Can you swim in melted dry ice without getting wet?

After attending the Ground Zero hash campout, Jason, Kristen, and I went to the ICE! exhibit at Gaylord Palms. This was one of the first trips/dates that Kristen and I did together, so I wanted to maintain a sort of tradition and figured this would be the best chance to see it. I purchased tickets ahead of time, but was pretty surprised to see the extensive lines around, so after talking to the group, we decided to just purchase the VIP access pass that enabled us to skip the several hour wait. Although the event, with parking, is decently expensive, I still really enjoy seeing all the formations and designs and was glad to experience it again and will probably sucker myself into going each year. I was glad to have brought along the gloves and hats for everybody since the coats they provide don't have pockets and hoped that we got a few decent pictures.

Going to the lands down under!

I have been planning this trip for a long time. As of Friday, March 7th I will be on my way to Australia and New Zealand for a 6 week experience of a lifetime. I'm not taking a laptop, so I'm going to pretty much be out of touch for the duration of the trip until my return around April 23rd. This trip will involve 3 days of diving off a liveaboard out of Cairns, hitting the Milford and Routeburn tracks (two of the highest rated hikes in the world), bungee jumping from a 400' platform, river surfing, mountain biking, glacier hiking, kayaking a lake with mile high mountains on either side, and whatever else I can fit in.

Here is my schedule for those that care:

Los Angeles, CA - Mar 7-8
Due to international dateline, March 9 2008 does not exist for me as I take off at 8pm from LAX on March 8th and land at 8AM March 10th in Sydney.

Australia

• Sydney - Mar 10-12
• Hash bus tour out of Brisbane - Mar 12-20
• Gold Coast - Mar 13
• Currumbin, Minjungbal - Mar 14
• Byron Bay - Mar 15
• Mount Warning hike - Mar 16
• Night Cap National Park, Minyon falls - Mar 17
• Byron Bay - Mar 18
• Brisbane area - Mar 19-20
• Perth (Interhash 2008) - Mar 20 - 24
• Diving on the liveaboard Taka on the Great Barrier Reef out of Cairns) - Mar 25 - 28
• Cairns - Mar 29

New Zealand

• Christchurch to Te Anua Downs - Mar 29 - Apr 2
• Milford Track - Apr 2 - 5
• Milford Sound - Apr 5 - 7
• Routeburn track - Apr 8 - 11
• Traveling south island (maybe north island?) - Apr 11 - 23rd

LA, CA - April 23
Back to Tampa - April 24

If there is anything important, then send it to my Gmail account and I'll try to check it whenever I get near an Internet cafe or couchsurf. I'll be sure to try a Vegemite sandwich and see what that darn song really meant by it. It has been bugging me since the 80s, so now I can find out.

On - On

South Carolina law prohibits the sale of paint, housewares, or hi-fi equipment on Sundays. [SECTION 53-1-60.]

After sleeping in a bit, the group got cleaned up and decided to grab breakfast, consisting of BBQ from a local chain, and were glad to have been able to have Jason join us on his lunch hour (the probably stretched in a little over two hours). After brunch, we headed towards downtown Charleston so I could take the visitor around and show them the highlights of the of the area including the Citadel, Brittlebank park, and drive along The Battery. We got out a little before White Point Gardens and walked for a while. We headed past Rainbow Row and on to Waterfront Park where we were able to snag a swing for a short while and enjoy watching the sailboats cruise around. The girls enjoyed a bit of shopping along Market Street before we meandered our way back to the vehicle while passing some of the famous churches as well as Charleston's 'Four corners of Law'.

Here is a Google Earth overlay of the walk along with some pictures taken along the way.
http://mblitch.googlepages.com/walkingalongthebattery.kmz

While I was in the area, and since I had the power of pilot, I decided to hit three local sites so I could collect a couple more NPS Passport Stamps. I first hit the Liberty Square area for the Fort Sumter National Monument and picked up a couple of stamps before driving over the Sullivan's Island to visit Fort Moultrie National Monument. I hadn't been here since the junior year retreat in high school when I attended Bishop England High School. My National Park pass got all of us in for free, though we only hung out long enough to take a few pictures of the area since I could tell someone was really getting bored. My last stop was at the Charles Pinckney National Historic Site since it was literally less than a mile out of the way. as it was still early afternoon, I felt there was no rush to arrive since few people would be there yet anyway.

When we finally arrived at the campout, couldn't help but drive up right to the beer trailer and pour a frosty beverage directly from the tap while sitting in the truck, all the while the other passengers complaining and poking me out of jealousy. We set up out tents and commenced the weekend relaxation. Jason finally arrive in the early evening. Though I offered to help, he seemed intent on getting the massive tent up on his own. It only took a little less than an hour; but being a camp out what is the measurement of time anyway? A time lapse movie of the construction of the nylon poles and light fabric can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz08NBBlqPY

Airplane: Lots of parts flying in close formation.

Since I came in a day early, I had to figure out what I was going to do. executive was still in bed recovering, so she graciously offered to let me use her car as I played the tourist bit. After reading a few stories and seeing some satellite pictures, I decided to check out the Pima Air and Space Museum near the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. I've loved learning about history, especially anything WWII related, so a chance to see so many planes in a single location was quite a treat. I signed up for the bus tour that would take us to the AFB where we could see planes actively being dismantled as well as a large selection of planes set along the bus route. The tour operator was a wealth of knowledge and was able to drew upon his many years experience in the Air force to provide a very informative as well as entertaining narration.

After the bus tour I jumped on the museum tram for another tour of the aircraft that they have on hand along with a narration of the history of many of them, including the actual Air Force One plane used by President Kennedy and Johnson. The highlight for me was actually getting a chance to get an ipclose look at a B-17 bomber, pretty much my favorite aircraft of all time. Several of the hatches were open and I even got a chance to check out the ball turret up close and spent nearly an hour and a half just walking around this particular craft.

The rest of the museum was just as interesting and I spent much of the rest of the day walking around around all the hundreds of craft that they have around including WWII planes, B-52s, B-29 (same kind of craft as the Enola Gay that dropped the first atomic bomb). MIGs, and all kinds of other specialty craft. There was even a small section for the space museum that have some interperative sections, including a display that house a small moon rock that was brought back on one of the Apollo missions.

I wanted to try to hit the Desert Museum after hearing so much about it, however after spending most of the day here I did not want to feel rushed and decided to just stay and enjoy the air museum. After finishing up I found a gas station that had a vacuum and cleaned out Executive's car and filled up the tank in token appreciation for the generosity for helping me out to such the degree that she did. When I got back she was feeling much better, so we decided to go out, grab a bit to eat, and then watch the University of Arizona ice hockey game. It had been quite a while since I'd seen the sport, so I really enjoyed watching and hanging out with her and another hasher that decided to show up. After getting home we played with the dogs for a while before I got packed up for the morning for when Executive would drop me off at the airport. I wanted to stay and check out more stuff, but I was finally ready to spend a night in a bed and get back to work.

Overall it was a great vacation. I'll have to see what else is going on, but I hope to attend again next year, though with that so close to my planned trip to Australia, I might have to do some penny pinching so I can make sure I'm able to do what I want over there. It was so nice to be able to hang out with my friends as well as meet so many great new people. as I've said before, I really enjoy the camaraderie among hashers and how they help each other out.

Special thanks to Executive Spread, Bonesucker, 3IY, Repeat Offender, GBAR, P. Colada, TNT, Wombie, Studmuffin, Harlot, Late Nite Drive Thru, Hose Handler, and so many others that made it a great trip.

Here are some of the pics I took at the Pime Air and Space Museum: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=vnlbugz.cfs49j2n&x=0&y=uqf3jc

Can I dry ice in the oven?

After hearing about the ICE! Exhibit from my friend Angel, I decided that since Orlando was on the way to the NYE weekend camp out that I would go check it out. I talked to Mammaries into attending the event with me since I knew she wouldn't be leaving her veterinary clinic until just before we got to Orlando anyway and found that Kiddie and VC were interested in going as well since they were riding with me to the campout (and probably just didn't want to stay in the car while were were inside). The tickets and parking (yes, we had to pay for parking!) were a little expensive, but overall the experience was worth it! We stopped by a Walgreen's store on the way to the show and picked up some coupons that we used and gave the extras to some other folks in line [for good karma].

The exhibit was created by artisans from China mostly using hand tools for all the carvings. It takes 30 truckloads of ice produced in Georgia to put together the material needed for the event. Besides the different clear and pure ice that uses hyper filter de-ionized water, there are ten different colors of ice that make up the displays. After witnessing this, I am sure that I would love to someday see the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in China that is hundreds of times larger than this small event. I really enjoyed the different displays and was particularly impressed with the use of all the different colors. Fortunately when reading my friend's blog post about the event I was able to best prepare by bringing extra hats and gloves as well as my own coat that had pockets for the hands, since the provided parkas lacked those. Since I was dealing with the camera, I gave my gloves to someone else but found that even at 9 degrees I wasn't too cold except for the hands after a while. At the end there was even an ice slide that I decided to wait out and try. After we left we got some hot chocolate at the resort and walked around to enjoy the grandiose decor, gator exhibit, and overall atmosphere of the resort (though I couldn't take any photos since it took an hour for the condensation in the camera to dissipate after leaving the cold air for the humid environment).

If you want to see most of the photos I took at the exhibit, then go to: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=vnlbugz.937lxfr7&x=0&y=-3bci7d

Hanging with a cool jolly guy.


Ice ice baby.

Leaving the ICE! exhibit. Goodbye from 'chilly' Florida!

After I'm dead I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one.

I woke up to another pretty day, though unfortunately I could feel that I was going to soon get sick. I could feel a general body ache and even slight fever approaching, but figured I could make it though the day before it really hit me. I am starting to think that running around in a light rain with 50 degree temperatures wearing little more than a thin material is not the greatest idea in the world. I took the train into the Smithsonian Metro stop and headed to the Washington Monument to get a tour ticket and then head to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I found that they did not open until 10AM, so I took a stroll over to the Jefferson Memorial to get in a couple of pictures and enjoy the view of the tidal basin. I hit a cafe for a quick breakfast and then went through the Holocaust Museum. I had already been here about 6 years when I first visited the city, however the exhibit was not any less moving. I only had about 1:45 to go through, so I didn't get to read through all the displays. One cannot help but leave with a heavy heart and empty, pitted stomach and a want to see the end of that kind of incident forever.

The Washington Monument had usually been closed or the tours filled when I had previously visited. I picked up a noon tour ticket in the morning and arrived 10 minutes early. I was quite pleasantly surprised that the group also had the opportunity to take a tour down the steps so that we could see all the memorial stones that make up part of the structure. Though I probably won't be able to post them all, I think I got pictures of nearly all of them. To me the most unique ones were the Arizona petrified wood stone and the Alaska jade stone. The tour took just over an hour and a half and offered some spectacular views of the entire area from the top windows. After that was over, I didn't have any more time available and had to head back to Dano's place in Ballston to grab my bag before heading off to Dulles to fly home. By this time in the afternoon I was already feeling quite tired and achy and spent the rest of the evening try to rest as much as possible between the layovers and waiting for bags. Hopefully this isn't something that'll hit me for too long since it already wrecked some plans that I had earlier. Over all, it was a god trip and I really enjoyed meeting a many new people as well as see old friends. I learned a bit more about history and myself and will look to make this an annual event, but we'll see what comes up until then.

NASA: Need Another Seven Astronauts

After an early morning flight of 7AM and a delayed second flight, I finally landed in Dulles around 11:30. Since Bonesucker and Vagitarian were only a few hours behind me, I decided to take the city bus to the new Air and Space Museum at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center that acts as a companion facility to the one at the National Mall in downtown DC. It holds some of the large specimens such as the complete B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay aircraft (dropped the first atomic bomb) as well as the NASA shuttle Enterprise (which was not designed or built for actual spaceflight), a Blackbird, as well as numerous other examples of flight throughout the ages. Though I only had about 1:45 to spend at the facility, I was able to see most of the highlights and read up on some of the exhibits. The facility even included a mockup of a traffic control tower that allowed visitors a view of the airport. Unforunately I arrived to some decently cold temperatures and slight rain, which I heard made for a really bumpy ride for the others that were coming in.

After meeting up with the two Austin hashers, we took the Washington Flyer bus to the Metro station so we could head straight to F'em Dano's place since that would be our crash pad for the weekend. After putting our stuff up for a short while we caught a ride with roommate Senor Douchberg to a Metro station as we headed to the Pre-Lewd part, the lingerie hash near Chinatown. The weather did not get a whole lot better, so we decided to change once we got to the pub. We were relatively early and got to meet the folks coming in and partake in some nectar for a while. I got to meet up with several of the cruise hashers (Is it in yet?, Repeat Offender, Velvet Vulva, Womb Service, Spongebob Squarepants) as well as people I had met last year (Late Nite Drive Thru, Motor Mouth, IHOV, Designer Bush, Rodeo F, Jerkin the Gherkin, etc). The Naples hashers came in from an even later flight, so Dano picked them up at the airport and brought them right to the pub before the run started. Trail was only a couple of miles, so we were done relatively quickly since no one wanted to stay out any longer in the skimpy outfits since it was just to frigging cold!

We arrived to find some waiting food set up and music pumping thanks to music chosen and played by Douchberg. We eventually decided to get back to the house for some much needed sleep since it would inevitably be a very long weekend if the festivities and events of the day were to provide any insight into what was to come.