spoonman's Journal

[spoonman]

#104 03/04/2015 -- February Expenses Blurb

For the month of February our net spending was $1584, well under our budget of $1860. In some categories, such as food, we spent a little more than usual, but not much in other categories. Additionally, it appears we are not using our discretionary dollars, so this is a bit of a pleasant surprise.

As I noted in last month's spending report, playing the budget game has been a "win some and lose some" type of deal, but in the end as long as our net spending is below threshold we'll be fine.

[spoonman]

#105 03/09/2015 -- Afternoon Trip to Bainbridge Island

The weather this past weekend was great here in the PNW, warm and lots of sunshine. We thought it would be great to take a little afternoon trip to Bainbridge Island, located in Puget Sound east of Seattle. Round trip tickets on the ferry from Seattle are only $8/person, so not too bad for a chance to have a look around the Sound. If anyone visits Seattle I highly recommend a ride on one of the ferries because you get awesome views of downtown Seattle, the Space Needle, and on a clear day a great view of Mount Rainier.

After getting off the ferry it was only a short walk to the area with restaurants and shops. We treated ourselves to lunch at one of the restaurants, which was a bit pricey but very good. Yes, Spoongirl and I occasionally indulge in the act of paying others to cook for us, as MMM would put it. I also enjoyed a pint of the local IPA, which I got for free because they had just run out of it and couldn’t fill the glass all the way.

After lunch we took a leisurely stroll down the waterfront trail. The photo below shows a nice view of the marina.



We also visited the newly built Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. Admission into the museum is free, so that was icing on the cake. The museum itself is really nice to look at because it has a modern design, and a very easy walk through the gallery on two levels.

I should note that we also took the time to visit the Seattle central library. All I have to say is holy shit. That library is something else. The building gave me the impression of a futuristic Archology. The main archive has an impressive spiral configuration that allows it to store extra books. It’s the Taj Mahal of modern libraries! I think it’s great that libraries are getting built on such a grand scale.



All in all, another nice weekend in the PNW.

[spoonman]

#106 03/11/2015 -- Daylight What??? Part 2

Back in November (entry #087) I took the time to brag about how the whole daylight saving time nonsense doesn’t affect us any more. At the time, the clock was actually giving us an extra hour, but this time it took away one hour, which tends to hurt a lot more. I remember how much it used to suck having to get up an hour earlier. Yes, FI is hitting the spot right now. =)

[spoonman]

#106 03/14/2015 -- Next Stop: Montreal, Quebec, Canada

When we planned our escape from work our original intention was to stay in the PNW for 12 months. The idea was to take our time getting acclimated to the new budget and tie up any loose ends while still in the US. When we secured our apartment back in September we decided to sign up for a 6 month lease in order to have some flexibility in case we didn't like the place or wanted to move on. Our stay in the PNW has been phenomenally successful; we've stayed within budget and have enjoyed ourselves exploring the area. After spending a few months here (which has felt like a whole year), I'm more convinced than ever that the PNW will be a strong candidate for our long term home whenever we decide to settle down.

Having said that, at this point in our lives we are ready to take advantage of our youth and freedom to explore other parts of the world. We have chosen Montreal as our first international stop. Why Montreal? Well, I visited the city back in the year 2000 and was very impressed with it. It's the most European city in North America and comes with all of the benefits of a large, first-world city but with an awesome francophone atmosphere. It's right next to the US, so it won't feel like too big a leap for us. The visa rules are not too bad, American citizens can stay up to 180 days in a year, which will be perfect for us because we don't plan to stick around when it gets really cold.

We have secured one-way flight tickets already, which were surprisingly affordable. As you can imagine, it's thrilling to buy one-way tickets to another destination, it really feels like we're sealing the deal. We plan on flying to Montreal beginning of May.

We've also secured an apartment. At first, I was thinking of signing up for an apartment lease directly with a landlord, but after much research we decided to book a place through Airbnb. Renting an apartment via conventional means may have been cheaper, but a real pain in the ass, especially if it didn't come with any furniture. We would've had to worry about hooking up utilities and all that jazz. At first glance, the place we booked through Airbnb appears more expensive, but by the time you include utilities and internet it comes out to about the same. Not to mention the convenience of not having to worry about procuring furniture and consequently selling that furniture when we move. Oh, and the new apartment has a walkscore of 97, a solid improvement over the walkscore of 62 in our current place.

I could write a whole post about our experience with Airbnb, but suffice it to say that the website has come a long way since I first visited it several years ago. A platform like Airbnb will be great for us going forward. One nice feature they include is the cancellation policy. Unlike a conventional lease agreement, you can terminate your stay as long as you give 30 days' notice. So if we don't like our apartment or the area, we can just hang in there for 30 days and look for another one.

Now that we are traveling abroad, we will further pare down our possessions to whatever can fit in two large suitcases and backpacks. We'll sell the car and everything else that we own before moving to Montreal. I very much look forward to the extreme minimalism!

[DividendGuy]

A walkscore of 97? Awesome!

Enjoy your time in Montreal. The big Canadian cities all seem to always score very high on the quality of life rankings. If it weren't for that brutal weather they get in the winter, it would seem like the place to be. Though, if you could live there for six months during the summer (being visa friendly), that might be a great way to go.

Looking forward to seeing how you guys like it there.

[spoonman]

@DividendGuy: Yeah, it's difficult to go wrong with a place with a walkscore of 97. Montreal is also regarded as one of the safest large cities in North America. We look forward to the Jazz Festival and other awesome summer events.

[cmonkey]

spoonman,

I started reading through your journal and got to the point where you talked about deciding to commute using public transit instead of driving, mainly to reduce stress. I am strongly considering this as well, since my commute would only increase by about 30 minutes per day.

You say you rode through some rough neighborhoods and I'm wondering if you still recommend public transit despite this? Obviously the Quad Cities is a different place than LA, but public transit is public transit. The thought of it being unsafe is the one thing that has kept me from trying it out.

[spoonman]

You should totally give it a try. I rode through one of the most infamous neighborhoods in the country and it wasn't all that bad. I mean, sometimes I got uncomfortably close to some of the riff raff, but it was OK in the end. And remember, you'll probably have your head buried in a book or a tablet and probably won't notice the people that come and go.

What you have to keep in mind is that during commuting times there's "safety in numbers".

[cmonkey]

Thanks for the encouragement spoonman! I am going to give it a go tomorrow. The route is pretty straight forward, only one transfer in the morning and none in the afternoon. I'll let you know how it goes.

Also, I am enjoying your journal

[cmonkey]

spoonman,

Wanted to let you know that I took the metro to work this morning and it couldn't have gone better! Well, I shouldn't say that....I did miss the first bus at 5:45, I wasn't standing in the right spot. Their maps are a little goofy. But I caught the one 30 minutes later and it went right where I needed. Just about 1 hour commute one way, but that doesn't bother me since I was pushing 45-50 minutes the way it was anyway. Now I have no commuting stress and can use that time to plan/read/listen to whatever I want. Also, there aren't many people on that early in the morning and they are not too bad to be around.

Your journal pushed me over the edge of finally trying it. So thank you for writing!

[spoonman]

I'm really happy for you, congrats on making it happen! Don't worry about missing the bus, eventually you'll become a bus-riding ninja. You should look into a bus tracking or bus predicting app. Not all transportation authorities put GPS trackers on their buses, but it's worth looking into it. From a stoic point of view, it can make all the difference in the world when you sit at a bus stop and you have some idea of when the bus is coming. Even if the app tells you the bus is late, at least you know that's the case and relax.

[cmonkey]

METROLink (gogreenmetro.com) is our public transit and they do actually have that feature! If I had a smartphone, I would totally do that, but the ERE in me got rid of it a long time ago. Who knows, maybe I'll get one again. They do have a texting feature that I might check out though.

I was a bit nervous about the walk to the bus stop (its about half a mile away along a 4 lane highway, in the dark) but its not as bad as I imagined. It was pretty well lit from the farm lights around us (I live on an acreage just outside city limits, but just by a bus stop thankfully) and the traffic was light in the morning. Afternoon will be different, but that doesn't bother me too much....6 foot wide shoulders! Plus you can't beat a 'forced upon you' post-work walk in the fresh air.

[spoonman]

These days, I hardly use my smartphone for phone calls, I only use it for the apps. It might be worth getting a cheap smartphone that you can use to check the bus status.

You make a good point about the walk, that's actually the icing on the cake. Not only does it force you to get fresh air, it forces you to get some good low-level exercise. My public transportation commute included a healthy walk, which I believe at one point added up to almost an hour of walking (round trip). It felt good to do a bit of walking after sitting in a cube the whole day.

[cmonkey]

The commute went much better this morning. I was pondering to myself as I walked if I would see any wildlife, and lo and behold I spotted a raccoon meandering around just off the road. He didn't even pay attention to me and I hope it stays that way.

Yesterday afternoon went well as well. It felt so good knowing I didn't have to brave rush hour! The walk back along the 4 lane is a little more precarious due to a sloping shoulder, but not impossible. Since it's light outside that helps a lot. I might try walking on the "wrong" side of the road today since its not sloped at all.

And I agree, sitting in a cube all day sucks. I have gotten into the habit of doing 2-3 laps around a rather large parking lot each day during warm weather. That helps a ton as well.

[spoonman]

#107 03/19/2015 -- Trip to Mount St. Helens

As you all may have noticed by now, I have an ongoing bromance with stratovolcanoes in the PNW. There are several things that fascinate me about these mountains, not the least of which is the possibility (albeit small) of one of them going off and bringing a nearby metroplex to its knees. They protrude out of nowhere and dominate the topology of an area for tens of miles. It’s easy to see how Native Americans regarded these awesome mountains as gods.

The PNW is home to the Cascade Range of stratovolcanoes. There’s a string of these beasts running from northern California all the way up to British Columbia. They all look like beautiful snowcapped mountains surrounded by lush, evergreen forests and lakes. One such mountain is Mount St. Helens in southwestern Washington, which has forests and lakes visited by thousands of people each year. That veneer of calm and beauty was shattered in May 18, 1980, when the mountain erupted in a huge lateral explosion that caused the biggest landslide in recorded history. The explosion decimated the north side of the mountain and sent millions of tons of ash into the atmosphere.

I couldn’t resist taking a trip to the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument to look at the stratovolcano with my own eyes. My original intent was to go all the way to the Johnston Ridge Observatory, but it’s closed during the winter. We ended up visiting another good facility next to Coldwater Lake with a nice view of the volcano.

The drive into the area was really beautiful, lots of greenery punctuated with some cute log cabins. The bridge below takes visitors into the blast zone.


The winding road eventually took us to a spot with an awesome view of the volcano. I feel the image doesn’t do it justice, it looks HUGE when you look at it with your own eyes.



The devastation is still visible in the area north of the volcano.



Here’s a close up from the Coldwater facility. You can see the north side of the volcano was blown open. It used to have a more symmetric, conical shape before the eruption.



A close up of the caldera shows a lava dome that has been forming since the 80’s. If you look at the image closely, the lava dome is actually steaming! It was so exhilarating to watch the steaming with my own eyes, it really gave the impression that St. Helens might have another fit any minute.



The image below shows Coldwater Lake, which got formed after the eruption of the Volcano. The wrath of St. Helens changed the character of the entire area.



The Coldwater facility had a number of cool exhibitions. We also saw a couple of films about St. Helens and the 1980 eruption. We learned that around 57 people lost their lives in that eruption, including the owner of the St. Helens lodge who refused to leave the area. It was sad really, the old man had been operating the lodge for 50 years. I later discovered we had family living a few hours outside the vicinity and witnessed the eruption and the smoke it brought into the cities.

This was a really cool and sobering trip. I didn’t expect to see St. Helens steaming, and as a scientist that totally made my day.

[spoonman]

#108 03/22/2015 -- Fun at the Farmers Market

Now that spring is underway, we took the time to visit the local farmers market. Since we are more conscious about the stuff we eat I am more excited about going. Nothing beats buying local and organic, the feel-good factor is very high.

I bought a $15 bottle of aged balsamic vinegar. I picked up that same bottle months ago and thought it was the best damn balsamic vinegar I've ever had. I very much look forward to using it to dress our daily salads. This balsamic vinegar is far superior than the typical stuff available at supermarkets, even better than what they have at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.

On impulse, I bought a little jar of Raspberry Jalapeño jam. Ohhhh, it's so darn good. I'll have to think of something healthy to put it on.

Before leaving we indulged in half a dozen gourmet cookies. They were small, but the flavor and texture was incredible.

[spoonman]

#109 03/31/2015 -- Visit to Cannon Beach and Ecola State Park

A couple of weeks ago we went to one of the seven wonders of Oregon: the amazing Oregon coast. We didn’t have the time to go down the entire coast, so we settled for spending a day at Cannon Beach and Ecola State Park.

Cannon Beach itself is a cute, quaint little town. We enjoyed local seafood and beer when we got there. As usual, whenever we visit a place in the middle of the week, there were lots of retirees out and about.

No visit to Cannon Beach is complete without viewing the famous Haystack Rock. One interesting piece of trivia about Haystack Rock is that it appeared in the movie “The Goonies”. It reminded me of the big old rock in Morro Bay, California, because it just sticks up right out of the water.



After spending some time walking along the shore, we drove up to Ecola State Park nearby to enjoy a nice hike. I can say with confidence that the trail that goes through Ecola State Park is one of the most visually rewarding hiking experiences you’ll ever have. The photo below shows the beautiful area around the trailhead.



The hike itself was challenging. I would rank it a 4 out of 5 in terms of difficulty. We were not prepared for this level of a hike. Although parts of the trail were steep, what made it most difficult were the wet and muddy spots, which didn’t get the chance to dry up due to recent rain in the area. Had it not been for that, the hike would have been a solid 3 out of 5. We made it through 2/3 of the trail at Indian Beach before we decided to head back. I didn’t feel like tempting fate and ending up knee deep in mud.

The photo below shows Indian Beach from the trail. There were many other visual delights along the way, too many to enumerate in one post.



If we ever settle down in the PNW we’ll be sure to visit the Oregon coast often.

[George the original one]

Hee-hee! An area I call "home" Yes, my retirement residence is only 15 miles away.

[Tyler9000]

Beautiful. You guys are doing it right.

[George the original one]

By the way, 10 miles south of Cannon Beach is Oswald West State Park, aka Short Sand Beach, aka Smugglers Cove. It's a hike-in beach with a couple of bonus trails through the hills. Good marine gardens at low tide, surfer hang-out. http://www.oregonstateparks.org/index.c ... parkId=139