1000000 Lawyers

I used to think that Temple Bar was a British tribute to the greatest institutions of the Empire, but then I found out the Brits call them "pubs". Color me more deflated than the US dollar.

More to the point, Ham has featured the Temple Bar on his brilliant photo-blog, London Daily Photo. I had no idea the Temple Bar was a gate to London. An ignorant tourist, I just wondered why they had this odd monument in the middle of the road. The Temple Bar is surrounded by spots that will sound familiar to anyone reading Neal Stephenson recently - Fleet Street, the Strand, High Holborn, and Ludgate all feature in his recent writings (The Baroque Cycle) - and it was fun to visit the places that feature in the novels.

Nearby was a poetic example of that The Greatest British Institution.We were not able to dine at this particular establishment, it being too early in the morning, but we did enjoy peeking in. We ate later in the day at - I think - The Prince of Wales.

And all those lawyers in the title? You can thank Tom Paxton.

Keep on truckin'

This is the top of Mt. Adams, the second tallest mountain in Washington (after Mt. Rainier). This little bit of rock is part of the Cascade range, a string of volcanoes that run up the coast of North America from California (Mt. Shasta), extending into British Columbia, through Alaska and out to Kamchatka; the northern part of the Ring of Fire that circles the Pacific Ocean. My son was in a group that climbed Mt. Adams this weekend (2 July 2007) and I was the Base Camp team. I kept the home fires burning (literally - my job was to have hot water ready for soup and cocoa when they came back). Lovely day, great views, heavy work-out.