Kidologist.com: Karl Bastian's Personal Site and Blog
Archive for May, 2005
May 17, 2005 at 12:47 am · Filed under Adventures, Family, Photography
I love the outdoors, but I love the Big City too (Chicago being the best by far in the world), but I really love when the two are combined. San Fransisco surprised me by having a lot of nature preserved around this beautiful city…
Splashin’ around across the harbor…
We spent most of the day packing and relaxin’ but the afternoon/evening was spent exploring with dinner on the Cliff along the shore with another of Sara’s childhood friends and a friend of hers. Too tired for any more pics than these teasers….
Splashin’ near the Golden Gate
In order to complete the “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” theme, tomorrow we leave early via airplane to a TOP SECRET undisclosed location to hide out until the Revenge of the Sith…. but stay tuned, there is still lots of photos and reports to blog.(Oh, if you get my blog posts via e-mail updates, don’t hit ‘reply to all’ like Lisa did, or your note to me will go to everyone on the list and millions will get to read your personal note to me.) 
May 15, 2005 at 11:30 pm · Filed under Adventures, Family, Life, Photography
Cutting Edge Technology (100 years ago)
Sticking to our theme of “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” we went on a historic rail ride yesterday that wasn’t even a part of our plans. On our drive from Yosemite to Lodi, we drove through the Gold Rush area of California, and stopped in Jamestown for some ice creme and shopping, and then noticed a Historic Railtown sign pointing up a hill that said ‘2 blocks’ so we turned – what a treat! We stumbled on Railtown 1897, one of the oldest steam trains in the USA still running, and turns out they only give rides on the weekends, so for $6 each we were on our way!
Life Lingers Along the Tracks
As well as being one of the oldest, this station and its #28 train is the longest running steam train in the country – after it stopped running for mining, it became a movie train, and has been in over 200 movies and hundreds of commercials and TV shows, such as Back to the Future III, Little House on the Praire, Unforgiven, among others.
Engine pulling around to take us back to station.
My favorite: a one-man hand-powered train! What fun!
For those of you who enjoy trains (or were alive back when these were modern) you might enjoy the 60 picture Railtown 1897 Gallery of the trains and roundhouse that I took during the ride and tour of the buildings.
Roses were in full bloom all over town.
Seems they still do some things the old fashioned way…
It is now Sunday evening. Just finished a day with another CP Team member, and will be about Temple Baptist Church next. Tomorrow we enjoy San Francisco.
May 14, 2005 at 9:31 am · Filed under Adventures, Photography, Yosemite
I was kinda sad leaving, and yet grateful for four days of perfect gorgeous weather, lots of fun animal sightings, and plenty of awesome opportunities for photography. Probably my favorite part about being here is trying to capture in new or unique ways images that have been seen through millions of cameras for over a hundred years. Rather than just ‘Ooo, that’s pretty!’ point and shoot, I try to find a different way to capture it. Anyway, I try.
The Tunnel is Calling…
My first adventure of the day was something that I am sure few people do. In the middle of the long drive in there is a tunnel through a mountain that is extreeeeemely long. The first day through, about in the middle, I looked off the side facing the valley wondering if I would see what I hoped would be there – YES! Toward the middle there is a tunnel, a man-made cave that leads straight out to the side of the mountain. (Often built for air, and for an emergency exit if the ends of the tunnel were to collapse) I declared that first day that I must climb through that dark cave and see that view of the valley! I finally did it yesterday… I counted my paces into the tunnel, and 350 paces in, (over 750 feet) I was to the inner secret tunnel….
A tunnel hidden within a tunnel… beckoning still…
It was actually quite scary at first, because the first 40-50 paces are in PITCH BLACK – and I wondered if a wild animal might live in here!! The floor was rocky and uneven, as were the walls. A little over 75 paces in I got to the lit opening…
A caged end to the cave – no escape now
The view was spectacular – and nice to know that probably few people have taken the time to see this even if they did notice the cave in the tunnel.
Look for Yosemite Falls in the distance…
The other side of the cage was a few feet, and then sheer drop.
To jump or not to jump….. not to jump.
We spent one last leisurely day in Yosemite Valley – lunch along the river, and mild hiking. It was a beautiful day, I could just stay here forever and stop working. But, I think I would get hungry since the paycheck would probably stop too.
God’s Way of Saying, “I love you.”
Some really tall grass…
The final highlight of the day, was spotting some climbers on El Capitan – one of the most famous climbs in America…
See the climbers?
You had to strain your eyes, and look for dots that moved. Amazing to imagine their view from up there!
Look very lower left corner…
Two climbers in this picture.
Zoomed and Enhanced – see the climber now? I see Nike shoes!
Our final stop was Cascade Falls which is on the way out (and in, but we were on the way out) – most people take pictures from the bridge (as I did on the way in the first day), but today I climbed down under the bridge. Cascade Falls is TWO waterfalls falling separately above, in fact, there are two bridges next to each other, but once under the bridge, you can walk a short distance to where the two rivers meet to become one right before dropping over a cliff. I took a lot of DV video for my upcoming Worship DVD that I plan to make with all my pictures, but here is one:
Too bad photos can’t capture the noise!
As we were driving to our B&B for last night, I spotted a horse reflection off the side of the road… yes, I couldn’t see the horse, but I saw it’s reflection… so I asked Sara, who was driving, to stop and back up, and then I hopped out. Took a bunch of cool pictures of my own secret Mirror Lake, er, Pond….
A horse, of course, no four!
May 13, 2005 at 9:56 am · Filed under Adventures, Family, Photography, Spiritual Growth, Yosemite
It was our third day in Yosemite – and I hit the trails so much I am sore this morning! But I have discovered that you haven’t experienced Yosemite until you get out of the car, off the main roads, and up into the hills, it gets even better!
I have pictures at home of me on this sign as a kid!
Met some monks from Burma along the way.
My first destination was, of course, Inspiration Point. Sara trusted me to climb up into the rocky cliffs in search of inspiration. (There was enough inspiration for her just overlooking the Tunnel View, the #1 photographed spot in the park – it is breathtaking enough!)
Not sure if I got to the Inspiration Point, but I did get to the point where I was inspired. The trail was hard to follow, and I think I finally lost it… (or it went off a cliff and was a mean trick!) So after that, I had to forge my own trail, going where no hiker has ever gone before. (I hope!)
Me right before the log fell thousands of feet to the valley below!
Back in the valley, we enjoyed walking around. I found this cool log. We took a bunch of fun pictures from inside and out of this log…
Never stop while you are a head.
Peeking Sara!
My next hike was to Vernal Falls. It looks pretty short on the map, and is only supposed to be a few miles, but the map doesn’t show the stairs that rival those in the Lord of the Rings / Return of the King that Frodo and Sam climb! I was supposed to be back to meet Sara at 4pm, I didn’t get to the top of the falls until 4pm! I was worried that she was worried, but it turned out that she was just worried that I’d be worried that she was worried. And I hadn’t even worried about that!
An hour in and still thousands of stairs left to go!
The hikers on the way down looked wet, exhausted, but happy, and each claimed it was worth the hard hike still ahead… so I pushed on.
Just a few of the thousands of stone stairs…
The rainbow at the base was gorgeous.
It was worth it at the top. Photos will be in the gallery later. The trip down was a lot faster, if not easier! But I did the way down in 45 minutes, compared to over two hours to get up there. (Granted, I wasn’t stopping to take pictures or pet bears on the way down.)
The third hike was with Sara to Mirror Lake. What a beautiful place. Very peaceful and relaxing. We just sat there for awhile and enjoyed being so close to some of God’s greatest creations. I’ll spare you the profound thoughts – but I had lots of them.
The reflection is almost clearer than the real thing!
Mirror Lake is at the foot of Half Dome, my favorite mountain in the world. I really enjoyed being there and studying it, and trying to imagine climbing it, tracing possible paths with my eyes. Again, I will spare you all the profound thoughts – but this place forces you to contemplate life and your small fleeting part in the drama of God’s Creation.
Contemplating the Eternal Mysteries of the Dome.
The last highlight of the day, was seeing a coyote and some deer, and then the Daddy Deer chasing the coyote away!
Coyote on the prowl, I had to chase him to get this shot.
May 11, 2005 at 11:54 pm · Filed under Adventures, Family, Photography, Spiritual Growth, Yosemite
Another amazing day at Yosemite…
How anyone who comes here doesn’t believe in God is beyond me…
Hint at my plans for tomorrow…
NOW FOR THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY… Was it the mountains? The waterdfalls? The vast vistas or rolling meadows? The gift shop? NO!
I had an adventure with a WILD BEAST!!! To believe it, you have to see it, so I made a video, download here. (7.3 MB, QuickTime) PLEASE COMMENT and let me know what you think of it!
YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS IT!
May 10, 2005 at 10:37 pm · Filed under Adventures, Family, Spiritual Growth, Yosemite
Disneyland may claim to be the ‘Happiest Place on Earch’ (which is debateable with all the crying kids you see there), but YOSEMITE is definately the Greatest PLACE on Earth, and the happiest for me. I think in my entire childhood, other than the day I went to see the first Star Wars movie, Yosemite had the biggest impact on my life. (And that’s not counting be attacked by a bear last time I was here, but that’s a post for another day)
One our way into Yosemite Valley
The driving is spectacular (if not frightening). The vistas are breath taking – they make the Oregon Coast look like ant hills and pebbles. It is simply impossible to completely describe or photograph Yosemite. If you have never been here, you must before you die. Make it your goal in life! When you get here, you’ll say, “Wow, Karl was right!”
First thing I did in Yosemite? Throw a snowball!
We were very surprised to find snow on the way in, and lots of it in some places. We were only in the park for three hours today, but drove in rain, hail, light snow, and under clear blue skies with white puffy clouds. The constantly changing altatude means constantly changing weather too. I went from t-shirt to sweatshirt to raincoat and back to t-shirt, several times.
The water falls are breathtaking.
Yosemite has many of the tallest waterfalls in the world, one that is 2000 feet and another that is over 2400. I walked up to the bottom of one and got soaked. The path was a river of water and you could hardly see through the mist. It was amazing and fun, but extremely wet. Good thing I bought that rain coat on the Rogue River trip!We got to Yosemite a day early, so this trek in was only to ’scope out the place’, but 185 pictures later, it turned out my camera did a lot of the scoping. (No gallery until Yosemite is all over) But finally, we got to my #1 goal of coming here, to see Half Dome again with my own eyes…
In person, this mountain grabs your eyes and holds them, refusing to let you look away.
We will be here in Yosemite until Saturday! We plan to see as much as possible, and I’ve got a guided bike ride planned as well. I’m trying to talk Sara into climbing the face of Half Dome with me… I’ll keep ya posted.
Sara took this out the car window… pretty cool, eh?
BONUS WALLPAPER FROM KARL’S LAST VISIT ON THE COAST OF CALIFORNIA. Make this your wallpaper, and let it remind you to pray for me!
(It is 548KB)
The Bridge
May 9, 2005 at 2:49 am · Filed under Adventures, Family, Humor, Mac, Photography
See those storm clouds rolling in?
We have seen many examples of God’s provision on this trip! Just tonight we stopped to eat at a Marie Calendars and I decided to take my laptop in to look at pictures (via Mac instant slide shows) while we waited for our food and noticed (in honor of Branden) that there was a local unsecured high speed wireless network! (that’s a good thing) I was able to check my e-mail at dinner! (maybe not a good thing) Anyway, by the end of dinner it was pouring rain – and we found out our destination was 2.5 hours away, not the one hour we thought, and that there was no lodging in the town where we were planning to stop and look for a place to spend the night… so I followed the wireless connection next door, and here we are at Best Western! It has rained a lot on this trip, but God has been gracious – it must rain (this area is so lush and green) – but rain has not ruined a day, it always seem to rain either when it doesn’t matter, or when it actually makes the view better. We were most grateful to God that the day we went on the boat trip, it only rained at the very beginning, and as we were floating back into port!
The smaller sign says “End County Maintained Roads” – My kind of road!
Today we began our California Adventure (no intended reference to the lame amusement park by the same name). We traveled the coast via obscure coastal roads Sara found on the Internet. (I build the web, Sara actually uses it)
Driving was a ton of fun! So was taking pictures at the same time!
We headed into Sherwood Forest, er, Redwood Forest, but again, using less known roads that Sara researched online. We drove for miles and miles through winding back roads and saw almost no other cars. Everything was going great until we came across a massive tree that had blocked the road. In all the excitement, I forgot to take a picture of it in the road, but after I used my light saber to cut it in half, Sara snapped a picture of me using my Jedi powers to summon the Force and push the now-severed halves of the tree off the road…
As Yoda said, “Size matters not.”
After the car was through, we examined the tree, turns out the tree was hollow. In the picture above the right side was over 50-70 feet long, and looking down through it you could just make out light at the very bottom down the steep hill. Up through the left side was a much larger hole, so I climbed up and looked down through it…
Now that’s a big tree!
It’s impossible to capture the size of these trees in one picture, you’d need a fish-eye lense (boy, I wished I had one of those today!) But we tried…
In touch with our inner tree, literally!
The Trees Declare the Glory of God!
In our ever-exciting pursuit of wild animals, today proved to be more exciting – no google images needed! The first creature was a mouse – don’t laugh – this was the coolest little mouse. He was FAST and scurried around like he had just drank a Mountain Dew!!! Don’t believe me? Check out this 5MB video clip of him running around the road… and when this video ends you’ll see he ran into the brush, so I stopped filming, but then he ran right back out and all over the road again, it was the funniest thing. I followed him around the roadway for almost five minutes, it was hysterical. He was so fast all the pictures i took were a blurr! Here’s the best one:
This little dude COULD MOVE!
Next we ran into the WEIRDEST LOOKING bird – no, not literally, but if you think you know what this is, post a comment and tell me. (Retta?!?!?) I KNOW what it is, just wondering if any of YOU know what it is!
No relation to Big Bird of Seseme Street!
Then we spotted some Elk – in several different places actually, over 25 total! These things are big, and if you’ve heard my “Moose Story from Alaska” you’ll understand why I stayed in the car to take these pictures…
Just a few of Santa’s Elks… or something like that.
If you haven’t heard my “Moose Story from Alaska” you can always ask me about it, but let’s just say, the Moose in Alaska don’t hide behind warning signs like these elk do…
“Danger?!” Oh, I thought it said “Ranger” Oh, well.
As we left Redwood National Forest I FINALLY DID GET TO SEE A BEAR - FOUR in fact! And this is FOR REAL! No google images – in fact, I set my camera on timer and jumped up on one and road him like a bull! (Sara was hiding safely in the car)
OK, so it was a bridge statue (2 on each end of the bridge)
But it was real, just a Golden Bear. (Don’t tell Moses!)
Eventually, we were back driving alone the coast again. Did I mention it is beautiful? Did I mention that it is breathtakingly spectacular? You have GOT to plan a vacation out here!
I can fly! I can fly! (well, I can flap my arms like a goof ball)
I love birds, tormenting them that is. This is a vacation tradition, me running into the birds waving my arms like a lunatic. Sara even reminded me today, “Karl, aren’t you going to run and make all the birds fly?”
By popular demand, RED WOODS PHOTO GALLERY is NOW LIVE! Check it out, and it’ll almost be like you were there!AND IF YOU ARE READING THIS – leave a comment so I know someone is reading these posts.
May 8, 2005 at 1:22 am · Filed under Adventures, Family, Humor, Photography, Spiritual Growth
For our final day in Oregon, we went on an all day trip down the Rogue River in a Jet Boat! (see mailboat.com )
Me in my official Mailboat Jacket.
(since I left my VCBkids one at Henry’s)
It was a 104 mile trip that went from 8am to 3pm up the river and back. It was mostly smooth sailing, but there were a few areas with some fun rapids.
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
We were told there was a very good chance at getting to see some wildlife, so I was very excited when I spotted a wild cat….
Don’t worry, I protected Sara from this savage beast!
The views were, again, spectacular.
There were many small waterfalls…
And we ran into many rafters. (well, not literally!)
The boat was extremely fast, and since it is jet powered (by two powerful chevy auto engines), it can travel extremely fast in only ten inches of water. It did spray up some, but a water ride at an amusement park will still get you wetter. It was the rain that fell a few times that got us more wet than the spray from the boat. The wimps got off at the 64 mile waiting area, and we put on life jackets (not needed for the first half of the ride) and continued up for the 104 mile into the rapids.
Sara, ready to rough the rapids!
One of the zillion birds we saw.
Finally, we got to start seeing some real wild life. LOTS of birds, but I was hoping for something more exciting, and I got it…
Look carefully, see the Otter eating?
While we have lots of deer back home, it was still fun to see them in the wild.
Finally, the highlight of the day!!
Two bears fighing over some fish. Glad they are out in the water!
At the break point, we got to get out and stretch our legs. I decided to take my camera and go exploring in the hills… What a surprise when I rounded a bush and stumbled into this guy, who was NOT too happy that I bumped into him!!! (his fur was very soft!) As I ran away, I fumbled with my camera long enough to capture this, and then RAN back to the group!! Of course, no one believed me!
I almost became a bear snack!
By the way, you if you believed me, then I got you! hahahahahaha. (Bear pictures courtesy of Google Images)
Seriously, the otter was my favorite, so playful and fun to watch (hard to photograph), but the coolest had to be twenty sea lions in the harbor. Especially since we had skipped the Sea Lion Cave due to the horrid smell and fee just to go look at them. These were free, and far enough away not to have to smell them.
Sea Lions in the Harbor!
There is a ROGUE RIVER PHOTO GALLERY available with even more pics.
Enjoy!
May 8, 2005 at 1:16 am · Filed under Adventures, Family, Photography, Spiritual Growth
It took us a while, but we finally got through Oregon, and are now in Northern California. (and have to pay sales tax now… BOO!) We will worship at the Redwoods National Forest on Sunday.
At least we got across Oregon faster than this fellow…
OREGON COAST PHOTO GALLERY IS NOW ONLINE!
Hope you enjoy the photos! We sure had a lot of fun, and plan to vacation here again when we can move even slower, and stop more often to hike and explore.
NEWLY UPDATED WITH MORE!
If you would like 1280 x 854 highres wallerpapers of these,
Vist: Karl’s Oregon Coast Wallpapers
You will see thumbnails and can download the ones you want.
May 7, 2005 at 12:27 am · Filed under Adventures, Children's Ministry, Devotional, Family, Photography, Spiritual Growth
Yes, we bought matching shirts.
Yesterday we started our journey down the Oregon Coast. In one word?
Breathtakinglyamazinglybeautifullyspectacular.
The Oregon Coast FAR EXCEEDED my expectations, and they were pretty high already. It has proved to be even more spectacular than I had even hoped. Colorado? You may need to step aside – you’ve got the mountains, but not the rivers, ocean, lakes, and lush greenery. I still claim Colorado as my favorite state, but is more due to my personal roots there… It is getting harder to say it is the most beautiful state in the Union.
The first day we traveled from Portland, North to the Coast, and then started straight down. We ended in Newport for the evening with dinner with our friends, the Helts, who I met through Kidology. Pam Helt has co-authored a few of my Kid’s Church units with me. We had lunch this morning at Coca Mocha Joe’s before heading on our way again.
We also visited their church, but more info and pics on that later.
I can’t get over the amazing displays of God’s Creation here! It just never ends, for hours on end. No photos can capture it, but I tried. Below are pictures that I took. Yes, I took these. Unlike the one below (in my test post), these are actually from my camera TODAY.
See how facinating this area is?!?
If you would like 1280 x 854 highres wallerpapers of these,
Vist: Karl’s Oregon Coast Wallpapers
You will see thumbnails and can download the ones you want.
Tomorrow we are going on a 100+ mile river speed boat trip. That should be fun (and wet), so no cell phone, laptop, PDA, or Internet! But pictures will come, of course.
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