I love the dark, heavy sky over us.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Red Rock
I like how spring is starting to peak out in lots of places in the canyon
Steve trying to kick over a bee-hive rock (heh!)
The first few flakes of snow coming down
Steve in a tight place!
Saturday hike in Red Rock
So, the trip to see the shuttle launch was really amazing - but it was one heck of a whirlwind trip. No matter how you do it, it's about 9 hours of flying, with some layover in there just for fun. Steve and I had remarked all day that we were surprised it wasn't any more crowded to watch the shuttle... and then we tried to leave Cape Canaveral. The launch was at 4:50 and we got to a hotel in Orlando at about 1:15 am. We then got up at 4:45 the next morning, and started flying. Needless to say, Friday was a sleep day.
Saturday was a wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed day, and it was so pretty we decided to take a good hike in Red Rock. Amazing day for it. It was in the 50s on the strip, so we headed out in jeans, flannel, and sweatshirts and light jackets. By the time we got to the canyon, the wind had picked up and was absolutely howling. There was also a huge snow squall up in the mountains. Not wanting to get caught too far out on the trails, we decided to stay fairly close, but do a lot of rock scrambling.
Partry on the Pier
We watched the shuttle launch from Jetty Park, and we decided to go all the way out to the end of the pier to claim our perch. The down side is that we were out of earshot of the radio com broadcast, so we didn't even know there was a problem at launch until Laura texted (thanks!!) but, it was a good group, and we had good entertainment watching the pelicans and turtles and rays and... lots of fun critters. Steve snapped the picture of me when I was returning from my hour-long bathroom jaunt (oy - had it been just a little warmer, I would have jumped off the end of the pier and all problems would have been solved in 60 seconds). You can see that the pier was crowded, but not overly so, and the people were awfully nice. And, I loved the sand shuttle this girl had made on the beach. I was kind of amazed that there were so many people hanging out on the beach... it was downwind of the rocks where about 500 pelicans roosted and man, was it foul. Fowl foul.
Lift Off!
Finally! We're back home (well, I guess that's what this hotel is...) and here are some more pictures of the Discovery launch. Absolute delight to get to see!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
One minute after liftoff
shot to post. What a great experience!!
Getting close!
bad as we'd feared. Think we can make it alm the way to jetty park.
T minus 2:30 something and REALLY excited!!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
STS-133
T-minus 1:21:21 to STS-133 Launch. T-minus 10:02 until my launch to see the last flight of Space Shuttle Discovery. It's amazing how far we've come since the Mercury missions; a bittersweet ending to an era that once captivated national pride in the goals we could achieve "not because it's easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills..."
I'm overwhelmingly excited to be able to go and join Steve in FL to watch this launch on Thursday! But, it really does make me sad to see the coming of the end of the Space Shuttle era. I've always said that if I could go back and chose to live through any one particular part of time, I would decidedly choose to live through the late 50s and 60s - to be a part of putting man into space and onto the moon. I still get a shiver every time I think about what was accomplished in those days - pure innovation, pure math, physics, and pure hope, imagination, and determination - to achieve a goal that seemed too big to be possible.
Much of the new and shiny had already worn off of the space program by the time I came around, but I vividly remember ushering in the Space Shuttle, and NASA news was a staple of our elementary Weekly Reader Newspaper. Much like people remember where they were when the got the news that JFK had been shot, I remember exactly where I was when the Challenger exploded (snow day, home from school and watching the launch on our old oak-encased TV). I also remember where I was when Columbia broke apart on re-entry. I, at least, was one who still felt that there was a shared sense of solidarity and national pride in the space program, and was emotionally involved in its glory and in its losses.
Now, we're coming to the end of "my era" of the Space Program. I suppose it was inevitable that it would eventually find its way into the hands of the private sector. And, I'm sure that there will be some good come from this shift. But, it sure does make me sad that this kind of passion; the goal to explore, to learn, is no longer something that we, as a country will embark upon together.
I'll wrap it up with my favorite lines from a speech everyone knows:
"We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war. I do not say that we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours.
There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."
President John F. Kennedy - September 12, 1962
I'm overwhelmingly excited to be able to go and join Steve in FL to watch this launch on Thursday! But, it really does make me sad to see the coming of the end of the Space Shuttle era. I've always said that if I could go back and chose to live through any one particular part of time, I would decidedly choose to live through the late 50s and 60s - to be a part of putting man into space and onto the moon. I still get a shiver every time I think about what was accomplished in those days - pure innovation, pure math, physics, and pure hope, imagination, and determination - to achieve a goal that seemed too big to be possible.
Much of the new and shiny had already worn off of the space program by the time I came around, but I vividly remember ushering in the Space Shuttle, and NASA news was a staple of our elementary Weekly Reader Newspaper. Much like people remember where they were when the got the news that JFK had been shot, I remember exactly where I was when the Challenger exploded (snow day, home from school and watching the launch on our old oak-encased TV). I also remember where I was when Columbia broke apart on re-entry. I, at least, was one who still felt that there was a shared sense of solidarity and national pride in the space program, and was emotionally involved in its glory and in its losses.
Now, we're coming to the end of "my era" of the Space Program. I suppose it was inevitable that it would eventually find its way into the hands of the private sector. And, I'm sure that there will be some good come from this shift. But, it sure does make me sad that this kind of passion; the goal to explore, to learn, is no longer something that we, as a country will embark upon together.
I'll wrap it up with my favorite lines from a speech everyone knows:
"We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war. I do not say that we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours.
There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."
President John F. Kennedy - September 12, 1962
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Sand Dunes
I loved the patterns the caked sand made where there had once been some running water.
Pretty cool to be 100' below sea level and not require a tank to breathe....
Sunset on the sand dunes
Isn't the light here spectacular? And, I'm pretty sure this is just and ordinary, run-of-the-mill sunset. *love*
The end
The second picture is when we finally hit the end of the trail - it's the 3rd, and biggest dry waterfall on this trail. I can't imagine what it must look like when this thing is zorching. It's only about 2.4 miles from the start of the trail, but we spent all day getting here because we took so many off-trail climbs. We figure that we easily covered over 4 miles on the way there, and climbed more than 1200 feet.
I like the fact that the sun sets early in the canyon and the light you get is the glow off of the higher westward-facing rocks :-)
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