 |
Last Update: 04/26/05
Unless otherwise noted these pictures are taken with a digital cameral. I've
been using a Canon PowerShot Digital Elph S110 since about July 2001. Before
that I had a Kodak DC290. Prior to late 1999,
I was using a Kodak DC50.
Parsons T-Shirt Museum (Under Construction)
3-D Photos
Jessi & Dan to Lake L'Homme Dieu Theater
June 5, 2004 -- We flew Jessi & Dan to Lake L'Homme Dieu Theater near
Alexandria, MN for 10 weeks of "theater camp". They'll do several
productions throughout the summer.
 | In the airplane.
This is a borrowed A36 (N6746T) I'm using while my Baron is in the
shop. |
| The theater. |
| Jessi & Dan's
cabin. They're the only married couple in the group of college
students attending this year. |
| From the air, looking
south. The theater is the building on the right -- you're looking at
it from the back. Jessi & Dan's cabin is in the trees to the
left of the parked cars. |
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
The kids stood in line for about 25 hours for Star Wars tickets on May 14,
2002. I joined them for part of the night. I brought an electric generator,
video projector, DVD and PA system and we showed Star Wars Episode I: The
Phantom Menace on a sheet taped to the side of the building from about 1AM to
3AM. These pictures were taken the next day just before we got in to get
tickets.
Tickets went on sale at 11:30AM for a midnight preview. After standing in
line for 25 hours for tickets, they stood in line for 12 more hours for seats.
We ended up being the first ones in the theater, which rapidly filled behind us.
CBA Expo 2002, Indianapolis, IN, January 28-February 1, 2002
20th Anniversary Trip to Winter Park, CO, January 9-15, 2001
Johnna and I celebrated our twentieth anniversary at Winter Park, Colorado.
It was my first time skiing in about 20 years, and Johnna's first time ever. Of
course we flew the Bonanza. It's about 4 hours flying time from Cedar Rapids. We
stopped in Grand Island, Nebraska for fuel and lunch.
| Me
and Johnna flying to Denver. Johnna normally has trouble with
motion sickness and has to get drugged up on Dramamine to survive.
This time we tried a product called "ReliefBand". It looks
just like a wrist watch. You put it on and it delivers mild electric
shocks every four seconds. You feel a tingling sensation in your
fingertips. It totally eliminated all symptoms of motion sickness
with no side effects. This product is amazing. |
| N8138R at Denver
Centennial Airport (APA). Another
shot of the airplane with the mountains in the distance. |
| First morning at
Winter Park, from our hotel window. |
| The Zephyr
Mountain Lodge claims to be 110 feet from this
lift. It is, but if you have your boots on they ask you to use
another door which is on the other side of the building and requires
you to walk around the building before you're 110 feet from the
lift. |
| Me and
Johnna going up the Gemini Lift. Johnna took lessons the first
day, then went up with me for parts of two other days.. |
| Johnna skiing. I
just pointed the camera behind me and fired to get this shot. |
| Me at Lunch
Rock at the top of the High Lonesome Express Lift, 11,200 feet. You can go
higher (and I did), but it's a long, cold, windy trail back to civilization
along a very exposed ridge. |
| From the highest point in Winter Park, above the tree line at
about 12,060 feet. Looking
back down at Lunch Rock. A video
panorama from the top of the world. |
KT's Accident
I'll come back and make these smaller as soon as I get an image editor of
some kind installed on the new Compaq.
| December 18, 2001: Someone pulled out in front of KT from a stop
sign. She didn't have time to stop. Here's
what it did to the front of her car. |
| Airbag deployment. If you've
never seen this, it pretty much totals your car even if nothing else
is damaged. |
ECPA Fall Seminar and Wright Brothers Memorial, November 3-7, 2001
Pictures from my trip with Jim VanDuzer to the Evangelical Christian
Publishers Association Fall Seminar and a side trip to First Flight
Airport at Kill Devil Hills (Kitty Hawk), NC.
| 3D views of the Appalachian mountains just west of Greensboro. View
1 and View 2. The
"feather" in the latter is a reflection in the window. |
| Jim on oxygen. At 9000 feet we
technically don't need oxygen but it helps to keep you alert,
headache free, and in a good mood. |
| Long final to runway 2 at
First Flight Airport (FFA). The Wright Brothers memorial is on the
right. Short final. With
trees lining both sides of the runway you get bumped around a little
on short final. I think that's why we look like we're way off to the
left. |
| My plane with the memorial
obelisk in the background. |
| Me and Jim at the
memorial. My wife always complains because I take pictures of
scenery and buildings (and airplanes) but not people. Here you go.
(Does this explain anything?) |
| Departure from FFA. We
departed on the runway near the top, from left to right. We circled
to the right and Jim shot this out the right side of the plane. The
visitor center, camp reproduction, and commemorative markers are on
the right, the monument on the hill to the left. We walked down the
main road just this side of the park to a restaurant just off the
screen on the left. Another
departure shot with the runway on the left and the memorial in
the center. |
| Overflying our hotel, the
Grandover Resort, on the way back from FFA. |
| Long final for runway 5 at
Greensboro. |
American Bonanza Society Convention, October 10-14, 2001
I bought a Beech Bonanza A36 airplane in June 2001. In October, Johnna and I
flew it to Mobile, AL for the ABS convention. About 160 airplanes arrived at the
Mobile Downtown Airport the same day we arrived, and I think there were about
250 airplanes total.
Family Vacation, Summer 2001
In July 2001 we went to Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York. This
was our first all-Amtrak vacation. So far it's been less than pleasant.
At this writing we're in Washington D.C., having taken the train from
Chicago. We were schedule to leave at 6:40PM but didn't even get on the train
until about 7:45. Dinner was supposed to start immediately but didn't start
until after 9PM. Announcements as to station arrivals, opening/closing of the
dining car, etc., were nearly inaudible. We had "deluxe"
accommodations that included our own bathroom with shower. But the water
pressure was so low that it was barely usable. The delayed departure carried all
the way through to arrival, putting us in around 3:30PM instead of 1:25PM. No
lunch was planned, which was fine when we were supposed to get in at 1:25. But
by 3:30 we were starved.
Well, this ain't the soapbox -- here's the pics:
July 29-30 -- On the train to Washington, D.C.
July 31-August 2 -- Washington, D.C.
| Wright Flyer at the National
Air and Space Museum (First powered flight) |
| Spirit of St Louis (First
solo flight across the Atlantic) |
| U.S. Capital building, and another
shot of the U.S. Capital |
| The gang in front of the
capital. We almost got kicked out of here. I had a run-in with the
lady at the information desk. I asked how I could find out where my
congressman's office was and she said "right behind you - only
one person at a time is permitted at the desk". So I turned
around, told the family to stay there, and headed down the hall
toward this one-person-at-a-time desk. Soon I hear the info desk
lady saying "Sir, you are not to go down that hallway. I
did not tell you to go down there." I said I
misunderstood and asked her where she meant. "I didn't mean to
go down that hallway. That is not what I said." "So
what did you mean?" I asked. She pointed to a poster on the
wall with everyone's office numbers. I said, "So only one
person at a time is permitted to look at the poster?" She said,
"No, only one is permitted at the desk." Looking around
and seeing no desk near the poster, I said, "What desk?"
She said, "The information desk." I said, "I was
the only one at the information desk." She said, "No, your
whole family was following you to the desk." Then she started
into this "If you're going to give me a hard time about this I
can ask security to escort you out" routine. It kinda went
downhill from there. I couldn't get her to just go back to her
little desk and let me read the sign. Finally she gave up and
stomped back to her little chair. |
| Some shots from inside the capital building: The rotunda
ceiling, rotunda walls,
and inside the old senate chamber. |
| Movie: Hope diamond in its new
display. Much better than it used to be (no long lines, easier to
see). |
| Movies: The boys jump in the pool;
John swimming; Dillon
swimming. |
| The original NCC-1701
("no bloody A, B, C, or D!") model used in the original
Star Trek series. On display in the gift shop in the National Air
and Space Museum. |
| Glad we didn't take this tour bus. |
| Lincoln busts (3D) and
life mask from the Lincoln Museum in the basement of Ford's Theater.
(See my 3D page for viewing
instructions.) |
| Korean War Memorial (3D). |
| Lincoln Memorial (3D). |
| The crew worn out after the
long walk down to the Lincoln Memorial at the end of the Mall. We
took a cab back. After this shot Dillon said, "Wait! I think I
blinked!" |
| The Smithsonian
"castle". |
Philadelphia Aug 3-5
| Self-portrait at breakfast
(Mrs. K's Diner). |
| Independence Hall from
the Liberty Bell area. |
| Independence Hall (3D)
from the courtyard area. This is the area where the Declaration of
Independence was read publicly after being signed. |
| The kids, worn out
after a lot of walking in Philly. It would have been shorter but
they insisted on the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch -- about 8 blocks from
here. |
| Benjamin Franklin's print
shop (foreground) and house (3D). The house is gone, but some of
the foundation remains just below the level of this courtyard. There
are "windows" through the pavement where you can view the
excavated foundation. The floor plan is drawn on the pavement, and
this framework outlines the outside of the house. Not a bad way to
display this non-existent house. |
| Elfreth's Alley (3D). One
of the oldest continuously occupied neighborhoods in the U.S.,
occupied since 1713. Very quaint. |
| Benjamin Franklin statue (3D)
at the Franklin Institute, a hands-on science museum for kids. |
| I should have shot these two in 3D so you can get the effect. The
Franklin Institute has a participatory magic exhibit. This device
made John and Dillon
appear as if they'd been decapitated and served up on some kind of
contraption to keep their heads alive. |
New York City Aug 6-9
New York City was hot, hot, hot this week. Temps around 100 and
heat index even higher. People were nice in general; less obvious
homelessness and crime than Philadelphia (which should be called
"the city of brotherly smells").
| View from our hotel room at the Kimberly Suites on 50th between
Lexington and Third. Looking south
(3D) and looking east
(3D) |
| The boys at the Central Park Zoo: Looking at the goats.
As rabbits. As the spider
and the fly. Feeding of the sea
lions. |
| Armored horses at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art. We managed to get the kids to let us
spend about an hour at the Met. We trimmed it down to a few rooms of
Rembrandts, Van Goghs, and Rodin sculpture, plus the exhibit on
medieval arms and armor. |
| From the top of the Empire State Building. It was rather hazy so
these didn't turn out too well. Looking east
(3D), looking north (3D), and
looking south (3D). Also a
pidgeon-eye self portrait
(that is, looking into the observation area from the outside of the
fence). |
| We did most of our traveling by subway. Washington DC beats NYC
hands-down for user-friendliness of the subway system. It's
virtually impossible for a tourist to figure out the NYC subway by
just showing up at one of the stops and reading the signs. In fact,
the station we first came into (Penn Station train terminal) had no
route map and no explanation of fares. We ended up taking a cab to
the hotel as a result. Then we got a subway map from the concierge
and we were fine. So here's the boys
waiting for a train, and here's an excellent picture of Liz
waiting for a train. |
| The Dakota apartment building
at 72nd and Central Park West, where John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived
before John's death in 1980. The entrance
where Lennon was shot. The Imagine
Mosaic across the street in the Strawberry Fields area of
Central Park. |
| Liz and boys at Medieval Times
Dinner & Tournament. At this show you're transported back to
10th century Europe and fed half a chicken, ribs, and potatoes with
no silverware while you watch your favorite knight battle to the
death. I didn't get any pictures of the show itself because the
lighting wasn't good enough. |
| A window at St. Patrick's
Cathedral. Many windows and statues here. Not unlike the cathedrals
we visited in England. |
| Radio City Music Hall has
been recently restored to better-than-opening-night splendor.
Pictures don't quite capture it. |
| Craig and Rupert in
front of the Hello Deli, next door to the Ed Sullivan Theater where
the Late Show staring David Letterman is taped. If I have to explain
who Rupert is, then you wouldn't get it anyway. |
Conventions and Events, 2001
2001 CBA Expo (January)
Laridian exhibited MyBible with NIV and KJV Bible Text with HeavenWord
(our US distributor) at the 2001 CBA Expo in Louisville, KY. January 31 to
February 2, 2001. CBA Expo brings several thousand Christian bookstore owners
and buyers together for seminars and to purchase products.
| An overexposed shot of the HeavenWord
booth. Our MyBible display is on the right. |
| A pieced-together wide-angle view of the HeavenWord
booth. There's no traffic because this is just before the show
opened. We were fairly busy throughout this show. |
| Biblesoft (PC Study
Bible) booth. |
| Epiphany (Bible
Explorer) booth. Their booth was interesting in that it was, for the
most part, self-service. There were often no employees manning the
booth. You could just fill in an order form at the counter to place
an order. |
| iExalt (WordSearch) booth.
This one looks crowded, but everyone in this picture is a vendor --
either from iExalt or a competitor. |
| Logos (Logos Library
System) booth. |
| Parsons Technology
(QuickVerse) booth. |
CBA International Convention (July)
Laridian announced the retail version of MyBible with NLT and NKJV at
the 2001 International Christian Booksellers Convention, July 9-12 in
Atlanta, GA.
| AGES
Software booth |
| Biblesoft
booth |
| Epiphany
Software booth |
| Findex.com
booth. This one is hard to see. The "1000" and
"1100" signs are aisle numbers. The other banners are
hanging from a superstructure that is part of the Findex booth. |
| HeavenWord booth |
| HeavenWord booth, 3-D
(cross-eyed). I only have PhotoDraw here on my laptop, and it keeps
giving me pixilated images so this isn't too good. |
| MyBible display in
the HeavenWord booth. |
| iExalt
booth |
| Logos
booth. It's hard to see the dimensions of this booth since it has no
walls and no discernable edges. It's a bunch of chairs and tables
with a central projector and screen. |
| Tuesday some kind of psycho clown was making enormous balloon
sculptures for kids. This
kid's mom said I could take his picture. |
| Malaco music had one of the
cooler booths. This is set up like a 50's diner. The flat panel
screens on the counter look like menus but actually serve up CD
tracks. |
| Another cool booth (Moody).
Follow the tree-lined paving brick path past gas lamps and park
benches to a gazebo in the center. Stop for refreshments at the
umbrella-covered carts on each end of the path. |
| I tend to not recognize any of the celebrities at this convention.
I've at least heard of the band Third Day. This is three
of the four band members (the fourth is behind the girl on the
left) at a CD-signing. Sorry about the focus... I skipped the flash
so as not to draw attention. |
| Craig
after a long day of conventioning. |
Pocket PC 2002 Launch (October)
Laridian announced PocketBible for Pocket PC 2002 and previewed the
New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance with Hebrew and Greek
Dictionaries for PocketBible at the Pocket PC 2002 Launch event in San
Francisco on October 4, 2001. Laridian was a Premier Sponsor of the
event.
Conventions and Events, 2000
On April 19, 2000 Laridian was privileged to participate with
Microsoft in the launch of the Pocket PC at Grand Central Terminal in
New York City. We unveiled PocketBible, the first Bible software for the
new platform, and the first non-Microsoft application to make use of
ClearType technology.
| Our display in the
very crowded exhibit area. You can see Jeff talking to another
exhibiter in the center |
| Me and Jeff |
| Steve Ballmer at the press
conference announcing Pocket PC. |
Jeff Wheeler and I attended our first Christian Computing Convention
as Laridian in May, 2000
Laridian introduced its first retail product, MyBible with NIV and
KJV Bible Text, at the 2000 CBA International Convention in New
Orleans, LA.
| Our display in the
HeavenWord booth at CBA. HeavenWord is distributing our retail
product in the US. |
Buzz Aldrin at Mars Society Convention, August 1999
In August 1999 my oldest daughter convinced me to take her to a
convention of the Mars Society. The purpose of the society is to promote
colonization of Mars. I was expecting Roswell-nuts but found them for
the most part to be quite sane. The highlight of the convention for me
was meeting Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon. (Scanned
from 35mm photos, hence the relatively poor quality.)
Planes and Pilots, October 1999
Scanned from 35mm.
Hanson Mall Appearance, June 2000
My 12-year-old is a Hanson fan. If you haven't heard of Hanson, they're three
homeschooled brothers from Tulsa, OK who are making quite an impact on the
music scene. If you haven't listened to their latest CD (This Time Around)
you should check it out. Definitely not just for kids. These guys are
good.
Hanson did a promotional appearance at a mall about 4 hours from here
so we went to see them. Liz got to meet them and got their autographs. I went
along to take pictures. Liz offers Hanson-fan hosting services at www.glassysurface.net,
where you can see all the pics. A few selected ones are here.
Family Trip to England, May 2000
Anticipating our oldest daughter starting college in the Fall of
2000, we gave her a choice of where she'd like to go for vacation and
she chose England. We spent 19 days driving around England and Scotland
in May 2000. Here are some observations and some photos.
Observations
| England hasn't discovered air conditioning. Yes, it doesn't get that
hot, but even on a 70-degree day, the top floor of a hotel gets hot. And
if you open the windows you get no cross-draft so the room just never
cools down. Dumb. |
| Scotland has no coin-operated laundries. The hotel receptionist thought
it would be a great idea but had never seen one. |
| Coke is served with a slice of lemon and no ice. And it's served about 8
ounces at a time. Early in the trip I fought this at every turn but I got
used to just asking for ice and refills. And the lemon doesn't hurt anything. |
| "Roundabouts" are cool. We need these in the US. They're like a combination
of a 4-way stop and an unmarked intersection. All you have to do is look
right. When it's clear, enter the roundabout and then exit at your exit.
If you miss the exit go around again. They work great. |
| Our car talked to us as we went down the motorway. "You are traveling
northbound on the M8 near junction 6. Traffic traveling slowly between
junctions 8 and 10. Expect 10 minute delay." Very cool. We need this, too. |
| Driving on the left is easy. We did the right thing to drive immediately
from Heathrow to a smaller town our first day in order to get used to things. |
| Language issues: "Offside lane" apparently means the far-right lane. "Brilliant!"
as in "If I could have your credit card, that would be brilliant!" must
mean "great" or "wonderful". "Zebra crossing" is a pedestrian crossing.
A "Humped Zebra Crossing" means the crossing is raised like a speedbump...
not, to the girls' disappointment, that you can expect to see striped camels ahead. |
| English pop music is really, really bad. None of these guys have to worry
about making it big in America. It's all "dance music"... just push the
automatic rhythm button on your Casio keyboard and use the auto-chord
function to play a tune. That's pretty much it. If you really want a
big hit, add one sentence that repeats over and over, like "I wanna see
the sunshine after the rain." Do that for two or three minutes. You're a star. |
| All sinks have separate hot and cold faucets. You can't wash your hands
with warm water unless you first fill the sink. Dumb. |
| If you like big breakfasts, this is the place. Traditional English breakfast
includes: Hash browns, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, sausage, bacon, baked
beans, "black pudding", "white pudding", and deep fried bread. Plus various
fruits. Don't ask what's in the "pudding". |
| Nobody serves food between 2:30PM and 6PM. You have to eat when everyone
else does or you don't eat. |
| If you order a Margherita (not sure how you spell it, but back home it's a
drink made with Tequilla) you get a cheese pizza. |
| Don't stay in the Travel Lodge hotels... they have no phones in the rooms. |
| It's illegal to overtake slower traffic on the LEFT. That is, on the
motorway (like our interstate highways) the slowest traffic is in the left
lane, then it speeds up as you move right. You can't pass someone on the left.
This would be like passing on the right on the interstate. |
| No washcloths at the hotels. The British treat washcloths like toothbrushes:
You bring your own with you because it's gross to use someone else's. |
| Best site: Liverpool Beatles tour. Best city visited: York. Best sites
in London: Rosetta Stone at British museum, Harrison's Clocks at the Royal
Observatory. Best food: Carrot and orange soup. |
Stonehenge and Avebury Circle
May 14, 2000
Glastonbury and Wells
May 15, 2000
| Glastonbury Abbey.
The remains of a 12th-13th century church. |
| Glastonbury
Chalice Well. Legend has it that Joseph of Arimithea brought a chalice of
Jesus' blood and sweat here and dropped it in the well. My picture of the well
itself (a hole in the ground) didn't turn out, but the Lion's head is just
below the well and it is a place where you can get a drink and be healed by
the "vibratory powers" endued by the Earth in the water. Uh huh. |
| Glastonbury
Chalice Well Falls and Pool. I just about fell in getting this one. Wade here
to relieve foot problems I guess. |
| St. Cuthbert's parish church
at Wells. Just a small town church. |
| Wells Cathedral. Wells is
England's smallest Cathedral town. I thought I took more pics but just got
this one of the Quire room at one end of the cathedral. We went to an
evensong service here and heard a girl's choir. Very angelic, but not my idea
of good religion. Lots of pomp and circumstance. Little content. No melody.
But well done. |
| Wells Cathedral Cemetary.
There were lots of dead guys in the cathedral, too. Going back to A.D. 1000 or so. |
Bath and Woodstock
May 16, 2000
| Roman Baths in Bath. Bath is the
site of a natural hot spring. The Romans built baths here in the first century A.D.
and occupied them for 400 years. They were abandoned for several hundred years,
then re-occupied during the middle ages, then again during the nineteenth century.
The pool and pavement date from the Roman era. Part way up the wall you can see a
change in texture from the Victorian period. The Romanesque statues around the
upper balcony are Victorian. |
| Blenheim Palace and
in 3D. This is one of
the few (only?) palaces in England that is actually occupied. Most of the rest
are basically museums. The palace is occupied by the 11th Duke of Marlborough.
It turns out that Winston Spencer Churchill was born here, as he was a cousin of
this family. Lady Diana (Spencer) is of this family as well. I know nothing about
British history and the whole Duke thing but this was a pretty cool place. No
pictures allowed inside. Lots of paintings, tapestries, and really old stuff. |
Stratford-Upon-Avon and Warwick
May 17, 2000
| Shakespeare's Birthplace in Stratford. It's weird to visit a place that's been a tourist attraction longer than the United States has been a country. |
| Warwick Castle. Didn't catch much of the history. The castle is built with a natural "mound" as one of its sides (opposite this wall). Pictures below are from the mound. |
| Warwick Castle Spires 3D. A fun 3D shot. Ignore the moving trees. |
| Warwick Castle Courtyard 3D. A big place. Lots of rooms to explore on your right. This view is looking back toward the wall pictured in the first Warwick castle picture, above. |
| Warwick Castle view from mound. The high point in the castle wall offers this stunning view of the English countryside. It would be better on a sunny day, but you get the idea. |
Liverpool
May 18-19, 2000
Despite what Liverpublians or whatever they call themselves like to think, the Beatles are the main attraction here. You can do a bus tour past places like "Strawberry Field" and "Penny Lane" but we paid extra for a private tour through a company we found on the Web. If you go there, this is the right way to do it.
The tour guide was really excited as we waited for our "limo". She said it was all fancy with leather interior, etc. and was the limo all the rock stars used when they came to town. She was telling us about the shaded windows and everything when it pulled up... a late model Plymouth Voyager LX. I didn't have the heart to tell her we have two of those in our garage back home! But still it was a great way to see the sights.
| The church recreation hall where Paul and John first met. John's band The Quarrymen was playing at a church social. A mutual friend invited Paul to meet John. Neither was too impressed with the other at the time. When we were there a Channel 4 crew (UK has BBC, ITV and "Channel 4") was finishing up shooting the scene for a documentary to air in October. |
| Jacaranda Pub. While most people associate The Cavern with the Beatles, John and Paul actually played together here first as "Johnny and the Silver Beatles" or some such thing. The cellar bar in which they played is still there, and the walls are still covered with paintings by John and Stuart Sutcliffe, who left the group to go to art school before the Beatles hit it big. |
| The girls in front of the Cavern Club with John Lennon. |
| The family at Penny Lane. I have video of the barbershop, bank, etc. mentioned in the song. |
| "Eleanor Rigby" Grave was actually discovered after the song was written, in the graveyard at the church where John and Paul first met. Paul said he made up the name. Not clear if it's subconsciously from this grave stone (third from left). |
| Eleanor Rigby "Lonely People" statue on a quiet Liverpool sidestreet is this little statue. |
| Strawberry Field gate. The week before we visited, someone stole the famous gate and sold it for scrap metal. Fortunately it was recovered and will be reattached. This "rare" photograph shows the temporary gate. |
| Paul's house at 20 Forthlin Rd is now a National Trust property. It is the only home of a 20th century person among the Trust proerties. This is the modest government housing project home that the McCartney's lived in until 1964. Many Beatles tunes were written here including Love Me Do and I Saw Her Standing There. There's no public parking... you have to take a bus from the tourist office. We were the only ones on the tour we took so it was very cool... we were the only ones in the house. The house is restored to appear as it would have in the early 60's and features photos by Paul's brother Michael, who was a photographer and artist. The accompanying audio tour included narration by Michael and Sir Paul himself. In the narration, Michael always referred to Paul as "our kid." |
Edinburgh
May 20-21
| Edinburgh Castle sits on a promentory above the city. This isn't a very good picture as the bright sky wreaked havoc with the auto exposure. The point is the piece of land it sits on is surrounded on three sides by the high volcanic rock cliffs you see here, so it only needs ot be defended on one side. As such it was never taken by direct assault, though it was taken after a two-year seige. The Scottish Crown Jewels are kept here, though Scotland is now under British rule. |
| Edinburgh Castle interior buildings. I think this was an infirmary when it was first built. |
| Looking south over Edinburgh from castle across to the Firth of Forth. The canons on the wall have never been fired in anger. In fact, they were never needed in the first place. During a visit by Queen Victoria (?) she saw no canons and so ordered that some be placed there. It just seemed fitting that a castle should have canons. The problem is they're front-loading. Since they're looking out over a 400-foot drop it's a little tough to get in front of them to load them. |
| John Knox statue at Edinburgh Cathedral. Knox preached his first sermon here in 1559, then started the Presbyterian church. |
| Yet another 3D cemetary shot. |
| A street piper. No trip to Scotland would be complete without one of these. We actually saw about three. Plus a visiting mariachi (?) band. |
Hadrian's Wall
May 22
| Hadrian's Wall near Homesteads. In A.D. 122 Emporer Hadrian ordered his troops to build a wall across the northernmost limits of the Roman empire in Britain. There's more to it than this, but the point is the wall is about 1900 years old. That's old. It's 80 miles long. |
York
May 23-25
I think York was the most interesting city on the trip. In it you see the varied history of this island... Roman, Viking, Anglo-Saxon, Norman, etc. For example, York Minster cathedral is built on the site of a Norman cathedral, which was built on site of a Roman military building. In the undercroft you can see the remains of the past buildings on which it was built.
London
May 26-31
| Richard I (The
Lionheart) in front of the Parliament building. |
| Oliver Cromwell in front of the Parliament building. In the early 1600's Cromwell led a rebellion against Charles I and won. He beheaded Charles and established some kind of parliamentary rule of England. When Cromwell died, the people were lost so they found Charles II and crowned him king, then dug up Cromwell's rotting body and hung him. So much for reform. |
| Tower Bridge. This is not "London Bridge" of the nursery rhyme. Some rich American bought the original London Bridge and set it up in Lake Havasu City, AZ. He thought he was getting this bridge. |
| Egyptian Obelisk. I think this is "Cleopatra's Needle" but I'm not sure. The Brits found this in Egypt in the 19th century and (what else) shipped it home. They ran into a storm and dumped it overboard. It was later recovered and given to Britain and set up here. They put two sphynxes beside it to "protect" it but faced them the wrong way. Oh well. |
| Girls near Westminster. |
| Big Ben. |
| Queen Victoria Statue in front of Buckingham Palace. You can't go in Buckingham Palace. Bummer. |
| Funland (formerly SegaWorld). This pic is for Liz. Of limited interest to everyone else. |
| Liz in front of fountain in Trafalgar Square. Another one for Liz. |
| Liz in front of statue in Trafalgar Square. Another one for Liz. |
Day 2
Day 3 - British Museum
| Egyptian Burial Figurines 1500BC (3D). These are about 6 inches high. I just thought they'd make a nice 3D image. |
| Rosetta Stone. They don't make this easy to photograph, as it's in a glass case. The Rosetta Stone was the key to deciphering hieroglyphics. Archaeologists uncovered this in the early 1800's and realized it contained the same story written in Greek, demotic and hieroglyphics. By comparing the accounts it was possible to decode the meanings of certain words. My picture is terrible, but it shows detail of the hieroglyphic/demotic section and has a picture of the full stone inset. |
| A Hindu statue in 3D |
| Another Hindu statue in 3D |
Day 4 - Royal Observatory, Shakespeare's Globe Theater
| Craig at 0'0" Longitude. This is at the
Royal Observatory in Greenwich (pronounced "grenich"). In 1884 or so the world agreed to
measure longitude in degrees east or west of the position of the Astronomer Royal's
telescope at this observatory. The coolest thing here, though, are John Harrison's four
time pieces, built in the 1700's in an attempt to accurately measure longitude. See the
review of Longitude by Dava
Sobel at my Web site for the story. They wouldn't let me take pictures inside so I can't show them. The deal was that you have to be able to measure time accurately at sea in order to measure longitude. The pendulum clocks of the day were inaccurate in a pitching boat. Harrison created three large (about one cubic foot each) clocks in an attempt to overcome this problem. Finally in the late 1700's while building a pocket watch he realized he was going about it all wrong. He then designed his fourth clock ("H4") that is the size of a large pocket watch (like 6" in diameter). It maintains accurate time regardless of rolling seas and temperature changes. All four clocks are on display in the museum here. |
| Shakespeare's Globe Theater has been re-built for tourists. For £5 you can stand like the peasants and watch a 3-hour performance of Hamlet. If you go, spring for the real seats. Shakespeare is good, but he doesn't age well when you're standing up. |
Australian Software Tour
In September 1996 I accompanied one of our Australian distributors to a number of
venues where we presented QuickVerse 4.0 and STEP. Here are some random shots from
the other side of the world.
| Sydney from the air. You can make out the
harbor bridge and the Opera House if you know where to look. Sydney reminds me of Seattle
or San Francisco with several striking buildings and bridges. |
| Sydney Opera House. More like an opera
complex, the Opera House features several stages. Quite an interesting look. |
| Downtown from the Opera House. I was here
a day before they announced the new logo for the 2000 Olympic Games. Officials promised
these would be "the athletes games" and wouldn't be "hijacked by corporate
America." I look forward to seeing them pull these games off with no merchandising
and no corporate sponsorship. If they really want to make them the athlete's games I'm
sure they won't want to have any television coverage. After all, that would turn the
athletes into performers and the Olympics are about sport, right? [Oops, thought I was on
the Soapbox page <g>.] |
| An old building in Perth. Sorry I didn't
catch the names of these old buildings. Perth, in Western Australia, is a beautiful
combination of old 19th century buildings and modern sky scrapers. |
| Another old building in Perth. |
| Hairy Fishnuts practicing their religion
in Perth. (You have to be an Outland fan to get that one. Remember Opus?) |
| Train station in Perth. |
| They're everywhere! Kentucky Fried Chicken
goes simply by "KFC" in Australia (where the residents wouldn't know Kentucky
from Iowa). Burger King came to Australia to find that someone had already registered the
Burger King name, so they go by "Hungry Jacks". The menu (including the Whopper)
is the same. And of course McDonalds is McDonalds wherever you go. (Though instead of
adding earth worms to their meat like they do in the US, down here they use kangaroo.) |
Flying a B-17
The Aluminum Overcast is the EAA's restored B-17 from World War II. For a small
fee, you can fly this baby for 15 minutes. My dad and I went for a ride on June 17, 1996.
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