2023 Vancouver

 We took it easy driving back from Whistler to Vancouver, stopping first at Shannon Falls Park to see the waterfalls which were very visible from the road, only to discover that there were several waterfalls we had passed if we'd known about them. Then we stopped at Horsehoe Bay for a good look at Bowen's namesake island.

We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant at Richmond and then to my surprise the kids wanted to go to the vancouver aquarium. In retrospect we should have had lunch near Stanley Park and saved the 1.5 hour round trip commute! Traffic in Vancouver was very slow.

The Vancouver aquarium was small but very well done, and we had enough time to experience the 4D shark movie, and the touch-based hands on lab. After that we checked into the hotel and then went to dow

ntown Richmond for dinner, where we returned the rental car.

The dinner was great, but the kids wanted Boba, so we walked to the nearest Boba place and along the way saw a supermarket. Going in, I saw Lay's Octopus Ball chips as well as Beef Wellington flavor'd chips, which I'd never seen before! Clearly random Vancouver supermarkets stocked stuff that made Ranch 99 look like Safeway.

The Day's Inn at the Vancouver International Airport was impressive --- the lodging was good, but the breakfast was far better than many much more expensive restaurants, as was the hotel's attention to detail and shuttle service. It's not in a great location but we were there for only one night anyway. I checked in on the flight while at the aquarium and booked another security appointment.

The last morning, we zipped through security in quick order, cleared customs and were at our gate in 30 minutes. The only snafu came when our overpacked luggage got flagged as being too big so we had to check the bags.

Bowen asked to come  back to Whistler again, a far cry from his stance at the start of the trip where he was threatening to boycott the classes. But when I asked if he'd give up his birthday present for another Whistler trip this year he said No. But he asked to give up his Costa Rica school trip in exchange for a Whistler trip next year instead. I guess that means we'll be coming back to Whistler some time.

Review: The Making of the Atomic Bomb

 The Making of the Atomic Bomb is a 1000+ page pulitzer prize winnder recounting the history of the atomic bomb. It is comprehensive, and includes depictions of physicists I'd never heard of before, such as Leo Szilard, who conceived of the chain reaction and held to patent (in secret), and went from worrying about beaing the Germans to the atomic bomb to worrying about the very human cost of deploying it in Japan.

The book goes so far as to cover the German efforts (and the allied forces successful effort to destroy the heavy water facility!) and the Japanese efforts to develop their bombs, though in the respect of success, no one came close to the Americans. One famous scientist said something like "You'd have to turn the whole country into a factory to make it happen in time to affect the war," and upon touring the facilities turned around and said, "OK, that's what you did!"

Lots of little known (to me anyway) details about the bomb was explored, including the imploding mechanism to trigger critical mass, and fully remote-operated lines for refining U235 and plutonium (once the facilities started production no human could enter those facilities and still live). I was astounded to learn that Roosevelt held the cards so tightly to his chest that Truman was never briefed about the Manhattan project until he assumed the presidency!

The book ends with the bomb dropping of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That chapter was so hard to read because the tragedy was so poignant and real. (Keep in mind that none of my teachers in school nor anyone who was occupied by the Japanese in Singapore had any sympathy for the Japanese after the atrocities they committed during the war, so I'm prejudiced about it --- a good writer can make you sympathize even when you have good reasons not to have sympathy)

I read this book because someone mentioned it on the Ezra Klein show. I'm impressed at the comprehensiveness of the book. Recommended.

2023 Whistler: Explorations with Bowen

The last few days had left my wrist in an unusual position --- the chafing from the watch had gotten to the point where I had to switch wrists for my Fenix 5X. What I should have done was to bring a bike mount for the watch but it was now too late for that, so I had to switch wrists, try mounting the watch higher on my forearm. It was all in vain --- by the end of the day I'd stick the watch into a pocket to give my wrist a rest. Brad would tell me that the proper solution would be to switch to the lighter Forerunner series with a plastic case that wouldn't have the same problem.

The bike shop couldn't fix the brakes on my bike (even after replacing brake pads), and so gave me a new instance of the same Rocky Mountain Slayer. Bowen would choose to spend our warm up run doing Beeline, after which the lines were so long we opted to ride the gondola all the way to the top to get started on Una Moss.

Una Moss, Midgard, South Park, and Midgard all proved to be no problem for Bowen but my rear tire was going flat! I borrowed a pump from someone but it made the situation worse --- I pumped up the tire, but when I unscrewed the pump from the presta valve the valve core came out with it! I screwed back the valve core and another biker with a press on pump showed up and I pumped up the tire and then proceeded to descend Earth Circus as quick as I could as the tire was still going flat!

Once in the village I went over to the bike shop and they took care of the flat while I had lunch with Bowen. They must have considered it their fault because I got a partial refund for the rental right away. We went back up the Creekside Gondola after lunch and with the new, fixed bike, we did Una Moss and Blueberry Bathtub and then went back up the Garbanzo express for Blue Velvet.

Blue Velvet gave Bowen a lot more problems. First, he got spooked by the drop. Then, he got stuck on a few of the more aggressive ramps. Fortunately, an instructor he'd met earlier ran into him and gave him pointers, but he would refuse to do Blue Velvet again, doing Una Moss and then exploring new trails. I'd never seen him so enthusiastic about riding a bike before. He was clearly out to make the most of our last riding day in Whistler.

Our last run into the Fitzsimmons area, I let him choose the route again, and we did two runs, once with Easy Does It leading into various technical trails, and then once with Beeline leading into Ninja Cougar, Samurai Pizza Cat, and other intermediate trails. I was very happy to see him ride the trails with confidence and that he was out to find a challenge, not just ride the easiest thing.

We finished the day at 5pm, returning our bikes and walking back, picking up more Gelato along the way. That night I had more laundry to do, and we started packing for our day in Vancouver.

Review: Scam me if you can

 Scam me if you can is written by Frank Abagnale, who also wrote the famous book Catch me if you can! The book is well written, in a transparent prose style that's full of anecdotes and stories about famous scams, some of it will make you question practices you might have considered innocent.

For instance, I've never thought letting someone stay at your house would be a risk, but there's a story in the book about someone who got her identity stolen because of precisely that! The book's full of tips, but you probably already know most of them:

• Never post personally identifiable information on social media (I've turned off birthday visibility on Facebook as a result of this)
• Always turn on 2 factor authentication
• T-mobile (and other providers) actually have scam protection settings you might want to turn on
• If an offer is too good to be true, it always is
• Scary phone calls are almost always scams --- government business is always conducted through the mail
• Passwords suck. The sooner they go away, the better.
• Shred everything that comes to your house.
• When someone calls you from the authorities, get their name, number, and location, hang up, and then do a look up on their actual place of business and call them back to verify
• Lotteries never ask for money up front to collect.
• Never assume a check from someone you don't know will clear.

Most of this is common sense, but when you have a person dressed in police uniform at your doorstep it might not be so easy to stay calm and do that verification! But I guess that's why people still get scammed all the time.

All in all, the book's full of tips and made me change one of my online behaviors. If that saves me one case of identity theft I think the time spent reading the book would have been worth it!

2023 Whistler: Rest Day

 For our rest day, we started with a 10:00am scenic flight to see the glaciers around Whistler. The day was ideal, with little wind and calm skies. It was Boen's first time on a float plane. What blew my mind was how large and beautiful
Garibaldi Lake was --- reflective and calm in the morning.

The cindercone and the closer up of the crevasse on the glaciers were also sights not to be forgotten.  We even spotted people walking on the glaciers that morning --- someone had gotten up pretty early.

After the beautiful flight, we got back to the hotel to pick up the camera and proceeded up the Blackcomb Gondola, the only gondola allowed for the peak to peak sightseeing trip. 

I expected it to be crowded but the gondola moved at a quick clip and there wasn't much of a wait at all --- I guess when you don't have to load bikes the gondola moves a lot faster. The top of Blackcomb had a poor restaurant that we ate a few snacks at and then proceeded to the peak to peak Gondola, where the kids opted to wait for the glass-bottom gondola, which takes an additional 20 minutes but in reality proved to be a bit disappointing --- the look down might give you a better chance of spotting wildlife but didn't grant as gorgeous a view as the windows did. The peak to peak gondola was a great engineering effort, possible only because the end of the valley was closed off by mountains so the gondola was relatively protected from the worst of the winds.

From the peak to peak gondola you have to walk down to the peak express, which takes you to the tippy top, for both cyclists and hiker. We visited the suspension bridge at the top (and Bowen loved the Peak Express), and we walked around.

The return from the peak express to the top of the village gondola was actually a long uphill in the thin air, and Boen and Xiaoqin opted out of any extra hiking to take the peak to peak express back. Bowen and I tried to do the Harmony Lake hike, but the mosquitoes started biting us at the start of the hike and without mosquito repellent and reports from other hikers telling us it got rapidly worse, we bailed as well. At the bottom of the Blackcomb Gondola we saw that there was a pop-up store for the Lucia Gelato so we bought some and it was good!

Dinner was at Nogomi sushi, which was so good two days ago that we went back.

2023 Whistler Day 3: Solo Explorations

I dropped the kids off telling Bowen that he should try to get his instructor to teach him how to do Crank It Up. My intention today was to ride and have fun and not think about instruction, so I did a run on Crank it Up, and then took the Gondola up. With the Canada Day crowds, I didn't want to stay in the Fitzsimmons area, but someone on my gondola told me that the Garbanzo Express would open up, so we got off the Gondola (it wasn't possible to take it to the top before 10:30am), and we rode over to the Express and took it to the Una Moss trailhead. 

From there, I rode Midgard, South Park, and Bengal Bear to Call Me Maybe. Without someone to guide me I became a lot more tentative on the bike, walking more and being aggressive less. But this time I remembered to take videos and not just photos of the various waterfalls. Call Me Maybe felt particularly hard, even though the progression chart said it was easier than many other trails I'd done. I realized then that the progression chart doesn't take into account length of a trail. I might be able to ride at a high intensity for 3 minutes, but that doesn't mean that continuous high intensity was feasible for 10  or even 5 minutes.

At the Creekside village, I bought a coke and ate two cliff bars before going back onto the creekside gondola to do Una Moss and Blueberry Bathtub again. At the intersection of Una Moss I ran into a bear and scared it.It ran off up the mountain to the right off the trail and I was shaken but I didn't want to look like dinner so I kept going quickly until the shock got big enough that I pulled off the trail and calmed myself down before going down to Blueberry Bathtub where the bath washed away my fear. I then took the Garbanzo Express again to redo midgard, south park, barking duck, and then Earth Circus again. This was so great, and I repeated the loop again and finally came down B-line just in time to pick up the kids from their class.

Bowen's instructor told me that he was ready to go to the intermediates, but she hadn't let him do Crank It Up, so I told Bowen to get on the lift. We went on the lift. I offered to buy Boen an ice cream but he chose to come with us.

Bowen did really well on Crank It Up, but Boen crashed, falling on his hip and getting some road rash. Boen managed to get down the mountain anyway despite his wound, and at the bottom we called bike patrol to get him to come and clean up his wound. Xiaoqin also came by to pick him up while Bowen and I went for another run, this time with rides of his choosing. He led me down Easy Does It to visit the Golden Triangle, which only opened a day ago so I'd never done it. He also picked some technical trails which convinced me that he could do Midgard.

We had dinner that night at the Ramen place in town, which was also the same shop as a Japanese supermarket place. The food was good and the Japanese soda pop was unique though messy in that you always had overflow whenever you opened it. I booked the scenic flight that Brad recommended the next morning and had also bought the sightseeing ticket that would let us go up Blackcomb and take the Peak to Peak Gondola on our rest day. Our rest day was much needed as my forearms and hands were sore from all the pounding from the mountain bike. The full suspension bike took a lot of beating but so did I!

Review: The New Education

 The New Education is a critique of the current University system and an exploration of the different ways different organizations are trying to change the University experience. It combines lots of interesting facts and lots of anecdotes to paint a picture, but nothing that's really convincing.

For instance:

The US Census Bureau report for 2014 reveals, for example, that a full 74 percent of those who graduate with a bachelor’s degree in a STEM field do not stay in STEM-related occupations. Follow-up surveys indicate that many find that the “glass ceiling” is exceptionally low in STEM, and so they move into finance or business-related careers, such as real estate, which seem to offer more opportunities for advancement and somewhat more security. Most graduates working in STEM fields commonly return for an advanced degree in a complementary non-STEM field such as business, design, public policy, or even the arts. Changes to STEM fields come so fast and unpredictably that there is a supplementary industry dedicated to career counseling for those in STEM that emphasizes that you must keep learning, you must stay networked and connected with those in other fields, and you should be taking every opportunity beyond your training to enhance and develop your portfolio—skills that the relevant, cross-disciplinary new education emphasizes. (kindle loc 2303)

This is not new. We've had statements from many people from as far back as 2006 that Science does not pay. But of course, the arts are no better:

Jack, who earned both a bachelor’s degree and a PhD from private universities, currently works as a beginning professor teaching introductory art classes at a public university in England. Older artists are urging him to do what great artists have always done—quit his job, find a cheap little studio in some tiny village in Greece or somewhere else inexpensive, and devote himself to making art while his career is hot. “Take the risk!” they admonish him. “Opportunities like this don’t come again.” They imply he’s not a “real” artist because he won’t do this. They do not understand that, having graduated from American universities, he has so much debt that he has to keep teaching to pay off steep student loans that come due each month, barely leave him enough money to pay his current bills, and prevent him from taking advantage of the chance of a lifetime. (kindle loc 2765)

The whole thing really comes down to cost. So while Davidson talks a good game about renovating teaching styles, encouraging more interdisciplinary work, or the benefits of community college, she has no good answer to reducing cost. Her only solution is to support higher education with more tax money. If that doesn't work even in Blue states, it has no chance of happening at the federal level, so I don't see how that's a good solution.

There's a chilling story in the book about Alexander Coward and the UC Berkeley Department of Mathematics. An innovative Math professor uses unusual teaching methods and gets fired. (I will note that the UC Berkeley Math department also famously denied Stephen Cook tenure, just before his theory of NP-completeness was published)  Davidson notes that the UC Berkeley Math department does not have an incentive to recognize good teaching:

Only 12 percent of the University of California, Berkeley’s total operating expenses are covered by state support. The rest must be covered by tuition and external sources—typically, by sponsored research or grants earned, in rigorous competitions in the sciences and often with less than a 5 or 6 percent acceptance rate. The professors working toward those grants might defend themselves by noting that the Math Department at Berkeley is in the top five because they work day and night to produce peer-reviewed research...Teaching more students to understand and even love math is, in a structural sense, not the objective of a world-renowned math department. Standards setting, measuring, assessing, and ranking are important to maintain not only top students but also top faculty. Measurable standards are connected to reputation, ranking, and accreditation. This approach is also about the replication of expertise. Full professors at elite universities such as Berkeley typically view their highest calling as preparing their students to become full professors at elite universities such as Berkeley. Rankings don’t track the students who flunk Math 1A, but they do encompass how many math majors go to graduate school and where. (kindle loc 3431-3446)

Overall, I thought the book made many good points and it's worth reading, if only to remind yourself that the top institutions are by far the most conservative and traditional in their approach to teaching, and that they are actually not necessarily a good fit for you if you actually are going to school to learn. Note that that tells you that parents and students don't necessarily value education --- the networking is much more important at places like Harvard (which explains its reputation as a party school --- the students there understand that those parties are more important than classes), while the folks who are there for to get a head-start on research probably don't need the education that a less renowned school might provide --- they'll learn just as much on their own or from each other. As a result, you really have to think hard about what you want out of college when selecting a school.

I started out this review thinking that the book was faulty, but by the end of the review has decided that the book nevertheless makes many good points and is worth the time to read. Recommended.

2023 Whistler Day 2 - Tour de Silverberg

 We started the morning by checking in the kids early. There was more confusion --- apparently, what we were supposed to do for these multi-day MTB camps was to hold on to the protection and just leave the bike and helmet with the rental shop. Having to get the kids refitted took plenty of time but we still managed it, putting them with the instructors. 

The Fitzsimmons gondola actually opens up around 9:45am, after all the instructors for the kids have already gone up the mountain at 9:30am. I stood in line and Brad showed up and joined me! I first met Brad in 1994 at a club ride to Tahuya State Forest, where he gave 3 of us UW grad students a ride from the ferry to the park. I remember that ride as still being a particularly gonzo ride, with places where I rode through water that came up to my knees --- Pardo broke a spoke on that ride and immediately fixed it as well. Brad bought all of us lunch that day, but I think I was the only person to keep in touch with him over the years. After that ride, I remember taking the bike to the bike shop and asking them to warranty the BB. "We do not warranty bikes that have been treated like submersibles" came the answer. Nowadays, bearings are so well sealed that I doubt that treating any bike (even a road bike) that way would lead to bearing failure.

Brad took me first on B-line and then on Crank it up as a warm up. "You don't have to jump --- you can just roll all the jumps." And so I did, gaining confidence. After he was sure that I could tackle this he said, "Let's take the gondola all the way to the top." I was impressed by how pretty it was, and then he proceeded to take me down Una Moss, a blue-rated trail that was actually fairly easy.

From there, we would tackle Midgard (a harder, more technical trail I had to walk a bit on), then South Park, Barking Duck, and Earth Circus down to Creekside village, where I bought him lunch. If I was disappointed by my first day at Whistler, this second day blew my mind. Midgard was a great trail, running alongside waterfalls, quiet, and dreamy. This was not the gonzo MTB experience, but rather, a graded, perfect ride, comparable to El Corte De Madera back home, but without a gut busting climb. I could have ridden trails like this every day and not have anything to complain about.

After lunch, we took the Creekside gondola up. What a difference this was compared to Fitz-simmons. There was no line, and no awkward lifting your front wheel up in order to pack bikes into the gondola. You just roll your bike in. At the top, however, I discovered that my rear brake was no longer working. At least it was just the rear not the front. From there, we rode more Una Moss to Little Adler and then the Blueberry Bathtub, which was a huge amount of fun. Fortunately my brakes had come back after that short ride. "You'd better have it checked out by the bike shop anyway," said Brad. From there, we took the Garbanzo Express and then descended using Blue Velvet. Blue Velvet started off tamely but after a trail intersection turned into a drop! "Oh, I meant to warn you about that one but I forgot." "You did the right thing --- I might have freaked out with a warning." It occurred to me then that Brad had read my capabilities perfectly, including what I could or could not do, and when to tell me about an obstacle and when not to. The rest of Blue Velvet was a bigger bolder version of Crank It Up, and once again I would roll everything instead of jumping.

By then, Brad was confident in me enough to take me down Blueseum, which was the last blue technical trail before we started hitting black trails. He offered to introduce me to an instructor, but I was having a lot of fun and wanted to do more riding on my own.

We met the kids and introduced him to Brad. Bowen had changed his mind about how much he didn't like mountain biking and was now willing to take me on a ride. I bought Boen an ice cream and we went up on the gondola, where Bowen demonstrated for me how much he enjoyed doing the technical trails. He asked for an extra day on the bike after his last lesson on the next day, so I paid for and organized an extra day on the bikes for him and me.

Re-Read: Odd and the Frost Giants

 While we're on a Neil Gaiman kick, I kept my bedtime reading pace with Odd and the Frost Giants, a really short Neil Gaiman story.

To be honest, Gaiman is really best in short story format, and this story illustrates why: there's a build up, an introduction to the characters, and then a confrontation, where the hero protagonist defuses the crisis by using his super power of listening to other other side and figuring out what they really want. In this particular case, the solution was simply to give the other side a plausible face-saving-way to back out of doing what they came to regret.

The book's short, easy to read, and fun to read aloud to Boen at bedtime. He was kinda disconcerted that it was so short, but to me, that's a feature not a bug. Recommended.

2023 Whistler - Day 1

 To be honest, I'd never even heard of Whistler, but Brad Silverberg, who owned a house in the area, was a great advocate of it, and I was inclined to believe him, since his recommendations for doing a bike trip in Spain in 2019 was spot on, from where to stay to how long to stay and what to do. To be honest, I'd never really thought of myself as a downhill mountain biker who could catch big air and do stunts, but cycling is cycling and any time you get to spend on two wheels is always good.

Our flight was delayed by about an hour, so we arrived in Vancouver at 1:00pm. Fortunately, our Turo host was very accommodating, and we had lunch in Vancouver before heading over to Whistler. We would stay at the Aspens, which Brad assured me was a good location. Arriving late in the afternoon after what was a stunning drive along the coast (which I didn't remember at all because the last time I'd driven it was in miserable weather in 2015. I was also very happy with the Volkswagen Jetta I'd rented on Turo, which was much bigger in cargo capacity than the so-called midsized SUV I'd gotten in Calgary --- all the luggage fit in the trunk with no futzing needed.

The checkin process was weird --- they had sent me the code for entering the apartment the day before but it was shunted into a different e-mail address so I didn't see it. A quick phone call corrected my misconception and we were off. The apartment had a nice kitchen and 2 rooms, so Bowen got very excited about making a salad, so we made it.

The next morning, we got up and walked to the bike park, where we had to run through some of the park bureaucracy --- it was a challenge to figure out where to go to get your lift tickets, where to go to get your kids registered for classes, and where to pick up your rental bikes. Definitely budget an extra half hour for this on your first day.

The process for getting your mountain bike comes with full body army that looks like it came out of mad max, and a full face helmet. This whole endeavor is pretty intimidating considering how little equipment we usually ride with, but the shop was serious about getting the suspension dialed in.

After the kids got checked in, it was time for the adults to get their gear. I was surprised to find that we got our bikes from a different shop even though I'd booked everything through Whistler. I'd also booked an instructor, but unlike the kids, the adults get their instructors at 10:00am instead. The instructor gave us some basics about stance, braking, and steering, which were definitely very different from what I normally do. For instance, I'd been used to bending my knees and elbows on a mountain bike, but on a full suspension bike you're supposed to fully load the suspension and just keep your knees straight unless performing a technical maneuver. Similarly, there was a tip to widen your knees as you go around the corner and look where you're planning to go. This was counter-intuitive stuff but if I remembered to do it I got better results.

We saw a bear on our very first run, and then Xiaoqin decided that she'd had enough and returned her bike. I got the instructor to myself, which meant that he quickly progressed me through several intermediate trails (Long Horn, Hornet, Ho Chi Minh, Del Bocca Vista, World Cup Single Track, Wednesday Night Delight, Naughty Hands, Ninja Cougar), ending the day by putting me on a black trail (Monkey Hands). He was very surprised that I would actually ride the bike up hills by pedaling --- apparently DH MTB culture is that it's perfectly acceptable to walk your bike up a grade, whereas of course the roadie culture I came from considered it a failure if you had to walk up hill.

I worked the instructor hard, giving him only a 20 minute break for lunch, and when it was all over he told me that I was progressing well for someone who'd never been to the bike park before. I met the kids at 3:00pm and asked if they wanted to show me what they'd learn but neither of them were enthusiastic --- Bowen had crashed twice, and Boen was simply not into it. At least there was no more talk about deliberately crashing so they wouldn't have to do any more classes. I promised the kids that we wouldn't come back --- to be honest the park was disappointing --- I could understand if you wanted to get good at the gonzo jumps and air gaps you would love the park, but there was no scenery, just lots of crowds and plenty of time spent waiting in line to get onto a lift. I never understood the appeal of downhill skiing either.

We spent some time at the swimming pool and then went over to the Olympic plaza for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra's live performance. It was a great event but the kids got bored once they stopped playing John Williams soundtrack songs that they could recognize and went into doing Spanish Opera.

2023 Banff: Athabasca Glacier and Lake Moraine

 We had a leisurely morning, with Boen and I walking over to the coffee shop to grab a breakfast that included meat pie, something that's not easily found in the USA. We started driving around 8:00am, since Google Maps told us it was going to take 1 hour 45 minutes to get there. We got there and got checked in with buses to the tranfers to the giant snow traversal machines. The glacier had retreated quite a bit since I was last on it in or around 1998. I had made the mistake of telling Bowen and Boen about how my brother stomped on the ice and fell in and of course Bowen had to proceed to doing the same thing.

20 minutes on the glacier was just long enough --- we saw other people bring water bottles to collect the glacier water to drink, but I'd forgotten to do that. We'd bought the skywalk package and so the bus immediately took us to the skywalk afterwards, but not before we spotted a marmot while waiting for the bus. This time I had the long lens with me and could fire off a few shots.

To be honest the skywalk is a bit of a tourist trap. It's a nice piece of structure but hardly anything worth writing home about. The kids were ready to leave after 15 minutes and we took the bus back and had lunch at the overpriced cafetaria. I made use of the wifi to checkin to our flight the next morning and discovered that you could make an appointment to navigate the security line as well, and so did that as well.

One last look at the Athabasca glacier and we were off, driving another 3 hours back in time to get onto the Moraine lake shuttle. The shuttle was a surprisingly involved process, having to drive to the park and ride and then getting onto the shuttle itself after checking in. I'd forgotten how long a drive it was to Moraine Lake, and when we got there the parking lot was pretty empty.

The kids were cranky, a sign that they were tired of hiking. We talked them into walking to the end of the lake, with detours to play with objects that were floating or half in the lake and the gorgeous bluish tint of the lake.

When it was time to go back we stood inline with a wedding photographer from Canmore --- he told us he did  alot of weddings at Lake Moraine, but he was stuck on the shuttle like we were! He said some wedding parties provided a private shuttle but others don't. He also said he didn't mind take a private shuttle.

We had a long slow dinner at the hotel's diner, and I did one last batch of laundry, hoping I wouldn't have to do more laundry for the rest of the trip.

Review: Logicomix

 I picked up Logicomix from the library at $4 when I saw it in the donation rack. A comic book written by a Berkeley professor about Bertrand Russell's Principia defintely got my attention in a "wait, how the heck did I miss this?" kinda way. The book basically follows the life of Bertrand Russell as well as the history of logic in mathematics. It includes many many illustrious mathematicians, including George Cantor, Gauss, Turing,  Whitehead, Boole, Godel. It does take some artistic license, all acknowledged in the appendix, that Russell could not possibly have met some of them in person.

Besides a (very non-technical) tour of logic, sets, and mathematics, it covers Russell's anti-war work, his childhood, and illustrates that many of the mathematicians mentioned effectively went crazy. Fortunately, the book shies away from drawing any unwarranted conclusions since I know many sane mathematicians. The story's covered very nicely and the art serves the story rather than drawing attention to itself.

The book is self-referential, at times dipping into discussions amongst the authors and artists about how to depict a scene, or about the various concepts that Russell was grappling with. I thought this was fun, though sometimes a little on the tangential side.

The back of the book includes a glossary and cast of characters as well as a detailed explanation of some of the mathematical concepts involved. It's quite thorough and enjoyable to read as well.

This was a fun and surprisingly educational comic to read. Highly recommended!

2023 Banff National Park: Helen Lake

I'd pulled the Helen Lake hike out of some list of hikes to do in the Banff area. Just the drive to the trailhead was beautiful, with us stopping by Bow Lake for some gorgeous still water mirror shots.

The trailhead itself looked uninteresting, just a roadside parking lot with a rest room but not much else --- it lead into a forest, but the promise was of course for plenty of climbing to do. The initial climb was wooded and not much in terms of views, but as you get higher the trees thin out a bit and now you get great views of the glaciers surrounding the area. We met a group of 5-6 chinese people from Calgary --- their intention was to hike all the way to the pass. They assumed we were going to do the same and cautioned us that it was a difficult hike for the kids --- they were nonplussed when we said we were only going to Helen Lake.

As we got up above the treeline we met a pair of hikers who told us that the mosquitoes were really bad at the lake, and rather than eat lunch at the lake or at the waterfall we should eat lunch near where we met them. We had already put on insect repellent after I'd gotten bitten a couple of times, and didn't want to get more mosquito bites so we took their advice.

The waterfall was gorgeous, and a lot of fun, and there we were joined by a backroads tour group. The Backroads tour do similar things to what we do, but charge $4000 per person for a 6 day trip. In exchange you get a guide and a group of friends to slow you down. I was kinda surprised that lunch didn't appear to be included, as each hiker was packing and carrying their own lunch. 

We spotted mountain marmots and got in close enough to take  picture that didn't entirely suck. From there it was a short walk up to the lake. The lake was a gorgeous tarn that was still enough to reflect the surroundings. We were well above the treeline but the mosquitoes were very aggressive so we did not stay long.

We turned around and hike down, and the views were completely different from the hike up. The view of the surrounding peaks in the soft early afternoon light took our breath away. Bowen and Boen asked to drink the water from the waterfall so I got out my water filter and we refilled the bottle. It was good water.

We still had plenty of time, so we drove all the way back to Banff, stopping only to return the hiking sticks since we anticipated not needing it the rest of our stay. There in Banff, we found a place that served Fondue, and ordered 3 dinner entrees to share. It was yummy after the long hike.

It started drizzling after dinner so we didn't stay to explore much, as everyone was suffering the symptoms of footsoreness after 2 days of back to back hikes. We got back to the Lake Louise Inn for a short swim and then I did laundry.

Re-read: Stardust

 Since I was on a Neil Gaiman kick for bedtime reading for Boen anyway, and I don't much are about whether a book is age appropriate, I decided to read Stardust to Boen. Stardust was always one of my favorite Gaiman books, and I kinda felt like I was cheating Boen by reading the kindle edition to him, instead of the version with Charles Vess's brilliant illustrations. Nevertheless, the language of the novel is such that it loses nothing by not having the illustrations, and good luck trying to read the paper copy to a kid who's supposed to sleep.

Boen enjoyed the book and so did I. Recommended.

2023 Banff National Park: Plain of the Six Glaciers

 We got out of bed, packed and got out the door by 8:00am. Despite that early hour, the parking lots was already becoming full. I paid for parking, and we walked down to the Fairmont Hotel to buy an exorbitantly priced breakfast and coffee prior to starting the hike. The morning was cool and cloudy, and it drizzled a bit while we were eating breakfast. A group of travelers from Hawaii started talking to us and said that the Fairmont was so expensive that even Hawaiians considered it expensive and that they would never stay there if their train + lodging package didn't include it. They said that the Cheese Fondue dinner was good though!

The drizzle was over by the time we started walking. I had mentioned to Bowen about the two teahouses on this hike today, and promised him that we could eat Cheese Fondue if we made both teahouses. It's been many years since I did this hike and I remembered it wasn't hard, even while carrying a heavy equipment load. In fact, the lakeshore portion of this walk is considered one of the most scenic easy walks you can do. With the relatively calm wind and no rain, the lake was reflective and pretty. We made a leisurely pace --- the parking fee was $21 and we had all day --- in fact, the teahouse wouldn't even open until 9:00am so there's no incentive to travel fast. I also had an inkling that the weather would turn sunnier later.

Past the end of the lake the path followed a forested riverside, and then went up alongside moraines and other rocky terrain. Here, it started to rain, but not enough to get us to get out the rain pants. We kept going, with the trail getting sprinkle on but never getting really wet --- all the puddles were easy to step over, and the trailside waterfalls made for a refreshing soundtrack.

The views of the climb from the moraine was nothing short of amazing, and by the time we'd gotten to the teahouse we were very pleased with the walk and the scenery. Boen led the charge up and we arrived at the teahouse to be seated immediately, and when Xiaoqin and Bowen arrived we ordered a soup, snacks, and tea. Cash is required at the teahouse, and the prices are not cheap but it was a welcome break.

Past the teahouse we were above the treeline and the path became rocky though not unmanageable until you arrive within sight of the Abotts pass trail. From where we turned around and used the alternate route to the Agnes Teahouse. At this point the sun started to come out and the day turned sunny.

Rainjackets came off and we started eating the snacks we'd brought with us. The walk was uphill but since we were now below treeline it was mostly shaded, though once in a while you'd get a gorgeous panaromic view of Lake Louise and its unique color.

We eschewed climbing the Beehive as the kids were showing signs of weariness, and indeed they were very disappointed when they got to the Lake Agnes teahouse and there was a line out the door waiting to get seated --- there was just no point waiting that long to get seated.

Past the teahouse, the stairs brought us back down to a waterfall, followed by mirror lake from there it was a straight shot down. We saw people who were going up in this direction and to my mind it was a much tougher hike up as it was quite steep.

We arrived back at the lake in good shape and had a late lunch/early dinner at the Fairmont before returning to the hotel, though not before I stopped at the visitor's center to clarify what was needed to visit Lake Moraine. Since the only spots available to visit Lake Moraine were all in the afternoon/evening on the 27th, I gave up on the idea of doing a long hike (which the park ranger said would be too long to do for little kids anyway) and then also booked the Athabasca Glacier tour for that morning as well.

Having achieved all our plans I bought lip balm and insect repellent at the outdoor shop and proceeded to swim with the kids.

2023 Canadian Rockies - Transition to Lake Louise

 We woke up early --- today was the day we'd have to drive to Lake Louise, which was a 3 hour drive, but I'd also wanted to visit my cousin Connie, who'd had a baby during the pandemic which I haven't seen. We packed everything into the car and drove North, moving along empty roads that definitely reminded me of scenes from The Last of Us TV show. Around Calgary the speed limits increased but so did traffic, and we arrived at Canmore around noon. 

We ate brunch, took a photo to satisfy both her mom and my mom, and I had to do laundry, so we took a short walk near her house in between laundry starting and having to move clothes to the dryer and then hung out in their hammock-equipped backyard while waiting for the dryer. Sean had a dream job with Garmin, and apparently if you're a Garmin employee whenever you go to trade shows the equipment manufacturers shower you with free stuff, so he also had an extensive collection of bikes.

We drove on to Lake Lousie Inn, where we checked in, made use of the swimming pool (which Boen was looking forward to --- the Waterton Lakes hotel had no swimming pool) and had dinner. While having dinner I realized that we needed to rent hiking sticks and the outdoor store was almost at closing --- so I walked to the outdoor store and rented sticks for $9/day. I had noted upon arrival that the Lake Louise parking lot was marked full, but after dinner it probably wouldn't be full, so we went.

Lake Louise was much more crowded than I remembered, but the last time I was there was in 2010, and I had arrived for dawn photos in the fall so it was probably not comparable. The wind coming off the mountains was intense, and we knew we were scheduled to do the Plain of the Ten Glaciers hike the next day, so we took photos got a good sighting of the parking lot and the parking lot prices, and I told everyone that we'd have breakfast up here the next day so we could get a decent parking spot the next morning.

2023 Canadian Rockies & Whistler Index Page

 This year, I completely failed to acquire cheap plane tickets to Europe, plus Bowen complained about having to sit on a plane for 9 hours (first world problems), but Brad Silverberg suggested that I visit Whistler, explaining that there was lots of hiking, and of course, the famous downhill MTB park. I'd never tried downhill MTB, but I'd been enjoying riding my Roadini off road a lot so the idea of maybe getting good at downhill appealed to me. Xiaoqin was skeptical that an entire 2 weeks at Whistler would be a good idea, so I adjusted the plan to visit Waterton Lakes and Banff National Parks instead, since both were guaranteed crowd pleasers.

This is the index page for photos and trip report.

Photos

• Waterton Lakes and Banff National Parks
• Whistler

Trip Report

• Crandell Lake (Waterton Lakes)
• Goat Lake (Waterton Lakes)
• Bear's Hump (Waterton Lakes)
• Transit Day
• Valley of the Ten Peaks (Banff National Park)
• Helen Lake (Banff National Park)
• Athabasca Glacier & Lake Moraine (Jasper and Banff National Park)
• Whistler Day 1
• Whistler Day 2
• Whistler Day 3
• Whistler Rest Day
• Whistler Last Day
• Vancouver
• Tips for Canada

Equipment Reviews

• Deuter Speedlite 25
• Osprey Savu 5
• Bubblebum Carseat