Glowforge members: everyday life, culture, natural beauty

The ancient glaciers did a number on both Illinois and Indiana. I grew up in the little town of Monticello, In. I found a location just south of town where the glacier cut through an ancient coral reef. Another acquaintance recently found and documented the burial place of the indian chief, Tecumseh, not too far away. Something in his grave stopped all of the non digital watches of the investigators. I surmised it might be a large magnetic meteor fragment, as it might have conferred “magical” powers to a chief.

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:relaxed: :+1:

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I live just outside of Boulder, Colorado, where I’ve lived for 16 years. Our little burg is oftentimes referred to as “The People’s Republic of Boulder” because we’re a wildly liberal enclave in the middle of a conservative swath of the country.

From the year of its founding, the city has been acquiring scenic land around the town and preserving it as permanent open space. Our open space has over 145 miles of trails, plus ski areas, with quite a few mountains over 14,000 feet. This has certainly contributed to us being counted as having the fittest population in the country off and on ever since the government has been keeping stats. People are very likely to be athletic around here–as an example, at our local triathlon, the Women’s Over 70 age group tends to be fairly competitive. GQ also called us one of the 40 Worst Dressed Cities in America, with the caveat that we’re the one that looks best naked.

Here I am after contributing by going for a run in subzero weather, eyelashes and eyebrows still frozen.

We have a massively student-heavy population–over 33% of our 100,000 or so people spread between two universities, plus at least three acupuncture/Chinese medicine schools. We’re also lucky enough to have a strong Asian population with a lot of Tibetan, Nepali, and Bhutanese residents, partly because a major Tibetan Buddhist “reincarnated master” founded one of our universities (Naropa University) along with the poet Allen Ginsberg.

Just up the road is the retreat center and shrine related to Naropa, the Shambhala Mountain Center. The founder’s tomb, the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya, is 108 feet tall and has what was until recently the largest Buddha statue in the US in it.


Boulder’s also VERY foodie (voted Foodiest City in America in 2014), with a heavy emphasis on farm-to-table restaurants and local microbrews. We have a lot of small farms, boutique greenhouses, etc. around here to support it.

We were voted Best City for Startups by Bloomberg recently, partly because we have a highly educated population, and partly because we have three national research labs, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. We have one of the highest per capita rates of software developers in the nation as well, and Google is about to open a big ol’ campus here. This is one of the labs.

Not surprisingly, we have a decent live music and arts scene, with a ton of summer festivals to suck in the tourists. My favorite is the Frozen Dead Guy Days festival just up the mountain in Nederland. Back in [[date]], an old man named [[name]] put in his will that he be cryogenically preserved, and his body remains preserved in a freezer inside a TuffShed in town to this day. The festival’s theme song, “Grandpa’s in the TuffShed” is quite entertaining, as are the coffin races and frozen turkey bowling on the lake. Another favorite is the Bolder Boulder, a 10K that attracts over 54,000 runners and includes an international team pro race that’s pretty darned thrilling.
Coffin Races:


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Looks like a great place to work, play, and live!

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That’s quite a coincidence, since most of my relatives came from Kansas (Winfield mostly). Grandfather a Methodist minister in Winfield/Wichita/El Dorado. Other grandfather a forward-thinking electrical appliance store owner (Winfield Electric). He had the first A/C cooled house, as the story goes. His refrigerator was built into an entire wall of the kitchen, with little portholes to get the food out of.

1948 article .pdf (2.6 MB)

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Earlier this week, I dropped my car off for service and biked 8 miles to the office along a rail trail in southwestern NH.

My wife & I try to get to the mountains as often as we can whether it’s here in New England or farther away. Here’s the sunset over Lake Champlain in Vermont.

The White Mountains of northern New Hampshire:

The Adirondack High Peaks in upstate New York:

The Carriage Trails at Acadia National Park in Maine:

Scottlish Highlands:

Around 1995 in the Canadian Rockies:

Mt. McKinley in Denali National Park in Alaska:

Every year, I have a coaster made for my wife as a Christmas present featuring one of my photos of a mountain from one of our adventures that year:

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Here is a link to some photos I took on a trip to Banff Canada this past fall. :slight_smile:

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Very nice! One quibble about the caption on the post from the Calgarian though - both Banff and Jasper are actually in the Alberta Rockies, just east of BC. :slight_smile: Of course due to the proximity of the AB-BC border, I am guessing that at least some of your beautiful photos may include a bit of BC landscape too if they were taken pointing west!

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I almost chucked it all a few years ago and started a new life in Boulder. It is that seductive and different. Will be back again this fall.

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I am so envious! I had the pleasure of visiting Boulder for the first time last year on our way to Estes Park. All of my family and friends are here in Texas, but if anyplace were to ever pull me away, it would be Boulder.

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The skies and views from my old place in Ward, Colorado (10 miles north of Nederland, 4,000’ higher in elevation than Boulder. @morganstanfield has probably driven past!)
Looking North


Looking West

Looking East

Looking South

Looking towards the house from the highway:

Drive west to Green River Utah,
Mineral Springs


Cliffs

Beach

Keep Driving, stop at rest areas:

Get on 50, it’s the pretty way:


But it’s a hundred miles between towns.

Hit northern California at dark. Quincy:


Wake up there.

Go south, Mendocino:

Go more south. Grass Valley:

Go more south. Marin:

Go more south. Santa Cruz.

That’s about as far south as I go.

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My view (actually @dean’s balcony view) 5/7 of the week:

Closer to the office:


And the remaining 2 days:

and

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Well In VA the wife and I like to go to these…

And when we have a chance we like to goto these…

But during the day, I work from home maintaining 3 NOCs like this one.

But sometimes…

The job gives me the opportunity to travel to places like theses…

Once in awhile during these trips I get to go to our end users HQ’s in places like these…

But honestly, I’d like to be here…

Doing this…

But instead mother nature decided to give me this…

Which I feel is a load of…

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thats a shade off of Ukraine’s flag: blue over gold. Means the same thing.

Stunning photographs people!

@morganstanfield, that shot of NOAA sitting below the Flat Irons looking toward Long’s Peak is fantastic, and I live here. Seen it many times - but not quite like that!

@johnwills, you know how lucky you were to see Denali cloudless with blue sky?

Great thread!

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I do know how rare that is to see Denali that clearly. We were at Camp Denali for a week and it finally appeared the next to last day and stayed visible for about 12 hours.

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Most of my life has been in North Idaho, in or near Coeur d’Alene. Nice resort town.
Lots of celebs have homes hidden away up here, but they are like Leprechauns, you never can see them in public places.

But after seeing some peoples posts, like @morganstanfield, living in Colorado seems like the place to be. And some way cool jobs some people have.
If anyone works at, say, Area 51 or Dulce base, I can keep secrets and deny deny deny with the best of em. Just tell me everything and I can die happy.

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I live in a suburb of Salt Lake City, on a bench of the rocky mountains just below Mount Olympus.

Next week we are going to Moab - 3 hours away - to run a relay that we did last year, as well.

Looking at these photos makes me happy to be running.

Happy to be taking a couple days to visit the red rocks.

When I was a kid we visited this area for family vacations every couple years.

Beauty in ruggedness is unmatched anywhere I’ve ever been.

I am never as aware of the tenacious nature of life as in the desert.

Scrubby little bits of plants are determined to thrive in the harshest conditions.

Those wall scratchings are the real deal.

There’s my own “him inside” - my partner in crime and everything else.

Who wouldn’t prefer to run along this road rather than stuck in a stuffy gym on a nasty treadmill?

Maybe I’ll get some photos of my local mountains.
Since they are right out my door, I don’t think about taking pictures. They just are there.
I can tell you, though, that the years I lived away from Utah, I missed the rocky peaks.

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Cool! I am down 2 hours south of you in Moscow. Had occasionally glanced at the Glowforge Map and was wondering how long till there was a semi-local pin. You may be as close as it gets.

My place:

Nearby shot from in the hills:

Aerial view of the Palouse in general (old Glacial river/lake):

And a nearby waterfall that is breathtaking:

Originally from Montana. I prefer the mostly flat with respectable mountains to this eternal hills and by the way some are larger. But it is still pretty out here.

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I’ve been down in your neck of the woods. LOVE the red rock and desert parts of our country. Beautiful photos.

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