Lake Mead in History: August 2014

Traveling for work this week so I had a chance to visit Lake Mead near Vegas.  Many thanks to my friend James who took me to this historical site.

Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States. It is located on the Colorado River in the states of Nevada and Arizona. Formed by the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead is 112 miles long when the it is full, has 759 miles of shoreline, is 532 feet at greatest depth, with a surface elevation of 1,221 feet above sea level. When filled to capacity, it has 28 million acre-feet of water. However, the lake has not fully reached this capacity since 1983 due to a combination of drought and increased water demand.

The part of the lake I visited earlier this week has completely dried up, and this is a 70-year historical record.  I am thankful to be able to see a piece of the history where a trace of the struggle between human and nature can be found...

Picture 2 shows where people used to dock their boats, and the white line on the side of the mountain indicates the water level from 30 years ago -- pretty incredible and unforgiving stuff !! 

Lake Mead, Nevada
August 27, 2014

Hawaii, the paradise... (11)

I would not have done justice to the Big Island had I not showed you Kona Village -- the west side of the island.  So, here it is -- the desert side of the paradise!! 

We didn't have enough time to go back there for the 2nd time during our last trip, but I would like to visit Kona Village again next time.  When you drive to the west side of the island, it feels like you're in a totally different world.  The land is covered by the lava rocks, deserts and those tiny little grasses.  Human "intervention" is significant there, as evidenced in Picture 1, where expensive resorts have been built on top of the lava land!

Wish I could go back to take photos of the little grasses under the setting sun.  They grow under harsh conditions, but to me, they look as attractive and beautiful as all other green grasses...  I am sure that during each sunset, they get to show off their unique beauty in golden color...

Big Island, Hawaii

December 2, 2013

Hawaii, the paradise... (10)

I am still on my long journey of processing all the Hawaii pictures.  It makes me wonder if I can ever afford to go to Hawaii again, as the time required to process all the pictures is enormous!

The attached photos were taken in the mid morning of 12/5/2013 at the Mauna Kea on the Big Island.  I remember going up there in the dark that morning to catch the sunrise, and I saw one of the most amazing sunrises -- the sun was rising from the "ocean of clouds..."

These photos were captured when we came down the mountains, and we actually went to the same level as the volcanic craters. On the second photo, you'd see some white dots on the left side of the mountains.  Those were goats.  When you sat there in the open land next to the craters and listened to the soft voices of goats from the remote mountains, you'd feel like in heaven -- it's more than GREAT!

Volcanic Craters in Morning Clouds

Big Island, Hawaii
December 5, 2014

 

My Facebook

In this "information age" and the era of social media, I feel the need to take a minute to touch on my relationship with my Facebook.

1.  I joined Facebook on 3/13/2009 because one of my friends "friended" me.  I still remember making a statement on my profile, not particularly social media friendly. 

2.  Over the past 5 years, I was able to successfully secure 4 valuable Facebook friends:

       My little Michelle (age 24)
       My little Larry (my nephew, age 17)

       Steve Chen (my cousin's son who came to the U.S. for college and graduate school, age 24)

       Jeremy Cai (my good friend's son who went to college last year and is living his BIG dreams, age 19)

3.  There are MANY "friends" pending in the que.  If you are one of them, please accept my sincere apology.  I did not mean to offend you... but fundamentally, I want to preserve my Facebook only for younger generations.

4.  After 5 years, my Facebook page contains (only) the following lovely entries --        

11/26/2011:  Pei Tang became friends with Michelle Zhang

12/22/2012:  Tagged by Michelle -- Courtesy of my mother who spends all of her free time traveling to beautiful places and taking amazing photos at strange hours.

05/12/2013:  Tagged by Michelle -- Mom, you are the coolest. You can tell by the sunglasses. Happy Mother's Day, I love you! (This is not the cool picture Michelle referred to).

03/25/2014:  Tagged by Michelle -- Because while I am here struggling to maintain my sanity, my mom is off in California taking pictures like this.

08/15/2014:  Tagged by Michelle -- Courtesy of my mother, who somehow can make even Naperville look amazing.

5.  I must tell you, every time my pictures got tagged by my little Michelle, I felt like I won a big photography award!!

Naperville: 8/11/2014

Honestly, I did not go out looking for trouble on a Monday night!

It rained on and off all day today.  After dinner, the rain finally stopped and the sun came out... So, we decided to walk around Naperville.

I did not bring my camera gears, thought I would just allow myself to "enjoy life" for one summer night!  And, of course, nature photography is like a box of chocolate, you really don't know what you're going to get!!!  Life is beautiful, just get out there and experience it!

And... the good news is -- I am finally able to share with you my beautiful backyard in Naperville!

Naperville, IL
August 11, 2014

Picture 1 = 7:35 PM

Picture 2 = 7:44 PM

Picture 3 = 7:53 PM

By the time I ran into my car, it was pouring outside...  

Hawaii, the paradise... (9)

I am so glad that I took the time to capture these images.  They touched me deeply at the time because what they reflected was the total opposite of a "paradise..."

It was the first day when we arrived at the Big Island, and we went to visit a small "forest" right by the ocean close to our resort.  The ocean waves have washed the volcanic rocks for so long that the rocks were completely intertwined with the trees and the grass.

It's hard to describe the overwhelming sadness I felt when I first saw these trees -- they had to grow without much soil, but they were determined to adapt to the harsh environment... Pretty amazing!  And in a way, it once again reminded me of the BBC show of "The Human Planet."      

Only one creature has carved the life for itself in every habitat on earth.  That creature is us.  All over the world, we still use our ingenuity to survive in the wild places, far from the city lights -- face to face with raw nature.  This is the Human Planet. 

Big Island, Hawaii

December 1, 2013

Mt. Charleston

When my plane landed, the first thing I got was a sharp beep on my iPhone -- Flash Flood Alert for the area!!!

Intense debates went through my head as to whether or not I should risk my life to still drive up to Mt. Charleston.  Usually when there is a flash flood warning, driving through the mountains is dangerous because the flood water could come down the mountain roads violently.  Oh well, as always, the risky side of my brain prevailed -- life is there for all of us to LIVE!!

Mt. Charleston, Nevada
August 4, 2014

    

Little Michelle's high school years... (3)

Believe it or not, I spent an entire day today organizing all the emails between me and Michelle's high school teachers dating from 5/26/2004 to 2/29/2008.  The final document is 70-page long (yeah, seven-zero) including all the email correspondences reflecting my relentless effort to stay in touch with every single one of Michelle's teachers...  Four LONG years of Michelle's high school when I was working in Reno -- it's all great as we look back 10 years later!!

1.  It brought me back to the tough days when I had to learn to manage a talented teenager who was not willing to tolerate stupidity.  It was not an easy task, but a "balanced" approach led me to win the war between me and my rebellious daughter. 

2.  As I look back to all the notes from all the teachers, they all mentioned that Michelle was very thorough with her homework, and she was a critical thinker.  Some of them also mentioned that Michelle did not really care about their subjects (which I am not surprised at all).  Whenever that happened, there was obviously trouble, and that's when I had to intervene.

3.  I remember announcing to many of my friends during those years (likely 2005 or 2006) that IF my little Michelle could graduate from high school, I would write a book about parenting.  Well, Michelle not only graduated from high school, she went on and graduated from college with high honors, and I have no doubt that she will one day become a GREAT doctor to save human lives.  The book still has not been written -- I was too busy celebrating Michelle's high school graduation, haha!

4.  The truth is, parenting is very simple, and you really don't need a book.  All you need to do is to give your children "true unconditional love."  Yeah, UNCONDITIONAL -- and they will have no trouble recognizing it.  That is all they NEED.