Mono Lake

On my way to down to the Lancaster, California, Antelope Valley for spring break, I decided to share one of the most beautiful landscapes overlooking Mono Lake along U.S. Highway 395. In between Bridgeport and Lee Vining, I pulled off on the side of the road to park and observed Mono Lake throughout the distance. The air smelt so fresh and I felt like it was paradise. The elevation is about 8,000 ft. before going into the Lee Vining Valley and you can see the town of Lee Vining from above. Of course, I have been through here many times and never managed to take pictures, so finally, I had that chance. And, it was flippin' cold and around 19 degrees that Saturday morning, March 22, at 830AM.

Eating Too Much

I decided to go out to eat last night at one of the best pizza places in town, Nu Yalk Pizza. This place, on the corner of Kietzke and Moana Lanes, serves their best New York style pizza with a choice of your toppings like Italian sausage, meatballs, pepperoni, garlic, mushrooms, peppers, and salami. The super thin style crust gives it the ultimate flavor of what a pizza should really taste like. As I ordered 2 slices of pizza, I enjoyed every minute of folding that pizza in half, like a sandwich, and eating it New York style with the grease dripping into my mouth. After eating the two slices of pizza, I could not figure out why I was still hungry. I mean, have you seen these slices? They are huge! About 2 slices would equal a whole small order of Dominos. After contemplating, I ordered my third slice, which was plain cheese, and ate every last bite of it. I really do not eat like this, but I was sure on a roll last night. Yesterday, I did eat cereal for breakfast and had a little corn beef and cabbage for lunch. I don't know what really got into me eating three slices of Nu Yalk pizza, but it sure was worth it and good. Nu Yalk Pizza also serves other Italian dishes such as spaghetti, lasagne, sandwiches and more! Check the menu out above.

Response to the reading on Sea and Survival

Figure 1. Sand dunes along the Florida panhandle.

Sand dunes are a natural phenomena that occur along beach shores, bay shores, and coastal inlets. This piece was written for the physical geographer to learn about how sand dunes are formed and the parts of the sand dunes that are protected and not protected by human landscapes. The author focuses on coastal regions of the Netherlands and the U.S. Atlantic primarily because these are flat regions. Sand dunes are used as protected barriers against natural storms and human landscapes have added to altering the shape, along with wave production and winds, in which cause some areas of the sand dune to become intolerable.

I think the author was trying to send a message to his readers that sand dunes are actually an important part of the natural, physical landscape. Not many people consider sand dunes important. They do protect from floods of coastal regions in some extent. Sand dunes, especially in two particular areas; the primary and secondary, are off limits and bridges are built over them for their protection. In other words, lets stop the building of homes over these sanes dunes and build further inland for more protection. In an event of a severe storm or hurricane, a house built on a sand dune is more likely to suffer maximum damage than if it were built more inland. There is a reason why the primary sand dunes are fenced off to keep out, to become a better protection barrier.

Check out these links for more pictures.

picasaweb.google.com/.../M1pKKpB1dpg79fFuGdi9Zg- Beaches along the Jacksonville, FL coast and Amelia Island.

Using the Network Analyst Extension in GIS

This is a cool extension in ArcView 9.2 where you can create your own dataset of a city. The program was introduced to me yesterday in my GIS class. There are so many things you can do to such as create your own drive time analysis, point to point routing, route directions, service area definition, shortest path, optimum route, closest facility, and an origin destination analysis. Check out these videos from the ESRI site to gain a little knowledge on it.

http://www.esri.com/flashmedia/na_drivedirect.swf

http://www.esri.com/flashmedia/networkana.swf

Coming Home to Eat

I did not quite make it to Crater Lake this weekend as stated in by last blog, but definitely next weekend for sure! I wanted to write a little about the book Coming Home to Eat on the first 75 pages I have read. I think this book is an interesting one so far. Nabhan talks about how many foods these days are processed in cans and it travels long distances before reaching our mouths. The comments he makes in the book about processed foods make you think a little before you take that next bite. Where did it come from? Is it fresh? No one realizes what they are putting into their mouths when eating. In my opinion, lots of people would like to eat healthier, but just don't have the time and energy to do it. So, they go with the quickest and the healthiest they can get fast. As in the book so far, who is going to take the time to make a vegetable garden? Maybe, when retired? As for me, I try to eat healthy, but find myself getting that quick bite or going out to eat because either I don't have time or I don't want to take the time to do it.

Sometimes Maps are Deceiving

I was looking at my medium scaled 2007 Rand McNally Road Atlas yesterday because I plan on taking a trip up to Crater Lake, Oregon this weekend. As I looked on the map, the distance did not seem so far. From Reno, starting on Highway 395 North, then turning onto California Highway 139 North to Highway 97 North and merging in with Oregon Highway 62 to Crater Lake, I only guessed it looked about 200 miles; a 3 to 4 hour ride. Later that Sunday afternoon, I went on the Internet to look up the distance on mapquest and it turned out to be 326 miles from Reno. A 3 to 4 hour drive just turned into a 6 to 7 hour ride! When looking at an atlas, who takes a measuring ruler or uses their fingers to get an approximate distance from using the scale bar on the map? I just use mapquest.