Open Thread #3
Well, I’m back from my west coast trip, but I came home totally sick, the SSL cert for KDO wasn’t automatically renewed1 so the site was down for several hours this morning, and my car has decided it’s suddenly out of brake fluid? Oh and I haven’t even seen Project Hail Mary yet. (I know, right?!??!??!!!)
*sigh*
I know when I’m beaten. It’s gonna be KDO Lite for a few more days while I get my life in order. In the meantime, talk amongst yourselves…
- A missed checklist item from when the site moved servers a few months ago.↩
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I listened to the Project Hail Mary audiobook with our daughter while driving her to college, and that was a blast. The book is a goofy, extreme exercise in near science, a term I've decided to make up that means it sounds like science but probably really isn't. It's different from the movie, of course, but the movie is a pretty great time all on its own.
Since this place seems to be a great source of travel advice, I’m curious if anyone has experience hiking in the Alps (or other places in Europe you might recommend)? I am trying to plan a summer trip with my brother, and am feeling a little wary about ending up somewhere totally swarmed with people. Seeking overnight routes that are rigorous but not insane…
Have you considered the Dolemites? Went last June and it was not swamped at all.
My wife who does a lot of hiking says it depends a bit on what you mean by summer - August will be busy everywhere for example. And if you can avoid starting the walk at a weekend that will help because you'll be out of sync with most of the other trips when it comes to booking places to stay.
She's done a couple of walks over recent years which she wrote up on her blog in case they're useful: Picos de Europa, and Dolomites and Venice.
Consider Iceland? Though it's gotten popular lately, hiking in the highlands is otherworldly. I hiked Fimmvörðuháls with my oldest in a day (it was intense—thank goodness for the late summer sunset). The nearby Laugevegur Trail is on my bucket list—a more leisurely hut to hut hike, glaciers, volcanoes, hot springs...
Thanks for all the advice! I think the Dolomites are definitely an option.
I absolutely love Iceland, but my brother is pretty set on mainland Europe.
And Phil, my gosh your wife has been to some amazing places! Makes me feel some real wanderlust looking at her photos.
We hiked across Switzerland 15 years ago, and have been back on some of the hikes since. Eastern Switzerland is quite beautiful and generally not flooded with tourists; we quite enjoyed hiking over passes around Elm and Braunwald. Also, things get a bit quieter if you hike west out of Mürren, up above Lauterbrunnen. There's a nice, relatively short hike up to the Rotstockhütte, where you can stay overnight and head back to Mürren, or a longer hike up and over the pass and then on to the Gspaltenhornhütte (same with food / overnight), which is in a fairly remote but stunning spot. Hikes around Kandersteg (up to the Blüemlisalphütte or the other way towards Adelboden are also beautiful, and a bit of a change from the classic Jungfraujoch / Eiger area. Adelboden is also a lovely little town.
The food we ate in LA was fantastic: sushi, tsukemen ramen, tacos, poke bowls, salmon sashimi w/ burratta, more ramen, In-N-Out, chai w/ boba. In SF at Dumpling Home in Hayes Valley, we had fried soup dumplings, which I didn't even know was a thing.
Ooh! That sounds nice. Would you wanna share your favorite ramen spots? There are so many good ones, so I'm always curious if I'm missing any.
I posted this to the end of the last open thread, so I'll go ahead and bump it here…
I thought it might be fun to share the next thing I'm working on. I'm officially vlogging my way through Los Angeles as I draw the city and talk to strangers.
If you're curious and would like to see episode 1, you can see it here. It still needs a little polish but it's almost there:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kCjAMRBObJBVxbikXvOeTCLIyZax13fF/view
I am editing episode 3 at this very moment, and would like to get a couple more in the bag before I start sharing them with the world. And then the plan is to release an episode a week.
All of this has been a welcome challenge for me. I've never vlogged, but I wanted to shine a light on the great parts of LA in the midst of its recent challenges (with the fires and ICE, among other things). And I hope it reminds people of the joy of going out.
I'm very open to feedback. Favorite parts? Did something make you smile? And if there's interest, I can also post the link to episode 2 in its current form. Thanks, everyone! Hope you're all having a nice day. 💫
We had solar panels and a battery installed on our house a couple of weeks ago. There was a teething issue that was resolved very quickly, so we are now in full flow using our own generated electricity as much as possible.
It is actually amazing how much we can generate in a good day. Today (which has been mainly clear, but is now clouding over) the photons have created nearly 28 kWh of electricity. My guess is that in most weeks between the spring and autumn solstices, we will be generating at least as much as we consume.
We are lucky to have had a recent inheritance to pay for this, but it is good to be able to do our bit for energy independence.
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