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Tuesday/ trumpeting another run🎺

The caption says 2024 is Trump’s third bid, but it’s really his fourth. He ran in 2000 as a Reform Party candidate and withdrew after 5 months. (And then again in 2016 and in 2020, of course).

It’s a long road to Nov. 2024, but this should never have happened. Trump should have long been impeached (and found guilty) or have been indicted.
What a sorry shambles for the Republican Party, the Department of Justice, and for the citizens of the United States.

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Sunday/ a run up to U-district 🚇

I put on my extra jacket, my scarf, my gloves and my skullcap as I headed out of the house today.  It was actually semi-decent outside, with 47 °F /8 °C.

At the Capitol Hill train station, I put my mask on as well. A severe flu season is underway here in the US.
At the second-hand book store in U-district, I bought a book about the greatest unsolved problem in mathematics: The Riemann Hypothesis.

At Capitol Hill station. Link light rail service from Capitol Hill to SoDo Station was suspended for the weekend (to do maintenance work). So we had the weird situation of the train coming in from Northgate, and then departing in the opposite direction, back to Northgate.
U-district, at 43rd Ave & University Way NE. The sun is gone well before 5 pm these days, and the little festive lights help to bring some cheer to the darkness that falls.
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Saturday/ it’s clear: no red wave 🌊

It’s now official: the Democrats are holding the Senate.
News broke late on Sat. night that Catherine Cortez Masto (D) from Nevada has enough votes to hold her Senate seat.

So the Democrats have reached 50 in the Senate, and there is still the run-off election in Georgia on Dec. 6.
The House is still a toss-up.
Trump is toast, no matter what his ‘big announcement’ next Tuesday may be.

Artist Barry Blitt illustrating the ‘red wave’ that wasn’t, on the cover of The New Yorker magazine.
(The elephant is the mascot of the Republican Party. Or is that Trump, the elephant in the room for Republicans?).
The race in district WA03 drew national attention.
The result: Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez, a Democrat, prevailed over Joe Kent, a Republican endorsed by Trump. This is the former seat of Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican who had voted to impeach Trump* and consequently had lost the 2022 Republican primary to Kent.
*Beutler voted NO for Trump’s first impeachment, and YES for the second impeachment post-Jan. 6, 2020.
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Friday/ honoring all who served 🤝

It was Veterans Day in the United States today, the day to honor the the veterans that had served in our nation’s armed forces.

Wars end, but their costs— in blood and treasure— go on for a very, very long time.

The estimated amount of direct Afghanistan and Iraq war costs that the United States has debt-financed as of 2020: $2 trillion.
The estimated interest costs by 2050 to pay for health care, disability, burial and other costs for roughly 4 million Afghanistan and Iraq veterans: Up to $6.5 trillion.
[Data reported in the Boston Globe in Aug. 2021 from a study by Linda Bilmes of Harvard University’s Kennedy School and from the Brown University Costs of War project].

US serviceman waves American flag during Veterans Day Parade in New York.
[Picture from history.com]
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Thursday/ art on a bowl 🥣

Here’s my little souvenir bowl that I had bought in the gift shop of the Gallery of Modern Art Museum in Brisbane.

The bottom of the bowl says Alperstein Designs and that the artist is Justin Butler from North Queensland. The bowl is fine bone china and was made in China. (I would have loved for the bowl to have been made in Australia, but Google says making bone china involves several steps, and requires complex machinery and skilled technicians and workers.)
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Wednesday/ the midterm election results, so far 🗳

The cover of today’s New York Post.
Many Trump-backed candidates lost or were faring poorly.
Pennsylvania: Democrat Josh Shapiro beat Republican Doug Mastriano for governor. Democrat John Fetterman defeated Mehmet Oz.
Michigan: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer defeated Tudor Dixon.
Arizona: Kari Lake & Blake Masters, “America First” candidates in Mr. Trump’s mold, were both behind in their races for governor and Senate, respectively.

How could you look at these results tonight and conclude Trump has any chance of winning a national election in 2024? -Scott Jennings, one of Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell’s former deputies

The Republican red wave in the 2022 mid-term election that Fox News ‘pundits’ had predicted did not materialize. (It does appear that the Republicans will win the House by a slim majority).

Control of the Senate may very well come down to the Dec. 6 run-off election in Georgia between incumbent Raphael Warnock (D) and Herschel Walker (R).

A summary of the status of the Senate and House as of late Wednesday night.
[Infographic by the Washington Post].
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A very long Tuesday/ home 🏡

I set out from Brisbane International Airport this morning at ‘Tuesday’ 10.40 am, and arrived at Seattle airport at Tuesday 10.50 am.
We had crossed the International Dateline in the Pacific Ocean, of course— and since Daylight Saving Time had ended in the USA over the weekend, the time difference is now 18 hours.

Boarding our Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner from United Airlines in Brisbane.
I spent 2 hours in the security queue (as Australians call it). All the frequent fliers grumbled that they ‘had never seen anything like this’ at Brisbane airport.
The Brisbane River and Moreton Bay, shortly after takeoff. The airport runways (Brisbane Airport has two) are visible at the left.
Arriving at a soggy San Francisco International airport 12 ½ hours later.
These international-to-domestic connections are a lot of work: I had to clear passport control, catch my checked bags from the baggage claim, clear customs, re-check the bags, change from Terminal G to E (a long walk), wait in the security line one more time, and only then go and find my gate in Terminal E for Seattle.
At the gate right next to ours, an announcement said the San Francisco-Austin flight had been cancelled.
Arriving at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s Terminal A.
At this point my plane is a ‘domestic’ arrival, so I didn’t get to walk across the new skywalk .. and it only looks warm! It was all of 44 °F (6° C) outside.
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Monday/ goodbye to Cairns 🌺

I’m back in Brisbane, and will go home on Tuesday morning.
This afternoon I went to the shoreline by our lodgings in Cairns for one last look at the Coral Sea.

The artwork is called Telescopus (2008), by artist Dominic Johns.
The bird on the tarmac at Cairns is the Qantas Boeing 737-800 that flew us to Brisbane.

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Sunday/ feathered friends 🐦

These feathered friends are from Birdworld in Kuranda, when we were there on Friday.

This rainbow lorikeet (Trichoglossus moluccanus) was very interested in the hard rubber toecap on my shoe.
The cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) is a ratite (a flightless bird without a keel on its sternum bone). They are native to the forests of northern Australia. Stay on the good side of this 6-ft tall bird, because you cannot outrun it, and those claws can be lethal.
A blue-fronted amazon parrot (Amazona aestiva) from South America. These are one of the most common amazon parrots kept in captivity as a pet, or as a companion parrot.
Black cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus banksii) are native to Australia. I saw a pair of them on a lamp post here in Cairns early this morning.
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Saturday/ a drive up north 🛣

Looking south from the Rex Lookout on Captain Cook Highway, near Wangetti, Queensland.
We rented the black Kia Cerato in the corner of the picture.
Mangrove swamps on the beach, near Captain Cook Highway on the way north.
Four Mile Beach at Port Douglas was overcast and windswept today, but there were still people making the best of it on the sand. There was a designated swimming area with a net in the water, but the surf splashes over the net, so swimmers and surfboarders wear stinger suits.
Here we had arrived at the Mossman Gorge Visitors Center, and had taken the shuttle bus to the Mossman River. The elevated walkway goes to the swimming area and the trails nearby, in Daintree National Park.
The swimming area in Mossman River.
The Rex Suspension Bridge over Rex Creek. This newest version of the bridge was completed in 2010.
Looking up while doing a 2.4 km circuit trail in the rain forest between Rex Creek and Wurumbu Creek.
I collected fungus pictures, and this one had a striking orange color. I believe this one is called orange peel fungus (Aleuria aurantia).
A pool in Wurumbu Creek that had a steady flow of water into and out of it, with little fishes in it as well.

We rented a car this morning and drove up north along the coast to Port Douglas and Mossman Gorge.

 

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Friday/ a scenic train ride  🛤

The obligatory pre-departure photo, on the platform at Cairns Station.
These are the cheap seats (our seats) in what is called a ‘Heritage’ car. The ‘Gold’ cars have lounge-style seating. This car was built in 1944, said a plaque by the door.
On the way to the stop at Freshwater Station. It’s sugar cane country around Cairns.
There are 15 tunnels on the way to Kuranda. Construction of the track was completed in 1891. At one point some 1,500 men, of Irish and Italian descent, was at work on the track.
I was just lucky to get this shot of a creek running down on a steep cliff-side. The foliage is dense alongside a lot of the track on the hillside.
This is Kuranda Station. The village of Kuranda and the tourist attractions (markets, bird world, koala sanctuary) are reached by walking up a few sets of stairs.
We stopped at Barron Falls Station on the way in, and this is the picture from the way back. Barron Falls is on the Barron River, of course.
These platforms are for maintenance crews, and not for passengers.
The tight four chain (80.46 m radius) turn at Stony Creek Falls and Stony Creek Bridge allows a full view of the train. At the front are two Co-Co Diesel Electric 1720 Class locomotives, each putting out 1,000 hp (745 kw). There are 14 cars.

We took the scenic train ride from Cairns to Kuranda village today.

 

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Thursday/ the Botanic Gardens 🌿

Here are a few pictures from the Botanic Gardens.
The turkey is an Australian brushturkey and the kookaburra in the tree was just a little out of reach of my phone camera’s zoom lens — but I took a picture nonetheless.
The butterfly is a red lacewing.

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Wednesday/ downtown Cairns 🏬

We are frequent users of the bus that runs along Lake Street by our hotel and into downtown Cairns, even though it is just seven or eight large city blocks.  It is just too hot and humid to walk that far.

These pictures are from around downtown Cairns.

This picture on the side of a rubbish-and-recyclables bin on the street says in the fine print that it shows ‘Coral spawning, showing suspended sperm and egg bundles’.
Artwork that says ‘Tales from the Deep: Evil Bleach’.
From the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) web site:
‘When sea water is too warm, corals will expel the algae (zooxanthellae) living in their tissues— causing the corals to turn completely white. This is called coral bleaching. When corals bleach, they are not dead. Corals can survive a bleaching event, but they are under more stress and are subject to mortality’.
I took a dip this afternoon in this very large saltwater swimming pool, called the Cairns Esplanade Lagoon. The water is lukewarm in the shallow parts, and a little cooler in the deepest part of the pool (1.6 m/ 5 feet). The pool was constructed in 2003 and is said to be able to accommodate 1,000 bathers. That’s the sea in the distance, but there are no waves or surf in the calm and shallow waters between the coral reef banks and the land.
An iconic Cairns palm tree, carrying a poster making some political statements. (A quick check on Google shows that Cairns has indeed the highest crime rate in Queensland, but it is still a very safe place relative to other cities in the world).
I am spotting far fewer Teslas than I had in Brisbane. I guess that is to be expected, if only due to the much smaller population of Cairns. One can definitely drive up to Cairns from Brisbane using the Tesla charger network— just not very far west, away from the coast.
There are several of these magnificent Banyan fig trees close to the esplanade.
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Tuesday/ Fitzroy Island 🐚

We went out to Fitzroy Island today, officially Fitzroy Island National Park.
The island lies offshore from Cape Grafton, 29 km (18 mi) southeast of Cairns.

Our catamaran vessel set out at 8 am, and we were back early afternoon.
It was overcast at our arrival, and windy. The wind only worsened, and soon we learned that our planned glass-bottomed boat trip out to one of the reefs had to be cancelled. (The wind makes the water choppy and murky).

The walk through the forest to Nudey Beach was nice enough, though— and it was the first time that I had set foot on an entire beach of dead coral.

The view from our catamaran vessel as we approach Fitzroy Island. It’s hard to make out in the picture, but there is a hotel (lodge) dead ahead on the island, and the thin strip of sand visible on the right where the island meets the sea, is Nudey Beach.
The jetty at Fitzroy Island as we were disembarking. It’s a 45 minute trip from Cairns to the island.
Looking up as we are making our way to Nudey Beach through the forest.
Nudey Beach as seen from the hiking trail.
These beautiful yellow flowers were on a hibiscus tree of some kind, on Nudey Beach.
The entire Nudey Beach is filled with the calcium carbonate skeletons of dead coral. (There is a strip of sand by the waterline). Coral is a sessile* marine animal. Coral relies on its relationship with plant-like algae to build the largest structures of biological origin on Earth.
*Sessile: (of a plant or animal structure) attached directly by its base without a stalk or peduncle.
There is nothing nude about Nudey Beach: not on the beach and for sure NOT when it comes to going into the water. The Intrepid One among the three of us donned a stinger suit, snorkeling gear and flippers, to explore the shallow waters. We were told lucky snorkelers or divers might run into sea turtles. Conditions today were far from ideal, though, with a northerly wind pushing in towards the land here.
A big bluebottle jellyfish (Physalia utriculus) that we spotted from the jetty, as we were preparing to leave.
A big jar by the diving shop was marked ‘Vinegar for bluebottle and irukandji stings – DO NOT REMOVE’. Deaths from stings are rare, but some 50 people were hospitalized for irukandji stings in the 2018-19 season.
Going back to Cairns.
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Monday/ arrival into Cairns 🏝

A 1990s tea towel depicting Cairns.  I had taken the picture a few days ago at an exhibit at Queensland State Library.
Here’s our Boeing 737-800 on the tarmac at Brisbane airport. A ground personnel person from Qantas came running up and said ‘No pictures, please!’, so I couldn’t take one from the top of the stairs at the tail. Aw.
As we approached Cairns, the turquoise and teal colors of the shallow waters and reefs on the seabed started to appear.
Here’s Cairns, population 150,000 or so. Latitude-wise we’re now 17° south of the equator, the closest I have ever been. (Flying over the equator doesn’t count, and some years ago I did spend 2 hours in the lounge at the airport in Lagos, Nigeria, 6° north of the equator).
It was 32 °C (90° F) here today and very humid. We couldn’t check into the hotel with our early morning arrival, so we walked to the downtown Cairns shopping mall for cool air and for a bite. (It was a slog). Here’s the 1926 Grand Hotel right across the mall.

 

We made it into Cairns, with a 6.05 am departure out of Brisbane.

We took a taxi into Cairns, which was just a few miles away from the airport.

 

 

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Sunday

We are leaving Brisbane at the crack of dawn Monday morning, to fly up to Cairns in tropical Far North Queensland.
I took the No 100 bus to the city one last time, and on the way back I stepped off at Woolloongabba station to look around for a last little bit.

Here’s The Gabba, the cricket grounds and stadium that is officially called The Brisbane Cricket Ground. The 2022 International Cricket Men’s T20 World Cup is underway, and Zimbabwe and Bangladesh squared off right here this afternoon. (Bangladesh won by 3 runs).
The bus from the city has taken me past the old Moreton Rubber Works Building (constructed 1890) by The Gabba several times, and I finally got to take a decent picture of it today.
Finally, a stop at the Coles grocery store. DC Coffee is a Melbourne-based specialty coffee roaster. (I haven’t tried the coffee, but I like the packaging).
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Friday/ Surfer’s Paradise Beach 🏄

My brother and sister-in-law and I made a trip to Gold Coast today to check in with my niece, and to check out the famous beaches there.

This is Surfers Paradise Beach, just south of Main Beach on the Gold Coast shoreline.
A dozen named beaches with swim areas line the coast here, with lifeguards and even helicopters overhead now and again. The beach looks empty, but there were several dozen people behind us on the beach at the swim area. It was 29°C (84 °F) today but it felt hotter. We just went in for a quick dip in the surf, and took a few pictures (that’s my brother and my sister-in-law).
Lots and lots of high-rises: private apartment (condominium) and holiday apartment buildings, as well as resort buildings and hotels, line the street called Surfers Paradise Esplanade.
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Thursday/ the Sunshine Coast ☀️

The drive time from Brisbane up to Noosa Heads was a little over 2 hours.

 

 

We drove up to the Sunshine Coast today, and stopped at three beaches for a little time in the sun and in the surf.

First, we stopped at a coffee shop at King’s Beach in Caloundra. My coffee of choice here in Queensland is a Long Black: 2/3rds boiling water into a cup then extracting a double shot of espresso (60ml) over the water.
P.S. What I am actually having here is a cup of Long Black with milk .. so is that a Short White Long Black? 🙂
King’s Beach in Caloundra has a wide and clean beach with well-appointed facilities. The surf was great and the water temperature very pleasant.
King’s Beach also has a saltwater swimming pool. The seawater in the pool is replenished with a pump and drained back into the sea.
Noosa Heads is at an estuary, and right by the large, scenic area with a mountain summit walk and trails of Noosa National Park. This picture, taken from the boardwalk, is just east of the Main Beach there. More and more rocky outcrops start to appear as one continues walking.
This is Sunshine Beach, just south of Noosa National Park. Surfers from Sunshine Beach Surf Club are in the water in the distance.
Every now and again on the Sunshine Motorway (Route 70), there would be a bridge crossing a body of water, with residential developments visible in the distance.