I Don't Care About Apathy

Into The Outback

2010-02-19T16:36:00.000-08:00

Early the next morning we left our large bags with the front desk and checked out of the hotel. We packed only a small bag each since the itinerary stated that space was limited. Stuffed into each little bag were a pillow and towel as recommended by the tour operator, Connections Safaris. The vehicle arrived and as we climbed on board we were surprised to find a pillow and a towel was provided on every seat, so half our bags contained stuff we didn’t need after all. As the tour progressed, we found out the tour operator often omitted nice to know information.

The tour vehicle was essentially an Isuzu 4-wheel drive truck with a passenger unit mounted on the chassis, rather than a box or a flat bed. The back window was popped out and a tube connected the cab to the passenger space so the driver wasn’t totally isolated from the folks in the back.

After making the rounds about town to pick up the rest of the gang, we turned onto the 87 (Stuart Highway) and headed south for the 460 km trip to Uluru. Midmorning we stopped at the Outback Camel Farm and the opportunity to buy breakfast and ride camels.

The farm is a basic tourist-trap type of operation, but we figured we should ride a camel at least once in our lives. (OK, twice for me.)

We were done with breakfast and camel riding about the time several other tour groups pulled in. All of the many tour operators in the Red Centre follow the same basic route in a variety of vehicles. We were fortunate to be well ahead of the pack and so most stops along the way were not crowded. We quickly jumped back in the truck and continued south.

Alice Springs

2010-01-17T16:14:00.000-08:00

When traveling in various transfer vehicles we try to sit behind the driver so we can pester them with questions. They always seem very willing to pass along information. The driver on the airport shuttle into Alice Springs had an extremely heavy Strine accent. There was a lot of repeating involved, but we did manage to communicate.

The time was around noon and Annette asked him if he knew of any afternoon tours of the town. He said that his company did tours as well as shuttle bus services. He pulled out his cell phone, dialed his boss, passed the phone to Annette said, “Here, they’ll set you up.” And so we booked an afternoon tour while traveling to the hotel.

We arrived at our accommodations, the Alice Springs Resort. The terrain and the heat seemed much like a summer day in our home town in Eastern Washington; low hills, rocky landscape, scraggly bushes and temperatures near 40C. This was the view from our room.

The hotel advertises “deluxe rooms on the banks of the Todd River”. What they don’t tell you is that the Todd River only flows about once every three years. When the river does flow, the entire town shuts down and goes to see it. A person is not considered a true local until they have seen the Todd River flow at least three times. The townsfolk do make the best of it. They have annual boats races where the participants run down the dry river bed while carrying a boat.

Despite the dry river, the town does have water from underground sources. One of the local guides told us there is an aquifer that runs from the rainforests of Papua New Guinea, under the sea, and all the way into central Australia.

The afternoon tour bus picked us up at the hotel. The first stop was the top of ANZAC hill which provided an excellent view of the town. ANZAC stands for Australia New Zealand Army Corp. There is a monument to honor the men and women that fought in the great wars.

Alice Springs as viewed from ANZAC Hill.

The next major stop was the old telegraph station and the reason the town of Alice Springs was established. Crews build the original telegraph line starting from Darwin in the north and Adelaide in the south and finally meeting at Alice Springs. The original line was build with wooden poles that were not termite resistant. Eventually, the line was essentially rebuild a second time using more durable poles.

A rather picturesque view of the old telegraph station.

Here we spotted our first kangaroo in the wild.

The tour also included the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the School of the Air and general sites around the town.

Since we were heading into the outback around five thirty the next morning, we made an early night of it and had dinner at the hotel restaurant. They served an absolutely delicious rare kangaroo steak with an outstanding sauce. Kangaroos are rather lean, and taste somewhat like a cross between lamb and venison. It was fun to eat at a real Outback steakhouse!

Flight to Central Australia

2010-01-15T11:40:00.000-08:00

After a few days of cool and wet weather in Sydney, we were looking forward to some warmth. We packed up and headed for the airport on a Saturday morning. With the rushing to pack and hurrying to the airport, we jokingly referred to each of our travel days as “Amazing Race Day”. Those that have seen the show will know what we mean.

Upon entering the domestic terminal, we walked up to one of the Qantas kiosks. When Annette scanned her passport, both of our boarding passes were printed. We gave our bags to the checked luggage folks and that was it. Being used to American airport security I thought it rather strange that no one actually looked at my passport. As a test we did the same thing on all domestic flights. As it turned out I flew from Sydney to Alice Springs to Cairns to Brisbane without showing my passport to anyone.

Flying over the Australian outback, it can be seen why it’s referred to as the Red Centre. The earth is very red and we could see kilometers of swirly lines, presumably from the dust storms of a few weeks before.

We arrived in the town of Alice Springs in Central Australia around noon. Like most small airports, this one does not have jet-ways. We had a nice stroll across the tarmac, down a long path through the bushes and into the terminal. The dry warmth of 40C was a welcome change.

Cute picture of my favorite girl.

Our transportation guy was waiting for us in the terminal. Baggage claim went fast and soon we we were on the road to into town.

Last Day in Sydney

2010-01-10T14:26:00.000-08:00

Our last day in Sydney was just a goof around day as we had seen all of the major sights. We decided to take a stroll and check out the bridge from street level. We walked out to the middle of the bridge, took in the view, and chatted with one of the policemen that patrol the bridge to keep an eye on jumpers and other mischief makers.

We walked back to climb the South Pylon and take in the view. As we got close, we saw a large group of thirty or forty screaming children in their Angus Young attire approaching for a field trip. We quickly hurried and managed to get well ahead of them. Fortunately, kids are slow and didn’t reach the top (200 steps) of the pylon until we were about done with our tour.

North Sydney as seen from the South Pylon:

Sydney Harbour Ferries:

In the afternoon we cruised to Darling Harbour and went to the Sydney Aquarium.

After the aquarium we walked around and found a place that had Moreton Bay Bugs; one of the “must try” food options in Australia. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the best introduction as this was a French-style restaurant complete with French waitresses and French attitude. The bugs were somewhat dry and over-cooked. Fortunately, we had much better experiences with bugs later in the trip.

In the evening we ended up at a Lowenbräu restaurant for dinner. Normally a German place would not be our first choice in Australia, but there was a street fair going on at The Rocks and so seating at any restaurant was hard to come by. To make things worse, I was feeling a bit under the weather and had popped a couple of pills that should not be mixed with alcohol. So, no beer for me at a German restaurant (double whammy).

Seating was picnic table style and by chance a German couple who had just arrived in Sydney was sitting next to us. They lamented, “We fly all the way from Germany to Sydney and end up eating at a Lowenbräu’s. It’s just not right.”

Cruise to Manly Island

2010-01-10T12:29:00.000-08:00

After the bridge climb we stopped for lunch at the Australian Hotel which had been recommended by Mick, our climbing guide. The hotel bar features over a hundred Australian beers which are actually NOT brewed by the XXXX brewery (more on that in a later blog). We sampled a few beers and ordered a couple of pizzas; one kangaroo and one saltwater crocodile.

In the afternoon we took a ferry ride to Manly Island. The ferries are much cheaper than a chartered cruise and the sights are still the same. This is the view of the ferry terminal as we were leaving.

Nice head on view of the opera house as seen from the water.

The weather turned rather dark and stormy as we headed toward more open water. Still, a nice shot of the bridge and opera house together.

The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed…

After we arrived we took a short stroll to the other side of the island. There were many tourist souvenir shops, so I was hoping to find a t-shirt that simply said “Manly”. Unfortunately none were to be found anywhere. Seems to me the locals would be playing up the Manly name in humorous ways as a marketing approach, but they don’t. In the picture below we see an ideal guide for all things manly.

Swimming at the beaches on this island may not be a good idea. Note one of many drainage pipes emptying onto the beach.

As no surprise to anyone, we managed to stumble upon a brewery on the island called the 4 Pines. The beer was average and rather pricey even for the Sydney area. However, they did have an informative diagram of the brewing process which includes the origin of that Aussie favorite, Vegemite. (We often had it for breakfast during the trip and brought home a jar as well.)

We cruised back to the mainland and attended the second show at the Opera House that evening.

Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb

2009-12-15T16:56:00.001-08:00

Every New Year’s Eve around 6 o’clock in the morning, we watch the fireworks display from the Sydney Harbor Bridge on television. After the Opera House, the bridge is the most iconic structure in the city. It too was quite exciting to see live and in person.

While researching Sydney on-line prior to the trip, I found out that folks can actually climb the bridge. How cool is that! I booked an early morning climb a couple of months before our actual trip.

After checking in at the Bridge Climb front desk, everyone in the tour group was taken to a briefing room. The first order of business was a breathalyzer test which everyone is required to take. No one wants drunks falling off the bridge as it tends to make a big mess. Everyone passed, so we all read the rules and then signed our lives away (The lawyers are heavily involved in this enterprise).

Everyone receives a jump suit and all loose items must be left in a locker. They also said the suits can get hot, so it is a good idea not to wear pants underneath. (There’s a visual for you all.) After getting suited up we met up with our guide; a rough and tough looking Aussie named Mick. Actually a really good guy and no, his last name was not Dundee. (But that would have been cool.)

After more instructions, we moved to another room to get fitted with all the necessary equipment; hats, gloves, radios, handkerchiefs, raingear, and the waist belt with the steel tether that attaches to the bridge. Every item is connected to the jump suit by a lanyard. This is to protect the cars, trains and people below from falling objects, which in turn protects the bridge climb folks from lawsuits.

Finally we do a quick practice climb on a set of ladders like the ones on the bridge to make sure we know what to do and how to follow instructions.

We connected our tethers to a steel rail which runs the entire route of the climb and will be literally attached to the bridge until we return. We headed down a small tunnel and then found ourselves out on the bridge on a support beam below the car deck. We walked along this beam for a couple hundred meters until we reached the south tower. A set of stairs took us up to just under the car deck. Next was a set of narrow twists and turns until we reached the main support column. These steel columns actually support the bridge, not the concrete towers which seem to be mainly for show.

Next was a series of several ladders until we reached the edge of the arch. Things were fairly easy from this point on as we simply hiked up the eastern side of the arch until we reached the top, some 440 feet above the water. The weather started to get a little cold and blustery at this point. At the top Mick took group and individual photographs.

After reaching the top we crossed over on a beam under the Australian and New South Wales flags and then proceeded down the western side of the arch and followed a similar reverse path back to the start.

Once again, booking the first tour of the day was a good idea, as the climb seemed to be at a rather leisurely pace. By the time we got back, they were pushing groups through like crazy. Up to 500 people a day can do the climb. During our four days in Sydney, we could look at the bridge anytime of day, and see climbers.

This is THE must do event in Sydney!

Bondi Beach

2009-12-12T12:38:00.001-08:00

We still had a few hours left on the 24 hour hop-on hop-off bus tour, so we decided to take a ride out to Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach and see what it’s all about.

We walked around the area near the Botanical Gardens trying to find the proper bus stop. As we were standing on a corner deciphering the map, the bus pulled up right in front of us. It wasn’t a regular bus stop. The driver said we looked lost and he had spotted the red map in our hands, so he pulled over and picked us up. (As our vacation progressed, we found the Aussies to be quite helpful in assisting lost tourists.)

We rode the bus to the main transfer station and switched buses for the ride to Bondi. A fellow who looked like Santa Claus gave us a tip on how to get back quickly to the hotel from Bondi. Just take the 355 bus. It was fairly direct and saved a lot of time by avoiding bus transfers.

Bondi Beach is world renowned and appears to be rather popular on a hot summer day.

On a cool spring day in early November, it appears more like this.

Annette walking into the Tasman Sea (Surf’s up!).

We walked around the beach for awhile, took each others picture and had a late lunch at Nicks, the round glass building behind Annette to the right.

After lunch we shopped a bit and then caught the bus back to the hotel in time to change and walk over to the opera house for the first show mentioned in a previous post.

Sydney Botanical Gardens

2009-12-09T16:05:00.001-08:00

By the end of the opera house tour, the last of the heat wave was gone and the weather had returned to a cool, rainy, dreary pattern (much like Seattle in the spring). We took a stroll through the botanical gardens located behind the opera house.

Looking back toward the harbor, this view captures the opera house, bridge, and one of the many commuter ferries.

Many giant fig trees inhabit the grounds. It wasn’t until we got home that we noticed an alien peeking out from the right side of the tree.

According to various botany text books and arborist guides, this here is a big ass tree.

We had seen the following from the bus the day before and thought it might be a cemetery. In a way it was. Each block was salvaged from an old building that was torn down and captures a bit of the style of that building. A plaque on each block named the building and the year it was built. Rather cool idea.

OK, enough gardening, let’s find the bus to Bondi…

Sydney Opera House

2009-12-07T17:14:00.000-08:00

Following some excellent advice, we went to the Sydney Opera House early Wednesday morning and signed up for the first tour of the day. Our little group had a total of only nine people. Near the end of our tour we saw groups with thirty or more people passing by.

The Sydney Opera House is arguably the most iconic building on the planet. Seeing it live and in person for the first time gave me chills.

The tour was quite interesting and naturally covered much of the history of the opera house. Many designs were received from around the world and the present design from a Danish architect was originally rejected. We saw several examples of the other designs and nearly all were standard boring box buildings. An American architect on the selection committee arrived late and insisted on seeing the reject pile. As he looked through the rejects, he pulled out the now familiar design and said, “This is it!” Good thing too. Today it’s hard to imagine Sydney Harbour without the familiar sails of the opera house.

Interesting tidbits: If all the sails were assembled together, the pieces would form a sphere. There are a little over one million tiles on the sails. The tiles actually have a yellow tinge. If pure white was used, the glare would be blinding to planes flying by. However, it does look and photograph as white from a distance.

Our guide told us that the restrooms are so unique, visitors actually photograph them. (She was right.) The stalls are curved like waves and are back lit from behind the toilet.

The toilet paper rolls are tastefully backlit as well.

Upon first glance I thought the sinks were missing. In this angle the shadowing shows that the sinks are merely indentations in the counter top and the water rolls off the back.

We decided we had to see a show (how often does one get this chance?). We had a choice of two, The Taming of the Shrew and God of Carnage. The ladies behind us had seen God of Carnage in New York and said it was a very good play and a Tony award winner. We debated back and forth about which one to see. Eventually the answer became obvious. We have time, we'll see them both.

The Taming of the Shrew had an all female cast which even played the male roles. During scene changes, one of the characters would go to a karaoke machine at the back of the stage and sing while the set was changed. The entire dialog was the original Shakespeare, which is rather hard for us rubes to follow anyway, and so the show got a bit long and tiresome.

God of Carnage on the other hand was great. The entire play takes place in a living room where a white collar couple has come to meet a blue collar couple. The premise is that their two kids had a school ground fight, one was hurt, and the parents are getting together to discuss things in a civilized manner. As the evening wears on, the situation slowly deteriorates, tempers flare and fights break out; but all done quite humorously.

This is blog post number 200. Woo hoo.

Melbourne Cup

2009-12-04T13:03:00.001-08:00

Upon hitting the streets of Sydney, I commented to Annette that the temperature must be pushing the high 90’s. (We just arrived and hadn’t fully switched to Celsius mode yet). Even to the surprise of the locals, Sydney was having a major one day heat wave with temperatures above 36C (97F).

Our first order of business was to find food and beverages. It may have been Tuesday morning, but our internal clocks were telling us it was late Monday afternoon. As it turned out, the Aussies were already pouring down the suds in celebration of the Melbourne Cup.

Until this point in our lives we had never heard of the Melbourne Cup. It’s a horse race similar to the Kentucky Derby, except it seems to engulf the entire nation. People take the day off and every restaurant was booked for celebratory lunches with expensive set menus.

The locals like to dress up for Melbourne Cup day, especially the women. Approximately every other girl was wearing a prom dress and an elaborate hat. Annette tells me a lot of the guys had nice suits on as well. Was a good day for people watching.

This link has a pretty good example of Melbourne Cup Fashion.

With all the private events going on in the area, finding lunch took some time. Eventually we found a Turkish kabob stand with outdoor seating along the sidewalk. The food and beer were fair, but it was nice to finally sit down and relax for a moment. We saw this fellow sitting at an adjacent table.

The hotel took their time getting the room ready. We checked back a couple of times and finally got our room around three in the afternoon. I switched on the television and happened to catch the start of the Melbourne Cup race. Good timing! We were able to see what the locals were all hyped up about. It was a good race with a come from behind win by a horse named Shocking.

Refreshed, we left the hotel and did the Hop-On Hop-Off tour that most major world cities have. Taking the full loop is a good way to get orientated to an area, and then get off and on as desired. As we suspected, Sydney is pretty much just another big city with business, residential and industrial areas. The Rocks (old Sydney) was the place to be!

Australia Vacation

2009-12-02T17:12:00.000-08:00

After 10 years of talking about an Aussie holiday, we finally did it! Following a relatively short 2-hour hop from Seattle to Los Angeles on a Sunday evening, we boarded the Qantas A380 (big a-- plane) for the 15-hour flight to Sydney.

The plane had a camera mounted on the top of the tail which was fed to the in-flight entertainment system and available for passengers to watch on the individual seat-back displays. Below is the view at dawn as we approached the Australian coast line.

Due to the International Date Line, we lost Monday and arrived in Sydney on Tuesday morning. When going through customs and immigration, we tend to declare everything even if it seems minor. Failure to declare is a more serious matter than simply having unallowed items confiscated.

Based on domestic flight experiences, we had taken a bag of candy bars and a bag of nuts to survive on during the flight. As it turned out Qantas kept us well fed (and also had free beer). Australian Customs was OK with the candy, but not the nuts. Surprisingly, the customs man was actually quite friendly. He could tell the nuts were processed rather than raw, but did say it’s best to keep them in the original containers. (We didn’t want to pack the one gallon container from Costco in our carry-on.) Anyway, I was allowed to pass through customs with my nuts.

Soil is another concern and the customs form had a reference to soil on shoes. The customs man looked at my hiking boots and said I had done a good job of brushing them off. Annette’s boots had some dirt between the treads, which he scraped clean with his own pocket knife and then sent us on our way.

Our hotel was the Harbour Rocks, located in the “The Rocks” district (old Sydney) and an easy walk to the opera house and the bridge. A hot shower and a change of clothes would have been nice. However, we had arrived early, well before check out time, so it was going to be a wait before our room was ready.

We left the bags with the front desk and hit the streets of Sydney.

The Putrid of Durian Grey

2009-09-12T15:02:00.000-07:00

Annette was recently shopping at the Great Wall Mall located a few miles south of us. The mall contains many shops selling everything Asian; from Japanese porno videos to whole deep fried ducks. At one of the shops she spotted the infamous Durian fruit. Another customer at the shop, who was originally from Thailand, told her that these were of exceptional quality and not the usual old frozen variety. We are willing to try almost anything when it comes to culinary adventures, so Annette picked up this fine specimen.

For those unfamiliar with the durian fruit, there are countless informational sites and videos of people’s reaction to them. To put it simply; they stink! My best description would be rotted cheese. We originally left it downstairs in the cool garage. After a while we determined that inside the house was not a good place for durians and moved it outside on the back deck.

The next day we took the durian down to the lower patio with newspapers and a large knife. Several flies soon joined us. After reading the stories and watching the videos, we were rather apprehensive about how bad it was going to be, once it was cut open. I bravely took the knife and sliced the durian in half.

Much to our surprise, the inside didn’t smell like much of anything. Either we really did get a very good one or the folks in the online videos are really over-acting. The insides consist of several large seeds surrounded by yellow matter custard. This is the portion that is edible.

It took several takes to get a picture that we liked. I ended up eating about a dozen bites, which was plenty. Annette had just a few bites. I would describe the taste as that of fermented bananas, almost liqueur-like. Anyway, a little durian does go a long way.

Bon Appetit!

ACDC – Back In Canada

2009-09-07T11:54:00.000-07:00

And finally in the aging rocker series…

Last weekend we went to the ACDC concert in Vancouver BC. The Tacoma Dome is actually much closer, but we don’t care for the venue and it’s in Tacoma. We decided to make a long week end of it and drove up the day before the show.

The border guards in both directions seemed amused when we answered the questions about the purpose of our trip to Canada. We may be middle aged folks in a minivan, but hey, we are in the same age group as the band.

Our hotel was conveniently located right next door to BC Place, which is the home of the BC Lions football team and will be the site of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2010 Olympics. Here’s the view from the room. The ACDC souvenir stand was doing a booming business all afternoon.

ACDC tickets sell out very fast. We were on line at the Ticketmaster Canada site when they went on sale a few months ago. It took forever to get through, so we decided to just take the first seats we could get and ended up in one of the nose bleed sections.

THE GOOD: As one would expect after three decades, ACDC is pretty tight band. The production, timing and choreography of the show were near perfect. The set list had a good mix of old and new. Almost every other song was a classic that the crowd really wanted to hear. The rhythm section of the band (drummer Phil Rudd, guitarist Malcolm Young, and bassist Cliff Williams) tended to business, while singer Brian Johnson and lead guitarist/school boy attired Angus Young primarily performed the show. Even though the 54 year old Angus looks like a prize fighter who’s been hit in the head one too many times, he has an amazing amount of energy and is no-doubt the star of the show.

One nice aspect of the stage setup was the use of Jumbotrons. The show incorporated cartoons and shots of the audience (girls only) on the big screens. Primarily they were used to show close-ups of the band, so folks in the cheap seats could actually see something. Of particular interest were the many close-ups of Angus Young’s hands on the guitar. I was totally amazed watching him play.

THE BAD: Like most stadiums, the acoustics in BC Place are terrible. After a while my ears had numbed up a bit and I could name the song by the opening bars rather than waiting for the words. After the show everyone sounded like they were sucking on helium. This seemed a bit odd as I would expect to loose the highs rather than the lows. After a couple hours, my hearing was back to normal.

THE UGLY: As it turned out, our cheap nose bleed seats were located in the drunken hoser section. We were somewhat surprised that they sell alcohol at events such as this (but gladly participated). In addition, the drinking age is 19 and Mike’s Hard is made with real vodka. This made for a very unruly crowd of drink spillers, boob flashers, and morons that think they can dance. I’ve been to many hard rock and metal concerts, so all of this was really nothing new for me. I tend to tune most of it out and pay attention to the show.

(Tip: A cold stare and a heavy shot to the ribs will make flailing dance man move away.)

The Princess has been to countless shows, but this was her first real heavy rock concert and found the antics to be quite an eye-opener. People were actually smoking and lighting up doobies (Is that what you kids call it these days?) in a non-smoking venue.

Annette was in a beer line and casually asked a security man about all the smoking. He shrugged and said, “We’re just happy no one’s been killed yet.”

A bit of the firework finale:

Rock On, Eh!

Pictures and videos courtesy of The Princess.

Hey! Hey! I’m a Monkee!

2009-08-21T15:37:00.000-07:00

Continuing our series on aging rock stars…

Last night it was back to the Snoqualmie to see Micky Dolenz. We had a great view from dead center in row three.

For a 64 year old dude, he has a lot of energy and belted out the first four songs without a pause. He knew what his audience wanted and performed mostly Monkee songs, which was great. None of this “I’ve moved on and don’t do old material anymore” attitude. He seems genuinely happy and content with the whole Monkee nostalgia thing.

He talked about previous bands and then launched into his audition song for the Monkees television show. With guitar in hand, he did a screaming version of Johnnie B. Goode. Interestingly after he got the role, the producers then decided to make him the drummer.

The story of Jimi Hendrix as opening act for the Monkees first concert is fairly well known. Micky demonstrated how the show sounded that day with the audience of 12 year olds and their parents. He belted out the first verse of Purple Haze and then broke into a high pitched chant: … ‘scuse me while I kiss the sky, We want Davy, We want Micky, etc. After the laugher died down, the band restarted and performed the entire song.

Micky talked about meeting the Beatles for the first time at the Abbey Road Studios. He said John Lennon always referred to him as “Monkey Man”. Micky asked him what they were working on. A four-track recorder was switched on and out came “Oh Darling”. After this reminiscence, Micky and the band performed an excellent cover of the song.

After the show, Micky came out, sat down, and signed autographs. With the large crowd, it was pretty much a production line process. He rapidly signed anything that was placed in front of him. We got a signed picture and signed CD.

Micky was pretty quiet (his voice was probably shot by this time), but we chatted with his sister Coco for a bit. She sings backup in the band and has a pretty good voice of her own. When Micky took a couple breaks during the show, she performed Linda Ronstadt’s Different Drum (written by Mike Nesmith) and did a good cover of Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit. (It is hard to hit the word “remember” near the end of the song.)

As we were leaving, The Princess happily exclaimed, “Now I’ve seen a Beatle and a Monkee!”

Frampton Comes Alive

2009-08-09T15:18:00.000-07:00

Peter Frampton came alive recently at our new favorite venue, the Snoqualmie Casino, just down the road on the 90. The place holds around 900 folks and has excellent acoustics. We had a pretty decent view in row five.

Peter’s now 59 years old and looks his age, as did most of his audience. He is good humored about it and occasionally “adjusted his teeth” during the show. I’m fairly sure it was just for laughs. A fellow in the front row said something to him which was inaudible to the rest of the audience. To which Peter replied with a very proper British accent, “Yes, I do rock. That is why I am here. Thank you, sir.”

The show opened with “Off The Hook” from the Fingerprints album and then “Signed Sealed Delivered”, followed by “Lines”. Peter prefaced the fourth song with a warning, “Please stick with us on this next song, we only just rehearsed it on the tour bus on the way here.” Of course, the band immediately launches into “Show Me The Way”

He used his famous talk-box occasionally throughout the show. (Talk-box: Small horn in enclosed box which pushes the sound through an air tube close to the microphone. Mouth is then used to modulate the sound and is picked up by the microphone). When using the talk-box he seems to be totally amused by it and trying hard to keep a straight face.

The band then left for a bit while Peter performed a solo acoustic set. While I generally prefer the hard stuff, the acoustic set was amazing. Our favorite was “Penny For Your Thoughts”. Below is a video from a couple years ago, which looks much like the show we saw; same threads and the three Marshall cabs across the front. The audio of the clip doesn’t do it justice, as the live sound was absolutely phenomenal.

This was followed by a very interesting cover, “Black Hole Sun” by those Seattle grungers, Soundgarden. He did some serious shredding during this mostly instrumental song. There was some minor use of the talk-box. However many times during the song, it sounded like the guitar was actually singing the lyrics and he was standing nowhere near the microphone.

He performed a couple songs from a CD presently in the works, and asked the audience if he should keep the songs on the CD. The crowd gave him a resounding “Yes!”

The band was very tight and composed of musicians who are well accomplished in their own right. John Regan is the bass player who has been with Peter for 30 years. He is a typical bass player who stands calmly at the side of the stage and does his job. However, a couple times when the band was really rocking, he actually moved a bit. Adam Lester was the backup guitar player, Rob Arthur played keyboards and guitar, and Dan Wojciechowski on drums completed the line up.

At then end of the set they came back for an encore with the old Humble Pie track, “I Don’t Need No Doctor” and finishing up with George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. Another fantastic cover, which would have been more aptly titled, “While My Guitar Intensely Shreds”.

For a souvenir I picked up an autographed copy of his Live in Detroit DVD. He’s around 50 years old on the cover.

For some reason, Annette says she prefers the inside photo.

Outstanding show and highly recommended to all!

Crabs on the Captain's Dinghy

2009-07-06T18:49:00.001-07:00

If shrimp come in on shrimp boats,
And fish come in on fish boats,
What do crabs come in on?

Why, the Captain’s Dinghy of course!

Crab season opened last week and the crew of the Leaks-A-Lot were back at the Illahee fishing grounds. While transporting the boat, Captain Lyle had to take evasive action to avoid an idiot driver who wanted to see if two objects can indeed occupy the same space at the same time. The resulting swerving and braking caused a tie-down to snap and the boat went flying off on the side of the road. A Navy man happen to pass by and helped load the boat back onto the truck. The boat was banged up a fair amount, but was still useable. (Gum works well to fill popped rivet holes.)

We camped out for five days and acquired a total of 80 crabs for the trip.

Illahee has several seafood options and I located a good source for mussels. By reaching under the dock and through the band of tube worms; I could find large mussels by feeling around. The mussels, sautéed in garlic oil, provided an excellent appetizer for the crab and flounder dinners around the campfire.

By the fourth day we were starting to burn out. (This was definitely a working vacation.) So while the kids went for a drive to check out other crabbing areas to the north, Annette and I explored the local area on foot. There are several steep trails that go up and down to the beach from the camping area, so we got a pretty good work out.(As if three days of pulling pots wasn't enough.)

Below is a picture of the area about halfway between low and high tide. The oyster beds are at the water's edge. The outer breakwater on the far left is where we run our crabbing operation.

And finally...

We happened to come across these fellows proudly displaying their geoducks.

I know what you're thinking, so make up your own jokes.

Season Catch Record as of 15 August 2009:
Crabs: 123
Oysters: 225

Das Boot

2009-06-22T17:54:00.000-07:00

With the beginning of crab season approaching, we took a day trip to get reacquainted with the Illahee fishing grounds (still located 1492 miles southeast of Dutch Harbor). Crabbing doesn’t open for several days, but fishing and shellfish seasons are underway. Unlike fish and crabs, oysters are pretty easy to catch. Each of us quickly caught a limit and carried them to a picnic table which had fresh water nearby to rinse off the muck. After shucking for about an hour, we were done. The oysters were packed in an ice chest and the shells returned to the beach to serve as a base for new oysters.

We fished for a few hours, but not much luck. Flounders are the main goal, but it seemed only sharks and sculpins wanted to play. Just before we packed up, I finally landed a good sized flounder. I know I promised no more dead fish pictures, but this one was a nice specimen (also a nice dinner along with fried oysters).

While heading back toward Seattle, the ferry suddenly cut its engines and began blasting its horn. A doofus in a small boat had decided to cut right in front of the ferry. In a gesture of kindness, the ferry captain opted not to crush the bozo and send him to the bottom. We paused for a moment until the little boat was out of the way.

As the ferry got underway and rounded a narrow passage into the main Puget Sound, our fellow passengers suddenly got very excited. They began pointing and moving toward the port side of the boat. There had to be something good to see, so we joined the crowd with blackberry cameras at the ready. Here’s the cause of the commotion:

Cool!

Baby Got Boot

2009-06-15T19:05:00.001-07:00

Annette had a bit of bad luck during a recent fishing trip, and is now sporting this fashionable boot.

Things are healing up fine and she should be able to give the boot the boot in a few weeks.

In the “Where did the time go?” category, we recently celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. We originally met about 24 years ago at a wedding reception. My younger brother had married her older sister and they had their reception (pool party) at her parent’s house. I happened to walk out of the house as Annette was saying to her misbehaving son (aka Alan Jr.) in a loud voice, “Alan, get out of the house, now!” My brother and his friend were standing on the porch. They looked at me and said, “What the hell did you do?”

We celebrated with dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant and our favorite dish of seafood cannelloni. It’s primarily crab and shrimp, and the ratios appear to vary depending on what the chef has available at the time. On a good day it’s mostly crab. The latest offering was about 50-50.

We later saw Mr. Warmth himself, Don Rickles, at the Snoqualmie Casino located about 15 miles east on the 90. It would have been fun to get front row seats, but those were long gone and we ended up toward the back. Fortunately, the venue only holds about 900 people, so everyone gets a pretty good view.

At age 83, Rickles still puts on a good show. As one would expect, Political Correctness is not a concern. He swears a bit, but does insult everyone equally. Don was accompanied by an excellent 20 piece orchestra. Much of his routine involved picking on the band leader. Being an older gentlemen, he reminisced about his life and career, which was quite interesting. He can still carry a tune and performed a few song and dance numbers. The dancing tended to be more of a shuffle back and forth across the stage, but pretty good for a fellow his age. He does an excellent Jimmy Cagney impersonation of Yankee Doodle Dandy, and also a pretty good Dean Martin. Overall, a good show.

Waltzing Matilda

2009-05-09T23:15:00.001-07:00

In preparation of an upcoming adventure, I’ve been researching various aspects of the locale; such as this rather well known folk song. I’ve got the chords and the melody line down and am currently working on merging them together.

Here’s a very lively and humorous version that explains some of the terms in the song.

Waltzing Matilda.

A relatively straight and normal rendition. You can watch Slim’s left hand and pick out the chords. Key of D apparently.

Waltzing Matilda.

For academic types, here's a scholarly translation of the song lyrics.

While researching the song, I learned that it is often performed at sporting events. As in the tradition of the singing of the Star Spangled Banner in the USA, most performers butcher the hell out of the song. However, I happened to come across this little gem. The audio and video are out of sync and I can’t explain the need for Spanish subtitles, but the girl’s voice is fantastic and strangely familiar.

Waltzing Matilda.

A little more Googling and now her voice is quite obvious. Stepping back to the groovy sixties… Take it Judith.

Opening Day 2009

2009-05-01T11:59:00.000-07:00

Spring arrived a month ago. The opening day of fishing season was last Saturday. So it was time to finally get out of the house and enjoy the great outdoors. We arose early, got on the 90 and made a quick run over the pass to one of our favorite fishing spots. When we arrived the temperature was around 30 degrees with a cold biting wind and a few snow flakes in the air. (Will we ever get away from snow?) Only small fingerlings were active and as we weren’t dressed for the weather, we bagged it after a few minutes.

On the way back we stopped on the top of the pass at the Summit Inn for breakfast. It was snowing lightly, but no accumulation. Although, there was plenty of snow stacked up around the buildings.

Here’s the road sign showing a nice crisp -1 (in degrees Canadian).

When we arrived back in the lowlands we went to a local lake that had been recently stocked in anticipation of opening day. The place was jam-packed as expected, but we managed to ease our way into the crowd on the dock. The original long straight dock had been torn down and rebuilt during the off season. The new dock’s designer had gotten all artsy-fartsy and created a dock with all sorts of angles. So instead of casting in the same direction, everyone is now throwing on top of each other. This made for lots of tangled lines, but no flared tempers. People accepted the fact it was going to be a madhouse and took it all in stride. Everyone got along fine; from the weekend dads with kids to the members of the Bandito motorcycle gang.

Over the weekend our little group of four managed to catch 24 trout. Two of the gang won’t eat fish so Annette and I get to enjoy the entire bounty. Fish fries and sandwiches all week! We’re going back tonight for more.

Daylight Savings Time!

2009-03-09T15:31:00.000-07:00

Yay! Daylight Savings Time has arrived. Now we have more time to enjoy outdoor activites in the evening. For example, we can take a walk and admire the tulips.

The increased daylight in the afternoon makes for a more pleasant commute.

So when's this global warming thing suppose to start?

Cutes and Ladders

2009-03-02T17:41:00.000-08:00

While painting the new home office, I stepped out for a minute and returned to find the following.

Annette and the Princess said that I must post this "cute" picture of Bob. So, there you have it.

Valentine's Day

2009-02-17T17:02:00.000-08:00

Not much activity in Blogworld this weekend. Hopefully everyone was out enjoying the Valentine's/President's Day weekend.

We jumped in the Caravan on Saturday, made the long three mile journey to beautiful downtown Bellevue and checked into the Westin Hotel across from the Bell-Square mall. We had a nice quiet corner room on the sixth floor. Not a real high view, but low enough for us to run the stairs on occasion.

The hotel package included a gift certificate for the mall which essentially knocked the price in half. After checking in we wandered around the area and stopped in at Joey’s Bar and Grill for a pint. (You knew that was coming).

After fueling up, we walked some more and eventually ended up in the mall. Annette picked up a little bit of "sportswear" and pocketed the remaining cash to cover the evening events. Of course while passing by a card store we did our usual bit of "Here's the card I would have bought you, if I was buying one."

Dinner was at McCormick and Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant. We had reservations, but decided to eat there anyway (ha ha, old joke). Actually it’s a very nice place and we were fortunate enough to get a “snug” or “cozy”. These are private booths with six foot walls and a curtain to provide privacy from the tired, poor and huddled masses. Dinner consisted of curried mussels, a dozen raw oysters on the half shell and salmon stuffed with crab and shrimp. As always, we declared we’d get healthy once again on Monday. But as they say, “Kal Ho Naa Ho”.

After dinner was more walking, coffee at Tully’s and on to The Parlor for the evening’s entertainment. The Parlor is an up-scale billiards joint on the third floor of Lincoln Place. They have dress codes and bouncers, but somehow we always manage to get in. (I think it’s the cute blonde wife.) Recently The Parlor closed off about a third of their space and created a small comedy venue. Not huge headliners, but you don’t have to be famous to be funny. They had a pretty good line up of Justin Rupple (local boy), Michelle Buteau (Last Comic Standing) and Scott Henry (One episode of King of Queens).

Sunday morning we eventually got up and strolled about town. The following picture was taken at Downtown Park. We were a little bit tired (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) but still managed a couple laps around the park.

The Westin hotel is behind the tree in this picture. We tried to enjoy the city as if being here for the first time. We decided we live in a very nice place.

Our late check out time arrived and soon it was back home to do laundry and recover boat trailer bunks.

Scientific Discovery

2009-02-14T10:11:00.000-08:00

While walking to the grocery store we found the missing link.

Lazy Hazy Days of Seattle

2009-02-08T15:11:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone. I have been slow to update the blog lately and folks are starting to wonder. Well, one person cares (Thanks Connie!). Anyway, I’m still around and I do check the blog roll on a daily basis.

The main purpose of the blog is to document life as it happens, recall interesting moments of the past and hopefully amuse a few folks along the way.

Unfortunately, not much happens this time of year from January through March. The holidays are over and Seattle has entered a seemingly endless haze of 40 degrees and light rain. No more snow blogs for this season.

Fishing and crabbing seasons are still a few months away. However, I did promise some female readers that I would ease up on the dead fish pictures. I thought everyone liked fresh food.

Home fix-up projects are the tasks at hand, but they don't provide interesting blog fodder unless I once again attempt to remove my thumb with a handsaw. Ouch!

The refrigerator conked out but was easily fixed with a new relay module.

The plastic dip tube in the hot water tank is disintegrating and leaving particles in the faucet screens. Fortunately it's just an annoyance at the moment and the tank's not likely to blow up in the near future, but we’ll pop in a new one shortly.

The Maytag dishwasher (basically crap since day one) is on its last legs. Once the new hot water tank is in we’ll replace it. No sense letting a new washer plug up with plastic bits.

We finished cleaning out the Princess's room. We packed up all of her remaining stuff and left a van load in her condo while she was out of town. She knew about it, but it would have been a lot funnier if she hadn't. (Oh Dad, you're so mean!) We’ve started refinishing the room in order to move the home office upstairs.

The employment picture looks fairly safe for now (knock on wood) and so we're still planning a vacation trip later this year. This should provide plenty of exciting stories. I know how much everyone loved the UK trip. :)

Snow Is For The Birds

2008-12-22T12:57:00.001-08:00

The morning after the big snow dump, this little guy showed up on the back deck. Unfortunately, the feeder was frozen solid, and so the poor bird had none. Being an early riser, I now bring the feeder inside every morning before dawn and nuke it in the microwave. The hummingbird visits throughout the day and seems happy with the available refreshments.

I cleaned off the patio table and placed a bowl of peanuts out for the various critters. Squirrels and crows showed up yesterday. Today, blue jays are the predominate denizens. Birds are always on edge, so it’s hard to get them to pose for a picture. At one point, three blue jays were dining together, but flew off before I could get the shot.

Since the last post on Saturday we have had five more inches of snow, followed by a half inch of freezing rain, and then topped off with another five inches of show. Annette measured twelve inches of accumulation in an undisturbed area of the side yard (snow compacts a bit due to the weight). The next snow storm is due tomorrow afternoon. This is getting to be one of the heaviest Seattle winters in recent memory.

Dashing Through The Snow

2008-12-20T11:43:00.000-08:00

This post is dedicated to Michelle, who is apparently sweltering in the heat and humidity down under.

Our little neck of the woods had been spared the recent snow event and the weather forecast called for the end of snow by noon. I woke up in the morning and peeked outside. The street was still black with just a few little wisps of snow. Looks good! When I arrived at work, it was snowing a little bit with about an inch on the ground.

Around ten o’clock I looked outside and saw the snow was coming down hard with a five inch accumulation on the ground. Most of the workforce hadn’t shown up and so things were very slow. The snow soon stopped and I noticed a few patches of blue sky. Since I couldn’t get much work done without the crew, it sounded like a good time to head back home.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, driving in the snow is not a big deal. The only concern is the blockers (e.g. native Seattleites and California transplants). My company is located in a valley and the main roads out were closed due to snow, ice and the aforementioned blockers.

I drove through the side streets and eventually found my way out of the valley. A quick loop through town and I was back on the main road. One lane was filled with stuck buses, spinouts, blockers and assorted cops; but I made it through the gauntlet. From this main road, I have a choice of three north-south streets on which to travel home. I took the first one, but after a few hundred yards, traffic came to a halt. Cars were stopped in the middle of the street and people walking around. Fortunately there was a break in the median. I flipped a uey and went to the next north-south street.

A few hundred yards down this street, a blocker in a van suddenly pulled out in front of me. The van was averaging about three miles an hour. The driver kept opening his door and looking backward to see if his chains were working. Hey! Watch the road, dude! With a break in the traffic, I was finally able to pass this clown.

Soon the weather had turned to white-out conditions with silver dollar sized snow flakes. Fortunately I knew the road very well. After another five miles, I was home. Yay!

Walking up the steps to the porch

Looking back at the driveway.

A view up our street. Needless to say, the garbage men did not pick this day.

A rather picturesque shot of the old homestead.

Christmas down under is starting to sound really good. Just need to find a Strine phrase book.

That Four Letter Word Again

2008-12-14T16:12:00.000-08:00

On Friday the local newscasters uttered that four letter word that drives the Seattleites insane.

SNOW!

As the first potential snow event of the season approaches, Let the hype begin!

Suspend the airing of all state, national and world news!

Expand the local newscast time slots!

Send reporters to the highest hills in search of the first snowflake!

In the meantime, while waiting for the first snowflake to arrive, broadcast those time honored stories:

Provide driving tips from State Trooper Bob. (Always steer into the skid, dammit!)

Interview shoppers at Costco as the panicked mobs stock up on supplies.

Show the lines at Les Schwab as people wait to receive their magic tire chains.

Marvel at the line of dump trucks filled with sand and fitted with plows.

Well, the snow did finally arrive and as usual did not live up to the hype. It was not picture worthy, and looked the same as this shot taken earlier in the spring, minus the flowers. This morning’s news showed the usual yokels in a ditch and the reporters were up on the high hills showing us the snow in the streets that is making driving treacherous. (Treacherous is the only description allowed to be used.)

The crosswalks and lines in the road could still be seen under what snow there was as the reporter warned us about the serious conditions. As I watched the local reporter ramble on about the Seattle snow, I noticed the crawl along the bottom of the television screen: The North Dakota Department of Transportation has advised NO TRAVEL in North Dakota today due to blizzard conditions.

Guess it's all relative.

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow.

Christmas Spirit

2008-12-03T16:31:00.001-08:00

Now that the holidays are upon us, I am in a Christmas mood. To help everyone get in the spirit as well, I'd like to share my favorite Christmas carol. Enjoy...

WHAT? You were expecting the Mormon Tabernacle Choir?

The wall of "mini" Marshall stacks is very cool.

The Princess Has Left the Building

2008-11-26T15:48:00.001-08:00

Anyone that still reads this blog may have noticed that the profile has been slightly updated. The Princess has left the building. She recently closed on a nice three bedroom condo about 20 minutes away from our house.

We’ve been helping her move the past few weekends. So far it’s taken about six van loads. It’s amazing how much stuff one bedroom can hold. There is still some debris to sort through in her room; plus boxes of Books, Barbies and Beanie Babies in the garage.

Naturally we have plans, now that we are acquiring another room. Annette is thrilled about having another closet. Me too, since I am down to about two feet of rack space in ours.

After the room is stripped, painted and floored, it will become the home office. All of the downstairs office type items will be moved upstairs. Once the downstairs room is cleared out, it will become a more or less dedicated music room. The guitar stuff is already there and I can leave the Fender Rhodes and Moog (remember those from the groovy 60’s?) set up all the time. With the extra room available, Annette will finally acquire her long awaited drum set. I’ve been wanting one for a long time as well.

Having the last child move out has been a rather emotional time; especially for the girls. The Princess actually stayed most nights at our house for the first two weeks after she got her own place. We assumed it was hard for her to leave home for the first time and she would miss us. Interestingly, now that she has cable and free HBO, it hasn’t been a problem.

We love her and are very proud of her.

A Slow Walk

2008-10-27T17:33:00.000-07:00

On the way home from the grocery store, we met a man walking his pet.

Needless to say, he wasn't in a hurry.

Wasilla

2008-10-10T12:37:00.000-07:00

While cleaning up a stack of papers on my desk I came across an old copy of the Alaska Moose Federation newspaper. Originally I hadn’t taken notice of this particular item, but considering the events of past few weeks, I find it rather amusing.

However, given the nature of the event, I am extremely disappointed with the menu.

Ants

2008-09-21T15:23:00.000-07:00

Earlier this summer, while sitting on the back deck, I noticed a couple of large ants taking a stroll along the railing. Thinking they might be carpenter ants; a swift squishing was called for. As time went on, occasional ants were seen and generally met the same fate as their brethren.

I did a bit of Googling and soon acquired enough knowledge of carpenter ants in order to be a threat to them. The primary tactic is not to kill them immediately, but to watch them closely. Carpenter ants have defined trails. The first line of defense is to follow them around, and with a bit of luck they will lead you to the colony.

Soon they led me to a rotted area on the outer edge of the deck. The rot was very subtle as the paint and caulking on top looked fine. I poked around a bit and pulled back a small piece of wood. I immediately observed a few ants moving eggs around. This was likely a small satellite nest and not the main colony. I collected a few ants and had a look at them under one of the high powered microscopes at work used for circuit board inspection. No doubt they were carpenter ants!

I had observed a few ants on the outside of the house and followed them over the course of a couple weeks. They would start near the deck, go under a window, make a diagonal line to the top of the next window and then go around the side of the house about three boards down from the eaves. My main fear was that they were in the attic, but it turned out not to be the case. As they rounded the corner near the top of the house, they ran downward across the entire side, along the top of an attached fence, and then down the other side of the fence into the neighbor’s yard, where I always lost sight of them. (The neighbor’s moss-covered roof is in really bad shape. The water damage to the soffits is obvious, so I suspect they are hosting the primary colony).

Now it was time to call in the offensive line. I searched for and read on-line reviews for local exterminators. I called the first “highly rated” and “friendly” place. A woman with an attitude answered. The conversation went something like this:

Me: I think I have a carpenter ant problem.

Her: OK, treatment is $350 and involves drilling holes in the house to apply chemicals. When would you like to schedule?

Me: Do you give free estimates?

Her: We don’t do estimates. It’s a straight $350 treatment.

Me: Don’t you want to come out and assess the situation to make sure it really is a carpenter ant problem?

Her: No. We just provide treatments. If you want to, you can capture a few ants and bring them down to the office for identification.

Me: OK, I’ll get back to you. Bye.

That was the goofiest thing I had ever heard of. Bring the pests to the exterminator rather than the exterminator to the pests!!!

The second place I called was totally reasonable. Free estimates and they could apply treatment immediately if I chose to go with them. The fellow from Willard’s (cute name if you remember the rat movies from decades ago) came out the next day and sprayed down the nest and all the trails I had identified. He also applied a “barrier” spray around the entire house.

I repaired the deck and now three months later, still no sign of ants!

Crab Season Ends

2008-08-29T16:13:00.001-07:00

The Puget Sound summer crab season is coming to a close, so we made one last trip to the Illahee fishing grounds. Our crew of four was successful as all hands limited out in about six hours. The final tally for the season was 149 crabs (144 Red Rocks and 5 Dungeness). We’ve been eating a lot of crab lately as well as sharing with family and friends. There are about thirty crabs remaining in the freezer, which should last us a couple months.

Below is Bob, our killer bobcat. He loves to hunt and eat the large aggressive house spiders that we have around here. These two-inch spiders will rear up in a crab-like stance if you poke at them. Bob appears to be thinking, “Man, this is one large-ass spider!”

We generally carry an assortment of equipment for whatever seafood acquiring opportunities may arise. A school of squids happened to swim by the dock while we were crabbing. Having squid jigs at hand, we managed to pick up a few. Squids are very entertaining to catch. Each time one clears the water, the resulting ink blast creates a two foot diameter black cloud.

Calamari is a pretty common restaurant item, but these fresh caught fellows were way above comparison. Thick, tender, juicy and very tasty! Seattle has plenty of seafood outlets, but nothing is better than seafood obtained directly from the source.

August 31, 2008 Update: We had planned to stay home all weekend, but were a bit restless by Sunday and so decided to go squiding for a while (caught four plus an unexpected flounder). We took a couple crab pots along just for fun and picked up three more for a "final" tally of 152 crabs.

Ringo Starr

2008-07-20T17:59:00.000-07:00

After being a fan for some forty plus years, I have finally seen a Beatle live and in person. Annette, The Princess and I attended the Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band concert at the Chateau Ste. Michelle winery on Saturday.

This was our first time at the venue and it was quite nice. The concert was held outdoors and the weather was perfect. We arrived about three hours before show time and already the place was filling up fast. There is some reserved seating, which we had, but most of it is an open grass area where people can bring their own chairs, blankets, coolers and have a picnic while watching the show. Various food vendors are also present on the grounds. The only potent potables allowed at the show are those bought from the winery itself. They must have sold thousands of bottles that day.

Ringo was just like he appears on television; very upbeat with an easy going style. He was quite energetic for a man who just turned 68.

The members of the All Starr Band are all successful performers in their own right. Each had the opportunity to perform their songs as well as backing up Ringo.

Billy Squire. I had seen Billy once before as the opening act for the 1982 Queen tour. He was the lead guitarist for the show and was outstanding. I really enjoyed watching and listening to him play. He performed his biggest hit, The Stroke, which the entire crowd was familiar with and really enjoyed.

Edgar Winter played saxophone, keyboards, and percussion. He performed his two biggest hits of Free Ride and Frankenstein. Everyone in the audience knew these two songs of course, and really got into them. Edgar has a good-ole-boy Texas accent which just screams rock and roll. This seemed to really amuse Ringo as evidenced by the good natured kidding.

Colin Hay was the guitarist and lead singer for Men at Work and played mostly rhythm guitar for this show. He performed the two big hits of Down Under (vegemite sandwich, et al) and Who Can It Be Now. These numbers were well received by the audience.

Hamish Stuart, from Average White Band, played bass for the night except took over guitar when performing AWB material. Squier covered bass during these numbers. I was never an AWB fan and apparently neither was most of the audience, so not much excitement during these numbers; average is right.

Gary Wright played keyboards and performed Dream Weaver. That song was lame back then and still is today. Total sleeper. Zzzzzz.

Gregg Bissonette is primarily a session drummer, who according to the souvenir program, seems to have played with everyone everywhere.

As with most venues, cameras are banned and so not much to share in the way of pictures. The following is a cell phone shot of our view from row twelve. A search on You Tube will provide a lot of video clips of the show from various locations around the country for those interested.

The old Beatle songs were our favorites of course. Ringo performed I Wanna Be Your Man, Boys, Act Naturally, What Goes On and the two crowd favorites, A Little Help from My Friends and Yellow Submarine. The entire crowd really joined in on the latter two. It was really cool to actually sing Yellow Submarine along with Ringo himself. He also performed Photograph and It Don’t Come Easy from his solo days as well as Liverpool 8, his latest release. I was wearing a Liverpool FC shirt and with Annette’s encouragement and the daughter’s embarrassment, I jumped up and waved frantically. No acknowledgement was received, but at least I gave it a shot. (Yeah, for one brief moment I was that guy.)

In addition to the usual souvenir program I picked up the following item.

Ringo with Ooo Man Two.

Annette’s been saying we need some art in our home. A signed Ringo print is a very cool start.

Crab Season Continues

2008-07-19T13:33:00.000-07:00

1932 miles southeast of Dutch Harbor, the crew of the Leeks-A-Lot (sans boat) has moved to the Kayak Point fishing grounds in search of Dungeness crab.

Competition was fierce and combat fishing methods were employed, but in general, the various crews got along fine. The season has been underway for two weeks and so most legal crabs (males six and a quarter inches across the back shell) have been harvested from the area. It was a long hard day of pulling pots with many crabs just one-eighth to one-sixteenth inch short of being legal. The local authorities are of the DMV/TSA mentality and “close enough” doesn’t cut it, so we were very careful. At the end of the day we had caught four Dungeness crabs out of our allotted twenty. Small haul, but enough for a fantastic crab feed.

We caught several legal red rock crabs, but they were so small compared to the ones at Illahee, that we didn’t want them. The other crabbers were more than happy to take them off our hands. In return, many of the fishermen were giving Annette their unwanted flounders, so it worked out well for all. (Fish fry tomorrow!)

All of the Dungeness were eaten last night and so Annette made her outstanding Crab Benedict out of red rock crabs this morning. Yummers as always!

Most recreational crabbers have visions of emulating the crews on the Bering Sea and the subject of The Deadliest Catch often comes up in conversation. Many of the professional boats are home ported at Fisherman’s Terminal here in Seattle. The most popular boat is the Northwestern. Everyone around these parts appears to be two degrees of separation from Sig and Edgar. (Annette’s coworker’s boyfriend knows Edgar well enough to have borrowed his truck.)

We’ve stopped at Fisherman’s Terminal a few times, but haven’t spotted the main boats from the show. These multi-million dollar boats are expensive to run and maintain, so they’re out doing regular fishing during the months when it is not crab season.

The picture above is of the Sea Star taken from a restaurant window. This ship was featured in the original pilot series called “Alaska’s Deadliest Season”. We walked over later and talked to the crew and recognized a couple crew members from the show. Today the Sea Star is used as the “chase boat” which provides the distant shots of the other boats at sea. The Northwestern is presently in dry dock a few miles north and the Wizard is out fishing.

This will likely be the final crab post unless we locate an open fishing ground that provides for our favorite method of catching crabs; hand-to-hand combat on the crab’s home turf. For this operation, small fishing nets are tied with a knot to resemble an oversized tennis racket. We then wade through eel grass in waist deep water and flush them out. The crabs grab onto the net (or toes) and are picked up and placed in a bucket.

Happy fishing all!

After The Catch

2008-07-14T17:23:00.000-07:00

Crab season in the Puget Sound area is relatively short, so we take advantage of the opportunity while we can. By just barely making it to the ferry docks on time, as we usually do, we can travel from Bellevue to the Illahee fishing grounds in about 90 minutes. A quick trip on Saturday provided six hours of fishing time in which we obtained our daily quota of 24 red rock crabs. As an added bonus, Annette was able to catch one legal Dungeness male crab.

The weather was fantastic and a few tourists were wandering around the docks. Folks from Minnesota and Kansas were rather intrigued by out little crabbing operation. Everyone wanted to see and touch the catch. We always obliged along with a quick lesson on the various types of crabs. Below is a good example of a Red Rock versus a Dungeness (in the back).

On my last pull, I found a large shell about the size of a baseball in my pot. I wasn’t sure how it got there, since we pull the pots straight up and do not drag them on the bottom. Suddenly, the shell started to move. It turned out to be a large hermit crab which had wandered into the pot with the rest of the crabs. We’ve all see the little quarter sized guys at pet stores, but this fellow was huge in comparison. As we got ready to take a quick cell phone snap shot, he decided to come out and pose for the picture. What a guy!

After the catch, the return trip on the ferry was great. We ride the boats often, but this trip was particularly upbeat. The boat was the Walla Walla which is one of the larger boats and has the added appeal of beer on tap. Lucky for us, The Princess was the chauffer for the day.

Many tourists were taking pictures and enjoying the sunshine on the outside decks. There were few clouds in the sky and Mount Rainer could be seen to the south and Mount Baker to the north. We wandered down to the lower car deck and stood with the crowd at the front of the boat. As the boat cruised through the water, it generated a complex and repeating metallic drum beat. It reminded us of a West African style of drumming. You could just feel good karma all over the boat.

Finally we arrived home, processed the catch and had another enjoyable crab feed.

Above is the downstairs refrigerator after the main processing operation. Yum!

Not Quite the Deadliest Catch

2008-07-06T14:50:00.000-07:00

1942 miles southeast of Dutch Harbor, the S.S. Leaks-A-Lot with Captain Lyle gets underway to drop a prospect string on the northwestern banks of the Illahee fishing grounds.

The Puget Sound crabbing season opens every year on the first Wednesday of July. The Leaks-A-Lot crew, consisting of Annette, Alan, The Princess and her significant other (Captain Lyle), went on a four day camping and crabbing expedition to fill their quota of red rock crabs.

Among the baits are used for crabs are raw chicken, greasy fried chicken (crabs like Albertson’s the best), bacon, fish bodies and rolley-polley fish heads. Presently, for the 2008 season, catfish bodies appear to be the crabs' favorite.

Here we see deck hand Annette baiting the first pot with a filleted steelhead body.

After baiting, each pot is manually launched into the depths.

After launching the full string of pots, the crew gets a break while the pots soak for ten to fifteen minutes. Here we see greenhorn Alan sitting on his butt waiting for the go ahead to begin pulling pots.

The first pulling of the pots resulted in three legal sized crabs. The pots were reset and pulled several times. Unfortunately, the numbers were coming in low. Captain Lyle moved the Leaks-A-Lot forty yards northwest to drop a prospect string near an outer breakwater. The pots came up with large numbers and soon the entire string of pots and the crew were relocated.

The allotted quota for the Leaks-A-Lot was 66 crabs. The crew fell slightly short with final catch count of 57 crabs, but still an impressive haul.

New York, New York

2008-06-01T15:39:00.000-07:00

At our breakfast meeting last weekend the subject of travel came up and I recalled my often repeated story of the road trip to New York City. Much to my surprise Annette and the Princess both said they really enjoy hearing that story and that I should blog it. So here it is.

Back in the late Seventies, while the ship was in port for a few months, my buddy Ken and I decided to take a drive to New York City. Ken had just purchased a 1972 Chevrolet Vega station wagon from a fellow sailor in our division. It looked something like the following, except it was painted International Orange and didn’t come with a girl.

The car was a bit worn, to say the least, and still sported an Alabama license plate. Ah, what better way to tour the Big Apple?

We jumped in the car one Friday evening and headed north through Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. After burning two quarts of oil, it was getting very late and so we crashed at a dive motel (the clerk was behind bars) along the New Jersey Turnpike. The next morning as I started the car, smoke suddenly billowed out from the engine compartment. I popped the hood. We jumped out and managed to beat down the flames. As it turned out, the car was minus an air-filter, so when it backfired, the insulation under the hood was set on fire.

We drove on into New York City and cruised around looking for the USO which provides assistance to military personnel far from home. I managed to get us lost in Queens, but I eventually found our way back to Manhattan and the USO. They gave us discount vouchers for a hotel and various attractions. We parked next to the hotel on 46th Street and checked in. We then walked over to the Empire State Building and did the tour of the 86th and 102nd floors (nice view).

Later we hopped in the car and headed toward the Statue of Liberty. I stopped for gas at a Manhattan station and was totally shocked by the price of 77 cents a gallon! (56 cents was the going rate we were used to at the time.) We parked the car and took the ferry out to Liberty Island. The statue was totally open to the public in those days and so we climbed the 300+ steps to the crown. The crowds were light and so we had the crown to ourselves for about ten minutes. We enjoyed the view and took pictures until a school field trip arrived.

We drove back to the hotel, dumped the car and spent the rest of the stay on foot seeing the usual tourist sites. Sunday evening we headed back down the 95 toward our ultimate destination of Norfolk Virginia. Ken was feeling a bit out of it and spent most of the return trip sleeping in the back. We had stocked up on oil just outside of New York. This was a good thing since the car burned three quarts on the way back. The electrical system was giving me problems as well. While driving long the interstate, the headlights would begin to dim. I would put the car in neutral and race the engine until the headlights came back up. This procedure was repeated every fifteen minutes for the 400+ mile trip. Eventually we made it back to Norfolk. When I shut the engine off, the car was totally dead. RIP. (Later in the year, Ken did manage to actually baby the car across the country to Seattle.)

One of the highlights in New York City was seeing a show. The USO gives out free tickets to whatever show is available. We received tickets to a show called “Happy End” which was a musical comedy set in the 1920’s with gangsters and the Salvation Army. The show was a few blocks off Broadway, but was very enjoyable.

The cast was a bunch of total unknowns we had never heard of.

However, they did perform rather well.

Weekend Wandering

2008-05-27T17:08:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning we were walking to the store feeling a bit restless as we had nothing planned for the long Memorial Day weekend. The Princess called from Bremerton and suggested we all go fishing at Illahee State Park . We hurried to the store and back, threw a bunch of stuff in the van and raced down to the ferry terminal. Unfortunately time and traffic worked against us, as the boat pulled out while we were buying tickets.

We parked at the front of the line for the next ferry and with 90 minutes to kill, decided to stroll along Seattle's waterfront in the warm sunshine. No actual pubs in the area, but we soon found a place that served beer. The beer was good (Mac and Jack's African Amber) but the food (oysters and chips) was greasy and overcooked. We walked around a bit more and then it was back to the ferry docks.

We arrived at Illahee around two and fished until dusk. Several crabs and a couple small fish were caught, but none were keepers. (Sorry folks, no dead fish pictures.) While out on the dock, we used our Blackberries to Google and make hotel reservations. Being a busy weekend it took a while, but we found a hotel on Oyster Bay with rooms available (top floor view no less). We had heard over the years that the Bremerton Airport Diner had the best fish and chips, so we stopped by for a late night dinner. The deep fried cod was very tasty!

The next morning, after a brief rain squall, we headed up the 101 to the town of Sequim on the Straight of Juan de Fuca. First stop was the Olympic Game Farm where people drive around and have large furry critters slobber on their car windows.

For you folks in the UK; an actual zebra crossing.

This fellow here was a total ham who would smile, wave and pose. Obviously a trained bear. I know in the past some of the residents have appeared on television and in the movies.

After the farm, it was on to the Dungeness Spit which is a large 5 mile sandbar located on the Straight itself. We walked about a mile and then decided it would take the remainder of the day to reach the lighthouse and walk back, so we turned around.

Our original plan was to take the Kingston Ferry back to the Seattle side of Puget Sound, but instead we drove down the west side of Hood Canal. It's not a man-made canal, but it is a long body of water that runs parallel to the main Puget Sound and appears to be much cleaner.

Along the way we stopped at the Brinnon Shrimp Festival which consisted of a kid in a shrimp costume and a hundred booths of which only two actually sold shrimp. The rest were hawking the usual arts and crap. I find the commercial booths at these community fairs very annoying. If I want new windows for my house, I’ll get them at the regular establishment in town.

After a bite to eat we continued on down the road. Along the way we came across a small beach with several folks harvesting oysters. Fortunately, we happened to have a couple oyster shuckers with us. So we stopped, removed a dozen oysters from their homes, and tossed them in the ice chest. By law, shells have to be left on the beach to provide an anchor for future oysters.

It’s always a good omen when you can find taste treats lying along the side of the road.

We continued around the end of Hood Canal and made our way back to Bremerton. Luck was with us this time as the ferry was just starting to load as we bought tickets. We enjoyed the pleasant cruise back across Puget Sound. For any future tourists: The view of Seattle is fantastic coming in from the water!

Finally, it was a quick zip across the floating bridge and we were home. The oysters were fried outside on our deck and turned out fabulous; amazingly fresh and tasty. We should have grabbed an extra dozen.

Monday morning we went out for breakfast and had the pleasure of meeting Connie who had come to Seattle for the Folk Life Festival.

Oh yeah, that Dave guy was there too.

I Love a Parade

2008-05-06T17:39:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we crossed the mountains and attended the Apple Blossom Festival in Wenatchee. This was an annual event when we were kids, but it had been close to twenty years since we last watched the big parade.

We parked the van at my mom’s house and walked over to the parade route. The sidewalks were packed with people. Soon we were stuck behind a double-wide baby stroller and it became obvious that we were not going to move anytime in the near future.

We back-tracked a bit and ducked down an alley. We continued onward; jaywalking across one major arterial, down another alley, jay walked a second major arterial and down a third alley.

Near the end of the third alley we came upon the back door of a pub. (You knew that was coming didn’t you?) The back door was ajar and so we stepped inside to see if the place was open. Fortunately for us, it was. We mentioned the main street was crowded and asked if we could come in the back way. They said sure, and so we sneaked through the kitchen to the public area.

The place should have been packed, but it wasn’t. We found a tall table with bar stools near the front window. We camped here for about two hours and watched the grand parade while young ladies served us plenty of cold beer.

The parade appears to have been scaled back from the old days. The floats were much smaller and less elaborate. The parade followed a pattern: float, marching band, horses, advertisement (e.g. a roofer pulling a trailer with the company name on it). The sequence repeated a few dozen times; float, band, horses, ad; float, band, horses, ad, etc.

A few more folks got a clue and wandered into the pub over time. After all, cold beer, hot pizza and a comfy chair beats stale caramel corn, soda pop and a hard sidewalk any day.

World Rhythm Festival

2008-04-26T20:47:00.000-07:00

My buddy Ken and I attended the World Rhythm Festival in Seattle. While there we meet this gentleman who loaned me his fedora. I think it's a good look. I may have to pick one up.

In Sync

2008-04-14T17:03:00.000-07:00

The weather was pushing the high 70's on Saturday and so we made a quick trip across the pass to the fishing ponds I mentioned a couple of posts ago. Most of the snow had melted and access was much improved. The location consists of five interconnecting ponds. The middle pond had been freshly stocked and the trout were jumping out of the water all day long. Unfortunately these fish were only about four to five inches long and not worth the bother. I moved to an adjacent pond in hopes of finding some larger fish that had wintered over. I caught a good sized one and soon the rest of the family joined me. We made a good haul with several large trouts up to 3.5 pounds! The few large snowballs still around served well in icing down the fish for the trip home.

We had trouts out the wazoo, and after a couple of fish fries, we had plenty of leftovers. Per our standard procedure, we stripped the meat off the bones and mixed it with mayonaise. This makes a fabulous sandwich spread. I really look forward to these.

I sat down around noon for lunch, took a bite and thought, "Wow this is great, I ought to send Annette an email." Before I had a chance to type, an email came in from Annette saying, "Wow this trout sandwich is delicious."

Van Milestone

2008-04-11T12:57:00.000-07:00

It was thirty-five years ago today.

In the City by the Bay.

It may be in or out of style.

But it’s guaranteed to raise a smile

Alan Scott’s groovy hot rod van.

Single Malt Shopping Day

2008-04-02T19:40:00.000-07:00

Saturday was "Single Malt Shopping Day" which occurs randomly two or three times throughout the year.

Unlike many other states, comrades here can only shop at state run stores as the sale of potent potables is controlled exclusively by the State of Washington.

There are several stores in the area, but the largest and best stocked is located in downtown Seattle across the street from Safeco Field where the Mariners play. Rare or limited edition single malts can often be found in the back room of this store, but you have to ask for them. From our house it is a quick twenty minute drive across the floating bridge and is well worth the trip. When we arrived at the store, it really was "Single Malt Shopping Day"! Several folks were there, complete with whisky guide books in hand.

We've gotten to the point where it seems we’ve tried most everything; at least all the well known distilleries and vintages. Before we shopped, I checked the state's website to look for unique offerings. An on-line search revealed a limited bottling of a 30 year old Brora single malt. What makes this unique is that the distillery shut down in 1983. Every now and then a few casks of the old stock are bottled and made available to the public. Of the five bottles located in the State of Washington, this store had three available. We picked up bottle number 2415 of 2958.

The Brora has an interesting greenish gold color. The initial nose and taste is quite peaty. If I was doing a blind taste test I would have guessed it to be an Islay rather than a Highland malt. It was bottled at cask strength of 55.7 per cent and so it benefits from a slight water dilution to bring out the subtleties. The palate is slightly oily for a firm but light feel. The intense salty and stony finish is the unique aspect of this whisky. Imagine sucking salty stones on the western coast of Scotland. I know that's a weird description, but it really is a pleasurable taste. This was an excellent find!

Hoot Mon!

Springless in Seattle

2008-03-30T12:27:00.000-07:00

If you don’t like the weather in Seattle…

Just wait an hour.

Springtime in Seattle has been a bit odd the past few days. We woke up to snow on Saturday morning which soon melted away when the sun came out. Feeling a bit restless, we decided to take a pleasant walk to a movie theater located a couple clicks from our house. When we got out of the theater, the weather had drastically changed once again. The wind was blowing and we could see snow coming down on the hills not far away. We thought about stopping at the local Russian grocery store for cheese and beer, but decided to make a bee line for home. A few minutes after we arrived home, a heavy rain and snow mix hit the neighborhood. Good timing! Of course it’s never too cold or snowy to have a catfish fry on the back deck!

This morning we were greeted by an inch and a half of snow. Enjoy your spring!

Cat Fish Fever!

2008-03-11T17:02:00.000-07:00

After listening to a couple Ted Nugent CDs, we decided to go out and kill us some dinner. This weekend was catfish fever time at the confluence of the Snake and Palouse Rivers. Catfish are available all year long, but February and March are the best in terms of quality and quantity. Ideally, a few months of heavy snow accumulation will be followed by a warm spell. This results in a flood which washes nutrients and debris from the wheat fields down into the Palouse River. This attracts the bigger catfish in the Snake and they move up into the Palouse.

We packed up the van and drove across the state Friday afternoon to Lyon’s Ferry Marina where we keep our boat. We arrived in the evening and without much daylight left, decided it was best not to head out onto the river.

We opted to walk over to the nearby trout pond. To reach the pond, we walk through a 10 foot diameter culvert under the railroad tracks. Pacing it off, it’s about 100 yards through the dark and damp culvert. I always worry out finding rattlesnakes inside, but so far so good. We fished for a while, but the trout did not want to play.

On Saturday, Annette’s Dad joined us. We went out on the river in his boat which has a cabin and a heater. Our open boat can be a bit chilly; especially with an air temperature around 40, gusty winds and a water temperature of 36 degrees. I did fire up our boat and took it for a couple of hot laps just to make sure it was operable. After sitting for about eight months, the old 40 horse Yammer Hammer started right up. The battery didn’t even need a charge.

Sunday morning we loaded up the catch and headed back to Seattle. We stopped at the Easton Ponds located along Interstate 90 across the Cascade Mountains. During trips across the pass, we often stop and pick up a quick trout dinner or two. The place had a lot of snow, so we parked the van at the edge of the siding road and started to walk to the picnic area.

We sank up to our knees in snow, but eventually plowed through it until we reached the ponds that weren’t frozen over. The weather was pleasant. The sneakers full of snow were not. We fished for a while, but these trout did not want to play either. After a half hour we gave it up and headed on home.

Annette’s 6 pound Blue Cat was the biggest fish of the day.

This was our share of the catch. Note several five pound channel cats in the mix. Channels are more common and taste somewhat better in our opinion. The fish are very tasty this time of year. With a water temperature of around 36 degrees, they’re almost fresh frozen.

So now we’re looking forward to several days of catfish dinners and catfish lunches! We highly recommend roasted purple potato wedges as a side dish. They look like spleens when cut and have a rich potato flavor.

I Come From Alabama…

2008-03-02T07:08:00.000-08:00

I’ve come from Alabama for the eleventh time in the past five years. I have been informed that two more trips are likely this year. Other than vowel elongation, the frequent travel to Alabama has not had a lasting affect.

Given the heavy weather conditions in the north, we opted for the southern route through Dallas-Fort Worth via American Airlines for the latest trip. American flies old and slow DC-9 derivatives on all legs of the trip from Seattle.

Upon landing at DFW we proceeded to gate A21 for the connecting flight to Alabama. After ten minutes, a gate change announcement is made and everyone shuffles off to gate A14. Just as we are settling in, another change is announced for gate A19. Once again we all stand and shuffle off to the new gate and start to sit down. Ah, not so fast! One last little side step to gate A18. Apparently aircraft parking is hard to find at DFW, so the incoming pilots cruise the tarmac until a parking spot opens up.

Upon arrival in Alabama, I was expecting to enjoy the warm weather of the Sunny South. Needless to say, walking outside the next morning to 26 degrees and snow flurries was a bit of a surprise (must be global warming). These conditions remained until it was time to return to Seattle. It was clear and sunny on the final day, but still very cold. The plane backed out from the gate and stopped for a few minutes. We heard a loud whoosh and noticed the left side windows were all steamed up. After the steam cleared we could see they are de-icing the plane using a 1960’s vintage Ford truck with a large tank and a guy in a cherry picker. Once the plane had been drenched in pink slime, we took off and headed for Dallas.

We arrive 20 minutes early at Terminal C. Our departing flight is also from Terminal C. Yay! No train ride between terminals and plenty of time for lunch. Once again, not so fast. Our gate is occupied and so we wait for twenty minutes. The plane at the gate has mechanical issues, and so the pilot drives our plane around the tarmac and finds a parking spot at Terminal A. Just enough time to take a train ride back to Terminal C, buy a green banana and hop on the next plane to Seattle.

Flight time to Alabama is 5 hours 20 minutes. For reasons still unknown, it takes 6 hours and 25 minutes to fly the same route back to Seattle using the same planes. It was nice to return home to some warmer weather.

Wii Wii Mademoiselle

2008-02-10T18:21:00.000-08:00

Annette stopped at a game store a couple of weeks ago. Timing is everything and by chance she happened to pick up the last Nintendo Wii to be found in the Seattle area. Naturally accessories are needed, and soon she had acquired four controllers, two nunchuks, four bats, four tennis rackets and of course, the dance floor.

I’ve never been a video game enthusiast, although I did find “Tanks” to be extremely cool when first released in game arcades back in the days of yore. The last video game system I bought was an Atari 2600 which is somewhere in our storeroom. We had game cartridges for Asteroids, Space Invaders, Frogger, Pac-Man and probably Pong.

For someone who hasn’t played much since the Atari days, the Wii is rather impressive. There are games of all types for all folks. One cute aspect is that each person can make a character of themselves which is used in all the games. When it’s your character's turn, the characters of all the other people show up in the sidelines of the particular sporting event. My character and our son’s turned out pretty good and it’s real obvious who they are.

I haven’t delved into the technology, but infrared sensors and accelerometers are obviously used. (We use accelerometers at work, but in a slightly different application.) As the player moves, the motions are translated onto the screen.

The main reason I’ve never been a video game fan is that I pretty much suck at them. Unfortunately, this fact still holds true for the Wii. It’s a little disheartening to see my character knocked out on the floor of the boxing ring while Annette’s character is doing her victory dance.

But there is a ray of hope. My tennis game is actually fairly decent. The shooting games are my forte of course. Not quite the thrill of a real pistol, but at least it doesn’t leave holes in the wall.

Take a Hike

2008-01-25T14:59:00.001-08:00

While bouncing around the internet recently, the term “hitch hiking” happened to fly by and caused a few neurons to fire. Thinking back, I’ve only hitched a ride from perfect strangers twice in my life time. While it’s generally recommended to avoid hitch hiking, there are those moments when it works out.

One dreary October afternoon, a couple of associates and I found ourselves standing on a dock in Tunisia, a few miles from the capital city of Tunis. We walked off the dock to a large dusty area to wait for buses to take us into town. There was a huge crowd waiting. When a couple of buses finally arrived, civility disappeared as the crowd stormed the buses. We figured “nuts to this” (actually it was more like FTS). We walked about a half mile to the main highway and headed toward town. Below is the view from the main road looking back to the dock area.

After walking about a mile, the city still seemed like a long way off. Traffic was almost non-existent, but eventually a dirty beat up Toyota pickup truck was approaching. I turned, looked back and made eye-contact with the caftan attired driver, who pulled over. Though my knowledge of French and Arabic is nil, with a few hand gestures I was able to convey that we wanted a ride into town. I took the front seat while my associates jumped in the bed of the truck. We arrived in town and I gave him a couple of bucks. (Folks were always thrilled with US dollars back then.)

After all that effort, Tunis, later home to those fun loving guys of the PLO, was a disappointment. I remember a dusty city; mostly low buildings with the lone high rise, The Africa Hotel, looming above. It was a local holiday so very few establishments were open. Soon it was dark and it began to rain as well. We found a place to eat and then grabbed a cab back to the docks. I checked some on-line pictures today and Tunis appears very clean and modern. Maybe it’s changed a bit over time.

Many years later…

Annette and I were fishing on the Snake River in our 14 foot aluminum boat. We were about two miles upstream from the marina. We started to head back when our 17 year old Yammer Hammer died and would not start. Using paddles, we managed to get the boat to a small cove along the shore. Annette stayed with the boat while I headed back to the marina on foot. I climbed up the steep rocky bank to the highway (no snakes!) and started walking. It was 90 degrees, but I had a couple of water bottles. After walking a mile uphill, I’d had enough and started thinking about hitching a ride. A dusty and dented SUV happened to come along with a couple of fellows in it. I flagged them down and hopped in the back. Turns out they were part of a large group of rowdy Idahoan construction workers having a weekend event at the marina.

The fellow in the passenger seat asked me, “Is drinking allowed at the marina?”

I answered, “Allowed? Man, it’s required!”

Seahawks

2008-01-13T13:31:00.000-08:00

Finally the long slow first full week back at work for the New Year had passed. We were feeling a bit lazy on Saturday and so just planned to stay home and watch the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC divisional playoff game at Green Bay. We usually don’t pay too much attention during the regular season, but once the playoffs start, we get into it.

Being somewhat fair weather fans, we have only been to one actual Seahawk game at Quest Field in Seattle. The reason we went is that we had won free tickets in a corporate suite. The suite was under cover, held about 20 people, had a private restroom, and served plenty of good food. The windows were open, but there were overhead heaters to keep the place toasty. While dinning happily on crab cakes and the like, we could see the poor fans below us; bundled up in heavy clothes and plastic, sitting in the cold pouring rain, eating their five dollar hot dogs. How sad. Needless to say, we’ve been totally spoiled and can never go back. Unless…

Yesterday’s game started out great. Seattle had a 14-0 lead within the first five minutes! Things were looking good. We were very happy and cracked our usual “Green Bay Slacker” jokes. But alas, a few snow flurries began to appear. As the snow became heavier, the Packers got better and eventually won the game 42-20 in a virtual blizzard.

The Seahawks could not move the ball up the field, proving once again that folks from Seattle cannot drive in snow.

As 2007 Closes...

2007-12-30T14:51:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a pleasant holiday season.

We celebrated Christmas Eve Eve at our house with the children and their significant others. Christmas Eve we migrated across the Cascades to our home town in Eastern Washington and spend the evening at my brother’s house with his family, our mom and countless doggies. Christmas Day was spent with Annette’s folks and siblings. One relative (yeah, that guy) was out of town and couldn’t attend the festivities, and so a pleasant time was had by all.

Christmas night we got together with my old guitar playing buddy and his wife who we hadn’t seen since the turn of the century. We’ve been friends since kindergarten, and so it was great to catch up again. He’s a good story teller and is just getting into blogging. I gave him a link on the sidebar and am now waiting for a first post.

We returned home on the day after Christmas as Mother Nature decided to dump a couple feet of snow on the Cascades. One icy fishtail on the first pass and heavy traffic on the second pass, but we got across before the chain signs went up. Took an extra hour to get across, but at least the trip wasn’t boring.

Tomorrow we’ll be celebrating the New Year with friends we traditionally get together with each year at this time. Then everything goes back to normal on Wednesday. Glad it’s a short week.

Looking back at the year 2007, it was a particularly good one for us. The UK and Alaskan trips were the highlights. We’re thankful for our families and friends and wish everyone the best.

I’d like to wish a Happy New Year to all my blogger friends around the world. I’ve enjoyed your posts over the past year. Hope I’ve provided a chuckle or two with mine, or at least a “well, that’s interesting”.

Here’s to a great 2008!

Weird and Quirky Tag

2007-12-21T16:17:00.000-08:00

A couple months ago I received a tag from Lavs requesting that I list several quirky things about myself. I’ve noticed another tag making the rounds that requires the persons being tagged to list several weird things about themselves. I’m making the assumption that quirky and weird are pretty much the same thing. Seeing myself as completely normal and unable to come up with a list, I turned to Annette for advice. Much to my surprise, she came up with a list immediately.

Sleep: When it’s time to sleep, I simply lay down and am out in about five seconds. On the flip side, I always beat the alarm clock by five minutes. If my schedule changes and I set the alarm for a new time, it doesn’t matter. I’ll still beat it by five minutes. My alarm clock wakeup song is Mhare Hiwda Mein Naache Mor from the movie Hum Saath Saath Hain. I often let it play all the way through just because I like it. (Not too weird, is it?)

Trivia: My head is totally filled with useless trivia and I have no idea where much of it came from. I once played a game of Trivial Pursuit against a team of three, and won, six pies to one. When not running the categories on Jeopardy, I often do crossword puzzles with Annette. In the last puzzle, I somehow knew what a demi-plie was and she hasn’t let me live it down yet. (Guess I better grab my shotgun, hop in the Jeep, go kill something and then be back in time for the big game and a few beers.)

Home Safety: When it comes to home safety, particularly fire and theft, I get a tad obsessive-compulsive about it. Before we go anywhere I always give the house a once over. OK, actually a twice over. Many times we leave the house and end up circling back to see if the door was properly locked and the coffee pot was unplugged. (They always are.)

Food: I will pretty much try anything and everything. I am always on the lookout for new and tasty critters. I was very excited to find canned Musk Ox during the Alaskan trip. To me, the food on the Discovery Channel always looks good. I would love to try roasted grubs. I hear they’re nutty. If given a chance to have roasted tarantulas in the Amazon jungle, hey, I’m there!

Nipples: One extra, but rather subtle. And yes, the legend is true.

Vintage?

2007-12-21T09:34:00.000-08:00

A few years back… well OK… a couple of decades or so ago; I bought a brand new 1979 Fender American Stratocaster. The “Strat” is a nice little guitar; transparent red, light weight, comfortable contoured body and easy to play. It served me well until the LP came along.

While killing time last evening, I checked eBay and did some Google searches for 1979 American Strats just to see what they were going for and what guitar players thought of them.

To my dismay, these instruments were all described as “vintage”.

What? A guitar that I bought new is now a “vintage instrument”?

So now I am a vintage guitar player. I suppose that sentence can be read two ways.

The above picture was put together by The Princess a few years ago, probably around the end of the Seattle Grunge era (flannel anyone?). Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden…good stuff. (Sorry, Pearl Jam is way overrated).

MeMe and the Blahs

2007-12-14T12:07:00.001-08:00

My immune system is generally pretty good and so I only get sick every couple of years. Apparently two years have passed. It's just a basic cold, but it does tend to cloud my mind a bit. So without any brilliant blog ideas, I'll pick up on Dave's post who had picked up on Lisa's post.

What have I done.

Note: Things actually done are in boldface. Everything in parenthesis are comments by me.

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg (A glacier is close)
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse (Only losing horses)
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can (Morning commute)
32. Held a lamb (Only legs and racks)
33. Seen a total eclipse (Solar and lunar)
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and didn’t care who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer (No, but two floppies on a IIe)
40. Visited all 50 states (40 down 10 to go)
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk (And vice versa)
42. Had amazing friends (Good but not amazing)
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving (And leave a perfectly good airplane?)
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke (Nobody wants to hear that)
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving (Only snorkeling)
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River (Only power-boated)
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Gotten flowers for no reason (Only for reasons)
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone (Someone had to protect the Med)
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship (Only aircraft carriers)
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Passed out cold
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge (Just to the first tower)
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds (I never bet on cricket)
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, and pistol (also light machine gun)
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents (4 down 3 to go)
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language (Too geeky even for me)
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts (Does a Sinclair Kit count?)
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair (No, it changed color on it's own)
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

Note to Lavs: In case you happen to read this, I still owe you a tag response.

Seattle Driving (Part Whatever)

2007-11-26T17:18:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday it was 26 degrees and snowing with compact snow and ice on the road as I drove to Anchorage International Airport. On Thursday I found myself driving on a dusty gravel road in the Arizona desert at a toasty 95 degrees.

Despite the vast differences in climate, I found a common bond between the drivers of Alaska and those of Arizona. These people want to move and given an open road; move they will! In both states, averaging 10 miles over the limit is the norm.

The drivers in Seattle prefer to average 10 miles under the limit, even if the road in front of them is wide open.

I was driving toward downtown to meet the wife and daughter. By chance I ended up behind a girl who had Alaska plates on her car. This girl would move! The traffic light would change and she was off. Not the typical ten second response time of the Seattleites. We were basically heading the same direction and turning on the same streets as we drove through town. It was nice to be actually moving and not stuck behind a bozo.

All good things must come to an end. While maintaining a safe following distance behind the Alaskan, an Oregonian decided to cut me off. Based on past experience, if I see Oregon plates in front of me, it’s going to be a slow trip. Sure enough, we’re back to 5 miles under the limit. Hmm. They must have a secret pact with the Seattleites.

Casual License Plate Observations:

California plates like to move.
Alabama plates also like to move.
Montana plates really like to move.
Idaho plates like to move like bats out of hell.
British Columbia plates like to move, unless they’re lost, eh?
Oregon plates don’t like to move (See Tectonic plates).
Virginia plates are lucky if they can figure out how to move.

Got Moose?

2007-11-15T20:07:00.000-08:00

After the wedding we were driving to the reception when we passed several emergency vehicles stopped on the other side of the road. Several officials were milling about on the shoulder and looking toward the field. Our curiosity got the best of us, so we made a U-turn and passed by again. It was still hard to see what was happening, so one final U-turn. As we passed the area, a State Trooper truck left the scene and caught up with us at the next light. In the back of the truck we could see moose antlers stretching across the bed. With the sun low in the sky and moving traffic it was difficult to get a clear shot.

The average moose death toll on Alaskan highways is around 600-700 a year. So many in fact, that Anchorage has emergency moose response teams. That was the operation we saw along the road. A state trooper will usually arrive on the scene first. If necessary he will use his handgun to dispatch the moose and then guard it until the team arrives. The teams respond within 30 minutes to field dress it and then take it away where the meat is distributed to homeless shelters and similar charities. This is a great idea. It would be a shame to waste a good moose.

This got us to thinking, “We really need some moose!” There’s nothing like a giant road-kill to get the old salivary juices flowing.

We’ve had moose previously and knew how tasty they can be. We figured the odds of getting moose would be slim to none as game cannot be sold. Along the Seward highway we saw an Indian meat processing place that was open to the public. We stopped in and talked with the lady running the place. We asked if people ever drop off a moose and then don’t pick it up. She said that does happen, but they can’t legally sell it. However, they can offer samples. There were samples of sausage and bratwurst, but with all the spices and processing, the meat could have been almost anything. We did purchase cans of Musk Ox which turned out to be delicious.

As we were getting ready to leave, a lady came in and said that she and her husband were there to pick up their moose. They were retired school teachers and have a pottery operation down the road in Seward. (The bowls with the built in chopstick holders are pretty cool.) We chatted a bit and then wandered outside toward our vehicle. She came out soon after, and knowing how anxious we were about moose, offered to give us a moose steak. We happily accepted her generous offer and thanked her and her husband very much. What an amazing stroke of luck. We must have had really good karma that day.

As we got in the car we realized we had a slight problem. We have a frozen moose steak, but we aren’t flying out until the next morning. How do we to preserve it until we get home? The hotel has a refrigerator but no freezer. We could maybe buy ice to pack around it. Hmm, what to do?

After a few minutes, a moment of brilliance finally arrived. It may be high noon, but it’s only 31 degrees outside. Duh! Just leave it in the car overnight. We parked the car in the shade and placed the steak under the seat. Sure enough, the next morning at 26 degrees, it was still frozen solid as a rock. I wrapped a towel around it, buried it in the middle of my bag and then it was off to the airport.

We arrived in Seattle in the early evening to an unusual heatwave of 72 degrees. I opened the bag. The steak was still there and better than half frozen. I’d had visions of the TSA boys confiscating it and barbequing on the tarmac, but we lucked out.

We arrived home, opened a couple of beers and tossed the moose on the grill. It was totally yummers!

Almost everything you would want to know about moose can be found at the Alaska Moose Federation. Moose are a good idea.

Rotary Snowplow

2007-11-12T13:11:00.000-08:00

When I was a wee lad during the waning years of the Eisenhower administration, I had a favorite book called “The Little Golden Book of Trains.” It contained simple text and illustrations of many types of trains. The one picture that always stuck in my mind was the rotary snowplow.

Fast forward about fifty years. As we are cruising down the highway outside of Anchorage, I casually look to my right and there it is. As goofy as it sounds, I actually exclaimed out loud, “Look! A Rotary Snowplow!”

The little golden book from decades ago suddenly flashed through my mind as clear as day. We screeched to a halt and took a few photos. The real thing with its nine foot blade was quite impressive. Would be really cool to see one in operation.

Exit Glacier

2007-11-05T16:31:00.000-08:00

One of our goals on the Alaskan trip was to meet a glacier up close and personal. While in Seward we asked one of the locals where the nearest glacier was. The lady said to go back down the road to the edge of town and turn left at the hardware store.

We drove north a few blocks and saw a sign that read "Exit Glacier". The name of the glacier is actually "Exit". The road sign was not marking an off-ramp to a glacier.

About eight miles up the road was a lookout where we stopped and could see the glacier in the distance. We continued on until we came to the end of the road at a trailhead. We hiked up the trail about a mile and then across a relatively dry riverbed. It still had a small creek running through it which we forded successfully.

Finally, we walked around a huge rock and there was the edge of the glacier.

Annette confirmed that glaciers are indeed cold to sit on.

The Princess, our resident photographer.

Back around the shadier side.

Snow capped mountains rising in the distance behind the glacier.

Mission accomplished.

Stinkers

2007-11-02T16:06:00.000-07:00

The little fellow below is named “Stinkers”. He lives at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center near Portage, about half way down the Seward Highway. The folks at the center claim he lives up to his name, but we didn't get close enough to verify.

Stinkers is now a famous movie star, having appeared in the new film “Into The Wild”. While we were visiting the center, the local news team from KTUU Channel 2 in Anchorage was there to do a story about him.

Spoiler Alert: We saw “Into The Wild” last weekend. The movie was OK and a bit on the long side. We watched closely for Stinkers’ big scene. It actually turned out to be very short. He wanders around for about two seconds, “BAM!” and then he's dinner.

Some of his fellow residents were also in the movie. These included a moose, an eagle, and a caribou. We saw all of these critters, but don’t know which individuals were actually in the film.

A lot of tsunami-killed trees here, but the eagles seem to like them.

The racks on the caribou are huge! Caribou and reindeer in Alaska are the same animal. Those that run wild are called caribou, while farm raised ones are called reindeer. Reindeers are legal to sell and serve whereas caribous are not. Many restaurants have reindeer sausages and burgers available. They tasted very elk-like to me.

This little guy was not a movie star, but he did take a liking to Annette.

I like her too.

Seward Highway

2007-10-31T16:48:00.000-07:00

With the wedding behind us, it was now time to do a little exploring.

The girls and I hopped in our little rental SUV (Weee!) and headed south along the Seward Highway, which has a reputation for outstanding scenery.

The sheer physical size of the landscape and the beauty of the snow white mountains were awe inspiring. Pictures don’t do it justice, but here are a few shots taken along the way.

We dubbed this spot to be “Mirror Pond”.

We took a side road to see Portage Lake and the glacier that feeds into it. Being the off-season, there were no boats available for a close-up look. The glacier can be seen between the two white tipped mountain peaks. These would be good candidates for the “Sleeping Lady” moniker.

The Portage road was a bit icy and dicey, but no fresh snow. We noticed large white balls scattered along the side of the road in places. We stopped for a closer look and they turned out to be snowballs left over from the previous season’s plowing activities.

There were still remnants of the 1964 earthquake (9.2 magnitude). In the background is a half buried cabin. Not much else left of this townsite.

The resultant tsunami left dead forests in its wake, which still stand as a testament to this day.

After about 120 miles on the road we reached mile post zero and the town of Seward, which is pretty much at the end of nowhere.

Even at the end of nowhere, it’s amazing what one can find.

Anchorage

2007-10-28T19:25:00.000-07:00

We received an invitation to a wedding in Anchorage and deemed this to be an excellent opportunity for a mini-vacation, as none of us had previously been to Alaska. We caught an evening flight out of Seattle and had a relatively smooth trip north. As we began our descent into Anchorage, it began to snow quite heavily. This looked really cool under the strobe lights of the aircraft. Snow and ice began to accumulate on the wing. However, as we descended lower, the snow turned to rain and soon the wings cleared off.

About a third of the passengers on our flight were US Army troops returning home to Alaska. The Alaska Airlines flight attendants welcomed them at the beginning and ending of the flight, to which they received a round of applause from the rest of the passengers. At Anchorage International, a lot of Army personnel and families were present to greet the returning troops. There were signs, cheers and many happy reunions.

Anchorage is an interesting city. It has a population of around a quarter million, but still has a small town feel. The buildings are mostly low one and two story structures with a few high-rises scattered about.

Anchorage has shopping malls and all the modern conveniences, but still has a rowdy “last frontier” feel about it. Late at night there was a fair amount of fighting and yelling as the folks were finding their way home after the bars closed. The Rumrunner pictured above became our favorite hangout. Furs are a big item in Anchorage and there were rows of stores selling them with four and five figure price tags! Hard core PETA-philes would probably have a heart attack from the shock of walking around here.

We stayed at the Historic Anchorage Hotel located right downtown on the corner of 4th and E Street. It was built in 1916 and has a lot of charm not found in a modern hotel. History has its price of course, as we found out then the boilers went out on the second night. We had very refreshing showers the next morning. We inquired about the problem and they soon had everything working again. As compensation, they let us move to the top floor corner suite (the one in all the brochures) for no extra charge. Very nice!

Below is a sign one doesn't typically see at a hotel in the lower 48. The Iditerod starting line was one block down the street.

Anchorage is one of the world's major crossroads and claims to be only nine hours away from any city in the northern hemisphere.

All of the outdoor pictures in this post were taken at eight o'clock in the morning. Sunrise is at 9:05 AM!

Sleeping Lady

2007-10-24T15:18:00.000-07:00

Man, I'm starting to fall behind on this blog as well. Just got back from Alaska (26 degrees and snow). Tomorrow it's off to Arizona (90 degrees and no snow).

After the Oktoberfest activities, we stayed overnight at the Sleeping Lady Retreat. For years the place had been used exclusively for corporate retreats. This provided a lovely setting for management to get together and sing Kum Ba Ya in the woods, thus increasing sales and revenue.

Recently it has opened to the general public. Oktoberfest is a very busy time, but we were fortunate to get the private Eyrie cabin on top of the noll. The brochure described it as perfect for celebrities and VIPs, but they rented it to us anyway.

The view out back while lounging around.

The place has several art displays such as a series of rather flashy salmons.

Since we like to catch fishies, we found the above statue to be amusing.

Behind us is the aptly named Icicle River. Annette's getting pretty good at the one armed self portraits.

The Sleeping Lady Resort is named for the Sleeping Lady mountain which rises above. With a little imagination you can figure out why it's called Sleeping Lady.

Leavenworth

2007-10-15T18:29:00.000-07:00

Two hours away on the eastern slopes of the Cascades is the little town of Leavenworth. Many decades ago when I still lived on the warm side of the state, the town was in a severe economic decline. The folks running the town came up with the idea of a Bavarian theme. A major portion of the town underwent a total makeover. Leavenworth is now a huge tourist draw in this state and is generally packed any given weekend. Several events occur throughout the year, with the largest being the Oktoberfest spread over three weekends.

We drove over last Saturday morning and arrived at the Sleeping Lady Mountain Retreat which is located three miles outside of town on the Icicle Highway. Traffic and parking in Leavenworth on an Oktoberfest weekend is totally crazy. We left the minivan at the retreat, rented bicycles, and rode the four miles into downtown, all while dodging cars and marathon runners.

On the way into town, Annette took this picture of an old goat. (OK, that was the straight line. You comedians are on your own for the punch line).

We found a place to park the bikes and walked around a little bit. Soon we found our way into a pub (this is starting to sound like the previous blog series). We talked to the bartender and got the scoop on where to go.

We walked down to the beer hall, purchased beer and bratwursts, and found a spot right in front of the band. After the place filled up, the band came marching in and took their places. We stayed for a couple hours and had a great time.

If you ever wondered what happened to the kids in the high school band...

I had been to the Oktoberfest in Munich many years ago and this brought back a lot of memories. It's a much smaller scale of course, but I recognized the songs and the toasts. In Munich, when I was much younger, we were averaging four liters a night for a week. I went much lighter on the beer this time around as we had a four mile bike ride on the highway coming up.

Leavenworth has a fair amount of international tourists. This family from Japan asked us to take a picture for them. Guess we should have used their camera.

Leavenworth is also home to the Wedding Haus where we got married many years ago.

Life is good!

Journey’s End

2007-10-05T14:28:00.000-07:00

Alas, our trip of a lifetime was coming to an end. We had arranged for a shuttle to the Edinburgh airport the night before. They arrived on time and the morning commute was not bad at all. We had one last Scottish breakfast (Aye, the haggis!) at the airport and then went to the gate to wait for the plane. We saw pairs of policemen walking around with submachine guns. These guys looked like they meant business, so Annette didn’t go and chat with them.

The flight was a short one hour hop down to Heathrow. We made our way between terminals, found the gate for our connecting flight, and still had two hours to spare. We saw a place were you could exchange pounds back to dollars for an exorbitant fee. We still had a lot of pounds left over, but this would have been a bad deal.

We walked a bit further and lo and behold, a whisky shop in the airport! With a sampling table all set up! I can’t imagine something like this in a US airport. We hung around there for an hour sampling and talking with the proprietor. We unloaded our pounds by purchasing a couple of tasty selections that we had never seen in the States.

Finally, it was time to say goodbye to the UK. We boarded the plane and sat back for the nine and a half hour non-stop to Seattle. We left Heathrow around 3:30 in the afternoon and arrived in Seattle around 4:00 in the afternoon. Essentially, we were in a nine hour time warp. It was always between three and four in the afternoon as we passed through the time zones.

One last look back. Below is the western coast of Iceland.

We arrived in Seattle and began collecting our bags. A lady in the area called out six names including ours. Oh Oh. This is probably bad news. It was. One of our checked bags decided to spend an extra day in London. Naturally it was the one with the rare bottle of Daihuaine stashed inside. We assumed we would never see it again.

The British Airways representative said the bag would come over on the same flight the following day and that it would be delivered to our house by 11:00 PM. Annette couldn’t sleep and sat up most the night. Eleven o’clock and came and went. The hours passed by slowly. Finally at 3:30 in the morning a truck pulled up in front of our house. A rather tiny woman dragged the bag up to the porch and rang the bell. Annette thanked her and brought the bag inside and quickly opened it up. The Daihuaine was still inside and unscathed. Hoot Mon!

This concludes the UK travel log. (I assume a few folks are cheering.) So now I have to actually think up new topics to write about. But, you’re all in luck. A short mini-vacation will be occurring soon. North To…

Glenkinchie

2007-10-05T08:51:00.000-07:00

No visit to Scotland is complete without a visit to a working Scotch whisky distillery. What better way to capture the true “spirit” of Scotland. Glenkinchie is the nearest operational distillery from Edinburgh. One morning we walked down to St. Andrews Square to catch the 44B bus to the small village of Pencaitland, about 15 miles away.

We milled about smartly until the bus finally came along. The locals had said the bus fare was only one pound. However, that turned out to be the price for the local zone. It was actually 4.50 pounds for the round trip fare out of town. A pair of German girls were also heading out to take the distillery tour, but were short on small change like the rest of us. So we paid for everyone and then settled up after we arrived at the distillery and change was available.

After an hour’s ride through villages and countryside we neared the village of Pencaitland. A well dressed elderly gentleman came up to me on the bus and asked if we were going to tour the distillery. I said we were. He pointed out the stop up ahead, near the Spar petrol station as where to get off. He said the two mile walk to the distillery is very pleasant and that he had walked it innumerable times in his younger days.

We all hopped off the bus and began the trek through the Scottish countryside. The young German girls marched much faster than we did and soon had an early lead.

Not far from the intersection we passed under a tree canopy full of crows that were not happy about the visitors below. They squawked up a storm.

A couple from Newfoundland, Canada (eh?) lagged along behind us.

The weather turned warm, the barley fields were beautiful, and it was a very pleasant walk. After a couple miles we came to the Glenkinchie sign near the driveway.

Just a few hundred more yards to go down the drive.

And now we had arrived at the distillery proper.

We wandered down across a small stream to the visitor entrance. We signed up for the tour and meandered around the lobby until show time. The tour started with a brief talk about the processes to make Scotch whisky.

The barley grain is seeped in water until the point of germination (malting). The malted barley is then dried and smoked over a peat fire. I had always envisioned peat it to be a sort of dusty peat moss type substance. As it turned out, the peat was hard light-weight brick size blocks cut out of the ground. It still smelled a lot like peat moss though. Quite interesting I thought.

The grain is boiled in a mash tun (large vat) and then transferred to a wash back (holding tank) to cool. When the temperature is low enough, the yeast is added. The wort (liquid) is then allowed to ferment for several days. So far the process is exactly like making beer; something we’re very familiar with. In fact, it actually is rudimentary beer at this point, minus the hops.

When the yeasties have completed their job, the wort is transferred to the stills for the distilling process.

The lock box below, next to Bill the Tour Guide, is where all the distilled spirits pass through. Note there are three chambers. The chambers contain different strengths of spirits which have gone thru the stills one, two or three times. The three strengths are mixed to create the desired alcohol level. The box is locked as the distillery has to account for every drop they produce in order to keep the taxman happy. Drawing off untaxed spirits is strictly forbidden. The taxman used to sit there on a daily basis, but now it’s more of an honor system.

The properly mixed spirits are then placed into casks and allowed to age. In addition to the smoking over peat, the wood of the casks also imparts distinctive flavors into single malt Scotches. Oak barrels that have been used in the production of Bourbon are the primary source. After several years in oak, the spirits are sometimes transferred into other type casks. My particular favorite is sherry casks from Spain. These impart a deep red-amber color and a high degree of sweetness.
During the time in the casks, some of the spirits are lost due to evaporation. This lost portion is referred to as “The Angel’s Share”. For the entire country of Scotland, this totals up to millions of bottles! Must be a lot of happy angels up there.

After a few more years, the spirits are bottled and distributed. Once out of the wooden cask and into the bottle, the product is finished. Any further aging in the bottle is pointless. It’s done!

Scotch must be aged a minimum of three years to be legally called Scotch. However, any halfway decent Scotch will be at least 10 years old. 12 to 18 years is the most typical range.

After the tour was a stop at the sampling room. Like all the whisky places we visited, one can pretty much have all the free samples one wants. We found an interesting single malt called Dailuaine. It is aged for 16 years and is not available in the States. So we purchased a bottle and managed to smuggle it home. It has a very robust flavor; a real man’s drink as the host described it. An interesting side note is that it is used as the base (70 per cent) of the Johnny Walker blends. Only two percent of the Dailuiane distillery's output is available as a single malt.

Afterward, it was a nice two mile walk back to the bus stop. We waited around the petrol station until the bus arrived and took us back to Edinburgh.

What a great day! Hoot Mon!

Nor Loch

2007-10-01T17:28:00.000-07:00

Many centuries ago, the city of Edinburgh consisted of rows and rows of six and seven story stone buildings. The narrow streets between the buildings, many of which still exist today, were only a few feet wide and are referred to as “Closes”. The term is quite fitting.

At some point in Edinburgh’s history it was decided that the city was due for a remodel. The top three or four stories of the buildings were razed. A new base was placed over the remaining stories and a new city was built on top. As a result, there is an old hidden city beneath the main streets of Edinburgh.

Some excavation has been done and underground tours are available which provide a fascinating look into city life many centuries ago. Mary King’s Close is the most well known. Each Close was named for the richest person living there. This person lived on the top floor which had a real advantage. At specified times during the day, all waste would be tossed out into the Close. This included human waste, rotten food, butchered animal parts, and other disgusting items. The rains would eventually come along and wash everything down hill into the Nor Loch. In an early implementation of recycling, all water for daily use by the citizens was fetched from Nor Loch.

Behind yours truly in the above picture is where the Nor Loch previously existed. It’s a green park now and the train station may be seen on the right.

As with many cities of medieval times, some women were feared to be witches. In order to determine if a person was indeed a witch, their hands would be bound and the right thumb was tied to their left ankle, whilst their left thumb was tied to their right ankle. They were then chucked into the muck and floating dead animals of the Nor Loch!

If the person drowned, they were deemed innocent of being a witch and were given an apology and a proper Christian burial. If they survived the ordeal, they were deemed to be a witch and were burned at the stake. However, as a gesture of Christian kindness, they were strangled first!

Have a lovely day!

The Whisky Experience

2007-09-26T17:47:00.000-07:00

So after freezing one's bum in the castle all morning long, what can one do to warm up?

The Whiskey Experience Tour of course!

Located a short walk down the Royal Mile from the castle is the Whisky Experience Tour. The tour begins in a tasting room where everyone is taught the proper way to taste and judge Scotch whisky. They used Johnnie Walker Red for this exercise. I judged it to be lame. The allegedly legal age young lassie in the picture above was our tour guide. (Drinking age in Scotland is 18, and 16 for tobacco products.)

Next stop was an auditorium where they explain the history and processes involved in the making of Scotch whisky.

This was followed by a "barrel" ride. They had laid down a set of tracks that wander around inside the building. The little cars that ran on the tracks had been made from whisky barrels, split the long way, with a pair of seats and some wheels attached. The 10 minute ride passes through dozens of displays primarily related to the history of Scotch whisky.

Finally the tour ends in the sampling room. Everyone is served a sample from each of the major regions for a total of four shots apiece. If four is not enough, one may purchase additional samples. Hoot Mon!

After the sampling was completed, we paused at the gift shop on the way out. The referenced bottle in the following picture is a 1951 Balvenie.

I'm sure it's a tasty little dram, but at 6000 pounds, I had to pass it up.

The Castle

2007-09-26T17:08:00.000-07:00

The most notable site in Edinburgh is the castle. It’s on top of a rocky crag (Castle Rock) at the end of the High Street, also known as the Royal Mile. Several sources claimed the mile was steep and difficult to walk, but those turned out to be exaggerations. There is a steep hill near our house that we walked up and down most every day prior to the vacation. It’s about a three mile round trip and provides a good workout. So we were pretty well prepared for walking anywhere.

We wandered up to the castle when we arrived in the city, but it was late and the place was closed.

Looking back down the Royal Mile.

We walked down and around to get a view looking straight up at the rock wall. It looks rather ominous, especially if one imagines arrows and boiling oil raining down as in the good old days.

The following day the castle was open, so we took the tour and saw the place inside and out. It was a very cold wet day and we felt frozen half of the time. It was much like being in Seattle during a late November monsoon. We tried to stay inside as much as possible.

Inside one of the galleries in the castle.

Slightly different angle.

Last time I saw this stone, it was under a chair in Westminster Abbey. It was relocated to the Edinburgh castle a few years ago

Add finally, a view of the castle from a warm and cozy spot.

Scottish Cuisine

2007-09-23T11:35:00.000-07:00

After we checked into the hotel and had a couple pints at the pub, it was time to wander into the city and forage for food. As mentioned previously, the head “flight attendant” on the train from London to Liverpool was from Scotland. We had asked her about Scottish cuisine and her main tip for the best food was to go to a “chippy” shop. These are basic little hole-in-the-wall establishments that sell the Scottish version of fast food.

The following picture shows the view looking back toward the hotel. The chippy shop is the little place on the right with the white paint and red door. Based upon the earlier recommendations, we ordered a black pudding to go. This was a very large blood sausage, deep fried and served with chips (a.k.a. French fries). OMG Tasty! We had made sure to get one without white spots in it. Apparently, white spots are not a good thing.

The chippy shop is located in the square where the public hangings used to occur back in the good old days. The “Last Drop” pub is named in reference to those times.

We wandered around town a bit, and then decided it was time to find dinner. We walked up the hill from the public square past dozens of little specialty shops. We entered a bread shop featuring a host of hearty, locally made breads. The place was pretty well picked clean, but we managed to find a tasty selection.

Next we walked into a cheese shop that had an amazing selection. We were mainly interested in the local cheeses and the lady running the shop provided plenty of samples. We purchased a few selections which she cut right off the wheels. No prepackaging! We asked her, “So, what goes well with these cheeses?” Her reply was, “Scotch whisky, of course! There’s a shop two doors up.”

The whisky shop was amazing. I can’t image anything like this existing back in the states. The selection of single malts was huge. The fellows working there were extremely knowledgeable. They had mini-casks direct from several distilleries and they gave us all the free samples we wanted! We had a good discussion and when all was said and done, we had purchased four 10 cc sample bottles which they had drawn directly out of the casks.

We headed back toward the hotel as it was getting dark. We stopped at the chippy shop and picked up another black pudding, plus a deep fried haggis (also recommended previously). The haggis was absolutely wonderful. I loved it. I had a rough idea what was in haggis, but didn’t check the details until we arrived back home. It’s essentially sheep’s heart, liver and lungs that are ground up with oatmeal and spices. The chippy doesn’t use the traditional sheep’s stomach for packaging, but uses a nice thin bread crust. Yummers!

We had dinner in our room while watching the annual European Song Contest on a small fuzzy telly. The show was goofy, but the dinner was fantastic. One of those great moments spent together. Hoot Mon!

Tailors Hall

2007-09-21T15:42:00.000-07:00

Tailors Hall was built in 1621 during the reign of James VI for the Guild of Tailors and is now a small 42 room hotel in its present incarnation. The rooms were rather small and cramped, with maybe a touch of dinginess. Given that the place was 486 years old, a little wear and tear was to be expected. I’m sure some type-A folks would have complained, but we thought it added to the very old feel of the city and really enjoyed the stay.

Don't know WTF Budweiser was doing here. This is Scotland for crying out loud!

On the plus side, the bath room was huge, nearly the size of the main room itself, with plenty of high pressure hot water for a real shower. I was so excited about this that I was beside myself.

After our arrival we naturally wandered down to the pub. We had a couple pints, chatted with the bar tender and learned the proper pronunciation of many of the single malts. He had a very heavy Scottish accent, but didn’t seem to mind repeating things for us.

As it turned out, the electronic key system of the hotel was out of order and wouldn’t be repaired until after we left. So every time we wanted into our room, a young bonnie lassie with a cute accent and a short mini-skirt would escort us and let us in. This got old really quick. ;)

Above is the basic Scottish breakfast that is included and was a great way to start each day. The best part? Aye! The haggis! Generally I watch what I eat, but for this vacation, all self imposed limitations had been tossed aside (especially the two drink maximum). And with walking miles and miles a day, no additional pounds were obtained. Hoot Mon!

Stroll in Gotham City

2007-09-19T18:19:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Edinburgh around five o’clock in the afternoon. We walked out of the train station pulling our bags and OMG! The weather was dark and dreary. The roads were made of rough uneven cobblestones. Dozens of dark buildings from the 16th century covered with a black mildew-type coating lined the narrow streets. Hundreds of people were walking around in full gothic attire.

“All right!” we said to ourselves. Now we are in a really old European city. We climbed up a hill and down the other side in route to our hotel, all the while dodging Goths roaming the streets. Quite the introduction to Edinburgh!

This is along the route to the hotel.

Many of the side streets are called “Closes”. And with good reason!

Once we arrived at the hotel we found out it was the last day of the Edinburgh Ghost Festival. The following day everyone had put away their gothic garb and went back to normal. Hoot Mon!

North To Edinburgh

2007-09-14T16:16:00.001-07:00

It was early on a Saturday morning and so we took one last stroll around the area. As we walked along, a rather punkish looking Liverpudlian lad stopped us and asked if we knew where the library was. (There’s probably a good one-liner here, but I’ll pass.) We told him we didn’t know and that we were from out of town. “Ah, Americans,” he said as he heard our voices.

As can be seen in all the travel pictures, we had made a conscience decision to avoid the standard American tourist outfit of jeans, t-shirt, tennis shoes and ball cap. Don’t know if we “blended in” or not; but we had no problems with the usual types that hit on tourists.

We wandered back to the hotel, packed up the bags, and walked to Lime Street train station. Based on our previous experiences we were really looking forward to the train trip.

We hopped onboard the TransPennine Express and headed across the middle of the country toward York via Leeds and Manchester. The accommodations were no where near the quality of the Virgin train. Food service consisted of a guy pushing a cart containing drinks and snacks down the aisle. Guess we should have had breakfast after all. Saturday is normally a big travel day for folks in the UK. We were fortunate and had the entire car all to ourselves. Normally it’s more fun to have a few locals to talk to, but seeing how intensely packed the regular cars were, we simply enjoyed the quiet time.

After a couple hours we arrived in York. We waited around about an hour until the Virgin train to Edinburgh pulled in. We happily hopped on board expecting the same service as the London to Liverpool run. Wrong! The first class cars were packed, but after a few small whistle stops, we managed to acquire a four-seater with table for ourselves. Food service consisted of walking back six cars to get a boxed lunch. Hey! Where's the free scotch and Guinness? What's the deal here, Branson?

There was a lady across the aisle that had apparently been enjoying the wine that was available. She woke up and asked where we were from, where we were going, how our trip was so far, and that she was heading for Aberdeen. She would doze off, reawaken, and then start the same conversation all over again. Groundhog Day?

Once we were settled in and the train had completed all the little stops outside of York, it was pretty much an express trip to Edinburgh. The trains are electric, but still have a relaxing chug-chug sound as they cruise along at high speed (125 MPH). We saw some very nice vistas as the train zipped up the east coast along the shore of the North Sea.

After about three hours we arrived at Waverley station in the heart of Edinburgh. Hoot Mon!

Unofficial Business

2007-09-12T09:40:00.000-07:00

After the National Trust tour we went back to the hotel. One of our company’s suppliers is located in Liverpool. I had previously traded emails with their technical and sales staff and had received an invite to visit them. I called up Steve, the sales executive, who was kind enough to drive to the hotel in his own car and pick us up. We drove to the company located several miles away in a small industrial park. Steve gave Annette and me an introduction to the company, followed by a tour of the facility. In hindsight, I should have brought along our company’s standard PowerPoint presentation. This was an unofficial visit, but I had brought along some business cards to swap anyway.

Afterward Steve drove us around to see a couple of sights that we wanted to see including Anfield stadium where the Liverpool Football Club plays their home games. It was post season time, so the team was off to Greece for the championship tournament. Anyway, it was great to visit with one the locals for a few hours. You can pick up a some interesting tidbits about a city that way.

Above is the memorial at Anfield dedicated to the 95 people that died in 1989 at an English FA semifinal game between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Sheffield, England. It was sad to see several people as young as 14 on the list.

This pretty much concluded the Liverpool segment of our trip. Tomorrow, north to Scotland. Hoot Mon!

Paul McCartney's House (Continued)

2007-09-09T12:45:00.000-07:00

Hope you all enjoyed the tease! When we showed this picture to family and friends, they all did a double take, similar to mine in the picture.

The fellow in the picture, whose name interestingly is John, is the live-in care taker of Paul’s house at 20 Forthlin Road. All of us on the tour immediately picked up on the resemblance. When he first applied for the job, he was worried he wouldn’t get it due to the resemblance. The National Trust is a very stodgy organization that isn’t into gimmicks. But he lucked out and has lived in the house for seven years now. John said that Sir Paul himself has dropped by the house twice, but he wasn't home either time.

The tour normally features a self guided audio tour. Fortunately for us the system was down and we got a personal tour, which is much more interesting and interactive than canned audio. As with John Lennon’s house, photography is not allowed inside. An interesting feature is the many large photographs taken by Michael McCartney (Paul’s brother). You can see a picture on the wall of John Lennon and Paul sitting by the fireplace. You then look down and there is the actual fireplace. There were several shots like that around the house.

John said that Paul’s bedroom is naturally a favorite spot with the female tourists. Many of them tend to kiss the floor, especially those from North America. (No, Annette did not partake in this ritual.)

Paul's home does not have the blue National Trust seal as can be seen on John Lennon's home. Paul has stated that he does not want one either. The reason? One must be dead for twenty years to get it.

Paul’s home was in a subsidized housing development and not quite as nice as John Lennon’s place. The neighborhood is very neat and clean as can be seen by the following series of photos from Paul’s front yard. Notice the purple trash bins. The colors of the two Liverpool football teams are red and blue. Allegedly purple (mix of red and blue) was chosen to avoid problems with over zealous soccer fans.

Paul’s house does have facilities available. So I can proudly say that I have actually peed at Paul McCartney’s house. Gee whiz!

The above photo is John with a couple of the others on the tour. The fellow on the right was from Melbourne and had the heaviest “Strine” accent you could imagine. John, of course, had a heavy Liverpudlian drawl. While listening to these guys talk, I’m thinking, “Gee, are we really speaking the same language?”

Paul McCartney's House

2007-09-01T11:23:00.000-07:00

We stopped by Paul McCartney's house...

I'm off to Alabama for a week. I'll finish up this post when I Get Back.

John Lennon's House

2007-08-29T17:20:00.001-07:00

For me this was the ultimate Beatle experience of the trip. A full hour inside the house where John Lennon lived. A place where he and Paul McCartney wrote and rehearsed so many songs.

The Magical Mystery Tour simply stops and lets one stand on the sidewalk and look at the house. The only way to get inside the house is to take the highly recommended National Trust Tour as it now has historical significance. The tour uses a van rather than a bus and there were only five people on the tour.

The house in Mendips, is occupied by a pair of live-in caretakers. The couple were retired school teachers who had once lived on Vashon Island, just a short ferry ride from Seattle (small world). They gave us a tour of the house and then we had forty minutes left to walk around and take it all in. The dining room had a large table with photos and memorabilia. There was a guest book to sign, plus another volume to write any thoughts one might have. I had a few.

The house belonged to John’s Aunt Mimi. John’s room is the one over the front porch. Photography was not allowed inside the house. The rather small room was done up similar to the original with a bed, dresser and 50’s radio, with Elvis Presley and Bridget Bardot posters on the walls. It was amazing to sit there alone; looking out the window and imagining the way things were so many years ago. It gave me chills up the spine. In fact, I could feel the chills the entire time we were there in the house. There is something about that place. I still get them when I think back about the visit.

As a young lad John would sit on his bed making up songs and singing. Often this would get on Aunt Mimi's nerves and she would banish him to the front porch with the immortal words, "The guitar's all very well, John, but you'll never make a living out of it."

John and Paul would often go to the front porch and close the inner and outer doors. With the glass enclosure and tile floor, the porch made a very good echo chamber in which to practice singing and harmonizing.

This is us standing in the outer doorway of the porch. We did close both doors, and sang a couple bars of “She Loves You, Yeah Yeah Yeah”. The reverb was very good, but the singing was not nearly as good as John and Paul would have done.

Annette insisted that I do an air-guitar pose on John’s porch. I’m not opposed to being goofy, but unfortunately, it turned out to be more like spastic bass guitar.

There are several trees in the back yard. I don’t recall which one it was, but John had a favorite tree that he liked to climb and hang around in. The song Strawberry Fields Forever contains the line “No one I think is in my tree.” As a young lad I always wondered, what in the world does that mean? It’s not a mysterious groovy psychedelic line after all. It simply means no one is in his tree.

Photography wasn’t allowed inside, but no one complained about a close shot of the front window. If you click and expand the picture to full size, you can peek inside and make out some details of the living room. Actually here is a link I just found that shows the inside of John's House.

I had always envisioned John growing up in a poor rough and tough neighborhood of a seaport city. As can be seen in the following picture, his was actually a very nice middle class existence there beneath the blue suburban skies.

The hour passed quickly and soon we were out the driveway. Next stop...

Strawberry Fields Forever

2007-08-26T14:10:00.001-07:00

When you flip the 45, you get Strawberry Fields.

Strawberry Field was a Salvation Army home where John and his childhood friends would go to play. Aunt Mimi was not happy about John going to Strawberry Field, since it was basically an orphanage and she thought John would be led astray. When John and Aunt Mimi argued about him going there, he would reply "What are they going to do, hang me?" Hence the line "...and nothing to get hung about".

No one I think is in my tree. (More on this in the next post).

Penny Lane

2007-08-20T17:50:00.001-07:00

I first heard the song Penny Lane when I was around fourteen. A lot of the words didn’t make much sense to a young lad living in a little Eastern Washington town. What was Paul singing about? As it turned out he was simply listing sights in his old neighborhood.

This is the view looking down one end of Penny Lane.

This is the “shelter in the middle of the roundabout”. It’s not visible in the picture, but behind the shelter is a financial institution where the “banker never wears a mac in the pouring rain, very strange” Actually it’s not really strange since he was a “banker with a motor car” and didn’t need an umbrella.

This is the firehouse where the fireman “likes to keep his fire engine clean. It’s a clean machine."

We saw a couple more sights, but unfortunately didn’t get good pictures of the barbershop where “there is a barber showing photographs of every head he's had the pleasure to know” or the eatery where you can get “four of fish and finger pies”.

Penny lane is in my ears and in my eyes.
There beneath the blue suburban skies,
Penny Lane.*

*Copyright 1967, Northern Songs

Magical Mystery Tour

2007-08-19T13:47:00.001-07:00

E! Roll up!
G! Roll up for the
A! mystery tour
E! Roll up...

Prior to our departure for the UK, I had signed us up for the Magical Mystery Tour. The tour was supposed to visit the major Beatle sites in Liverpool on board an actual 1960’s bus like the one used in the Magical Mystery Tour. They had a disclaimer at the bottom of the website which stated that the old buses may not be working at any given time. We picked up the tour on the Albert Dock near The Beatles Story. As fate would have it, a newer bus showed up. However it ran like it was from the 1960's.

The tour guide was a last minute substitute and was more interested in talking on his cell phone to get tickets for a soccer match than he was in doing his job. But, they did get us around town and we saw the major sites. He also pointed out some mountains off in the distance and said they were in Wales (Hey Grunt!).

The guide did have one pretty good story. He was allegedly at an event in which Ringo Starr was attendance.

He walked up to Ringo and said “Hello”.

Ringo replied back and asked, “So, what do you do?”

He responded, “I’m a Beatle guide.”

Ringo deadpanned “Well, I’m a Beatle. Show me around.”

Here at 12 Arnold Grove is the childhood home and actual birthplace of George Harrison. Note the tourists looking out of the neighbor’s window.

Brian Epstein’s home on 197 Queens Drive. Rather nice little abode.

Even though the operator turned out a bit lame, we still enjoyed the tour and seeing the sites. I had also signed us up for a different tour the following day, which turned out to be absolutely fantastic. More on that coming up.

This post is a transition piece and so the major sites will have their own individual posts.

Ferry Cross The Mersey

2007-08-17T17:33:00.001-07:00

Those who remember the British invasion or simply enjoy the music of the Sixties, probably recall the song made famous by Gerry and The Pacemakers. With this in mind, taking the “Ferry Cross the Mersey” is a must for all tourists visiting Liverpool.

It was late afternoon and the weather was actually quite nice. It was just after five o’clock, so the stores were closed and it was too early to eat. We strolled down to the ferry dock, which was not too far from our hotel. We purchased round trip passage for only a couple pounds apiece. Not a bad deal for a one hour boat ride.

The ferry dock had a bit of a problem as can be seen in the above picture. As the ticket seller explained it, a very low tide had dropped the gangway to the river bottom. Then an unusually fast high tide occurred which buried the end in the mud. So passengers now have to walk out onto a barge and then hop aboard the ferry. In the picture you can see workers assessing the situation. The 2008 European Capital of Culture emblems are a nice touch.

We had been told that the song plays on the short journey. However, since it was fairly late and most of the passengers were commuters, they are spared from hearing the song everyday (a bit of a disappointment for us but completely understandable).

After the ferry crosses the river, most of the passengers get off at the first stop. It then goes upstream a little ways for a second stop and then returns back to the Liverpool side. The ride was very nice and we got some good views of the city.

Here’s a blast from the past.

The ferry and the skyline didn’t seem all that different, forty years ago.

Humped Zebras

2007-08-13T18:05:00.000-07:00

What's a humped zebra, and how do they know to cross here?

Albert Dock

2007-08-13T17:42:00.000-07:00

The Albert Dock is one of the primary tourist spots in Liverpool. The main attraction is The Beatles Story; a museum detailing the journey from Liverpool to worldwide acclaim. It is a fascinating self guided audio tour which includes some original instruments, a recreation of the Cavern Club, and even the opportunity to look through a pair of John’s glasses. The only annoying part of the experience was when large groups of school kids came through on field trips. They were usually noisy and didn’t really care anyway. We would pause and wait for them to scurry on through. A virtual tour may be taken on The Beatles Story website.

I had always envisioned Liverpool as a rough and tumble seaport and expected to find a lot of pubs near the waterfront. However, since being selected as the European Capital of Culture for 2008, they seem to be trying to cater to the upscale tourist. Most of this area had a lot of trendy restaurants and wine bars. We did find one establishment that served pints. The menu was lame, but at least pints were available to recharge us (we walked a lot!).

Cheers!

Hey! It’s The Girl!

2007-08-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

While watching the Mathew Street webcam over the course of a few months, we noticed one particular girl that was often standing on the corner for hours at a time. She was usually there on Friday and Saturday nights, generally wearing a short mini-skirt. Sometimes she would walk up and start talking to guys passing by. Even when the crowds occasionally thinned to nothing, she was still there on the corner.

We usually walked on Mathew Street to get to wherever we were going. One evening as it was getting rather dark, we walked near the webcam. I spotted a familiar sight and said to Annette, “Hey, It’s the girl.”

We walked up to her and said hello. We mentioned that we were from Seattle and had been watching the webcam in preparation of our trip. We said that we had noticed her on many occasions and wondered what she was doing. She explained that she works for the Remenis 90’s Bar and Disco (the main building seen on the webcam) and gets people to come inside the place. She then asked, “Why, what did you think I was doing?”

Annette, with tact and decorum replied, “Well, we thought you were a hooker.”

“Oh My God!” she responded, “The whole world is watching and thinking I’m a hooker?!!”

She seemed a bit shocked, but was good natured about it. We met her coworker who also works the crowd. (Funny, I never noticed the guy standing around the place). We pointed out the location of the webcam. They knew there was a camera, but were unsure of the exact position. We chatted a bit and then were off.

We passed her way on subsequent evenings. She was friendly and talked to us, so no harm to international relations.

Mathew Street Webcam

2007-08-06T16:33:00.000-07:00

Several months before our trip we found a Liverpool webcam that monitored Mathew Street. We would generally check things out while getting dinner ready (there’s a laptop on the kitchen counter). Dinner time in Seattle corresponds to the early morning hours in Liverpool. Things often get quite lively there, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. Often the Bobbies are out in force, stag and hen parties are wandering around, fights are breaking out, soccer hooligans who drank too much are barfing on the street; you know, the usual good times.

We walked down Mathew Street and found the camera location outside of Hardy’s Bar. It was a really weird feeling seeing the place in person for the first time. Everything was so familiar. We knew all the details, but had never been there before.

Here we are calling our daughter back in Seattle to tell her that we are standing by the webcam.

She has requested that we move closer to the camera.

Now we’re waiting for her to capture a few webcam shots.

And finally, we are looking at the picture she just took and emailed to us.

Isn’t technology great!

Mathew Street

2007-08-03T16:18:00.000-07:00

With the Cavern being located on Mathew Street, it is no surprise that much of the area is dedicated to the Beatles. It’s only a couple blocks in length and is essentially a tourist hangout with the usual souvenir shops, pubs and clubs.

This is a statue of John outside the Cavern Pub (not to be confused with The Cavern).

This is a statue of Eleanor Rigby (I assume everyone knows the song). It was a cold and rainy day. I was doing my best to look sad and forlorn.

In general the stores and malls in Liverpool close up by 5 PM. But wait! There is exciting news! A few stores are actually going to stay open until 8 o’clock on Thursdays for "late" night shopping. They are “Live After Five!”

The Cavern

2007-07-31T20:28:00.000-07:00

After checking into the hotel, we walked around the corner to Mathew Street. There we found the famous Cavern Club where the Beatles performed some 292 times during their early years. The Cavern had closed in 1973 and was essentially filled in to make way for the Merseyside commuter railway system. That project fell through, so the Cavern was dug out and rebuilt with bricks from the original. It now occupies about 75 percent of the original location.

Annette took this picture along the spiral stairwell that leads to the club about three stories below street level. I emailed it to my brother who wrote back, “You must be in old guy heaven about now.” (Note goofy grin.)

Not the most elaborate décor, but it was an amazing place to be, knowing the history. The interior was rather dark, all brick and had lots of pillars and arches to maneuver around without bumping one’s head.

We were having a pint (or two) when I saw a young girl bounce up to the bartender and hand him a Magic Marker. I had noticed lots of fan writings on the wall so I asked him if graffiti was encouraged.

“Absolutely not!” He said, as he handed me the marker, “Be discrete.”

So I found a light colored brick located high and to the right of one of the archways. I wrote our names plus “Seattle ’07”.

We stopped in for pints a few times during our stay in Liverpool. Occasionally performers were on stage. One fellow with an amplified acoustic guitar was performing Beatle songs as requested by the audience. He was quite good and had the nuances of the songs down pat. You could close your eyes, listen, think back and imagine...

Virgin To Liverpool

2007-07-27T16:02:00.000-07:00

Once we arrived at Euston Station we found a small kiosk for the Virgin Train service which had a Pendolino train leaving for Liverpool in about an hour. We had purchased BritRail passes in the US and asked the attendants if we needed to check in or get a boarding pass. They said we didn’t have to do anything. Essentially with the BritRail pass we can simply walk on board any train in the country anytime we want.

One of our company’s suppliers is located in Liverpool and I had traded several emails with one of the support engineers. Eventually I mentioned that we were planning a trip to Liverpool. She gave me a few pointers, an invitation to visit their company and highly recommended getting a first class rail ticket. This turned out to be good advice.

The voice on the overhead speaker at the station announced that boarding was commencing for our train. We wandered down and hopped on board one of the first-class cars. We set up camp at spot with four seats and a table in between. There were only about five other people in a car that holds at least thirty, so plenty of room. In addition there was a kitchen in the front of the car with a chef and the equivalent of three “flight attendants”. The Guinness and Scotch were all free! They served a great meal which included spicy lamb curry and many other tasty bits too numerous to recall.

One of the passengers was a lady from Essex who had lived in Liverpool for five years and we had a nice chat with her. The lead “flight attendant” was from Scotland and so we mentioned we were eventually heading for Edinburgh. She gave us some outstanding advice regarding food and drink in Scotland. She also told us about a long and fantastic bus tour that she had taken across America. Many of the folks we encountered on our vacation happily told us about their trips to America. Very interesting perspectives.

The three hour trip went way too fast. Once we heard the menu plans for the evening, we seriously considered riding the train back to London and immediately returning just to enjoy the meal on the dinner train. All in all, this was the most fantastic and enjoyable train ride ever! This set our expectations very high for the upcoming train travel to Edinburgh. It didn’t quite turn out as expected, but more on that in a later post.

We arrived in Liverpool and made our way to the Sir Thomas hotel on Sir Thomas Street just a few blocks from the Lime Street station. The building was previously the Bank of Liverpool and had been converted to a very nice 39 room hotel within walking distance of most of the places we wanted to see (e.g. The Cavern was just around the corner).

The Price Is Right!

2007-07-24T19:46:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to comedian Drew Carey on his new gig as the host of the television game show "The Price Is Right".

That blonde girl looks very familiar. Maybe she's one of those showcase models.

Beatle Songs

2007-07-21T21:44:00.000-07:00

Before we hop the Virgin Express and head for Liverpool, one more preliminary Beatles post. To get everyone in the mood for the exciting upcoming travel tales, I thought it would be fun to poll everyone to see what their favorite Beatle songs are. I truly enjoy all of the Beatles songs and never tire of them. Here are a few that stand out for me.

Paperback Writer - Probably my all time favorite if I had to pick one. I absolutely love the opening riff, plus the whole song rocks. The added bonus of the Beatles singing Frere Jacques as backup is a nice touch that I find amusing.

Help - The highlight is that the backup singer is actually leading the lead singer. Typically the backup singers will answer back or repeat the line of the lead singer. In this case George is singing the beginning phrase of the line before John sings it. This is a really cool technique.

Back In The USSR - Great parody of the Beach Boys style of music. Shows the Beatles sense of humor.

Get Back - This was the favorite (and easy to play) song back in our high school days.

She Loves You - This is the all time iconic song of the Beatles. Gotta love it. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

What are your favorite Beatle songs and why?

The Beatles

2007-07-17T17:50:00.000-07:00

Prior to starting the Liverpool travel series, a little background…

I was around eleven when The Beatles first hit it big in America. The following year was the transition period from elementary school to junior high school, and so my interests began to turn toward teenage type stuff. I had a female cousin who was totally gaga over the lads from Liverpool and was collecting bubblegum cards. This got me interested in the music and soon I was hooked on it. I purchased my first album, A Hard Day’s Night, a few months later. For Christmas that year I received my first guitar.

My best friend Lewy was also a huge Beatles fan and had recently taken up the guitar as well. We bought various Beatles songs books, practiced a lot, and showed each other what we had learned. Over the years we got to know the songs extremely well. One of us could play a song’s chord progression and the other could easily guess the song. This was just the chords only! No melody, lead, bass or other clues.

I would hand someone a stack of Beatles song books and tell them to read one line from any verse of any song. I could always identify the song as well as which album it was on, the album side and the track number. (This was pre-eight track, pre-cassette, and pre-CD.)

After a few years of guitar, I decided to take a side track to bass guitar. I purchased my first bass guitar at a local music shop. It was a violin shaped bass similar to what Paul McCartney played. This was a small town so I couldn’t find, let alone afford, an actual Hofner from Germany. But none the less, I was thrilled with the find. The most important feature at the time was that it looked like Paul’s bass. I still have it some 40 years later.

Many years ago a local Seattle radio station ran a contest to win a box set of half-speed masters containing all the Beatle albums released in the UK ($300 value in 1980. Nice prize!). The station took one second clips of ten songs and strung them together. Their plan was to play the medley every two hours until someone could name all ten songs in order. They first played the medley at noon to give everyone an initial listen. Two hours later they played it again for the actual contest. I called them up immediately and gave them the correct list much to their stunned amazement.

So as you can see, I’m a Beatles fan of the highest order. As a kid, the idea of ever being in the far off magical land of Liverpool was an impossible dream. This was about to change.

Abbey Road

2007-07-15T12:49:00.000-07:00

It was our last day in London and we had one last site to visit. We got up very early and went to the tube station as soon as they were open for business. We rode the train for a bit and eventually popped up at the St John’s Wood station. Once topside we found the “Beatles Coffee Shop” nearby, purchased some coffee and picked up a map to THE CROSSWALK!

It was a cool crisp morning and very few people were out at this time of the day. We followed the map and soon found the crosswalk. Being a huge Beatles fan, this was an amazing sight to behold. The neighborhood felt very residential and somewhat upscale. Actually looked like a nice place to live. We had been monitoring the Abbey Road webcam for a few months and soon found its location.

This is a shot standing under the webcam.

Annette took this picture roughly duplicating the webcam view.

The famous Abbey Road Studios has a low white wall in front that was covered with fan’s autographs and comments. It appears they often repaint the wall when it gets full of writings, as the paint looked awfully thick. Unfortunately, we didn't get a good picture of the wall.

Naturally, being a good tourists and Beatles fans, we had to duplicate the famous album cover to the best of our abilities. The Nikon has a mode where it will take shots as long as the shutter button is held. This would have been ideal, but unfortunately, we were still camera-challenged at this point and only had the disposables and the Blackberries. While dodging cars (with drivers who are probably tired of tourists doing this), I made the crossing several times while Annette ran out in the street and took pictures. I had hoped to cut and paste four shots together, but could only get two to reasonably line up.

Afterward, we stopped back at the coffee shop where we picked up a few souvenirs; including a large authentic-looking Abbey Road street sign. Later in the morning the shops in London began to open. We looked through the phonebook and found a Nikon dealer just around the corner from the hotel. They couldn’t do repairs on-site of course, but did have cameras available, so we bought a model one step down from our original. The original was used as a spare battery charger for the remainder of the trip.

After packing up and checking out of the hotel, it was off to Euston station and on to Liverpool.

Buckingham Palace

2007-07-09T17:03:00.000-07:00

After having dinner at the Sitaary restaurant, we decided to stroll back to the hotel. First we walked over to the Hard Rock Café to buy my usual souvenir T-shirt that I try to get during all trips. The food is not extraordinary so we seldom eat there, but they often have interesting guitars on display.

After acquiring souvenirs we walked through Green Park toward Buckingham Palace. It was dark and getting rather late by this time. When we arrived, the palace was all lit up and there was virtually no one around except us. This was a rather surreal setting; especially when compared with the crowds present during daylight hours. We noticed one of the gates was open, so we thought we’d drop in and say hello to the queen.

Naturally, Annette strolled up to the friendly policeman with the submachine gun. He said the queen was in America attending the horse races and wouldn’t be back for a few days. We thanked them for the info and continued on our way.

The following morning we found ourselves back at the palace and took a couple of proper daylight shots.

Ah, it’s good to be the queen!

Sixties Flashback

2007-07-06T14:53:00.000-07:00

Groovy! Psychedelic! Far Out!

Put a thermal imager in the hands of a software engineer and this sort of thing is bound to happen.

This guy is hot!

Picadilly Circus

2007-07-02T19:16:00.001-07:00

I brought along a picture that was taken in Picadilly Circus a few years back with the intention of recreating the same shot. We wandered around the area and stood on all possible street corners to try and match the original camera angle.

Picadilly Circus, Circa 1978:

Note the billboard promoting the Paul McCartney and Wings release of “London Town”. (On vinyl and cassette tape of course. What’s a CD?)

Picadilly Circus, Circa 2007:

The column on the left side was fairly easy to find. After a while I noticed the dormer structures on the building in the background matched. The large building on the right had a new façade and the entrance to the tube was moved slightly. I figured I had to be close to the spot, but things still weren’t lining up exactly right. We stared at the old picture and at the live shot. Finally Annette realized that the traffic island I was standing on in the old picture had been removed. So in the new picture I’m actually on the curb behind the old island.

As we prepared to take the new picture, our new S7C Nikon camera decided to go on strike. Everything worked, except the pictures came out all black. Fortunately there was a Boots drugstore nearby, so we picked up a couple of disposable cameras. Annette took several shots with a disposable and hoped for the best.

A fellow holding a placard on the corner was watching Annette take picture after picture and wondered what in the world she was doing. She showed him the original picture and told him the story. The fellow confirmed that we were at the original spot and that the tube station entrance had indeed been changed.

Return To St. Paul's

2007-07-01T14:12:00.001-07:00

We made our way back to St Paul's and found the stairs to the top were open.

There are 352 stairs to reach the top. After climbing for some time we stopped at the upper gallery just below the bottom of the actual dome. We took a few pictures of the city and then went inside and sat down for a bit. Annette took this shot looking down, just before we saw the sign that said no photography. No one seemed to mind though.

After a few minutes, I said, "Ready to continue to the top?"

"What? I thought we were at the top!" repied Annette.

"Nope we're only half way there."

As it turned out I was a bit off, there were only about 150 steps to the top. We continued on and eventually made it to the top. This climb seemed a lot easier thirty years ago.

The views of London from the top are great and so the climb was definitely worth it.

London appears to be having a building boom. I'm guessing much of it has to do with the 2012 Olympics. They had many more cranes than we have in Bellevue.

Kofi Annan

2007-06-25T17:33:00.001-07:00

Annette and I were casually walking by Parliament when all of a sudden, armed policemen came running out, stopped the crowd and made everyone stand back. Since they had submachine guns and we didn’t, it seemed best to comply.

From our left, a small entourage of vehicles came out of the Parliament gate and passed right in front us. What is this? Another world leader cutting in? It was like deja vu all over again.

Annette seems to enjoy going up and talking to heavily armed policemen and this was no exception. “So, what’s going on?” she asked. The policeman rolled his eyes a bit, gave a small shrug and said “Kofi Annan”. Obviously not on the A-list of world leaders, but definitely high up on the shenanigan puller list.

If you knew who Kofi Annan was without a Google search, give yourself ten points.

Tower Of London

2007-06-22T20:38:00.001-07:00

After returning late to London on the Eurostar, we were up early again the next morning. We hopped on the tube and made the obligatory visit to the Tower of London like all good tourists.

The tower is cared for by the Beefeaters who wear a uniform from the 16th century, which looks rather like a dress with tights and a top hat. The original Beefeaters were partially paid in beef; of which the common folk had little; so hence the name.

An interesting sidenote is that all of today’s Beefeaters are retired Sergeant Majors from the British Army with at least 22 years of service.

Much has been written about the tower so I’ll skip the history lesson. However, for those of you who are interested in British history, the following video clip shot by Annette may be of interest. This fellow has an entertaining delivery style with several comedic one-liners interspursed.

Not surprisingly, Americans made up the vast majority of the folks on the walking tour. At one point, the Beefeater pointed around and said, “All of this could have been yours… if you had only paid your taxes.”

Fan Mail From Some Flounder?

2007-06-17T19:05:00.000-07:00

Here’s a momentary break from the UK travel log. (Don’t worry many more exiting adventures to come.) We’ve primarily done freshwater fishing, but decided to give saltwater fishing a try this weekend. We took the ferry from Seattle to Bremerton on the west side of Puget Sound. It was a pleasant cruise and much more relaxing than driving around the sound.

We went to Illahee State Park. As kids many years ago, we used to go there when visiting Grandma’s house not too far away. There is a fishing pier available, and so it seemed like a good place to try. Annette and I went along with The Princess, her boyfriend, and his dad. We had a very good time and spent nine hours on the pier. Time really flies when you’re having fun.

The main goal was flounders; primarily Rock Sole and Sand Dabs in this area. Other fisherman asked what we we’re using for bait. They looked at us rather funny when we said, “Bacon!” (Hey, what species doesn’t like bacon?!) It worked quite well for us as everyone got their limit of two each, while most of the other fishermen didn’t seem to get much of anything.

We caught many more creatures other than flounders. Crabs like bacon too and so half the time we were pulling up crabs on our lines. (Accompanied, of course, by the usual jokes about who’s got crabs.) Unfortunately, crab season doesn’t start for a few more weeks. As a group, we hooked three dogfish (small sharks). Two broke away, but one was landed and immediately released.

I threw one cast and when the bacon hit the top of the water; a seagull swooped down and grabbed it. I reeled in the seagull and with a massive group effort we got it untangled. The bird flew off and squawked something about giving up bacon.

Sun Stars like bacon as well and we pulled in a few. Barbless hooks are required and so it was very easy to free all the unwanted creatures. It’s hard to tell in the following picture, but this was a mass of wiggling tube feet.

We managed to catch a couple of Cabezons. They are not the prettiest fish, but they taste really good and have a distinct oyster flavor. We had a running joke all day and referred to them as Italian fish called “Calzones”. Note the really sharp and serrated spikes. The roe is poisonous and so is best avoided.

Tonight’s fish fry was very good.

Look! It’s the Oy Full Towwwer!

2007-06-12T18:34:00.000-07:00

A couple years ago we stayed at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas which features a one-quarter scale model of the Eiffel Tower. As we took the elevator to the top, the lady guide said with a perfect French accent, “Bonjour Madams un Monsieurs". She then immediately switched to a heavy New Jersey accent and continued with “Welcome to duh Oy Full Towwwer.” The remaining spiel continued in the Jersey voice. Somehow we managed to keep a straight face. Since then, it’s been a running joke in our family every time we see a picture of the Eiffel Tower.

Now we were standing before the real thing! Naturally we pointed and did the Jersey accent. Crystal thought it was a bit odd until we told her the above story. She thought it was pretty funny and actually did a pretty good Jersey accent of her own.

Annette took the above picture with a Blackberry; which I immediately sent to the gang at work and said how much I missed being there.

We took the elevator to the second level, snapped a few pictures and then walked down the stairs. Afterward, we had time to wander around a bit, buy souvenirs, and have dinner before catching the Eurostar and bidding Paris adieu.

After we left that evening, 373 vehicles were torched and 160 people were taken in for questioning across France, according to police reports. I assume the Ministère du Malaise Civil had things cleaned up for the next day’s tourists.