As I Live and Learn
 

Friday, August 04, 2006

Home

Well, I'm home.

Kinda sad to be here. I can't believe it's been 10 days already. The vacation is over. :(

Pretty happy to be here. It took too long to get home... mostly from Chicago to here. Ahh, my own home to sleep in tonight.

I got to see everything I wanted to on my trip: The Rainforest, Mount St. Helens, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, and of course Seattle - including the Space Needle and Seattle's Underground. Plus I got to see bonus and cool stuff, like: suddenly coming across the Missouri River seemingly out of nowhere in the middle of boring monotonous planes, Wall Drug, an amazing view of Seattle and Mount Rainier behind it at a wonderful park, The Badlands, and the Mississippi River (before the tributaries).

Awesome trip. Just, awesome.

Turns out I don't have a cold, I have tonsillitis! I've not had it before, and am just glad I'm not going to need to have my tonsils taken out.

I'm going back to Seattle. Someday, and hopefully not in the distant future.


 

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Heading Back & Videos

Well, this afternoon starts the trip home. And my lack of being able to be in reliable contact again. We're supposed to be in Chicago by Friday early afternoon.

Sorry about no pictures up yet, it turns out they aren't going to be as quick as I expected because while I know I have my camera set to take good resolution pictures I didn't realize they were around 2MB in size each! So I have to reduce the size on somewhere between 5 and 6 hundred photos before they can go online. Ideally at this point I'll just go through them and choose my favorites to put up as well as print, all at once.

In the meantime though, my little videos are up. You can watch them online, or download them, as you desire.

Yellowstone: This one is Sulphur Caldron. The water has a pH of about 1 - 2, and it smells nasty sour - like boiling sulfur! 3 seconds long.

Yellowstone: Here is what they call Churning Caldron. The temperature in there averages 164 degrees F, and apparently it can throw water up to four feet high! I didn't see that, but the smoke it gives off smells like hundreds of rotting eggs. 10 seconds long.

Yellowstone: Mud Volcano used to be a mini-volcano about 30 feet high that would spew mud to the tops of tall trees, until it blew itself apart. Now all we get to see is the hot spring that fueled the mini-volcano. 6 seconds long.

Yellowstone: And of course, Old Faithful. You'll have to turn your computer screen on its side for maximum effect. 2 minutes and 11 seconds long.

Yellowstone: Called a Mudpot, I thought it was very interesting to see only the top of a place that boils underground and has mud on top of it. 20 seconds long.

Mount St. Helens: Look here to see the top. 13 seconds long.


 

Monday, July 31, 2006

Status Update

Well, I caught a cold at Mount St. Helens. It hasn't been severe, but it's been strong enough to be annoying - demanding my body sleep and then sleep more, progressing from that to a sore throat. I played NERO anyway (of course!). It was much fun. :)

Yesterday I moved from the campsite to the hotel. The ONE good thing of the day. The lady behind the desk was SO nice and accommodating, and let me choose the room I wanted despite my reservation. The room is nice.

But yesterday so many many many little things went wrong, all culminating in my spraining an ankle as I (tried to) walk from the hotel to the Science Fiction Museum only four blocks away. I managed to hobble back to the hotel, and pretty much kept myself chair bound for six hours before heading to bed.

Today I got out to one of the Rainforests. I was determined. 5:15pm car rental return, three hour drive each way, and sprained ankle would not keep me from it! The Ranger I talked to was wonderful, and gave me a drive route to do as well as two short and (supposedly) handicap accessible trails to shamble through. I also got to see the largest Spruce in the world, around 1000 years old! Pictures coming soon... :)

Tomorrow, my third attempt on the Sci-Fi Museum!


 

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