Aunt Kristi's Birthday - 7/27/08

So for Kristi's birthday we went to the Del Mar Race Tracks. "Where the turf meets the surf, down at old Del Mar... Take a train, take a plane, take a car..." Yeah, I pretty much had that song stuck in my head all week. But the horse races were a lot of fun and the weather was amazing! I think it was about 70 to 75 degrees there, perfect!

So I am not a person who understands horse racing, but I enjoyed watching it and taking pictures. "It is a place to see and be seen," as the quote goes. There is also so much history here. Here is a website about the Del Mar Race Tracks in case you are interested:

http://ezinearticles.com/?History-of-Del-Mar-Race-Track&id=1276278

That song I quoted earlier was written by Bing Crosby himself, who was co-founder to the race track. Here is a painting of the original owners:



The painting of the original owners can be found in this area. On the right side of the corridor there are paintings on the wall of the Del Mar fair and on the left side are paintings of the Del Mar Race Tracks. The people walking in this picture are Jon, Gina, and Mike. I think Don is behind me...



When you first walk into the race tracks there is a long line of palm trees and flags. It is kind of cool.



Below is where the horses are contained until the gates open and they run, and do they run! Very fast and powerful horses.





Here is a picture of the crowd behind us. When the horses got close to the finish line, the crowd went wild! The excitement in the air was electric.



Here is where we watched the race. The horses were not more than 10 feet away from us. Each race we would line up on that fence and watch. Those horses ran by fast! I was glad my camera had a fast shutter speed to catch it all. Six frames per second, go camera go!



I don't even think Frank noticed Don doing that! I guess he will when he looks at this picture.



And here is a picture of the birthday girl. Aunt Kristi is on the left and her daughter Kelly is on the right.



And last but not least, Don... If you click on the picture it will zoom in a little closer on the picture. Look at the reflection in Don's glasses, it is me! That was not on purpose, but I thought it was cool. I never get to be in pictures because I am usually the one taking the pictures. So I finally got to be in one!