Looking Down

Let me start by telling you about me and looking down.

I. DON'T. DO. LOOKING. DOWN.

Well, the fact is that I do, but let me explain that it is the fact that in order to look down you have to go up that is the problem.

I do go up.

I would not be able to be a hiker if I didn't sometimes go up. Up is where the best hikes are.

~

When I was eight my sister was eighteen and a recent high school graduate. The family tradition was a graduation trip--the whole family. Our trip took us to Chicago, where we had a room on the seventeenth floor of the Conrad Hilton Hotel. Once we got moved in, my Dad took my sister and brother and headed down the hall. Being an obnoxious and curious eight year old, I followed. I think my Mother knew where they were going and had more sense.

Where he was taking them was to the fire escape so that they could look down. I realized what my mother knew already about herself and probably about me--WE. DON'T. DO. LOOKING. DOWN.

~

 

but

 

~

Knowing this, even for the past sixty years I continue to go up--and stand petrified as far from the edge as I can and look down.

Yes. I have, over the years, been to the top of the Washington Monument, the Empire State Building, the Space Needle, the roof of St. Peter's Basilica, the roof of St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg, and who knows how many other UP places.

~

 

Let me tell you the story of going to the top of the dome of Santa Maria dei Fiori in Florence--the world famous Duomo.

 

I spent a college year at Gonzaga in Florence. Having made many weekend excursions to various parts of Italy, some classmates and I decided to do some local touristy stuff. To get to the cupola at the top you climb a stairway between the outer and inner shells of the dome. It is narrow and steep and winds around the dome to reach the top.

 

As we were going up, others were coming down. That included a small group of Franciscan Friars in their brown habits--one being a very diminutive older (to us) balding (or tonsured?) man whose voice we heard as we came nearer and continued as we went up and they continued down. What was he saying? Well, roughly translated from the Italian which I spoke quite adequately at the time: "If I ever--puff puff--get my hands--puff puff--on the idiot--puff puff--who talked me into--puff puff"...and the rest faded as we moved farther and farther apart.

 

 

 

So, as each opportunity to go UP comes along, I think of that little friar so many years ago, and the fire escape in Chicago, and I go UP  and stand back petrified and look down.

 

~

 sometimes
~

When I was in India in 2000, my group went out to the edge for a group picture.

You can see them here making their way to the edge of the cliff. You can see that they would be looking down on the valley. there they are on the edge.

 

without me.

When we traveled to Russia in 1998, we hiked in the Stolby National Park in Siberia. It is a famous place for rock climbing. I climbed to the top of one of the large boulders and my son or husband took my picture looking down.

They had to do that because otherwise the rest of the family back home would not believe I had done the climb. They know I don't do UP.

 

In fact, when the whole family went to Silverwood Theme Park a few years before that, hubby and I had ridden one of the larger roller coasters. When we regrouped for lunch the kids did not believe me, so we had to ride it again with them as witnesses.

 

In 2010, when we hiked in the Highlands of Scotland, we were climbing some of the Corbetts. The Corbetts are "mountains" that are between 2000 and 3000 feet in elevation. Munros are over 3000 feet. You can see here that we were looking down. Elizabeth is much closer to the edge than I am.





After Scotland we traveled to Wales, where we hiked with Liz and George and looked down on the sea.

 

 

and then to London, where we looked down on the Thames, the Houses of Parliament and the Embankment from the London Eye.



 In Seattle, we have looked down from Seattle's "Big Wheel" and from the Space Needle.

 

This Spring we looked down into the Grand Canyon at Phantom Ranch.

 

And a couple of years ago I looked down the stairway at Maryhill Museum at Sasha and Lisa.

On one of  our first snowshoeing treks we looked down from Nisqually Vista at the snowboarders below the glacier.

 

It was certainly not the only occasion at Mt. Rainier to look down.

White River

Road to Sunrise from Sourdough Ridge Trail.

Busy day at Sunrise.

 

But my favorite picture looking down is this one from a flight from Seattle to Phoenix about twelve or thirteen years ago.

 

 

 

 See if any of the other headbanger members are like me, not wanting to go up, but finding some way to take a picture looking down. Their links are in my sidebar near the top.

 



Street Performers

Have you ever seen someone playing piano in the middle of the sidewalk?

You don't get street performers in a small town like the one I live in. So we will have to rely on some pictures from or travels. Alas, no picture of the piano player in Seattle, but these stilt-walkers joined a charity walk in Tacoma a few years ago.

 (We will be walking again in Tacoma in the Light the Night Walk for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society on October 18. For more information abut LLS, blood cancers, and the Light the Night walk, or to sponsor us, look to the links in my left sidebar.)

In Edinburgh the street performers were traditional.

 In London on the Embankment and the Millennium Bridge, they were...

 unusual...

 active...

 creative...

 thoughtful...

 heartbreaking...

 balanced...

 (What can one say?) 

 touchable...

 melodic...and rhythmic.

 

But none of them would fit in my header space. So a look at a different type of street performance...

 These street paintings were in Edinburgh.

Some of my headbanger colleagues live in larger cities than I do, so perhaps they see this sort of thing every day.  Check them out in my sidebar on the right.

Railroad Crossing without Any Cars

...Can you spell that without any 'R's?

Tom gave us the header challenge theme of Railroad for this week.

 My local railroad pictures are not of riding on the trains but walking near the tracks, such as this foggy morning when I walked through town.

 It doesn't take a fog for the railroad crossings to pose some fascination, though.

 Some interesting angles. Did you realize how high those lights stand?

 We have had one major trip where the railroad was the main experience of the journey rather than just the mode of transportation. One does not set out on the Transiberian Railway to simply get from one place to another. The Transiberian Railway is an experience in itself. At every station there would be people gathered on the platform for a variety of reasons. Some are traveling.

 Some are selling goods to the passengers. This lady has fresh berries. One compartment mate hopped off the train at an early morning stop and brought us breakfast pastries. (His name was Slas and he looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger.) At one stop, we could have purchased chandeliers or stemware from workers from the local glassworks, who received part of their salaries in goods.

The Transiberian Railway stretches from Moscow to Vladivostok. We traveled about half of that way.

 We traveled by train while we were in the UK as well. Not quite as exotic, unless you might be looking for Platform 9 3/4 at Charing Cross Station.

 The awesome architecture looks like it is ready to swallow up the trains.

 They could be off to Hogwarts, but then, apparently I may have the wrong station, as Harry and his friends left from Kings Cross.

This notice board as we traveled from Wales to London was a bit distressing, though our own train was traveling and on time. I forget what the reason for the cancelled routes.

It was not as alarming as the experience in Novosibirsk, Russia, though. We were dropped off by taxi at the train station with no escort as we usually had when leaving or arriving at a city. We entered the station to look for our scheduled departure on the departure board (which we would have had to sound out in its Cyrillic letters) and found nothing but wires hanging out of the board. Trains were being announced. In Russian. Ours was late and no one spoke English. Our thirty words of Russian were not very helpful. It is one of the adventures of foreign travel.

 

I have chosen this image from our UK travel as my header. It just speaks that thousand words that a picture is worth. It was taken as we left Edinburgh.

 

The rest of the header challenge crew are linked in my sidebar. Visit them and check out their railroads.

By the way, "that" is spelled T-H-A-T whether you have any Rs available or not.

Movie Title

Stewart sent us the theme "photo to portray a movie" a couple of weeks ahead so we could think about it. Not being a big movie goer, I was pretty much stumped. The other headbangers offered me some thoughts based on the sorts of images they know I have in my computer files. Cold Mountain. On the Beach. They were okay. I could have used those.

Once I got a handle on the theme I thought of some marmot pictures I have that would make a good "Groundhog Day" title. Some bird pictures (some of them taken the same day as my seagull from last week) that would be "The Birds". Wharf pictures could be "On the Waterfront."

Then we went to the lake to spend a few days with our son's family on vacation, and when we arrived, guess what the kids were watching...

Stuart Little.

So I present to you my thought process.

 Four years ago we spent a lovely day exploring Lincoln, UK with Stewart and his lovely wife Julie.  We had dueling cameras at the cathedral, we walked a street called "Steep". You can imagine what that meant. We had a meal at a typical pub. We walked along the canal. (More dueling cameras.)

Across from the cathedral I caught Stewart peeking out of this doorway.

 

A bit of editing and -- bye bye Stewart.

 

A little work with Stewart removed...

Then shrunk and pasted back in, and voila...

 

Stewart Little.

 

You can see what films my friends found to illustrate by clicking their links in my sidebar.

Group Portrait

Since we are spending some time with family in Arizona again, you might think that I could get some great group portrait shots. I have. But most of them don't seem to work for the header.

This one doesn't crop for the shape I prefer for my headers. And the garbage cans....

 I obviously didn't take this one.

I probably could use this one. Great smiles!

My Arizona girls. What are you doing Patty?

And graduation isn't till tonight.

I came prepare with some pictures from my files.

This is the group picture I didn't get into in India. My fear of heights--well, it can be high as long as it isn't there at the edge of the cliff...

I took this one of some random strangers while taking a photo class. I've always liked it.

This one from our trip to Siberia has a back story. My husband, our interpreter, and the Assistant District Director discussing mosquito control.

Our hiking group in Scotland. Don't know how those university students put up with us old folks.

Does someone look familiar?

I am going to use this one that I took after First Communion. I had taken the group photo for the parish archives and stepped aside for parents, siblings,  and godparents to have a turn. 

I believe it was Craver who proposed the theme of Group Portrait. A link to his blog and to the other headbangers will be found near the top of my sidebar. I wonder what they have managed.