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Longyearbyen has a real off-the-edge of civilization feel to it. The capital of Svalbard, a mountainous, remote and glacier-covered Norwegian archipelago situated halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, Longyearbyen sees constant daylight in the summer and complete darkness in the winter. Snowmobiles, the main form of transport for much of the year, litter…

Despite living in Norway for many months aboard Dirona, we never reached Oslo. The farthest east we sailed was Farsund (where we were frozen in the ice for several weeks). We finally reached Norway’s capital as part of our trans-arctic trip across the top of the planet. The ship would depart from Svalbard, and rather…

After the great fire of 1906 destroyed 80% of San Francisco, the city rebuilt rapidly and in grand style. Banks, business and government buildings, many in the neo-classical architecture, were erected quickly, but built to last, and still stand over a century later. So rapid was the reconstruction that the city was able to celebrate…

This year we attended the 90th annual Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. It was our first live golf tournament and we had a spectacular time. Getting a chance to watch anyone who is the top of their sport is always exciting, and observing players drive a ball over 300 yards, placing them with…

When James was living in Ottawa back in the 1970s, he saw pretty much every band that came through town, including Aerosmith, Foreigner, Leslie West and Mountain, Cars, Alice Cooper, Peter Gabriel, Jethro Tull, Yes, Rush, and many others. But he opted to skip on Bruce Springsteen, whose music wasn’t quite his style back then. A…

In early 2024, we began a concerted effort to improve our physical fitness, partly with a goal of maintaining our active lifestyle as we aged. We wanted to keep participating in recreations such as hiking and scuba diving well into the next decade or two. This would require reasonable levels of strength, balance, and cardiovascular…

I love all forms of engineering so it’s a pleasure to have just been elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Founded in 1964, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is a private, independent, nonprofit institution that provides engineering leadership in service to the nation. The NAE advances the welfare and prosperity of the nation by…

In a decisive victory, our Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots 29-13 in Super Bowl LX to claim the Vince Lombardi Trophy. It was a low-scoring game, and some would argue a blow-out, but when you are in the building, the excitement is palpable and we were on the edge of our seats the…

Camp Muir is the main base camp for Mt. Rainer ascents and, at altitude 10,188 ft (3,075 m), is the mountain’s highest point accessible without a climbing permit. Reaching the camp, named after famed naturalist John Muir, requires a 4.4-mile (7 km) trek with an altitude gain of 4,639-ft (1,413 m), much of it across the…

“Why are you going to Burlington?” the Niagara Falls Canada Customs officer asked, somewhat dubiously, after we stated our plan to spend the following night there before returning back home to Seattle. “The night life”, we joked, before giving the actual reason of attending a friend’s birthday party. Burlington, a small community of just under…