R Scott Jones

After several weeks of deciding and occasional planning, we’ve finalized–at least for now–our upcoming roadtrip. We’re technically holding off on our honeymoon until next summer when we tackle either the Alaskan parks or the Amazon. Here’s what we’re looking at doing this year:

National Park Service units

1. Manzanar National Historic Site (CA)
2. Devils Postpile National Monument (CA)
3. Yosemite National Park* (CA) for our wedding
4. Lassen Volcanic National Park (CA)
5. Whiskeytown-Trinity-Shasta National Recreation Area (CA)
6. Lava Beds National Monument (CA)
7. Oregon Caves National Monument (OR)
8. Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park - Seattle Unit (WA)
9. Ebey’s Landing National Historic Reserve (WA)
10. San Juan Island National Historic Park (WA)
11. North Cascades National Park (WA)
12. Ross Lake National Recreational Area (WA)
13. Lake Chelan National Recreational Area (WA)

Canadian Park Units

1. Mount Revelstoke National Park (British Columbia)
2. Glacier National Park (British Columbia)
3. Yoho National Park (British Columbia)
4. Kootenay National Park (British Columbia)
5. Jasper National Park (Alberta)
6. Banff National Park (Alberta)
7. Banff Park Museum National Historic Site (Alberta)
8. Cave and Basin National Historic Site (Alberta)
9. Bar U Ranch National Historic Site (Alberta)

We are also considering hitting a couple additional Canadian parks and maybe an additional NPS unit or two as well. This would bump up our total National Park Service units visited to the low 180s, and would get us to about 9 total Canadian national parks (about 30%).

Well, the monsoons are here and with it means another July roadtrip for Kim and I. Of course, this year’s going to be a bit different than most.

We’re also getting married.

After a ceremony in Yosemite National Park on what will be our 11-year anniversary, we’ll head up through California, Oregon, and Washington and into the Canadian Rockies before heading back in time to host our wedding reception back in Phoenix.

There’s still plenty of planning and prep work to be done, and time is getting short, so we’re really burning the midnight oil these days. We’ll try to check in on the road a bit, but you may not hear from us until we return in August.

A quick and hurried first attempt at HDR using a trial application that saves watermarks, so I had to Skitch the preview. I think I’d enjoy doing some HDR in the future - though I usually despise any post-processing - so I guess that means I’ll have to decide which application to get. The trial one I used costs $99 just for that capability, but I figure I can find a more full-featured app for $200 or less.

Above is a time lapse video I made on Monday night with the aid of an external webcam and a couple of friends (thanks Terry and Victoria). After a failed attempt to drive up to the summit of South Mountain (closed due to an accident) and a longer drive out to the Bush Highway and back, we tried driving through Old Town Scottsdale and past ASU to Mill Ave. The resulting video, which starts slow but gets better, isn’t too bad for a first day’s attempt. I’m hoping to do another test or two before deploying the time lapse webcam on our upcoming roadtrip and at our wedding reception.

You brought much-needed social commentary into our lives and managed to make it funny, too.

July 11th can’t arrive soon enough. I’m very excited about the new iphone - not just the 3G speeds which will make websurfing far more tolerable, but also for the app store. The iphone will finally realize its potential as a full pda, a function I’ve very much been missing. Sure, there are workarounds, but having apps installed on the device as opposed to webapps, will make a huge difference.