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Lake Tahoe

August 20, 2012 in Travel | 1 comment

Lake Tahoe is one of the world’s strange places. Once a drop of water finds its way into the lake, it takes…well, compare this with, let’s say, Lake Michigan. Once a drop of water finds its way into Lake Michigan, it takes on average about two years for that drop of water to work its way out of the lake. Once a drop of water finds its way into Lake Tahoe, by comparison, it takes on average some seven hundred years for that drop to get out. This lake requires a long-term commitment.

And besides for evaporation, there’s only one way out: the Truckee River, which heads out almost due west but ultimately disgorges to the east into Pyramid Lake in Nevada.

As nearly as we can tell–a totally subjective observation–the main purpose of the Truckee River these days is to provide an ecstatic floating experience to crowds of visiting tourists, culminating in heart-pounding Class 0.2 rapids, after which they make you disembark and return your rafts. It’s way fun.

There’s other fun around Lake Tahoe, too, and plenty of it: there is, for example, the early morning wake-up at Tahoe House Bakery with excellent caffeine-rich coffee and fresh, delicious baked goods just a short walk from our rental house; hiking trails everywhere, including a trailhead also within easy walking distance; and a cute little town with a perennial traffic jam that just can’t be beat. Neither can the scenery.

   

And restaurants with bars out on piers by the lake, where the sunsets beg to be watched.

 

And sunrises from the bedroom window. In Tahoe, it all seems beyond compare

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Southeast Asia

July 26, 2011 in Photographs, Southeast Asia | No comments

In the near future, I am going to begin posting a (long) series of blog entries about Dan’s and my recent trip to Singapore, Myanmar, and Cambodia. I’ve been through a first-pass edit of literally thousands of photographs, and I’m culling the best few that will give you a flavor of what the places, the people, and the activities were like, without putting you into visual overload.

So that you can get a sense of the big picture, here’s a table of contents, of sorts. I’ll start with Myanmar (Burma), move on to Cambodia, and then show Singapore. This is not the order in which we traveled. We traveled to Singapore first, then Myanmar, Cambodia, and (briefly, no pictures) Thailand. However, the order I’m using makes sense as we will move from the most removed from what we consider the “modern” world to the most modern.

Inside Myanmar, I’ll show some highlights of Yangon (Rangoon, until recently the capital) first, then Bagan (a UNESCO World Heritage site), bustling Mandalay, and the enchanting and surreal Inle Lake. Each of these may require more than one entry, so it’s going to be a longer Web journey than the actual trip. But I hope you’ll stay with me on this visual adventure!

 

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Views of Falling Water

September 3, 2010 in Travel | No comments

Falling Water is so exquisite, one has to wonder, How did Frank Lloyd Wright ever come up with the idea for it?

I believe that the idea was all around him in plain sight. Horizontal striations dominate the Western Pennsylvania limestone rock that abounds on the site, contrasting stunningly with the vertical trees of the forest and the rushing water.

Wright’s unique genius–which cannot be overstated–was to see how this forested horizontal structure could manifest as a house.

Can you see the likeness? Here’s one little creature that seems to.

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Views of Falling Water

September 2, 2010 in Travel | 3 comments

I just returned from a trip with my mom to Falling Water, the well-known Frank Lloyd Wright house in Western Pennsylvania whose decks are cantilevered over a waterfall. You know the one.

Yes, that one. Most people have seen this view, but the amazing thing about Falling Water is that every view of the house, from its setting and relationship with its surroundings down to even the smallest interior detail, is beautiful.

Because I went on the so-called “In-Depth Tour,” which allows participants to take photographs, I am now sorting through and organizing a deluge of photos, and so I’m temporarily suspending the “Views from Golden Grove” series while I plow through these photos. I am truly privileged to be able to share some of them with you over the next few posts.

Enjoy!

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Airport Security – the Ice Pack Saga

June 12, 2010 in Travel | 4 comments

Dan and I are just crazy about Maryland crabcakes. And it turns out, not surprisingly, that the best place to get Maryland crabcakes is, well, Maryland. And the best place in Maryland that we’ve found so far is the G&M Restaurant in Linthicum, conveniently located just a mile or so from BWI airport.

I used to bring crabcakes home all the time before security cracked down on bringing liquids in carry-on luggage. Then it got more complicated. With the ice packs, I’d have to check a bag, and I never want to do that, not if I can avoid it. Sure it’s the money (the crabcakes are expensive enough!), but it’s also the extra time at the airport waiting for the checked bag. And what if the bag damaged? What if it’s lost?

So, we were out of crabcakes and I decided it was time to find out just exactly what the TSA’s rule is regarding a material that is a liquid when at room temperature but is frozen solid when being carried through security. There is nothing about this on their Web site, so I wrote to them and asked. A response came promptly. Here is what they said:

“TSA permits regular ice, frozen gel packs, and dry ice in checked and carry-on baggage.  Frozen items are allowed so long as they are solid and in a “frozen state” when presented for screening.  If frozen items are partially melted or have any liquid at the bottom of the container, the ice/liquid container must meet 3-1-1 requirements.”

So in April I froze up some ice packs and prepared for a trip to Maryland.

“Better bring a copy of that email with you,” Dan advised. And so I did.

Sure enough. When I went through security, they saw the ice packs in my bag. "It's ice packs," I kept explaining. "Frozen ice packs." They ignored me. They pulled my bag out for detailed searching. The person checking my suitcase was a supervisor. “Are you aware of TSA regulations regarding liquids?”

“Yes sir.” I whisked the TSA email out of my pack. “They say it’s okay to carry on a frozen ice pack”

He read it carefully, frowning. Finally he figured out what I had done wrong. “You have to declare this kind of thing so that we can check it. I checked it. It’s okay. You want to pack up your things?”

And so I was able to carry my ice packs aboard and to bring my crabcakes home. Yesterday I went through the exercise again. I packed three ice packs, two thicker, newer ones, and an older one that was nice and thin, good for slipping into the suitcase. All solidly frozen. I put them in ziplock bags and “declared” them separately as I’d been instructed. And it turned out that the older ice pack has some air in it, so that even frozen it’s just a little squishy, not perfectly solid.

“This one’s not frozen,” the security agent said. “It’s squishy. What’s it for?”

“I’m going to be bringing back crabcakes. Also frozen.”

“This one’s not frozen.”

“Yes it is. I just took it out of the freezer half an hour ago.”

“It’s supposed to be only for medication.”

“That’s not true. I wrote to the TSA about this and I have an email from them that puts it in the category of foodstuffs. They said I could bring it as long as it’s frozen.”

“This one’s not frozen. It’s squishy.”

“It’s frozen. Really it is. There’s just some air in it. I took it out of the freezer less than an hour ago. Been in there for a week.”

“Well, I’ll let you on with it this time, but if it’s squishy it’s not frozen.”

I am effusively grateful. “Oh, thank you so much.”

Gaahh! These frozen ice packs just don’t mix well with airport security contractors. I wonder what adventure awaits me on the way home.

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Ladd’s Addition – Portland, Oregon

July 21, 2009 in Travel | 3 comments

Today I walked (click here to see the map).

I walked from my hotel downtown (at SW 6th Ave. and SW Taylor St.) up to Stumptown Coffee (at SW 3rd Ave. and SW Pine St., almost in Chinatown) for breakfast-on-the-go. Great coffee and a blueberry-raspberry scone.

Then I walked across the Morrison Bridge. This in itself was a major accomplishment. Despite Portland’s aggressive and successful campaign to become carbon neutral, the Morrison Bridge is hostile to pedestrians. We will not discuss here how difficult it is for a pedestrian to find any pedestrian access to the bridge. Instead, I include here an actual unretouched photo of the attractive pedestrian environment on the bridge. This is how the engineers think the pedestrians will safely pass by the entry ramp. No one does this. We’d rather be killed in the traffic.

pedestrian ramp crossing on the Morrison Bridge in Portland, OR

pedestrian ramp crossing on the Morrison Bridge in Portland, OR

I crossed the manufacturing/ industrial area on the east side of the bridge and reached the northwest corner of Ladd’s Addition at SE Hawthorne Blvd.. and SE 12th Ave. And entered an enchanted world. Why don’t more people know about this? The entire area is an historic district, and many of the houses in it also have historic markers. Most of the houses are of the Arts-and-Crafts style.

house-in-ladds-addition-1 house-in-ladds-addition-2 house-in-ladds-addition-3 house-in-ladds-addition-4

Streets are lined with trees, often elms. Except for the major diagonals, they are quite narrow.

street-in-ladds-addition

Sidewalks, on the other hand, are generously wide, as is the green space between the sidewalk and the street. This green space is often used for gardening. Sometimes even vegetable gardening. The raised-bed vegetable gardens look surprisingly good. I want to do this at home.

sidewalk-in-ladds-addition sidewalk-in-ladds-addition-2 vegetable-gardening-in-the-grass-strip-in-ladds-addition

At the center of the Addition is a park, confusingly entitled in google maps “Ladd’s Circle Square Park”. In each of the cardinal directions, midway between the park and the edge of the Addition is a diamond-shaped rose garden.

rose-garden-in-ladds-addition

Moving on to Hawthorne Boulevard, I found a delightful cafe just on the far (east) corner of Ladd’s Addition. In their flower-filled garden patio, I ate roasted-beet-arugula salad and chilled cucumber soup.

garden-at-the-cafe-castagna-on-hawthorne

Other interesting sights on Hawthorne included a hardware store surrounded by gardens, a tempting bakery, a blade store full of samurai swords (sorry, no picture), and–yes!–a grass roof!

hardware-store-surrounded-by-gardens-on-hawthorne-blvd bakery-on-hawthorne grass-roof-on-hawthorne

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Being where you are when you’re being there

February 9, 2004 in my family, science fiction, Travel, writing | No comments

The protagonist of many of my early fiction stories, a young man named Roderin, had the ability to Shift from one reality to another. I grew up wishing I had this talent. At heart, I didn’t want to have to inhabit the reality I was in – a characteristic that perhaps many readers (and writers) of fantasy stories share.

In the world of my bickering parents, I learned early and learned well how to get by while actually being there as little as possible. I read. When I ran out of horse stories in my branch library, I fled to the stars. When I ran out of astronomy books, I turned to fantasy and science fiction. I was light years away all the time. Alternative universes were even better.

My personal reality is a lot better now, and I don’t mind inhabiting it. Most of the time. But I can still walk down a path on a beautiful Florida campus, surrounded by grass and flowers, water vistas and gracious white buildings shining in the warm February sunshine, and feel within myself the potential to be someplace else.

Or at least, not to be here.

Not completely.

If I were Roderin, all it would take would be a focused act of will and an acceptance of a small wave of nausea that passes quickly enough. There’s always a price, after all. It’s not too bad as long as the price is not too steep.

But that’s the catch, isn’t it? For the possibility of what existence in what world in all of the heavens would I be willing to give up this world’s long-legged daughter for whose sake I am walking this campus path?

I guess I’m going to stay right here.

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