Looking Down

Let me start by telling you about me and looking down.

I. DON'T. DO. LOOKING. DOWN.

Well, the fact is that I do, but let me explain that it is the fact that in order to look down you have to go up that is the problem.

I do go up.

I would not be able to be a hiker if I didn't sometimes go up. Up is where the best hikes are.

~

When I was eight my sister was eighteen and a recent high school graduate. The family tradition was a graduation trip--the whole family. Our trip took us to Chicago, where we had a room on the seventeenth floor of the Conrad Hilton Hotel. Once we got moved in, my Dad took my sister and brother and headed down the hall. Being an obnoxious and curious eight year old, I followed. I think my Mother knew where they were going and had more sense.

Where he was taking them was to the fire escape so that they could look down. I realized what my mother knew already about herself and probably about me--WE. DON'T. DO. LOOKING. DOWN.

~

 

but

 

~

Knowing this, even for the past sixty years I continue to go up--and stand petrified as far from the edge as I can and look down.

Yes. I have, over the years, been to the top of the Washington Monument, the Empire State Building, the Space Needle, the roof of St. Peter's Basilica, the roof of St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg, and who knows how many other UP places.

~

 

Let me tell you the story of going to the top of the dome of Santa Maria dei Fiori in Florence--the world famous Duomo.

 

I spent a college year at Gonzaga in Florence. Having made many weekend excursions to various parts of Italy, some classmates and I decided to do some local touristy stuff. To get to the cupola at the top you climb a stairway between the outer and inner shells of the dome. It is narrow and steep and winds around the dome to reach the top.

 

As we were going up, others were coming down. That included a small group of Franciscan Friars in their brown habits--one being a very diminutive older (to us) balding (or tonsured?) man whose voice we heard as we came nearer and continued as we went up and they continued down. What was he saying? Well, roughly translated from the Italian which I spoke quite adequately at the time: "If I ever--puff puff--get my hands--puff puff--on the idiot--puff puff--who talked me into--puff puff"...and the rest faded as we moved farther and farther apart.

 

 

 

So, as each opportunity to go UP comes along, I think of that little friar so many years ago, and the fire escape in Chicago, and I go UP  and stand back petrified and look down.

 

~

 sometimes
~

When I was in India in 2000, my group went out to the edge for a group picture.

You can see them here making their way to the edge of the cliff. You can see that they would be looking down on the valley. there they are on the edge.

 

without me.

When we traveled to Russia in 1998, we hiked in the Stolby National Park in Siberia. It is a famous place for rock climbing. I climbed to the top of one of the large boulders and my son or husband took my picture looking down.

They had to do that because otherwise the rest of the family back home would not believe I had done the climb. They know I don't do UP.

 

In fact, when the whole family went to Silverwood Theme Park a few years before that, hubby and I had ridden one of the larger roller coasters. When we regrouped for lunch the kids did not believe me, so we had to ride it again with them as witnesses.

 

In 2010, when we hiked in the Highlands of Scotland, we were climbing some of the Corbetts. The Corbetts are "mountains" that are between 2000 and 3000 feet in elevation. Munros are over 3000 feet. You can see here that we were looking down. Elizabeth is much closer to the edge than I am.





After Scotland we traveled to Wales, where we hiked with Liz and George and looked down on the sea.

 

 

and then to London, where we looked down on the Thames, the Houses of Parliament and the Embankment from the London Eye.



 In Seattle, we have looked down from Seattle's "Big Wheel" and from the Space Needle.

 

This Spring we looked down into the Grand Canyon at Phantom Ranch.

 

And a couple of years ago I looked down the stairway at Maryhill Museum at Sasha and Lisa.

On one of  our first snowshoeing treks we looked down from Nisqually Vista at the snowboarders below the glacier.

 

It was certainly not the only occasion at Mt. Rainier to look down.

White River

Road to Sunrise from Sourdough Ridge Trail.

Busy day at Sunrise.

 

But my favorite picture looking down is this one from a flight from Seattle to Phoenix about twelve or thirteen years ago.

 

 

 

 See if any of the other headbanger members are like me, not wanting to go up, but finding some way to take a picture looking down. Their links are in my sidebar near the top.

 



Our Header theme for this week is recent pictures

I've had plenty of opportunity to for pictures this last week as we have been traveling. There are a lot that I have missed because I was the one driving most of the time. I do not encourage taking pictures while you are yourself behind the wheel. There were quite a few times when I would think, "oh, that would make a great picture!" So often then you have to emblazon it on your memory for your own gratification either because you must concentrate on the driving or else you were well past it before you could get the camera out.

We have had wonderful weather--almost too hot--and enjoyed the delight of presenters at our conference who had come from Chicago or other snowed in parts east. We followed that with a side trip to Arizona where our grandchildren were on Spring Break.

Here are some of these recent pictures--I must choose one for the header by the time I get to the end of the list.

Ranney was driving as we topped Satus Pass and saw Mt. Hood in the distance. Hood was not our only mountain view.

 Hi Neighbors. Two of the curious who peeked out when we stopped for gas.

 Lunchtime

 Looking down from the Convention Center balcony.

 Ears.

 More ears. We picnicked with the kids at the park for supper.

 Sunset ducks.

 Spring growth

 When we returned to the house I spotted the artwork at the new neighbors. The kids moved here in 2008 and much of the neighborhood remained vacant until another developer came in last year and filled in all the vacant lots.

Our theme this week was chosen to fill in Craver Vii's turn in naming the theme. We miss his participation in our challenge, as he added some wackiness each week. I hope that when his job responsibilities settle down, he will return to join us.

The other headbangers, in the meantime, are linked in my sidebar. Give them a visit.

Christmas is Coming

Part of getting ready for Christmas for us has been traveling for Thanksgiving. Our children and grandchildren are spread all over the west, so we start by traveling through Idaho to visit DD#2. Then on to Arizona where DDs #1 and #3 live. On to California for a couple of days with my brother. When the timing works out we stop by to see DS#2, but their schedule didn't mesh this year. We will see DS#1 at Christmas or New Year. Then there is DS#3--who emerges every couple years if the timing is right.

On our way home, we always have a meal at the Black Bear Diner somewhere in Northern California or Oregon. Tonight it was in Redmond, Oregon, where Santa Bear was having a honey treat at the counter.

 If you are ever traveling in the West and see a Black Bear Diner when you are nearing mealtime, STOP. You won't be disappointed.

Railroad Crossing without Any Cars

...Can you spell that without any 'R's?

Tom gave us the header challenge theme of Railroad for this week.

 My local railroad pictures are not of riding on the trains but walking near the tracks, such as this foggy morning when I walked through town.

 It doesn't take a fog for the railroad crossings to pose some fascination, though.

 Some interesting angles. Did you realize how high those lights stand?

 We have had one major trip where the railroad was the main experience of the journey rather than just the mode of transportation. One does not set out on the Transiberian Railway to simply get from one place to another. The Transiberian Railway is an experience in itself. At every station there would be people gathered on the platform for a variety of reasons. Some are traveling.

 Some are selling goods to the passengers. This lady has fresh berries. One compartment mate hopped off the train at an early morning stop and brought us breakfast pastries. (His name was Slas and he looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger.) At one stop, we could have purchased chandeliers or stemware from workers from the local glassworks, who received part of their salaries in goods.

The Transiberian Railway stretches from Moscow to Vladivostok. We traveled about half of that way.

 We traveled by train while we were in the UK as well. Not quite as exotic, unless you might be looking for Platform 9 3/4 at Charing Cross Station.

 The awesome architecture looks like it is ready to swallow up the trains.

 They could be off to Hogwarts, but then, apparently I may have the wrong station, as Harry and his friends left from Kings Cross.

This notice board as we traveled from Wales to London was a bit distressing, though our own train was traveling and on time. I forget what the reason for the cancelled routes.

It was not as alarming as the experience in Novosibirsk, Russia, though. We were dropped off by taxi at the train station with no escort as we usually had when leaving or arriving at a city. We entered the station to look for our scheduled departure on the departure board (which we would have had to sound out in its Cyrillic letters) and found nothing but wires hanging out of the board. Trains were being announced. In Russian. Ours was late and no one spoke English. Our thirty words of Russian were not very helpful. It is one of the adventures of foreign travel.

 

I have chosen this image from our UK travel as my header. It just speaks that thousand words that a picture is worth. It was taken as we left Edinburgh.

 

The rest of the header challenge crew are linked in my sidebar. Visit them and check out their railroads.

By the way, "that" is spelled T-H-A-T whether you have any Rs available or not.

Bridges

Lew gave the Headbangers group the theme of Bridges for this week's challenge. Last week I went out in search of a new image to use for Curves. This will be a week of selecting from my files.

It might be easier to go out and get a new shot. A relatively quick jog through the files gave me three dozen possible images to use--well, those were the ones I selected to choose from--if I don't go looking up some more. No, actually I have the one that I want to use and I won't go looking for more.

The reason is partly because bridges are incredibly interesting structures--the geometry, the lines, the settings...

If any kid asks why we need to study geometry, just tell them to take a look at a bridge.

The other part of the reason would be that I participated for a couple of years in a monthly meme featuring bridges. You can see some interesting bridges if you visit my Bridges label page.

So I will try to pare the selection down to -- well --  at least fewer than three dozen.

I am shoveling out the footbridge on the 4th of July. Mt. Rainier National Park

Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah

Tonto Natural Bridge State Park, Arizona

Some of our local bridges: above--the Cable Bridge and below--the Blue Bridge. These connect Kennewick and Pasco, Washington.

 

Remains of an ancient bridge in the Highlands of Scotland.

The other side says "Where have you been?"  Lincoln, UK

Some London Bridges, but not THE London Bridge. It is in Arizona now.



This footbridge at Chinook Pass is part of the Pacific Crest Trail. East entrance to Mt. Rainier National Park.

 


Bridge construction--a few years ago near Hoover Dam on the Arizona-Nevada border. Crossing now with the bridge completed is much quicker. We once waited about two hours in traffic to cross on the dam itself.

 



Under the bridge. Isn't this cool--well, it was cool under the bridge. This one (above and below) is in Dunsmuir, California.

Bay Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge

 

Suspension bridge at the Grove of the Patriarchs, Mt. Rainier National Park.

I will choose between these next two pictures for my header. The area spanned by the Golden Gate Bridge held that name long before the bridge was built. (BTW, if you didn't look through my Bridges label pages, do check out these pictures taken by my in-laws in --I think it was 1936--the bridge opened in 1937.

 

One of our sons has lived in the Bay Area for about six years. When we visited them in the second place they lived in there, I looked the address up on a map and wondered if there would be a place nearby with a view of the bridge.

 

Little did I know that the place with the perfect view was their living room.

Others of the headbangers will have some amazing bridge images, but I doubt that any of them will have as many as I do. You can see theirs through the links in my sidebar.