Blue Sky

Flying somewhere over Mexico this past Christmas.

Vancouver Kite Surfing

Went to visit Martha's brother Roberto that lives in Vancouver. After visiting her brother in UBC, we stopped at a beach to walk around and got this view of water kite surfers (is that what it's called?) and downtown in the background.

Kite surfers in the Burrard Inlet.

Balboa Park

We spent most of the day at Balboa Park walking around. Enjoyed the Botanical Garden and the Air and Space Museum.

San Diego Red Bull Air Race

The main purpose of our trip was to go to the Red Bull Air Race. It was incredibly fun watching the planes fly at low altitues at 200+ mph.

Joshua Tree National Park

There were so many cool pictures that I didn't know which one to choose. Instead, have a look through this viewer, or go directly to my Picasa Web Album.

Space and Rocket Center

I spent the long Labor Day weekend in Huntsville, Alabama with my girlfriend Martha. About the only interesting thing to do in this town is visit NASA's Space and Rocket Center. It has a fairly good museum about NASA and in particular the Apollo missions. In the first picture, I'm standing bellow the thrusters of a Saturn I rocket replica.

Dwarfed by the Saturn I rocket

In this picture, Martha touches the tip of the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird spy plane. See this location in Live Maps.

Touching a point of history

Tolmie Peak

Small Island in Mowich Lake.
Ili and I went hiking to Mount Rainier today. We hiked from Mowich Lake up to Tolmie Peak. For the most part, it was a very nice and pleasant hike. However, when we reached Eunice Lake we were attacked by mosquitoes and flies. As if that wasn't enough, when we reached to top of Tolmie Peak, you literally couldn't stand still even for a second before being swarmed by mosquitoes.

Although Mount Rainier was partly hidden by clouds, the view was still incredible. But, because of the clouds of mosquitoes we didn't stay for more than 5 minutes. By the time we got back to the car, I had at least 25 bites on my legs and another 15 or so on my arms. Note to self, next time, take mosquito repellent!

Cloud covered view of Mt. Rainier from Tolmie Peak.

You can see the remainder of these pictures in my Picasa Web Album. You can also see this location in Live Maps.

Apache Trail

So sad, this is our last full day in Arizona. We had to drive back Phoenix so instead of taking the fast and boring Interstate, we took the scenic view. Our first scenic stop was at the Tonto National Monument cliff dwellings near Roosevelt, AZ. These dwellings were built and inhabited by the Salado people in the Tonto Basin. See this location in Live Maps.

Tonto National Monument cliff dwellings

While we were still at the dwellings, up in the sky was a group of hawks flying around. I was lucky to have my camera pointed at them at the right time when these two were diving straight for the ground. It's basically a game of chicken where one tries to crash the other into the ground. They released each other a fair distance from the ground, so no one got hurt.

Dueling hawks (enlarge)

From Roosevelt, we took highway 88 back to Phoenix. This section of the Apache Trail has 30 miles of unpaved dirt road that takes you up narrow winding paths, but all with incredible views. I was tired of driving all week long, so Martha took the wheel while I took the pictures. Most of the road is a two lane road, but there is a one lane section that takes you up a steep cliff side. There are only a few places where two cars can pass each other. We were on the outside of the road, making it even more interesting.

One lane road on the Apache Trail

Towards the end of the road, there is a an overlook we stopped at for this beautiful view.

Scenic view towards the end of the trail

Crepuscular rays in the distance

Canyon de Chelly

We spent the night in Chinle on the Navajo Indian Reservation. In the morning, we drove over the Canyon de Chelly National Monument (pronounced da Shay). Since we were on a bit of a tight schedule today, we didn't hike to the bottom of the canyon and simply enjoyed the views from above. In this picture, you see the most prominent and famous part of the canyon, Spider Rock which stands 800 ft. tall. It was nice to see it on this trip as the last time I was there, we were snowed out. See this location in Live Maps.

Spider Rock spire

Besides Spider Rock, the other attractions in the canyon are several Navajo and Anasazi ruins. Below you see the Anasazi White House ruins. It might be a bit hard to tell in the pictures below, but the ruins are named for the white colored house at the center top of the ruins.

White House ruins

We spent the rest of the day driving, but we made a few stops along the way. One of the first stops was at the Hubble Trading Post in Ganado. If you have the extra money, it's the perfect place to buy quality Navajo rugs and jewelry. I couldn't afford a rug this time around, but here is a picture of the rug I got last year when I visited with Jose and Tim.

Broken log in the Petrified Forest

Later in the afternoon, we drove to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. Despite being here last year, it's still an amazing view and a neat experience to walk through the remains of a 3 million year old forest. Unfortunately, like last time, it was also cloudy. See this location in Live Maps.

More petrified wood

As usual, you can see the entire collection of pictures for Canyon the Chelly, the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest in my Picasa Web Album.

Monument Valley

Monument Valley.

Mexican Hat.

Storm clouds ahead.

Arizona sunset.

Glen Canyon

For now a small description will do. The first picture is not Glen Canyon, it's a view of north and east of the Grand Canyon. The last (poorly stitched) picture is of the Carl-Hayden dam in Glen Canyon. The lake is at record lows since the 1940's (I think, so don't quote me on that).

A small note about the tree. As I stooped and clicked away, a tourist (the big fat ones you see in movies) walks by and says "it's only a tree". With indignation I kept snapping away, but that made me wonder how many things I pass every day and think, "it's only a tree". However, browsing the pictures on this site (Photoblog), I'm glad to see that there are many of you that don't pass by everyday things and think it's only a tree.

Northern and eastern view of the Grand Canyon.

Neat looking tree.

Even in harsh environments, beauty abounds.

Carl-Hayden dam and Lake Powell.

Grand Canyon

I survived the Grand Canyon for the second time! My first trip to the Grand Canyon was with my brother Jose and my Dad back in 2001. This time, instead of hiking to the bottom and back in one day (not recommended by the Rangers), Martha and I took the Bright Angel trail down to Plateau Point. From the ridge to Plateau Point it's a 6.1 mile (9.8 km) hike that descends ~0.6 miles (0.9 km).

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You may think, oh, only to Plateau Point, that's nothing! However, this time we were hiking in 123° F (50° C) weather! Most of this was in the middle of the day, so there isn't much shade or any at all. After sizzling some time at the Point and catching a few glimpses of the Colorado River, we headed back to Indian Gardens to wait in the shade until the sun wasn't so hot. See this location on Live Maps.

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As soon as the sun was hidden by the western ridge, the temperature dropped nearly 20 degrees. That made hiking much more bearable, but it was still 103° F (39° C). We took the 4.5 mile hike back fairly slow, but at least this way we go to see some awesome colors and contrasts that you don't see during the day. It was a bit hard choosing which pictures to post here, so please look at my full set of Grand Canyon pictures in my Picasa Web Album.

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Sedona

Today we took the scenic route to Sedona on highway 89. As we started out, we came across an overlook where we stopped for several minutes to walk around. The view was very nice, but what really caught my attention was this flowering agave.

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We had originally planned to stop by Slide Rock State Park, but when we saw the long waiting line to get in and the multitudes of people, we decided against it and headed straight to Sedona. We had lunch at a nice small restaurant with this excellent view of the mountains. It was about 105° F (40° C), so we ate inside, but I stepped out on the balcony for a few minutes to take this picture. See this location in Live Maps.

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After lunch and walking around the shops downtown, we were ready to cool off in the river. Just before entering town we had stopped at a small overlook that had a trail down to the river. This is one of the rock formations you could see as you walk down the trail. The river pictures weren't that great, so I didn't post any here, but you can see the full set of Sedona pictures at my Picasa Web Album. See this location in Live Maps.

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Meteor Crater

Today we drove up to Flagstaff from Phoenix. After stopping for lunch in Flagstaff we headed east to see Meteor Crater. It's impressive what a chunk of rock traveling at ~28,600 mph can do. The crater is almost a mile wide and 570 feet deep. View the rest of my pictures for this day in my Picasa Web Album.

See this location in Live Maps.

ISO 500 | 18 mm | f/7.1 | 1/200 sec

From the Air

Mt. Rainier with Mt. Hood in the background. Flying back from Nashville and nearing Seattle. I've only had this view once before, so it's great to see such a spectacular view once again.

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Commencement

Today is my sister Ili's graduation! She graduated from Lambuth University in Jackson, Tennessee. My dad flew up from Mexico and was invited to give the Invocation at the beginning of the ceremony.

Prayer of Invocation
for the Commencement Celebration of
Lambuth University, May 6, 2007 Jackson, Tenneessee

Spirit of the Living God, come bless us with your love and grace as we gather to celebrate the conclusion of the academic year with students and their families, trustees and faculty of Lambuth University.

God of life and wisdom, come and bless students and teachers all over this country and all over the world with visions of a new humanity, caring, sharing, giving and receiving.

God of justice, come and help us so that we may work for life and against the culture of death at home and abroad.

God of peace, come and help us to establish peace not with guns, but with justice and wisdom whose result will be peace and security according to your word.

God of hope, help us to build bridges of dialogue and understanding instead of walls of separation.

God of creation, come and help us to save the Earth and tis good gifts and beauty for the sake of all People.

God of live, love, forgiveness and creator of new futures and new life, we pray that you will bring consolation and healing, to students, faculty and families of the Virginia Tech community. We also remember those who in this land and other countries daily suffer the loss of family members under the impact of war.

God of mercy, as we rejoice in this celebration in context of peace and security, grant us the courage to work more decisively for peace in the world! Thus we pray in the name of the One who is above all names. Amen and Amen!

Rev, José L. Velazco M.

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Glassy Blue

This is part of an advertisement in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport.

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Going Home

Sadly, I returned to Seattle today. I like Seattle, but I wish I could have been in Mexico a bit longer. Anyway, today was a very long day. United was nice enough to cancel my very early flight and make me wait in line for an hour and a half before they could rebook me. I ended up taking three different flights and three different airlines.

My initial anger disappeared as soon as I realized they had booked me in first class from L.A. to Portland. I've never been in first class before and wow, the seats and service are so much better. However, after arriving in Seattle in this small plane, they decided my trip hadn't been messed up enough and they lost my luggage!

Anyway, this is the small plane that I took from Portland to Seattle. I've never been on a prop plane before. I sat right behind the propeller and got to see how it starts up. Maybe I'm easily amused, but I thought it was neat. The only problem is the noise! They are so much noisier than jet planes. You nearly had to shout to get the flight attendant to hear you.

Denver Airport

I was on my way to Mexico and went through the Denver airport. This is a statue of some Apollo astronaut. See this location in Live Maps.

Graduation

My initial flight from Seattle to Chicago was over an hour late and I barely made it to my connecting flight to Nashville. When we arrived at the gate I had about 8 minutes to run across the entire Chicago airport. Once we arrived in Nashville, I took this picture as we disembarked from the plane. See this location in Live Maps.


Jose, Kristen, Ili and Tim picked me up and we went to Cookeville for Martha's graduation. The next picture is Martha and me after she graduated the graduation. She obtained her M.S. (Master in Science) in Electrical Engineering at Tennessee Tech University; which is the same place I got my M.S. See this location in Live Maps.