CN Tower

I checked out of my Scarborough hotel at 8:25, just in time to join the rush hour traffic down the Don Valley Parkway, but I was still able to find a parking place near the tower by 9AM. I was one of the first ones up and for a little while I had the Sky Pod all to myself - 147 stories above the city. Clear blue skies would have been better, but the views were still spectacular. This tower dwarfs Toronto - and puts the Space Needle in perspective.

Then it was time to race to the airport so I could stand in line for customs, then head back to Seattle.

Toronto

Toronto is the largest city in Canada and seems most like Chicago geographically - a large city perched on the edge of a Great Lake. I left myself little more than a day in the city and spent most of that wandering the shoreline from Scarborough to the west side of Humber Bay. I had a nice lunch at Quigley's in the Eastern Beaches district and spent several hours walking along the downtown waterfront.

Tobermory

This little town is the end of the road at the very tip of the Bruce Peninsula. A car ferry continues across the mouth of Georgian Bay to Manitoulin Island but this was as far I was going to go on my little weekend jaunt from Seattle. The Grandview was pretty basic lodging, but it had a great dining room, where I watched the sun set Saturday night while eating local whitefish.

Tobermory is the end of the Bruce Trail, which extends almost 500 miles along the Niagara Escarpment to Niagara Falls. I stuck to a couple of short sections along the spectacular cliffs and beaches east of Tobermory (Storm Haven, Singing Sands, Halfway Log Dump, Flowerpot Island, and Cabot Head - all at Gravel Beach).

Ontario

The prospect of a long Memorial Day weekend. M had papers to grade. D had school projects to work on. I decided to check out some new beaches. So I flew to Toronto and rented a car. (It wasn't quite this impulsive. I made the decision last December 31st. I had finally accumulated enough miles for a free trip - I'd never done that before - and United was threatening to yank them.

I had originally thought of checking out Long Point and Point Pelee on the northern shore of Lake Erie, but gave them up for Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. I also left a little time for Toronto, since I'd always wanted to see the Scarborough Bluffs and the city's urban waterfront and shoreline parks.

What a neat weekend! As usual, lots more pictures at Gravel Beach.

Cama Beach

I've been coming up here pretty regularly for a decade - I doubt there's another spot on the Sound that I know so well. It's been a while since my last visit - largely due to the construction activity. But now the cabins have all been painted and fixed up (and the ground raised so they don't float away during winter high tides) and the park is set to open in June. It all looks a bit too tidy and unvegetated at the moment, but time should take care of that.

Cama Beach is an old tourist camp, something once common on Puget Sound, but now all lost to long rows of 4000 square foot waterfront homes. State Parks has been working hard to capture this unique piece of history.

Nationals

Sunday night. It's over. Seven four hour rounds over three days. Over 1200 players, many of whom were rated over 2000.

Garfield finished 12th among fifty teams, an incredible accomplishment for a team not even contemplating Nationals a few months ago. The top teams came from all over the country and included a couple of very strong Arizona teams, Stuyvesant HS from New York City, and Bellaire from Houston (where Garfield's best player from last year now goes). All six Garfield players won games against higher-rated players.

Results at: High School Nationals

Garfield at Washington State Championships

Peachtree Center

This year's tournament is being held at the Hyatt - which is quite an experience for kids whose experience is limited to Motel 6. The elevators gridlock about 20 minutes before every round as the players race down from their rooms, which is probably annoying to business folks and others not here for the tournament.

Centennial Olympic Park

I tried to talk the guys into getting outside for a little bit before the last round - they probably haven't left the hotel since we got here except to cross the sky bridge to the food court. But they were content to hang out in the room watching TV, so I wandered off on my own.

Round Five

Garfield moved back up several notches in the team standings with a strong 4th round this afternoon. If they can stay awake through tomorrow's games, they may do pretty well in the tournament.

D had a great afternoon round, beating his first Master! Of course, that means tonight's matchup is even tougher (2263).

Atlanta

Wednesday morning in the middle of the Pacific, Wednesday night in Seattle, and Thursday night in Atlanta. The miracle of fossil fuel. D and the rest of the Garfield team are now in Round Four of seven at High School Nationals. They stayed near the top through the first two rounds, but Round Three was tough and they've slipped a bit. D has been doing well, with a win and a draw against players over 2000, but he's playing a Master (2214) this time.

I don't have any reasonable pictures of the players or chess triviana or the hotel yet, but I did take some pictures this morning of some slightly damaged downtown skyscrapers during a walk through Olympic Centennial Park. The March 14th tornado sucked the windows out of the towers and apparently it takes a while to replace all the glass. Good thing the Southeastern Conference game went into overtime that night at the Georgia Dome, or lots of folks would have been caught out in the street when the twister hit. I don't think there are tornadoes in the current forecast, although Wednesday evening our flight took a very long detour around the the big storms that were hammering North Texas. Two years ago, when we were in Louisville for Nationals, there was a tornado warning during one of the rounds which confused the tournament for a little while, but which didn't result in an actual tornado.

North Shore

Waimea Bay and Sunset Beach. I guess this is the Jackson Hole of surfing. The big waves of winter have faded, but it was still pretty impressive. I find it amazing these dudes don't get killed more often. Whether by running over each other, getting turned into laundry by the waves themselves, or bouncing off the bottom (which is jagged coral off shore, not soft sand).

Kahuku

This northern most tip of Oahu was hard hit by the 1946 tsunami, which washed a mile inland and was 20-30 feet deep. That was before the big hotel and the golf courses. Apparently, this place is financially strapped and they feel a few more hotels and golf courses would make a difference. The locals may feel differently. Interesting place for three days of geology and engineering talks related to tsunamis, coastal erosion, and rising sea levels!

Oahu

I spent the afternoon driving around the southeast end of the island, which was beautiful, and then up the eastern shore (which got a little grayer). I snorkeled in Hanauma Bay (me and about a million other tourists) and stopped at every pull out and beach I had time for. I even took the side trip up to the Pali Lookout Highway 61.

Honolulu

Saturday evening on Waikiki. Another nice sunset, although a completely different context than the previous evening at Polihale. Tons of people, although I suspect it often gets far more crowded. High rises stacked on the beach. Hawaiiian and Polynesian music from each hotel. I wandered up to the Sheraton's patio and had Mahi tacos and a Longboard while sitting 10' feet back from the seawall (there isn't much beach in front of this section of Waikiki). Pleasant, but something was still missing. I would have called her, but it was already too late in Seattle.

The next morning I had a great walk. When I started, the sun was barely up and the beach was empty. By the end of the walk, it was packed. I waved to D through the webcam at Duke Kahanemoku's statue. When I got back to the hotel, I discovered I'd taken my last couple of hundred photos with the camera set at 640x480 resolution. Guess I won't be printing this batch of pictures!