emiror » travel

Lake Monroe

Tim — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:20:18 +0000

Last weekend, I was able to head out to Lake Monroe (Indiana’s largest lake) to help teach a Coastal Kayaking Class. We went to the easternmost part of the lake, near Crooked Creek, where few motorboats venture and where the lake, apart from a few channels, is less a lake and more a large, swampy marsh, full of eagles, herons, ducks, geese, fish, snakes and sucking mud.

It was a beautiful weekend, and getting outdoors and on the water was a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of grad school. I’ll just share a few photos…

We made pizza on the fire – it was amazing.

After beautiful weather on Saturday, storms and low clouds rolled in early Sunday morning. Though it made us wet, the lake was beautiful — it felt like we were paddling in Alaska or British Columbia. Indiana has its moments.

This last picture is of the largest caterpillar I’ve ever seen in my life (“like a pickle,” as one person put it — just much, much hairier. And probably less tasty). I looked it up when I got home — turns out it’s an imperial moth: not overly rare (but large, with about a 5′6″ wingspan), but rare to see as a caterpillar.Lake

The fog of North Carolina

Tim — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 18:21:55 +0000

I really haven’t blogged much in a while, but I have some stuff I want to write about, so I’m happy to have the forum. And, of course, I’ll still put up some photography — I just got the zoom feature javascript working here so you can click on the image below to expand it.

This shot is from my recent backpacking trip to the Appalachian Trail on the Tennessee/North Carolina border. We were in a ton of fog, which spoiled some of the views but made for other beautiful scenery.

vacation, briefly

Tim — Sun, 24 May 2009 14:39:30 +0000

I don’t have much time to compose a post this morning, but I thought I’d post a couple pictures from the vacation so far. It’s amazingly beautiful here. The weather has been great, the travel easy, and we’ve seen an incredible amount of things in just a few days. We were in Yosemite National Park the last couple days and today are back in San Francisco. We’re going to do some things here today (Golden Gate Bridge, etc.). Should be a fun day!

The Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Forest:

The view from our backcountry campsite in Yosemite:

On a random dome in northern Yosemite:

Sunset over the Pacific

Tim — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:04:59 +0000

Just a few photos of the sunset tonight, which was absolutely spectacular.

A long weekend away

Tim — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 22:56:54 +0000

Hello from Carlsbad, California, a beautiful town just north of San Diego. I’m here on a freelance job with my friend Mark doing some graphic design, photography and video editing for a medical company’s conference. It’s a good time – there’s a decent amount of work to keep us busy but we still have some free time to get out and enjoy the warmth. Our hotel is on a hill that overlooks a lagoon and the ocean. We’re probably about two miles in from the coast, but I’m hoping to go for a run here in a little bit and make my way down to the beach.

My flight out was interesting after a layover in Detroit, it was a four-hour flight to San Diego. Of course, it was 80 degrees on the plane the entire way, so I ended up nice and sweaty by the time we landed. Extended periods of sitting in a warm environment is just way too conducive for back sweat, and I hate back sweat. It’s quite unstoppable, though. Additionally, I sat next to some interesting people with weird stories that made me uncomfortable. Good times.

Anyway, here’s where we’re staying. It’s so nice to see some green and blue.

And here’s Mark posing with some of the creepy statues that are all around this resort. I keep thinking I’m seeing real people, but then they just end up being statues. Maybe they come alive at night, like that old kids’ show Today’s Special. If that’s the case, I’m staying in my room and locking the door, because I don’t trust those statues.

Back in business

Tim — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:41:54 +0000

Sometimes the hardest thing about writing a blog post is getting off to a good start. You can write some kind of funny greeting, use a news headline or write about how hard it is to start a blog post.

Well, it’s a new year and I’ve managed to make some minor tweaks to the blog to clean it up a bit. It’s always an adventure for me to start working with CSS and PHP, and inevitably I end up with a browser window that has about 23 separate tabs open.

I had a great holiday in Cincinnati and New York, and I thought I’d share just a few pictures of the Liberty state.

My friend Reid and I ventured into the city early one morning to watch an Arsenal game at Nevada Smith’s, a soccer pub in south Manhattan. Unfortunately, I got to Lake Champion at about 1am after driving from Philadelphia in thick fog, and we woke up at 4am to catch the train to the city. It was a long day and we were incredibly tired when we got home.

Lake Champion was, as always, beautiful.

With beautiful sunsets.