Weblog

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, but I haven't really done anything very exciting until recently. Most of my free time at home has been spent painting, though I am now nearly done; all that's left is the vaulted ceiling. The rest of my time has been spent in Tucson working.

Two weekends ago, however, I took a few days off and went with my mom and dad down to Albuquerque to see the annual balloon fiesta. My mom had wanted to see the balloons for many years, so I used some of my many HHonors points to get a room for Mother's Day. We stopped in Santa Fe along the way, mostly so my mom could shop, but my dad and I had fun wandering around as well. Perhaps the strangest thing was that while in Santa Fe, I ran into some of the people that I traveled around Australia and New Zealand with. It was an incredible coincidence to see them there. After Santa Fe, we drove the remaining 60 miles to Albuquerque, eventually arriving at the local Hampton Inn. We only had a few hours to sleep, though, as the hotel receptionest recommended leaving for the balloon park at 3:45 in the morning. It was great advice; there was no traffic, and we had front row parking. My grandfather, however, who also went to the fiesta, had to wait in traffic for over an hour before getting to the parking lot.

Dawn Patrol started bright and early. A handful of balloons launched before sunrise, so the others could get a better idea of the wind's direction, and also to provide a good show for those who were there early. A bit later, shortly after sunrise, Mass Ascension began. Hundreds upon hundreds of balloons launched from the enormous field, with the process spanning many hours. Finally the field was empty, though, and the crowd began to disperse. Later that night, a balloon glow and fireworks were scheduled, but the glow was canceled due to weather. The following morning's events, a duplicate of the previous morning's, were also canceled. Fortunately, though, that evening's glow and fireworks were able to go forward, and we were fortunate enough to see it. The glow was a sight to behold. Of course, I was able to capture some photos of the various events; check the photos page to see them.

Last year, I took a week-long road trip from Loveland down to Phoenix, stopping to see the sites along the way. As I only had a week, though, I was unable to see a number of things I wanted to. Two weekends ago, I got the chance to see at least some of them. Instead of going home, I flew to Las Vegas with two others on my project, and one of them flew his girlfriend in from Chicago. My plane was delayed in Phoenix due to weather, but eventually we all made it to Las Vegas, and then we set out on the two hour drive to Cedar City, Utah.

Cedar City is a very small town, but it has a Hampton Inn, which means we were able to use some of our many Hilton points. We used Cedar City as a base for the weekend; the first day we went to Bryce Canyon and the north rim of the Grand Canyon. The second day, we drove to Page to see Upper Antelope Canyon, and then we made our way to Monument Valley, only to drive all the way back to Cedar City after just under an hour there. The next morning, we made our way down to Lake Mead to see the Hoover Dam, and then we finally went to the airport. It's a good thing we had unlimited miles on the rental, as we put around 1300 miles on it.

After that weekend, my list of places to see in the Southwest is significantly shorter. I still want to see Canyonlands at some point, and I would love to see Death Valley and the Bonneville salt flats among other places.

I had a very pleasant week off two weeks ago. I went on a road trip with my college roommate to Glacier National Park in Montana. As we had been planning it for some time, I was able to get an incredibly cheap ticket to Seattle. It only cost $200, so it wasn't worth it for me to use my copious number of airline miles. The downside was that I had a three-hour layover on the way there in, of all places, Spokane. I eventually made it up to Seattle, though, and Matt picked me up. We spent the evening doing pretty much nothing.

We woke up early the next morning and made our way to our first destination, Mount Rainier. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and I never really got to see the mountain up close, but the weather did make for some interesting driving as we made our way through the park. We then went to see Mount St. Helen's, but unfortunately, the east gate turned out to be closed, despite the web site clearly stating it was open. That made strike two for the trip. Anyway, to take up some time, we stopped at a few wineries in the Yakima Valley before finally heading to Spokane for the night.

Unfortunately, strike three came the following morning, when we discovered that one of the tires Matt's Civic had a bulge in it. He decided that it'd be better to replace it than be stranded somewhere in Montana, so we had it fixed and then left for Kalispell. The drive was fairly uneventful, though I did remark (with pleasure) that Montana seems to have a 70 MPH speed limit anywhere that isn't in a town, even the small two-lane state highways, even in places that such a speed is physically impossible for any passenger vehicle.

The next day, we went up to west side of Glacier National Park. Unfortunately, the road that goes through the park was closed in the middle, so we could only see that side of the park that day, but we did hike up to see Hidden Lake, and took in the truly magnificent scenery.

The following day, we drove from Kalispell all the way to Libby, and then up to Eureka and back to Kalispell. The day trip was about 250 miles, but we got to see more of the beautiful Montana scenery, including one of the stillest lakes I've ever seen, pictures of which are now posted.

On our final full day in Montana, we made the trek around Glacier National Park over to the east side. We did another hike, and of course got to see still more gorgeous scenery. In general, I found the eastern side to be prettier, but I still like Hidden Lake the best.

The next morning we woke up relatively early and started the long and mostly boring trip back to Seattle. Eastern Washington is incredibly flat, boring and desolate, much like most of the midwest. Matt said it reminded him of Kansas, where he's from originally. The scenery improved drastically, however, after we made it to the Cascades. Shortly thereafter, we were back at Matt's townhouse in Kirkland.

As a final hurrah the next day, Matt and I decided to climb Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. To get there, we took a ferry across the Pudget Sound, and then drove for quite a while before finally reaching the park. After a steep drive, we were in for an even steeper climb. Matt had never been there on a clear day before, so we misjudged the amount of water we should take. We had three small waterbottles, but most of it was gone by the time we reached the top. I barely made it, as I had a bit too much camera gear with me, but I did eventually get to the top. The view was amazing; we were just as high as the neighboring peaks, and we could see most of Pudget Sound, Victoria, Seattle and Mount Baker. The climb down was much easier, but we were incredibly dehydrated and had to stop at the visitor's center to pick up some liquid. We then made our way back to Matt's place, went to the theater to see a movie, and then called it a night.

I slept in the following morning, but it was soon time for me to go back home. I had a direct flight on the way back, and I decided to use one of my free upgrades, so I got to sit in first class. Not bad for $200!