Alvsborg Bridge

In addition to being a 417m long bridge in Sweden, the Alvsborg Bridge is a container ship run by the "K" Line.

Here it is being serviced in Tacoma. The Port of Tacoma ran a harbor tour from a chartered boat, and we jumped at the chance to take a look.

Concorde G-BOAG

G-BOAG is one of British Airways' 7 Concordes. It has been at the Museum of Flight since its last flight in 2003. It remains sleek and impressive.

It saddens me to concede that the era that allowed the development and commercial service of an aircraft like the Concorde is long past.

S'Hostal Quarry

In Menorca, we explored a quarry complex that has been turned into a concert venue and botanical garden. The S'Hostal quarries are beautiful in their scale and precision.

Those are human-sized chairs, in an area that was worked with modern stonecutting equipment. Elsewhere in the complex are hand-worked quarries from before modern history. It was a hot day, but a rewarding visit.

Murray Morgan Bridge

Here is another view of the Murray Morgan Bridge in Tacoma. I traversed the upper structure that was added well after the original construction.

I believe its purpose is to carry communications and power cables across the span, something that is not otherwise possible with this bridge design.

Lake Serene

Lake Serene sits above Index, just off US-2. There is perhaps 2000ft of elevation gain through second-growth rainforest before getting to the lake.

Arriving at the trailhead before 10am meant that we had the trail to ourselves going up, and a constant stream of red-faced hikers facing us on the way down.

Menorcan Horse Festival

We recently found ourselves in Menorca/Minorca on the Spanair error fare that was filed in June.

The town of Es Mercadel has an annual festival displaying ridership and control of horses, staged right in the modest town square. The parade of perhaps 30 riders concluded with the town priest performing as competently and calmly as every other rider. A fellow in front of me was mildly injured when he stumbled backwards and a horse stepped on him.

The festival featured a delicious iced drink made with the island's gin and lemonade.

Big Four Ice Caves

Although a rainy day prevented serious hiking, we did get out to explore the ice caves at the foot of Big Four mountain. The caves were spectacular! They are quite unlike ice formations in glaciers.

The caves had been inaccessible for three years due to a washed out footbridge crossing the Stillaguamish river. The new bridge is shiny, well-built, and much appreciated!

Grippy!

The car's old tires were performing poorly, to the point that we had a hard time getting up James Street downtown in the rain.

So on goes grippy goodness to replace them! I look forward to the coming 60,000 miles on these lovely Michelins.

Microsoft's Redmond Campus

I am now a Microserf, working in one of the 78 anonymous buildings straddling the Bellevue/Redmond municipal border.

There are 41,000 fulltime employees housed in buildings like these, and perhaps 15,000 more contingent staff. The scale is impressive. The campus has grown by 2.5x since I interned at Microsoft ten years ago.

Morning Commute

The coastal fog lingering over Bellevue, Medina, and Evergreen Point brightened my commute this morning.

I'm pleased to hear that tolling over SR520 won't begin until 2010 at the earliest.

Windermere Sunset

The neighborhood of Windermere between ours and Lake Washington is quite posh. We caught a nice sunset while winding through the nicely manicured streets.