Seaside

Saturday morning, I checked out of my Fort Walton Beach hotel at daybreak, figuring if I wanted to see Seaside and still make it back to New Orleans to catch my 3PM flight, I better move fast. I had never heard of Destin until a few years ago, although apparently everyone else had. Fishing charters filled up the channel and skyscrapers filled up the beaches. But what I really wanted to see were the much touted new-urbanist villages farther east. Which were downright cute - once the ad revenue starts coming in on my blogs, I suspect I may have to buy a place down here. It helps that the weather has been very pleasant - not as hot and much less muggy than earlier in the week.

Seaside was a very pleasant place to wade in the Gulf, wander around the town (more pictures, more commentary), and start to wonder if I had actually left enough time to drive the 300 miles back to New Orleans before my plane left. I made it - returned the car and arrived at the airport exactly one hour before the flight. 900 miles, more than 500 pictures, probably 40 road ends and beach accesses, and about 48 hours. $58 car rental (plus two tanks of gas). Not bad.

Bay St. Louis

Pretty much dead center of Katrina's landfall. Nice little town that was clearly still picking up the pieces. The woman making iced coffee at the Mockingbird Cafe reported that the building had lost its roof during the storm - modest damage compared to much of the rest of the area. I didn't appreciate how severe the damage had been until I checked out the Katrina section at Bay Books and saw pictures of what things had looked like before and just after the storm.

I happened to arrive for the grand re-opening of the Bay St. Louis bridge - big event around here and clear proof that Mississippi politicians are just as long winded as those from other places. They talked and talked, first on one side of the bridge then on the other, and then the parade began. It gave me a couple hours to explore the area.

postscript: May 29 NY Times article

Gulf Coast

The conference ended Thursday and I headed back to the airport to pick up a car for my 48-hour rally to Florida. My last trip between Pensacola and New Orleans was in 1971, and we probably took I-10 the whole way, so the beaches, bayous, and of course, Katrina, were all new to me. I'm about a week behind - this blog is only rarely live - and between catching up with work, fixing the bed that D broke (I think he was trying to tackle it), and shuttling him to the Washington Open, I plan to spend time this weekend posting pictures to both this blog and to Gravel Beach. As usual, it is sometimes a bit arbitrary which pictures go on this page and which go on that page. But expect far too many pictures of post-Katrina coastlines and white sand beaches!

New Orleans

The hotels are filled with tourists and conferences. The French Quarter looks as I remember it from three years ago. But the rest of the city is still suffering, as excursions to the Lower Ninth Ward and to the districts up along the lake demonstrated. I guess this was an appropriate location for a conference on coastal geology and engineering! More pictures (many depressing) of New Orleans at Gravel Beach.

I ran along the river a couple times, though even at 7:00 AM it was pretty muggy for my Seattle temperment. I enjoyed some good dinners and pleasant walks through the French Quarter. M wouldn't have appreciated the heat (good thing it was only May) but she would have enjoyed the city - we'll have to come back together some time. In January.

California

Weren't we just here? Reports of more cold and possibly lots of snow sent us south. We considered Reno or Elko, but aimed for Redding instead, then continued out the Trinity River to the coast. Patrick's Point was beautiful, as was the southern Oregon coast, but Friday D came down with the flu as we climbed the hill past Sea Lion Caves and Heceta Head. We retreated to a Florence motel where we spent an unpleasant night, before abandoning the coast and heading home on Saturday. Disappointing way to end the trip, but we covered 1600 of miles, I got a much-needed fix of the open road (and I learned lots of interesting football statistics, too). I listened to some of the stuff on his ipod (TuPac); he listened to some of the stuff on mine (Springsteen).

Bend

This was the first spring break road trip for D&I since 3rd grade. They got pushed aside for chess tournaments, but this year Nationals came early and we had the week free (well, sort of free, given work and a weekend that attempted to include secular seders and equally secular easter eggs).

We headed out Monday morning, not sure of our route or even our destination. We turned right on I-5, and despite an early plan to turn left on 90, we waited until we hit 84 in Portland to head east. Turned right again at the Dalles and made it to Bend by late afternoon. Pulled into LaPine Campground (our old home base) as the snow began to fall.

We didn't get up to Bachelor, but we had a good bike ride west of town, had breakfast (only once) at the Victorian Cafe, and commuted several times back and forth between Bend and LaPine.

Some trips are marked by dinosaurs, some by chess, but this one will be remembered as the football trip.

Hard Rock Cafe

This year's tournament is over. The Three Musketeers all did well, though not as well as they had probably hoped, and not well enough to delay dinner in order to stay around for awards ceremony. Which also meant E could hang around a bit longer, since he's got to get back to San Francisco and school tomorrow morning! The boys wouldn't consider Joe's Crab Shack (our last night in Louisville last year) so we wound up at the Hard Rock Cafe. Milk shakes and big desserts for D & E. P was much more restrained. They wound up playing chess out on the patio before we dragged them back to pick up trophies (P&D got WMS 22nd place, despite only two on their team) and to send E and his mom on their way back to SF. P&D were up until 1AM playing in the lobby.

Old Sacramento

D was playing chess (and wouldn't have leapt at chance to go to a museum, anyway) and M had to catch her shuttle to the airport, so I walked down to Old Sacramento on my own. D and I swung through the train museum on one of our spring break junkets (first grade?), but didn't stay long because his main interest in trains was as climbing toys - which this place tempts, but doesn't encourage.

Critters

The new Federal Court House is an impressive building at the west end of downtown, near Old Sacramento. Its court yard is maintained by these whimsical characters - definitely a California theme and a humorous counterpoint to the building's seriousness.

Wildlife

The last round is underway and I'm off for more coffee and sightseeing. The canine is walking fast between the convention center and the theatre. I think the feline was guarding a bank.

Sunday Morning

Beautiful morning in Sacramento. Round Six got off at 9, with kids still running in after the clocks started. Some of them, like P, played until 11 last night, though this morning the players didn't look as wiped out as they have in some past years. Maybe its because unlike some years, we didn't have to set clocks ahead Saturday night. One more round to go, this afternoon, and then awards and 1000 kids heading for airport to go back to school in Phoenix, Tampa, the Bronx, and Deer Isle-Stonington (Maine). Not to mention Seattle.

I'm settled in at the Temple on 10th - free WiFi, good coffee, and a little less overwhelming than the Starbucks at the Convention Center.

Round Three

D had a frustrating game last night, but won in Round Three this morning. P has won all three rounds so far! And E wound up playing an almost four-hour game on Board One (fuzzy picture) against Marc Tyler Arnold (rated over 2300, top player in this tournament). Round Four is underway - I guess I should head back over and check on the guys - or at least buy another latte.

Nationals

It's nice to have one of these events on the west coast - though the trips to Pittsburgh, Nashville, and Louisville the last three years have been fun. I'm glad there are still some big crowds of kids from back east, representing both some big inner city districts and a bunch of really high end suburban private and public schools. About 1000 kids are registered this year.

K-9 Chess Championships

Weather is great and Convention Center is just across from the hotel. We found a great crepe place for dinner last night a few blocks west on "L" Street.

Sacramento

I arrived just in time to wish D good luck in the first round. M&D got in last night and then joined up with others this morning to visit the state capital across the street. Apparently Arnold wasn't in, or at least wasn't taking visitors. We hoped he'd speak at the opening ceremony, but no such luck!

This blog must be about one year old, since I began it at last year's Nationals in Lousiville.

D has joined up again with P & E and all three won their first rounds.

Sea Tac

I left Vancouver yesterday after the morning sessions and lunch. Battled construction (pre-Olympic frenzy, I suspect) getting out of the city and a 45 minute wait at the border. I got home in time to take M&D to the airport. And then I came back again this morning to catch my own flight. Took pictures of airplanes and fish mobiles while admiring just how long some people are willing to wait in line at Starbucks!

English Bay

I walked down Denman to English Bay several times this week - our annual stays at the Sylvia make this place seem a bit like home. A falafel sandwich one night sitting on a bench at the beach and a late afternoon (when these pictures were taken) stroll admiring the beach when there aren't 400,000 people lining up to watch fireworks (see blog from last August). Thursday morning - the last day of the conference - I got up early and had coffee at Delany's before going over to the Sylvia for breakfast. I wish I'd had my camera - beautiful light on the freighters in the bay and just incredibly relaxing (and much cheaper than the conference hotel, too).

Burrard Inlet

Back to Vancouver, though this time without the family. The Puget Sound Georgia Basin Research Conference gets up here once every four years - we're at the Westin Bayshore on Coal Harbour. Despite threats that the weather will deterioriate, it hasn't, yet. Between technical sessions and preparing Wednesday's talk, it's been busy, but by foregoing some of the social functions, I've managed some nice runs in Stanley Park and a chance to explore some of the damage from December's storm. Pretty impressive. Many trees down and much damage to the seawall promenade, particularly along the stretch between Third Beach and the Bridge.

As usual, I'm impressed with the level of development along this shoreline. And the public accessibility. It's fun to watch the walkers, joggers, dog trainers, bicyclists, tourists, rowers, leaf blowers, limo drivers, condo owners, and seagulls. Not to mention constant seaplanes.

Mercer Island

We struggled to round up the requisite five players for a team - some of our players actually have other things to do on Saturdays than play chess! Our final five included a wide range of experience, from D with hundreds of games to J with only four rated games prior to this event! They did great, taking 2nd Place to Odle, which is probably not just the top MS team in the state, but the top MS team in the country! P managed a draw on Board 2 in our match against Odle, keeping them to 24.5 points (out of a possible 25).

North City

Friday evening at Hot Wire while D plays chess at SCC. Jessica Star Rocker is playing to a small audience tonight. Nice acoustic act with good voice. Some of her own songs and some wonderful covers of others, including a really great quieter version of Girls Just Want to Have Fun.

Retrieved my car this morning from the shop, after they fixed all the seals and oil leaks that weren't done right during our holiday jaunt to East Wenatchee. It's true that I hadn't put much money into the car for the first 140,000 miles. But, boy, gettting to 145,000 has been awfully expensive. Won't seem bad if the car goes 100,000 miles without further mishap - though I'll spend the whole time wondering if the head gaskets were really done right - especially on those long nighttime drives across US 50 in Nevada that I fantasize about, but haven't actually done in two decades. What a warped sense of nostalgia.

The car's not the only thing suffering from too many miles. I've seen more doctors in the last two months than in my entire life - plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists, surgeons, dermatologists, oncologists - not to mention all their elves. I now have one less mole and one fewer lymph nodes than I began the year with - but it looks like it hadn't spread. Cancer is a powerful word - though always best when applied in the past tense.

Out of boredom, I'm violating one of my principles and am posting a blog without a photo, but short of taking a crummy picture with my cellphone of the reflection of the neon North City LOUNGE sign in the wet pavement of 15th Avenue Northeast, offering up a picture of the recent needlework on my forearm, or pulling some unrelated photo out of the archives, that's all I can do tonight.

Olympic Sculpture Park

From the Mojave to the Gulf of Mexico and back to Seattle. Amazing how much routine, and sometimes not so routine, life gets left in the gaps! Yesterday, I took advantage of a brief gap in that routine to wander through the new sculpture park. It still needs to be finished up - especially the section down near the water - but what is done looks great. I hope it sets the tone for future work along Seattle's waterfront.

Gulf of Mexico

M is just back from St. Pete Beach, though this time she didn't bring the boys. She claims the conference was good, but I think she mainly did pedal boats and the beach tricycle. Funny to think that I was here last May and she and I both walked through in June.