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Two weekends ago, I managed to finally make it up to Rocky Mountain National Park. I have been there a few times when I was younger, but I had never been with an SLR. The park did not disappoint me; the Continental Divide is quite beautiful there. I also visited a few lakes in the park, and I also had the good fortune to see some animals. The elk were in velvet, and there was a group of just under a dozen bulls grazing and sitting near the road. Needless to say, my super-telephoto paid off quite well. And if that wasn't enough, I was rewarded with a mother moose and her calf at the Grand Lake entrance station, making me very glad I decided to take the road all the way through the park, despite the lengthy drive home.

Last weekend, I stayed in California instead of going home, and did a road trip of sorts. Though I invited quite a few people, I ended up going by myself, which I certainly didn't mind. I planned out a bunch of small hikes using the excellent resource yosemitehikes.com. On Friday, I did most of the Yosemite Valley hikes I wanted to see, as well as those along Glacier Point Road. I even stayed for sunset up at the top. I was a little disappointed in the sunset; there was just the right amount of clouds, but they didn't light up as much as I was hoping. I was still glad I stayed though, even if it meant I had to drive down to Fresno in the dark. Luckily not many others were doing this, so I made it down in decent time.

The next day I went back up to see the sights along Tioga Road. Everything was beautiful, from Olmsted Point to Tenaya Lake to Tuolumne Meadows. Because I went back down to Fresno a little earlier that night, though, there were plenty of annoyingly slow drivers on the road, at least after I got off of Tioga, so it took me a while to get down.

I had originally planned on spending Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the park, but I was apparently too efficient in my sightseeing. The only hike I had left that I wanted to do was the Mist Trail, but I'm planning to go back with friends to climb Half Dome, and this trail is part of that hike. That coupled with the fact that driving up and down the mountains is so painfully slow, I decided to cut out a day early and drive through Santa Cruz, and then up the Coast Highway a ways. I spent some time on the beach, found a few lighthouses, and enjoyed the coastal scenery before finally heading back to San Jose.

Photos from both trips, as well as a visit to Bocci's Cellar, have been posted.

This past week I started a new project in San Jose. I really love the bay area, and I was getting a little tired of Tucson, so this is certainly a welcome change. I'm staying at the Hilton for now, at least until Doug convinces me to try out the nearby Embassy Suites, but the Hilton seems to treat us IBMers very well. It's even got a Starbucks in the lobby, not to mention a rather nice gym. The hotel is all of five to ten minutes away from the airport, and the client site is ten to fifteen away from either, so it made for a very pleasant experience. I do hope to venture out into the rest of the bay area over the next few months; some of us already went down to Santa Cruz to see one of our team members play some incredible jazz. I've also got some friends in the area, so hopefully I'll get to see them as well!

Oh, and for the record, the only way to make up for a three-hour mechanical delay (which they knew was going to happen) is getting to fly first class. I got the last seat though, so I did feel bad for everybody else.

Alright, so this road trip is less of a redux than the last one, but I think the title still fits. I went with Chi and Pammy again, and this time we flew into Los Angeles to see some of the nearby national parks over memorial day weekend.

We set out early Friday and went straight to the Mojave National Preserve. The Mojave is definitely a much drier climate than the Sonoran desert, but there is still plenty of life to discover. Our first stop was the Kelso dunes, and we happened across a handful of small lizards running across the trail. We also found many more lizard tracks. There were also some unique little beetles, and Chi found plenty of other insects to keep him busy. There was also plant life, though certainly nothing as big as a saguaro. We then hit up the visitor's center for a quick beverage, and then headed off to Hole-in-the-Wall, a short hike through a wall-like cliff. On the way, we also stopped to see a spectacularly large forest of Joshua trees. On the way out of the park, we stopped to see some cinder cones, and also a large salt flat.

That night, we saw the new Terminator movie, which was an improvement over Rise of the Machines, but certainly nowhere near as good as the first two. On the whole, everyone was a little disappointed in it. After spending the night in Barstow, we made our way to Death Valley. It is hot in Death Valley. Very, very hot. We did make numerous photo stops, but it was really too hot for hiking. It was interesting to discover water (and plenty of salt) at the bottom of the valley, though. We then made our way to Ridgecrest, where we spent the night.

The next day, we trekked clear to King's Canyon National Park. Our intent was to see all of that and Sequoia National Park, but the drive there proved to be a bit longer than I anticipated, so our stay in Sequoia was cut a bit short. We did spend plenty of time in King's Canyon, though, seeing numerous beautiful waterfalls, rushing rivers, Hume Lake, and Grant's Grove of giant sequoia. Since we had to drive back through the Sequoia park anyway to get to the hotel, we did at least stop to see General Sherman, the largest known tree in the world by volume (whereas General Grant has the widest trunk). Afterward, I made the long drive back to Tulare. After checking in, we attempted to get food at the local Denny's, but after waiting for our food for over an hour, we gave up and went to Taco Bell. The waitress certainly had an interesting look on her face when we left.

The following morning, we made our way back to the city. Since Chi had never been, we spent most of the morning in Hollywood. We drove up Mulholland Drive and walked out to the vista point that overlooks the city. We then made our way down to Hollywood Boulevard, ate lunch, and then went back to the airport.