PR4 Day 3 - Vieques

Today's the big day! The day when we do all the things!

There's a prank called a "Duck Bomb"  where you boobytrap a dozen fake chickens to produce a continuous cacophony. In Vieques, our day started at 6:13 am to the biological analogue. In cartoons, the sun rises, the rooster crows, and life moves on.  In practice, the sun comes up, the rooster crows, and then every other rooster on the island spends the next five minutes trying to prove he can be louder.

Two hours later, we woke again and set out to find a bio-luminescent bay tour.  None of the shops had opened, but we found breakfast at a restaurant where we could keep an eye on everything. We were shortly joined by other couples with similar ideas.  Eventually, shops started opening, and we learned that everything truly was booked solid this week. Looking back, I blame spring break - my brother had no problems a few weeks previously. Live and learn.

Instead of renting a kayak, we rented mountain bikes, hoping that we could stealth our way into mosquito bay that evening. In the mean time, we figured we'd hit our other two Vieques goals: the black sand beach and the sugar plantation ruins.

This is about when I learned I was not slightly sick. It's easy to shrug off a  ̶c̶o̶l̶d̶  sinus infection when you're drinking painkillers* at a bar. When you're hustling a mountain bike and a gallon of water up some tropical hills in the midday sun.... then it catches up with you.
 *Equal parts Pineapple juice, Orange juice, and (light/dark) rum. Garnish with nutmeg. Not an oxycodone milkshake.

Only two miles later (it felt like 5), we arrived at the parking lot for the black sand beach. Sucking down air and water, we chained the bikes and set off down an abandoned lot towards the beach!  We of course closed the unlocked gate behind us, frustrating the old white mare eyeballing all the wild grass.

Around a curve in the path we found out this wasn't an abandoned lot after all. A woman very politely yelled at us to turn around, get out of her yard, and to take the path under the rail bridge. Squinting through sweat into the sun, I noted she had a large, blurry, black and brown object resting on her hip, approximately the size and shape of a shotgun. I resisted my urge to dare her to put me out of my misery, and thanked her for her guidance.

My Tree! And Lis in the distance.

We found the bridge (with a guard rail) a stone's-throw from her gate. And it even had signs for "Playa Negra" that we had completely missed in our initial hypoxic approach. After a mile hike down a dry streambed (it felt like 5) we arrived at the black sand beach.  It was beautiful. I sat down under a palm tree to drink some water and wait for death.

For the next half hour all I did was discover that the black sand is magnetic, so I'll let Lis tell this part:

Brice and his tree in the distance. -Lis

Playa Negra gave you the thrill of being marooned.  It felt forgotten, bedraggled, left in peace.  Not a beach they put on tourism commercials.  The ground is not gentle beneath your feet. There are splintered palm leaves in the sand, crabs scuffling in and out of holes in the woods behind you, dried seaweed collecting in unnerving clumps, ants bubbling in and out of the black sand.  It's the perfect place to be left alone.

Leaving Brice under a tree to rest, I wandered ankle-deep in the surf, making sure to watch my step for urchins.  However, with all the seaweed and rocks, it was hard to see where I was stepping.  So I made sure to not wander too far.  Only far enough to reach an interesting porous rock that I would have climbed if I hadn't been so insistent on leaving my shoes behind.

Slightly reinvigorated, we set off back up the streambed and on towards the Sugar Mill, passing the actually abandoned lot a quarter mile past our misadventure. Setting a slower pace this leg and exploring just how low the gear ratio on the bike would go, we set off for the sugar mill ruins. Our choice was two miles off road skirting the Over-The-Horizon Radar base, or 7 miles on road climbing over the island. Two miles later (it felt like five), we arrived!

(Lis)

After locking the bikes we climbed into the woods. Making it to the ruins, I sat down under a tree to die for a bit.  I didn't see much except for the Lizard who jumped on me, so I'll let Lis cover this part.

As soon as we got to the ruins, I felt like a cat discovering a new maze. It appeared at first like just a single large, broken-down room.  "This is your Great Valley?" (Apparently this is a land before time quote?) But as we got deeper into the woods, we also got deeper into the ruins. Once we found a spot where Brice could relax it was time for me to start exploring properly.

The trees have grown so much into the ruins that they look like hair.  It's times like this where I feel how wrong it is to talk about our buildings as if they are a separate entity from "the environment."  Whether it's a bird's nest, a beaver damn, or a city, everything eventually gets abandoned and taken over by the elements.  At the plantation we saw this thought-provoking  process in action.
 

(Lis)

The walls crumbled like egg shells over the last hundred years.  It was unnerving to climb on them or crawl beneath an arch. But of course that didn't stop me. My favorite feature was the colossal gear, six feet across. And yes...I crawled under and above it.  Ill-advised.  Brice might be wondering where I am...  *Checks phone*  Oh, I have no service.  Hm.  I basically remember where he is.

Oh, I forgot I have zero sense of direction.

"MARCO?!"

...

"POLO!"






After Lis finished exploring, we had to reverse our progress with a 4 mile marathon back (which somehow also felt like 5 miles). Trading off the lead, greedily swerving for any shade available, we set off on the slowest bike race of my life, making it back to the house around 2pm.  After drinking some water and doing nothing for a while, we finally ate the lunch we'd packed.  Afterwards, I crashed out for a nap while Lis went down to the beach.

(Lis)

While Brice attempted to sleep off his fever, I cleaned up and decided to head down to the beach, armed with my camera and poetry books.  I told him I'd be back for dinner, and sent him my location in case he felt good enough to join.  This was one of my favorite times in Puerto Rico.  There was barely anyone on the beach, but unlike the dilapidated nature of black sands beach, this beach was as vibrant as you could get without a snorkel.  The water lapped over large rocks covered in shells and seaweed, and urchins quietly looked up with their single red eye...which I have just been informed is a mouth.  I carefully made my way to one of the exposed rocks to listen to the water lightly drag itself back and forth.  I don't know how much research has been conducted about the meditative affects of cyclical water sounds, but... damn.

Then it got even better because Brice joined me! We moved to an area with more shade so we could relax, waiting until the sunset was ideal for pictures.  In the meantime, we talked about whether or not either of us could live on an island long-term.  Brice explained that he could easily live on an island, that the slow pace and the calm, relaxing atmosphere is an ideal habitat. Something about let tomorrow worry about tomorrow, and can anyone by worrying add a single hour to their life?  Some important person said that once.  I wanted to agree, though I prefer to vacation slow and live fast(ish). Deadlines and large populations make me feel important/needed.  Though, I don't know...looking back at these pictures, it's hard to say that again.

After our mandatory existential musings, my inner child was ready to examine rocks and shells, and see if I could skip any. (Well?) (Yes!)

With the beach fully in shadows we went across the street for dinner. It was stunningly peaceful. Having a glass of wine and watching the world darken I finally understood how easy it could be to meet Death with a smile when he eventually comes.

The stillness set into our bones as the cadence of night fluttered around--the tink of plates being washed, murmured conversations rising and falling, the wind brushing through the sea.  Sometimes time disappears and you momentarily step into eternity.

It was a gorgeous night for seeing the bio-bay. Cloudless, no moon, and no light pollution.  ̶U̶n̶ Fortunately, I was too  ̶e̶x̶h̶a̶u̶s̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶  smart to bike into the swamp, but those conditions also made it ideal for skywatching.

 

After dinner we walked across the pitch black beach and out a pier to see if we could spot any dinoflagellates.  We couldn't, but the stars were clear enough that I saw the Milky Way for the first time.  When fishermen (and their flashlights) came to the dock,  we strolled to a quiet spot on the shore and laid down just in time to catch a shooting star.  We discussed star age, constellations, and life for hours.  I didn't want to go back, but we needed our sleep for an early day tomorrow.

PR4 Day 2 - To the Islands!

After yesterday's hiking, we planned to take it easier today.  After sleeping in, we set out to find the peacock. He was super easy to find, but stubbornly refused to flaunt his plumage. We also checked in with the parrots, who didn't swear at all! The hotel must have replaced the (in)famous orator with a more family-friendly bird. Anyways, after checking out ("I hope you enjoyed your stay, Mr and Mrs Farrell" the hostess said, as Lis melted into a puddle of happiness) we grabbed a taxi to the port city of Fajardo.

Hoping to show Lis more of PR and recapture my old trip, I decided we should take the ferry to the islands. I think it worked. We saw the mountains/rainforests of El Yunque with their weird flowering trees as we drove past. Then we got to stand in line for tickets, before standing in line even longer waiting for our boat... I may have captured more of my last experience for Lis than I meant to. It was however nice to be forced to slow down and go at an island pace, where things get done when they get done.

Maybe even more than the events, I remember the transition moments.  Partly because we spent a lot of time walking, but also because those times where nothing was happening were the best times to soak up the milieu.  The distant trumpet of roosters, the fan-sized leaves on trees, the way a flock of cars were all aware of each other and could weave in & out without signals.

The ferry trip was largely uneventful, except for the whale sighting! Instantly, half the passengers swarmed the port windows, watching as the water frothed.  Luckily my vast experience with whales (namely, I'd seen one before), clued me in to the whale-shaped rock's very non-cetacean behavior, so I just watched the drama unfolding in the cabin (all crowded on the port side) as they gradually realized what they were seeing.  After a massive self-deprecating laugh, one of the passengers pointed to starboard and yelled, "Look!  Another one!"

It began drizzling as we arrived at Isabella Segundo (so perhaps it was fortunate there was no outdoor ferry seating) and we immediately jumped in a shared cab across the Island to Esperanza. On the way we stopped to drop a couple off at the W which looked gorgeous. We may have to do that next time. (Just checked the rates. We will not be doing that next time.) 

We dropped our bags off and wandered down to the boardwalk for a mid-afternoon meal.  We found an oceanfront bar and I was immediately stunned by the difference from my last visit. Far from being one step above a deserted island, Esperanza was full of people. And they were all white. Even as a white person, it was weird. We had a few drinks and a late meal, and waited out the rain.  This was another great chance to people-watch and debate the folly of their fashion choices.  Our bartender pressed on in good spirits, even with broken appliances and a missing employee. And as all good bartenders do, he convinced us to drink more than we planned (using pretty sound logic:  what else were we doing that day?)

After the rain, we walked through town trying to find open slots on the evening's bio-bay tour. There were none. They were all booked solid for the next several days.  We called some more, decided we'd do some research and find something tomorrow morning, and headed back to the house to call it an early evening, as it was apparent I'd started to come down with something.  While temperate air blew softly through the shutters we laid in bed, reading snippets of our books to each other until we fell asleep.

PR4 Day 1 - San Juan!

Brice: As my girlfriend Lis and I are long distance now, we have to catch a flight to see one another. But if we both flew instead of one of us flying, then we get to see something new and spend time together. So I decided that we'd visit Puerto Rico! And in traditional Farrell style I did my best to jam as much as possible into it.

Lis: I was asking Brice, as I always do, about when we could do another visit.  Dying to see him again, happy to just drink gin and play pool, the usual.  But in November he goes, "I think we're gonna do a trip, like Puerto Rico.  Whenever your spring break is." My jaw hit the desk.  Take a plane??  Go to an island??  Spend a ton of money??  So needless to say, I've been looking forward to this for months.

Day 0 - Flight

I love the beauty of exotic trips, but I also enjoy the journey.  The flight from DC to San Juan is one I'd been excited for, as it was my first flight with Brice!  We were both exhausted and tried as many contortions as we could to cuddle/sleep on the plane, but the spacing of economy class, especially United, is made for hobbits/Lises and not elves/Brices.  But we managed a few bouts of conversation and dozing.  Once we landed and set off for Caribe Hilton however, I started getting energy again.  The hotel has a private beach, pools, a mini-jungle with exotic birds, and a ***ton*** of space.  But when we finally made it to our room between 2 and 3 am, the fatigue kicked in and we had a restful night.

Day 1 - Walking San Juan

Today we decided to do San Juan by walking. This was mostly a good idea.

We struck a great balance between sleeping enough that we were energized and not wasting the morning.  As we left the building I remarked, "I've been transported to this magical world where it's summer!"  (Back home the weather was around 40-60 degrees, here it was 70-80). 

We first visited Punta Escambrón (Literal translation: Prickerbush Point. It sounds way better in Spanish). We saw the extremely abbreviated ramparts, took in the ocean, and Lis marveled at her first Palm trees.  Then we looked way across the water at the fortifications that made up the todo list for today.  Castillo de San Cristobal a mile up the coast, and El Morro another mile past that.  It was slightly daunting as the screws in my femur still occasionally act up, but we decided to go for it and set off!


We had a deliciously breezy walk over to the long forts in Old San Juan.  Historic sites are some of my favorite places to walk around, because they're well-maintained, spacious, and usually blended with nature.  I had forgotten how large San Cristobal is - despite being the less famous of the paired forts it is much larger - 27 acres!  We immediately set about exploring all of it, from the WWII era additions, to the garritos (the iconic guard-lookout-boxes that all smell like hobo pee), to the ancient storage tunnels that featured all their original lighting! Which is to say, no lighting. There were so many spots on this fortress to sit and look at the sea.  Even some old cannons and cannon balls to climb on (I resisted the urge, for the sake of the children nearby). We saw a few lizards, wandered the grounds, watched the ocean smash against rocks, and eventually set off to find lunch.

After turning down a random sidestreet we found a random cafe? Lounge? Primarily a drinks place, it had sluggish service but neat decor, balconies, and an amazing caprese appetizer.


After lunch we continued past the ghetto ("Never go down there", he said foreshadowingly, like Mufasa warning Simba about the Elephant Graveyard), skirting the cemetery, and up to El Morro! El Morro is more of the same - a huge castle built with a staggering amount of stone, with great views of the sea for the cannons to take in. And too many stairs.


 


That's when my mind started wandering, looking out at the sea and trying to imagine what it would look like if invaders were approaching.  Brice also pointed out a lot of architectural advantages, like a long slope instead of stairs, which would make it hard to run up if it was wet from rain. Or blood!
 



While we were at El Morro we noticed a path winding around the base of the fort, which would put us up close and personal with the waves, so we set off to find it! We ended up backtracking a fair bit, which actually worked out as we ended up leaving via the Puerta de San Juan - the iconic gateway in the city wall. And we saw kitty city. Cat country? Punto gato? Regardless of what you call it, the locals feed hundreds of stray cats along the path around the fortress wall, resulting in cats lounging beneath every tree. It's super cute. My inner child was throwing a tantrum at the fact that it's not safe to jump into a pile of stray kittens, petting and kissing them and rubbing their bellies.  But at least I know they exist, and lounging and pouncing on lizards in their spare time.

We walked around the entire castle, taking in the imposing view an invading army would be faced with, and watching waves taller than we are smash themselves apart on the rocks. We continued around the north side of the point, eventually ending up at the cemetery. We slipped in the back door, made our way between the close-packed graves, remarking at the large swath of history on the stones.  Unfortunately, once we made our way to the front door we discovered that it was locked, and a bit too large to surreptitiously jump. So we made our way back out the backdoor, across a seawall, and around the far side... cutting across the edge of the previously proscribed neighborhood.  Luckily, everything went well and we began making our way back to the hotel.

We stopped for afternoon tea (afternoon rum?) choosing open-air seating next to Plaza De Colón, where I finally got the ceviche I missed at Brunch. While we ate we observed the art demonstration going on across the street. The local art school kids had a speaker system and were setting up to begin some spray-paint art. I've seen the youtube videos, I know how this goes. They start with random smearing and them BOOM! Planets! Nebulas! This guy spent... I dunno, at least an hour, with his team, painting a graffiti tag that just said DAB.  And no space scenery. It was delightfully ridiculous, though I'm sure that's not what they were going for.

We walked back to the hotel, snapping a few pictures of the sunset along the way, and had a more substantial meal in the in-house taco shop. Then we walked out the private pier and along the now empty beach, and chilled in the hot-tub. There was not a lot left to say at the end of an action-packed day (doesn't mean I didn't try! "If you met an alien race...."), so we just recuperated in the hot water, letting the jets scrub the 10 miles we'd hiked out of our legs.

Czech Republic and Germany (Barely)

Another week, another form of jet lag!

After China, work sent me to one of our factories supplying the European Market, Usti! Traveling to the Czech Republic involves a flight to Amsterdam, a few hours sleeping like a contortionist on anti-sleeping-benches, and another flight across Europe.

Amsterdam: Basically I can only give a 10,000' overview of the Netherlands. They love canals, farms, and windmills (both modern and historic). Done.

Czech Republic - 10,000' overview: Prague is enormous, and much heavier into industry than the Netherlands (or the US for that matter). Smokestacks dot the landscape connected via a web of powerlines and steampipes.

Czech Republic - 6' overview: It's cold here. Colder than Baltimore and significantly colder than Huizhou.

The only picture I took this night...

For the first night, we checked into our sweet hotel (I'm a sucker for Marble everything) and headed out to dinner. Only getting slightly lost we headed to the main square, watched a disappointing street performer, and grabbed dinner across the street from the oldest running astronomical clock in the world!

Then, in an attempt to power through jet lag, we set out bar hopping. First we stopped at Steampunk where they had almost-functional mechanical creations. Then we hit a "bar" bar where I remembered how much I dislike bars. Abandoning this one, we set off down a random street with the assumption there had to be a bar somewhere along it. There was! Eventually. We ended the night at Rocky Orielly's Irish Pub, where we watched Premier League and Rugby until we were absolutely exhausted. You know, around 8pm.

Best friend taking pictures. 

Sunday we woke bright and early (brighter and earlier than we expected to, at least) to see the sights of Prague! We wandered across town to the 700 yr old Charles Bridge, and then up to the 1200 year old Prague Castle.  We then waited for the sleepier half of our party to arrive, looking out over the city and fantasizing about bouncy balls.

Seriously, imagine a few hundred rubber balls here.

The castle itself was cool, cold, and quite large. Almost a small town in a wall. In retrospect, we probably should have read a guide ahead of time. For our unguided ignorant tour the highlights consisted of hot chocolate, the cathedral, and climbing a hundred meters up the bell tower. (As you may remember from Paris, this is pretty standard).

Pretty great for shove-a-camera-out-the-window-and-hope

After lunch (goulash!) we had to head out to Usti where our plant is. After a few detours down one-lane, bidirectional back roads with incomprehensible signs, we made it to our hotel!  Hotel Vertruse is a nice, non-extravagant hotel on the hill overlooking Usti-nad-Labem. it comes complete with it's own gondola, which we took down to the city center for dinner every night, and back most nights. Other nights, we had to walk up the too-steep and too-chilly switchbacks.

The week was the business-trip standard of working too long during the day and eating too much during the evenings.  Czechs love meat and starches, so every meal involved either several potatoes, or a dumpling, which is basically a boiled loaf of bread. Interspersed with working and eating, we'd routinely trust the GPS just a bit too much trying to visit local scenery.

Luckily, we finished up our build two days early! One of those days we spent trouble-shooting other products at the plant, but on Friday we headed out to see the sights!

The sights were cold. Sight #1 was Castle Strekov, Usti's very own 14th century fortress! Unfortunately, it was closed. And as every castle should be, it was impossible to "accidentally" wander into. We know, because we tried.

Abandoning castle 1 (and picking the sleepy half of our party up from the hotel), we headed out to Narnia!  Technically called Tisa

, Narnia is a rock formation that we referred to by it's starring role in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Tisa was amazing.  Once we got finished driving there (aka getting lost in the fog and narrow roads), we stopped in a climbing shop for a tourist map and set out up the mountain.  Tisa is a sandstone cliff with numerous towers, all just there for the wandering.  Unfortunately for our footing, it had also just snowed. Fortunately for our pictures, it had just snowed.  We spent a while taking photographs and standing increasingly close to the edge until our project manager started getting visibly nervous, then we wound our way down to the base.  To be fair, dress shoes a snowy twelve inches from a 60' drop was enough to make me nervous too.

There was a lot of this

The base was like an expansive version of Devils Den.  Winding trails cut around the hoodoos, while various tunnels offered shortcuts with differing degrees of difficulty. With all the bouldering available, (not to mention the dozens of trad routes we saw anchors for), I could easily spend a week exploring Tisa. Heck, I could probably even move there.

(A Jeremy has been provided for scale)

In the summer, at least. As it was, we got cold. My trigger finger was especially done with the climate. So we went back down the mountain to assure the sales-clerk she didn't need to rescue us, and buy some hot chocolate. After a small, warm, lunch we set out to find a castle! A real one this time, one we could go in.  My minimal research indicated Fortress Konegstein was the closest option, so we set out intrepidly towards Germany to see what lie over the border.

The entrance gate is castle-sized on its own.

It was dumbfoundingly large. I've seen sky scrapers smaller than this castle. We ascended over a hundred feet in an elevator - up the short side of the castle. We then wandered around the outer wall, which circled the town and forest within.  As we wandered it became clear that the castle was built on rocks similar to Tisa, only all the gaps were bridged, a wall was added, and any holes you could hide in were walled shut. Even after Mont-St-Michel this is the most impressive building accomplishment I've ever seen.  When we got around to the high-side of the castle, which overlooked the Elbe, it became clear why this castle remained in use (and of course undefeated) until 1913.

I couldn't choose which pano to use.

Like Tisa, we were eventually defeated by the elements and the kilometers we'd hiked during the day, and called it quits. After a bit of a fiasco bribing a local for Euros so we could escape the parking garage, I was nominated to drive home.  
In the dark, in a manual minivan, in a new country, where we didn't know the signs or the traffic laws. Or the GPS. It was pretty great! Except for what I think was a speed camera - we should know in a few weeks.   On the plus side, I pulled onto the autobahn, passed the "speed-limit-canceled" sign, and booked it past a polezie at 130! On the realistic side, that was 130 kph, it wasn't the unrestricted autobahn, and it was too foggy to go any faster anyway.

After that it was back to the routine cable-car, dinner, and a few hours of sleep before we woke in the dark to reverse our journey, leaving Usti before dark, briefly visiting Prague and Amsterdam, and making it home to Baltimore all the same day, thanks solely to the wonders of timezones.

New background Image - Hong Kong

Huizhou 2016: Panoramas and Food

When I titled this blog years ago I assumed "back" meant "back home" - but it turns out I'm fated to return to the same places over and over again. And honestly, its working out pretty well so far.

Typhoon! You can see the KTV Hotel, the lake / gardens / market behind that, and the mountain with the temple behind the lake!

I left China wondering how I was going to find my way back there, and 8 months later a coworker asked me about adapting last year's test equipment for his project.  And just like that, I had my in. Even better, I was traveling along with a team this time, which meant I had less to worry about. Not that that stopped me from dreaming about test fixtures every night my first week.

What was work? Some of this,

Some of this, 

And a lot of this.

Pretty much every day turned into: work, eat a huge lunch, work, eat a huge dinner.  Then, in the evening, either sleeping, sending email to the now-awake coworkers, or hanging out with colleagues at the hotel bar chatting with the lounge singer. (Mariana was an accountant from the Philippines who emigrated to become a back-up dancer, waitress, and masseuse before becoming a multi-lingual and multi-accented singer).

So, what did we eat too much of? Everything! Here's a list of animals.

Normal Animals:
Pork
Steak
Chicken
Fish
Goose
Duck
Octopus
Caviar, scallops (Pizza)

Weird animals:
Squid (whole), adult and fetal
Shrimp (whole, unshelled)
Snails (still terrible)
Pig Brain (absolute worst thing I've ever ate)
Porcupine (good, just your standard meat. More like beef than pork despite its name)
Snake (Great! Like really good chicken with fishbones)
Snake Skin (Not edible, but other than than not bad)
Snake Bile. (Not great. Disgusting or "kinda bad" depending who you ask)

Animals?:
Silk worm larvae (Bad, worse aftertaste. One of the local DeWalt guys told us all about raising silk worms afterwards though!)
Bamboo caterpillar. (Better, not good though. Not much to them once you fry them.)
100 year old egg (not bad, but I might just be immune at this point).
Sparrow eggs (like regular, small eggs).






Chinese restaurants tend to be more fun than ours.  The "Animal Restaurant" invited us to pet our snake before they slaughtered/butchered/barbecued it.  There is also "Hot Pot" where they boil a spicy soup base in the center of the table and you order raw food (or not food ((brains)) ) to cook in it, similar to fondue.  Even more fun was the Korean grillhouse where they embedded a bucket of coals in your table, and you grill your meat to your liking (and fend off attempted theft of that almost-perfectly-done-but-not-quite morsel you've had your eyes on that your friend is eyeballing.  I was grateful for the training that growing up with brothers provided,)


On Friday night after dinner we went out to see a karaoke bar. They are very different from those in the USA. You're given a private room with your group, and then you're given "female companionship".  I think if they spoke English they might have been fun, but as it was it was basically a bored armcandy girlfriend pouring beer for you and checking their facebook. Luckily, it didn't matter. Half of our group spent the entire night singing, the other half spent all their time playing "Dice" - basically Liar's Poker - and analyzing the statistics / strategy of it. Exactly what you'd expect from engineers. Interesting night, especially from a people-watching point of view.

Pingu Lake!

On the weekend we hiked out to see the sights.  Saturday I set off solo to wander around the lake (bridges were closed due to typhoon debris), saw the market (with all the same snakes turtles and eels that I remember. Hopefully not the exact same ones, but you never know), and got trapped in a garden while it rained. A very relaxing way to spend a day, actually. Sunday the whole group of us hiked up Gaobangshan mountain to see a local temple!  It was exhausting, especially for a group of guys that aren't college aged like they think they are.  But the views were worth it, and the temple itself and the surrounding views made up for it.  It was surprising how abruptly the city becomes jungle, without the sprawling suburbs endemic to the US.  It was also a huge city, littered with tower cranes everywhere I looked.

Inside the temple we had our locals translate for us...  Interestingly, they would occasionally come to a character and just say "I don't know. This is probably a name but I have no idea who it is." Very weird to think about, since all my alphabets are phonetic and I can attempt a pronunciation on anything, even if I butcher it.

Not a pano! Don't tell anyone. Also should have been HDR'd. Next time?

After a successful build we headed back to Hong Kong! I've always loved Hong Kong, it has a foreign-future cyber-punk mystique in my head. Unfortunately, we had no time to take in the sights as we had an 10am flight to catch. 11am flight to catch? Ok, so maybe 12.... we ended up spending six hours in the plane on the tarmac as they repaired the guidance system and then attempted to relocate our layover to keep the crew from maxing out their hours. Then we spent even more time in line, getting our bags back, re-immigrating to Hong Kong, and getting rescheduled. Eventually, they comped me a hotel for the night, and I set off across Hong Kong! Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the Special Administrative Region beyond a the most organized taxi system (colorcoded and multilingually labelled), the fastest hotel check in (sub-45-second), and the best cityscape I've ever witnessed - which means the Fragrant Harbor retains her mystery.

Hong Kong at Dawn

Montreal 2016 - We're finally good at this!

Brice: So, it's that time of year again.   Time to remind ourselves how much we hate ten hour drives, and time to remind us why we do it. [Ethan: Twice.]

This time, we left Friday afternoon to go visit Adam in Albany. He gave us the unofficial Air Traffic Control Tower tour! It was fascinating to see what goes on behind the scenes, and how much optimizing controllers do in order to efficiently route planes while maintaining safety margins and relaying relevant information to the planes in a structured format.

After that we caught up over pizza, beer, and flying micro-drones into each other / walls / the turtle tank.

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Saturday morning left mid-morning to head to Montreal.  We were barely on schedule, but a rain shower here, a border delay there, a little slow-down everywhere meant we missed all but the last lap of Qualifying.

However, we had plenty of time to take in the support races.  First came the Formula 1600 drivers with zero downforce and cute little fireballs on downshift, then we experimented with different viewing positions to watch the Ferrari's and found a great viewing spot where you can look out under the grandstands right at the hairpin.  Meaning - for one unsettling moment - the cars drive directly at you.

Lis: “That beautiful spark-glow when they brake hard enough for the hairpin”

Brice: "That was super blurry I'm sorry"

Ethan:

There was a brutal crash with the green and black Ferrari. He was safely tucked aside, then tried to get out (which went okay), then lost it when he tried to accelerate in the pack.  He put his nose into the back half of somebody and they left for the grass where they started throwing smoke.

Brice:

After the Ferraris we made our way to the pits to see them up close.  Beautiful cars, amazingly clean (except for the ones that were rather broken). Overheard fact of the day: One of these cars will cost you $500,000, with all the included support equipment, with fees of up to $25k for a race weekend - which includes gas, tires, maintenance, etc.

Only $500,000!

We got back to the track just in time to see the Porches run, and try out another position further back in the hairpin. The view was good, but not great.  Just like Porsche traction, which makes for a very entertaining race.

Now that the races were done we left the Island to head into the city and found old town (literally: Vieux-Montréal) on the first try! All this practice is finally paying off! The evening was split between watching street performers, sharing three dishes three ways, checking out cars (Model X!), and racking up a surprisingly high bar tab while people watching and discussing seating strategy. People watching was reasonably tame until a bachelorette party crossed paths with a bachelor party, and then loud, cheery chaos broke loose.  I'm giving away all my secrets here, but if you ask "Can we have that table?" instead of "Do you have a table?" you always get a streetside seat!

Ethan:

Back to the hotel.  This is probably the simplest part of the day, right?  Well maybe not so much.  As we approached the stoplight just past our hotel (as it was on the other side of a divided roadway), our phone GPS told us to pull a U-turn and drive 100 yards (metres?) into our hotel parking lot.  A quick check of Canadian traffic signals/signs yielded nothing negative, so we followed that instruction as soon as we had the green arrow.

This maneuver was rapidly succeeded by flashing red and blue lights in our rearview mirror. I pulled over (into our hotel parking lot) and, for the first time in my life, had to deal with a cop.

Cop: “Bonjour.”

Me: “Bonjour…parlez-vous anglais?”

Cop: “Uh...a leetle.”

So why did I get myself pulled over?

Cop: “Zere was a left arrow wif a… uh… a *schwit*.”

After a very polite delay, Ethan was returned his passport and registration, and told to “haf a good night.”  A cursory inspection the next morning (as we left the hotel) yielded no “schwit” present.

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Brice:

Sunday Sunday Sunday!

We almost hit our goal of being in line by 7:30am - a bit further back than last year, but still pretty good.  The gates opened and those in the front literally ran to claim seats. We settled on a brisk walk popping through whichever gaps appeared.  Ethan peeled off to claim our first priority... and we aborted the rest of the strategy when we saw he'd aced the best spot. Now to wait in the cold!  I wrapped a poncho around myself as a blanket, Ethan pulled out random hiking equipment for more layers, and Lis took to wearing the chair-bags as leggings.

Ethan:

Today, they ran the support races first.  They started at 9 am with the 1600s.  This was a great race that involved lots of spinning out in the hairpin.  As they flew into the last lap, Brice mentioned that it was “time to do something heroic.  Or stupid.”  Sure enough, two turns later, 4th place’s left front wheel overtook third, and the two cars ended the race prematurely. Very enjoyable.

Brice:

Second were the Ferrari's, which started out under a safety car since the rain had started spritzing, dampening (or possibly moistening. We spent an hour debating the scale of wetness during our travels north) the track. This was also a great race, with 3rd place spinning 2nd out before being penalized and working to make his way back up the points. The best part of the Ferrari race was it meant we could start drinking, so we broke out the wine juice-boxes and took the edge off the cold.  Actually, the best part was the crashes, followed by the victory donuts, but the liquid jacket was very appreciated.

The last of the support races were the Porsches. This was always destined to be great, as porches are tail-happy in the best of weather, let alone on a drizzle. They started under the safety car and doubled my sarcastic prediction of someone losing it under caution.  Amazingly, they mostly kept it together after that, mostly.  There were a few interesting moments of course, (off course?) including someone who came into the corner way too fast. And backward.  I was too distracted watching him to notice the other crash happening simultaneously, but no real damage was done and everyone got back underway. The skill required to fight off other drivers while your own car is actively trying to kill you made it my favorite race of the day.

Finally it was time for the parade! Woo! And the flyover! Woooo! And the second flyover! and the actual race! More Woo!

Lis:

The first year I was just trying to figure out what to watch for (passes and wrecks).  The second year I knew the racers a bit more and was invested in who was winning.  This year, I didn’t care who won.  I was just inspired by the talent, the competition, and by what minute actions caused changes in speed:  tire wear, pit stops, angles through the hairpin (for which we were in the perfect spot!). I was also more aware of less obvious variables -  the speed of the crew in the pit, the design of the car, or a new and unfamiliar adjustment - which can cost fractions of a second and make the difference in making or a pass or not.

Brice:

We timed gaps to gauge progress, shared our awesome photography spot with neighbors, our neighbors shared beers with us, and generally everyone had a great time.

Lis:

For the ride home, we were beat.  We felt like we had just pulled all-nighters, being so light-headed and thin-muscled.  But we traded driving and sleep so it wasn’t so bad.  We also had interesting conversations about travel, space, chemistry, high school, and family traits.  As someone who bonds strongly through conversation, it’s a part of the trip I’ve always enjoyed.  :)