Bike, Bus, Ferry Boat and Walk!

We are coming up on the end of our first summer in our condo in Bremerton. The weather has been cool and cloudy. This is probably because we bought an air conditioner! The temperature hit 99° F for one day only.

"Pigcasso" is one of the 92 "Pigs on Parade" in Seattle. Local businesses buy a pig, decorate and display it for a year and then all pigs are auctioned for charity.

One of the reasons we bought this particular condo in this particular location was because we thought we could live here without having to own a car. This has turned out to be true. The bus stop is two blocks away and downtown Bremerton is 2.5 miles (almost all downhill). The grocery store, movie theater, restaurants, hardware store, coffee shop, library and post office are all within walking distance. We like going into Seattle and over to Port Orchard on the ferries. Sometimes we take our bikes and sometimes we just walk on.

If you haven’t already done it, please think about reducing your own impact on the environment. We rented a car twice (one day each time) during this summer. It was a lot cheaper than owning one!

We went out biking on one of our favorite routes along Rich Passage to Manchester State Park. It was one of the old defense works for the Bremerton Shipyard left over from the last century and is now a very nice park. On the route, we felt right at home. There was a camel in the field next to the road! This has been a very relaxing summer. We visited friends and family and did some painting and fix-up in the condo. We went to a concert by the Bremerton Symphony and to some harborside concerts sponsored by the Downtown Association. One of the groups was the local salsa group. We went to several movies, since we can’t go in Jeddah. The county Historical Museum sponsored a walking tour of downtown Bremerton, too.

We did some shopping in Seattle, too. Just walking around the city can be colorful.

Alonda had the Northwest Aquatic and Marine Educators (NAME) convention in Astoria, OR. Jim’s sister and her husband came up to visit Astoria, too.

We are planning on going on safari in Kenya in October. (If you have sound advice or nice tips for us, please send them!) We bought a new camera. Our 35mm was a fine camera, but it was getting old and film is actually getting a little difficult to find. We have been searching for a year and found the new Sony Alpha. It fits our zoom lens so we don’t have to buy new lenses. The battery is good for about 700 pictures and we take a spare battery. The memory card is good for 960 pictures. It has 10 mega pixels so the quality is good. 35mm film is better, but getting hard to manage.

We go back to Jeddah August 16 for our final year in Saudi Arabia. School starts August 26. We will go out to Bangkok in January for the International Schools' job fair and see what adventure we will have next!

Stopover in London

"Kitty cat, kitty cat, where have you been?"

"I went up to London to visit the Queen!"

By sheer chance, we saw the Queen in London. She was returning to Buckingham Palace after her birthday parade. She is the lady in the green hat in the carriage!

We stopped over in London en route to the States for summer vacation. We arrived at London Heathrow and took the Tube downtown. We stayed at the Generator Hostel. Not as nice as the one in Berlin, but a bargain nonetheless.

We went out for the free walking tour of London and got to see all the normal stuff. We stopped at the first telephone booth we saw for the traditional picture. The tour guide says that the city tried to do away with them and there was an enormous outcry by the traditionalists. He says about half of the public phones are red boxes and the rest are modernized. He also claims that the biggest buyers of used telephone boxes are Japanese businessmen who take them home and have them made into shower stalls!

We saw the reproduction of the Globe Theater from across the Thames River. It is supposed to be long, slow and expensive to get to visit it. The guide claims it is the only wooden walled / thatched roof structure in the city (fire codes).

We stood on the re-built London Bridge. The original is, of course, at Lake Havasu in Arizona. Jim has been on it. The guide said the guy thought he was buying the Tower Bridge! Jim doesn't believe it.

As usual, we stopped at Starbucks. The London souvenir mug was prettier than the England one. Also, we haven't actually visited "England", just London.

Like every other visitor to London, we visited Trafalgar Square. Big Ben is waaaay in the background and Lord Nelson is on top of the column where you can't see him. We walked around in the National Gallery, too. A block over was the National Portrait Gallery. We visited it, too. All the museums we visited were free (donations accepted).


The Clock Tower (better known as Big Ben). The name Big Ben used to only apply to the main bell, but is now used for the entire works.

We had lunch and dinner at Covent Garden. It looks like it should be spelled "convent", but they made a spelling mistake a looong time ago and have never corrected it.

The market has lots of farmers market stuff, crafts and restaurants. Nice place!

The traditional double-deckers are everywhere. We didn't ride one, but they sure look nifty. The bus and tube system have an "Oyster Pass" system. You load your card with money and just wave it over the sensor when you get on and get off. It was a lot cheaper than paying for individual tickets.

The London Eye is a giant Ferris Wheel. Don't ever call it that. They get real upset. British Air sponsors it, too.
From Trafalgar Square, we went through the Palace Gate towards Buckingham Palace. We knew that the Queen would be coming through for her birthday at about 10 am, so we made sure to miss that. We thought it would be safe to go take pictures in the afternoon.

We were surprised to see the Queen after avoiding the morning crowds. We forgot that she had to come BACK from her morning parade.

After waiting for the parade to be over, we went into St. James Park. Lovely place.

This is the Palace from a bridge in the park. This was the only reason we were there. You can tell the Queen is there because her standard is flying.

The guards had to go somewhere after the parade, too. A lot of them went through the park!

We had a wonderful time in Merrye Olde Englande! Two days wasn't long enough.

Explore the Kingdom II: Taif, April 2007

We took a guided bus tour from Jeddah to Taif. Taif is the “mountain resort” town of Saudi Arabia (alt. 1682 meters / 5214 ft). It was about a 3-hour drive from Jeddah. You can get there faster, but not by bus. We also made a couple of extra stops trying to get the air-conditioning to work. Actually, by the time we got there, we didn’t need it. Taif is measurably cooler than Jeddah. We went up there to see the roses in bloom.

The first big stop was at the factory where they distill the roses into perfume and rose water. The roses only bloom for about 70 days of the year.

Then we went across town to where they grow and pick the roses.

We then went to have a very nice buffet lunch at the Meridian Hotel. The hotel used to be a Hilton, but changed hands a couple of years ago. The view of the city from the roof-top dining was quite nice.

Another famous sight in the city is the baboons. They almost infest the city and beg (quite aggressively!) on the roads. We went out to “Baboon Valley” where they breed and got caught in a quite spectacular downpour.

Our next stop for the trip was visiting an agricultural farm. The bees weren’t as active as they would have been because of the rain.

We got to go and pick our own tomatoes. They were excellent!

We visited the town’s vegetable market. It is mostly wholesale, but you can buy smaller quantities, too. Alonda got half a case of tomatoes and made spaghetti sauce. We should have bought more!

Overall, a very nice trip!

Jim didn’t get photos, but it was interesting to see the farming on the way up to Taif. They have rock and dirt walls between the fields. You might think it was to hold water, but it is actually to cut the wind. Desert wind can kill a field in a hurry.
For the trip home, they gave us a police escort. This got us through all the checkpoints in a big hurry. It was downhill, too, so we went a little faster than going up!