As I've mentioned before, back in my junior year, I spent a semester at Leicester University in the U.K. One of the more "holy ****, I'm not in California anymore" experiences I had was riding the paternoster to my English tutorials.
See for yourself, through the wonder of YouTube...
I guess most people just use their ATM/credit cards when traveling these days, but I am still quite unnerved by the fact that currency exchange booths in Amsterdam won't take dollars anymore.
Crisis? What crisis? Nothing to see here. (Whistles.)
 The Golden Gate Bridge, as seen from the cruise ship. |
 Under the Bridge. |
 Approaching the Inside Passage. |
 Inside the Inside Passage. |
 A waterfall. |
 Flowers on a hike near Skagway. |
 The forest. |
 The river. |
 I think these plants are called "Devil's Palm" (or something like that). If you accidentally touch the underside of the big leaves, it will HURT. |
 Downtown Skagway. |
 My big ol' boat. What'd you think I was talking about? |
 I took this photo at about midnight. It stays light 18-22 hours in the summer up north. |
 Downtown Hoonah, a town of 800 people. A thousand people lived here until a couple of years ago, when the logging trade ceased. |
 Hoonah's marina. |
 A Jewish tombstone in Hoonah's old cemetery, which is no longer in active use. People are now buried on a small island nearby. |
 The road to (and from) Hoonah. |
 A very successful rose bush. |
 A cat engaged in a deep staring contest with a caged bird. |
 A fascinating (to me, anyway) slug in Ketchikan. |
 We went on this extremely steep hike in Ketchikan. It's three miles straight uphill; we made it to the end of the first mile. (On the way up, we were strangely passed by a jogger, who ran like someone in the marina heading to Peet's.) |
 We were rewarded with a nice view. |
 A totem pole in the nearby village of Saxman. |
 Heading towards the Hubbard Glacier. |
 Getting closer... |
 Ice, ice baby. (I've been waiting to use that line.) |
 I didn't get any really good pictures of iceburgs breaking off and falling into the ocean. I kept trying to will such an event by chanting "Go iceburg! Go iceburg! It's your calve-day. It's your calve-day!" |
 The Mendenhall Glacier, near Juneau. |
 A view of Juneau from the top of the gondola. |
 An eagle which is being rehabilitated after an injury. |
 Mount Roberts(?) in Juneau. |
 The obscenely lavish midnight buffet on our ship. (No, we didn't actually eat any of it, just ran through and took pictures.) |
 An ice scupture at the buffet. |
 Some interesting graffiti in Vancouver. |
 A cool B&B in Victoria. |
 All the best B&Bs have at least one cute dog. |
 And the best bike shops have a cat hanging out near the cash register. |
 The women's room sign at the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle. |
 Fan mail from Jane Wiedland. |
 My cousins' cat. Such a great face! |
|
 People with glass pianos... |
 Seattle at sunset |
 A statue of Lenin in the Fremont district. |
 Cool gate decorations on a museum in Fremont. |
 Sunset, as seen from the train to Portland. |
 The Saturday crafts market in Portland. |
 The Portland Chinese garden. |
 Dramatic doorway. |
 Another view of the garden. |
 Midgets selling some kind of wealth-building plan on an infomercial. What's that about? |
 The Kennedy School, a very cool hotel/pub/restaurant/movie theater complex in Portland, built in an old middle school. |
 Art/mosaic thingy on the wall at the Kennedy School. |
 SpoonMan at the Crafts Market. |
 I thought this sign on the side of the Amtrak train was amusing for some reason. |
 On the Coast Starlight, we met this 94-year-old man. (My jaw dropped when he casually mentioned joining the Navy in 1928.) |
 View of a bridge as seen from the train. |
 Near Martinez, I think. |
 Tracks. |
So when we got back into the country after our trip, and were waiting at the conveyor belt for our bags to arrive, I noticed something weirdly disturbing. There's a computer monitor overhead. No big deal, there always is, isn't there, these days? A couple of years ago, I remember seeing one that showed a video about hoof-and-mouth disease, and the importance of preventing it from coming into the country.
They still are showing that (but isn't foot-and-mouth under control now?)... and much more.
We got treated to the dubious pleasure of a multimedia presentation on homeland security (g-d, I hate that phrase — what the heck was wrong with that cozy and perfectly functional word "domestic"?). It's been several days and I was brutally jetlagged at the time, but here's what I remember of it:
The screen displayed and a voice solemnly intoned words about how most travellers who come to this country are good people, but a few have bad intentions, and therefore they have the right to search your luggage and question you if need be. There's danger out there. The Department of Whatever has multiple missions and it's good at all of them. There was some random bit about how much alcohol you're allowed to bring into the country and that they'll confiscate it if you go over the line. "Your family, friends, and others will thank us now... you'll thank us later."
And, of course, cue the waving flags.
I'm not sure what offended me more... the not-so-subtle propaganda (Bush and Co. had their mark all over this one) or the horrendous use of type and color. Multiple fonts. Many 3-D type effects. Clashing colors. GAH!
I wonder how much was spent to produce this thing. More seriously, what is it meant to convey? It wasn't really useful. It certainly was unsettling for this citizen coming off a long flight. What message does it give a new visitor? Does it make them feel safe, welcome? Or do they feel like they've entered a place under siege?
Terrorists, I imagine, would just quietly chuckle to themselves and go on about their business.
Michael and I were in Arizona this past weekend volunteering for the Howard Dean campaign and visiting friends. It was quite the experience, for many reasons! I plan to write a longer post about it tomorrow because it's almost midnight. Goodnight!
OK, not really. but these are the photos from New Orleans that Michael took.
