Summer roadtrip

After a long while of mostly staying at home, Weena and I took a road trip around the country. We left California on June 11, and for 40 days (and 40 nights), we roamed from place to place catching up with friends, visiting national parks, racing cars, exploring caves, etc. In total, we drove 7,200 miles. We started out at the Grand Canyon. We stayed on the rim but got info in hiking in the canyon for a future visit.


A lesser known park that turned out to be interesting was Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. Petrified trees are everywhere, along with wildlife and indian ruins. We went here as a break from driving and ended spending a few hours more than expected.

Our next stop was at the Rocky Mountain Biological lab where we visit a friend that studies Marmots. We spent a day trapping and sightseeing, and the scenery is truly beautiful.

Next, on the way to the evolution meetings in Minneapolis, we made a stop at Mt. Rushmore and the black hills. This was the only part of the trip where we almost got bad weather. It got very windy at the campsite, and from the radio, we learned of big thunderstorms and tornado watches to our south, west and east. It seems we picked the right spot because we didn't even get rain at our campsite. The next night, we didn't take chances and went to a hotel.

Not far from Mt. Rushmore is Badlands National Park. Like the petrified forest, this place turned out to be better than expected - lots of wildlife and beautiful scenery.

Skipping ahead, we visited the Door Peninsula in Wisconsin. It's a nice place. One of the highlights as a visit to a restaurant where a train delivers food to your table.

We spent 5 days in Chicagoland mostly exploring the museums and downtown. We were there during the Taste of Chicago, so the crowds were larger than usual. This is the fountain in Grand Park.

This is on the Chicago river.

Weena is not exactly a dog person, but many of my friends are, but I think by the time we got to Michigan she was even beginning to like dogs. This at the beach on Lake Michigan with our friends Laurie and Joe.

We also went car racing in Michigan and Indiana. It was Weena's first time autocrossing, and she did pretty well. In addition to driving, it's fun to look at the cars people bring to the race. Most are regular cars, but one in a while there is something unusual, like this.

This is a video of an actual run at the race.




We made stops at several caves in South Dakota, Indiana and Kentucky. The most interesting was Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. We spent 7 hours exploring over 2 days, and we only saw a tiny portion. It is the longest cave in the world. Here's an attempt at cave photography.

The Green River runs along Mammoth Cave, and we spent a morning canoeing through the hills surrounding by lots of turtles and fish.

On the return trip, we stopped in Aztec, New Mexico. The "aztec" ruins are actually native american. We got to learn a little about native american history,

And we also got to explore the surrounding area. We found this arch less than 10 miles out of town. Continuing west, we drove through Monument Valley,

and stopped at Navajo National Monument for a rest and to visit some ruins.

On the last day, we drove through Zion National Park and had to stop for some pictures with the sandstone formations. We wished we had had more time to spend there...


So, those are our latest adventures. I'll post again when there are interesting news, but for now we're at home and life is back to normal.

Spring break 2008

Spring break was a fun week. It started with a trip to Death Valley. One of the highlights was a visit to the "racetrack." There, rocks move on a lakebed when it gets muddy. No one knows how, but they definitely move.

Another highlight of the Death Valley part of the trip was driving on the back roads. MINIs were not meant for 4-wheel driving. We got stuck twice, but we got to parts of the desert not many people visit, and the views and stories (of ghost towns, mines and fossils) were great.

Another stop was Mono Lake where the tufa formations are interesting. It is nice to see the lake recovering. Water levels are not dropping any more.

The main stop of the trip was Lake Tahoe. We spent 4 days exploring around the lake, enjoying the views, hiking, going to comedy shows... Here we are cruising on a boat on the lake.

And here is a view of Emerald Bay... and Weena.
We also visited UC Davis where I went for undergrad. I hadn't been there in about 8 years. It was nice to reminisce.
The trip ended with a visit to Napa exploring the wineries.

Now, we wait another year for the next Spring break :)

Death Valley - January 2008

In January, Weena and I took a trip to Death Valley... sort of like a mini honeymoon. At first, this may not seem like a nice place to visit, but it is, and we had a great time. Death Valley gets extremely hot in the summer. It also gets cold in winter. Going the first days of January, however, kept us away from the heat and the crowds.

First off, we travelled in style...

Although cruising on motorbikes would have been fun, we didn't. We took the Mini. Since there were very few people, most of the time you'll see photos of either Weena or me. It wasn't so easy to take pictures of both.

On the way to Death Valley, we took a little detour to the Trona Pinnacles. These pinnacles actually formed under the water of Searles Lake. Even though today these region is a desert, there were large lakes covering the area at the end of the last ice ages when the glacier water of the Sierra Nevada flowed into these valleys. The pinnacles are deposits of calcium carbonate and other minerals. Some are 150 feet tall. It was pretty interesting to find these formations here.

Another stop on our trip was Ubeheebe crater near the north end of Death Valley. This is a volcanic crater although there was never an eruption. Hot magma came in contact with underground water which turned to steam and exploded. This has happened several time as there are many of these craters.

Not far from the crater, near a spring, we found a castle. The desert is full of surprises. This is known as Scotty's Castle. Death Valley Scotty used to tell people it was his. In reality, it was the vacation home of a rich Chicago couple. There are lots of stories about Scotty that are fun to hear, and the building itself is quite impressive.

Elsewhere in the valley and surrounding region, there are springs, streams and fish! This picture is at salt creek in the heart of Death Valley. Places like this are full of endemic plants. Here, there is also a fish the lives in the salty water of the creek.

Borax mining also figures prominently in the history of this region. Salt and borax mines are still active in nearby valleys. The region is sprinkled with remains of borax mines and wagons. The wagons were very large and pulled by 20-mule teams (that didn't always have 20 mules).

Hiking in the canyons took us to beautiful scenery.

Look at the colors of the hills behind us.And no visit to Death Valley is complete without a stop at Badwater, the lowest point in the western hemisphere.
Just outside the national park is the Amargosa Opera house. For years, Marta Becket performed her unique style of theatre in a town called Death Valley Junction. This is a remote outpost that can barely be called a town. There is only a motel and the opera house; no gas station or restaurant. This lady refurbished an old building into a theatre and spent over 30 years performing. Early on, there wasn't much of an audience, so she painted one on the walls. The show itself was very interesting, but now she's in her 70s and the performances are narrations of the old days. Again, this is something no one really would have expected to find in the middle of the desert.

East of the national park is the little town of Beatty, Nevada. This town started during the mining boom of the 1840s and 50s and managed to survive.

Rhyolite, on the other hand, didn't survive. It is now a ghost town. This building is the old jail. This was a town of 8,000 or more people for about 4 or 5 years.

This was one of the stores.
And this is the bottle house. A miner built it out of beer bottles. Other building supplies were expensive to bring here, and people were very good at making do with what they had on hand.

From Rhyolite, we took an old road via Leadfield (another ghost town) and Titus canyon into Death Valley proper. Ghost towns are most interesting if you know a little bout their history. Otherwise they are not much to see. Leadfield attracted several hundred prospectors and a lot of mining activity for a few years. Some guy started a mine, brought lead ore from another (distant) mine to convince people there was lead here, told investors the nearby Amargosa river was navigable - it isn't - and managed to attracted investors. No significant amount of lead (or any other mineral of value) was ever extracted here. This is Leadfield.The road was very rough and recommended for 4-wheel-drive. We went in the Mini anyway. The drive was rough but the scenery amazing and well worth the trip. Everything was going well at first...

But 26 miles of rough roads eventually took their toll on the car...At higher elevations, there are trees. These kilns in the Pannamint Mountains were used to produce charcoal for the mining towns in the area. They are remarkably well preserved.

All this was only 3 days in the Death Valley region. Weena wasn't too thrilled about going here just based on the name of the national park, but even she had a good time. And there was more to see. I hope to go on another visit in the near future.

Kanchanaburi - August 2007

After returning to Thailand, Weena and I took a short trip to Kanchanaburi. This city was made famous by the movie 'Bridge on the River Kwai.' During WWII, the Japanese used prisoners of war and conscripts from Malaysia and other countries in SE Asia to build a railway to support their war efforts in Burma. The conditions were extremely bad and many tens of thousands died from malnutrition and disease. There is an excellent museum where one can learn a great deal about the history of that period.

This area is also very beautiful. There are limestone mountains with beautiful waterfalls. The water would be very refreshing, but the rain was refreshing enough when we visited.

Here I am with the famous bridge in the background...

This is one of the trains used during WWII to transport supplies to the war front in Burma...

Here is Weena on the famous bridge...

And at Erawan falls in a national park in this area. It's a beautiful place...

A visit to the Maldives

Weena and I took a 5 day trip to the Maldives. We spend almost all that time at Makunudu island in the north Male atoll. The Maldives are a chain of over 1100 islands and home to 300,000+ people. Tourism is tightly controlled by the government, but we mainly enjoyed the beach and reefs around our island. This is truly a tropical paradise. The sunsets are beautiful, the reefs great for snorkeling or diving, and the resorts are a great place to relax.

On the day of our return to Thailand, we spent a few hours visiting Male, the capital. It's a small city, and a few hours was enough to see the sights, from the main mosque to the markets.

Here I am walking the streets of Male...

Here is a view of the market...


And some school children on a field trip...

The Maldives is definitely a great vacation destination. It's a bit far from the U.S., but if you ever get the chance, take the trip.