Bellingham: Crystalline Water Ice

James St / Bakerview

Bellingham, WA 

This most recent snow fall lasted about 4 days. We got a fair dumping of snow. In that time I built no snowmen, created no snow angels, tunneled through no snow banks, crafted no igloos, consumed no snow cones, slid down no hills on my red flyer sled, and threw one single snow ball directed at a human being. The 8 year old Kile would look at me now and drop his head in shame. I'm sorry 8 year old Kile, I failed you.

Bellingham: Rando Winter Musings

SnowNami 2012

Bellingham, WA

Bellingham: Parking Garages

Downtown Parkade

Bellingham, WA

I've been to a lot of parking garages in my day. Parking garages are not special places. They are dark, dirty & dingy concrete monstrosities that exist to be the eyesores of urban civilization. To their credit they are the most efficient means of cramming as many vehicles as possible into as little footprint as is available. But rarely is efficiency accomplished in such uninspiring and forgetful ways as parking garages.  No one designs and builds a parking garage in the hopes it will become a wonderful memory in the life of it's occupants. Yet unassumingly, a wonderful memory is exactly what the Bellingham Downtown Parkade has become.  

Living Vicariously through My Former Self: Le Cinque Terre

Le Cinque Terre, Italy

I know I said in the last post that I would want to go back to pretty much every single place I visited on my little treck across Europe. That remains true. But like any good parent who has a favorite child, I also have a favorite city. This favorite city actually isn't a city at all, but rather a little collection of villages strung together by a train track and a hiking trail. These quaint little villages make up what the locals call Le Cinque Terre. Made touristy popular by the Northwests favorite travel guide Rick Steves, these towns are tucked into ravines, crammed across hillsides and situated perfectly against beaches. If you don't ever visit Le Cinque Terre in your lifetime you are doing yourself a disservice. Plus, the pesto is delicious. Have the pesto.