* Note: These are notes I wrote during the trip, cleaned up only slightly soon after we got home. Normally I revise my outlines before making them public, but because I linked them in an article update on May 19, I figured I'd make it visible even this unfinished state.

================== November 18 Sunday ------------------ Nouméa
This ( Read more... )

* Note: These are notes I wrote during the trip, cleaned up only slightly soon after we got home. Normally I revise my outlines before making them public, but because I linked them in an article update on May 19, I figured I'd make it visible even this unfinished state.

==================== November 17 Saturday -------------------- Île des Pins ( Read more... )

* Note: These are notes I wrote during the trip, cleaned up only slightly soon after we got home. Normally I revise my outlines before making them public, but because I linked them in an article update on May 19, I figured I'd make it visible even this unfinished state.
================== November 16 Friday ------------------ Late last night
( Read more... )

Fairly early this morning, "J" and I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock. While we were deciding whether to go back to sleep, we heard the sound of machinery. We peeked outside our window, and saw lifeboats in motion. (The lifeboats are also used as tenders, in ports where large ships can't dock at a pier - not just for emergencies.) I took a ( Read more... )

I left important details out my previous message, and a minor detail about yesterday's message. I was not alone on the trip to the Capitol Hill Farmer's Market or the hikes in the wilderness. I was with "J".
"J" was in a life-threatening car accident in December, before I knew her. She's always been an outdoors enthusiast, and Lake 22 is one of ( Read more... )

I wrote about yesterday's routine activities in my previous message. But the most notable activity yesterday was an expedition into the wilderness.
I drove north to Everett, then east to Granite Falls and stopped at the parking lot. A couple of guys seemed just a little too curious about my unremarkable vehicle, and I was warned of reports of ( Read more... )