Tag: nadp

Pacific Grove

April 17, 2015
Work Posts

I was down in California last week for a meeting. It was held at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove on the Monterey Peninsula. Here is the sunset from the second night.

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The large crowd of people were from the group I was with, the beach was only a five minute walk from the hotel.

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The temperatures were about 20 degrees C, but we all know it’s 10 degrees colder by the lake (or ocean in this case).

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We had good weather all week, just a little chilly.

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There was some sort of photo shoot on the beach the one morning.

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A sign on the path to the beach warning of mountain lions in the area.

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There are not many meetings where there are deer grazing outside the meeting room.

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The one evening while watching the sun set, the wind was howling, causing the sand to be whipped around, making it difficult to see at times.

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One of my colleagues from Nova Scotia, when he left there was still three feet of snow on the ground back at home.

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The view from the conference centre.

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The conference centre started as a YWCA meeting place back in the early 1900’s. It is now part of the Asilomar State Park.

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All of the meals were provided, but by the last night a few of us decided to head into Monterey for some seafood.

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On the wharf.

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There were seals hanging around.

Lots of fishing boat in the harbour.

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There are three seals in this picture.

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The one in the water made his way up onto the dock.

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Racing Capital of the World

October 24, 2014
Work Posts

I was down in Indianapolis this past week for a meeting/scientific symposium. On the Thursday after the meetings had finished, there was an outing to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a tour of the track.

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You start with a bus tour that takes you on the track.

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The 100th anniversary brick at the start/finish line.

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Looking down the track from the starting row.

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The Pagoda.

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The only part of the track that is still brick.

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After the track tour was a tour of the media centre.

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Note the CRT television screens. In this day flat screens, you would think there would be no sign of CRT’s.

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Me with my racing wings.

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Another sign of the times, this is the race control room, beneath all the crt screens, there are vcr’s. The guide said races were recorded on vas, since it would be harder to doctor a vhs tape than a digital file.

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After the tour of the track you return to the museum and Hall of Fame.

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There a lot of past winning cars on display. Some racing teams do not donate their cars as they like to display in their own museums. One of the race teams that are no where to be seen is Penske.

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The Borg-Warner Trophy.

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The 1911 winning car and the 2011 wining car.

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Jacques Villeneuve on the trophy from his 1995 victory.

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The number 27 car from his 1995 victory. He has only raced in 3 Indy 500’s, he placed 2nd in 1994, won in 1995 and finished 14th in 2014.

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The Indianapolis Power & Light Company Building.

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The Soldiers and Sailors Monument.

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I had some time Friday morning before heading to the airport to walk around downtown. Here is the Indiana State Capitol building.

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Oliver P. Morton was the 14th and first Indiana-born Governor of Indiana.

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I had a bratwurst burger from this food truck that was parked outside of the hotel.

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Looking down West Market Street to the Capitol Building.

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The Soldiers and Sailors Monument. It is 284ft, only 21ft shorter than the Statue of Liberty (305ft), I learned that tidbit from my shuttle driver from the airport.

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Park City, Utah

October 13, 2013
Work Posts

I spent the week in Park City, Utah for the NADP Fall meeting. The turnout wasn’t great as many of the usual participants are Federal employees from the EPA, USGS and NPS. Park City is about 40 miles east of Salt Lake City.

The fall colours were quite nice as you drove in from Salt Lake City. This was the view from my hotel room.

Park City hosted a number of events during the 2002 Winter Olympics, including, alpine, slalom, aerial, snowboarding  and ski jumping.

NADP Spring Meeting

April 26, 2013
ios WordPressWork Posts

I was down in Madison, Wisconsin this past week for work.

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I flew out of Toronto Monday morning with a connection through Chicago. I didn’t experience any delays due to the air traffic controllers being on furlough, I did experience a 90 minute delay due to a broken latch on the cargo door. The meeting hotel is right across from the state capitol.

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The Solidarity Singers Have been protesting daily at the Capitol against Governor Walker. He was the one who passed into law the measure to strip most public union workers of many of their bargaining powers, while forcing them to pay more for their benefits. It led to massive protests back in 2011.

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Looking down State Street.

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This the third Wisconsin Capitol, it was completed in 1917.

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Chalk protest.

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The capitol building at night with a full moon.

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I flew back Thursday, but not before more delays, my flight left Madison on time. When I landed in Chicago my connection to Toronto was already delayed two hours, in the end it was almost three hours late taking off. I came back on American Airlines.

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Portland, Maine

October 6, 2012
Work Posts

This past week I was down in Portland, Maine for meetings. This was the fall version of the meeting I went to in the spring in Portland, Oregon. I flew down Monday connecting through  Philadelphia. There is a direct flight from Toronto but it is on a small Beechcraft prop that holds about 12 passengers, opting for the regional jets was a much better choice.

Definitely ate too much while I was down there, even though the meeting hotel was out by the airport and not right downtown. The first night we had dinner at the Portland Lobster Company. I had the Downeast Feast which came with a 1 1/4 lb lobster, 6 steamer clams, corn on the cob, seafood chowder, fries and cole slaw all for $27.

When you order, they give you a lobster with a number on it, when your order is up it starts flashing and vibrating.

The next night it was back downtown to J’s Oyster Bar. The oysters (from Chesapeake Bay) were cheap, 1 dozen for $12.50, we had three orders at our table. I had a cup of their Lobster Stew which was amazing and then the Seafood Bouillabaisse which was packed with seafood.

Of course with all this food we needed something to wash it down with, there is no shortage of local microbrew pubs like Sebago, Sea Dog Brew House and Gritty McDuff’s.

The final night we had dinner at Gilbert’s Chowder House on Commercial Street. This time I had the seafood chowder and the Fried Maine Whole Belly Clams in crumbs. All of these restaurants are not very large and wait times could be long depending on the time and size of your party.

Finished off with some ice cream at Captain Sam’s homemade ice cream. It had just opened and as we walked past there was a guy standing outside eating ice cream, one of the guys in our group asked him how it was and he said it was amazing and he was going back in for more. After walking a bit we decided we had to go back and try it. I had Kentucky Derby ice cream which had bourbon, almonds and chocolate pieces. The portions were huge and it came with a wooded spoon, not a flat ice cream spoon, but a wooded shaped spoon.

(all photos were downloaded from the internet.)

Portland, Oregon

April 23, 2012
Work Posts

I was down in Portland, Oregon this week for a technical meeting. I flew from Toronto to Vancouver and then down to Portland. Waiting in Vancouver for my puddle jumper connection.

Flying over Mount St. Helens.

Downtown Portland from my hotel room.

Went for lunch to Milos Cafe, there was a mini protest at the recruiting center next door. I think they were protesting Private Manning’s arrest. He was the one who passed along classified material to Wikileaks.

All around downtown Portland they have these food vendors, kind of like chip trucks, but you can get anything from sushi, indian, mexican and on and on.

The Zoobomb pile of bikes. Zoobomb is a weekly event where participants carry their bikes on the Max Light Rail to a station near the Oregon Zoo. From there, participants take the elevator to the surface and then ride their bikes down the hills in the vicinity. This process is often repeated several times throughout the night. This pile of bikes is the local meeting place.

The mall near the hotel had an ice rink in it. The other thing it had was carpet throughout the mall.

Outside one of the entrances.

A closer look at the sign.

The Max is Portland’s light rail transit. There is an area in the downtown core where it is free to ride. The cost from the airport to downtown is about $2.50.

Had the chance to go and see the Portland Winterhawks play the Tri-City Americans in game 3 of their WHL western semi-finals. The game was at the Rose Garden, the same place the NBA Portland Trailblzers play.

The announced attendance was about 7,750 people for a major junior hockey game, the atmosphere was crazy.

Portland won the game 3-1 to take a 3-0 series lead. They would go on to win the series the next night.

They went on to the WHL finals against the Edmonton Oil Kings. They lost the series 4-3 and a chance at the Memorial Cup. Derrick Puoliot went 8th overall in this years NHL entry draft to the Pittsburgh Penguins. He was part of the trade that sent Jordan Staal to the Carolina Hurricanes.