My favorite part about being outside is looking up at the sky, especially at night. The night sky is full of hope. _____________________ In a moonless and dark sky, we can see maybe 5,000 some stars out of the 400 billion stars contained in the Milky Way. While a clear view of the night sky is certainly wonderful, we just see .00012% of the stars in the galaxy. Similarly, only 36.4% of the eligible voting population voted in the last midterms. Imagine looking up and seeing more stars than ever before and what that could do to the sky. Now, outside of exploring far from light pollution, we cannot force more stars to appear. But we can create light through our vote so that more stars and more hope can exist in our world. _____________________ Link in bio to register to vote, check your voter status, and take action in this ever important time. We gots to vote.
Sometimes the best moments are ones that we experience all to ourselves. Just the world and us. _____________________ When you visit the Grand Canyon, it is most convenient to pull into the park and walk past the visitor center up to the edge of the famous South Rim. There you can take in the same view as the 5 million other park visitors do every year. The view is still powerful from there, but the experience is magnified when you venture further. We saw this sunset from the western most point of the rim, Hermits Point. And there it was just the canyon, the setting sun, and us.
The Cherokee call the mountains Shaconage, which means “place of the blue smoke”. And the blue smoke that blankets the mountains and the land below is mesmerizing. _____________________ Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN. The creation of this wondrous phenomenon is fascinating. Vegetation in the region release volatile organic compounds which make the vapor that becomes the blue smoke. We get to experience this natural sensation all thanks to the plants breathing!
Most of the incredible sights in our world are those that move us from thinking about our feelings to making them come alive. And they do all this by simply being there. _____________________ Half Dome, Yosemite National Park. The striking Half Dome was created when molten rock pushed through the earth’s surface and became sculpted by moving glaciers. During a sunset in Yosemite, everything you see and think you feel transforms into the landscape before you. You can feel the dominance of the weathered rock, taste the cotton candy pink and blue of the sky, and the fading light is a part of you.
I am glad we have this big pile of sand out in Colorado. Same for the big hole in the ground in Arizona and so many more simple yet magnificent natural structures. _____________________ The Great Sand Dunes are such an extraordinary landscape. No stunning waterfalls or dense vegetation are in sight, but there is such immense and wonderful scale. Dunes up to 750 feet tall create this peaceful sea of sand that seemingly extends forever between mountains. And sometimes small sand avalanches occur in the dunes resulting in noises that make it sound as if the sand is singing. Isn’t that sweet?
Zion National Park, Utah. This is my favorite place in the entire world, at least for now and for how much of the world I know. I love it so much that, when I die, I want my ashes flushed down the first stall in the visitor center toilet. _____________________ I can close my eyes and immediately go back to this exact space and time. The way the light hits the rocks in Zion National Park is unforgettable. And along with the incredible light, the fact that dinosaurs walked through the park makes the place even more special. The 20-foot and 1,000 pound Dilophosaurus once roamed these rocks and today so do we.
one of the most fascinating things about the eiffel tower is that it was originally built to stand for only 20 years. _____________________ the legs and second level of the eiffel tower were completed on august 21, 1889. so if we went back in time to 129 years before now, this is almost exactly what the tower would look like. some of the best competitors in life are the things that have permanence. that is why gustave eiffel was going head to head with the pyramids when he was making his tower.
bread is great. i ate an astronomical amount of bread this summer. so much that i used the word astronomical. _____________________ perhaps it’s strange to talk so much about bread, but i think there is some value. bread traces back to the neolithic age and in some findings even further. we been eating bread for a minute! and we all are eating this stuff. from baguettes and tortillas to naan and injera - bread is universal. kind of neat how we can be connected through a mix of flour and water.
european people dress so fresh. this hand painted denim jacket was low key cooler than the arc de triomphe. _____________________ there is a small section in the road in front of the arc de triomphe marked off for picture posing. as i waited in line to photograph my friend, i set my camera by taking photos of others. and just as i had my settings, this girl in the dope jacket appeared. sometimes photos just happen by chance.