Travels with George and Marta – Page 25 – Journeys in the Botanical World

Wallace Falls

Posted on January 23, 2011 by martaJanuary 23, 2011

We wanted to get out on the trail but didn’t really want to go very far. Wallace Falls is a state park just outside of the town of Gold Bar on the way to Stevens Pass. It took about 1 hour to get from door to trail head.

The trail starts along a powerline right way. At the end is a gorgeous view of Mt. Index. The trail turns inland and drops down to the river. It is dark and damp – full of drippy moss. The river was roaring. After crossing a couple of side streams, the trail starts to climb. After a bit, there is a shelter and lower falls. This is your first view of the middle falls. The middle falls drops 265 feet. The trail continues to climb until it comes to the middle falls viewpoint. But don’t stop here. Continue up to the top of the middle falls where there is a great overview of Skykomish valley. It is about 2 miles from the trail head and 1,000ft elevation. You can continue on for another half mile to the upper falls but we decided to turn around. It took us about 3 hours to do the 4 miles round trip. Nice easy trail for a winter hike.

Trailhead map

Mt Index from under the power lines

Small Falls

Riverside

One of many benches along the trail

Mossy forest

Cascades at lower falls

Warning!

Middle Falls

View over Skykomish Valley

Photohunt: Hands

Posted on January 22, 2011 by martaNovember 2, 2014

Maitake mushrooms

This week’s photohunt theme is Hands. Here are a couple of pictures of my best friend’s hands. These were taken on our getaway to the Oregon Coast. She is holding a couple of mushroom types that we found at the local farmer’s market and an agate that we found at the beach. The mushrooms were from Rainforest Mushrooms

Lions Mane Mushrooms

Beach Agate

Water and Beer – Snoqualmie

Posted on January 18, 2011 by martaNovember 16, 2016

Snoqualmie Falls

I had MLK day off of work so we decided to do a hike. The weather forecast was so-so. We have been in a ‘Pineapple Express” weather pattern – warm and wet. This leads to flooding along all the major rivers because the freezing level rises up above 5,000, it rains at the mountain passes and the snow melts.

It will always flood along the Snoqualmie River – but it is also a good time to see Snoqualmie Falls (if you can get there). I’ve also been wanting to stop at the Snoqualmie Brewery. We had Triskaidekophobia – their 13th anniversary triple ale which was very yummy.

We decided to do Chirico trail on Tiger Mountain. It was very windy but not raining when we arrived. I haven’t been on the trail for a while so I was pretty slow but the conversation was good and the time went pretty fast. We didn’t linger at the top. It was very windy and getting cold. We had a few views over Issaquah and Bellevue but it was a little too nippy.

Next we headed out for Snoqualmie Falls. It was very busy and popular with families. It was a good outing for MLK Day. We put on all our rain gear and headed across the highway bridge to the overlook. It was roaring and very misty. You could barely see the falls. They are building a new trail so the covered overlook had been replaced by an open viewing area. We got pretty wet.

It was time for beer and some food. Snoqualmie Brewery is just a short distance away in downtown historic Snoqualmie. The river runs right along downtown and was almost lapping the road. The brewery was busy but warm. G ordered a Wildcat IPA and I had a Copperhead Pale Ale. My beer was so yummy – very hoppy and crisp – just as I like it. I forgot to have a taste of the IPA but G said it was excellent. The food was pretty standard pub-grub – pizza and sandwiches. The kitchen service was a little slow because of the packed after lunch crowd. Our orders were mixed up but we swapped our sides appropriately and munched down. Satisfied we headed home.

View over Issaquah from Poo Poo Point

Busy MLK day at Snoqualmie Falls

That is a lot of water

Snoqualmie Falls

Snoqualmie Taproom and Brewery

Yep, this is the place

All Signs pointing to Snoqualmie Brewery

Ah…. Perfect IPA after hiking and getting drenched watching the falls

Photohunt: Shadow

Posted on January 15, 2011 by martaJanuary 15, 2011

My Pointing Shadow – Nambung Pinnacles National Park – Western Australia”

This week’s Photohunt theme is Shadow. I had several ideas right off on this so I went hunting to find them. Along the way, I stumbled up this set of photos taken on our trip to Western Australia. North of Perth is a popular attraction called the Pinnacles. Nambung National Park is a great place to go at sundown (or sunrise) to capture the shadows off the unusual rock formations. These were formed from ancient sea shells that were broken into sand and blown inland. The rains washed away the lime and cemented the sand into these unusual limestone formations.

We were staying just north of here in Jurien Bay. We drove late in the afternoon to the park to watch the shadows lengthen and grow until they turned the rocks into silhouettes.

Where did he go?

Find my husband!

One of many interesting limestone pinnacles

Last rays of sun casting my shadow on the rock

Silhouette shadows in the setting sun

Replacing the battery in an iPod

Posted on January 10, 2011 by martaNovember 16, 2016

I have a 5th generation video iPod. It has served me well for the past 4 years. I have trouble sleeping and I use it to listen to podcasts at night. I love listening to the Australian ABC Radio. The Aussie accent lulls me to sleep. I also enjoy listening to the news happening down under. It is a welcome break from war and conflicts.

I noticed a couple of months ago that my iPod was not keeping a charge. It got a charge cable and hooked it up to make it through the night but it was a pain this summer. I was doing long walks to get in shape for Hawaii and the charge would last 30 to 45 minutes at most.

There was nothing else wrong with my iPod so I started researching how to replace the battery. I also considered getting one of the new Nanos which are very cool or maybe even an iTouch but I really couldn’t justify the expense when there wasn’t anything else wrong with my iPod.

I talked to some friends. One or two had replaced the battery themselves. Most others had just bought another iPod. I looked for a service to replace it for me but most of them were $50 plus shipping.

Milliamp came up high on the google search. The comments were good on the website. They had a very helpful video on how to replace it. The kit came with all the tools and more detailed instructions. G took a look at it and felt he could do it. We went ahead and ordered the battery for only $25 with free shipping.

I got an email right away confirming the order and an email the next day that it was shipping. It arrived 3 days later. Great service. We waited until this weekend to finally replace the battery.

The hardest part was prying the case apart. The tool is helpful but it is really secure it takes a bit to understand exactly how to use the tool to pry it. Once it was apart, it was very simple to pop the old battery connector out, bend the new battery cable and insert it. There were two bumbers around the UBS connector and the instructions even mentioned that these may pop out. They were very easy to put back in. We removed the glue strip, aligned the battery around the earphone jack and snapped the case back together.

The moment of truth… we pressed it on and saw the Apple! Yeah! Success. We charged it and now it is good to go. The charge lasts at least 8 hours now – so much better than 20 minutes.

I would highly recommend this company. The service and instructions are great. They make it as easy as possible for novices to replace an iPod battery.

Photohunt: Free Week

Posted on January 8, 2011 by martaJanuary 8, 2011

This is a free week this week on Photohunt. I did not have a lot of time to search out something. I went through some of my recent winter photos and decided to post this series of photos from Christmas. We went over to Vashon Island just before Christmas for dinner with our good friends. We went for a walk and stopped to give these cute goats a couple of handouts. They were definitely waiting for us.

Damnation Beer by Russian River Brewery

Posted on January 3, 2011 by martaNovember 16, 2016

One of my favorite beers when we lived in Holland was Duvel. The style is a Belgian Strong Pale Ale. It is not very hoppy but definitely high in alcohol. I find it has a clean but slightly spicy flavor. Not at all cloying. We would buy it in small 4 packs and it would be my treat when I got home from work.

G and I went over to Central Market New Years Eve to pick up some ravioli for dinner. G asked if we were going to get a bottle of Champagne for the evening. I had not really thought about it but I suggested that we look at the special season beers instead. Christmas or Winter beers tend to be higher in alcohol. Many are also dark. I don’t mind a stout but I am not partial to porters. They are just a little to heavy. We took a look at the different brews and I came across a bottle of “Damnation” from Russian River Brewery. A good friend who is married to one of the brewers at Maritime Brewery here in Seattle had mentioned how much she liked this brewery when she did a Beer Road trip to California. It looked perfect for a New Year Eve’s toast.

It comes in a small bottle that is corked. It has a second bottle fermentation like a fine champagne. It was wonderful but potent. Perfect for sipping on a cold winter night.

New Years Day at the Edmonds Waterfront

Posted on January 1, 2011 by MartaNovember 23, 2014

It has been cold – very cold. But we bundled up to take a New Years Day walk. The temperature started at 19 degrees but by noon it was almost up to 32 degrees. Still cold enough for me to put on two layers of thermal underware and a thick sweater.

We headed down to the waterfront to do our usual walk along Sunset Avenue and then along the waterfront by the marina. We had noticed something was going on when we passed by Daphnes. There was quite a crowd several dressed in white robes.

We realized that there was a polar bear swim in Edmonds. We did not know if it had already happened or not. We parked and went on our walk.

The day was crisp and clear. The snow covered Olympics glistened in the distance. The grasses were dusted with white frost. We were returning and almost to the ferry dock when we heard a large cheer. It was 1pm. It must be the plunge.

We rushed to the beach near the ferry dock and it was mostly over. Everyone was milling along the shore and several people were toweling off. A few late comers plunged in screaming the whole way. We noticed several people in white robes with Edmonds Uplift Society embroidered on the back. The Society has been doing the plunge for the past four years and is headquartered at Daphnes – Edmonds Uplife Society. What a fun and crazy idea.

Mt Baker in the distance

Taking the Plunge

Crowd at Brackett’s Landing in Edmonds for the Polar Bear Plunge

Photohunt: Fuzzy

Posted on January 1, 2011 by MartaJanuary 1, 2011

Western anemone – Pulsatilla occidentalis

Happy New Years! I wish you a healthy and prosperous 2011.

This week’s Photohunt theme is Fuzzy. I suspect that many of us have a fuzzy head today after drinking lots of fuzzy beverages last night. I could not resist a chance to highlight a few fuzzy flower pictures.

One of my favorite fuzzy flowers is the seed head of the Western anemone – Pulsatilla occidentalis. These seedheads dot the meadows of the Cascades in August. There are several funny names for the seed heads – “Mouse on a stick” is my favorite.

Here are a few other fuzzy flowers from the archives.

Fuzzy Cactus

Fuzzy seeds heads of a clematis

Flowers of a fuzzy Marrubium (Horehound)

Fuzzy Salvia “Purple Rain”

Salvia flower

Princeton

Posted on December 28, 2010 by MartaDecember 28, 2010

Princeton Library

I also had the opportunity to visit Princeton while I was in New Jersey for training. Kim came by the hotel and picked me up and we drove into Princeton. We were meeting up with Terry for a moderator’s breakfast at PJ’s Pancake House. The day was sunny but cold especially when the wind whipped around the buildings but we had a sheltered area in front of the restaurant to wait for a table. The pancakes were fluffy, the coffee hot and the conversation fun. Time passed quickly.

Kim and Terry had other commitments for the rest of the day so I decided to stay in Princeton and walk around the village and the campus. I printed out walking tour of historic Princeton as a guide.

First I did a quick walk around Palmer Square. The shops were just starting to open and there was a lovely brass band playing carols. I had passed a shop that had a sign out for hot chocolate. That sounded so good plus I heard a mother talking to her boy about going to get hot chocolate. I went in and warmed up with a cup of thick dark hot chocolate from The Bent Spoon. I should have picked up a can of the mix. Yummm..

Next I headed down a couple of blocks to see if I could find where Albert Einstein lived while at Princeton. I couldn’t really locate it but I had a chance to see a bit of the neighborhood. I walked a bit around the grounds at Morven. It was a country estate of Richard Stockton one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. I considered doing a tour but I decided to head over to the University campus instead.

I loved the campus. It was my first visit to an Ivy League school. It was so different from the campuses in the west. Most of the western universities campuses are mostly modern buildings. Heck, Washington probably wasn’t even a state when some of the Princeton buildings were built. I particularly loved the dorm and quad areas. It felt almost like I was at Hogswart. I also remembered the movie “A Beautiful Mind” which was also filmed on campus.

I headed towards the University chapel and was pleasantly surprised to find out there was a free Christmas concert by the Princeton Choral scheduled to begin in a half hour. I headed into the Library to get warm and to look at the exhibit of the maps of the exploration of the Pacific Ocean. These were maps of the voyages of Captain Cook. It was fun to see how they depicted Borneo, Australia and Hawaii (Sandwich Islands) on the maps of the explorations.

The concert was beautiful and perfect for the season. The golden sun was just setting as the concert finished and I took a taxi back to the hotel. A quick but satisfying visit.

Nassau Street buildings