I spent most of the week in Washington. The D.C. version.
We stayed at the Bethesda Hyatt. The room was OK. In fact it was a palace compared to what Captain Bob and I are used to on our bike trips. But when you get over $300 / day I would think you would have an exhaust fan in the bathroom. Maybe even a wide-screen TV?
The hotel was about 9 miles from where I was going every day. So the Metro was the only choice. Fortunately the start was right under the hotel. Good thing as Nicole hit the mid-Atlantic this week.
I have never been on the Metro and I think the last time I was on a NY subway was in the early 80s so I'm a wide-eyed newbie. When you look at the Metro Map you can get the heebie-jeebies trying to figure out how to navigate the thing. But it turned out to be easy. All I had to do was hop on the Red Line, transfer to the Blue or Orange Line at Metro Central, travel a few more stops and I was there.
Now I did need to walk outside the hotel. But it was to an area with a cover so no rain on me. An elevator brought us down about one level. About 50 feet to right was an escalator. The longest, steepest escalator I've ever seen. I'd swear this thing must be 1/4 mile long. At the bottom there are a row of machines vending tickets. For my $20 I got a small square piece to heavy stock paper with a magnetic strip down the middle.
So I put the ticket in the slot and it pops out a few feet away. I took the trains to my destination and fed the ticket through the turnstile slot again. When it popped out this time, a new balance was printed.
Come near the end of the week I was running low on money. Just popped the ticket in, fed a couple bucks in, adjusted the total to what I knew I needed, pushed the button and out popped a new ticket and my change.
Now I'm no Luddite but I think the sophistication is pretty marvelous. Yeah I guess if I jumped from an early 80s PC to today's PC maybe I'd find that marvelous too. I have since been told that the Metro is cleaner and such than the NY subways but they have synthesized voices announcing stations and the like that you can actually hear and understand. The Metro is still a human over a loudspeaker that you can't understand.
2010-10-02
2010-08-16
perspectives
Nippy lost the DVD I made of the Alaska pictures I took in May 2009. I found my copy and duplicated it. Of course I spot checked the copy to make sure it duplicated correctly and ran in to some pictures I had taken at Glacier Bay.
The pictures do not provide a sense of the magnitude of the Alaskan wildness. Perhaps it is the difference between congested New Jersey and the glaciers, but probably not. I think even a Texan would find the landscape immense.
We headed in to Glacier Bay and on in to the Tar Inlet. Two glaciers come in to the end of the inlet. Like many glaciers, the Grand Pacific Glacier is receding. This is where the Grand Pacific Glacier hits Tar Inlet:
I know it's not very impressive. Although I couldn't get the entire glacier face in the frame, I'd say it's 90% there. You're looking at a 2 mile wide glacier face. A little perspective? If you laid the Empire State Building on it's side, it would be about (actually a little less) the length the dashes underneath the picture.
To the left is the Marjorie Glacier.
The Marjorie Glacier is about 1 mile wide and 350 high (250 above water).
Note that those caves are about 1/2 up in the first picture. The splash is about 1/2 to the cave. So the splash is about 60 feet high!!!
One of the other things that impresses me is the color of the water. I first encountered this at Glacier National Park in Montana. It was even bluer and clearer there. This picture doesn't capture it very well, but I think it gives you the idea.
The color is from Glacial Flour (also known as Rock Flour, but I like Glacial Flour better). Note that spectacular blue in the photo of Peyto Lake:
When we left Glacier Bay I was gripped by the sunlight on the water. It is a little out of context as it doesn't provide perspectives, but I liked it enough to toss it in.
The final perspective was the Gulf of Alaska coastline after we left Glacier Bay. Do you think there is enough elbow room in these parts?
The pictures do not provide a sense of the magnitude of the Alaskan wildness. Perhaps it is the difference between congested New Jersey and the glaciers, but probably not. I think even a Texan would find the landscape immense.
We headed in to Glacier Bay and on in to the Tar Inlet. Two glaciers come in to the end of the inlet. Like many glaciers, the Grand Pacific Glacier is receding. This is where the Grand Pacific Glacier hits Tar Inlet:
I know it's not very impressive. Although I couldn't get the entire glacier face in the frame, I'd say it's 90% there. You're looking at a 2 mile wide glacier face. A little perspective? If you laid the Empire State Building on it's side, it would be about (actually a little less) the length the dashes underneath the picture.
To the left is the Marjorie Glacier.
The Marjorie Glacier is about 1 mile wide and 350 high (250 above water).
Note that those caves are about 1/2 up in the first picture. The splash is about 1/2 to the cave. So the splash is about 60 feet high!!!
One of the other things that impresses me is the color of the water. I first encountered this at Glacier National Park in Montana. It was even bluer and clearer there. This picture doesn't capture it very well, but I think it gives you the idea.
The color is from Glacial Flour (also known as Rock Flour, but I like Glacial Flour better). Note that spectacular blue in the photo of Peyto Lake:
When we left Glacier Bay I was gripped by the sunlight on the water. It is a little out of context as it doesn't provide perspectives, but I liked it enough to toss it in.
The final perspective was the Gulf of Alaska coastline after we left Glacier Bay. Do you think there is enough elbow room in these parts?
2010-07-31
Shuttle Delay
NASA announced that the last two shuttle launches have been delayed. The last launch is now scheduled for Feb 25, 2011. I talked to the Captain and we agreed to delay our Florida trip. We're going to try to get tickets for the February launch and drive to Florida.
Whew. The knee is still swollen etc. I'm sure glad I'm not trying to do 50 miles a day in two weeks. At least I've got a year to make this work. If the knee isn't good by then, well perhaps the touring days might be over.
Whew. The knee is still swollen etc. I'm sure glad I'm not trying to do 50 miles a day in two weeks. At least I've got a year to make this work. If the knee isn't good by then, well perhaps the touring days might be over.
2010-07-04
4rth of July
I was running through some photos and thought this picture of a pair of bald eagles would make a fitting simple 4rth message.
Happy fourth of July
Happy fourth of July
2010-06-27
An LBI Day
The wily captain brokered a deal where he painted a few rooms in his ex-mother-in-laws Long Beach Island house for a week stay there. So, of course, most of his family glombed on to this and joined him for part of his stay.
Spousy had a retirement party to attend to so we went down on Friday. The drive down was fine although my knee started to bother me. I would have thought that keeping my leg straight and foot on the foot rest would be the best position. Wrong. I found that bending my leg so that my foot was back by the front edge of the seat.
We got there around noon. Although I'm not much of a beach person (so why am i on LBI?), soon we were off to the beach. I really hate sunburn so I stayed under an umbrella until about an hour before we were going to leave. Most of time I watched the local fauna or this dredge that had little activity.
The next morning Captain Bob and I rode north to the Barnegat lighthouse. It was a great ride on the way down in the cool morning. Apparently we had a tailwind. The way back was tougher. It was hotter and we clearly had a head wind. By the time we got back, my knee was a bit sore and swollen.
That evening we ate at the Greenhouse Cafe. It was pretty good and reasonably priced. Captain Bob and John both brought too much wine. But as I expected to drive back later, I only had a 1/2 glass.
Later we went to the final showing of the Black Maria Film Festival (John is the founder and director). It was hosted by the LBI Foundation of the Arts & Sciences. I didn't think any of this year's films stood out. I didn't like Pickles for Nickels and a couple others but didn't have any favorites. Perhaps I was less in the mood because my leg was starting to hurt while sitting there. It was also so cold that I had to get up and walk around about 1/2 through. In fact, at one break, I heard others call for the air conditioning to be turned down. As near as I can tell, that never happened.
When the films were done, I was glad to get out in the warm humid outside. We waited for John to out, chatted for a bit, then left. When I got back to the car I was surprised that it was already cool. Remember awhile back, Captain Bob had to buy a new car? Well he had this new Prius that he apparently left running for 3 hours. We will see how good his gas mileage is after that.
We went back to the beach house. Captain Bob made me some coffee. I put my bike on the rack and we took off.
Two hours later I was back and in my own bed.
Spousy had a retirement party to attend to so we went down on Friday. The drive down was fine although my knee started to bother me. I would have thought that keeping my leg straight and foot on the foot rest would be the best position. Wrong. I found that bending my leg so that my foot was back by the front edge of the seat.
We got there around noon. Although I'm not much of a beach person (so why am i on LBI?), soon we were off to the beach. I really hate sunburn so I stayed under an umbrella until about an hour before we were going to leave. Most of time I watched the local fauna or this dredge that had little activity.
The next morning Captain Bob and I rode north to the Barnegat lighthouse. It was a great ride on the way down in the cool morning. Apparently we had a tailwind. The way back was tougher. It was hotter and we clearly had a head wind. By the time we got back, my knee was a bit sore and swollen.
That evening we ate at the Greenhouse Cafe. It was pretty good and reasonably priced. Captain Bob and John both brought too much wine. But as I expected to drive back later, I only had a 1/2 glass.
Later we went to the final showing of the Black Maria Film Festival (John is the founder and director). It was hosted by the LBI Foundation of the Arts & Sciences. I didn't think any of this year's films stood out. I didn't like Pickles for Nickels and a couple others but didn't have any favorites. Perhaps I was less in the mood because my leg was starting to hurt while sitting there. It was also so cold that I had to get up and walk around about 1/2 through. In fact, at one break, I heard others call for the air conditioning to be turned down. As near as I can tell, that never happened.
When the films were done, I was glad to get out in the warm humid outside. We waited for John to out, chatted for a bit, then left. When I got back to the car I was surprised that it was already cool. Remember awhile back, Captain Bob had to buy a new car? Well he had this new Prius that he apparently left running for 3 hours. We will see how good his gas mileage is after that.
We went back to the beach house. Captain Bob made me some coffee. I put my bike on the rack and we took off.
Two hours later I was back and in my own bed.