The World as We See It

Big Sky Country in the Big Apple

August 26, 2010 in photography, Travel | 2 comments

We travel for many reasons. Many times it’s for work. I’ve been lots of places for my job and seen some interesting things, both work related (the astronaut training pool in Houston, for example) and culturally related: catching Los Lobos at a small theater in Denver, Robert Craig in a bar in San Diego, Patti Smith in Atlanta, Rembrandt in DC (one of these things is not like the others). Of course, we also pack the bags for the traditional reasons: the lights of Paris at Christmas, a honeymoon to remember, meeting interesting people. Many of our trips carry the double bonus of doing interesting things and seeing extended family at the same time. With family members, we have sailed in the British Virgin Islands & Belize, skied in Utah and Montana, and rafted the Yellowstone River. Feasting on crabs and corn in Baltimore is always a good time. And a couple of weeks ago, we met up in New York City for the weekend.

When our talented niece from Bozeman (whose blog can be found here) told us that she was attending a blogger conference in NY, and that she was bringing her Middle Son, we were all over it. Her brother and his partner live in Harlem and our best friend from our youth lives in Midtown, so it sounded like a chance to meet up with friends & family, see some sights and spend some quality time with our loved ones. And perhaps enjoy an adult beverage or two. To make it even better, the Salt Lake contingent (our niece’s parents) decided to join the festivities. Game on!

The Montana crew did pretty well in the big city. Niece got lost a couple of times while navigating the subway, including getting on the wrong train and ending up in a sketchy part of the South Bronx. She persevered and ending up walking to her brother’s place in Harlem. Her son proved yet again why I hold him and his brothers in such high regard by buying the strangest piece of fruit I have ever seen while we were in Chinatown and, later that night, slicing it up himself and presenting to the gathered family in a most beautiful arrangement. I sure wouldn’t have done that at his age!

Highlights of the trip? Taking the Boy to the Top of the Rock. Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge on a beautiful morning. Wandering Central Park listening to the many buskers playing their music. Strolling the High Line (a beautiful park created from an unused stretch of elevated train tracks). Several excellent meals, made so by the company we kept. And the people watching! We never, ever get tired of watching the beautiful, strange and sometimes scary faces of the city, ranging from the girl in her too short skirt walking up 5th Av. to the mother/daughter heading to the beach on the subway. And one of the city’s best-kept secrets? New Yorkers are friendly! Every time we looked at a subway map people stopped to see if they could help. I struck up a conversation with an off-duty security guard about camera equipment (prompting an eye roll from my spouse). And the girl on the A train sitting across from us when we were heading to Harlem after dinner one night. She watched our niece and her son attempting pull-ups on the subway car grab rail and, after I caught her eye and we shared a laugh, trying it herself (and doing better than any of us).

Low point of the trip? Leaving (and not knowing when we’ll see them again…however long it may be will be too long).

Empire State Building, NY, 2010

The Montana Contingent, Brooklyn Bridge, NY, 2010

Family, NY, 2010

The Rocket Ranch

July 21, 2010 in photography, Writing | 1 comment

In July of 1969, 41 years ago (!), I was a 12-year-old boy away from home for the first time at Camp Morehead by the Sea in coastal North Carolina. I had a great time that summer. I learned to sail and eventually won the Morehead City Yacht Club’s 4th of July Regatta, Sunfish Division. (I still have the medal floating around somewhere.) I swam, canoed, shot rifles and went to my first dances with girls brought in from town for the occasion. (Side note: I learned that summer that there were certain advantages to hanging out with the opposite sex.) My most vivid memory of that summer was none of the above, except maybe the bit about girls. It was of a hot, late night spent in front of the camp owner’s color TV watching grainy images of Neil Armstrong step onto the moon.

As an even younger boy, I have memories of watching the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo launches and being “wowed” by them. Now flash forward through those 41 years. I’ve done a lot of diverse things during that time. Worked construction for many years, got into a bit of trouble here and there, spent a short but memorable time separating people from their money at a carnival, traveled a bit. But for more than 27 of those years, I have been a NASA employee at the Kennedy Space Center.

For the vast amount of that time I have been fortunate enough to look forward to going to work each morning. I have seen some truly incredible things. I’ve watched, and felt, most of the Shuttle launches since STS-6. I’ve seen them from my yard, from the beach, from the Launch Control Center. More than a couple have been surreal. Standing in the ocean up to my knees at night, adult beverage in my hand, while the launch lit the night sky to the point where you could read a paper. Watching unmanned vehicles explode in the night sky sending their boosters skimming just above the ocean. And of course, the most surreal and awful, watching the Challenger explode. That’s another story.

I’ve been aboard the Orbiter (tiny!). I’ve sat in the Firing Room during launch. I’ve played a small role in this huge process, never forgetting the significance of what is taking place. But the most fun is being around people seeing it for the first time. It’s a physical experience…from here at the Cape the ground shakes and the sound is a physical thing that you feel in your gut. People cry, people cheer, but mostly the people just gape with their jaws to their knees. Since Challenger, you can also tell who the locals are versus the tourists. At lift off, with the huge white cloud of water vapor rising and the shuttle riding the flame, the tourists start cheering and clapping. The locals don’t. We cheer a bit over 2 minutes later when the solids drop off. We remember.

It’s been a strange journey and a great ride. Things here at KSC are, shall we say, a bit turbulent right now with the Shuttle Program ending and the future uncertain. But we’ll keep going. It’s what we do. Who would have thought it, 41 years ago?

STS-126, 11/14/08

Above & below: Liftoff of STS-126 from the Banana River Viewing Site, 3.9 miles from the pad

STS-126 timelapse, 11/14/08

Ares I-X , 10/28/09

Above: Ares I-X Liftoff from the viewing mezzanine of the Operations Support Building 2, 3.6 miles from the pad

Below: In Firing Room 2 on Launch Day (Sorry for the quality…taken by my iPhone)

Launch Day, STS-129, 11/16/09

The Great Outdoors

July 3, 2010 in Travel | 5 comments

My good friend Oscar thinks I’m crazy. Now, he’s not alone in that assessment, but it’s the reason for this belief that’s the subject of this post. He simply can’t understand the great enjoyment that I derive from going camping solo. It is one of my favorite things in life … quality time in beautiful settings doing exactly what I want, when I want.

The roots of my love of the outdoors go way back. My parents were not big on the outdoors and the closest we ever came to camping was staying in cabins in Wisconsin for a few days at a time (my sister still insists that “roughing it” is a Holiday Inn without cable). However, when my family moved to Baltimore when I was 8, we lived in a house that had a large wooded expanse adjacent to our backyard. I knew every inch of those woods and used to spend hour upon hour in there. Good times. But it wasn’t until my mid-teens that the definitive event took place. I spent 28 days in the woods of North Carolina at Outward Bound.

For those of you who don’t know, Outward Bound is an outfit that takes folks into the woods, teaches them skills and essentially stresses them out. Pushing their limits is the goal. It was originated as a result of the Second World War when many merchant seaman were perishing after their ships were sunk. It was deduced that the high casualty rate was because the men simply gave up hope due to a lack of self-confidence in their ability to survive. Outward Bound was created to show people that they are capable of far more than they themselves believed possible. They’re very good at it. We spent many days hiking long distances with little food, canoeing whitewater rapids, rock climbing 600′ cliffs, rappelling and, ultimately, spending 3.5 days alone in the woods with no food. It was quite an experience, one that left me with a deep-seated love of the outdoors as well as an appreciation of my own capabilities.

Shortly after my return I became good friends with Tom. Tom & I would go off to Western Maryland and West Virginia for hiking and caving trips. We would pile into my old VW with too much gear and head out. We did this for years and I have many fond memories from those trips, as well as some pretty funny stories. (For example: we rated the wet caves we went into as to whether you had to wade through any water that hit “yodeling depth,” that being the depth of water that hit certain regions of a man’s anatomy that makes him yodel. There was also the time he set himself on fire, but that’s another post.) I have been regularly camping since those days.

GSMNP, 2009

One of the perks of my job is that I get a lot of time off. My Loving Wife (MLW) does not get nearly as much, so for the past several years I have been taking some time shortly after Labor Day and spending a week by myself camping in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This has quickly become one of my favorite trips of the year (not including ANY trip with MLW, of course) along with my annual trip with my buddies to the Shenandoah Mountains on the 2nd weekend of January … 25+ years and counting. I head up there with my gear & some fine bourbon and spend a few days hiking at my own speed (slowly) and taking lots of photos. Cool nights around a campfire next to a noisy stream and believe me, it doesn’t get any better. I just made my arrangements for this year’s trip and I simply can’t wait.

Try it, Oscar, and you may just understand.

Outward Bound, North Carolina, Too Long Ago

Above: Yup, I’m in there.

Getting ready for the next trip

June 26, 2010 in Travel | Leave a comment

Haste Ye Back

June 20, 2010 in photography, Scotland, Travel | 2 comments

Well, we are back in the land where people drive on the right and don’t talk (too) funny. We had a GREAT trip…expect many posts over the coming weeks on some of the sights that we saw. We took a few photos, some of them actually worth viewing. Below is a screen grab showing the locations of the shots we took, courtesy of Aperture & our GPS.

The pins show locations of photos shot.

(Geek notes: Each day I created a new track on our tiny GPS and it tracked where we went that day. Back at home, I loaded each day’s photos and the associated track and Aperture assigned a location to each shot based upon timestamps. It’s a very nice feature that allows us to rapidly find photos that we took. Technology can be a good thing.)

So, a good time was had by all. We met some interesting folks: the guy we met at dinner in Oban who’s walking the perimeter of Great Britain, the geologist who had spent some time on the rig in the Gulf that is now so famous and who had some interesting words concerning BP’s approach to safety, the bartender from New Orleans we met in Edinburgh who also had a few choice words for BP, the four Englishmen we met at a distillery who provided us with some excellent pointers on enjoying Whisky (and who I educated on the making of bourbon), the nice couple from Tasmania who are essentially on their way around the world, and many others.

We had, as usual, several unexpected experiences. We spent an immensely enjoyable afternoon watching a falconry demonstration. We watched bands at an open mike night in Inverness prior to the opening of a music festival there. We learned how dyes for yarn are made from natural ingredients at a shop located at what felt like the end of the world on Skye. We utilized high technology to finally understand a battle that took place almost 300 years ago. And, again, many others.

We also watched World Cup everywhere we went. We experienced the USA – England match with a bunch of Englishmen on Skye. We learned that the Scots are cheering for whomever is playing the English. We learned that the BBC must provide an option to turn off those damn horns and only listen to the commentators. And we learned just how much the World Cup is a truly international event. Our pilots provided updates and the bar in Newark was PACKED with folks watching…they were stacked well into the concourse outside the bar we were eating in, straining to see. (Reading the UK newspaper coverage was a lot of fun, too.)

Now we’re just trying to get back on our feet and re-adjust to the oppressive heat of Florida in summer. Not to mention our return to our desks tomorrow. All good things….

Dunrobin Castle, Scotland, 2010

Above: Falconry demo – yes that’s an owl, not a falcon. His name is Plop.

Below: Recipe book for yarn dyes

Isle of Skye, Scotland, 2010

(BTW: upon leaving each city, village, District, whatever, there was a sign that said “Thanks for visiting, Haste Ye Back”. Thanks, we may just do that.)

Ferrets to port, badgers to starboard

June 16, 2010 in Scotland, Travel | 3 comments

We arrived in Oban, our last major stop, Monday afternoon after a beautiful drive down from Skye. Oban is the “Seafood Capitol of Scotland” and we have been eating well (salmon, halibut, mussels, scallops, oysters). Yesterday we took a trip out to three islands (Mull, Staffa, Iona) which involved a ferry ride, a bus ride, a boat trip, another ferry, return on the bus and finally one more ferry. It was a long day but we saw some extremely beautiful sights.

On the ferries, there are announcements before you set off. They all consisted of something along the lines of: “Good afternoon, I am Captain Colin Campbell and mumble mumble mumble mumble safety mumble mumble mumble whisky mumble mumble mumble.” Not very helpful. On our last ferry of the day, while nursing a wee dram, I swear I heard him say “and ferrets to port.”

Which would, of course, imply that badgers are to go to starboard.

Oban, Scotland, 2010

Above: the lovely town of Oban

Below: Fingal’s Cave on Staffa

Fingal's Cave, Staffa, Scotland, 2010

Nirvana

June 13, 2010 in Scotland, Travel | 4 comments

Leakey's Bookstore, Inverness, Scotland, 2010

Observations

June 12, 2010 in Scotland, Travel | Leave a comment

Yes, jackets have been required almost every day. Patches of snow have been seen on the tops of mountains.

No kilts have been purchased. Sorry to disappoint. The good ones are budget-busters and the cheap touristy ones are … cheap.

A good kilt needs 8 yards of fabric to make.

We are indeed developing a taste for the local drink. We even have a favorite. Too bad it’s so freakin’ expensive.

Whisky Tutorial, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2010

This country is absolutely gorgeous. And the people are very friendly.

John has become quite adept at driving on the left (note I did not say wrong) side of the road. There have only been a couple of close calls. Also, the roads here are much better than in Ireland. And we have to stop for sheep in the road. Lots of sheep. And a couple of cows. And one bull.

Niest Point, Scotland, 2010

This is apparently a favorite place for cyclists. They have been everywhere. I think they’re nuts. These are some serious hills.

Pardon the interruption

June 11, 2010 in Scotland, Travel | 3 comments

There was no service available at the B&B in Inverness. We are now back on-line and quality posts will resume shortly. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Glenmorangie Distillery, Scotland, 2010

A Monty Python Moment

June 7, 2010 in Scotland, Travel | 5 comments

Royal Mile, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2010

While wandering the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, we have been sticking our noses down the “Closes” that branch off quite often. All the guide books say that there are some cool & interesting things down there and that we should poke around, so we did. The Close pictured above looked interesting due to the carvings over it, so we went in & found a kilt maker tucked away back there. We spent a very enjoyable half hour or so learning about the many patterns and eventually making a purchase. See below.

Edinburgh, Scotland, 2010

While in there I asked one of them how old the building was and he told me that that that depended upon how you defined it. It seems that in the 1700’s the building fell down, hence the quote above the entrance to the Close.

Huh?

A guy was trapped in the collapsed building. When he heard workers in the rubble he called out to them. His words are recorded above the entrance for posterity and are well known by many (at least many of the folks that we know):

“Heave away chaps, I’m no dead yet”

Who knew? (And that’s not a typo; it’s Scottish.)