Afternoon at the Asian Art Museum

Here are a few pics from the Asian Art Museum taken today just with my iPhone. First Sundays are free!

Yosemite National Park

New pics from this weekend’s trip to Yosemite are up. This is the quickest update I’ve made to my website yet. The plan of the trip was to check out the frazil ice. We only saw a little bit of it, but there was plenty of snow still on the ground and dusting the tops of trees. It even snowed while we were there. We’ll need to go a little bit earlier next time to catch the frazil ice. All the views were breathtaking. Everything was spectacular!

Texas Trip

We’re back from our trip to Texas. I’ll work on a photo gallery for the website, but I do have some pics up on Flickr and Facebook. Despite getting sick near the beginning of the trip, we tried to make the most of it and have fun. We started in Austin and checked out the Texas State Capitol and the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library. We wanted to see the Congress Avenue Bridge bats come out at dusk, but it was too early in the year for that. We drove out to Johnson City and the LBJ Ranch to check out the Texas White House. We really enjoyed that and seeing LBJ’s Amphicar. Then it was time to head out to San Antonio for a conference I had to attend for work. We had the chance to check out the Alamo, the River Walk, and Luminaria, an art festival based on the White Nights that occur around the world. It was amazing.

We then drove out to Corpus Christi to have some fun at the beach, but we were still ill and it was rainy and very windy. We made a quick visit to the Days Inn where Selena was shot and visited her museum. All in all, I think we had a good taste of Texas. One thing we have to go back for is eating more good Texas BBQ. I had a little bit, but I didn’t have much of an appetite due to being sick. We want to go to Lockhart and have some of their famous BBQ.

And this is just a little rant here… Being sick for the past two and a half weeks has not been fun at all. It started off as a really bad flu, now it’s bronchitis. I am feeling better, but I’m tired of being sick. Luckily, the weather has been cold and wet, so I don’t feel as bad. There’s only so much TV, web surfing and reading one can do. Wah-wah-wah-waah

Three Things

One. I was disappointed it didn’t snow where we were. It did snow in SF, but nothing stayed on the ground.

Two. There is a pink gerbera daisy that I took home from one of the arrangements at my grandmother’s funeral and it’s still doing good. The funeral was two weeks ago and the flower looks like it’s going to last a lot longer. I know my grandmother would’ve wanted me to take the flowers home as she wasn’t one to waste anything. I feel like she’s looking down on me.

Three. I love this video from the 600th anniversary of the Prague Astronomical Clock. I could watch it over and over again. On October 9, 2010 a group called the Macula projected a light show that they call “video mapping” on the clock. It’s simply stunning. If you’re going to be in Prague on March 5th, you’ll have a chance to check it out in person!

Underwater Sculpture Garden

Coral reefs are beautiful, highly complex, and full of biodiversity. It’s scary to think that we may live in a world where they are nonexistent. Imagine them gone in 100 years, 50 years even. It’s possible. Several things are negatively affecting our reefs. Climate change is causing bleaching events. Pollution is causing acidification of the oceans. And overfishing is disrupting food chains. Research being done now in the reefs may help find cures for diseases and help create valuable pharmaceuticals. But will we have them long enough to make progress? Reducing our carbon footprint is one way that we can help alleviate stress on the world’s reefs. But can art also assist in the plight? There may be hope.

“Bodies” Fill Underwater Sculpture Park

Days 4 and 5

We spent most of Friday at Stone Mountain. Didn’t expect to spend so much time there. Took the Duck tour, went to the amusement park, rode the sky tram up to the top of the mountain which has the world’s largest bas relief, which depicts Confederate heroes Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis.

Today we went to the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coca-Cola. After having dinner from Fox Bros. (delicious BBQ), we met up with friends for Atlanta Pride at Piedmont Park.

Click here for pics of our trip.

Day 3

Went to the Tennessee Aquarium. I can never get tired of looking and learning about animals. For the first time I saw a four-eyed turtle. The turtle doesn’t have that many eyes. Rather it’s name refers to the spots behind it’s eyes. Later was spent walking along the river front. Hard to believe this was one of America’s most polluted areas. We left Chattanooga and returned to Altanta, but not before stopping to have more BBQ! We stopped at Sugar’s Ribs and had pulled pork sandwiches. They were to die for! With full stomachs we headed back and visited the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site. This was a visit I’m very glad we made. We toured MLK’s birth home and neighborhood and reflected at his final resting place. We ended the day with a dinner picnic at a small park near the Botanical Gardens.

Days 1 & 2 of Fall Vacation

Okay. I’m actually going to write this and the following posts on my iPhone. Aside from my Kindle and camera it’s the only gadget I brought. It is my hope that the difficulty of typing on such a device will force me to be concise. We’ll see how I carefully I choose my words and avoid being verbose.

Day 1 was our travel day to Atlanta. The flight was Rocky’s longest and he managed just fine. Day 2 was driving to Chattanooga. Only a couple of hours away and the landscapes were lush and green with a tinge of fall color. Along the way we stopped in Adairsville. We spent the majority of the afternoon checking out Lookout Mountain. Went to Craven’s House and read the informational plaques scattered about the park that told about Civil War history. It was just nice to take a leisurely stroll with the dog, be in the sun and enjoy the views of Chattanooga and the surrounding areas. Had some really good BBQ for dinner.

SoCal Fun

  
 

We went to San Diego for a week last month. Here are a few random pics. I had a conference to attend for work, so I took some extra time off before and after so that we could have a little vacation, too. We drove down so we could take Rocky with us. He’s the world’s most spoiled German Shepherd. We stayed first in Newport Beach with a friend for a few days. That was awesome because our friend lives three houses from the beach, literally. Then in San Diego we got to visit the San Diego Zoo, Balboa Park and its museums, the Birch Aquarium… Even stopped by Tijuana for a bit. (That’s Rocky on the US-Mexico border!) Only stayed for a few hours during the day. It was very safe and quiet. We also visited several of the Missions including Mission San Luis Rey — the King of the Missions. We had so much fun on our little road trip. Shot a lot and I’ll be posting more pics here, on Facebook and my web site. And we ate well. Fish tacos rock! On our way back home, we stopped in West Hollywood and stayed with more friends. It was so good to get away and relax. I’m so ready for that life of leisure.

Dolphin Encounter in Monterey Bay

We went sailing on Saturday in Santa Cruz. The weather was perfect, the water calm, the company good, and of course Rocky came along. I was surprised I didn’t get seasick this time. Thank goodness since we weren’t in the comfort of our boat. The best part was being able to see a pod of dolphins. There were three or four and they got pretty close to the boat. They looked so graceful. What a great birthday present!