Snow Day! We went around to Golden Gardens and the Arboretum to enjoy a rare snow day in Seattle. Click on an image to enlarge.

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PDX is calling me…..

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So another highlight of the recent Hawaii trip last week was a visit to the Foster Botanical Garden in downtown Honolulu. While unfortunately all the pics I took were way overexposed if not just garbage (memo to me: read the camera manual next time or just use the stupid ‘smart’ phone) – the garden has a lot of HUGE, exotic trees from all over the world, besides just some big native examples. And the outdoor butterfly garden is cool, although I only saw a couple. I saw a couple parrots in a tree near the end too, which was also exciting.

here’s some sites that give you an idea of what it’s like – DEFINITELY worth a visit, takes at least an hour or more to walk the grounds and see everything.

Map of the garden

Yelp reviews of FBG

To-Hawaii.com‘s FBG site with pics

Recent walk-around videos of FBG from YouTube

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So we were lucky enough to go to Oahu, Hawai’i this past week, related to a kerewin work trip. On Friday, I was able to visit the Foster Botanical Gardens (post forthcoming) and Diamond Head State Monument.

So I had seen a bit of Oahu recently via Marvel’s Inhumans (the show has since been cancelled) and I think at least some of the Jurassic Park movie(s) have been filmed on Oahu, too – but all of that is showbiz. But there was a scene in Inhumans where they show Diamond Head from the air, and that you can drive into it via a tunnel – pretty cool – and hike to the top of one of the rim(s), also cool.

So I took the bus to a nearby stop Friday afternoon the 15th, and started walking. You can walk all the way in, pay your $1 (cars, buses and taxis pay more) and pretty much start hiking, which is largely what I did. I would equate the hike to about 2-3x the hike up the back side of Smith Rock in central Oregon, which we’ve done a couple times in the past when visiting relatives over there, near Madras.

There are a couple good staircases, but most of it is switchbacks. Also near the top, as I hate heights for the most part, I didn’t do the very tippy top exposed staircases, but I was still pleased with the hike nonetheless, got up to almost the top in about 20 min.

the video linked here below gives you an idea of the hike – enjoy! Very cool, beautiful views and scenery, and an inexpensive way to get some exercise, to be sure.

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but funny, too…

‘Ancient’ stone circle in Scotland turns out to be a 1990s replica

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So one of the true pioneers and icons of the ski industry, Warren Miller, passed away this past January at 93(!) years old. We went to see the latest film from his company (he hadn’t been filming with them for many years now), The Face of Winter. I’ve been to WM movies off an on over the years but not for some time, but this year wanted to go again in tribute to the man and his amazing career.

The movie was pretty good – while there were a couple tiny #MeToo moments in it (IMHO) and a few too many ‘fake sly’ product placements, it was still good – the usual mix of heli-skiing crazy extreme glaciers and remote mountains (this time mostly in AK, Chile, Iceland, France and Switzerland), with classic clips and WM testimonials throughout. I did not realize he was making movies as far back as the 50’s – crazy stuff.

anyway, here’s the trailer, it’s still touring around the country if you get the chance to see it:

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So this has been a bit of a slow summer for TR8 driving, mainly because of tech issues not long after I got it out of storage (had a flat when I got it out – got that tire patched; then had an overheating problem that with some ancillary help and a couple repairs, i was actually able to fix myself) – and then we’ve gone out of town a bit recently too.

So…finally had an ‘event’ to use it in – a Poker Run with the local Tyee Triumph club. We met in Issaquah next to a pub and Top Pot Doughnuts, probably about 15 cars total? Couple photos of us waiting below, my TR8 is in the very back of the first one before the truck, a bit hard to see:

so we took off, I followed the couple in the white TR6 as I had no ‘navigator’ with me – great, country drive through back roads towards Black Diamond (with bakery stop), then a Cidery:

at this stop, I had a chance to admire some of the other cars in greater detail, including the beautiful black Spitfire in our group, and Tom Eller’s TR250:

but then, back on the road we went. We also stopped in Maple Valley in a retail parking lot as a ‘rest’ stop. As a Poker Run, each stop gave us a poker card to write down, then at the end, when we were back in Issaquah at the pub, we compared ‘hands’ and weirdly enough (with only a pair of Kings) – i won! So I got my choice of the 3 prizes, I picked the Triumph Parking sign:

What a fun event! Hopefully they will have something else similar before i have to put the Wedge back in storage likely in Mid-Oct, depending on the weather…..

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So, it’s that time of year again, when much of the car-loving tri-county area descends upon our neighborhood for the annual end of June Greenwood Car Show.

Bit of a different vibe this year, while still pretty crowded, I think the overcast, “i’m not sure if i’m going to rain” weather scared some away, and it was definitely more like early chilly spring than summer, to be sure.

Still, several cool highlights (view these in the Gallery linked on the left side)

– two black early 50s Porsche’s, likely Kerewin’s fave cars;

– great showings from the local vintage Mini, Datsun, VW, MG and other misc vintage British clans;

– not as many muscle cars as past recent years (to me, good – I’d seen enough Chevy Nova’s and Mach 1’s back in high school to last me several lifetimes) but if you liked even older Chevy Impala’s (making me always think of Adam-12) – this was your show. I’d have to guess that specific car model was definitely the most numerous, or at minimum in the top 5;

– two Panteras this year, nice!

– only a couple Kei cars, an Autozam and a Figaro (there were several last year)

– and one other big highlight for me – a Volvo Valp! Haven’t seen one in person for years, but there it was. Not restoration quality but it sounds like he’s been having a lot of work done on it – will be cool to see if it shows up next year too.

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