Explosive sights

Ok – so my sister lives in Alaska – Anchorage to be precise and if you didn’t know it, there’s a volcano that’s erupting right now.  Mt Redoubt has shown signs of activity over the past couple of months and it resulted in an eruptive phase.  Luckily, Redoubt is far enough away from Anchorage that it’s not causing too many problems, but it has closed down the airport in Anchorage now and then.  My sister has reported that measurable ash has fallen only one or two times where she lives.  That’s good news.

Most people don’t realize that volcanic ash isn’t like the stuff you’d find in your fireplace; it’s actually pulverized rock.  Sometimes it can be the consistency of Comet cleanser, other times it’s much more gritty.  It can cuase serious damage to all types of engines not to mention the damage it can do to fragile humans and other forms of life.  So you see I have an interest in what’s going on.

To see for yourself, what’s going on at Mt. Redoubt, you can view these webcams that the Alaska Volcano Obserbatory has set up:

There are some pretty spectacular images to be seen, so check it out!

AirVenture 2008 – Oshkosh, WI

I was able to get up to the EAA AirVenture event in Oshkosh this year for the first time ever.  I’ve been meaning to get up that way, but one thing or another came along and prevented me from going.  Well, this year, I took a Friday off and headed up – and I had a blast.

The day I went was the Warbird airshow. That means that all sorts of vintage, restored aircraft from WW II through Vietnam was flying during the airshow. The day was great – not too hot, and mostly sunny. There was a threat of a storm but that passed to the north. During the day I got to see a flyby by some F-15s and I got to see the F-22 in action. It is amazing how close you can get to some of the aircraft.

Anyway, enjoy the images. Leave comments if you feel like it. Also, check out the EAA AirVenture 2008 video page – I took some video with my digital camera. The quality is good, but a little bouncy – I didn’t bring a tripod. Enjoy!

Images from Chicago

In July, the family and I spent a few days in Chicago.  We stayed downtown and had some fun.  Little did we know that we were all going to be pretty sick with a respiratory infection – everyone is fine now.

Anyway, we spent our time just seeing they sights, taking a “staycation.”  We took an architectural cruise down the Chicago River, spent some time at Navy Pier, went up in the Sears Tower.  We did the touristy things too – we went to Millennium Park, walked up and down Michigan Avenue, went to go see “Wicked”, and visited the Lincoln Park Zoo among other things.  We ate at some of our favorite places – Rock Bottom Brewery and Goose Island.

Overall, we had a lot of fun in the middle of the summertime.  Just us as a family in the big city.

Enjoy the pictures, feel free to leave comments on the ones you like the most. Here you’ll see some of the famous buildings of Chicago including the iconic Marina Towers. You’ll take a ride on the giant ferris wheel at Navy Pier and see Chicago from that angle. You’ll also see some of my favorite polar bears swimming at Lincoln Park Zoo.

Buffalo at Fermi

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At the beginning of August, I headed down to the Naperville area to visit my daughter at basketball camp.  On the way down, I stopped at Fermi Lab and went to go see the buffalo herd there.  I remember going to see them when I was a kid and I thought they were so cool at the time.

It was a beautiful day – sunny and not humid.  When I first arrived, the buffalo were in their pen area and I thought I was out of luck.  But once I got out of the car and moved closer to the fence, the buffalo came out, almost as if to say – hey, we have a visitor.  If you look at the picture above, you can see this one keeping an eye on me.

It was fun to see the young ones following their mothers and the bulls just sauntering around.  I watched for a little while and then headed out to see my daughter.