Assorted other GB Activities

Among other things we did in the UK we of course got some climbing in on the Grit. I've wanted to climb on Grit for ages, ever since I first saw the movie "Hard Grit" obviously I was not doing anything that would constitute putting my neck on the line in the way that many of the people in that video were (certainly not with the family present). Grit is an interesting rock, more granular than sandstone but not even close to being conglomerate as far as how it climbs. We spent 3 days climbing on this unique stone, 2 before Edinburg and one after, and I went out on my own on one other evening (VIDEO). Dylan was able  to get in some more climbing on some of the smaller of the many boulders that litter the hillsides.

 After Edinburg we headed back through the Peak District and did a bit more climbing before stopping in Bath. Here Linda and Dylan are in front of the Abbey just outside the Roman baths.

 And Dylan in front of the bath.

 We then headed on to Stonehenge and took a tour that walked us through the country side culminating in a special access tour of the stones themselves, which allowed us to walk among the stones as opposed to viewing them from a raised catwalk about 100 feet back.

Our last day that included visiting Bath and Stonehenge and then driving to a hotel close enough to Heathrow that we would be able to make a noon flight was quite taxing and not something I would really recommend. Though in hind site I would just pass on going to Bath because of the crowds, it is kind of cool but at the same time it is difficult to enjoy.

Our flight back landed in Dallas and we spent a little time with Linda's grandma (98 years old) and then I headed back to Albuquerque while Linda and Dylan head to Austin with her dad to visit with the cousins.

Disneyland Day 2

Day 2 at Disneyland started with a shorter walk to "Downtown" Disney and a ride on the monorail,

 After going on a Finding Nemo submarine ride Dylan got picked to participate in a Padowan training "class" to learn the Jedi arts.

 At some point one of the children up on stage had a breakdown and Dylan was move up, front and center,

After they were done with some training they each had to face off against Darth Vader, this is pretty hilarious as Dylan's lightsaber fails,

Next we headed for lunch in Mickey's Toontown where there are a bunch of playground like areas for the kids, 

 And of course a city hall since it is a "Town"

Eventually Pluto emerged from City Hall to greet his fans, most notably, Uncle Chris.

 The rain kicked up again in the afternoon and we spent some time cowering under an overhang around a food booth before all the "Big Kids" got to leave the little ones and go on the Star Tours "ride". Ride being generous in that it is more of a moving room that does not go anywhere and a big 3D screen. R2D2 was there,

 as was C3P0,

and us "Big Kids"

 It was pretty cool. Amazing how something that barely moves can feel so real.

Eventually the rain subsided and 

we headed to Disney California Adventure and headed to Radiator Springs. Really looks just like in the movie,

 There were some "stars" out to take pictures with,

And Mater has his own ride with Dylan and my parents enjoyed.

Thoughts and Route Setting video

As many of you know I've driven a Tacoma for a long time, no longer. First it was a 1999 extended cab with a raised camper shell and a deck built in the back. After Dylan was born we needed to upgrade to 4 doors so I sold the '99 with 230,000 miles on it and got a 2009 4 door Tacoma to replace it, same style camera shell and the deck was rejigged to work in the larger bed. Everything was great until our house got broken into at the beginning of February and among the things that were taken was an extra key chain (it happened to be in a bag that was stolen). I looked into re-keying the truck and shell, it was going to cost close to $1000, so I checked with a Toyota dealership and I was able to trade my 2.5 year old Tacoma with over 40,000 miles on it for a brand new Prius and a check for $100. More thought on the change in another post.

That story and the new vehicle makes me more aware of other high milage/hybrid vehicles. Everyone is trying to get in on the HYBRID game. Listed at 20/23 mpg, and only $50,000 naturally it was in front of Whole Foods.

 Dylan getting his "team" picture taken, they don't actually play games yet at this age, just practice and drills.

 Dylan looking at fish in a circular tank that he was calling their elevator.

A little Route Setting 101, probably should be filled under, don't do it this way. Though we all have at one point or another. Impact drivers and ladders are much better, not sure why Anna was not using a ladder, we have about 10 of the short A frame ones. 

Spring is in the air, at least at the Zoo

Went to REI to replace a stolen piece of luggage the other day and figured out how to make those family trips a little cheaper. As you can see there is still a ton of extra space in the bag and on SouthWest you get 2 free bags per person.

Today Dylan and I headed for the Zoo. It was nice to get out in the beautiful weather after all the wind over the weekend. Spring is definitely in the air as evidenced by the animal behavior.

Here our lion tries to impress his new lady friend, she is new to the zoo as of this winter I think.

 This guy was out sniffing around, well, stuff you and I would not sniff, but getting ignored.

 Usually there is only one polar bear pacing on the wall, today it was both in tandem.

 The peacocks were out doing their thing. Dylan wanted to get a closer look, maybe not the best idea for a little guy. This peacock actually half charged or faked a charge at Dylan, it got him to back away.

 And the ever popular ducks with Dylan and his new trucker hat.

Nice day at the Zoo

The weather here has been crazy. On Monday or Sunday we had gusts of 75+mph in town and on Tuesday snow flurries. Today was 65-70 degrees and relatively calm, spring in New Mexico.

Today Dylan and I headed to the Zoo in the afternoon. We usually go in the mornings so it was different, including getting to see the polar bear feeding which was cool.

After the polar bears we checked out the seals and sea lions among other things.

Anyway, a nice day to be out. I have not been up to much outside of bolting a couple of routes, the latest being easier. I've been putting off the recovery from a slightly tweaked finger that happened while setting for the competition in Durango. So, I've not been climbing much and with the schizophrenic weather Lance and I have not been getting out to ride regularly, it's probably been 3 weeks since I've been on the bike. On the other hand I've started longboarding which is fun.

China Post #35 Video from Sun Asia

I thought this was pretty funny.

China Post #32 Trains

In the past 10-15 years China has invested heavily in high speed rail which is pretty cool. Many of the stations are closer in to towns and so the travel time is less as well as not needing as much time to check in and get through security. All in all, for trips up to about 1000 miles taking the train can actually be faster and certainly more comfortable as long as the train has assigned seating. The seats are bigger, recline further and you can always get up and walk around. The train we took from Xi'an to HuaShan had just opened a month or so ago and on the way out I had no concept of how fast we were moving, just that it was difficult to take pictures out the window. On the return trip I noticed the speedometer when it read 301 km/hr... about 187 mph and you could hardly tell, the ride was super smooth.

The next major line to open will be a Shanghai to Beijing train that will take 4 or 5 hours and is over 1000 km's, the flight time is about 2 hours plus the hour and a half you have to get to the airport, then collecting bags, so even if the drive time is the same you are still looking at about 4 hours for the flight.

Most of the high speed rail in China is with trains rated to 350 kph, but the typically only run at 310 kpm for passenger comfort. Then there is the Maglev from the Shanghai International airport to the edge of the city. The train runs off of magnetic levitation and while not as smooth it is freaking fast. They claim that the track is manufactured within 1mm over its entire length, but when you get jerked to the side 1mm at that kind of speed it is a bit harsh. While the track is built to within 1mm I'm willing to guess that the expansion joints that are quite regular might be off by a bit more. Anyway it was for me the high light of Shanghai and here is what it does.

China Post #10 Bingyu Gou

On Sunday we headed out to a really pretty valley up in the mountains called Bingyu Gou. From the photos that we'd seen it looked like a nice scenic valley with a river and and some limestone pillars sticking up out of the river. Now some of this turned out to be true but other thing could not have been further from the truth.

It probably was not the best day to go with it being a holiday weekend, the parking lot was full and there was a line of cars a half mile long waiting to get into the lot. Once we got dropped off and walked past the waiting cars we came to the entrance with its ubiquitous stone totem.

Now the dams in the back ground should have been our first clue as to what the park was about. We paid our entry of 120 yuan a person and we got on a ferry to go across the mini lake that the dams created. Dylan was IN LOVE with the boats.
As we motored up the river along with another boat, several others were headed in the opposite direction also loaded down with people. It is hard to see in this shot, but there is a temple on the top of the highest peak, then as you head down, a cell phone tower, power lines and another boat. Quite a contrast.
As we neared the dock we saw one of the pillars that sits out in the river, though thinking about it, it might not be "in" the river if it were not for the dams. Regardless it did look cool.
After docking and trying to get ourselves oriented, which was made more difficult by the driver we took miss translating south to north, telling us to meet him at the north entrance, which was closed instead of the south entrance. Once we got things sorted, it was into the heard. There was a resort off to the right across a bridge, a zip line to the left that you had to cross these concrete blocks to get to.
Other options included a ferry of some small boats, and everything cost more money. Here you can see the resort in the back ground and several of the rented boats to go along with another floating pillar.
We managed to find a way to get by without having to pay for one of the "activities" that involved some very steep stone steps up and over a ridge. At this point we should have figured it out but we were still holding out hope that things would get more scenic once we moved further from the entrance...remember the boats headed the opposite direction loaded with people.

Anyway, once we were past our second (first the boat then up and over the ridge to get to a bridge) water crossing we walked a short distance and were confronted with a small amusement park. There was a swinging pirate ship, water log ride, animated dinosaurs in the water around the rides, tram and mini bus rides. There was also this stone, the "beauty" stone.
For those that have not seen what some Asian toilets looks like.
Sadly at this point it was nearly impossible to enjoy the scenery. There were hoards of people and the mini buses were constantly speeding by in both directions honking their hors for people to get out of the way. All on a road that was only wide enough for a person or two in either side of the vehicle. See video at the bottom of the page. This did look pretty nice though.
Especially when compared to this. More contrast.
I was starting to wonder how much longer I was going to have to put up with the oversized golf carts, it had only been about 10 minutes when we came upon this scene at our 3rd and final river crossing. You can't see all the options here, but there is a person on a zip line, another on a tight rope with a hand line and a handful of different walk ways.

Again all costing some amount of money, and again not signs pointing to a way around without paying. We chose the cheapest and easiest option which was basically squares with gaps between them mixed with sections that were oversized rolling pins that you walked on. Dylan actually enjoyed walking across this more than I though he would.
At this point I was pretty frustrated with the whole thing. Between trying to not get shoved off the trail and not run over and having to pay for everything after paying to get into the park I just wanted to get out. Then we saw a sign saying how far we had to go, 5.7 km to the south entrance and it was all on a road, nobody was walking it but there were plenty of cars to keep us company. Ultimately one kind individual made her boy friend pull over and offered us a ride. We were both done and hopped in, I had to roll down the widow to get the door closed and stuck the top of the baby backpack out.

OH yeah, and the rock is not limestone, it is quartzite.

We met up with the driver at the south entrance and got in to head home. I though this sign was quite humorous and might sum up a lot of things from the experience. It is for a speed bump.
Here is video of one of the nicer golf cart buses.

All in all I still thing that Bingyu Gou could be a nice place but I don't think I would even consider going on the weekend again, especially a holiday weekend. The Chinese seem to have this inability to appreciate nature for what it is and feel the need to turn it into something different. If you are supposed to be having fun it needs to be an amusement park with rides. We've seen 3 now, Discovery Land, which we have not been to yet and is near Golden Pebble Beach seems like your standard park, the one just off of Xinghai Square which was OK, though expensive and finally the Bingyu Gou one which seems utterly excessive and a waste of a beautiful natural setting.

China Post #9 Xinghai Square

On Saturday we all headed into Dalian to check out Xinghai square. The day was kind of overcast and foggy, it reminded me a lot of San Francisco. In fact the weather here is very much like in the SF bay area. This is supposed to be one of the must see locations in Dalian and billed as the largest square in Asia, though it is more of an ellipse. The main feature of the square itself is this tall totem right in the middle.

Carved into the ground around the totem are all 12 of the Chinese zodiac signs. Below the signs are the elements and below those are the years for each sign and element. Here is Dylan next to his.
Outside the zodiac circle there were fields of flowers and in the background if you looked inland, there are loads of tall buildings, usually built in pairs.
There was a bike rental place just outside of the "square". Lots of people were renting tandems and triple bikes like this one.
This group was having some trouble getting started again.

Headed out of the "square" towards the beach there is this long sculpture of footprints.
They lead to a sculpture of a boy and girl playing in the sand up on this platform.
It was almost like a stretched half pipe for skate boarding. It was really steep at the tops and kids were trying to roller blade or ride scooters down it. We stopped at a coffee shop nearby that looked good and had been recommended by some of the "mommies" from the local expat group. While it was expensive the mocha and irish cream cheese cake were very good.
All around the edge of the ellipse were these wire mesh sculptures of people doing sports, I think there were all olympic events.

Back towards town is a large expo hall that is all glass on the front which made for nice reflections of the buildings behind.
For dinner we headed into uptown to a place called Brooklyn which is owned by an asian-american from Chicago. They are known for having the best pizza in town. We arrived before they actually opened but we're allowed in to look around and at the menu. This is the upstairs eating area.
The sausage panini was great.
and the pizza was definitely better than any other pizza we've had out here and it would be a pretty good restaurant in the US. It is just nice sometimes to eat something that your body is more accustomed to.
Here is a video of a game that several people were playing off of Xinghai square, out by the beach. I have no idea what it is called.