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Exploring the West
  • Ashling's Log

Exploring the West

Checking out the western USA, a change of pace from our usual sailing. Read more
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  • Trip start
    September 23, 2023
  • Ashling's LogExploring the WestTraveler
    View from 5200ft down to Carson Valley.
    John and Kathy are building a home nearby with fantastic views.Here's one development we looked at, near Genoa NV.The interesting Reds Old 365 restaurant. Too bad the food wasn't as good as the decor!To Carson City, Red Rock CanyonTo Carson City, Red Rock CanyonWe passed many off-road vehicles that were heading to an off-road park.

    Carson City

    Oct 6–9, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 77 °F

    Carson City, named for Kit Carson, is about 60,000 strong and growing fast. Near Reno and Lake Tahoe's ski resorts, it has much to offer. It has the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains to the west and the Pine Nut mountains to the east. Both rise to 10,000ft, about 5000ft above the valley.Read more

  • Ashling's LogExploring the WestTraveler
    One of Heavenly's lifts to get you up from the lakefront lodgings to the slopes.
    Looking up at the mountain above the trail.Looking back to South Lake Tahoe.The cut through the log is marked XVIII, so I think it fell in 2018.I think these are bobcat tracks.

    Lake Tahoe

    Oct 9–11, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 59 °F

    The storied ski area of Lake Tahoe! We aren't really looking at property here - it's way too expensive, not to mention cold and snowy much of the year. But in this pre-season time, rooms are very inexpensive!Read more

  • Ashling's LogExploring the WestTraveler
    Stripping paint.
    Drive-through Starbucks. It was a burger stand at one time.Cool building planters and paint job!Another cool building paint job!

    Portland Oregon

    October 21, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 61 °F

    John flew into Portland after spending 5 days in Cape Charles overseeing work on Ashling's hulls. Alexis flew in from Sacramento and we rejoined forces to see Portland. It is everything we had heard: liberal, some wacky laws, eclectic, very concerned about quality of life, and interesting! They have extensive urban transit, mainly electric trains that are similar to what you see in Germany.

    We drove all around Old Town, the Pearl District and the business district. This isn't easy due to the high number of No Turns and No Left Turn intersections. We had to avoid a traffic jam caused by a pro-Palestinian rights protest march.

    No more drive-through restaurants are allowed, so old locations that are grandfathered in are highly valued. A manager at a drive-through Starbucks theorized that it was intended to reduce driving.

    Some buildings are entirely painted in interesting designs!

    It drizzles incessantly.

    The homeless are a tragic epidemic that are allowed by law to prevail against normal interests, including pedestrians and businesses. You see men changing clothes in the street, or walking about shirtless in 50 degree weather. They pitch tents on carefully bricked sidewalks in front of businesses. No one knows how to solve the issue.

    The city feels small, communal, but isn't. It feels alive, and is. On the other hand, REI, Target and other stores are closing their downtown locations. The population in the metro area was growing at about 1% per year, but declined 1.7% in 2021.    Read more

  • Ashling's LogExploring the WestTraveler
    Mt. Hood
    Mt. HoodThe descent from the Cascades into the valley with Bend.Bend real estate offer.Wild Rose, one of Bend's three Thai restaurants, which specializes in northern Thai.

    Bend OR

    Oct 22–24, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F

    Bend is apparently the 2nd fastest growth city (of a certain size) in America. It enjoys a drier climate thanks to the shield of Cascade Mountains to the west. It is larger and has better amenities than Carson City. But this results in higher costs of real estate.

    The Deschutes River flows though the town and homes in Awbrey Butte to the NW overlook the rest of town. There's a lot of new homes in the SE of town.

    Bend is close to skiing on Mt Hood and Mt Batchelor, and enjoys some 300 days of sunshine/year.  It has 4 seasons, with some snow, and colder winters than coastal towns that have Mediterranean climates.

    We spent our time touring neighborhoods and homes both resale and new. We learned about Oregon's city growth boundaries that constrains growth, as well as their housing development density rules that mandate a minimum number of dwellings per acre.

    We changed upon Wild Rose, one of Bend's Thai restaurants. A man in line said it was the best one, hard to get into, without a reservation, and specialized in northern Thai. It was very good, and had some dishes new to us.    Read more

  • Ashling's LogExploring the WestTraveler
    On the east side of the Cascades, there are many hundreds of wind turbines.
    Grass valley is one of many small Oregon towns, but this one is big enough to have a P.O.I think we got "left behind"!The Dalles dam. The flume's outflow is center.Beautiful Horsetail Falls on the Rt 30 bypass.Horsetail FallsAt Viente State Park, on the Columbia.Oneonta Tunnel, created in 1914 in dicey broken basalt by injecting concrete into crevices.Multnomah Falls, the nation's highest constant flow falls.

    Columbia Gorge

    October 25, 2023 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 46 °F

    Returning to Portland after our visit to Bend and Redmond, we decided to have a strictly tourism day and travel from Hell Gate to Portland along the Columbia River. "Roll on, Columbia, roll on"! 🎶

  • Ashling's LogExploring the WestTraveler
    Mt Hood!
    View from the riverfront restaurant.The cantilevered pedestrian walk over the Columbia River at Terminal 1.

    Vancouver, WA

    Oct 26–29, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 50 °F

    After Portland, we wanted to sample Washington's city upon the Columbia River, just to the north. It is much smaller, of course, with a nice riverfront area that was redeveloped decades after the collapse of the paper industry in the 60s. The riverfront is dominated by high rise rentals and you must drive up Main St to the Hough or Arnada neighborhoods to find resales. These are old neighborhoods with homes from the '20s onwards. Further north by almost 30 minutes is Ridgefield, where new homes are selling quickly and growth is very high.Read more

  • Ashling's LogExploring the WestTraveler
    View from the hill above The Townsend Inn where we stayed.
    The wonderful 1890s buildings hose apartments and many small, fun shopsThe feral and fearless deer are everywhere.The Wooden Boat Foundation educates people about boats and boat-building. This is a sailing communitThe main workroom.One of the skiffs under construction.Brian Toss (RIP) is a renowned rigger, and I chanced upon his shop, now under the leadership of his.Brian's workroom and instructional area.Wow, one of several great Victorians.One of the many coffee shops we enjoy!

    Port Townsend, WA

    Oct 29–31, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 48 °F

    Port Townsend is one of the most NW points in the Seattle area. We drove up this peninsula, but it is reachable by ferry from the eastern shore as well.

    This is a side trip for touring and to see old friends. It's also, unfortunately, a spot to recuperate from a fall head cold.

    But we got to have a really good dinner with Dan & JoEmily, friends of Alexis from her earliest days at Hughes Aircraft. Dan is Yakima-born, so he retired home with JoEmily to what is a really charming and lively community.

    Port Townsend boasts a school for wooden -boat building (like Maine), the Wooden Boat Foundation. In addition, there is Brian Toss Rigging, whose founder, now deceased, is a legendary figure in modern boat rigging. His designated successor is Ian Weedman and they conduct classes for U.S.C.G. inspectors as well as rerigging vessels, usually with synthetic materials.

    The town was bypassed as a terminal for railroads in the 1890s, and became a backwater until the hippies discovered it. It still has amazing buildings from that era. It was also where An Officer and a Gentleman was filmed, at Ft Warden. That is now a state park, and the officers quarters may be rented.    Read more

  • Ashling's LogExploring the WestTraveler
    Ferry leaving Port Townsend
    Virtual sculpture using augmented reality!T. Rex in the woodsThis was titled something like "Stevo's dream, the ultimate flying machine".South Whidbey Island State Park viewA gigantic pineFungi rock!The Whidbey Island shoreline in great weather 😁Approaching the mainland from Whidbey Island.Another ferry - this route runs every 30 minutes.

    Whidbey Island, WA

    October 31, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 50 °F

    After taking the Port Townsend - Coupeville ferry to Whidbey Island, we followed some advice we got at a coffee shop encounter and toured the Price Sculpture Forest, and then South Whidbey State Park.

    The sculptures were fun, whimsical and sometimes thought provoking. Definitely worth the visit! See sculptureforest.org/macrae-wylde-stevos-dream-t…

    The state park is an old-growth area, never logged, with plenty of 5-6 foot diameter pine trees.    Read more

  • Ashling's LogExploring the WestTraveler

    Seattle, WA

    Oct 31–Nov 3, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 52 °F

    We really liked the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle - a nice collection of shops, bars, restaurants and live music. But we did get wet in a steady rain, while eating ice cream.

    The Seattle Asian Art Museum has some amazing artifacts and an interesting juxtaposition of art in Japan's Edo period with 1890s Parisian life, as captured by Toulouse-Lautrec and others.Read more

  • Ashling's LogExploring the WestTraveler
    Garden of the Gods
    Red Rock Canyon birdRed Rock CanyonView from the rocks in Red Rock CanyonCliff dwellings from 1200 AD.One room dedicated to grinding corn and managing crops.

    Colorado Springs

    November 4, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 64 °F

    We started our Colorado phase here in Colorado Springs. It is quite a large metro area, with over 479,000 people and a quite small urban center. With such a wide-spread area, single family homes predominate and prices are relatively low in spite of 15% growth since 2010.

    We did try to visit nearby Pikes Peak, but they had closed the road 9 miles below the peak due to 50mph winds, blowing snow, and road ice. This was on a sunny fall day in the low 60s! We went instead to a museum of the ancient cliff-dwelling Indians, who abruptly abandoned the area after enduring a 25 year drought in 1275 AD. It's thought that they later became the Pueblo Indians of our era.

    We did a short hike in Red Rock Canyon - stunning views. And the Garden of the Gods as well.

    We toured a number of homes and developments, but ultimately we decided to move along to our next stop.    Read more

  • Ashling's LogExploring the WestTraveler

    Boulder, CO

    November 10, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 54 °F

    I have good memories of Boulder from my days at Ericsson, when they purchased a division from Qualcomm to gain a foothold (temporarily) in the CDMA technology. Ultimately, Ericsson was all about the European technology standards track of GSM, WCDMA, LTE, etc. But for awhile, we developed tools more measuring CDMA network quality, with the captive lab cell sites in Boulder. This is with Pralay Bhaumik, one of our engineers.

    In addition, my niece-in-law lives here, so it was a chance to catch up with her family. But it is off our list of places to live, due to its outrageously overpriced housing market.    Read more

  • Ashling's LogExploring the WestTraveler
    Stu and John on the 6th floor.

    Denver, CO

    November 11, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 61 °F

    John's martial arts partner Stu, from Virginia, now lives in Denver and has created a small group of like-minded people to study Park-style Hapkido, the art we were taught. We had a fun Saturday morning, informal practice in which I remembered a lot and discovered how much you forget over four years! Cheers to GM Mike Newby for welcoming a stranger, and Stu for keeping the art alive!

    After visiting Stu and Andrea's lovely river-front apartment with a 6th floor view of the Rockies, Alexis said she wanted to look at places like that in Denver! So we looked at prices for 3 bedroom apartments, but quickly concluded it was not in our future.

    Onward again!    Read more

  • Ashling's LogExploring the WestTraveler
    Christmas decorations downtown in Ft Collins
    Kevin overlooked by Koa, the Bonzai Bengal Bomber.Horsetooth Reservoir, a boating and climbing spot just west of Ft Collins.Horsetooth ReservoirKevin and Clayton climbing, Bryan belaying.

    Ft Collins, CO

    November 12, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 63 °F

    Ft Collins is a really nice place, with a mix of old and new properties reflecting the history and the recent growth. They have Colorado State University, founded as an agricultural college, now with 34,000 students and 65 fields of study. Downtown is a marvelously walkable area very close to single family homes from the 1920s, with bars, restaurants and music.

    Looking at properties, we saw some very "interesting" places, including a master-plumber's property with steam-punk tendencies and a workshop out back for (1st floor) Harley-Davidson's and (2nd floor) stained glass. Heating was in triplicate: pellet stoves, propane boiler for radiant floor heating, and heat-pumps.

    We were able to visit with Kevin and Kristi, whom we met in Eleuthera Bahamas during the COVID lockdown period and later buddy-boated with back to the United States

    John was able to do some rock climbing with Kevin at Horsetooth Reservoir, the first climbing he had done in about 45 years.    Read more

  • Ashling's LogExploring the WestTraveler

    Golden, CO

    November 15, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 45 °F

    We returned to Denver and used out time to verify that Denver is over-the-top big, expensive and has pretty big rush hour traffic jams. But it's also close to Golden, so we visited and found it to be very nice, although very much a college town - CSU's school of mining is a large presence.

    It's about 25 minutes west of Denver, surrounded by table top plateaus and low mountains. Great views all around!

    It is also home the American Mountaineering Museum, so we visited that. They have a pretty extraordinary library of mountaineering. I found that my 1970's Robinson/Chouinard "Clean Climbing" book/catalog is now a valuable item. I did the obligatory check and found 0 first ascents by Morfits. Ah well, maybe me?    Read more

  • Ashling's LogExploring the WestTraveler
    At Cafe Degas. Edgar Degas lived in NoLa in 1872.
    This is Gregory. Cousin of Zeke, I think (inside jk).One of the bedrooms. Spacious, but no AC back in the day.A Quervelle table, not original to the plantation. Used in NoLa for a signing with Lafayette.He was only paid $1.00 for painting an entire community center auditorium.Walter observed animals for hours at a time. He tried to develop a "language" of pelicans.More symbolic than real, here.Street performers that actually played music. Most are godawful noise :(.Good acrobatics by really cut young men.Mansions in New Orleans.French Quarter starting up.

    New Orleans, LA

    November 16, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 68 °F

    Is New Orleans part of the West? It was when Thomas Jefferson took a flyer and purchased it in 1803, doubling the size of the United States! The entire statehood was a disputed subject at the time (https://www.myneworleans.com/how-louisiana-beca…)

    We stayed with Alexis' good friend Patty Bel, who was the first person she met at Georgia Tech.

    We've also been able to hang out with our mutual friends, Kathy and Michael Liebaert, whom we met in Staniel Cay while cruising the Bahamas. Among many other things, Michael is the dockmaster at a marina just off Lake Pontchartrain and I helped him dock a 40 meter super yacht arriving from Gulfport. We drove through City Park, where they are setting up a holiday lights tour that looks fantastic. We got to see the Two Sisters Conservatory where Michael and Kathy were married (and which Michael managed the construction of, earlier). After touring the Metairie Cemetery and some of the different neighborhoods, they introduced us to Cafe Degas, a wonderfully funky French restaurant on Esplanade.

    We got over to see the Destrehan Plantation, which Michael spent a number of years working upon as a board member and 'guy with good answers' (some from wife Kathy). It's an amazingly well documented plantation (indigo, sugar). The entire enslaved population has been researched and is shown. The plantation house was designed and built in 3 years, starting from standing cypress trees, by a talented slave (Charles Paquet) and 6 others. There is a room containing the original document signed by President Thomas Jefferson appointing Jean Noel Destrehan as a member of the legislative council of the new state of Louisiana, which was responsible for the organization of the state, and the laws.

    The Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs MS is a really rare find! He was a innovative, unique artist that painted, decorated pottery, carved, and produced block prints. His styles included symbolic, realistic, and mystical representation, all with considerable skill.

    Thanksgiving was great - we had two different turkey dinners, one complete with Doberge cake for desert (for Chesapeake sailors, think Smith Island cake), but came with some issues. Just before leaving for our first dinner, the cook of the turducken for yet a third dinner reported the sink clogged and the disposal jammed. After an hour of work, our host Walter and I got a six inch long steel pin removed and we replaced the disposal. Walter then returned to his house where they had set the oven on fire and had to call the fire department!    Read more

  • Ashling's LogExploring the WestTraveler
    Bacchus On The Beach in Pass Christian, MS
    Batteries 5 & 6 on the line that became the decisive battle of New Orleans.Fats Domino's shop. Somewhat neglected now.One fo two nearly identical "Steamboat" houses.Jose-Maria Cundin "The Dark Room of the Bourbons"Michael at a gallery, discussing a Jose-Maria Cundin painting.

    Pass Christian, Slidell & Chalmette

    November 23, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 55 °F

    We've had a very long visit in New Orleans, and enjoyed the company of many different people!

    Thanksgiving was a multi day affair, with a pre-dinner at Patty's neighbors Suzy & Paul, then two Thanksgiving dinners, first with Patty's niece Meghan and then a later dinner with Michael and Kathy. Suzy and Paul followed up with a not-Thanksgiving lasagna dinner.

    We visited Slidell, about 30 minutes out of New Orleans and stayed over at Daryl's lovely home. We also attended a Friendsgiving party at Darryl's friend Greg's home in Slidell, complete with a swim in a well-heated pool.

    Finally, we had a wonderful dinner at a friend of Michael's, coincidentally in Patty's neighborhood. While Patty hadn't ever met David, they had many common acquaintances. David was quite the art aficionado, and also had great skill and artistic sense working in iron and brass to create furniture, including basketweave tables, bar stools, occasional chairs, and beautiful bed frames, some with canopies. His collection of Jose-Maria Cundin (a Basque artist) paintings and sculpture was amazing, and he had drawings by lesser known, but skilled and creative people like Tom Seacrest of Lafayette. David and Michael have worked together on projects for decades, like the City Park greenhouse renovation.    Read more

    Trip end
    November 28, 2023
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