Category: Travel

Virgin Islands National Park

Post author By TravisGood
Post date June 15, 2012
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Virgin Islands Vacation — It was a day for wearing white and orange it seems. And why not? We were on vacation!

My wife is smart. After years of planning vacations she’s become really good at finding the right vacation destinations. In this case it was a Caribbean island which was conveniently a part of the U.S., had all the beach resort amenities that my ladies enjoy and lots of outdoor activities which I prefer.

The U.S. Virgin Islands is two thirds National Park! It has dramatically beautiful beaches, tremendous hiking trails, great undersea coral gardens, historic ruins and all on a compact island. Seriously, there was plenty to keep me busy while they baked in the sun. Of the 20 official hiking trails within the park I hiked almost two thirds of them. One took Kelsey and me to the sea where we swam to cool off before returning to our mountain starting point.

We had a great time and may be where we head with grandkids … some day.

Family Travel

NYC in 29 Hours

NYC with Kelsey and Kristen - Times Square — The lights are bright on Broadway at Times Square!

A month ago Kelsey asked if I’d take her and Kristen to Manhattan. Having given whirlwind tours of The City on several occasions I agreed and these past couple of days were when I had to come through. The raw stats: 10 hours to and fro, 29 hours on the island of which seven were spent sleeping. That already sounds ambitious but that’s only the beginning.

We started with a walk up Broadway from 34th to 59th. We toured the south half of Central Park then caught a train back to 42nd Street to catch our Circleline boat tour around the island. When we got back we hung out in Times Square after dark then went to the Empire State Building to look out over The City at night. When we finally crashed at our hostel, sleep was not an issue.

The following morning we started in Rockefeller Center, took in a street fair along 10 blocks of Sixth Avenue, and walked over to catch the tram to Roosevelt Island where we meandered about. The subway got us first to Grand Central Station where we explored its cavernous interior and then to downtown where we visited Ground Zero, Wall Street, and Battery Park. Feeling plumb tuckered out we next caught a ride back to where we started.

As tours go, the pace of ours was fairly unrelenting. However, Kelsey had wanted to give Kristen the experience of a lifetime and I did my best to help her achieve that. As to whether we were successful I guess only Kristen can say. As for me, I had a wonderful time but am happy to now be sitting idle and typing this post. 😉

Highlights of our trip can be seen after the link.

Education Make Technology Travel

Fab Lab Network Symposium

Post author By TravisGood
Post date April 17, 2012
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The Fab Lab model originated at MIT’s Media Lab around 10 years ago and has since grown to a network of over 100 facilities worldwide. Each fab lab is a small scale workshop for digital fabrication where ideas are modeled in software and cheaply prototyped using computer controlled (CNC) tools. Sounds exotic, I know, but it’s real and potentially the biggest thing to hit manufacturing in a century.

I first fell in love with digital fabrication when I saw it in action at Maker Faire in San Mateo, CA. Later Neil Gershenfeld’s “FAB: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop” started to flesh out the vision. However, it was in my travels to makerspaces and seeing what makers were doing that inspired me to keep learning. My six weeks at TechShop were a direct result of this.

Fab Labs in the United States have formed an association and the meeting I attended in Tulsa was the U.S. Fab Lab Network Symposium’s third annual meeting. Topics were organizing, planning, and training to advance the effectiveness of the network. Still a work in progress but great that such an effort is underway.

Tulsa wasn’t the most obvious place to hold it. Can’t say I’ve even heard of conferences being held there but it was for a good reason. Fab Lab Tulsa is a new facility and they were in an excellent position to host the event. It was well done and while there aren’t enough resources to get their ambitious agenda complete, the heart and spirit are strong.

Here are just a few shots from the Fab Lab itself:

Make Technology Travel

Makerspaces Aplenty!

Since Maker Faire I’ve been fascinated with the burgeoning variety of hobby spaces where tinkerers gather. Begun typically after a chance meeting of a few enthusiasts, the first period of time is often spent meeting periodically at a local coffee shop with free wifi. The ambitions bloom but financial resources are always a constraint. Finally, enough people want to make it happen and they band together to fund the lease of a space.

Education Make Technology Travel

TechShop University

Twenty five years ago I graduated from undergraduate with a degree in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering … and left to spent a career in information services. Recently I learned about new fabrication tools (3D printing, laser cutting, CNC milling) and became intrigued. So much did I want to understand this new landscape of production technology that I decided to invest six weeks of my life at TechShop San Francisco.

TechShop is a sort of health club of tools. You pay a monthly membership fee and for that you can use their workshop as much as you like. What tools do they have? Pretty much everything under the sun. Can you just walk in and start using any tool? No, before you can do much of anything you have to take classes on safety and basic use. With that as my reality I defined my plan.

Bridge Family Ocean Travel

Ladies in San Francisco

This trip was special. On this trip I was joined not only by my daughters Courtney and Kelsey but also by my wife Beth! When the lure is San Francisco and it’s snowy cold back home then I guess they can be coaxed.

They came in two waves toward the end of my time at TechShop.

Family Mountain Road Travel

The Illusive Mount Lemmon

Post author By TravisGood
Post date January 10, 2012
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Twice previously I’ve tried to get to the top of Mount Lemmon but its 25 mile drive, its 6,400 foot climb, its weather all proved obstacles given my time constraints. That wasn’t going to happen this time. Today I was making it my hightest priority; other priorities would be sacrificed.

So why? What’s the big deal with Mount Lemmon? I suppose I’ve become intrigued by sky islands, where one experiences change through elevation. With this ascent one climbs from desert to alpine, the equivalent of going from Mexico to Canada. At stages throughout there are remarkable changes.

Lighthouse Museum Travel

Coastal Connecticut at Christmas

Post author By TravisGood
Post date January 3, 2012
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Dinosaur Park — Nothing says Christmas like a giant dinosaur, don’t you agree? Such an oddity, a park filled with life-sized replicas of these ancient beasts. Closed for Christmas and definitely worth revisiting.

In Connecticut for the holidays with some time on our hands? No problem, Kelsey and I decided to take a trip up the coast. Themes were to be the lighthouses and historic sites along the Boston Post Road from New London, CT to Watch Hill, RI and that’s what we did.

Family Hike Travel

Walking to know Manhattan

Post author By TravisGood
Post date December 4, 2011
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Central Park Reservoir — Smack in the middle of Central Park is NYC’s reservoir named after Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. It’s a stunning contrast of flat water to New York skyline and Kelsey captured it nicely at dusk.

Kelsey and I left Saturday morning for NYC. We arrived around 2:00PM and proceeded to walk from Macy’s on 34th Street up to and meandering through Central Park to visit Columbia University before heading to our hostel on 103rd and Amsterdam. The following morning we took a subway up and out of Manhattan to just over the river in The Bronx. From there we spent 5.5 hours walking down Broadway the entire 14 mile length of Manhattan to Wall Street and Battery Park. Before 36 hours had passed we were back home in D.C.

Historical Mountain Museum Road Travel

Ninth Time Across the Continent

Post author By TravisGood
Post date October 16, 2011
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Bumble Bee Plane — Is there any way that looking at this world-record tiny plane won’t prompt the thought of a bumble bee? Believe it or not it does fly with crazy-cramped quarters for the pilot; but it doesn’t buzz.

Having driven from NYC to Yosemite in 72 hours going west during my eighth crossing this year I was content to take my time going east on my ninth crossing. I managed to spend three days in Arizona and New Mexico and a fourth day in Colorado. Then I heard that my new iPhone had arrived and within three days I was home again. It’s nice to be back.

While I loitered, I saw many things but I’ll only mention four here now.