Vacation (and other) Photos

Here is a reverse chronology of trips and other events in my life since 2003. It's too bad that I didn't buy a digital camera earlier - I have some amazing photos of Alaska, western Canada, the Netherlands, Scotland, Italy, France, Belgium, and the entire American West that YOU'LL NEVER SEE!!! I guess you'll just have to go and see for yourself (wink).

Use this legend to guide your choices

• CHEF RECOMMENDS!
• Recommended
• Worthwhile
• Probably only interesting to family/friends

Spring 2008

• Australia NOT UPLOADED YET
  Invited to Brisbane to give a series of talks.

Summer 2007

• Oregon NOT UPLOADED YET
  Rob's wedding in Portland. Camped at Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood, Columbia River Gorge
• Portugal NOT UPLOADED YET
  2 weeks in Portugal in June/July. Lisbon, Coimbra, Porto, Evora, Faro, Lagos. Beautiful!
• China NOT UPLOADED YET
  2.5 weeks in China in June. We went to Beijing (Great Wall, Summer Palace, Forbidden City, Ming Tombs), Xi'an (Terracotta Warriors, Imperial Tombs), Chengdu (Dujiangyan hydrological city, Emeishan (fairytale mountains), Leshan Buddha, Thousand Buddhas), Zhangjiajie National Park, and Fenghuang (Chinese Venice). WOW!

Fall 2006

• Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Carlsbad Caverns
  For Thanksgiving we backpacked in Guadalupe Mountains and visited Carlsbad Caverns.
• Colorado Bend St. Park, Texas
  Astrid and I took a weekend out to a state park a few hours away. It was nice to get out.

Summer 2006

• Taylorsville High School Class of 1996 Reunion
  I can't believe it - I'm OLD! I went home to Salt Lake and partied with my friends the entire time. I still managed to sneak in some small hikes up the Cottonwood Canyons.
• Guatemala NOT UPLOADED YET
  Astrid and I met her parents in Guatemala in July for almost 2 weeks. We saw incredible ruins, beautiful colonial cities, extreme poverty, and beautiful countryside.

Spring 2006

• Dinosaur National Monument, Salt Lake City, and Fort Collins
  I went home in May to Salt Lake - there I hiked around for several days. I climbed Mount Olympus. My parents took me to Dinosaur National Monument for a weekend... a very pleasant trip. I finally flew to Boulder and Fort Collins, Co. to meet Astrid and visit our friends Anna and Steve.
• San Antonio Missions
  Astrid's mom visited, so we all went to San Antonio to have a look at the missions. It was quite a nice day.

Winter 2006

• Wedding in Big Sky NOT UPLOADED YET
  We were married in Big Sky, Montana (near Bozeman) where we rented a beautiful lodge for the week. It snowed every night and was a bluebird ski day every day! We rented a snowcoach into Yellowstone for a winter glimpse at the park - it was beautiful.

Fall 2005

• Thanksgiving in Big Bend National Park
  Andy, Antonia, Astrid, and I decided to go to Big Bend National Park for Thanksgiving. On the way home Astrid and I also hit the McDonald Observatory near Ft. Davis, Texas.

Summer 2005

• Colorado SufferFest 2005
  I rounded up the summer hitting some Colorado "fourteeners" with the Jabronis. I personally bagged 7 peaks in 7 days (with a serious bout of food poisoning destroying an eighth peak). I think Randono got 10 peaks in 10 days. I don't know the other stats.
• Grand Canyon to Rocky Mountain National Park
  During July Astrid and I took her friends from Spain backpacking from the Grand Canyon to Rocky Mountain National Park for two weeks. The hiking was exhausting since the temperature in the desert was extreme (110 degrees), and I lost 6 lbs from the ordeal. It was a very good experience, however.
• NASA
  Unfortunately in June I found myself in Houston so I decided to turn lemons into lemonade... here we are at NASA.
• Kennecott Bingham Canyon Copper Mine
  I had some time off in May, but I still needed to work; hence I flew home to Salt Lake City. While there I decided to visit the largest open pit mine in the world.
• Great Salt Lake, Tooele, Millcreek Canyon
  Later I took some time at the Great Salt Lake and out to Tooele in the next valley over. I am ashamed that I have not spent much time out there before because the Oquirrh Mountains are quite nice from that side. My high school friend Kevin and I also took a few hours up in Millcreek Canyon.
• Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona
  Before the semester was over Astrid and I drove out to meet her parents and friends at this little jewel located in the corner of Arizona (bordering New Mexico and Old Mexico).

Spring 2005

• Costa Rica
  For spring break, I decided to go solo to Costa Rica. I rented a car and backpacked in the jungles. I saw beaches and checked out volcanoes. Did you just sit on the beach your entire break? Wimp...
• Goliad, Texas
  On the way home from Padre Astrid and I passed through Goliad, Texas. This is an important site in the history of Texas. Personally, I feel that this town is highly underrated. The fort and mission there are much better than the Alamo.
• South Padre Island, Texas
  Paul had a numerical relativity conference down in Brownsville, Texas. This gave us the perfect opportunity to hit it for a weekend (especially since Paul has a condo down there, which made it cheap and fun).
• Spurs game
  Larry invited us to a Spurs game, so we drove to San Antonio to partake. It was really cool.

Winter 2004

• Christmas in West Virginia
  I spent Christmas at Astrid's parents' house.
• Skiing in Colorado
  After the New Year we went skiing in Colorado with some of the Jabronis.
• New Year in Utah
  

Fall 2004

• Skiing at Alta
  Went home to ski :)
• University of Utah
  Here are some pictures of my Alma Mater, the University of Utah. Astrid took these pictures while visiting her friends in Salt Lake.
• Sarp's kitten Corky
  Obviously, the rigid schedule of sitting around and sleeping 10 hours per day all last semester took a toll on me (now that I'm a candidate, life is slightly more luxurious). I just finished (as I am writing this) teaching honors differential equations. They were a good bunch, always getting their work done and *gulp* actually attending class. To explain my poor grading technique, I told them that "the kitten" graded their homeworks. In part, it's true. The kitten, Corky, belongs to my good friend Sarp Akcay. Notice Corky's grading style in several of these photos - it's breathtaking.

Summer 2004

• Southern Utah
  After Chris' wedding, we made our way up into a corner of Colorado and Southern Utah and finally into Salt Lake City. I think we made it back to school only a couple of days late :)
• Chris' wedding
  Astrid and I decided to take a roadtrip from Austin, Texas back home to Salt Lake City. I qualified for Ph.D. candidacy in July, and Astrid moved back to the states. She was in Holland for two years earning her Masters in Hydrology. We first hit Albuquerque to attend the wedding of my old high school friend Chris Gibson. Since I was drunk, but I wasn't the only one.

Spring 2003

• Haarlem
  These pictures weren't taken with my good camera, but they are of some small interest. The images depict a typical weekend trip in the Netherlands. The town is Haarlem.