Somebody was supposed to occupy the seat next to mine at York, but didn't turn up. So, I can spread out. It's also nice that the 'reserved' sign on the head of the seat shows whence and to where the seat is reserved... they were supposed to get off in 'Berwick on Tw', wherever that is. (On Tweed, I suppose, but that still ( Read more... )

In the last 15 years or so, many cities around the world have been ( Read more... )

I'm waiting for a train to take me home, back to the City after 3½ weeks in Pleasant Hill. I've been staying at pure_agnostic and starry_sigh's place while they've been out of the country, looking after hopeforyou.

I spent the latter part of my adolescence in far-flung suburbia like this ( Read more... )

I ended up taking Ca-65 for my drive back to the Bay Area. It's not listed as a scenic route and it probably isn't all that unlike any other state highway in the San Joaquin Valley, but the different shades of gold and yellow in the summer-heated lumpy hills were dramatic and beautiful. It reminded me of the landscape descriptions in Red Mars, ( Read more... )

I've been mostly hanging out in the lounge car on Amtrak trains, especially this one that has window that wrap halfway along the ceilings. This one's stalled at Salem, though. All the other trains I've been on have run reasonably on time, but this one's only gone about 100km and we've already had three several-minute delays.

This time, I was in ( Read more... )

Right now I'm doing the reverse of the trip into Seattle. One of the first things I saw on my way in last Monday was the world-famous Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Haven't heard of it? I'll bet you have-maybe this video will jog your memory. ( Photo of the new one... )

I travelled to British Columbia from Seattle by boat. It was a long and windy ride.


( Read more... )

There really isn't anything at Boston Market that appeals to me, but it's a comfortable place where I can chill with my laptop by a window while flamingnerd's car gets serviced down the road.

We went to Burning Toast Man over the weekend, which is a regional ( Read more... )

Okay, so about this holiday I'm on...

When I flew over the outskirts of Santiago, it looked dry and ( Read more... )