Swift Team Meeting

Note: Location markers can be found on this interactive Google map.

The 2008 Swift Team Meeting was at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (Marker D) on February 4th and 5th, and it was followed by a UVOT team meeting the next day. This post chronicles my after-hour activities. I took a non-stop flight from BWI very early on Sunday, February 3rd, to allow some time for exploring the Las Vegas area. I had originally planned to leave a day earlier to spend a day in Zion National Park, but after monitoring the temperatures for a while, I decided that it was likely to be too cold to enjoy Zion. At check-in I managed to change my seat to a window seat in front of the wing, but it was cloudy almost all of the way to Las Vegas. The clouds finally lifted as we crossed Lake Mead, and there was a brilliant rainbow all the way into the Las Vegas Airport. The photo was taken about 10 miles NE of Hoover Dam looking NW (Marker A). Las Vegas was at the edge of a powerful storm crossing Utah that caused scattered showers in the area (snow on the local mountains) and high winds that closed the airport for a few hours after I landed.

It was Super Bowl Sunday, which is a big event in Las Vegas, but the Strip was pretty quiet as I drove up to the Treasure Island Casino to pick up tickets to Cirque du Soleil's Mystère show for Tuesday night. Conveniently, all the big casinos offer free self parking as an inducement for gambling. I had no interest in gambling, but I was eager to try the thrill rides atop the 1,149-foot Stratosphere Tower. A call to the hotel revealed that only one ride was operating, and worse, when I got there, all three rides were closed because of the wind. I then checked into the Alexis Park Resort Hotel (Marker C), which is located between the Strip and UNLV on Harmon Ave. With a few hours of daylight left, I headed toward Hoover Dam (Marker B) . Heightened security at the dam since 9/11 has reduced access, but I managed to park just across the dam on the Arizona side (left photo) and walk across the top of the dam back to the Nevada side. There is a large band of lightly colored material all around the edge of the lake (visible in the above photo of the rainbow) that is the result of decreased snow in the Upper Basin of the Colorado River. The water level has not been this low in 40 years. Downstream is the start of a spectacular bridge (right photo) over the Black Canyon section of the Colorado River that will be the key element of the Hoover Dam Bypass. The two pillars in the photo support the deck of the bridge, and the start of the long arch across the canyon is at the base of the pillars. When finished in 2010, the new $114-million bridge will be 2000 feet long and tower 900 feet over the Colorado River about 1600 feet south of the dam (picture). As dusk fell, I headed back to Las Vegas in time to watch the end of the Super Bowl in the sports betting arena at the opulent Bellagio Hotel. There were hundreds of people jammed into the large room with enormous monitors covering one wall and the lines on all sorts of exotic bets on the Super Bowl covering another wall. People were screaming during the final game-winning drive by the Giants, and the crowd went nuts when Plaxico Burress caught Eli Manning's pass in the end zone to win the game (YouTube video). The casinos lost $2.6M because too many Giant fans bet against the heavily favored Patriots. After the game I toured the luxurious hotel including its gorgeous (photo) Botanical Garden. I finished the evening by catching one of the free circus acts (a woman on a ring hanging from the ceiling) at Circus Circus and then a quick run to downtown Las Vegas for the Fremont Street Experience.

I made a second run at the Stratosphere Monday evening. A call to the hotel revealed that two rides were operating, but again when I got there all three were closed. Later that night I made it to the coaster at the New York New York Hotel about 30 minutes before it closed. Normally your ability to ride a coaster is limited by the long lines, but here the frequency was limited by the short lines because the coaster would not run until there were 10 riders. I quickly realized that skipping the first opportunity meant that I could have the coveted position in the front car on the next run. I didn't realize that the next ride would require a wait of about 30 minutes. I declined a rather personal offer from another rider to trade seats and enjoyed a good ride with a spectacular view of the Strip.

Tuesday night four of us went to see the 9:30 show of Mystère. We got there early enough to watch the goofy Sirens of TI pirate show outside the hotel (Marker E). Mystère (YouTube video) was wild and wonderful with all sorts of strange things happening in a beautiful setting. After the show we walked across the street to the luxurious Venetian Hotel to have a drink. We missed a chance to get into the Tao night club without waiting in line, but we enjoyed some refreshments outside the Tintoretto bakery (photo) on a faux Venetian street complete with a painted sky. We skipped the gondola rides, but it was a fitting end to a strange trip.

New Year's Eve Party

We spent New Year's Eve hosting a party for our daughter and about 25 of her friends. Many of the girls showed up early to help prepare for the party and pose for the usual pictures.

Holiday Inflatables

If it's December, it's time to fill our front yard with inflatables.

GRB 2007 Conference

The GRB 2007 Conference was held at the Santa Fe Hilton (Marker A on this interactive Google map) in New Mexico from November 5^th through November 9^th. This page chronicles some of my after-hours activities.

Note -- click on the thumbnails below to see larger images.
Note -- markers below can be found on this interactive Google map.

Monday, November 5^th, 2007

I flew on United Airlines from BWI to Albuquerque with a change of planes in Denver. The leg from Denver to Albuquerque provided an opportunity to enjoy the wild landscape of Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico looking east from the airplane. Much of the flight path followed the Rio Grande River. Cripple Creek (above left photo; Marker G on Google map) was the site of a huge gold rush starting in 1891 that produced 700 tons of gold. The original mines are long since exhausted, but the open pit mine near the center of the photo has been operating since 1994. The Great Sand Dunes National Park (above, middle left photo; Marker B) includes the tallest (750') sand dunes in North America. They were formed from the sand left behind after Lake Alamosa either dried up or breached the southern end of the San Luis Valley and drained down the Rio Grande River. Prevailing winds push the sand to this corner of the valley. Ute Mountain (above, middle right photo; Marker C) (topo map) is an extinct volcano just south of the Colorado-New Mexico border that recently became protected public land. With an altitude of 10,093 feet, it towers over the surrounding area including the gorge cut in its western flank by the Rio Grande River. The final picture shows part of the enormous Black Mesa (above, right photo; Marker D) just north of Española, NM. The mesa extends off the picture for a total length of ~25 km. The top of the mesa has an altitude of ~6900' with a drop at the edge of ~1000' (topo map). The Rio Grande River is just beyond (east of) the mesa, and US Highway 285 follows the west side.

Food

Lunches at the hotel were included in the registration fee, but evenings provided opportunities to sample the interesting bars/restaurants in Santa Fe. After the welcoming reception on Monday, AF (an ex-local) lead about a dozen of us a few blocks south to (Marker E) the Cowgirl Hall of Fame BBQ and Western Grill. The friendly waitresses dressed as cowgirls, and the walls were covered with cowgirl photos. We did not sample the food, but there was a large selection of good, inexpensive beers. Tuesday I enjoyed Gabriel's, a good Mexican restaurant about 10 miles north of town (Marker F). On the way back, we make like astronomers, and drove a bit off the main highway to get a glimpse of Comet Holmes. The sky was very dark, but the comet was just a small fuzz ball. The conference banquet was Wednesday at the local Scottish Rite Masonic Center (left photo; Marker G), which is only a short walk from the hotel. Strangely, the currently very pink building seems to have been brown (Flickr photo) a couple of years ago. The center includes an ornate theater (center photo), and we were invited backstage to examine the fancy costumes (right photos). They must have very elaborate ceremonies in the theater. Finally on Thursday, a large group of us tried to have dinner at the Shed, but the wait was way too long. Instead we returned to Cowgirl, which managed to squeeze us in.

Halloween 2007

Halloween remains a popular event in our neighborhood. Thomas the Tank Engine, a holdover from Twin Day at Atholton High School, was the popular costume.

People of the GSFC Village

With their customary élan, the people of the ASD enthusiastically support the Director's new initiative to make GSFC a village.

Atholton Homecoming 2007

Atholton High School lost its homecoming football game to Marriotts Ridge 12 to 7 even though our star running back K. Odocha ran for 204 yards on 27 carries and was featured in a nice article in the Washington Post two days later. My daughter was more interested in the parties associated with her first homecoming. They started with a pizza dinner at a friend's house, which began with a photo opportunity in which the party goers played the parts of celebrities and the parents played the paparazzi. The homecoming dance followed, and then there was a post-dance party in our basement for a few dozen teenagers. Since the girls had an early soccer game in Virginia the next day, the party was over around 1 am.