Places That Influenced You & Your Life
In no particular order from me, this is another prompt from @RayInNJ
1. Granite Mountain Hotshots Memorial State Park
This is a wonderful trail to the fatality site of the Granite Mountain Hotshots on June 30, 2013. We fought fire with this crew just a few times over the years but I worked closely with Eric Marsh as part of a group that plans our big interagency annual training event. It's a very solemn and powerful place from the parking lot, along to the trail to the spot pictured.
2. Fenway Park
I am a huge baseball fan and I grew up in Boston. I've been to Fenway a decent number of times. In 2008, a friend of a friend was on the team and my brother and I got to go into the clubhouse and then onto the field via the player tunnel after a game which was an absolute thrill of a lifetime.
3. Canyonlands National Park
We love national parks and monuments and other types of places. Many of the parks out west, especially in the mountain time zone are truly epic. Even relative to that epicness, Canyonlands is magical.
4. Slot Canyons
The only slot canyons we've been to are near Page, AZ and in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. This picture is from Canyon X near Page but all the ones we've been in are similarly spectacular. We've been in a couple of very tight spots where I had to take off my backpack to squeeze through and I am a pretty skinny guy.
5. New York Stock Exchange
I've been just a few times and it is always fun. The picture is from an appearance on CNBC from November, 2009. I'm the giant on the left. The guy in the middle was on CNBC all the time, his name is David Darst, I was more occasional. He and I talked about the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The interviewer is Scott Wapner and he was asking me all sorts of stock market related stuff.
6. Waipi'o Valley
On the Big Island of Hawaii. We've been to HI more times than I can count but the beauty of this spot stands out.
7. Walker
My wife and I drove to Walker for our second date in 1991, got married here in 1993, bought our first cabin in 1998 and moved here fulltime in 2002. Our whole life is here and hopefully we can grow old here.
8. Sigma Nu fraternity house
I learned a lot, I did a lot and had a lot of fun. Not my picture.
9. My father's apartment in Torremolinos, Spain
When my father was dying I went to Spain two times about a month apart. The first visit, I went alone. The picture is lousy, panoramic on my phone, I was just trying to capture the feel. That he had so much stuff on the wall, almost cluttered is interesting. I did the same thing in my bedroom growing up and my office walls are pretty much cluttered. I'd forgotten we had that in common before I started this list.
10. Vernazza
In 2016 we went to Italy. It was the trip of a lifetime. We loved all of it. Vernazza is on the coast, part of an area called Cinque Terre, five towns that you can hike between. The hikes aren't that easy so you can take a train. In four of the five, you could drive to but not in with a car which is neat. Pretty sure there were cars in Riomaggiore but if you know differently, please comment. We stayed in Vernazza. They are all very small and life can potentially be simple there but there is a lot of tourist foot traffic there.
11. Roslyn, WA
This is where the show Northern Exposure was filmed. This is my favorite show of all time. It had a profound impact on my life, I view it as having given me permission to live in a small town instead of a big city. I love visiting big cities but living in one now is unthinkable. We visited the town in 2011. The picture is of the building that served as Dr. Fleishman's office. Much of the "downtown" was preserved to look like it did on the show but I don't know if that is still the case. The building in the picture was a gift shop dedicated to the show. We bought a Northern Exposure mug there. The guy working in the store loved the show so much that at some point moved to Roslyn from New Jersey.
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