Zoos and Zeppelins

The long-term readers around here know that I don't like to spend my birthday in the office, but rather try to get away and do new things, liking climbing relatively short mountains, getting hot stone massages, going on art hunts or sinkingd kayaks. This year I cheated a bit an ran things over into the next day, with a strange and brilliant day to wrap up my 53rd year and start my 54th.

The Lovely Bride and I started out in Tacoma, at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, which we had never been to before. The grounds spill down a hillside overlooking the sound, and this may be the most kid-friendly zoo I have ever seen. Many of the best vantage points (and some entire displays) were set at the 3-foot-high level. It is small zoo, but does have some unique creatures (walruses swimming upsides down, nurse sharks brooding in the depths of their tanks). It has a great Pacific Northwest Ocean exhibit. And as a bonus, the LB and I spent about a half hour watching a pair of zookeepers socializing a 6 month old clouded leopard cub. It was like playing with the housecat, except the cat in this case was at least 60 lbs.

From the zoo, a quick change into respectable dubs and to my favorite very very expensive restaurant, Canlis, for a long leisurely dinner, watching the sun set and the moon rise over Lake Union, and pretty much closing the joint. As is my wont, I went with the tasting menu with a flight of wines, which was wonderful. In this case, the tasting menu had a lot of molecular gastronomy in it (better cooking through chemistry). I usually post the menu, but in this case it does not do the meal justice, in the prosciutto course included both paper thin cuts and toasted wafers of the ham, served with vaguely identifiable but succulent cantaloupe and figs, or that the chicken course included homemade chicken sausage with a creamy texture like mozzarella, or that the ginger beer had encapsulated (reconstituted and re-formed) cherries in it. I could go into further details, but I went with the wine pairings, which were perfect and brilliant and left me a bit woozy at the end of it all. Of course, we had prepared for this eventuality, and caught a cab back to the suite we were staying in near the Seattle Center (with fireplace).

And then, the next morning, the Zeppelin. Yeah, you guys already know that airships can be blimps (no frame) and dirigibles (internal frame), and that Zeppelin is a model name (like Boeing or Ford). There is an outfit out of San Francisco called Airship Ventures which runs airship tours over the bay area, and they chose to come up here to Seattle to promote themselves. There was an article in the Seattle Times talking about it, and the Lovely Bride, sounding like a characgter from "Phineas and Ferb"said "I Know what we're going to do this Saturday - We're going on a zeppelin ride!".

We took the short (45-minute, merely hideously expensive) ride as opposed to the deluxe (90-minute, heart-stoppingly pricey) version. We took off from Paine Field, flew over the Boeing plant and the USS Lincoln aircraft carrier, made a long circuit over Possession Sound and Tulalip Bay, circled Gedney island, flew over Widby and Camano islands, sailed over the ferries, and back to our starting post. Boeing was test-flying the 787 while we were in the air, and we got to see that as well in flight.

And how was it? Amazing. I've ballooned, but that has always had the feeling of a stable platform at a height. The airship (the world's biggest, by the way - size of a 747 but much more manueverable) felt more like real flight. Oh, and you can put your head out the window, giving your hair a case of "zep-head". The initial takeoff and landing felt incredibly exciting, and in the air you could feel yourself cut through the sky. Plus the fact that the gondola was the size of a small bus, with room for a dozen people to move around relatively comfortable, and that windows were huge (including the entire rear of the gondola, giving an incredible view).

It was, all in all, a wonderful experience. The company will be out here until Labor Day, but the flights are apparently all booked up. They will be back in 2012, planning to take a sojourn east to the Oshkosh fly-in next year.

And it was a wonderful birthday, so wonderful that I actually fell asleep that evening in the middle of a Call of Cthulhu game. Yeah, I was all tuckered out, so much so that eldritch beasts could not rouse me from my slumber.

Thanks to everyone who has wished me a happy birthday (and John and Janice for the cake), and yeah, this was one of the best.

More later,

52-Year Pickup

Well, apparently I am playing with a full deck now, at least as far as years are concerned.

Long-time readers know that I try to spend my birthday away from the workflow - out of office, not checking emails, phone turned off, usually in some physically different space. I've hiked up Little Si and as far as one can up Rainier without requiring a back country pass, and flipped kayaks. Many, many kayaks.

But with all the recent travel, I really didn't want to go anywhere, and slotting this particular birthday to putter around the house, read on the back deck, and take it easy.

Then I read about some guerrilla art showing up in Gasworks Park, which motivated me on a journey to see go see sculpture:

The piece is called "Anew" and was situated at Gasworks by the artist and her friends, who ninjaed it in one night and have chosen to leave it until the rains return or someone hauls it away. Originally, the park decided to haul it away on Thursday, but gave it a reprieve until Labor Day, but already people are starting to haul off pieces.

The art itself is of several cocooned figures slowly emerging as golden humans (A very Sylvari sort of thing, for Guild Wars fans). It is brilliant and beautiful and perfectly located, and the park was filled with people seeking it out.

Once started, we had to continue. The Lovely Bride and I headed to Magnusson Park and "The Fin Project: From Swords to Plowshares" at the base of Kite Hill (site of another piece of G-Art in 2001 when a monolith appeared). The Fin Project consists of a series of dorsal fins from nuclear subs, arranged to look like a pod of whales breaking the surface. Each fin is identified by both its original sub and the name of a whale from Puget Sound. A nice installation that fits smoothly into its environment.

Then we set off looking for the "Sound Garden". Not the band, but the sculpture the band was named after. The Lovely Bride could not find it on an earlier trip, as it had been fenced off. The sculpture is on NOAA property, and in our after-11 world, security had sealed it away.

Security is still there, and after explaining ourselves at the gatehouse, we provided ID and answered some questions and got directions. We found the structure, a series of weather vanes, each tied to a long hollow pipe, sadly quiet, though if this was from the gentleness of the day's breeze or its own age is unknown. Props to NOAA for making the art available again.

And lastly the Olympic Sculpture Garden downtown. Compared to the other structures, this felt tamer and more mannered than the other locations, such that the land itself was restructured to accommodate the art. Everything was huge and monolithic but protected from the passersby by invisible watchers warning not to touch (as the Lovely Bride learned). However, there was nothing wrong with kids pulling all manner of chairs into the shade of the Calder Stabile, and they showed that you can interact with the art without provoking the wrath of the invisible watchers.

One thing worth checking out in the park is the Vivarium, a long building housing a nurse log, with controlled temperatures and rainfall to study the effects of the decay of the log on the plants that spring up around it. The transplanting of the log and its surroundings into the center of Seattle is a telling commentary on our development fever. Joni Mitchell was spotted near the exit muttering something about a "tree museum".

The day rounded up with a wonderful dinner at the Melrose in downtown Renton with John and Janice, and an early bedtime (I am still time-shifted beyond all belief). But it was nice to go on a sculpture tour of Seattle, and I suppose I will do it again, though probably not on my birthday.

More later,

The Curious Pot

So after rolling some kayaks and fighting the Lake Washington chop, the Lovely Bride and I came back to the house, napped, and went to Anthony’s Pier 66 for dinner. I really like Anthony’s – it's got a good view of the north end of Eliot Bay and a great menu, particularly its fish (of course). The food was wonderful and the service was excellent, at least until the waiter got slammed by an eight-top that rolled in right next to us.

That happened late in the meal, when I ordered hot tea and the LB a sorbet (note to all restaurants – You DO have a sizable percentage of customers with egg allergies – if you put more than just sorbet on the menu that the LB can eat, she will visit you more often). Anyway, the waiter dropped this curious plastic pot of tea in front of me and had to dash off to another emergency.

I picked up the pot, and noted that there was no spout. Indeed, the top looked flush with the rest of the pot, and the leaves themselves were steeping in a swirling mixture that looked like parts of Lake Washington that I has just paddled through. No tea ball, no visible strainer. But for the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to get the tea OUT of the pot and INTO my cup.

A younger me would try experimentation, but I had just gotten my linen suit BACK from the cleaners, thank you. I instead chose to flag down another waiter and say “OK, you got me. What’s the secret?”

The small plastic pot slips OVER the mug of tea, the base acting like a cover to the cup. The tea comes out of the base of the pot, which is opened by the lip of the mug pressing upwards. That way the tea steeps faster (being loose), but drains fully through the leaves without leaving any dregs in the cup.

Ingenious, but a death trap for anyone who didn’t know the trick. I congratulated myself on my wisdom in asking for help, and wondered where that wisdom had been earlier in the day when I had rolled the kayak, repeatedly.

The meal itself was wonderful – LB had the flounder, I had the sturgeon, and the crab/corn chowder was great. But I can’t help but think of my many other meals there have been endangered by the new technology of the curious teapot.

More later,

Omar Kayak

Apparently, I am Groo the Wanderer when it comes to kayaks.

I spent my birthday the way I always choose to spend my birthday – away from whichever office I call home at that time. So in recent years I’ve ended up in Atlanta, on Mt. Rainier, and hiking up Little Si. This year I took the day off and chose to kayak on the Mercer Slough.

I’ve mentioned the slough before – it is bottomland that was underwater before the locks were cut and dropped Lake Washington. A series of channels were cut creating a network that looks like a backwards “P”, about two miles long. It is the home of ducks, geese, turtles, eagles, otters, and herons. Beautiful place, situated where you would least expect it.

So the Lovely Bride and I hied to Enatai Beach Park, which is situated under the Eastern support pillars of the I-90 bridge over Lake Washington. The LB had called in advance, and we called dibs on a pair of nice single- person kayaks. The LB got in hers, and was pushed out into the choppy waters of Lake Washington, but quickly got the hang of using the foot-controlled rudder. She was a natural.

I was less than successful. I got into my kayak, was pushed out, got five feet from shore, and immediately rolled the boat over. I pulled myself out, sopping wet, got advice from the helpful and friendly staff to lean back more to settle my weight, was pushed out, got out ten feet and rolled over AGAIN. Then the helpful staff pulled out an ocean kayak without a working rudder but with a broader beam for my …um … broader beam.

They pushed me out. I got fifteen feet from shore, hit some previously undangerous-looking rocks, had a panic attack, and rolled the boat over AGAIN. This was beginning to look like a Monty Python routine.

The Lovely Bride glided back into shore as I admitted defeat (I also told the helpful staff that “You know, this was MY idea”). So we reconvened and went with a two-person kayak, of which someone said was a sure way to break up a relationship.

Of course, I had sunk three boats at this point, so I definitely willing to be more accommodating in sharing the command of a two-person ship.

Lake Washington was extremely choppy from a solid wind blowing from the south, and we spent most of the first half-hour fighting our way around the point to the slough’s entrance. And luckily, we did not roll the boat again. The trek up the slough was wonderful, having a broad flat, calm space of water just south of a major city almost all to ourselves. We so plenty of ducks, a heron, heard but did not see a den of otters, a couple turtles, and almost no one else on the water. It takes 1 and a half to two hours to make the circuit - we completed it in three.

It was blissful. And even though I know now that I am closer to Steven Maturin than to Jack Aubrey, I had a great time.

Happy Birthday, me.

More later.

Hail, Hail

Yep, yesterday it hailed in Seattle - twice over the afternoon, leaving a thick, frozen crust on a lot of vehicles and proceeding to screw up the evening commute even more than usual. Add to that snow north of the city and a threat of freezing fog up on Cap Hill, and I think we've seen every except the TV-Minister-promised tidal wave.

But the Sturm und Drang did relent last night for the Lovely Bride to celebrate her Legendary Birthday. We gathered at the Melrose Grill, a excellent little steak house in downtown Renton which the LB and enjoy. All told, there were 11 of us at the table, most of them regulars for the Lovely Bride's Thursday Evening games, and included a Microsoft researcher, a social security administrator, our resident Tolkien expert (who was hit up by the NYTimes for a quote the week before), a King County Deputy (who was the first on the scene at the Skyway Bowling Alley shooting on New Year's Eve), and a newly-minted Captain back from Iraq, several tax preparers and game designers. Needless to say, the conversation at the table was spirited and as good as steaks.

Afterwards some of the gang retired to the house, where they played classic D&D into the wee hours. A good time was had by all, and with the completion of the Lovely Bride's birthday and that of my mother's (Hi, Mom!), the holiday season for me finally comes to a close.

So I guess its time to take down the tree...

More later,