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arguchika couple of days late...
READING: blue mars by kim stanley robinson. i read red mars for my exams, and green mars soon after. then i got tired and had to wait on the third book. i finally started blue mars a few months ago, got tired again pretty quickly, and put it back down until early last week. now i'm reading it again, but only in small doses. it is a dense trilogy. i want to find out what happens, how it ends...but i'm having trouble getting into this one.
WEARING: at the moment...black stretchy pants and a big blue sweatshirt (hooded). nothing on my feet. coffee cup beside me.
PLANNING: alas, today is the last day of my niece's visit. i've really enjoyed having her here--she has always been a cool kid, but now she's 18. a cool young woman. the last couple of days have been very busy and whirlwind. i rented a car, and we drove to mt st helen's on friday. we went to the johnston ridge station, took a small walk out on the path, stopped in at the coldwater ridge visitor's center, then drove around to the other entrance at randle and up to the parking lot at windy ridge (it's about 2 hours away, because you have to go back out to the 5 and up to the randle exit, then out to randle and up a weaving, winding road to the blast zone). my niece really loved seeing the volcano. it was cool, too, because it was really cloudy all the way down there, but when we got out to johnston ridge it was like the sky cleared up just for us. there was a nice steam plume rising up from the new lava dome...and before long the sky was completely blue, not a single cloud. because we were so close and it was still light outside as we were leaving the windy ridge area, we decided to drive up into mt rainier nat'l park (the south entrance is just east of randle). i was going to take us up to the sunrise visitor's center, but that pass was closed (probably from last winter's flood damage) so we ended up taking the road across the south end of the park (which is unutterably gorgeous), and then up to paradise. we got up to paradise at about sunset, so there was still plenty of light. my niece was amazed...it's an impressive sight, and the mountain had been hidden behind clouds for her entire visit, so other than seeing it peeking above the clouds on her plane ride out here, she hadn't really seen it yet. she kept remarking on how fresh the air was--clean and scented by the abundant fir trees.
yesterday we drove out onto the peninsula with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
glaucon. it was a long day with a lot of driving, but my niece got to see, wade in, and taste the pacific ocean. it was the first time she's ever seen the open ocean, so that was very cool. we fooled around on the beach for awhile, and then headed north to neah bay (the northwestern most point in the u.s., on the makah reservation). that's when the driving started to get to me--to get out to cape flattery, we had to drive on a winding, wet dirt road for a few miles. once there, we hiked the little trail that takes you out onto the cape--super beautiful, with a little island and a lighthouse just offshore, and the deeply carved, forested, rocky coastline all around us. i would love to go out there again sometime. it was getting dark pretty quickly, so we couldn't stay out there very long, and in fact it was dark for most of our hike back to the parking lot. we made it OK, though...and then the really hard part started. driving back through the reservation, and on highway 112 to port angeles. that was intense and frustrating for me. more weaving, more winding, up and down along the coast...in the dark...on a road that alternated between brand new blacktop with no painted shoulder lines yet and only yellow reflectors down the center line; and aging blacktop with faded lines and dim reflectors. and no mileage signs, so i had no idea how much longer i was going to have to keep it up. i lost all track of time and distance because i had to concentrate on the road. at port angeles we headed for the bremerton ferry...we thought we were in danger of missing it, but we ended up getting there with about half an hour to spare. and i was pooped--we all were--but it was a fun ride. the city looks really cool from the water, all lit up and spread out on the horizon. i love our downtown. so overall it was a good day...just a lot of driving (understand, i don't currently own a car, so i almost never drive anymore), and a lot of time in the car. i was burnt.
today we're going to stay closer to home. we'll probably go out for some kind of brunchy thing, and then my niece wants to go to the woodland park zoo. this evening one of my upward bound colleagues (the prof who taught the lecture course i was TA'ing) is having a bunch of us over to her house for dinner. she just moved up here from arizona (she finished her ph.d. in the spring, and is starting as an assistant professor at seattle U in the fall), and just moved into her new place in wedgwood. my niece flies back home tonight--her plane takes off at around 1am.
ok...that's all from me for today. i had to return the rental car this morning, so i got up really early...when i got home i was too wired to sleep. looks like i won't sleep until tonight, at this point. c'est la vie.
READING: blue mars by kim stanley robinson. i read red mars for my exams, and green mars soon after. then i got tired and had to wait on the third book. i finally started blue mars a few months ago, got tired again pretty quickly, and put it back down until early last week. now i'm reading it again, but only in small doses. it is a dense trilogy. i want to find out what happens, how it ends...but i'm having trouble getting into this one.
WEARING: at the moment...black stretchy pants and a big blue sweatshirt (hooded). nothing on my feet. coffee cup beside me.
PLANNING: alas, today is the last day of my niece's visit. i've really enjoyed having her here--she has always been a cool kid, but now she's 18. a cool young woman. the last couple of days have been very busy and whirlwind. i rented a car, and we drove to mt st helen's on friday. we went to the johnston ridge station, took a small walk out on the path, stopped in at the coldwater ridge visitor's center, then drove around to the other entrance at randle and up to the parking lot at windy ridge (it's about 2 hours away, because you have to go back out to the 5 and up to the randle exit, then out to randle and up a weaving, winding road to the blast zone). my niece really loved seeing the volcano. it was cool, too, because it was really cloudy all the way down there, but when we got out to johnston ridge it was like the sky cleared up just for us. there was a nice steam plume rising up from the new lava dome...and before long the sky was completely blue, not a single cloud. because we were so close and it was still light outside as we were leaving the windy ridge area, we decided to drive up into mt rainier nat'l park (the south entrance is just east of randle). i was going to take us up to the sunrise visitor's center, but that pass was closed (probably from last winter's flood damage) so we ended up taking the road across the south end of the park (which is unutterably gorgeous), and then up to paradise. we got up to paradise at about sunset, so there was still plenty of light. my niece was amazed...it's an impressive sight, and the mountain had been hidden behind clouds for her entire visit, so other than seeing it peeking above the clouds on her plane ride out here, she hadn't really seen it yet. she kept remarking on how fresh the air was--clean and scented by the abundant fir trees.
yesterday we drove out onto the peninsula with
glaucon. it was a long day with a lot of driving, but my niece got to see, wade in, and taste the pacific ocean. it was the first time she's ever seen the open ocean, so that was very cool. we fooled around on the beach for awhile, and then headed north to neah bay (the northwestern most point in the u.s., on the makah reservation). that's when the driving started to get to me--to get out to cape flattery, we had to drive on a winding, wet dirt road for a few miles. once there, we hiked the little trail that takes you out onto the cape--super beautiful, with a little island and a lighthouse just offshore, and the deeply carved, forested, rocky coastline all around us. i would love to go out there again sometime. it was getting dark pretty quickly, so we couldn't stay out there very long, and in fact it was dark for most of our hike back to the parking lot. we made it OK, though...and then the really hard part started. driving back through the reservation, and on highway 112 to port angeles. that was intense and frustrating for me. more weaving, more winding, up and down along the coast...in the dark...on a road that alternated between brand new blacktop with no painted shoulder lines yet and only yellow reflectors down the center line; and aging blacktop with faded lines and dim reflectors. and no mileage signs, so i had no idea how much longer i was going to have to keep it up. i lost all track of time and distance because i had to concentrate on the road. at port angeles we headed for the bremerton ferry...we thought we were in danger of missing it, but we ended up getting there with about half an hour to spare. and i was pooped--we all were--but it was a fun ride. the city looks really cool from the water, all lit up and spread out on the horizon. i love our downtown. so overall it was a good day...just a lot of driving (understand, i don't currently own a car, so i almost never drive anymore), and a lot of time in the car. i was burnt.today we're going to stay closer to home. we'll probably go out for some kind of brunchy thing, and then my niece wants to go to the woodland park zoo. this evening one of my upward bound colleagues (the prof who taught the lecture course i was TA'ing) is having a bunch of us over to her house for dinner. she just moved up here from arizona (she finished her ph.d. in the spring, and is starting as an assistant professor at seattle U in the fall), and just moved into her new place in wedgwood. my niece flies back home tonight--her plane takes off at around 1am.
ok...that's all from me for today. i had to return the rental car this morning, so i got up really early...when i got home i was too wired to sleep. looks like i won't sleep until tonight, at this point. c'est la vie.
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Date: 2007-08-13 02:46 am (UTC)And speaking of kids, I took the kids to woodland park zoo today, too. If you saw a double stroller with a cute 2 year old girl in glasses and pink rain boots and a nearly 4 year old boy in blue pajamas, that was us. :)