Stingray City, Grand Cayman

Stingray City, Grand Cayman
Originally uploaded by SoPhast

This is really the ONLY way to spend Thanksgiving. Surrounded by family in the Caribbean....OH YEAH!!!

9/11 Visit to Ground Zero

Seven Years Later this is the view....
This past August, Kami and I went to New York city for a weeklong summer vacation. We went to Broadway musicals, went to Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ellis Island, The Statue of Liberty, spent time wandering Times Square, Greenwich Village, Battery Park, and lots of the "tourist" spots. New York is an amazing place to be experienced. So much history takes place there, so much America is New York City. So it only seemed right that we went one afternoon down to Ground Zero. And everything changed...again.
I had been to the World Trade Center as a kid and somewhere have a photo of myself on top of one of the towers. Kami and I shuffled along with the huge evening crowds heading home from work as we made our way to the viewing "platform" that was along the south side. Walking up, they had a memorial plaque above the steel fence honoring the heroes and those who lost their lives in the September 11th, 2001 attacks. Thousands of names, each one a life gone forever. Men, women, children. Dead. Families destroyed and lives ruined. It all came rushing back; the morning news I had on while getting ready for work when they cut to a live feed of the first tower on fire...calling my family in California because my brother and aunt both fly for American Airlines, then watching plane number two hit the other tower. And life as we knew it changed eternally that morning. We knew things would never be the same. Life would change in ways that were at one time unimaginable. I stood overlooking ground zero seven years later. Gazing firsthand the giant hole, the scar, and knew the wound in myself hadn't healed yet, because as the tears came and I gripped the fence all I could feel was anger. Anger for such a senseless, terrifying, inexcusable despicable act of malice, terror and cowardliness. And then sadness. Sadness that I thought was forgotten and buried. Sadness that should have been hope. But seeing where it all happened...in person...brought it all back to life. What I saw on TV was now in front of me. It felt real in a way that petrified me. The tears kept coming. I stood there, my hands clenched hard on the metal grate, trembling with sorrow, fear, anger and then I felt Kami putting her arm around me . I turned and just wanted to collapse. She pulled me in and wrapped her arms around me, our faces buried in each other's neck. People passed by, some stopped, some turned and closed their eyes, others stared into the sky as if they could see what once stood towering above us. Maybe they could see it. All I could see was a reminder of where we've been, and what happened to America in the weeks and months following that awful morning.
Kami and I stood there for a short while unsure of what exactly we wanted or needed to take away from this experience. Frankly I wanted to run away and never come back. New Yorkers are a tough crowd to stick around after getting a shot in the heart like that. I can look back now and understand that everyone was affected by 9/11 in different ways.

Engine Co. 10 looks over ground zero. There's not a single day they don't get reminded of the lives that were taken. I walked by after leaving the viewing platform and had a feeling of hope and optimism seeing the firefighters chatting and going about their day. While I've no doubt they never have a "normal" day comparatively speaking, it gave me a sense that for now things were going to okay. We got through this attack as a country, as families and friends. We stood together for a brief and glorious time united as a nation...as one.

Kami teaches high school history and her freshman students this fall are too young to really remember much at all. When asked, most of her kids remember some images of the twin towers from the TV, or that their cartoons were interrupted. Most don't really get what happened. A new generation of kids are coming of age in world where fear is the norm. In a world where they've always had Homeland Security and orange-colored terror alerts. These kids will grow up never knowing what it was like to not have that fear. Fear that this could happen again. On the other hand, their country has been at war for more than half of their lifetime. War. For half of your life. Why aren't you kids angry yet? Maybe you see things differently than I do? Maybe.

So I hope your teachers teach you well. And teach you that; yes, in fact this amazing place called America stood up one time to face the future as a unified whole. We really did have a time when we weren't conservatives or liberals, Republicans or Democrats. We were citizens of the United States of America, and that meant something larger than we could ever possibly imagine. It didn't matter where you went, people had changed. People weren't strangers; instead they were someone you only hadn't met yet. We were collectively changed by the attacks of September 11th. The sadness didn't matter, the anger was tempered and we picked ourselves back up. I we remember what that felt like. I hope we can explain it to those that were too young to feel it. While we honor those that lost their lives that day, let's honor them by not forgetting that we, America, and the rest of the world can put our differences aside and instead embrace the singular truth. We're humans first and foremost; citizens of our only planet and caretakers of our only brethren. To see us any other way is to ultimately fail ourselves.



I made this video in the years following 9/11 for a course in college, however, this is the unfinished rough draft, as the final copy is too large to upload.

Crossing into Symmetry

Cross Walking, originally uploaded by SoPhast.

Along the busy streets of Manhattan the people come and go. It was inspiring to venture back to the Big Apple after being gone for so many years. While I doubt I could ever live in such a place, I do feel that the energy is unlike any other city anywhere in the world.

It was rather compelling taking in all the stimuli...sights, sounds, smells...everything seemed to be buzzing with a sense of maniacal misdirection...chaos everywhere. But not unlike the nature of chaos, patterns and symmetry emerged from the disorder....

Up Up and Away

September 19, 1783 ~ A sheep, a duck, and a rooster become the first passengers in a hot air balloon launched by the Montgolfier brothers, Joseph and Ettienne. No joke. 

November 21,1783 ~ The first recorded manned flight in a hot air balloon took place in Paris. Built from paper and silk by the Montgolfier brothers, this balloon was piloted on a 22 minute flight by two noblemen from the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. From the center of Paris they ascended 500 feet above the roof tops before eventually landing miles away in the vineyards. Local farmers were very suspicious of this fiery dragon descending from the sky. The pilots offered wine (later on, champagne) to placate them and to celebrate the first human flight, a tradition carried on to this day.

June 27, 2008 ~ Ryan and Kami make their inaugural hot air balloon flight together and get engaged.

I had what I can only refer to as "truly an experience of a lifetime." Hovering quietly around 13,000 feet over the mountains of Park City, UT while the sun was rising, I asked the love of my life, Kami to marry me.

About 5:15am, Kami and I woke up early for a little suprise I arranged for the two of us. Trying figure out how I could concievably pull this off took a little bit of advanced prep work. Kami knew something was up. Strange things were afoot at the Circle-K. I kept giving her cryptic hints as to what she might want to wear, as we'd likely be taking a few photos of this moment, and really who doesn't want the chance to look good for the camera. Not that she doesn't look beautiful in sweatpants and no make-up mind you. But I figure it's for posterity, right?!

Kami had no idea as to what I was up to as, the pre-flight meeting place is actually at the Peaks Hotel, where we loaded onto a shuttle van, and drove to whatever launch site was going to be used that morning (which depended on the winds). She looked oddly confused as we got out of the car to walk into the hotel lobby. It was then the vans pulled up with their big bright balloon decals...and the jig was up! However...the best suprise was still yet to come.

We launched out of a parking lot in Kimball Junction on the west end of Park City. If you've never seen the process of inflating a hot air balloon, it's kinda fascinating. It has to be partially inflated with two giant industrial fans to partially open the "envelope" before the crew can fire up the four 5,000,000 btu burners to give it lift. Those LPG gas burners throw out quite a bit of heat, so we weren't the slighest bit chilly. Maybe is was because I was too nervous to notice the cold.

Our balloon was aptly named Dreams Aloft II. I say aptly, as this was to hopefully (if everything went according to plan) be the start of a wonderful life together with the woman I coudn't imagine being without. A woman who's very smile lets me understand the meaning of love. This IS the stuff dreams are made of.

We floated up over the junction, and headed west almost following I-80 towards Jeremy Ranch. We were carried by the wind, unlike a sailboat being pushed by the wind...you don't notice any blowing unless the current changes direction or speed and even then it's only a brief breeze. We drifted past the Utah Olympic Park, now bright green with the summer folliage. Heading out over the valleys and mountains we saw a huge herd of more than 30 elk, and a single buck deer bounding over the river below to find some coverage in the aspen stands.

Our pilot gave us the rundown of how we change direction, steer the balloon and control our speed. We don't.  It's entirely up to the wind. The wind does funny things in the mountains and valleys of the high desert. By mid-morning the winds normally become too unstable for balloon flight, which is why they launch at sunrise. Basically at different elevations, the wind can have varying degrees of temperature and direction, which is how a balloon travels from point "A" to point "B" with C,D,E,F and G being all plausible landings. ANYWAY....

From so high up in the sky, you could see over Parley's Canyon down into Salt Lake City and even as far as the Great Salt Lake! It really is hypnotizing with the silence and the gentle breeze and the warm sun. In fact as long as the burners weren't firing you could even hear traffic half a mile below.

Just past halfway into our flight I figured it was time to play my other cards. I had another reason than just a beautifully scenic flight in mind when I got out of bed that morning. About two weeks before the flight, I had gone down to SLC to do two things. First I went to Kami's father to ask his permission and get his blessing for me to ask Kami to marry me. We sat and had a 5-plus hour talk about all the things that are important to a man like her father. In the end he wished nothing less than for her happiness and gave me permission to ask his daughter. Second, I went and picked out a ring. A perfect ring, a beautiful ring. A diamond solitaire that pales in comparison to the love I feel for Kami. No diamond would do her justice (but I aimed to try anyway). While it may just be "a rock", there is something to be said for goofy tradition. It doesn't seem so goofy now, and does it EVER look beautiful on her hand (if I do say so myself).

So there we were, me standing behind her, my arms wrapped around her waist and my chin on her shoulder...looking out over the horizon together as the morning sun rose. Yeah, it was perfect. I reached into my pocket, pulled out the box and with both arms holding her close to me, lifted the lid to show her the ring. She placed her hands on either side of the box while I spoke quietly. I told her I love her, and then asked, "Kami, will you marry me?"

Lucky for me...she said yes.

I'm not really entirely too sure about what happened next. But I can tell you this. I'd never up to that point in my life been happier. Our dreams...we'll build them together. That much I know, and it's an amazing feeling. I can't imagine doing this crazy thing called life without her. We eventually floated down (physically anyway), had a perfect landing and then the traditional champagne toast. The other folks on the balloon toasted us, and wished us health and happiness. Cheers to that!

And I REALLY would love to thank Park City Balloon Adventures...a heck of a great operation. Good people, lots of fun and a wonderful crew. Particularly I want to thank our pilot for the morning, Logan and the President/Chief Pilot of the company, Miles for making our special day, an unforgettable adventure. Thank you both! See you guys one our one year anniversary!

Give Peace a Chance

Give Peace a Chance, originally uploaded by SoPhast.

Peace Rally in downtown Salt Lake City on 5/28/08 during Bush's GOP campaign fundraising visit. Speakers included former mayor Rocky Anderson, Daniel Ellsberg (from the famous Pentagon Papers that helped end Vietnam), Marshall Thompson, an Iraq veteran and peace activist who walked the entire state of Utah calling for withdrawal from Iraq, and Kathy Snyder, a mother of a serviceman killed in the war. The 5:30 p.m. public protest took place at Washington Square - the grounds surrounding City Hall.

The Crowd, originally uploaded by SoPhast

The crowd begins to form as Rocky Anderson, who now runs the Salt Lake City-based nonprofit High Road for Human Rights Advocacy Project, takes the stage.

Rocky gives a wave, originally uploaded by SoPhast

Winter Evening on the Rail Trail

Winter Evening on the Rail Trail, originally uploaded by SoPhast.

A cold winter evening on the Park City Rail Trail looking towards Old Town and Park City Mountain Resort. It's nice to know that this is outside my back door and that I'm so lucky to live here!

The Salt Lake Temple

The Salt Lake Temple, originally uploaded by SoPhast.

The Mormon Temple...Building began in 1853, and took 40 years to build and stands 210 feet tall. The walls of the temple are 9 feet (2.7 meters) thick at the base and 6 feet (1.8 meters) thick at the top. Each granite block of the walls weighs between 2,500 and 5,600 pounds (1,134 to 2,540 kilograms) and was hauled by oxen, and later by railroad, from a granite quarry in Little Cottonwood Canyon, some 20 miles (32 kilometers) southeast of Temple Square (as it's known). The Temple is literally built in the heart of the city and all the streets were planned accordingly. To see it in person is just amazing.