travel

Monterey Car Week Favorites by Christopher Loa

Porsche Factory 964 race car with a racing pedigree at Monterey Car Week.

Monterey Car week is one of my favorite events of the year. A week of car shows, car meets, cruises and other car related events. Not only are there some of the rarest, coolest and most expensive cars in these shows but also the streets of Carmel and Monterey are filled with like minded car enthusiasts and their personal collector cars. Here are photos of some of my favorites from the week.

McLaren, Mercedes and Lamborghini on display at the Sotheby’s auction during Monterey Car Week.

Nine Days in New York by Christopher Loa

It can be hard living so far from most of your close family members, so when I get an opportunity to visit them, I take it. I spent nine days in New York visiting my dad and grandparents. I have always loved the east coast vibe and the fast pace of big cities and late spring is one of my favorite times to visit New York. I stayed at my dads house in Jersey City most of the trip and spent a lot of time exploring parts of New York that I hadn't experienced before. My dad works in New York as a real estate photographer so he runs around the city constantly but never gets a lot of time to just enjoy whats there, so its nice to experience it with him when I'm there. There were a few places I wanted to check out including Self Edge, Left Field NYC, and Upstate Stock which took me to neighborhoods that I had not seen a lot of, like Williamsburg and Queens. I also got to spend some time on the upper west side of Manhattan and of course I hit some of the typical shopping spots in SOHO. After spending a few days in the city, me and my dad drove 4 hours up to Horseheads which is a small town in central New York state to visit my grandparents. This town was established in 1837 and has an interesting history behind the name that dates back to the revolutionary war, which you can read about at the link. While in Horseheads, we went to a memorial day parade and checked out some waterfalls near Watkins Glen. Overall this was another fun trip to New York and I always love traveling and spending time with my family since they live so far away. I cannot wait until my next trip out there.

Day Trip to Bisbee, Arizona by Christopher Loa

Copper Queen Mine. Bisbee, Arizona.

Me and my friends, Travis and Jake, all had a day off and decided to spend it taking a road trip to an old town just outside of Bisbee called Lowell. It is a small town that seems to be frozen in time. Settled in 1880, most of the town was demolished when the pit mine was expanded in the 1950's. Today it is not much more than a single street lined with a few old buildings that have been preserved by its care takers. The mining company owns most of the land that makes up Lowell, but allows the a few locals to preserve the town as much as possible. Most of the buildings and businesses are just for show but there is a diner there that we stopped at for lunch called Bisbee Breakfast Club. After lunch we explored the empty buildings and talked about what it would be like to live in a mining town in the 1950s. After being amazed by the work that the care takers do to preserve this street, we went to check out some local shops in nearby Bisbee. There is a lot of cool things happening in Bisbee including a lot of new unique businesses like Classic Rock Couture, Object Limited and Terra Firma. Some of them were closed when we were there but we managed to make it to a few antique shops and Optimo Hatworks, a very cool hat shop that manufactures hats right there in the retail space. After walking the down the main street, and admiring the old Levi's advertising, we grabbed some Italian ice cream from Pussy Cat Gelato and headed home to Tucson. If you ever find yourself in southern Arizona, I would highly suggest checking out Bisbee and Lowell while you're here.

Travis, me and Jake on Erie Street in Lowell, Arizona.