Category Archives: Travel

Prague – Day .5

We arrived at the airport in Prague about 1340, about 20 minutes later than we should have.  Not sure what the deal was, but so much for German precision as Lufthansa didn’t seem to be in any hurry getting us out of Frankfurt.  More on that later.

Oddly unlike other European towns, Prague doesn’t have rail running between it and the city, so we took the airport express bus.  60 czk (about $3) each and about 40 minutes later, we were at the bus drop-off outside the main railstation.

It took us a few minutes to figure out where to go next.  There was just an elevator sticking above the ground so we took it and found much of the train station to be underground.  We gave the address of our hotel to a gal working the information booth, but I figured out about a hundred yards later that she did not point to the right direction.  We turned around, walked across the street, and good thing the name of our hotel had the address in it or we would have walked right by it.  Things are different here…no big flashy signs to identify things.  We just noticed the address.

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I’m a bit behind on this since I had to overcome some hurdles getting logged in to the site from over here.  My website host has taken some security measures to protect his service, but I think we are through those now so hopefully more and better updates to come.

 

Here’s the 23rd photo I took in Prague…not too shabby.

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Leaving Manhattan

Kelli and I took a cruise to New England this autumn. The ride out of Manhattan was neat, but not nearly so as the ride back in on day 7 at sunrise. I didn’t get that on time-lapse but here is out ride out.  Enjoy!

670 photos – 1 photo every 5 seconds – 55 minutes elapsed

World Trade Center @ 47 seconds
Statue of Liberty @ 1 minute
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge @ 1:32

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Save the sequoias

The news about the fires in Yosemite National Park has me concerned.  If you never been there, you might not understand why.  Isn’t it just a bunch of rock and trees?  I guess that’s true.

It took me to age 36 to get to a National Park.  Yosemite was my first.  I wish I had gone there sooner, as it changed who I am.

If you’ve never been there and seen the giant sequoias, you might not understand.  Unfortunately photos can’t begin to relay the enormity and grandeur of these monster trees.  At 200-300 feet tall, and hundreds to thousands of years old, it really puts one in their place in time and space.

Wait, stop, think…yes…thousands of years old.  These have survived much of history as we believe we know it.

We learned when we were there that fire actually helps the trees survive.  Fire causes the cones to open, spreading seeds for new trees to grow.  They say the fires won’t hurt the trees, but one can’t help to worry for them.  If you haven’t seen these, please add them to your bucket list.  I suspect they will change you too.

Photos below from September 11-13, 2007. (Click to enlarge photos/open slideshow.)

 

It’s little wonder how fires can start in California when it looks like this.  This was taken a ways west of Yosemite Valley.

The entrance to Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias.

With the rental car for perspective.

Some sequoia cones.

These trees look like they’ve survived a fire or two.

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One small victory

Awesome! Biking, light-rail and high-speed rail, not cars and planes, need to be our future. Not spending $1,000,000,000 (that’s a billion) on two, 10-mile, carpool lanes @ $50,000,000 (that’s 50 million) a mile.

Carmageddon Challenge: The Bikes Won!
How a team of cyclists—and a guy on the subway, and a Rollerblader—beat a Jet Blue flight from Burbank to Long Beach.
http://www.slate.com/id/2299432/

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Denali National Park @ Eielson Visitor Center 360 video

I’m finally starting to do something with all of the vacation video I’ve taken the past few years. Downloaded Adobe Premier Pro last night and created this.  Technically, it is nothing fancy (I’m just proud enough I was able to download and install the software, and figure it out enough to create a video in under an hour and half) but as you can see, this place is absolutely beautiful.

See if you can figure out where the peak of Mt. McKinley is.  The answer is below the video.

[hdplay id=1 playlistid=1 width=600 height=338]

Mt. McKinley is hiding behind the weather it is making in the center of the screen at about the 20 second mark.

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Space shuttle launch viewing tips?

I have always wanted to see a space shuttle launch, and with 132 down and just 2 to go, my chances are running out.

I think Kelli and I are going to shoot for the November 1st launch.  I’m wondering if anyone has any tips or recommendations on how to take this in?

And if you would be interested in joining us, let me know!  While we are down there we may just be combining it with a 3-4 day cruise (they are crazy cheap right now…only $169).

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