Kayak Construction, Day Six, completion - 31 October 2021

This is written on 4 November and the kayak is resting in the garage.  I am trying to get the Blogger layout commands to put the photo to the side of this text, but with severely limited joy so far.

Reconstructing, on Day Three, we had a separate deck (top) and hull (bottom) that fit, that had some edge glue to hold the panels together, and a lot of copper wires holding everything together.  Although the kayak has enough strength to be able to move the hull parts about, it must be done carefully.

On Day Four, we expanded the fiberglass work.  We used a thickened epoxy mix to fillet (two l's rather than one) the hull pieces.  This fillet is to fully set the deck and hull shapes that the prior tacking had begun, and the fillets give structural strength to the halves of the kayak.  To provide a continuous fillet, all the wires must be removed.  We are talking hundreds, probablly 200 or more.  There remain a handful in the bow and stern of the hull to retain the proper shape because there is notable twist and stress in the plywood.  Eventually, the few remaining wires will be clipped and sanded flush (fortunately, while copper is strong enough to hold the stresses, it is also soft enough to work with sandpaper).  To do the filleting, I clipped the wires at the deck-hull joint, laid the halves of the boat side-by-side with the (to be) interiors facing up, and clipped the remaining wires.  This gave easy access to the interior for stem-to-stern fillets.  I  prepared the filleting epoxy mixture and used the clipped end of a sandwich bag to apply long fillets that were then smoothed to a gentle curve.  The curves were pretty flat in the bottom and got sharper (smaller radii) toward the bow and stern.  I also applied fillets to the bulkheads, preparing them to be waterproof.  We left this to set for a bit and started taping the seams with 3-inch fiberglass to reinforce the strength of the joints.  We put extra layers of glass in the bow and stern, and then put a sealing coat of epoxy on the inside of the lower hull.  

To start Day Five, I glued one of the hatch fixtures in place.  This goes on the inside to hold the previously cut hatch covers aligned with the deck and to create a waterproof assembly.  I had to shape the hatchh assemblies to fit the slope of the deck at the sides; I also needed to adjust the fillets to seal the waterproof chambers.  I taped the underside of the deck seams and put a sealing coat on the bottom, then it looks like I glassed the underside of the deck and rejoined the halves.  Somewhere in the day, more sanding cleaned up the puzzle joints, removing the surface epoxy and leaving the joints.  Late in the day, I started work on the Kokopelli accents by the cockpit.  Inlay was not really possible due to the complex outline of the figures; to be honest, inlay is the way to go for simpler figures such as circles.  I put a stripe of epoxy on the deck to give the Kokopelli fitures something to stick to (yes, I also put epoxy on the underside of the Kokopelli figures).  Then I laid down a heavy coating of epoxy, taking care to fill in the figures as much as I could. 

This worked well.  The green tape that you see is simply holding the halves together.  Again.  

I came in on Day Six to cut the extra fiberglass from the remainder of the cockpit and hatch openings and trimmed up the edges. Today was challenging for a couple reasons.  I applied a top surface of fiberglass to the deck and later spread a fill-coat to smooth out the weave (make it less visible).  This will create a problem later in the day because of the curing delay in the cool, Autumn temps -- therefore the heater that you see in the photo.  I also filleted the joint between the hull and the deck.  Around the cockpit, I applied 3-inch tape and epoxy, then the rest of the seam got 1-inch tape and epoxy.  The 3-inch tape is very hard to handle when working in the limited access through the hatch holes, so the 1-inch tape was a welcome relief.  While I waited for the epoxy to cure, I helped apply glass and epoxy to the outside hull of several other boats.  Finally, at about 6pm, it was declared that the epoxy was ready for travel.

I already had a roof rack on the car, so I added some foam padding to protect the kayak.  We threw some straps over the top and padded them with old towels and plastic wrapped around the straps.  As a general rule, shiny plastic will not adhere to the epoxy, therefore the straps and towels were kept unglued to the car and straps.  We took the ferry home and arrived without incident.  Well, except for the deer that tried to cross the road as we were leaving Port Townsend - able to stop in plenty of time to avoid entanglement.  The canoe is now resting the garage and I am acquiring tools and materials to complete the work.

Kayak construction, Day Three - 27 October 2021

 Writing from Port Townsend, WA.

We took the Edmonds ferry to Kingston, then crossed the Hood Canal Bridge to Port Townsend. That Sunday evening, we had a glass of wine at the Port Townsend Winery Vintage tasting room and dinner at Alchemy Bistro. PT was quiet. About all there was to do was walk around town.

On Monday morning, I went to my class at the Northwest Maritime Center. There were seven of us assembled to build Chesapeake Lightcraft (CLC) kayaks. Mine is a Shearwater Sport, about 16 feet long and well balanced between performance and comfort (broader beam for stability). We each started with a pile of precut plywood parts, directions, and miscellaneous other bits (copper wire, epoxy, fiberglass sheeting, a few screws, and some shock cord). Joel is our instructor. We are doing the work and Joel comes in when we get stuck. We do not get stuck often, but is has proven key that Joel came in with techniques and tips to keep us moving forward. 

The first day was mostly woodworking. Although the wood parts are precut, the wood does not meet at convenient right angles on the boat, so we spend a lot of time beveling the edges to mate. A small block plane and sandpaper do the trick, but remember there is a lot of edge on a multichined 16-foot boat. The pieces are cut from 4x8-foot sheets of plywood, so the longer pieces are formed by gluing shorter bits together. Joel helped by doing that initial gluing on Sunday so that the epoxy was cured and ready for us to sand on Monday. So one can say that Day One is a dusty day. At the end of the day, the projects do not look like much and there is little obvious change from the start of the day.

Day Two is spent with a lot of little copper wires. The edges ofrhe appropriate pieces of the bottom hull are joined together with hundreds of little copper wires to create the basic shape over some temporary forms and bulkheads. The bulkheads will layer serve to create water tight storage compartments but their initial purpose is to set the shape of the hull. The CNC machine has drilled hundreds of little holes along the edges of the boards. These line up such that the hull pieces can be wired together with “twist ties” to create the correct nautical shape. This is not easy. To join the hull pieces, a simple U-shape works, but to tie in the forms and bulkheads requires some serious distortion of the wire. And all these wires are twisted by hand to bring in the alignment and shape, the further twisted with pliers to set the final shape. I broke a dozen or more wires in the process of adjustment, probably two dozen. Each broken wire was removed and replaced. My fingers were sore at the end.then we repeated this for the top, the deck of the kayak. Finally, we “dry fit” the two to see the shape of the kayak. It took a lot more adjustment to get top and bottom to align, but it was a very satisfying day when we saw the reality of the emerging boat.

Day Three, today, was mostly a day of chemistry and yet more adjustments. We took the boat halves apart and started to apply the first “tacks” of epoxy along the seems. This is to prepare the full structure so that we can later remove the copper wires that were so lovingly fit and tweaked. A light bead of thickened epoxy is laid along each seam of the bottom, skipping over the copper “staples”. Further thickened epoxy is thickly applied, a”filet”, at the bow and stern because they are subjected to greater stresses than the rest of the seams. The top is put on the bottom to check the fit, and the boat is wrapped or taped to set the shape white the epoxy takes an initial set. After lunch, we took the top off again, and did the filet w work on the seams of the top. Then we wired, wrapped, and taped the top and bottom to set overnight to let the epoxy carefully. As we had sometime left, a few of up glued up the support structures for the hatches. We will cut the hatches tomorrow after the epoxy filets and tacks have had a chance to cure.

Tomorrow, Day Four, is more chemistry. We remove the wires to apply filets of fortified epoxy. I expect we will also cut the deck hatches. 

Cookbook arrives - 7 October 2021

Thursday, 7 October 2021.

A quiet day, mostly chores and relaxed "reading" (includes YouTube and death-scrolling, I am afraid).

The cookbook arrived at Obec Brewery.  To be precise, two pallets of cookbooks arrived.  This is The International Table - Recipies from the Seattle Sister Cities, with an introduction by Chef Kristi Brown of That Brown Girl and Communication Seattle.  This book has been under development for about two years - a COVID-19 project, if you will.  Susan has bee working it through the authorship and publication process wihth her partners on behalf of the Seattle Sister Cities Association.  It is out just in time for a holiday gift.  I can personally attest to having tested many of the recipies.  We grabbed a growler of Granat on the way out.

I mention the Cookbook because we went to the Obec Brewery to collect about three dozen books on behalf of ourselves and for other members of the Seattle-Nantes Sister City Association.  

Then we went to the SeattleNantes1980 geocache for some renew and replace action. The previous waterproof box proved not so waterproof when it collected an inch of water in the recent rainy days (an inch of water inside a waterproof box is no bueno).

Finally, I made reservations in Port Townsend for my kayak-building course.  I shall be at the Water Street Hotel.  I am building a Cheasapeake Light Craft Shearwater Sport kayak - seen here. This is scheduled for the week of 24 Oct - 31 Oct 2021.

Maple Pass Loop hike, WA - 4 October 2021

Maple Pass Loop, North Cascades National Park

4 October 2021

The rainy season has started to settle in Seattle with the start of October.  We got a break with some nice weather on Monday, 4 October 2021, where it was sunny but cool.  The waves of weather washing in from the Pacific had a 24-hour gap that allowed the sun to shine.  It was not warm, but the bright colors of the landscape shone in the the sun.  This is the kind of weather that brings out the colors of nature in the mountains - mountain blueberry, sumac, and larches.  Naturally, we decided to go on a hike.  Rather than bury the lede, let me start with a view from the top.

It is a bit of a drive from metro-Seattle to the trailhead, approaching three hours.  We started late (by my keeping) at about 9am, and headed north on I-5 to Arlington on route 530.  This is the boring bit, but heading through Oso, Darrington, and Rockport starts to get prettier and wilder.  Now Route 20 wanders through Newhalem, past Diablo Lake, past Easy Pass Trailhead (hah!) to the Maple Pass Trailhead.  

The trail starts from the ever-crowded parking lot with a steady but brisk rise along a forested valley.  After a couple miles, there is a break to go to Ann Lake or continue upward toward Maple Pass.  As you keep going up, the trail leads across a series of rockslides with nice views of Ann Lake below.

As the trail (seems to) near the top, there is a turn that yeilds a view where everyone stops.  After climbing, it is a treat to see the next valley over.  The saddle between Ann Lake and Lewis Lake has a patch of larches with bright colors.  this is a ruse.  The trail to Maple Pass continues upward.

At this point, the hiker has hit something of a tree-line.  There are trees, but the area is so rocky that very few trees can grow, and few to any size.  The trail climbs and switches back and forth to ascend yet to Maple Pass and a saddle between Ann Lake and Rainy Lake.  Maple Pass does open to the Maple Creek valley, however the trail turns toward Rainy Lake.  

A strong hiker can ascend to Frisco Mountain or farther to Lyall Glacier, but we turned to descent.  The trail descends rapidly above Rainy Lake and then enters the forest that covers the ridge between Ann and Rainy Lakes.  In the photo, one can just make out part of the switchback trail on the left side; just above (and far beyond) the switchbacks is a segment of Route 20 in the distance.

While the mind turns to descent at Maple Pass, I want to show a photo of Rainy Lake (in the distance).  I did not take too many photos on the descent, so this will have to do.  

Notes - In this post, I have included photos, but I wanted to include a video.  I think I have to include a YouTube link, so I will need to experiment further.

Not surprised - 30 Sept 2021

 I spent the day with Medicare.  Well, I started yesterday when I formally and officially applied for Medicare coverage.  I was following a guidebook, generally quite good and very useful, but it left a misimpression that has caused some grief.  Toward the end of the book, there is a checklist to enroll in Medicare.  It makes a blithe reference to the fact that it could take "10 minutes or less" to enroll.  Yeah, about that.  It may take as few as 10 minutes to enter the required information in the Medicare forms (on-line, of course), but then there is a delay while the application is processed (in Albequerque) and a Medicare number is issued.  I got an email to confirm that my applicaton had been recived, but it contains no Medicare number.  The email leaves a gentle impression that the process is quick - but there is no commitment.  

today, I went to register for the Medigap Plan and a corresponding Part D drug plan.  After you enter a bunch of information, it prompts for a Medicare number.  Not unreasonable, but I have none - yet - so I am stuck.   So much for the "10 minute" enrollment.  In a chat-conversation with Betty, a representative of the Medigap insurance company, I discover that it can take "weeks" to get the critical Medicare number.  So I left the Plan process partially completed and started the Plan D drug plan application.  The the surprise of precisely no one, that too needs a Medicare number.  Therefore, I am nominally left without insurance while Medicare proceeds.

Ah!  I hear a shout from the back of the room.  You should have started sooner!  Yes, it would have been prudent to do so.  However, I was awaiting inforation about COBRA benefits from the HR department, and that took a while to arrive.  I had been thinking that I might use COBRA for family coverage through the end of 2021, then pick up on Medicare.  Add in other, personal delays, and I simply did not have enough time with the information to make a decision.

A further complexity is that Medicare is *personal* insturance.  One gets coverage for the self -- and not for the spouse.  COBRA would have covered the spouse; this another factor in the decision process.  Finally, COBRA is expensive.  Surprisingly expensive.  If I were on Social Security, COBRA would consume nearly half of my monthly payment (assuming Social Security were not taxed - which is it, thank you Ronald Reagan).  So my wife spent several hours today to file for WA state health coverage under ACA.  I am glad it exists, but the bureaucracy is astounding.  We are trying to pay them money and the insurance companies make it hard.  SMH.

So, I am technically not covered by insurance.  The last time I made an insurance claim was... 2019?  Maybe?  Anyway, I have chosen to take the risk -- and I can document the fact that I tried to get coverage (tho that may not help in any future discussions, I did try).

Changes - September 3, 2021

As of 3 September 2021, I have retired from AMD.  My time managing a research group is now ended and I am learning to be an old retired guy.  One might think this is easy, that it comes naturally, but I after about three weeks, I still have a lingering compulsion that I have something to do, some meeting to attend, some HR or recruitig mishap to remedy, or a status report to write.  

No.

No such thing.  My days, my time, are mine to define.  I still have responsibilities, but no longer a manager who sets them or an employee that demands them.  For now, I have projects, mainly ones that have been postponed, some postponed for a long time.  I am also fighting a global pandemic (or, rather, doing my best to avoid it) and the seasons have started to change to be more inclement.  This severely limits the outdoors projects.  Horticulture is no fun in the rain and I simply do not want to run a chainsaw, lawn mower, or chipper-shredder in the rain.  

That said, the US-Canada border recently reopened and we have visited the cabin on Keats Island, once in August and once in September.  During this time, we have done a lot of pruning and other maintenance that sets the stage for a big burn in October.  The residents of Plumper Cove traditionally burn the year's pruning pile during the weekend of Canadian Thanksgiving (American Columbus Day or Indigeneous Peoples Day).  Once the fire completes, the rising tide extinguishes the flames and sweeps away the ashes.  I have spent hours in the trees wtih various saws, manual and chain, to produce a distinctively large burn-pile for 2021.  We will also use this event to get rid of some old stain (I much prefer water-based over oil-based, if nothing else for the cleanup).  After a two-year hiatus while the border was closed and the COVID-19 pandemic raged, there was a lot of growth to remove.  I removed a cedar tree near the deck, stripped another cedar tree near the deck, pruned some trees to the south of the cabin (for light), and pruned the cedars on the bank under the cabin.  And more.  I will not pretend I am done, but the season is over and so the work must pause.  the burn will come in Otober and pruning will resume in Spring 2022.

--agk 29 Sep 2021

It's been a long time

According to this site, I got started in blogging in 2005 and took a giant vacation in 2010.  That's a long time ago.

We just finished a trip in Howe Sound, British Columbia, where we caught a small pod of orca.   Caught means "photographed". 

We are about to start a trip to France and Spain to hike in the Pyrenees Mountains.  More soon.

At loose ends

In 2008 I was training for Northern Tier.

In 2009 I was training for Philmont.

In 2010 I was training again for Northern Tier.

Both my sons have done the Triple Crown (Northern Tier, Philmont, Seabase), so what do I do now?

And home again

We're back. It was a great trip - seven days on the water, two days at the base camp, and a day of travel. We camped six times, portaged 20-30 times, and covered an estimated 117 miles (about 10 of which were portage miles and the rest paddled). One big result - no injuries. A couple of quick impressions --

1. Get the Kevlar canoes. The aluminum canoes are rugged but I'm sure they were part of the reason we had two injuries on the 2008 trip and NONE on the 2010 trip.
2. Train. Then train some more. If you show up without training, you'll pay for the lack.
3. Cardio training. The portage trails are rough and the packs are heavy. You'll be happier on the portage trails if you've trained carrying weight on trails (get some vertical if you can, use stadium steps if you can't get it on trails). All the packs start out at about 50 lbs; the food packs get progressively lighter but the others remain heavy.
4. Skills training. Paddle canoes and go canoe camping at least once, preferrably twice. Practice the wilderness skills - Leave No Trace. If your crew members can't j-stroke, if they don't have some power in their strokes, they'll fail when the wind kicks up.
5. Team training. You'll have some crew members who don't get the idea of working as a team. They'll put of their own tent but let someone else struggle with another tent, they'll take care of their personal needs and preferences first and leave the group responsibilities to others, and they will be selfish instead of sharing. Find out who they are and decide if they can be tolerated. One bad apple...
6. Test skills. Have each team member demonstrate that they have the skills needed. Otherwise you'll have a bunch of sandbaggers who stress all the others.
7. Have a written duty roster. This cuts down on a LOT of arguments.
8. Go to Quetico. The Boundary Waters (BWCA) are just plain crowded.
9. If the advisers like coffee, take a spare stove. I recommend the Starbucks instant coffee in the little tubes.
10. As an advisor, stand back and let the scouts run the show. There are times when you, the advisor, will have to lay down the law (e.g., no one eats dinner until ALL the tents are up, pads are unrolled, and sleeping bags ready). I say this because otherwise you'll be standing around feeding the mosquitoes while the scouts dawdle with and fuss with their tents.
11. Make the rules clear, then repeat five times. Shoes mandatory. Life vests mandatory. Buddy system mandatory. For some reason, mail teen-agers don't understand multi-word sentences until many repetitions. Keep the rules simple and clear so that you don't waste time picking nits with some budding lawyer.

For fun, take a gander at this video -- a portage from the point of view of the guy under the canoe.

Departing soon for Northern Tier

I had all these plans to reignite this blog by tracking our training for Northern Tier. Ah, it would have been brilliant. People would have been inspired to get up out of their lounges and off their sofas to head out into the wilderness. Didn't happen. So that's the bad news. The good news is that I'm doing my final packing and we leave on Monday.

We catch a flight at the crack o' dawn on Monday morning and arrive in Minneapolis a bit after noon, high noon. This "we" is a group of six teen-aged boys and two teen-aged adults; or at least we have teen-aged dreams of wilderness adventure. We'll toss our stuff into our rental cars and head to the Mall of America for lunch. After that, we head up to the US Hockey Hall of Fame Museum. We spend the night at a warmed-up ski center and on Tuesday go to visit the Soudan Underground Mine State Park to tour an iron mine 2,341 feet down. After lunch, we arrive at Charles L. Sommers Northern Tier Canoe Base. After that, we're on our own. We start in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) in northern Minnesota but we quickly paddle through Prairie Portage into the Quetico. It will be a while, but we'll return to the US and then head on home.

See you on the flip side.

TRASFER OF US$25,000.000.00 FROM FIRST NATIONAL BANK

I have received this invitation to great wealth. Being a generous person, I hereby decline the personal benefit of selfish actions and share this knowledge freely with the rest of the world. In the unlikely event that you should decide to partake, to reply back [sic], and become wealthy, please remember the small people.

And herewith follow the words of Mr. David Brown and TRASFER (david123kgobudi@rediffmail.com).

-----

FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF SOUTH AFRICA

FROM: MR. DAVID BROWN

Tell: +27- 78-773-6361

E-mail: davidbrownsa2010@gmail.com

Dear: Friend,

Do accept my sincere apologies if my mail does not meet your personal ethics. I will introduce myself as Mr. David Brown, the accountant staff in the accounts management section of the above firm here in the South Africa.

This is the detail of what I want you to assist me in doing, One of our accounts with holding balance of US$25,000.000.00 (Twenty Five Million United States Dollars) has been dormant and has not been operated for the past four (9) years. From my investigations and confirmations, the owner of this account, a foreigner by name (Mr. Kurt Kahle) died in July, 2000, For more Information see BBC News on:-http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm

And since then nobody has done anything as regards the claiming of this money because he has no family members who are aware of the existence of neither the account nor the funds. I have secretly discussed this matter with a senior official of this bank and we have agreed to find a reliable foreign partner to deal with. We thus propose to do business with you, standing in as the next of kin of these funds from the deceased and funds released to you after due processes have been followed.

Noted that in percentage you will be entitled to 30% of the total sum as gratification, while 5% will be set aside to take care of expenses that may arise during the time of transfer while 65% will be for my partners and me. Please you have been advised to keep top secret and noted that this transaction is totally free of risk and troubles as the fund is legitimate and does not originate from drug, money laundry, terrorism or any other illegal act. On receipt of your response I will furnish you with detailed clarification as it relates to this mutual benefit transaction, I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible if you are interested and with your trust. And also furnish me with the following information’s.

For us to proceed, you have to urgently send to me the following information’s because this are the information required from the lawyer who will obtain all legal documents needed to establish you as the next of kin and legal beneficiary of the funds, To get the required approval for the release and transfer of the fund to your bank account.

YOUR FULL NAMES...................

YOUR TEL/FAX NUMBERS.........

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As soon as i receive the above information’s i will contact the lawyer who will obtain all the legal clarify approval document under your name.

GOD BLESS YOU AS YOU REPLY BACK.

Mr. MR. DAVID BROWN

Tell: + 27-78-773-6361

E-mail: davidbrownsa2010@gmail.com

Northern Tier 2010

We're in full-swing training for Northern Tier. Northern Tier (NT) is the BSA National High Adventure Base for canoeing. We're going to the Charles L. Somers Canoe Base outside Ely, MN in the last week of July and the first part of August, 2010. The base is in or near the BWCA - Boundary Waters Canoe Area - and just south of Quetico. I've been there twice before. The first time was as a college student or recent grad (I'd have to check the dates) and was in 19jasjdhf. Gosh, that must have been a data transmission error. The second time was in 2008 with my older son and a group of Boy Scouts. This time is with my younger son and a group of Boy Scouts. I sense a pattern.

The crew this year is a bunch of 15- and 16-year-olds. The 2008 crew was a bit older and bigger; the biggest guys on the 2010 crew would be the smallest on the 2008 crew. This means we won't go as many miles (109 or so in 2008), but we'll still have a grand time. Although we start in BWCA, we cross over into the Quetico on the first day and don't return to the US until the last day. Yes, we cross an international border and need all the appropriate paperwork.

For training, we started with hikes and bike trips. I divide training into three purposes: cardiovascular health and endurance, skill development, and team-building. Since the water was cold in January, we started with hikes - a weekly 6+ mile hike with increasing weight and irregular weekend hikes for fun. For variety, we also did some cycling - about a 20-mile trip on a suburban bike trail. As the weather warmed in May, we got into canoes. Fortunately, we have a crew member who lives across the street from Cottage Lake, so we are able to use their house as a base and portage the canoes over to the Lake. The paddling started out pretty light, building up to a mile in the early days, but now we're more like 1.5-2 miles (it is a small lake). We also did a canoe-camping trip to Diablo Lake in the North Cascades. We did 13 miles over two days with two nights camped. The weather was great, so this was a good trip for a break-in. Finally, having the guys travel together, camp together, and work together is the best team-building I know, so that's what we do.

More later.

Fire in the Mountains

We dropped the boys off at Stevens Pass to ski and continued on toward Leavenworth. We've done a lot of hiking in the Icicle Creek canyon and thought we'd try a snowshoe hike today. I'd forgotten, but huge fires swept through the Icicle Creek area in 1994. Irony would have us visit today - a recent fire at a candy store outside of town left a smoking ruin. We never stopped there, but it was a landmark telling us we were approaching the town.

The forest fire was in the news in 2004 but other fires had pushed it out of our memories. It was an interesting drive as we entered the canyon. The memories came back as we studied the hillsides for evidence of the fire. It's easy to see after a while. At first, the area looked like a clear cut - there were stands of a few trees here and there that survived. But then it became clear there were none of the slash piles left by loggers, and there were bare spires standing that loggers would never have left. On the ground, it was obviously a fire. We walked up a Forest Service road and the undergrowth was thick on one hand; and there was virtually no undergrowth on the other. The fire had demolished it all.
The area is restoring itself. Recreation continues. But the scale of the fire is astounding; in a city, it would be blocks and blocks. Our drive through the fire-scarred area went for miles and the burned areas climbed the hillsides for nearly a thousand feet. I don't know if it crossed the ridge into the next valley. I hope to do a backpacking trip into the Alpine Lakes this summer, and that should reveal the secret.

Rank has its privs

We were visiting the Gettysburgh battlesite and I finally understood how rank influences. It became clear to me that Colonel Sanders has a fried chicken place, but General Pickett has an entire buffet.

Brands

As a result of a resounding loss at the polls in November, the leaders of the Republican Party have been pushing an intense effort to reexamine the Party and position it to win in the future. Some of the talk comes from talking heads on radio and television who claim affiliation with the Party but have no actual position within the leadership and have no elected position; they continue their rants about returning to the roots of the Party, being true to the ideals of Ronald Reagan, and defending American culture from further erosion. The talking heads seem to want to re-energize the base, to strengthen the appeal of the GOP to the existing Party members. The discussion that comes from people actually in the Party leadership or holding office is more subtle and looks for ways to broaden the appeal of the Party outside the base. In both cases, they often talk about the "brand" of the Republican Party.

A "brand" is a symbol of a corporation or organization that is intended to communicate the essence of the entity to a consumer. In modern practical usage, brands are often false. It is not true that using a certain shampoo, toothpaste, or car will make a consumer happier or more attractive to partners, but branding is often constructed to give precisely that impression. The essence of the company or the product remains unchanged while branding manipulates only the perception of the product.

When I combine these two ideas, it is clear that some "leaders" in the conservative movement of the US are attempting to redefine and change the perception of the Republican Party. They are not attempting to understand the underlying issues nor craft new proposals to solve the problems. They are not attempting to make their current positions more clear. They are changing the wrapping without changing the contents. Their goal is to win elections and thereby impose their will. This is not democracy and these leaders should be called to answer for their attempt to confuse and outwit those that they pretend to serve. Some of the self-described leaders of the Party are intellectually and ethically bankrupt if they think that changing the perception is the same as changing the reality.

Much better would be Republican leaders who revisit the principles that lead to the losses and the polls, determine if they are relevant or stale, and freshen the ideas of the Party. Instead of putting lipstick on the pig, they should think about an exercise program to get that pig lean and in shape for the next competition.

Coincidence

I didn't realize it until now. My last post before the lapse was about Lincoln and his fight for the Constitution. I described how Lincoln was an instrument of fulfillment of the original vision of equal rights. My first post after the lapse was to welcome Barack Obama, the first non-white president of the United States.

Lincoln may now rest easy. His task is accomplished. Our task has begun.

Change has come to America

It took something monumental to get me off my stupor. Today is monumental.

I've been chewing my nails all day. I was worried it was going to be a squeaker of a race - that it would be down to hanging chads and failed voting machines with cheesy keys and without backups. But I was wrong and how wrong I was. It is such a relief to have a definitive result - a landslide - and not to be worrying about the final votes in the final states. I haven't seen the participation numbers, but I'm optimistic that voting proportions are up dramatically.

Change has come to America.

Barack Obama has run an outstanding campaign. Not just a technical tour-de-force but a campaign of dignity and style. At the end, in his concession speech, John McCain attempted to make up for his rotten campaign, but he'll be remembered as he has acted. A sad end to a noble career. Eight years ago, four years ago, he might have taken it all, but he was up against a sleazy politician from Texas and Maine, a pampered scion of wealth who came equipped with all the dark tools of a brutal trade. Maybe John McCain could have faced such a foe again to win, but Obama took a different road.

I hope this is the end of the sleaze merchants. I'm not sure, and we won't know for another few years, but I hope. In the meantime, we need to roll up our sleeves and get to work.

George W. Bush has had eight years of practice, and he's not going to stop now. Lack of small-d democratic support has never slowed him down. He's going to try to pour regulations and policies into the system that will gum up the works and take years to undo the damage. The transition team has to learn their new jobs AND watch for devious tricks by the out-going administration. This won't be sophomoric tricks like glue on the toilet seats or tape on the phone, but will be one give-away to his cronies here and a defanging of a protection there. Words will be redefined to be meaningless and entire laws will be disabled. This will not be a cooperative transition, it will be passive aggressive to the end.

But it will end. The people have spoken. Welcome, President Barack Obama.

Lincoln 1865

The day raced past before I could get organized enough to write a post, but I wanted to write about Mr. Lincoln. It was 143 years ago in the theater box shown here that Booth struck out one of the lights of American history.

I learned the usual school-kid history and it really turned me off to anything historical. Time passed and I've developed a revived interest in the past. It started with Angel in the Whirlwind, a book I recommend to those interested in the American Revolution. It gave a realistic picture of George Washington in context - so much more interesting than the drivel fed to our schoolchildren. A few years living in metropolitan Boston, and my interests advanced to the American Civil War.

I find so few people understand that war - it is so easy to get lost in the distraction of state's rights and completely fail to see the real reason for the war. Even Lincoln took a while to come to grips with it, but in his wavering he gives us such deep insight and reveals the truth. All men are created equal and they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. Every time a commentator talks about "original intent" as a valid interpretation of the Constitution, I remember Lincoln. It was a rail-splitter from Kentucky and Illinois who showed us that we must not be satisfied with the insights and limitations of the founding fathers, but each generation must add its own brilliance to enhance the luster of the gift they gave us.

The Constitution is one of the great documents of history, but it is only a diamond in the rough. It is an on-going challenge to us to develop and improve the spirit and intellectual quality of the original document lest it become a quaint and curious aged bauble. If the party of Lincoln is to be a true party of conservatives, they must rediscover the struggle to preserve and defend the Constitution, they must watch over it and guide it to new greatness instead of smothering it in uncertainty and blather. To lock one's self to some concept of original intent is to regress to the antebellum mindset.

Lincoln sacrificed his life for the rights of others. Let us hope we are sufficiently strong to continue to fight for the rights of all men and women.

Dome Sweet Dome

We live in the shadow of mounains - when the sun is low in the sky and the clouds are missing, anyway. To our east is the Cascade Range through which cuts Stevens Pass. Because we don't have enough to do, someone invented skiing and put a ski resort in Stevens Pass. It's nice, but not crazy enough, so we go snowshoe hiking there. Lovely, hilly, with great views. It's nice, but not crazy enough, so I took a class in January and built an igloo in March. I would have built the igloo in February, but there was so much snow in the mountains that avalanches closed the pass and I couldn't get there. Building an igloo is nice, but not crazy enough, so I slept in the igloo with my co-builders.

We had a great time building the igloo and camping out there in the wild. We were fortunate that it was cold that night - I'm guessing around 20F or -7C for a low temperature - and that our igloo didn't drip.

There's a secret hidden in the picture. If you look closely at the photograph, I'm looking at a particularly bright spot, a hole in our igloo. For a number of reasons - just assume that they are good reasons and not merely poor construction techniques - we accidentally left a small hole near the top of our dome. Under normal conditions, an igloo dome should be intact so as to contain as much heat as possible. It's supposed to be warmer inside the igloo than outside. However, as we had three full-grown adult men in this igloo, there was plenty of excess heat. As a result of our little hole, we had a constant draft all night. I believe this kept our igloo from overheating and drip-drip-dripping on us all night. (Note to experienced igloo builders - another of our construction, uh, innovations was to forget to smooth the inside of the dome to eliminate drip points.) It was cold, but we wrapped up tightly. The other benefit of the hole was to help release the pressure of the combined snoring of three full-grown adult males and I think this helped protect eardrums. (There's no physics or medicine behind that statement, just a personal awareness of the power of the adult trachea.)

The blue is a little exaggerated. I used the "snow/beach" setting on the camera to adjust the exposure. The texture of the blocks is really there, and there's a distinct blue glow inside the igloo, but it's not quite what you see here.

Photo taken about 7:30am at about 4000 feet near Stevens Pass, Washington, in mid-March, 2008.

Odd anathema

It strikes me that anathema is not a noun. This has confused me for some time. Dictionary.com reports it as a noun, but I don't believe it. Consider their example sentence: That subject is anathema to him. Put another noun in its place: That subject is steeple to him. Put any adjective in its place instead: That subject is beloved/disgusting to him. If it were a noun, the example sentence would read: That subject is an anathema to him. Anathema just isn't a noun because it's not used like one as it lacks an article in common uses.

(Steps down off soapbox.)

Unfortunate headlines (1)

The BBC news site had this interesting headline today:

Afghan becomes open heart surgeon

This was a fascinating evolutionary advance for dog-hood until I read the subtitle:

An Afghan doctor has qualified as his war-torn country's first-ever open heart surgeon.

That's what I get for letting my mind wander when I'm tired.

143 million pounds of beef on the wall

CNN has reported that 143 million pounds of beef are being recalled. This beef includes meat from cows that were "downed" - unable to walk, many carried to the slaughter by forklifts. Dr. Dick Raymond, USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety, is quoted as saying "We don't think there is a health hazard, but we do have to take this action." Evidently this is because they think most of the meat has already been eaten. Of course, most of the meat went to school food programs, prisons, and Native Americans.

The Bush administration has spent years trying to dump regulations and cut funding for government organizations like the FDA (as recently as 2006, until public outcry caused a policy change).

Of course, Ron Paul is on the forefront of this issue. He says "I oppose legislation that increases the FDA‘s legal powers. FDA has consistently failed to protect the public from dangerous drugs, genetically modified foods, dangerous pesticides and other chemicals in the food supply. Meanwhile they waste public funds attacking safe, healthy foods and dietary supplements." Go Ron! Keep us safe. Yeah, right.

In the meantime, will a fine keep Hallmark from doing this again? Or prevent anyone else from doing it? How long does it take to produce 143 million pounds of beef? They've been doing this for a while, clearly, so the practice is well-entrenched and must be visible to management. I propose a prison term for the CEO. If I did this as an individual, I'd be wearing an orange jump-suit, so why not apply this to the Corporate perp?

Free Hugs (2)

And while we're at it, let's celebrate again the Seattle Pike Place Market Free Hugs man, this time with pictorial goodness.

Home on the Range (2)

And I now present the 2007 Edition of the Gingerbread House. Showing an imaginative use of native elements such as Swedish fish and Gummi Bears, this festive construction presents a view across the rock-candy ice into a neatly trimmed Cape Cod house. One can almost hear the square-dance caller naming the next step as the fiddle sings out a tune. The formally dressed penguins are standing in line to get into this hopping joint. Later on, after the sun sets, the seasonal hot drinks will keep these merry-makers tapping their toes late into the polar night.

I almost feel like I could write for Madison Avenue!

Home on the Range

We started a tradition of making gingerbread houses with a kit. This seemed like an expeditious way to get started but we quickly switched to baking our own and selecting our own candies. This year, there's a bit of ecological confusion going on as the penguins and bears do not share a continent. (The bears are sitting on the roof while the penguins cavort on the ice in front of the house.) Our cats (the conventional furry type) are all too interested in the decorations and we've already lost a Swedish fish. So far, the gumdrops and icing seem OK, but we also lost a few candy corns at Halloween so we are on the lookout. (The candy corns showed evidence of bite marks similar to those left by Felis cattus (domesticus), and there seemed to be a few candy corns missing entirely.)

There's supposed to be a picture there, linked from Picasa. Hmmm... appears to be of a technical difficulty.

City by the Sound

public
Originally uploaded by n9891q

Although there are elements of tourist overload and the occasional splash of tackiness, the Pike Place Public Market in Seattle is a great place to visit. The fine restaurants come with views that can't be beat, but even the donuts and coffee come with a view!

Free hugs from Seattle

Eric, mon ami, posted recently about free hugs from Paris in his Paris Daily Photo blog. It seems the craze has spread to Seattle; Pike Place Market, to be precise. Stop by, get a hug, some donuts, and walk the market.

Update: Please stand by. We are having technical difficulties linking to Flickr and hope to have them resolved momentarily. (Cue sound of head being scratched...)

Hold on, it's coming

We were out enjoying the sights on Independence Day. It was hot and sunny, a pleasant change from the wet weather, so we decided to visit a friend on Bainbridge Island. It's a short ferry ride but there's plenty of time to turn around an enjoy the skyline of Seattle. The ship had just gotten underway, we were out of the car and had wandered to the stern when we noticed a black cloud starting from a pier and rising fast. A fire had started. As we stood there, trying to figure out what was burning, where it was burning, and how serious it was, the sirens started. Then the Seattle fireboat raced past us, positioned itself, and started dousing the fire. It was all over in a few minutes.

We found out later it was an abandoned dock - quite empty, no permanent structures. I don't think they ever did find out what started it.

Saturday, In the Park

The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) opened a new sculpture garden early this year. It's on the north side of Seattle on a hill overlooking Puget Sound. It has a number of prominent sculptures, including this Calder stabile. According to Wikipedia, Calder invented the mobile and the stabile. Who knew?

The tree in the foreground is not actually a tree, but another sculpture. I did a little research and found it is called Split, by Roxy Paine. This is an interesting piece because it sneaks up on you - in the winter, it looks like just another leafless tree. But take a closer look and the truth is revealed.

SAM has a virtual tour of the garden here. This photograph was taken on the opening day of the garden January 13, 2007.

Rainy Days and Mondays

As Autumn establishes itself, the weather fights with itself. We've had days of drenching rain, days of fog, and days of clear cold. We had a day recently when Mt. Rainier stood proud and clear on the southern horizon, but I didn't have my camera with me. We had another evening when there was an hour of clear skies and Mt. Rainier took on pink alpenglow from the setting sun. These are a few blasts of glory before we settle into the grays of Winter.

Since I didn't have my camera to capture the moment, I offer a picture of Mt. Hood (Oregon) from this summer, taken from about 9000 feet of altitude.

Windy

While Massachusetts was having an earthquake, Seattle was having a windstorm. The colors had started to turn and the leaves were looking sharp so it should come as no surprise that we were treated to a vigorous storm. We had rare lightning and thunder, drenching rains interrupted by periods of clear skies, and winds near 50 mph. Combined, they stripped the developing color from the trees, leaving the ground coated with the result. This poor Japanese maple, sheltered in our back yard, was pounded with everything else. The downed leaves from the upper half of the tree carpet the deck while the lower leaves cling to the tree.

In the Court of the Crimson King

We each leave a footprint on the land. In the days of King Henry VIII, the footprint of a peasant was small, barely noticed even in the aggregate, but the footprint of the King was grand. Enormous kitchens ran nearly 24 hours a day to feed the nobility and the staff. Enormous wine cellars quenched their thirst. Great herds of animals were slaughtered daily to feed the kitchens and harvests of vegetables and fruits supplied the great tables. When I think of the grandeur and comfort in which the nobility lived, I am awed by the wealth and power that they possessed.

But imagine their reaction to my modern way of life. Great gushing streams flow at my command - in hot and cold temperatures, from ice cubes to steaming showers. The bounty of an entire continent - even the entire planet - is available at my local grocery store. I direct the power of hundreds of horses to make my way to and from a minor shopping trip, and thousands of horses are available to wing me across continents and oceans. Even the finest artistry from the greatest craftsmen and performers is nothing compared to the wealth of energy and money poured into Hollywood and Bollywood.

Is there a word stronger than "awed"? For surely that is what King Henry must feel when he sees my wealth and power. Yet in my bounty I resolve again to live simply.

Photograph of Moonrise over Hampton Court, England, a country castle of King Henry VIII.

In the Evening

One of the great things about the Pacific Northwest is that outstanding camping and hiking is nearby. The valleys of the Cascade Range have lakes and vistas that delight in the morning and the evening. This is a sunset photo of Lake Dorothy.

I was struggling for something to say, but I'd rather let the image speak for itself.

Cruisin' on a Sunday afternoon

We don't know why, but this ship of the Canadian Coast Guard was plowing back and forth, back and forth for about an hour one afternoon. The season was late, the weather was bad, and the seas were rough, so the bay was empty. In chugged this ship, and it started going back and forth in a roughly 400 meter line. We spent some time guessing what it was doing but came to no satisfactory conclusion.

The best theory I heard was that junior sailors were practicing their low-speed manoeuvring skills.

The Coast Guard is a great bunch of folks but they occasionally do curious things.

I'll be watching you

When you get to London, you really must make time to go to the Tower of London. The building is magnificent, the history is fascinating, and the views are great. A Beefeater leads the tour from the entry gate to the concluding chapel. The chapel is bittersweet as the bodies of the victims of the Tower are often buried beneath your feet. Depending on your station in life and your gender, you may have been executed just steps outside the chapel (Henry VIII was a particularly vigorous user of the chopping block outside the chapel).

It is not until you get home that you have the time to inspect the photos and notice that it is not a lamp that you have photographed with the Gherkin, it is a security camera.

Hi, officer!

Looking up!

In 1887, this was a muddy spot, busy with workers assembling a giant Erector set. Welcome to the heart of the Eiffel Tower. We were standing in line to buy tickets for the stairway and the line snaked around underneath the landmark. We had plenty of time to look around and look up. A few hundred steps later, we were looking back down at this very spot. We've never taken the elevator to the first level, we've always taken the stairs.

The Restaurant Jules Verne is spectacular, I'm sure, but above our budget, so to speak. There's a restaurant on the Tower, Altitude 95, that we really enjoyed.

What is this quintessence of dust?

As we were riding along the Iron Horse rail-trail, we passed farms and open range. One of the farmers near Cle Elum seemed to be a bit of an artist. You can see two of his creations in this photo.

Iron Horse Trail

We just completed a little bike ride.

We started in Thorp, WA, on Saturday morning. The day was sunny and clear with temperatures into the low 70's or so. We were riding the Iron Horse Trail (State Park), the old right-of-way for the Milwaukee Road rail service across Washington. Unfortunately for us, someone had been dumping new gravel on the trail and the headwinds were always against us. This made for quite a challenge across almost 40 miles of trail through Cle Elum and into Easton. This photo features one of the tunnels that we rode through on the first day.

Don't get me wrong: it's a great trip and a lovely trail as it winds along the river and through the farming country. But the sheer labor of the trip is daunting - going westward is a hard ride.

After the noble struggle, we had a wonderful dinner and evening in Easton State Park. I recommend getting a camp site closer to the lake and away from the highway.

The next morning, we got up early and had a hearty breakfast. The overcast had come in overnight and the sky was gray. The cooler temperatures made riding a bit easier, the trail was much improved, and even the headwind seemed to give us a break. Well, a little break. We blazed through the first part of the trip up into Snoqualmie Pass and took a rest at Hyak. We were just at the mouth of the Snoqualmie RR Tunnel: 2.3 miles of darkness and cold. A pretty cool ride on a bike, but that 50 degree air just takes it out of you! We came out the western end into more overcast and a trace of rain. The rain mounted as we descended and soon we were wearing those brown stripes and spitting the grit out of our teeth. It's rare that I've wanted fenders on my bike.

I'm afraid my behind got the worst of the trip and I was pretty glad to see the end of the trail. I got out of my sodden clothes and headed home.

Maybe next year we'll do it all again.

Here's to St. Pancras

In honor of the opening of the new high-speed rail service between London and Paris, here's a view of St. Pancras station, the London terminus of the service. We were staying at a nearby hotel and caught this fantastic building on a sunny day. Too bad they don't build them like this anymore. Once I might have complained about how ugly the building was, but now I am so tired of glass boxes and mindless rectangular grids that my eye has learned to appreciate the detail and fine craftsmanship of the older buildings. Just down the block is the British Library, but other parts of the neighborhood are in disrepair. I'm sure that will change dramatically as the impact of the renovations and the new rail service kick in. Isn't this the one from which Harry Potter and Ron Weasley fly off in the stolen car? King's Cross Station (with Platform 9-3/4) is around the corner.

Logan's Run and Splash

On a recent return flight from Boston, I had a window seat on the airplane. For some odd reason (explained shortly), we seemed to be taking the scenic tour of the airport. We taxied all over the place and finally ended up by the water on the northeast side of the airport.

We had dutifully boarded the airplane, backed from the gate at the appointed time, then gone on our merry little tour. It became ominous when we stopped on a taxiway instead of near the end of a runway. It became downright bad when the pilot shut off the engines. After a few minutes of delay, The Dreaded Announcement came: there had been fog in New York City all day, all NY-bound flights were delayed, and we had been given a ground-hold for forty minutes.

Stop me if you disagree, but don't you think They Knew About This when we were still somewhat comfortable in the gate area at the terminal? Is there some reason that we had to get on this little aluminum tube, taxi about the scenic parts of Boston, and then wait out on the tarmac before taking some sort of action? I'm not the claustrophobic type, but I'm not stupid either. Don't answer that.

While on the exciting tour - at no additional cost to the public, I hasten to add - we went past an area of houses that overlooked the water separating the airport from the towns of Revere and Winthrop. There were some nice little marinas there with boats bobbing on their leashes.

And then there was this party barge.

It must be really bizarre to spend any time sitting under that little umbrella... as the landing airplanes come roaring a hundred feet over your head. It must surely cause the conversation to waver every 60-90 seconds on a busy day when every landing slot is taken. And the TSA really lets these people sit there? I don't care - I can't see them as a credible threat - but if I can't take more than three ounces of toothpaste on an airplane, why would they allow this?

I suppose I have ruined someone's day by even mentioning this in an obscure corner of the Internet, but I just had to ask. Sorry.

---

As to the title? Look here.

You lookin' at me?

I have occasion to go motoring on the waters of Howe Sound, British Columbia, Canada. I was recently puttering along, minding my own business, when I saw this seal. Now that used to be a common thing, then the pollution started killing the ecosystem, but enlightened regulation has restored water quality, so the wildlife is coming back. So seeing a seal is no longer quite the thrill it used to be - they're getting quite common. However, one usually sees only the head gliding through the waves. At first, a seal looks like a dog who has gone seriously astray. "Whoa! What are you doing out here, little puppy?" Then the seal will spot you, the head dips down, and the curving back slips under the waves. Oh, that was a seal!

Well, this fellow was unusual because he was floating so high. He's clear out of the water, so I slowly headed closer to find out what was causing this. Sure enough, he's found a bit of flotsam, a deadhead, to sun on. He kept those curious eyes on me the whole time and never moved a muscle but in his neck. He kept a close watch on this odd thing sharing the seas with him, but it never became threatening. I puttered away, leaving him to bask on a sunny day at the end of August, 2007.

Not in Kansas anymore

We had a fantastic weekend for backpacking into the Cascades. We started from a trail head near Skykomish, WA, and climbed the trail into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. After hiking up through the woods, a lake came into view and the trail followed along the western shore. We took a camping spot next to a large rockslide and set up tents along the beach. The trail is very short - not over two miles - so we finished the day with a hike toward Bear Lake and Deer Lake. The weather was cooperative - the stars that night were fantastic and the Milky Way was clear.

Dorothy Lake, September, 2007.

Worst camping trip EVAH?

We left home on Friday evening and drove north toward Mt. Baker and our campground reservation. The further north we got, the worse the weather got. It started out as gentle little spots on the windshield, strengthening as darkness fell. We turned off the highway to follow smaller and narrower and bumpier roads as the rain became solid.

Arriving in the campground, the rain was pelting the car. No one wanted to get out, least of all the fellow who was supposed to put up the tent. That would be me. It was dreadful, so dreadful that we didn't walk to the bathrooms, we drove. We dashed in to brush teeth and dashed back to the safety of the car. Without a tent, we decided to sleep in the car.

Sleeping in an odd place - the driver's seat - I slept fitfully and kept waking up. The car would be full of fog and a bit stuffy, so I would lower the window slightly. No matter how slightly I opened the window, rain would get in to splatter me, so I kept closing the window. The rain kept up all night, feeding the glaciers at altitude but drowning our spirits in the campground.

The rain finally broke around sunrise, so we got out and made a quick breakfast. A tour of the campsite revealed that it was settled nicely on the lake, but the overcast held low and solid. On a sunny day, the lake was reputed to reflect a gorgeous view of Mt. Baker, but all we saw were three shades of grey. We decided to skip the planned hike and head out on a scenic drive to the east, hoping to catch a bit of sun on the dry side of the Cascades.

Everybody in Seattle knows that it is wet on the west side of the Cascades while dry and sunny on the east side. On this day, it was. As we crossed the pass, the clouds thinned and the sky turned blue. The weather was so fantastic that we abandoned our campsite at Mt. Baker and set up at Early Winters Campground in a dry, piney forest. Lovely.

Make your plan but stay flexible.

Victoria and Harry?

On 22 April, 2000, our family began to read Harry Potter. Our young son had started reading but had settled himself into relatively lightweight stuff. He would read the youth editions of Pokemon and Star Wars novels, but refused to touch anything in hardback or that might "look hard". We had planned a visit to Victoria, BC, a ferry ride from Seattle, so we took along the newly released Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. On the boat ride to Victoria, we read chapters from Harry Potter. When the (adult) voices wore out, we stopped reading. Our young non-reader was so incensed that he grabbed the book and finished reading it himself, although we had to continue reading aloud for his younger brother. Thanks, Harry!

The is a view of the Empress Hotel on the Victoria Inner Harbor shortly after we arrived.

Vancouver from on high

Welcome to beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia. This is not the 51st state nor is it part of Britain. It is a lovely city in the southwestern corner of our northern neighbor. Among the many visual delights of Vancouver is the Lion's Gate Bridge and you are standing on it. As you look eastward, you see the Burrard Inlet, an arm of the sea - a fjord. Vancouver city lies to your right, while North Van is to your left; West Van is behind you, on the left. The Lion's Gate Bridge connects the Vancouvers. You can see the orange of the cranes on the loading dock, and a set of white peaks that form the port building used by the cruise ships that go up to Alaska.

Update: Added a title. Oops.

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.