Photos

Kennedy Space Center

  • Saturn 5, second stage
  • Command Module
  • Lightning Towers

    3 lightning towers designed to direct bolts away from the launch pad that they surround.

  • Birds!

    That's the last of the space pictures, I took a few quick shots of birds outside my hotel a few days later on the same trip.

  • Space Shuttle Atlantis

    The retired Space Shuttle Atlantis. 'Murica!

Last November, I had the opportunity to visit the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, while visiting relatives living in the area.

Oktoberfest 2013

  • Alphorns

    The business end of some of these horns. Looking east.

  • Whiteface Lodge

    Deck of the Whiteface Lodge, at the foot of Little Whiteface and Whiteface mountains

  • Yodeling

    We met our yodeling friends from earlier, they were demonstrating how sound from their alphorns could be bounced off other mountains and heard echoing. Very neat demo!

  • Ticket

    My "Cannon" and my ticket.

  • Base camp

    A better view of the festivities below. The line across the picture is the arm-size cable hauling our gondola to the summit.

Every October, the ski resort at Whiteface Mountain has a small Oktoberfest. Traditional German music, food, beer, and demonstrations are featured, and many local vendors come to show off their homemade crafts.

This is the first time I've gone in many years, and the first time I went being older than 21! It's a ton of fun and is definitely worth checking out if you're in the area during the skiing offseason.

Exploring Benson Mines

  • No Entrance

    Back door to the machine shop.

  • Abandoned Excavator

    ...With no bucket. Likely a Massey Ferguson 450.

  • Exit (Entrance)
  • Worker's Desk
  • Burned Steps

    Even older looking stairs - the mine has history back to the 1800s, but this is probably not that old. The building on top of it appears to have burned, leaving behind electric wires and boxes.

Benson Mines is a long-abandoned iron mine near Watertown, NY. The mine was shut down in 1978 and the buildings and have been completely abandoned ever since. Abandoned man-made structures are my favorite to take pictures of, so I couldn't resist exploring!