62 posts
From 2008-2013 I did a few posts mapping my urban hiking adventures in Seattle. Now that I am temporarily in the San Francisco area, I thought I'd post one for this city. I've done many already. I'd...
Read more →There are two signs in my Seattle neighborhood of Ballard that are puzzling to me. #1 Bop Street Records This record store proudly displays a sign in the front window stating "One of the five best...
Read more →My last post was about an amazing 17th floor view from the Russell Investments building in the heart of Seattle. This view isn't as high up, but is still an impressive find. During weekday business...
Read more →Ever since I arrived in Seattle in 2007, I have been an exploring machine. I've seen more of this city than many people who have been here since birth. But until one evening this summer I had no idea...
Read more →Found this street art near the Space Needle. !tv-says-sleep
Read more →Maybe it has something to do with the angle of the Earth to the Sun during the winter, but I've always loved the look of Seattle on clear days from November to February. Here are some photos I took...
Read more →This summer has been the 50th anniversary of the Space Needle, which debuted at the 1962 World's Fair. In honor of that event, they rolled back the admission price to just $1. I think it is normally...
Read more →It has been a long time since I did a Seattle specific post. Earlier this summer on one of my urban hikes, I made my first stop to the Kurt Cobain bench. How this landmark escaped me until recently...
Read more →Five years ago I was playing with mashing up photos and classic art using Photoshop. These days I use the free Paint.NET for my image work. Well, it turns out with a third party plugin you can do the...
Read more →A good snowstorm doesn't happen in Seattle every year, so I took advantage of the day and went for an urban hike. Three years ago, I did a 16 mile hike through the snow. Today I did 20 miles. My hike...
Read more →I'm back in Seattle and I've got a list of many things I need to do. However, I ended up going on a 7 mile urban hike when I saw the sky color this morning. !ballard-locks-orange-sky2...
Read more →The photo below is me at 18 months. If you look behind my head, you can see a mailbox. A few summers later me and some neighbor kids would put handfuls of gravel into it. I think we did everyday for...
Read more →The weather has been so nice in Seattle, that I feel more like exploring than blogging. Today a few members of the Coffee Club of Seattle walked over to the Lake View Cemetery and located the grave...
Read more →Today was another wonderful day in Seattle. I took some photos as I urban hiked from Upper Queen Anne to Downtown. !seattle-view Upper Queen Anne looking west to Magnolia !sculpture-park-tree...
Read more →Imagine you are driving through Seattle one morning. The skies are gray and there is a light rain. Up ahead you think you see a parking spot. There is a car coming up behind you. You glance over to...
Read more →This weekend the tide was at lowest level for the summer. It was so low, you could walk from Golden Gardens to Carkeep Park on ground that is normally covered with water. Below are some photos from...
Read more →Last week I spotted a sign for corn dogs. Now everywhere I look, I see them. Then Friday, I walked past this corn dog and Lenin sign in Capitol Hill. Corn dogs, really? !corn-dogs --- Comments Joe...
Read more →Today the weather forecast for Seattle was for a 50% chance of rain. I liked those odds. !seattle-awesome-4 !seattle-awesome-3 !seattle-awesome-2 !seattle-awesome-1
Read more →Seattle's Lusty Lady announced it will close soon. Your puns will be missed. !lusty-lady-clash --- Comments TigerAl April 28 at 2010 at 3:50 PM This announcement just made my day! :) --- Nick April...
Read more →Guess the month and year this photo was taken. There are enough clues in the background that one should be able to figure it out. !mas-sunday-suit !mas-sunday-suit-2 --- Comments aviva February 1 at...
Read more →The long awaited video and photos to my day of elephant training are finally ready. Enjoy my gracefulness! This highlight video was made using Windows Live Movie Maker, which I just downloaded and am...
Read more →This weekend I went to Microsoft's neighborhood of Redmond, Washington. I really didn't expect to find good coffee there, but I did. Kitanda Brazilian Espresso and Bakery made some amazing drinks for...
Read more →Here are some photos taken in Seattle today and yesterday. Got to love the clear skies. !seattle-clear-1 Golden Gardens Beach in Ballard !seattle-clear-2 Lake Union view from east Queen Anne...
Read more →How did I end up in Cambodia when my original travel plans only included Thailand? It was me discovering what type of traveler I am. The thought of spending two weeks on the white sand beaches of...
Read more →Angkor Wat is the expansive temple complex in Cambodia built over a few hundred years starting in the 10th century. It is an amazing place to visit. It far exceeded myexpectations. I spent 2 days and...
Read more →The sad history of Cambodia involves land mines. Lots of them. I read an estimate that there may still be 2 million land mines buried in throughout the country. And no one bothered to document where...
Read more →While in Siem Reap, we had our driver take us out to the Floating Village. Unlike our Bangkok experience, this was not a tourist trap. It was the real deal. The Floating Village was a community of...
Read more →On the return flight home to Seattle, I had a 12 hour layover in Seoul, South Korea. Urban hiking in 41F rain felt a lot like Seattle. Like Kuala Lumpur, Seoul has an airport which connects right...
Read more →I just noticed I didn't release the Return to Bangkok photo gallery. Oops. !bangkok-2 !bangkok-1 Photo Gallery for Return to Bangkok
Read more →Today I journeyed to the north outskirts of Kuala Lumpur to see the Batu Caves. It was OK. Probably not worth the trip. !batu-caves-1 Oh yeah, there were monkeys everywhere. !batu-caves-2 Photo...
Read more →The adventure continues. I arrived in Kuala Lumpur late last night. This is an awesome airport. The KLIA Ekspres hooks right into the terminal and drops you off in the center of the city, which is a...
Read more →After escaping the hell known as Patong Beach, I headed for the quieter beach setting of the island of Ko Samui. Although the vendors were still pushy, it was far less than Patong. If you only have a...
Read more →The prime vacation destination for Thailand is probably Phuket. That should have been a warning. I did not care for Phuket. It was loud and the vendors were beyond obnoxious. It was probably my...
Read more →Besides riding elephants and playing with big cats, the other cool thing I did in Chiang Mai was take an all day Thai cooking class. I've been cooking Thai food pretty much every week for the past 18...
Read more →I had a chance to get inside a cage with some cats in Chiang Mai at Tiger Kingdom. !mas-lion !mas-tiger !mas-tiger-belly
Read more →Shopping sign located in the Wallingford area of Seattle. !your-pants-must-be --- Comments Ed November 19 at 2009 at 1:02 AM Damm funny!!! I used to live two blocks south of Dicks back in the...
Read more →I'm the one in front. !bkk-mas-big-buddha
Read more →I took this photo today at the Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park. The art piece is a stainless steel tree called Split. !metal-tree-sculpture-park --- Comments Security October 29 at 2012 at 1:58 PM...
Read more →Romanesco broccoli is perhaps the coolest looking vegetable. !romanesco-broccoli-2 !romanesco-broccoli --- Comments TigerAl November 3 at 2009 at 5:11 AM Did you buy some and take the picture? If...
Read more →Here is a little afternoon pickup for you.  This drink was made by Urban Coffee Lounge in Kirkland, Washington yesterday....
Read more →One of the things I enjoy most about Seattle is seeing what The Lusty Lady has up on their sign. Not as good as Indiana Moans and the Temple of Poon, but pretty funny. !lusty-lady-sign --- Comments...
Read more →Yesterday was a great day to visit Vashon Island. Here are a few photos. !vashon-island-3 !vashon-island-2 !vashon-island-1 I did visit an interesting historical coffee site. Look for a post later...
Read more →I admit that when it comes to cold weather, I am a nut. I went last winter without wearing a coat for all but the 2 week snowstorm. Everyday I take a 2-3 minute ice cold rinse at the end of my...
Read more →Saturday morning I went out to Woodinville, Washington to check out the 21 Acres Farm. 21 Acres is a local, organic sustainable farm. About once a month they have a Sustainable Saturday, which...
Read more →A McDonalds billboard in Belltown gets tagged brilliantly. The original phrase was "Three reasons to put PANTS on". I like the diapers version better. !mcdonalds-diapers --- Comments Alex July 6 at...
Read more →Be on the lookout for a man with a claw in Lower Queen Anne. !the-claw And the one in Wallingford. !claw-2 --- Comments Nikki June 6 at 2009 at 6:26 PM Sweet! Gotta love a clever vandal... ---
Read more →Did you know Seattle has a 2nd Space Needle? This version of the Space Needle can be found at the corner of 2nd and Bell in the Belltown area, which is just north of downtown. Details on this art...
Read more →Earlier this week I found this statue hidden up off street level in the lower part of Belltown. Considering I've walked past this area several times before and never noticed it, I'd consider it...
Read more →I got a cheap little tripod for my camera and I am very pleased. !tripod Photo "Take me to your leader!" by Flickr user shawnmebo The tripod is just $10 on Amazon and easily screws into that hole on...
Read more →Well I am finally getting around to posting on my trip to New Orleans. I arrived on the Sunday before Fat Tuesday and left Thursday afternoon. This was a great way to see the city both during the...
Read more →A friend of mine emailed me a link to some free software called HUGIN that connects multiple photos into a single panoramic image. When evening arrived, I decided to test it out. I'm using a Canon...
Read more →I just finished emptying my camera of more Seattle snow photos. I've hiked almost 50 miles around Seattle since the snow began. This is my idea of taking a week off from lifting weights. !snow-2...
Read more →When I woke up this morning, I had no idea that I was going to do an urban hike. I looked out the window and the snow was pouring down. Oh yeah! There would be no stock trading today. It was time to...
Read more →Back when I worked for Nielsen Media Research in the 1990s, I loved Altoids. I still love Altoids, but nearly as much I did back then. During the dot-com days, I would go through almost a full tin a...
Read more →Just north of the Seattle Aquarium, there is a fountain sculpture of a nude man reaching out to a nude boy. Maybe I can't appreciate art, but to me, this looks like a prequel to an Amber Alert....
Read more →Before you head out to see Indiana Jones 4, make sure you've read the listing correctly. I'd hate to see you end up at the wrong theater. :) !indiana-moans Photo taken near Pike Place Market in...
Read more →I've dug around and assembled a photo gallery for my first home located on Holly Oak Lane in Escondido, California. Although I'm glad to have sold the house at the top of the San Diego market, I do...
Read more →This page was first assembled in 1999. From March 1994 to August 1998, I lived in the Tampa Bay area. This is my collection of Ybor City overviews and memorabilia. The Castle The CASTLE is a...
Read more →The Seattle Coffee Meetup got a tour of Caffe Vita last night. They roast 2,000 to 4,000 pounds of coffee daily. Many coffee shops and restaurants use their coffee in the Seattle area. Unlike...
Read more →Vancouver was an amazing city. Think San Diego with frostbite. Actually it's downtown is further built out than San Diego. Despite the rain and cold temperatures, I was able to get some good photos....
Read more →Diamond Knot Brewery in Mukilteo, Washington found a good use for an empty Anheuser-Busch keg. They converted it into a urinal. Seems fitting. !bud-urinal
Read more →I'm back from my 12th Guavaween. Another year, another great time. The first thing I learned once I arrived in Ybor City was that the Tampa Bay Brewing Company relocated. They left 15th St and...
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