Photos

Kennedy Space Center

  • Saturn 5, second stage
  • Lightning Towers

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

  • Crawler

    One of NASA's two land crawlers, currently being outfitted for SpaceX missions.

  • Seaside Bunker

    Looking out into the Atlantic, one of the main launch platforms would have been behind me. According to our guide this little bunker was used to house sensitive equipment for detecting electricity in the air, as lightning is a grave threat to launches.

  • Command Module
Last November, I had the opportunity to visit the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, while visiting relatives living in the area.
Fri, 01/17/2014 - 10:11
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Oktoberfest 2013

  • Trails

    Facing north, a good view of the ski trails connecting the two mountains.

  • Alphorns

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

  • 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!

  • Looking down

    Halfway up the mountain, looking down.

  • Ticket

    My "Cannon" and my ticket.

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.

Thu, 10/17/2013 - 09:47
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Exploring Benson Mines

  • Garage Door

    Outside view of another building showing the decay of the area.

  • Office Building

    One of the few two-story buildings, with major fire damage inside.

  • Machine Shop

    Judging from the abundance of 440 volt hookups in the building, this likely was some sort of machine shop.

  • Safety for All
  • Ore Silos

    Rusting silo between concrete silos for holding iron ore. It looked like there was more machinery on top of the silos that had rusted away and collapsed.

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!
Tue, 10/01/2013 - 09:26
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