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:

I’m going to relax a while from the blog.   Who wants to hear about the daily routine in the US?   But, if you’re interested in climbs, be sure to check out my Alpine Adventures in the Cascades, or whatever I call my climbing site.   I will hopefully be leaving the country again in late August.   Check back then!   And thanks for visiting!

I landed in the US at 9:30 AM. With jet lag, a new little cold picked up along the way, and a junky hotel to stay in (yeah, I’m ruined by these gorgeous Asian hotels), I picked up a case of reverse culture shock. Lots of cars, lots of big portions of food, big people….but nice fresh air and lots of green!

So, my China trip is over.   I’ll spare readers from any summary of my trip since I’d be writing on and on, paragraph after paragraph.   It suffices to say that I’m very happy I made the choice and am hoping that I return someday…

Back in the US…

I tried to hook up with Robert for a hike, but my alarm clock (a GPS sort of thing) changed time by itself sometime in the night. I ended up oversleeping by an hour, Robert forgot his cell phone and couldn’t call. So, he went home and I went out to meet him…and ended up going alone. Was nice to get out and smell some real fresh air. Just going up to the lake, Melakwa Lake, was enough for me. I didn’t really feel the urge to scurry up the scree slopes to the peak and just hung out around the lake:

(above) Panorama of Melakwa Lake

(above) Big ole Northwest Slug, Denny Creek is a popular place to hang out.   Bring your kids!

Also, some of the China packaging team is in Redmond now. They got a recommendation on a Chinese restaurant in town and so we went down together Friday after work. I was really excited when we found Hunan Cai on the menu, but when the waiter brought it out, I proclaimed to my tablemates, “Bu shi Hunan cai!” No, it wasn’t anything like we could get in China so, my hopes were dashed.   Just a rather bland dish of sliced pork with onions and green peppers and smothered in something akin to that nasty sweet and sour sauce.   At least the fish was pretty good, but atypical:   completely boneless.   That was welcomed modification.

I embarassed the waitress and myself by calling her a “liang nu” (“pretty girl”, a common way to refer to waitresses in southern China).   She actually was a little too old to be called that (plus you never see any old waitresses in China) and I could see in her reaction the embarassment.   Dang.

We also practiced some American table manners, hearkening back to my training to the team in China on that.   These guys did much better than the others I accompanied to Steak and Ale…they were abject failures.   A refresher course for them!

(above) Despondent at false advertising

The day before heading back to Seattle, I took the train from LuoHu to the Shangri-La hotel. The Chinese border is so confusing here. I actually got lost, ended up in a maze of shops in LuoHu. I wandered back and found a sign that read “Chinese Immigration”. That confused me – “How did I end up here?”, I thought. I guess my academic nature confused me: I expected the word “emmigration”, because I was leaving China, not entering. Well, I decided I’d at least get in the line and someone would at least be able to help me (assuming someone spoke English). Well, it turned out, of course, I was in the right place. No big deal.

An hour later, I emerged in downtown Kowloon at the entrance of the Shangri-La (I like the train because it leaves you within a half a block of the hotel) and was greeted by the familiar sight of the carport filled with Mercedes, Porsches, Ferraris, and a Maserati this time.

The flight to the US was a piece of cake; going through Tokyo breaks up the trip nicely and I was able to adjust nicely with no jet lag. OK, I’m not going to describe the details of the activities in the US, that’s just the usual work – not blogworthy. Basically, I was ridiculously busy from very early to very late and ended up getting sick just in time for the lousy return flight home. I definitely don’t like flying from San Francisco directly to Hong Kong. 14 hours is too much for one leg. Anyway, here are some pics:

Some shots of Japan from the air (they’re big fans of golf courses):

I had dinner with someone every night, except for Friday, when I had to go to bed early ’cause I was getting sick. (l-r) dinner w/ Tiffany, feigning jet lag w/ Robert (check out the Fu Manchu ‘stache), “Rush Chow” with Kevin (I forgot to take pictures with others…sorry, fellas):

Got to have a pic of Georgia:

I had to take pictures of my work environs because the differences with China are shocking. This is a pastorale paradise compared to the loud, smelly madness of China. In fact, I couldn’t believe how silent Seattle sounded to me; the birds work me up a couple of times. Of course, being the northwest, the greens are refreshingly overpowering and the air is so fresh. Fewer people, but more cars (arr).

Pictures of work:

Here’s a silly picture in the bathroom of the San Francisco airport. You think they would have realized that it would have been better to conserve natural resources by not printing such inane signs and plastering them at every sink and at every paper towel dispenser:

The 14-hour flight from San Francisco to Seattle was lousy. My throat was painfully sore. It made speaking difficult. I watched “Casino Royale” again (an edited version which really messed up the movie) and “Happy Feet”, which was flat out terrible. I wanted to make it all the way back to Shenzhen this evening, but was unable to cancel my hotel (because of the guarantee). So, I spent a night in the nice hotel (had a sweet view this time, but the day was misty and rainy) and crashed early.

Getting back to China felt nice. I feel like I’m becoming a pro of getting around up here. As we rode into LuoHu, I could make out the skyscrapers of Shenzhen through the mist in the far distance, most notable was the tall Di Wang building. Much closer was an inhospitable fence complete with razor wire; no doubt this was the border. Before I could shoot a picture (was hoping for some armed guards too), we arrived at the station. I breezed through customs and exited into the madness of the commercial center. Ah, the smell. Not bad, not good, but distinctly China.

Cupla views from the train. (l-r) I took the first class compartment for the first time, random construction as we approach the border of China:

Hey, s’up? This is the very first post I’m writing – about 10 days after the fact. So, if it ends up being junk, I’ll delete it. But, at the bare minimum I wanted to share a few pictures from the farewell dinner. At the suggestion of Tiffany, Aaron, and Pavan, I threw a small farewell party 5 days before leaving for China. I actually left for China two weeks before I had originally planned to go, so the party was thrown with only about two days notice! So, thanks to everyone who made the effort to come out. Also, thank you Tiffany, once again, for your expert cooking advice.