I just realized that I left out a couple photos in the Hohenzollern Castle post, so I edited the original post and added them in (at the end). I also corrected some spelling errors.
Hohenzollern Castle Update
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A Word About the Autobahn
The Autobahn is simply Germany’s interstate. The speed limits are all advisory, except as occasionally otherwise posted. Jess and I both drive. It isn’t as intimidating as people think. While there were some drivers going very fast, the idea is that you just get out of the way of the faster drivers. Most of these roads where we are driving are 2 lanes each direction. You stay in the right lane unless you come upon someone going slower than you want to go, and then you pass. You do need to look for cars coming from behind in the left lane before you pull out, especially with a slow-accelerating car like the one we have. When there is more traffic, you may stay in the left lane more, unless you see someone coming up on you, and then you get out of their way. People are very good about letting other cars in, both from the right and from the left, and seemed to be aware of the cars around them. Even in downtown traffic and in tight streets, traffic seemed to work pretty smoothly.
Hohenzollern Castle
After leaving Tübingen, we were headed to Eisenburg, near the castles of Neuschwanden (of Disney fame) and Hohenschwangau next door. We took a side trip, not too far out of the way to Hohenzollern Castle, the home of the Prussian Kings.
As we were driving, we saw this sight in the distance and thought, “Now that’s a castle!”
As we got closer, we saw this powered parachute flying near the castle. I couldn’t get a picture with them both together, but I bet the pilot got some good photos!
We took a shuttle from a parking lot below the castle, and there were a bunch of old Morgan sports cars parked in the lot. When we got to the castle, these were parked in the courtyard. I took these photos with my friend, Roger, in mind.
Even with the shuttle, there is quite an uphill walk to get to the main part of the castle.
From the vantage point of this photo, we had walked from below where the archway is. Visiting these castles is not for anyone with mobility challenges.
This castle was the best one we’d seen so far. It is privately owned by the Prince of Prussia, Georg Friedrich, who has only a nominal role as royalty, but is a direct descendant of a long line of Prussian kings.
The family still owns and uses the castle though, and were actually in residence when we were there (signified by the family flag flying above the castle).
We took a very interesting guided tour through the castle—the only way that you can see the interior—and once again, no photos, but here is a link to photos of inside of this spectacular castle:
We were allowed photos on the grounds and in the chapel.
The property has a nice view of the surrounding area!
Tübingen
We drove on to Tübingen, mostly on the back roads. Unfortunately we had our GPS set to take us the shortest route rather than the fastest, and it took us through Stuttgart at rush hour. Eventually, we figured it out and got on the autobahn to finish our trip.
We have been fortunate to have gotten AirBnB flats in the Altstadt’s where the streets are quaint and cobblestoned and they are great for walking around.
They are not so great for finding places to park, so we have had to drag our stuff some distances over cobblestoned streets. Tübingen is also hilly, so it was kind of a schlep.
We had to park in a public pay garage, and it appeared to us that it was going to cost of 45-75 euros, but we had little choice. It turned out that overnight parking only cost us about 10 euros, much to our relief.
Our flat in Tübingen was great! It was tiny and old, but our host was friendly and helpful and the flat was comfortable and right in the middle of things. A short walk away was a Greek restaurant where we had dinner outside.
A short walk the other way was a market square, where we had espresso and sweets outdoors on a lovely night.
The next morning, we went there for breakfast and were surprised to see the square filled with a farmers’ market.
We had a great breakfast, again outdoors, and it got us off to a very good start for the day.
Bad Mergentheim
After leaving Nuremburg, we decided to take the back roads to our next destination of Tübingen. We had planned to stop in a city named Rothenburg ab der Taub, but in reviewing the tour book, we concluded that mostly what it had to attract us was it’s being picturesque. We decided to go to Bad Mergentheim instead.
The word “Bad” in German means bath, and this city has Bad in the name because of the natural mineral springs which are supposed to have healing power. It has a castle that was dedicated to the Teutonic Knights, otherwise known as the Knights of Malta (Hospitaller), an order of knights from the Crusades.
The Maltese Cross was their emblem:
The trip there was great! Such beautiful scenery and quaint rural villages that really reminded me of the back roads of Ireland.
The castle wasn’t the greatest, and like most castles, we were not allowed to take photos inside. This castle was also somewhat out of the way, and they had very little in the way of English-language explanations.
However, here is one photo of an amazing spiral staircase taken from the web.
Other than that, you will have to be content with some pictures I took of the outside, and pictures inside a nearby restaurant, where we had more delicious traditional food.
Nuremburg
Unfortunately, as on any road trip, we needed to move on to see more places, so we headed for Nuremburg, about 1-1/2 hours away. We found our AirBnB fairly easily (with 2 GPS’s) and met our very congenial host. After getting settled, we walked to the town center which is a large walking mall oriented around a church. We were still seeking help with our phones, but we finally got our issues solved at a Vodaphone store. (As in the US, there are both corporate and franchised stores and the corporate store was much better than the franchise.) If you go to Germany, I highly recommend Vodaphone for ease of use. After all the trouble I went through to get my phone unlocked, the sim card I got at the airport was pretty much worthless.
We spent several hours walking around this area of Nuremburg, and plan to spend more time tomorrow, before leaving for our next destination.
I actually didn’t take many pictures. The time spent on the phones got in the way, and much of the walking mall was just shops and food vendors. We enjoyed it though and didn’t worry about the pictures.
Jess composed this picture of the arch, but asked me to take it with my camera.
This is a picture of part of the fortification wall around the old city.
We planned to go to a castle on Thursday morning, but after thinking about it, we decided to head for the next destination instead.
Regensburg
We have been enjoying traditional food–and I have been enjoying traditional beer–on this trip. Our night in Regensburg was no exception. We found a brew pub where we had good food and beer, and then went back to our apartment. It had been a long day of travel and we were tired.
In the morning we spent a lot of time walking around the Old Town (Altstadt) section of Regensburg, which is located Southeast of Nuremburg. This section is totally quaint having escaped bombing during WWII, and having been founded in about 700 AD. Although cars can drive through, the Old Town is geared for walking.
Our flat is located in the middle of it, so it is very convenient to walk around. There were lots of tourists, and lots to see, as well as many open-air vendors and cafes. We went into St. Peter’s Cathedral, a huge, beautiful Gothic cathedral, started in 1273. It was built during the height of Regensburg’s golden years. The full fron of the cathedral is so tall I had to piece the photo together from three shots.
We also visited St. Emmeram’s, a former monastery dating from around 800 AD and restored in a baroque style in the 1700’s. It was designated as a basilica in 1964 by Pope Paul VI. It was awesome to see these buildings of such an age.
Surprise!
No pictures today because it was travel day and the train was not conducive for taking pictures.
Our surprise was halfway into our train trip when the conductor informed us that we’d need to get off the train and take a bus for most of the rest of the trip. I thought I had specifically booked our train itinerary to avoid that, but I missed something. Still, the bus was more comfortable than a plane, and the time was built into the schedule. Shortly before reaching Regensburg, we stopped in another town and boarded a smaller train for the remainer of the trip.
We barely made it to the Hertz office in time to pick up our car, and then we got lost on the way to our AirBnB flat, but we made it. This is a nice area and I’ll get some pictures for the next post.
Prague: A New Day
I love Prague!
We went into the Old Town of the city today and had a really good time. It is a beautiful city. During a tour of the city, our driver told us that it had not been bombed during the war, so the buildings are quite old.
The architecture is baroque and is really ornate. The Old Town buildings date back to the 11th century. Our driver also explained the “New Town” buildings only date back to the 14th century! It was a nice day—overcast and not too hot, but not cold or rainy either.
Before going to the city center, we had to take care of a couple of things. Jess had to figure out where he could dry his jeans at a laundromat. Prague is a hilly city and he dragged me over a mile uphill. I should have made him carry me! It turned out though that the laundromat was also an internet café and advertised that they liked to speak English!
Jess got directions to a place where he could buy a new sim card, which could be topped off on an English-language web site. Still, he had to trim it down to fit his phone.
We figured out the train and headed downtown and to Old Town. We really enjoyed the cosmopolitan atmosphere. The city is clearly a magnet for tourists. With limited time, we had thought about taking a tour. When we got to the Old Town district, we came upon a tour in an antique Praga car. We decided to take it, and had a great time!
We could not have seen as much of the city in a short time on our own. There were other types of tours available, but sitting in the back of a chauffeured touring car was worth it! On the down side, it was very hard to take pictures. We were moving and most of the streets are cobble stone and very narrow.
Besides Old Town, we went through the Jewish Quarter and up to the Prague Castle. I took a lot of pictures, but I will have to go through them and post more later.
Here is the Swedish Embassy for our Swedish friends.
After lunch, we made our way back to the flat and took naps. Then we went back to Old Town for a late dinner. As soon as we left the flat, there was a thunder/lightening/rain storm, but hey—I can take it, I’m from Seattle! We didn’t get too wet.
We had a great dinner of paella and took a few nighttime pictures before heading back. I was surprised to hear how many clubs were going full bore on a Monday night, but there were lots of tourists.
Prices in Prague are very reasonable. If you are going, be sure to get some Czech crowns (CZK), as the Euro is not used here. The CZK is worth about 4 cents, so things look more expensive than they are.
This has been the best day of our trip so far!
On to Prague
On Sunday, we were to leave for Prague. My feet were sore from previous days and I did not want to go wandering around the city, so we went directly to the station. The station is very large and very busy, with 4 floors of shops. Jess tried to get help with his phone at the train station but was unsuccessful and he finally gave up.
We wound up just waiting several hours for the train and then we almost missed it after taking a couple of wrong turns to the platform. We got on at the last minute! At least once we were in our seats we could relax. I took a few pictures of the Czech countryside on the way.
We arrived in Prague about 7:30 PM. Our first impressions were not great since our car driver got lost and wound up about two or 3 uphill blocks from the flat. Although he walked with us and helped with the luggage, we learned that the Czech Republic is one of the EU countries that doesn’t use the Euro, and that’s all we had. He was unhappy, but our host Stephanie took care of the fare and said we could pay her back later. We had also encountered rude people when asking for directions at the train station and when we stopped at a grocery store, the clerk was surly. So far, only Stephanie was friendly. As you can tell, our overall experience on this trip has been frustrating. People in Berlin did not seem to be particularly friendly or helpful it was hot and humid, and we didn’t find it as interesting as we expected, at least in the limited time we spent there.
Things began to look better when we got to the pub for dinner. The staff spoke English well and were very friendly and helpful. The traditional Czech food was delicious and the Guinness helped! Except for getting lost on the way back to the flat, things were looking up. Also, our flat is beautiful, especially after our little dorm-like room in Berlin.
We still have some communications problems, both with our phones and our Wi-Fi connections. Given how dependent we are on the internet, this is a major stressor. I hope we can get things resolved soon.
Berlin – Day 2 (Saturday)
After walking so much the day before, we weren’t necessarily keen on doing a lot of walking again. Besides, it was very hot and humid on Saturday so it was not pleasant outside. We did go to the Deutsche Historische Museum and spent several hours there. Here are a few pictures from the museum.
We went to lunch in Fredrichstrasse. I thought I would include a picture of typical German food, in this case bratwurst.
We took a light rail to an area called Gesundbrunnen. We had intended to go on a tour of the Unterwelten (Underworld) Museum, an underground area where Berlin citizens were evacuated for safety during World War II. We waited for a while but decided we were too hot and tired to go on a long walking tour and decided to head back. After naps, we went out for dinner and walked around the trendy Kreuzberg area, then went back to the hotel. By that time the soccer match was on, and many people at the hotel and in the surrounding bars were watching it.
I took my computer down to the first floor courtyard where I was able to get Wi-Fi and contact Janie and continue trying unsuccessfully to resolve my phone unlocking problems. By now, Jess’ data on his sim card has run out, and he has been trying to reload it. He is frustrated because he has not been able to figure out how to do it, and could not get instructions in English. He tried to get people to help him understand the instructions in German, but no one is willing or able to help. Apparently, the sim cards we got at the airport are an off brand (Blau), and there is nowhere to go to get help. Now both of our communications are limited, and we can’t use his phone to navigate.
Berlin
We arrived in Berlin after about 24 hours of traveling. For me, it began with a train trip from Seattle to Vancouver, BC, a trip to the airport by light rail, and the usual security rigmarole. (I thought the Canadian security people were surlier than my recent contacts with US TSA people.) I had not seen the King Street Station since was restored. It looks nice, but there is not much there.
Jess flew from San Francisco to Vancouver, and met me at the departure gate. I thought he would be able to stay inside the security perimeter and avoid going through it again, but that wasn’t the case. As it turns out, he had just enough time to make the connection, and they were getting ready to board our plan by the time he arrived.
The flight on KLM was very nice. We had opted for premium economy seats and they had lots of leg room. Unfortunately, the seats weren’t much wider—if any—and that made them a tight fit for me. Although we didn’t sit together, there were enough empty seats that we did not need to be crammed next to another passenger. Service was very good, including two pretty good meals and complimentary wine.
We had a connection in Amsterdam, which involved going through security again.* Finally, we landed in Berlin. We bought sim cards for our phones at the airport. Jess’ worked perfectly, and we thought we’d tested mine, but after leaving the airport, it locked up, so I have been without a phone so far.
Our hotel is “interesting.” I don’t remember staying in one like it before. It is a very small room with two pairs of Ikea-style bunk beds. Part of the name of the hotel is Jugendhotel—Youth Hostsel. I wondered if it was geared for travelling young people, but there are plenty of older people here too. We had some difficulty booking an affordable room in Berlin. What we didn’t realize is that there was a HUGE soccer championship going on this weekend. A cab driver told us that the tickets were going for around 2,000€. In checking room rates for our return through Berlin in 2 weeks, it looks like rates are about 1/3 of what they are this weekend.
After checking in, we wandered around a little and found a pretty good restaurant, where we got schnitzel. Since we were still acclimating to the time change, we took naps, then walked a couple of miles to the Brandenburg Gate. This was kind of a central meeting spot for activities leading up to the soccer match, so there was a festival atmosphere. I took some shots of the Brandenburg Gate and the Soviet War Memorial, we walked through the Tiergarten Park and took the bus back toward the hotel.
One thing that surprised me about Berlin, such a large city, is that people do not speak much English. I might not have been as surprised except for our experience in Sweden, where it was very easy to speak English with people, even in more rural areas far north of the Arctic Circle. Here, English is much more limited. We had problems with a couple of grumpy bus drivers. We couldn’t communicate where we were going and the first driver told us to get off because we were on the wrong bus (which we weren’t).
This is a picture I took on the way back to the hotel, and I just liked the way it turned out.
Once we made our way back to the hotel we found a very good Greek restaurant a block away, where they were very nice and even gave us complimentary shots of schnapps. The food and prices were excellent also.
*By the way, if you are traveling outside the US, although TSA no longer requires us to remove liquids from our carry-ons, other countries still do, so be prepared.
Goin’ to German
This is the title of an old timey blues that my friend, Justin Petersen, used to sing. (The rest of the lyrics are not particularly flattering to the songwriter’s lady, so I didn’t include them.) I’m goin’ to German and I’ll be back someday–soon in my case, because I will miss my baby!
Janie is staying home for this one and I am traveling with Jess for a two-week trip to Berlin, Prague, Salzburg and Bavaria. Besides flying, our modes of transporation will be train and rental car, so it will be an adventure. Watch this space for more news and pictures!
Ireland Album, 2012
It’s taken a long time to get around to sorting and editing the photos for our second trip to Ireland in 2012. All three of us finally looked through them together and tried to pick the best of the photos between us. These were taken before I started the blog, so there is no narrative to go with them, except the captions. If you are interested, click on Ireland 2012 in the list at the top of the page.
Dilemma and Compromise
Roger, my photography buddy, knowing that I was planning to go to Folklife, suggested that I take the camera and “take lots of photos.” I thought about it, but for me, Folklife is about the music (and the dancing . . . and of course, the food). I worried that if I brought my camera, I would spend too much time experiencing the festival through the viewfinder, and trying to get a good shot. Then I remembered the advice of the National Geographic photographer in the photography video course I’m watching—that you can take good pictures with a point-and-shoot if you’re patient. So I compromised and took the point and shoot. I didn’t take a lot of photos, because I am not patient enough, and I did want to focus on the music (and food), but here are a few. (Speaking of food, have you ever tried a deep fried peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwich? Yum!)
This was early in the day. Later, it was shoulder to shoulder. I was a little surprised by the size of the crowds by later in the afternoon. I shouldn’t have been—I’ve been going to Folklife for about 40 years, and no rain was predicted. Although it was cloudy in the morning, the weather got better as the day progressed.
This is Leslie’s friend, Michael Conrad. It was his first time performing a Folklife, and he did very well. I liked his song writing, and he has a nice, mellow voice.
Here is a Celtic group at the “Trad” stage.
One of the things that makes me very happy at Folklife is the number of young people who appreciate and play traditional music.
It may seem strange to some, but I applaud Folklife’s is inclusive of other cultures, including new American-born traditions like hip hop. I don’t even care for a lot of hip hop or rap music, but “folk” music has always been evolving. I heard my brother point out the other day that Bluegrass has only been around since the 40’s, and we’ve certainly embraced that as “folk” music. If our “folk” music had not evolved and adapted, we probably would not have considered those once new-fangled styles like Irish music and Gospel to be part of our folk traditions. Besides, the new styles of music have deep roots in our American traditions and the African and European traditions that are the roots of our American traditions.
Here is a group of young people doing a dance performance based on African traditions, but they also did some pretty great tap and other dances.
An of course there are miscellaneous things to see, like jugglers, human statues, hula hoopers and this guy.
Back to our old-time traditions: Brother Jerry, sitting on the left, jamming for hours with a bunch of friends.
Point Defiance Zoo
For those of you who don’t use Facebook, this post is for you.
The other day, my friend Roger and I went on a photography excursion to the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma. It was a beautiful day and we took the trip top down in Rog’s Miata. We thought we would be going on a day that would be less crowded and that we would avoid having to share the viewing space with lots of kids. Wrong!
Still, the kids let us squeeze in to get to shots of the animals.
This guy looked like he hadn’t had his Starbucks yet!
The walruses are HUGE! This one liked to glide around on it’s back underwater.
It may not be that obvious, but once walrus is gliding underneath the other. Did I say they were HUGE?
I believe this is called a guillemot from North Umberland.
Otters are always cute!
The penguins showing off their eggs.
Try staring into the eyes of the tiger for awhile. Mesmerizing!
Back to the Workshop
I finally got back to my workshop project today. It’s hard to do much without a work bench so I am building one. (It’s also hard to build a workbench when you don’t have a bench.) Today I spent a couple of hours measuring, setting up and cutting the pieces for the base, as well as cutting channels in these support pieces. It takes some patience. Each one has to be done in two cuts–three would have been better. Each cut takes about 5 min. because you can’t rush them without damaging the tools.
Senior Moment
Today we visited Acoma Pueblo. We visited yesterday, too. Two trips of nearly 100 miles each way in two days? Have you ever driven 100 miles for a good photo opportunity, only to realize that you forgot your camera? That was my senior moment of this trip! Janie’s response was “Well, this is too good an opportunity to pass up without a camera, so we should come back tomorrow.” It meant passing up some other sightseeing possibilities, but when we arrived at Acoma, we could see that it would be worth a trip back.
While we were there on Thursday, we met Ed, Jessica and Eva, who were selling pottery at a viewpoint along the road. We spent quite a bit of time talking with them, and Ed was proud to show us the work he had done.
H
e also took time to explain how they made traditional dyes from natural minerals found in locations they keep secret even from other family members.
Eva was painting a piece and showed us some of the dyes along with her work.
On our return trip, we were able to take some pictures of the landscape. One formation reminded us of Stonehenge. A permit is required to photograph at the site. I wasn’t clear whether that applied just to the Sky City, or to the whole Pueblo, so I was cautious about taking pictures until we arrived at the Cultural Center on the 2nd day and I got the permit. This photo shows the “Stonehenge” in the foreground and the Sky City on the mesa in the distance.
The Acoma’s have a guided tour of the Sky City site, on top of a 350 foot mesa, which has been continuously occupied for over 800 years. The Acoma’s believe it has been an ancestral site for much longer, but their stay was interrupted by Spanish invaders.
The tour was really interesting. We were taken by a shuttle to the top of the mesa, where we were guided on foot by a member of the community. The Sky City site is primitive, although I saw some modern accommodations, such as port-a-potties, propane tanks and cars. The mound in the center of this photo is a wood-fired bread oven.
But water still must be hauled up to the top of the mesa, the terrain is uneven, and the houses are tiny.
This house (part of a group of row houses) is thought to date back to before the Spanish arrived. The bottom floor is made of sandstone brick and the doorways are very low. The upper floors are made from adobe brick, which was introduced by the Spanish and the doorways are taller, which may reflect physical changes in the people after better diets were introduced by the Spanish.
It was interesting to learn that the Acoma society is matriarchal. These homes are passed down through families to the youngest daughter. If there is no daughter, they go to the youngest son, but then pass to his youngest daughter in the next generation.
Although the tour guide and others said that the Acoma do not discuss their religion and rituals with outsiders, and that they are passed down orally, they were documented by Northwest photographer Edward S. Curtis in the 1920’s. That is not to say that many people were in favor of the disclosure–most of this kind of documentation of tribal customs was done in secret and over the objection of most tribe members. If you’re interested, here is a link to Curtis’ detailed description of the Acoma people and their customs, including his photographs. The North American Indian
Our guide did show us the exteriors of some Kiva’s—rooms where the men conducted ceremonies. She explained that the Kiva’s are now square, whereas they used to be round. The Spanish destroyed the round ones in order to suppress the Acoma religion, and the rebuilt Kivas were disguised and made to look like part of houses.
Most of the people live below the mesa in more modern communities, but some people—including the tribal leaders—live all year round on the mesa.
Our tour ended at the church, originally built in the 1600’s. We were not allowed to take pictures inside, but it had 8-foot thick walls, a dirt floor, and included several beams that were never allowed to have touched the ground. Paintings seen inside the church were done in the 1600’s and rescued during a sacking of the cathedral during a Pueblo uprising in the late 1600’s.
On our way back to Santa Fe, we stopped at a Cracker Barrel to eat. I had never been to one before, but they are obviously designed for the retired tour bus/RV crowd. (For those of you who knew her, we thought of Janie’s mom, who would have loved the food: meatloaf, chicken and dumplings, ham, and turkey.) Since we were late eating lunch, we decided to have a more substantial meal there at around 4 PM. The food was good, but I realized that we had become retired early eaters! What next?
Today is our last full day in New Mexico. We may not have gotten to see everything we wanted to, but we’ve enjoyed it. I did realize that 4 days may be all my Northwest body can take of the low humidity. Even though it rained today, I feel like I’m shriveling up, and it will be good to get back to our Northwest dampness.
Stay Tuned
We had an interesting adventure today, but it’s not over yet, so you will have to wait until tomorrow for the report!
Meanwhile, here are a couple of tidbits: After getting back from our earlier adventure, I went to the Loretto Chapel to take some pictures, particularly of the Miraculous Staircase.
There are two mysteries about the exquisite Staircase: who built it, and how was it constructed? Rather than repeat the information that is already available, I will give you a link to the chapel’s website. The Loretto Chapel. Be sure to read the page about the Staircase.
I was surprised to learn today that the Chapel had been sold to private parties in 1971 and deconsecrated before it was restored to its prior beauty and made available to the public.
Later, Janie and I searched for a restaurant for dinner and found El Meson nearby. It specializes in tapas, which are great for Janie and I since she doesn’t eat much, and we can share several dishes. The food was delicious, and we were delightfully surprised that they had live jazz (piano and bass). Janie is not a big fan of most jazz, but she liked this–it helps when she can recognize some of the tunes. We particularly enjoyed their rendition of Conjunction Junction, with touches of Chattenooga Choo Choo and the Bunny Hop thrown in! It was a great end to a long day.
Santa Fe Style
We took a tour around central Santa Fe today. It’s a little hard to get good pictures from a moving vehicle, but at least it was open-air, so I didn’t have windows to contend with. Some of the striking things about Santa Fe are the architectural styles, and the sculptures seen all over.
The buildings are limited in core historic districts by the building codes to primarily Pueblo Style and Territorial Style. The buildings are also limited in height, so you won’t see any skyscrapers.
These are a couple of Pueblo Style homes.
Distinctive characteristics of Territorial Style buildings are white columns or woodwork, and brick trim around the top.
The type of fence on this house is called a Coyote fence.
There are other styles (mostly grandfathered in) but the overwhelming majority are these styles.
Most buildings are now made with modern materials and covered with stucco, made to look like adobe, but here is an example of an adobe wall, using methods in existence for hundreds of years.
I like the way the Pueblo Style embeds wood elements directly into the walls.
The Canyon Drive area has around 100 art galleries including many with sculptures, but there are many sculptures scattered around the city. These are some on the State Capitol grounds.
Here is another sculptures we liked at a Canyon Drive gallery.
Off Again!
I am back in the Southwest. This time my sidekick is Janie, and our destination is Santa Fe. We’ve been here once before, but it’s been more than 10 years. Even at that, I was at a conference and we didn’t get much time to look around. This time we should have more time to explore the galleries and other sights, and hope to get outside the city to explore the surroundings and history. We flew this time and rented a car. Our accommodations are nice—the Villas de Santa Fe, part of Diamond Resorts International. Although it is a membership chain, they also take independent reservations. We have a small kitchen, a separate bedroom and living room, with a patio off of the living room. They also have nice amenities including a shuttle to take us to the city center. Today we recovered from a day of travel, starting with getting up at 3 AM, and tomorrow, we’ll head out to see Santa Fe. We also plan to go to Albuquerque for a day. Stay tuned!
Changing the Subject
I’m glad in a way that I was finished posting pictures of my Southwest trip. Now I can change the subject. Last night we went to a play at Taproot Theatre, The Best of Enemies. It was really challenging subject matter but very well acted and staged. The heavy parts are balanced by the right amount of humor without detracting from the drama. I really recommend that you go see this one. For more information, here’s the link for Taproot Theatre.
Final Installment – Photos for Arches National Park
Navajo Country Photos Added
Sedona Photos Added
Escalante and Boulder Mountain
I’ve just updated my Day Twelve – Bryce Canyon and Beyond post with a few more pictures. These are the “Beyond” photos. I’ve also added to the text of that post if you want explanations of the photos. You can go directly to the post by clicking the button. Then scroll to the end of the post for the new photos.
New Photos of Bryce Canyon
And Finished!
The headline of my previous post was premature–I wasn’t home yet. But now I am really home, glad to see Janie, and glad to take a nap in my favorite recliner (while watching the Mariners beat the Angels). I made better progress than I had expected. Maybe I had more energy because I was eager to get home. My total trip wound up being 4,164 miles from the time I picked up Roger, and I took about 1,400 photos!
Home!
Day Fifteen – Old Friends and Homeward Bound
In 2003, when I volunteered on the Lady Washington tall ship, I met a young man who impressed me very much. His nickname was “Stitch” and he was the Bosun’s Mate on that voyage. Adam Billings was a nice, sincere, humble young man of about 24 who gave me the strong feeling that he would do something with his life. I stayed in touch, and 10 years ago, he let me know that he was getting married, so I went to Salt Lake City to attend. His wife, Becky, was just as nice as Stitch. In spite of having just gotten married, and the fact that Becky didn’t know me at all, and needing to get to a family barbeque (to which I was invited), Stitch and Becky spent about 2 hours showing me around Salt Lake City.
I had not been back to SLC since, but I knew that they had moved to Payson, a city just south of Provo. I made arrangements to meet Stitch, Becky and their family of four kids for brunch on the day I left. Stitch did do something with his life. Becky already had a teaching degree when they got married, and Stitch now has two masters degrees and is the Director of the Deaf South Division of the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind. Their kids are just as polite and pleasant as I would have expected. Stitch and Becky are the kind of people you can know long-distance for years, but when you get back together, it is like it’s only been a week.
We left the Billings after 4 or 5 good byes and “oh one more thing.” I dropped Bill off at the airport for his trip home—I really enjoyed the opportunity to explore Arizona and Utah with him. We never turned on the radio or audiobooks, because we just kept talking. But now I turned north and was homeward bound and eager to get home.
I did make one more sight-seeing stop on the way in to my first night’s destination, Twin Falls, Idaho. Shoshone Falls was a few miles off the route, but it is a picturesque site, and the light was waning, so I thought it would be worth trying to get a good photo.
Day Fourteen – Bill’s Old Stomping Grounds
Friday was our day to visit the area east of the Wasatch Mountains, where Bill lived 30 years ago. He described it as a jeep, a dog and living in a cabin in the mountains where he could snow ski in the morning and water ski in the afternoon. A good life for a young air freight captain. He hadn’t been back since moving to Arizona. This is a beautiful rural area, although the snow was now sparse, and I could only imagine what it would look like all snow-covered. We drove up through Park City, where they were still skiing, and up to Deer Valley. Then we drove to Snow Basin, where Bill used to ski and although they were still skiing there, we found out we could ride up the gondola and see it from the top.
Next, we headed to and Eden, and drove by the cabin where Bill lived, and on to Huntsville where we stopped at the Shooting Star Saloon, claimed to be the oldest continuously-operating bar in the United States—since 1879—including through Prohibition. Apparently, the bar was owned at that time by a couple, who took turns going to jail for serving alcohol, but they kept the bar open anyway.
On the wall of the bar hangs the stuffed head of a St. Bernard, Buck. Buck was a world-record sized dog, weighing in at nearly 300 lb. When Buck died, his owner, a friend of John, the Shooting Star’s owner, had his head mounted. The bartender told us that the man’s wife would not allow him to hang it in the house, so John let him hang in the saloon, where it still hangs today.
After leaving the saloon, we headed down Ogden Canyon to Ogden, where Bill flew in and out of Hill AFB, and then headed back to the motel. In spite of the fact that we stayed “local,” we drove nearly 200 miles that day!
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Day Thirteen – Arches National Park
Arches is not part of the Grand Staircase but it is just as interesting. We tried to get there early for the light, but not as early as we had hoped. Still, there was lots of beautiful sights, not to mention a distant view of the Colorado Rockies.
I included a lot of photos of this area because there seemed to be more close up photo ops.
A balancing rock
This formation is called the Courthouse.
The Three Gossips
When we got to the Windows section, we took a fairly easy (paved, but slightly steep) hike up to the Windows, and decided to take the “primitive” trail down. It was easy most of the way, but unpaved, and we looked for rock cairns to follow the route.
I joked to Bill that it seemed easy at the beginning, but we’d probably get far into it and find a steep climb or something. Guess what? We got to one spot that I didn’t think I’d be able to make. After studying the rocks in front of me though, I figured out a way up where I didn’t think I’d roll back down. I was glad I had my camera monopod with me, which doubles as a walking stick. When we got all the way down, we felt like we had accomplished something.
After visiting Arches, we took in a museum exhibit of John Wesley Powell about the exploration of the canyons of the Green and Colorado rivers, and then headed all the way across the state to Provo. We’ll stay two nights there and tomorrow, we explore the Wasatch Mountains to the east of Salt Lake City and Provo, and Bill’s old stomping grounds before he moved to Phoenix.
New Photos
Day Twelve – Bryce Canyon and Beyond
The Grand Staircase is an immense sequence of sedimentary rock layers that stretch south from Bryce Canyon National Park through Zion National Park and into the Grand Canyon. In the 1870s, geologist Clarence Dutton first conceptualized this region as a huge stairway ascending out of the bottom of the Grand Canyon northward with the cliff edge of each layer forming giant steps. . . .
What makes the Grand Staircase . . . unique is that it preserves more Earth history than any other place on Earth. . . . [T]he Grand Staircase and the lower cliffs that comprise the Grand Canyon remain largely intact speaking to over 600 million years of continuous Earth history with only a few paragraphs missing here and there. — National Park Service
We had arrived the previous night at Bryce Canyon City, so we just needed to eat breakfast and head out to the park 3 miles down the road. Although I didn’t see them in order, I’ve been to Zion, the Grand Canyon, and we’ve now arrived at the top of the stairs. Our motel was at about 7,700 feet above sea level. We definitely noticed the altitude! If you have never experienced it, it takes time to acclimate to the thinner air, and we found ourselves huffing and puffing even on short walks.
We stopped at the Bryce Point viewpoint (8,300 ft.) at the beginning and then went to the Rainbow Point viewpoint (9,115 ft.) at the far end. There was snow up here! Until we got this high, the weather had been warm.
I’m not a fan of panoramic shots in a blog, but there is no way to show this grand landscape without at least some of them. (You can see larger images by clicking on them.)
On the way back, we stopped at the Natural Bridge viewpoint and then at the Bryce Canyon Lodge.
Needless to say, Bryce Canyon is beautiful!
What is really amazing about all of these places is that they are basically layers of red rock in different formations and shades of color, but each one is interesting in a unique way. One thing about the photographs is that it is difficult to capture the view without making a panoramic shot. I’ve taken quite a few series of shots, moving the camera over for each shot, so that I can stitch them together on the computer (as I did in one of the Grand Canyon photos), but these take time to process. It can be hard to see detail in the photos, but it’s the only way of showing the grandeur of the scenery.
Our adventure did not end with Bryce Canyon on this day. We still needed to drive over 200 miles to our next base in the town of Green River, about 50 miles from Arches National Park. This was one of the most interesting drives of my trip. For those who might be familiar with Utah, we took Utah Scenic Byway Highway 12 and then Highway 24 to I-70. This took us through the Escalante National Monument and over Boulder Mountain.
Here is a panorama from one viewpoint in Escalante. If you enlarge the picture, you can see the winding road we would follow. Although the terrain looks like sand dunes, it is all rock. Although it looks flat, the walls of the canyons towered above us in places as we drove through. Unfortunately, we had to stick to the road that day, and only took these shots from one location. But if you do a search for Escalante National Monument, you can see many incredible and unusual formations.
Although Boulder Mountain is over 11,000 ft. high, we reached 9,600 ft. at the summit of Highway 12. There are viewpoints up there that make you feel very small as you survey the vastness of the landscape. I did not have to stitch together multiple pictures to get this panorama from the summit. The view was so vast that even the camera could take it in.
On the way, we stopped at a pitstop at a crossroads. This was an unusual convenience store, either built directly into the rock cliff or built in a cave. It is pretty big inside–about the size of most gas station convenience stores.
We went on through the Capitol Reefs National Park and saw even more spectacular rock formations. I didn’t take any pictures there as it was getting late. This was one of the best overall days of travel for scenery on the whole trip.
We finally ended at Green River at our luxurious Motel 6, and prepared for the next day’s trip to Arches National Park.
Day Eleven – Navajo Country
We headed out of Flagstaff for Bryce Canyon, with no specific schedule. Probably a good thing, since we changed time zones 3 times that day. Arizona is in Mountain Time, but does not observe daylight savings. The Navajo Reservation—in Arizona—does observe daylight savings. Then out of the reservation and back to Arizona before entering Utah, which does observe daylight savings.
The plan was to arrive at Bryce in the evening so that we could start out in the morning to see the park. We had a long way to drive, but we stopped several times for on the spur of the moment. A large part of the drive was through the Navajo Reservation. If you want to look at a map, we drove up US 89 along the Echo Cliffs until US 89A split off, then followed 89A along the base of the Paria Plateau and the Vermillion Cliffs.
Most of the drive was quite barren but starkly beautiful and more wide open than most of us can imagine!
There are many little road side stands—similar to the fireworks stands we would see in Washington, where the Navajos would sell jewelry and pottery. We stopped at one to look at it up close and chatted with the woman who ran it. She had been a special education teacher, but when gas prices were high, she decided to try jewelry making to allow her to stay closer to home.
Our next stop was the Lee’s Ferry Historic Site. This is a spot on the Colorado River where many Grand Canyon rafting expeditions begin. It is actually the tip of Grand Canyon National Park, although the Canyon starts 70 miles downstream. We saw some rafters heading downstream and took pictures.
These are some rock formations we saw in the Lee’s Ferry Recreation Area. The last one looks like it could have been a creature from a Star Wars movie.
We headed for Kanab, where many western movies have been shot, but unfortunately, we arrived too late to see anything. We continued north, and on to Bryce Canyon.
Day Ten – Part 2 of The Great Southwest Road Trip (or the Bob Donovan Memorial Adventure)
Bill and I went to another losing Mariners game on Sunday, and I visited my aunt, Vera. Bill and Sue are gracious hosts. Roger (whom they’d never met) stayed until Saturday, and they put up with me until Monday.
Bill substituted as my driving companion, and we left for Flagstaff Monday, so he has to put up with me for another week. Bill and I are very close to the same age and he is kind of like a 5th brother in our family, so it will be fun. Also, he has traveled this area extensively, and he will be a good guide.
[For those of you who knew my Uncle Bob, you understand why this trip should be dedicated to his memory. He loved geology and he loved road trips. I know that he saw some parts of Arizona and maybe Utah during his life, but this trip would have left him speechless! (No it wouldn’t!) Every time we go around a bend, it seems that we see a new and different geologic formation. Since it is his nephews, Bill and I, on this part of the trip, it is fitting that we are remembering him as we go.]
Bill and I took off and headed for Sedona, but took an indirect route through the town of Prescott Valley and over Mingus Mountain to the little former mining town of Jerome. The scenery was fantastic before we ever got to Sedona.
Then we got to Sedona. No, when you have seen one red rock, you have not seen them all! They are really red! Around every turn is another vista. While in Sedona, we detoured to the Chapel of the Holy Cross, built into the red rocks. It was beautiful and unique. And more spectacular views! These photos were taken in and around the Chapel.
To give you an idea of the scale of the landscape, note the small dot to the right of this cliff. It’s a helicopter. It is closer to the camera than the cliff. (I have another photo with the helicopter in front of the cliff.) So it isn’t a dot because it’s farther away than the cliff–the clif is that big.
Bill thought that the figure in the rock shown by the arrow looked like an eagle. I think it looks like a labrador. Given Bill’s fondness for labradors, I’m surprised he didn’t see it that way.
Here is a closeup of the same formation. Now it kind of looks like a monkey!
From Sedona, we headed through the Oak Creek Canyon up several thousand feet to the Mogollon Rim and Flagstaff. It was cooling down and the road was winding and slow so we opened the sun roof and windows and enjoyed the forest air,the scent of campfires at the campgrounds and enjoyed the breeze.
We stayed the night in Flagstaff. We thought we were just going to a good steak place for dinner, Black Bart’s, but it turned out that the wait staff are all singers and they put on show while serving!
My New Approach to Travel Blogging
Obviously, it is taking me too long to post entries to the blog. I want to get them posted sooner so that people who care about my progress can follow where I am. The problem is that I take a lot of pictures, and they take time to sort, and in some cases to make presentable.
I’ve just caught up with several posts, but for the rest of my trip, I’m going to post narrative descriptions of the trip and add the pictures as soon as I can. Then I’ll post notes to let you know that you can go back to the previous posts to look at newly-added photos. I hope that makes it easier to follow my trip.
Along those lines, I have just posted updates to Day Two and Day Three with some additional pictures. I’ve also changed some of the titles so that it’s easier to tell when things happened during the trip.
Day Eight
Day Seven – Taliesin West
On Friday, Rog and I went to Taliesin West, the compound founded by Frank Lloyd Wright, in Scottsdale. It was very interesting, but from a historical standpoint and for the architecture and design. In addition to innovative architecture, there was a lot of interesting sculpture. I recommend the tour if you are in Phoenix. We had lunch in “Old Scottsdale” but I was disappointed. It seemed like a bunch of kitschy souvenir shops and silver/turquoise jewelry (i.e. expensive) stores.
Day Six – Baseball
We went to our first Spring Training game last Thursday. Unfortunately, the Mariners lost, but it was a fun time anyway. It was HOT though (90’as)! Sue said it was unusually hot for this time of year, which means it will probably be hotter than normal during the “hot” season.
This is one of the closest foul balls that have ever landed near me. The guy in front of me got it. (While I was ducking!)
Phoenix
We left the Grand Canyon on Wednesday and headed south for my cousin Bill’s in Gilbert, near Phoenix. We arrived around 8:30 PM, so it was a long day. (Rog had forgotten to reset his watch when we crossed over from Utah, so we had gotten up at 6:30 AM. That worked out well because it got us going before the crowds in the GC.) By the time we got to Phoenix, I think we had driven about 1,800 miles.
On the way down, we saw miles and miles of open land again, but it was interesting as we traveled from 7,000 ft. elevation to 1,100 ft. We went through a number of distinct climates and matching ecosystems. One of the changes was the appearance of the cacti, which appeared in a few scattered specimens, but quickly increased in number. We stopped to photograph a few in the late afternoon light.
Day Five – The Grand Canyon Really Is!
As we crossed the Colorado-Utah border I saw God in the sky in the form of huge sunburning clouds above the desert that seemed to point a finger at me and say, “Pass here and go on, you’re on the road to heaven.” Ah well, alackaday, I was more interested in some old covered wagons and pool tables sitting in the Nevada desert near a Coca-Cola stand and where there were huts with the weatherbeaten signs still flapping in the haunted shrouded desert wind, saying, “Rattlesnake Bill lived here” or “Broken-mouth Annie holed up here for years.” –Jack Kerouac, On the Road
The route from Zion to the Grand Canyon is pretty sparse country—some parts pretty and others pretty in their own stark way. We had time to listen to our audio book or talk or just be quiet. Rog is a good traveling companion (not too much like Kerouac’s Dean Moriarity). We got to the Grand Canyon after dark, so there we were—but we couldn’t see anything. No problem, we were tired and hungry so we wouldn’t have stopped anyway.
When you’ve seen one bunch of red rocks, you’ve seen them all, right? Nope! We weren’t necessarily planning to spend all that much time at the GC, but we spent half a day or more. It really is spectacular, and in a different way than Zion.
[By the way, you should be able to click on these pictures to see larger versions.}
We did not go to the part where the clear Skywalk juts out over the canyon. (That’s not inside the National Park.) However, there were a number of places with rails up to the edge of the cliff where you could look down. For someone who flew balloons for 30 years, and was completely comfortable looking over the side of the basket, I found looking down into the canyon that way pretty unnerving.
We’ve all seen photos and videos of the Grand Canyon, but seeing it in person is something else. My photos don’t compare with some I’m sure you’ve seen, but enjoy them anyway.
Day Four – Wow or OMG!
We said these words repeatedly on our trip to Zion National Park. What an amazing place! I had been told by many people that it was among the most beautiful places in the country, and they were right.
Roger’s friend Brent was our guide through the first part, beginning at the Visitor’s Center, and through the Scenic Drive. He knew which stops were the most interesting or photogenic, and we took a couple of short hikes. One of them was pretty steep for a couple of old out-of-shape guys, but it was worth the walk to see the “Weeping Rock.” We could also see climbers scaling the rock walls and hikers waaay up on the trails.
This is the weeping rocks.
Once again, the scenery was too grand and beautiful to capture in photographs, but I decided that I couldn’t come home from this trip with no photos because every scene was too grand and beautiful. So you will just have to put up with my feeble attempts to capture some of the beauty.
We spent several hours on the Scenic Drive, during which we uttered “Wow!” and “Oh My God!” many times. Then we really needed to press on to reach the Grand Canyon before it got too late. (As it was, we arrived at our motel at the Grand Canyon around 9 PM.) We took Brent to lunch at a place he recommended near Zion, and then headed off through the park to go out the other side and on to the Grand Canyon. Beyond the “Scenic Drive” were many more incredible views, and more exclamations of Wow! and OMG! Here we couldn’t take photos because of time and because the road was too narrow to stop in most places.
Beyond Zion, we saw more amazing scenery and wide open spaces that are hard to imagine if you are from more populated areas. True Southwest cowboy material. This is really a BIG country!
This trip had already exceeded my expectations, and we hadn’t even gotten to the Grand Canyon or Spring Training yet!
Roger and Me
Day Three – The Kindness of Strangers
[I am already a day behind with posting, but some of this stuff is tiring!]
Although it was a long day of driving from Provo to St. George, Utah, it was a pretty drive. Once again the scenery was spectacular but too expansive to capture in photos. We could see the country change as we progressed. Some of the areas reminded Rog of the farming areas France and reminded me of Sweden. We never got tired of it. After a while, the 80 MPH speed limit didn’t seem that fast, especially crossing long straight stretches.
One of the parts of traveling that I like best is meeting people. I have found them to be incredibly generous. Last year at spring training, it was my cousin, Bill’s Harley club. In Sweden, it was Annalena’s family. It was repeated again on this trip with Roger’s friend Brent and his wife Susan. Not only did they meet us in St. George and take us to the beautiful Red Cliffs National Conservation Area, but they also took us out for dinner and put us up for the night. We enjoyed the time with them including two hikes easy enough for us tenderfeet, and dinner with their friends Marty and Joan.
These pictures are unedited for now.
This is the original Territorial Statehouse for Utah, in Fillmore.
My new friend Brent and I at Red Cliffs National Conservation Area..
Roger, Brent and Susan at Red Cliffs.
A dinosaur track at Red Cliffs.
Not a scenic shot, but our car was way down there. No, there is no escalator!
Rock formations at Red Cliffs.
Flowers on our hike.
Brent and Susan are both lovely, talented people. Susan made breakfast for us before Brent took us on a tour of Zion. Susan makes some very nice ceramics.
Day Two – Sizzler!
I was wildly ambitions to think that we would make it to St. George in Southern Utah today. That would have been a 12-hour drive. Instead, we stopped in Provo for dinner and stayed there. Today we made a point of taking more time. We started off with a good breakfast at a Bacon restaurant in Boise.
We also stopped in Glenn’s Ferry, Idaho to take some pictures. It was a sleepy looking farm town, but had some interesting shots.
I never thought about it before, but it isn’t surprising that there is a niche for an equine dentist. But here in the middle of nowhere (and it is the middle of nowhere) there is an Academy of Equine Dentistry.
We came across this little motel that has obviously been here for a while. What struck me, was the phone booth to cap off the picture.
On the way out of town, we saw these tractors all lined up. I had to give a go at getting an artistic shot.
Once we got into Utah, the Rockies loomed up, and they are spectacular! We saw snow-capped peaks and colorful, striated layers or rock uplifted by unimaginable forces over eons. We were in high desert plateau and it was magnificent. I felt as if some grand movie score should be playing in the background. You may ask why I didn’t include any pictures of the mountains. I could not do them justice. What our eyes and brains can absorb is very difficult to capture in a photo, and I didn’t even want to try. I just enjoyed them.
Finally, after reaching Provo we found a Sizzler! Eat your heart out, Leslie! (I guess that’s what we were doing.) Our La Quinta motel is much nicer than the independent motel we got in Boise because it was cheap, and no more expensive.
Tomorrow we’ll get to St. George.
Day One – Boise
Not much to report for our first day of driving, and no photos. This was planned to be a long drive (about 500 miles) for the first day, to give us more time during the trip through Utah. However, the drive went smoothly. We left about 10 AM and arrived in Boise about 8 PM. We listened to almost an entire Hamish MacBeth mystery. We didn’t get our naps though, so we had to get to bed early. Sunday’s goal is St. George, Utah.
Update: St. George is too ambitious. We’ll see how far we get today.
The Great Southwest Road Trip
I leave today on a 3,500 mile road trip through Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Arizona, including several days at the Mariners’ Spring Training. I have always dreamed of this kind of extended trip, but the only times I’ve done something remotely approaching it was 25 years ago when we went to pick up Jason in Illinois at the end of his freshman year, and a trip with my uncle to Yellowstone, probably 20 years ago or so.
This trip will include a few days with my cousin Bill and his wife Sue in Phoenix for Spring Training and stops at the scenic national parks in Utah and northern Arizona. My long-time friend Roger is going with me to Phoenix, but he’ll be flying back, and Bill will join me for at least part of the northbound trip.
You can’t really tell all the stops along the way, but I will be reporting and posting photos of our stops.
Knots
I forgot to mention in my last post that another activity I’ve been doing is learning how to make things from paracord. I’ve always enjoyed tying knots.
I just finished this belt loop hammer holder. I’m going to try another one so that I have one for home and one for the shop. I may make some other tool holders for the shop.
In looking for other projects to try, about all I find is a variety of bracelets and watch bands or survival gear. If anyone is aware of some more useful projects, please let me know.
More Workshop Progress
I spent the day at the shop getting organized. I planned to start last week, but a cold got to me.
I had some pegboard left over from the old shop, so started with that in order to get my tools out of the packing boxes.
I also got my parts organizers off the floor.
My crosscut sled is also hanging up next to the organizers
Finally, I was able to mount my foldaway support system that holds either the miter saw table or my router table. Here is the set up for the miter saw table.
After a busy day, I finished off with a concert by UW Music students performing baroque works of Bach, Telemann and Handel. A very good concert, and these preformances are very inexpensive!
The Brothers 4+
Beginning in 1999, my three brothers and I started getting together just by ourselves once a year around Christmas time. Our first meeting was at a restaurant, but we immediately realized that we couldn’t sit at a restaurant indefinitely while others were waiting for a table. The following year, we got a large motel room and stayed overnight. This was perfect, especially since none of us wanted to drive after consuming several pints of Guinness.
For the most part, our get-togethers have been around Christmas time, and overnight, but there have been a few exceptions. One year we went to Stanford’s Restaurant at Northgate, and they were extremely accommodating to allow us to stay as long as we wanted. For several years, we stayed at my condo, while Janie accommodated us by staying in a motel.
Beginning last year, we began including my cousin, Bill. He had gotten together with us once earlier (but not at an official “Brothers 4”) and we realized that he should be included. He does not have any siblings, and if he were actually a brother, he would be right in the middle of our ages Although he lives in Arizona, we are all close to him and are happy he can join us.
This year was our 15th year doing the Brothers 4. We do not always see eye-to-eye, but we love each other and even our political arguments–which are usually quite vociferous–do not diminish that love. This is truly a bonding experience that has prevented us from driving apart after our father passed away and as our mother got older and could no longer host her annual family Christmas gathering. (Even that gathering did not necessarily let us get too deep in our conversations, since there were always around 25 people in attendance.)
I am thankful to my brothers and cousin to have been able to keep this tradition going, and to all of our wives for supporting it, knowing that we won’t be good for much the next day!
Moving Day
Today was moving day for my workshop stuff from storage to my new digs! I have enough electrical work done that I can postpone adding more outlets–and possibly lights–and start working on setting things up to work. I didn’t put much away, but I did two important things:
For those who don’t know the story, when I moved from my house to a condo, I lost my garage. My son Jason and I built a workshop on his property. During that project, he kept reminding me that it was just a shop, and that I shouldn’t be too much of a perfectionist. After he passed away, I enlarged the photo of him (taken in the door of the shop with his characteristic grin) and superimposed the words “It’s just a shop!” on it. That picture hung in the shop until I had to move. The plaque was given to me by Jason’s family for Christmas after the shop was completed. Both items will now hang lovingly in my new shop.
I had the movers pile the stuff up in the shop area. (Yes I let movers move the stuff up and down the stairs.) Now I need to organize it enough so that I can find my tools and then build a workbench.
It is very difficult to take pictures down in this basement, at least during the day because of the way the light comes in brightly through the windows. When I have time, I’ll try to figure out a way to better control the exposures or mask them.
More Workshop
I spent 4 hours working at my shop Friday and this is all I have to show for it! Actually, I got a lot accomplished. Wrestling with romex (the kind of wire used for wiring houses) is very physical labor! That includes drilling holes through old joists that are very hard by now.
As I described in earlier posts, I had an electrician install new circuits in the electrical panel and the the first couple of outlets off the panel. I was then able to add outlets down the line, and that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ll probably add more later, but I have enough now to move my things into the shop, build a work bench and places to put things.
More Workshop
It doesn’t look much different, but today I installed to new low consumption but bright LED light fixtures, and two outlets. I didn’t get the outlets energized, but that will happen next. I may put off adding more outlets other than these, and get started moving my stuff in and building a workbench.
Workshop Progress
Habitat for Humanity
On Friday, Jess had us lined up to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, a volunteer project for his colleagues at Paragon Real Estate. He didn’t force us into it, and we were all definitely interested in pitching in. It meant getting up pretty early, and they promised we would be tired at the end of the day!
Habitat does a variety of kinds of housing in cities all over the country. The development we were working on was a group of town homes for working families who could not afford housing, especially at San Francisco area prices.
There were several crews assigned to do different tasks such as siding, insulation, plumbing and painting. The workers included professionals, experienced interns, Americorps volunteers and lay volunteers like us. We all got on the plumbing crew, with the idea of working together. As I listened to the description of the work, I wanted an assignment that I felt I could handle for a full day, and I volunteered to help test plumbing installations for leaks. Jess and Leslie were on the same team but they had a more labor intensive job digging holes for and placing cement enclosures for meters and valves.
Leslie was disappointed that I wasn’t working directly with them, especially since she had given up painting to be together, but I don’t know how well this old guy could have done their job. I did however wind up walking up and down lots of flights of stairs in these 3-story town homes! I definitely got my exercise in!
I was working with a nice young woman named Sarah, who was an Americorps volunteer. She actually worked mostly on housing rehab projects but was on loan to this Habitat project. I felt like I was actually able to contribute because of my 40 years of experience as a home/condo owner and do-it-yourselfer. We actually figured out how to rebuild a shower valve to stop a leak, and fixed several other problems in the course of our testing. Jess and Leslie were told that they made much faster progress in their work than many other volunteers do, and did their work accurately.
By the end of the day we were tired! We ordered food instead of making it, and enjoyed our meal once again at “my place.” We all went to bed early and tried to recover for the next day.
More San Francisco
Thursday, Jess had to work, so Leslie and I went on and adventure together. We started at the Ferry terminal, and then headed to the North Beach Neighborhood. This was the center of the beatnik culture of the late 50’s. We browsed through City Lights Books, which was started by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and published Allen Ginsberg’s Howl. We also visited the Beat Museum, a labor of love by Jerry Cimino.
North Beach is also the home of the original Hungry i, which was instrumental in the careers of many performers including Bill Cosby, Lenny Bruce, Barbara Streisand, the Kingston Trio and many more. There is still a Hungry i in North Beach, but it is a topless club at a different location.
We walked from North Beach to nearby Chinatown, although we avoided the phony Grant Ave. shops and looked instead at the more authentic Stafford Street open markets, where food is so fresh, it is still alive when you buy it.
We finally headed home, and later Jess and Leslie came over for dinner. Leslie cooked us another great dinner: Fresh tilapia tacos and nachos.
San Francisco Visit
This trip to SF is a short one for me, and longer for Leslie. (Janie stayed home.) I am staying at an AirBnB place just 2 blocks from Jess, so it’s very convenient. Jess, Leslie and I had a great dinner in Jess’ neighborhood on Tuesday.
I am sharing the home with my hostess, Brooke, who is very nice. We don’t see each other much because of our schedules, and she left on Wednesday for several days, so I have the place to myself. So far, we are batting 1000 with the AirBnB’s we have stayed at! This is a very nice home and is beautifully decorated.
Wednesday, I took pictures at the Mission Delores, and we had a nice lunch at an Indian fast food restaurant. We also went to see Jess’ current real estate listing. Pretty cool to see his name on the sign!
That night, we had dinner at “my place” for Jess, Leslie and a couple of Jess’ friends, Jorge and Phillip, whom I’ve met before. Leslie made a great pasta dish that she’d made up.
Headed for San Francisco
Retirement
This is kind of an experiment, because I just got an app that lets me post from my phone.
Tonight we went to dinner with our good friends, Roger and Shelley George, to celebrate Rog’s retirement last June. (Ok, it took me awhile!) At the end of the evening, we realized that none of us remembered exactly which day of the week it is! It”s nice to have a playmate!
More on Bread
In a previous post in June, I talked about making bread, and I am still doing it a couple of times a week. In addition to my family and I enjoying it, it is a nice gift to give people just for the heck of it! It’s easy to throw an extra loaf in the oven along with one you are cooking for yourself. My grandchildren and my mother love it! I’ve also bartered bread for honey that that one of Leslie’s friends produces, and of course, the honey goes into a bread variation!
One of my blog readers asked me for information about the equipment I use for bread making, and it occurred to me that I could provide that information here on the blog. If you are interested in making your own bread, this information could get you started without having to figure it all out for yourself. Some of the information comes from the book, The New Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, and some of it I figured out for myself by shopping on Amazon.
Don’t be overwhelmed by the length and detail of this list. The items I suggest are not mandatory by any means, but they are all easy to get, mostly on Amazon. (If you are going to order from Amazon and you’re not already an Amazon Prime member, join first to save on shipping and to get your items sooner.) The reason I am going into so much detail is to save you from having to figure it out yourself, but you can “make do” for most of the items.
My previous post had a link to a website with some basic instructions you can use to get started. The site is by the authors of the book The New Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François. I strongly recommend that you get the book. It has a lot of great tips and recipes. However, if you want to try making bread first, the {website alternative} will get you started. You can get the book from Amazon, or locally from Barnes & Noble and other bookstores.
You will need a large container in which to mix the dough. I tried some others that I found at the grocery store, but the Rubbermaid commercial food storage container, 6 qt. Round, clear polyethylene FG572324CLR is inexpensive and works well. Here is the link to the Amazon page:
Rubbermaid commercial food storage container, 6 qt. Round, clear polyethylene FG572324CLR
You also need a top for the container. I got a matching top, but it no longer seems to be available. No big deal, the Rubbermaid commercial lid for 6 to 8 qt. round storage containers FG572500YEL is available from Amazon, too. You will need to poke a small hole in the top to let the gasses out as the yeast ferments. It doesn’t have to be big—a meat fork or a nail will do it.
I strongly recommend a digital scale! It makes measuring fast and easy. There are lots out there, but I got the Smart Weigh PL11B Professional Digital Kitchen and Postal Scale with Tempered Glass Platform, Silver from Amazon. It works well and is reasonably priced. It works well for a postal scale, too.
The ingredients are simple and are available at the grocery store. I won’t be too specific about getting them, but here are some tips: Use all-purpose flour, not bread flour. The authors recommend unbleached flour, and that’s what I use. Kosher salt—do not use sea salt, it is too coarse. Yeast—you can use the kind in envelopes, about ½ envelope per batch, but it’s easier to use it from the jar. I use Red Star Active Dry Yeast. After the first few batches, I switched from the envelopes to the 4 oz. jar. The only other ingredient is water. Pay attention to the instructions on water temperature.
Once you measure the ingredients into the container, you need to stir them! You can use a wooden spoon or a Danish dough whisk described in the book and on the web site. I use a spatula like the one shown in this picture, because it lets me get the ingredients out of the corners of the container, but I’ve never tried the whisk. Here are links to both, but you can find the spatulas in the grocery store.
OXO Good Grips Wooden Turner
After the dough is mixed, it sits overnight, and then you are ready to make bread. I use parchment paper to put the dough on. Others use flour, corn meal or steel cut oatmeal. Parchment paper is easy. Get it at the grocery store.
When the dough has rested, you will need to slash the top with a serrated knife. You’ll also want one for cutting the finished bread. We had several, so I don’t have any recommendations. (Actually, slashing the bread can be tricky and one knife given to us by Janie’s dad 30 years ago seems to work the best, but I can’t tell you why!)
Next, you can slide the parchment paper onto a pizza peel—those giant spatulas used to put pizzas in the oven. I got the Pizzacraft pizza peel with folding handle (stainless) PC0200.
An oven thermometer is important. You will be surprised at how inaccurate your oven is. Mine is accurate at 450 degrees, which is the most common baking temperature, but it is way off for some of the temperatures used for different kinds of dough. I use the thermometer every time, because it also takes a long time for the over to heat up with a pizza stone, and I check to be sure it is at the correct temperature. I got my thermometer at the grocery store, so I have no particular recommendations.
A special word about pizza stones. They are probably the most expensive part of the operation. I like having one, but there are several much cheaper alternatives described in the book. If you don’t get the book right away and you want to try bread making out, you can get a 12” x 12” unglazed terra cotta tile (the red clay they make flower pots out of). If you can’t find one that large, just get some smaller ones and put them in the oven together. I got the Old Stone 4461 16-Inch Round Oven Pizza Stone.
When the bread comes out of the oven, it will go on a cooling rack. You probably already have one, but you can get them at the grocery store.
You also probably have a cutting board, but I like my slotted 2-piece cutting board that lets the crumbs drop down to a compartment below. It also works well as a cooling rack. I got a Bamboo Bread Cutting Board. 14.25″ W X 8″ D X 1.5″ H. This is a smallish one because I don’t have a lot of counter space. If that’s not your problem, there are larger ones to be found on Amazon.
That’s it! Once again, don’t be overwhelmed by the detail of this list. Just try making some bread and you won’t regret it!
Reindeer
When we were in the north of Sweden, there were signs all over to watch for reindeer on the road, and we saw several of them. They would wander down the road, oblivious to traffic, even the huge ore trucks that whizzed by. But I was never able to get a picture of a reindeer because when we saw them, there was never a good place to pull over to get a shot. So, here is a picture of a couple of reindeer that I had to get in Kent, Washington.
Of course, these were captive. In Sweden, the reindeer roam free during most of the year, and are rounded up the way cattle are here, when it’s time to identify and harvest them for meat and hide.
Since I wasn’t able to get a picture of the reindeer as we saw them, I found a picture, taken by Valerie Garner of Bellevue, WA, and she has given me permission to show it here (click on the photo to see her other photos and artwork, which are for sale.)
Hiccups
I heard a podcast on This American Life the other day in which the theme was “magic words.” It got me to thinking about a “magic” cure for the hiccups that I learned about from a coworker about 35 years ago. It is truly magic, because it works 90% of the time, and that’s a pretty good record! (Disclaimer: I don’t use this remedy on myself, because for some reason I almost never hiccup more than 3 times in a row, a phenomenon that drives other hiccuppers crazy.)
Equipment: One small (juice size) glass or plastic cup, a clean handkerchief, a rubber band (optional), invisible magic powder
One should always carry the invisible magic powder in one’s pocket or purse so that it is handy should a nearby child get the hiccups!
Method: Fill the cup 1/2-3/4 full with water. Take a pinch of invisible magic powder from your pocket and sprinkle it in the cup. Cover the cup with the handkerchief and hold it there with a rubber band if available. The person with the hiccups should wave their hand over the cup and exclaim the magic words.* Drink the entire cup of water through the handkerchief. Viola! The hiccups will disappear!
*We have variously used “Abracadabra,” “A-la peanut butter sandwich” and others. any authentic magic words seem to work.
Pumpkins!
Of course, many families carve pumpkins for Halloween, and ours is no different. Leslie and I have been doing it together since she was a kid, and it is an important part of our bonding. Emma and Sarah have joined us in the last few years, and it has been interesting seeing them going from helpers to doing most if not all of the carving on their own. We all take it seriously, and invest in large pumpkins for our “canvasses.” Beginning last year, our newest granddaughter, Kathryn joined us and she has very interesting ideas for her designs. In the picture below, Leslie did the gnome (of course); Kathryn did the breast cancer ribbon, honoring her mother; Sarah did the cat buccaneer and Emma did the face with the fearsome teeth.
The Opera
I love the opera. I didn’t always like it,but when I actually saw a live performance, I was hooked. If you like classical music, and have never been to an opera, I strongly encourage you to go!
I haven’t been able to go for years, except a recent performance by the UW Opera. The other night, I finally tried out the Metropolitan Opera HD broadcast at a local movie theater. For an opera fan, this is something like watching a sporting event on a HUGE screen! You can see everything, and the sound was phenomenal. It is a real bargain seeing some of the top singers in the world on the big screen. (It was unfortunate that 90 percent of the audience was at least as old as me.) This is the first time I have seen an opera this way, but it won’t be the last.
I saw a rebroadcast of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, which had been transmitted live earlier. The operas are transmitted live in HD with an audience at the Met about once or twice a month, and then rebroadcast a few days later. Coming up soon are The Barber of Seville and Carmen plus several others. You can find out which operas will be broadcast and when at the Metropolitan Opera’s HD link. You can also see video previews from links on the same page. If you want to go with me, let me know.
More Cider
Janie and I got to go to another cider-pressing event. This time it was near Yakima at the farm of my niece’s fiance. We didn’t need to bring our own apples this time–there were two large bins of them. The work went much faster with a double-barreled press. There was no pre-bruising or cutting of the apples this time, just tossing them into the crusher. One person fed apples, one person turned the wheel of the crusher and one person pressed the crushed apples in the other barrel. We filled all the containers we had in short order (about 5 gallons). We shared some of the cider this time with Janie’s brother, my mother, Katie’s family and a friend. We still have quite a bit left, but we go through it quickly, so it will be a fall treat rather than an year-round supply.
Sweden Photo Album
I’ve finally finished editing the album of our trip to Sweden! I cut it down from about 900 to about 150. You can click on the Sweden (+ Copenhagen) 2014 menu link above, or jump from here. If you’ve already read the previous blog posts, there is nothing new, but if you are a newer subscriber, you may be interested in the whole story.
Apple Cider
Sunday, Janie, Leslie and I went to a community cider-pressing event. Janie had experienced this as a girl growing up on an apple ranch, but Leslie and I had never seen it before. I bought several boxes of apples a couple of weeks ago with the idea of checking out the cider press from the NE Seattle Tool Library, but my reservation date was not until next week. Having never done it before, I was eager to take advantage of the Tool Library’s opportunity to participate in a group session. At the very least, it would give me a chance to see how it is done.
It turned out that we were able to press all of our apples after watching a couple of other families, and we helped others as well. Our friend Tim had told me that doing this as a group activity was more fun, and I think he was right.
We wound up with a little over 4 gallons of cider from the 3 boxes of apples we brought with us. That’s about 4 pounds of apples per quart. Even though the apples were less expensive at a fruit stand, I doubt that the juice was any less expensive than it costs to buy it in the store. I mixed 2/3 Honey Crisp with 1/3 Granny Smith apples. The juice is sort of tart, but not sour–I like it, but I think I could have used a 3 to 1 ratio.
The left over pulp will go to someone’s goats!
Next week, we’ve been invited to Yakima to participate in another group pressing, and I’m looking forward to it! This time we’ll be guests of an apple grower, so it will be interesting to see whether the process is different.
Casey at the Bat
With all due respect to Fernando Rodney, who is a great closer (45 saves this year), his performance last night reminded me of another baseball great, Casey, memorialized by Ernest Lawrence Thayer in his poem Casey at the Bat. Casey was a slugger and Rodney is a pitcher, but the expectations for the two players-and the results of their efforts-were similar:
Casey at the Bat
by Ernest Lawrence Thayer
The Outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day:
The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play.
And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game.
A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest
Clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;
They thought, if only Casey could get but a whack at that –
We’d put up even money, now, with Casey at the bat.
But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake,
And the former was a lulu and the latter was a cake;
So upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat,
For there seemed but little chance of Casey’s getting to the bat.
But Flynn let drive a single, to the wonderment of all,
And Blake, the much despis-ed, tore the cover off the ball;
And when the dust had lifted, and the men saw what had occurred,
There was Jimmy safe at second and Flynn a-hugging third.
Then from 5,000 throats and more there rose a lusty yell;
It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell;
It knocked upon the mountain and recoiled upon the flat,
For Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat.
There was ease in Casey’s manner as he stepped into his place;
There was pride in Casey’s bearing and a smile on Casey’s face.
And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,
No stranger in the crowd could doubt ’twas Casey at the bat.
Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt;
Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt.
Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip,
Defiance gleamed in Casey’s eye, a sneer curled Casey’s lip.
And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air,
And Casey stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.
Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped-
“That ain’t my style,” said Casey. “Strike one,” the umpire said.
From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar,
Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore.
“Kill him! Kill the umpire!” shouted someone on the stand;
And its likely they’d a-killed him had not Casey raised his hand.
With a smile of Christian charity great Casey’s visage shone;
He stilled the rising tumult; he bade the game go on;
He signaled to the pitcher, and once more the spheroid flew;
But Casey still ignored it, and the umpire said, “Strike two.”
“Fraud!” cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered fraud;
But one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed.
They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain,
And they knew that Casey wouldn’t let that ball go by again.
The sneer is gone from Casey’s lip, his teeth are clenched in hate;
He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate.
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey’s blow.
Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville – mighty Casey has struck out.
“Casey” has been recited many times, but my earliest and best memory of it was Walt Disney’s 1946 animation:
There is no joy in Mudville, Mighty Rodney failed to strike ’em out.
Hope Springs Eternal
The thing about baseball fans is that we are ever-hopeful. Look at the Boston Red Sox fans who finally got their World Series win after how many years? The Mariners’ performance has been dismal over the last many years. Yet, my friends and I have continued to pay for a slice of a season ticket with really no hope of going to the post season, but with the faint glimmer of hope that some season in the future, we will get there, and when the time comes, we will have our seats. That time could be now.
I am realistic. There are big hurdles to overcome to even get to the playoffs. They have no real chance to win their division, but if they get a wild card spot, they have one chance to move on. Then they have 2 more layers of playoffs to get to the the World Series. But, right now, in September, the possibility exists! I can hope! In the past several years, hope was gone by the end of July, and they were playing give young talent a chance, and they were seeing what the veterans would fetch as trade bait.
But here we are. I am going to the game tonight. Felix is pitching. As usual, he is a Cy Young candidate. Fernando Rodney, the closer has the chance tonight to set the Mariners’ all-time save record (he tied it last night). If they beat Oakland, the race for the 2nd wild card will become irrelevant to the M’s as they pass Oakland in the race for the first wild card spot. On top of that, it is another beautiful fall day and promises to be a lovely night for baseball.
What a game!
Pecan Rolls
Ballooning
Thank you to all of you who contributed to my ballooning gift certificate for my retirement! I finally took the flight with the Airial Balloon Company in Snohomish. It was wonderful! It has been 5 years since I have flown in a balloon. I waited until now for the ride because I knew I would have a better chance for good weather (although after 2 months of sunshine, Thursday was kind of iffy). I decided to take my son, Jess, along–he’d never had a balloon ride. Although he’s been part of our family for many years, he was not interested in getting up early when I had my balloon, and has lived in California most of the time. I was also able to take my 10-year old granddaughter, Sarah, along. She had been in my balloon when she was 18 months old, but she didn’t remember it, so this was like a first ride for her, too. My daughter, Leslie, went along to watch.
This was the first time I had flown in the Snohomish area. Although we were concerned that the weather might not hold, it turned out to be beautiful and the winds were calm. Good thing, because the weather on our backup date this Saturday promised to be worse. When I woke up this morning, it had rained, so we just caught the end of the good weather window. In the future, I will crew for balloons again, but for now it was nice to go as a passenger with no responsibility for planning the flight, organizing the equipment and crew and flying the balloon. I could enjoy the ride and take pictures. In addition to a very pleasant flight, our pilot was an old ballooning acquaintance, Tom Hamilton. I know that he is a very experienced, excellent pilot so I was comfortable entrusting him with Jess’ and Sarah’s safety. Another old acquaintance, Jay Woodward, was piloting another balloon from the Balloon Depot.
Jess, Sarah and Leslie
Jess helping with inflation
Jess helping with inflation
Leslie (right) helping with the inflation
Yours truly helping with the inflation
We will have a distinct advantage at the pumpkin maze this year!
Companion balloons
Companion balloons
Ahhh! The sound of the burner and the scent of propane!
View from the balloon
View from the balloon
View from the balloon
Deflation
Aerial Balloon Company has a nice gazebo for the after-flight celebration
New Feature: Like and Unlike
I have added a new feature to the blog that lets you Like or Unlike any post. It is different from the Facebook Like button in a couple of ways: First, you can choose either Like or Unlike–Facebook only has a Like button. Also, clicking one of the choices is anonymous–it does not repost the entry in your Facebook timeline or even let me know who likes or doesn’t like a post. You can use the feature to let me know whether you like a post, without having to leave a more detailed comment.
Leslie’s Comedy Gig
For those of you who didn’t see this on Facebook, Leslie appeared last night at Laugh’s Comedy Spot in Kirkland doing a standup routine. This was the “final exam” in a standup comedy class she took. Each of the students did a routine, and the show also included a couple of professional comics.
Leslie did great! She was among the top 3 performers (in our unbiased opinion). We’ve always thought Leslie has a great sense of humor, but it’s a brave thing to do to get up in front of an audience of 100-150 spectators looking at no one but you, and hope that you’re funny.
Most of the other performers were very funny also, and we had a great evening. Leslie also had the support of about 15-20 friends and family members, including her aunt Katie, who surprised her by coming over from Yakima for the show.
Good job, Leslie!
Mariners Optimism
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t post about attending a routine mid-season Mariner’s game, and if you are not a baseball fan or don’t enjoy statistics, you can stop reading now.
In addition to Leslie’s comedy gig, I went to an afternoon Mariners game. It is so nice to go to Safeco Field on a warm sunny day, especially where our seats are located. To add to the enjoyment, the Mariners won, 7-3. It is also so nice for a change to reach August with the M’s still in contention for something! Maybe it is just the change in the playoff structure to add a 2nd wildcard team, but the M’s are definitely in it!
According to today’s paper, the M’s are within 1 game of attaining the 2nd wildcard, so a run of wins could put them solidly in the position to go to at least a one-game playoff. The team has added some hitting, and I heard a couple of interesting bits yesterday. First, Manager McLendon has a feeling the team will make a run of wins. The M’s have among the best pitching in the baseball, but their run production has been dismal. Their games have been close though, so if they pick up a few runs, they could definitely go on a winning streak. Here is an interesting statistic: So far this season, the M’s are 5 and 36 in games in which they scored 0 – 2 runs. But they are 54 and 17 in games in which they scored 3 or more runs. As I said, the pitching is great, but the pitchers have not gotten run support even in games in which they held the opponents to a couple of runs. Thus, it is entirely conceivable that by picking up one or two runs per game, they substantially increase their wins. The rest of the season could be interesting!
Gas prices in Sweden
One thing I forgot to mention in earlier posts is the cost of auto fuel in Sweden. As in other European countries, it is very expensive compared to the US. Apparently, Sweden and Denmark are among the highest. Because fuel is priced in liters and Swedish Crowns, I couldn’t do the conversion in my head, but I recently figured out that gas was about $8 per gallon, with diesel slightly higher. Fortunately, we were driving a diesel Volvo and it was getting very close to 40 miles per gallon. So fuel was twice as expensive, but I used half as much as in my big SUV.
New Computer (Oh Whoopee!)
My daughter Leslie says I’m getting old, and she’s right! There was a time that upon getting a new computer, I could not wait to dig in, to get it going and configure it. I would be voluntarily holed up in a room for hours, playing with it. Those days are gone.
Now, a new computer–especially a desktop–is an appliance, like a new washing machine. Computers are so integrated into my life that even a new one is no longer novel. I just want it to work so I can get on with all the things I use it for. (My Mac-user relatives will probably ask me again why I just don’t switch, but I still prefer the PC environment, and I’m even past the thrill of debating that topic. As Leslie said, I must be getting old.)
Several months before I retired, my main desktop computer refused to boot. Then, I didn’t have time to mess with it. I hired someone to get it working, but I thought I had a backup (image) that would let me easily restore it to exactly the state it was in before the glitch. The image was faulty, and I had to wait until after I retired to get everything set up the way it was before. At least I had a 2nd backup for my data.*
A couple of days ago, the computer glitched again. I have too much important stuff on it to take a chance on losing it, and it was 5 years old, so I headed to Costco for a new one. I think the new one will work out fine, but I spent a full day setting it up and transferring my data. Although I was able to use the site Ninite.com to install most of the useful utilities, I still haven’t finished installing some of the programs that I have found to fit specific needs. That will be today’s project. If I was still working, this whole process could have taken months.
*If you are not backing up, check out Crashplan.com or another online service. It is free to cheap, and it is automatic. Come to think of it, why can’t the NSA provide this service?
Reflections on Returning Home
Below are some photos of Swedish handicrafts of various kinds that we picked up while we were there. I’ll post others after they have been given to people, but here are some examples:
These denim skirts are very popular, from re-purposed jeans. It turns out that a relative of Annalena’s nephew Samuel (7/16 post) makes them in her home, but they are sold in many stores.
The wooden butter spatula is about 5″ long. They are inexpensive and used everywhere. I don’t know why they are not widespread in the US, but they work really well. We got several. Janie was fascinated by the egg cups that everyone seemed to have. I picked up a couple for her in a 2nd hand store, and she got a set in a department store.
The hat and mittens are a traditional style from Lovikka, where we stayed in the North. Lovikka is famous for this style of mittens, and actually has a giant version enshrined in an outdoor glass case in the village. That one is certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest mitten. The bracelets are a traditional Sami (indigenous people of Lappland) style.
Pendant watch and box from the Pajala Market
Traditional bracelet
Traditional carved horse from Dalarna area
Rune symbol meaning Justice, Honor or Analytical
Sundial-based time piece
Summer dress from Trollhatten Market
Ayervedic soap
Asymmetrical poncho
Reindeer leather wallet
I won’t go into too much detail about our flight home, but a couple of things are worth mentioning. First, when we got to the airport, we learned that our seats had been upgraded to business class without our knowledge. SAS inexplicably changed the seating twice more before we boarded, once back to economy, but in different seats than the ones we had chosen, and then back to business class. I am not complaining though! We wound up in business class for a 10-11 hour flight, and it was sweet! The seats reclined nearly flat and had built in massagers. Service was supurb! We did have a glitch at the ticket counter in that our luggage was tagged for San Francisco instead of Seattle. Fortunately, Janie remembered to check it and the error was corrected. Otherwise, our bags might still be in SF. Always check the baggage tags before you let your bag go on the belt, especially in international flights!
When we got to the San Francisco airport, things were not so great. Signs were not clear about where to go, and we had a long ways to go in too little time. We had to pick up our luggage and go through customs, then redeposit it. Apparently, none of the airport employees knows much about giving directions, and we were nervous about whether the luggage would make it to Seattle. We did make it OK, but it sort of diminished some of
the glow from the business class flight.
It is good to be home! Although travel to another country is really interesting, We missed our family, friends and home. We look forward to seeing those who are nearby. Janie and I are still trying to get our sleep patterns in sync with the Pacific time zone, but it’s not too bad
when you’re retired and can sleep when you need to. I sure like having my own bed and recliner to sleep in!
As I think back on the last few weeks, I think we were incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to see so much of Sweden. Although we still just scratched the surface, several Swedish people told us that we’d seen more Sweden than they had! Traveling is more tiring than you might expect at times. Dealing with unfamiliar customs, having to figure out how to get things done in ways that you are not used to, and working around language differences can be a real challenge. Even so, we had it easy, since we had the help of Tim and Annalena for most of the trip.
Tim and Annalena were extremely hospitable, taking the time out of their own vacation to share ours, to take us to interesting places, to help us figure things out and to translate. I put a link in an earlier post to Tim’s own blog, and if you are interested in gardening or in fermented foods, you should check it out.
Lastly, I was sure I lost weight while in Sweden. Apparently however, any weight loss is erased when you are flying the other direction because there was no loss upon my return. ;->
Home Again
Mysterious Tower
Wednesday was an easy day after our marathon the day before. We got ready for our trip home, walked out to a couple of nearby restaurants, and took it easy. I went out to explore nearby including interesting “church” tower I mentioned an in an earlier post. (Malmö, 7/23/14.) I went to the church next door, but didn’t find a way in, but I talked to some city workers and learned that it is not an old church tower at all, but rather a 100-year old water tower. Pretty fancy for a water tower!
I also tried some “sour” style beer at a nearby pub, where we later went to dinner. I had never had it before, although I imagine that my beer drinking friends have tried it. This particular brand was To Öl, a Danish beer (spelled To Øl in Denmark). It was very good and would go well on a hot summer night, but I am not sure everyone would like it, especially if you like hoppy beer.
Adventures in Driving, or “The bridge toll is HOW much?” or Looking for Windmills
We thought we’d take a simple trip to Copenhagen Tuesday. Well, not so simple. It turned into a rather long, but interesting day.
We headed over the Öresund Bridge between Malmö and Copenhagen. I wish I could have taken pictures while driving. It is an impressive 10-mile bridge ending on a man-made island in the middle of the straight, where the road enters a 2.5 mile-long underwater tunnel. From the bridge, you can see Sweden’s Lillgrund Wind Farm to the left and Denmark’s Middlegrunden Wind Farm to the right. (Again, I couldn’t take pictures, but you can click on the names above to link to web sites if you’re interested.)
I hadn’t really thought about this being a toll bridge, but I wasn’t surprised when we came upon the toll plaza. What did surprise me was the toll–495 SEK (about $73)! Each way! Our original plan was to stay 2 days in Malmo and then move on to Copenhagen, but we changed plans because we decided it would be easier to stay in Malmo and make a day trip to Copenhagen. Although I still think the change in plans was for the best, we wound up not only with the cost of the tolls, but a surcharge on the rental car for dropping it off outside Sweden.
Once in Copenhagen, we made a dry run to the airport to make sure getting there would go smoothly on Thursday. Then we made our way through town (and more construction) to the Rosenborg Castle, where the Danish crown jewels are displayed, along with examples of decor from several generations of royalty. We found the castle area reasonably well, but it wasn’t visible from the car while negotiating traffic, and I think the view of the entrance was blocked by tour busses. At any rate, there was no place to park and we had to drive around a large block to find a place to park.
As we entered what we thought were the castle grounds, we came upon a spectacular greenhouse and the grounds were a lush botanical garden. We didn’t know where we were going but finally learned that we had to walk some distance to the castle.
As we walked through the botanical garden, we didn’t realize that we were walking the lonnnng way to the castle. After asking directions of several people, we finally made it there, but we must have walked at least an hour up and down hills through the garden.
When we finally reached the entrance to the castle, we learned that a lot of stairs were involved, and there are no elevators, so Janie would have to wait outside. She wanted me to be able to see it though, so she sat while I went through it. Fortunately, photography was allowed, so I was able to share the experience with her, and with you. Here are some examples of royal crowns and jewels–everything you might imagine!
Here are thrones in the throne room. I will have more photos when I get home and collect them all in an album page.
It was a hot day, and we knew we had a long walk back to the car. I offered to go get it and pick Janie up, but she felt that she could do the walk. She did, too! We were both hot and tired when we got back to the car, and since the castle experience had taken much longer than we expected, we decided to skip going to an old church as originally planned. Instead, we would try to find the old windmill that we had seen on our original trip into Malmö.
I thought it would be a simple matter of putting the city of Gothenburg into the GPS and the GPS would take us back over the bridge, through Malmo and onto the road on which we had come from Gothenburg. The theory was that we would then see the old windmill and get off the highway to go find it. It didn’t exactly work out that way.
A disadvantage of using a GPS as opposed to a map is that you don’t necessarily see the big picture of the route the GPS has planned for you. We experienced that once before in Ireland (as Leslie and Janie will recall), and it happened again. I did not realize that there are two ways to get back to Sweden–one over the bridge, and one by ferry. The bridge is the shortest way to Malmo, but the ferry is the shortest way to Gothenburg, which I had used as our destination in the GPS. So the GPS took us way out of our way. Not being familiar with the surroundings, and not being able to see the big picture, we didn’t realize it until we got most of the way to the ferry. 
By then it was too late to turn back, and we wound up taking the ferry from Helsingør, Denmark to Helsingborg, Sweden, about 55 km from Malmö. This is why part of my title is “Adventures in Driving.” The ferry was about the same cost as the bridge. (Price fixing if you ask me!) We just made the ferry. I think we were the 2nd to last car allowed on.
We had lunch in Helsingborg. By now it was 3:30 PM. We decided to head for Malmö, and if we saw the old windmill, we would get off the freeway and go see it. If we didn’t see it, well it must have been farther away than I thought. As we drove, we came to an interesting-looking old church that we had passed on our first trip into Malmö. We decided to get off the freeway and go find it, and I took a few pictures.
Once we got back on the freeway, we drove a long way and were quite close to Malmö. I had given up on the windmill, because we were too close to the city. I assumed that it must be farther away than Helsingborg, but all of a sudden, there it was. We had just passed an exit, so I had to go quite a ways to get off. Then I had to drive by dead reckoning to try to find it. The GPS would be no help because I didn’t know what coordinates to put it, and I didn’t know the name of the windmill. We drove a long way, and I was again about to give up, when I stopped to ask. (I know! I’m not supposed to do that, but I was in another country!) The clerk in a garden store was not familiar with it, but a customer outside knew of it and was very helpful in giving me the name (Kronetorps Mölla) and the general location. It was still a crap shoot and dead reckoning, but then . . . a Swedish miracle! There was a sign pointing to Kronetorps Mölla! Just 3 km. So off we went, and we found it!
Finding a big windmill in the middle of farming country is a little like finding a giant hot air balloon once it comes down low–it is amazing how it can disappear! Janie (the ace balloon chaser) was the first to spot it, and we managed to find the little driveway onto the property. It was closed of course. By now it was about 6:30 PM, but I was able to walk around and get some photos.
Finally, we headed home after a very long day! Adventures in driving! I really appreciated Janie’s patience because I got to see several interesting landmarks, in spite of dragging her all over the place.
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Malmö
Moving on to Malmö, the drive was uneventful, but a pleasant drive through more agricultural areas. (Anyway, uneventful is good!) Sweden is mostly forest, but a lot of the area visible from the highways is farm land, and quite flat for the most part. The highest point in Sweden is less than 7000 feet. On the way to Malmö, we saw many, many gigantic windmills of the modern type, and we saw one windmill that looked like classic windmills we associate with Holland. We hoped to go back to it.
The GPS had a little trouble again in Malmö due to construction–and my taking a wrong turn, but we eventually found our way to our destination, a nice AirBnB apartment. It is bright and roomy and has modern conveniences such as a dishwasher and washer/dryer, which are not that common in the areas where we have been. It has a little private deck that is cool in the evening and where I can sit out and work on this blog. Rather than inserting a bunch of my own pictures, you can see where we “live” at this AirBnB link. The pictures are accurate, except for the private garden, which is now a covered deck.
We walked to a square today where there is an open-air produce market, and had lunch at a pub, where we finally got our fish and chips!
Along the way, Janie noticed this very descriptive sign, which required no words to get across its message!
Across the street from our apartment, there is an interesting church tower. It looks old and I want to find out more about it. There is a church next door and I plan to go ask about its history.
Gothenburg
Our next stop was Göteborg (Gothenburg). This was not originally in our plans, but as we plotted out our route, we realized we could stop there for a short time. We decided to visit a very interesting museum with the remains of a Viking ship and Viking artifacts, as well as other artifacts from Swedish history. The GPS got confused because of construction projects, but we eventually found it. It worked out that we could eat lunch there as well.
Ship skeleton
Oval brooches
Gold chest
Chain mail
On to the Next Adventure
Saturday, it was time to leave Djurby! We had such a good time with Tim, Annalena and the whole family! We worried that we were keeping them from doing their normal things, but Annalena insisted that they enjoyed doing the activities with us that they otherwise may not have gotten around to.
We took off a little after 10 AM and for the first time, we were on our own in Sweden. We would have to figure things out ourselves and hope that the GPS was up to the task! Janie can no longer drive a stick shift, so unlike the days that I shared the driving with Tim, I was doing all the driving, and we didn’t want to push it. We drove about 350 km
(210 miles) on each of the next two days, so it was not overly taxing. It is a different experience to be on our own. We had it easy with someone giving us driving directions and translating for us. Now we had to rely on the GPS and hope the people we came in contact with could help us translate. (Most people in Sweden speak English very well, though.)
View of our hotel from the pedestrian street
When we arrived in Trollhätten, we couldn’t find our hotel! The GPS was leading us to a street that was pedestrian only. (Many cities in Sweden have converted some of their streets to pedestrian only.) In addition, there was a huge market (street fair) going on along this street. We finally stopped and called the hotel and they explained that we had to
drive about 1/2 block up the pedestrian-only street to the entrance of their parking lot! We had to drive very carefully, because the street was packed!
The hotel was quaint, built in the 1930’s with a tiny antique elevator. The room was small but comfortable enough. We got settled and then went down to enjoy the street fair.
The street fair was bigger, but not as nice as the one in Pajala. This one had block after block of the same imported T-shirts, jewelry and cell phone cases. In Pajala, there was authentic food and crafts (in addition to the cheap, imported goods).
There was also a live concert going on that night. Although it was quite noisy with the sound of people and music, the babble of people sounded like a river. We had no trouble sleeping and were all ready to go in the morning.
Family Dinner
Friday, the day before we would leave Tim and Annalena’s and the Djurby farm, we took it easy during the day, but enjoyed looking at Finn’s artwork. He is a very talented artist, and we bought some pieces to frame and display at home. You’ll have to wait until they are framed before I post pictures on the blog, though.
In the evening, we had a lovely outdoor dinner. Annalena’s niece (I think, or maybe cousin), Petra, had arrived on Thursday with her husband and two boys. Finn and his girl friend, Julia, had arrived late Thursday night. Joel, Agnes and Li were there, and before we finished dinner, Annalena’s sister and brother-in-law made it. We had a very good time and a very good meal! Petra and her family had collected a bunch of wild strawberries in the woods and we had wild and commercial strawberry shortcake for dessert.
Drottningholm Palace
Wednesday was a long night, so we took our time Thursday morning, but we still had a busy day! We went to Drottningholm Palace, an active home for the King and Queen. Parts are open to public tours. Unfortunately, we found that there were too many stairs for Janie to negotiate, and it was also unfortunate that no photos were allowed inside. Janie and Annalena waited patiently outside, while Tim and I went through an English-language tour. I wish I could show you photos of the elaborate decor from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries! I did manage to copy this photo of Hedvig Eleonora’s state bedchamber from the 1600’s off the official website for the palace.
Outside the palace was also interesting, and the grounds also include the Court Theater. Still in use, the theater auditorium is unchanged since its completion in 1766. 
A Good Luck Omen
We are in Malmo now, and it is time to catch up on the last few days.
First, for those who are interested, this is an illustration of our entire trip. Click on the thumbnail to see our entire route from the North to the Southern end of Sweden, with a detour into Finland and finishing up in Copenhagen.
I apologize again for the length of the next few posts. I know it is easier to scroll through some pictures with captions, but for most of you who have not been in Sweden, I can’t describe our experiences in just a few words.
Today is Monday, and we were on the road most of Saturday and Sunday, so we’re ready to take it easy for a day, get our bearings and catch up with the blog. I’ll break it up into a few different entries, so they’re not so long.
Wednesday, we did a lot of running around during the day including a visit to a 2nd hand store, and a garden/gift/art/cafe place that was an early inspiration for Tim’s Timogarden.
Lunch at the 2nd hand store with Li, Joel and Agnes . . .
. . . and Annalena, Tim and Janie.
Cooperative dragonfly!
At the garden store, we had a special experience as a dragonfly landed on Janie and remained for at least 10 min. while I had the opportunity for photograph it up close!
In the evening, we attended an absolutely fantastic concert by a Klezmer band! They were also joined on a few numbers by a well-known Swedish rap singer and slam poet, Henry Bowers (also known as Kung Henry). Who would have known that rap goes very well with Klezmer?
Although we had a snack at the concert, we also had our taste buds set for fish and chips at a pub afterwards. Unfortunately, the pub was closed. By the time we started hunting for an alternative, so was everywhere else, so we wound up picking up pre-made sandwiches at a grocery store. They tasted pretty good by midnight, when we got to eat them!
Another Busy Day and Near Disaster Averted!
Tuesday, I started putting our trip after leaving Djurby into the GPS, and realized that I had made a hotel reservation in the wrong city! Linköping is not the same as Lidköping! That would have been a problem, especially since it turned out that there were no vacancies in Lidköping, so we would have arrived with no place to stay.
Instead, I was able to make reservations in Trollhätten, also known as “Trollywood” because it is a center of Swedish film making.
Later, I went to help Tim with the rock wall for the green house, but he was nearly done for the morning, so I just kibitzed.
In the afternoon, we went for a tour of the parks in Enköping, known as the “City of Parks.” They have a beautiful park system that attracts tourists from all over the world. Our tour was on a tram that took us throughout the park system. Unfortunately, there was no room for Tim, but Annalena went with us, and Tim had a chance to look at things up close at his own pace.
Granite balls used for traffic control in Enkoping
See these thorns? They are 3-4″ long, and are said to be the kind of thorns that were used in Jesus’ crown of thorns.
We caught up with Tim in the butterfly sanctuary
The “Tourist Bureau” actually has brochures in the drawers for tourists
Hedge portal into a “Pocket Park”
We finished with a little shopping, coffee and sweets. I bought a carved horse which is traditional Swedish folk art originating in Swedish province of Dalarna.
We ended the evening with a delicious quiche dinner and several rounds of wine. We were treated to a serenade of the famous Swedish drinking song, “Helan Går.” We were told that the song refers to Laurel and Hardy–which led into a discussion and general agreement about how great Laurel and Hardy were, especially in Way Out West. We had no idea that they were so popular with all generations in Sweden! (I’ll teach my brothers the drinking song at our next get together.)
Swedish Pancakes and Salmon Dinner
(Note-I added a couple of photos to the end of the previous post for Sunday.)
Samuel with pancake
We started off Monday with brunch of Swedish pancakes with cloud berry and other jams and whipped cream. They are thin and light and delicious! I like them better than American pancakes, since they are not so heavy. On the other hand, I could eat too many of them! Joel came by with his cousin Samuel, whom we’d met in Pajala.
Joel preparing another pancake
Joel and Samuel did some work in the garden, including digging in the hole that Tim intends to become a pond, and they put up the tepee, which will stay up for the balance of the summer.
Li was also with us, and Joel’s girl friend Agnes joined us in the evening. She played her dulcimer and sang a little–a beautiful voice!
Janie wanted to cook dinner for everyone, so we grilled salmon, asparagus and corn over the fire. We had potatoes cooked on the stove as well as sauerkraut and salad. Quite a feast! They had never had grilled asparagus and it was a hit. Both Annalena and Li made beautiful desserts; Li’s was vegan and it was really good. Annalena’s was more decadent!
Auction, back roads and a local church
Sunday, we did not go too far, but we we went to a local weekly auction. It was interesting, although conducted in Swedish of course, so we didn’t know much of what was going on. It was an interesting mixture of good stuff and junk, and as Janie put it, “Swedish junk is not much different than American junk!” I was admiring a secretary (cabinet, not person) and there were some tempting tools sold at a bargain, but nothing we could bring home. Janie struck up a conversation with a stranger, and we met several other people.
After the auction, we took a scenic route through back roads to a flea market (like a neighborhood garage sale). I bought a little tripod-like device for my camera for 20 crowns (about $3) from this guy, who was quite an interesting character.
We followed more back roads to another old church, Husby-Sjutolfts kyrka, where Tim and Annalena are registered. This one was built between the 1200’s and 1400’s and had beautiful fresco paintings on the walls. We were fortunate to get a tour by a member of the church.
The altarpiece dates from the 1460’s These altarpieces depict biblical stories and are carved wood. The two outer wings are hinged and are closed during the week before Easter. Another example can be seen in the earlier post about the Domkyrka.
After going home for our naps, we went out to dinner with Tim, Annalena and Li to a restaurant in Enköping, which was on a canal leading to the lake. Several people had obviously boated in. Dinner was pleasant outdoors, in spite of the earlier threat of rain.
There was an interesting traffic warning near the canal!
Farmers’ Market and Domkyrka
On Saturday, Tim left early with his load of goods for the farmers’ market. Annalena, Janie and I went later to meet him. First we stopped at the Uppsala Domkyrka, a cathedral in Uppsala, where Annalena left us to go through a guided tour. This was the most beautiful church, or certainly among the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. It was originally built in 13th and 14th centuries. We were lucky enough to visit at a time celebrating the appointment of the first Archbishop of Sweden, so the cathedral had many artifacts and art installations (both ancient and modern) on display.
After our tour, we met Tim at the market and looked around, and then got lunch of very good falafel from a food truck.
After lunch, we visited the University of Uppsala Botanical Gardens, enjoyed some coffee and sweets and toured the enormous green house.
After returning home and catching up on our naps, we went to dinner at Tim and Annalena’s where Li baked a fantastic vegetarian lasagna. Their son, Joel, also joined us for dinner.
Working in the Garden
Rare photo of Rich doing manual labor.
We went down and helped Tim and Annalena in the garden. Tim and I raked up grass, and Tim placed in around the plants for mulch. Annalena weeded and pulled garlic.
Tim has built benches and chairs and placed them in strategic places in the garden so that we could rest where we were working. We enjoyed coffee and sweets during a break.
Later, we went to Uppsala and had lunch at a restaurant in a former train station. We also did some shopping in some neat gift shops. I had to find a phone store to get the internet and text messaging working on Janie’s phone. We went back to our room and had a light dinner, while Tim and Annalena prepared for Tim to take produce, flowers and sauerkraut to the farmers’ market the next day.
Outdoor Dinner and Garden Tour
We roasted (vegetarian) hot dogs over Tim and Annalena’s fire pit, and enjoyed Tim’s sauerkraut and the company of friends. Janie made a berry caprese salad to go with dinner, and Li joined us.
The weather has been hot, but it began to cool off. After dinner, we had a evening tour of the garden.
Tim has designed the garden in circles with lots of green space around them.
Tim showing off his “Bus stop to nowhere” in the garden.
Hand-built stone walls. The beginning of a traditional style greenhouse.
Awwwww!
They told us about the family of hedge hogs, and we got to see them first hand. Here is one of the young ones.
Settling In
We got settled in our accommodations, which are rustic but comfortable. However, the weather has been hot, and there is no fan. Fortunately, there are plenty of windows.
The farm is as pleasant as we remembered, but Tim and Annalena have created an entirely new garden since the last time we were here. It is really impressive!
We went to town for some provisions and for lunch at an traditional Swedish restaurant named “McDonald’s.” Annalena and Li will be arriving from the North by train tonight.
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Off to Sweden!
I apologize for the length of this first post, but I was cut off from the internet for the first few days of our trip, so this is a collection of several days’ experiences.
July 3. We are off to Sweden! Why Sweden? Our friends, Tim and Annalena Öhlund live there, and it is a beautiful place. (The photo at the top of this blog was taken near their home. Other photos are on my Europe 2006 page.) Our first trip to Europe in 2006 was supposed to be primarily to Ireland, but we decided to “drop by” Sweden to see Tim and Annalena. We didn’t really know what to expect, but we loved it.
A little over a year ago, Tim and Annalena were visiting the Northwest, and when I told them I planned to retire, they suggested that we visit them for a longer time. They live on a farm, and Tim does some very interesting things with his part of the property. He has a large and interesting garden and likes building things, and so do I, so we thought it would be fun to work together. (Tim has his own blog at Timogarden.)
Tim is originally from the US (we went to HS together), but moved to Sweden in the 70’s. There, he met and married Annalena, and he’s lived there ever since. Annalena is originally from Lappland, in the far north, above the Arctic Circle. I really wanted to see the area and culture where she is from, so we timed this trip to coincide with their visit up there. Later, we’ll go back to their home and stay there awhile, then Janie and I will set off on our own to Southern Sweden and Copenhagen.
Our flight left at 6 AM, so we had to be at the airport by 4:30. That began a grueling 24-hour trip! We flew to Newark, NJ, had a 3-hour layover, then to Stockholm with a 5-hour layover, and then to the Northern city of Kiruna. The flights were pretty routine, except long. I tried to adjust my sleeping in anticipation of the time shift to Sweden.
When we got to Newark, we got one of those scooter rides to the shuttle between terminals because of Janie’s bad leg. Apparently, the scooter needed some maintenance because the driver had to yell out “beeeep, beep, beep, beep” every time we approached people in the way. (The pedestrians were surprisingly oblivious to the scooter bearing down on them.) Janie then had to choose between negotiating 30 steps down to the shuttle bus and 30 up to the next terminal, or we would have had to go through TSA security again. She braved the steps and did OK with them.
July 4.
We arrived in Stockholm around 7 AM Stockholm time—10 PM July 3 Seattle time. The airline had an angel meet us to assist Janie with the distance between terminals. It was a good thing, because it was at least a ½ mile complicated hike between them! Anna the angel not only knew exactly where to go, but she also expedited our way through customs and another security checkpoint. (She also taught us how to pronounce Kiruna and Pajala—Pie’-ya-la; I had been pronouncing it Pa-ja’-la.) Once we got to the 2nd terminal, we just had to wait. Our phones did not work both because of a mix-up in getting them unlocked (to be able to use a Swedish SIM card in them) and because SIM cards were not sold inside the secure part of the airport. I was able to get a short-term Wi-Fi connection to connect with AT&T to start the process of unlocking the phones, but as I write this on July 5, we haven’t had a chance to complete the unlocking process or get Swedish SIM cards.
Tim met us when our plane arrived in Kiruna at 2 PM—by now it was 5 AM on July 4 in Seattle, a 24-hour trek that wasn’t over yet. We rented a car at the airport, stopped at a couple of stores for supplies, stopped to look at a couple of sights and started the 2-hour drive to Lovikka, our home for the next few days. One of the places we stopped was the beautiful Kiruna Church, built in the style of a Sami home. Amazing! 
I found out later that the church and much of the city center of Kiruna will have to be moved in the next 20 years or so because the iron mine that is the heart of Kiruna’s economy is literally undermining the town.
Lovikka is a pretty village on a large river, but it is so small it is only a dot on the map with no label. Tim was familiar with it, though, and he did the driving, giving me a chance to acclimate a little. Thankfully, they drive in the right side in Sweden.
We called our AirBnB host before leaving Kiruna, and he arranged to meet us and lead us to the cottage. When we told him we might stop for dinner along the way, he told us we shouldn’t—he had just caught a 10 kg (22 lb) salmon in the river, and his wife would cook dinner for us! They are so warm and friendly! Lasse, the husband, us and led us to the house. He and his brother were somewhat in a hurry to go fishing, but Eva, the wife, stayed, oriented us to the house, and finished cooking dinner. (The salmon was delicious!)
Our house in Lovikka
Eva left, and after dinner, Tim took the car to Pajala, where Annalena is. Now that I think of it, we had Tim leave us in the middle of the Arctic, in a country where we don’t speak the language, without any means of transportation or communication. The start of an adventure, I guess! Most people in Sweden speak English very well, so I am not worried about the language too much.
By the time Tim left, it was getting late and we were jet-lagged and tired from traveling, so we took some time to organize our things and went to bed. This is the land of the Midnight Sun, so not only were we adapting to the time change from Seattle, but we also have to adapt to the lack of darkness. Believe me, these things play havoc with your sense of time! I am not sure as I write this whether it will help with getting over the jet lag, or make it harder.
July 5. I’m also not sure whether it is July 5 or July 4. Counting the days, I’m pretty sure it is the 5th, but my watch says it’s the 4th and our phones and computer don’t give us accurate times since they are not connected. (Later, Tim confirmed the date.) We were tired enough to sleep and although we woke up a few times, we slept through until about 5:30 AM (from now on, I am talking about Swedish time.) We feel pretty good. We finished reorganizing our suitcases, and Janie is making breakfast for me as I write. I had a chance to take some pictures this morning. This is our home for the next few days. It is a classic Swedish country house. There are plenty of birds flying around. I recognize swallows, but I’m not sure of most of the others. There are plenty of birds because there are plenty of mosquitoes for them to eat! Tim says they are thick all over the North Country, so I expect to keep my mouth closed as much as possible for the next few days.
Sami bracelets
We left to spend most of the day at the Pajala Market, an annual fair. For those of you who are familiar with it, it reminded me of the Kent Cornucopia Days, only larger. While there, we were able to shop for some traditional Sami handiwork, taste local foods (including smoked reindeer and “coffee cheese”), listen to music, watch Bollywood dancing(!) and see the first ever Pride parade in Northern Sweden. We were surprised at the huge turnout for the parade!
Pride parade
A Finnish rock and roll group reminded me somewhat of Irish rock. It was rock and roll, but you could definitely hear the rhythmic patterns of the traditional music—in this case Polka. While listening to the music, Janie struck up a conversation with some friendly local people who were involved in the Pride parade.
After the parade, we went to Annalena’s family property for a big outdoor dinner. Again, everyone was extremely welcoming, and since everyone speaks English, we were able to have a great time talking about their family history, what their childhood in the rural Arctic was like, and where we come from. The property was homesteaded in the early 20th century by Annalena’s grandparents, and then her father and uncles built houses on the property. Annalena said that when she was growing up there were 15 cousins all living on the homestead. The food was fantastic, cooked by the women of the family. We ate outside at makeshift tables because there were over 30 people there.
Midnight Sun
It was still hard to get used to the Midnight Sun. As it went down toward the horizon, I kept expecting it to go down, but it just hung there. I also had in the back of my mind that we needed to leave before it got dark, but it wasn’t going to get dark! We didn’t leave until 10 PM, and the light was similar to just before dusk. When we got to our place, I decided to stay up until midnight, just to say I actually saw the Midnight Sun. So here is a picture of the sun on the horizon at midnight.
July 6. We met Tim at the Market in Pajala, but on the way we saw reindeer. A male, a female and a white baby were wandering down the middle of the highway! I was surprised that the reindeer were not skittish at all. The baby especially seemed oblivious of the traffic, including a giant ore-hauling semi. The drivers were careful to ease around the deer, but the deer pretty much owned the road. Unfortunately, I was not able to get a picture of them because of the traffic and no good place to pull over. I learned later from Tim that white reindeer are somewhat rare. After getting to the Market, we decided that we needed a down day, and didn’t want to spend all day walking around again. We got food for lunch and for dinner later, and headed back to the cottage for a quiet afternoon. I felt so lucky to be relaxing on the porch on a warm (near 80 degrees) sunny day with a breeze blowing, watching the river and drinking a beer! The mosquitos even left me alone! I also had an opportunity to chat with Eva, the wife of our host couple, to find out that she was born a few houses away in this village, and our cottage is their summer home. She is staying nearby with her sister while the cottage is rented. She also told me the story of the famous Lovikka mittens and the giant mitten that is in the Guinness Book of World records.
July 7. We were to leave the Arctic and drive to Tim’s home near Uppsala. Tim went with us and Annalena planned to stay a couple more days. This is a lonnggg drive—about 1000 Km or over 600 miles, but it gave us a chance to see a lot of Sweden, and we also crossed into Finland for part of the way. This was a beautiful drive through forests and farmland. We saw more reindeer along the way, but none of them cooperated by going the right direction on being sighted in an area where I could pull off and take a picture. Again, they were pretty oblivious to any traffic and obviously felt that the road was theirs. Against Janie’s better judgment, we followed Tim’s advice and did not make any hotel reservations along the way. As it turned out, we were unable to find any hotels that were open along the way, until nearly midnight. (Although we had gone below the Arctic Circle, we were still far enough North that it was still light at midnight. We finally found a very beautiful hotel—restored from an obviously old hotel in Örnsköldsvik.
July 8. After a nice breakfast in the morning, I was able to get Janie’s phone working with a Swedish SIM card. We still don’t have internet on it, but I’ll work that out soon. We left for Tim’s and made it to Uppsala around dinner time. After dinner, we arrived at the farm and moved into our suite at the bed and breakfast at the same farm on which Tim lives. So here we’ll stay for a week and then head further South on our own. It is very warm here and there is no air conditioning or even fans, so we have to get used to the heat. It is supposed to cool off in later in the week though.
New Monitor
The Blog is Ready for Prime Time
I have figured out how to allow people to subscribe by email to receive notices when new posts are made. This eliminates the need to remember to check back. It was the last step I wanted to complete before announcing the blog. So now I am sending out emails to friends and family to let them know it is available. I plan to post regular updates with photos while we are in Sweden, and catch up on posting some photos of earlier trips. I hope you enjoy it! If you wish to subscribe to email notifications of new entries in this blog, look in the right-hand column of this page for the subscription box. You can also request to become a registered user, which will allow you in the future to post comments. It isn’t necessary to be a registered user to view the blog or to subscribe to email notifications.
I’m still adding to some of my previous posts and adding pictures of past trips, so you might see changes to earlier entries in addition to new entries. I’m also working on allowing comments to the posts without opening things up to spammers, so look for that feature in the future.