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July 25, 2010

Rocky Mountains Are High

Colorado is a pretty awesome place. I just wrapped up a full week there, and it was a fantastic week. There were some work-related purposes for the trip, including working with the DART developers at NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) and getting feedback on how I should be using it for my research project. Another purpose was to meet my future supervisor, which I did on Monday morning the 12th. He seems like a nice guy, but it'll definitely be an adjustment changing supervisors. Sue will still be my co-advisor, however.

In addition to all the work-related stuff for me to do at NCAR (and my visit was useful, I thought), Alex was also at the tail end of a 3-month visit to NCAR when I was there. Bonus! I arrived in Denver on Friday night the 9th, and took the Super Shuttle to Boulder, where I had arranged to rent a bedroom in someone's house, just a 5-minute walk from NCAR Foothills Lab. Convenient! And it was only about three blocks from where Alex was staying too. Somewhere between the State College and Detroit airports I lost my memory stick, however. It had my presentation and other relevant data files on it, among other things. I called lost and founds at both airports and filed a missing item report with Delta, but nobody had found it or turned it in. Oh well. Fortunately Kerrie was able to go into the Water Tunnel Building to find and email me the files I needed. Thanks, Kerrie!! I would've been up a creek without that.

Anyway, Alex had gone with some friends out to Steamboat Springs that evening to catch the hot air balloon festival at dawn on Saturday morning. But he left me his car and keys so that I could drive to Steamboat on Saturday and catch up to him in early afternoon. I'd never been west of Boulder in Colorado, and it was a beautiful drive west from Denver on I-70 to Silverthorne and then up to Steamboat Springs on CO-9 and US-40.

Alex's friends returned to Boulder about 20 minutes before I got to Steamboat, so when I arrived we went right to nearby Strawberry Park Hot Springs, where Alex had just been with his other friends. They have natural hot springs there, but also a snowmelt-fed creek, so for the different pools they blend different amounts of each, so each pool is a slightly different temperature. That place was really neat, and well worth the $10 admission. From there, after buying a bunch of food for camping and hiking (way too much food, but at least we were prepared!), it was on to Rocky Mountain National Park, following Trail Ridge Road all the way from the southwest corner of the park to Estes Park. What a spectacular road! Much of the road had a steep drop-off on one or both sides, and Alex said he was a bit nervous driving it, even though we had perfect weather. I'd hate to drive it in fog or snowy/slippery conditions! It also got pretty chilly as we climbed above 2 miles above mean sea level (maxing out at 12,183 feet), as we were still in flip-flops, t-shirts and swim trunks from the hot springs, so I didn't linger outside when we stopped the car to take pictures. In addition to great views, we also saw a couple of moose (a mother and juvenile), as well as several elk. We planned to camp, but the first campsite we went by on the west side of RMNP, Timber Creek, was hideously ugly and looked like a scar in the landscape (hence we got to see most of those great views above). Then we tried Aspenglen, but it was full (and dark). Finally we tried a campground a couple miles south of Longs Peak (14,259 ft), which Alex & Anne camped at a couple weeks prior. Fortunately, at 9:45pm, long after sunset, we found a spot, so we could set up our tent and finally grill our steaks and bread. We were totally roughing it. :-) It was my first time camping since Australia in 2004, but the hard ground prevented me from getting too much sleep. So in the span of three nights I'd gone from State College (~1200 feet) to Boulder (~5500 feet) to this campground (~8000 feet) south of Estes Park. So I at least let myself adjust to the altitude a little bit before we did any hiking. :-)

On Sunday morning the 11th we drove back up to the Alpine Visitor Center (11,796 ft) in Rocky Mountain National Park to do some hiking. We hiked along Ute Trail, which started across the road from the Alpine Center, and took turns carrying the backpack. Our map said the trail went 4.1 miles to Milner Pass, where Trail Ridge Road crossed the Continental Divide. Views along the trail were pretty spectacular.

After awhile I started thinking we'd been hiking more than 4 miles, but we just kept going. Eventually we came pretty close to a herd of bighorn sheep too, which was really cool. We later found out that it's rare for people to see bighorn sheep as close by as we saw them. Occasionally we passed people going the other way. I'd asked one person, "How much farther is it?" "Oh, another hour and a half or so." Hmmmm. Later, we passed another person. "How far ahead is the [Continental] Divide?" "You're on the Divide. And that's Mount Ida over there, about 45 minutes ahead." I heard what they said, but it just didn't register. And I hadn't heard of Mount Ida before, so that meant nothing to me. Anyway, we kept walking. And walking. Above 12,000 feet. Through a steady 20-mph wind battering my senses. I got a little light-headed at one point, but it wasn't too bad and went away (that was it for me as far as being affected by the altitude). Eventually the trail disappeared amongst a scree of boulders on a mountainside. We kept going a bit further, but then started to strongly suspect that somehow unbeknownst to us we were no longer on Ute Trail. So I got out the map, and my eyes went right to "Mount Ida." That's so far off Ute Trail, along the Continental Divide, it suddenly clicked that that's where we had to be. I asked Alex to look over the ridge and tell me if he saw a couple small lakes. Yep. That's where we were. Instead of merely walking across the Continental Divide, we'd hiked 3.5 miles along the Continental Divide, at 12,000 feet. We were pretty close to the summit of Mount Ida (12,880 feet), only about a half mile of hiking and about 300 feet of elevation away. But we had no idea what time it was and there were rain clouds approaching from the southwest, so we decided it was wisest to turn around and start walking back. Eventually we found where we left Ute Trail and started down Mount Ida Trail. Coming from Alpine Center, Ute Trail takes a 150-degree turn, and we didn't see it at all. We saw a sign pointing back to Alpine Center and forward to Mount Ida, but the type on the sign didn't register with either of us. Neither of us turned around either, otherwise we would've seen Ute Trail going down the hill. So instead we kept going straight, and eventually wound up on the slopes of Mount Ida. Anyway, coming back from Mount Ida, we took the fork of Ute Trail that went down to Milner Pass, to complete the hike we originally intended. On our way down to Milner Pass, a guy named Dan, who we'd run into after we turned around near Mt Ida, caught up to us. He said, "You guys are made of metal! Accidentally hiking an additional 7 miles at 12,000 feet and you're still going strong!" By the time we got down to Milner Pass (10,758 ft) we were exhausted though, having hiked a total of 11 miles. Dan was kind enough to give us a ride 4 miles (and 1000-ft elevation rise) back up the road to Alpine Center and Alex's car. We certainly could've hiked that last 4 miles up the hill, but we were thrilled that we didn't have to. Neither of us have any regrets about missing the turn, though. It was super-cool and breathtaking to hike for 7 miles along the Continental Divide! Definitely not something too many people get to say that they've done. By the time we got back to our campsite to take down the tent it was 5:30pm. We'd intended to be back for a late lunch and grill our other steaks. Oh well. By then it was late enough that we decided just to pack everything up and go out to eat in Estes Park. We were pretty hungry, because all we had to eat all day were two Twix, two bananas and three granola bars each. (That might be another reason we were so exhausted by the end of our hike!) We found a pizza place, but they said they didn't have any beer. What they said they could do, though, is to bring our order down to the Irish pub a few doors down the street. Sweet! Let me tell ya, that order of onion rings, pizza and big pitcher of Fat Tire really hit the spot for both of us! Then it was back to Boulder, about 45 minutes from Estes Park. What a day, what a weekend!

As for the rest of the week, we checked out some other cool places. Monday night was the Boulder Draft House, with a $7 burger and beer special. Any burger on the menu. So we both got their most expensive burger ($12) and Fiesty Fiddler IPA. Yum! On Tuesday night I convinced Alex to try something new -- the Boulder Dushanbe Tea House (a Tajik restaurant). Delicious. Thursday for lunch we went to a place called Smash Burger, and then that night we drove up to Lyons to go to Oskar Blues Grill & Brew. Ribs and IPA. Glorious. I'll tell you what, Colorado has lots of fantastic beer!

While we did a lot of eating and drinking, we did do more stuff than that. :-) One night Alex introduced me to the game Bananagrams, which is basically like simultaneous, real-time Scrabble, except you can constantly rearrange your words to fit in new letters. We fit in a workout early Wednesday morning (I got up at 6am to go run with Alex down to the gym), went to an NCAR picnic Wednesday afternoon (when I helped Dr Greg Holland carry a keg of Fat Tire back up to his vehicle, he said to Alex & me with a smile, "I'm glad to see that grad students still have their priorities straight when it comes to free beer," lol), played some pickup soccer with a bunch of Alex's friends from NCAR (we were the only two Americans, interestingly), and went rock climbing that evening. It was my first time climbing since our study abroad orientation in Australia five years ago.

Climbing didn't go well for me this time though. Whatever physical excuses I might've had (tired/sore arms from lifting weights that morning for the first time in a couple months), let's just say I really need to work to change my attitude when I run into difficulty in a physical activity, be it skiing, running or rock climbing. When it comes to my body, my will is pretty weak, and I have a tendency to get easily frustrated, excessively negative and pouty. It's not pretty, but it's something I realize I desperately need to change. I had hoped to redeem myself with another go at climbing on Friday morning, but Alex was too tired (woke up super-early) and had too much to do, with it being his last day at NCAR. My arms were still sore that day anyway, so maybe it was for the best that I'll wait to try again. Next time, whether I reach the top or not, at the very least I will have a better attitude.

I flew out early on Saturday morning the 17th, and the original plan was for Alex to drop me off at the airport and then continue his long drive eastward to Iowa and then Michigan. But we got home from his farewell party too late Friday night, and he had too much more packing to do, so in order to let him get a bit more sleep before his super-long drive, I took the Super Shuttle to the airport (the shuttle was 45 minutes late though, which didn't make me happy, as it was supposed to pick me up at 4:30am). I was very close to calling and waking up Alex to ask him for a ride when the shuttle finally arrived. I was glad I didn't have to because he really needed the sleep with two days of long drives ahead of him.

Overall I had a terrific week in Colorado. It was a useful trip work-wise, and it was fantastic to be able to hang out with Alex for a week. I really enjoyed that. I desperately needed the break, too, after having worked so hard in the six weeks coming into it. I think I'll be able to get used to living in Colorado starting in November (mountains and low humidity sure are attractive!). Visitors welcome!

Posted by Jared at 06:26 PM | Comments (0)

July 24, 2010

Bouldered Over

The news has been out for awhile now, but just in case some of you haven't heard: I'm moving to Colorado this fall.

About three weeks ago my advisor, Sue, told us she was taking a job at NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) starting at the end of August, and had arranged to bring along the four grad students she currently pays and for whom she is the main advisor -- me, Andrew, Luna & Tyler -- if we chose to go along. We had absolutely no idea that it was coming, though I did guess that was the purpose of the suddenly-called meeting about a couple hours beforehand.

So after the shock of the news, I decided within an hour or two that I'd follow her out to Boulder. I felt like the decision was pretty clear. The next day I met with Sue individually and worked out the when of my move: the week of 8-12 November. There are many reasons I wanted to stay until then, but a chief work reason is to get a journal article written on the research I've done this summer before I move to Boulder. Getting that moving date set really allowed me to relax a lot (she's starting at NCAR on 30 August, so I was panicked at first that I might have to move to Colorado right away upon returning from Australia). There are still many details that have yet to be worked out, but it appears all systems go for me to move out there.

It's an exciting new challenge and opportunity for me, and will look great on my resumé to have some experience working at NCAR while in grad school. NCAR is a great place. I'll still be a full-time Penn State student (and will only be getting paid at a grad student rate at NCAR, rather than a full-time employee rate), but I'll just be living and working in Colorado (and possibly maintaining my Wisconsin residency). I may end up stop keeping a foot in three different states and just change my residency to Colorado though, we'll see. I'll be sad to leave behind my friends here at Penn State, and to leave a place I've lived in for 5 years now, but I'm also excited to have a new beginning out in Colorado. Forcibly shaking things up a bit won't be a bad thing for me.

One of the challenges of this sudden move comes because I have a lease signed at my apartment through the end of July 2011 (signed the extension back in February, which is actually fairly late in State College to sign an August-August renewal). However, now it looks like Anders & I have probably found someone to take my spot on the lease (an incoming meteo grad student who we hosted on the visit weekend back in February) starting next month. And he's interested in purchasing my furniture too (which I'm selling because it's prohibitively expensive on a grad student salary to rent a moving truck from State College to Boulder). Hooray! Because I'll be in Australia from 2-21 August, however, that means that I need to move my stuff out before I leave (and I'm going to a wedding next weekend in Indiana, so it actually needs to be out before the weekend). Hollemans have graciously agreed to let me store my stuff in their garage or basement while I'm in Australia. When I get back from Australia, then I'll move into Isaac's new house, where I'll be renting one of his bedrooms through mid-November (David D will also be living there).

And then I think I've also found a roommate and place to stay out in Colorado too! I emailed the Evangelical Free Church in Boulder (Calvary Bible Church), told them of my situation, and a guy named David emailed me back, saying he had a room available in his townhouse in Longmont (about 10-15 miles northeast of Boulder, Longmont is a popular place to live for NCAR employees, as Boulder is ridiculously expensive). That seems like a great place and a great situation for me, so I think I'm going to take it. Everything's really fallen into place this week (mostly yesterday) in terms of living arrangements for the next few months, praise God! I'm really glad to have gotten these things set before I go to Australia.

Now I've gotta get busy early this coming week and pack up everything that I'm not taking to Australia and a few days' worth of clothes for the wedding and before I leave. Looks like I'll be camping out with just the bare essentials in my apartment for a few nights!

Posted by Jared at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)

July 21, 2010

Australian Seminars Arranged

G'day! I got back from Colorado back on Saturday (a post and plenty of pictures from that trip coming soon!), so now I can start turning my attention toward my trip to Australia in less than two weeks! I was so crazy-busy in the lead-up to my trip to Colorado, trying to get research done for that trip, that I haven't really had any time to put into getting ready for Australia.

While I'm still busy now, I'm actually much more relaxed, which is good, and it's allowed me to get a number of things done. Applying for an electronic visa? Check. Confirming I have no-fee ATM withdrawals worldwide (and thus won't bother with travelers checks)? Check. Editing a support letter that's going out to my church this weekend? Check. Meeting with Ash & Tracy to go over some plans and advise them weather-wise on what to bring? Check. Contacting some people I know at Monash to arrange for some grad student ministry events/meetings? Check. Arranged for places for me to stay while I'm in Melbourne (with my friends Rob & Simone, Joel & Rosey, and James & Ali)? Check (kinda -- I still need to arrange what nights I'm staying with who). But things are falling into place.

Also, submitting abstracts for my three research seminars that I'm giving? Check. Took care of that one this afternoon. For the main work/education-related purpose to my trip, I'm giving three seminars (the same one at all three places, entitled "Down-Selecting for Numerical Weather Prediction Ensemble Configurations." I'm giving them mainly because I'm interested in the possibility of pursuing a post-doc position in Australia, if one were to become available. So here's when I'm giving seminars in the Melbourne area:

Fri 6 Aug at noon: Monash University
Wed 11 Aug at 1pm: University of Melbourne
Thu 12 Aug at 10am: Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre

I'm really excited about these, and they'll be brand-new experiences for me. I've never given a seminar at someplace other than Penn State before (and I'll be giving this same seminar at the Water Tunnel Building on Fri 30 Jul at 9am), and there will be a fair amount of new experiences for me. It was really easy to arrange them too; I just emailed someone at each place, introduced myself, said I was coming to Melbourne, and asked if I could visit their institution, and offered to give a seminar. They're more than happy to arrange for seminars from foreign scientists who visit Australia. :-) I've been having fun putting the talk together this week, and I think it's going to turn out really well! There's still some additional work I'd like to include, of course, so hopefully I can get that wrapped up before I leave.

Monday 2 August, when Ash, Tracy & I depart for Australia, will be here before we know it! Two weeks from now I'll be happily jet-lagged, walking around Melbourne, and seeing old friends again!!

Posted by Jared at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)

July 07, 2010

2010 Central PA 4th Fest

I hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend! I had a pretty good one, at least on the 4th itself. And I didn't even go into the office on the 4th, either! Of course, that might've had something to do with having a good day.

At church I played keyboard, while Mike led. Three of the high schoolers also joined us on the worship team, on electric guitar, bass and drums, and Mike chose several high-energy songs and strung them all together ("Salvation Is Here," "Sing, Sing, Sing," "I Am Free," and "Fields of Grace" in the main set, with a slower song after the sermon, "A New Hallelujah"). I think he's been itching to do a set like that for a long time. Rehearsal on Saturday night was a bit chaotic, but it all came together just fine on Sunday morning. I'm not sure if the keyboard was audible on the high-energy songs, but it was still nice to play.

Mid-afternoon I went over to Hollemans for a PSCG cookout. I brought some Louie's Wisconsin brats (with cheddar cheese and cranberries in them, mmmmm!), and some lemon pudding with blueberries. That's really perfect on a hot summer day like the 4th was.

It was also the farewell event for two families from our group, Chad & Rachel Schrock (and Toby), and Byran & Amy Smucker (and Xavier). Chad has a faculty position (English/literature) lined up at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, and Bryan has a faculty position (statistics) lined up at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and they're both moving in the next couple weeks. They'll definitely be missed, they've been a big part of our group for years now. We've also had some others move on this summer, including Jenn, who took a job teaching biology at Young Harris College in Georgia (her farewell dinner was last week at Herwig's Austrian Bistro, and I took photos but accidentally deleted them before going to Hollemans on the 4th - ARGH). It's a blessing being at a university where you get to meet so many good people, but it's also sad to say goodbye so often.

Because this could very well be my last 4th Fest in State College, I definitely wanted to watch them from the VIP area again, even though it's $25/ticket to get in. But it's worth it, in my opinion, as there are a lot of low fireworks (about a third of the show) and a couple set pieces that can only be seen from the VIP area. This year Tracy & David Z decided to join me as VIPs. It's a pretty scenic backdrop where they shot them off--during the day anyway. Over 5,000 people watch the fireworks in the VIP section every year, but that's just a fraction of the 200,000 or so people who come to State College for them. That's right, more people descend on State College for the 4th Fest fireworks than come for a Penn State football game. It's the single-largest attraction year-round in central Pennsylvania. Here are the stats for this year's fireworks show that I heard one of the organizers mention:

• 15,700 shells fired in total (10,500 shells last year)
• 45 minutes in duration
• Average of 6 shells per second prior to the Grand Finale
• Average of 128 shells per second during the Grand Finale
• Grand Finale duration of 90 seconds

Here are some photos and videos I took:

I thought this year's show was higher on artistry than in years past. There were more cool shapes from the fireworks, including cubes, numbers (even two-digit numbers), hearts, discs, circumscribed stars, and sheaves of wheat (or eagles... it was hard to tell, hehe). However, the music by and large was a bit slow. They should've picked more upbeat songs like in years past. Even so, it was still a spectacular show, as always. FireworksGuide.com still ranks the Central PA 4th Fest as the #3 Independence Day display in the nation (behind only New York City and Boston), and back in 2000 Travel Channel ranked it as the #4 show in the entire world. It's good, and I'm spoiled by it! As long as I've lived here, I've planned my summers around being here in town for the fireworks. When I do move away from State College, I'm really going to miss seeing this show, so I may as well live it up while I can! One never knows what next year holds.

Posted by Jared at 12:09 AM | Comments (0)

July 03, 2010

Working Holiday Weekend

Happy Independence Day, everyone! While I'm sure most of you will be spending the weekend enjoying yourselves at a lake, or at least someplace not thinking about work, I'll be needing to spend a fair amount of time in the office this weekend. Feel pity for me. :-) I'll also need to put in a full day of work on Monday, which is technically a holiday. (A sign in my apartment complex said, "The rental office will be closed on July 5th in observance of July 4th." Just an odd way of putting it!) And in case you're wondering why I'm blogging while writing about how much I still have to work, well, it's because the Germany v Argentina World Cup quarterfinal is on ABC right now. I figure I may as well be productive while watching the soccer, haha. If it were on ESPN, then it would be shown live online on ESPN3.com, and I'd have it on while working at the office.

I've been putting in a lot of long days at work the last few weeks (big chunks of that has been debugging code with Walter). 10-12 hour days have not been uncommon. I'm trying to get tons of research done before the George Mason University Conference on Atmospheric Transport & Dispersion Modeling in just a week and a half. I usually go to the GMU conference every year, and I'm lead author on a presentation again this year. But instead of going to GMU, Tyler will be giving my talk there and I'll be going to Colorado and NCAR (Nat'l Center for Atmospheric Research) for a week. Boulder >> Fairfax. No question about that statement! I just bought my plane tickets on Monday, and yesterday secured a room in a house near NCAR for the week.

I'll be going to Boulder to work with some people for a few days who are developers of DART, the Data Assimilation Research Testbed, which is a tool that I'm using in my research. For that visit I need to put together a presentation about how I'm using DART, what I'd like to accomplish with it, and difficulties that I'm having with it. Then they'll work with me, and give me suggestions of what to try or do differently and all that. It should be a valuable experience. But I've set aside DART for the last couple months, after all the trouble I had with getting it to work properly, so now I have to quick set up an experiment or two with it and analyze the results before I fly out on Friday afternoon. That's why I need to spend some time in the office this weekend. Hopefully it won't take me too long to get stuff set up, so that I can just let the jobs run on the cluster while I'm enjoying the fireworks tomorrow night. So much to do, but I think I might just barely get everything done that I need to...

The other bonus of going out to Boulder for a week is that Alex is out there this summer! I'll be renting out a bedroom in a house, which, as it turns out, is only a block away from the house where Alex is renting a room. I'll get there Friday night, and then on Saturday we'll be doing a lot of hiking somewhere in the mountains and then camping for the night. I'm really looking forward to that. I've been to Boulder a couple times, but I've never been west of Boulder before, and therefore I've never been in the Rockies before! Hooray mountains! Only a few more days of hard work before I'll get that scenic and fun weekend break as a reward!

And as an appetizer for tomorrow night's fireworks at the Central PA 4th Fest (they'll shoot off more than 15,700 shells!!), here's a video I took of the last few minutes of last year's show:

I'll be posting photos and videos of the fireworks when I get a chance. Hopefully it won't be too long a delay. Happy Independence Day, everyone!

Posted by Jared at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)