Dirty Harry’s Balcony offers great views of the western Cascade Mountains on a relatively short hike that is closer to Seattle than most. The 4.2-mile (6.8 km) return trail ascends 1,354 ft (412 m) through healthy, second-growth forest from a trailhead that is only a 45-minute drive from our apartment. The trail is named not…
Tag Archives | trawler
Sept. 29 – Cirque du Soleil Echo
“Because our days are filled with the rational, practical and expected, Cirque du Soleil exists to bring us that which has never existed. And makes us feel things we’ve never felt. Life needs folly, life needs cirque” -Cirque du Soleil
The highlight of our family trip to DC was attending Cirque du Soleil Echo. The show was in the nearby town of Tysons, Virginia. Getting there on the Metro was part of the fun. The train stopped right next to the show sight. This particular show takes place under a huge big top, which gave us the feeling we were at the circus.
The grounds of Cirque du Soleil Echo.
There was a lot to see and do while we waited for the show to begin. Of course there were things to buy…souvenirs, drinks and food. And lots of photo op places.
Our seats are the red dots on this seating photo. We Loved being up close seeing the expressions on the actors.
Our first look at the stage.
The set revolves around the mysterious CUBE that is as tall as a 2-story apartment building. At different points during the show it is dismantled, stripped, and rebuilt, scaled by animals, swung from by artists, and used as a mesmerizing projection surface. Surrounding the cube is the stage that resembles water in a lake, every interaction with the CUBE creates a unique effect that ripples into the future.
Echo a story about connection, collaboration and the power of intention. The ability to have a strong vision and put all your energy into it to make that idea come to life. The main protagonist Future is a young girl who represents the youth of today and the awareness that the youth have for what’s going on in the world. At the beginning of the show she discovers how the world is changing and the effects this change has on the world, negative or positive and then at one specific moment something happens which changes everything for her. She makes this big decision and she brings everyone together, animals and humans, to work together to rebuild our world.
Future and her companion Ewai.
The opening act blew us away. The actors were so close and it was aww inspiring.
Watching the kid’s faces was just as entertaining for me.
These two were the clowns for the show. Entertaining during set changes. We truly enjoyed them.
Icarian Games…a very popular acrobatic circus act that is described as human foot juggling.
Hair Suspension Duo. The hair hang is an aerial circus act where performers are suspended by their hair, performing acrobatic poses and manipulation.
Banquine/Korean Cradle entertained us with a dizzying array of stunts. At one point we actually thought they might land on us.
The largest puppet I’ve ever seen. There were people inside helping it to move.
Slackwire duo. It’s an acrobatic circus act that involves balancing and moving along a flexible, thin wire suspended in the air.
This flying poles act features a first-of-its-kind pole apparatus named Chrysalid that is semi-attached to the stage floor. This groundbreaking performance requires exceptional strength.
The Contortion. This act left us wondering just how he could move the way he did and left my joints aching.
The Teeterboard Act was fun to watch as they flew high in the air.
The cube filled with all the actors. It was beautiful.
More Fun Facts:
- Cirque du Soleil ECHO is the 20th Big Top creation from Cirque du Soleil and its 51st overall.
- It takes 10 projectors to cover the entire stage and the rotating CUBE–the most ever for a Cirque du Soleil Big Top show.
- At one of the most surprising points in the show, one of the CUBE’s walls supports 40 artists.
- The roof of the CUBE contains a light box with 1.68 miles of LED strips.
Dinner after the show at Founding Farmers.
Waiting for the train to take us home.
Our last look at the Cirque from the train platform.
Celebrate Merlot, Walla Walla
We’ve always favored full-bodied reds, such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel, over lighter choices such as Merlot and Pinot Noir. But after attending a couple of Winemaker’s Dinners at the Butcher’s Table restaurant, arranged by Merlot-enthusiast Jason Sanneman, we began to appreciate that varietal more. We’d also become interested in visiting Walla Walla in eastern…
Blind Chanel to Vancouver:
Homemade cinnamon rolls are baked each morning at the Blind Channel store. They are so popular that the marina limits boaters to two per boat. We secure our pair of tasty pastries as soon as the store opens as they sell out quickly. We have a short travel day of 31 miles to our next anchorage of […]
2023 Cruise Summary
Fortunately, we do not suffer from “Triskaidekaphobia” otherwise we might of skipped this year. The cruise was without mishaps and relaxing. We changed our fishing strategy by moving the salmon fishing the until the southbound BC portion of the trip. That freed up days which we spent on additional port days or days at anchor while reducing engine hours and miles traveled.
The cruise was 139 days/138 nights long from Saturday, April 29 until Thursday, September 14. We spent 84 nights at anchor (61%) and 54 nights at a dock. Of the nights at anchor, for 46 nights we were the only boat in the anchorage (55%). During the cruise, we traveled 3023.6 nautical miles and put 510.4 hours on our engine. We ran our generator 22 times totaling 36 hours.
By coincidence, last year’s cruise, 2022, was also 139 days/138 nights. Compared to 2022, in 2023 we spent 7 more nights at the dock, 103.2 fewer hours operating the engine, traveled 560 fewer miles and operated the generator 18 additional hours. These numbers document our slower pace and more time spent on docks or multiple days at anchor.The additional expense from days on the dock is offset by the reduced amount of fuel burned.
We still manage to find new (to us) places to visit and anchor. In 2023 we used 14 new places to anchor (alphabetically – Baker Cove, Chichagof Village, Dorothy Cove, Fancy Cove, Forit Bay, Kah Shakes Cove, Kinahan Islands, Lake Anna, Luck Dragon Cove, Otter Cove, Russell Island Passage, Sundew Cove, Sunny Bay, and Waterfall Cove). We also visited one new marina, Mill Bay Marina on Vancouver Island.
Below is a map of our stops in the 2023 cruising season. Clicking on one of the “dropped pins” will pull up some information about the stop. At the top right of the map is an icon which will open a separate window that may be easier to navigate.
2023 Cruise Summary
Fortunately, we do not suffer from “Triskaidekaphobia” otherwise we might of skipped this year. The cruise was without mishaps and relaxing. We changed our fishing strategy by moving the salmon fishing the until the southbound BC portion of the trip. That freed up days which we spent on additional port days or days at anchor while reducing engine hours and miles traveled.
The cruise was 139 days/138 nights long from Saturday, April 29 until Thursday, September 14. We spent 84 nights at anchor (61%) and 54 nights at a dock. Of the nights at anchor, for 46 nights we were the only boat in the anchorage (55%). During the cruise, we traveled 3023.6 nautical miles and put 510.4 hours on our engine. We ran our generator 22 times totaling 36 hours.
By coincidence, last year’s cruise, 2022, was also 139 days/138 nights. Compared to 2022, in 2023 we spent 7 more nights at the dock, 103.2 fewer hours operating the engine, traveled 560 fewer miles and operated the generator 18 additional hours. These numbers document our slower pace and more time spent on docks or multiple days at anchor.The additional expense from days on the dock is offset by the reduced amount of fuel burned.
We still manage to find new (to us) places to visit and anchor. In 2023 we used 14 new places to anchor (alphabetically – Baker Cove, Chichagof Village, Dorothy Cove, Fancy Cove, Forit Bay, Kah Shakes Cove, Kinahan Islands, Lake Anna, Luck Dragon Cove, Otter Cove, Russell Island Passage, Sundew Cove, Sunny Bay, and Waterfall Cove). We also visited one new marina, Mill Bay Marina on Vancouver Island.
Below is a map of our stops in the 2023 cruising season. Clicking on one of the “dropped pins” will pull up some information about the stop. At the top right of the map is an icon which will open a separate window that may be easier to navigate.
Whistler Blackcomb
The Whistler Blackcomb ski resort, about a two-hour drive north of Vancouver, Canada, is frequently ranked as one of the best ski resorts in North America. It also is one of the largest and busiest in North America, has the greatest uplift capacity, of 65,500 skiers per hour, and annually draws more than two million…
Sept. 15-16 The Captain’s Birthday Part II
“Earth and Sky, Woods and Fields, Lakes and Rivers, the Mountain and the Sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.” –John Lubbock
We had a great time in Canandaigua, but after a few days we decided to drive down to Corning to visit the Corning Museum of Glass. In the seven seasons we’ve been here we have visited Corning several times, but never seemed to have the time to get to the museum. I’m glad we finally made the time. It’s a beautiful place.
Sept. 15-16 The Captain’s Birthday Part II
“Earth and Sky, Woods and Fields, Lakes and Rivers, the Mountain and the Sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.” –John Lubbock
We had a great time in Canandaigua, but after a few days we decided to drive down to Corning to visit the Corning Museum of Glass. In the seven seasons we’ve been here we have visited Corning several times, but never seemed to have the time to get to the museum. I’m glad we finally made the time. It’s a beautiful place.
Our dock neighbor worked for Corning most of his life and has filled us in on how involved they’ve been in scientific discoveries and things that have made our lives better. They don’t just make dinnerware. The fiber optics we use, the glass on our phones and TVs, huge telescope lenses and items for space travel are just a few of the things they have developed. There was so much to see and learn, like most museums it was too much for just one day. We had some great leftover pizza, cheese and wine so we had another picnic today. I wish I had taken a picture, because instead of our usual beautiful setting it was in the parking lot of the museum…in our car! It was just too breezy and chilly outside today.
This photo shows the museum and the beautiful area around Corning, NY.
The Contemporary Arts and Design section of the museum.
The Netflix series Blown Away is filmed at the Corning Museum of Glass. I’ve watched some of it, but I may need to check it out again. This little guy was created by John Sharvin in episode 6: Under the Big Top. It’s called Walter’s Audition.
While you are at the museum you can see many hands-on demonstrations, take a class or even make something of your own. During this demo they made a pretty blue water pitcher. It took him 15 minutes to complete and it sells for $162 in the gift shop.
Some of the fun things we saw at the museum. The orange bowl depicts the skyline of San Francisco.
Dale Chihuly’s style is unmistakable. We visited one of his museums in St. Petersburg, Florida years ago and I fell in love with his work. This piece is called Fern Green Tower. It stands over 15′ high and has 712 handmade elements.
It’s pumpkin season in New York and Corning.
The store at the museum was amazing…glass from here and everywhere else in the world.
Corning is a beautiful little town along the Cohocton River. Market Street is full of shops and nice restaurants.
We actually chose to come down to Corning at this time so we could enjoy their Harvest Festival. There were tons of vendors and musicians along Market Street.
We had dinner at an Italian Restaurant called Sorge’s. We both had the Milano dish served with artichoke hearts, tomatoes and capers in a creamy garlic butter sauce. Stan of course had salmon and I had chicken.
While we were in Corning we heard about another event going on this weekend in Hammondsport, NY. We love visiting this little village on Keuka, so on Saturday morning we drove up to check out the Wings & Wheels: Seaplane and Car Show. It was a wonderful fall day and it was a highlight of our trip. The event was put on by Glenn H. Curtiss Museum and featured seaplane demonstrations and more than 60 vehicles in the car show.
Just a few of the neat cars on display throughout downtown.
Glenn H. Curtiss was an American aviation and motorcycling pioneer, and a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry. He designed and built the first successful pontoon aircraft in America and his aircrafts were the first to take off and land on the deck of a ship. Curtiss built the first U.S. Navy aircraft and trained the first two naval pilots.
We sat on the wall next to the boat ramp. We had a front roll seat to all the action.
Some of the boats had pontoons and wheels, some had just wheels and others had just pontoons. I’ve only seen seaplanes with pontoons before now.
This little plane only had wheels.
And took off quickly.
This little piper cub is just like the one that Stan’s Daddy had, except it had pontoons instead of wheels. It brought back a lot of great memories for him.
These little guys came in like a boat…
and drove right up on shore.
The seaplanes showed how they take off and then did a bombing demo. Each plane was given grapefruits which they had to drop between the two yellow buoys. It was harder than it sounds…can you see the splash in the water? This plane was the closest to the target. The next thing they demonstrated was landing precession. They came around and had to touch down between the same buoys. That seemed to be difficult too. It was a lot of fun to watch.
Sept. 13-15 The Captain’s Birthday Part I
“Travel often; Getting lost will help you find yourself.” — Holstee Manifesto
We celebrated Stan’s birthday by taking a small trip to The Lake House in Canandaigua. It’s a very nice resort hotel on Canandaigua Lake. Kyle and Brytanie gave us a gift card for this hotel after we kept the kids in May.
Our first stop on the way to Canandaigua was a picnic at the Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard. It’s one of the top wineries on Seneca Lake.
