Back in Seattle Again

Sing with me now (make sure it's twangy), "I'm back in Seattle again, out where a friend is a friend, where the proteins feed, on the lowly research needs, back in Seattle again. I'm riding the bus once more, totin' my rain boots to my chores, where I sleep in lab some nights, but for once EVERYTHING is right! I'm back in Seattle again. Whoopy-ty-aye-oh, experiments finally done, back in Seattle again. Whoopy-ty-aye-oh, only writing left to go, back in Seattle again. I'm back in Seattle again, happy to see all my Northwest friends, only ten weeks to go, then I'm done with Strong comma Ro, I'm back in Seattle again!" So yeah, things are actually going really well. An experiment that I've been working on in circles since New Year's Eve got accomplished this week. I have a few papers to write, and then I'm done done done. It's spectacular. Oh I'm almost done!

London would like to wish you a very happy birthday!

So this morning I woke up in a country hotel in Bath. Is there a better way to spend a birthday? We drove back to London and checked into our hotel with the very ambitious plan of taking the underground allllllllllllllll the way across London to go to Greenwich. Greenwich is a neat little bit of London that houses both the Royal Observatory/Prime Meridian as well as the Royal Maritime Museum. This latest one is the thing that I wanted to see the most since they have Robert Falcon Scott's snow goggles that he used in his expedition to the South Pole. What I had forgotten was that they also have carved wood snow goggles of the Inuit people. Even though they're from the 1800s, picture a wrap-around visor a la Geordi La Forge in pine. Absolutely incredible. After an afternoon spent perusing sailing ships and looking for sailors, and looking into the gift shop only to find out that I could buy a kit and adopt a penguin, it was time to get off to St. Paul's Cathedral for evensong. It turns out that you can actually participate in the service. I think that if I had realized that you could sit and listen without being in it, I would have opted for that because I had no idea what was going on and I felt a little sheepishly disruptive. But, they sit you in the choir seats which is magnificent! And their sermons were really quite wonderful and heart felt. Much better than the last time I went to evensong. But really the best part was the beautiful and angelic clarity of the voices of the men. Bright and penetrating tenors. Make sure you go to an evensong in St. Paul's! Thanks Dad for just a wonderful wonderful birthday!!! Okay, so this last picture is just a picture of boat, but I still loved the maritime museum so so so much.

Time to take a Bath

Hurray for the most visually appealing city in England, Bath! We started off this morning by visiting the Roman Baths that I'm just itching to recreate. Okay. Seriously! When I get my little professorship job in Montana and save enough money to buy a house with a yard, I'm putting one of these in. I'd have to put a greenhouse over it since it's Montana and would need some sheltering . . . well, maybe brick since those tumbleweeds/trees blow pretty hard across the landscape up there. But anyway, I'm building it! And I'll rent the space out for wedding receptions for extra cash. The baths were amazing complete with an exhibit of rings and other jewelry they found in the drain from Roman times. Yup, people lost stuff at the swimming pool even way back then. And, for free, they let you taste the water. Look how delicious I think it is! How to describe the taste? Well, it's easy I guess. Picture a dirty swimming pool. Take a cuppa and heat it up to about 75 degrees. Then, bottoms up! After the pump rooms (hello where is Rupert Penry Jones?) we took a walking tour of Bath and wandered up to the Royal Crescent, the Circus, and saw the Assembly Rooms. For anyone who has not read/heard/seen a Jane Austen book or movie, then this probably is not important. To me, I loved it. Although admittedly, an RPJ sighting would have been pretty nice. I was mostly stunned by the beauty of the chandeliers in the Assembly Rooms. And after my dad let me walk him up and down Bath about sixteen times in order to see everything, we were exhausted and ready to go back to the hotel for a dinner of a pickle and cheese sandwich. Curiouser and curiouser, "pickle" in England apparently means some interesting red melange of indeterminable chewy stuff. It wasn't bad but I prefer a good old classic dill, made from a cucumber. Oh, so now I'm just going to post a few pictures of interesting things. Here's looking up into the chandelier at the Upper Assembly Rooms. Here's the spectacular and unparalled fan vaulting of the cathedral in Bath. And here's a toast rack that spells out "TOAST". Genius, and I want one. I think I will always put toast out for breakfast in toast racks from now on. And I'm sorry but the Upper Assembly Rooms were just so gorgeous, here's a photo of 'em. Can't you just picture Captain Wentworth storming down the hallway and out the door because he thinks that Anne Elliot is going to marry William Elliot. And then she bursts out of the concert and runs after him. And then William storms out after her and proposes. Hmmm, which one to choose? Blue-eyed sweetie worth over 5 million bucks or annoying slimey? Gosh, tough decision there.

On top of Old Snowdon, all covered in fog!

Today er, instead of hiking the five miles up to the top of Mount Snowdon (the tallest peak in somewhere), we took the train. Believe me, it was hard work sitting there in a car and getting pushed up the hill by a legit old-fashioned steam engine. The funny bit was that each of the seven compartments in the train were packed full with eight people except for our compartment. It was just us Americans. I think they're segregating us. Well, we thought that until the last minute when a family with three kids piled in. It was fun just listening to those little British accents. We would have hiked, really, but it was super super cold and we didn't have the time (several several several hours). In the bottom of the valley, we also explored a quarry which has been abandoned, filled in with water, and turned into a scuba diving center. This Wales place is stunningly beautiful. Also by this quarry was this really old steam engine burning coal. There was a pretty high sulfur content and I can't imagine what cities looked like back in the day when they were burning this stuff. Probably like Bert and his sweeps from Mary Poppins. Woah. I took this picture for my nephew Carson who loves loves Thomas the Tank Engine. This must've been his great great grandfather.

Croeso i Gymru!

(Welcome to Wales) Araf y'all cuz the roads here are small small small. Araf is Welsh for "slow" and it's necessary. My dad a superb driver but it's the other drivers that have me worried. Well, Wales is gorgeous. We're staying in the seaside town of Beaumaris (probably once known as Yymmlld dkk Bwymmmsychddff, or something like that). It's out on the Isle of Anglesley. It's a nice stopping point to relax (cause you know being on vacation is hard work) before we head off to Bath and then fly home. I love Wales because of the beautiful country and the charming people with an intriguing language. For instance, here's a sign about seagulls. Since they're not busy feeding seagulls here, they have to do something to spend the time. I think this boat gave me some idea what that must be.

Out in the Inner Hebrides

So the Hebrides actually do exist. They're located off the coast of Scotland. Today we went out to the Isle of Mull and the Isle of Iona which combine to make the Inner Hebrides. While we were waiting for the ferry in Ffdkiiidislakckfarne (that's probably not it but it might as well be) to go over to Iona, there was a rather crotchety old lady running the cafe. She promptly told the other people getting off the coach that there was no way they were going to make it to Staffa, not with this bit of weather blowing in (see picture). Over to Iona, with the cement truck in the middle of the ferry swaying back and forth, we saw where ole Kingie Macbeth was buried. Holla ancestor!

Up in the Scottish Highlands

After leaving Edinburgh, we drove northwest towards the Scottish Highlands and drove down through Glencoe. Glencoe is the sight of a horrid massacre of a Scottish clan by English troops. Basically there was a series of treaties with the highland clans which were repeatedly ignored by the English and then to "solve" the problem with some of them, they sent troops to eliminate them. Sounds familiar doesn't it? Well now it's a stunning valley with waterfalls pouring down every peak and hiking around every corner. We stuck to the driving and skipped the "hill walking". Here we are to take a quick picture before we bundle back into the warmer car (it's definitely fall here). It must get pretty chilly here in the later fall and winter months since this is what the highland cows look like (the errie coos!) These people are amazing walkers. Up and down and up and down steep steep steep. No wonder they wake up and eat big slices of ham, eggs, toast with butter, fried potato scones, blood sausages (black pudding), haggis, and tomatoes to fuel their day. Haggis actually isn't too bad. It's just the texture that's a bit unpleasant. Tonight we're staying in Oban (pronounced OH-bin) and we'll see what we do tomorrow. Here's the view outside our hotel. There's a bagpiper playing on a ship in the harbor. Lovely!