June 28th, 2006 by James
Last week I was working offshore as the “person in charge” of their small South Pass platform. It’s an itty bitty little platform, so we didn’t have much room to stretch out, but it’s in a great location near the mouth of the Mississippi River. I saw freeswimming Mahi Mahi fish, huge schools of jacks, and we even had a visit from a loggerhead turtle. We were performing a pipeline pressure test, and I had a standby vessel and a small helicopter to help me with logistics. It was a fun project, we we had a few “challenges” I had to work through, like when our generator broke down at 4am…
Our home away from home - a “trailer park” offshore :-), our standby vessel and helicopter
A 30″ flange, how we get on and off the platform - by crane! A view of the Louisiana swamp from the helicopter
Click here for more photos…
Posted in General | No Comments »
June 28th, 2006 by James
I was fortunate to be sent to Moscow to consult on an offshore natural gas pipeline project . I spent almost two weeks there, and while we worked our butts off, I also got to take one day off for tourist activities, and spent the most of Russia’s “white nights” to get out and see the city after work. I was there with 4 other people from our office, and we were working with a really great small engineering firm. The people we worked with went out of their way to host us, and we were truly lucky that most of them spoke english very well. On our Sunday off, we took the train to Sergei Passat to visit the oldest Russian Orthodox monastary complex in Russia. I learned a lot about Russia and the Russian people while I was there; it was a very rewarding experience.
Red Square and the Kremlin, St Basil’s Cathedral, and a fountain next to the Kremlin
The church at Sergei Passat, golden gilt woodwork and paintings inside, and some SERIOUS onion domes 
The Moscow metro, some older trains at the station, and the metro station again - every one has incredible mosaics or statues
Click for more photos…
Posted in General | No Comments »
June 28th, 2006 by James
My mom and sister came out to Houston to visit in April so that we could all go to my aunt’s equestrian event near Sealy TX. We had a great time getting together and the weather was beautiful that weekend. The next day, we took them to Brazos Bend State Park to see some American alligators, because they had never seen any and they are quite common here. We had a great time and the gators were extremely active. To round it all out, we had boiled crawfish afterwards at the Mardi Gras Grill…:-)
Click here for more photos…
Posted in General | No Comments »
June 28th, 2006 by James
I was invited out to Cal to give a seminar to the Ocean Engineering Graduate Program, so Sarah and I made a long weekend of it. We didn’t get to visit all of our friends, because many were out of town, but we did get to visit w/ Matt and Jenny K who live in the Mission. They were nice to let us stay with them for one night and come along for a day-hiking trip on Mt. Tam. We drove up to Lake Lagunitas and then climbed up the Cataract Creek trail to Laurel Dell. It’s a great “straight up” day-hike with wonderful views. It sure got me fired up to be back in California and to see my advisor Dr. Bob Bea.
Click for more photos…
Posted in Friends and Family, Travel | No Comments »
