Palenque

We need to go again to see all we missed.  The ruins cover a huge area in the jungle with steep steps to negotiate.  Saw several waterfalls on site but didn't get to the ones with swimming.

Christmas 2016

Highlights from a great Christmas reunion!

 

 How long did it take Nate to catch this fish? 15 seconds!

 Now that's a good photo!

 Thanking Jeff for the tastiest margaritas EVER>

 See Nathan fishing off the beach.

 Kitchen of Dona Constantina

 

 making tortillas Mayan style.

 Most interesting building in Puerto Morelos

 Can you see the cayman?

 I wish I had invented that!

 Ben and Liam jumped from the board into the cave.

 Bats were flying around on the edges of the cave.

Liam's most recent recital.

 

 

Liam played beautifully. No mistakes! I wrote a simple clarinet accompaniment....

Lake City

Nice to see Aunt Elizabeth.  We had a nice walk around the lake in the center of town.  Lots of water birds and turtles.  No alligators.

Rainy Days in the Northwest

We were all out at Shadow Lake today clearing brush, and working on the sleeping porch addition to the tiny house. I am trying to relocate the native Salal and grasses that will have to be destroyed by the porch decking. Ultimately there will be a deck, and collapsible screen porch.

 I forgot the keys today so we had to walk in the rain from the gate, and couldn't get into the tiny house for cloths/ hot chocolate makings, etc. We stopped off at McDonalds on the way home.

The roof is hinged, so if we want to transport the house in the future, we can.

We all went to a Halloween party on Friday. Bob and I chose costumes that reflected our alter egos. Bob called himself a bankster. Liam is some sort of video character, Ben's costume entailed a work coat, and fake cigarette made from a straw (?I didn't get it either. Whatever!) Anyways, he took the photo.

 Me and my Daddy-o

 

The boys and I spent last Sunday at a work party for the Duwamish River. The river is a superfund site. It drains out into Elliot bay just South of Downtown. There has been a big push to clean it up since 2001, and the efforts are starting to pay off.

 Ben worked very hard and planted many, many native plants. Here he is working on putting in a Salmon berry.

 Some of the clean-up crew worked from kayaks. We plan on doing that next Spring.

 Liam was very into trying every kind of tool.

 

 That's all for now. Looking forward to seeing everybody in Mexico!

Istanbul

 Our two days here have been very full.  We forgot the cameras the first morning, so no interior pictures of Hagia Sophia, one of the most spectacular churches/mosques of all time.  Here it is from afar.

Here's our afternoon cruise of thr Bosphorus to the Black Sea.

Here you can see the ships waiting in the Black Sea to be piloted thru the Bosphorus to the Marmara Sea.  The bridge is just being constructed.

The most interesting things in Topkapi Palace were the Harem and the kitchens.  They served 4000-5000 people two meals each day.

This is a reception room in the Harem where the Sultan and his wives greeted guests or just lounged.

Wives and concubines and their families all lived in the Harem under the administration of the queen mother.

The Blue Mosque, so called because of the blue tile work and Windows.  It was built to copy Hagia

Sophia over 1000 years later (early 1600's) and is still in use.

San Diego for the weekend

Very fortunate to get some consulting work in SD and make it back for a weekend.  Spirit Airlines for $140 RT if you do not need miles to make certain status levels.  We paid $20 extra to get emergency exit row seating.  Our company was notified today of an SBIR entrance to negotiation,  The letter indicated "A committee of government scientists, engineers, and technical managers reviewed a field of 320 proposals submitted in response to the SBIR xxx solicitation and recommended your proposal as a promising approach . . ."  This highlights that we have some great technology.