Green Flamingobecause I said so

These Vancouver Olympic Games have been great. The rush of adrenaline through extreme sports, athletes and fans come together to make something extraordinary. I followed many events of the Olympics, though I did not blog about all of them here. As we conclude the Olympics Games here in 2010 I have decided to share some of the outstanding moments that I watched.

Alexandre Bilodeau finally won the first gold medal for Canada at their home games, the cheers were wild! He won in the men’s moguls.

Lindsey Vonn got the gold she had been waiting for to complete  her achievements in women’s downhill. However, she did not come through for gold on the other alpine events.

Shaun White dominated the half pipe competition and had an amazing victory run showing off a new trick which scored a 48.4!

Sorry I have to skip over a week here, I saw many of the events and they were very exciting.

Just today, Canada beat the US for the gold medal in hockey, with Sidney Crosby scoring the winning goal in overtime. Both teams were spectacular and many people said it was the best game they had ever seen.

Tonight and at this moment the closing ceremony is being performed, and it’s much more casual than the opening ceremony was. Canada managed to laugh at their technical error with lighting the Olympic flame in the opening ceremony and this time it worked out for them. Canada says goodbye to everyone and hands the flag to Sochi, Russia, site of the 2014 Olympics. I hope to see everyone then!

I have decided that from now on I will be posting mostly twitter updates on the Olympic games, for I watch a lot of events and can tweet about them live. You can follow me on twitter or see the updates in my sidebar. I will recollect the ideas and big wins with a blog post as well.

Day 2

These are the events that I saw and tweeted on.

Individual ski jumping:

1. Simon Ammann with the first gold of the 2010 Olympics
2. Adam Malysz
3. Gregor Schlierenzauer

Speed Skating men’s 5000

1. Sven Kramer was the very popular choice from the Netherlands
2. Lee
3. Skobrev

Short track men’s 1500

1. Jung Su Lee
2. Apolo Ohno
3. J.R. Celski

Apolo did not get the gold, though he and his teammate were able to come in 2nd and 3rd due to a collision of 2 other koreans.

Women’s Moguls

1. Hannah Kearney achieved her shot at redemption
2. Jenn Heil did not quite pull off the gold medal for Canada
3. Shannon Barke

Day 3

Men’s Luge Singles

1. Felix Loch of Germany
2. David Moeller
3. Armin Zoeggeler

Men’s Moguls

1. Alexandra Bilodeau – he finally breaks Canada’s curse by winning a gold at his home country’s games
2. Dale Begg-Smith the Vancouver born defending medalist was close from Australia
3. Bryon Wilson of the US

Alexandre Bilodeau (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

That wraps up the events I watched, there were some other ones that went on today, but I am excited for this week to come!

Last night the Vancouver Olympics began with the opening ceremony which was quite spectacular. I watched the entire thing on tv, and though I wish I was there in person it was still very exciting to watch. After Beijing no one thought any other city would come close to that, but Vancouver did a very good job in their own form of presentation.

Vancouver introduced the athletes first, for in their eyes the cultural ceremony is for the athletes, welcoming them. Many bore a black armband in tribute to Nodar  Kumaritashvili who died in a tragic training run on the luge. The Georgia delegation still marched however in honor of their fallen comrade.

The digital effects of the cultural ceremony were quite spectacular. I have to say I was amazed when I first saw them, though it could be because I did not witness the entire Beijing ceremony. I have to say while using a lot less money Vancouver executed very well. It would have been great to be a part of it too. The journey of the ceremony took everyone across Canada and ended up in the cosmopolitan city Vancouver. It all seemed to go off perfectly until at the end a malfunction prevented a pillar from rising to support the cauldron. After a long pause, three of the four torchbearers lit the cauldron, and Wayne Gretzky headed to light the second one in the downtown area.

I wish I could be in Vancouver at the moment, for it would make coverage of the Olympics much easier and would be a wonderful experience. I will be covering more events of the Olympics later on tonight and in days to follow. Enjoy the 21st winter Olympic Games!

Yesterday I was reading up a little on the green auto industry, I came across what they call a Solar Roadway,  which now has been funded by the Department of Transport to create their first 12′ by 12′ slab or panel of road. When I first saw the title, I had a completely different idea in mind than what they are proposing, but either way this is a great project.

In the three different layers used to make this new road they have included power and datalines on the bottom, plus in the middle they would keep the actual solar cells, plus LED’s to light up the road as if it were painted. The top layer would be glass that would protect the electronics below and also provide traction for the cars as asplhalt does. All this is estimated to provide 3 times the power that was used in the US in 2003.

You can read up about it more in detail on Autoblog Green, or Solar Roadways.com. And here is a video with Scott Brusaw talking about his idea and how it was formed.

My idea was a bit different, I thought that they might collect the solar energy, then use it power cars, somehow make it so vehicles could absorb the power through their tires and use to run or at least partially power their cars. It might be easier if the cars also had solar panels on the roof, because if there was a lot of traffic blocking the sun from getting to the road, or  it might seem that the power is not distributed evenly along the road, then there would have to be some kind of back up plan.

Of course there is a catch to all of this: for the real idea, then rain and snow could take an effect, plus it was mentioned about hackers, and then they would access to the whole roadway across the country, but it still seems like a good idea. For my idea, going off road would not be an option, and I am not sure how the supercar owners would like it if power to their cars was maybe restricted and those V-12 engines could only do so much at that point. So both ideas have to be worked on.

But what I am most happy about here is that people are actual trying to do something, trying to find alternate ways of power and transportation, even if some things are a little far fetched. But again, just a few minutes ago I saw this sleek BMW hybrid that could do something too. I am just glad that people are keeping an open mind and coming up with different plans everyday.

Baseball today! I am not a huge fan of baseball but it is fun to watch once in a while in person. We were able to get free tickets to a Mets vs. Phillies game due to the APA union, plus for 4 people $40 worth food vouchers. The game was in Citi Field, the new Mets Stadium after Shea Stadium was closed.

From near Philadelphia PA it is not a bad drive to New York. It was a little sticky with parking getting there late  but still manageable. The main action was in the first inning, 3 home runs total were scored there. Phillies won the game, yeah!

Getting out of New York through Manhattan was a little more difficult because there was traffic backing up before entering Holland Tunnel. But overall it was a great experience to go to the New Stadium there, and see the World Series winners play.

I have to say, usually from a vacation, I am glad to be back home again, to a normal life, and not worrying about much. But not this time sadly. I still wish I was in Washington, and not in Pennsylvania. I came back to a messy house and a lot of work.

The flight yesterday was ok, watched a movie and did have something to eat. We got in late local time, about 11:30. Though it was only 8:30 Washington time, I was still very tired.

It took me a while to get used to the humidity here in Pennsylvania and live it, but now is it horrible. My bike is too small and there aren’t that many great places to ride, so it will be a little different outdoors.

Anyway, if I look on the bright side, I can STILL blog about cars, and also places I would like to be and travel too. Though my time is cut down a little I will still be able to manage.

So I will start with the cars here in PA compared to Washington.

Pennsylvania – Not many people here have what I would call a good car. In autoblogging terms you might almost call them clunkers. Since there are no supercars here or anything, you may wonder if there are a lot of hybrids, and everyone here is very environmental. The answer to that is NO. There are a lot of  Toyotas, but not prius.There are a few decent cars here, an occasional Audi A8 maybe, BMW, and next door they have two Mustang GTs, but overall not that great.

Washington – In Washington I would say there is a variety of cars. There are a lot of hybrids, people are environmental there, and there are many good cars there too. I had a few listed in previous posts but to sum it up I saw a lot of good Audi’s, BMW’s, Mercedes Benz, Porsche’s, etc.

Well that about does it for me tonight, I am a bit tired still from my flight, But I’ll be back again soon, and this post also sums up my vacation pretty much.

This is my last full day in Bellingham. I will miss it here, the outdoors, the beach, water, trails, the town, but I know I can come back.

Tonight I watched the sunset on the Taylor street dock and boardwalk, sat on the bench and listened to the light water. I heard the splash of the people jumping off the entrance of the boardwalk to swim to the floating dock, watched the ripples and waves in the water as a yacht went by, and felt the train shaking the ground behind me. And I thought about this place, and I decided, I really like it here. Maybe I want to live here. Because in this area you can really enjoy life, and not feel all the complications of other places. As far as I’d say, Bellingham is a very nice place to visit to calm down, and step into the flow of your life.

Well I bring you days 6 and 7 of my vacation in Washington. Also it turns out the trip will be extended until Wednesday, for our flight is overbooked for tomorrow and the chances of getting on standby  are smaller than we hoped.

Day 6 of Washington State:

Yesterday we had a bit of a mellow day, staying at home nice and warm and not going out in the cold. We were a bit tired out after the the steep Fragrance Lake trail climb.

I took a few bike rides though, once along the Interurban trail until I got up into the Chuckanut ridge, and in the evening just casually down to the Taylor Street Dock and Boulevard park again, for it is always nice there in the evening I think.

Day 7 of Washington State:

This morning we drove to Anacortes and boarded the ferry to Orcas island. AT the lookout point we saw some of the other San Juan islands and looked into Bellingham and the bay. After that we rested for a while along the beach until we boarded the next ferry back to the mainland.

The past few days I have really slacked off on the car blogging part, and also getting my blog in shape. I do still have a list of a few cars in mind, so here we go.

Mazda Miata – a few of those

Audi S8 – I like this car

Corvette z06 – At least two, and I saw a red one twice but I think it might have been the same one

Toyota Prius – not a supercar, but it was a third generation, and so far those are rare so I figured I should mention it

Can Am Spyder – cool little motorcycle/ATV type thing we saw by the ferry

Day 4 of Washington State:

Blueberry picking! 18 pounds for 2 hours, it seems like a good deal to me. We have a lot of blueberries now!

We went for another walk along the Interurban trail, and came out by Marine park and the railroad tracks. The beach there is great, especially in the evening near sunset.

Day 5 of Washington State:

Today we went for along hike in the Chuckanut Ridge, up to fragrance lake. And the the hiking guide informed us there were some slight slopes, we found it to be quite steep all the way up. We walked around the mountain lake and also walked a little father to see the viewpoint out over the ocean and the San Juan Islands.

Day 3 of Bellingham, Washington:

Hiking in the Stimson Family Nature Reserve is a wonderful experience. It is a magical forest – many ferns, tall trees, deep ravines, the quiet and peace of nature, and the refreshing smell of pine and cedar. After an easy first quarter mile you start the main loop trail, and the real adventure begins. I took the left path today to curve into the valley first, and eventually we rose to at least 2 summits on the loop, and back at the trail head path we saw the swamp again. The forest is so deep and quiet you can concentrate on yourself, and the outdoors around you.

It has been a long time since I have gone on a good bike ride. This evening I once again had the fulfilling experience. I rode from Fair haven on the boardwalk over the bay into Bellingham, a good five miles. The trail was very nice, and I got to see some of downtown Bellingham as well.

Bellingham Boardwalk

Image credit: www.pbase.com