Stardate 020080329: Colorado

In Spring Break, in Finland I guess it would be "hiihtoloma" we went to Colorado, to go snowboarding and a bit of sightseeing. Here they have all these holidays from the university. Not like in Finland, that you just have to take your own holiday if you want to go somewhere :D hehehe. Anyway, this trip was another road trip, since we drove to Colorado and eventually all the way to Denver.

First stop was Durango, a small town close to the border of Colorado and New Mexico. We stayed in a cheap motel there and went skiing in a place called Purgatory. Quite funny name :P The slopes there were amazing! I rent a snowboard and Gerardo got skies, and we were enjoying the sun shine and snow for two days there :) I burned my face completely though. The sun was a bit stronger than the spring sun in Finland...

View from Purgatory

That was my snowboard in Durango

American flags...

The resort was really high! About 3 km... :P

After Durango and Purgatory we headed to another place called Pagosa Springs. Near that there was a skiing resort called Wolf Creek. It was also a really cool place! Although I think I liked Purgatory more... This one had too many pumps all over :P No coolio... But, the weather was amazing also there all the time. Sun shine every day, more burning my face..

In Pagosa Springs we also went to some natural hot springs! There were like small pools like in a spa (like Eden or something) outside but it was all natural heated! It was really cool to thing that we were sitting in a water that had come from deep underground and was heated by magma... :P Some of the pools were as hot as 45 degrees (celsius)....oh my god :p I couldn't stay in all of those really long since they were soooo hot! But it was really nice and relaxing experience, a bit like going to sauna after snowboarding the whole day. We payed about 17 dollars to go in, not so bad.

After skiing in Wolf Creek we drove to Denver. It was a nice city, didn't appear really big though. We were walking like insane there (of course). The first day was sunny and warm, but the other one was kind of cloudy and crapy... Anyway, we were walking in downtown in this pedestrian area with all the shops. Then we walked some 4 miles to a City Park which was really beautiful place. There was also a Museum of Nature and Science which had really cool exhibitions. We went to one about Space, one about Egypt and then there was a special exhibition of Gold. It was interesting too :)

But, I think the most cool thing about this museum was the Space part :P We could see ourselves in infrared, you could see the body heat and so on as red. And....my fingers were completely blue!! :( Well, it's not really a surprise, but it was kind of shoking to see it :P Even some couple were commenting about my cold hands but warm heart! :D

Well, here are some more pictures.

From the way to Denver...

...From the road as well

Downtown Denver!

Denver..

From the City Park..

And finally, a view of the city!

Stardate 020080315: VLA (Very Large Array)

The reason for my existence, the one reason why I wanted to come to New Mexico in the first place.. Yes, it indeed sounds geek. I wanted to see the Radioantennas in Socorro, the same ones appearing in many movies, such as The Contact, 2001 Space Adventure etc. And yes! I finally did it and went there! :D It was reeeeeally cool! The antennas are insanely huuuuge. We were driving about 3 hours from Las Cruces to get there but it was all worth it to me at least :)

The VLA site had a small museum telling about the construction and history of the site, a small gift shop, walking tour and god damn strong wind :P Well, maybe for many people it wouldn't have been sooo special...but for me, woooow, I loved it :D

So, here are some pictures from there:

A sign beside the highway

You couldn't use the cell phone and yes, well, it was good that we didn't take our microvaweoven with us....hmmm

And that's me! Damn the thing is huuuge!

This was kind of like a "garage" for the antennas

On the way back to Las Cruces we noticed a ghost town near Socorro. It was called Kelly Mines. We decided to see how it was, and it was really a ghost town... no people whatsoever.. All the buildings had been torn down, the only thing remaining was an ooold mine tower or something and some ruins. Well, I wouldn't want to be in that place in the dark :P The view from the Kelly Mines was amazing. The location was reeally high..

Kelly Mines

A view from the Kelly Mines

Stardate 020080306: Hiking and Snowboarding in NM!

After the party party party end of December it seems that my life has settled down again. I haven't been doing much anything else but working every day until late. Actually it's really nice because my job at the Astronomy department is in fact really interesting :) And plus I'm feeling more geek every day...so I guess I'm fitting in to this department quite well. Although I wouldn't have guessed that I would be programming ever in my work, but well...you learn something new every day!

Besides working I've gone hiking two times and even snowboarding once during these two months! We went hiking to the Organ mountains, just next to Las Cruces. In fact you can see the mountains every day just walking anywhere here :P The view is nevertheless really beautiful, and like I probably have said before, the weather here is always nice, always sun shine and no clouds. So you can imagine how beautiful the view is from up there! Or wait, you don't actually have to imagine because I have some pictures from there :D
Oh my god, my jokes are getting worse every day...

View from the mountains..

God damn bugs spoiling the fun..

More view from the hike

Well well, as hard as it seems to believe, I did go snowboarding here in New Mexico! How is it possible? Well, in America everything is possible :D hehehe! Just kidding.. Anyway, the state is actually quite big and when you drive up north it actually gets cold! Yes, there can be even snow up there :D We went to this place called Santa Fe, which is by the way also the capital of the state of New Mexico. There's a really nice skiing resort there, really really high...feels like you are above the clouds or something. I don't know if you can notice it from the pictures but it's damn high :P

Thinking that it would be summer all year round here, I hadn't brought my winter clothes, my snowboarding jacket or anything with me here initially :P So (what a pity) I had to go shopping :P heheh :) I bought some really nice snowboarding clothes and payed maybe third of the prize I would pay in Finland... Yes, it's ridiculous how cheap it is around here... Not to mention the hair cutting in Mexico... can you believe that I paid only 7 euros for it... :P

Anyway, here's pictures from Santa Fe, the "pro-snowboarder" :D

Oh! And yes, it was freaking cold!! I was freezing to death there :P I guess I've used to warmer climate here already or something...or it's just my normal freezing always..