Over the years I’ve had the chance to have quite a number of fantastic adventures. My travels have ranged far and wide. As my schedule permits, I enjoy posting some photos and notes from the field. These posts are not meant to educate or enlighten. They aren’t designed to show off or impress. I post to share my adventures and travels with my friends and family. I post so that I remember where I’ve been.
I had a work trip to Hawaii and managed to see a few things in between meetings. The shrimp and shave ice in particular were highlights.
With things getting slightly back to normal, we wet a bit further in California than we had in years past, venturing down to Solvang and Paso Robles plus visiting Forked Meadow. There’s still a long way to go before things get fully back to normal but it’s better today than it was two years ago.
Another year of being in a global pandemic saw me never leave the state of California. Nevertheless, much fun was had in Monterey and at Forked Meadow.
2020 started out great but then the pandemic struck and I went from a packed travel itinerary to not leaving California for the entire year. We still had some fun along the way in Monterey and at Forked Meadow. Although it was less than fun to be in lockdown in the spring and then evacuate from the Creek Fire in the fall.
I went to Huntsville for a work trip in December 2019. The touristic rocket park was a highlight.
I had business to attend to in Indiana so back east I went.
I went to Seattle for a work trip in June 2019. It was a wonderful time in the Emerald City.
I had some work to do up north in Anchorage so I headed up to the Last Frontier.
California in a time of epic weather. Come check out our adventures in the the Golden State in 2019!
Heather and I took a wonderful trip down to the Cayman Islands to do some big wall diving at Little Cayman.
I had some business to take care of in Quebec City and got the opportunity to hunt down some really good poutine.
I had a work trip to Washington DC in the middle of the summer. The heat was high but not too hot to walk between buildings and meetings without taking a cab.
I went to Paris for work for a few days. The views from the airplane windows were great.
I hopped over to Singapore for work for a little while and went around to Malaysia and Brunei as well.
We moved down south to California to do some new work and see some new sights.
I went down to California to hang out for a few days in the mountains. My dad, mom, and I went backpacking into an area I had never been before. We went to some old familiar places. We even got to walk among the giant sequoias.
Our friends Courtney and Matt got married in McCall, Idaho at the beautiful Camp Alice Pittenger. We were honored to attend their wedding and had a great time partying with all of their friends.
I hopped on a motorcycle, pointed it north, and headed for a long weekend in Beautiful British Columbia. My Honda Pacific Coast did wonderfully on this long distance ride through some of the Great White North’s most scenic paved roads.
A new adventure in an old, friendly home begins. Welcome home to Oregon!
We took a trip out through Utah to visit a few national parks and ended up with a real adventure when our truck broke down in Big water.
Another visit to the great state of California was filled with backpacking in the John Muir Wilderness and Kings Canyon National Park. Come walk with me through the wilds of the Sierra Nevada.
We took a trip down to the Caribbean to do some SCUBA diving at St Kitts and Saba. Along the way we made a few friends.
We had one last great year in Colorado before we hitched up the wagons and headed west. Come along with us one last time to walk through the mountains.
The RAMS 2016 conference took me to Tucson for a week. My colleagues and I had the opportunity to check out a few sights including Mt Lemmon, Biosphere 2, and the Kitt Peak National Observatory. I even was able to sneak in a seminar at the University of Arizona.
Over the summer I had a conference in Milan, Italy. I took the opportunity to go see San Marino and Monaco, two micronations that I had previously not visited. Both are quite lovely little countries!
I took the Toyota 4runner out to California to visit with my parents and grandma, do some hiking, and play on the property high up in the mountains. Beautiful granite expanses await.
The year of 2015 in Colorado was filled with many adventures in the high country fueled by the purchase of a 1st generation Toyota 4runner, a great 4×4 club, and endless mountain roads.
A conference in the Tampa area took us to the beautiful west coast of Florida where we swam with manatees, saw a hippo, and experienced some amazing sunsets.
In November 2014 I went to Montreal, Quebec for the annual ASME IMECE conference. I was able to get a few minutes away from the conference to explore some of Montreal and sample some of the wonderful food of the city. Here are a few photos I took along the way.
As summer gave way to fall, the leaves changed and the snows came to Colorado.
I had a week-long conference in Buffalo, New York in the summer of 2014. The ASME IDETC/CIE conference occurs annually in a different city either in the USA or Canada. This year we went to Buffalo and had the time to check out Niagara Falls.
Heather and I went out to Los Angeles to attend the marriage of Dmitri and Sul. We also visited Zach and Vera, and had a grand time across the greater Los Angeles area!
In 2014, I made a few trips to California for various purposes. I spent time at my parents’ property in the mountains of central California. I went to a wonderful wedding in Newport Beach. And I had a lot of fun.
As winter gave way to spring and then moved into summer, we continued to explore Colorado and around. My what a beautiful state this is.
After a fall of adventure in Colorado, the excitement of the mile high state continued unabated. More to come as we explore Colorado!
I had the chance to visit New Orleans as part of a conference in October of 2013. In addition to the excellent conference, I was able to explore the French Quarter, Bourbon Street, the Mississippi River, Canal Street, and I had dinner in the hangar of the National World War II Museum. While New Orleans might be doomed to flood over and over, it really is a pretty and an interesting city.
In August of 2013 I left Oregon for the Centennial State of Colorado. My new position as an assistant professor at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden brought me to the front ranges of the Rocky Mountains. Join with me as I explore a fascinating state, settle into life at Mines, and meet many new friends along the way.
Ben and Noelle got married in a lovely ceremony at a lighthouse along the Pacific Ocean not far from the town of Pacifica. Heather and I attended the wedding, met some adorable baby animals, and watched the surfers along the ocean. What a pretty place!
Heather and I spent two days circumnavigating Mount St. Helens. We visited many places that I hadn’t been to since I was a child. The mountain has come a long way since the massive blast that shattered the Toutle River Valley in 1980 but evidence of the volcano’s power is everywhere.
Silver Falls State Park is a gorgeous area full of amazing waterfalls. We visited a total of ten waterfalls across the park in one afternoon hike. Before venturing into the waterfall-filled park, we stopped off at the Oregon Gardens to see what the Oregon nursery industry can do. The general area of Silverton is a beautiful slice of Oregon.
Da Vinci Days has long been a tradition in Corvallis, Oregon. The Kinetic sculpture race is always a highlight. In spite of living off and on in Corvallis for over 11 years, this was the first time that I actually went to the Da Vinci Days Festival and saw the kinetic sculptures in person.
Beautiful Yachats, Oregon is a little town set on the Pacific Ocean on the middle of the Oregon coast. We spent a long 4th of July weekend in Yachats and nearby areas enjoying the laid back coastal lifestyle while watching the La De Da Parade and fireworks, participating in a rubber duckie race, and exploring all the the central Oregon coast has to offer.
On a weekend in late June, Heather and I headed over the mountains to take a grand tour of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument and surrounding areas. We visited the Painted Hills Unit and the Sheep Rock Unit. In addition, we found the geographic center of Oregon and one of the loneliest towns in the state. On our way back to the west side of the Cascades, we visited the headwaters of the Metolius River where the river literally bursts forth from the ground fully-formed.
In May of 2013, Zach and Vera flew up from Los Angels to Oregon to join Heather and me for a trip through the southeastern areas of the great state of Oregon. We ranged through sagebrush, sand dunes, junipers, and big timber. In a borrowed Ford Explorer, we drove up and over mountains, down into deep depressions with some water at the bottom and lots of sand, and everything in between. It was an adventure of grand proportions and fun was had by all!
Over a long three day weekend, Heather and I went south and west from our home base in Corvallis to visit Southwest Oregon and the very far northwest tip of California. Along the way, we visited vast stands of redwoods, Crater Lake National Park, old gold and logging towns, lonesome back roads in the national forests, historic frontier towns, Oregon Caves National Monument, and everything in between.
During the holiday season, I went east to visit Heather’s friends and family. We ranged from South Carolina up to New Jersey and everything in between.
We ventured to the east side of Oregon to take in the sights of the Oregon Trail, abandoned mining towns, lonesome prairies and forests, placer and dredge mining, and a little narrow gauge railway named Sumpter. We saw a part of the state that few people who live on the west side every will visit.
In the summer of 2012 Kristen and I embarked on a sojourn through Southeast Europe. We visited Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Serbia, and Romania. On our trip we played in the balmy waters of Dalmatia, explored the mountains of Bosnia, meandered over the fertile plains of Romania and Hungary, and enjoyed the cosmopolitan lifestyles of the capitals of Slovenia and Serbia.
With only a map, a guidebook, and the occasional hitch hiker, I circumnavigated all of Iceland and still had time to spend a lazy day in Reykjavik. No, I did not have any shark meat or whale on this trip. Check out my posts about Norway for that.
In December of 2010, I boarded an airplane for Singapore and adventure. Steph flew up from Australia to meet me at the Singapore airport. From there we proceeded to venture to Indonesia and Malaysia before flying to Vietnam where we met up with her friends from Vancouver including Adrienne, Yang, and Nhung.
In mid-November 2010, I went to Vancouver, BC for the IMECE2010 conference. I had the opportunity to go out into Vancouver to see a few sights.
Following the end of my work at the University of Sydney, I was joined by Zach, the expedition co-leader. After some difficulty securing transportation we headed off into the great unknown of Australia.
Having been bitten by the wanderlust bug once again, I discovered a connection and tie-in between my research and ongoing research at the University of Sydney. Much convincing and writing later, I had a plane ticket, a visa, and a job lined up in Sydney.
Finding myself in need of a break from the hubbub of Sydney, I booked a flight to the island nation of Vanuatu for a week’s holiday. My first stop was Port Vila where I did a number of dives with a local SCUBA outfit. Next up was a visit to an active volcano.
Rather than get back to work after a fun-filled summer in California I decided to go to Alaska for a few days. Half of our time in the frozen north lands was spent in the little bush town of Gustavus on the edge of Glacier Bay National Park. We hiked, fished, hunted for mushrooms, visited Emily’s relatives and old family friends, and had all manner of fun in the bush. On the last day of our time in Gustavus the weather even cleared up!
In the summer of 2009 I was employed by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in beautiful sunny Pasadena, California. During my time at JPL I managed to sneak away for quite a few adventures. Death Valley, the Goldstone DSN Complex, Monterey where SCUBA diving awaited, San Francisco, the Sierra Nevada, and all manner of points in between served as fertile ground for mischief and fun.
The month of December 2007 and the first week of January 2008 I spent traipsing about Central America. The first several weeks were devoted to working on an Engineers Without Borders project in a small rural mountain community in the hinterlands of El Salvador. After a successful completion of the project, my friend Evan and I struck out on our own for high adventure.
Between September of 2004 and September of 2005 I spent a year overseas. Nine months was spent in the small North African country of Tunisia studying Arabic, working at various odd engineering jobs, and having a wild time. Three months were spent roaming northern and central Europe while working for the University of Karlsruhe on a humanoid robotics project.
Every summer while I was growing up my family would head to the high country of the central Sierra Nevada in California. In college I only had the chance to go a couple of times with my parents. In the summer of 2003 I decided to take a notebook and write a few notes while we went. This was also the first summer that I can remember taking a digital camera.
Come take a walk with me through the 12,000 foot wonderland of the Sierras.
