Catching Up

Since I've got a year's sabbatical ahead of me, and hopefully some good adventures, it's been suggested to me that I keep a blog (or a weblog for those true believers). However, since I'm a few months into my sabbatical, and I've already been to Utah, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois, I thought I'd better let my first few posts catch up to the present.

In July, I spent 3 weeks in Park City, Utah, at PCMI, the Park City Mathematics Institute, a workshop for high school students, high school teacher, undergrads, graduate students, undergraduate faculty, and researchers. The lecture hall was great, with not only a projection screen, but 5 (count 'em) rolling blackboards that were well used.  I learned lots of good mathematics there (more in future posts), and also got a chance to do some hiking and traveling.

The first weekend we went to Arches National Park ...

... and Canyonlands National Park ...

Unfortunately, it was a quick trip, less than 24 hours. It's about a 4-hour drive from Park City, and since we had trouble finding a rental car on July 4 weekend, we didn't leave until about 11:00am on Saturday, which meant that we arrived at Arches late afternoon. A blessing in disguise, though, as the high temperature was 100 F that day, so we missed that. Then we left before noon on Sunday, after visiting Canyonlands in the morning. It was going to be hot that day, too.

Well worth the trip, though I'd like to return in the autumn, winter, or spring. Anytime but summer.