Pratt Mountain

Pratt Mountain, at 5099ft, is not the tallest peak around, but it's prominent from the east and north.  It's the face that dominates the view from this direction.

I had a good day out, but others were not so lucky.  I exchanged hellos with the victim departing the trailhead, and then at the end of my day, saw the other two of his party waiting back at the parking lot.

Hotel Vancouver

The Hotel Vancouver is the westernmost property of CN Hotels, and is now operated by Fairmont.  Peeking to the left of it is the art gallery, and then what was the Eaton's building.  It now houses both a Nordstrom store and a development office of Microsoft.

Christmas Tree

This year's Christmas Tree was personally harvested from the Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, from the Lake 22 trailhead.  I believe it's a silver fir.

Magnuson Fall Walk

One of the last few days of crunchy leaves and dry ground was spent circumnavigating Magnuson Park.  This is trail along its south edge.

St. Patrick's Bridge, Calgary

The flooding Calgary experienced in 2013 hampered construction of this attractive bridge, and the recently-poured concrete deck had to be replaced.  The arches (fabricated in Quebec) and foundations withstood the flooding per their design.

It's hard to see how $25M went into the construction, given that it is a pedestrian bridge, but it sure is pretty.

Point Pelee

Point Pelee stretches into Lake Erie and is the southernmost point of Canada that you can walk to.  (Pelee Island, and Middle Island beyond that, make up the southernmost parts of the country). The sand of the point itself shifts from year to year depending on the level of the lake and the way the currents choose to swirl.

Wurlitzer Building

It wasn't quite sold along with a coffee, but the Wurlitzer Building was sold for perhaps $1.1M (or $1.4M, depending on who you believe) in May of this year.  Plans are to turn it into a luxury hotel.

Good luck to the buyer!  There was no evidence of any renovation at all in October.

Heildelberg Project, Detroit

The Heidelberg Project limps on, while Detroit continues to decline.  Many of the houses that had striking and original decorations have burned down since my last visit.

Backlit Fir

A backlit fir guards the trail on the way to Guye Peak, on a separate outing than the last.  I was scouting possible snowshoeing routes, and gaining familiarity with the terrain.

Guye Peak from Snoqualmie Mountain

Guye Peak is the knob in the center; Commonwealth Basin stretches out to the left (east) of it.  Cave Ridge between this vantage point leading up to Snoqualmie Mountain and the saddle separating Commonwealth Basin and Alpental.

Maple Leaves Turning

Now, fall is underway.  Trees that haven't gotten enough water are the first to turn.  This maple is very yellow, while others around it still have useful green leaves.

Golden Gardens

Summer isn't quite over.  Plenty of folks are enjoying a weekday evening at Golden Gardens, facing the Olympics across Puget Sound.

Huskies vs California

I've spent a number of years living near the University of Washington, but only just now have attended a Huskies game.  The weather was lovely, and the crowd lively.

Glacier Peak

Glacier Peak shows very little snow at the end of the 2015 summer in the foreground, with Mt Rainier, Addams, and St Helens in the far distance.

Namdaemun

This lovingly restored civic gate sits below urban towers and next to a lively market in Seoul, South Korea.  Hopefully it will keep out Kim Jong Un.

Gangnam Style

A twilight view over the southern end of the Gangnam district of Seoul. The office tower to the left showed up as a backdrop to PSY's video. (We managed a visit without the song being inflicted upon us.)

New York Bar, Park Hyatt Tokyo

If you've seen Lost in Translation, you'll know the Park Hyatt Tokyo.  This is the bar behind the piano lounge, which is in front of an expansive view of Shinjuku.

Ship Canal Bridge

This double-decked truss bridge brings twelve lanes of traffic across the Lake Washington Ship Canal.  Those feeling suicidal should reconsider this location, as people have survived jumping into the water from the upper deck.

Gehry's Seattle

Iridescent colors reflect the Space Needle off Frank Gehry's Experience Music Project Museum in the Seattle Center.

Juanita

Early, low sun across Juanita bay on Lake Washington.

Simplon Rail Tunnel

We drove the car onto a train to be conveyed under the Simplon Pass, through a 19km tunnel completed in 1906.  I was expecting a passenger wagon and lounge, but no, one is meant to sit in darkness watching the scenery of the interior of a mountain.

Lugano

Yes, this is just a regional bank branch, facing the main square of Lugano.

If all banks were as attractive, it might be more of a pleasure filling out mortgage paperwork.

Fürstenweg, Liechtenstein

Circling a ridge above the Liechtenstein capital, the Fürstenweg gives views over the Rhine for one section, pine forests for another, and pastureland for the rest.  It was a spectacular midday excursion to break up the drive to Ticino.

Susten Pass

The Swiss build some really nice infrastructure in very difficult terrain.  This is the western side of the Susten Pass, a 2260m saddle between two cantons.

Innertkirchen valley

The spectacular light gave way to heavy rain past the southern end of this valley, so our ambitious hiking plans needed an alternative.  We enjoyed a coffee and then traversed the Aare Gorge, below this viewpoint.  Improbable catwalks are nestled along very narrow walls that confine a fast-flowing river.

Cog Railway, Grütschalp

Above Laterbrunnen, there are numerous railways and gondolas going up into the mountains on either side of the valley.  This is at the Grütschalp station, looking across to the Eiger and Jungfrau.

U Pick Strawberries

It was hot the day we went picking strawberries, and there's no shade to be found in the middle of a strawberry field.  It was fortunate we took the early shift and were home before noon.

Deception Pass hike

A small bay faces westward between Reservation Head and Lighthouse Point in Deception Pass State Park.  The walk around Lighthouse Point is short, rewarding, and recommended.

Flightless Chickadee

This young chickadee must have fallen out of the nest, as it was hopping around on the deck looking quite helpless.  I'm not sure it was capable of either feeding or defending itself, so it probably became a snack for a neighborhood cat.

Niagara Escarpment, Mt Nemo

Looking northeast out from the edge of the Niagara Escarpment, in the Mt Nemo conservation area.

Red Trillium

Red trillium grows on the banks of a Muskoka waterway.

Spruce Bog, Algonquin

This bog shows succession of the different grasses, mosses, and trees that compete for terrain along the meandering path of a stream in Algonquin Park.

Wild-ish Asparagus

Asparagus naturalizes easily in Eastern Canada. It is spectacular when steamed lightly a few moments after having been cut.

Ottawa Tulip Festival

Princess Juliana of Holland was born in exile in Canada during WWII, though the Ottawa Civic Hospital was deemed temporarily extraterritorial by Canada to avoid jeopardizing her succession rights to the Dutch throne.  Once the Germans were booted out of Holland and the monarchy reinstated, a thank you gift including thousands of tulips was sent back.  Ottawa kept the legacy going, and holds an annual tulip festival along the parkland bordering the Rideau Canal.

Anzac Day 100th Anniversary, Seattle

A couple of keen expats wrangled sponsorship by local businesses, and arranged an Anzac dawn service in Seattle.  It was small and respectful, and captured a part of the emotion that's more properly experienced via a dawn service at the substantial WWI monuments in the capital cities of Australia.

Pedestrian delights

A Little Free Library, a Sedum garden, and a dinosaur menagerie?  This curb-mounted structure has everything!

Spring Plum Blossoms

Plum blossoms herald the arrival of spring!

Eagle herding ducks

A bald eagle looks for lunch in a raft of ducks. The ducks evade the diving raptor the way schooling fish do, by moving in unison away from the attacker. The eagle did not have success while I watched, though I imagine it eventually caught its meal.

Bolts and Washers

$1.86 in hardware fixed up a wobbly hand-me-down chair that was missing a few bits. It seems pieces of these dimensions were only offered in stainless, doubling the cost. Fortunately, we won't be kept up at night with worry about our furniture rusting away.

Creeping Floating Bridge

The replacement for the SR520 floating bridge is creeping across Lake Washington from east to west.  The existing bridge used to draw open at its midpoint to allow arbitrarily tall marine traffic through.  Openings were reasonably disruptive to vehicular traffic, requiring a 30 minute closure and a fleet of WSDOT flagging trucks.

The new bridge will limit traffic to 70 feet underneath its east navigation channel.

Sleeping Canoes

Rental canoes sleep on a dock near Husky Stadium on a cold March morning. They'll need to wait for spring for paddlers to enjoy them.

Fort George Brewery

Astoria has a brewery that on our visit was specializing in stouts and porters.  Fort George was the beginning of the British part of Oregon from 1813 to 1846, via an acquisition of what became the Hudson's Bay Company.  The Oregon Treaty resolved a territorial dispute, ceded the trading post (and the Western states) to the US, and it was renamed Astoria.

Fort George Brewery now sits a few blocks up from the river, and makes quite nice beer.

Clatskanie, OR

It's challenging to compose with a very wide field of view.  This is at 16mm on a full-frame, and very close.

Clatskanie, Oregon, just off US30.

Portland Japanese Garden

The primary image associated with the Portland Japanese Garden is a spectacular maple.  Our visit was in winter, and without any deciduous foliage around, there were better views to be found elsewhere.

Angel's Rest, Columbia Gorge

This 1800ft gain led to a lovely view over a bend in the Columbia River.  Lighting was especially dramatic, as the top of the hike was right at the boundary of a foggy cloud layer.  We spent lunch drifting in and out of sunshine.

Baby Hats

There seems to be no shortage of friends and neighbors having babies, and our household likes to present a baby hat to the new arrivals.  This one has a Cat In The Hat aesthetic, and turned out beautifully.

Up on Stilts

This house has undergone a lengthy remodel, starting with being jacked up on stilts and having a new foundation poured.  Since this photo, the siding has been removed and almost every visible surface replaced.  I wonder how much original material remains?

Sarracenia - Pitcher Plant

This trumpeter pitcher is native to North America, and traps and digests insects for food.  They're usually located in bogs where there are few other nutrients and there's little competition from other plants.

Good Night Moon

The St. Louis Children's Museum has a fantastic model of the room in Good Night Moon. One can change the time of day and position of different elements to match the pages of the book!

Good night noises everywhere.

Isa Genzken, Dallas Museum of Art

One of many pieces in Isa Genzken's installation at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Not really my thing.