Nico returned late this evening from Georgia where he spent the last three days at a speaking engagement for Camp Coleman, a program of the Union for Reform Judaism, serving campers from the Southeast United States.  In addition to sharing his personal story he played soccer with the kids in each of the eight sessions he conducted. He looks exhausted but his main complaint was that he did not bring a soccer cleat with him.

I hope to augment this post with a picture of him at the camp which he is presently trying to obtain.

On the opposite coast, Kyle has been offered an internship with Decker and Co, a leading Asian emerging and frontier specialist broker. He is seriously considering the offer but has not made a final decision yet.

Maya returned this evening from her near 3 week adventure in France near the border with Italy. She was there with her friends, Sarrinagh and Emma and Emma’s family. Her exploits included paragliding, class 5 white water rafting, hiking in the Alps, and sampling the fine local cuisine. She returned with a treasure trove of photos a few of which are featured here today.

Having taken Monday as a vacation day and been on the road for two more, I found myself crushed by work upon return to the office. I arrived home at 2am this morning, was in the office by 10 am and worked passed midnight. No time for pictures today so here is another from South Dakota.

Our business meeting this morning wrapped up by 10:30am giving my colleagues and I a few hours more for exploration before our afternoon flight. We visited Jewel Cave National Monument and Wind Cave National Park only to find all tours fully booked. We did come across a heard of bison and had a chance to enjoy lunch/dinner at the Purple Pie Place which also featured exceptional ice cream.

It was back to work today. I dropped Jeanine off at the airport, returned our rental car and a few hours later picked up a new rental car and my arriving MarkForged colleagues. Our business meeting lasted from 11am to 5pm but with sunset not until 8:30pm we had time to do some sightseeing. We visited Mount Rushmore by way of the Needles Scenic Highway. Even though this was a repeat for me, I was happy to see these sights again. For dinner, I ordered an Indian Taco, something Jeanine had read about and wanted to try.

After much driving yesterday, our focus today turned to hiking. We started with the base trail around Devil’s Tower which we enjoyed immensely. It is a place of great spiritual significance to Native Americans and home to many birds which fill the air with song. The Vore Buffalo Jump is an archeological site in Crook County, Wyoming and our next destination. A sinkhole, formed where gypsum soil was eroded, leaving a steep-sided pit about 40 feet deep and 200 feet in diameter. Native American hunters would stampede bison into the pit, which was deep enough to kill or disable them. Used between 1500 AD to about 1800 AD, archeological investigation estimates place the number of buffalo remains at 20,000.

After a delightful lunch in Spearfish we explored the canyon of the same name. There we visited Bridal Falls, Spearfish Falls, Roughlock Falls, and made an extended hike to a local swimming hole featuring a natural rock slide. The hike is up a very narrow canyon and it is necessary to cross the stream within it dozens of times. After our first few attempts at dry crossings we decided it would be easier if we just walked through the water with our shoes on. Jeanine is pictured below traversing a tricky section of the “trail” by clinging to the canyon wall and sidestepping along a narrow ledge.

By evening we had returned to Rapid City, exploring the old downtown and enjoyed dinner at a restaurant on the Main Street Square where hundreds were gathered for “Movies Under the Stars” night. The free film featured this evening was The Boxtrolls.

We were up with the sun (5:30AM) this morning for the start of an ambitious travel day. Our first destination was Custer State Park where we were lucky to spot pronghorn antelope, wild burros and had to share the road with a herd of bison. My craving for pancakes was more than satisfied at the Blue Bell Lodge which we happened upon just as hunger was surpassing my interest in photography (not something that happens often). After breakfast we followed the Needles Scenic Highway through the “Eye of the Needle,” a very narrow tunnel carved through one of the granite spires (the so-called needles).

Surrounded by magnificent rock formations, Sylvan Lake was our next stop as we made our way to the Crazy Horse Memorial. This massive mountain carving, is a tribute to all Native Americans and will dwarf Mount Rushmore in scale when it is completed. At this time only the head of Crazy Horse has been completed and that took more than half a century. Pictured below is a scale model of the sculpture with progress on the actual mountain shown in the background.

Our final destination in South Dakota for the day was the Wind Cave National Park where we took a 90 minute tour of the most complex cave in the world which includes some 140 miles of explored passage ways. Each year an average of 4 miles is added to this total, the result of ongoing exploration. The cave is notable for its displays of the calcite formation known as boxwork. Approximately 95 percent of the world’s discovered boxwork formations are found in Wind Cave.

Fortified by pancakes, I was determined to make it to Devil’s Tower in Wyoming in time for golden light. The effort was worth it and I could not be more pleased with the images I made there.

Jeanine and I arrived in Rapid City, South Dakota in the wee hours of the morning sans our checked baggage thanks to major thunderstorms over the Denver airport which forced all ground personnel at the airport to take cover. Adding insult to injury was a mix up at the hotel which placed us in a smoking room. With the new day, however, came the opportunity to explore the Black Hills. Our first stop was Mount Rushmore, a must see destination for anyone visiting the area. We returned to the airport to collect our recovered bags and then headed east towards Badlands National Park. On the way we paused for lunch at Wall Drug, famous for their marketing efforts to lure travelers from all over the world to their now greatly expanded enterprise. After our meal Jeanine corralled a giant Jackalope for a quick ride.

We entered the Badlands from the northeast entrance and drove west to the other side where we camped at Sage Creek. The ubiquitous prairie dog was a constant source of entertainment.

Today’s photos are courtesy of Maya who took her camera with her while tandem paragliding in France. This is something I have never done and from her description it is certainly an activity I will be adding to my bucket list.

Jeanine returned from a three-day writer’s retreat with her sister Susan this evening. The siblings enjoyed peace and quiet and the beauty of Sebasco Bay, Maine where they worked on their respective writing projects. I venture to say that the writing in this blog would benefit from such surroundings. On that note, Jeanine and I have decided to get away for the weekend and are off to South Dakota where I have business next week. We plan to do some camping while visiting the state’s national parks. Probably will not post again until next Thursday.

Driving in Cambridge and Somerville is a real challenge. You must constantly be aware of pedestrians with little regard for street crossing etiquette, potholes large enough to swallow small mopeds, and cyclist who think that traffic laws do not apply to them. I consider it a good commute when I only collide with one of the three. Occasionally one encounters bikes that stand out from the rest and although this one was resting at the time, I particularly liked the selective use of yellow paint to enhance curb appeal.

I enjoy the fact that I am frequently called upon at MarkForged to make photographs for work purposes. My effort today was not up to my standards, however. This particular part was wet so I had to get the shot quickly before it saturated the paper background on which it was lying. Because the part was so dark, I missed the fact that I did not get the full depth of field focus until I looked at it on my large monitor at home. Although my artistic skills have a long way to go, I generally feel like my technical skills are right up there. Very humbling when you fail to get a simple shot like this right. The fact that it is a very dark image was intentional and thankfully that masks the focus error.

I encountered this fountain during a lunchtime stroll. I decided it best to wait till the flock of children playing in it took a break, even though it would have been a better photograph with them frolicking in the water. Parents these days, perhaps understandably, can become very concerned when someone photographs their children in a park. Sad it has come to this, but I have learned to be thoughtful of those concerns.

Nicolai turns 21 next Wednesday. This afternoon we had a small advanced celebration with his girlfriend Karuna and her parents at the Beehive in Boston’s South End. The Beehive is a cool little bistro cum jazz club buzzing with daily live entertainment. Featuring both an outdoor patio and a bi-level cabaret stage, it is equal parts theater and speakeasy. The food and music were outstanding but the highlight of our brunch was the opportunity to meet and get to know Karuna’s parents who are positively delightful. It is easy to see where she gets her great intellect, charm and beauty.