Olympic National Park - Hurricane Ridge

Summer has been slow in coming to the Pacific Northwest this year.  While all our friends on Facebook have been complaining of triple-digit temperatures and power outages and huddling in shopping malls and other public buildings for air conditioning, I've been wearing blue jeans and fleece pullovers.  After being at sea for a few months, I returned to port in mid-June and was pelted by hail and cold raindrops the size of grapes.  I was actually shivering from the cold as I greeted my family on the pier.

Well, we finally have some semblance of nice weather, and we took advantage of it this weekend by going up to the Hurricane Ridge visitor center in Olympic National Park.


Before we moved here, my wife bought me a book, Best hikes with KIDS: Western Washington and Cascades.  I've been drooling over it and wanting to try many of the hikes it describes.  This was the first hike we've tried from this book.  Each hike in the book has cute little icons to tell you the difficulty and seasonal availability of each hike.  I didn't want to do anything too strenuous for our first hike of the summer, so I picked #163 Hurricane Hill.  This hike has the easiest of the book's three difficulty ratings, and in the text it says,

Day Hike
Easy for children
Late July-October
2 1/2 miles
700 feet elevation gain

Overall, it was an enjoyable hike with spectacular scenery.  However, it's a good thing I didn't try taking my family on any of the "moderate" difficulty hikes.  This one was a challenge for my family.

The first time I visited Hurricane Ridge before my family moved here (pictured above), it was mid-June and there was still a substantial amount of snow up there.  That time, I couldn't even drive past the visitor's center because of the rest of the road out to the Hurricane Hill trailhead was snowed-in.

This picture was taken in nearly the same spot, but at least 6 feet lower in altitude because I'm not standing on top of a huge snow bank.  This time, it was 64F and sunny, and most of the snow had melted. We stopped at the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center first to look at trail maps and check out the scenic overlook.  Then we drove out to the end of the road where there is a small parking lot at the trailhead for the Hurricane Hill trail.
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Lotis at the Hurricane Hill trail head.

Do trusty, well-traveled stuffed animals count?

The trail was well-defined, paved in many segments and hard pack dirt in others.  There were a few patches of snow we had to trudge through, but it wasn't bad.  It's 1.6 miles from the trail head to the top of Hurricane Hill.

The first 0.8 miles are pretty level.  The last 0.8 miles are a pretty steep incline and switchbacks.  The boys started complaining that "the batteries in their feet were low" and that they wanted to go home.  We distracted them with a snowball fight along the way.  Eventually, we resorted to bribery and offered to let them pick something out in the visitor center gift shop if they made it to the top.  That kept them going for a while.  As it turned out, my wife and eldest son ended up stopping and waiting on a park bench while my youngest son and I made it to the top.  I was running out of steam and slowing down toward the final stretch up to the top, and my youngest son went charging ahead of me yelling, "Common, Daddy!  You're almost there!  Do it for the gift shop!"

View from top of Hurricane Hill (5757 feet) 

looking north to Port Angeles, WA.

My youngest son at the top of Hurricane Hill.

The view from the top was pretty amazing, and I'm very proud of my youngest son for making it all the way to the top with me.

We also got to see a family of two adult and two baby mountain goats at the top.  A park ranger warned us that the mountain goats can be aggressive, so make a lot of noise to let them know where you are and scare them off.

This is the view looking back down the way we came.  I kept expecting to see Julie Andrews come running over each meadow, arms outstretched, long black dress twirling around her as she belts forth, "The HILLS are ALIIIIIIIIVE with the SOUND of MUUUUUUSIIIIIIIIC!"

The meadows and hillsides were all dotted with blotches of purple, pink, yellow, and red wildflowers.

In addition to the mountain goats pictured above, we also saw many black-tailed deer, marmots, and one black bear from a long distance away (moving speck on the next ridge over).  The deer were everywhere and didn't seem to mind people on the trail.  It's like someone told them the humans have to stay on the path.

As has become a standard operating procedure for us, my boys complained, moaned, groaned, and gnashed their teeth about being torn away from their video games to get in the car and head off to a national park in the morning.  By the end of the day, as usual, when it came time for bedtime prayers and I asked them what their favorite part of the day was, they both said going to Olympic National Park.

Trip stats for the day:
3.84 miles
1 hour 55 minutes moving time
30 minutes 6 second stopped / resting time
2.0 mph average speed
4.6 mph max speed
~900 feet of elevation gain.  The parking lot is around 5000 feet, and the top of Hurricane Hill is 5757 feet, but there was a little bit of up and down along the way.
There were NO facilities available anywhere along the trail.  There were outhouses back at the last picnic area before the trail head.

Book Reviews

While I was up in Newport last summer, the President of the Naval War College, RADM Wisecup, recommended a couple of books.  Since then, I've read two of the books he recommended, and both were excellent.

The first book I read was World War Z.  The admiral himself admitted he felt odd recommending a fiction novel about a future zombie war.  Apparently the story was good enough that the movie rights were purchased, and Brad Pitt is going to star in it.

From the title, I was expecting something of a gruesome horror flick of zombies grumbling, "braaaaaains" and reaching out to grab unsuspecting victims.  However, it was actually a very thought-provoking story.  It explored the concepts of how to manage the spread of a global disease and massive refugee migrations.  It highlighted how the military is always trained and equipped to fight "the last war," and how that training and equipment would be useless in a global pandemic scenario like this.  It also explored how the human race might adapt to meet their basic needs of food and shelter after a major world conflict had destroyed the "normal" methods of consumerism (farming, production, distribution and shopping).  Overall an excellent book and a page-turner. 

The second book I read was Execute Against Japan: The U.S. Decision to Conduct Unrestricted Submarine Warfare.  The author, Joel Ira Holwitt is actually an active duty submarine officer who earned a PhD in History from Ohio State University.

It reads very much like an academic paper such as a PhD dissertation or a masters thesis with many quotes and endnotes.  Holwitt makes some bold statements about the U.S. submarine force's campaign against the Japanese in WWII.  He falls victim to some logical fallacies in his reasoning, and I don't necessarily agree with all of his conclusions.  He makes statements that guess at the motives and intentions of key players in the President's cabinet, the Navy, and the State Department, and then claims that because he can't find any evidence to refute this, then his guess must be right.  He also doesn't have any evidence that conclusively proves his assumptions.

For example, he presumes that the Navy never asked the State Department for their opinion on a strategy of unrestricted submarine warfare against Japan, "since the State Department's reaction would undoubtedly be negative..."  (p. 129).  The book is riddled with words or phrases such as perhaps, probably, undoubtedly, no one recollected, could have been because, seems highly improbable, and seems probable.  Don't get me wrong.  They're pretty good guesses and he's probably right, but his conclusions are based on the absence of evidence to refute his opening arguments and assumptions. 

All that being said, it was a very interesting read.  The thing I enjoyed most about reading this book was the description of the isolationist sentiment in America prior to December 7th, 1941, and the dialogue over what America's strategy should be in the event of war both internal and external to the Department of the Navy.  I was aware of the isolationist bent of the general public at the time, but this book provided many specific examples of those sentiments from the neutrality laws, speeches, and letters.

Holwitt surprised me with some of the pre-decisional type documents he was able to find in various archives to illustrate how the leaders of the age were formulating their plans. We tend to take for granted our 20/20 hindsight of how things turned out in history and lose the perspective of how we got to the end result.  That's a big reason why I enjoy historically based fiction books that bring to life the active debates, public sentiments and fears of the people leading up to major events before they knew the outcome. 

Well, I'm very thankful to RADM Wisecup for the book recommendations.  Both were very good books.

For anyone who might wonder why I picked World War Z over Execute Against Japan to read first, that simply boiled down to which one was available on my Kindle.  I downloaded World War Z and started reading it on my Kindle while I was still in Newport.  Execute Against Japan is only available in hard-copy, so I had to wait for that one to come in the mail.

I'm alive

Hey folks,
     Sorry my blog posting has been light lately.  I blame summer vacation and new toy syndrome.
     Back when the boys were in school, they had a bedtime that allowed my wife and I to have a few hours to ourselves between them going to bed and us going to bed.  That was the main time I was writing blog posts.
     Now that the boys are out of school for the summer, we've been letting them stay up later.  We've been enjoying the time together.  We used to only do family movie night on Friday or Saturday nights (not school nights).  Now that they don't have to get up for school in the morning, we've been having a lot of family movie nights.  Actually we've sorta run out of movies per se, but we've become big fans of Netflix on the X-Box.

Netflix has a lot of movies and TV shows you can watch instantly through the internet, and we've been working our way through a bunch of old TV shows that my wife and I used to watch when we were kids.  During the day the boys have been watching an episode of Knight Rider with my wife.  In the evenings, they've been watching an episode of Quantum Leap with me.  Tonight we watched my favorite episode of Amazing Stories from Steven Speilberg, "The Mission."  It's about a B-17 bomber crew flying a mission over Germany.  I actually had this episode recorded on a VHS tape when I was a kid and watched it several times, but it had been a long time since I had last seen it. I was quite surprised to notice the cast included Kevin Costner and Kiefer Sutherland. 
     Anyway, sorry, end of tangent.  The POINT was that now I only have about an hour between putting the boys to bed and my own bedtime because I still have to get up for work in the morning.

     Another factor has been new toy syndrome.  My wonderful wife picked me up a Kindle off of Woot.
     I wasn't so sure about it, but my wife got a great deal on it, and I figured I'd at least give it a try.

     Oh my gosh, I LOVE IT! 





I've always been one to work on several books at once.  Every once in a while, I get really engrossed in a book and can't put it down until I finish it.  See for example, "Ender's Game."  Most of the time though, I have several books that I rotate through depending on my mood.  For example, right now I happen to be working my way through three books:








"The Book Thief"  THIS is an AMAZING story.  It's the story of a girl growing up in Nazi Germany, and it's narrated by...  well...  that might be a spoiler.  It's just an extremely thought-provoking and well-written book.

"Last Child in the Wilderness"  This is a really good book about how our society is changing because we don't spend anywhere near as much time outside as our ancestors did.  It's got some interesting insights on the societal changes that brought it about and on the unintended consequences of it on our children and our society as a whole.  The Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority (NVRPA) blog had a similar post about this topic and also cited this book.

"Managing Maintenance Error."  This book was recommended to me by a fellow submarine officer, and someone I look up to as a mentor.  It's an EXCELLENT book, and I wish I had read it before becoming a department head.  The title may sound a bit boring, but I have found the subject matter fascinating.

     It becomes problematic for me when we want to go anywhere on a vacation, and I always want to bring several books with me.  They quickly add a lot of weight to one's baggage.  I always have trouble picking out just one to put in my carry-on bag for reading on an airplane.

     Enter the Kindle.

I can now carry untold dozens of books with me in something the size and weight of a single paperback.  It's AWESOME.  I've always liked to carry a book with me wherever I go.  Long line at the DMV?  Bring it on!  I just open my book and read.  The Kindle has just reinvigorated that habit for me.  I carry it almost everywhere now.
   
     In other news, we are in receipt of orders once again.  This time the Navy is sending us to the Pacific Northwest, and we're pretty excited to live someplace where the houses are affordable, AND the commute isn't bad, AND the schools are good.  That'll be a first for us.
     As a result, we're in that stage of the PCS-cycle of military life (moving every 2 to 3 years) where the weekends we have left in our current duty station are numbered, and the calendar quickly fills up with all sorts of things you want to do before you leave.
     We're supposed to break heat records this weekend in the DC area.  Yuck.  I'm sorry to say the extreme heat tomorrow will prevent any attempt to get out hiking, biking, or kayaking.  However, I'm very excited to see some dear Navy friends of ours coming up to visit from Norfolk.  We went to church together in San Diego when R and I were both department heads there.  As much as it hurts to say goodbye to our friends each time the Navy moves us to a new duty station, it's always a joy to be reunited with those old friends when you cross paths at new duty stations.

     I hope you all are enjoying your summer, and I hope it's not nearly as HOT and HUMID as it has been here in the DC area.

     Oh, two administrative notes on my blog:
     1. I've finally surrendered to turning on comment moderation.  Those annoying comment spammers just keep leaving CRAP in my comments.  I think I've deleted like two dozen spam Chinese comments from my last blog post about our Shenandoah kayaking trip.  I apologize to those of you who leave legitimate and thoughtful comments, but there shouldn't be too much of a delay.
     2. You'll notice the book links above.  I have written before that nobody is paying me to write about anything in my blog.  My recommendations for books or any other product are my honest opinions.
    That being said, Blogger has added this nice link-to-Amazon feature, where if you mention a book, it will include an image of the book cover and a link to the Amazon website.  IF you should click on the link and purchase a copy, then I will get some small compensation from Amazon.  I don't think that compromises my assertion that my recommendation of the book is my honest opinion that it's a good book, right?  It's just offering you a quick and easy way to click on a link IF you desire to buy the same book from Amazon, that's all.

Alright, I've talked your ear off enough for one night.  It had been long enough that at least my one most faithful and devoted reader started to complain that I hadn't posted anything in weeks.  Hopefully we'll be going on leave up to New Hampshire again for a couple of weeks in August, and I'll have more outdoor adventures to write about then.

In the meantime, I'll be enjoying our air conditioning.  :-)

Northern Virginia Kayaking Resources

Updated 7/5/2014.  As I am trying to use this page to plan my own paddling excursions, I am finding several of the links aren't working.  I am going through and fixing the links to the maps and temperature and river conditions pages.

Updated 6/30/2013.  I'm planning another tubing trip for my church, so today I went through and updated the ratings for the outfitters based on the Yelp, Google, and BBB websites.

Wait! Don't skip this post just because you don't own a kayak or canoe! If you're in the DC area and have any interest in just giving it a try, then I highly recommend scrolling down to the "Outfitters" section of this post. There are several places you can go to get out on the water for a couple of hours and see if you like it - either alone or with a guide. You could go on the Sunday evening guided paddle with Jack's Boathouse, or you could go on a brunch-and-paddle or paddle-and-dinner trip on the Antietam Creek, or you could do the paddle-and-wine-tasting or boats-and-brewery. Try it! You might like it!

I wrote this post and then realized in hindsight that some people might skip over it because they don't own a kayak or a canoe, so I added that disclaimer up front. Now, back to my original post...

Yes, yes, as I write this, it's still Arctic-polar-bear-butt-cold outside, temperature in the teens and 33 inches of snow on the ground (and another 10-20" expected today and tomorrow). Even so, I keep gazing at my kayak up on the rack in the garage and longing to get back out on the water.

To make up for it, I research places to go kayaking. I keep googling and going back to the same sites over and over again for resources, so I am creating this post as an easy reference point to for future paddle planning.

To start off in searching for nearby places to paddle, I have found a couple of useful websites:

Ben's Kayak Site has been a wonderful starting point for my kayaking research. He has a Northern Virginia Paddler's Access page that links to interactive maps of the Potomac River, Shenandoah River, Antietam Creek and Goose Creek with annotations describing the locations along each waterway where you can put-in or take-out. He includes pictures if he has them, and he details how many cars you can park in each location. The two limitations of Ben's site are they are limited in scope to those places nearest his (and my) hometown (not that that's a bad thing), and he doesn't provide any description of the water conditions or obstacles between entry points (and that's okay, because he provides very useful logistical information about getting there and back).

Paddling.net under the "Go Paddling" pull-down menu, select "Places to Paddle" and then "Virginia." My one complaint about this list is that it's just an alphabetical list of place names. If you don't know where it is, then you have to click on it, read the description, then go look for it on a road map.  Update 7/3/2011:  While they still have the alphabetical listing, Paddling.net has added a GIS feature (map) that shows you launching locations.

However, while I prefer Ben's interactive map for the places near home, the paddling.net website lists several places to paddle that are easy day-trips from our house, but outside the range of Ben's map. See, for example, Bull Run or Occoquan River and Occoquan Reservoir. I didn't even know Bull Run was a place you could paddle until I read about it on Paddling.net. The write-ups describe entry and exit points, parking availability, and provide insights into what to expect along the water. Plus, this website is where I discovered a link to the second source of water levels I use (see the link below to the Virginia Tech site).

Paddling.net also has reviews on gear and some cool kayaking t-shirts for sale.

Loudoun Outdoors Guide has a map showing locations of Loudoun Parks where you can get in and out of the water, and links to pages for each park.

Maps: Aside from Ben's interactive web-based map above, some of the local outfitters that offer day-trips have river maps showing not only where the access points are but also the gouge of what to expect on the water (rapids and obstacles). Here are some quick links (I'll update this list if and when I find more maps):

• Shenandoah River Map from Shenandoah River Outfitters (only miles 1-19, but more detailed description of obstacles than the Downriver.com maps).
  
• Shenandoah River Maps from Downriver.com (covers more of the river than the Shenandoah River Outfitters map, but not as detailed).
• Occoquan River Trail Map from the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority (NVRPA). You can also order a printed and waterproof version of the map from NVRPA.
• Antietam Creek from Antietam Creek Canoe Outfitters
• Monocacy River - an experienced paddler told me, "There are two class one rapids on this trip I would encourage any beginner to attempt. These are located at Michaels Mill Road the other at Greenfield Road. The link to the online map will show where these rapids are located. You can easily scout both of these rapids from the roadways."
• Potomac River - Not really a map, but a useful tool.  The C&O Canal tow path is now a bike path that runs along the Maryland side of the Potomac.  This guide to the C&O Canal doesn't list all of the boat ramps (for example, it doesn't list the boat ramp at Monocacy Aqueduct), but it does list some.

Water levels and flow rates:

• USGS website - water flow rates and levels for several sites on local waterways
• Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, MD
• Goose Creek near Leesburg, VA
• Goose Creek near Middleburg, VA
• Monocacy River near Frederick, MD
• Potomac River at Point of Rocks, MD
• Shenandoah River at Millville, WV
• Virginia Tech's Occoquan Watershed Stream Guage Stations (type in "guest" as user name and password)
  

Water Temperatures:

• Mid-Atlantic River Temperatures on National Weather Service 
• Potomac River at Little Falls
• Upper Potomac River near Shepardstown
• Shenandoah River temperature thanks to Front Royal Canoe

Local Outfitters:

Jack's Boathouse. Right under the Key Bridge in DC, you can rent a kayak or canoe by the hour here and paddle on your own. We did their Sunday evening guided paddle past the monuments and around Roosevelt Island, and it was AWESOME.

Yelp: 4.5 stars (49 reviews) - that's pretty even more amazing
Google: 4.5 stars (11 reviews) (More reviews, still very highly rated)
BBB: No search results (no news is good news)


River Riders. I coordinated a flat-water tubing trip on the Shenandoah River for my church with River Riders, and we all had a lot of fun. They also offer kayaking and canoeing trips. I have to admit, when I planned our trip with River Riders, I didn't realize how many different outfitters there were to choose from, and I didn't do any research into the business. While I admit they weren't the best-run operation and I sent an email to their management with recommendations for improvement, our group still had a lot of fun that day.

Yelp: 3.5 stars (42 reviews)  (Upward trend since my last update in 2010.)
Google: 17 (16 reviews) - Google's rating system calls this "good to very good" (3rd in a list of 5 possible grade-groups)
BBB: A-.  Big Improvement since my last update in 2010.

River and Trail Outfitters. I have not done any trips with them, but their trips sound really cool and I want to try a couple of them. The thing that most interests me most about their site is the cool combo-trips like paddle-and-wine (tasting), boats-and-brewery, Antietam Creek kayak-and-brunch or kayak-and-dinner.

Yelp: 3 stars (16 reviews) - Downward trend with a lot more reviews this year.
Google: No rating (8 reviews) - No reviews in the past year, mixed good and bad reviews.
BBB: A+ (Zero complaints and good record with BBB)

Downriver Canoe Company. Back in September 2009, I made some plans with Downriver to do a birthday paddling trip, but other factors prevented me from being able to take the trip. I was pleased with their responsiveness and willingness to accommodate my requests.

Yelp: 4.5 stars (16 reviews) - More reviews this year, still highly rated.
Google: No rating (5 reviews) - ALL reviews are positive, but no reviews in the last year. 
BBB: (Still) No search results

Shenandoah River Outfitters. I haven't been out with them yet, but they have a good record on Yelp.

Yelp: 4 stars (10 reviews) - More reviews this year, still highly rated.
Google: No rating (3 reviews) - Mixed reviews, but too few data points to draw any conclusions.
BBB: (Still) No search results

Antietam Creek Canoe.  I haven't been out with them yet, but I'm very interested in trying one of their trips on Antietam Creek.  They offer livery services on Antietam Creek and do tubing trips similar to the outfitters on the Shenandoah River around Harpers Ferry.

Yelp:  5 stars (2 reviews)
Google:  No rating  (1 review) - the only have one review, but it's "EXCELLENT"
BBB:   No search results



Clubs: If you already have a kayak or canoe, then chances are you're like me and looking for ways to get out on the water. I'm still new to it and not totally familiar with the local waterways, and I don't feel 100% comfortable with exploring new waterways on my own. It's better to go with people who know the area at least your first time out. These local clubs offer group paddles to get out on the water with other people who know the area and can lend a hand if you run into trouble.

Chesapeak Paddlers Association (CPA) offers group events and has several local sub-groups such as the Pirates of Algonkian that meet up on Wednesdays for a 6 p.m. short paddle.




Paddlers Access Network (PAN) looks like an awesome resource, but I question if there is anyone keeping the site up to date. PAN seeks to contact property owners and advocate for paddlers to be able to access waterways from private property. Their website lists points where paddlers are and are NOT allowed access to the water. See, for example, this entry on Goose Creek - the owner said that paddlers MAY go past the "No Trespassing" sign to get into the creek there. That's awesome!

The problem is, it looks like most of the data is 2004-ish. I don't see any new data, and I received no response when I tried emailing the point of contact. Even so, the data that is there could be very useful in planning an outing on the local waterways.

Monocacy Canoe Club (MCC). After doing some clicking around from the PAN website above, I ended up on the MCC website. The MCC website is most definitely up to date and actively managed, and it looks like they have a pretty active calendar of activities set up for 2010. They also appear to have some good links to water levels, ratings of local waterways, etc.

Canoe Cruisers Association (CCA). I found this group as a link off of the River Trail Outfitters website. It looks like they have an actively managed site and schedule of events. Their schedule for 2010 looks pretty light as it stands now, but I realize it's the dead of winter as I write this and it might be unrealistic to expect them to have their schedule planned out for the spring and summer yet.

Books: I've picked up two books so far on kayaking around the DC area.


Sea Kayaking Virginia: A Paddler's Guide to Day Trips from Georgetown to Chincoteague.

I highly recommend this book by Andrea Nolan. She starts off with a very good overview of paddling in Virginia - seasonal variations and cautions, recommended gear, etc. Next she provides a nice regional map showing where each of the chapters of her book will take you. Then, within each chapter, she provides excellent maps showing the routes she took on each of the waterways she reviewed, good descriptions of what to expect along the way, and side-bars with information about the local wildlife you are likely to see. This is an excellent resource for learning about the sites she has reviewed and planning a day trip there. The only downside on Andrea's book is that she only includes one site in the DC area (out of Jack's Boathouse, down the Potomac River past the monuments and back), but it's a fairly thick book that covers a lot of sites along the Chesapeake.

Sea Kayaking the Baltimore / Washington, D.C Area.

Kevin's Short Summary: a mile wide and an inch deep. This book by Michaela Gaaseurd is nice because like Ben's website / unlike the Paddling.net website, she offers regional maps showing the general location of the paddling sites she has reviewed in her book. She gives a pretty good written description of a handful of certain spots across the region. However, there are no detailed maps of the waterways, and the small black-and-white photos don't give you much of a feel for what the area is like. I'm glad to have it as a reference, but it's not a stand-alone.

I do owe a special note of thanks to Michaela for answering a question I couldn't answer anywhere else. I had searched high-and-low and all over the internet trying to determine if you could paddle onto the Tidal Basin. On page 7, she specifically states, "you will not be able to paddle into the Tidal Basin by the Jefferson Memorial." Thank you for putting that question to rest.

To Do List:

After all my clicking around and reading here and there, these are the places currently on my "to do" list for future paddling trips (in no particular order of priority or importance):

• Antietam Creek
• Monocacy River (Done 24 April 2010)
• Bull Run
• Occoquan River

God Bless America... and Borders

It was a busy week for us with school and extra-curricular activities all starting up again. Wednesday night was our first Cub Scout den meeting of the school year.


Taking advantage of the nice weather while it lasts, we did most of the outdoor requirements for the Bear Badge (requirement #16) - stretching, calesthenics, relay races, pushups, and two-man wrestling-type games. I was very proud of ES for not only participating in each of the activities, but also doing more than what was required. He consistently came in last in the relay races, which is to be expected from his gene pool, but he gave each of the exercises 110% and did more than what was required.

After the outdoor activities, we went inside to work on one of the other Bear Badge requirements (#3 I think):

What do you like most about America?

Each boy was given a piece of paper to draw a picture of what they like most about America. ES had a hard time figuring out what to do. I tried to help him out and rattled off a whole list of ideas about what he might like most about America, and his den leader told him it could be a PLACE. Nowhere in my list of suggestions did this come up, but this is what ES drew...


Yep, that's my book-worm. It's become a lot easier to shop with him lately because he just sits in the cart and reads.

Reflections in the Lake

There are certain recurring events in all of our lives that cause us each to stop and reflect on the passage of time and the course our life has taken. Birthdays and anniversaries are probably the most common examples. I have had the same experience with anniversaries of my commissioning in the Navy.

Now, as I sit here on the deck of our family's place on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, my mind is doing a pass-in-review of the years past.


The first time I came here was in the summer of 1997. I had met my wonderful wife-to-be in March of that year, and that summer, her family invited me to join in their family tradition of relaxing by the lake in the summertime. I was stationed in Groton, so it was feasible for us to come up several times in the summer and spend a weekend at the lake.

Back then with no small children around, our days were spent lounging around reading a lot of books. It was here on the deck that my wonderful wife first introduced me to two of my favorite historically-based fiction books - Gods and Generals and 1812.

Our place is fairly centrally located on the lake, and it's actually quicker and easier to take the boat across the lake to Wolfeboro, Center Harbor, Meredith, or Weirs Beach than it is to actually drive a car all the way around the lake. From that very first summer here, I quickly came to like the idea of driving the boat out to dinner, tying up at the docks in Wolfeboro or Meredith, and walking into town for dinner.

Of course, since I was an officer in the Navy, that was credential and certification enough for my future in-laws to put me in charge of driving the family boat around the lake. As you surely know, I spend a great deal of my time at work in the Navy driving very small, fast, highly maneuverable pleasure craft in water as shallow as 3 feet deep with a bizarre buoy system, right? (There's another blog post to follow about the buoy system.) Even so, it didn't take me long to figure out how to drive the boat.

The scenery from here on the deck is timeless. As I sit here looking out at the lake, this is the exact same mental image I have from my first visit here twelve years ago.

I lost track. Was this photo taken in 1997 or 2001 or today?
(ES says, "or 10 years from now?")

Of course, we didn't have digital cameras back then. We bought our first digital camera for the occasion of ES's birth in 2001, and we brought ES to the lake for the first time when he was about 4 weeks old.

Grammy holding ES on the deck (2001)

As I type this, I am sitting in the exact spot where that photo was taken above. ES just came looking over my shoulder and he pointed out that the tree in the background is now "bigger" (thicker around the trunk). Good eye, son. I hadn't picked up on that detail.

LW holding ES on our way to the cove to go swimming.

Looking back...

1997 - My first summer at the lake. I was stationed in Groton, so I made multiple weekend trips to the lake. LW and I were just dating then, so I had to sleep on a twin-size mattress in the middle of the living room floor. Life at the lake was peaceful with plenty of time for reading and naps. In the fall, we brought our friends Chris and Cathleen up to visit the lake and admire the fall foliage.

1998 - LW and I were engaged. I was on deployment that summer. I came up in the spring before leaving on deployment to help get the boat out of winter storage, and I came up in the fall after coming back from deployment to help put the boat back into winter storage.

1999 - In May, I detached from my first submarine and had to report to the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA in June. We came up here one last time. This time we came as a married couple so I didn't have to sleep in the living room anymore.

I distinctly remember as we drove away from the lake for the last time wondering when we would be back next and if it would be with children. I pondered where life would take us and what life experiences we would endure between then and our next return to the lake.

2000 - We were in Monterey, cross-country plane tickets were expensive and I only had short breaks between academic quarters at NPS. No visit to the lake this year.

2001 - Graduated from Monterey. ES was born in Monterey in May and we packed up our Nissan Pathfinder and drove across country to go to Groton for SOAC (Submarine Officers Advanced Course). We came up to the lake with ES for the first time that summer. My Oregon Parental Units (OPUs) also came to visit us and we brought them up to the lake that fall. Being in Groton, I was also able to come up to help put the boat away for winter storage. Again, leaving the lake with an uncertain return date led me to wonder where life would take us and when we would return to the lake.

2002 - 2004 - We were stationed in San Diego. Between my underway schedule, the cost of plane tickets and the hassle of traveling with small children, we didn't come to the lake. Actually, I think LW came out to the lake in the summer of 2003 while I was on deployment and spent a few weeks here with her mom.

2005 - 2006 - We moved to the DC area in the fall of 2004, so we were able to come to the lake for a week each summer in 2005 and 2006. The summer of 2005 was YB's first time to the lake.

Both boys driving to the Cove in 2005

YB driving in 2006
He'll be ready for his boating license any day now.

2007 - 2008 - We were in Hawaii. If you thought the plane tickets from the west coast to Boston or NH were expensive, try buying FOUR plane tickets from HAWAII to Boston. That plus the thought of spending that many hours in an airplane with two small children convinced us to just stay in Hawaii.

2009 - Here we are again, 3 years since our last visit in the summer of 2006. I'm glad being stationed in the DC area allows us to make it to the lake in one day's worth of driving and we can easily come here for a family vacation.

Even though I anticipate coming back next summer (I hope to stay on shore duty until my PRD (projected rotation date) in October 2010 - knock on wood), I still wonder where life will take us and what it will be like when we come back here in another 12 years. Will ES come home from college to join us at the lake, the summer before YB goes off to college? What about 24 years from now? Will LW and I be grandparents by then?

In any case, so much in life changes, I look forward to always having this timeless image of the lake from right here on the deck and cherishing the memories we've shared here.

Mole Poblano

On our way back from hiking the Makapuu Ridge today, we wanted to stop somewhere for lunch. Overall, we've been very pleased with the series of books that include Oahu Revealed and Maui Revealed (they've got a book for each of the islands). I can't imagine how long it took those folks to go around and collect all the gouge on the best places to eat and best sites to see. We've been living here 8 months now and have barely made a dent in all the books' recommendations. I suppose if your full time job was to explore the island and write about what you found, then you might get it done a bit quicker, eh?

Since we were on the east side of the island, we flipped to the back of the Oahu Revealed book and looked for East Honolulu dining. We found a listing for Azteca, and the authors stated it was "the best Mexican food on Oahu." Being the Mexican food addict that I am, I said to myself, "Self, THIS I've GOTTA try!"

Bottom Line Up Front: I second the motion! Azteca is hands-down THE BEST Mexican restaurant we've found on the island. Not just for the food, either. The quality of the food, the prices of the food, and the service were all superb. The atmosphere is a typical hole-in-the-wall store-front taco shop - no frills, just a Mexican flag and a painting of Aztecs and snakes and stuff.

Whenever I go to a Mexican restaurant for the first time, perusing the menu gives me an impression of how authentic the place is going to be. If I see something like mole poblano (pronounced "moh-lay poh-blah-no"), then I start to get excited. Mole ("moh-lay") sauce is made from unsweetened chocolate and a mixture of several chili peppers. From the wikipedia article on mole:

Mole poblano is prepared with dried chile peppers (commonly ancho, pasilla, mulato and chipotle), ground nuts and/or seeds (almonds, indigenous peanuts, and/or sesame seeds), spices, Mexican chocolate (cacao ground with sugar and cinnamon and occasionally nuts), salt, and a variety of other ingredients including charred avocado leaves, onions, garlic. Dried seasonings such as ground oregano are also used.In order to provide a rich thickness to the sauce, bread crumbs or crackers are added to the mix. The chicken or turkey is cooked by completely boiling it on a pot with water, a little bit of salt and a piece of onion to give the broth some flavor.

In most cases, if I SEE mole on the menu, then I will try it. Sometimes, it's good and I make a mental note that THIS is a GOOD Mexican restaurant. In other cases, it's okay or blah, and I say to myself, "Self, they can talk the talk, but they can't walk the walk."

In Azteca's case, I had the chicken enchiladas with mole sauce, and they were truly spectacular. I also had a side order of some of their guacamole and it was superb. (Again, not quite as good as LW's guacamole, but still darn good!) For dessert, I just couldn't resist and HAD to try their flan with kahlua. It was fabulous!

So like Cilantro over on Maui, I am going to make the bold statement that if you like Mexican food and you're on the island of Oahu, then you MUST go to Azteca!

Makapuu Ridge Hike II

If you had asked me this morning what the title of today's blog post was going to be, then I would have told you, "The Dragon's Nostrils," for that was our goal. We didn't make it to the Dragon's Nostrils, but we did have an excellent hike up the Makapuu Ridge.

For the boys and me, this was our second time hiking the Makapuu Ridge. It was the first time for LW and our friends visiting from the mainland. We had a great time on our previous Makapuu Ridge hike that I wrote about in this post.

Now, Ball Chapter 29 calls this hike a "loop" and tells you to hike up the rugged north side of the ridge (rocky and challenging for small children) and then come down the nice paved path. Last time I came here with the boys, I wasn't so sure about the rugged climb up the north side, so we just went all the way up and back down the paved path on the south side.

Today, thanks to an error in the Oahu Revealed book, we sort of unintentionally took the "loop" path suggested in Ball Chapter 29. We were looking for the Dragon's Nostrils (a pair of blowholes that make it seem like a dragon inhaling a hiss of air and then exhaling steam). The description in the book said to go PAST the parking lot and then hike up to a whale watching spot about 400 feet up. At first, I thought the authors were talking about the same whale watching spot along the paved path up the south side of the ridge, but then since it said to go PAST the parking lot, I figured I was wrong and there must be another whale watching spot.

Nope. I was right the first time. The whale watching spot they refer to in the book is the one right along the nice paved path going up from the parking lot. I don't know why they didn't write to just park in the parking lot and walk up the path.

In any case, by the time we decided I was wrong and there wasn't another whale watching view point on the north side, we were already half way up the hill. We figured it would be easier to just finish the climb to the top on the rocky side, then take the easy way back down along the paved path.

The boys did a great job today. Holy cow, Batman! ES was a trailblazer today! While I brought up the rear helping YB up the rocks...

...ES was on "point" at the head of our formation, leading the charge up the hill.

Note that second picture was taken by LW looking up the hill to ES (he was with our visiting friends), right after she looked back down the hill to take the previous picture of me and YB.

At the top of the ridge, this was the view back down to where we had parked. (Note: this is a view from Point C looking back down to Point B on Ball's trail map).

The boys and I climbed up to the very top of the ridge to stand on top of the WWII bunkers again. They were excited to climb through the inside of the bunkers. I didn't take the camera with me, but the views of the windward side, Rabbit Island, and Koko Head were just as spectacular as last time (check out the photos on the previous blog post). The boys also found a couple of new bunkers to climb through on the north side of the ridge.
We saw two or three hang-gliders swooping and soaring back and forth above us on the trail today.
The whale watching view point referenced in Oahu Revealed as the trail head down to the Dragon's Nostrils is actually about halfway down (halfway up?) the paved path from the parking lot. We looked down over the edge, and sure enough, we saw the lava "table" mentioned in the book. Unfortunately, it was low tide, so the blowholes weren't blowing. The book does mention that at low tide there are nice tide pools you can swim in, and we could see several people down there in the tide pools.
I overheard another guy talking about the Dragon's Nostrils and asked him about it. He confirmed that was the right spot to go down to the Dragon's Nostrils and that they wouldn't be blowing because it was low tide. He also said if our kids were able to climb the north side of the ridge, then they wouldn't have any problem climbing down to the lava table below. We decided against it though, because the boys were pretty tired and the blowholes weren't active. We made mental notes for future excursions to spot the Dragon's Nostrils though.

Family photo with Koko Head crater in the background.
This was on our way back down the paved path.

In the end, this ended up being a substantially shorter hike (mileage wise) than our previous Makapuu Ridge hike, because climbing up the north side is such a short but steep hike. Here was our altitude profile for today's hike.
MAKAPU'U HIKE SUMMARY (but from a different perspective than our first trip): I know when I'm trying to decide on a new hike location, I search for an overview about the hike that will help me judge if it's doable with two little boys. For anyone else looking to do this hike, here's a quick summary:
Map: This hike is covered by Ball Chapter 29 (see aside below). THIS TIME, we DID follow the "loop" described by Ball. It was a little challenging going up the first part from B to C on the map. My boys did fine and made it to the top under their own propulsion, but I was glad I had more than one adult this time to provide 5-on-2 coverage and assistance getting up the rocks.
Mileage: 2.2 miles
Elevation Gain: The parking lot is just under 130 feet, and the bunker on top of the ridge is at 730 feet, so it's approximately 600 feet of elevation gain. (Yes, this is the same thing I wrote last time, but the numbers were the same this time).
Terrain: From Point B to Point C on Ball's trail map, it is rocky and you have to take it slowly and carefully with children (see the photo above). Going back down the south side of the ridge though, it's a paved path at a gradual slope back down to the parking lot. There are some steep drop-offs along the sides here and there, so watch your children carefully.
Time: 2 hours 30 minutes elapsed time, including a couple of pit stops for eating fruit snacks, drinking water, and watering a few of the cacti on the side of the path. Last time we were here, the sign said the park closed at 6:45 p.m. This time, the closing time was listed as 7:45 p.m., so I suspect they adjust the closing time based on sunset / twilight time.
Facilities: There were NONE - no bathrooms, no drinking fountains, nor any other sort of facilities anywhere in the parking lot or along the trail. (Luckily, having two boys, we watered a couple of bushes along the way). For the nearest restrooms, drive south about a half mile. There are public restrooms at the beach just south of Makapuu Ridge.

Aside: Explanation about "Ball" mentioned above. There is one book that is commonly accepted on the island as THE common reference for hiking on Oahu. It is The Hiker's Guide to O'ahu by Stuart Ball. You will find in geocache listings and other hiking websites that people will refer to, "Ball Chapter X." That's refering to this book and what chapter covers that hike. You may click here for the book's listing on Amazon.com or click here for the Barnes and Noble listing.