R&J Together

Yes, our initials are the same as Romeo and Juliet. We have all the romance without the early death, thank you very much. ;-)

All the pictures of Ricardo and I together from Seattle were from his camera. He has finished processing them in photoshop (he is a very serious photographer so his pictures (and camera) and much better (and take longer) than mine.) But now he has gotten them to where he likes them and I think they are really good. His ones of us together turned out especially well.

Here are my favorite three plus one from the beach in Monterey that is still my favorite. Sunset lighting is always the best.



This is us outside our train with Kathleen in the background.



Here we are with the Space Needle behind us and the light reflecting off the metallic surfaces of the Experimental Music Project in our faces.



This shows us on top of the Space Needle with downtown behind us. One of my favorites from the trip.



Ah, 4th of July at the beach at Sunset. The fireworks ended up right over us. We came really early and picked a random spot and it turned out to be perfect.

I think that's the last of Seattle. Excellent trip, and I even got over my traveler's cold in record time. Now it is back to the grind of school. Three more semesters and I have a masters! After a BA in Neuroscience I'll have an MS in Journalism. A BA in science and an MS in humanities - backward but cool.

Rove Gone, Problems Remain

It has been observed that I did not comment on the departure of Karl Rove this past week. I was, as you recall, on vacation. (more about that below - Pictures!) I am back now and thought I would take a stab at it.

It is good that he is gone, as many have declared. He was the "architect". But the building he created remains. The administration did not crumble with his departure. He probably had a hand in filling every appointment. Have those people all left too? No. We are still faced with the most corrupt, partisan, dangerous administration we have been forced to endure in my lifetime, and possibly in my grandparent's lifetime. I long for a parliamentary democracy so we could have a vote of "no confidence" and get Bush out now. Then we could have a full scale change in the executive administration. He still has time to do more damage.

As a letter writer said today in the paper, now Rove is free to work for the Republican National Committee, with no accountability at all. He'll try to "swift-boat" the next Democratic nominee. He's twice as dangerous now.

Rove's departure means one less voice for insanity in the administration. There remains a chorus. We have much work still to do.

Write all your elected officials, especially your congressional representative and your Senators, about what is important to you. They all have web pages with email forms that make it easy. I write my Congresswoman, Rep. Eshoo, so much that she now sends me letters by postal mail when an issue comes up that she thinks would interest me, based on what I've written her. She's always spot on. I get her general newsletter too.

Know the legislation in Congress by signing up with One.org (for humanitarian causes), HRC.org (for gay rights) or whatever issues matter to you. Pick one or two and stay informed. They do the hard work for you by keeping tabs on Congress and the Administration. Use their knowledge and sign up for legislation email bulletins. Then write your email to Congress or the President. Or write a general position email so they know what side their constituency favors. Just write. They work for you.

We can all participate in our Democracy. Otherwise we have no Democracy.

We must look to ourselves.

Home Triumphant

I'm home again and a little sad that the trip is over. Back to the grind now!

Before I go though I thought I'd share some pictures. First though, the train ride back was lovely. We ate our meals with 2 additional interesting couples. Three meals, yes, but two with the same couple by happy coincidence, so that was nice. I slept on the bottom bunk for the first time ever and found it so much more roomy and comfortable. I think I'm a top bunk person really though. The element of danger and all that. True, there is the net, but it is still more dare-devil I think.

But I said pictures, didn't I? Let's see if I can get this to work....



Ah, there it goes! This is a gorgeous lake from the train on the way up. We passed several.



This is me and Kathleen, our fabulous attendant on the way up I mentioned.



Pike Place celebrating its 100th Anniversary by recreating the arrival of the produce carts in 1907.



Real roses dyed blue and rainbow colors.



The old ships docked on the left were used in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. This was taken from the Space Needle.



Me in the mirror of the DUCW on the Duck Tour. We are on Lake Union.



The second butterfly that landed on me in the Butterfly Atrium at the Pacific Science Center.



The Space Needle with the cathedral sculptures at the Pacific Science Center.

Wonderful trip! I'm done for now. I'll send out another notify when there is something to read. Thanks all!

It Doesn't Rain Indoors

Today was a slightly rainy Seattle day so it was good we had planned on spending it at the Pacific Science Center near the Space Needle. I loved it.

The Pacific Science center is made up of four exhibit halls, two IMAX theaters and a planetarium set up around an involved water feature that is part fountains, part sculptures rising from the water and mostly walkways and stairs connecting the buildings, with three tall complicated gothic box arches that, from a distance, make it look like the skeleton of a cathedral.

Inside it is mostly small hands on exhibits around themes and the kids love it. My favorite was the insect wing. Everything you wanted to know about insects. Six legs, three body segments was the main thing I got out of it. The best part though was the Butterfly Atrium. Tropical butterflies flitting about in a flowering jungle. Two of them landed on me when I sat very still. This one time it wouldn't fly away for the longest time, even when I was ready to go and shook my clothes. He was my new best friend. It fascinated this little girl who sat down on her haunches and stared at this black butterfly with parallel bright spots. He was resting on my ankle. We both just started at this little guy forever. He had no fear. Finally he released me (though I liked being visited by a butterfly) and I could go. They check you for stowaways on the way out, make you spin around and everything. My guy was trying to escape. Though why he would want to leave the jungle for rainy Seattle I don't know.

We saw two IMAX movies, both in 3D. One was an absorbing look at all the new information about dinosaurs since I was a kid. It focused on the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, and the Badlands in the Southwest USA. They talked a lot about life assemblages, fossils that catch the dinosaurs in the act of living their lives, and so show us behavior. One was of a baby Triceratops type dinosaur and a small Velociraptor type one that were entangled, fighting to the death. They were buried alive somehow as the fought and we can now see predatory and defensive tactics.

The second IMAX we saw was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It looked great since it was a flat screen (not a dome) and the final showdown was in 3D! They give you these goggles that look like weak sunglasses (we think it works through oppositely polarized lenses) and it does an amazing job. If you've seen that movie you know how cool that final fight would look reaching out at you and you are right.

Well we must leave tomorrow (sniff) and early. Good night!

Science Fiction Inside a Smashed Guitar

Today we saw a slice of popular science fiction inside a building that is supposed to resemble a smashed Jimi Hendrix guitar but doesn't. Not unless his guitar was painted 6 colors in six discrete areas, made of metal, smashed to six pieces which were then heated till they were floppy and left to cool over six sphere's so the ends curled in fantastic ways, and then all the pieces were arranged in the vague dimensions of a guitar. With those stipulations then yes, it does look like a smashed guitar.

I am speaking of course of the Science Fiction museum housed in the Experimental Music Project Building near the Space Needle. Jimi Hendrix, a Seattle native son, is much revered here, especially by local resident and billionaire Paul Allen, of Microsoft fame. Paul Allen likes music and science fiction, so he got famous architect Frank Gehry to design a building to house two museums about those two subjects. Most of the exhibits are on loan from "The Paul Allen Family Collection." Including all the phasers from various Star Trek series and costumes from everything from Ghostbusters to Star Wars to Indiana Jones to Red Dwarf (look it up.) Hey, if you've got a billion dollars, do what ya love, right?

As you can imagine I was in Heaven in the Sci Fi museum, which, as you know, is a great love of mine. The exhibits traced the development of the genre, it's affect on reality (first cell phones = flip phones = Star Trek original communicators) and displayed all manner of minutia used in Sci Fi TV and Movies. They even had a special exhibit on actual costumes from Sci Fi shows and movies. Did you know Jeri Ryan is short? 7 of 9? The Borg? Star Trek: Voyager? (Look it up.) She was! They never look short of TV.

Ricardo was not as in to Sci Fi as I was but he graciously let me go real slow and read everything. We were faster in the Experimental Music Project (EMP) which sadly, wasn't as good. Hard to have a museum that visually represents music. More to the point, hard to enjoy a music museum when you don't play a rock instrument and a lot of it is based on offering opportunities for "Your Very Own Recording Session!" meaning, rock band. They did have have an excellent exhibit about Walt Disney and his legacy in changing the way music appeared in animation and movies in general. Go watch - no go LISTEN - to Bambi, that's all I've got to say.

We started the day with a Duck Tour abroad a DUCW World War II Amphibious landing vehicle. We could make 40 mph on the expressway and 5 knots in the water (Lake Union.) So much fun! They make it really goofy and silly and play lots of cheesy 70s music when you are stuck in traffic. We went all around central Seattle, mainly the waterfront and downtown, near Pike's Place Market. Then we drove a spell to Lake Union and drove right into that. The vehicles look like boats with wheels sticking out of the hull, and somehow it works.

We learned lots of fun facts. Did you know that Starbucks is the only chain store allowed in Pike Place Market? That is because it started right there before it became a multi-national chain, so they grandfathered it in. Cool, Huh? The entire downtown burnt to the ground in 12 hours in 1899. Or was it 1897? One of the two. They rebuilt with stone and brick. Doesn't burn, see?

I got to be first mate in the brief water ride. That meant I got to sit up front while Ricardo leaned out the window and took pictures and had a better view than my previous interior seat. She needed a comic foil and I did my best. Our captain was this young woman and she was so funny. We went under this big elevated freeway, and she pointed out we were going under the viaduct via Duck. Get it! I love bad puns! I had a blast. Ricardo got some great pictures too.

Well now it is late and I will go to bed. Pacific Science Center tomorrow!

Sunny Seattle

It's a gorgeous day in Seattle. I don't know why they say it rains. ;-)

We spent the (early) morning at Pike's Place Market, celebrating their 100 aniversary with Balloons and Cake and Horse-drawn Carriages. This farmer's market was formed because middle-men drove up the price of onions for the public 10 fold in a week. Plus they were forcing down the amount they paid farmers. So everyone on all sides rebelled and they officially opened the market August 17, 1907. I gather it had been a furtive reality for a little while already, but people need their onions I tell you. And Pike's Place Market was born.

Tons of people at the festivities, and the funky shops were in full swing. So gorgeous, the displays of fresh produce and flower boquets and glistening sea-food. Pike's Place is always fun and never more so than during a human parade, that's for sure.

Our day on the train was delightful, Thank you. Go Amtrak! We were on the correct side to see all the rivers and lakes and peaks in the Cascade Range. Every meal we ate with a different couple and they all shared fascinating stories from all over the West Pacific Coast and Hawai'i. Ah, the train! So much fun. It was Ricardo's first overnight train experience and he said he had fun so that's good.

Now we're off to hang out at The Space Needle and environs a while, then dinner with Mom's friend Kathy, where I get my middle name. So a funfilled start to the vacation.

Off to Seattle!

My boyfriend Ricardo and I are heading up to Seattle for a "mini-break" as Bridget Jones says. We'll take the train tonight and all tomorrow, and arrive in Seattle tomorrow night. We'll stay for three days and catch the return train on Monday morning and arrive back home Tuesday morning.

Ricardo is this really amazing guy I met on Match.com. We've been going out almost 4 months now. He is of Chinese descent but grew up in Indonesia and now lives in the Bay Area. He was named by the part of his family that immigrated to Brazil in the 1950s, so that's how he acquired a Latin name. Like lots of guys around here he works in the computer field. We get along great and are looking forward to this trip.

Well I gotta go catch my train. Talk to y'all from Seattle!