The big yellow orb is in the sky


I am frightened, and eerily drawn to it.
- Ava email to me

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Dawn on Milford Sound

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It is dawn, Wednesday morning, on the top deck of the Milford Mariner, moored in Hamilton Cove in the Milford Sound.  A cloudless sky, slowly brightening, the Southern Cross still shining overhead.  Wow.   We started our voyage to Milford yesterday morning.  After a somewhat hurried breakfast at Joe's Garage (our third in a row; what a great place!) we boarded our bus.  Our driver was Carl.  He said hello.  Then didn't stop talking the rest of the day.  Born and raised on the South Island near Queenstown, a former guide, he was a fount of knowledge about everything kiwi.  At one point Andie said to me, "he talked about wool for twenty minutes.  That's when I stopped listening."  He also talked about deer farming, the difference between fencing for deer farming vs. sheep farming, the details on the road on which we were driving, the deterioration of the quality of driving on said road, the reason for said deterioration, and many other things.  He was delig
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It's not you, my blog, it's me

Hello, blog. Yes, I know, I haven't written in a long time. I'm sorry. It's not you, it's me. I could make up some excuse about only writing about travels that involve airplanes, but you'd see that for what it is: a shallow cover-up of my generally lazy tendencies. No, there's no one else. Really, check my Facebook and Twitter accounts. Even Buzz. They are equally bereft of my quality sardonic wit. Since we're being all honest with each other, I have a few things to tell you. This may be hard for you to hear, but here goes. We have done many interesting things since you and I last got together, and several of them even involved travel. In other words, they belonged in a blog called Eagletravels. Are you OK? Should I go on? There was Pinecrest over Labor Day weekend, our 20 th anniversary trip to Debbie's house. The fall was full of football games (Stanford and flag) and birthday parties and the holidays a whirlwind of parties and fun.
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Doing

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Vacations are either about doing or seeing. On seeing vacations, you see things -- museums, famous sites, family. There are variations to this rule, of course. Foodies go on vacations to eat, wine tasters to taste, music lovers to listen. Or so I hear. I like doing vacations. Go somewhere cool and do cool things. There may be seeing involved (mountain peaks, white beaches, rushing rivers) but the seeing (and eating, tasting, and listening) is in service to the doing. To quote Yoda: "Do or do not. There is no try." I bet he's a cool guy to vacation with, easily the best of the Jedi. Today we are wrapping up 10 days of a doing vacation in the great Northwest. I think, in fact, in a career of doing vacations this may just be my masterpiece. Our down moments have been few and far between, and we will return to California tired and relaxed. The best vacations, you go home (and even to work) to rest. It started a week ago Friday, when we flew to Seattle and m
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