Back in DC

I flew back to DC today, and it was a long set of flights. I flew from Salt Lake City to Phoenix. The flight was late, and we arrived at our the gate at the departure time of my next flight. I ran across the terminal, and just barely made my flight to DC. Otherwise, I would probably have been stuck in Phoenix until tomorrow. The flight from Phoenix to DC is a little over four hours long, and I feel like I've been stuck in a sardine can all day. I'm really looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. It's been a busy week, and it will be nice to get a full night's sleep.


A plane takes off at Salt Lake City

More photos

It's a little tricky taking good photos of fighter jets. A long telephoto lens is needed to get a good shot of the planes, unless they are at really low altitudes. However, this means that you have a very narrow field of view, and the planes are moving extremely quickly. So you have to be very quick on the shutter. Plus, you usually need to manually focus the lens, since the planes are moving way too fast for the autofocus to work.


Another F-16 photo

I took photos of the sunset from a hill east of Layton. A little unwanted lens flare, but I liked the cloud formations.


Sunset over Layton

The same hill five minutes later...


Twilight settles in

A gray day in Utah

The weather has been rather lousy for the past few days, so I haven't had much of an opportunity to go out and take photographs. The weather has reminded me of winter in Ann Arbor - cold, gray, rainy, and a little snow. Tomorrow morning is my last day in Utah, and then I'm heading back to Virginia. I'm hoping that I'll have a little time to go out before I have to leave. I have not had as much time to do sightseeing as I would have liked. However, it's very likely that I will be out here again within a few months, so I'll be able to see more of Utah then.

We got a break in the rain today, so the F-16 squadron was up in the skies. One of the planes was having fun doing rolls, which was a lot of fun to watch.


An F-16 takes off from Hill Air Force Base

A Vist to Antelope Island

Some pictures taken this evening at Antelope Island:


Sun setting over the Great Salt Lake

Light reflecting off the clouds

Twilight settles in
Larger versions of the pictures can be found here.

Out in Utah

As of today, I now have a new state to add to my list of states that I have visited. A business trip has brought me to Utah, and I flew in to Salt Lake City earlier today. It has been a really long day, as I arrived at National Airport this morning a little bit before 6 AM. I arrived into Salt Lake City around 2 PM, and spent the afternoon exploring Salt Lake City a little bit. The past and present of Salt Lake City is deeply entwined with the Mormon Church, which has its headquarters (if one can call it that) at the exact center of Salt Lake City. I strolled around both the Capitol area and the Mormon Temple area, taking pictures along the way. The architecture of Mormon Temple was impressive, especially given the fact that it was constructed in the late 1800's.


Mormon Temple

From a historical and social perspective, I find the Mormon migration to Utah very interesting. It was migration of a large number of people with a common religion and similar cultural norms, and the difficulty of the migration left its own cultural imprint on the people that survived. Due to the remote nature of Utah at the time, the locale served as an incubator for the new social order with minimal social interference from the outside.

The New England colonies originated in much the same way was the Mormon migration. The Puritans had a common religious background, and a set of strict cultural norms. They also had the same persecution issues that the Mormons had. However, there was a steady influx of new arrivals with differing religious and cultural views, such as other Christian groups seeking safe haven, and many people looking to make money or just find a new start. As a result, the Puritan influence slowly waned on the East Coast. I wonder what New England would be like if these additional waves of settlers had not come, and I wonder how it would look compared to Utah today.

A picture-less week

Well, for the first weekend in a while, I didn't have a new set of pictures to post on my blog. The cold weather returned on Friday, complete with ice and sleet. This didn't make conditions very conducive for hiking. It turned out to be a good thing, as I took the opportunity to catch up on some of my outstanding errands and chores.

I'm in the process of preparing for a trip to Utah next week. I'm flying out to Salt Lake City for business, and I'm hoping that I will have a little free time explore Utah. Hopefully, I will have lots of new pictures for my blog next week.

More pictures

I have posted some new picture pages online: Colorado Trip and Hiking at Great Falls.

Out to Great Falls

The weather was beautiful in Virginia this afternoon, with clear skies and fifty degree weather. I had a lot of chores to do early in the afternoon, but once I completed them, I went out to Great Falls on the Maryland side to go hiking. I started by checking out the falls themselves. There is a set of bridges that take one out over Olmstead Island to an overlook right next to the main set of falls. It gets you much closer to the falls than on the Virginia side, but the Virginia side definitely has better picture-taking opportunities.


Great Falls

I decided to go hiking on the Billy Goat Trail again, and the trail was rather busy today. It seemed that everyone was out enjoying the beautiful weather. As usual, the trail was a pretty good workout, but the scenery was worth it.


The Potomac River

I walked back to Great Falls on the C&O Canal Towpath. Despite it being somewhat late, the sun was still shining, thanks to the early Daylight Savings Time. It was quite an adjustment having sundown so late in March.


The C&O Canal

I made my way over the rocks to a nice vantage point, in order to take some pictures of the falls on the north side of Olmstead Island.


The Falls on the North Side of Olmstead Island

Mine! Mine!

There was an article in the New York Times today with the title, To Have, Hold, and Cherish, Until Bedtime. The article described how couples are increasingly sleeping apart in separate bedrooms. The reasons for this include sleeping problems and different schedules. But there were two interesting quotes that I believe point to a larger issue:

Their wives might be thrilled to have their own bedroom, and see it as a romantic thing - going back to their romance, going back to dating, to intimacy, but their husband might not see it that way.

And another quote:

A lot of people I know fantasize about living in the same apartment building as their husband - but in a separate apartment.

A lot of my friends have gotten married over the past several years, and as a single guy, I have found it interesting observing the adjustments my friends have made during their first year of living together. (It seems unanimous that the first year is an extremely tough year.) A common refrain from my female friends is that it is difficult adjusting to a guy living in her house. My male friends have more or less been resigned to the fact that the whole house belongs to their wives, with the possible exception of an office or garage.

In light of this, I find it interesting that women are desiring not only space that is primarily theirs, but also space that is exclusively theirs. And since I've heard similar complaints about female roommates, I would assume that it isn't just because men are hard to live with. (Although that can be true at times!) Still, I wonder why it is that men don't have similar space needs, and why men are so willing to acquiesce to living in a house that is fundamentally not theirs. Perhaps this is why many men like to go out fishing.

I wonder if in the future, married couples will stop living together, and will maintain two separate apartments so that they can have their own space. It doesn't sound terribly economical or romantic, but perhaps its what some people need to make their marriages work. I wonder where the kids will live?

Back from vacation

I took a short vacation to Colorado over this past weekend. I was visiting my cousin and her husband, and while I was there, they taught me how to ski. My cousin's husband was a professional ski instructor until recently, and he is an excellent teacher. Within two days I moved from the "bunny hill" to skiing full runs down the mountain. On the second day, I spent most of my time on the green trails, with one run on a blue trail. The blue trail was a lot of fun, but it was a major workout. I even found myself unexpectedly jumping a mogul ("uh, where did the ground go?"), and was suprised that I remained standing afterwards.

I had several spectacular falls in the learning process, which must have been absolutely hillarious to watch. There's nothing quite like falling full speed into the snow, and then sliding down the mountain. On one trail, I realized that I was going a little too fast. I turned to slow down, realized that I was running out of room, and then really leaned into the turn -- a little too much. By the time I hit 180 degrees, I started falling, and by the time I hit the ground, I had finished 360 degrees. I basically spiraled straight into the ground, kicking up a huge cloud of snow. Thankfully, there were no injuries, and I was just as entertained by my fall as anyone.


Mountains surround Lake Dillon