Taiwan, Random Photos 2

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.  Spent mine at Cathy's parents', feasting on things like turkey, prime rib, Korean potato noodles, and kimchi.  Yes, I know, very traditional Thanksgiving Day cuisine.  Anyway, some more Taiwan photos:

Shrine at Longshan Temple in Taipei. We arrived during a time of regular worship, as a large congregation of people were chanting when we were first there (I tried my best to stay out of the way). Fun facts:  The temple was originally built in the 18th century and I also read it has been damaged/destroyed/rebuilt several times since.

Mom and Cathy strolling down a street in Maokong.  We went to Maokong for the tea since it used to be a very large tea growing area in Taipei. It was a rainy day, but it still made for some wonderfully unique views, pleasant tea drinking ambiance, and reduced crowds.

Wires in Maokong.  Eric and I were walking along when he noticed and pointed out this interesting perspective.  We actually rode a gondola to get to Maokong, which similarly elevated you high above the forested valley and (slowly) plunged you into the fog for nearly four miles.

Best part of Maokong: Big Teapot Restaurant. Mom ordered some sort of "tea meal tour," where every dish incorporated tea leaves. For example, the mushroom/chicken soup simmering on the left had tea bags in it, the shrimp in the middle was sauteed and accompanied with pan fried tea leaves, and the fried rice in my bowl was made with some finely crushed tea leaves. It was a delicious meal, and it didn't hurt that we were also treated to a nice view of the area directly next to us:

The restaurant view from my seat.

Jinguashi Gold Ecological Park. Historically, the area had many productive gold mines and briefly served as a POW camp by occupying Japanese. Some really interesting history and great scenery here.  We also visited nearby Jiufen, which had a fun street market - Mom ate a snail, I drank (and bought) some millet wine, Eric bought some traditional Chinese garb, random stuff like that.

Hot spring in Beitou Dire Valley. Some of the natural pools here apparently approached a near-boiling 90 degrees Celsius (so you weren't exactly allowed to jump in).  Instead, Eric and I checked out a nearby outdoor bath that had several pools fed by a hot spring. Still, one pool was so hot that we were only able to tolerate it for under a minute before having to jump out.

Just a sampling of all thing things we did.  Good times!

Taiwan, Random Photos 1

Cathy and I went to Taiwan earlier this month for a bit of a family vacation. We met up with my mom and Eric shortly after flying in and after that, we spent time here and there with lots of different family, including my grandma, cousins (Tim and Jeff, plus their significant others), uncles, and aunts.  Great times were had.

I served as the documentary photographer.  I used a 40mm equivalent prime lens for 95% of the shots, which I feel is a good street photography length (Panasonic Lumix 20mm f1.7 on an E-P2). Using a single focal length can be limiting but, on the flip side, I was thinking about composition more than usual.  Anyway,  along with Cathy's photos, we ended up with an album of well over 300 photos. Here are a random few:

Shilin Night Market, widely considered the largest night market in Taipei.  Although packed with people, the crowd flowed well and it was surprisingly easy to get around.  All sorts of stuff is hawked here but the main attraction for us was the food, which included tropical fruit, dumplings, pork buns, chou doufu, grass jelly, green onion flatbread, and much more.

These guys are making the green onion flatbread. The baking method was involved slapping dough on the inside walls of a tandoor oven, aka, a barrel of fire. I thought this was mostly an Indian and Middle Eastern technique, but maybe not. Tasty either way.

A view from Yangmingshan National Park.  Apparently, there are some wonderful vistas and geologic features here, but after getting about a couple hundred meters up it was pure fog.  No big deal, since I like the outdoors in all its forms, but it's a shame I wasn't able to get a good look at the lay of the land.

After wandering around a bit, Uncle TaiTai took us to a great restaurant on the Yangmingshan mountainside.  I think the establishment's name translates to Yangming Spring Green Kitchen.  We sat on tatami mats, sipped tea, and enjoyed a beautifully plated and delicious multi-course vegetarian meal.

Another from the restaurant.  The dishes were elegant and employed a host of techniques, but generally consisted of simple ingredients.  And while I'm an unashamed omnivore with decidedly carnivorous tendencies, the vegetarian aspect of the meal did not detract from my enjoyment at all.

A tranquil walk.

There were a number of peaceful feral dogs on the top of Yangmingshan.  We also met a man there who regularly brings snacks up to the dogs, and he said that this dog had been abandoned long ago despite having a collar.  There was also a pack of what looked like a grab bag of Labrador mixes, adults and puppies.  They seemed to be doing alright.  Still, some of them reminded me bit of Quentin, so I was a bit saddened.

More to come.

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Orb weaver, Eric's rock garden.

EEEEE-OOO-EEEEE

That's exactly how a cicada sounds.

Standard Dog-Day Cicada. I was inside when I heard this one "singing" and holy shit it was loud. Found it right outside a window that I had been sitting next to. EEEEE-OO-EEE

North Manitou Island

Did a little backpacking last week with Nick on North Manitou Island.  The island, and its aptly named brother, South Manitou Island, are located in the northeastern end of Lake Michigan.  I've been to both islands several times, with South Manitou being one of the first places I ever backpacked.

The islands are technically a part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, which seems to be better known for its mainland attractions.  I prefer the islands.  Anyway, access to North Manitou is via ferry, and once on the island, you're generally free to roam and camp as you please.  Some photos:

A smaller dune area on the southwest side. North Manitou Island is relatively small for a backpacking destination, but does offer about 30 miles of trail hiking and 20 miles of shoreline hiking. We generally stayed close to the lake on this trip and explored the vast majority of the island's perimeter.

Crescent Dock ruins on an overcast morning.  North Manitou Island was settled to an extent over a hundred some years ago, with evidence of such scattered throughout the area. Besides various dock remnants, there are abandoned houses, orchards, a random barn, and even a cemetery.

A surprisingly well-preserved crawfish exoskeleton. The remains of a molt? Or maybe not. Either way, it was the honorary third member of our group at the second campsite.

Northeast side sunrise. I was up and about for a bit that morning due to a nearby crow that sounded like it was cawing directly into my ear.  Took this photo after shooing the thing away.

Keeping an eye on the angry looking clouds. We were a bit concerned, considering we left our rain gear at home, but thankfully all we got was a little drizzle and a lot of wind.

On a foredune near the Old Stormer Dock ruins on the southeast side.  Despite the earlier threatening weather, it cleared up nicely by the end of the day, allowing for some solid beach time.

North Manitou Island + backpacking = good times.

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Anthers

Birds, Brews, and Shrooms

As always, visiting my parents was a good time. Notable events? I witnessed two juvenile Mourning Doves fledge. Split a six pack of homebrew with my dad. And was shown an interesting little thing in the yard:

Morel? Maybe, but I'm not touching it. I mean, I'm an adventurous and fungi, morel less, but the thought of just picking/eating this kinda scares the shiitake out of me. I just don't know how to accurately identify these things, and there's really not mushroom for error. Hey-oohhh.

Overcast with a Chance of Morning Brewing

Had a chilly and misty weekend. Felt like the sky was oh-so-gently pissing on Chicago for the past 48 hours. So what did I do? Well, I woke up early on Saturday and brewed of course (I seem to be brewing a lot more than I was anticipating this spring).

Took another stab at an American pale ale, the style of the first batch I ever made. I imagine I'll be drinking it in warmer weather, so I went for the following characteristics: light malt profile, dry finish, low alcohol, low esters, moderately high hop presence. I'm thirsty already.

Hmmm...looks like a good day to brew.

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Open hut, Chevalier Woods.

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Photo scan. Fern Lake trailhead in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, 2001.

Back from MT

Recently got back from Big Mountain. It was a damn good time. Although I flopped around in the denser trees, I still did alright, while Nick pretty much dominated the mountain. Also, I promptly lost a camera I borrowed from Chuck on the first day, so that was a bummer. But I was able to take a couple of photos with my phone on the last day:


Whitefish Lake.


Nick.

Now where is spring?

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Vines, snow

Ride

Got some snowboarding in my future. It's been a while (years and years) so it's gonna be a bit sketchy, but hey, I gotta do something besides brewing beer this winter.

I'm feeling nostalgic:


Olympus 35mm p&s. Riding the steeps at Big Sky, MT, circa 1999.

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Snow, transmission

Brew Brew Brew

It's been a busy 2011. Among all the noise is me getting my brew pipeline going. I've got a pale ale bottled, an amber ready to bottle, a porter fermenting, and the grains for a brown ale (to brew after I bottle the amber). It'll still be a while before I drink anything since even when bottled, the guys need some alone time to finish up - 2 to 3 weeks at least. Thankfully, there's a light at the end of the tunnel...

...it's when I finally get to drink the stuff. I imagine it to be quite cathartic, perhaps like finally eating a sandwich that took two months to make.

First Snow

Got our first snow over the weekend.

It's around this time I start dusting off random projects that I've been neglecting. I look forward to changing it up a bit. Although honestly, I haven't been doing much lately except observing the passage of time...but no big. My go-to excuse for now is that December is kind of a transitional month anyway, as the seasons change, the year ends, it's pre and post-holiday, stuff like that. Yeah.

Morning walk, Chicago River.

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Coppe

MI and FL

Ah finally, the scurrying around is done (for now). The past two weeks involved a family get-together in Michigan, a stimulating work conference downstate, a wedding in Florida, and another wedding in Chicago. I'm ready to do nothing for a couple days.


Eric and Seigo, walking back from Pine Lake on a nice Autumn day. My immediate family resides in three different states, so it's rare that we can all see each other at once. Eric/Rie/Seigo were in Michigan for various reasons, en route to Japan, so Cathy and I hustled on over for a quick reunion. It was a good time, as usual.


Shortly after MI, Cathy and I flew down to Florida for Rachel's wedding. Specifically, we went to Amelia Island, part of the chain of the Sea Islands. View from our hotel balcony. We only had a couple days there since we had another wedding back in Chicago, but it was still great fun. It was a bit hectic at first since Cathy was finishing the wedding cake. Yes, she made Rachel's wedding cake, components of which we carefully transported all the way from Chicago. The cake? It was a fondant covered vanilla bean cake with Nutella buttercream frosting (I failed to get a good photo of it, sorry).


They had a cigar roller at the reception. I've never seen this at a wedding, and although I'm not much of a cigar guy, I thought it was a nice touch. I didn't have my camera with me so I took this with my phone. First phone photo I've posted.


Also taken with my phone, the immediate view from the reception area. It's of the salt marsh on the west side of the island as the sun set. Really nice. With this kind of natural beauty, it's hard to take a bad photo even with a crappy phone camera.

Alright, that does it. I now look forward to a week or two of my normal routine. Sweet, sweet, normal routine.

North Shore Channel Trail

I went for a bike ride last weekend on the North Shore Channel Trail. It's a paved trail that runs north-south through the city and a couple suburbs, running alongside it's namesake, the North Shore Channel. I leisurely pedaled the length of it, which is about a 25 mile round trip starting from home. It's nothing amazing, but still a nice local ride.


There's a lot of random stuff along the way, including the occasional view of the the channel, which is technically a drainage canal. Now I'm not jumping in anytime soon, but it's basically a small river lined by trees and inhabited by your standard local wildlife. The best part though was that the autumn weather was perfect (for me at least); thermoregulation was not an issue.


The path runs through a sculpture park for a bit in the suburbs. Most of it was relatively underwhelming, but this one caught my attention: Directing Traffic by Victoria Fuller. Humorous.


A juvenile Cooper's Hawk, a common bird of prey to see around here. I was taking a banana break when this guy swooped down and landed on a sign right next to me. Good looking bird. They used to be an endangered species in Illinois but made a great comeback since the DDT ban. I also vaguely remember a National Geographic article stating that the DDT ban is also a big reason the Bald Eagle is not extinct, or at least nearly extinct, in the states.

Alright, that's it for now. We're flying out tomorrow, so I should probably start packing.

Milton Lee Olive Park

A slight lull in activity for now, but Cathy and I are finishing preparations for our trip to Amsterdam next week. Never been there so I'm looking forward to exploring.

I stumbled around Chicago for a couple days last week to kill time and get used to the new camera, but also because the autumn weather has been so swell.


Hancock from Milton Lee Olive Park - a really nice, but somewhat ignored, park.