Panoramic View

I just downloaded the latest Windows Live Photo Gallery which has an auto panoramic stitcher... VERY COOL!

The blog shrunk the pic on upload, much better when viewed in full!

Happy New Year!

Yeah yeah, I know it is a bit late, but I have not talked to a few of you in a while... nor posted.

Hope Christmas and the rest of the holidays treated you all well. My Christmas was good; spent Christmas eve at my Aunt Deb's house. In the morning headed over the parents for breakfast with Rick, Gina and the kids; as usual my mom spent too much, of course she said the same as me. In the afternoon we did the traditional Ready-Hagemann party at Dick and Cheryl's, little White Elephant exchange, some laughs, Lakers game and of course the food. GOOD TIMES!

That weekend Ryan, James, Rick and I headed down to San Diego for the Chargers vs. Broncos Game. We scored on the seats and had an awesome time.


I had taken the week off between Christmas and New Years, but then decided I need to go hangout with my Aunt Judy and get some snowboarding in. I took my Goddaughter Lauren so she could take lessons and have some fun too. She did pretty good for her first time.

As you can see the weather was perfect and the conditions excellent for not have any new snow in a week.

Well had some incredible views to. On the way down the mountain to head back to my aunt's house we sat above the fog bank that entombs the valley floor. You usually only see this when flying, but even then you do not get the mountain top islands!

Spent New Years Eve at my cousin Cheyenne's house with her her kids, her boyfriend, her sister Sierra (and family) and their mom. Did not last very long... say about 2 minutes after midnight.

Now it is back to the grind... did everyone else's first week of this year seem a bit crazy?

Sandstone Peak, Santa Monica Mtns

Saturday I went out for a hike and decided to try a new trail with my brothers dog Todd. Using my new handheld GPS I headed down Hwy 1 and up into the mountains to Sandstone Peak.

The Peak, Mt Allen, is at 3111 feet and offers awesome morning views. You could see at least 5 of the Channel Islands, all this and it's December!

Taken on top of Mt Allen, Anacapa and Santa Cruz Islands in the backgroud.


Just some great views and I can not wait to come back up here, but for now I am trying to load up my GPS with as many waypoints and tracks as possible. So no repeats for a while.

Mishe Mokwa Trail sits in the valley created by Boney Mountain and Sandstone Peak; one of the unique views is Balance Rock.

Get out and enjoy our bounties!

Hong Kong, Part Doh!

I was not stateside for Thanksgiving, spent the long holiday in Hong Kong finishing up a project started two weeks ago. But don't feel bad for me (which I know you don't ;-) ) I was luckly enough to get out and about on this short trip.

Spent a bit of time at this place... the hot tub on the 76th floor of the W hotel. Nice view of Hong Kong island and very nice on the sore muscles.

Work uses a local IT vendor for onsite support of a mutual customer, they took me out to dinner Friday night. We ended up driving just north of the city to Sai Kung.

Outside the restaurants are all these aquariums with the catch of the day; crab, cuttlefish, clams, some type of shrimp that looks more like a lobster, and some de-lic-ious scallops was on our menu.

Not sure if these were for dinner.

Best part of this trip was going for a hike to Lantau Peak; start on the right on the road and ended up at the buddah statue and monastery.

Lantau Peak is the highest point on Lantau Island, adjacent to the airport, top left corner of the picture.

This is a view of Lantau Peak, far left, from near the road I started on. I was told this was a tough hike but it showed me some spectacular views.

The Hong Kong area had hundred of miles of trails, well made and well maintained. Allong the way are covered picnic areas and benches trail side to take in the view.

At 3075 feet is the top were a temporary shelter was built years ago for any unfortunate soul; luckly it was a gorgous day for me.

It was so steep coming down the backside; some steps were up to knee high on me.

Near the end of this section of the trail was a dedication called 'The Wisdom Path'; large split logs that had inscriptions of a ancient text (not ancient itself).

The last part of my hike brought me to the Tian Tan Buddah statue and the Po Lin Monastary.

This is the best picture I got of the buddah... the lighting when I was up underneath it did not lead to many interesting shots except for this one.

As you can see this buddah is telling me to stop and then flipping me the bird. What?

The whole area around the monastary was called Ngong Ping and had a gondola from the top down to a station near the airport. The views were awesome and gave me a few monments to look back on the trip.

Back to the rat race!

Thanksgiving... giving thanks?

One of my best friends blogged something yesterday that made me ponder; oh yeah, I ponder... sometimes! See http://cautionadultsatplay.blogspot.com/

A few years ago, I remember looking up the details of what thanksgiving was all about; did you know President Lincoln set forth a proclamation back in 1863 making the last Thursday of November, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens? Check out http://www.classicallibrary.org/lincoln/thanksgiving.htm for the genuine document. I don't remember that from school.

My favorite memories of Thanksgiving range from making hand turkeys in school to those awesome leftover sandwiches packed with stuffing and dripping with gravy; try making a shepherds pie, they're real good too! Back then I did not know what to be thankful for, school just told us that the pilgrims and the Indians had get togethers, but left out all the religious notations that Lincoln wanted us remember. My family always said to be thankful for our blessed lives, health and family. Again, not quite what Lincoln had planned for us, but that is OK.

Over the years, I have spent several Thanksgivings away from family and friends, which has brought a more meaningful understanding of this and all holidays. Thank the Lord, for which none of this is possible; thank your parents, siblings, family and friends, for they are your bond to humanity; be thankful for the hard times, because without them the good times just wouldn't be that good; and finally be thankful you live in the greatest place on earth... with all it's flaws, you could have been born where you do not have rights, privileges and chances to be who you are now.

Again this year I spend this holiday in a foriegn land and along with all the thankfuls I have already mentioned, I am thankful for the opportuinities my job has given me and the places it has taken me. Time spent away from those you care about, especially during the holidays, only makes the reunions that much more enjoyable.

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!

Jeff

Hong Kong... Part 1

Part One? I Know! So the story ends like this...

Right now I am still dealing with the jet lag and it sucks, and I leave tomorrow to go back... just enough time to not get a good night's sleep. NICE!

Ok enough of my wining. Lets start with a picture.

Alright this is a neat city, island, harbor, whatever you want to call it. You can hike, which I will do this next week, kick it on the beach and drink a beer, take a tram to the Peak and have dinner overlooking the city or work like me. I will definitely have to make it back here on my own time. The picture above is taken from my hotel bedroom in Kowloon, the mainland side of Hong Kong.

The night scene is pretty awesome, we had dinner up on 'the Peak' and took in all the views. You can not believe all the tall buildings; just like Manhattan, but a bit smellier and warmer. The only day my boss and I were able to escape and do anything fun was Sunday; we headed out to Stanley Market on the east side of Hong Kong Island where you can shop for every trinket and fake brand name shoes, purse or jeans you can think of. You can also just chill beach side and have a few beers and chat with other like-minded guys from Wales. Boy that San Miguel beer is good!

Well I do not have may stories to tell on this trip, but I have to talk about the hotel I stayed at. The W Hong Kong is definitely swank! I mean just check out the pool!

Located all the way up on the 76th floor the infinity pool over looks the harbor and city. The hot tub, right behind from where I took the picture of the pool, is also an infinity and was quite nice way of preparing for a day at work after getting a nice workout in the gym.

Well I will leave you with this. The building right next to the hotel had some cool architectural features, like a pool on the floor that bridges the two legs. That's right the red arrow is pointing to it. In the evening you can see the water shimmering.

Tomorrow off to Hong Kong again and will have another story to tell next week...

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a view!

I have been fortunate over the past 5 years to have a job the sends me around the world. One of the negatives is are the flights themselves coupled with the jet lag. Sitting and NOT sleeping on an 11 hour flight will take its toll, but I am not complaining. Sometimes you get to see some absolutely incredible views and I just had one of those flights.

As you know the shortest distance from one point to another is a straight line and on a curved surface such as our planet a flight path may take you over areas you may find desolate, but interesting. Take flying from Frankfurt, Germany to Los Angeles, you would not follow the longitude line but climb over Greenland to Canada then down.

I have flown this route over a dozen time and have only twice seen it where the skies were clear. Trust me when I say that these pictures do not do the view ANY justice, but I had to share them with you.

The views went on for miles, I tried to take some pictures of the glacial flows, but they only came out white... go figure! Speaking to the regular flight attendants, who were also gawking out the door window, they said that they have only seen this once or twice before; usually there is cloud cover.

Hope one day you will be able to see it!