
No lead in, no words to sum it all up, words can't capture the spirit and emotions of an event like this so I'll just go right to the pics...
This fire place was the scene of at least one looooooong night of camaraderie...

Dirty Sanchez, unfortunately he's on the correct side of the bars


You know you're a serious Panerai dork when you're more interested in the display items than the actual watches LOL

At the BH Boutique the always gracious Chad was one of the first people I saw...

339 shots of course...


A fiddy with no strap?

Farhad doing what he does


Eddie and Nad having a laugh...

Whatever it was Bo didn't find it amusing I guess


Next day I went to the SD zoo with some fellas, had a great time, not many pics though...




Found out that most of the people in our group had never had In-N-Out, so that made it easy to decide where we'd have lunch


Animal style burger then animal style fries... I think the fries are actually more deadly than the burger in this trim





This picture desperately needs a caption


Back at the hotel we saw some recognizable faces...


Hammer cake!

Pool party? Sure why not!

GregKo was in fantastic spirits, can't tell by this pic though LOL

And Bo was having fun too...

If I remember correctly, the topic of this conversation might have given Mike pause to think


Yeah... I'm not so good with the Ride shot I guess LOL

Wow, Greg you need to work that thing out... Bo's giving you fair challenge!


Eddies sweet 201/a as he admires some non-Panerai thing


Super photog Martin peering around the corner...


Max was fighting a cold, he's not usually this glum


Cap is photogenic, no?

Addo and Naddo?

Nad gets "The Treatment"

Martin and Bernie strike a pose

Finally got to meet Cosmic Mike! I'm not a whiskey guy, but anyone who brings his own is A-OK in my book


The Frenchman in California, really happy to get to meet J-F finally!

As we head off to do some setup Mike flexes it out...

And this wasn't even all the swag bags!

The 94th Aero Squadron restaurant backed up against a small airport, so was predictably enough airplane themed...

Jen signs the various Hammer posters...

Kia and Ravi on the sign-in table...

I thought if the night went long enough it might be handy they had this vehicle ready


High Rollers!

One of the organizers Craig and his lovely lady...

FrankV catches me mid-shot...

Taylor mugging...

Addo being Addo, love you brother!


"My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." No, really, his tag said "Inigo Montoya" on it...


Hammer and his lovely lady arrive!

CraigF double fisting it Paneristi style...

Chad was in attendance of course...




Uhm... yeah... wow....


Verone doing his thing...

And Sanchez doing his LOL

I didn't recognize Farhad when he arrived... no camera! LOL



Lily filming Hammer's very moving speech...

"You must be this tall to enjoy these attractions.."




This is Hammer, if you don't know him make an effort to, you'll never forget him.

Retto and Nilo...

This was a very special moment where a very special raffle prize was handed out...

That being the strap Hammer was wearing the day of his fateful accident

Light them candles!

Hammer autographs some posters...



I love this pic...

Trouble, with three capital T's


Next day we spent the afternoon at the La Costa resort with Hammer, his family and whoever didn't have to leave that day...

Ravi-Roo!

Dad? What're you doing here? LOL (Sorry, kind of an inside joke I guess)


Shirts are IMO absolute home runs, my only complaint is that I don't have 4 or 5 since I'll probably wear out the one I have in about a year from wearing it so much!

Martin tries out Guille's M8... like he needs the help


Uhm.. yeah... those concentric circles are the sign of something very valuable and a little scary...



Who brought a crappy old worn out Rolex? I'm pretty sure it's a fake anyways, they accidentally put Rolex on the dial twice and even misspelled it the second time, what the hell? LOLOL


And for the 94th pic this is one I did not take... SanDave took this shot and I absolutely LOVE it. This is just one of those pictures that for me sums it all up so well... Verone's flash went off just as this shot was being taken so there's a wonderful back lighting that silhouettes Hammer.. the look on his face just brings it all home to me, what happened at this event... it was special and I'm proud to have been there.

Thanks for looking!
________________
Micah