Vacation in Tucson, Arizona: My Third Visit! (March 11 - 15)

Last month, I managed to get away from the office and spend a few days visiting a good friend and his wife who live in Tucson, Arizona. Making this trek to Arizona has become a tradition of sorts with my now having visited Tucson three times over the past three years!!


The iconic view of Arizona!! Lots of cactus - and all are protected by state law! If you build a house, you MUST pay to relocate each cactus.

The highlight of this year's visit came the very first day (Friday, March 12) when my friend drove me up to Mt. Lemmon. We lucked out in that last week the road leading up to the summit was closed because of heavy snow. This day, however, the weather was perfect: sunny, blue skies - great picture taking weather!! On the road up to Mt. Lemmon we passed this unusual rock formation - I call it the "Indian Head" rock as it resembles an American Indian - or so I imagine based upon the old movies of the 1950s.

Cactus, cactus and more cactus!!

Spectacular views abound along the scenic road up to Mt. Lemmon!

Near the summit at Mount Lemmon - elevation about 9,000 feet.

The Sky Island road leading up to Mt. Lemmon.

Have no doubt, the snow was DEEP! Thankfully, the road surface had been cleared and so there were no slippery driving conditions to worry about at all during the drive up to the summit. Near the peak was a ski lift and hundreds of skiers. We had lunch at the Iron Door restaurant. Good food ..... but we had to wait about 20 minutes before being seated.

On Saturday (March 13) my friend and I drove to Tombstone, Arizona (almost a 2-hour drive from Tucson). We purchased tickets ($10.00 per person) for a 30-minute reenactment of the famous Gunfight at the OK Corral!

The gunfight show was, well, OK. A bit silly but who cares. It ended with a BANG - several in fact! True to the actual historical record of the by now legendary shootout, the gunfight itself lasted less than about two minutes!

The actors who played Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, and the other "good guys".

Last stop: on Sunday (March 14), we visited the petroglyphs at Signal Hill. Excellent outing - highly recommended.

Now that you have made it this far through this posting, please visit the last three postings - all made in the past week or so. With this posting, I am finally caught up with all my recent travels. Hope you enjoy the photos! Comments are welcome .... and sought after!!!

PS: I've made several postings over the past few weeks and have yet to receive any comments from my loyal followers. If anyone out there has the time, I'd really appreciate seeing your comments! Do you like the photography and my dialog with each posting? Just curious. I naturally want to keep my blog of interest to as many of my followers as I possibly can! Thanks in advance for your time!

Mini-Vacation in San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles, CA March 25-28

Every once in a while I manage to tack on a little vacation time to a business assignment. A recent trip to Bakersfield (see prior posting) allowed me to take time for a short respite at a friend's house in San Luis Obispo, California. Although I had previously visited San Luis Obispo early last year (see posting from January, 2009), I was able to take some new sightseeing opportunities. One highlight, located near the town of Los Osos, was the state park called Montana del Oro.

Spectacular views abound at the beach in Montana del Oro park.

Another "find" - for me at least - was in Paso Robles, California, where I was surprised and pleased to visit several fine wineries. Who knew that Paso Robles is designated as an official American Vinticultural Area (AVA for short)??!! Like most folks, I am well aware of Sonoma and Napa and the many wineries in those two Northern California counties. Turns out, however, there are literally dozens of wineries in or near Paso Robles!! And I managed to visit five such places on Saturday, March 27!

Castoro Cellars: great scenery and excellent wines. I purchased a fine 'dessert wine'.

Eagle Castle winery. Just opened. Here I purchased a 375 mL-sized bottle of a "dessert wine" - basically a very sweet wine. Some folks turn up their noses at dessert wines but, hey, this sort of wine is just what I like! By the way, Eagle Castle charges a $5.00 'tasting fee' (sadly, most wineries do this now) but visitors are allowed to taste up to fourteen (14) different wines! A great value and a fine tasting experience.

Lost Hills, California: March 22 - 25

About two weeks ago, I travelled to Bakersfield, California (first time there since January of 2009) and had the pleasure to visit one of our company's smaller oil fields in the nearby area to conduct a review of the chemical treating program in that location. I often am called upon to act as sort of a "Mr. Fix-It" wherein I travel to a field area and help our men and women engineers tackle whatever problems currently are afflicting their operations. And to be "Mr. Fix-It", I have to further take on the role of a detective, asking questions, digging up data, reviewing past reports, touring the field and then helping - somehow - to solve the mystery of the problem(s) at hand. Not an easy task! Anyway, this week's "patient" was located in Lost Hills - a very small town located about an hour's drive north of Bakersfield.

Travel north of Bakersfield on 99 and take a left turn onto Route 46 and then head west a few miles .... and you will arrive in Lost Hills!

Our Lost Hills oilfield is a very old operation. You can't miss it! Hwy 46 goes right through the middle of the oil field. For the unfamiliar visitor, it presents an odd sight indeed - seemingly hundreds of oil well pumps bobbing up and down. Quite a lot of pumping and all for slightly less than 5,000 barrels of oil per day .... less than what one typical oil well in the Middle East produces in one day!!!

After my work was completed, I continued to travel west on 46 to Hwy 101 an then headed south to visit a good friend in San Luis Obispo. I spent a few days there on vacation, heading home on Sunday, March 28. That mini-vacation will be the subject of my next posting. Stay tuned ....

Houston's Azalea Trail - March 2010

Apologies for being late. I've been so very busy with work and a recent business trip and mini-vacation to San Luis Obispo as well as Tucson, Arizona that I've "fallen down" on my blogging efforts. I shall endeavor to catch up.

Herewith I present a few photos from the recent Azalea Trail - an annual event held in early March in the Bayou Bend area of Houston. Because of the unusually "cold" winter (I put "cold" in quotations since this is a relative term; a northerner would smile but the weather was cold for those of us who call Houston home!), the azaleas did not bloom on time. Many azaleas were still dormant at the time of this year's Azalea Trial. In fact, if one visits the site this weekend in April, I suspect there may still be many on display.

Enjoy the photos:

The Diana Garden - probably the best looking of the various gardens spread out within Bayou Bend.

The Clio Garden (ca. 1928).

Hundreds of magnolias (or so I was told) .....

I was not the only visitor taking pictures this fine day (March 8) ....

A description of Bayou Bend - where the annual Azalea Trail is centered. There are several other places along the 'trail' but this particular location is the main one!

Miss Ima Hogg - the lady who once lived at Bayou Bend and whose property is now the property of and maintained by the City of Houston and the Museum of Fine Arts. Reference: www.mfah.org/bayoubend

OK ... this is not part of the Azalea Trail .... it's the Japanese Tea Garden located in Hermann Park - an excellent place to spend a quiet afternoon while in Houston.

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PS: I shall try to post pictures of my recent vacation in Tucson, Arizona (March 11 - 15) and San Luis Obispo, California (March 25 - 28) and maybe even my business trip to Lost Hills, California but now, my dear followers, I simply MUST get to work on completing my US federal taxes!! (Render unto Ceasar what's Ceasar's ... and before April 15th!!)

Ft. Worth, Texas; Duncan, Oklahoma and Wichita, Kansas!

Photo: View of Wichita, KANSAS from my room at the Wichita Hyatt Hotel.

Ah, the joys of simple DOMESTIC (in country) travel! I was thankfully blessed with a trouble free trip last week as part of a three-stop lecture tour in the central USA that took me to Ft. Worth, Texas (my fist visit to Fort Worth!!), Duncan, Oklahoma (my previous visit to Duncan was about 25 years ago) and Wichita, KANSAS (my first ever visit to the state of Kansas!). I am pleased to report that all my flights and associated flight connections were ON TIME and the weather was most pleasant (generally fair weather - albeit cold - without any snow storms to disrupt the flight schedules as would have no doubt been the case had I travelled the week prior when Ft. Worth had over a foot of snow!).

A side benefit: A total of 94 people showed up for my lecture in Fort Worth, the second best attendance of all my presentations to date (about 120 people attended my lecture when I was in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia last month).

Some lasting impressions: (a) downtown Fort Worth was surprisingly pleasant; I walked around at night and did not feel threatened; (b) Duncan, Oklahoma was next door to Fort Sill - one of the largest military bases in the USA. As a result, there were many Army and Air Force personnel on my flight to/from Lawton, OK; (c) although I was in Kansas for only about 19 hours, the people in Wichita were most friendly and hospitable - always a welcome treat on any trip! (A pleasant contrast to the rude people I once ran across in Vienna, Austria during my visit there in the mid-1990's!) A sampling of the photos I managed to capture follow:

I never did find out what this building was but it sure figures prominently in downtown, Fort Worth, Texas.

The Bass Performance Hall (built by the Bass brothers who reportedly own most of the real estate in Fort Worth, Texas).

A nice contrast of old and new buildings in Forth Worth.

A restored area in downtown Fort Worth. Many shops, restaurants and cafes make for a most pleasant stroll.

OKLAHOMA ..... from the air. I was surprised by how makes lakes dot the land!!!

NAPOLI's Italian restaurant in Duncan, Oklahoma. I nice, simple, unpretentious place for dinner.

Main Street in Duncan, Oklahoma. Not much to brag about here .....

Apparently this boat, located across the street from the Wichita Hyatt Hotel where I was staying, once raced in the Americas Cup???

The Wichita Petroleum Club where I gave my lecture. A small turnout greeted me: only 19 people attended. :-(

Bye Bye Dubai and the Long Trip to Home

Well, it's that time again - time to return to HOME-SWEET-HOME! I thoroughly enjoyed my short overnight stay in Dubai. This time I booked a room at the Intercontinental Festival City Hotel (shown above). The hotel is right next door to the Festival City Mall (pictured below) - one of the newest malls in Dubai. There are plenty of choices from which to select when it comes to restaurants and coffee shops.

I believe I've said this before but I'll say it again, if you have never been to the Middle East, try to arrange at least one visit to Dubai. It's an adult playground, very relaxed, alcohol is allowed at the hotels, and a visitor can get an excellent introduction to life in the Middle East. Just bring your credit cards folks as it is expensive to stay here!! Try it, you'll like it!


Coffee break in the Festival City Mall.

Outside view of the Festival City Mall next to the Intercontinental Hotel.

I spotted this 'medicine' in the pharmacy section of the HyperPanda supermarket store in the Festival City mall. Anyone have any idea what this stuff is good for and does it really work??!!

A great place to purchase teas. (This particular store is located somewhere within the Festival City mall.)

My itinerary home was NOT one I would have chosen! The Society of Petroleum Engineers booked my ticket and selected my return via Delta 7 from Dubai to Atlanta. I departed Dubai at the delightful hour of 11:30 pm. Wheels up was @ midnight. We landed at Atlanta International Airport after 14 hours and 40 minutes of flying. I did NOT like the seating ergonomics aboard Delta's Business Class section. The seats are way too cramped for a tall person like myself. At any rate, at least we were not delayed and upon arrival I managed to zip thru immigration and customs in a relatively short time. I rode the train to Concourse 'D' and waited about 2 hours for my connecting flight home. We departed from Gate D13 on time (!) but had to wait a while before actually taking off. Our plane (Flight 5179) was way behind a long line of other jets waiting to take off at Atlanta's airport (picture above). Once I was at home in my apartment, I unpacked a little and then dove into bed for a blissful sleep! Home at last!

Return to Work in KUWAIT!

Photo: Sunrise over the Arabian Gulf at Mina Al-Zour, Kuwait

Well here I sit in my comfortable room in Dubai and I finally have time to pen this posting summarizing the prior ten (10) days in Kuwait. Time flies when you're having fun! And this short visit sure flew by! I flew in on Friday, January 22 and hit the ground running on Sunday, Jan 24. Too much work to do and not enough time to do everything! However, I managed to squeeze in a pleasant weekend (Jan. 29 & 30) following the conclusion of the work week. I ventured to the Avenues Mall (Kuwait's largest and newest mall) on Friday and, afterwards, enjoyed a sumptuous buffet lunch at the Moevenpick resort hotel in Salmiya. On Saturday, I simly went to the Starbucks nearest our camp (about 32 km north of our compound). The rest of my Saturday was work related and so I shall not bore you with that! FYI: The Al Zour Starbucks is STILL CLOSED! Something about a "license problem" .... On Sunday (Jan. 31st) I departed Kuwait aboard Emirates 856 at about 10:30am and arrived into Dubai at almost 1 pm. We arrived into the new Terminal 3. You gotta see this place to believe it!! The one negative first impression I came away with is that the walk from the gate to pasport control was way too loooooong (about 10 minutes, at least!). But once I was in the baggage claim area, WOW! It looked like the inside of a palace. It was huge. And being so brand new, everything shined and glistened in the bright lights overhead! I grabbed my suitcase and met my driver and I was off to the Intercontinental Hotel in Festival City. Then it was time to rest and relax!

Next (and final posting for this trip): DUBAI

A very nice home spotted alongside Highway 40 heading into Kuwait City.

My favorite - water towers!

It's alive!!! We've had some rain in Kuwait in the last few weeks and all it takes is a little water and the desert comes alive with flowers and grass.

A violinst played near my table wile I ate my Friday buffet lunch at the Moevenpick resort hotel in Salmiya.