Highmoon's Ponderings

It’s our fourth day in Seattle and so far I’m loving it as much as before; maybe more. The cool weather, the (advanced) autumn season, all enhance the beauty of the city and surroundings, making it even more appealing. Fog has been a constant companion every day, especially today, when it hid the sound completely and then rolled onto the city, casting a shimmering veil over everything.

Thursday, Nov. 27

We arrived on Thursday after a whole day of flying. We left Miami at 11 am, flying to Chicago O’Hare then took a connecting flight on Air Alaska, landing in Seattle at 6 pm local time. After getting the car, a convertible electric blue PT Cruiser, we drove into the city through lightly foggy streets, reaching the Hotel Max less than an hour later. The Hotel Max was, well, nice but a bit too snobby for my taste, not to mention expensive (I mean, $30 per day for parking!). The room (807) was nice, I won’t take that away, and we had a fantastic view of the Space Needle. Extremely hungry after 10 hours of traveling, we hit the road again, heading for the one kosher restaurant in Downtown Seattle, Bamboo Garden. Thankfully it was open (thank heavens for Chinese restaurants) and we were able to have a hot meal (Yvette had an udon noodle dish, while I had their vegan Thanksgiving platter, which was actually quite good). We took a short drive around the downtown area, if only to refresh our memories, but turned in fairly early; by 11 pm we had turned off the lights and called our Thanksgiving Day a done deal, both of us ecstatic of being back in Seattle.

Friday, Nov. 28

Friday morning was a bit of a hectic one. After getting up quite early, taking a shower and praying, I went online to check the rates on the hotel we had stayed in on our last visit, the Sixth Avenue Inn, visible from our room at the Hotel Max. The price was exactly half of what we were paying at the Max, so after confirming they had rooms available and placing a reservation, I cancelled the remaining nights at the Hotel Max. We repacked everything in the suitcases and left the Max at around 11 am, checking into the Sixth Avenue Inn by noon. Though certainly the Hotel Max had a unique personality, especially when compared to the middle-of-the-road Sixth Avenue Inn, the reduced price and the immense amount of space we got on our second hotel more than made up the difference, tipping the scale firmly in our favor. With that secured, we headed out to have breakfast at the one place we knew we could get a fantastic and filling meal, Noah’s Bagels in the U District. An hour, two egg-and-cheese sandwiches on potato bagels and two cups of coffee later, we had full tummies and were ready to continue our day, in this case, heading out to get provisions for Shabbat at the Mercer Island Albertson’s.

This is a wonderful supermarket that truly leaves a lot of kosher stores at home in the dirt, not only in its selection but in its prices. Let’s start with the fact that we can get sushi, fresh-made sushi, at a fraction of the cost we pay in Miami at any restaurant, and a hundred times fresher than the pre-made packs we sometimes pick up at home. To that you can add a deli where we got not only a variety of salads, but also a sandwich as big as my head, with three different meats, for $7. And of course, then there was the selection of kosher artisan breads. Sigh. About an hour later we left with enough groceries to take us through the entire week, as well as food for Shabbat, now only a couple hours away.

On the way back we stopped at the REI store, not far from our hotel. Personally, I’d forgotten it was Black Friday, so I was initially taken aback by the amount of people in the store, though once I realized what day it was, the truth was that there weren’t nearly as many people as one would imagine. We only had an hour to wander the huge store, and most of it we spent in the bicycle department, marveling at the wide selection of bikes and accessories, especially a very nice Electra Townie “Rat Rod” bike painted with a flame motif that made me wish I could just buy it right then and there. I picked up a book called Biking Puget Sound that lists 50 different rides and trails around Seattle and the greater Puget Sound area. We’re hoping to be able to rent some bikes and hit the Burke-Gilman trail (the very first ride listed in the book), but even if we don’t, I see it as an investment for the future.

We only spent an hour at REI before we had to zip back to the hotel to get ready for Shabbat, which started at 4:13 pm! We both managed to take hot showers before candle lighting time and after prayers, we sat down to enjoy an excellent meal of challah from Noah’s Bagels, and salads and fresh sushi from Albertson’s. By the time midnight rolled around, we were already in bed sleeping soundly and happily.

Saturday, Nov. 29

We spent the whole day indoors, sleeping in late, waking up to have lunch, then lounging around the room. We read the newspaper, checked our maps and guides, made tentative plans for the rest of the week, then slept some more until after Shabbat ended at 5:12 pm. After that we took showers, got some food and headed over to see our friends John and Patricia, in Ballard. We just hung out at their home; they would be running the Seattle Half-Marathon in the morning, so they needed to rest and conserve their energies. At around 10-ish, we left their house and headed Downtown again, taking a detour down to the waterfront, and walking up to The Pike Brewery for some cold ales (the Kilt Lifter Scotch Ale was just as fantastic as I remembered it). Then it was back to the hotel. A quiet and very nice day to finally settle in and get our internal clocks aligned.

A report on Sunday’s activities is coming later.

We got this at Wal-Mart. I am so ready for Channukah!

I have joined Metblogs, a network of city-focused blogs for a number of metropolitan areas around the world. My friend Patricia is a contributor for the Seattle Metblogs and that kinda gave me the impetus to do the same in my own city. Given how the Miami Metblogs was downright suffering for lack of content (the last non-news post was in March 08) I decided this would be a great way for me to connect more with my hometown and a way to talk about the city aside from the topic of cycling, which I already cover in my Slow Bike Miami Beach blog (though I also expect to cover some cycling stuff on Metblogs as well).

So drop by Miami Metblogs and check out whatever I end up writing about there (and hopefully we’ll have more contributors joining up soon as well). You can check out my Author Profile page which includes links to articles written by me, or go to the front page and see what’s going on.

Last week was the Miami Book Fair International, a world-class literary event that brings together hundreds of authors (of all stripes, nationalities and levels of accomplishment) and thousands of fans of the written word on the streets of Downtown Miami. The activities are divided between talks and conferences during the week and the street fair during the weekend. As much as we always want to make it to one of the weeknight events, we always go to the street fair and revel in our love of books. After Bike Miami the week before, we resolved to bike down to the book fair, and given Sunday’s amazing weather, we hoped on our bikes and made the trek.

Riding from Miami Beach to Downtown was actually incredibly easy (and no, it did not involve Biscayne Blvd., a road I prefer to avoid on two wheels). We left Normandy Isles and took Indian Creek Dr. up to 63rd St. From there we took La Gorce Dr. to 47th St. where we were finally able to use the various bike lanes in that area of the Beach, namely the ones on Royal Palm Ave. and Prairie Ave. We rode on Prairie up to Dade Blvd. which we then took all the way to the Venetian Causeway, the cyclists’ highway between Miami Beach and mainland Miami. Once we emerged in Downtown Miami from the Causeway, we simply rode down Biscayne Blvd. to the Wolfson Campus of the Miami Dade College, on NE 5th St. That’s 10.5 miles from our door to the MDC Wolfson Campus and it took us about an hour and forty minutes to make the journey.

Of the entire trek, the points where the bike lanes were obstructed, and the segments at Indian Creek (from 71st St to 63rd St) and Dade Blvd. (from Prairie Ave to the Venetian Causeway) were our least favorite, being by far some of the worst spots to ride your bike in Miami Beach. This is a topic I will write more on at a later time.

A cold front passed through Miami during the weekend, and where Saturday was insanely hot (as described to me by a friend who went to the street fair that day), Sunday was in the mid- to high-60’s and breezy, which made the ride Downtown a joy. In true Slow Bike fashion, we took our time riding and enjoying the scenery (especially at the Venetian Causeway, even if I forgot to take any pics there), never breaking a sweat (okay, maybe a little, but literally just a little). We crossed paths with lots of fellow cyclists all over the route, but especially once we hit the Venetian Causeway; with bike lanes stretching for the entire 2.5 miles between Miami Beach and Miami, the Causeway was hands down the best part of the entire ride.

Once Downtown, we had to use a makeshift bike rack to tie our bikes, since there are practically no actual bike racks in the area. On the plus side, there were quite a number of bikes tied to makeshift racks all around the perimeter of the street fair, which was great to see. The more people ride their bikes as a means of actual transportation instead of just for recreation, the faster we move towards creating a bike culture in Miami. Bikes secured and helmets strapped to our backpacks, we went in for an entire afternoon of books.

My wife and I are certified blibliovores (and I have the shirt to prove it) so we were in heaven for the next five hours, browsing pretty much every single booth on our path (and we did a full circuit of the street fair) and buying lots of books at great prices. Of note this year was the inclusion for the first time of a comics and graphic novels area, which simply made my heart dance with elation. I spent almost 45 minutes in there and emerged with 6 graphic novels to my name, plus two other comic-related books (one of them signed by the author), and that was just less than 15 minutes after arriving! My wife got a couple of cooking-related memoirs dealing with Julia Child, plus we got a pair of gorgeous handmade leather journals, one for each of us. It was simply a wonderful afternoon in the company of thousands other book lovers. That’s one of the reasons why I love the Miami Book Fair, it is such a slap to the face to the notion that Miami is only defined by its superficiality.

By 6 pm we headed out back towards the Beach. The light was going away fast, though thankfully the roads we took were very well lit (note to self: need to get a new headlight); except for a few idiots driving way too fast on the Venetian Causeway, the ride was a safe one. We made it from Downtown to 41st St in about an hour, and we stopped there to have dinner at Lofty Latte with my mother-in-law, who had spent the afternoon with us at the fair and driven ahead.

With happy tummies and sweaters on, we rode the rest of the way back to our home. We rode down Pine Tree Dr. using the sidewalk, though on that particular road, I think the actual street is a far better choice, since there are way too many hedges that force you to make really sharp turns at times, not to mention the amount of cars blocking the way. On 63rd St we had a forced drawbridge break, and then we had to ride the Indian Creek Dr. segment again, which was no fun at all. Once on 71st St though it was all smooth sailing and soon enough we were back home, a full 10 hours after we had left in the morning. Even better was that, though we were as tired as you’d imagine us being after 10 hours out and about and having cycled for 21 miles, we weren’t in pain or overly sore, which just goes to show what Slow Biking can accomplish.

It was a great day of bike riding and books, two of our favorite things. This Sunday we proved to ourselves that we can indeed make it Downtown on our bikes for the next Bike Miami. At least while the weather remains as nice and we take it slow, it should be a fine ride. I can’t wait.

You can see the photos in the slideshow below or at Flickr: Miami Book Fair 11/16/08 set.

Nov. 17, 2002

Nov. 17, 2008

Thanks for six wonderful years of marriage. May we have a hundred thousand more.

Posted at Destination: Earth Travel Journal:

There is a banshee in Kilmainham Gaol; don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. It may be invisible to the eyes of the thousands of visitors to the historic site in the Irish capitol, but its wail, its unearthly and sorrow-filled wail, is inescapable and unforgettable.

[Read more...]