Our neighborhood in Seattle...

Fred and I made a conscious decision not to stay downtown. We booked through www.airbnb.com, a service that connects travelers with people letting rooms or condos around the world. We chose a place twenty minutes or so from the downtown area, chiefly because of the view, and crossed our fingers that it would be as good as we hoped. It turned out to be the second best decision about the trip that we made, after deciding to take the trip in the first place.



We're staying in Mt. Baker, one of Seattle's neighborhood communities. The thing that surprised me most about Seattle so far is how hilly it is. Seattle, we learned, was built around seven hills. Mt Baker is one of those hills, overlooking Lake Washington on the east side of Seattle. It's quite a drop down to the lake, more than we want to walk! That's our room, the two windows below the peaked roof in the above picture. There are three other rooms, but guests in only one of them while we are here. Below, from our window, the sun rises in the marine layer across Lake Washington.


It's the kind of neighborhood where people live, commute to work, and walk their dogs and their kids. They stop at the local coffee shop when they walk their dogs and their kids and the staff greets them by name and pulls out a picture book for the kids. And there's a water bowl for the dogs. There are community gardens and little parks.


The bus stop is right behind the house. It's an easy ride to downtown, the bus drivers and the riders are helpful, and Fred is delighted that it's a trolley bus. We even get to see the driver put the trolley pole back on the cable as we get off. The buses are free in the downtown zone from 7am to 6pm. And .75 for seniors other times and zones. Unfortunately, there is talk of cutting services, and the bus route we are using is one of those that might be affected.

Around the corner we have a great view of Seattle, though it takes us a day before we realize we can see the Space Needle from here between the buildings. (At the far right in the picture below, just peeking out over the horizon.)



Fred took a run this morning around the neighborhood; the exertion, in addition to making him tired, apparently made him a little blurry!


-- Posted from my iPad!

First impressions...Seattle

We've been sleeping with the windows wide open (the way we found them). It's cool and slightly humid, and wonderful. The room, which we found through Airbnb.com is great, and our hostess couldn't be more accommodating, picking us up at the light rail station, driving us to a great seafood restaurant the first night. We return there with Rick after we pick him and his hiking partner at White Pass.









Above, the view out our room's window..across Lake Washington to Bellview.



Mt. Ranier, from Rt 12 through the park, on the way to pick up Rick and Bob.



Bob and Rick, looking amazingly well for 11 days and 123 miles on the trail.


Bob declined dinner out, saying he had to get ready for his next 100 mile hiking trip in Jasper, Canada...so the three of us celebrated Fred's birthday!

-- Posted from my iPad!

Connecting in Vegas..

En route to Seattle to escape the heat of home.

We're in the Las Vegas airport (free WiFi) awaiting our connecting flight. No escape from the heat here; it's 100 degrees outside. Good thing we're not outside. :-)

I'm typing this to the lilting music of the slot machines behind us. It's Vegas....

Fred is eating, of course....it's been a five hour flight to here and he's only had a half sandwich, a banana and cookies since the pancakes he had at BWI right before we boarded. We have a view of downtown Vegas while we wait...














Betsy...

-- Posted from my iPad!

Journal Sketch for the Centennial of Naval Aviation

I'm taking an online sketching and watercolor class. The theme is to do "journal" sketching--small vignettes of the world around you. I did one for the Centennial:



I'm always pleased when one of my drawings is actually recognizable as the object it is supposed to be. : )

-- Posted from my iPad!

Centennial of Naval Aviation

On Feb 12th (sorry about the delay), Fred and I visited the Centennial of Naval Aviation Open House at North Island, San Diego, CA.




It was a mob scene. An estimated 70000 people attended. Traffic was stopped dead going over the Coronado Bridge. At least they had a good view of the flyover.




We managed to get in and parked in a relatively short time by heading south of Coronado and then approaching via the Silver Strand instead of trying to cross the bridge. Soon we were parked and visiting the exhibits.




The second largest helicopter in the world, after a Russian copter. The Osprey is supposed to replace this.



We went on board an amphibious assault ship, the Peleliu. The view of San Diego from the ship's deck.




The view of the carrier USS Stennis from the deck of the Peleliu. The Navy top brass were viewing the procedings from the deck of the Stennis.

We had a long warm day of walking and photography. It was fascinating to see all the planes from many different eras of Naval aviation. Many Navy people were there with their families, showing them the planes and ships they work or worked on.

There are more pics from the day on my Picassa album.  Click on it to see the pictures full size and with captions.:


We ended the day at a great "Coffee Shop" in Coronado. I was thinking it was a Starbucks kind of place. But it was more a 50s era restaurant. Think Hot Shoppe (for those who know what that is) meets a diner. It even had a juke box with 45 rpm records (again, for those of you who know what those are) and an old fashioned cash register!
-- Posted from my iPad!

a San Diego Sunrise, Famosa Slough & a German restaurant

This past Friday started very well:




It was supposed to be a gorgeous day, so Fred and I decided to visit a couple of places we'd long wanted to visit but hadn't yet, and one we had.

The first was Famosa Slough. This is one of the birding hotspots in San Diego, and though we'd driven by it many times on the way to Point Loma, we'd never quite figured out how to visit it. Famosa Slough is a 30 acre wetlands owned by the city of San Diego. Note, that's I-8 in the background of the photo. An urban wetlands indeed!


It turns out to be quite easy to get there. There is a trail that goes from one end to the other, more or less, though some of it is along a road, and you have to cross a very busy street to get to the northern part of the Slough. We followed the directions in 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: San Diego

When we go again (and we will), we'll park on the street between the two sections of the Slough; the birding was best in the middle.

Unfortunately, the parking lot was closed due to a special project (but there was plenty of street parking). Fortunately, the project was restoration of parts of the wetland that was silted up and overgrown by non-native plants. The crew was largely comprised of the California Conservation Corps, an organization started in 1976 by then-and-now Governor Jerry Brown as a work program for young people.



We stopped and watched for a bit and chatted with David Kimball, the San Diego Bird Festival guru. He and Jim Peugh, respectively the Vice Chairman and Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Friends of Famosa Slough, were there to check on the work and also get their boots dirty helping out.

The full accounting of the birding that day will be on my birding blog. It proved to be a great place to bird, as advertised, and a very pleasant oasis in the midst of a busy town.




Here's the far northern end of the Slough:


Fred in front of a cactus and bougainvillea patch. There's been enough rain so that things are in bloom.






We had worked up quite an appetite, so we went to our second stop of the day, the Kaiserhof German restaurant, where we enjoyed a hearty German meal (sauerbraten for me and lamb shank for Fred) that more than made up for the calories we had worked off. It was just barely warm enough to eat outside (with the help of a space heater). Good food, good service. The Kaiserhof is closed on Mondays, usually, but will be open on Valentine's Day. When I asked about people proposing at the restaurant, our waiter said "No, Germans aren't very romantic." (Write the Kaiserhof, not me.)

We decided to put off our planned third stop, to the Ocean Beach pier to look for loons, for another day and take a nap instead.

In San Diego and not a minute too soon!

We had a pleasant flight out to San Diego from Baltimore on Southwest Airlines. Our rowmate was a young mother with a 13 month old boy named Adam. He really was quite good. By far not the worst rowmate we've had. (Did I ever tell you about the woman who was concerned that the change to daylight savings time would cause the earth to wobble on its axis?)

I won't say much about the weather we found when we arrived in San Diego, because I know you don't want to hear it. But a picture is worth a thousand words, they say...




Above, waiting for the rental car shuttle. Below, after picking up the car, we went off to lunch at the Prado in Balboa Park.



The Prado has wonderful fish tacos, I wish I'd taken a picture...but here's a picture of the flan we had for dessert.














And, the view from the condo...


-- Posted from my iPad!

Burlington, Vermont

The wedding went well yesterday, even if it was a bit cool for an outdoor wedding...the setting was gorgeous, the receptions was great fun, and we could see the Milky Way (and our breath) as we left the reception that evening. Tonight we are at the Hilton in Burlington and this is our view, taken from the hotel window:




-- Posted from my iPad!

Vermont Teddy Bear factory

Fred insisted that we visit the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory Saturday morning before the wedding, which wasn't until late afternoon. We had quite a nice visit. A few pics from the factory tour... the first one is the very first teddy bear made by the founder. The rest are from the factory and store.













-- Posted from my iPad!

Our New England Vacation, part 1

Fred and I went to Vermont to attend the wedding of our neighbor's daughter. And squeeze in a mini vacation. So far, it's been great. A bit of rain as we crossed Lake Champlain on the ferry, and it got rather cool, but overall, it's been beautiful since we left Virginia on Thursday.

Below, Fred and I on the Lake Champlain ferry on Friday, October 8th. It was cold and damp. A professional photographer took our picture with my little Pentax. : )





-- Posted from my iPad!

Teddy Roosevelt's Retreat in Virginia

I'm currently reading The RIver of Doubt, about Teddy Roosevelt's trip to map a remote river in Brazil; a trip that nearly killed him. At the beginning of the book, there's a mention of his Presidential retreat in Virginia: Pine Knot (www.pineknot.org). Curious, I looked it up (the Internet is a wondrous place) and found it was en route to the Mountain Lake Resort in southwestern VA where we were planning on spending a few days to beat the heat. More on that in future posts. So we arranged a visit--it's open by appointment only--and set off.

Keene is about 20 minutes south of Charlottesville. The retreat itself is on a road that is paved for about the first 1/4 mile, then one comes to a four-board black wooden fence with a gated driveway. This is where we met Paula, the docent.




A short drive inside the gate we parked and walked up the hill, through the woods to Pine Knot. The shade of the woods was very welcome as it was a very hot day. On the walk Paula shared some of the history of Pine Knot. TR's wife, Edith, bought it for him as a retreat from the pressures and city life of Washington, knowing that he loved the wilderness. They would attach their car to the mail train for the four-hour trip from Washington, disembark at North Garden, and make their way the 10 miles to Pine Knot either by carriage or horseback for a weekend or seven days, often at Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Edith bought 15 acres originally, and bought more when TR ran for re-election, so that the total propery was 90 acres. However, running as a Progressive candidate splintered the Republican vote, and Teddy lost. They only came back one more time to Pine Knot before Teddy's death at age 60. Edith kept it, however, until she was in her 80s, selling it to a family friend. Teddy Roosevelt IV bought the property back in 1986 and donated the property to the Theodore Roosevelt Association.





Pine Knot is a very modest place, not only by Presidential standards, but by most standards. No running water, no electricity. It is very rustic. Water came from a spring 300 yards away down the hill and it was 7-year old Archie Roosevelt's job to carry the water to the house.

Edith bought it for $280, including renovations. The Roosevelts added the covered porch--when you are on the porch, you can see the windows on the second floor that look out into the inside of the porch's roof. She also had the central staircase moved and the main floor opened into one large room instead of two smaller rooms, and added a fireplace on each end. The staircase would have been about where Fred and Paula are standing. The cabin is virutally unchanged since the Roosevelts used it.




It was primarily a retreat for the Roosevelt family, so they had few visitors there. One of them, on what was to be TR's last visit to Pine Knot, was the naturalist John Burroughs. TR birded the area with Burroughs, and they each showed the other two new birds! TR and Burroughs documented 75 birds in all at Pine Knot. Roosevelt's complete bird list at Pine Knot included what must have been one of the last passenger pigeon sightings in the US.

We had a great talk with Paula, who is a native Virginian from the Warrenton area. Legend has it that George Washington's will was hidden during the Revolutionary War at the farm her family now owns. Anyone who knows Fred knows we had a hard time leaving, but the Mountain Lake Resort beckoned. And dinner was only served until 8:30 pm... The fear of no dinner finally got us moving--we bid Paula thanks and farewell, left a donation, and were on our way to what we hoped would be a respite from the heat! (Have I mentioned it was a very hot day?)

-- Posted from my iPad!

Wright-Patterson AF Museum, Part II

There was a wonderful exhibit on the Berlin Airlift.
When we first saw this photo, we thought it was of Fred and Peg when they were young, playing with Fred's parachute doll. It was actually depicting the "Chocolate Drop,"a program that delivered candy to the children via these little parachutes.

The XB-36. This plane is 163 feet long. Only 4 of them still exist, I believe. That's another plane under the wing on the right. A bit smaller than a 747, but it looks even longer as the fusilage is very and thin compared to the 747.

Fred under the belly of the beast (the B-36). He spoke to this docent for about 30-40 minutes. Actually, the docent kept following him around and starting new conversations, so it wasn't all Fred's fault. I had a book, but finally left for the gift shop.

Fred next to one of the original wheels/tires for the XB-36. The landing pressures were too great, so this was replaced by a set of four wheels and tires.

Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum, Part I

On our recent trip to Dayton, Ohio for Mini Meet East, we again visited the Air Force Museum. Wonderful as always, although we only spent a few hours there. It's free, so we feel we got our money's worth, and then some!  The Museum is located on the grounds of Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH.  Be sure to allow plenty of time!

P-51D Mustang

These French boxcars, known as Forty and Eight's, were used to haul troops, Allied POWs to prisoner-of-war camps, and Holocaust victims to the death camps. This diorama depicts US POWs being delivered to a POW camp. The Forty and Eight referred to the cars' supposed capacity were 40 men or 8 horses. Frequently as many as 90 people were forced onto these cars.

Nose Art

C-47s were used to snatch gliders into the air.