New Braunfels

We had a fabulous time in New Braunfels this weekend. For non-Texans, New Braunfels is a little town just north of San Antonio. It's a popular weekend destination for east/central Texas. We've never been there before, but we now see why people like going there.

We got in Friday about 5:00pm, and checked into our hotel. We had reserved rooms at one of the Schlitterbahn waterpark resorts, The Bahn, since that's where our friends were staying. Let's be kind and say that the accommodations at The Bahn are basic and venerable. The place probably hasn't been remodeled in 40-50 years. At first, I thought that it was at least clean, but Carina's feet turned absolutely black after walking around on the floor of our room for about 10 minutes. I thought I was going to fall through the bottom of the tub when I stepped into the shower.

Slight gross-out factor aside, it turned out to be a good deal for us because the old section of the waterpark was included with our room. Since I couldn't ride any slides anyway, that meant I didn't have to pay $40 to take Carina to the wading pools. Carina had a *really good* time. She loved playing in the water and even went down some "big" slides (with Mommy or Daddy). She waded in right up to her chin and had a good time hopping around. She doesn't really get the concept of not breathing under water, so we need to work on that. Unfortunately, I didn't do a good job of getting pictures. :(

For dinner both nights and on Sunday morning, we went to Gruene. We had great meals at both restaurants. I could definitely spend more time there. There were lots of cool little shops and a craft fair. But, Carina was getting pretty tired on Sunday so we had to get going. I really want to go to the Christmas market sometime now. Not this year. Maybe next year.

Carina slept most of the time in the car both ways. She did a great job at the hotel sleeping (at least at night), and she used big-girl cups and silverware at all the restaurants. The irony is not lost on me that just when we're starting to get around with less stuff on our travels, we're about to add two newborns to the mix again.

Want to Go Back

Every time we go to Sigvor's I want to stay forever. I could sit on that deck and look at the bay every day for a very long time.

We had a great time catching up with everyone, and of course Carina was a big hit. She was particularly interested in Bruce, who is the fiancee of Jo. Jo is Sigvor's daughter from her first marriage. Bruce is probably around 60 and very San Fransisco Bay Area. Carina was fascinated with his hats and bushy white beard. I'm not sure she ever got up the courage to talk to him directly, but she would point to him and whisper in my ear "Bruce".

I was particularly amused that the minister that married Jenny and Nick was wearing Berkenstocks.

So, time for a funny Carina story. I think the endearments are getting out of hand. I don't know what it is about having a kid, but you call them lots of stuff in the profusion of your love. Things that you never thought you would say. Things you have no idea where they come from. In Carina's life I've called her "Cha-cha", "Chicabee", "Bubble-bum", and other similarly strange things.

Anyway, all that is to explain that I don't really know why I started calling her "Doll-face". I have been tending to do it when I'm just about ready to pull her out of her car seat. So after a very fun afternoon at Tilden Park in Berkeley that included a train ride, carousel ride, cows, sheep, and goats, I was getting her out of the car and I said "OK, you ready to go Doll-face?"

She handed me her sippy cup to hold for her and responded, "Here you go, Doll-Face."

Day of Doctors

We jet off tomorrow for 5 days at Walt Disney World with my sister's family. I plan on leaving the laptop here and not checking my e-mail until we return on Monday! (Very exciting.) We're staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort on the property, and should be having a ball all week.

I'm exhausted from the pre-trip hoopla in addition to the all-day doctor visit marathon I ran today. I had an uneventful eye appointment in the morning. Early afternoon was an OB appointment. Both babies are still looking great at 10 1/2 weeks. Since the doctor couldn't pick up the heartbeats yet with the doppler, we got another ultrasound. We saw each of them move a bit, and both hearts are beating away. The photo is on my Flickr stream - Blogger seems to be having trouble posting it right now. The baby labled "A" will be born first.

I think I'm taking this whole high risk pregnancy thing to heart. I'm more nervous about this on than I was about the last one. I worried a bit with Carina, but I never really got nervous before an appointment that something would be wrong. I totally sighed in relief when I saw both those hearts beating today. They made us an appointment with a perinatologist (a doctor that specializes in high risk pregnancies) in a week just for an assessment. So, my saga of seeing doctors all the time will be continuing. It will be about that time that I may be getting an MRI on my hand as well. (I'll complain about that some other time.)

To round out the day of doctors, I took Carina to her 2 year appointment. After a slight false start in not realizing their office had moved, we had a very successful appointment. Carina was very cooperative with the doctor, and even smiled at her once or twice. The doctor says that you can usually double the height of the child at this age to figure out how tall they'll be as an adult. Carina is 37" tall. Do the math - that's 6'2"! Wow. Maybe she'll be the volleyball star I was never tall enough to be. :)

Mexico, Briefly

Mexico was super fun.

The wedding was gorgeous. The stiff wind that kept the surf up all weekend blew spray onto our faces as Becca and Byron were admonished to "not fight" and "be good parents". The surf made a gorgeous backdrop for the wedding and the 45 min mariachi concert that came after.


The day after the wedding, we went to Coba to see some Myan ruins. This particular site hasn't been completely excavated, so it's somewhat "Indiana Jones" like. The highlight was this pyramid. 113 steps to the top, and Byron only climbed about 45 of them.



We had fun at the resort, as well. It was a very family oriented resort, and it was cool seeing all the toddlers playing in the sand and sleeping on beach chairs. This is definitely something you could easily do with young kids.

Back in the Saddle

Freshly back from vacation, I got to work at 7am today for a sim that is scheduled to run until 6pm. Welcome back, Jen.

It doesn't help that I know Becca and Byron are swooshing down a mountain right now.

Return travel went pretty well yesterday, until I tried to drive home from the airport. This is the second trip from IAH to my house I've made in a month during evening rush hour. It's a 45 min drive on a good day, maybe an hour to 1:15 on most days. Both times in the last month, it has taken me 2+ hours to get home! What is up with that? Has traffic really gotten worse in the last few months?

Hello, can we get a public transportation system over here?

Now I need to get some flying time in. I haven't been in almost three months now. Not good.

Done Skiing

I've started to post several times in the last week, but I don't seem to have much to say that is connected. So forgive if this seems like a bunch of random thoughts.

We had a great time skiing, not the least because I emerged unhurt. I forgot to wear my knee brace today, and we did a bunch of hard runs. Everything felt great, which was very encouraging.

Yesterday we took a day off skiing and went to a hot springs resort about 25 miles from here. It wasn't the best outdoor hot spring resort I've ever been to, but it was worth spending a few hours. Carina had a great time, but we need to work on her swimming skills next summer. Though I do have to say that it's nice that she isn't prone to jumping into the deep end without thinking like a certain niece of mine. It was actually hard to get her to let go of us, even in the wading pool where she could stand up.

Tomorrow it's back to reality. I have an all day sim on Thursday. No more vacation for a while.

Photos

I haven't been keeping up with my photos recently. Here are a few from the last few months.

Here are Carina and I at her first football game. Too bad the Huskies suck this year.


When we were in Seattle, we had dinner with some of my friends from drumline. Here are all the kids (except Larson, who was already sleeping). I like this picture because it kind of shows how all the kids were with each other all night. David, the oldest, was fairly calm. Josh was going nuts (they got a lot of sugar that afternoon, apparently). Carina was interested, but bemused, by both of them.


We went to a park and got lots of photos of Carina playing in the leaves. The fall color was awesome while we were there.


Here are Carina and I in our Halloween costumes.


And here are the Baird twins on their first Halloween. I can't remember which was the pumpkin and which was the ghost.



We went to DC over Veterans Day weekend. This is pretty much how Carina looked all weekend - tired. We're at the air and space museum in this photo.


We had fun eating lunch in the sculpture garden that day. I didn't get many great photos in DC, but Gavin put some good ones up on his photo blog.

I-Heart-Seattle

Oh, my God. How much do I miss living in this city? After a busy morning of sight-seeing and shopping in the U-District, I'm back in the hotel room eating my much-missed Nasai Teriyaki and letting Carina get her much-needed nap in. Gavin jaunted off with Jen O and Johnatnan this morning to hike as high as they could without running into snow. It's a gorgeous mid-50s day in Seattle, which would feel cold in Houston, but feels wonderful here. The trees are a riot of color, transforming the city into the epitome of fall.

When I came back to Seattle after Thanksgiving break my freshman year of college, I remember seeing the skyline and feeling that I was coming home. That was only 3 months after I left Wyoming. It still feels like that, 8 years after moving to Houston. Sometimes a place just fits. Seattle is my fit.

Wyoming

We are having a great time in Wyoming, as always. Monday and Tuesday we left Carina with her grandparents and did some hiking. We went to Lost Twin Lakes in the Bighorn mountains.

It was about a 5 or 5.5 mile hike in. This is the first time I've used my new backpack for actual hiking; I bought it before our trip to Patagonia, and we haven't been backpacking since. I was pretty tired by the time we got up there, but I can still walk a ways, it seems. We camped below the "lower" Twin lake. Before hiking out on Tuesday, we were discussing hiking up to the "upper" lake. Gavin turned to the side, though, and said "I'm interested in what's up there." So, we climbed a small mountain, instead.


We've been mainly playing with kiddos since. Carina is having fun with Cousin Caroline, although Caroline is a bit much for her sometimes. Carina has also definitely started talking. In addition to "daw" (dog) and "meel" (milk), which she's been saying for a while irregularly, we have heard new words "bir" (bird) and "Dacks" (Jackson).

Maroon Bells Photos

I'll write more later about the trip, but for now here are some photos.


by jmendeck

Maroon Bells

In about an hour we’re off to Colorado for a camping and hiking trip to Maroon Bells Wilderness. I’ve wanted to visit this wilderness area for a while. It is one of the most photographed areas in Colorado. It will be a good place for our first major camping trip with Carina, because Aspen is only a few miles down the road, so any emergency diaper runs can be accomplished. There are also a lot of shortish day hikes we can do.

I am NOT traveling with a laptop. (How 20th century!) I will be traveling with a camera, so I should have some good posts for next week.

I always become sort of useless at work about 2 hours before I’m scheduled to leave for vacation. Unfortunately, if I planned on leaving 2 hours earlier, I’d probably still be useless for 2 hours.

Need to Hike

I wrote a long e-mail to Melanie yesterday with a bunch of information and advice on what to do in Hawaii. It made me very nostalgic recounting all the best parts of that trip. Even though Gavin and I had a week long vacation in Florida less than a month ago, I still have a huge travel itch. The vacations we take that I reminisce about for years include hiking, camping, foreign lands, hiking, mountains, and more hiking. We haven’t done anything like that since before I got pregnant, and I’m totally missing it.

Becca and I have been talking at a half-serious level about going to Colorado for some hiking in the next month. I think it needs to happen. It will be a bit different going with Carina, but she needs to get used to sleeping outdoors from time to time. We probably won’t actually backpack this time out, though. Hmm… Need to research good car camping locations. :)

Florida Wrap

We're back. Our last three days in Florida were spent at the beach, and at Disney World. It has been years since we were at Disney, so we had a great time seeing all the updates. We made the most of our two days there; we visited Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Magic Kingdom. We rode the new Toy Story ride (SO COOL!), saw Fantasmic, the SpectroMagic Parade, and the MK fireworks. We stayed out until midnight yesterday, even though we knew we had to get up before 7:00 to leave for the airport.

Florida was amazingly fun, but we were very ready to get back. We were both pointing out babies around Carina's age all the time in the parks. Carina was asleep when we got to Grammy and Grandad's, but she didn't make us wait too long. I heard her talking in her crib, so I cracked the door and stuck my head in. At first, she just stared at me. Then her eyes got huge - I mean HUGE - and she started running in place. Very satisfactory reaction. :)

So, now we're home, and tomorrow I go to work to see if the fact that we're flying means I'm less behind than I normally would be... I can hope. We actually got back home at around 4:00 this afternoon, so I have at least had time to do some stuff around the house.

T+2 minutes

The launch was great! We were maybe 3 or 4 miles away from the pad, and plumes were brilliant against the blue sky as the shuttle climbed. The photo above is just a few moments after SRB separation, at the full-res you can see the pinpoint of light as the shuttle races away from the 'dirty' SRB exhaust clouds. And if you zoom in, you can make out the SRBs tumbling away but they're only a few pixels big.

We're meeting some friends tomorrow and maybe we'll hang out on the beach near Canaveral. Mom and Dad have been emailing us some photos of Carina, and with those plus the ones Sarah put online we're managing to not call every day and see how things are going. :)

L-1

If you've been watching the Flickr screen, you'll see that we are in Florida. There are an amazing number of friends and acquantainces here for this launch as well. We got our tours today, which I have to say was a little underwhelming. They wouldn't let us into any buildings; something about stacking SRBs in the VAB and not wanting 200+ people tramping through.

We went to see Blue Man Group tonight. That was fun. I've never seen so much toilet paper in my life.

Tomorrow, hopefully, we get to see Discovery go to space!

Launch Trip

I'm backseating another operator for a simulation tonight, and it's much more interesting than I was afraid it would be. Luckily, I had checked out a laptop for a 2-day meeting earlier this week, so I can fill the slow times with e-mail and other small tasks. I'm still not totally used to being the "voice of experience" in this job, but I'm filling that role more and more every day.

I bought plane tickets yesterday to accompany Gavin to the launch at the end of the month. It's going to be fun. I haven't gotten any tours at KSC since I was there as a teenager and took the public tour, so I'm pretty excited about that. And seeing a Shuttle launch, of course.

Here's hoping for a launch no later than June 3.

Himalaya Dreams

Some folks I know are in Nepal right now hiking toward Everest base camp. I really, really want to valley trek in the Himalayas someday. I'm not entirely sold on Everest base camp as the destination of my Himalayan trip. There are other parts of the range that require less effort to get to with as good or better views, and I sort of have the impression that base camp is not the most scenic due to the number of people that go through there every year. (Plus it's really high. I'm more about seeing many mountains that standing on one of them, with the attendant potential for altitude sickness.)

Still, I'm very jealous of the crowd that's there right now. Who would have thought that two years not leaving the country would leave me so antsy? When I graduated college, I'd only been to Canada and Mexico. Our trips to South America were supposed to scratch that itch before the arrival of Carina. Maybe the travel bug one of those things that scratching just makes worse.

Solar Eclipse

Gavin: "We need to go visit your parents in 2017."
Jen: "Eclipse?"
Gavin: "Yeah... how'd you know?"
Jen: "I don't know."
Gavin: "You're awesome like that."

Hickory Dickory

As I am getting ready this morning in my hotel room, from the next room over I hear a small voice floating through the wall.

"Hickory, dickory, dock
The mouse ran up the clock"

I smile, then sniff. Suddenly, I miss Carina so much I have to sit down with my laptop and shuffle though the last set of pictures I have of her.

In some ways, I've been enjoying this trip away from the baby. We've been out at dinner every night until 10:30 or 11:00. When I get back to the hotel after work, I can just sit down and relax rather than feeding, bathing, and putting down an increasingly tired baby.

But I have also been finding myself daydreaming about chubby cheeks, gummy smiles, and babling voices. I have missed my evening cuddle. I wonder what she's doing new today.

*hugs* to Carina

Cali Day 1

Well, I made it to California, even if there was some last minute drama to getting my travel approved. It's crazy how trying to do something that makes total rational sense can completely bring the govt travel system to its knees. Oh well, I'll deal.

I've pretty much been on the go since 7AM central time today, and it's showing. It's really crazy how a two hour time change can screw with your body. Especially combined with two glasses of good wine for dinner.

Zzzzzzzz...

Baby's First Ski Trip

In spite of hurting my knee, the ski trip was not a complete failure. Our one day of skiing together was quite nice. Here's Gavin at the top of a couple double blues we tried early in the day. I have another nice panoramic shot from the top I'll have to add at home after I stitch it together.

And here's pictures of the both of us with Carina watching the Rusted Root concert from our balcony. She liked the music just as much as either of us. She didn't seem to mind the cold air, either, or the snow. That girl just rolls with it.

Back Home

It's nice being home after being out west for a few weeks. Roxy is curled up at my feet, snoring softly. The trips out to JPL were both great, I got a lot out of it. And some cool pictures, which will be posted later this weekend. Utah was fun, even though Jen bummed her knee. And I got a kick out of showing some pictures of Carina around. Lots of 'awwwws'.

Referral?

The knee is definitely busted. It doesn't hurt so much anymore, unless I move wrong. But, I can feel the joint moving in ways that it definitely shouldn't. Anyone know a good orthopedic surgeon in Houston? I know a couple people have used Dr. O'Neill, but he doesn't have any new patient openings until the end of June. I don't think I'll be waiting that long.

Despite the busted knee, I'm still making plans to go to Tahoe next weekend. It's practically free, after all, since work is sending me to Vandenberg Thursday and Friday. All I have to pay for is a rental car to get to Tahoe and food. Can't beat that. Gavin didn't have a great skiing experience in Utah either due to getting slow skis (really, really slow), so I'm pretty sure he's going to fly out, too. Carina might go with grandparents for the weekend, or she might come since we won't need a sitter with me being crippled and all.

My parents are coming in tomorrow to see Carina. They've never had much luck with the weather here, but it is supposed to be pretty good this weekend. They'll like that as it's still winter in Wyoming.

Knee

Skiing in Utah is pretty cool. It took us about 40 minutes to drive from the airport to the condo. Our condo is AWESOME! I mean, we're paying a pretty penny for it, but still. We have not one, but two balconies overlooking the village square from which we watched a totally awesome Rusted Root concert last night. This is particularly nice since with Carina, we wouldn't have wanted to stand out in the cold the whole time. We have two huge jacuzzi tubs in our two bathrooms (totally overbooked this, considering it just ended up being the three of us). There are two hot tubs on the roof of the building, about 20 steps from our room from which you can watch people skiing down to the base. We have a full kitchen, complete with POTS and PANS, which sounds like something you'd expect unless you've had experiences to the contrary like we have.

I have one complaint, though. As we were skiing in yesterday, about 50 feet from the base I caught a ski in the slush and twisted my knee. Bad. As in I hope I didn't tear anything. It's not too swollen, and I can walk on it - carefully. Maybe it's just a sprain (please, please, please). But, no more skiing for me this weekend. Probably not in Tahoe, either. :(

It's totally my fault. I knew I was getting too tired. It occurred to me after the fact that this is the first time I've been skiing after my 30th birthday. I've heard that most bad sports injuries occur in people's 30s because they haven't figured out yet that they're getting older and can't do everything they used to be able to do. I hate being a statistic.

Weekend - At Last

Here's hoping that the weather report is wrong and there will NOT be a 1500 ft ceiling tomorrow. My luck being what it is, though... The weather looks like crap for the next week. Maybe Becca can get something out of it.

Tomorrow is my first weekend day at home since March 8. That's 20 days. I got plenty of time off during the mission; I for one am a fan of the work guidelines that say we shouldn't work for 16 days straight. Still, when you aren't home on the weekend, you don't get to see your husband much. I did get to spend lots of quality time with Carina, though.

I'm putting the finishing touches on the trip plans for next weekend. I made daycare reservations today for the skiing days,

Yes, She Was Indeed Born

I finally got Carina a birth certificate, nearly 8 months after she was born. You'd think that pretty much everyone would need/want a birth certificate for their baby, and that the certificates would therefore be easy to order. Not so.

I realized a few months ago that, hey, we never got one of those! Remembering that we filled out some paperwork for a birth certificate at the hospital, I called them. "Oh, you need to call the county and order it; here's the number."

So, I called the county. The lady asked if I needed a real one. Uh, yes?! "Oh well we don't issue real ones here, but we do have a computer printout that's good for most things." Like passports? "Oh, no. You'll have to order one from the state; here's the number."

So, I called the state. 5 phone menus later, I'm told that I need to either come in person to the office downtown, or I can go to the web site and mail the form in. I mail the form in, after following all the instructions. It gets returned because I didn't include a photocopy of my (the mother's) ID. That wasn't in the instructions. (Aside: Why only the mother's ID? It's like fathers don't exist in our baby culture.) I return the application with a copy of my drivers liscense, and finally we get a birth certificate out of it.

I'm glad that I thought to do that before I really needed to. All-in-all it took a couple months. Now, I need to start the passport rigamorole. I think I'm going to start working on Gavin to agree to a trip to Europe this summer.

Travel Bug

Sarah was remarking the other night that she's really getting the travel itch, as she hasn't been out of the country since Patagonia two years ago.

Ditto.

I know for some people, the fact that we've taken our not-quite-8-month-old on two trips that required plane flights with major stays in 3 states, camping in TX once, and to Austin for a weekend seems like we're still getting around pretty well. I haven't done any major hiking, though, since before the pregnancy. That's about 18 months: way too long. I did go on the ski trip last winter, but I don't really count that since the only outdoorsy thing I got to do was one day of snowmobiling (although that was very fun).

We'll hopefully find a long weekend to go skiing sometime this spring. It will likely have to wait until after STS-123 lands. I just hope all the flights stay mostly on schedule so there's some opportunity to go.

I want one-up, though. I'm thinking that Carina would do very well in Europe, thank you very much. Maybe after it gets hot later this year. I also think this might be a good year to show interested parties around Wyoming. We could probably arrange some time with the grandparents for Carina and go backpacking in the Tetons, swing by Yellowstone...

*sigh*

Last Night

It's really hard to believe I've been on vacation for almost two full weeks. It sure went by quickly!

Tomorrow we head back home (knock on wood). There has been a terrific storm here since last night. The rain was pounding on the windows all night; it kept waking me up, actually. I ventured out in it today (after the worst of the wind died down) to go to the North Face outlet store. I always get such great stuff there.

I'm looking forward to seeing the puppies. Cari says they pretty much pulled her out of Sea Dog. I'm sure they'll be happy to see us - after Roxy sulks for a day or so.

Tonight is the big family dinner at Sigvor's. It has actually felt strange the last two nights having dinner just us and her. Normal dinners are like 10 people here. :)

A Real Trooper

Carina is the best baby. I mean, she is sooooo good. She went to sleep about 10 PM in the airport, and she slept all the way to Oakland. She woke up in the airport in Oakland until we got the car, but then she went back to sleep for the night. Not once did she cry while we dragged her around the country in the middle of the night. She woke up this morning her smiling self and is only a bit more tired than usual.

I'm thinking this means that Carina travels well. So, now I'm asking myself, where should we go this year?

Delayed Again

It's 11:05 PM, and we're sitting in an airport waiting for at least two more hours for our flight to leave. For those who may not have read all the gore, here's how this trip has gone for us so far.

12/19 - Carina runs a 103 deg fever overnight, and we cancel our flight to Wyoming.

12/24 - We leave Houston for Casper 1 hour late: luckily we have a 2 hour layover.

12/31 - We wait for more than an hour for our plane from Casper to Denver to arrive. It does not. We rebook for New Year's Day.

1/1 - We leave Casper for Denver 1 hour late. We have a 2 hour layover, so we think things will work out. However, upon arriving in Denver, we learn that our plane won't depart until at least 12:50 AM.

So far, I'm not hugely impressed with United's operations this holiday season. The silver lining is that Denver International now has free wireless internet.

Strike two

At the airport in Casper, there are like 5 employees who do pretty much everything. First, you check in with them, then they check you through security, then they load your bags on the airplane, and finally they let you through the “gate”. This “gate” is a doorway that you walk through to go outside to walk to the plane, which you enter by climbing up the stairs. No jetways required in Casper.

Tonight, we got to the airport and checked in. After a while, they called our flight and we cleared security. Then we sat down by the gate to wait for them to let us board the plane. Carina went to sleep (finally – she’d been up since 1:00). We waited. And waited. 30 minutes, we started worrying about making our connection. You see, they cleared us through security, but there wasn’t anybody by the gate to ask what was going on. After 45 minutes, some of the other passengers started flagging down the TSA people to ask the airline people if the plane was coming. A few people started asking to be let back out to the check-in area to look for new flights. Carina woke up hungry.

After about an hour, we heard a rumor that the plane hadn’t even left Denver yet. Gavin went out to see if we should just take a flight tomorrow. About the time he sent word for me to come back out front, they finally made an announcement that the plane was on its way.

I understand that planes are late sometimes. But what’s the deal with the airlines thinking it’s OK to leave passengers in the dark about what’s going on. I’m sure United would have just flown us to Denver and let us get stranded there overnight if we hadn’t taken action to stay in Casper.

We’re 0 for 2 on this trip so far. :P

Happy New Year wherever you are - in 6 minutes (Houston), 66 minutes (here), 126 minutes (Berkeley), or yesterday (New Zeland).

Howdy from WY

Well, we made it to Wyoming, finally. Carina did very well on the airplane. We took her in to the doctor today, and her ears still have fluid in them. They may or may not still be infected, so we started her on a new antibiotic. She's still feeling well, though, so it's all good.

We've had like 18" of snow since we got here. There was about 15" at my parents on Christmas Day. Then we got a few more today. Carina doesn't seem to like the cold too much. Especially if it's windy.

There are tons of kiddos around this year. But we can't seem to get them all awake and happy at the same time for a picture. We definitely need to do that soon.

Better

Carina feels a lot better today. Her fever is down to between 100 and 101. She stayed up for more than 20 minutes at a time and wanted to play. She smiled. :) We still have lots of boogers, but she'll get over that.

We are going to have to delay leaving town until Monday. Plane tickets between now and then cost about $1100-1200 per ticket. I'm kind of bummed - this was going to be the longest we'd been in Casper for years. We'll still be there for a week, though. And we'll have a happy and healtier baby.

Meanwhile, I "get" to go do the things at work that I was going to miss by leaving Wednesday. Including a sim at 8:00 AM tomorrow. So, it's bedtime.

Ear Infection

After another really tough night last night, it was obvious that we couldn't get on an airplane with Carina today. She was obviously completly miserable, and her temperature had spiked to 103 deg. So, we cancelled our tickets and took her to the doctor instead. Turns out she has an ear infection. So, now she is on antibiotics, still feeling pretty miserable, and we don't know when or how we're going to be leaving for Christmas.

Our original plan was to fly from Houston to Casper today. Then we were going to fly from Casper to Oakland on the 31st and spend a few days with Gavin's grandmother. We were returning directly from Oakland to Houston on Jan 4.

Recreating that itinerary is now going to cost us no less than $760 each. Not including the $200 we forfeited for cancelling the flight today. With 5 fewer days in Wyoming.

:(

Camping Recap

Camping with Carina is definitely different. We picked out a camp site and set her down in the shade to watch the trees for a bit. Gavin and I started pulling stuff out of the car, but before we could start setting up the tent Carina decided it was time for food! Meanwhile, another car had shown up and parked in the camp site right next to us. I was kind of hoping that when they heard the baby crying they'd choose to head down the road (there were plenty of open sites). They stayed, though.

Well, at least they knew what they were in for. Carina came down with a cold that night. Her nose was getting all stuffy, and about every four hours during the night she woke up and fussed for 15-20 minutes until she made her nose run enough to clear out. Gavin says that they actually packed up and left about 1AM when it threatened to rain. (They had no tent!)

Fussy night aside, we had fun. We found our way down to the cove near the camp site and Zoya went swimming (there was a little lip, and Roxy wouldn't jump off it). We tried walking the other way a bit, but the dogs were getting burrs in their feet. Carina was tired anyway, so we went back to the camp site.

The next day, we drove to the other side of the pinninsula where there were beaches. I dangled Carina's feet in the water, and she seemed to really like it. I think she's going to be a water baby! I didn't put her all the way in; it was a bit cold.

All in all, a mostly sucessful first outing! Many more to go.

Camping with Baby

It took us one more month that I thought, but we're going to take Carina camping tomorrow. One night only - we figured it would be better to start small. The first thing we debated was where she should sleep. We finally decided that the family bed concept might be best for camping. I had to go get a car roof carrier since we can't fit all the equipment in the car with the baby and the dogs. I think we've got it all set, though. I'm excited!

My parents flew through Houston today on their way to the Caymans for a dive trip. Thanks to all the airport security these days, it wasn't really practical to take Carina up there for a couple hours to see them. It seems like such a wasted opportunity, though. Mom called me from the airport; I could tell it was killing her to be so close to her granddaughter without seeing her.

What to do in Austin?

Does anyone else think it's strange that your Google account user name is another e-mail address. I mean, it seems like it should be your Google address, if anything.

Life is flying by, as usual. I booked a hotel room in Austin for this weekend. A suite, actually, so that there is a door between us and the Baby Who Makes Noise All Night. I think that's the one thing I learned (again) from our ND trip - it's hard to sleep in the same room as Carina! I knew that from when she was bitty, too.

We are going up for a baby shower, but I didn't want to drive there and back in one day. So, I'm trying to decide if we should try to do anything else while we're there. Maybe a short hike the next day? What's that BBQ place that everyone says is so good?

Back from ND

I have soooo much going on right now! I'm going completely crazy.

We had a good time in ND. My grandmother keeps her house a little warm for my taste, but after we convinced her to use the A/C, it was nice. My parents were able to come up, too. Carina has her grandma wrapped around her little finger! :)

The best part is that Carina did really well on the airplanes. All four legs went by with very minimal fussing. And the fussing she did was because she was hungry and her mean parents didn't want to feed her until the plane took off.

Where I've been

Thanks to you-know-who for the link.

States I've visited...


create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

If I take off the ones that I've only been to for single night drum corps shows...



I don't care so much about the midwest, but I really need to take a trip to New England.

Here are Gavin's:

Home

I’m back in Houston, and rarely have I ever been so glad to be home after travel. The hotel had down pillows, which I normally really like. But, the down crushed down too much while I was sleeping to give the belly and the back the support they need these days, so I really didn’t sleep well the whole week. Plus, sitting in meetings all day 34 weeks pregnant is not very fun. And then there was the slight, but real, worry that I’d go into labor 6 weeks early and end up in a hospital in Colorado.

It was also disappointing to be in Colorado and have neither the time nor inclination to get out into nature at all. Under normal circumstances I would have shoehorned in a walk somewhere I could see Pikes Peak, at least. It acutally snowed the 2nd night I was there, although it didn’t stick. But it made me very aware that although I wasn’t stupid enough to go to Colorado in April without a coat, none of my coats zip up the front anymore.

After I got home last night, I fell asleep listening to Gavin suggest names for a boy. It’s getting down to crunch time now, and we aren’t very close to picking a boy name. We have very different tastes in the boy area. Gavin keeps suggesting names like Jefferson, Sherman, and Edison while I like names like Morgan, Liam, and Austin. We both kind of like Tucker, although I think Gavin was less enthused about that once he realized the name-calling potential in that one. And we came kind of close with my preference for Garrick and his for Garret.

Sigh. Maybe we’ll just call the kid “hey you”.

Plane Flights

3:00 PM

I’ve made it as far as Dallas. I now have a 2+ hour layover. It’s the middle of the afternoon, so it doesn’t do me any good as far as getting dinner goes. Probably about the time I get hungry, it will be time to get on the next plane. The meal for my flight is listed as “food for purchase”. I’m fairly forgiving so far as cafeteria-style food goes, but if I’m buying food I’d better be getting better than microwaved airplane food. So, I guess I’d better eat something before the plane whether I’m hungry or not, because I’ll definitely be starved by the time I get to Colorado Springs.

They had an upgrade to 1st class available for my Houston to Dallas leg, but not one on the next leg. I was very uncomfortable after an hour in first class, I’m sure I’ll be more so after 2 hours in coach. I should just consider – it could be more.

------------
9:00 PM

I was right – I was very uncomfortable in coach. Since when did those seats get so narrow? (Since my hips got so big.) It’s a good thing it was only two hours, and I slept for about an hour of it.

I’m quickly realizing that this trip is different that all the ones I’ve gone on before. On all the previous trips, there have been other JSC people I knew very well along. Well enough to “hang out” in the evenings. I think my dinners on this trip are going to be much more “networking” than “hanging out”. It’s strange.

Anyhow, I’m installed in my very nice hotel in downtown Colorado Springs. I’m also going to bed at 9:30 PM central time. Oh, well. It’s probably a good thing. I got up at 5:45 AM this morning, and I’m going to have to get up at about 6:00 AM tomorrow. I decided to spring for room service for breakfast – another first. I need breakfast, though. And I’m not sure I can wait until I’ve showered and everything, which leaves room service.

Patagonia!

At long last, I finished another trip report! Patagonia is available merely a year after return!

Back in Town

We're back in Houston today. I had a great time on vacation, and for once I actually feel more rested at the end than I did in the beginning. Strange!

I have a flying lesson scheduled at noon. It's beautiful here - sunny and 70 deg. Today, my goal is to do the patten with the radio calls. And maybe not bounce at least a few of my landings.

Vail Trip Photo Recap

Here's a quick photo survey of the trip...


Warming up in Vail



Snowmobiling



A beautiful day at Breckenridge

Breckenridge

Today we all went to Breckenridge. I shopped until I pretty much dropped. Carrying 25 extra pounds around at 9000 ft isn't a picnic. Fortunately, I had the foresight to think that I might want a break in the afternoon, and found a place to get my hair cut. That took some of the afternoon. Then I took my book (more foresight) and found a bench by a firepit at the base of the mountain.

They have these fire sculptures at all the ski resorts here. There is a metal sculputure in the shape of burning logs, which is lit with a gas fire. I'm sure these are much easier for the ski resorts to maintain. And, they look nice. They're really warm. But, sitting by one for a couple hours made me wonder what kind of fumes I was breathing. Smoke isn't so great for your health either, but it is more familiar, I guess.

I had thought that I might take a car and go for a mountain drive tomorrow, but after looking at the weather forecast I think I might have to abort that plan. The snow is supposed to start around noon and blow around to boot. Not great weather to try to drive across a mountain pass by oneself. Oh, well. Maybe I'll actually work on my ground school studies like I planned.

Pampering

Today I did something very unusual for me. I went to a spa and got pampered for two hours. I had a "prenatal massage" and got a pedicure. The massage was AWESOME! They had a special pregnancy pillow that had cutouts for my stomach and boobs. Even the baby liked it. Baby started moving around the second she started the massage. The masseus even commented that she could feel it moving.

After that I got some lunch and headed to Vail to meet up with everyone else. For a day when I did so little, it was amazingly fulfilling.

Avon, Colorado

We're in Colorado this week. Everybody else is out skiing today, leaving me to take a long bath and check out what Avon has to offer. I'm going to set up snowmobile tours, find someplace to rent snowshoes, and check out the spa for pedicures for the girls. I never take vacations where I just relax. Usually my vacations are busier than when I'm at home. (Although, still way more fun.) So, this is going to be an experience for me. I've already spent more time in the condo than I normally would over about 2 days.

The good news is that the snowmobiling looks like it will happen without me having to hide the pregnancy. The first couple places I called wouldn't touch me with a 10 foot pole. The last couple, while hesitant, say that they'll take me out. I promised to discuss it with my doctor, which I did. He has absolutely no problem with it (although, he was happy to hear that I'm not skiing). At least these last couple places left the decision on what's best for me to me. :P

Sommerville

After much convincing on my part, and a last-minute search for camping reservations in the fall in TX, Gavin consented to go camping this weekend. I'm not one to get the last-minute jitters about going out of town. If we haven't actually made firm plans the week of the trip though, Gavin usually thinks up reasons that he doesn't want to go. He's always glad we went after, though.

We went out to Lake Sommerville. We'd been there once before, exactly one day after we adopted Zoya. We took a new dog with us this time, too. We're pet sitting for some friends who are in France for 10 weeks, so Oscar got to go camping on his 2nd day away from his owners.

Lake Sommerville is nice. It's fairly close to Houston. It's got lots of hiking, although Gavin's enjoyment of one of the hikes we took was somewhat lessened by the fight he had with a stubborn tick afterward. I'm just glad we didn't "waste" the Columbus day weekend by staying in town.

In Denial

We had a pleasant weekend visiting with friends. We had what basically amounted to a slumber party in Fort Worth, with a bunch of us from Houston driving up to visit our friends that moved to D-FW a few years ago. I lost the staying-up-late contest, falling asleep in a chair in a very loud room full of people.

It's back to work after what seemed like a very short weekend. Next weekend is Columbus day, though, so we're talking about going camping for the weekend. Now we just need to figure out where to go last-minute in October in TX (not easy).

I won't talk about the biggest news of the day. I am trying to concentrate on other, less heart-rending things.

Hope

I got a Travelocity alert today that plane tickets to Denver can be had for $143 - roundtrip. If only I had unlimited vacation time!

I have high hopes that college football will not be completely depressing this year. The Huskies are 2-1. That means we only have to win 4 more games to be bowl elligable. Admitedly, four more is twice what we won all year last year, but they really do look better.

The ghosts of Huskies past are now going to haunt me for just hoping for bowl elligibility. There was a time when anything less than the Rose Bowl was a bitter disappointment. How times do change.

Pictures from Colorado

by jmendeck

Pictures from Casper

by jmendeck

Wx

I had hoped to get back home this week to an immediate transition into console work for the mission. Unfortunately, the weather gods are not only uncooperative, they are actively throwing obstacles into our path. Between lightning and hurricanes, it looks like launch won't be until next week at the earliest. Meanwhile, everyone in the world has just turned into an amateur meteorologist.

In local weather, although it will be September on Friday, Houston is still well in the grips of summer. Heat index today is expected to rise above 100 deg F. I melt.

Still, being home is nice. The dogs are happy to have both their people back for the first time in almost a month. I did a bunch of laundry Sunday, which, although it is not as sexy as working a Shuttle mission, absolutely had to be done. As Gavin noted, we went to see a good movie.

I think I've traveled enough this month to place me on an isolationist trend for a few weeks at least.

Back Home

Colorado time is over, for now.

I had to come right back to get ready to work the Shuttle mission, which as it turns out won't be until at least Monday. Hopefully the grounding system worked. Lightning can make a big mess.

Google Trends

Work was interesting today. Not because of what I was working on, but the fact that in the two weeks I was gone two people left and three people arrived in my group.

Anyways, tonight I've been surfing the internet. It's not always a good thing to do. It might make you jealous when you find out that your wife is jogging through mountain canyons after work. I mean, she doesn't even like running! Life's not always fair, I guess. But I did find something new that I thought was cool.

Google usually comes up with neat stuff. I found out they're trying something called "Google Trends", where you can plot the relative volume of web queries and news stories. It is interesting to see what the news seems to think is important versus what the public is interested in. For kicks, I checked "moon" versus "mars". Moon is twice as popular as Mars, but Mars only receives more press when its an anniversary for the Mars rovers. You can even do three-way comparisons, like with "space shuttle" vs. "space station" vs. "spaceship one". Interesting information for space policy debates.

Quality of Living

I love Colorado Springs. Here's what I did this afternoon...

3:30 Meeting over
3:50 Back at hotel
4:10 Leave hotel again
4:20 Trail running in Red Rocks Canyon
5:30 Back at hotel
5:50 Blogging

That rocks!

Back Home

Wyoming was great, Ames conference was a bunch of things but overall good, and Colorado was a blast.

We decided not to get up at 0500 to join Buzz and Ron in their insane quest to scale Pikes Peak, 24 miles round trip. Instead we slept in, had breakfast at a hole-in-the-wall place that has the best pancakes around, and then hiked 6 miles along part of the Ring the Peak Trail. Very pleasant, except I advise that you wait 2 hours before hiking if you've had a foot-diameter pancake and eggs. Colorado Springs has some nice hikes right in their backyard.

The flight home was nice, I managed a seat facing west so I could catch the sunset. Unfortunately most of the sunset occurred when we were flying through a front, but I did get some excellent cloud pictures. (Woo, clouds? Yeah, they were cool! I'll post them later, somehow, probably when Jen helps me set up a webpage for them.)

The parking shuttle dropped me off at Jen's car and I realized that my car-clicker wasn't unlocking it. Looked like an interior light was accidently left on. Fortunately I flagged down another shuttle and he jump-started me, no sweat. I drove off the lot and turned into the nearest gas station since the tank was nearly empty. As I pulled beside the pump I shifted into park and pulled the parking brake. And turned the keys ... WAIT! I realized too late to stop myself as the car went silent again. The battery hadn't recharged enough, so, I went inside and asked the attendent to call a wrecker. I only waited 20 minutes until he showed up with his 3 year old dead asleep in a car seat at 11 at night. I gave him $20 even though he never asked for anything.

The dogs are happy to have me back home, they're curled up next to me. When I walked in the door Zoya didn't stop jumping around for five minutes. Roxy fiercely wagged her tail while she protected her bone from possible theft. It's good to be back home. Just wish Jen was here too.

zzzzzzz

2:51 AM

I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo (sorry – fell asleep there) tired. You know, I used to be totally into these multi-day sims, but that was before I got to fly a couple real flights. Now I’m just annoyed that I have to be up all night for one night in the middle of the week.

I’m off at 8:00 AM. I learned from my experience on our Nashville trip that I can’t reasonably fly out of here before I sleep for at least a few hours tomorrow. For one thing, I would likely fall asleep at the wheel on my way to the airport and kill myself. For another, I will be very annoyed, even angry and mean, if the kid next to me on the plane is excited because it’s his first time flying and wakes me up to ask me if I’ll take a picture out the window with his disposable camera.

So, I’m flying out at 6:30 PM. That means I can sleep for about 6 hours (if I can), but I’ll have to drive from Colorado Springs to Denver at 11:00 at night. I’m hoping that my daytime nap and sleeping on the airplane will make me awake enough to make the drive, but sleepy enough to want to go to bed as soon as I get to the hotel in Denver. We’ll see.

This trip is going to be so complicated.

Keeping Busy

In the last four days, I have been hiking, swimming, horseback riding, and paint-balling. I'm a bit sore. It has been a great visit, though. Tomorrow, we are going to the County Fair and picnicking on the mountain. Then Sunday is Caroline's birthday party.

Monday, we're going to have to leave decently early to get to Denver in time to get through whatever crazy new security is in place at the airport. Who would have thought things could change so much in one week?

In Wyoming

We're having a great time on vacation so far. We spent most of the day traveling, but we got here in time to play with Caroline for a couple hours before she went to bed. She calls us both by name already. Gavin and she bonded by playing in the sand table for 15 minutes.



More later...

Hiking

Some days I go in to work thinking I'm going to have a reasonably full day, and I end up bored and counting every minute until it's time to go home. Some days I think I'm only going to have one or two little things to do and I end up running wild all day. Today was one of those days. I like those more than the other.

Then when I finally had a couple minutes, Sarah sent out an e-mail about where to go hiking in Colorado in a couple weeks. That's a good way to distract me. After a little bit of thinking, I suggested Indian Peaks Wilderness. Now I'm excited about getting to hike in CO.

Are You Insane?

I'm going to be going to Colorado Springs in August for a work meeting. While I'm in Colorado, I'm going to join Sarah for some camping, probably in Great Sand Dunes National Monument. In the first year we were dating, Gavin dragged me all over the sand dunes until I couldn't walk. It's an incredibly beautiful place, but I'm glad Sarah's planning a more easy-going trip than usual for her.

Sarah is going to a conference in Keystone starting on Monday, but my meeting doesn't start until Tuesday. Never fear! My friend Jenny casually mentions that she and her husband are going to be doing the Barr Trail at Pike's Peak on Monday. "It's 12.6 miles." Cool, I'll go hike with them.

Later that night I look up the Barr Trail on the internet. It's 12.6 miles ONE WAY. With 7000+ ft elevation gain. To 14,000+ ft. And you have to come back.

Maybe I'll make it to the tree line. :P

Things That Make You Go

Hmmm...

Nature

As it turns out, I had a lovely day yesterday. I took my time getting up in the morning, took a nice long bath, and watched some TV. Gavin came back and took me out to lunch at Big Boy Diner, because it's next to his hotel and we just had to, you know? Then he had to go back to work for what he estimated would be at least four hours.








So, I kidnapped his car and camera and drove up the Angeles Crest Freeway until I got up above most of the pollution. I took my time, stopping at all the turnouts to get out of the car and play with the camera. I didn't have a destination in mind, so I just followed the road signs to wherever seemed interesting.







I ended up driving up Mt. Wilson. As it turns out, I'd just missed the walking tour of the observatory. Darn! OH well, I spoted a sign pointing to a trail that says "Vista Point .8 miles". That sounded like a good place to see. So, I walked about a mile down the Rim Trail through the telescopes at the observatory.









When I reached Vista Point, I was rewarded with a somewhat hazy view of another mountain that still had some snow left on top! I haven 't been able to learn the name of that mountain... Any California readers that can hazard a guess? The view is to the north from Mt. Wilson.







Since I didn't have any water, I turned back at this point. I drove back toward LA a bit, and with some help from the ladies at the Native American Culutral center found a great little hike by a stream, through the woods, to Switzer Falls. That hike took a bit longer than I'd anticipated, mainly due to me stopping every 20 ft to take pictures (SLRs are fun!). I had to hoof it back to the car to get back down to JPL to pick Gavin up.



Gavin decided that I hadn't walked far enough at that point and took me to Brand Park. This park is only a few blocks from his hotel, and is huge. We climbed a little mountain in the park. I was pretty tired at this point, and the air was pretty smoggy, so I didn't take any pictures there.

All in all, very satisfying. I love the idea that you can go hiking for an afternoon and be back by dinner!

Land of my Youth

All my life when people find out that I grew up in Wyoming the first thing they ask is "Really? I didn't know anybody actually lived in Wyoming." This is usually followed by "What's it like there?" Well, the answer is that it's like this, and this, and this.

The guy that takes all these pictures actually lives in Montana. But the landscapes are very similar and every time I see his pictures, it always transports me back to Wyoming and my childhood. There's a wild, desolate sort of beauty in Wyoming that I didn't appreciate well when I lived there. From the distance of my years in Houston, though, I find these images of "my homeland" breathtakingly beautiful. Even that brown prairie grass looks beautiful to me compared to the swampy scrub brush that persists in undeveloped areas around here.

I think my love of open spaces is probably mainly due to growing up in Wyoming. There's nothing I love more than hiking up above the treeline in the mountains and being able to see for miles. On a clear day, you can see the Bighorn Mountains from my parents deck - they're like 250 miles away across rolling prairie land. I feel blind here in the land of the flat, where if you drive up onto a freeway overpass you can see all the way to downtown, 20 miles away.

Ah, Berkeley

I had a great Easter weekend up in Berkeley with my grandmother. I lazed around her house, admiring the view of the bay in between rain squalls that drifted up the hills. In the afternoon I went for a quick jog. I thought I had timed it well, and I almost had... I only caught the rain for the last few minutes of my run. Back in my college days I could jump onto the hills of Berkeley and run for 40 minutes or so with no problem. Now, I ran for about 20 minutes up some hills, felt pretty short of breath and my quads are still sore from the hill work out. But it was fun. I ran alongside another fellow jogging when it started to rain and mentioned that we didn't time it right, we both laughed.

Easter dinner was fantastic, lots of people came. Janice and Muroud and their kids, Martin and Wendy and their kids, Dick and Dottie from across the street, another Norwegian couple visiting on sabattical, plus Andy and two Norwegian students staying with Grandmother. It was a fun party, we had a good time. Andy and I had to split at 7:30pm to start the drive back to Los Angeles. It wasn't bad, I think we missed most of the traffic by leaving so late. I dropped off Andy, filled up my car's gas tank, and was in bed by 1:30am. Not bad.

I did sleep in today. It was nice.

San Fran

My friend Andy and I are going to drive up to San Francisco today, braving the holiday commute and rain. He's visiting some friends at Stanford, I'm visiting my grandmother in Berkeley. Should be fun. :)

Goodbye Tahoe

Tahoe was beautiful. :) We had great snow, great sun, and great skiing. Unfortunately, we had to come back home and go back to work. :(


As we were driving back to Clear Lake from the airport last night, I realized that I don't know when my next trip will be. I intend to go visit Gavin in California sometime in May, but I don't have firm plans there yet. Beyond that, I have ambitions to go to Wyoming again sometime this summer or fall, but again there are no firm plans.

Plus, we heard about some more potential problems on the shuttle that may threaten the July launch. I can't believe how long it is taking to get back to flight.

Finally, Photos

I had some trouble getting my pictures up online. However, I've now posted everything to a photo album here. I've done nothing to the pictures yet except rotate everything right-side-up and create panoramics. I'll update it with descriptions later.

Westward, 'ho

Yesterday was my last day at JSC for a month. I'll be working out at JPL for much of the next four months, which I'm really excited about. I've been working with them remotely for several years, so, it will be great to work closely with them for a time. These guys have sent things to Mars before, and I think I'll learn a lot from them. Plus I'll get to hang out with my friend Andy who's been working there for a year or so. In June there will be a big technical review of our work, then I'll be heading back home to Houston.

Yesterday was also the viewing for Claude Graves, a man I greatly respected and am finding I greatly miss. He passed away while we were in South America, which I was somewhat expectant of. I didn't know his family, nor much of his life away from NASA. Claude played a pivotal role in the entry guidance design for the Shuttle, and was involved with the space program since the 1960s. He tried to retire once... but the next Monday he was back at work after he ripped up his retirement papers. He just loved what he did.

I find it very difficult going to viewings or funerals.

Today we cleaned up the house, to get ready for my parents' visit tomorrow and we'll be hosting the Oscar's party for the girls. I've been gathering odds and ends together for my trip. Clothes, books, papers, music, computer games. A webcam so I can virtually visit Jen or some of my other friends. Tonight another friend of ours is moving to Colorado to do something new.

Meanwhile I found this Chron.com blog entry interesting. Especially for Becca. I guess this means she'll be giving up coffee now too. Poor Becca. :)

Stalling

I'm having ftp problems, so my photos aren't on the net yet. Meanwhile, amuse yourself with this thing Becca posted. See if the person I think I am matches up with what you think here.

Santiago

We are now checked into our hostel in Santiago. We´re going to hang here for a couple of hours and then go to dinner. Becca´s flight leaves at 4am, the rest of us aren´t leaving until 10:30pm tomorrow night. We saw a couple markets on our way to the hostel, so that will be something fun to do tomorrow.

The penguin colony yesterday was interesting, but somewhat of a letdown. The penguins didn´t do much, and there weren´t that many of them. All told, we only stayed about an hour. The bed and breakfast we stayed in at Punta Arenas was nice, though. It´s called Hostel Maipu. The owner was a very nice lady, but she spone practically no English and her Spanish was very fast. We managed to communicate the necessities, though.

So, we´re on our way back home. As usual, the vacation went so quickly that I can´t believe it´s almost over. But we are going to Tahoe to ski less than a month from now. I suppose I shouldn´t complain. :)

Paine Grande

Is this possible? I´m in Torres del Paine - a national park in Chile at nearly the bottom of the world, and I'm posting to my blog. We're staying at Lodge Paine Grande, on the shores of Lago Pehoe. We can see the Cuernos out our bedroom window. The lodge is a wonderful oasis in this "wilderness". Truth be told, we have been constantly suprised at how civilized this place is.

Tomorrow we go to Punta Arenas, which is the beginning of the end of our trip. We have had absolutely fabulous weather. We have seen all the mountain peaks and glaciers, survived all the hikes, trekked the ice and ridden the horses. All that is really left is to see penguins and then we're done.

Gavin wasn't feeling so well for the first few days, but was able to do and enjoy everything we had planned. I have felt just fine. I had a little sore throat yesterday, but nothing seems to have come of it. I think we could both go for another month here, easily.

I have wonderful pictures to show when we get back. Seriously, we've had GREAT weather. :)

On to Chile

After 5 wonderful days in Argentina, we are leaving for Chile today. Our hike to Mt. Fitz Roy and our trek on Glaciar Torre are competing for favorite experience of the trip so far. My pictures are wonderful, and I am having a fabulous time. Gavin is a bit sick, but has been able to do everything so far.

Adios para ahora!

Buenos Aires

After an all-night flight on which we all slept suprisingly well, we have arrived in Buenos Aires. Our accomodations are still being readied for us, but in the meantime the hostel has free internet. Karen walked back in the door from exploring minutes after we arrived, so we are getting ready to head out and explore the city. First up, Plaza de Mayo. Tonight, we have reservations for a Tango show. Pretty cool.

We'll see if we're as lucky with internet access for the rest of the trip. My guess is probably not.

Adios Para Semana o Dos

In 11 hours, I'll be on an airplane to the bottom of the world! :) The last week before a big trip is really tough. I've been ready to go since Sunday. Well, mostly. The reason I like to pack so early is that it gives me 5 days to think of things that I've forgotten. Which I did. I'm feeling good now, though.

It is possible, but probably not likely, that I will manage to update on the trip. If not, look for an update after March 1.

Adios, amigos. Voy a Patagonia!

Tyler State Park

We took advantage of the nice January weather this weekend to go on a short camping trip. We went to Tyler State Park, which is just north of I-20 east of Dallas. The park is pretty nice. It has tons of hiking/mountain biking trails. There's a two-mile loop around the lake, which we did the first afternoon. We actually did it twice, because the full moon was really bright and we decided to do it again at night. This decision was partially motivated by having nothing to do after dinner with no campfire due to the burn ban. Then on Sunday we did ~8 miles on the bike trails in the woods.

Photos will be posted on the photoblog over the next couple of days.

Patagonia

Yesterday, we dropped ~$2K on plane tickets for our next adventure. We will be going to Patagonia in February. Don't know what that is? See Sarah's very good 30 second description of our trip.

So, I'm very happy to have a big trip on tap again. For a while there, it was looking like we weren't going to be going anywhere this year. Gavin's potential JPL trip looks like it will be March - June, so we went ahead and committed to this one.

Yea for travel.