Monday, August 18, 2008

Another successful vacation

The family just back from our annual 2 week vacation. This year's destination was Colorado, my birthplace.

One of my favorite places was Great Sand Dunes National Park. It's really amazing to drive down a flat-as-a-pancake mountain valley and come to a great pile of sand at one end. It's exhausting but rewarding to scale them; all you see is sand, but it's beautiful.



Our next adventure was climbing a fourteener (> 14000 ft or 4267 meters). I think climbing Mt. Yale is one of my favorite hikes. It was a challenge, but it sure felt good to get to the top and eat a sandwich.





Going down was a bit of a challenge. My toes felt like they were going to fall off!

The next exciting stop was Devil's causeway. A short, high, stretch of rock that is 1.3 meters across at some points.



Getting back to Minnesota was one long day of driving. The next morning, though, I saw I had gotten an package from Google. It's contents? A USB Mini Travel Cable with "thanks" and the Python logo on it! Apparently these were donated by the PSF, and Google sent these to all the Python participants in GSOC. Thanks very much!

4 comments:

trombonechamp said...

Wait... Why would Google send you something that says "Thank you from Python" on it?

Steve said...

@trombonechamp: Google kindly sent out the gifts provided by the Python Software Foundation to everyone who completed a Python-based Summer of Code project last year.

Hope it comes in useful, Benjamin. Mostly we just wanted you all to know your work was appreciated.

Steve Holden [PSF Chairman]

Brandon Craig Rhodes said...

Wow — I just found this post through Planet Python, in the middle of planning a trip myself to the Great Sand Dunes National Park! I had never heard of it before, but am visiting Santa Fe next month, so I had brought up Google Maps to look for those little green areas nearby that indicate state or national parks.

Did you attempt any of the peaks near the Great Sand Dunes themselves? I was hoping to find a fourteener in that area rather than having to go much farther west on this particular trip...

Benjamin said...

@steve
It's much appreciated!

@brandon

Mt. Yale, which I climbed, is ~1 hours away from the Great Sand Dunes. However, I think Mr. Elebert (the highest) is closer.