halloweenie

Photo: Pete Saloutos

this is Jaden. Our cute little walking dead neighbor who lives across the street.

Photo: Pete Saloutos

Photos: Justincredible
Nichole, our neighborhood beach (Art's Beach), October 18, 2014

POST PARIS

BUT first Our friends in Southwest France, Marko, Tone and Lucas 

Some overlooked photos 

bACk iN pARiS

A collection of deleted pics from our trip.

Spain

  Paris...The 6th Arrondissement

The capitol complex on the banks of the Siene

San Sebastian, Spain

View from our stay in Southwest coastline, France

SPAIN

 surfboards by CHANEL

VOTE

Wilderness lodge on the spectacular shores of Lake Pehoé amid the natural splendors of Torres  del Paine National Park. The contemporary lodge contains 49 accommodations featuring  radiant-heat floors, Berber carpets, wood-paneled walls, handcrafted furnishings, lavish  granite/slate baths and breathtaking views. Hearty meals are served in a picturesque dining  room overlooking Salto Chico waterfall. Bathhouse with heated indoor lap pool, sauna, four  open-air Jacuzzis and fitness/massage facilities. Activities include full- and half-day guided  hikes, horseback trips and scenic lake cruises. A very special hideaway in a hauntingly  beautiful, unspoiled setting

SURF IN PR LAST WEEK.............

What an incredible week of waves!

The surf in Puerto Rico has been fairly weak and inconsistent this past Summer. It was hot, flat, and miserable. When all hope seemed lost. Hurricane Gonzalo showed up. He survived intense wind shear on his path across the Atlantic until he found a little bubble of low shear and high heat. What happened next was beautiful. He crept right into our swell window, strengthened in a Category 4 Hurricane, and dumped solid swell at us for almost an entire week, all while keeping the winds offshore the entire time for North facing beaches. I still can’t believe it. Every day I would wake up and shoot the report expecting either a drop in size or some change it wind, but it was just perfect every single day of the swell. With so many spots working and offshore winds blowing all day, there was plenty of opportunities to surf with light crowds and it was great!

How a surge in Puerto Rican voters is changing Florida politics

The road to political victory in Florida is not just a metaphor, it's a place: Interstate 4, the busy highway that cuts across the vote-heavy heart of the state from Tampa to Daytona Beach.

And the I-4 corridor, as it's called, now runs through a swing-vote region undergoing significant demographic change.

Puerto Ricans have been migrating by the thousands to the area — part of the largest exodus from their island territory to the mainland since World War II. They currently make up about 10 percent of Central Florida's population, and their numbers continue to grow.

A Pew Research Center report released in August shows that Orange County alone was home to nearly 150,000 Puerto Ricans in 2010, up from 86,583 a decade earlier, out of a total population of 1.4 million. The surge pushed it to No. 3 in a ranking of U.S. counties according to Puerto Rican population; only Brooklyn and the Bronx ranked higher.

"The I-4 corridor is the key to winning Florida: Win the area and you win the election," says Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa, pointing out that roughly 45 percent of the state's registered voters live in the Tampa and Orlando media markets.

Yet some Floridians, including politicians, are still trying to figure out how to talk about the newcomers. Because many Puerto Ricans work at Disney World, Floridians dub them "Disney Ricans" or "Mickey Ricans," labels they don't find amusing.

 cafe surfinista was here. click to enlarge.

KATIE MEYERS PHOTO

we had a good run

lots of these gems finding their way under your rash guard.

on the BEACH

Hey Robb, what's that?

Holy Shit !

"Think I'll wait right here. That dog's gotta wipe out sooner or later." said the spider to the fly.

DAWN PATROL