Puget Sound Sea Kayak Symposium

Heading to Tacoma today for the spring symposium. Great time to run into friends and kick off the season! I'll be teaching Tides and Currents, Basic Strokes and Refining the forward Stroke.

First Mount Rainier Tours of 2009!

Introducing people to Mount Rainier, our third national park is a wonderful experience. Plus I get to meet interesting people from around the world.

Sunny Seattle Tour

Had fun with my Nikon and the 18mm lense while leading a tour - had to be quick...

Glass gallery in Pioneer Square

The Smith Tower "lined up" with the Columbia Towers

Young man posing at the Seattle Troll
(wish it still had the California plates)

Memorial to lost fisherman

Daffodils and poppies at the Ballard locks

Is this the Adventuress sailing in?
Reminds me of the first tall ship that sailed around Alki Point (in the distance)

Finally got a shot I wanted of Mount Rainier
behind Harbor Island and the West Seattle Bridge (from Magnolia)

...and of course the Space Needle and Mt. Rainier from Kerry Park

Weather

Here is Ci Ci unhappily posing next to the river.

We certainly have seen extremes in weather lately. From wondering when the snow in the cascades was going to come (so we could start skiing) to the deep chill with several feet of snow in the lowlands, and now the flooding! What excitement will the Northwest see next?










I drove to town (Fall City) to get gas and this is the picture I took while the tank was filling. The Snoqualamie seems to have crested it's hundred-year flood level.

Ci Ci's Ruffwear Sunshower jacket comes in handy!

EMT

I always feel a little inspired after attending the annual EMT CBT instructor workshop. Dr. Eisenberg opens with a review of programs in King County, discusses how far ahead the county is in some areas and areas that need improvement. This is followed by the workshop which is presented using different styles - scenarios, hands-on, round table and my least favorite - a multiple choice test - which are hopefully used by the various instructors when they go back to their departments. Questions are encouraged, treated respectfully, and answered thoroughly.

After the two medical incidents I had in wilderness situations this year I was glad to hear the doctor encouraging trips to the hospital by private vehicle if the situation wasn't life-threatening. The cost is so great to the injured and they often don't expect the bill.

The downside might be a longer wait time to get into the emergency room, but he pointed out a good triage nurse should be able to take care of that.

Viaduct

I sent this letter to the viaduct project today as they are accepting comments:

The Alaska Way Viaduct has always been my favorite drive in Seattle (other than Chuckanut Drive near Bellingham). It has also been the best way to get downtown and to the airport. I cringe whenever I have to take Five as an option!

Recently I have become a tour guide. I now showcase Seattle to the east and our wonderful waters and mountains to the west. I talk out seeing some of Seattle's old and more preserved architecture juxtaposed against the new. Or how the Olympic mountain range is within a national park right on the other side of the Puget Sound and is another great destination.

With Seattle having become so elegant in recent years I would hope the viaduct would be replaced with something modern that has a vision and a mission, similar to the ideals behind the Olympic Sculpture Park - a showcase as well as a highway.

(Image taken with a Blackberry)

Mount Rainier

I've returned to guiding, only this time by bus and around Mount Rainier. It's a blast introducing people to the volcano and the surrounding areas, taking them on short and long hikes, especially to see the wildflower meadows and the Grove of the Patriarchs where the trees are around eight hundred years old.

Here we have the Nisqually River, glowing with glacial flour and surrounded by rocks of andesite and granite.

A marmot doing it's prairie dog imitation.

A bear collecting berries.

Peace Wave

After two failed attempts (two summers of low water and excessive smoke) we finally made our sojourn to Peace Wave on the Salmon, and got on it!





Peace Wave is a park-and-play wave on the Salmon just outside of Riggins, Idaho.

Signaling and Safety Devices La Push ICE

Hong Kong Kayak Instructor Course Rough Water Day

This was one of the best days I've had as an instructor trainer. After three weeks of flat water in a beautiful bay northeast of Hong Kong, we motored out to find rough water. We had a rigid inflatable chase boat with a photographer and this little movie ensued.

We just happened to be near a park where the candidates knew the local restauranteur.