Adventures of a Discoverer

Most people are familiar with food trucks. But... what about a concert truck ? The idea, sponsored by the Seattle Chamber Music Society and various donors, is to use a truck, similar to the ones used by food trucks, that carries a small stage and can go to different places and play classical music for all those who want to watch. However, better than a food truck, the concert truck is free: you can just go to the park or other public venue and listen to some talented musicians play a really nice selection of classical masterpieces. I just returned from one such presentation. The truck was parked at the Arboretum, that public park that consists of some of the original forest that used to cover Seattle. It was a beautiful afternoon, bright and sunny, but not too hot, allowing people to bring their picnic blankets and just enjoy the music. It is great to listen to Classical Music in some big fancy concert venue, but it is also amazing to listen to such music in the middle of nature. As a

Yesterday I went hiking to what turned out to be a really interesting (and surprising) trail: the High Rock Lookout Trail. The trail is located at the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, pretty close to the border of the Mt Rainier National Park, and ends at a currently inactive fire lookout. It is not a long trail (3.2 miles to the end and back) but it goes up without any respite from the trailhead up to the lookout. Initially you're surrounded by forest, but after sometime you're high enough that you reach the sub-alpine vegetation, and towards the end there is only naked rock. One aspect of this trail that makes things more "exciting" is that the trail follows a narrow mountain ridge that gets narrower and narrower the further you go, and by the time you reach the lookout you're surrounded by sheer cliffs on three sides. In fact, to actually get to the lookout platform, you need to give some steps on the naked rock that are a little bit too close for comfort to th

Yesterday I took my kayak to the Arboretum, a public park next to Lake Washington that contains some of the original forests and wetlands that used to be all over Seattle. In it you can find a number of channels starting at Lake Washington and going into the park: on a warm day it makes for a great time kayaking, because you can do so under the shade of the trees. Yesterday was even better because there was no wind, and as such the water was like a mirror. Additionally, despite being in a major urban area, there was a surprising amount of wildlife: I saw ducks, geese, cranes, crows, seagulls, turtles, various fishes... Finally, I could row under the massive bridges of the route 520: it makes quite a contrast to be relaxing on the calm waters while you hear cars stuck in traffic above you.

Together with Jenn last weekend I had lunch at a new sushi bar that recently opened in Bellevue: the Kura Revolving Sushi Bar . Before the pandemic, there were a number of sushi bars in the Seattle Metro that used a conveyor belt to pass along the sushis, and those were always my favorite places to eat sushi. However, once the pandemic came, many (if not all) of those locations closed and I haven't been to one since. I was very glad, then, that I got to go to a new conveyor belt sushi bar. And it was a great one. The food was great, they have traditional desserts like mochi and taiyaki (a waffle like dessert shaped like a fish and stuffed with sweet bean paste, I included a picture below) that were very yummy and they have a... a robot waiter (or waiter robot?). It works this way: each table has a screen where you can order specific sushis or beverages. In the case of beverages, they are delivered to your table by a cute yellow robot. It worked surprisingly well and you could see t

Yesterday I tried indoor skydiving for the first time, and it was quite fun! I did it at iFly, a company that provides those "flights" in many places in the country. It works this way: basically you have a really big vertical tube, with the approximate diameter of a large hot tub and as high as a four story building. Then, at the base of the tube (but outside of it) you have really powerful fans that make the air flow upwards in the tube at the speed of 85 mph (135 km/h). The middle section of the tube is made of thick plexiglass and it has a door. It also has a strong net where you can walk on if needed. You put on a flight suit, a helmet, goggles and ear protection in order to do your flight. Before entering the tube, you are told about some gestures that the instructor will use (you cannot go solo until you make a number of initial flights) in order to tell you to assume the right posture: legs bent (but not too much), arms in front of you and head up. You wait for your tu