Riding the LINK Light Rail to and from SeaTac

It was interesting riding the LINK light rail to and from SeaTac this weekend. On the way out, I was dropped off at Westlake and rode in from there. On the way home, I rode the entire way - hopping on the 358 from Westlake. It took me about 90 - 100 minutes to get home.  Most of that was travel time. I didn't have to wait long for the shuttle or the 358.

Anyway, I think the trip will be a bit faster once the final SeaTac stop is in place. Riding the LINK shuttle right now requires an extra 20 minutes planning time.

I wish the LINK was a bit faster - and wish that it was closer to my home in North Seattle ... Having a friend pick me up and get me home in 20 minutes vs. 100 minutes is quite a significant difference (of course it's 40 minutes for them + wastes gas).

The ride from Rainier Beach to SeaTac is quite different as the train speeds up significantly and parallels I5.

While the LINK was a pleasant, air conditioned, quiet, peaceful ride - the 358 was a noisy, congested, smelly (post-hempfest) typical bus journey w/o space for luggage.

I'm not sure I would routinely want to spend 100 minutes traveling home from the airport after a long flight, but I am eager to see how the trip changes qualitatively after the SeaTac stop opens.

The eco-savings of riding public transit makes this all just about worth the extra time and lack of comfort.

United Airlines - more delays and more tyranny

I woke up at 5:30 am to catch my 8 am flight to Chicago today on United. I'd checked in the night before. United's web flight status showed a 2 hour 10 minute delay (now 2 hour and 30 minutes). I called United (my first mistake) to see if I could just show up late ... I was told repeatedly not to because they could give away my seat. They told me to show up on time for the 8 am arrival in case the flight boarded early. I called American Express, the booking agent, they said to follow United's instruction. So, I've been sitting at the airport since 7:30 am. I think I am the stupid one here for listening. I should have just slept in another hour or so and shown up late Any other frequent travelers out there want to offer their advice?

btw - United outsourced its customer support offshore years ago.

Cultural Differences

Last night, I heard one of my cats knock over something upstairs. I went up there and found the guest bathroom trash can knocked over. There were small, carefully rolled wads of toilet paper scattered across the floor. My first thought was, when was the last time I had a female using the guest bathroom enough to generate that much toilet paper? And then I remembered that last week, I'd had a visitor from Peru. You see, in Peru, the sewage systems aren't robust enough so instead of flushing toilet paper, you roll it up and place it in small trash cans beside the toilets. Apparently, my guest did this as well. Luckily I arrived before the cat did too much more damage.

Always Inspired by Helen Thayer

A while back I saw Helen Thayer lecture in Seattle about her time living with wolves in the Yukon with her hybrid dog Charlie. Last week, I saw her lecture at REI about her recent walk across the remote center of the Gobi desert. Her husband tags along but he's the quiet type and let's her do the talking.

Anyway, she and her husband are in their 50's. Thayer's Wikipedia page is pretty intimidating:

• Traveled alone to the magnetic North Pole. And accompanied only by her dog Charlie that saved her life when one of polar bears tried to attack her.
• Walked across the Sahara Desert, 2,400 miles
• Walked across the Mongolian Gobi Desert, 1,500 miles
• Kayaked two remote Amazon Rivers and photographed 3 species unknown to science, traveling 1,200 miles
• and it goes on from there...

I get a kick out of hearing her and she inspires me to live life more fully ...

New York City is all about their Fage Yogurt

I've been meaning to blog about Fage for awhile. It's an extremely lean, high protein dairy yogurt. It's become a staple of mine in Seattle but it's only available at Whole Foods and often sold out. New York City coffee shops seem to stock it regularly.

Total 0% offers 13g protein with 6g of carbs. Total 2% offers 17g protein and 8g of carbs. Most dairy and even soy-based yogurts have about 20-30g of sugar-based carbs and 4-6g of protein.

Fage also tastes great. The higher the percentage, the creamier the taste. Enjoy!

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More on the JetBlue experience...

Generally I enjoy my Jet Blue experiences. But before I fell asleep last night on the plane, I could swear the stewardess said "if the cabin should depressurize and oxygen masks drop from the ceiling, stop screaming and put the mask around your mouth." That was after the electrical system went on the blink on the tarmac leading the mechanic to proclaim, "I've never seen this." while the plane went dark, lots of alarms beeped and rainbow colored lights flashed over head to point to exits. The flight itself was uneventful.

I'm in New York today. It's a windy, dry cold.

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Antarctica - Frozen Waves

Note: Originally, I thought my friend took these photos on a recent subsequent trip but apparently, he emailed them from an unknown source.

A couple friends from my Antarctica trip a few years back sent these pictures of what they say are frozen waves:

The water froze the instant the wave broke through the ice. Water freezes the instant it comes in contact with the air. The temperature of the water is already some degrees below freezing. Just look at how the wave froze in midair!

Click on any image below to enlarge...

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New Fuel Arrows Tell You Which Side the Gas Tank is On

Unless you live in Oregon or don't own a car, you pump your own gas. If you're always forgetting which side of the car the gas tank is on (or rent a car often), you'll be happy to know that the newest model cars all have a fuel arrow pointing to which side of the car to fuel up on. Who knew?

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Fresh vegetarian in Toronto

Fresh is a small vegetarian food chain in Toronto. They do a nice job - good food, good service and yummy sweet potato fries. I had the thai veggie burger with a Hemp smoothie and sweet potato fries. I'm full.

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Toronto friends at the Jet Fuel Cafe

Here are two friends from the Jet Fuel Cafe, Phillip Smith of Community Bandwidth ... and not sure who the other one is:

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