Ferns

New Zealand is all about ferns.  Specifically the silver fern.  Check out the image below.  It's the International Symbol for New Zealand (I'm making that up).  But in real life it is a self-selected symbol of New Zealand, especially for their international athletic teams.  Because the whole place is covered in ferns.  See this list of ferns in New Zealand: thanks for the link, Te Papa!

This is at the top of the South Island, and probably half of the plants in this picture are ferns.  Little ferns, giant ferns, ferns that look like trees, ferns that look like animals.  If you told me that every plant in this photograph was a fern, I would believe you.

Fern that look like trees.  This was shot with the photographing machine pointed straight up into the air.

I don't even know what this is, so I bet it's a fern.  Some sort of weird, weird prehistoric-type fern.

When I made this photograph, I thought it was just cool-looing moss, but it might be a strange mossy fern.

Dried fern, or fern that is supposed to look like this?  I don't know!  It wasn't crunchy like you'd expect a dead fern to be...

Giant tree ferns!

Huntsville Airport

These are the advertisements in the Huntsville airport, which really speak to the industry in the area and the types of people that generally pass through.  No high-end fashion nonsense here.

These escalators brought to you by Boeing!

This is by far my favorite ad.  It's so Team America, with it's missile-taloned screaming eagle.  Not even pretending to be anything but what it is.  Glorious.

Fifty years of support to the Warfighter?  Good job guys!

J'ai trait une vache! Or, Ottawa!

Ages ago, when my friend Canada Justine (girlfriend of former roomie Canada Steve) was in Philly for a conference, we started chatting about one of our mutual favorite (Canadian) musicians, and how a new record was out, how lives shows were so awesome, etc.  In the course of that, I said something along the lines of, "If he's playing at Bluesfest, I'm coming up to go to the show with you."

Of course, the list of musicians playing Bluesfest pops up, and guess who is playing the main stage a couple days after the early July holidays?  City and Colour.  So I start looking for airplane tickets...

Luckily for me, something intriguing popped up at work, which didn't necessarily require a visit to Ottawa, but which certainly was helped by a visit to Ottawa.  In short, some art showed up and I had questions about the artist's materials and techniques.  The artist was Canadian and was represented in all the major Canadian museums.  The National Gallery of Canada had some written references on the artist, and a couple speedy emails to Supervisors Greg's wife, the Lovely Anne, and I was set to visit the conservation labs at the Library and Archives Canada.  

So my visit was justified!  I had to do some research, close my Canadian bank account (like Mitt Romney, I too had an overseas bank account - but that's where the resemblence ends), and go to an awesome show at a massive outdoor venue with a friend!  Yay Canada!

First stop: the library at the National Gallery.  I was a little confused how to get into the library as a regular patron: as an intern, we had a clever little back door we could use.  And we were allowed to wander directly down into the compact shelving to browse.  But it all worked out!

How delightful.  Stuck to the back of the paper towel dispenser in the bathroom off the stair-ramp at the Gallery.  People: when you visit the Gallery, the bathroom to go to is the one off the stair-ramp, right at the middle.  There is never a line and it's always tidy.

The old roomies only had green tea.  Since I require stronger stuff in order to function, I hiked it down to the Loblaws to pick up some Tetley.  Note: now in Canada the British Blend has become Tetley BOLD.  It's a nouvelle allure.  Canada's a Commonwealth Nation after all.  Colonies are out, as it British Blend.  BOLD is in.

Even though the States have long since thrown off the Yoke of the Oppressor, our strong Tetley continues to be called British Blend.  This is nonsense: we should have Tetley BOLD south of the 49th parallel as well!

Anyway, the art research went even better than hoped-for.  And the concert was fabulous.  It was perfect weather for an outdoor show.

We sang along with Dallas (which is how Justine refers to the singer/songwriter of City and Colour, like they're besties).

My flip flop broke on the way out afterwards, so I had to ride the bus home looking like that drunk girl, even though I wasn't remotely drunk.  I ended up taking both off and walking barefoot back from the bus stop to the International House of Pancakes.  Which is something I would contemplate only in Canada, as it is so very clean there!  

Justine and I ate crumpets back at the house and recapped the show to a friendly but ultimately uninterested Canada Steve.  Oh well!

Fountain Paint Pots

The 'Fountain Paint Pots' sound friendly, but they're actually boiling mud pits.

This is the approach to the 'paint pots' - through the Dead Marshes, outside Mordor - again walking on a boardwalk.  Gollum says, don't follow the lights.

Just a gentle reminder.  Some of the other warning signs elaborate further on gruesome ways that you'll be injured if you step off of the boardwalk.

And there they are, all of a sudden.  Pine trees, then bam!  Boiling pots of mud.

There is also a nearby geyser, to which the boardwalk will take you.  The yellow around it are sulfur deposits.

The Grand Prismatic Spring

Bet you had no idea how many photos I had from only a few days.  And this is after culling the herd.

The first stop of my second day in Yellowstone was the Grand Prismatic Spring.  This sucker is the rainbow pool often photographed via helicopter, the better which to capture its rainbow hues. 

As a spring, it bubbles out superheated water which then moseys its way across extensive bacterial flats into a small stream nearby (see below).  

A few smaller springs, not nearly as prismatic as the Grand Prismatic one.

And here it is!  Steaming like mad!

Boardwalk apocalypse.

Unfortunately all of the steam meant that the colors were barely visible... however, I feel that the sinister nature of all my resulting photographs more than makes up for that.  And I'd far rather have visited on a chilly morning with a few others than with massive packs of people on a warm and colorful day.

This grizzly bear warning was posted next to the little parking area beyond the springs.  Like I need a warning to leave grizzly bears alone - dudes eat people!

Other Geysers

After Old Faithful did its thing, I took my buffalo jerky and headed off across the Yellowstone boardwalks to see more geysers.  It was ridiculously cold, so few people were out with me.  Along with the cold came sporadic driving snow.

Mineral build-up around a geyser in the foreground, old Teddy Roosevelt-era hotels in the background.

Walking around the thermal features at Yellowstone is awesome, because you're constantly on wooden boardwalks.  This is for your own protection, as the water is extremely hot and the earth only looks like solid ground.

Like I'd want to mark them.  Bacterial flats?  Ugh.  But they're pretty.

The steam did smell sulfury, but not that sulfury.  Not nearly as bad as riding in a car with Dad and one of the cannons, at the end of the day on 4 July.

What did the first pioneers here think?  I kept wondering if they were missionaries or other god-fearing folks, because if so, they probably though they'd wandered into some terrifying hell-vestibule.

These signs are everywhere.  Sure, it looks like normal dirt/plants, but you'll probably end up, like, sinking into boiling mud up to your thigh, which will then have to be amputated, Civil War-style.

This is actively geysering.  Not all of them shoot out water like Old Faithful.

The hottest parts of the thermal pools are the blue areas (if I'm remembering right) and are blue because they are populated by cyanobacteria.  As you move from the center towards the edge of the pool, the colors change as the water cools and the types of bacteria present change.  Sure, the water cools, but its still wicked hot.