Klamath Falls part 1

To break up our journey we stopped in Klamath Falls, Oregon for a couple of days. It's a small town but known for the huge numbers of birds that migrate through the area's wetlands.

We arrived at 10 o'clock at night. Two taxis showed up but both were taken. I asked one of the drivers to call for another but was told this was a two taxi town. A few minutes later a medical transport vehicle showed up and the driver (in cowboy boots and hat) said he was here to pick up the folks with all the big bags (us). Small towns might lack for facilities, but they often make up for it with personality.

We stayed at the Maverick Motel. It was nothing fancy but quite acceptable. Even better, our favorite coffee shop in town, Gathering Grounds Cafe, was just around the corner.

We had booked a compact rental car but when we went to pick it up all they had was a large minivan, a Chrysler Town and Country. That's about the last type of vehicle I would have chosen. Luckily it was only for a couple of days.

Our first day we drove to Crater Lake National Park which we hadn't visited before. It was a beautiful warm sunny day with no wind and the lake was gorgeous. And being off season there weren't too many people around.





A lone tree with fall colors, beside the turquoise waters around Wizard Island. Because Crater Lake doesn't have any rivers draining into it the water is very clear.



Reflections, of clouds this time.





The blue of the sky and water was a bit overpowering so I converted a few shots to black and white.



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Portland

The train ride from Vancouver (BC) to Seattle is one of my favourites. First, it's one of the quickest, easiest ways to cross the border into the US. No standing in line, no hauling your bags around, no taking off your shoes, or passing through scanners. The train stops for literally a few minutes, officials pass through the train and look at your passport and that's it. You'd almost think you were in Europe. I'm afraid Homeland Security will discover that there's actually a pleasant way to enter the US and decide to "fix" it.

Much of the trip is right along the coast. We saw dozens of great blue herons and even a few bald eagles. Get a seat on the ocean side of the train if you can (right side when heading south). For extra elbow room and a quieter ride check out business class.

The only downside, if you're not a morning person, is that it boards at 5:30am!

To get to California from Vancouver you need to change from the Cascade to the Coast Starlight train. And with trains you're better to leave an overnight between trains because they can easily be late. The obvious places to switch are Seattle and Portland. We'd just been in Seattle earlier in the summer so we stopped in Portland. It's one of our favorite US cities with the parks along the river, and the zoo and gardens. (warning - also a lot of homeless/street people)

We stayed a new hotel - Eastlund - which turned out to be the old Red Lion with a complete makeover. I'd stayed at the Red Lion previously when at conferences across the street at the conference center. The new Eastlund is much nicer - the rooftop restaurant is good, and there's also a bakery / coffee shop. Although it's not downtown, it's just across the river and an easy walk or transit ride, and because it's not downtown the rates are better. Sadly Portland seems to have dropped the free transit in the city core, but it's still relatively inexpensive (e.g. a day pass for trains and buses is $5)

The evening we arrived we walked across and along the river and had supper at Three Degrees, the restaurant in the Riverplace Hotel. (A great place to stay if you can get a deal, otherwise pretty pricey.) The restaurant and lounge have great views of the river and the happy hour prices are good. By the time we wandered back to the hotel it was getting dark and I could take some night time reflection photos.



We spent our next morning at the zoo - quite far from downtown, but easily accessible by transit. Normally from the zoo we'd walk the few kilometers to the Japanese gardens, but they were closed for renovations. Instead we went for a walk through the arboretum which is also lovely. Our only concession to shopping was a stop at the Patagonia store in the Pearl District.





We had supper at one of our favorite spots - Veritable Quandary - which was fantastic as always.

The next morning we went for a walk along the river, prompting more reflection photos :-)



We spent some time at Powell's City of Books - a huge new and used bookstore. And then a peaceful stop at the Lan Su Chinese Garden downtown.



Hard to tell this is bonsai and a few feet tall, not real full size trees:



As well as the gardens, they make good use of the walls to add interest:



This one seems somehow fitting for a Chinese garden:



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Next stop Klamath Falls ...

Saskatoon to Vancouver

We're traveling again - taking the train from Saskatoon to Vancouver (VIA Rail) and then down to Santa Barbara on Amtrak. Apart from being two hours late leaving Saskatoon, the train ride was good. I enjoy the slow pace on the train and watching the scenery go by. Despite running late and trying to catch up, we had enough time in Jasper to go for a walk and find a decent coffee. Our usual spot, Cocos Cafe was closed but the SnowDome was open (in the basement with the laundromat!)



The fall colors were nice.



We made up time across BC during the night and arrived close to on time. We stayed overnight in Vancouver since it's not a good idea to plan tight connections when traveling by train! Crossing Stanley Park we got caught in a downpour and resorted to taking a taxi. After lunch at the Sylvia Hotel overlooking the ocean, we spent a few hours at the aquarium, avoiding the big lineup (in the rain) by buying a membership. (Which I usually do anyway, mostly as a way to support them, since we don't get there very often.)









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Autumn Leaves

“Some speak of a return to nature. I wonder where they could have been.”

- Frederick Sommer

I couldn't resist another batch of photos on the way to work. The mixed palette of fall colors is delightful. I just had to fit in editing and posting them along with getting ready to travel.



Questioning whether I liked the fallen leaves because of the color or the pattern, I converted a couple to black and white. They have a very different feel from the color ones, but they're interesting.













See all 26 photos as a slideshow or overview

More Running

For some reason I've been getting more into running recently. However, we've also been travelling a fair bit and I haven't managed to do any running while we've been away. So when we came back the last time, after three weeks of no running, I was encouraged to find myself running my regular short route at a decent pace. So when I felt good on my long run (18 km) I thought I'd see if I could do it at a decent pace as well. That went ok until about halfway and then not quite so good. I ended up walking for a bit and then finishing at a much slower pace, ending up with a fairly slow average speed.

I wasn't really surprised. My usual rule of thumb is not to do more than double my regular runs on my longer ones. Most of my runs had only been 5 km, so trying to push the pace on 18 km was a stretch.

I bumped up my regular runs and the next weekend I took it easy on the 18 km run and it went a lot better. I even had some energy left and ran my fastest kilometer towards the end.

The next week I ran 9 km on my Tues. and Thur. runs. On my Sunday long run I felt a bit sluggish on the first half but still averaged 10.5 km/hr. But this time at halfway I suddenly found myself running 11.5 km/hr without really trying. I won't say it felt easy, but it definitely didn't feel hard. I finished the loop with an average just over 11 km/hr.

This weekend wasn't great weather, it rained all day Sat. and more was forecasted for Sun. along with a high of only 5 c (40 f). I wasn't sure I'd get out for my long run at all. But the rain stopped late morning and wasn't forecast to start again for a couple of hours so I headed out. It's always tricky to decide what to wear when the temperature changes so much. Especially when I could potentially have a long way home in the rain. In the end the rain held off and my clothes were just about right - a little warm with the wind behind me, a little cool running into it.

I ended up running the first half at about 11 km/hr, the pace I'd tried and failed at three weeks earlier. Today it was a comfortable pace. Like the week before, I found myself speeding up on the last half and especially the 4 km home stretch and ended up with an average speed of 11.5 km/hr, with my fastest kilometers at the end again.

That brought me to 40 km total for the last week, not a huge volume, but more than I've been doing for quite a while, and not bad for only three days a week. We're taking off traveling again, so I won't be getting running (much) for a while and by the time I get back it'll be winter here - not my favorite time for it! But if I can maintain some base then maybe next summer I can get back up to speed quicker.

I'm pretty happy with my last month of running and the improvements I've been seeing. I'm not going to win any races, but then again, I'm not likely to enter any! I'm just happy to be out there stretching a little and feeling good.

PS. Sorry for all the numbers - that's what you get when you combine a geek with a gps watch :-)

Random Shots

“Stuff your eyes with wonder… See the world.
It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.” - Ray Bradbury 

Another of my reflections. I took this one while I was sitting eating my lunch by the pond.

Outside our offices they have brought a bunch of plants inside from the patio. This is obviously not a native plant, getting ready to flower at this time of the year! I couldn't resist how the sun was catching just the bud.

And this one from the railway bridge on the way home. Lots of this color around right now. It stood out catching the low light with the river already in the shade.

Prints of the Week

A couple more from Nepal.



I liked the wet texture and color of the rock, the green of the moss and plant, and the water flowing in the background. This was 1/30th of a second to blur the water, but still reasonable to handhold with image stabilization.



I went with black and white on this one since the color didn't add much - mostly just the brown grass of autumn. Without the color I could boost the contrast and make it more striking. We saw a lot of waterfalls on our Kanchenjunga trek but I found it difficult to capture the feel of them. I think the fog helps make the height apparent in this one.

Yesterday at the pop-up Etsy market someone told me I should be there with my photographs. I'm happy to share my photos and I certainly appreciate it when people like them, but I'm not that motivated to try to sell them. I just enjoy creating images for its own sake. I do have to be in the right frame of mind, though. I went to print something yesterday, browsed through photos, made a few test prints, but just couldn't get excited about any of them. Today I was more in the mood :-)

Once a Runner

"Everything's a story. Dumb stuff happens in your life and you think it's dumb stuff, and then it turns out that it was your history, your life happening." - Again to Carthage

I just finished reading John L. Parker Jr's running fiction trilogy - Racing the Rain, Once a Runner, and Again to Carthage. I've been meaning to read them for a while. Once a Runner was the first published and is somewhat of a classic in the running fiction genre. Racing the Rain is the most recently published, but it's actually the first in the story timeline. I decided to start with it, and I'd say that's a good way to go.

I really enjoyed all of them, as evidenced by my reading them back to back. I saw reviewers complaining there was other stuff in addition to running, which to me is a good thing, I'm not sure how you'd make a story with nothing but running!

This is running at a high level, not your recreational hobby. I've never been involved in competitive running at any level, but I still found it interesting, although slightly depressing. You know that top athletes run much faster than normal human beings, but I never thought about how much faster. A pace that is pushing it for me is a painfully slow training pace for these guys. And the sheer volume of training is incredible. It's amazing that the human body can handle it. This is fiction, but I suspect that this part is fairly accurate. The author was a competitive runner himself.

There are lots of funny parts in the books that made me laugh at loud. The main character admits he's somewhat of a kook. The descriptions of the races are exciting, and by the time you get to them you really care how they turn out.

The main character grows up in Florida and starts out as a basketball fanatic, and only reluctantly starts competing in running. In Once a Runner he's running the mile. In Again to Carthage he makes a come back running the marathon.

If you're at all a runner I think these books will resonate with you, and even if you're not a runner I still think you'll find them a good read. Definitely recommended.

“Running to him was real; the way he did it the realest thing he knew. It was all joy and woe, hard as a diamond; it made him weary behond comprehension. But it also made him free.” - Once a Runner

Fog, flowers, and fall colors

Thursday, relaxing on the grass after a run, watching the river go by, I heard the distinctive sound of sandhill cranes. I lay back and looked up. There was a large group of them flying by overhead. Most of them were in an organized "V" but there were a few misfits that refused to get in line. Periodically the group would turn, losing their formation briefly but soon regaining it. A group of cranes is known as a "construction", "dance", "sedge", "siege", or "swoop".

Later, walking across the park I disturbed 8 or 10 northern flickers. I see them occasionally, but usually only one at a time. Maybe they are migrating. Although they are a kind of woodpecker, they often feed on the ground, which is where I found them. As I approached they flew up into the trees, displaying their white rumps. After I passed they descended back to the ground to resume feeding. When I returned a bit later they were still busy pecking in the grass. Maybe the recent rain had brought out some kind of bugs for them to eat.

Friday, walking to work, I first spotted several pelicans on the river, mixed in with a group of cormorants. Next I encountered a pair of belted kingfishers. Their chattering cry was what I noticed first, then I spotted them flying. They were hard to see in the trees, but one of them perched on a branch sticking up from the river where it was more visible.

Walking home I spotted a couple of blue jays. Their genus "Cyanocitta" is Greek for blue chatterer. And their specific name "cristata" means crested. I always liked these crested blue chatterers.

I didn't get photos of any of these birds, but I did take another assortment of shots on the way to work. The early morning fog on the river was what first caught my eye and prompted me to dig out the camera.



There wasn't much wind and the still water reflected the rocks beside the river.



The bright morning sun back lit the leaves.



Climbing the stairs to the railway bridge the sun was reflecting brilliantly off the river and through the trees.



I got fascinated by the water drops on the spider webs in the grass and the reflections in each drop.



There are still a few roses, also covered in water drops this morning.



The pond was in fine form with the fall colors reflecting from the still water dappled with water lilies.



I was commenting that the fall colors meant winter wasn't far away. The person I was talking to said they didn't mind winter. I don't mind the cold and snow so much, but I really miss the plants and flowers and birds and insects. Winter in Saskatoon is slim pickings for a nature photographer. I can only take so many photos of snow and ice and frost!



The water lilies always seem to flower in the middle of the pond where I can't get close enough to photograph them. But this one was near enough to somewhat precariously lean out to get a decent shot. I love the contrast between the bright flower and the dark water.



We haven't had a hard frost yet, so the dragonflies (and the odd mosquito for them to hunt) are still around. Its wings are looking a little worse for wear though.



A good crop of berries - I predict the waxwings will be paying a visit.



And don't worry, I did still make it to work in time for a 9am meeting :-)

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After the Rain

After multiple days of rain, unusual for Saskatoon, the weather finally improved enough to lure me outside for a few photos.

The water drops on the succulents were like shimmering jewels but I'm afraid I didn't capture them very well.



It's the end of the season for flowers, but there are still a few around.







I struggled to catch the ornamental grass as it was waving around in the wind!



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