Travel photos

Russil Wvong / Personal / Travel photos

Travel photos

Vancouver

A empty field in Pitt Meadows, where I went to high school. Pitt Meadows is a small town of about 10,000 people, mostly agricultural, about 20 or 30 miles up the Fraser Valley from Vancouver. It's grown quite a bit over the last decade, as people have migrated up the Fraser Valley in search of affordable housing. I took this picture a couple years ago. Today, the empty field has been turned into another housing development.

Edmonton

I lived in Edmonton for six years, from 1990 until last year, and I like it a lot. It's a good size for a city, at roughly 800,000 people. It's large enough that it has a university, a good library, and an active arts community, while it's still small enough that people are friendly, and crime and traffic aren't significant problems.

Downtown Edmonton in the summer, from across the river valley. Summer is probably the best time to visit Edmonton. Besides the weather, there's a number of week-long festivals which are held every summer: the Fringe Festival, the Street Performers Festival, and the Folk Festival are some of the major ones.

The street in Mill Woods where I used to live. Coming from Vancouver, houses in Edmonton seem unbelievably cheap, so I decided to buy one. Of course, three years later, when I decided to sell (what do I need a house for?), they were still unbelievably cheap.

No matter how much you like Edmonton, it's impossible to deny that the winters are bitterly cold. The average temperature in January and February is around -15 or -20 Celsius, with two- or three-day cold snaps down to -30. This is why Edmonton has the world's largest indoor shopping mall, complete with a roller coaster, a skating rink, waterslides, and a replica of Christopher Columbus' Santa Maria. No, I'm not joking.

Colorado Springs

I was working on a project in Colorado Springs from February 1997 to January 1998.

The Front Range. Colorado Springs is right up against the Rocky Mountains.

I'm renting the main floor of a house just north of downtown Colorado Springs, on Weber St.

The view across the street. There's lots of magnificent Victorian houses in the neigborhood, built in the late nineteenth century with money from gold mines.
The US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. This is Colorado Springs' biggest tourist attraction. It's like West Point for the Army or Annapolis for the Navy: it's where all USAF officers are trained.

Cathedral at the Air Force Academy

Denver City Center. The legislature building is off to the right. Denver's about an hour's drive north of Colorado Springs.

Rock climbers in the Garden of the Gods park.

Melbourne

I was in Melbourne, Australia the week of April 14. We flew out Saturday and arrived Monday, attended meetings all week, and flew back the next Saturday morning. It takes 17 or 18 hours to fly to Australia. Surprisingly, the jet lag wasn't too bad.

Colorado Springs in April

	The week I got back from Melbourne, Colorado Springs was hit by a winter storm, the kind you might see every 10 years. The city was covered in one or two feet of wet, heavy snow. Schools and businesses shut down for the day. You may notice something missing from in front of the house....
	The trees in front of the house are what's missing. This is the view from the front steps. The trees collapsed during the night from the weight of the snow, blocking the steps. I get a lot more light in my living room now.

Interop

Networld+Interop is the biggest tradeshow in the computer networking industry. The last time I was at Interop was in 1991, when it was still small enough to be held in San Jose. It moved to San Francisco the following year, and eventually to Las Vegas. This year's show was in the first week of May.

This is what the tradeshow floor looked like, two days before the show opened.

The tradeshow floor was huge: walking through it was like walking through a small city. Here's the Novell booth being set up.

Never let it be said that Las Vegas is tacky.

The New York New York hotel, which opened recently. The interior reminded me of Bourbon Street in West Edmonton Mall, except that it was about 50 times bigger.

Whitewater rafting (I)

I went whitewater rafting with Bob and Jeff on the Arkansas River the weekend of July 12. Jeff and I had never gone rafting before, so we decided on the Bighorn Canyon trip, which has Class III rapids. (Class I means that there's no turbulence at all; Class V means that one or two people die every year.) It was fun: we got wet, but nobody fell out of the raft.

New Orleans and Vancouver by Greyhound

During the last two weeks of July, I did a marathon bus trip through most of the western US: I took Greyhound from Colorado Springs down to New Orleans to hang out with Satnam and her friend Jeanne for a couple of days; then I headed west and north to Vancouver, to visit my family for a week. The only western states I missed were Utah and Nevada.

It's rather harrowing to ride the bus for three days at a time, but it was still a great trip. I spent the time reading, talking to people, watching the scenery pass by, or just dozing.

I didn't take many pictures from the bus, but I did take quite a few in New Orleans:

The view from Satnam's 35th-floor hotel room. The day before I arrived, it looked like a tropical storm was going to hit New Orleans, but fortunately it veered off and soaked Arkansas instead.

Me standing on Canal Street, just outside the hotel. I think Jeanne and I were waiting for Satnam. Lots of construction.

Jackson Square, from the Cafe du Monde.

A street in the French Quarter.

Bourbon Street at night. It's closed to traffic at night, and there's no law against drinking on the street, so there's lots of people wandering from one club to another with daiquiris in their hands. I think I took this picture at 1 in the morning.

Whitewater rafting (II)

On the Labor Day weekend, six weeks after our first whitewater rafting trip, Jeff and Bernie came down to Colorado Springs for job interviews. We decided to do the Royal Gorge run, along with Bob. The Royal Gorge has Class IV rapids. A guy at work told me that he'd vowed never to do the Royal Gorge again after being on a raft that flipped.

Well, we got to experience it ourselves. Besides the four of us and our guide, Ana, there was a married couple from Oklahoma, Dale and Lisa, who were rafting for the first time. Lisa was somewhat nervous about doing this: Dale had picked it out.

Things went fine until we hit the Sunshine Falls rapid (Class IV+), about fifteen minutes into the trip. At the top of the rapid, we hit a rock sideways and everyone was ejected from the raft except for Ana.

If you've never found yourself heading down a whitewater rapid outside a boat, this is what it's like: you're flying down the river at high speed, being pummelled and scraped by submerged rocks, and struggling to keep your head above water. And yet you still have time to wonder whether you've just done something really stupid.

We all made it back into rafts within a few minutes. We were exhausted, but other than a few scrapes and bruises, nobody was hurt. Jeff observed that we seemed to be paddling a lot more strenuously afterward -- nobody wanted to swim another rapid. Who says fear isn't a motivator?

Stop taking pictures and get me out of the damn river!

Mueller State Park

	Mueller State Park is about half an hour west of Colorado Springs, and close to two full miles above sea level. These pictures were taken on a Colorado Mountain Club hike, the first week of October.
	Taking a lunch break, near the remains of a couple of log cabins. It's difficult to imagine what living in the middle of the wilderness would have been like.
	A good place to rest. This wasn't a difficult hike, but there were a few uphill stretches.

Created: April 1997

	Downtown Edmonton in the summer, from across the river valley. Summer is probably the best time to visit Edmonton. Besides the weather, there's a number of week-long festivals which are held every summer: the Fringe Festival, the Street Performers Festival, and the Folk Festival are some of the major ones.
	The street in Mill Woods where I used to live. Coming from Vancouver, houses in Edmonton seem unbelievably cheap, so I decided to buy one. Of course, three years later, when I decided to sell (what do I need a house for?), they were still unbelievably cheap.
	No matter how much you like Edmonton, it's impossible to deny that the winters are bitterly cold. The average temperature in January and February is around -15 or -20 Celsius, with two- or three-day cold snaps down to -30. This is why Edmonton has the world's largest indoor shopping mall, complete with a roller coaster, a skating rink, waterslides, and a replica of Christopher Columbus' Santa Maria. No, I'm not joking.

	The Front Range. Colorado Springs is right up against the Rocky Mountains.
	I'm renting the main floor of a house just north of downtown Colorado Springs, on Weber St.
	The view across the street. There's lots of magnificent Victorian houses in the neigborhood, built in the late nineteenth century with money from gold mines.
	The US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. This is Colorado Springs' biggest tourist attraction. It's like West Point for the Army or Annapolis for the Navy: it's where all USAF officers are trained.
	Cathedral at the Air Force Academy
	Denver City Center. The legislature building is off to the right. Denver's about an hour's drive north of Colorado Springs.
	Rock climbers in the Garden of the Gods park.

	This is what the tradeshow floor looked like, two days before the show opened.
	The tradeshow floor was huge: walking through it was like walking through a small city. Here's the Novell booth being set up.
	Never let it be said that Las Vegas is tacky.
	The New York New York hotel, which opened recently. The interior reminded me of Bourbon Street in West Edmonton Mall, except that it was about 50 times bigger.

	The view from Satnam's 35th-floor hotel room. The day before I arrived, it looked like a tropical storm was going to hit New Orleans, but fortunately it veered off and soaked Arkansas instead.
	Me standing on Canal Street, just outside the hotel. I think Jeanne and I were waiting for Satnam. Lots of construction.
	Jackson Square, from the Cafe du Monde.
	A street in the French Quarter.
	Bourbon Street at night. It's closed to traffic at night, and there's no law against drinking on the street, so there's lots of people wandering from one club to another with daiquiris in their hands. I think I took this picture at 1 in the morning.