Mt. Rainier - Adventures in traveling

Our first glimpse of Mt. Rainer was on our final approach to Seattle, sticking up above the cloud layer like the top of a big ice cream cone. Fortunately, it was a cloudless day when we next saw the mountain.

We had set aside some time to sight-see in Seattle and the area, and we chose to spend a full day on a guided tour to Mt. Rainier National Park, some 60 miles southeast of the city. Rainier - visible on a clear day from as far as Victoria, B.C. - is a massive, 14,411 feet, topographically prominent...volcano.

Somehow, until we were in the very shadow of the mountain itself, we had missed the fact that Rainier is an active, dangerous volcano. In fact, it is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world, and it is on the Decade Volcano list. I take small comfort in knowing that being on the Decade list does not necessarily mean it will erupt in the next ten years. Though it might. It just means that when it goes, it is going to be dangerous because of its close proximity to densely populated areas.

In fact, it was not until we began to notice road-side signs that indicated that we were on a "Volcano  Evacuation Route" that our tour guide began to describe how all of the schools and villages along the route had to practice "Volcano drills" and suggested that, while on the tour, if the ground started to shake and we heard "train-like noises" we should head for higher ground immediately to escape the rivers of mud. That assumes that we were not wiped out by the big bang, initially. Uh, excuse, me Ma'am? Shouldn't you have mentioned this a bit earlier? Like, while we were still in Austin?

"Active volcano" is a relative term, we were assured, and the last volcanic eruption was in the 1850's, though there are "swarms" of seismic activity every few years. The fact that the shattered peak of Mt. St. Helens was visible from the Park, a mere 40 miles away, crow-flying-wise, was not a comfort. However we were assured that if there was an eruption, the tour company would cheerfully refund our money. To our heirs.

In fact, we loved the trip. It was a gorgeous, cloud free day (not a given around the mountain) and our driver/guide was knowledgeable and loved her job.Never mind that she didn't know her left from her right. She would call out something for us to see, saying, "On your right is...," all the while pointing the other direction with her left hand.

The approach to Rainier led us by mountain lakes and old-growth forest that survived fierce forest fires and the 1850 eruption (some trees are estimated to be more than 1,000 years old), as well as "new" forests - a mere 350 years old. There were colorful wildflowers along the way and we were surprised to see large swaths of Indian Paint Brush and Bluebonnets - though in that part of the country (and in Alaska, we found later) they are called Lupines.

Mt. Rainier is the most glaciated peak in the contiguous US, with 25 major glaciers and numerous unnamed snow or ice patches.spawning six major rivers. We traveled along several moraines - debris left as glaciers receded - like that above.

In early June, some of the Park roads had just opened, and snow was abundant on both sides of the road. Rainier is a popular climbing destination: here's a group that was just getting ready to attempt to summit.

Next: an interesting side trip on the way to the mountain.

Monday Meanderings - 08.25.2014

It's Hatch Chili Festival at Chuy's - one of my favorite times. That's mainly because we go multiple times a week, instead of just on Mondays, so I can sample all the special dishes. Monday I had Frito Pie Enchiladas (amazingly good). Thursday I had the Steak Flautas (good, but not exceptional). I still have 6 or 7 dishes to try (insert happy face here).

Barb, on the other hand, is not fond of the spicier taste of the Hatch Chiles that make find their way into the daily menu as well as the signature dishes. She opts for the mildest dishes available. We were talking to the manager the other day, who admitted that she too was not a fan of spiciness, yet, as manager, everyday she goes into the kitchen and tastes all the dishes and sauces as part of the quality control. I want her job.

We also had a lengthy conversation with our favorite Chuy's waitress on Monday. Perhaps I should say our current favorite waitress; many have come and gone in our twenty-some-odd years of dining at Chuy's. We normally only get a few minutes to visit each week because she's always busy, but Monday her tables were all out on the patio, and since it was about 105 degrees and she understandably had no customers out there, she sat down and chatted with us.

She's an interesting person; I'm guessing she's in her mid-thirties and has been in the food service business since she was in her teens. She has done it all and seen it all, apparently, ranging from fights between customers to being held up at gunpoint! She and her husband - a mechanic for American Airlines - vacation by cruising the US on motorcycles.

The neighborhood birds had no difficulty finding the new location of the bird feeders. Especially not the sparrows and grackles. Interestingly, some of the most regular feeders now are Blue Jays; they didn't come to the old feeder as frequently as they do now. Saw a woodpecker out there Friday.

Our milder-than-usual summer days have given way to the real temperatures of summer. We have had multiple triple digit days, but thankfully, nothing like the record 90+ days of 2011. This too shall pass.

Flying machines. Adventures in traveling.

On one thankfully brief leg of our recent journey, we were scheduled on a Turbo Prop airplane. You remember passenger planes with propellers, don't you? Like in old movies? I tried hard to find some other flight that met our schedule, but in the end, we trudged outside, walked across the tarmac and climbed the stairs to shoehorn into a really small, really loud airplane.

I tried to think back to the last time I flew commercially in a propeller-driven aircraft. Mind you, I am of an age that my early flying time was in this type of plane, beginning with the venerable old DC-3 and DC-4. Think John Wayne in "The High and the Mighty." No? Okay, it was before your time.

I was, in fact, in my early twenties before I flew in my first jet airliner, a Braniff Airlines 707. You don't remember either the airline or the aircraft, do you? Why do I even try? But I digress.

In recent history, my last prop plane ride prior to our recent trip took place in Louisiana. Somehow that makes sense. Back in the employed era, my manager and I made a business trip to Grambling University. I'm fuzzy on the details of the out-bound trip to Grambling, but on the return trip, I recall that Steve and I drove the rental car to Shreveport, arriving quite late in the evening. The ticket counter was unmanned, but after some inquiry on our part, an agent came and checked us in.

Then he walked with us to the gate, checked us through the metal detector, and then walked with us out to the plane. We boarded, joining a solitary passenger, already aboard. The agent then climbed into the plane, pulled the door/stairway closed, and sat down in the co-pilot's seat! I have a vague recollection that he tossed peanuts and snacks over his shoulder to us during the flight, but I might be making that part up.

Monday Meanderings - 8.18.2014

Two pecan limbs on the ground this week in two separate incidents! Both are from my neighbor's tree again, and like the first one, these limbs are also mostly in my yard. Only took the neighbor 2 weeks to get the first one picked up. I guess the yard guys will just have to mow around them until they gets disposed of. I could do what? It's hot out there!

When you are retired (and old) it is sometimes hard to keep up with what day it is. So, when I called the American-Statesman circulation office last week to complain that my Sunday paper hadn't been delivered, they told me - very politely - that the reason it hadn't been was because it was Saturday! Huh. I guess that's why nobody was at church.

For the first time in however many years I have been recording books for the visually impaired, I was assigned an adult fiction book! I'm reading David Baldacci's "The Hit." Unlike the textbooks we normally work on, I will be the only reader for this book. Based on what I got done the first session, I estimate this may take me 12 weeks to complete. Maybe I should read faster.

The Great Egg Drop Contest - Stories from the cruise

Many of the Princess cruise ships have a multistory open area they call the Piazza. It's a mall-like area with boutiques and cafes, and a stage for entertainment on the lowest level. One lunch we stopped at the International Cafe located in the Piazza, and the only open table was located very near this entertainment area, and that's how we became accidental participants in the Great Egg Drop Contest. Well, Barb did.

The contest features teams who had signed up to construct devices that hopefully cushioned a raw egg dropped from three stories up onto a hard (plastic sheet covered) floor. All the devices were cobbled together with whatever the contestants could find on board, or brought with them; a lot of shopping bags, tissue and toilet paper, and wearing apparel, such as socks, tennis shoes and even panty hose. 

The most inventive package (and the most disastrous) was a container filled with peanut butter as the cushioning agent. It burst open upon impact and peanut butter went everywhere! So did the egg. Some had parachutes to slow the descent, and that's where Barb's participation came in.

The parachute for one entry actually worked, but it drifted away from the bulls eye...and landed on Barb! The egg was safe, but the entry was disqualified because it didn't land in the target zone. The guy providing all the patter, and checking the eggs, asked Barb if she wanted to keep the egg, since she was already "intimately familiar with it." She declined.

Monday Meanderings - 8.11.2014

One of the waitstaff at Fran's, our breakfast place, is a big tall kid who looks to be still a teenager. Each time he has waited on us I've noticed that he's rather taciturn - no banter or chatting up the customer. 

The other day I went to the counter to pay and he surprised me by saying, "So you are going to just leave, is that it?" I responded with something like, "we've done all the damage we could do," and he said, "Okay, but we are going to sing Kumbaya in a little while. You'll miss it." You never know.

We survived another tax-free shopping weekend. But then we did not repeat the mistake we made a few years ago by trying to go to a restruant located in the Outlet Malls area.

After the latest squirrel/bird feeder adventure, we relocated the feeders away from the tree branches and roof edge so as to make it a tad more difficult for him to access them. We hung them on poles on the patio, and I have since added a baffle below the middle feeder to discourage pole-climbing.

It has worked pretty well; the birds are going through seed like gang-busters. And they are also causing it to rain. Well, not really, but they are perching on the rain gauge (on the left) and every time they take off or land it rattles the little measuring mechanism inside and more "rain" shows up on the indicator in the house.

Looked out Friday morning to see yet another big pecan limb down - this time from a tree belonging to the neighbor across the street. Like Rob says, "I wouldn't want to be a tree in your neighborhood."

NFL football on the TV this week. Bad football, but right now, bad football is better than no football. It will be interesting to see how the Longhorns do this year under Charlie Strong. My guess is that like all big ships, it takes a while to turn around.

Alaska - Victoria, B.C. - Stories from the cruise

The only Canadian stop on the cruise, Victoria, capital of British Columbia, is a delightful city. Located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, it is equidistant (about 60 miles) from both Vancouver and Seattle. First settled by the British in 1843, it trails Seattle by 11 years for being the oldest city on the Pacific Northwest. Never mind that the Coastal Salish First Nations people lived here for centuries before James Douglas, on behalf of the Hudson's Bay Trading Company, set foot on the Island.

Victoria is a beautiful little city. Its history is reflected in the beautifully restored buildings, and the temperate weather promotes year-round botanical marvels. Our tour guide said that Victoria is a favored place to retire, but no place is perfect. The same earthquake fault that threatens California is present here; but the guide said that when the big one comes, Victoria will end up parked on top of Vancouver.

The driver pointed out a statue of George Vancouver, who was responsible for the discovery and development of the region. Originally cast in copper, the green patina made George appear continually sea-sick so the city fathers decided to recast the statue in gold. Unfortunately, when they removed the copper statue to use as a mold, they destroyed one of the legs. So they used the remaining leg as the mold for both and if you were able to look closely, you would see that George has two left feet.

I have been to Canada on several occasions, but not since Homeland Security and Customs and Emigration  and Border Paranoia became a big deal. My first visit, long ago, was on a tour bus at Niagara Falls. Having seen the US side, we crossed over for the Canadian view; a border guard stuck his head inside the bus and shouted, "Anybody not a US Citizen?" When he got no response, he stepped aside to let us pass.

Years later, with the border a bit more controlled, I made a trip to Toronto to speak at a conference. I got to the airport in Austin without thinking about what documentation I might need, and while it took a bit of fast talking on my part, the airline agent stamped my ticket "Documents OK" and away I went. I spent a week in Canada as an undocumented alien. During that time, I worried just a bit about the return trip, but for that leg of the trip I just walked out of Canada into "US territory" at the airport, got on the plane and came home.

The next time I went to Canada on business, I decided not to press my luck and took official documentation, though still not a passport.

To be sure, we had ventured onto Canadian soil earlier in the cruise when the train over White Pass continued into Canada for a few miles before reaching a turn-around junction in the track, so technically we were undocumented aliens at that point, since no one told us we needed passports to take the train trip.

They did tell us that we would need passports in Victoria; in fact, you couldn't board the boat in Seattle without a passport. You had to have a passport, even if you didn't get off the boat in Victoria. So, official, stamped, certified passports in hand, we disembarked, walked about a hundred yards into the Canadian Customs and Emigration building there at the docks.... and walked right on through without a single person giving us a glance!

Coming back, they did check... our cruise ID card, and that was it. Only when we got back to Seattle and left the boat to come home did anyone look at our passports. I wonder, if we had none at that point, would they have put us back on the boat, which was sailing again in just a few hours? Just a thought.

Monday Meanderings - 8.4.2014

Even before we ended our cruise, the Princess Line was pushing the next trip. If you signed up before you left the ship, they offered a big discount and on-board dollars to spend. It didn't matter if you didn't know when and where you wanted to go next, that could all be worked out later.

Since getting home we have averaged two or three emails a week offering similar deals on future cruises. We even got a phone call from our "personal cruise representative." So far, while interesting, none of the offers has tempted us into signing up. Until this email showed up:

Chocolate desserts, chocolate wine tasting, chocolate drinks menu, even chocolate spa treatments. Barb said, "Don't lose that email. I don't care where the cruise is going."

Another large tree limb is down. The good news is that it is from my neighbor's tree. The bad news is that the limb is largely in our yard. I guess I need to see if he wants to borrow my chain saw.

It's August and the low this weekend was 69 degrees. This has been a strange summer.

Rapidly approaching Hatch green chili season; both Chuy's and Central Market are promoting the events heavily. Still a week away, but CM was full of all kinds of baked goodies featuring chilies, including Hatch chili apple pie. I wonder if Princess Cruises knows about green chilies?

For some reason, I have been added to a list of people that might benefit from services available in China. The emails are showing up with verbiage like:

Dear Purchasing manager：

Glad to know you are in the market of rubber parts. Our company is a manufacture of professional rubber parts. We suppy retail all kinds of standard parts.    

And 

I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.

- 报^关货^运

I'm pretty sure that I am not who they think I am. I think.