UnSpecified Chatter

Hello everyone, not much activity on the old blog here. Seems like it’s mostly a repository for my travel adventures lately. The good thing is that I have been traveling so here is the report.

There might be better places to spend the winter holidays then the shadows of Rocky Mountain National Park, but right now I can’t think of one. Having never been to Colorado I was unprepared for the impact that seeing the boundless natural beauty in person can have. Pictures don’t really do it justice, although it didn’t stop me from taking as many as I could before my camera froze.

We are visiting my newly minted in-laws who retired to Estes Park in the late 80’s. They live about five minutes from the park, and skiving off their senior citizens discount card we have had cheap access to the trails that in the summertime a bit more of challenge. In the winter, trudging up the trails is a bit easier and the scenery is breathtaking.

Christmas day was a bit of a shake out hike around Sprague Lake as the snow had visibility limited. We had a good time making our way though the mountain greenery testing out our variously borrowed and rented equipment.

The day after Christmas (Boxing day for you in the commonwealth), was a gloriously sunny day and we set out for Emerald Lake at the base of Flattop Mountain. The trek up to the lake afforded some spectacular views of rock formations, greenery, and mountain ranges. The entire area was right out of some kind of winter fantasy tale.

The weather was cold but manageable until we got to our destination at Emerald Lake where the wind chill caused our flesh to burn off the bone. I was astonished to find the number of people on the trail, but this area is ground zero for the hiking and camping set so I really shouldn’t have been surprised. On the way back we enjoyed a cheese sandwich with some half frozen water as we gazed upon Long’s Peak, a 14,000 foot trophy climb that tempts elevation freaks from around the world.

Thursday was host to a snow storm that had us inside most of the day but we did manage a walk around the neighborhood and trip into the quaint town center of Estes Park which is largely a ghost town this time of year, but we found a nice bar with some entertainment where we spent a pleasant evening.

Today the weather is a bit on the chilly side so we are not hiking, a trip to Boulder is in order today to see some family and eat at Dawn’s favorite Ethiopian restaurant.

As always, pics below the fold.

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Ahoy Matey! Well we did put on quite a show last weekend on the island of Mackinac. And let it be said here and now that the pirates ruled the roost. Sorry top be so late in getting these up but married life does have it’s commitments. For those of you who don’t know, I got married last weekend to my soulmate and partner, Dawn. We had both been down the isle before and it seemed a bit more then self indulgent to try a big white wedding so we opted for a different approach. Since pirates are so hot this year we decided that a pirate wedding was in order.

But in order to have a pirate wedding you need an island and thankfully the State of Michigan provides one: Mackinac. At first the idea was to get a small group of people and have a quiet gathering of a few friends and family and to largely avoid the trappings of the Wedding Industrial Complex. Well small turned to about 50, and everyone got into the act. The idea of a pirate costume wedding caught fire and everyone was involved. We became wedding celebrities for the weekend. Before too long, everyone on the island knew about it.

We arrived on Friday the 5th of October, to some stunning weather. The ferry ride to the island gave us a spectacular view of the mighty Mackinaw bridge.

Most of the party stayed at the Mission Point resort which was a beautiful location and convenient to the site we had picked out for the ceremony. When we arrived some very dear friends had arranged for a treasure trove of pirate booty to greet us as we walked into our lake view room.

Thanks Jeff and Trish, you guys are really special. The day was spent meeting up with our “crew” friends and family were arriving on the island in a steady stream all day.

Read and see more below the fold.

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I know I haven’t been posting much and for that I don’t apologize. Since we got back form Scotland I have since been hired on as a permanent employee at work and that means a couple things, First, as long as I can stay healthy until October first, my health care woes are finally over. Second, it means I am also working a full schedule and trying to come to grips with less free time. But it is a very small price to pay for peace of mind and the extra cash that come with a full schedule.

But there are even more changes for me, in less then two weeks I will marry my best friend and soul mate … Dawn. We have both been down the isle before and frankly the idea of a traditional ceremony seems a bit … well … not us. Also, we realize it’s not the ceremony, it’s not the party, and it’s not about supporting the Wedding Industrial Complex (WIC). It about us, our feelings for each other, and knowing that we want to spend our lives together.

So we sort of decided that since the state of Michigan requires that our marriage license be “solomized” (be careful who you say that in front of…), we would do it in whimsical fashion. So sometime next week end on Mackinaw Island Michigan we will be having a pirate wedding in order to signify the money we will be stealing form the WIC. They will not have our money damn it, we will spend it ourselves.

In that vain however I thought it would be amusing to show off my groomsman outfit.

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What hath debt wrought?

well after my two week stint in Scotland I can tell you that the dollar is week. Against the Pound, the Euro, you name it. I actually made money buy getting pounds and selling them back … the dollar had dropped in the two weeks we were in the UK. Excessive interest cutting in order to prop up the crappy US economy is the reason no doubt. But now we have another issue to contend with … China.

Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress.

Described as China’s “nuclear option” in the state media, such action could trigger a dollar crash at a time when the US currency is already breaking down through historic support levels.

While it’s true that the power house Chinese economy depends on a marginally robust US economy to keep it afloat there is one small thing that makes the threat credible … Chinese politicians don’t have to worry about reelection, pissed off voters, or much of anything really, it’s a totalitarian regime. Kind of gives them a few wild cards in their hand at the showdown.

“China has accumulated a large sum of US dollars. Such a big sum, of which a considerable portion is in US treasury bonds, contributes a great deal to maintaining the position of the dollar as a reserve currency. Russia, Switzerland, and several other countries have reduced the their dollar holdings.

“China is unlikely to follow suit as long as the yuan’s exchange rate is stable against the dollar. The Chinese central bank will be forced to sell dollars once the yuan appreciated dramatically, which might lead to a mass depreciation of the dollar,” he told China Daily.

Now the US could start to impose trade legislation but who is kidding who? We don’t have the stones to pay for shooting wars as we go, let alone a trade war. While this is almost certainly posturing it does highlight how vulnerable we have made ourselves by following a “growth at all costs” trade policy and rushing head long into globalization with countries that don’t really share our enthusiasm for mindless consumerism.

Update: Mr. Anderson makes the reasonable point that the dollar weakening has more to do lately with printing dollars then interest rate cutting which is true. The interest rate cutting has been there of course over the last 6 years in order to “stimulate the economy”. Apparently the tax cuts weren’t enough. Also, it’s worth mentioning, the tax cuts have also contributed to the problem by creating more debt.

This should be the one of the last of the Scotland travel log posts, I hope you have enjoyed the pics!!! Before I get on with it be sure and check out Truly’s version of the Adventure to McKinnon’s cave over at “The Loch Ness Blog“. She can spin a powerful yarn that woman can!!!!

A couple of answers to questions are in order; to Mr. Anderson who asked if I ate Haggis. The answer is, of course, black pudding as well. They’re both good but not as easy to find as you might think. In Glasgow you can find all kinds of restaurants from Indian food to Italian or Chinese but finding traditional Scottish food in Scotland is a dicey proposition (imagine trying to find a restaurant that serves chittlins in most US eateries). One other thing that freaked us out is the fact that every pub we went into served Bud Light on tap. I mean like.. why? What self respecting Scot bellies up to the bar and orders Bud friggin Light? Anyway…

After Loch Ness we made our way up to Inverness located along the banks of the River Ness (hence the name). We rolled into town and had dinner at an oh so trendy eatery by the river after dumping our bags off at the B&B. The next day was another down day for the Young Master; Shaun spent the day hunting down an internet cafe to get some work done. I joined Truly and Dawn for a hike along the river and we ended up at the Inverness Castle. We decided not to tour it since we had already done the 19th century on the Isle of Bute. We did gaze out over the city as we rested on the grassy knoll in front of the castle and spent the rest of the day strolling around town taking in the city. We left that afternoon for our next stop in Pitlochry as we made our way down the east side of Scotland

The stop in Pitlochry was designed to set the stage for a hike in the pass of Killiecrankie, which would have been a redux for Truly (read about that exciting adventure here). Alas, the weather did not seem to cooperate. It was rainy, crappy, and so typically Scottish that we decided to call of the hike. But what to do, that was the big question at the breakfast table. As luck would have it the B&B was stocked with all kinds of tourist information literature, so we started having a look at that and came across a notice for the Scottish Crannog center, a reconstruction of an iron age dwelling found throughout Ireland and Scotland. Since we have already done the 19th century, the middle ages and the 16th century, we though the iron age would be a good show and it was.

We saw the reconstruction of the Crannog which is an artificial island built out on the lochs(lakes) for protection and saw a demonstration of what Iron Age technology might be like. I also lost a pound to Julian in an archery match (he was sandbagging me). And I also made fire (thus cementing my reputation as an Iron age Stud muffin). We had a lovely picnic in the hot, not so Scottishesq, sun and then when off looking for the Acharn Falls and the hermit cave near the banks of Loch Tay. There seems to be a lot of Hermits in Scotland. The falls were great, the hermit cave was a blast and we got some great pics.

The rest of the trip consisted of getting lost in Carnoustie on our way to Dundee and spending some time on beach on the east coast of Scotland near Dundee. We returned to Glasgow exhausted but with enough energy to spend our last night dining on haggis, experimenting with our new found knowledge of Scottish single malt whiskey and experiencing the bedlam of a typical Thursday night in the pub center of downtown Glasgow.

As always there are pics below the fold!

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OK so we left the beautiful Isle of Mull and headed north to the gateway city of the upper highlands, Inverness. Loch Ness was on the way so we decided to see if we could catch a glimpse of Nessie. We decided to kill two birds with one stone by making our way to Urquhart Castle, the ruins of a medieval stronghold on the shores of Loch Ness. We figured that would be as good a place as any to try and get a photo of the creature and soak up a bit of history.

Before we hit the road we spent some time in Oban, a small coastal town, where we ate seafood (Julian’s treat) and toured the local whiskey distillery. I had never had the opportunity to really learn anything about the fine art of spirit making and the tour was as fascinating as it was informative. As a bonus I got to be the guinea pig for the end of the tour tasting session. I was a lucky, lucky boy!

We piled in the car and made our way to the medieval ruins of Urquhart Castle which is, in my opinion a great exhibit. Great Britain (and most of Europe I imagine) is dotted with medieval structures and they come in three basic flavors, ruins, restored, and rebuilt. Rebuilt structures are ones where government or private interests add on to the site, change it, or remodel it for modern uses like hotels, or just for simple aesthetic value. The problem is that it’s difficult to tell what the structure actually looked like back in the day and what is new. The restored structures try to mimic the way the structure might have looked if you showed up in a time machine (see the story about the Abby on the Isle of Iona in the last post). Ruins basically show you what is left of the original structure adding only those enhancements to make it safe for people to walk around.

Urquhart Castle has a very nice visitors center with a museum, some information on running a castle of that size in the middle ages (the various servants and craftsmen required to keep the place running), and a model of how the castle looked back in the day. The grounds had a full sized trebuchet on display, and a number of high spots which afforded a great view of the loch. They also had a pretty good sized gift shop (natch) which Julian took advantage of to buy a genuine Scottish viking hat souvenir made in China.

Now I know you really aren’t all that interested in history, castles or Chinese plastic goods, what grabbed your attention is the deal with Nessie and here it is.

We didn’t see anything other then the lake at the castle so we decided to press on. As we cruised up A82 with it’s winding roads along the loch I thought I saw something breaking the surface of the water. I screamed for Truly to stop the car. She squealed the tires, the van jerked to a halt, I bolted out while turning on my camera and stumbling to a clearing in some reeds I managed to snap this shot.

So here I was thinking that I would be rich beyond imagination when I made my way around the grass and lo and behold the “monster” was right there performing tricks for a huge group of happy tourists. The gag is that “Nessie” is a local attraction giving shows at 2 and 5 PM each day with a matinée on Sunday. There was the so called monster doing back flips, signing autographs for the local kids, and posing for picture by groups of Japanese tourists. The whole thing is a huge scam to keep the tourists rolling in. So there you have it, don’t waste you time trying to find the Loch Ness Monster, just get in line like everyone else.

More Pictures below the fold.

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Hey Gang, back in the states once again. We arrived safe and sound Friday and are experiencing the joys of trying to launder the highland mud off our cloths and catch up on some sleep as our last day in Glasgow was spent at the historic Quality Hotel, apparently located in the middle of the bar and pub district. The party raged all night as those Glaswegians are second to none in their ability to throw down. The place sounded like Michigan and Trumble right after the Tigers won the World Series in 1984 until about 4 am.

Anyway in order to keep the friends and family up to date, the travel log takes us to the tiny Island of Iona just off the Isle of Mull. Iona holds an important place in the history of Christianity for all of the northern half of Great Brittan. In the 6th century St. Columba founded a monastery on the tiny island and proceeded to convert all of Scotland and Northern England to Christianity. The monastery was sacked during the reformation and a Nunnery was founded in the twelfth century. Steeped in history the small Island allows only a few cars and is still considered a Christian place of pilgrimage. The Abbey was restored in the 40’s and 50’s while the nunnery remains a ruin. Several Scottish, Irish, and Norwegian kings are buried on the Island and the Abbey is home to the Iona Community, an inter-denominational ecumenical group founded in 1934, and is committed to peace and justice.

Shaun and the young master stayed behind to catch up on some work in Shaun’s case, and sleep in Julian’s case, whilst I accompanied Dawn and Truly to the island. We toured the ruins of the nunnery as well as the abbey and made a trek up to the highest peak on the Island island. From there we could see the entire island which is a mere 1 mile by 3 miles. On our way to the peak we were treated to the “running of the sheep” when a heard of the woolly buggers were herded down the street to the delight of tourists like us who have never seen anything like this outside of a petting zoo. As they say, if you want to test your grit, you must run with the sheep.

The visit to the island was wonderful, we took the ferry back to the Isle of Mull and then ran into a bit of trouble with the local not so wild wildlife. The road that circles the Isle of Mull is a one lane affair where you are constantly having to pull over and let other cars pass. On the way back to our B&B, we ran into two pairs of hielan’ coo who were nursing their young right in the middle of the road. Now mind you, I’m a city kid, I don’t know how cows work. I thought they might charge or step on me to protect their young. What the hell do I know?

So, I got out of the car and tried to make them move off the roadway. I did this by pointing to where I wanted them to go and whistling at them like a you might at a dog, and saying, “over here, come on …”. The whole thing must have looked retarded. Anyway, before too long some Euro-trash weenie came along jumped out of his BMW, walked right up to the beasties, and started waving at them to move; which they did. In my defense they did look like killers.

The whole thing was nerve racking, we were so shook up by our experience, first with the running of the sheep, and the killer coo’s we had to spend dinner in the pub tossing back pints of Guinness’. Next up … the trip to Inverness and Pitlochry.

More pics below the fold

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Or … In which we screw up, tempt fate, and risk death.

The Isle of Mull is a popular attraction featuring spectacular views, castles, and history. The Island is dotted with farms and crawling with sheep, goats and highland cows, or rather heilan’ coos. After the long and arduous hike up to the peak of Ben Lomond we were keen for something a bit less dramatic. We took the advice of a tourist website for a short hike to the site of McKinnon’s cave on the east coast of the island. This is where things got interesting.

Rather then fork over the 6 pounds they wanted for the map to the cave, we decided to go strictly by the description on the web site. The route to the cave is actually pretty well marked but there was one point where we had to make a crucial decision about whether to go left or right. Since this was along private property the trail was marked by some signs put up, presumably, by the property owners. It was not like a well marked park service trail; this one took us though grazing land segmented off by barb wire fences and gates so frankly the web site description could have fit about any direction you felt like taking.

As you might guess we picked the wrong way. For the record it should be noted here that Julian, inspired by a profound desire to avoid a repeat of yesterdays climb, was right all along about the right way to go. Had we just listened to him the story would end here with a short walk along the rugged shoreline to the cave, scarcely inspiring a victory photo - sadly, this was not to be the case.

We climbed up on to a ridge that rose up sharply from the shore, climbing higher and higher as we went, affording us some extremely dramatic vistas of the shore line below. In our defense, the website description said that we would encounter “increasingly dramatic views”, so we naively though we were on the right path. But the hills were covered with sheep and goat tracks - dozens of them. Every time we turned around we thought we were on the “right path” only to discover that this one was another dead end. We climbed for some time trying to find a trail or path that fit the website description. At one point Julian flatly refused to continue saying that, “we were going the wrong way”; he was right. We forged up ever higher until we came upon a waterfall. Since the website description mentioned a waterfall we thought we found it; there was much rejoicing. We inspected the area we saw the cave at the bottom of the gorge below. Jackpot! We were excited, jubilated, and dog tired from the climb over the ridge, but we found it and we would soon meet our objective. At least that what we thought.

I went down the gorge to inspect the situation and got a bit more then carried away as the rest of the group lost site of me. Was it stupid? Yes. Was it foolhardy? Sure. So why did I do it? Well to be the first one to the cave of course. After being dressed down by my concerned fiancé, I realized there was no way down to the cave with out rock climbing equipment or death. But now we had come down too far to go back the way we came. We had to work the whole group across the face of shear hills hovering over ominously jagged rocks. One slip and any of us could have fallen to our doom. We clung to the tufts of grass as we made our way slowly across the face of the ridge until we all were back to top still puzzling about how to get down to the cave.

Before too long we figured that we just couldn’t get to the cave from here and that the web sites description was full of shite. We had to get down off the ridge and we found a spot that seemed as if it might afford us a way down while avoiding serious injury or death. We gingerly made it back up across the sides of the deadly gorge to a large fenced meadow we rested a bit and at this point we might have given thanks to a deity for sparing our lives, if we were all inclined that way; we weren’t. We started walking towards the farm house where the van was parked.

Dejected after failing to complete out mission we tired to console ourselves with the idea that it have been a good effort. Then after about twenty minutes just as we had given up all hope we came across a gate in the fence that had a sign that clearly said something to the effect of “this way to the cave”. We after risking life and limb we simply couldn’t pass up the trip to the cave so we headed down to the shore line and made the much shorter trip to our destination. The walk was a bit treacherous but not anywhere as life threatening as the highland route.

The cave was not anywhere near as exciting as the overland adventure but we did get the obligatory victory photo at the mouth of the cave. Coming back to the car we had one more challenge to overcome, staring straight into the face of deadly ferocious cows blocking our way we had to shoo them with all our adventurers powers.

That night we ate Italian food, got giddy on a couple bottles of wine and celebrated the fact that we were still alive and decided that tomorrow would be a bit more sedate as we headed off to the Isle of Iona.

The ferry ride to the Isle of Mull

More pics below the fold:

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Well the internet hasn’t made the impact on the Highlands of Scotland that is has in say, everywhere in the US, so these posts have been backing up a bit. But we press on giving you all of the details of our Scottish adventure whether you like it our not.

Our last day in Glasgow was uneventful as we used the time to prepare for the road ahead. We said a giddylicious good-by to Glasgow by anxiously alliterating endlessly as we loaded our rented and very American Kia Sedonia for our highland adventure. We took out a home owner’s loan in order to gas up the van and all piled in letting Truly navigate the hulking vehicle through streets deigned for small carts pulled by highland cows (or as they say around here, heilan’ coos).

Our last day in Glasgow was uneventful as we used the time to prepare for the road ahead (and catch the latest Harry Potter movie). We left our Glasgow home base at the Queen Margaret residence at the University of Glasgow (a great cheap way to see Europe is to stay in University dorms during the summer. Not as fancy as a hotel but a step up from a hostel)

Our first stop would be the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond, but more specifically a hike up to the top of Ben Lomond. I had envisioned a leisurely stroll up a gentle graduating path, but then I was informed that “ben” means mountain in Scottish. So up we climbed over 3100 feet on a narrow, rocky, coo shite strewn path that gave us a spectacular view of the loch. That is until we started to climb into the clouds when things turned decidedly wet, windy, and steep. At this point we couldn’t see much more then 20 or 30 feet in front of us which made it a guessing game as to how far we needed to climb in order to get to the top.

At one point Julian, who was getting more then a bit disenchanted with the rigor of the adventure, decided to speed up ahead of us. After about 40 minutes the young master appeared out of the fog claiming to have made it to the top. He tried to get us to turn back by telling us that the top was “nothing special”. I demanded to know what the plaque at the peak said. Julian claimed not to have seen any plaque or monument. At this point we were all more then a bit suspicious that the young master had, in fact, reached the top. Not buying his tale and preferring to reach the peak ourselves, we pressed on.

We reached a small bald and figured that we had reached the top but there was no monument. At this point visibility was down to about 15 feet. I was sure there was a monument for the trite and predictable victory photo. After a bit of nosing around the top of the mountain we finally found what we were looking for, a small concrete obelisk about 5 feet tall. We ran into some chaps from London who took the celebratory photo minus Julian who bailed on us a while back.

That night we stayed in a cute B&B which fortified us for the next day’s adventure which was a ferry ride to the Isle of Mull.

Pictures below the fold!

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Back again, drinking at the Partick Tavern enjoying a few pints, blogging, and bringing you pictures from the past two days (we were pretty wiped out last night and decided to just drink).

We began that exhausting day on a tour of Glasgow’s city center, and arrived by subway thus the title of tonights blog. Seriously, instead of the terse command by an irritated man of “Doors are closing” so common on U.S. subways, you get a very feminine nurturing “Please mind the gap whilst alighting from the train”. So polite, so very “civilized”. We spent the day frolicking though the city center, visiting the shops, chatting up the proprietors, and soaking up the hustle and bustle of the city.

We visited Dawn’s daughter Truly at work at the prestigious Lighthouse in the Glasgow city center. The Lighthouse is an exhibition center for architecture and design design and is also home to the Six Cities Design festival which is the largest festival in the world highlighting all manner of Scottish design. We traipsed around the exhibitions, climbed up the tower, and took part in one where it invited people to design their own souvenirs that reflected the character of the city of Glasgow. We joined people from all over the world who where there creating their own sculptures (see our creations below).

After that we spent the rest of the day walking around the city (and walking and walking) and joined Truly and Shaun for dinner at a local vegetarian restaurant called Grass Roots. On the way Shaun gave us a quick tour of his school, the University of Glasgow, with it’s 16th century buildings and oh so Gothic European atmosphere. It was just like being at Hogwart’s. Eventually we made it to a small pub with no internet access, where we rested our aching feet, and frankly we were too tired to give a shit. But not too tired to drink!!!!

The next morning we awoke bright and early (ok more like late morning) we grabbed Julian and caught the train the Edinburgh. If you’re looking for an experience that is a bit more tourist-ty. Edinburgh is the place for you. Granted the architecture is more spectacular’ it’d the political capital of Scotland, and hosts many of Scotland’s top attractions like the Edinburgh castle. But it also hosts a souvenir shop ratio of stuff to buy made in china that Glasgow simply cannot compete with. But make no mistake it is a must do one any trip to Scotland which is exactly why we were there.

The castle is worth the price of admission (9 pounds) for the history, the spectacular view of Edinburgh and the narration by kilted tour guides. We spent most of the day there taking in the various structures on the compound from the oldest which was a 12th century chapel dedicated to Saint Margaret to some of the more recent additions made by Queen Victoria to make the castle more impressive and sell more post cards.

We also took a tour of some of the underground catacomb’s found underneath the city which boosts a colorful, if not terrifying, history of murder, mayhem and death. The stories of ghosts, death, and torture where entertaining. We were treated to a nip of whiskey in the “Instruments of pain” shopping mall while we all picked out our favorite.

Which pretty much brings us up to date as we sit here, sipping Guinness and bringing you these pictures. Tomorrow we are planning on Shakespeare in the park so until then … Enjoy!!!!

Rick and Dawn

On the train with the “Young Master” Julian

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