Joshua Tree Revisited

Now that I've joined the world of YouTube, here are two videos from the trip.

Desert Bighorn


Panorama in the Wonderland of Rocks

National Gallery of Art

During my Washington visit, I spent almost an entire day inside the National Gallery of Art. Here is some of what caught my eye:

13th century Byzantine art- I found the patterns in Mary's dress to be very 20th century.

Interior courtyard

An unusual family

Andre Derain, "Mountains at Collioure"

Wassily Kandinsky, "Sea Battle"

Washington, D.C.

In early April, I traveled to Washington, D.C., for the inagural Manager Tools Effective Management Conference. This was, hands down, the best conference of my professional career.

After the conference I visited a number of my friends- Jeff Burch, John Raymond, Carolyn Mayes, Tracey Ryan, and Christine Hoffman.

This was my first time in the city since I was around 8 years old, so I also took some time to see some sights.

Cherry Blossoms along the Potomac

Lincoln Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

Me in front of the Capitol

Boulder Ice Storm

It feels distinctly odd to be posting this now. At the moment it's 77 degrees and sunny- a far cry from the weather one month ago...

Our friend Daniel visited us for a weekend at the beginning of April. We took him to Boulder- first to the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and then around the Pearl Street Mall. Here are some photos of ice-covered trees from Table Mesa:
To see Daniel's photos, click here and then click "Diashow Starten". (Daniel ist Deutscher und lebt in München.)

Laguna (Post 3 of 3)

My cousin Laura jamming with cousin Bob:
Family photo:
Cousin Mandy giving some love to Bunny and Llama

Laguna (Post 2 of 3)

Of course, it wasn't long before Dorinna started to ask if she could go for a ride. John obliged:

After that, everyone else wanted to ride as well. Aunt Anne was next:

I took some video of my Mom :


Later in the day, cousin Laura had her turn:

I couldn't let everyone else have all the fun. John took us up to 87 mph. Any hesitation I might have had about hugging another man disappeared well before that point...

Laguna (Post 1 of 3)

Last month, the family traveled to Laguna Hills to say good bye to my Aunt Marge. After the memorial service, friends and family gathered at my Uncle's house. Among the friends were John Zamora, an associate editor for Super Street Bike Magazine, and Tony Sesto, who builds custom motorcycles. Some of his creations are below:

This motorcycle appears on the cover of the latest issue. The blue Japanese tatoo pattern in the paint fades away and the entire bike turns black when it gets colder:

It's all about step 24

Go to Google Maps, click on Get Directions. Enter in the following:
New York, NY
London, UK

Step 24-once you can finish this one, the rest of the trip will be easy.

Found via Rise and Shout

Joshua Tree Epilogue: Water

The thing that made this trip challenging was water. Although we actually found water in Smith Water Canyon, we didn't expect it, and we certainly couldn't plan on it.

This sign is presumably for summertime- we got by with about 1 gallon of water per person per day

This is what 6+ gallons of water looks like- it weighs about 50 pounds.

This is our water supply in the parking lot afterwards- about 1.5 quarts (3 pounds). There was a spare gallon in the car in case we needed it.

Joshua Tree: Day 4 (Post 2 of 2)

The water disappeared twice, coming back each time as we rounded a canyon corner. My theory is that it was related to the rock layers. At one section the canyon got very narrow, and consisted of hard metamorphic rock. My guess is that water percolated through the sand above until it hit this resistant layer, then bubbled to the surface.

Kevin climbing the "Crux Move". This stretch didn't look so difficult two years ago with a day pack.

Kevin in the Narrows

All too soon, we lost the water for good, and the rest of the canyon traverse was across the sandy wash.

Outside the canyon, we joined up with a marked trail again, and followed it through the desert, and up a ridge into juniper-pinyon forest before coming out at our car. Along the way Kevin was startled by a Horned Toad shaking off the sand from its body and running off the trail (my picture is the same as Kevin's, so not shown here). We made it to the car at 11:45-- plenty of time to pick up the other car, enjoy a wonderful shower, and catch our plane back to Colorado.