Some good news for a change

Those exams? I passed them. Yay!



When I started blogging 6 years ago, I never would have imagined putting a picture like that up. What will be on your blog in 6 years? Anyway, I have two more weeks of school, two homework assignments, one quiz, and a final exam, and I'm done. That all seems pro forma now with the exams behind me.

I went for a hike.



Purisima Creek. We've been here many times. Just a few pics.



When you visit, be sure to bear right immediately after the trailhead. Otherwise it's a steep descent and you miss the haunted forest.



And dress in layers. I have never been here when it was not cold, wet, and blustery on the trailhead but warm, dry, and still a mile down the trail.











To commemorate the occasion, I did go a little farther than I ever have. Specifically, I've never hiked that ridge before. The trail is supposed to dead end at someone's private property a mile or so down the road, so I've never bothered to explore.



Ceanothus in Seattle were still going when I was there last weekend. They are kaput in San Francisco, but here are some in the final phase.





A lot of this too. A paintbrush?



Cow Parsnip (Heracleum lanatum), a personal favorite.







Lovely lupines.



I poached a half-dozen Phacelia californica seeds here a couple years ago. They made vigorous plants in my garden! I will show them to you.



The P. californica is grayer in leaf and paler in bloom than the more commonly grown scorpion weed, Phacelia tanacetifolia.



You would not believe how some native plant enthusiasts will go on about our coastal Fragaria. Don't get me started.









It was around this bend when I came to the end for this trip.



You can't tell from this picture that the trail here is a steep, loose rock descent. I'd already gone a good mile past where I thought the trail would end, so I was not prepared to go any further. Because you have to climb back up that shit. Not today. I turned around, slapped my ass, and said giddy up.



TThe fog lifted at the end, and I could see the ocean.

A short walk in Seattle

We walked from Amazon to Gas Works Park along the shore of Lake Union to get in line early for dinner at Elemental, which is closing in a few weeks. Julie declared this walk to have no visual interest whatsoever. Or something like that. I will let my readers decide.

Sorry to lead with a crooked horizon line. Oh, horizon line, my old foe.



The horizon line is pretty bad in all these pictures. Amateurish!



Freshwater Lake Union has Lake Washington to its east and Puget Sound to its west, by way of the Ballard Locks.



In California, I think we'd call it "the Puget Sound".



The name of this little boat delighted me. Chemists and physicists perform ab initio calculations ("from first principles") to solve the Schrodinger equation in order to ascertain the physical properties of molecules. Cute!



Sleepless in Seattle, anyone?



We have some pretty awesome houseboats in Sausalito. We should go there together sometime.



Seattle emerges from a bleak winter into luxuriant spring and endless summer. On July 4, they have to wait until ~10pm for it to get dark enough for fireworks.





By climatic necessity, they do go a little overboard with the rhododendrons. Guy can no longer bear the sight of them. Me, I'm easy. I do think the best color for a rhodie is white or the palest possible pink. Maybe a pale, creamy yellow as a focal point. The fuchsia-pinks and reds are hard to take after awhile. The flowers are just too big and too numerous to bear those colors with dignity and grace for long periods of time. Maybe if they were also fragrant... Hey, Seattle. Plant some lilacs why don't you?





As you may know, Seattle has great wealth. Boeing moved headquarters to Chicago, but they still employ 10s of thousands of people here. Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, Costco, REI, Nintendo--companies that play a part in the daily lives of millions of people--are all based here. (REI--tens of thousands?)



Have I told you how Seattle is the west coast's most masculine city? I can annoy everyone carrying on about this. It can't be fey, hippie-dippy San Francisco with its pastel painted ladies. Trendy, image-obsessed Los Angeles? Definitely not a contender. San Jose and San Diego are both way too vague and nebulous... What are those places, anyway? Portland is Seattle's little sister and Seattle is all steel construction, jet engines, lumberjacks, hot coffee and craft beer. You sense it from the moment you drive in from the airport with the shipyards on your left and the big conifers everywhere.





That's the Aurora Bridge, carrying Hwy 99.



We're crossing the pedestrian-friendly Fremont Bridge.



Well, we're going to in a minute.



I was amazed how quietly it lifted. I'd expect there to be some creaking. Some engine noise. I mean, you know, there's tons of steel and concrete being pushed up into the air. But there was only silence.



We had to wait for the Queen of Seattle to pass.



Turns out the Queen of Seattle is a Californian transplant, from Sacramento!



Isn't she lovely?



I almost committed a faux-pas by attempting to cross before the bicyclists (who knows, it might be a moving violation), but I sensed something was wrong and stopped after just a couple steps. Whew!



On the other side we passed by the Adobe gardens,



No trespassing.



And got to our destination a few minutes later.



I should have taken some pictures in Gas Works Park, but I was ready to set down and cool my heels. Come back soon and we'll go to the library.