For the last day that the China folks were in town, I was planning on taking them on an easy hike in the Index area but rain threatened so I opted for a backup, the ever popular crowd pleaser: Snoqualmie Falls. I knew it was a big hit when the group, as we approached the lookout, collectively exclaimed, “Wow!” and “Aya!”

We then hiked down to the base of the falls and entusiastically jumped the boardwalk to go rock-hopping along the base of the falls. Marshall and Judy, feeling a little more cautious, hung back and took pictures of us from a distance.

After the falls, we hit the outlet mall in North Bend, which has traditionally been a big hit with visitors from China. Victor asked, “Do you bargain here??” to which I replied, “No, this is not like Luohu.” I ended up buying some socks, in anticipation of my return to China where the largest pair of socks I could find barely fit me. The Nike and Adidas stores were popular this time around with the group and it took a lot of comparing and trying-on before anyone settled on a pair of sneakers.

Afterward, we went out to eat Thai food (Chinese family style) at Thai Kitchen in Bellevue. I ate a ton! But, this gave me lots of energy for a trip into the Enchantments with Robert. I left for Leavenworth to meet up with Robert at 5am, just as the China team was heading to the airport for the trip home.

The Enchantments:

Kevin, an excellent fisherman and cook, baked up a couple of varieties of salmon for the visiting folks from China who were heading home in a couple of days. It was entertaining watching them in anticipation of an “American” dinner, not being sure about what to expect, tenuously taking small portions of the strange looking food. Kevin prepared a salmon with a mustard-dill sauce, one with a mango chutney sauce, served with rice and steamed spinach. Well, it was a big hit.   You can see the group in this photo below…Marshall is digging in for more in the back.

When the MACH folks come to Redmond, some enjoy going to the shooting range, so Kevin was happy to oblige to Michael who was interested. I showed up later on and took a few shots at the target with the Uzi and the 9mm. I stayed maybe an hour, but Kevin and Michael were there for a long time. Anyway, here are some pics of us fitting in with the gun nuts.

And here’s a l’il movie.

Under time pressures, Ken and I went to climb “Wham Ridge” on Vestal Peak. Check out the trip report here.

Some quick pics from the climb:

The rest of my time in Colorado was restful, thankfully. Ken had to work and I didn’t feel like asking anyone else to stay with them, plus, I just really felt like getting a hotel downtown and hanging out here meeting up with folks who had the time to come down. So, I went to “The Curtis” hotel which is across from the Performing Arts center downtown and got a room. Nice place – modern with goofy humor placed all about. When I left the elevator, a framed portrait of dadgum “Vanilla Ice” greeted me as the elevator speaker played some sort of connection to him and the floor. I didn’t really understand it, but I appreciated the comedy of it. The Curtis was nice break from the various dumps of hotels I’d been staying in since returning from China. This place couldn’t touch the Crowne Plaza in Shenzhen or the Shangri-La in Hong Kong, but it was still comfortable and relaxing.

(above) ‘Round town.

Robert drove me down to the Baltimore airport where I’d catch a plane to Denver that connected in Charlotte.   It turned out that the flight was delayed but the check-in desk informed me that I had plenty of time to catch the connecting flight.   Famous last words.   So I called up Robert, who was waiting outside, to let him know that he could go on.   Of course, as we were being pushed out from the jet-way, the little rod that connects to the vehicle that pushes the planes out snapped!   So, there we are sitting about 20 feet away from the jet-way.   I was certain I’d miss my flight now, but amazingly they found a new rod and replaced it within 15 minutes.   I still had 30 minutes to catch my flight.   I ignored the conversation in front of me – something about storms in the area.   We were in line to take off when the captain came on and said that the plane had been grounded due to the weather.   Baaah!   Had that little rod not broken, I would have been on my way.   Instead, we sat on the runway for an hour and a half or so.   When I finally arrived in Charlotte there was a colossal line moving at a glacier’s pace to catch a make-up flight.   I was in the back of the line with a nice woman from Chile and her son who was going to the University of Colorado.   We sort of banded together and were delighted when a US Airways worker picked us off the back of the line and got us tickets for the 6PM flight the next day.   Well, that was great except for the “PM” part.   That would mess up my schedule in Colorado.   What to do?   We were told that we could try to get on the other standby flights at 9:30 and 1:30.   We caught a cab to a hotel, the Red Roof Inn or something, that we had to pay for (to be reimbursed by the airline…we’ll see).   I got a smoking room.   How nice, but still less smelly than the room that Robert and I had in Washington, PA.

When I arrived, around midnight, I decided to walk down to the closest convenient store and get some juice to drink.   I walked in and saw that they had corn dogs as well (thanks to Robert Meshew for the continued inspiration to eat corn dogs).   I picked up some juice and then asked the attendant for two corn dogs.   She responded with an apethetic, “Huh?   OK.” and then sauntered off to get them.   In the mean time, a black fellow came in and said “hi”.   He had picked up a bottle of water and was waiting in line behind me.   The cashier, taking her time, prompted him to ask, “Hey, is there only one person working here?”   I said, “Yes”, and he yelled out, “Hey, I’m buyin’ some water.   Here’s a 10!” and he promptly slapped down a ten dollar bill and left.   Other folks in line were laughing <edited for the kids>:   “Man, he’s crazy.   Ten dollars for a bottle of water!”   The cashier came and grabbed the ten.   With some added levity, I asked if I could use that ten to pay for my corn dogs.   Didn’t work.   No matter, it was a good story to end the day.

Robert and I hung out w/ my folks in Pittsburg the evening after the wedding. I was impressed with the city! Yes, like you, I once thought, “Pittsburg???” It’s a lovely place, a vibrant downtown, a great orchestra, etc. Check out the view from nearby Mount Washington:

And at night:

We saw a great fireworks display after the Pirates game as well. Dang, I didn’t have my camera ready.

The next day Robert and I left Washington with the plan to visit the two Frank Lloyd Wright homes, Kentuck Knob and Fallingwater, on the way home. Robert had already seen Fallingwater and was looking forward to Kentuck Knob. I hadn’t seen either, though I’d seen Fallingwater in pictures many many times. The day was a little misty and rainy. A few clouds hung low in the trees, Cascade style, as we drove through the Pennsylvania countryside.

Both homes are amazing works of art, but it was Fallingwater, of course, that really took my breath away. I appreciated how the family who commissioned the house had requested a place to view their favorite section of stream (the three waterfalls) had instead received plans for a house that was to be built on top of the waterfalls! The artistic structure of the house is incredible. The theme of horizontally jutting ledges, mimicking the natural rock around, was repeated over and over on all scales: the huge, in the form of the numerous balconies and decks, and the small, the interior rock work, and examples of in-between too. The house is chaotic but also planned and integrated well with the natural surroundings, which was the original intent. Here, enjoy some pictures:

I’d long wanted to visit Robert in Carlisle and suddenly had a great opportunity to do so: Dave’s wedding about 2 hours down the road in Washington, PA. The scenery is so much different from what I’m accustomed too. The rolling green hills went on and on. Good to see ole “Musco” again – that’s Robert’s attack dog that ate one of my trees in Colorado.

(l-r) Musco, the maniac. Professor Pound

The next day we headed down the road to the wedding. I’ll let the pictures tell the story here:

Hey, I’m no longer “dark”! I like saying “dark”. Here we go…

This is not the sort of entry that I tend to put in my blog, but heck, it’s part of traveling or “wandering” so why not? I’ll just add a bit here, since there’s not really that much to tell outside of the usual music creation, game playing, and so on. We did play a little set at a local coffee shop, making that the 4th performance by Frozen Taco. Overall, the performance was unmemorable. We played an acoustic set outside against nearby traffic. Also, my acoustic pickup had ceased to work so I had to borrow a guitar. And, most annoyingly, I got a tinge of nervousness playing which made my performance not too good. I had no idea why. As soon as I started playing, I started to feel nervous. What made it worse was that I started worrying that the technically difficult songs were coming up. Fortunately, I settled down after we started and everything was fine, but there still was much to be desired. Ah well. The last few times I played acoustic guitar was fine – in China in front of 100 people or so. And the few times before that in coffee houses in Seattle, I had no issues whatsoever. Mysterious. Who knows why? Anyway, the visit was awesome as usual…we composed a brand new song. Here’s a slice of it.

Working on tunes: