San Francisco: Breakers to Bay Salmon Run 2006

Each year is the annual Bay to Breakers 7.46-mile footrace in San Francisco. In true San Francisco spirit, large crowds of people walk behind the runners, wearing costumes, going nude, or pushing homemade floats. One offbeat tradition of the Bay to Breakers is the Breakers to Bay Salmon Run. Participants wear salmon suits and run the race in the opposite direction - like salmon swimming upstream - and yell "SPAWN!"

I joined the salmon this year and ran through the crowds wearing a fish costume, handing out high-fives, hugging friends who were running the race in the other direction, and taking pictures. Here is a salmon's-eye view of the Bay to Breakers - my day as a fish.

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The salmon met before the race to make last-minute costume adjustments, drink coffee (it was 7:00 AM!) and eat bagels ... with lox.

Sandwichgirl, fresh back in San Francisco from her third winter in Antarctica, is all smiles.

Before the race started, the salmon headed up to Alamo Square to the top of the Hayes Street Hill portion of the race.

Fish roe

Heading towards the Hayes Street Hill

We watched the first wave of runners go by.

The salmon waited patiently for all the "serious" runners to pass.

When the "fun" groups started coming up the hill, the salmon jumped in the crowd and started their upstream swim, yelling "SPAWN!"

I got in the rear of the group and followed the salmon.

The crowd was very happy to see us - lots of people laughed and cheered at us.

This is our group heading down the Hayes Street Hill. Notice the size of the crowd in the upper left of the photo. That's only a small fraction of the actual crowd, estimated at 65,000 total.

Lots of high-fives were given out. My hand got sore!

The March of the Penguins team!

"What? Salmon??"

The salmon stopped to take a break and dance around at the intersection of Hayes and Market.

Elvises!

Fishies!

Gnat! is pink hair and all smiles.

Colonel Sanders!

Elvis infiltrated the salmon group and danced with us.

"Penguins for Peace" team. There were lots of penguins in this event.

Frank Chu impersonators. We saw the real Frank Chu moments before.

We were happy to run into our friend jD and his Katamari that rolled up San Francisco. For your reference: what is Katamari Damacy?

jD as the King of all Cosmos

The woolly mammoth and the cave-people team

After swimming upstream, the salmon ... SPAWNED!

Gnat sums up the salmon run: HELLA FUN!

And here's me, your intrepid salmon-photographer! (Photo by zoot.)

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All photos are ©2005-06 Kosmonaut.

Personal: Help My Friend Help the UN

I have a special blog post today. Instead of my usual photography, I've written a personal post because I really want to help out a friend of mine. My good friend David needs some help getting to Sudan so that he can help the UN this summer - he's been accepted to work with the UN this summer in Khartoum, Sudan, as part of the United Nations Mission in Sudan program, and it is an amazing opportunity for him to do some good work for the people of Sudan. Please read the following from him, and if you can help him or if you know people who can, please do. If you can post this on a blog or in a media outlet, please do.

Thank you!

For anyone out there reading this who doesn't know me, I'm a grad student, getting a Master's degree in international policy. Specifically I study ways to deal with war, humanitarian crises, and human rights violations. I've been given an incredible chance to put this work to practical use in Sudan, but I may not be able to make it work out. I'm hoping you can help.

The Good News: Through some hard work and a lot of luck, I managed to land a position this summer working for the United Nations in Khartoum, Sudan. Now that there's a peace agreement signed in Darfur, the UN will be taking over peacekeeping operations there, so it's an amazing opportunity to do some really good work, and maybe help make things better for people who have suffered in almost unimaginable ways.

The Bad News: The UN can't afford to pay grad students, which means I have to pay my own way. Unfortunately, I haven't had much success on that score; I was hoping to get by on fellowship money, but I've recently found out that I got much less than I'd hoped for. I'm working as many billable hours as I can find as an IT consultant, but Khartoum's not a cheap place, and running out of money once I'm there would be an incredibly bad thing. I'm really worried that I'm going to have to call the whole thing off, but I won't do that until I've done everything I possibly can to make it work.

How you can help: There are a couple of different things that might help get me to Khartoum.

1) Work. I'm trying work as much as I possibly can, but more billable hours would be better. I'll be in San Francisco from the 18th until the end of the month, so if anyone needs a good IT guy for some quick-turnaround freelance, that would be great.

2) Sponsorship. Any businesses out there want to sponsor me? You can put pictures of me in Khartoum on your website and talk about how you sent someone to help deal with the situation in Darfur. Or something like that.

3) Money. I hate asking for money--hate it passionately. As I said above, though, I'm not going to let this opportunity get by me without trying everything (legal) that I can think of. So, if anyone out there wants to donate, I'd be eternally grateful. You can donate by clicking on the gray/green DropCash button below:

4) Ideas. Any other thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

FAQ

Q: Why aren't you getting paid for this already?
A: The UN just can't afford to do everything it wants or needs to do, particularly when it comes to peacekeeping missions in places like Sudan. They only give positions to very few students, and none get paid.

Q: How much can it cost to live in Khartoum?
A: More than you might think. Just because a city is in Africa, doesn't mean it's cheap. The estimated budget for this position looks something like this:
Airfare: $2000.00
Local Travel: $700.00
Visas and permits: $300.00
Rent: $2000.00
Food: $1300.00
Miscellaneous Expenses: $700.00
Total: $7000.00

Q: Will you tell me what's going on in Darfur?
A: Because of the sensitivity of the situation, there are some limits on what I'll be able to say, but I'm happy to talk or write or blog.

Q: How do I know this isn't some scam?
A: I'm not eager to publish personal information all over the internet, but if you're serious, let me know and I can provide some documentation.

Q: Are you going to Darfur?
A: Probably not - I'm supposed to be working in Khartoum, the Sudanese capitol. There's still fighting going on in Darfur, and the Sudanese government doesn't let many people into the area. If there's something the UN wants me to do in Darfur, though, I'll go.

Wildflowers: Carrizo Plain

Each Spring I make the trek out to various wildflower sites in Northern and Southern California. This year due to not enough rain in the winter, the wildflowers did not put on a good show. (2003 and 2005 have been the best years of this decade so far.)

Still, I went to Carrizo Plain anyway and took a few pictures. Enjoy!

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Yellow coreopsis and baby blue eyes

Yellow coreopsis and one tidy-tip

Yellow hillsides

Yellow coreopsis

Lupines

Baby blue eyes

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All photos are ©2005-06 Kosmonaut.

Los Angeles: Coral Tree

Coral trees are native to Central and South America and grow in Los Angeles as decorative landscaping. They bloom in the early spring, between March and April, and are quite beautiful with their flame-colored flowers.

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All photos are ©2005-06 Kosmonaut.

Animals: Spring Foals

The newborn foals at a friend's ranch. Awww.

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All photos are ©2005-06 Kathryn Hill Photography.