Snowed In!

It seems that when I come to Denver - a winter storm decides to come too. This is the second time that I've been snowed in - and stuck in a hotel!

It started snowing on Tuesday night this week - I was driving back to the hotel from Debbie's house and the roads were pretty slushy and the snow was coming down pretty fast - it made for a slow drive!

Wednesday we went to work okay - but it was snowing all day and they decided to close the office at 2:00 to allow people to get home before the roads and weather got worse. I'm teaching a class here - and most of the students are staying in the hotel too (there are a few from Denver that aren't in the hotel) so those of us here gathered in the lobby (free wireless internet) and we kept working. (The students were working on some hands on exercises - we did a little changing around and did all the lecture/instruction while we were all together so that if we had a snow day they could work on the hands on exercises from the hotel or thier homes.) So we were all set up in the lobby (about 14 students with their computers! - it was pretty funny to watch people look at them) from 2:00 until after 5:00 working on their "homework". Today, we woke up to even more snow - and it is still snowing - and found out that the office is closed again. Luckily this time we were prepared and we were able to get a meeting room in the hotel. So - the show (or training class) will go on - no matter what the weather! The Denver people just have to make it on their own (and e-mail us if they have questions) - but for the most part we will survive!

I wasn't able to go out to Deb's house last night :-( The roads were kind of a mess - and my rental car was sliding around as we were driving back to the hotel from the office yesterday, so I decided I didn't want to risk it!

These are some pictures of the view outside the hotel:

Halloween Fun

I've been involved in some fun Halloween activities this year!
I traveled last week to San Antonio for work and got to do some cookie decorating and pumpkin painting with John's family. Griffin loved painting his pumpkin! The girls did a great job too.
Then this week I am in Denver and got to do some pumpkin carving with Deb's family. Charly and I did the cat design - we thought it was a "cute and awesome" pumpkin! Wesley's dragon was pretty cool and Drakes spider was really scarey!

(sorry to jump the gun on you guys Kristen and Deb - I'm sure your pictures will be much better!)

A New Toy!

Ok - so I've been having some issues with my cell phone - the biggest issues have been in the bluetooth connections. I've had the Treo 700 W for over 2 1/2 years - and I have really liked it. The best part is that a couple of years ago I was able to connect it up to our Microsoft Exchange server at work and get my work e-mail and calendar on it. It has been great. In order to keep that option working, I had to have a windows based phone. So for several months I have been looking on the Verizon website to see what windows based smart phones they have - and there hasn't been much to pick from. They only had a couple - and those didn't get very good reviews. So, I've been waiting - hoping that a new one would be released.

Since April (when I heard about a new windows based smart phone that was going to be released in the US this year -- it was already released in Europe and very popular) I have been googling the news about this phone frequently. Verizon (and Sprint, AT&T and Tmobile) had annouced that they would be getting it - but there was no definite date. In June T-Mobile announced that theirs was going to be out in July - then Sprint announced in August that they would release it on Sept 3. Finally, Verizon announced that it would be released on Sept 11! Yea!!

So - it finally was released in September - and I made the mistake of thinking I needed to look at it in the store - and make sure I liked it. I went to a Verizon Store on the 11th - but they didn't have them in stock. I found out later that it was not going to be available in stores - only online (at least for the foreseeable future) - so I decided to go ahead and order it online. But at that point it showed up as "Out of Stock". Talk about disappointed! For three weeks I tried to order the phone online - to no avail! I guess it was such a hit that Verizon was not able to keep up with demand. (In addition, Verizon priced it $100 less than Sprint and T-Mobile had.)

Finally, a couple of weeks ago, I was able to order the phone and get it the next day! It is great! It is a HTC Touch Pro 2. It has a touch screen - plus a slide out keyboard. It works with my work e-mail and calendar - plus I have my personal e-mail available.

It even has internet (much better than the treo did) and weather and stock quotes!

I love new toys!

Dolphin Video!

Sorry the video isn't the easiest to watch - remember, we were on a catamaran at the front where we were going up and down quite a bit!

Dolphins - Finally!

So - after our disappointment on Wednesday, on the way back to San Clemente, we decided that we would try again to see dolphins on Thursday.  We called Captain Dave's office and made a reservation for the next day's "safari".

When we arrived back on Thursday afternoon (after spending the morning at the beach) we were warmly welcomed back.  We got back on the catamaran and went off on our second safari!  After seeing two blue whales, the captain said that he was keeping his eye out for dolphins. 

I was so excited when the captain finally announced that he could see dolphins about 2 miles away!  We headed over in that direction - and Staci and I got into the front of the catamaran for the best photo opportunities.

It was very cool to finally see dolphins!  There was a big group of them swimming and jumping around.  As the catamaran got close to them, they swam over in front of us and started jumping right in front of us - just swimming along with us!  The captain said that they do it for fun - we were their entertainment.  Then after a while - they would all turn in a different direction and we would turn around and head back toward them and then they would come and swim back in front of us.  We even saw a mother and calf.  It was so cool - we could just look right below us - and see them right there!  The captain estimated that there were probaby about 200 dolphins in this pod.

I took a ton of pictures - just ask if you want to see about 100 more :-).

What? No Dolphins?

On September 16, during our week vacation in San Clemente, we went on Captain Dave's Dolphin Safari.   Now - I guess I should back track a little bit - I love to watch dolphins - I love Sea World and could just sit and watch the dolphins for hours.   In April we went to Discovery Cove in Florida - a big reason was so that we could swim with dolphins!  On every cruise that I've been on I've watched for dolphins - but only once have I ever seen them - and there were only a couple and they were gone so fast I didn't have time to get my camera to take a picture of them.

So, when I was researching and figuring out what we could do in San Clemente, I found Captain Dave's website which says

"Dana Point offers breathtaking vistas, beautiful beaches and more wild dolphins than just about anywhere else in the United States.

Southern California has more wild dolphin than anywhere else in the U.S., including Alaska, Hawaii and Florida combined! With over 400,000 in just one species alone, it's not unusual to see pods of 1000 or more, and even pods as large as 5000! "

Let me tell you - I was excited - pods of up to 5000 dolphins!!! This was going to be the dolphin watching trip of all time! Plus, there was a good chance to see some whales, which are very interesting too.

So, back to Wednesday.  It was a beautiful day!  We drove up to Dana Point early - to make sure we knew where we were going.  Once we found the right spot, we drove around the area a little bit and did some shopping.  Then, it was finally time!  We checked in and went and boarded the boat (a catamaran) with a group of about 45 people.

Once we got going, I staked out my spot on the very front left corner of the catamaran - I had my camera ready - I was ready! so bring on the dolphins!

Almost immediately we found 2 fin whales (see post below).  The captain said that it was not common to see fin whales - they do on occasion, but not very frequently - so we were glad to see them.  Then we left the fin whales and spotted a blue whale (see previous post) which was amazing because he was so large and we were able to get pretty close.

But, I have to tell you, what I really wanted to see was dolphins - so after a while the captain said that we would try going farther out to see if we could find dolphins.  We drove around for a while longer - but nothing!  I was so disappointed when they said that we had to head back into the harbor.  NO dolphins.  I told Staci that I didn't need to see 5000 dolphins, or even 500 or 50 dolphins, 5 would be good - but we saw none!

Fin Whales at Dana Point

On the first trip out with Captain Dave we saw two Fin Whales.  Fin whales are the second largest species of whales.  The two fin whales were swimming together - and we stayed with them for a while.  Eventually, there were several other boats that came looking at them too (the captain said that they all radio information on locations of whales and dolphins to the other boats around).

Blue Whales at Dana Point

While in San Clemente, Staci and I went to Dana Point and went on Captain Dave's Dolphin Safari on September 16 & 17.  The first day we saw 1 blue whale and the second day we saw 2 blue whales.  They are the largest mammals - bigger than the dinosaurs were.

Whale watching is amazing - but it can be kind of a slow activity.  You see a whale - or mostly the spray from the whale, the boat zips over to where you saw it, and then you watch its back as it swims a little, and then it dives down deep to get some food and may stay down for up to 15 minutes.  During the time, everyone on the boat is looking in all directions to see when it sprays again so the process can be repeated.

So, I got a ton of pictures of the blue whales swimming.  Right as the blue whales are diving down to go deep for food, they really arch their back and you get a different view - but it is very unusual for their fluke to come out of the water.  So, most of the shots I got were of their backs as they were diving or their backs as they were swimming.   

At one point, the whale was holding still and we were able to get pretty close to it. 

So close, that we got a great view of the whale and even misted by the spray!


So, after seeing the whales go up and down, I decided I had plenty of pictures, so I turned the camera off and just enjoyed watching them.



But, of course, as soon as the camera was off, the whale did a really steep dive and his fluke came out of the water! 

It was so cool to see - but my camera was off!  I hurried as fast as I could and got it turned on and was able to snap a picture just before the fluke went all the way under.  It was so much higher than this - and very cool to see.  I can't believe my camera was off!  So - lesson learned: Always take more pictures, they can be deleted if they aren't that great!

New to Blogging

Ok - so I'm finally going to jump into blogging. I decided it could be a good way to share pictures and videos that I have made on trips lately.