Sign Of The End Times: Taos Allows Snowboarders
For a long time the discussion has been more focused on when we would open, and we feel like now is the right time. Taos has a long-standing tradition of being family oriented, and now with so many young people snowboarding, we are turning away more and more families, particularly families that traditionally come to Taos. Opening to snowboarding allows us to refocus on being a family oriented mountain.
I wasn't expecting this. Snowboards are designed in such a way that it's easy to sit on your ass or your knees from an upright position. It's those snowboarders that use this capability and stop right at unloading area of a lift or on a run, right where a skier is going and cannot stop quite so easily, that make them all look bad. Most ski lifts are designed for skiers, not boarders, which doesn't help things either.
About half the people I know use snowboards, at least I can go to Taos with them now. I will never forget the last time I was there, I lost my very favorite Canon S500
How Weird Is Denver International Airport
I've had the opportunity to travel to Portland Oregon on short trips several times this year. There is very rarely a direct flight from the Sunport to anywhere except a state directly next to New Mexico. This time I went through Denver International Airport for the first time. I was pretty interested to fly through Denver this time because of the conspiracy theories associated with it.
anomalies-unlimited.com is the main source for the conspiracy theories. As I read through the sites, its easy to dismiss many of their claims. First one being that "Denver already had what everyone said was a perfectly fine airport - Stapleton."According to Wikipedia, Stapleton was serious too small and poorly designed to be the 4th busiest airport in the US, which is what DIA is now. I believe Wikipedia's explanation more then anomalies-unlimited.
I won't go through all the things that anomalies-unlimited points out. Some of it just doesn't make sense that it's part of a conspiracy. However there are some odd things they do warrant future inspection. Such as the fact that DIA was 2 Billion (with a "B") over budget. Where did that money go? anomalies-unlimited seems to suggest that it went to a vast underground military complex that exists under the airport and that the purpose of the airport was really just to build this complex. Seems to me that one would build such a complex under a less busy airport.My limited experience at the airport indicates that the airport is pretty well designed and huge. I think the A gates went from 1 to 99. Although I generally dismiss the conspiracy theories, I did note something strange at the A gates. There are these mosaic tile images of people standing and walking through the terminals located on the floor. They are kinda weird in that they are top views and you can only make them out if you get up high (there is a higher level one can view them). In between these mosaics are a border and on these boarders are words like "North America", "Europe" and "Antarctica". Next to these words are random symbols that seem to have no purpose at all. These are all mosaics which are pretty easy to make out, with continent names in upper case. Near some of these content names are other words in lower case and the tile colors are really close to the back ground making it hard to figure out what they say. The symbols kinda look like random characters from the Zapf Dingbats font. Perhaps these are codes to the Aliens that come through DIA to tell them which continents they need to go through when they arrive.
anomalies-unlimited.com does have one final item that I agree is strange, the odd tablet with a masonic symbol on it. Above that tablet is what appears to be a keypad. What the heck is this thing and why are there no better pictures of this thing than the poor quality ones on their website?
Portland Internatonal Airport Has Nice WiFi
A look At How Houses Are Built In Israel
Friends of mine are moving to Israel for a few years. They will be living in a newly built house during that time. Although they are living in a relative safe area, the houses are built to withstand an assault. Here are some interesting things to note about the construction (and a few pictures).
- The house has an alarm system.
- Some windows have a metal shutter system. Others have a roll down protection system.
- The windows and doors all appear to be heavy duty in design and made of metal.
- According to my friend, "By law, every new house in Israel has to have a security room – lockable from inside and airtight."
- "All houses and building here are made out of concrete – this is good for shelling protection as well as taking advantage of cooling."
- "This means all interior walls are also concrete."
- "I think they simply tile everything they want tiled, then smooth the walls with plaster and paint it."
Interesting how a constant threat of a terrorist attack dictates the building materials and design of housing. I assume that there aren't a lot of McMansions there either.
Side of the house. Nothing too unusual looking here
Safe room. I guess you fill it full of important papers, food and guns
Metal security shutters. Where can I get these in the US?
It Hurts
When I first learned to ski I fell down a lot. Having to pick yourself up a couple of hundred dozen times in less then 8 hours with muscles that don't get used a couple of hundred dozen times in less then 8 hours is where the pain comes from. I suppose if I exercised more (or fell less) that wouldn't be a problem.
Speed equals control, more or less. The faster you go the more you can control your skis. But if you do loose control your going really fast into a tree or something. When your first learning to ski it's scary to go fast because you (or at least me) are afraid of loosing control, so you want to try to take is slow. Then there's that whole balance thing, however I believe that you only get good at that with practice. So your slow and you have no balance. You fall a lot. It's the same deal with snow-boarding. But balancing on a snowboard is different from balancing on skis (as I learned the hard way). I had no balance and was afraid to go fast. And I fell a lot.
I went out with a good friend from work who is also learning to snowboard. He's a bit farther along then me as in he doesn't fall nearly as much. He has been going out with his 7 year old son who also went with us today. Since we spent our time on the bunny hill we didn't need to buy a lift ticket because you can hike up the hill in snow board boots with relative ease (relative being the key word). His son did get a lift ticket and as he passed me up while I was lying on my back he said if I need help just holler. Uh that's ok, I'm nice and comfortable here.
Ski Santa Fe was the location of this trip and it costs $32 to rent the snow board and boots.
Arizona June 2003
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Northern California November 2003
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Atlanta
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View from crappy hotel
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Nice overpass
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Stone Mountian
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Vegas Vacation
I took about 100 pictures and almost a hour of video. I put the 25 most interesting pictures on the web. I did much better with the pictures as I think I got a good handle on working the exposure settings on my PowerShot S100. Unfortunately I am hitting its limitation and wishing I had more control. Looks like a new camera will be in the works.
El Paso, Texas & Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico
I wanted to take my Girlfriend and her boys to Carlsbad Caverns since none of them had been. I had been there once before. Since her sister lived in El Paso we decided to visit here for a day and go to Carlsbad the next day. I had never been to El Paso before and was expecting a dirty run down city. Being so close to the Mexico border and Juarez, Mexico. What I found there was a city bigger than Albuquerque and very historic.
The trip down Interstate 25 from Albuquerque to El Paso has nothing interesting to see. But it only takes about 4 hours. In El Paso you can see Mexico from the freeway. The Rio Grand is the border between Mexico and the US, and the river isn't that wide at the border. Looking at the Mexican side of the border you see a lot of brightly painted houses and small streets. I can imagine what the US side looks like to the Mexicans with our tall buildings for shopping and industry. As if were mocking them with our prosperity.
We did not go into Juarez and the people we met there hadn't been either/ They mostly told me that there wasn't much there unless you want to go and party. On the next visit I don't plan to go either. However on the next trip I hope to stay longer and check out the more historic parts of down town El Paso. On our way out of town there was a border patrol stop. It was interesting that it was there as it was. I wonder if they have one on every exit out of town. They just asked us if we were all Americans and then sent us on our way. It was a mostly boring ride down highway 62/180. But there was some interesting parts like Salt Flat, TX the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. El Captain is visible along the drive. Along the drive I saw quite a few abandoned gas stations and hotels. I often see them along I-40 when I drive to Arizona. I suppose there was a time in the early 1900's that cars were less capable and it took longer to get from place to place so people needed to stay at hotels along the way.
The Caverns are just south of Carlsbad New Mexico. Prices are reasonable at the cave and they don't charge for parking. It's a long into the main part of the cave, half of which is just walking down. But don't worry there's is a elevator to take you back up. Bats live in the cave. At night there is a sitting area where people can watch the mass exodus. We did not stay to see that.
The drive back was the most horrible. I figure it takes 6 hours to get to Carlsbad going south of it via El Paso. There are no major high ways into Carlsbad and going north you have to take smaller state roads where the speed limit is 55-65 MPH. This makes a big difference on how long it takes and it must have taken us 9 hours to get back. Our route was north to Roswell the west to I-25. Since you pass through many towns along the way that slows you down even more, and just before we reached I-25 it seems like we had been driving for ever. Which we had. These sort of trips remind me that there was a time when people rode horse through this country with no road or stops along the way. There was some stuff to look at along the way and they were thinking I was lost. I kept assuring them I wasn't lost, it just was taking a long time.
Lincoln New Mexico was in between Roswell and i-25. I had no idea this place even existed. There is a It is certainly a historic town, nestled in the middle of Lincoln Nation Forest. This National Forest is the birthplace of Smokey the Bear. If we ever go to Carlsbad again, for my Family's sake I will drive south through El Paso
Tahiti March 2001
135 photos from our trip to Tahiti in 2001. What a wonderful place. Also known as the French Polynesian islands. We went there on a cruise which took us to 7 islands in 14 days. It was nice as we were basically on a floating hotel. But the cruise line itself sucked. This was the first time I used a Digital Camera (I bought a PhotoShot S100 just for this trip).
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DC10
The plane from LA to Tahiti, not comfortable at all in coach.
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First view of the ship
Very late at night and were all very tired.
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Main island
View from the ship the next morning.
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Looking out to sea
View from the ship
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Harbor
The harbor where our ship was parked.
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Harbor
More views of the harbor.
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Island
A look at the island from the ship.
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R4 back
the back of the ship
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Market
A market they had near the ship.
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Market
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Bouquet
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The town
No big american cars here.
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Town
Legos are so cool!
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Town
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Pearls
Pearls are a big industry in Tahiti.
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Town
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At least they drive on the right side of the street.
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Town
And they stop for people in the cross walk.
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Fishermen
These guys had Tuna I think. They had a lot of them.
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Fish near R4
You might be able to see tropical fish in this picture.
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Ship deck
View of the pool after a rain storm.
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Here comes the rain
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Old tree
Don't know what kind of tree this is but it is big!
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Tahitian Navy
Yes, that's a military ship.
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Tahitian Navy
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Chickens
This chicken is just wandering around.
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Town
OK, we have wandered around enough.
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Town
Nice dirty alley.
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R4
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Town
A nicer part of the town.
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Night time
They put a lot of effort into cleaning up this part of the town. So at night the tourists come out to play.
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Sunrise
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Looking back
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Drive to Arizona
This week we made a trip to Arizona. Since I'm from there, still have family there and have rental property there I make these trips quite often. Usually I make a straight trip there from Albuquerque to Flagstaff then down to Phoenix. I can make it in less than 8 hours this way. This time however my girlfriend and I decided to take our time and check out the sites along the way. We got a late start that day. I was waiting for a package delivery from UPS and they didnt get here unitl about 2:30pm.
There isn't a whole lot to see between Albuquerque and the Arizona/New Mexico border. There are several places we could have stopped but will have to save them for next time. First stop was the Petrified Forest National Park In Arizona. The wind was really bad that day and the smoke from the Tucson fire was blowing into the area. I could barely hold the camera still. The park service charges $10 per car, which seemed a bit expensive. The painted desert is beautiful. The main part with the petrified trees was kind of sad. Before the area was a national park people came and took parts of the peterfied wood, so there wasnt a whole lot to see there.I can imagine what it looked like before most of the larger pieces were removed. The park is now protected, so noting can be removed from it.
We got there about 6pm. The park closes at 7pm. So we started heading out at 6:45 when we were about half way through it only to see people still heading into the park. It was after 7 and were wondering why no one else is leaving. After were a few miles down the road I realize that New Mexico time is 1 hour ahead of Arizona time. So the park time was 6, not 7.
Once we got to Flagstaff it was night time and we were tired. We stayed at a Holiday Inn right near the freeeway. If your ever in Flag try no to stay there. There are train tracks about 2000 feet away. The train came buy at least 3 times that night and just had to toot his horn every time.
Once we left Flagstaff we headed to Sedona via State Route 89A. I was hoping to check out Slide Rock in Oak Creek Canyon. We just wanted to go down and take a look, but the park service wants $10 per car regardless of wether your getting in the water or not. We chose to no go this time. None the less the drive through the canyon was nice.
Once we arrived at Sedona we pretty much just checked out the main drag. A tourist trap with lots of shops. Nothing that interesting to see there. They do have tours that take you around which I'm sure are much more interesting. I'll be posting more on my trip back to New Mexico.
Disneyland 2003
They now have this area called Downtown Disney. Its full of shops and restaurants and doest require admission to the park. It's in between the Disneyland Hotel, The Grand California and the entrances to the parks. I suppose they did this to drum up non Disneyland business by giving people at Conventions something to do if they stay at their hotels. Not that this is bad because its really quite nice. It has a Rainforest Cafe, a ESPN Zone restaurant (Don't forget ESPN is owned by ABC which is owned by Disney), a House of Blues. Plus a ton of shops including a Lego Store that I really liked. Like all food at the park its expensive. A meal at the Wetzels Pretzels in Downtown Disney for the 4 of us including 1 pretzel and 1 pretzel hot dog would have cost at least $40,00! Thats without a drink.
I always remember getting on the Monorail right from the Hotel. To get on it you have to walk some distance into Downtown Disney. According to an employee there they knocked down a bunch of buildings between the hotel and the monorail so maybe at some point you could. Speaking of the Monorail, I have to say I was pretty disappointed with it. Sure in 1955 it was high tech but even today it could be. I feel though that its underutilized. It does go through the front of the California Adventure (cross the Golden Gate Bridge) and goes right through the Grand California Hotel, but doesn't stop anywhere. It only go through Tomrrowloand. THey should make the Monorail the transportation system of Disneyland.
Speaking of Tomorrowland, it was apparently renovated in 1998 but wasn't that impressive. I would say they still have some work to do. Space Mountain was closed until 2005 (for Disneyland's 50th anniversary). I'll be interested to see what they do to it. There is a weird little ride that use to run through TomorrowLand (replacing the Wedway people movers) called the Rocket Rods which opened in 1998 only to be closed in 2000 for "electrical problems" or so I was told by one of the employees. The Submarine Voyage was removed, so there is just a big pool of water there. There is a large attraction called "Innoventions", but to me just seemed like advertisments for the companies that had attractions there. Star Tours and Honey I Shrunk The Audience was cool. Overall I was pretty disapointed in Tomorrowland. It didnt seem to offer much.
We did ride the classics, including the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. Both good rides that are as good as the day the were put in. New rides for me was the Indiana Jones ride. Very good and was like being in a movie. Big Thunder Railroad was a good roller-coaster. The Jungle Cruise was good. We couldn't figure out where the line was for the Matterhorn.
We didn't do A Small World. Seems good for the kiddies and was looking a bit dated. Mickey's Toon Town was actually pretty interesting even though it seemed for the kiddies too.
Finally onto the California Adventure. This park looked brand new and everything was working unlike Disneyland. Yet for some reason there weren't as many people there as were at Disneyland. The California Adventure looks more like a theme park somewhere other than Disney, which might explain it. Not a lot of Disney stuff around.
The Hollywood Studios Back-lot was cool. Looked like a "movie town set". They had a Muppets show there that looked just like theater that was on the TV show with the hecklers in the balcony and the penguin orchestra. If you liked the Muppets then this is a must see. There is also a place called Disney Animation. That was pretty interesting also as it had a nice show on how they choose characters for their movies and other interactive exhibits.
There was a flight themed area with a IMAX like theater that took you flying over California. THere were moving seats and air and smells that made you feel like you were flying.
The most noticeable was the California Screamin' roller-coaster. A very smooth ride that pulled a lot of G's. I was dizzy every-time I can off this ride.
That's it for now. Will probably be adding more to this in the near future.
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