|
The above will search Traveljapanblog.com. Concerts - Landscapes - Sports |
National Creek Complex Wildfire
As mentioned yesterday, the Crescent fire and National fire have closed Highway 230, making it rather difficult to get from the Rogue Valley to Bend and other parts of Oregon. In addition the Boundary Springs Trail (and a few others) have been closed. Today’s photo is a closer view of the smoke outside the crater’s rim from inside on (8/12/15).
8-photo photomerge of Crater Lake
Most of my students from the class I taught in Guanajuato, Mexico last year have come to Ashland, Oregon for a class at Southern Oregon University. Yesterday was an off day so we went to Crater Lake. The smoke visible on the left side of today’s photo is from a fire burning in Crater Lake National Park. Highway 230 is closed.
Day one of the 2015 Seaside Beach Volleyball Tournament was cloudy and/or foggy 99% of the time. Day two started out like this before some extreme wind and cloudiness hit. With about 120 courts and 1,500 participants, and growing every year, this tournament sets the record for the world’s largest sand volleyball tournament each year.
Unfortunately, the organizers are still doing most things the same way they have for years–manually. The brackets need to be automated and put online. As things stand, people have to do way too much walking to get to the boards to check for updates. In addition, courts sit empty while teams wait to play. In two days (from early morning until near dark), my daughter played a mere 4 sets. That’s right–sets, not matches. She gets more playing in a 5-set match at home (which can be accomplished in less than a couple hours) than she got in an entire two-day span.
That said, the non-junior divisions seemed to get more playing time. Teams not in the junior divisions typically got in about 10 sets over the two days.
fireworks @ Inuyama Castle
Two years ago today, this happened.
Hiroshima paper cranes
Middle school kids from Hiroshima write, “We will not forget.”
Full moon over the Wild & Scenic Rogue River
I learned many things on our trip down the wild and scenic portion of the Rogue River. One thing learned was what “wild” and “scenic” mean. Wild means the river is inaccessible except by trail (or raft) and the river still looks like “primitive America”. Scenic means the shorelines are undeveloped. Such is the case for the Rogue River between the Grave Creek and Foster Bar Boat Ramps, a span of about 40 miles.
Another thing I learned is that I can’t sleep well under a full moon. Today’s photo was taken at 5:51 a.m. There was an electric bear fence to our right which I heard buzzing all night long. We weren’t inside the bear fence, and we were the first campers on this side of camp so if a bear was to wander through from this direction we would be the first to discover its presence. In addition, the bugs decided to buzz around my ears when they weren’t partaking of my flesh. I’m glad these things are mere memories now. Actually, the marks still remain, but they no longer itch for the most part.