Lueders Haus Blog

Spent last weekend hiking the Northern Loop in Mount Rainier National Park. We have done bits of the loop before but this time we hiked all thirty-something miles in four days. We crossed three 6,000+ foot passes with about 9,000 feet in elevation gain. The weather was okay, a bit cool for August with light rain on Sunday while we climbed along side the Carbon Glacier. We hardly saw anyone on the Northern Loop trail but passed lots of groups once we joined the Wonderland. Hiking around the end of Winthrop Glacier was pretty cool. The views were definitely more impressive then the Carbon Glacier. If anything this hike has gotten me thinking seriously about hiking the whole Wonderland Trail soon.

Lots of pictures up here.

Headed over to Mazama for a quick vacation. This was our first trip with Emily and our new Prius and both did well.

We stayed in the Rolling Huts for the first time. The huts are located along Highway 20 about half way between Mazama and Winthrop. The hut experience is halfway between camping and staying in a motel. Each hut has a basic kitchen and a pad to sleep on. There is no running water in the huts but they have electric. There a port-a-potty at the end of each hut and shared bath in the barn. Emily especially enjoyed hanging out on the deck pretending she was a guard dog.

On Saturday we hiked to Lake Ann near Rainy Pass. We had done this hike a few years ago and enjoyed it. There was scattered thunderstorms in the area all weekend and on the way back to the car we got caught in a downpour. Which was pretty strange given how dry it has been in the northwest this summer.

Interesting piece in today’s business section on Japan’s inward cellphone industry. The Japanese have some of the most advanced cellphones but rarely make it overseas.

Japan’s cellphones are like the endemic species that Darwin encountered on the Galápagos Islands — fantastically evolved and divergent from their mainland cousins

Braved the opening day crowds on Saturday and rode Seattle’s new light rail to Tukwila. Grabbed some late lunch at the Somali restaurant near the station and then waited in line to catch a train going back to downtown. The trains and stations are definitely nice. Not much on the route for me right now. It will be a great option for getting to the airport later this year and the Northgate and Overlake lines are only ten years away!

Last week I switched to reading both the New York Times and the New Yorker on the Kindle. Reading on the Kindle is pretty enjoyable. The screen does a great job with text and a decent job with photos. Browsing articles is a little slow but the interface is pretty easy to navigate. Wireless delivery is what really makes this device successful. I can shop for any book on either my Kindle or my web browser and it will automatically appear on my Kindle. No need to hook the Kindle up to your PC or logon to a WiFi hotspot.

There is one downside, it is pretty hard to share a Kindle. Sherry and I can no longer fight share the paper in the morning. Of course this is an upside as well, since Sherry pretty much destroys any periodical she is reading.

It has been a busy two weeks. We adopted another four legged friend to our family. Emily is a Yellow Lab-Shepherd mix (and maybe a few others) and is a year or two old. She is still a bit shy but enjoys going on walks to the park, laying on the couch, getting her belly rubbed, ice cream, and chewing on some raw hide. She is scared of going outside in the dark, our cat Monty, and traffic. She does not know any commands yet except hug but we got her enrolled in some classes coming up.

Lots of projects on tap for this summer. We used another nice spring day to build a hoop house on the south side of the house. Hopefully this will grow us some ripe tomatoes this summer.

Used the nice weather on Sunday to brew my first beer of the year. It is another Belgian Wit since the last one turned out so good. This was also my first chance to try out my new mega brew pot. Finally have enough space to do a full boil. Plus the built in “BrewMometer” let me sit back, relax, and enjoy the sun. The beer is bubbling away in the brew closet right now.

The mega project up the road from us is almost done. It was covered on the Slog along with a few other places. Four years ago this was an empty lot stuck between an office park and the mall. On the rare occasion the lot was used to host RV shows. It is a terrible time to try to sell a butt load of condos. They are offering some pretty crazy incentives, including six months off your mortgage if you get laid off. I’m not sure what street grid the Slog is referring to down there. But they are right it is going to be a pretty car oriented development. At least it is not surrounded by a giant ugly parking lot like the mall across the street. I am looking forward to strolling down to the new movie theater every once and a while.

In other news my old home, the Queen Anne High School, went condo after I left. They finally got rid of the last few unsold units at auction with deep discounts.

I have been ignoring my blogging duties because we have been so busy skiing this year. We headed over to Leavenworth for my birthday and back to Mazama the weekend after. It has definitely been a light snow year. The See-n-Ski trail near Lake Wenatchee even had a bare spot! But on most of the trails the groomers have done well with the snow we have had. The picture is of the trail near Mazama. Our cabin was back in the trees.