Mascot Videos

Yesterday I saw a pretty cool video of a mascot dunk during an NBA game so I thought I might just share a few mascot videos here since they are funny and one of them is a little sad too!







This is the sad one.

Jog Falls

As the final post for Waterfall Week Part 2, I am posting today about Jog Falls in India. These falls are the highest single drop falls in India at 829 feet high. With its combination of height and volume during the monsoon season as seen below, it is one of the most powerful falls in the world along with Kaiteur Falls.

Jog Falls is very seasonal as the low season can be seen below with just a trickle over the falls compared to the monsoon season above and at the bottom.

The flow of the river is also controlled by an up-river dam and a hydro-electric station so the flow is often manipulated. I even read one place that said on weekends during tourist season the flow is increased for tourists but during the week it is less.

Blue Nile Falls

Today I am back to a set of waterfalls that I have been to, the Blue Nile Falls in Ethiopia. These, along with Murchison Falls in Uganda are the largest in the whole Nile river system. the Blue Nile Falls are only 30km from the source of the Blue Nile, Lake Tana in northern Ethiopia. The Blue Nile Falls are 45 meters high and can be very powerful with rainy season flow as seen above. Generally though, the falls have minimal flow as a hydro-electric generating project nearby diverts most of the flow the rest of the year. The picture below is one I took and shows the main portion of the falls as I saw them. This photo below is another good example of showing the size of these falls, which can be over 400 meters wide as they fall into the gorge. As you can see on the extreme right of the photo the cliff face continues even further. The more water flowing over the falls, the wider it gets.

Iguazu Falls

Iguazu Falls are on the Iguazu River between Brazil and Argentina. They are some of the largest falls in the world based on several metrics (compare to Niagara or Victoria falls). Iguazu Falls are actually a grouping of 275 falls that are 1.67 miles wide (wider than Victoria Falls) and are up to 289 feet high (taller than Niagara) and the flow rate is in between these, less than Niagara but more than Victoria. The falls are so wide that the best pictures I can find to do them justice are panoramas that are not good to post here. I have added a few great photos of the falls but you should click here for the best panorama picture and here for another good panorama.

I have not been to these falls but they are at the top of the list of which I would like to visit. A friend of mine who visited them said they were more impressive than Victoria Falls. In the aerial photo above you can see how the falls stretch from the center to the lower right. The center of the photo, and main falls are called the Devil's Throat. Below is the Devil's Throat up close.

Snoqualmie Falls

Continuing waterfall week, today it will be close to home with Snoqualmie Falls. These falls are located just about 25 miles east of Seattle and they are 268 feet high. Here is a winter picture with minimal flow. This is a picture showing higher flow during the spring.

Dettifoss

Since Iceland is stealing the show with news of the volcanic eruption and ash cloud that is halting air traffic across northern Europe, I have chosen to highlight an Icelandic waterfall to start the week.

Dettifoss is the largest waterfall in Europe by flow rate. It is 44 meters high and 100 meters wide. The falls are located in Vatnajökull National Park on the Jökulsá á Fjöllum river (don't ask me to pronounce it) and the water comes from the largest glacier in Iceland the Vatnajökull glacier.
Check out this crazy guy on the rock edge of the falls!!!

Waterfalls Week Part Deux

I think it is time to do another week of waterfalls, so without delay, here we go!

Up In The Air!

This late afternoon/evening post will feature aerial photos either from high vantage points, observation towers. Here we go!

Sydney Harbor, Harbor Bridge and the Opera House from the Sydney Tower.
Macau, China from Macau Tower. Quito, Ecuador from Mt. Pichincha. Downtown Chicago from the John Hancock Center.Cape Town and Robben Island from Table MountainHobart, Tasmania from Mt. Wellington.Central Hong Kong and Victoria Harbor from the Peak!Downtown Melbourne from the Eureka Tower.

Exploration Day

Today I will do something different, I will insert a few links to interesting articles/webpages and I will let you explore them as you wish.

The first link is from smartertravel.com and is about the funniest small town names in the country. Names like Intercourse, Boring and Hell are included in this piece. Each page is very short and quick to go through so click here to begin.

How to spend $100000 in Vegas from Forbes Travel, just click here.

Finally, here are 10 Disappearing Natural Wonders. I recommend that you look at each one as there is some neat information and great pictures of each.

Sunrise - Sunset

Today I will start the week with sunrises and sunsets. This year I will try to get some pictures of the sunrises and sunsets here in Washington. There are some amazing sunrises when the sun shines on the snow covered Olympic mountains in the winter/spring so I will work on that.

Here is a sunrise in Namibia with the sun coming up over the Dune Sea in the Namib Desert.

This is a sunrise on the Serengeti Plain in Tanzania.

This is a sunrise in Konso in Ethiopia, on a hike I did that morning with the hills I was going up and down I actually had the sun rise on me 5 times.

Here is a sunset over the west bank of the Nile river in Aswan, Egypt while sailing on a felucca. Here is a sunset, even though you can't see the sun. This is with the sun shining on the skyline and harbor of Melbourne, Australia.

Here is the final sunset for the post, it is in Glenelg, just south of Adelaide, Australia.

Gondola/Aerial Tram/Cableway

Random thought for the day today (along with pictures), aerial trams and gondolas! I have been to a few of these over the years, often you will find them at ski areas and amusement parks but the ones I would like to highlight offer scenic escapes. Here is a picture of a gondola ride I have been on at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida to begin. Though not as scenic as some of the other ones it does allow riders to see the African Plain and their collection of African animals.

Next is the Teleferiqo in Quito, Ecuador. This gondola takes 40 minutes and rises to over 13000 feet in elevation. The rise from the bottom to the top is over 4500 feet in elevation.

Here is one in Hong Kong I have not been on but I have seen and have friends who have ridden it. A month or so after my friends rode it there was an accident when one of the gondolas fell, luckily no one was inside it at the time.

The final one for today is the Cableway at Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. Here is a picture of mine looking at one of the vehicles. There are two vehicles at a time, one going up and one going down. They hold 65 people in each and the floor rotates 360 degrees so everyone gets to see the entire view on each trip.
This picture you can see both cars in transit.

Cherry Blossoms

Cherry blossom trees are from East Asia (China, Korea and Japan) but are most prominent in Japan where there are over 200 varieties. Cherry blossoms are now found in many places around the world, in some cases this has happened through friendship giving between various governments and Japan. The tidal basin in Washington DC is surrounded by cherry blossoms that were gifted in 1912 and again in 1965 as a friendship gesture between Japan and the US. Below is a picture of some of them with the Washington Monument in the distance. There is a National Cherry Blossom Festival that takes place in the spring each year for 2 weeks with a number of events that take place. This year's festival goes through April 12. Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada also holds an annual cherry blossom festival. This is a picture of the cherry blossoms in bloom around the quad at the University of Washington campus in Seattle.

Volcanos!

Today I was thinking about volcanos I have been to over the years. Some I have been closer to than others such as Vulcan Poas in Costa Rica, which is pictured below looking into the steaming crater.

Others I have been near enough to "be on them" but they are so large that I am only on their massive slopes such as Mt. Kenya pictured below. As you can see at the margins of the photo that the slopes go out quite a great distance on the sides. This is the same with Mt. Kilimanjaro.

This is a volcano that I live near and will try to visit more closely in the upcoming years, it is Mt. Rainier in Washington State. The mountain is seen here from the water of Puget Sound looking over Alki in West Seattle. This is looking up at one of the three peaks of Mt. Pichincha in Ecuador. this is a potentially dangerous active volcano as it is located directly above and adjacent to the capital, Quito. This is one of the tallest mountains I have seen and is probably the highest elevation I have been to. The mountain is about 15,600 feet tall and I am about 13500 feet up it.
Here are the two tallest volcanos I have ever seen, in fact they are the two tallest mountains I have ever seen as well. I have pictures of them but they are so difficult to see due to the clouds I chose these photos in stead. Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is 19341 feet high and along with Cotopaxi Volcano in Ecuador at 19347 feet tall are two examples of equatorial glaciers. The glaciers and snow cap on Kilimanjaro have been prominent examples of global warming as they recede rapidly.

Peeps

Since it is Easter weekend I decided to post about the marshmallow Peeps. Peeps are actually made in more than just the chick and bunny shapes most people are familiar with in the spring. They also make different shapes for Valentines Day, Halloween and Christmas. In the spring time different newspapers and organizations have contests with peep dioramas that people make. Here are a few pictures and links to some of the recent contests. This one is "Legally Peep" from the ABA Journal competition, Peeps in the Law.
Other competition sites:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2010/03/22/DI2010032203096.html

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2009015689_peeps12.html

http://www.denverpost.com/food/ci_14780679