Blogs from Burien, Washington, United States, North America

Another week in the woods has worn me out. I need somewhere to recharge and prepare of the next big item on the trip, the Siggraph conference. I found both at the Eagle’s View Bed and Breakfast. It is located directly on a high bluff south of Seattle. As the name should imply, the view is huge when the weather cooperates. It extends all the way across Puget Sound to the Olympic Mountains on the far side. Sadly, after a week of near perfect weather all I got to see was fog. I had dinner tonight at yet another brew pub, the Elliott Bay Brewery. Like many others in the Pacific Northwest, they serve really good beer combined with descent food. The beer was dark and heavy, the way I like it. Desert was... read more

I've been using TripIt.com to organize specific travel plans, and a Google Docs spreadsheet to track details and compare options, but neither one of them works well at all as a trip-sharing platform to let other people know the obvious basic questions: where am I going, for how long, and why? Without further ado: Seattle, Washington - depart Aug 26 IcelandAir flight FI680 from Seattle to Reykjavik, 7 hours Reykjavík, Ísland- Aug 27* English name: Reykjavík, Iceland * Language: Icelandic * Time zone: GMT (UTC +0) * Average temperature on these dates: 55F... read more

... and perhaps more importantly, I got back from the Embassy of Belarus in Washington, DC: my passport, with the visa securely affixed therein.... read more

I like to plan. I'm a planner. So I'm the proud owner of one round-trip airline ticket, six one-way airline tickets, one (soon to be two, I hope) travel entry/exit visas, one pre-paid hotel room, seven hotel reservations, and one pre-paid transport/tour. It's pretty much all done, but I don't get to go for another two months. I pretty much just get to sit here and admire my spreadsheet. It's color-coded! Are we there yet?... read more