Grand Canyon and Return by Train

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Caroline Wise at the Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

Okay, so I wasn’t very good at framing photos here in early 2000. We arrived yesterday afternoon but are stingy about taking photos as there are only so many images you can store on a floppy disk. This curse of not having unlimited storage would haunt me well into the end of this year and, to some degree, the following, too. After Caroline and I got married back on January 12, 1994, we came here to the Grand Canyon National Park and stayed in the President’s Suite at the El Tovar Hotel. Six years later, it’s still magic.

John Wise at the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona

Seems that Caroline, too, can work on her composition skills. Who knows, maybe we were on drugs? We were probably on drugs.

Caroline Wise at the Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

Caroline, before she tragically fell into the Grand Canyon, and I collected a ton of insurance money. No, seriously…she had a twin sister named Caroline who I live with until this day.

John Wise at the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona

This was a pretty short visit to the Canyon, maybe one that will have been the shortest ever. We probably traveled with that suitcase for close to 20 years before it was retired.

Train back to Williams from the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona

Short of cash, we rode on top of the train all the way back to Williams, Arizona. It was cold up here. Just kidding, this is the view from the Observation Dome.

Train to the Grand Canyon

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Caroline Wise on the train to the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona

This was our first trip on the Grand Canyon Railroad to the Grand Canyon in Arizona. We had already been to the South Rim half a dozen times and figured taking the train up would add a different angle to the journey; it was well worth the investment. We had reservations for the Observation Dome Car and stayed overnight at the El Tovar Hotel on the rim; this is where we stayed on our honeymoon back in January of 1994. This is a luxury.

What wasn’t a luxury was the camera. It was a Sony Mavica MVC-FD83 0.8MP Digital with 3x Optical Zoom. We opted for this model because it was only $799 compared to the 1.3MP FD88 which cost $999. Besides, the price was a staggering quality difference; while the FD83 only had 1024×768 resolution, the FD88 was shooting 1280×960 with both cameras saving their images to a floppy disk. And yes, Caroline has blue hair in this photo.

Dion Terry Digital Art

JWise Moments

Peace Pipe by Dion Terry for Alienzoo in Phoenix, Arizona

In late 1999, I asked Dion Terry, whom I’d met when we were about to open the Congo Internet Cafe back in 1995, to explore some digital art. We were busy with Alienzoo and Dion, like so many artists, was in need of paying gigs. I wanted digital stuff as I felt that the results with software distinguished things so they’d resonate with the exploding phenomenon called the Internet. This work, titled Peace Pipe, still stands out as one of my all-time favorite images created by Dion.

Alien Abduction from Dion Terry for Alienzoo in Phoenix, Arizona

I was in love with Dion’s use of color as he was learning how to paint with Photoshop; sadly, he didn’t love the medium as much.

Sketch for Alienzoo by Dion Terry

This was a sketch that never progressed further than this, as far as I know.