Friday Harbor

When John heard that we were going to the San Juan Islands, he told us that we should definitely visit Friday Harbor. So we took the ferry over to Friday Harbor from Orcas Island one morning, looked around, had lunch, and returned.

We had been doing a lot of serious eating, so we were not in the mood for a big meal. We picked Downriggers Restaurant for lunch because it was right on the harbor edge with a good view. We were told that all the tables on the deck outside were taken, but we could sit inside and look out the window. That was fine with us because neither of us likes to sit in the sun.

We each ordered a salad. I ordered a "Blackened Salmon Cobb". While we were waiting, I reflected on how you can never get a real Cobb salad any more (as invented by the Brown Derby Restaurant in Hollywood) with all the ingredients chopped and blended before it is brought to the table. When it arrived it was as I suspected: a pile of lettuce topped with some chunks of grilled salmon, a sliced avocado, a sliced hard boiled egg, and a handful of bacon bits. I tasted some of the salmon. It was as good as salmon ever gets. I tried some of the lettuce. It was fantastic - very fresh, tender and flavorful. When I mixed the salad I found that the proportions of all the ingredients were perfect. I could not identify the clear dressing, but I think that it was similar to the original dressing at the Brown Derby. They called it a Chili Lime Vinaigrette. It harmonized but did not intrude.

Amazing. We walked into a rather plain looking restaurant that we knew nothing about and I had the best Cobb Salad in forty years. It was even better than the version served at Charlie Brown's in Marina Del Ray, California in around 1965.

American Idiot

This is a punk rock opera. It was born on Gilman Street in Berkeley of all places. We attended a sold out performance at the Berkeley Rep this evening and were blown away. Words and pictures do not adequately describe it. If you ever have an opportunity to see a live production, do so. Without delay.

Long after the performance was over, I began to wonder about something. This was a punk rock opera. There was a lot of yelling and screaming protesting the way the world is. That's very different than 40 years ago when protest took the form of ballads like "Where Have all the Flowers Gone" and "Blowing in the Wind". Political discourse has become much more shrill in the last dozen years or so. It has now reached an extreme. The Democrats blame it all on those bad Republicans. The Republicans say no, those bad Democrats started it. I began to wonder whether what's really happening is that the generation that grew up with punk rock has now entered politics.

A House in Bali

An advantage of living in Berkeley is that we have the opportunity of seeing mind expanding, beyond the cutting edge, productions that would be rare elsewhere. "A House in Bali" is a perfect example. I do not know whether to call it a play, a musical. a two act opera, a ballet, or a combination of all four. It is a story of East/West cultural contact and misunderstanding that takes place in Bali in the 1930s loosely based on actual history. The performers include a western orchestra (the Bang on a Can All Stars), a gamelan orchestra (Gamelan Salukat), western singers, and Balinese singers and dancers. It was written by an MIT professor who also conducts the Bang on a Can All Stars. A member of the Scripps faculty plays Margaret Mead, a soprano.

Well, our minds have been stretched and we are still wondering what to make of it.

Standardized Descansos

The simple explanation of why I collect descanso photographs is that they are the only form of pure non commercial folk art that I know of. Well, it's not quite that simple. Most states have laws regulating descansos. Some prohibit them. Some allow them as long as they are some distance away from the roadway. Some allow descansos as long as they are a particular design. Some states provide standard, approved, descanso designs.

I do not know what Montana law is, but we saw one particular form of cross again and again. Here is an example beside U. S. 2 near Marias Pass. I suspect that these are supplied by the State of Montana.

More Descansos

One pleasant surprise on our trip to Glacier National Park was that we saw some descansos next to the highways leading there. (See July 2005 for more on the subject of descansos.)

This is one of several that we saw inside the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. They are the first that we have ever seen with a Native American theme. (Note the two gray feathers in this case.)

I was able to add 6 descanso photos to my collection. I could have taken many more, but they would have been near duplicates of the same design.)

Pike Street Market

Between Glacier National Park and Orcas Island we stopped in Seattle for a day. That gave us both a chance to see the Pike Street Market for the first time. I took lots of photos to add to my "market" collection. I have also photographed markets in Budapest, Vienna, Barcelona, and Mendocino. (I have photographed the Berkeley farmer's market also but the photos are so bad that I can't use them. I'll have to keep trying.)

Orcas Island

After we returned from Glacier National Park, we spent four days on Orcas Island, part of the San Juan Islands in Washington State. It is hard to pick one photo to depict Orcas. There are marinas, and harbors. There is farmland. There are little villages. There is forest. As you can see, I chose to depict some farmland close to our inn.

We stayed at the Turtleback Farm Inn. I suppose that there are other good places to stay on the island, but I don't see how they could be better than Turtleback. We had a very large and well lit room with a peaceful view out onto the pasture where sheep were grazing. Breakfasts were of the highest B&B quality. All the amenities were very well thought out and complete.

During the day, we walked on trails in the forest, visited various harbors, wandered through the little village, and generally relaxed and did some serious reading. One day we took the ferry to Friday harbor on San Juan island where we looked around and had lunch.

Our inn did not serve dinner, so we were on our own fortified with advice from our innkeeper. Here is a report:

New Leaf Cafe: An incredibly good meal in every respect. We shared a grilled fig salad with local greens, pear, pancetta, and gorgonzola with a creamy lemon dressing. I had a wild mushroom risotto with hazel nuts, pear tomatoes, crimini and shitake mushrooms. Katherine had a shellfish pot with Buck Bay clams, mussels, and Alaskan King Crab. All this was accompanied by a bottle of Mt. Baker Pinot Gris. I had one glass of Klinker Brick Old Vine Zinfandel with my risotto. We were blown away by the quality of this meal. The chef was Robert Chenault, a Cordon Bleu grad.

The Inn at Ships Bay: We started with local oysters. Salty, but carefully shucked and pleasant. Then Katherine had local salmon - overcooked and dry. I ordered a special of the day not on the menu: Bouillabaisse. It was unusual. The broth was about 3/8"deep at the bottom of the bowl. So the fish and clams and mussels were little boulders poking out of the thin layer of broth. Some of the fish had been grilled rather than cooked in the broth. Now there is nothing wrong with a new approach to an old classic per se. The downfall was the broth. It was more like flavored saltwater than a rich fish stock. The predominant spice was black pepper that seemed to be added to disguise the lack of a proper fish base. No saffron was detectable. This restaurant had been recommended highly and we were predisposed to like it. However the kitchen was not capable of producing the items offered. The hostess and waiter were second rate.

Kingfish Inn: This small and unpretentious restaurant with a great view was a pleasant change of pace. We started with fried oysters. You do not see that often and they are not typical foodie fare but I like them. These were the best I have ever had. This restaurant prides itself on making the best hamburger on the island, but that was not what we had in mind for an entrée. The waiter said that the other signature dishes were freshly caught wild salmon with red curry sauce and freshly caught halibut with green curry sauce. So that's what we had and were glad that we did.

Deer Harbor Inn: When we walked in, it seemed unpromising because of the 1940s ranch decor and the emptiness of the dining room. However, an appetizer of smoked wild salmon with Gravenstein apple slices and white cheddar strips woke us up. This was followed by a very good broccoli soup and then a salad of fresh local greens. Then as an entrée Katherine had seafood with Penne. Since I had eaten salmon or another seafood every day for five days, I had a New York steak. Perfectly cooked. For desert we shared a wonderful apple pie made with local Gravensteins.

Glacier National Park

This year we went to Glacier National Park for the first time. We have always been in love with Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Zion, the Grand Tetons, and the Sawtooth Mountains. So we never thought that we had missed much. However, we were astonished to learn how beautiful Glacier is. The photo above is from our hotel. I walked out the hotel door early one morning, walked another 50 feet, and snapped what was in front of me.

We met our old and good friends, the Howells at Glacier National Park and explored it with them. (That was the best part of the trip.) We did the touristy things: a ride on the red bus over the Continental Divide on Going-to-the-Sun Road to MacDonald Lake where we had lunch at the hotel, and a boat ride the length of Waterton Lake.

We stayed at the old lodge on Swiftcurrent Lake for four nights and then spent the last night near the West entrance to he park. The food was typical of all the grand old National Park hotels. Adequate but not exciting. So, I will not go into any detail. I will say however that the food at the hotel on Lake MacDonald was a notch above the rest.

We did not drive from Berkeley. We flew to Spokane and rented a car instead. Nevertheless, we did a lot of driving. When we go again we will look into taking the train from Berkeley to Seattle and then from there to Glacier National Park.

Elephants Walking to Water under Yellow Acacia Trees

In the last year I have learned a lot about the post processing of digital photographs. When shooting with color film, the adage was get it right the first time. So when I switched to digital, I displayed or printed what I shot without realizing that a great deal can often be done to make the photos more realistic and interesting.

Now I am going back to all the digital color photographs that I have ever taken and taking a second look. I am reprocessing some. In doing so, I am no longer sticking to the constraint that the proportions have to be the 3 X 2 ratio of a 35mm slide. Here is an example. Click on it to see it full size.