a weblog of whereabouts & interests, since 2010
I took the No 10 bus to Westlake Center at sunset to check out the Christmas tree and its lights. (Pike Place Market is just a few blocks away).
There were not a lot of people around, probably because it was chilly (43°F/ 6°C). A few Seahawks fans were back from Lumen Field, where the Hawks took out the Minnesota Vikings 26-0 tonight.
The sun wasn’t out today, and it was a cold fall day here in the city.
The low this morning was 38°F (3°C) and the high 52°F (11 °C).
Happy Black Friday.
The stock markets in the USA were open for a short session today.
The mailman delivered a large set of stock transfer tax stamps that I had bought from a seller in Luxembourg.
I stumbled upon the stamps on Ebay and could not resist.
Below is a sample. I will post more of them when I have sorted and arranged them on pages.
It was time to go home today, and I took a flight on Alaska Airlines from Palm Springs airport to Seattle.
Pictures:
The (somewhat unusual) courtyard inside the secure area at Palm Springs airport;
Allegiant Air getting ready to fly out to Bellingham airport in Washington State;
Stepping on board my own flight— a Boeing 737-900 (twin-jet) from Alaska Airlines;
The Flighty app replaced the airplane with a flying turkey— a nod to Thanksgiving, of course;
Arrived at Seattle, got my checked bag, walked the half-mile to the light rail station, and here comes the train (look for the Mountain that is out, through one of the glass panes);
Utility poles and power cables on the way;
Views of the stations called SODO, Pioneer Square, Symphony and Westlake.
We spent a few hours at the The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert today.
Animal pictures below: black rhinoceros, Cape porcupine, warthogs, bighorn sheep, Grévy’s zebra and marabou stork, bat-eared foxes, Arabian oryx and jaguar.
I took the scenic route from Solana Beach to Palm Springs today, driving across the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountains.
The first few pictures are from a turnout point a few miles after Ribbonwood (elevation 4,397′) on Highway 74.
The last ones were taken from the Coachella Valley Vista Point on Highway 74, with Palm Desert visible down below in the valley.
Three of us had a lovely lunch at Mister A’s restaurant in downtown San Diego. The restaurant is on the 12th floor of the Manchester Financial Building and offers great views of downtown, the Coronado Bridge and even the runways at San Diego International airport.
After lunch* we made our way down 5th Avenue to Jacobs Music Center to attend a live performance by the San Diego Symphony of the music that was composed for the animated movie Flow (released 2024).
*Mine was a king salmon ‘Wellington’ (shown below).
It was raining this morning, and we drove out to see the supercars and other classic cars that are parked in downtown Rancho Santa Fe on Paseo Delicias and Avenida de Acacias.
They are there every Saturday morning for the Rancho Santa Fe Cars and Coffee event, which runs from 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM.
The green Aston Martin Vantage (MSRP: $245,750) is my favorite, even though I am 99.999% sure will never own one.
Happy Friday.
I took a flight out to San Diego this morning to visit my brother and his family, and to catch some California sun.
Top to bottom:
A gorgeous sunrise in Seattle;
Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 with orca livery at Seattle-Tacoma airport;
Screenshot from my Flighty app warning that we will have an on-time departure (pushback from the gate), but that there will be an 18 min delay in taking off (which was exactly what happened, but we still arrived 10 mins early);
Beautiful gel photos of saguaros in the arrival concourse in San Diego airport (I forgot to take note of name of the photographer);
The Spirit of St Louis airplane is still in the baggage claim hall in San Diego airport’s Terminal 2.
Here is the sun today, with about 45 minutes of daylight remaining.
The days are now 9 hours 5 minutes long, with sunset at 4.27 pm.
The trees that lead to the Volunteer Park Conservatory are now mostly bare of their leaves.
Here’s another picture from last night, taken from the Melrose Avenue overlook.
It’s a study of the cubes and rectangles that make up the Nexus Seattle condominium tower (on the left) and the Kinects Tower apartment complex to its right.
The sun was out, with broken clouds, today.
It was only 48°F (9°C) outside, though, and I bundled up for my walk this afternoon.
Well he was Thailand based
She was an Air Force wife
He used to fly weekends
It was the easy life
But then it turned around
And he began to change
She didn’t wonder then
She didn’t think it strange
But then he got a call
He had to leave that night
He couldn’t say too much
But it would be alright
He didn’t need to pack
They’d meet the next night
He had a job to do
Flying to Cambodia
– Lyrics from the single ‘Cambodia’ by British singer Kim Wilde, released Nov. 2, 1981
The song “Cambodia” by Kim Wilde is about a woman whose pilot husband is sent on a mission to Cambodia and never returns, leaving her in a state of longing and unanswered questions. Written by her father, Marty Wilde, and her brother, Ricky Wilde, the song is a tragic love story about loss, separation, and the enduring pain of waiting for someone who is gone. The lyrics depict the woman’s emotional journey from hope to the realization that her partner is never coming back. [Google AI Overview]
Cambodia is on the itinerary for my upcoming Princess cruise out of Singapore.
We will stop at the port by the city of Sihanoukville for only one night and one day, though.
I signed up for the excursion to Ream National Park with its mangrove forests, wildlife and pure stretches of white beach.
C A M B O D I A
Capital: Phnom Penh
Currency: Cambodian riel
Official language: Khmer
Population: 17.6 million
Government: Unitary state, Parliamentary system, Constitutional monarchy, One-party state, Elective monarchy
King: Norodom Sihamoni
Cambodia—officially the Kingdom of Cambodia— is somewhat larger than the U.S. state of Missouri. It is bordered to the west and northwest by Thailand, to the northeast by Laos, to the east and southeast by Vietnam, and to the southwest by the Gulf of Thailand. The Khmer language is one of the major tongues of the Mon-Khmer subfamily of the Austroasiatic language family and is spoken by nearly all people in Cambodia, including the Cham-Malay.
The people of Cambodia suffered under the Khmer Rouge, the radical communist movement that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 after winning power through a guerrilla war. The Khmer Rouge government under Pol Pot was responsible for the Cambodian genocide (1976-78), during which up to three million people were murdered.
Tourist-wise (‘Quick Facts’ from Google Maps):
Cambodia has a landscape that spans low-lying plains, the Mekong Delta, mountains and Gulf of Thailand coastline. Phnom Penh, its capital, is home to the art deco Central Market, glittering Royal Palace and the National Museum’s historical and archaeological exhibits. In the country’s northwest are the ruins of Angkor Wat, a massive stone temple complex built during the Khmer Empire.
There was light rain on and off all weekend here in the city, and a little fog in the Seattle’s low-lying areas this morning. Some trees still have leaves on, but a lot have now shed it all.
Elsewhere in Washington State, in the Yakima River Basin, the severe drought conditions continue. Conrad Swanson writes for the Seattle Times ‘This might be the driest year in recent memory, fresh on the heels of severe droughts last year and the year before’.
I was not 100% sure if I understood all the subtle humor in this cartoon, and enlisted the Chat GPT chatbot’s help to explain it to me.
The cartoonist is Edward Steed (born 1987), a British cartoonist and illustrator, best known for his work for in The New Yorker magazine.
Happy Friday.
I checked in at the Seattle International Auto Show today.
Here is a sample of the dream machines that were on display.
The beautiful fly agaric mushrooms (Amanita muscaria) that come up every year in my back yard, are back.
The American penny died on Wednesday in Philadelphia. It was 232.
The cause was irrelevance and expensiveness, the Treasury Department said.
Nothing could be bought any more with a penny, not even penny candy. Moreover, the cost to mint the penny had risen to more than 3 cents, a financial absurdity that doomed the coin.
The final pennies were minted on Wednesday afternoon in Philadelphia. Top Treasury officials were on hand for its final journey. No last words were recorded.
– Victor Mather writing for the New York Times
Happy Veterans Day to all veterans of the United States Armed Forces.
