Caveat: A map of travels

Some people wonder what this giant trip I’m taking is all about.
I’ve written about is some, before, but I decided yesterday to make a map of the plan.
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I am currently in Denver, Colorado, so about 30% of the driving is done. Total trip will be more than 5000km of driving.
The dates are not exact – they are targets. Arthur is not riding along for the whole trip – he is flying some of the sections, and skipping some parts. This is because I have more people I want to visit than he does.
[daily log: walking, 1km; driving 1450km]

Caveat: Wyoming? Why, indeed?

I drove easter (er…, farther east) than before.
I arrived at my intended destination: my stepmother’s home in Colorado. My stepsister and her family live here too. Despite the “step” I consider these very important members of my family: they came to visit me in Korea, which can be said for very few people.
Some pictures from the drive.
Dawn in Utah (where I stayed in a cheap motel).
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I saw snow the entire day.
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Wyoming is … a bit monotonous. I never saw so many broken down trucks by the side of the road, though. I guess some combination of cold and bad luck?
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My goal.
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[daily log: walking, 1km; driving 870km]

Caveat: Low Key

Today was the official Thanksgiving holiday, but we didn’t really have a major celebration. Many of the people coming to this year’s annual Brosing-Lecomte get-together and thanksgiving feast were unable to make it here today due to travel or scheduling issues. So the great feast has been scheduled for Saturday instead of Thursday. That’s when we’ll roast the turkey (Arthur’s specialty) and do the other celebratory foods.
For today, we mostly relaxed. Juli and I took a long walk, in pouring rain, up to the tree farm and then down along the river, after seeing the Lee Falls up the Tualatin River a ways.
The house shortly after dawn, on a rainy, drizzly morning.
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The horses at the neighbor’s house were deeply unimpressed by our decision to go walking in the rain. They stuck to the barn.
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Walter the charismatic dog was unconcerned about the rain.
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We saw the waterfall. In fact, despite the pouring rain, the water level in the river is quite low for this time of year. The summer and fall have been dry, here.
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We saw a giant log blocking the Lee Falls Road. Good thing we were walking. This is Juli standing by the log.
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We had barbecued chicken for dinner.
Tomorrow some people might go into town to do some shopping. I have no interest in the so-called Black Friday.
[daily log: walking, 6km]

Caveat: Driving south and more of the same

My ferry arrived at Prince Rupert at around 2 am. I was the first vehicle off the ferry, so there was no waiting at Canadian immigration/customs. I rolled down my window, and a dour, mustached Canadian asked me if I had any firearms or drugs or alcohol. No on all counts, and
he asked how long I would be staying. I said long enough to be driving through. And that was the end of the interview – the easiest Canadian border crossing I’ve ever experienced. I think crossing as an “Alaskan” helps a lot – the Canadians are used to the fact that Alaskans need to go back and forth across their country for various reasons.
I got some coffee at a Tim Hortons, I got some local currency cash at an ATM, and I drove to the first rest area east of Prince Rupert, where I slept in my car until dawn. Starting at dawn, I drove east.
First there was rain. Finally the rain cleared, and I was in the snowy British Columbian interior.
Some pictures.
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I am now at a motel at Cache Creek, BC (the junction of route 97 and the Trans-Canada highway, AKA Route 1).
[daily log: walking, 0.5km; driving, 1200 km]

Caveat: At Kasaan

Kasaan is a native Haida village on the east side of Prince of Wales Island. Haida are the dominant tribe in southernmost southeast Alaska.

Juli, Keith and I drove over there today while Wayne and Arthur went fishing.

We walked around and took some pictures in Kasaan. Looking out over the harbor is a large, modern statue in the Haida style. The hats look almost similar to traditional Korean ones.

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There are a lot of totem poles in the old part of Kasaan village, a bit west on a nice forest path from the new Kasaan village.

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We had lunch at a little city park in Thorne Bay. That is the 3rd largest city on Prince of Wales Island. It is a strange town, as it appears the town planners were not brought along when the town was laid out.

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[daily log: walking, 3km]

Caveat: Climbing Sunny Hay

Sunny Hay is the most notable, highest mountain in the Craig area of west-central Prince of Wales Island. Actually, the name is Sunnahae, which is a native name. It's about 800m tall, and has a notable treeline near its top. It is the location of the main microwave and cellular towers. 

Wayne and I hiked up to the top this morning. Half the way up is an improved trail, an old logging road with gravel and boardwalks for boggy areas. The second half of the trail is mostly unimproved, and even hard to follow in some spots where the little flags on trees are missing or sparse. But we got to the top and back down. It was a substantial hike. I'll try to add some pictures later – I took a lot, but they're on my phone and I need to move them over.

This afternoon we had our planned "dinner party" at Arthur's. We invited many of the neighbors who have been so helpful during and since Arthur's accident, including Mike and Penny, who helped evacuate him immediately, and Richard and Jan, who have been supportive. Some people couldn't come, such as Joe, who is the one who made sure Art's boat was taken out of the water during his long absence, and Jeri, a nurse who has gone off to North Carolina, working for the evacuees from Hurricane Florence.

Arthur made smoked turkey, and others made and brought various things. It was good to see the community who have been so helpful. I didn't take any pictures from that – my phone's battery was low and I was maybe a bit shy to go taking everyone's pictures anyway – I'm better at taking pictures of things and places than I am at taking pictures of people.

[daily log: walking, 13km (with net elevation change of 800m up, 800m down)]

Caveat: The Flight To Oregon

The flights from Seoul to Seattle and then Portland presented some good "airplane window photo" opportunities.

Here is downtown Seattle, iconically recognizable.

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Here is the volcano Mount Saint Helens, just north of Portland, as we came in to land we went right over.

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Juli and Arthur picked me up at the airport, and we drove back to Forest Grove by an alternate route, avoiding a downtown traffic jam.

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Caveat: Reversal

This will be an automated post that might appear on this here blog thingy while I’m flying back to the US.
This here blog entry reverses the effects of an older blog post, seen here.
What I’m (maybe) listening to right now.

Tripswitch, “Strange Parallels (Koan Remix).” This type of music makes good airplane music, maybe – at least for me.
picture[daily log: walking, 4km; flying, a lot]

Caveat: Field work for mapping Ohunkagan

[This is a cross-post from my other blog.]

I haven’t mapped anything, these last two weeks. But I thought about mapping a lot. That’s because I spent the last two weeks in Seattle and Portland for a family emergency, driving around and thus getting lots of ideas and thoughts for Makaska. Certainly I had already been intending the main metropolis, Ohunkagan, to have some similarities with Seattle (although with a Minnesota climate), situated as it is on an isthmus, but getting to drive around there and around Portland, too, gave me some more ideas, anyway. Call it a kind of “Field research” for eventual mapping.

This is a pretty short entry, then, just to give an update of what I’m up to on the geofiction front.

Now that I’m back in Korea, I may have some more time and opportunity to do more mapping.

Music to map by: Taylor Swift, “Delicate.”

CaveatDumpTruck Logo

Caveat: Bureaucrats and a Skybridge

We had a pretty full day. We got up at 4:45 because we had to go to the VA facilities in Vancouver, north of the river, for a 7:30 appointment, and we had to avoid the worst traffic through Portland. The appointment was routed to the Vancouver facilities because it was the earliest appointment available with the team we needed to see. 

After several hours of appointments, we got an X-ray they wanted, and then we found out we had to go to the Portland VA center to fill out a form so the X-ray would go to the right place. Typical bureaucratic runaround…. Anyway, busy day.

At the Portland VA hospitals, they have a pedestrian skybridge that connects to the Oregon Health Sciences University, which shares the same hilltop location with the VA. Here is a picture of the skybridge.

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From the skybridge, you can see a bit of downtown Portland and the Willamette river.

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 [daily log: walking, 5km]

Caveat: Drivearound

I had a day off from riding along with Arthur to his appointments, because he didn't have any appointments. So I decided to go visit some of my other relatives and friends who are clustered in this part of the world. Actually, just based on that factor, I suppose that although I have never lived in the Portland region, it is nevertheless a kind of "hometown" for me. 

First I drove down to Eugene, which is actually a few hours, but I didn't mind – I enjoy road trips as long as they're not a requirement of my day-to-day life, and with not having a car in Korea, in fact I only do driving one week or two out of each year. So I headed down the west side of the Willamette Valley through McMinnville and Corvallis, and saw my aunt and uncle Janet and Bob – who are on my father's side and so unrelated to my maternal uncle Arthur, who is my main reason for this visit.

I enjoyed that visit, and the scattered fogs and periodic bouts of rain going down and back up the valley. I spent about 4 hours there, having coffee and talking, catching up on things. I really enjoy the company of Janet and Bob, and it's worth noting that they lived with us in Arcata when I an infant, and thus Janet was one of my first baby sitters, though I don't remember that as I was only an infant. 

I drove back up the east side of the Valley on I-5, through Albany and Salem and to Portland, where I met up with an old schoolmate Raven who lives there. We haven't in fact seen each other since high school, and in high school we were in different social circles so in fact we haven't interacted since grade school, but we were in the same class for two years in 5th and 6th grade. So it was interesting to sit and chat about such ancient times after so long. Then I drove back out to Forest Grove and met my cousin Jori (also on my father's side, my father's and Janet's niece from another Way family sibling, Freda). I had dinner with her and her husband at a Peruvian restaurant in Forest Grove. It was nostalgic to have Peruvian food, because when I lived in Long Beach I used to go to this Peruvian place with my coworkers that was nearby to where we were working on that big project in Costa Mesa. And I've always like Peruvian cuisine, which is hard to find in Korea. Go figure.

I was surprised to learn that my second cousin Philip (Jori's son, who is, incidentally, named for my father)  has recently become the proprietor of a pub in Forest Grove, which is a popular spot for students at the nearby Pacific University, which is where our family friend Juli (who I am staying with, here) has been a physics professor for so many years. So we had dessert (a chocolate creme brulee with strawberries) at the pub and chatted a little about how he's hoping to succeed with this new business venture. I was just impressed to think there is a relative of mine who owns a pub.

Here are some pictures.

Driving down the valley.

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With aunt Janet and Bob at their place.

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The hillside at Janet and Bob's place.

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Some impressively authentic Peruvian food. I had chaufa with some ceviche before that.

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My cousin Philip at the bar of his pub.

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A chocolate creme brulee with strawberries.

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[daily log: walking, 4km]

Caveat: there’s probably an app for that

My experience at Seatac passport control yesterday was surreally 21st century in character.
 
I was standing in line. And standing. A very long time standing. And then… one line manager official mentioned that those with "mobile passport" got to use an expedited line. I began wondering what this "mobile passport" might be.
 
So seeing as I was standing there with nothing to do, and I had a good airport wifi connection, I researched it on my phone's internet browser. Lo and behold, there was a "TSA-approved" app in the google play store.
 
I downloaded the app to my phone. I knelt on the floor and scanned my passport into the app. I stood against the wall and took a really bad selfie, and I loaded the pic to my phone and added it to the app. I checked a bunch of boxes on the forms in the app, possibly turning my soul over to the TSA. And voila, I got a QR code on my phone, which then I showed to the line official. "Oh, step right over there," he said, opening the little vinyl strap separating the lines. I only had to stand in line 5 minutes after that.
 
Perhaps the difference between Korea and the US is that at the Korean border, such automation (with accompanying surrender of privacy) is obligatory, and thus relatively painless, whereas in the US, such post-modern efficiencies always tend to be "opt in" which means that many others are left in the "slow lane."
 
[daily log: walking, 5km]

Caveat: because Korea exists in the future

I will go to the airport in a few hours and fly to Seattle later this afternoon.

I actually don't much enjoy flying. Who does? It's like a very laborious, slow-motion teleportation experience.

I've scheduled (pre-posted) the next few posts on this blog, in the event I'm too busy traveling or out of the loop in terms of internet access.

I'll land in Seattle "today" (June 6) at around 2 PM, I think. Which is to say, I'll arrive before I left, as normally happens when traveling from the ROK to the US. That's because Korea exists in the future.

I've activated facebook on phone, despite my misgivings about that app and company. I'll will use that tool for travel updates and staying in touch, too.

[daily log: walking, 3 km (mostly in the airports, right?)]

Caveat: The Recovery

Yesterday I spent most of the day on an airplane. Although there's not much to do on an airplane except eat, sleep, read, and watch things on the video, it still always feels exhausting to me. I think it's just the rarefied air and body's intuitive apprehension of its own displacement. It's slow-motion teleportation, and it's unpleasant.

So I survived. I ran away from the airplane as soon as I got back, and the arrival, in the chaotic Korean tradition, was weirdly efficient. I am now home. I am not feeling particularly motivated.

Here is a picture from Brisbane, where I spent the night Wednesday night.

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Actually, that was the first time I visited there. I thought Brisbane wasn't bad, as small cities go – it reminded me of many US second-tier cities – San Diego or Austin or Minneapolis for that matter. The one thing that was unexpected was that the downtown is actually rather hilly. I had this impression, because of the map with its meandering river, that it was probably flat, but that was clearly a wrong conception. In that way, it was like St Paul – it looks flat on the map, but really isn't flat at all. 

[daily log: living, 52years]

Caveat: Touristic Behavior

Today being my last full day here at my mom's house, we decided to do some tourism type stuff.

We drove down to the rainforest at Mamu (Wooroonooran National Park) where I walked a trail and saw some rainforest and some mountains and a river valley. It was beautiful.

Then we drove to the "platypus park" at Malanda, where I saw some platypi. It was the first time – in all my visits to Australia, I've never actually seen a platypus. So now I have.

Then we drove to the Hasties Swamp, where there were many migratory birds, and we came back to Ravenshoe via Herberton.

I took a lot of pictures, but they are a bit scattered and I need to go through them on my phone. Perhaps I'll post some additional pictures after I have gone through them. For now, here is a quick snap of the cute Herberton post office building as we raced by in the car.

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[daily log: walking, 4km]

Caveat: sun-dappled goats, instead

I was feeling restless this morning.

So I took a long walk in the wind – up to the "T" in the road, which I estimate to be about 4.5km from my mom's front door. So it was a 9km walk, round trip.

I saw no wallabies. So I can only offer an unexotic assemblage of some sun-dappled goats, instead.

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[daily log: walking, 9km] 

Caveat: Do Not Run

I didn't see a cassowary today.

I thought I might, because I went on a drive and walked around the rainforest at a national park (Mt Hypipamee) about 30 km north of here for a while.

Cassowaries are type of giant, flightless bird, maybe a bit emu-ish. Apparently they are somewhat dangerous (there was a sign that said, "Beware of cassowaries: Do not run" – I guess if you run they will chase you).

The closest I came to seeing a cassowary was a group of German tourists who claimed to have just seen one.

I did see a forest turkey. Some random pictures, below.

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[daily log: walking, 4.5km] 

Caveat: Grocery Shopping Expedition

We drove to the BIG town today. Atherton, Queensland, has maybe 15000 inhabitants, and it's the giantest city around. It's about an hour's drive north from here. It's a pretty long drive for just going grocery shopping, but that's my mom's lifestyle. That's where the store is. I suppose I would adapt, but it's really hard for me to imagine, given I have a hard enough time working up the gumption to go downstairs to the store in my building.

Shopping becomes an EXPEDITION. This combines with the need to compare all the prices and choose the exact right brand. I simply don't do this, in my own life – decades ago I decided it seemed to be more stress than the savings procured were worth. In essence, I pay a "premium" or "tax": I pay in the form of not necessarily getting the best bargain on any individual product or purchase, and in return for this premium or tax that I pay, I experience very little stress for day to day shopping. I just grab the things that match my vague notion of what I need, and NEVER look at prices. I still end up spending very little for groceries, I think, compared to many people, by the simple expedient that I never buy stuff I don't actually NEED. And even given that, I hate shopping. I think if I tried to hunt bargains, I would never shop again.

Alien as it is to me in my current incarnation, she navigates her lifestyle quite competently, though. Actually, I was pretty impressed with my mother's driving skill on the drive up to Atherton and back. Her age doesn't show in her driving at all, that I could see – she seems the same as decades ago.

In Atherton I walked around a bit, and saw a VW microbus. I have always had a weak spot for old VWs, so  I took a picture.

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There are flowering trees in the background (it's Spring here, after all), and on the hill behind you can just make out a store called "Big W" behind, which seems to be a kind of Australian version of Wal-Mart, roughly (though there's no relationship to Wal-Mart, despite the "W" – the "W" comes from Woolworths, the huge Australian retailing conglomerate).

[daily log: walking, 3km]

Caveat: Wallabies-of-the-day

I saw some wallabies in my mom's driveway. They were cute. 

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I took a walk up to the main road. It's about a kilometer and a half each way – so it's a bit of walking. I could walk to town – that would only be 10 kilometers or so, right? The town has a store and a gas station. Frankly, it seems like a tropical, Australian version of Garberville, CA – which will mean nothing to you unless you're a denizen or former denizen of Humboldt, in which case you now have a pretty good picture of Ravenshoe, Queensland.

[daily log: walking, 4.5km]

Caveat: Subway Odysseys, Subway Ajeossis

I took a very long subway journey, on Saturday.

I left work, at about one pm, and walked to Ilsan Station, which I rarely visit although it's close by, and took the Gyeongui Line (the old commuter line, upgraded to subway system) into Seoul. I have vivid memories of this same "Ilsan Station" when it was just a wooden shack selling tickets next to a pair of railroad tracks, in 1991. I think I waited there for one of the old style commuter trains (diesel locomotives with wooden passenger cars) several times, when on a day leave from my Army installation a few kilometers north at Camp Edwards.

I took this picture of the new station against the slate gray sky. The political banner in the lower right is a "Thank you note" from the winning candidate in the recent presidential election. Do US politicians put out thank you notes? I don't remember. It seems like a very Korean thing.

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I had promised to meet my friend Seungbae, who currently lives in San Diego, California (for his work), but who is back in Seoul for one of his periodic visits home, when he gets to see his wife (who doesn't travel with him, because she has her own job).  His apartment in Seoul is on the eastern edge of the metropolis, beyond the last, easternmost station on the subway's Line 5 (Sangildong). I live in the far northwest of the metropolis, not far from the westernmost station on Line 3. The Gyeongui line (un-numbered) stretches even farther northwest, basically right to the DMZ and the North Korean border. 

Since I was going to meet Seungbae at 5 pm, I transferred to Line 5 but got off downtown, at Gwanghwamun, to stop at the bookstore, because I only needed about 2 hours for the subway journey, so I had an extra 2 hours. I took this picture of Admiral Yi's statue and Bukhansan, the mountains that lurk just north of downtown Seoul. The slate gray sky had turned darker, and just after I took this picture it began pouring rain with an almost monsoonal quality – it's too early for the monsoon, so this was a bit unseasonal.

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After my time at the bookstore, I got back on line 5 and went the rest of the way to Sangildong, and met my friend. We took a walk in a rain-soaked park with a small hill in it, very similar in atmosphere to Jeongbalsan, near my home. His neighborhood there is under extensive redevelopment. We went into a mall food court for dinner, and I took a picture of the cluster of cranes visible beyond. Cranes and construction were everywhere, but since this is not greenfield development, the maze-like network of old city streets persist amid the construction. It's disorienting walking around his neighborhood. 

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We saw his new apartment and his old one, which is slated to be torn down soon for the redevelopment. We talked some more, and then he drove some extra distance to drop me off on the easternmost station on Line 3 (Ogeum Station). We met his wife there (she was coming from some work meeting, I think), so I got to see her too. My trip home was thus a "straight shot" on Line 3 – its full length minus only the two last stations on the western end. So I passed through 42 of 44 stations, and since the total length of Line 3 is 57 kilometers, I must have traversed about 54 km. Sitting on the same train for 2 hours, I watched the many people getting on and off. There were many ajeossis (a term basically meaning middle-aged man), getting off work (since Saturday is most typically a work day for Koreans).

It was a subway odyssey with subway ajeossis. It was a very long day.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Ferry at Dawn

We got on the ferry at dawn, to travel back to Ketchikan, thence to LA and on to Seoul. The dawn twilight was misty and cold, and the trees were bejewelled with heavy frost.

Postscript: I had a frustrating time trying to post this from my phone. My allegedly smart phone is upsetting me. This is from my computer – we have arrived in LA.

Caveat: Boat Outta Water

We helped (watched?) my uncle Arthur remove the boat from the water and put it in the barn, today, at midday, while the tide was high.

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Curt pretended to be pulling the boat up the ramp (in fact, there is a motor and pulley system).

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[daily log: walking, 6km]

Caveat: Hydaburg

We took a short road trip down the island to the village of Hydaburg. Mostly, I was interested to see it because it was the one part of Prince of Wales Island that I hadn't visited before. Also, I have long had a peripheral interest in the Native American languages, and the Haida language is still (just barely) alive and spoken in Hydaburg, which is interesting. Thus, bilingual street signs can be found in the town.

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We saw totem poles in Hydaburg. They are interesting, too. They remind me of Korean 장승 [jangseung].

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The day was sunny but cold – Prince of Wales gets cold when the sky clears, in the winter. Frost lingered on the grass throughout the day. There was striking snow on mountaintops at the center of the island.

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We drove back to Craig and ate at a dockside cafe, and then came home and had a latish dinner of part of the salmon we'd caught yesterday.

Caveat: Dawn Over Port Saint Nicholas

My uncle's home is on a little bay (really, a fjord) called Port Saint Nicholas, which might make you think of Santa Claus, but the latter is not involved. 

Here is a picture of dawn this morning over Port Saint Nicholas, looking east from the back deck.

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We went out in the boat today, fishing. We caught a fish. More on that later.

 

Caveat: Craig, Alaska

Yesterday we rode four different airplanes. One of them (the Portland-Seattle leg, only 30 minutes) was a bit extraneous, but was due to getting the best schedule for LA to Ketchikan. The last plane, from Ketchikan to Klawock, on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska, was what is sometimes called a "puddlejumper" – a small plane, with 8 passengers. 

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My uncle met us at the Klawock airport (which is not very big – about the same level of infrastructure as a rural Korean bus-station) and we drove to his house, which was about 40 minutes.

I ended up going to sleep very early. I think Curt and Jin did too. Now it's morning, quite early – about 5:30 am. Our plans for this leg of the trip are bit unstructured. Perhaps a bit of driving around, perhaps some just lounging around. 

More later.

Caveat: interaction and walking around

It was a day of interaction and walking around. We spent the morning with my sister and her family in old Pasadena. Then for mid afternoon and early evening we went to west L.A., where we met my good friend Jay (he of some hiking trips to Zion and Bryce National Parks, e.g. in 2009). Finally, last we stopped at my father’s friend’s house, Fidel, who spoke to us entertainingly for a few hours and played some Latin Folk songs. I’m not sure on how appreciated this was by Curt and Jin, but as usual they were very polite and seemed in good spirits.
Tomorrow, very very early, we fly out to Alaska. I’ll update when we get there, hopefully – perhaps with only a short note if there are connectivity issues.
picture[daily log: walking, 8km]

Caveat: Wisconsonian Arirang

A few days ago we had stopped in Whitewater, Wisconsin, to see my friend Bob who is a Professor of Music there. He has a colleague named Chris Ellenwood. When Bob was giving us an impromptu tour of the Music department, we met Professor Ellenwood and he, upon learning that there were two visitors from Korea, gave a spontaneous rendition of the Korean folktune "Arirang" using a whistling technique, which Curt captured on video. I said I'd post it when I got a chance, so here it is. 

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