Glass Feet

Fire watchers in the 1950's lived like hermits in the Cascades and they lived in one-room lookouts on places like this, Tolmie Peak in Mt Rainier National Park. Famous writers such as Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder did some time here, where they were also able to write in complete solitude. Glass-footed lightning stools were small footstools that the firewatchers would stand on during storms. If their lookouts were struck, they would likely fry and their only saving grace might be to stand on the stool. I wish I had something like that at work.

I am absolutely mesmerized by Mt Rainier. She's visible from Seattle on clear days, and will catch me off-guard, suddenly coming into view while driving along a road. She soars high and majestic above the skyline. Sounds silly, but it kind of makes my day when I can see Rainier on an ordinary work day. So it only seemed fitting that my last weekend in Seattle was a Rainier close-up, a lovely jaunt up to Tolmie Peak in Mt Rainier National Park. I was accompanied by Tweedledee and Tweedledum, two silly work friends Paul and Lincoln.

I spoke to a ranger who was going to spend the night at the lookout and I was envious of him being able to see the mountain at night and watched the sunrise. The weather was crisp and clear which I'm sure would make for excellent mountain viewing.

"As the light increased I discovered around me an ocean of mist, which by chance reached up exactly to the base of the tower, and shut out every vestige of the earth, while I was left floating on this fragment of the wreck of a world, on my carved plank, in cloudland...All around beneath me was spread for a hundred miles on every side, as far as the eye could reach, an undulating country of clouds, answering in the varied swell of its surface to the terrestrial world it veiled. It was such a country as we might see in dreams, with all the delights of paradise."

-Henry David Thoreau

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as long as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

-Robert Frost

The sun is setting on my time in Seattle. I have a hair under two weeks to go but it was my last weekend with my Norweigian seester, Whitney and so I'm feeling it. She hosted her annual Croquet party, but mother nature would have it otherwise. Summer has left and the rain has come, en force. So reluctantly the good people of the party put down the mallets and piled into the kitchen and drank margaritas while sampling Seattle, Chicago and Chili dogs.

The end of my Seattle stay is giving me a sense of urgency. I'm cramming together 5 shows in two weeks. It kicked off with my boys, Okkervil River at the Showbox Theater. Okkervil River may be the consummate rock band. Lead singer Will Sheff is an artist who has been able to harness a talent and bring it into full realization under the right set of circumstances. I am haunted, inexplicably drawn to them, over and over again.

The Showbox in Seattle is like the big brother to Chicago's historic Green Mill - Art Deco on a grander scale.

a fuzzy Will Sheff of Okkervil River

The mexican tatoo and hot dog graphics, the many talents of Whitney

No Country for Small Purses

My rooms Whitney has a term "small purse people". These are women who have itty bitty hand held purses. She does not understand them, does not understand how women value purses as an accessory. On a broader level, one may infer from this a specific type of lifestyle one chooses. While I do own a few small delightful purses, hopefully I don't fall into this dubious category of friends. That said, we headed out to Orcas Island (of the San Juan Islands) for a hike up Mt Constitution and some camping. Small purses were no where to be found, but our campground was littered with douchebags and VW Vanagons which added some unwelcomed and awesome spice, respectively.

Islands in Puget Sound or tops of baseballs caps?

Mt. Baker

Proper hydration technique

Views from atop Mt Constitution

Attending church on a Sunday morning

Cascade Falls

Give it up for spontaneity - getting under the falls

Steam rising from the intern's body

Enumclaw. Puyallup. Tulalip. Geoducks. Suburus.

This place is growing on me

Weekend Warrior

Squeezing out the last bit of summer

M3 Summit

This was a rare sighting of the evasive Alaskan Murphy and my precious time with her had to be shared. Fortunately it was good company and many drinks and laughs were had.

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Scenes from a Saturday in Seattle

Breakfast at Easy Street Records...

...both a record store and diner. BRILLIANT!

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Seattle Art Museum, Olympic Sculpture Park

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Hiking with the Eastside kids to Goat Lake, WA

Tossed in the back of the truck, Charlie and I are designated steerage.

5 mile hike to Goat Lake, WA in the North Cascades region

A PA, 2 MDs, an MA and an RD

Pooped