Transparency in nature

I do have have few more posts to milk from my August-September travels, but I thought I'd take a break and make a report on a paddling excursion closer to home

Weekend before last we took advantage of some higher-than-usual flows on the Medina and paddled a lovely stretch of this river that we don't get to see very often.

What was most appealing about the trip for me was the amazing clarity of the water. I hadn't seen water this clear since our wild adventure on the Devils River in 2010. Unfortunately, this Medina excursion also duplicated some of the negative features of that previous trip—specifically, too much excitement and concomitant hard work!—but I think you'll agree that the water was gorgeous when you see this selection from the many photos I took of its crystalline transparency.

doesn't it look like Henry is paddling on air?

lots of pretty plants and rocks to look at on the bottom

it's like a glass-bottom boat that stretches across the whole stream!

even in the deeper spots, you still can see straight down to the bottom

I was so entranced by the appearance of the water from on top, that I didn't get around to taking any underwater shots until we stopped for lunch...

As you can see, the water wasn't deep enough to be really dangerous for most of the paddle, but there were some tricky sections and I went swimming—non-intentionally—twice. Here's Larry expertly negotiating one of these little twisty-passages (they were "all different": Adventure reference!)

What made them tricky was the narrowness of the river at these points, which made the current really swift and left paddlers little time for adjustments.

Fortunately the shallow water made it pretty easy for me to retrieve my boat after my mishaps and get back in, but such adventures do tend to wear you out. And several of our compatriots had similar experiences, some of which involved sit-inside kayaks which aren't so easy to get back on track as my sit-on-top. So our trip ended up lasting probably twice as long as we had expected. I haven't been that tired in a long time!

But it was a lovely day and a mostly fun paddle in gorgeous water, so I'm glad I participated.

Ghostly glorious clouds

By the time we got off the Chama on Labor Day and unloaded and repacked all our gear, it was almost sunset in the New Mexico desert. But fortunately, we didn't have far to drive to reach supper, showers, and a bed.

The famous Ghost Ranch lodge is just a mile or two up the road and we had wisely reserved a room there for the night. What a wonderful time of day to see this glorious landscape! 

The one fly in the ointment was that we arrived just after their dining room stopped serving dinner. Now we ate so well on the river, we didn't really need another big meal, but against all logic, we were hungry. And we must have looked rather pitiful, since the nice lady at the reception desk called over to the dining hall and asked if we could sneak in before they put up all the food, and the kind kitchen staff agreed. Whew! a supper of granola bars and prunes averted!

So, thanks to these nice folks, we were able to enjoy the amazing scenery and sunset on full stomachs. The clouds, I think you will agree, were particularly spectacular this evening.

that's Chimney Rock on the lower right horizon; you'll see it
again in a future post in different lighting

the road to the lodge is just visible on the right

on the bottom right is the parking lot of the welcome center, where
kind folks took pity on us and arranged for us to be fed after hours

My camera usually doesn't take very good low light pictures, but the photography gods smiled on me for this one, taken outside the group of rooms where we stayed the night:

The cool clouds stuck around until morning, too, when I took this not-too-long-after-sunrise shot:

We got to see more of the Ghost Ranch scenery, in closer detail, later in the day, before we hit the road for home and Colorado. I'll show you scenes from that hike in a future post.

Wordless Wednesday: reflections and reality at Ghost Ranch

Celebrating the Millennium!

Millennium Park, that is. What a wonderful urban space, bordered by gorgeous Chicago architecture and featuring the greatest public art.

The picture above was taken by Henry from the window of the University Club on Michigan Avenue, where we enjoyed a scrumptious rehearsal dinner in a setting worthy of Harry Potter. And I think you'll agree that the views looking east were incomparable.

We were lucky enough not only to be able to attend an event in this grand venue, but our lodgings for the wedding weekend were just a block away, in the fabulous Palmer House; sharing rooms made the price doable, and the location was fantastic! (On the right is a photo of its opulent lobby, fairly recently renovated and restored to its Jazz Age glory.)

The best thing about the hotel, though, was its proximity to the Park. We were able to make more than one visit there, and couldn't seem to stop taking pictures of its most iconic symbol, which has not one, but two, equally evocative names: The Bean, and the Cloud Gate.

The Bean peeks out from among the Park's trees,
if you approach it from the south

Its quirky nickname and its ethereal "official" name are somehow both appropriate. It does look like a kidney bean, in overall shape...

...although it could also be called the "egg," don't you think?

But Cloud Gate fits, too. Especially when you consider the reflections of sky and buildings that it offers...

doesn't that look like it could be a Gate to another dimension?

The combination of its shape, shininess (we did wonder how hard it is to keep it polished), and reflectivity are just irresistible, and absolutely require you to take dozens of pictures.

Experiencing the different aspects of the sculpture is so much fun! First of all, we had trouble finding ourselves on the wildly convex surface. But we finally got the hang of it. Here we are, waving in the red box...

But the outer, bean-like contours aren't all there is to it! Underneath is a whole different, both convex and concave experience; we're in another red box here...

What an absolutely gorgeous, funny, and sublime piece of public art!

---

And that's not all the Park has to offer, either. Not far away is another clever, whimsical sculpture that offers an additional feature, especially welcome on hot summer days.

The Crown Fountain produces enough cooling spray for scores of hot Chicagoans at a time, especially when the projected faces pucker up, every 5 minutes or so, and shoot out a firehose worth of water...

(If you're interested in how all this works, the Wikipedia entry linked above gives an exhaustive account of the fountain's design, engineering, and construction.)

---

But I'm still not through! There's also a huge outdoor amphitheatre in the Park that is a work of art in itself...

The Pritzker Pavilion is empty in this picture, but when we emerged from our marathon visit to the Art Institute on Thursday evening, there was a concert going on that entertained the whole Park.

For sure, you need to be within walking distance to this fabulous Park whenever you visit Chicago...we certainly will be on our next trip there!

Signs and portents

I've always been somewhat attuned to highway hazard signs, I guess ever since my parents used to play "find the snake in the road" with us on our trips in the Montana mountains.

But I wonder if I've been remiss in noticing a new trend in these signs, or if it really is a recent development. I'm referring to a new variety, especially when it comes to wildlife cautions.

(Perhaps I'm newly sensitized after noting the difference between US and Canadian deer on signs north and south of the border?)

At any rate, on my last driving trip, it seems that there was a lot more wildlife to look out for than ever!

These signs on both sides of IH-25 South near Raton, New Mexico, are great examples. Apparently there are a lot of bears in these Rocky foothills!

On the same road, I saw not only a sign featuring this handsome elk (?)...

...but (if you can; sorry for the blurriness of the photo) also check out the cute sign designed for the safety of two-legged creatures: it says "Slow Down! My Mommy works here!"

Earlier, on one of our [many] trips to and from Denver in August, I snapped this warning about bighorn sheep...

You might notice, a bit further down the road, a fire engine warning sign, too. Yes, there also seems to be a proliferation of what one might call cultural/technological hazards. Like this one near Westcliffe, Colorado, on the gorgeous short-cut state highway 69:

So I'm looking for new signs all the time now, and, as often happens when you really look for something, you find them everywhere.

I know this specific warning hasn't always been displayed at this railroad crossing here in San Antonio:

But it's very appropriate! I've scraped bottom more than once on the little hill supporting the train tracks here. 

If there are other sign connoisseurs among my readers, you might enjoy these posts from my London blog. Now, British signs are really different and fun!

Wordless Wednesday: underwater selfie

Along another river

Last time, I told you about some stupendous natural architecture along one of the rivers that I traversed in August.

Some architecture of the man-made variety was on display along one of the others...

Thanks to a recommendation from our newest niece-in-law, we took an architecture tour of the Chicago River during our visit to that city. And we loved it!

As you'll see in these pictures, we had a gorgeous morning, weather-wise, and got to see some amazing buildings. Believe me, I had quite a chore in narrowing down the number of pictures to include here; I wouldn't want to overload Blogger, after all  .

You can see a little of our mode of transportation in the picture above, but we found it interesting that some of our fellow tourists chose a different type of boat to navigate the river...

Maybe next time we'll take this option...we had enough fun that a return visit sounds very appealing.

Our guide was entertaining and incredibly informative; however, I hate to say that I probably didn't retain as much as I wish I had of the fascinating information he gave us about his city and its buildings.

But even the buildings I can no longer identify were so cool... like this one:

or this one...

or this one...

And as you can see from this brief sample, there were all sorts of styles on offer, from the ornate to the slick.

I do remember some tidbits about some of the structures, though. For instance, the architect of these guys wanted every surface rounded, because "there are no straight edges in nature":

And the handsome black, also curvy, building on the right here (and you can also see our great guide in this shot as well) was built where it is because of a loophole in the building code that has since been closed...

It was built on the Lake Michigan side of Lakeshore Drive, where such buildings are supposed to be prohibited, but since it was built on "landfill," instead of "land," there it is. The ordinance has since been clarified and this is the only structure so close to the Lake. We heard all kinds of interesting and quirky Chicago stories like that. So fun!

Of course one of the buildings you can't mistake is the Sears Tower (which is apparently now the Willis Tower, but that doesn't have quite the same ring). You can just see its antennae peeping out a bit to the left of the landfill building above. And here's a bit closer look at it and its neighborhood:

We heard that they are working on a continuous walk along the riverside (hmmm...I wonder where they might have gotten the idea for that?). It should end up being a wonderful walkway, especially since they have, at least in recent historical terms, shown a lot of respect for the river. 

One building that we saw which exemplifies this connection was this beauty:

Not only are the reflections of the buildings across the river a great free decorative element (and this was planned) but the graceful curve of the river-side of the structure exactly echoes the curve of the river at this point. Our guide told us that on the street-side, the building's facade is perfectly flat; it's only when you see it from the river that you can appreciate the real artistry. Very imaginative and cool!

Of course, Chicago is more than just architecture. And we got to sample many of its famous sights, sounds and tastes, from museums to deep-dish pizza (not our favorite style, but we did try it). And of course there's the L, which we enjoyed riding with our 3-day-passes.

Here's a shot I took on purpose of some more gorgeous buildings, with a train in front for scale and perspective...

What a great city! I'm so glad we got to see as much of it as we did. The tour we took with Wendella is one we'd recommend to anyone visiting Chicago...especially if it's for the first time!