Adventures of a Discoverer

At this time of the year, the hiking trails in Washington are becoming snow free, marking the start of the hiking season. To get started, I took a pretty convenient trail, not far from where I live: the Granite Creek trail. The trail starts pretty close to the middle fork of the Snoqualmie River, and as the name implies it follows the Granite Creek until it reaches the Granite Lakes up high. I just returned from the trail, and it was a great way to begin hiking this year. The trail was in great shape, wide and well kept. Nevertheless, it was a very wet hike: there was a drizzle all the way up, plus all the snow melt meant that there were numerous little creeks crossing the trail. In fact, there were two larger creeks on the path that required some fording, but not as bad as I had to do in other hikes. There was also a small bridge when the trail crosses over the Granite Creek, and you can see how much water is coming down the mountain. The trail ends at the Upper Granite Lake, which ha...

Seattle has a venue that's famous for its very elaborate drag queen shows: Julia's on Broadway and Le Faux Playhouse . Situated in Capitol Hill (the bohemian neighborhood in Seattle) for many years Julia's has hosted productions by Le Faux that are always sold out. Last night I finally had the opportunity to check them out myself, and it really didn't disappoint! Currently Le Faux is presenting their Evolution show, which is the culmination of their many years of experience producing lavish spectacles. It is incredible! The performers consist of six dancers and four drag queens that switch between a number of different costumes, each one more elaborate than the other. There is a whole environment built to impress, with light and smoke effects, plus screens and music, all coordinated together to make the best show possible. The performers dance, sing and lip sync, sometimes walking among the crowd. Additionally, the drag queens talk to some of the people in the public, ...

I had heard about them and I had seen them a number of times at my local Walgreens pharmacy: oxygen cans. So two days ago I decided to try them out. I bought the pocket size can of Boost oxygen, which contains oxygen at 95% purity. The first thing you notice is how unbelievably light the can is, so much so that there are multiple warnings on the can telling you that oxygen is a very lightweight gas and that the can is not empty, even though it feels like that. Every other day I go for a run around my block and I thought this was a great opportunity to try the oxygen. I did what the instructions on the can told me to: I covered my mouth with the small green mask, just under my nose, and pushed the trigger, letting go a burst of oxygen. There is no smell and it doesn't feel cold. You take five breaths through your mouth and then repeat this process four or five more times. The one immediate effect I noticed was that my heart rate went up very quickly, but that was temporary. I starte...

Yesterday was a sunny day without much wind, so it just made sense for me to finally check out how the I-90 bridges on Lake Washington look from underneath them. The I-90 bridges are floating bridges, but part of their span is on columns, and I could take my kayak around the ones on the Seattle side of the bridge. In addition to the bridges themselves, I could take a look from the lake on the various parks that the City of Seattle has put together and that are looking specially nice now in the middle of Spring. It was a wonderful and very relaxing way to spend a Sunday afternoon. (An interesting finding: one of the houses by the lake, that has its own dock, had some plastic chairs on said dock, and then a gust of wind blew those chairs on the lake. There was no one is sight at the house.)