While cruising in Alaskan waters, I discovered rivers of solid ice, sometimes thousands of feet thick! I call them “glaciers” and arranged for a helicopter ride at once for a closer examination.
I really should have been an arctic explorer. I think I rather look the part.My mighty steed ready to carry me to the river of ice.Glacial overboots. Very fashion-forward, everyone is wearing on the glacier.The soles of the boots with the little metal studs that bite into the ice.Glacial run-off. The intensity of the blue ice is incredible. It really is that bright blue, no photoshopping or anything!The Heart of Alaska.The river of ice meets the sea.
I made a quick inspection trip to Seattle, on my way to intercept the Queen Elizabeth, a Cunard liner. Seattle is very nice…a sort of clean and non-hostile San Francisco.
I visited the iconic Space Needle. Am amazed they could build it in less than a year. One wonders what corners were cut to achieve that!Pie in the sky? They called it pie, but, as you can see, it is not a wedge. Pie is served in wedges. Tasty, though, despite their misnomering.This is Dale Chihuly, manager of a glass factory. There is an exhibit of his products at Seattle Center, near the Space Needle.At Chihuly’s factory, they make many bowls like these. Pretty, I suppose, from a certain perspective. Lacking in utility and not dishwasher safe.Luckily, Chihuly manufactures decorative forest adornments, compensating for Nature’s lack of beauty.I discovered a transit vehicle—a sort of train—called a “monorail.” Weirdly, it has only a single track, like a unicycle train! Engineers are still trying to work out how it maintains its balance. Most trains require two, sometimes three, tracks.Seattletonians specialize in odd structures like this one. The inexplicable lack of straight walls and right angles leads to an inefficient use of interior volume. Wasteful!
While in DC, I dined at some excellent restaurants and drank at superlative bars: Afghania, The Hamilton, Off the Record at the Hay Adams, Round Robin at the Willard Hotel, and others I neglected to take note of.
I attended a service at the National Cathedral. It had been a while since I have been to a service, which is ok because I don’t sin much any more. Toured Mount Vernon, the White House, the US Capitol, the National African American Museum of History and Culture, and the Library of Congress. Visited many of the monuments, including some new ones: FDR, MLK, and WWI.
Washington National Cathedral on a gray drizzly Sunday morning.A brief snippet of post-service organ music, along with some idle worshippers.The bells! The bells! My search for Quasimodo proved fruitless.The Women’s Viet Nam Memorial.The Korean Conflict Memorial.Franklin and Fala.A UN person.I bet you don’t have a single spoon warmer in your mansion. The White House has them in abundance.This plane was the first trainer for the Tuskegee Airmen. It is at the National African American Museum of History and Culture.A bit of the beauty that is the Library of Congress.This is how people eat and drink in Washington.
I write this as I wing my way home from a most excellent adventure in Washington, DC. I stayed with my friends and wonderful hosts, Andrew and Michelle, for 3 days, then moved to a hotel for 3.
As most of us know, Washington has one weather mode, muggy, with two variants, hot and cool. Lucky for me, this visit was in the muggy and cool variant. It was drizzly rain for most of my visit, which may sound unfortunate at first. However, with an umbrella or light rain jacket, it proved quite comfortable.
One dangerous result of the rain, though, was the extremely slick sidewalks. All the granite and red bricks seem benign when dry, but turn treacherous when wet. Pedestrians beware.
Washington’s public transit agency, WMATA, runs superb bus and rail service throughout the city. It was very convenient, clean, safe and usually on time. Using public transit is way better than driving a rental.
First stop, right off the plane, the National Air & Space Museum at Dulles. Excellent as always, crammed full of planes.
This shuttle is so huge when you get up close. This one spent 365 days in space. I appreciated the way the curators left it looking worn and beat up; it shows that the shuttles were real work horses.
This P-40 has a scary shark face to frighten the enemies.
Elegant Concorde! Such a shame she no longer flies.
Pretty DC-3 all shiny and clean! Even the propellers have a mirror finish. The airline opted for this look to save the weight and cost of paint.
Great news! I had occasion to transit a desert settlement I call “Las Vegas.” While there, I visited New York, Paris and Rome…all within a couple of hours. No more multiple flights around the world, no more incurring carbon karma, not more tedium of airports. You can see the same boorish behavior, regrettable wardrobe choices and waddling midwesterners in Las Vegas as you could anywhere in the world.
All of the best parts of New York, transported to the desert.
Ooo la la! Paris delights as always.
Eataly is conveniently located between Paris and Rome.
A short excursion to the sunny beaches—enough of the rain already! It seem a little weird traveling without a cat and a van, but both had to stay home this time.
PV is a fun place to visit, with all the things you’d expect to find in an emerging economy. Long known as a mecca for tourists and North Americans wanting to live abroad, PV hosts tons of great restaurants and bars, many of which I sampled. It is crowded, just teeming with people from all over. I think Mexicans may be a minority here. There are four primary activities here: eating, drinking, napping and walking on the seashore. The walking is free, napping depends on your choice of accommodations, eating & drinking are a third of US prices.
Mexicans love to dance! Here you see a couple in fine form.
They have a all-ages rocking horse pavilion, the only one of its type known to exist. There are rocking horses for every size and shape.
In Puerto Vallarta, they have short, squat lighthouses tended by short, squat keepers.
Here’s a towering Church of the Unwed Mother. They have them everywhere! Very handy when you need to make a quick confession.
Beautiful sunset over the Pacific, boats await tomorrow’s labors, children play in the surf.
Xena, the Warrior Princess, does not appreciate being left behind.
