So what do you mean by aquariums?

Since not too much new is going on out here, besides getting ready for the big move to get Julie out here, and all our stuff into a storage unit, I figured I'd take the time to show you all a little bit about my new company. Reynolds Polymer Technologies casts acrylic panels for use in really cool things. It can be used for signage, furniture, architectural uses, and of course, aquariums. Really big aquariums. This blog post will focus on that, cause I think they're really neat.

First off, one of the biggest projects RPT has been involved with, is the AquaDom in Berlin, Germany. It is the biggest cylinder aquarium at 52 feet high, 36 feet in diameter, holds over 2,000 fish, and has a glass elevator riding up through the center of it. It had to be assembled on site, and then crane lifted and lowered into the atrium.

Along those same lines, there is also a project in Lithuania, that's not quite as big. Only two stories tall, as you can tell by the escalator next to it.

Now our panels don't necessarily have to be used for the outside of the aquarium. Like in the dolphin exhibit in Indianapolis, we made an entire room and connecting tunnel that was placed inside an aquarium/pool. Allowing people to walk in, and under the water, to view a dolphin show from a whole new angle....and 360 degree viewing.

Similarly, we've done some tunnels that allow you to walk right through an underwater exhibit, like the one in the Aquarium of the Pacific, in Long Beach, California. This pic really gives you an idea of the size of these tunnels.

And we've also done work zoo's too, like Detroit's Arctic Ring Exhibit. Making a full tunnel from which the polar bears and seals can swim right up to you, as you stand in a tunnel under the water.

Quite a far cry from molding interior car parts, huh?

Another Reason for Moving out Here

Just wanted to point out the fact that we didn't just pick Colorado to move to cause it's beautiful, the skiings great, the weather's way better than Michigan, or that none of our annoying friends live here. One of the biggest reasons we moved here was to be closer to family.

Almost all of Julie's family has migrated to this state, with her grandparents, aunts, uncle, and cousin up in Fort Collins and her parents in Silverthorne (her other cousin in the pic below is currently living in Missouri). This pic is from this past Christmas, and even includes her Aunt Deb's dog, Bailey. Unfortunately her Aunt Sharon & Uncle Leo's dog Haley wasn't in this pic. Maybe next year.

For my family, my Aunt Diane, & Uncle Jerry have been out this way for a long time now. Long enough that their son, my only cousin, Paul, has lived out here all 21 years of his life (sorry no recent pics to share, even though I've seen you guys over three times in the past 4 months). But of course, I do have pics of my little nephews. The pic at the top of this post is my sister Julie, her husband Artie, and their almost 1 year old twins, Zack & Ryan (from left to right in the pic). And here are a few more shots of them, cause they're oh, so cute. Like when they eat their Speghetios:

Or when we took them to the park for their first ride on the swings:

and of course, when they're tired and just cuddely, like Zack here sleeping on his momma:

(more family pics to come next month when everyone's here for their first birthday & baptism)

Disc Golf - My New Game

After moving out here, I was looking for a cheap new hobby. Most of the sports I play require other people to play with or against. And as soon as you start signing up for leagues, it gets a little pricey. I already play golf, but greens fees are attroshush (no idea how to spell that). And of course there's skiing in Colorado, but again, very pricey. That's where a co-worker came in and was talking to me about Disc Golf.

Ever since I used to drive by a park with a disc golf course near Julie's old apartment, I've kind of had a craving to try out the game, but just never had. So I was talking to my co-worker, and he brought up the best fact.....it's free. Most of the disc golf courses across the country are free. They're set up in public parks, that are usually well maintained, and don't charge you to use them. Yeah there are some that will charge fees, but those are few and far between, and including gondola rides or the cost is so minimal, it's like $5 or less.

Plus the discs are pretty cheap. I started looking into it, and almost all discs are between $8-$15. And that includes the top of line brands and models. Actually the only time discs start to cost more than that are when they're dyed, or are extremely rare and out of production.

So I hit a local store, bought three discs and a bag (total cost $45), and started hitting the course. For those that don't understand what I'm talking about, a course includes holes like golf, with a tee box and a fairway, however instead of a cup in the middle of a green, there's a metal basket, suspended on a pole about 3 feet off the ground, with a bunch of metal chains loosely hanging above it (see the pics). The chains act like a very forgiving backboard, either catching your disc, or allowing it to fall into the basket. That's it. Pretty simple. The grass just needs to be mowed, not really close. And the better courses include elevation changes, hills, trees, obstacles to throw around (or through). But really that's about it.

The rules are simple, they're alot like ball-golf. You tee off by throwing from the designated tee box. Then you walk up to your disc, stand behind it, and throw your next one (aiming at the basket). The few throws it takes you to get it in the basket the better. And of course, the discs are all designed differently. Some are used for more distance, and they're called drivers. Some for better accuracy, called putters. Others as a combination of the two are called mid-range or approach discs. Then there are ones suited for more trick shots, discs designed to fade to one side or the other, discs designed to roll better, discs designed to turnover in mid air, etc.

Well, that's about it. Just wanted to let everyone know that this is my new game. I don't call it a sport, cause it's not atheletic enough for me to call a sport. But there is alot of walking involved, so it gets me out and walking around. I can play it by myself, and I also signed up for the local club, to get out and play with other people. Now I just gotta get better.

So if anyone wants to come out and play a round, I'll gladly go out with you. It's alot of fun. And of course, the area out here is so scenic for it.

I'm not single!

I know that may disappoint all the ladies of Grand Junction, but just to remind myself that I'm not a single man, my wife flew in for a visit. She was able to stay for almost a week, checking out the area, celebrating our first anniversary, and going to a couple interviews. It was a great time, and now we can focus on doing the big move, and getting her (and our stuff) out here. This is the reason that I haven't posted in a while. Sorry about that.

So Julie flew in, and on Saturday and on Saturday we celebrated our anniversary by driving through the Colorado National Monument, hitting up the local wineries, and going out to a very classy dinner. The pic above is the two of us at the monument. It was a beautiful day, and of course Julie was constantly mentioning how nice it'll be to have her good cameras out here to photograph the area.

As for the wineries, there are over 13 local wineries in the Grand Junction area, with most focused in Palisade. Palisade is also known for it's fruit orchards, so there are a very broad range of wines to choose from. Standards (Chardonays, Cabs, Merlots, Shiraz, Rieslings, etc) to fruity (Cherry, Peach, Plum, Elderberry, Chokecherry) to even Meads. We only made it to 5 before she started feeling tipsy, "I think I'm getting tipsy. I think I'm getting drunk. I think we should stop now." But in her defense, we did have the equivilent of at least 6 glasses of wine each by that point (aka more than a bottle) and up at altitude you get drunk faster. And of course, we were so focused on the drinking, we got no pics from that day. Guess we gotta go back!

Sunday we went skiing (see pic above). We decided that with all the travelling Julie's doing, we'd hit the closest hill to GJ...Powderhorn. It's a little place with only 3 lifts, but plenty of blue cruisers and few fun black runs. Seeing how the weather was wonderfully spring-like, we pretty much stuck to the cruisers and just enjoyed the day. Powderhorn is 45 minutes from our apartment here in GJ, door to door, with free parking, nice small parking lots close to the lifts (again see pic above), and very little crowds. I'll finish with another shot of us from the parking lot showing the beautiful view from the Mesa (Powderhorn is on the Grand Mesa). Of course the pic hardly does it justice, and if you don't believe me, you'll just have to come visit.

Happy Paint Satricks Day!

Just cause I'm out here by myself, doesn't mean I can't cook up a traditional boiled dinner to celebrate the national holiday of beer, corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and some Saint that did something for Ireland.

No I didn't cook up 50 lbs of meat this year. No I didn't have a band rockin the night away. And no I didn't get married or have a good excuse like that. But even in a down year, I still boil up a sweet dinner, polished off a couple Guinni, and watched Boondock Saints.

I mean some traditions can not be broken.

Slainte!

Since I live here, I might as well go skiing

Whether it's to make my friends jealous, or to apease those looking for pictures, or just cause I like the sport, I finally went skiing again out here. I say again, cause Julie & I did get in a few days during our Christmas visit. But we didn't use two of the tickets for Arapahoe Basin (known as just A-basin) so that's where I went. It's up near Silverthorne, so about 2 1/2 hours from Grand Junction. But when I've already paid for the tickets, it's worth the drive. Especially since my in-laws were willing to put me up for the night, and they live 10 minutes from the hill.

So last Saturday, I got up really early, drove up to Summit County, had breakfast with the inlaws, picked up my ski gear, and hit the mountain. The day was overcast, so pretty flat lighting, but conditions were otherwise excellent as they have been getting dumped on on a weekly basis with fresh snow. For those of you that have been to Abasin before, let me tell you, you need to go back. About a month ago they just opened up this new backside called the Montezuma bowl. It added about 80% to their skiable acre-age. And it's sweet. All blue, black , & double black. Here's a shot from the lift of the double black section on day one, just calling my name.

Obviously you can see how grey the sky was on that day. So take the flat lighting, add in that you have to do a 5 minute hike to get over there, and I wimped out on hitting those runs....on day 1. But I did spend the whole day on the back side, as the other runs back there are awesome.

Day 2: after enjoying a wonderful homecooked dinner sat night, and another nice breakfast sun morning, I was back on the slopes again. Staying so close, I got a nice early start. And the weather was amazing. Here's a shot of most of the Montezuma bowl from the top.

You can't really see the sky there, for how nice the day was, so here are some more shots. First up is that ridge that I said you have to hike to. And yes, on day 2 I did it. Hiked up, skiied along the ridge, dropped in where other skiers were (there's gotta be something like safety in numbers, right?), and made my way down it. It was pretty sweet. If I was in better shape I would've done it more than just once (both the hike with ski gear, and the actually skiing down the steeps takes alot out of you...and I ski with a camelback backpack). You can also see two other ski hills off in the distance: Breckenridge, and Keystone.

OK, so here's another cool shot. I wasn't even trying to do this as a panoramic shot, but I just realized here at home that I could combine these two shots to show you the other side of the Montezuma bowl, and how beautiful the scenery is. Yes I skiied this ridge too. Actually about 3 or 4 times (there was no hiking involved), and you could drop into some wide blues, or ride the ridge all the way to the trees, which some get pretty tight and steep too, but it was all fun.

And the other cool thing about Abasin is the altitude. More than half of the mountain is above tree line. And if you've never skied above treeline, you really should. It's so neat, as it feels like you could ski anywhere. And you probably could, cause there's no trees to define the runs. They groom a few paths, as suggestions of where to ski, but they're just suggestions, as the good snow is off the beaten path (so to speak). And here in the states, everything in bounds is still labeled pretty well, warning you where there's little snow cover (aka rocks sticking out) or where the easy way down is. So I'll close this post with a nice shot of the front side of A basin. Where I did ski for the last hour or so of Day 2 before heading back to the Junction.

So who's coming out to visit next ski season?

The Arches of Utah

So 30 miles west of Grand Junction on I-70 is Utah. You'd think that with the olympics only 6 years ago, the sign would look newer, but maybe they like it that way. So what's there to do in Utah besides skiing? Well, offroading, and looking at cool geological things in national parks. So I'll save teh offroading for this summer, and start out by hitting Utah's most well known park (that happens to be the closest to me)....the Arches National Park.

I get into the park, grab a map, and drive off. Ignoring a number of scenic view points, cause I wanna see these arches. I mean this whole state is full of scenic views. But I do pull over for something that's not an arch. It's called Balanced Rock. And if you wanna see what a 3500 ton boulder standing on it's end 500 feet off the ground. Well, it's pretty cool.

And it's also pretty cool that you park right there (pretty much from where this picture was taken), and can walk right up to it, around it, hope it doesn't fall on you, whatever. So I'm diggin' this park. Bring on the arches. The first ones you come to, are the windows. And you have to notice the people standing in these pictures, just to get some perspective of their size. They're huge. And once again, you can see them from your car, walk right up to and around them. It's really neat.

So I'm totally into this right? Next up, the Delicate Arch. That's the biggest deal here. It's the one on the sign when you enter the state. It's on their license plates for cryin out loud. But I got my choice, park and hike a mile up to it (and a mile back, obviously), or park at the "viewing area". Well you know me, less walking the better. So I pick the viewing area, which has two viewing areas. And after mis-reading a map, I walk up a path of stairs, almost half a mile, climbing 200 ft of vertical to get to a spot that I look across a valley at the arch. And you know what, it's ok. Yeah, it's all delicate, and unbalanced looking, but it's not as ginormous as the others. Maybe next time I'll actually hike up to it, and be blown away, but until then, I'm not as impressed as the others.

So back to the car and I drive on. I get to the end of the road, and there's the area called Devil's Garden. My first thought, wow these rocks all look like something out of the Flintstones or something. So I gotta get out and see some more. There's a trail map, and at first says: "Total Trail Length = 7 miles". Hell no! But then I see it's labeled green, blue, and red (for difficulty). And I decide that today, I can do the green. And I do, but again, next time I'll come prepared to do some hiking and get to see the rest.

Well, the other purpose of this trip was to do some more cool driving. So one of my coworkers told me of a few roads to try, and let me tell you, I wasn't disappointed. On one road I did have to dodge about 1200 bicyclists, celebrating Moab's Skinny Tire Festival (FYI, Arches Park is right next to Moab). But it was a sweet twisty curvy road along cavern walls on my way to the park. Here's a cool shot of all the turns up ahead, and the cop just waiting for an idiot to floor it and take out a group of bikes.

And then on my way back, I took a different route. Around the La Sal mountain, zipping along in the middle of no where, down a 9% slope (which as a frame of reference, for those of you that have driven I-70 up to Summit County, like Breck, and Vail, those roads only get up to 5 & 6% slopes). Into 15 mph corners (taken at about 40 in the zoom-zoom) with no guard rails, and steep drops. Pretty freakin cool and fun to drive. And then as it flattens out into the valleys, I start seeing these signs that I don't understand. "Cattle Guard", hmmm, well, I figured out that those signs marked where a fence that holds in cows has to have a break in the fence as it crosses the road. How well does a fence work, if it has a break in it? And then the sign, "Open Range". Well, as you can guess after you cross a Cattle Guard, you're pretty much driving down a road with a cow pasture on either side of the road, and no fence. And I'll tell you what, as you cruise at the posted speed limit of 65 mph, a site like this kinda takes you by surprise.

And if you look real closely, there's an honest to goodness cowboy, rustlin up this cattle. He just tips his hat at me as I drive by, maybe cause he's friendly, or he could tell that I slowed down to like 20 mph and had a look of fear on my face, thinking I might need to get out and do some Crocodile Dundee mind trick to get one out of my way. And later in my drive, I did come across two more herds (I have a hard time calling less than 10 cows a herd, but I guess that's what they're called) and neither of them had anybody near them. And one cow was actually crossing the road in front of me. I'm too much of a city boy for this.

Why I need to get my Porsche out here

Check that out. That's the road up ahead. No gaurd rail, shear cliff off to the right. Drops you down into the National Monument Canyon. Just an amazing road, with plenty of twisty turns to keep your attention as you take in the scenery.

Am I the only one that thinks of that scene in Cars with Lightning chasing the Porsche when I see these roads? I'm just so amazed that this is Colorado, and not Arizona. I mean there are some pretty snowy roads out here too. Like Highway 50 to Gunnison. Still rock walls along the road, but a river on the other side makes it look pretty too.

And just to show you the different climates out here, the picture above was taken the same day (within a couple hours actually) as these two shots. About 60 miles away on the road up to the Grand Mesa. An amazing stretch of highway, that winds around these huge cavern walls.

Hopefully I'm doing another drive this weekend, over to Moab in Utah (remember Grand Junction is only 30 miles from the Utah border, so it's not that far). And maybe to Arches National Park . Should be pretty cool. More pictures to come.

The Black Canyon

Sounds kinda spooky, doesn't it. "The Black Canyon" Well, it's not really spooky, but it is pretty cool. Not too much is open in the winter, but there were two spots that I could still get to. This was on my drive from a week and a half ago, but I'm just getting around to posting again. The Black Canyon Park is between Grand Junction and Gunnison (which is really close to Crested Butte). So about an hour or so from me. I'll definitely go back in the summer when you can go down into the canyon.

And these are my friends from the side of the road. Not in the park. Just along the side of Highway 50 on the way to Gunnison. (yes they were that close. I don't have an optical zoom on this camera. They were just chillin about 10 feet off the side of the road.)

My first weekend: The Colorado National Monument

Well, seeing as how this National Monument of a park is basically right in Grand Junction, I figure I'll start there for checking out the area. Obviously, it's beautiful. Kinda like a baby Grand Canyon that overlooks the town. You can hike, camp, and picnic there. But seeing as it's winter time, I'll just drive around it, enjoy the beauty & granduer, and take some pics to show all of you.

Of course with drop offs like that, they've got some fences to hold you back. Right? Well, there are some, but you'd think that it wouldn't be so easy to get around them...

There are also some really cool splines, towers, and mesas in this canyon.

And just as an explanation of how close this canyon is to Grand Junction, let's look at the next pic. Off in the distance is the mountain range known as the Bookcliffs. The Bookcliffs and Grand Mesa form one side of the Mesa Valley, while the National Monument forms the other. So in this next pic, the town you see between the canyon and the Bookcliffs is part of Grand Junction. Yes, it is that close. And just to prove these are all my shots....here's the zoom zoom.