the Sam Jackson College Experience » zion

A Picture a Day: The Narrows, Zion National Park

Sam Jackson — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 01:08:04 +0000

Here is just a quick picture of our Backroads group, minus trip leaders. This is in the Virgin River Narrows of Zion National Park, which was a lot of fun since I absolutely love hopping on rocks and scampering around in the water. I'm in blue next to my mom on the right. I have a real, serious post that I want to put up but it isn't going through just now because my internet connection is seriously acting up. That's very upsetting. Hopefully we will have it for tomorrow! Read about the Narrows more on wikipedia if you're interested.

I hate Las Vegas and United Airlines, but love the national parks!

Sam Jackson — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 19:25:07 +0000

I am back from my Backroads trip to Bryce, Zion, and Grand Canyon national parks with my mom last week. We had to stay in Vegas a night coming in and a night leaving for logistical purposes, and it was dramatically awful. I won't at this exact moment elaborate on the hatred for Las Vegas which fills me when I think of the place, but I will throw out a few bullet points. First, I never liked the place because of its environmental footprint, which I knew about before I had ever set foot there. Upon arriving, everything was more grossly capitalist and more importantly fake than I could ever have feared. The masses of sheep feeding the slot machines, the 100+ degree heat, the commoditization of everything... the experience combined was extremely dreadful. United Airlines made us suffer by essentially ruining two entire days of my life; wasting first one coming in and then, unsatisfied, another leaving. Both were due in some part to mismanagement but more to the fact that in its drive for a profitable bottom line it cut flights, increasing delays, damaging the consumer experience.

I will not go to Las Vegas again unless someone is paying me a considerable amount of money to do so, and United... well, thankfully Boston is a Continental hub.

However! Lest my experience sound wretched in its entirety, I can not emphasize enough how amazing and fabulous the week I spent in Backroads' care was. United just got our bags to us this afternoon so I haven't yet fished the digital camera out and uploaded pictures, but I will soon, and the raw beauty of these places I saw will be yours to share! Cedar Breaks, Bryce Canyon, the Grand Canyon, and Zion were all spectacular, even more so for my not ever having seen anything nearing their scale or nature. It was a majestic alien landscape which was often harsh but was consistently beautiful. I love the national parks and hiking and seeing new wonderful things, and this was unparalleled hiking luxury with Backroads, really immensely enjoyable.

Just getting back in the swing of things today, pictures and general return to posting will commence soon.

Vacationtime: Bryce, Zion, Grand Canyon!

Sam Jackson — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 03:02:25 +0000

Beloved readers, I will be away for a week on a Backroads trip with my mom to Bryce, Zion, and Grand Canyon national parks. I will be back on the 20th. If I am not responding to your e-mails during this time very promptly, now you know why.

Feel free to leave comments about things in general, future posts, past concerns, whatever you like, I'll address it all on my return. I highly recommend checking out the Archives and nosing through the wealth of content there if you have some free time.

Also, in July I am going to be part of a really awesome webinar series about admissions blogging that Karine Joly is running through her new Higher Ed Experts site. You should go sign up, no matter who you are, because it's a great set up--I'm July 31 and earlier that month you also get Nancy Prater, Ball State University Web Coordinator and Ben Jones, director of communications for the MIT admissions office. If you don't read their blogs already, you should--they have a lot of great stuff to say and I'm excited to be involved in this endeavor.

Plus, you get the good feeling knowing that my portion of your ticket price goes towards supporting my college education...! To my higher ed marketers and institutional readers out there especially, check it out, and even if you are able to turn down this amazing value! then register anyways and check out what Karine has set up because it's pretty cool. I'll profile it fully when I get back, I've been meaning to do so for a while.

: )