Today's conference excurstion was to Codorníu Winery. Below you can see a video I took of the machinery being operated.
Here is another one.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
La Sagrada Familia
When I was growing up, the Alan Parsons Project was one of my favorite music groups. I think anybody willing to do concept albums about Edgar Allan Poe or robots appealed to the nascent egghead in me. Their last album was Gaudi, which included songs about Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi. One of these songs was "La Sagrada Familia", about the cathedral that Gaudi worked on for over 40 years prior to his death in 1926. The cathedral today is incomplete and still an active construction site.
I got into Barcelona yesterday, and the cathedral was my first stop. The jaded traveler through Europe can experience cathedral fatigue, where one cathedral looks a lot like the previous one. La Sagrada Familia is different. It looks unlike anything else on the planet. One factor is that it is newer than most European cathedrals. In particular, it is part of the Catalan "Modernisme" architecture movement (apparently equivalent to "Art Noveau") rather than the standard Gothic or Neoclassical cathderal. The architecture is much more influenced by the natural world than any other church I've seen.
I got there just in time to take the guided tour in English, which was a fairly interesting overview. The highlight, however was the elevator ride to the top of one of the towers and the subsequent walk down, which gave close-up views of the amazing detail on the cathedral facades. In fact, my only regret is that I didn't end up going up the other tower right after that. I blame jetlag for the error in judgement.
Enjoy the photo album below.
I got into Barcelona yesterday, and the cathedral was my first stop. The jaded traveler through Europe can experience cathedral fatigue, where one cathedral looks a lot like the previous one. La Sagrada Familia is different. It looks unlike anything else on the planet. One factor is that it is newer than most European cathedrals. In particular, it is part of the Catalan "Modernisme" architecture movement (apparently equivalent to "Art Noveau") rather than the standard Gothic or Neoclassical cathderal. The architecture is much more influenced by the natural world than any other church I've seen.
I got there just in time to take the guided tour in English, which was a fairly interesting overview. The highlight, however was the elevator ride to the top of one of the towers and the subsequent walk down, which gave close-up views of the amazing detail on the cathedral facades. In fact, my only regret is that I didn't end up going up the other tower right after that. I blame jetlag for the error in judgement.
Enjoy the photo album below.
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| La Sagrada Familia |
Places Visited
Now that I've been to Estonia and Spain, it's time to update my map of places visited. Previously, I had only been considering places visited as places where I had spent the night. That seemed a little ridiculous when I had a quite substantial day trip to Estonia. Would it have been more substantial if I had just gone overnight and not done any sightseeing? So I'm revising my criterion to an overnight stay or a significant travel experience. Here's the resulting Europe map:
Map generated by World66.com
Based on my new criterion, I'm counting New Hampshire as a visited state, since Christina and I went skiing there with my cousin Ian. Here's the new US map:
Map generated by World66.com
40 down...10 to go. I think I'll make it to 43 by the end of the summer. At that point I might have to consider trips specifically to fill out the map...
And, just for completeness, here's my world map...
Map generated by World66.com
Map generated by World66.com
Based on my new criterion, I'm counting New Hampshire as a visited state, since Christina and I went skiing there with my cousin Ian. Here's the new US map:
Map generated by World66.com
40 down...10 to go. I think I'll make it to 43 by the end of the summer. At that point I might have to consider trips specifically to fill out the map...
And, just for completeness, here's my world map...
Map generated by World66.com
Estonia
Greetings from Spain. The previous weekend, I took a day trip from Helsinki to Tallinn, Estonia. It was a lot of fun...Tallinn is set up very well for such day trips. Enjoy the photo album below; I have integrated my description of the trip as photo captions.
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| Click here for photo album |
Saturday, May 19, 2007
You have a Picture Mail from jongrantham
Friday, May 11, 2007
Naantali
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| Click here to view album |
I've been trying to figure out the best way to blog pictures. Flickr, which I used for the previous post, seems to be good for individual pictures. I didn't like the way it worked for sets of pictures, though (especially since free accounts are limited to 3 sets). So I switched to Picasaweb (by Google). If you click on the album above, my comments about yesterday's conference excursion to Naantali are included in the picture album.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Finland Has It All
Christina has observed that every country besides the US offers tuna pizza. Finland is no exception.
I don't like the idea of tuna on pizza, but I did eat at this place yesterday. Turku, for whatever reason, is lousy with kebab/pizza places. It seems like an odd combination to me, but I'm sure there's a reason for it.
I used to observe, while driving around rural America, that there always seemed to be combination video stores and tanning salons. I never knew why until later, when I read an article in the Washington Post. It turns out that several years earlier, at a convention of independent video store owners, someone made a presentation about ways to expand video businesses to include tanning salons. The idea caught on like wildfire.
Perhaps years ago there was a similar event at a Finnish kebab convention...
PS I had the falafel, which was drenched in the kind of red sauce I've come to recognize as the Hallmark of bad food across Europe. Same with my burrito today.
I don't like the idea of tuna on pizza, but I did eat at this place yesterday. Turku, for whatever reason, is lousy with kebab/pizza places. It seems like an odd combination to me, but I'm sure there's a reason for it.
I used to observe, while driving around rural America, that there always seemed to be combination video stores and tanning salons. I never knew why until later, when I read an article in the Washington Post. It turns out that several years earlier, at a convention of independent video store owners, someone made a presentation about ways to expand video businesses to include tanning salons. The idea caught on like wildfire.
Perhaps years ago there was a similar event at a Finnish kebab convention...
PS I had the falafel, which was drenched in the kind of red sauce I've come to recognize as the Hallmark of bad food across Europe. Same with my burrito today.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
I'm crazy for these cupcakes, cousin
Last Saturday night, I headed back into New York City. This time, I thought I'd spare myself the long subway ride, so I headed for Greenwich Village and the East Village.
My first stop was "Alamo", the evil twin of "The Cube", one of my favorite locations in Ann Arbor. They say the University President spins the cube each morning to start up the University. Here, the cube was harder to spin, what with all the people loitering underneath it. Still, as I was leaving the area, a group of people got it started.
Next, it was off to Veselka, a Ukrainian restaurant. I had last enjoyed Ukranian food in 1999 in Winnipeg. I sat at the counter and had some delicious pirogies. I was thinking of buying a t-shirt to commemorate the visit, but the t-shirts read "Challah-leujah!" and "Beet me", neither of which seemed interesting enough to wear.
After dinner, it was back to Greenwich Village to Magnolia Bakery. I've read that this store was made famous by "Sex in the City", but I know it from the Saturday Night Live sketch "Lazy Sunday":
I got there, and the line ran down the block. After 20 or so minutes waiting, I was allowed entrance to the store. I was allowed to approach the cupcakes and buy no more than a dozen. Since I had to transport these home via subway and Amtrak, I stuck to one box. Five seemed about the limit without overly squishing the frosting.
I brought them home to Christina, and we enjoyed them over the next few days. I don't know what I was thinking considering getting a dozen -- one cupcake per day is probably about 1/2 a cupcake more than necessary. Still, they were really good, and I hope to go back the next time I'm in Manhattan.
My first stop was "Alamo", the evil twin of "The Cube", one of my favorite locations in Ann Arbor. They say the University President spins the cube each morning to start up the University. Here, the cube was harder to spin, what with all the people loitering underneath it. Still, as I was leaving the area, a group of people got it started.
Next, it was off to Veselka, a Ukrainian restaurant. I had last enjoyed Ukranian food in 1999 in Winnipeg. I sat at the counter and had some delicious pirogies. I was thinking of buying a t-shirt to commemorate the visit, but the t-shirts read "Challah-leujah!" and "Beet me", neither of which seemed interesting enough to wear.
After dinner, it was back to Greenwich Village to Magnolia Bakery. I've read that this store was made famous by "Sex in the City", but I know it from the Saturday Night Live sketch "Lazy Sunday":
But first my hunger pains are stickin’ like duct tape.
Let’s hit up Magnolia and mack on some cupcakes.
No doubt that bakery’s got all da bomb frostings.
I love those cupcakes like McAdams loves Gosling.
Two, no six, no twelve, BAKERS DOZEN.
I told you that I’m crazy for these cupcakes, cousin.
I got there, and the line ran down the block. After 20 or so minutes waiting, I was allowed entrance to the store. I was allowed to approach the cupcakes and buy no more than a dozen. Since I had to transport these home via subway and Amtrak, I stuck to one box. Five seemed about the limit without overly squishing the frosting.
I brought them home to Christina, and we enjoyed them over the next few days. I don't know what I was thinking considering getting a dozen -- one cupcake per day is probably about 1/2 a cupcake more than necessary. Still, they were really good, and I hope to go back the next time I'm in Manhattan.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Shea
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| Shea |
Greetings from Hoboken. Since that doesn't sound exciting, I decided to start the weekend off with a trip into New York City. Specifically, I ordered a ticket to the Nats-Mets game at Shea Stadium. It took about an hour and a half to get from my hotel in Jersey City to Queens.
It's always entertaining to see a city through the eyes of its sports fans. ("Hey, what's that guy doing coming here with a Boston jersey?" "Better than a Yankees jersey." "Yeah, but still...") The seat was excellent. On the loge level (just above field level), and almost directly behind home plate (as you can see from the album above). It seemed to be a great place for catching foul balls...at least two headed into the adjacent section and one was nabbed on the concourse in front of me.
I decided not to provoke the New Yorkers by displaying any outward signs of Nats fandom. In fact, I did not see one single piece of Nats gear on any fan. I quietly cheered the Nats on to a 2-2 tie, which they held into the 7th, and then...I left. It was really cold, and I had to get up at the crack of dawn to make it to the conference I'm actually here for. I tried to hang in longer, but yet another pitching change sent me headed back to the subway. So I only was able to hear the crowd roar as the Mets scored the game-winning run.
By my count, that's 8 major league baseball teams I've seen home games for.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Geocaching and Waymarking
Last weekend, Christina and I headed out on our first ever geocaching expedition. Geocaching is an activity which involves using a GPS receiver to search for hidden containers ("caches") of items which have been placed by other geocachers. Typically, people will take one small trinket and leave another.
The cache we were looking for ("Maryland Marathon") was not the simplest type of cache. It involved visiting 6 sites across the University of Maryland campus to find clues. These clues allowed us to find the coordinates of the actual cache.
In addition to the normal swag we exchanged (we took a little carved box and left Pez dispensers), we took something called a "travel bug". A travel bug is an object whose travels you can track on the web. (As geocaching.com says, "Live vicariously through inanimate objects.") This particular item was a plastic eagle known as Northern Harrier that started out in January in Bowie. It has the goal of visiting state and national parks.
When we got back, I did a little bit more research and read up about the related activity of waymarking. Waymarking is like geocaching without the cache. In other words, the goal is to visit particular coordinates that already contain items of interest. For example, in pursuit of the Maryland Marathon cache, we visited the statue of Testudo, the University of Maryland's mascot. As it turns out, this has been waymarked. So I logged our visit.
On Friday, I continued with this pursuit. At lunch, I went to a car wash that, as it turned out, was near the birthplace of Johns Hopkins.
The rules for logging a visit to a Maryland Historical Marker waymark require taking a picture of you or your GPS receiver with the marker, which was a little bit tricky since I was by myself. Later that day, on my way to Paul's, I visited the Patriotic Wheaton cache in a nearby park. In geocaching argot, I TNLNSL.
Today, I decided to kill several birds with one stone.
First I went to the Clara Barton House historical marker. Then, because I actually like visiting things, I took a tour of the house itself. I bailed halfway through the tour when it seemed to be more about showing kids how life in the olden days was than about Clara Barton. Then, Northern Harrier and I visited Glen Echo Park, a national park. 
With that part of his mission satisfied, I drove to near the Jason Turns 30! cache, where I dropped off Northern Harrier.
I say "near" the cache, because most of these caches aren't readily car accessible. In this particular case, after parking, I walked down a paved trail that paralleled the road. Then I cut off the paved trail onto an unpaved on through the woods. My GPS receiver still indicated that the cache was 100 or so feet off the trail. Unfortunately, all I saw in that direction was a steep drop. Fortunately, many of the cache listings have clues that you can easily decode. Unfortunately, this clue told me that the cache was in a tree trunk at the bottom of a steep hill. So I clambered down, found the cache and hiked back up. The nice thing about this activity is that you always have a record of where your car is. (Don't forget the spare batteries.)
So as of now, my geocaching and waymarking stats each show 3 visited. Here are links that will update as I visit more.
I'm hoping to talk Christina into another expedition. It's more fun when you have someone to share it with. And the pictures turn out better!
The cache we were looking for ("Maryland Marathon") was not the simplest type of cache. It involved visiting 6 sites across the University of Maryland campus to find clues. These clues allowed us to find the coordinates of the actual cache.
In addition to the normal swag we exchanged (we took a little carved box and left Pez dispensers), we took something called a "travel bug". A travel bug is an object whose travels you can track on the web. (As geocaching.com says, "Live vicariously through inanimate objects.") This particular item was a plastic eagle known as Northern Harrier that started out in January in Bowie. It has the goal of visiting state and national parks.
When we got back, I did a little bit more research and read up about the related activity of waymarking. Waymarking is like geocaching without the cache. In other words, the goal is to visit particular coordinates that already contain items of interest. For example, in pursuit of the Maryland Marathon cache, we visited the statue of Testudo, the University of Maryland's mascot. As it turns out, this has been waymarked. So I logged our visit.
On Friday, I continued with this pursuit. At lunch, I went to a car wash that, as it turned out, was near the birthplace of Johns Hopkins.
The rules for logging a visit to a Maryland Historical Marker waymark require taking a picture of you or your GPS receiver with the marker, which was a little bit tricky since I was by myself. Later that day, on my way to Paul's, I visited the Patriotic Wheaton cache in a nearby park. In geocaching argot, I TNLNSL. Today, I decided to kill several birds with one stone.
First I went to the Clara Barton House historical marker. Then, because I actually like visiting things, I took a tour of the house itself. I bailed halfway through the tour when it seemed to be more about showing kids how life in the olden days was than about Clara Barton. Then, Northern Harrier and I visited Glen Echo Park, a national park. 
With that part of his mission satisfied, I drove to near the Jason Turns 30! cache, where I dropped off Northern Harrier.I say "near" the cache, because most of these caches aren't readily car accessible. In this particular case, after parking, I walked down a paved trail that paralleled the road. Then I cut off the paved trail onto an unpaved on through the woods. My GPS receiver still indicated that the cache was 100 or so feet off the trail. Unfortunately, all I saw in that direction was a steep drop. Fortunately, many of the cache listings have clues that you can easily decode. Unfortunately, this clue told me that the cache was in a tree trunk at the bottom of a steep hill. So I clambered down, found the cache and hiked back up. The nice thing about this activity is that you always have a record of where your car is. (Don't forget the spare batteries.)
So as of now, my geocaching and waymarking stats each show 3 visited. Here are links that will update as I visit more.
I'm hoping to talk Christina into another expedition. It's more fun when you have someone to share it with. And the pictures turn out better!
Monday, March 19, 2007
Staying Cool in the Pool
Call me crazy, but with all the exciting things to do in the Bahamas, one of my favorite things to do was chill out in the pool. In some sense, it felt weird not to be taking advantage of the beach or the tropical setting, or anything but the fact that it was warm enough to be in the pool. Nevertheless, floating around, staring at the coconut trees and the wires holding them together was strangely peaceful and relaxing. Not so relaxing that I'm looking for a pool around here or anything. But relaxing enough that next vacation in the sun, I'm sure I'll grab an inner tube or a floating chair and head for the pool pretty early on.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Not Exactly a Cruise Ship
In a post from the Bahamas, I stated that I had heard a cruise ship coming in that morning. Boy was I wrong. As you can see from the picture, it was a US military ship. Well, you can't actually see the US flag, but trust me, it's there.
This picture is one of my favorites of the ones I took in the Bahamas. I like the contrast among the seagull in the foreground, the ship, and the construction at the monstrous Atlantis resort & casino in the background.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
The Shoal
Wednesday night, after the snorkeling, we decided to treat ourselves to a nice meal out. We had been doing a lot of eating in the executive lounge and the cheap-o Imperial Cafeteria across the street from the hotel (perhaps worth of a separate entry). So we decided it was reasonable to spend a few bucks on something fancier. I looked through the guidebooks and came up with The Shoal Restaurant & Lounge. Somewhere I probably lost the "fancier" idea...
We went downstairs and got a taxi. When we got in, the driver asked where we wanted to go. Forgetting slightly, I asked to be taken to "Shoal's." This request confused him to no end. He kept asking the bellman at the hotel if he had ever heard of this restaurant. Finally, we checked the guidebook and mentioned that the restaurant was a few miles up Nassau Street. A light bulb appeared over his head and said, "Oh, you want to go to The Shoal. Not Souls." He kept repeating that the name of the restaurant was not "Souls" -- I guess my accent threw him.
Anyway, he was delighted that we wanted to get out of downtown to a non-touristy restaurant. After we established that the fare would be $10 (approximately what I figured it should be if metered -- but no taxi driver ever turned the meter on for us), he started giving us a tour of the "Over The Hill" neighborhood. Several guidebooks had warned us against this neighborhood, and our driver in fact referred to it as the "ghetto". Christina remarked that it was the nicest ghetto she'd ever seen. There are places near our house (that I'd feel comfortable driving to) that aren't as nice as this neighborhood.
When we got to the restaurant, the driver gave us his card and said to call him when we needed a ride back. I tried to pay him the fare, but he said we could just pay him on the way back. That was remarkably friendly and trusting and set a good tone for the evening.
At the restaurant, we had what was probably the best meal of the trip. After having a salad (me) or soup (Christina), we enjoyed some delicious grouper (me) or snapper (Christina). We finished off with way too much guava duff, which we couldn't finish. During the meal, the manager (the owner?) kept coming over and giving us information about the Bahamas. He explained, for example, that Bahamians have the same last names as Americans because they are largely are descended from Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution...and their slaves. He further expressed optimism that things were only going to get better in the coming months, because they were due to replace the government in an election. I'll watch for the results with some interest.
Once our meal was over, our driver was waiting for us. He took the pictures displayed in this entry, in fact. On our drive back to the hotel, he explained that he normally doesn't work this late, so he went across the street to a bar and had a beer. (As Christina pointed out, at least he said '''a''' beer.) Thus ended our one venture into a local neighborhood and one of the high points of our trip.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Snorkeling, both with and without sharks
Well, we got the photos developed from the waterproof cameras, which I believe we didn't do when we did the snorkeling with sharks in La Jolla two years ago.
Last Tuesday afternoon, we went on a snorkel excursion with Stuart Cove's.
They took us out on a boat around New Providence Island to two sites where we swam around and looked at pretty fish through our snorkel masks.
The third site was somewhat different. The boat first lowered shark bait (some sort of raw meat -- no, not the snorkelers). Then some of us jumped in the water and did not swim around -- that's one of the things they told us not to do. Also on the no-no list -- petting the sharks. How silly do they think we are?
Pretty silly, I guess. I was planning to hold onto the rope line to prevent drifting, but my fellow snorkelers (a lot of spring breakers among them) engaged in so much thrashing and giggling that I paddled a short distance away to watch. Fortunately, the sharks seemed equally intent on keeping their distance.
These were Caribbean reef sharks, which were somewhat bigger than the types of sharks we saw in La Jolla. It was a neat experience seeing them up close, but a few minutes of it was quite enough.
Last Tuesday afternoon, we went on a snorkel excursion with Stuart Cove's.
They took us out on a boat around New Providence Island to two sites where we swam around and looked at pretty fish through our snorkel masks.
The third site was somewhat different. The boat first lowered shark bait (some sort of raw meat -- no, not the snorkelers). Then some of us jumped in the water and did not swim around -- that's one of the things they told us not to do. Also on the no-no list -- petting the sharks. How silly do they think we are?
Pretty silly, I guess. I was planning to hold onto the rope line to prevent drifting, but my fellow snorkelers (a lot of spring breakers among them) engaged in so much thrashing and giggling that I paddled a short distance away to watch. Fortunately, the sharks seemed equally intent on keeping their distance.
These were Caribbean reef sharks, which were somewhat bigger than the types of sharks we saw in La Jolla. It was a neat experience seeing them up close, but a few minutes of it was quite enough.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Police Band
One of the serendipitous sights we saw in the Bahamas was the Royal Bahamas Police Force Band. The band is quite a big deal...they're on the back of the $1 bill. We were enjoying the Hilton's executive lounge (one of its best features) when we heard music coming from outside. We looked out from the balcony and saw the band marching away. A hotel employee later told us that a group had hired the band to escort them to dinner -- he implied that a lot of money had been involved.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
More Bahamas Pix
Here's me in front of the "Queen's Staircase", Christina in front of Parliament, and one of Nassau's newer tourist attractions...
First Pictures from the Bahamas
Here is our first set of pictures from the Bahamas. Many of our pictures are on the waterproof camera, so we'll wait until we get back and get them developed. But here are a few pictures from Sunday and Monday.
The first picture shows the view from our hotel room. Unfortunately, the largest coconut tree on the property is right in front of our window. Still, you can sort of see the pool and the Hilton's "private" beach. (All beaches are public, but the only access to this beach is via the Hilton property -- or the water.)
The second picture shows Christina on the beach, with one of the cruise ships in the background. The last two days there have been three in port. I'm not sure about today, but I heard one coming in this morning.
The third picture shows Christina shopping at Prince George Plaza. No, not that one.
And, finally, the fourth picture shows us sitting down after wandering the downtown area.
The first picture shows the view from our hotel room. Unfortunately, the largest coconut tree on the property is right in front of our window. Still, you can sort of see the pool and the Hilton's "private" beach. (All beaches are public, but the only access to this beach is via the Hilton property -- or the water.)
The second picture shows Christina on the beach, with one of the cruise ships in the background. The last two days there have been three in port. I'm not sure about today, but I heard one coming in this morning.
The third picture shows Christina shopping at Prince George Plaza. No, not that one.
And, finally, the fourth picture shows us sitting down after wandering the downtown area.
Monday, March 05, 2007
Greetings from Nassau
Hello from the sunny Bahamas. We've been here about 24 hours now and are enjoying ourselves. The Hilton is nice enough...unfortunately, there's a tobacco convention going on at the same time. The tobacconists are a bit rowdy and, well, they smoke a lot. We managed to avoid them at the Hilton's beach this morning. The water was a little bit cold today, so we floated around the pool for a little bit before lunch.
After a couple of fish burgers, we booked a couple of excursions for later in the week & then headed into the downtown area. The hotel is a couple of blocks away from where the cruise ships dock, so most of the shops cater to their passengers. Yesterday, a Carnival ship was in port -- today it was Disney. Fortunately, that made it easy to pick up a few souvenirs before stealing a glance at Fort Fincastle and the Queen's Staircase.
When we get back to the hotel, we'll probably go to the Cable Beach area for dinner. At some point, we'll get Internet access from the hotel and post some pix.
After a couple of fish burgers, we booked a couple of excursions for later in the week & then headed into the downtown area. The hotel is a couple of blocks away from where the cruise ships dock, so most of the shops cater to their passengers. Yesterday, a Carnival ship was in port -- today it was Disney. Fortunately, that made it easy to pick up a few souvenirs before stealing a glance at Fort Fincastle and the Queen's Staircase.
When we get back to the hotel, we'll probably go to the Cable Beach area for dinner. At some point, we'll get Internet access from the hotel and post some pix.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Gutters
Recently, we paid a significant amount of money to a local roofing company -- a good choice, since the alternative was a leaky roof. That sort of defeats the purpose of any other renovations.
As part of the work, we had them replace the old (leaky) copper gutters on the front of the house. As it turns out, that's the most visible part of the renovations. The old gutters were green (think Statue of Liberty); the new ones are shiny copper.
So it's funny -- after spending all of that money, the only visible benefit we get are the nice new gutters. Look at the roof -- can you tell where the slate was replaced?
As part of the work, we had them replace the old (leaky) copper gutters on the front of the house. As it turns out, that's the most visible part of the renovations. The old gutters were green (think Statue of Liberty); the new ones are shiny copper.
So it's funny -- after spending all of that money, the only visible benefit we get are the nice new gutters. Look at the roof -- can you tell where the slate was replaced?
Monday, February 05, 2007
GPS
I got a new GPS receiver as a gift from Christina for my recent birthday. I already had one, so at first this seemed like more of an upgrade than getting a shiny new toy.
Boy, was that an underestimate. It's amazing how much things have come along in the past 5 or so years. The color display on my new receiver alone makes a big difference.
But where it really shines (in my opinion) is the interactivity with my computer. I can get a map DVD (already on order) and load detailed maps onto the receiver. I can download the data from the receiver, edit and display it. I'm just starting to grasp all the various cool stuff that is possible with it.
Yesterday, we put the GPS to its first major road test with a drive out to West Virginia for Steve & Vanessa's Super Bowl party. You can see our route displayed here. (I really wish I had that feature during my 2005 cross-country drive.)
It was the first time we had been out to their new place, and we had a lot of fun. The Super Bowl stayed exciting at least through the beginning of the fourth quarter (they should always play it in bad weather), and it was fun to hang out with people. At the end of the evening, we just followed our GPS trail back out (minus a couple of wrong turns we made on the way in).
Boy, was that an underestimate. It's amazing how much things have come along in the past 5 or so years. The color display on my new receiver alone makes a big difference.
But where it really shines (in my opinion) is the interactivity with my computer. I can get a map DVD (already on order) and load detailed maps onto the receiver. I can download the data from the receiver, edit and display it. I'm just starting to grasp all the various cool stuff that is possible with it.
Yesterday, we put the GPS to its first major road test with a drive out to West Virginia for Steve & Vanessa's Super Bowl party. You can see our route displayed here. (I really wish I had that feature during my 2005 cross-country drive.)
It was the first time we had been out to their new place, and we had a lot of fun. The Super Bowl stayed exciting at least through the beginning of the fourth quarter (they should always play it in bad weather), and it was fun to hang out with people. At the end of the evening, we just followed our GPS trail back out (minus a couple of wrong turns we made on the way in).
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