In no particular order, ultra long (often off trail) day hiking, skiing, road biking, learning French and using it while traveling in France, photography, wine, cooking, and messing with computers.



ken

CoffeeCritter...those are beautiful underwater shots.

Ken...what part of Idaho is that? I lived in Idaho Falls one year. In my mind, ID is one of the most beautiful states in the country. A hidden treasure, since I think most people equate ID with potato.

stevendouglas wrote:CoffeeCritter...those are beautiful underwater shots.

Ken...what part of Idaho is that? I lived in Idaho Falls one year. In my mind, ID is one of the most beautiful states in the country. A hidden treasure, since I think most people equate ID with potato.

It is a view taken from just beneath the pass separating Thompson and Williams Peaks in the Sawtooth Wilderness, in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area:



The little lake in the foreground has no name and is called "Little Noname Lake," which is just a bit above larger "Noname Lake." The picture was taken at approximately 9500 feet of elevation, about 3000 feet/ 1000 meters above Redfish Lake, seen as a sliver, below. Across the valley are the White Cloud Peaks.

The general area is north of the Sun Valley area and both east and north of Boise Idaho.

ken

Long distance running. And to combine it with coffee I registered for the Pisa Marathon in spring

/gabi

Well, after 35+ years of actually working in the wine trade, it's now become more of a hobby. Cooking. Practicing my rusty French with my two teenage girls (well, OK, 13 and 11). In fact, looking at my girls, I'm thinking that learning how to use a shotgun might not be a bad idea! That, and although I've owned an espresso machine since the late-1970s/early-1980s, I'm now actually learning more about it and (hopefully) making better drinks than ever before!

Travel, astronomy, photography, occasional computer game play (about 2 hours a month at most!), a bit of woodworking, some metalworking, programming software for my wife and on occasion I make a total mess of paper, color, etc with airbrushes. Every now and then I get a "wild hare" and do a bit of system design, hardware design and programming for some "home brew" project (currently working on a "LAB" type espresso machine design in my (ha!) spare time!).

Inline speedskating, photography (I'm not as good as the folks who took those beeyootiful underwater shots), cycling, cooking and bbq, road biking, swimming (masters swimmer since the early 90s), skiing (when we can - not often) and sailing.

Details: I used to be a race car mechanic. I got my start autocrossing (which is a blast!), and ended up working for Bill Scott Racing, which was a very good sports car racing team in the late '70s thru mid-80s. It's a small world. Recently I got a private message on HB from a fellow HBer in Australia who bought a racing car that I had prepared and fielded in 1982. Like lots of car racers, I eventually gravitated to sailboat racing. My wife Casey and I were really serious sailboat racers for a long time. We were on the US Sailing Team in 2002, trying to make the 2004 US Olympic Team. We didn't make it, but we learned a shitload about making boats go fast, and more about racing. We dont' sail too much anymore. We still have the boat we campaigned with (Marstrom Tornado), and I own half of an International A-class catamaran, which is an ass-hauling singlehanded sailboat. We're both totally into sports - particularly sports that you can do when you get older. We're both masters swimmers. Casey is really fast and is an excellent distance freestyle and open water swimmer. She kicks my yass in the pool. I kick hers on a bike. I used to be a cat 3 bike racer many years ago, but I recently found out that I was pretty fast on skates. I've skated for years, but I rediscovered it and have been started skating relatively seriously since my daughter Anneke was born. It's really fun to hammer corners, rip down hills and skate in a high-speed paceline.

If you're gonna use your body to go fast you better like to eat, because you're gonna do a lot of it. If you're gonna eat, you oughtta eat good food. I've learned a lot about cooking from Casey, and Casey's 'rents, who are REALLY into food and wine. I don't drink much, but I can appreciate wine and BEER. I like American bbq, which I'm learning about, and I'm learning about smoking meats.

I drag a camera (Canon 20D usually with a 24-105 lens) around with me pretty much everywhere I go. I say "It ain't no use to you if you leave it at home." I feel like a real novice with it, when I look at the stuff other people shoot. But last year a picture I shot of a local maryland farm got selected for a photo exhibition of 19th century barns. Just goes to show you that you can eventually get something reasonable if you lean on the shutter long enuff.

Any of you underwater photographers have use for a Nikonos? I have one and a couple of lenses that I used to use for photographing sails. I don't use it anymore, and it ought to get used as it's a pretty good piece of kit.

-Greg

The nice thing about being semi-retired is having the time to enjoy hobbies.

Seasonal hobbies:
Windsurfing, my escape from reality.
Road & mtn biking. Spent too much of my life training & racing. Now I just enjoy riding, but I suffer more on some climbs that I never really noticed before.
X/C skiing. Another past life. Training & racing too many seasons sort of took the fun out of nordic skiing. Now it's usually a spring ski on the Bay. No hills!
Snowshoeing & snowboarding, fun recreation to make our long winters shorter.
Trail running. IMHO we have some of the best in the upper Midwest trails. Rolling terrain on fire roads & ski/mtn bike trails with views of Lake Superior, the Apostle Islands, large & small river valleys, wetlands. Mix of hardwood & conifer forest.
Gardening, a challenge with our short growing season.

Year round hobbies:
'Ukulele. No talent, but I enjoy playing this sweet little instrument.
Reading. We have a great used bookstore & public library system. Problem has been accumulating more books than I can read in a given period of time. Need to go into full retirement.

Photography with a very old set of Nikons, a not-so-old Hasselblad and a pretty old Toyo 5x7 field camera. I understand there is something called "digital" photography these days but I can't imagine it will be more than a fad. Some of the work posted here is very impressive. I also spend time working on improving my bio-diesel processor, riding a '53 BMW and sidecar or a '66 Vespa. I don't know that it is so much a hobby but I am a volunteer firefighter which can sometimes be fun. I own a drumset, guitar and banjo but it seems more a penance than a hobby. Being left-handed and dyslexic hasn't helped one damned bit. I have a private pilot license and fly when I can afford it. Not often. I'd gladly trade all my meager talents for the ability to play even one instrument compentently. I really envy you guys who can do that whenever you want.
Bernie

bernie wrote:Photography with a very old set of Nikons, a not-so-old Hasselblad and a pretty old Toyo 5x7 field camera. I understand there is something called "digital" photography these days but I can't imagine it will be more than a fad. Some of the work posted here is very impressive. I also spend time working on improving my bio-diesel processor, riding a '53 BMW and sidecar or a '66 Vespa. I don't know that it is so much a hobby but I am a volunteer firefighter which can sometimes be fun. I own a drumset, guitar and banjo but it seems more a penance than a hobby. Being left-handed and dyslexic hasn't helped one damned bit. I have a private pilot license and fly when I can afford it. Not often. I'd gladly trade all my meager talents for the ability to play even one instrument compentently. I really envy you guys who can do that whenever you want.
Bernie

Hey there:

Glad to see you here! Another Alt.coffee refugee! Are you new here, or have you been visiting a while, and I'm not frequenting the same parts of hb? I visit AC infrequently now because it has become so trashy.

-Greg