Thursday, April 15, 2010

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.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

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.

Monday, April 12, 2010

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.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

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.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

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.

Monday, April 5, 2010

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.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

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: