It’s a big, big day across the wide world of Apogee, gentle Blog Reader!  Chad here on a warm, beautiful summer night.  Of our remaining trips, two reached their goals today – our Tuscan adventurers spent a great bulk of the afternoon relaxing in the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea after their last full day of riding today.  And out in San Diego, the Ocean Beach pier echoed with the happy cries of ACC1 hitting the beach.  And come to think of it, just about all of our other trips in the field enjoyed ocean vistas today – if not full-on immersion.

CSA: Today’s picture features only a couple of our CSA-ers, but it features them prominently.  These guys were back on the job today after yesterday’s surfing adventure.  After their day of service, they headed to the beach for what were described to me as “Olympic Tributes.”  Nice tan lines, lads…

PCA: Well to the north and west, McKayla and Micah were back in the saddle after a day sipping lattes in Mendocino yesterday.  If you’re looking at an old fashioned, not-pixelated, map of California, they’re only thumb or so away from San Francisco!

PCB: Over the course of the summer, we get a lot of creativity out of our leaders, but things took an odd turn with Hannah and Shem today.  On their own day off of the bikes – one in which most folks would be, as Micah and McKayla were, sipping coffee drinks in cozy shops in Mendocino, Hannah and Shem had the gang marry their bikes.  Complete with veils and rings.  So – umm – there we go.  With luck, they’ve got a good pre-nup in place.  I suppose coastal California is about as good as it gets for a honeymoon, though…

NWX: Here’s a shot of our NWXers – all scrubbed up and exploring civilization last night after emerging from the woods yesterday and on their way to pizza.  Today was largely a recovery day – one filled with a late wakeup, fruity pancakes, and laundry!  They’re out in the San Juans paddling for the next couple of nights – we’ll try to get an orca shot from them.

TSA: It’s another day to just quote from Laura’s update as she says it significantly better than I do:  “We are writing in from Orbetello, after completing the major biking of the trip. Today was a lovely day. We got an early start at five-thirty and crushed the kilometers to get into camp at around 2:30. We then had ample time to take a long swim in the ocean. We then had dinner in camp and headed back out to the beach for a gorgeous dessert in front of the ocean.”  They’ll be giving back their bikes tomorrow and training it into Rome tomorrow afternoon.  Here’s a shot of the gang on their way down the hill to the ocean this afternoon.

ACCA: Today’s the day.  Chomping at the bit – David and Anna’s group of dynamos wrapped up more than two thousand seven hundred miles of bicycling – from Charleston to San Diego – with one last corner and one sprint into the Pacific.  We never, ever get tired of this story.

ACCB: Meanwhile, just on the other side of the coastal range – still below sea level, Mike and Danika’s hard-chargers scoffed at what the desert tossed their way and cruised into Palm Desert this afternoon.  As you can see, they took full advantage of the city’s many fountains…