New Zealand Sky

I was chatting with Dan about night exposures which led me to process a couple of pictures I took of the night's sky in New Zealand last year. It was so peaceful there that night.

Santorini Pictures Posted

(click to view)

Whew, I finally got through the pictures I took on Santorini, if anyone is interested. The above is a church in Oia taken at night with a long exposure.

Now on to Athens!

Back From Utah

(more pictures to follow RSN)

Well, Noelle and I survived our trip to Bryce Canyon. We drove out and back in five days, which was a little extreme, but manageable. We stopped over at the Ritz in Las Vegas on the way out which meant we were fairly rested, which helped out immensely. The weather was funny there: clear as a bell at sunrise, followed by rain and occasionally thunder in the afternoon. Kinda put a damper on sunset pictures, but oh well. Besides wandering the length of the canyon, we visited Kodachrome Basin State Park, Escalante Grand Staircase, and on our way out we drove through the bottom of Zion National Park. Zion is beautiful, I look forward to returning. The road we took through the Burr trail in Escalante was also beautiful, very much like I remember Arches a few years ago. We also saw rainbows on the alien terrain of scenic Hwy 12 (it really is!). It was nice to get back though.

Utah Bound

Well, it looks like our road trip to Utah is a go. I took a couple extra days off at Memorial Day and booked a room in Bryce, UT. Looking forward to seeing the hoodoos and maybe some slot canyons at nearby Escalante, if I can fit my chubby body through them.

Weekend Redux

1. Buy tulips and other plants for spring planting projects. Check.


2. Buy tickets to New Zealand on the spur of the moment. Check.


3. Go to Karaoke Birthday Party for Aki and Rachel, sing three songs, drink a few drinks. Check.


4. Go to Doug and Catherine's Get-Rid-of-Our-Booze-Party afterwards, drink a few drinks. Check.


5. Drink enough water to avoid headache in morning. Check.


6. Buy more tulips for spring planting projects. Check.


7. Find out about calling plans in Greece and Turkey. Check.


8. Get some new boots to replace my embarassingly worn Asolos. Check.


9. Get some travel books about New Zealand. Check.


10. Pay bills. Check.


11. Process more photo a day project pictures. Check.

I guess there's a reason why I feel like the weekend was a busy one.

Improvisational Travel - Auckland!

So, it looks like we're going to New Zealand in October. Qantas Airlines is having a crazy fare sale through March 20. Fares from SF and LA to several cities in Australia and Auckland, NZ are just $299 each way in the sale. With taxes, etc, that came to about $700 round trip, which is quite a good deal, if you're flexible in your traveling needs. And since my company wants me to burn PTO this year and both Noelle and I have been longing to see New Zealand, it seemed like an offer we couldn't refuse! So, we'll be visiting three continents this year. I can't believe I'm going to New Zealand!

Napa Trip

(click image to go to my flickr set)

Noelle and I took a nice weekend getaway to the north bay last weekend. We visited a few wineries, drank in the countryside and stayed at the Geyserville Inn, which is a great place to stay if you book a hotel room for wine country in May the week before going on it. It was actually a pretty nice place, but Geyserville was a bit north of where I had planned on visiting. On the bright side, driving route 128 from St. Helena to Geyserville is a gorgeous drive, especially at night with a lot of moonlight. I took Noelle to the Niebaum-Coppola winery because the facility itself is so cool. Sadly they've removed the desk from the Godfather and the suit of armor from Dracula from this winery. The Tucker is still there. Evidently he's building another winery/resort up in Geyserville and a lot of the props will end up going there. We also had a chance to eat at the Culinary Institute of America restaurant in St. Helena, which has fantastic food. A tad on the pricey side, but worth doing at least once. Anyway, it was nice to get out of the house and travel and not have to worry about when we had to be at a certain place.

Connnnnnnnnnn!

Going to Comic-Con in San Diego tomorrow, er, today. Strangely, I appear to be pretty much packed and ready to go and it's not even 4am. Huh. Anyway, I hope to have more news later of the great nerd out of 2007.

The Wheel Goes Round

My gram died a few days ago. Growing up, she was probably the adult I was closest to after my parents. We moved from Ohio to her house in Maine after my grandfather died back in the 70s, so I spent a lot of time there as a child. Even after we moved to our own place I used to go visit there on weekends a lot. She was pretty much exactly what someone would want a grandmother to be: unconditionally loving, wise, interested in me, and a darn good cook to boot. She tried to make sure I turned out to be an ethical human being (she was my godmother too, I think). Sadly the church part didn't really take, although I think I do pretty well as a person. Now she's gone and I'll never see her on this world again. It sucks. But she was 88 and had a full life and died in her sleep, so I guess that's about a good a way to check out as any. I am grateful that I got to talk to her the day before she passed, even if I didn't know she was going away. Right at the end she knew I loved her and that's somewhat satisfying. Today I fly back to Maine, where it hopefully is not snowing. The funeral is Monday. It's hard to even imagine a world without my gram, but that's the one I live in today. Wherever you are gram, you are loved and missed.

Remember kids, never forget to tell your loved ones you love them. You never know how long we'll all be around on this big ball of dirt.

I'm Going To Saint Martin!

YAY! I'm going to St. Maarten/Saint Martin! YAY! </Special Ed>

My passport came in, so now my trip with Noelle to St Maarten is a go! Unless I need to get visas, but I don't think that I do. This is very exciting to me as I have not been out of the country in more than 15 years. And some beach time will be much appreciated after all the work around the house and being generally housebound these past few weeks.