Posts By Author
Vatnajokull National Park in southeastern Iceland is the largest of the country’s three national parks and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2019. The park is named after Vatnajokull glacier, the largest in Europe outside the Arctic, and contains many volcanoes, several beneath the glacier. At 5,778 sq miles (14,967 sq km) the massive park…
Iceland, “The Land of Fire and Ice”, is a geological wonder. The island nation lies atop the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates and, as the plates move apart, magma from the earth’s core reaches the surface through thirty volcanic systems across the island. The magma also heats vast underground water…
A couple of months after our first land-based weekend on Bainbridge Island, we made another trip, this time by car with our new rucking gear. In a busy overnight trip, we visited one of our longtime favorite pubs, tested our new gear with a ruck through Grand Forest park, enjoyed the views from the deck…
Rucking is a form of exercise derived from military loaded marches, where solders walk for long distances carrying heavy packs. For example, one of the qualifications to earn the Expert Infrantryman Badge in the US military is to complete a 12-mile march in under three hours while carrying 70 lbs of gear. These are called…
This spring was a busy one, even by our standards. Together we made weekend trips to Los Angeles and in Washington State to Point Ruston, Alderbrook Lodge on Hood Canal, Bainbridge Island, Tacoma, Everett, Langley and Port Townsend. We also took a fabulous week-long cruise along the Danube River between Budapest and Bucharest. And James…
Port Townsend, WA is a Victorian-era waterfront city with a vibrant artist and maritime community. Its Wooden Boat Festival, held annually for nearly a half-century, is the largest in the continent and last year drew 10,000 attendees. We have anchored off Port Townsend many times in the past, enjoying the view to the city’s many…
Langley is a compact, restaurant-filled town perched on the cliffs above Saratoga Passage on Whidbey Island north of Seattle. We had visited by boat many times, but not for over a decade. We returned this year for a weekend in the Inn at Langley’s spectacular Saratoga Suite, with its large deck overlooking the water (pictured…
The AmaMagna is the largest by far of the European river cruise boats, with a beam of 71 ft (21 m) and a length of 443 ft (135 m). Most other ships are limited to the European river lock maximum dimensions of 38 ft (11.5 m) wide and 410 feet (124 m). At twice the…
Even if we weren’t Formula 1 fans, it would be hard not to be carried away by the excitement when Ferrari won the Italian Grand Prix at their home track of Monza Circuit last weekend. In a contest that played out to the final laps, Ferrari driver Charles LeClerc picked up the lead when McLaren…
We had a fantastic time on our week-long Danube River cruise aboard the AmaMagna. Stops along the way included Pecs in Hungary, Vukovar in Croatia, Novi Sad and Belgrade in Serbia, Vidin and Ruse in Bulgaria, and Bucharest in Romania. As with Budapest, these cities all date back to the Middle Ages and have suffered…
The cities of Buda and Pest became one in 1849 with the construction of the famous Szechenyi Chain Bridge, the first permanent bridge across the Danube River (pictured above). Despite centuries of European conflict dating back to the Middle Ages, multiple occupations by conquering forces, and decades of Communist rule, both sides are full of…
The city of Everett, about 30 miles (48km) north of Seattle, evolved and prospered through transportation. The 1893 arrival of the Great Northern Railway transformed the small lumber town into a major lumber center that supported several large sawmills, including the self-proclaimed largest shingle mill in the world. Access to new timberland and other resources…
The Puget Sound port city of Tacoma was founded in 1872 and experienced what author Rudyard Kipling described as “a boom of the boomiest” when the following year it was selected as the Pacific Northwest terminus of the transcontinental Northern Pacific Railway. After a brief downturn during the Panic of 1893, the city bounced back…
Bainbridge Island, across the Puget Sound from Seattle, has had a robust Japanese community since immigrants first arrived there in the late 1800s. Their world was shattered following the air attack on Pearl Harbor, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order for the nation-wide internment of over 125,000 US residents of Japanese descent,…
Alderbrook Resort on Hood Canal has been a popular Pacific Northwest vacation destination since it first opened in 1913. Back then, no roads reached the resort and guests arrived by canoe. The resort has been through many owners and remodels since opening, and now is easily reachable by road on Washington State Route 106. But…
The annual MARS conference, hosted by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is a cross-domain event aimed at sharing ideas across the rapidly growing fields of Machine Learning, Automation, Robotics, and Space. Hands-on learning and emerging technology demonstrations form the majority of the invitation-only event, with opportunities for attendees to meet and learn from each other. For…
The historic Point Ruston ferry was built in Maine in 1936, and initially served as the navy ferry Aquidneck YFB-14 between Newport RI and Goat Island. The Pierce County Ferry System purchased the ship from the navy in 1971, and ran it as the M/V Steilacoom on the route between its namesake city and Anderson…
On a rare weekend actually spent at home in Seattle, we managed to watch three live hockey games over four days. Two were Seattle Kraken NHL games, and the third was an infrequent return to Seattle by the Thunderbirds Junior A team for the “Battle of the Sound” against the Portland Winterhaks. We often attended…
Vatnajokull National Park in southeastern Iceland is the largest of the country’s three national parks and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2019. The park is named after Vatnajokull glacier, the largest in Europe outside the Arctic, and contains many volcanoes, several beneath the glacier. At 5,778 sq miles (14,967 sq km) the massive park…
Iceland, “The Land of Fire and Ice”, is a geological wonder. The island nation lies atop the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates and, as the plates move apart, magma from the earth’s core reaches the surface through thirty volcanic systems across the island. The magma also heats vast underground water…
A couple of months after our first land-based weekend on Bainbridge Island, we made another trip, this time by car with our new rucking gear. In a busy overnight trip, we visited one of our longtime favorite pubs, tested our new gear with a ruck through Grand Forest park, enjoyed the views from the deck…
Rucking is a form of exercise derived from military loaded marches, where solders walk for long distances carrying heavy packs. For example, one of the qualifications to earn the Expert Infrantryman Badge in the US military is to complete a 12-mile march in under three hours while carrying 70 lbs of gear. These are called…
This spring was a busy one, even by our standards. Together we made weekend trips to Los Angeles and in Washington State to Point Ruston, Alderbrook Lodge on Hood Canal, Bainbridge Island, Tacoma, Everett, Langley and Port Townsend. We also took a fabulous week-long cruise along the Danube River between Budapest and Bucharest. And James…
Port Townsend, WA is a Victorian-era waterfront city with a vibrant artist and maritime community. Its Wooden Boat Festival, held annually for nearly a half-century, is the largest in the continent and last year drew 10,000 attendees. We have anchored off Port Townsend many times in the past, enjoying the view to the city’s many…
Langley is a compact, restaurant-filled town perched on the cliffs above Saratoga Passage on Whidbey Island north of Seattle. We had visited by boat many times, but not for over a decade. We returned this year for a weekend in the Inn at Langley’s spectacular Saratoga Suite, with its large deck overlooking the water (pictured…
The AmaMagna is the largest by far of the European river cruise boats, with a beam of 71 ft (21 m) and a length of 443 ft (135 m). Most other ships are limited to the European river lock maximum dimensions of 38 ft (11.5 m) wide and 410 feet (124 m). At twice the…
Even if we weren’t Formula 1 fans, it would be hard not to be carried away by the excitement when Ferrari won the Italian Grand Prix at their home track of Monza Circuit last weekend. In a contest that played out to the final laps, Ferrari driver Charles LeClerc picked up the lead when McLaren…
We had a fantastic time on our week-long Danube River cruise aboard the AmaMagna. Stops along the way included Pecs in Hungary, Vukovar in Croatia, Novi Sad and Belgrade in Serbia, Vidin and Ruse in Bulgaria, and Bucharest in Romania. As with Budapest, these cities all date back to the Middle Ages and have suffered…
The cities of Buda and Pest became one in 1849 with the construction of the famous Szechenyi Chain Bridge, the first permanent bridge across the Danube River (pictured above). Despite centuries of European conflict dating back to the Middle Ages, multiple occupations by conquering forces, and decades of Communist rule, both sides are full of…
The city of Everett, about 30 miles (48km) north of Seattle, evolved and prospered through transportation. The 1893 arrival of the Great Northern Railway transformed the small lumber town into a major lumber center that supported several large sawmills, including the self-proclaimed largest shingle mill in the world. Access to new timberland and other resources…
The Puget Sound port city of Tacoma was founded in 1872 and experienced what author Rudyard Kipling described as “a boom of the boomiest” when the following year it was selected as the Pacific Northwest terminus of the transcontinental Northern Pacific Railway. After a brief downturn during the Panic of 1893, the city bounced back…
Bainbridge Island, across the Puget Sound from Seattle, has had a robust Japanese community since immigrants first arrived there in the late 1800s. Their world was shattered following the air attack on Pearl Harbor, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order for the nation-wide internment of over 125,000 US residents of Japanese descent,…
Alderbrook Resort on Hood Canal has been a popular Pacific Northwest vacation destination since it first opened in 1913. Back then, no roads reached the resort and guests arrived by canoe. The resort has been through many owners and remodels since opening, and now is easily reachable by road on Washington State Route 106. But…
The annual MARS conference, hosted by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is a cross-domain event aimed at sharing ideas across the rapidly growing fields of Machine Learning, Automation, Robotics, and Space. Hands-on learning and emerging technology demonstrations form the majority of the invitation-only event, with opportunities for attendees to meet and learn from each other. For…
The historic Point Ruston ferry was built in Maine in 1936, and initially served as the navy ferry Aquidneck YFB-14 between Newport RI and Goat Island. The Pierce County Ferry System purchased the ship from the navy in 1971, and ran it as the M/V Steilacoom on the route between its namesake city and Anderson…
On a rare weekend actually spent at home in Seattle, we managed to watch three live hockey games over four days. Two were Seattle Kraken NHL games, and the third was an infrequent return to Seattle by the Thunderbirds Junior A team for the “Battle of the Sound” against the Portland Winterhaks. We often attended…