I - Up Pikes Peak / Snow On Top

 

Song:  America

Artist:  Neil Diamond

Since today was clear...

my wife and I went up to the top of Pikes Peak

(14,115 ft / 4,302 Meters).

The drive to the entrance near the bottom of Pikes Peak is under an hour away from home.

The drive up was beautiful...

and many an Autumn color was near their peak.

The temperature was in the low 40s F (about 5 C).

The wind was mild...

and so...

it was perfectly comfortable.

Many of the walkways were under the snow...

but people just made paths over it.

We made our way around the perimeter...

slowly making our way to the visitor center.

Manitou Springs....

and Colorado Springs are in the distance.

This is where the Cog Rail comes from Manitou Springs.

It is the only mode of transportation that reaches the top in Winter...

when there is deep snow or ice.

We are going back to Pikes Peak later this Winter using the cog rail.

We ate at the Summit Cafe.

The Cog Rail is in the background.

Pikes Peak is said to have been the inspiration of the woman 

who had penned the song...

America the Beautiful.

Cripple Creek is visible in the background...

and try as I had...

I couldn't locate our neighborhood...

as we are four miles North of Cripple Creek...

 in the mountains.

In the next blog...

I will have our descent of Pikes Peak...

and some beautiful views of Pikes Peak from different perspectives.

Thai Meals / Testing The Nikon Z 7 II

 

Song:  North Star

Artist:  Helen Jane Long

Yesterday...

my wife and I went to Colorado Springs to do some shopping...

and we then went out to eat at a high quality Thai restaurant.

On our way down our mountain ridge.

The colors of Autumn are coming out nicely in our neighborhood.

We were in Woodland Park on our way to Colorado Springs.

Pikes Peak still has some snow on it from the mild snow storm there...

a few days ago.

For our appetizers...

we ordered spring rolls and a green papaya salad.

I had the Pad Thai and my wife had the veggie green curry.

We then had dessert.

I had the fried bananas and my wife had sweet sticky rice topped with Thai custard.

Everything was very good...

but we had everything in a mild spicy profile...

and we were glad we did.

Anything more would have been too hot.

-------------

For today's meal...

my wife made memmi tofu...

avacado and green salad...

with a new Korean dressing

(Choregi).

It was spicy...but very tasty.

And for the main meal...

my wife had made seafood (squid, mussel, shrimp, and scallops)...

along with some chicken...

Tom Yum Goong stew.

It was very delicious...

and quite filling.

We are on a Thai kick right now...

and so...

we have been eating a lot of Thai food lately.

-------------

I went up to the third deck for all of the following photos.

Just before the sun began its final descent into the horizon...

I decided to try my camera in a variety of lighting conditions...

as well as to experiment with some of the functions...

one of which I had just discovered...

was a built in super crop function using one dedicated button...

which when depressed...

auto crops the view in up to three separate stages...

which operates as an ultra zoom...

and which I can see the results live...

and of which seems to give it up to a 1,000mm zoom...

 without any post production on the computer.

This is an extremely valuable function.

I didn't take any pictures with it cropped as the lighting was low 

by the time I had found it.

-----------

We were going to Pikes Peak this morning...

but we decided to go tomorrow early in the morning.

We are going back to Colorado Springs to do some more shopping on Monday.

I will be going to Bass Pro to look for a good rain parka.

While in Japan...

especially when we go up to the Northern territories in the mountains...

we may get some rain...

as well as some cold winds.

Bandi is holding her chewy in her paws...

cute  :)

Even after the sun had already set...

the Aspens seemed to glow on the hillside.

Although the clouds weren't right for a nice sunset...

it was the varying lighting conditions I was after.

I also tried varying focal points...

and experimented with manual focusing.

I had learned a lot...

and I will take many photos atop Pikes Peak...

tomorrow late morning.