Racing Team web site.

I know who I’ll be cheering for - BMW Oracle.  Hopefully, you’ll cheer for the ‘home team’ as well!

In previous posts I’ve mentioned how the San Diego designed and built, unmanned drones assisted in wildfire fighting efforts and performed environmental research.  As was noted in those articles, the unmanned drones were originally built for use in the military.

Last week’s episode of 60 Minutes provided the closest look yet at the military uses of the unmanned drone.  More specifically, the feature story notes how the Predator won the Battle for Sadr City and set the stage for the current success of the U.S. Military Surge in Iraq.

If you missed the episode, here’s the video.

60 Minutes has a separate video that provides more background information about the Predator.

To learn more about the Predator and the Global Hawk unmanned drones and their connection to San Diego, visit the previous posts noted at the top of this article.

Congratulations go out to ATA Engineering in Carmel Valley.  They made this year’s Wall Street Journal list for Top Small Workplaces.  Only 10 companies nationwide earned the honor.

ATA Engineering, founded in 2000 and now employing 84 personnel, solves complex mechanical and aerospace engineering challenges.  Their work includes help in the development of the International Space Station to assistance on the design of amusement park rides.

So, what does ATA Engineering do that makes it a Top Workplace? The Wall Street Journal cited 100% Employee Ownership, managers and executives being paid on the same payscale as engineering staff, all employees earning the same percentage of their salary for bonuses, and allowing many employees at all levels to be a part of company decisions from hiring new employees to determining where the offices should be located.

So, congratulations go out to ATA Engineering for setting an example for small companies across the country.  Visit the ATA Engineering web site to learn more about the company and view their engineering opportunities. Maybe you can become a member of one of the Top Workplaces in America.

San Diego native Tony Hawk became the sports cover boy in the 1980s as the #1 Skateboarder in the World.  He pushed skateboarding into the mainstream by setting a new standard with his death-defying tricks.  Becoming one of the first self-made rich kids, he was able to buy a home in Del Mar by the age of 17.  In the ensuing years, he won 73 out of 103 pro contests and finished in the top two in 92 of those contests.

The 1980’s sports cover boy is today’s business cover man.  Just this month, he is on the cover of Success Magazine and the first athlete-turned-businessman to be featured in Portfolio Magazine.

After tough years during the 1990s when Hawk was forced to refinance his home and eat with only $5 a day, he turned a once fledgling skateboard company into a business powerhouse. Tony’s business success in the areas of skateboarding, clothing, video games, national tours, and a New York Times Best-Seller has enabled him to create the Tony Hawk Foundation, which has assisted in the development of several hundred skateboard parks across the country. Both Tony Hawk, Inc and the Tony Hawk Foundation are based in Vista.

Learn more about our fellow San Diegan who is now gracing the covers of business magazines. You can read about the life of Tony Hawk and get his business tips in the Success Magazine article and then get more business strategy advice by reading his profile and watching several three minute video clips of an interview he did with Portfolio Magazine.

For his New York Times Best-Seller, Hawk: Occupation: Skateboarder, you can read more about that on Amazon.

Did you get a rush from watching the Blue Angels flying around town last week? How about when the Red Bull Air Races were in town?  If you have a penchant for aerobatic flying, you’ll want to head out to Borrego Springs later in the week.

The annual Borrego Springs Akrofest takes place Friday and Saturday (October 17th and 18th).  Generally, about 40+ pilots, from around the country compete in one of five aerobatic contests. You can see the types of planes by looking at the 2007 results. To get a better idea of what to expect, watch this great six minute video made at the 2000 Borrego Springs Akrofest. Coverage of the aerobatics starts about 3 minutes into the video.

You can get directions to the Borrego Valley Airport from Google Maps. If you are interested in becoming an aerobatic pilot, visit the San Diego Aerobatic Club web site.

Mark your calendars for November 10th. That’s the day PBS will premier The Journey to Palomar - America’s First Journey into Space. The documentary chronicles one of science’s greatest achievements - the development of the 200 inch Hale Telescope, which took its first photograph in 1949. As I mentioned in a post last month, the Hale Telescope took the clearest outer space pictures ever, of any ground or space spaced telescope, in 2007. Its ability to operate in such an impeccable manner over several decades demonstrates the level of precision and foresight exhibited by George Hale and all those who took part in the development of the telescope.

The Journey to Palomar is based on the book The Perfect Machine: Building the Palomar Telescope by Ronald Florence. You will learn how the giant mirror for the telescope provided a ray of excitement during the Great Depression. As it was transported across the country from the Corning glass factory in New York to Southern California, thousands of spectators came out to the tracks to cheer it along its journey.

Although it is in a remote location of our county, make plans to pay it a visit some day and appreciate the significance of one of our nation’s greatest science marvels here in our own backyard. Check out my previous post to learn about the different programs available for visitors.

If you are a student or amateur astronomer, check out this “once in a lifetime” opportunity being presented through a Live NASA Webcast. On October 8th, participants will get to interact with the producers of The Journey to Palomar along with America’s Top Astronomers, who are featured in the documentary and will be talking to you live from the Kennedy Space Center.

Imagine you are enjoying a nice afternoon on San Diego Bay. A friend has invited you out on their sailboat where you close your eyes to capture the full essence of breathing in the fresh air from light breezes and bask in the warm glow of the sun.

You open up your eyes for a brief moment to enjoy the views of our beautiful city skyline when all of a sudden you see something that reminds you of a B-2 Stealth Bomber. Except, this thing is cruising along San Diego Bay. It’s got a wide body without much vertical height and is full of sharp angles. As you stare at it, you wonder what future civilization it came. It comes whizzing past you at 50 knots (58 mph) and you expect to be capsized in its wake but then realize there is no wake at all.

If you’ve had this experience or plan to be out on the San Diego Bay anytime soon, let me introduce you to the Stiletto.

Stiletto Boat photo from M Ship Company

Designed by the M Ship Company of San Diego, the Stiletto is making waves around the world figuratively, but not literally. The boat uses a revolutionary design called an M Hull, named for the way it looks. Outer skirts capture the wake caused by the main hull and use it to its advantage for speed and balance.

As a prototype in 2006, Time Magazine named it one of the best inventions of the year. Built out of carbon fiber, this sturdy craft can basically fly across water and turn on a dime.

Just last month, the Department of Defense used the Stiletto as a demonstration unit during a drug interdiction deployment in the Atlantic Ocean. This was unfortunate for a few drug smugglers seen on a go-fast boat off of the Florida Coast. Used to outspeeding the authorities, these drug smuggler were in for a little surprise. Take a look at the imposing picture of the Stiletto above and imagine it chasing you down in a cigarette for two hours. The smugglers thought they finally reached safety in shallow waters where they thought the imposing Stiletto would not be able to navigate. Again, fortune was not on their side. The Stiletto’s hull only extends 2.5 feet below the surface of the water and was able to maintain pursuit.

Fortunately for us, those drug smugglers are now behind bars.

So, keep your eyes out on San Diego Bay for this state-of-the-art, stealth-looking boat. Not only are they designed and built in San Diego but you will also see the Navy Seals using them for their missions.

Here is a profile of the Stiletto. You can also check out pictures and videos on the web page for the Stiletto.

The University of San Diego continues to make a name for itself on a national basis.  Last spring, the school became known to millions of college basketball fans as the team unexpectedly won the West Coast Conference Championship and then upset perennial power Conneticut in the first round of the NCAA College Basketball Tournament.

Last night, a wider NBC Nightly News audience got to see beautiful images of the USD campus when the news program ran a story about the increasing costs of a college education. The two minute video followed a senior Torero to learn the challenges she faces as she works to pay for her college education. You can read more about the story from the USD web site.

Cheers to the young University of San Diego for continuing to work its way into the national limelight.

Congratulations to Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson for winning the Women’s Gymnastics All-Around Gold and Silver Medals!

If you missed it, you can watch the full NBC coverage online as it follows the USA, China, and Russia through the four floor rotations. Even though you know the outcome, watching it is still intense as you can feel the gymnasts’ emotions when the TV cameras follow their every move - Nastia Liukin frequently closing her eyes to gather her focus while Shawn Johnson is off to the side going through the motions of her next routine as she waits for her turn. Early on, your competitive juices kick in as it appears the Chinese gymnasts are given scores higher than their performances seem to have warranted while the U.S. gymnasts were receiving deductions for what appeared to be flawless execution.

As the Americans eke out their one-two victory on the final rotation, the floor exercise, NBC TV cameras caught the famous Olympic Coach to Mary Lou Retton and Nadia Comaneci react wildly to their inspiration-lifting performances. (See Bela Karolyi’s Olympic reaction to the U.S. Gold Medal Victory.)

Now, you can be inspired by Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson in person! They are coming to San Diego on Sunday, September 14th. They will be performing at the Sports Arena with other famous gymnasts to help raise awareness for cancers that affect women. The event is being set-up by Frosted Pink with a Twist and will be aired on ABC October 12th.

So, hurry and get your tickets. They are just now going on sale through Ticketmaster. Here are all the details to relive the excitement of the 2008 Olympics, right here in San Diego.

Ticketmaster web page for Frosted Pink with a Twist at the San Diego Sports Arena.

Ticketmaster Phone Number: 1-619-220-8497

San Diego Sports Arena information for this Gymnastics Event. The site includes an interactive seat viewer to help you find the right seat at the right price.

Ticket prices range from $33 - $83. Buyers are limited to 8 tickets on Ticketmaster. Group sales for 10 or more can contact the Sports Arena at 1-619-308-4311

By the way, if you are looking for gift ideas, consider getting a framed Olympic Gold Medal Photograph of Shawn Johnson or Nastia Liukin.

Have Fun!