Not the smallest National Park

While it is located in the smallest state in the Union, the Roger Williams National Memorial is not the smallest national park. Upon learning this from the Park Ranger, I felt betrayed by the taxi driver from the night before.
If you can't trust a random cab driver in Providence, RI...who can you trust?

Vermont

As we near the end of year 27 of the age of Kyle, my burning ambition to visit all 50 states before I reach 3 decades continues to push the mileage on my odometer of the Kyle-mobile to new lengths. Following this past weekend's trip to Vermont I am closing in on 15,000 miles in approximately 6 months. Good thing I did not lease.

Since pictures speak 1000 words and I am putting 2 in this post, I will keep this brief. I visited Vermont thanks to my co-worker Kate (not pictured) along with another co-worker, Gabe (pictured). We were fortunate enough to have a free place to stay so long as we helped stack wood on Saturday morning.

That afternoon we hiked up to the top of Mt. Abraham.

Following our hike we enjoyed some beer and the next day we visited the source of the beer, Otter Creek Brewery
Then I drove us all back home. That was how I crossed Vermont, state # 26 of the list, and got myself past the halfway mark!

Hot time in the City

This picture is a few months old, but it reminds that though I have lived and worked in North/Central Jersey for the past year I do not often consider how close I am to the Big City aka The City aka New York, New York.

Here we are riding the ferry to visit the Statue of Liberty.

If you can not tell from the haze lying over the city, it was a hot, humid day in June and we walked ALL OVER the city. I probably lost 10 lbs wandering through the oppresive heat.

Heart of the Highlands 5K - West Milford, NJ

I am not much of a runner, but somehow I found myself doing a 5K on Saturday. Here is me when I am just about at the finish line.

That SUV you see behind me pulled out in front of me as I was coming down the homestretch. Like I needed an excuse to add a few more seconds to my time? Fortunately, my goal was less than 30 minutes and my goal was accomplished, 29:14.

Three of my co-workers beat me by at least 2 minutes, including

Kate

Gabe, who came in 3rd in his age group

and Christine, who won her age group.

The next one I do will have beer at the end...seriously, it's called the Beer Run and with that as a consideration I think my time will improve significantly!

ICEBERG, STRAIGHT AHEAD!!!

We were on the lookout to make sure no Titanic's ran into our iceberg.

It is not quite time for snow, but here we are on an iceberg in Petersburg, AK on May 28th 2008. I am not sure if we could see Russia from there, but if we could we might be ready to run for VP.

My trip to pain-town.

That's a picture of a pepper in front of someone who forgot just how hot Habanero peppers are. That young man certainly re-learned how hot those peppers are especially after he rubbed his nose following the handling of that little, orange pepper.

Summer of the Bearfight!

Now that the summer of 2008 is completely gone, it is time to reminisce and decipher what defined those fun-filled three months. There are really two things that are easiest to recall and neither of them relates to my momentous journey of the summer. Visiting the natural splendor of Alaska stands out among the 25 states I have visited so far and among the vacations of my entire life if due only to its scenic grandeur. I have over 400 pics from that week - you may be lucky enough to see them sometime. Regardless of my huge cache of Alaska pics, this summer can be summed up in two words: Phillies and bearfight!

I rant and rave and bitch and moan about the Fightin' Phils elsewhere so on picsofmeinfrontofstuff.blogspot.com I will turn to the second option.

If you do not know what a bearfight is, you can go back and read my post about visiting St. Louis or read the following sentence. For those of you who continued, a bearfight is the explosiveness of a Jaegerbomb followed by the combustibility of a Car Bomb detonating in the close confined of ones stomach and quickly elevating to the brain.

Click here for a brief history and explanation.

Q: Why is this the summer of the bearfight?

A: This is the summer I was educated about the bearfight and its viciously destructive powers.

Plus when I started writing this I thought I had done bearfights in more places. Under further review, I was mistaken. Witnesses to Kyle battling the bear include the residents of:

St. Louis, MO.

Lewisburg, PA

Conshohocken, PA

Old City, Philadelphia, PA

Is there any wonder why the Phillies are the 2nd option?