Lester Bahr CPA, LLC
(484) 707-5934
Allentown, Pennsylvania
Enlightened solutions within your grasp
So, what are my other activities and interests outside of my professional practice life? Well, below by category are my interests in travel, exploration and the great outdoors, spanning more than three decades, in addition to a lifelong cyclist. Because Mark Twain said it best:
Mark Twain Quote: "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."
Climbing & Hiking
Appreciate the grandeur of nature & the perspective gained from a high summit.
Utah, hiking
Mt. Rainier, Washington
Sedona, Arizona rockclimbing
Sedona, Arizona
Mt. St. Helens, Washington
Hiking the badlands of Utah
Mesa Verde, Colorado. Just don't look over the edge
Exploring Ancient Ruins
To appreciate the present,
one must understand the past
Miletus, Turkey
Antiquities of early Mediterranean civilizations.
Ephesus, Turkey
Magnesia, Turkey
Still largely "undiscovered" by tourists so there's no restoration - which is what makes this site interesting to explore.
Didyma, Turkey
The Temple of Apollo at Branchidai - it's not that the temple is so much in ruin as having never actually been completed because they ran out of money to finish it.
Pompeii, Italy
The Mayan city of Tulum, Mexico
Pompeii, Italy with Mt. Vesuvius in the background that in 79 A.D. buried the cify under 20 feet of ash where it remained undescovered for centuries. Worn into the streets are wheel ruts from chariots and carts.
Rome, Italy
Of course lots of ruins, but also lots of crowds.
Exploring Rainforests
But removing only pictures
Costa Rica - 1997
On a hiking trek through rainforest
Costa Rica skywalk through upper forest canopy
Volcano Arenal, Costa Rica. Still active. View from Smithsonian Observatory Lodge where I was staying.
During my stay at the Smithsonian Arenal Observatory Lodge in Costa Rica.
Astronomy & Science
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit" Stephen Hawking
Baboon preserve in Belize
Yes, hand feeding the baboons pieces of fruit was permitted.
A zipline through the forest in Belize.
Puerto Rico, Arecibo Radio Telescope
Some people may be familiar with this site as a filming location for the 1995 James Bond movie "GoldenEye" where the evil villian falls to his death.
But that's not why I went there. Having an interest in astronomy, I went because it's the world's largest single-dish radio telescope and is recognized as one of the most important centers for research in radio astronomy, planetary radar and terrestrial aeronomy. Raw data for the SETI program was collected from this facility and then people all over the world such as myself could lend the use of their personal computers to crunch that data for SETI. Just a fun project.
Meteor Crater, Arizona
Is the world's best preserved metorite impact site thought to be approximately 50,000 years old.
Watching a Space Shuttle launch. Discovery STS-91 mission.
Hunting dinosaur fossils ( Look, a Sauropod vertebra)
Inside the Lowell Observatory, Arizona. Looking at the telescope credited for first detection of the doppler shift in light spectrum proving the concept of an expanding universe, and validation for Einstein's theory of relativity.
Other Travels
In no particular order, but just some other places I traveled and found interesting for their culture.
Corfu, Greece
Nobel Peace Center, Oslo Norway
The collection of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates reflections related to war, peace and human conflict throughout the world
Valletta, Malta
Actually, what I found most interesting about visiting Malta was getting an exclusive tour of the undergroung Hypogeum - a 6,000 year old burial chamber. But, unfortunately, taking pictures was not permitted.
More castle exploring in Scotland
Exploring castles in Ireland.
Hiking in Hawaii Volcano National Park
Utah, rock climbing
Botanical Gardens in Singapore
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Sacre Coeur Basilica in the Montmartre Quarter of Paris, France
Doge’s Palace, Venice, Italy
The interesting thing about Venice is the important role it played in commerce during the Renaissance. In fact, the same accounting recording structure used to this day known as "double-entry accounting" was also known as the "Venetian method" and is credited to Luca Pacioli as the first person to describe this method making him "The Father of Accounting" in the late fifteenth century. This new concept at the time was state-of-the-art and it revolutionized commerce and business. Pacioli was actually quite famous in his time having published a book on "The Collected Knowledge of Arithmetic, Geometry, Proportion and Proportionality" in which one section of that book, Particularis de Computis et Scripturis, a treatise on accounting, first described the double-entry accounting method. In fact, this book was the most widely read mathematical work in all of Italy, and became one of the first books published on the Gutenberg press.
Notice how the coloration of the butterfly mimics that of the foliage. A great example of evolutionary adaptation.
Kukulkan Pyramid, Mayan Civilization, Chichen Itza Mexico
A rather tight fit
Vancouver British Columbia. Love the Pacific Northwest region.
Alaska, aboard a crab fishing boat with crew from first season's History Channel "Deadliest Catch"
Other Interests in Travel Adventures & Outdoor Activities
Mykonos Greece, June 2015
Walking the Appian Way in Italy
Breathtaking beauty, New Zealand
On the Greek Island of Delos
Istanbul, a fascinating city with a rich history.
Malta. 7,000 year old ruins predate the Pyramids of Eygpt
New Zealand Geysers, November 2014
Seal watching in New Zealand
Along a peaceful meadow in New Zealand
The landmark Sydney Opera House down under.
The beautiful Amalfi Coast of Italy
At the Trinity Obelisk site on the White Sands Missile Range in NM that marks the spot of ground zero where the first atomic bomb was tested on July 16, 1945 that ushered in the atomic age.
Visiting the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array on the Plains of San Agustin, Socorro, New Mexico. An astronomical radio observatory composed of 27, 82 ft wide dishes.
I had the opportunity of spending an afternoon there visiting the facility and talking with the scientists and staff who run it. It was an incredibly informative experience to tour the facility and learn about the research being done there as well as a chance to ask many questions.
I have always been a very strong proponent for support of science and the scientific methods of finding real truths.
Singapore Supertrees
In Thailand, at the Sanctuary of Truth
Lantau Island, Hong Kong
Exploring Saigon, Vietnam
Bangkok, Thailand at Buddhist Temple
Downtown Singapore
