Relative Size of Alaska and the Contiguous U.S.
21-Apr, 2008
Visitors to the 49th state often ask, “How big is Alaska?” Well, click on the thumbnail image to the left to find out. Sorry Texas…and Montana…and California.
Feel free to check out a slick web page that lets you overlay each state on top of Alaska!
England, 2007: Old Trafford
28-Nov, 2007
After a hike in Peak National Park, our next major stop on the tour was Old Trafford, the home of the Manchester United Red Devils. The club, originally founded as Newton Heath L&YR F.C. in 1878, took its current name in 1902. The team’s stadium can hold up to 76,000 singing, cheering fans. Although we didn’t see a game, Kristin and I enjoyed every minute and we even got our pictures taken with Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney, and Cristiano Ronaldo. Lucky! Click on the thumbnail image to view the photo album. Comments are welcome. Enjoy!
England, 2007: Peak National Park
31-Oct, 2007
The next leg of our Pappapalooza, 2007 tour took us through Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon, and Peak National Park. The weather was really nice during these few days so this leg produced the best pictures in my opinion. We hiked the Roaches in Peak National Park and were rewarded with breathtaking views, old stone walls and green pastures, and the company of curious sheep.
We didn’t really do much in Oxford, other than get out of the car, walk around, drink some tea, and snap a few photos. We should have went straight through to Stratford-upon-Avon (SuA) because the traffic was horrendous and we didn’t arrive in SuA until after everything closed…lame. SuA is the birthplace of Shakespeare and it would have been interesting to see things around town. We arrived around 6 PM, so we had dinner and a pint of the black stuff at the Dirty Duck.
After a nice meal, we drove up to Leek, just south of Peak District National Park and, after receiving directions from two very nice ladies who happened to be out for a walk at 10:30 PM, arrived at the Prospect House B & B. Rolf and Jackie were really nice folks and quite humorous. Rolf is a really good cook…top notch. So we got a good night’s sleep and prepared for a nice day hike in the park.
Wow. Kristin and I hiked along well-marked trails of the Roaches on the edge of the Staffordshire Moorlands. It was beautiful landscape of green, rolling hills, old stone walls, outcrops of the Roaches grit formations, Hen Cloud and Ramshaw Rocks, and lots and lots of sheep. We were amazed at how dense and “jungle-like” the forested areas were in this maritime climate. This day had the best weather, by far, so it generated pictures that were the best of the lot. We were quite tired at the end of the day and had a wonderful meal cooked by Rolf, watched a flick, and crashed.
Feel free to check out the photo gallery for this leg of the trip. Stay tuned for the next leg of the trip…Old Trafford, home of the English Premier League team, Manchester United!
