Travels and Adventures

My ongoing adventure in Australia!

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. Also in Port Vila I relaxed on the beach and enjoyed the local laid-back lifestyle.

The second part of time in Vanuatu was spent on the island of Tanna where I stayed in a beach-side bungalow, had a proper tour of the island from the back of a pickup truck, and visited an active volcano. In retrospect, our placement for viewing of the lively volcanic activity might have been somewhat dangerous bit it was incredibly spectacular. Having been to Vanuatu I can see the allure of South Pacific islands. Someday I’d like to make it back to this part of the world in order to lay on a beach for a few weeks and forget about the rest of the universe. Vanuatu has that power and can share it with you if only you are willing to slow down and relax.

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!

The other half of our trip was spent in and around Juneau checking out the places Emily used to hang out as a teenager. We saw a bunch of glaciers, ate the local cuisine, hiked through an abandoned mine site, went on an overnight backpack trip to a lake tucked up in the mountains, and had some good nights in the bars. The visit to Alaskan Brewing Company and resulting free samples was also quite good. In spite of the constant flow of tourists and the resulting tourist shops we had a wonderful time in Juneau.

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.

At work I also ran into many an interesting sight. The killer robots that roamed the lab competed fiercely with the resident deer population for cuddliest creation. Occasional trips to the Mars Yard, the Vehicle Assembly Building, and other areas that make interns salivate filled in the gaps for the slow parts of the day.

Only a summer passed in California but I took every opportunity to push myself to see and do as much as I could with what time I had.

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.

Our first stop was Guatemala where we ventured down a jungle river, climbed the ruins of Tikal, and had a wonderful time at all points in between. In Belize we watched the winter squalls roll across the water. In Honduras Evan left for the states and other commitments while I continued on to the tropical backpackers paradise of Utila. I logged a bunch of great dives and had a grand time with a great bunch of people. However, a few days before I was supposed to leave the island, a storm came up that shut down all transport on and off Utila. Even after missing my flight back to the states, luck was still on my side.

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.

In total I visited 22 countries that year. Places as far-flung as Albania, Norway, Latvia, and Tunisia were stepping stones on the path of adventure. Whether it was drinking with Slobodan Milošević’s doppelganger in Kosovo, eating whale goulash in Norway, seeing Pope John Paul II’s body laid out in state in the Vatican, or riding camels across the Great Sand Seas of Tunisia, each time I stepped outside my door something new and exciting happened. The year overseas was an incredibly formative experience in my life.

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.

Over the course of eleven days we hiked through some of the most beautiful country on earth. We toured two large alpine basins and paraded down a high river valley. The llamas accompanied us the whole way, not minding the loads that they bore on their backs full of our gear. Just like humans, llamas enjoy the great outdoors, too.

Come take a walk with me through the 12,000 foot wonderland of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.