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Lassen Day 2: Cinder Cone

2011-07-19T18:40:00.000-07:00

Before leaving Lassen, we had one last adventure. We drove to Butte Lake, in the northeastern area of the park, and hiked to the top of Cinder Cone, a basaltic cinder cone which formed during two eruptions in the 1650s. The hike to the top of Cinder Cone is not long - about 0.8 miles to climb to the top of a 750 foot tall cone - but it is a steep slog on unconsolidated lava bombs and ash, so we were pretty tired by the time we reached the top. From the top, we had amazing, panoramic views of the area.

And the climb begins...

The view of Lassen Peak, which we climbed the day before.

Ammon beat me to the top...

...but I made it soon after.

At the top, Ammon takes in the view of the Fantastic Lava Beds (basaltic a'a) and the Painted Dunes lava flows.

Resting at the top.

Lassen Day 2: Bumpass Hell

2011-07-19T18:10:00.000-07:00

Bumpass Hell is one of the other major sights in Lassen Volcanic National Park. It is a geothermal area with hot springs and boiling mud pots, accessible via a 1.5 mile trail. Like the Lassen Peak Trail the day before, the trail was still covered in snow, leading to an adventurous tramp out there.

On our way, we noticed a mysterious red coloring in the snow, which we assumed was some sort of impurity in the snow. But we met three scientists from NASA on the trail who told us the red stuff was a rare snow algae, which they were collecting to study and potentially send to Mars some day. How cool is that?

Boiling mud at Sulphur Works, a hydrothermal area just south of the trailhead to Bumpass Hell.

Bumpass Hell, as seen from the trail above.

Lassen Volcanic National Park: The Hike Up Lassen Peak

2011-07-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

I have wanted to go to Lassen Volcanic National Park since 2001, when I heard about it as a freshman geology major at Stanford. The site of California's most recent volcanic eruption (in 1915), with a variety of different kinds of volcanoes (plug domes, shield volcanoes, cinder cones) and geothermal activity? One of the least visited national parks in the country, which is generally closed due to snow from October to June? Sounds amazing, right?

Well, my dreams of visiting were thwarted time after time, and I had never made it. So it was one of my biggest wishes to go there before I leave California. And so, despite the exceptionally wet, snowy year we had this year, and the fact that, as of the morning we left the road through the park had still not been fully cleared, Ammon and I set off for a snowy mountain adventure, in mid-July.

When we arrived at the park around 11:00 am on Friday, July 15, the road through the park was still not open to the summit, but you could drive to a parking lot about a mile south and walk along the road. We set off from there, not expecting that we would be able to hike to the summit. But the summit trail, though still covered in snow for about half the distance, was passable, and we ended up making it all the way to the top. At some point during the hike, the road was officially opened, and we looked down to see the first cars making the trip all the way through the park. As we hiked, we came across other hikers pleasantly surprised to make it to the peak. We felt lucky, like we had happened upon the first day of the season.

It was lovely. I'm so glad I finally made it!

Walking up the main road through the park, which would not be opened to cars until later in the day.

Lake Helen, at the base of Lassen Peak.

The Lassen Peak Trail parking lot, freshly plowed and ready to open. They had to dig the restrooms out of the snow bank!

Chillin' at the parking lot.

View from the beginning of the Lassen Peak Trail.

Ammon takes a rest from snow hiking.

We made it!

The peak.

Looking down on the park below.

Climbing back down the trail through the snow.

There were a few snowballs thrown.

And a few butt slides.

Rock Climbing at Table Mountain, Tuolumne County, CA

2011-07-18T14:37:00.000-07:00

And my month of leisure continues: on Sunday, July 10, Ammon took me rock climbing. We drove out to Table Mountain in Tuolumne County, outside of Jamestown, where we met some of his South Bay climbing friends for a day at The Grotto, an area of basalt cliffs which is a popular local climbing spot. The grotto has large cliffs of columnar basalt, which forms when large volumes of basalt cool slowly and evenly. Above the columnar basalt is an equally tall stack of pillow basalt, which would have cooled more quickly, in an underwater environment. (Geo nerd!) According to the internet, Table Mountain formed when basalt flowed into a river bed, creating a hard cast of the river which has eroded more slowly than the sediments around it.

Since I am a very inexperienced rock climber, most of the routes here were above my skill level. I did make it up one climb, though. (Slowly, and with lots of falls along the way.) I also tried to go running on the surrounding BLM land. It was beautiful, but too hot for me to get too far without running out of water. I made it three miles before turning around and walking back.

Descending into "the grotto."

Columnar basalt on bottom, pillow basalt on top.

Ammon enjoys the view.

Me.

Ammon climbs "the refridgerator."

Caroline on her first trad lead.

Bruce belays.

Ammon watches.

The view of New Mellones Reservoir.

Adventures in San Mateo County

2011-07-18T13:41:00.000-07:00

The theme of my July is leisure. I'm exploring the Bay Area, going to all those places I've wanted to go, with a special emphasis on beaches and ice cream. Two Saturdays ago (July 9), Ammon and I went to El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve to admire the redwoods, then down to Pescadero for lunch on the beach.

Ammon

July 8: Trip to Angel Island with Julie and Sierra Andersen

2011-07-18T11:23:00.000-07:00

One item on my list of places to visit before I left San Francisco was Angel Island. How could it not be, with a ferry ride, breath-taking views of the San Francisco Bay, hiking trails, and a complex, important history? So, the Thursday after I left my job at the Open Space District, I took a trip over with my old coworker, Julie, and her three-month-old daughter, Sierra.

Angel Island was home to Coastal Miwok Indian fishing villages for over two thousand years before Spanish explorers arrived in 1775. In 1839, Antonio Mario Osio received a land grant to ranch cattle on the island. After the U.S. annexation of California, the U.S. military sought to bolster California's coastal defenses and established a military garrison on the island in 1863. The military base was in use throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries and grew to include three separate garrisons and batteries to protect the San Francisco Bay. The garrisons also included a quarantine station to prevent the spread of communicable diseases.

From 1910-1940, Angel Island also served as the West Coast's main immigration processing facility, similar to New York's Ellis Island. The station, known as the "Guardian of the West," is a notable symbol of the United States' xenophobic and exclusionist past, as many immigrants, particularly Chinese, found themselves confined there for weeks to months as they awaited clearance to enter the country. This was especially true for Chinese immigrants due to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Conditions at the station were dismal, and overcrowding, disease, and interrogation by immigration officials made this passage unwelcoming for many.

Visiting Angel Island is, therefore, a powerful experience. I was struck by the beauty of the setting, but it's important to remember the island's unsettling history.

Sierra on the ferry.

Julie and Sierra at the hospital for Camp Reynolds, one of the historic Army garrisons on the island.

Camp Reynolds

One of three batteries built around 1904 to protect the San Francisco Bay from naval attack.

Looking towards Marin County and the Tiburon peninsula.

San Francsico and the Bay Bridge.

A bike parked in the old hospital at Fort McDowell, the island's East Garrison built around the beginning of the 1900s.

A reproduction of bunks at the Angel Island Immigration Station.

Two Chinese poems etched into the wall of the Immigration Station. The first expresses despair and frustration to be confined on the island, while the second expresses relief to finally leave. Similar etchings into the wall, mostly by Chinese immigrants but also by others, are testaments to the long, sad waits many faced trying to enter the U.S.

Grad School Visits: UCLA

2011-07-12T15:01:00.000-07:00

And my last grad school visit was to UCLA. The day I arrived, I took a trip to Griffith Observatory to take in the city before the on-campus open house the next morning. By this point, I was pretty exhausted, but I did enjoy visiting L.A. I know lots of people love to hate the city, but I've always been fascinated by it. There are some extremely cool places in the city and a vibrant arts scene. Plus, what better place to study what works (and what doesn't) in urban planning?

The L.A. skyline on a beautiful, if hazy, day.

Looking out from Griffith Observatory.

This ad, apparently ubiquitous in LA, cracked me up. Also, Mr. Dominguez kind of looks like Jason Segel.

Modernism!

Classical UCLA.

Grad School Visits: Harvard's Graduate School of Design

2011-07-12T14:52:00.000-07:00

Sadly, I didn't get outside very much during my visit to Harvard, so all of my pictures are of the inside of the Graduate School of Design. But I do think the GSD is a striking building, especially from the inside. Although I chose not to go there in the end, the trays, where students are assigned desks for their studio work, seem like an pretty great space to do creative work.

Yep, the GSD's cafeteria is called "chauhaus."

"The trays" - the open, multi-level workspace for students' design work.

Grad School Visits: University of Pennsylvania

2011-07-12T14:44:00.000-07:00

My second school visit was Penn, where I stay with my wonderful college friend, Cara Bertron. After visiting the school for a day, I decided I did not want to study there. But Philadelphia was funky and beautiful, and I had a wonderful time exploring the city for the next few days. Its mix of cool and cosmopolitan, historic, and somewhat dilapidated gives the city a unique feel. These photos are from my second day stroll downtown.

City Hall

Sadly, I missed these kids' Rocky pose by just a few seconds.

Grad School Visits: MIT

2011-07-12T14:33:00.000-07:00

This past April, I took an epic trip to visit grad schools. In January, I had applied to master's programs in urban planning at MIT, Harvard, Penn, and UCLA. I ended up getting in everywhere and decided to visit each school. The trip took nine days, took me to three cities, and involved six flights as I traveled from San Francisco to Boston to visit MIT, to Philadelpia for Penn, back to Boston for Harvard, and to Los Angeles for UCLA. It was exhausting, but fun! And to end the suspense now, I chose MIT.

These photos are of MIT, my future home. To me, MIT's campus feels cold, clean (some might say sterile), but beautiful on a sunny spring day.

The view from the Media Lab's conference room.

Media Lab: closed for the weekend. (I couldn't resist.)

The Stata Center: in which Frank Gehry vomits on campus.

Sunol Wilderness

2011-05-09T22:58:00.000-07:00

From Yosemite to Little Yosemite! This spring, my friend Amanda and I were looking for a more local adventure, and we decided to go hiking at Sunol Wilderness in the East Bay. The Preserve has a waterfall area known as "Little Yosemite" (very little compared to Yosemite, but still beautiful), which was especially dramatic this year, thanks to the wet winter we had!

A Wintry Trip to Yosemite

2011-05-09T22:43:00.000-07:00

This past March, I fulfilled one of those "things to do before I leave California" wishes: to visit Yosemite in the winter. So Ammon and I loaded chains into the trunk of my trusty Honda Civic Hybrid and headed out for a snowy weekend in Yosemite. We went on a beautiful cross-country ski trip in Badger Pass and laughed as we watched Californians make the most pathetic snowmen we'd ever seen. It was a good trip!

Ammon, aka Socialcam on skis, takes a video.

The classic view.

Shades of Gray and White

2011-02-21T21:45:00.000-08:00

This past December, I flew / bused / drove to Calais, Maine to visit my parents over Christmas. (It takes a full day to get there from San Francisco on a normal day, but it took almost three days to get home this time due to a canceled flight followed by a treacherous snowstorm.) I get to be there for one of the big East Coast blizzards of the season, and my Mom and I went for a cold, snowy, and bleakly beautiful snow shoe through town.

The St. Croix river freezing over.

The view of St. Stephen, New Brunswick.

Snow fight downtown!

Following the snow plow to the bus station in Portland the day after the blizzard.

Cleo, my roommate's wonderful cat, welcoming me back to San Francisco.

My Father's Latest Furniture Masterpieces

2011-02-21T20:34:00.000-08:00

This year, my Dad gave my Mom and I wonderful new desks for Christmas, which he made with his friend, Rock West. Rock is an artisan furniture maker in Waterville, Maine, who has been teaching my Dad the art of fine furniture making. These desks are spectacular. Every detail is amazing. My low-light photos of them don't quite do them justice. They are made of walnut and fire birch, and I can't wait to use mine!

Thanks, Dad!

The Singapore Botanical Gardens

2011-01-05T18:18:00.000-08:00

On my last day in Singapore, I spent a very pleasant afternoon and evening at Singapore's Botanical Gardens. The landscape was splendid, and I found a cafe with delicious ginger drinks!

The Botanical Gardens were a very popular place to have wedding photos taken on a Sunday afternoon. This was my favorite couple.

Marina Bay

2011-01-05T17:55:00.000-08:00

Marina Bay is an island of reclaimed land next to Singapore's financial district that is being developed to increase Singapore's capacity for tourism and entertainment. The most notable building there, the Marina Bay Sands, opened just a few months before I arrived. It is a giant hotel-casino / shopping mall / museum complex. I felt I had to visit. What trip would be complete without a dose of monumental architecture and over-the-top opulence?

The obligatory Merlion shot.

The obligatory shot of laborers at the base of monumental architecture.

Looking back at Singapore's financial district.

The Marina Bay Sands up close.

A view from the skypark at the top of Marina Bay Sands.

Another view from the Marina Bay Sands' roof. Now this reminded me of Dubai!

A Marina Bay Sands guest lounges at the world's highest pool.

Singapore's Chinatown

2011-01-05T17:16:00.000-08:00

Singapore Zoo and Night Safari

2011-01-05T17:10:00.000-08:00

Singapore's Zoo and Night Safari are legendary, and everyone I knew who had been to Singapore told me I had to go. The Night Safari sounds hokey, but is actually very cool. The rationale behind it, other than an excuse to run around a zoo at night, is to see animals as they act after dark, since so many are nocturnal, and watching them nap at a typical zoo is only so edifying.

The Zoo also had hilarious visitor signage, as well as the usual depressing interpretive materials explaining the threats to these diverse species' long term survival.

The signs at the Singapore Zoo were amazing!

I'm not sure exactly what they're trying to say here...

Bats are the best!

The Night Safari's not too culturally sensitive entrance show.

When I was there in late September, the Night Safari was setting up for "Spooky Safari," their Halloween tour. Amazingly, they had put up random scary decorations without any explanation or "spooky" signage. This made wandering around by myself AWESOME!

Zzzzzzz!

Exploring Singapore

2011-01-05T16:46:00.000-08:00

I know I'm horribly late in getting these online. These pictures are from my first few days wandering around Singapore:

Animals from the Chinese zodiac lining Clarke Quay. (This is the dog.)

Lau Pa Sat, a famous hawker center in Singapore's financial district.

The MRT girls, spokeswomen for transit etiquette.

KL Suburbs

2010-10-18T14:17:00.000-07:00

A tapped rubber tree on a hiking trail in a suburb south of Kuala Lumpur. Rubber trees were first transplanted here from the Amazon by the British in the late 19th century. Removed from its natural predators and blights in the Amazon, Southeast Asian rubber decimated the rubber industry in South America, and rubber was one of the major industries in Malaysia. Huge swaths of rainforest were removed and replaced with rubber monocultures. Today, rubber tapping is less profitable due to the availability of synthetic rubber, and many of the old rubber plantations are being replaced with palm oil.

Sprawling development south of KL. A lot of the new development outside of the city resembles the worst of American-style sprawl.

This sign was intense. They had similar signs at the reservoirs in Singapore, as well.

Tissue roti. Yes, we ate this!

An abandoned public housing development in northern KL. Not an uncommon sight.

KL Lake Gardens

2010-10-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

The Lake Gardens in Kuala Lumpur is a huge complex of parks in western KL, first established in the 19th century. Today, it holds a number of parks within the park - a butterfly park, bird park, and orchid park, as well as playgrounds and other greens to wander through. It's a pleasant escape from the busy-ness of the city, and seems well loved.

At the KL butterfly park.

Raaaah! KL Bird Park!

The National Mosque, seen from inside the KL Bird Park.

More Kuala Lumpur Neighborhoods: Chinatown, Little India, and Kampung Baru

2010-10-04T20:02:00.000-07:00

KL's Chinatown:

Chinatown market, packed with stalls selling cheap goods.

A temple in Chinatown.

A Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown.

Ronald McDonald wishing you a happy end of Ramadan ("Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri").

Little India:

Masjid Jamek, Kuala Lumpur's oldest mosque. This beautiful mosque was built in 1907. I would have loved to go inside, but it was closed for Hari Raya (Eid).

Remnant facade of a ruined building in Little India.

The covered market in Little India. It was a lot more empty than usual, because most of the Muslim businesses were closed for Hari Raya.

Kampung Baru is a Malay neighborhood just north of the city center in Kuala Lumpur. Despite the high value of the land in Kampung Baru, the residents and city have so far resisted any large-scale development, leaving the area as a village-like enclave towered over by skyscrapers:

Downtown Kuala Lumpur

2010-09-26T15:18:00.000-07:00

Downtown Kuala Lumpur is a chaotic jumble of busy street food markets, horrendous traffic, and very large, luxurious shopping centers. Add to that the Petronas Towers, which were once upon a time the tallest buildings in the world, and KL felt a lot more like Dubai than I had expected.

The Petronas Towers at night.

The towers reflected in the pond at KLCC Park.

The mall and park at the base of the Petronas Towers.

The views from the observation deck of Menara KL, a communications tower downtown:

Ipoh, Malaysia

2010-09-25T08:12:00.000-07:00

Ipoh is a large city in western Malaysia about half way between Penang and Kuala Lumpur. The hilly area surrounding it was a major supplier of tin during the 19th century, and the local mining industry made Ipoh one of the most important cities in Malaysia during the British colonial period. The surrounding hills also feature intricate limestone caves, into many of which have been built Buddhist and Hindu temples. There are also several large cement plants in the region, presumably gobbling up the rest of the limestone.

A Buddhist temple in a cave on the outskirts of Ipoh:

Downtown Ipoh:

Thean Chun - a bustling restaurant in downtown Ipoh famous for its kuey teow soup (with chicken and delicious rice noodles), Ipoh white coffee (thick, strong coffee with sweetened, condensed milk), and caramel custard.

Ipoh's train station, part of the core of old colonial buildings in the downtown.

Another Buddhist temple in a cave outside of Ipoh:

No cats, dogs, or bunny rabbits allowed!

Penang, Malaysia

2010-09-19T08:04:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago, I hopped on a plane to Malaysia with my good friend Anthony Ha. Anthony wanted to visit his relatives in Malaysia, and I couldn't pass up the chance to see the country, and so we went. After one delirious, jet-lagged night at his uncle Yin Sooi's house in Kuala Lumpur, we drove north to the family's old, rustic farmhouse in a village in peninsular Penang with Yin Sooi and another of Anthony's uncles, Yin Geong. While there, we ate a lot of amazing Chinese food and got a marathon tour of Penang island from Yin Sooi and Yin Geong.

Food cart in Georgetown, Penang, where we ate delicious prawn mee.

Fruit for sale at a Georgetown night market.

Dried squid, apparently a local specialty.

Durian. It turns out I'm not a fan.

Kek Lok Si, a huge Buddhist temple on a hill overlooking Penang:

The Khoo Kongsi clanhouse in Georgetown:

One of a series of historic restorations along the alley leading to the Khoo Kongsi clanhouse.

Demolition in progress in historic downtown Georgetown.

Ritual burning to observe the end of the Chinese Ghost Month.

A Glut of Photos Soon to Come...

2010-09-19T07:03:00.001-07:00

Hi all,

You are now warned: I just got back from two weeks in Malaysia and Singapore, and I'm spending my jet-lagged, sleepless early morning hours culling and editing photos for this blog. Pretty soon I'll have a bunch of posts up!

Erica

Walking Precincts for Rafael Mandelman

2010-08-31T23:26:00.000-07:00

Rafael Mandelman is a progressive candidate running for supervisor in San Francisco's District 8. In addition to being endorsed by all the cool kids (teachers, nurses, labor unions, tenants, the Sierra Club, Tom Ammiano, and, oh yeah, the Democratic Party), he's also a very nice guy.

And so Bryn and I, shy and awkward as we are, set out to walk precincts for his campaign. These photos are from our first excursion handing out flyers. The great thing about campaigning: getting out into some of the most gorgeous neighborhoods of the city!

A Late May Hike in the Marin Headlands

2010-08-31T23:01:00.000-07:00

I am so late posting these photos. This past May, the lovely Will Green was visiting from DC, and he, Bryn, Robin, and I decided to go for a hike at Marin Headlands. It was a beautiful day, and the setting was suitably post-apocalyptic.

Bryn, stylish as always.

Bryn and Will, looking adorable.

Bryn, Will, and Robin at the end of the world.

Lawrenceville Reunion 2010

2010-08-31T20:47:00.000-07:00

This May was my 10 year high school reunion (Class of 2000) and my dad's 40 year reunion (Class of 1970). We both went to The Lawrenceville School, a boarding school near Princeton, NJ, so we decided to go to our alumni weekend together. Despite whatever skepticism I may have had as I flew across the country for the event, I had a great time catching up with old classmates and sharing the experience with my parents. Because I'm not from New Jersey, I hadn't been back at all in 10 years, and it was surprising how familiar the area felt!

The few members of the Class of 2000 who were not too hungover to make it to the Class parade Saturday morning:

My dad, Class of 1970:

My dad and me:

Wandering around Lawrenceville's campus, which was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead:

My parents, at Princeton:

Newark International Airport!

Goodbye, Hall of Justice!

2010-05-20T15:30:00.000-07:00

While spending 5 months on a jury for a criminal trial, I got to know San Francisco's Hall of Justice much better than I would have ever wanted. During the last week I spent there, I started wandering around, documenting the old-fashioned peculiarities of the building with my camera phone. Do I miss it? A little, in a Stockholm's Syndrome sort of way.

The halls, which I wandered on our many breaks:

The jury assembly room and its excellent views over 101:

And the surrounding neighborhood:

What do you do with an old paper mill?

2010-02-17T20:38:00.000-08:00

Rock West's wood working shop, where my Dad has been making furniture, is in the former paper mill on the Kennebec River in Waterville. The old mill is also home to other artisan shops, such as an architectural woodworking space (for spiral staircases and the like). But the biggest tenant to move into this abandoned industrial space is Marden's, Maine's retail chain for distressed merchandise. Marden's is a big deal for bargain-hunters in Maine, but its most famous moment outside of the state may have been this New Yorker piece about marked down clothing from the World Trade Center finding its way to Marden's after September 11. Marden's has turned most of the old mill into a warehouse and distribution center.

Rock's Workshop and My Wonderful Christmas Present

2010-02-11T18:39:00.000-08:00

Over the past few years, my Dad has taken up woodworking as a new hobby. My Dad being my Dad - a perfectionist, an overachiever, and never one to take on anything halfheartedly - immediately began making beautiful furniture with the most unique of pieces of wood, under the apprenticeship of Rock West, a local artisan furniture maker. Rock's wood shop is in a former paper mill on the Kennebec River in Waterville, Maine.

I went there with my Dad after my flight to the East Coast so that we could pick up my beautiful new case of drawers, which he made for me for Christmas. Made of cherry and bird's eye maple, it matches the bed and bedside stand he made for me last year.

Thanks, Dad! I love it!

Rock, making sure the case of drawers will actually fit in the truck.

Drawers on the move! (My dad is the dude in plaid flannel - the one in the middle, I should say.)

What are your vices?

Home for Christmas

2010-02-11T18:35:00.000-08:00

I know, I'm shamefully late in getting these photos online. By now, there's no excuse. But, Merry Christmas, just in time for Valentine's Day!

Emirates Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi

2009-12-05T19:52:00.000-08:00

While in Dubai, I took a day trip to Abu Dhabi with Nate and one of his coworkers, Ana. We went to the Emirates Palace hotel to see an amazing contemporary art exhibit. Apparently, Abu Dhabi wants to become a world-class arts destination and is planning to build a new arts district with a Guggenheim and a Louve extension and some other pretty buildings (plans and architectural models were also on display). The Emirates Palace was definitely the swankiest hotel I've ever visited.

After the exhibit, we took a taxi downtown so we could get a glimpse of the city. I really liked Abu Dhabi. It's less flashy and ostentatious than Dubai, but the buildings were detailed and elegant. It felt like a real, lived-in city, rather than a stage set of superlatives. We joked that we had taken a cab to the real Middle East. (It was dark by the time we went downtown, so I have no photos.)

The lobby ceiling, Emirates Palace.

Where we had delicious $10 tea.

One of the funkier buildings planned for Abu Dhabi's cultural arts district.

King Kong made of clothes hangars!

David Mach, "Grizzly Little Fucker," 2002

More Dubai Photos

2009-12-05T19:29:00.001-08:00

Alright, here are the rest of my Dubai photos:

Deira, one of Dubai's older neighborhoods:

Bastakia is the old Iranian merchant's quarter in Bur Dubai, Dubai's oldest neighborhood. Bastakia is filled with early 20th century gypsum and coral buildings with covered courtyards and wind towers to keep the buildings cool. As a historic area, it feels a little deserted and underutilized, but there are some art galleries and a few small museums. My favorite was the Arabic coinage museum.

The Dubai Museum

Sheik Zayed Road is kind of like Market Street if there were no downtown behind it. It's Dubai's main drag, a busy highway lined with some of the city's most amazing buildings. But it was not particularly walkable, and I didn't feel like dangling my camera out of a taxi, so this is my only photo. I apologize to all you architecture nerds out there!

Nate, and a gigantic wooden yacht along Dubai Creek.

Jumeira Creek Park at sunset.

The Burj Dubai and Surroundings

2009-12-01T20:39:00.000-08:00

The Burj Dubai is the new tallest building of the world - perhaps an ironic symbol for Dubai today. (Click "The Tower" on the official website to read the tower's vision statement - that hurt my brain!) The exterior construction was completed in October 2009, but the interiors and surrounding landscape are not finished, so the area is still one huge construction site, employing thousands of poorly paid South Asian construction workers.

The Burj Dubai is the flagship structure of a larger master planned development, Downtown Burj Dubai, which also includes a group of high rise residential towers; the Souk al Bahar, a faux-Arabian village-themed housing development; hotels; and the Mall of Dubai. Here's a rendering of what the master planned Downtown Burj Dubai neighborhood is supposed to look like when finished. This out-dated image in Google Maps shows how recent the whole development is!

View Larger Map

Nate lives in one of the residence towers next door, so I spent a fair amount of time in the neighborhood and appreciating the view.

The lagoon at the base of the Burj has lavish water shows every night.

There were men employed to keep the base of the fountain clean and free of sand - a Sysyphean effort in the desert!

Construction workers at the Souk al Bahar.

The view of the Burj Dubai, and construction at its base, from Nate's sand-streaked living room window.

Shadows lengthening over the Souk al Bahar.

The Mall of Dubai

2009-12-01T20:25:00.000-08:00

Well, it looks like I chose a timely weekend to visit Dubai! A few days after I returned to San Francisco, the media was full of stories of Dubai's financial troubles. One friend declared it "the new schadenfreude capital of the world."

I had a wonderful visit, however.

When I first arrived, exhausted, after an overnight flight from Jakarta, I decided to head to the Mall of Dubai, largest mall in the world, for some easy sightseeing. It made for an entertaining stroll, once I found the way in.

Ubud, Bali

2009-11-30T11:49:00.001-08:00

Ubud is a beautiful town in the hills of Bali which is very popular with the more hippie / northern Californian expat and tourist community. This was a great place to relax at the end of my time in Indonesia: I went hiking in the hills north of town, went to a spa, did yoga, and saw a dance performance. I felt a bit silly, but it was very pleasant.

Campuan Ridge, north of Ubud

Rice fields

Legong dance performance at the Ubud Water Palace

The view from the Yoga Barn

Monkeys at the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary:

Detail, door in the Ubud Palace

Tirta Gangga, Bali

2009-11-30T11:28:00.001-08:00

Tirta Gangga is a small village in the hills of eastern Bali where the Balinese royal family built an elaborate water palace in 1948. Today, the palace is open for public use, and it has two swimming pools which seemed very popular with locals, as well as fanciful reflecting pools and statuary. Surrounding the palace are rice fields and tucked away temples, making it a wonderful place for an early morning hike.

Seminyak, Bali

2009-11-30T10:01:00.000-08:00

Seminyak is one of the more upscale of the beach towns popular with tourists in southern Bali. It's beautiful, and had tasty and cosmopolitan food, which was refreshing after eight days in Java. However, it felt like a little slice of Los Angeles in Bali, if LA were mostly populated by drunk Australians. So after a night there, I decided to find a less touristed part of the island to explore.

The night that I was there, there was a huge rainstorm. I lay in bed all night listening to the downpour. So the next morning I wandered around and took photos of the drenched city.

Dieng Plateau, Central Java

2009-11-29T05:37:00.000-08:00

When I read about it beforehand, it was obvious: I had to go to the Dieng Plateau. This area in the mountains of Central Java (about a 5 hour public bus trek northwest from Jogja) once had over 400 of Java's oldest Hindu temples, from the 8th and 9th centuries. In addition, the area has an active hydrothermal landscape, with steaming craters, calderas, and boiling mudpots.

Today, it is a densely farmed agricultural region. It is also very popular with Javanese tourists, who seemed to prefer hanging out at trail heads to venturing too far. But Ben and I had a pleasant time walking through the towns and agricultural fields in search of temples and geysers.

Mysteriously abandoned concrete houses in Dieng.

Ben snacking while we hide from a sudden downpour.

Sunrise over Dieng.

Breakfast at our hotel.

Hindu temples near Dieng:

Prambanan Temples

2009-11-27T03:49:00.000-08:00

The Prambanan Plain is home to over 200 Hindu and Buddhist temples (mostly Hindu) built from the 8th to 10th centuries. It is the largest concentration of Hindu temples on Java. I visited the main temple area one day. I would have wanted to walk to more of them, but it was so unbearably hot and bright that day, that it just wasn't feasible. The next day, Ben and I motorbiked out to Candi Sambisari, one of the smaller, more remote temples, in the middle of a thunderstorm.

The Prambranan temples were badly damaged in May 2006 by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake, which killed almost 6,000 people in the Yogyakarta region. The Indonesian government and UNESCO are currently carrying out stabilization and restoration work, so some areas are cordoned off, and piles of semi-organized stone rubble abound.

From the main complex of Hindu temples at Prambanan:

The bull Nandi, vehicle of Shiva, stares out of the entrance to Candi Nandi. (One of the few accessible temples that still had its statuary inside.)

Photos of Candi Sewu, a large Buddhist temple dating from around 850 CE, just north of Candi Prambanan:

As at Borobudur, most of the Buddha statues were decapitated.

Candi Sambisari, about 10 km west of the main temple group, was covered by about 6 meters of volcanic ash, protecting it from looting and decay. A farmer discovered it in 1966:

Ben taking a photo during a thunderstorm.

Borobudur

2009-11-27T03:39:00.000-08:00

Borobudur is a HUGE, ornate Buddhist temple northwest of Jogja dating from around the 9th century. It is one of Indonesia's most visited tourist attractions, and it really is spectacular. A lot of people warned me that the crowds can really diminish your experience there, but, luckily, I arrived in a fierce thunderstorm, so most people cleared out. Once the sun came back out, it was gorgeous!

Attention! You are entering a MONUMENT!

Most of the Buddha statues were decapitated, making me wonder where all the heads went. The statues are still beautiful.

The youth, chilling at the top of Borobudur.

So apparently all those bells have Buddhas inside? Wow!

Kaliurang

2009-11-27T03:22:00.000-08:00

Kaliurang is a Javanese resort town on the flanks of Mt. Merapi, about an hour's bus ride north of Jogja. It seems to be a pretty popular local hang-out spot. There is a forest park there, with a network of eroding concrete- and stone-lined trails and a complex of huts, picnic structures, and playgrounds at its entrance that felt somewhat abandoned when I visited. There was also this amazing playground in the town with so many odd sculptures and cow-print-painted gazebos. I love playgrounds that feel like they were made with love, and which strive to encourage kids' (and adults') creativity.

Outside Jogja

2009-11-26T15:45:00.001-08:00

From various excursions outside Jogja:

Photos from a bike ride into the rice paddies and hills north of the city with Ben and his friend, Andre:

Andre

The best meal I ate in Java.

Oh my god, a fried chicken head!

Ben and Andre, chilling post-lunch.

Detail from a bamboo workshop we stopped in on along the ride.

A cemetery north of Jogja.

Photos from a day trip to the beach at Parangtritis, south of Jogja:

We ate a delicious seafood lunch on the beach. Here you buy your fresh seafood from one of a number of seafood stalls along the beach, then walk into one of a number of sheltered beach restaurants, hand them your seafood, and tell them how you want it cooked. We had some sort of grilled fish, spicy-sweet shrimp with fresh tamarind and lemongrass, and some braised dark leafy green. All washed down with fresh coconut juice. Mmmm. This place gets an honorable mention in the best food in Java contest.

Ben figuring out how to get us home.

Imogiri, the cemetery for the Javanese royal family:

It was so unbearably hot when we climbed up these stairs, it felt like a death march!

Yogyakarta, Indonesia

2009-11-26T15:21:00.001-08:00

Yogyakarta (Jogja) is the hip university city in central Java where Ben lives. I visited him there and had a wonderful time exploring this busy, chaotic, confusing city. It was a lot of fun, especially thanks to my excellent host and guide!

Dutch colonial architecture in downtown Jogja.

Graffiti downtown

I loved this playground!

The view from the main mall's fourth floor food court

Ruins of the Sultan's Water Palace:

Jogja's bird market:

Bodie State Historic Park

2009-09-06T18:43:00.000-07:00

Bryn and I finished our backpacking early, so we squeezed in a side trip to Bodie. I love Bodie. It's one of my favorite ghost towns. Parts of it are more well preserved than others (like the Chinatown and "Maiden Lane / Virgin Alley," which are almost entirely gone - cough, cough), and the park's management approach of "arrested decay" may be somewhat problematic, but it is gorgeous. And the landscape is so beautifully sparse.

While we were there, we took the guided stamp mill tour, led by a guide playing Mrs. Hoover. (Theodore Hoover, who ran the mine for a few years, was Herbert's brother and a future chair of Stanford's Dept. of Mining Engineering.) The tour participants were a tough crowd: Bryn and I (who were very well behaved), two former Bodie SHP employees, three tourists from a mining town in New Zealand, and two mining history buffs from Reno. Props to Mrs. Hoover for keeping us all in line!

Downtown Bodie:
(Peaking in the windows of the schoolhouse.)

A bit farther out:
A view of the Chinatown area, with the remains of a liquor store in the foreground.

What is left of "Maiden Lane / Virgin Alley."

Bryn reads the interpretive brochure! The old mine area is closed to the public, due to safety hazards and such.

Hoover Wilderness

2009-09-06T16:38:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I went backpacking with Bryn in the Hoover Wilderness, just east of Yosemite. It was very pretty, if hazy at times, with a number of wildfires burning in the vicinity. I need to get out of the Bay Area more often!

My First Real Forray Into Night Photography

2009-08-17T17:23:00.000-07:00

The night of Wednesday, August 13th, was the peak of the perseids meteor shower. It also marked the beginning of the Lockheed fire in Santa Cruz County near the towns of Swanton and Bonny Doon. I could see the fire glowing on the ridge to the southwest of the ranch where I was staying. It was spectacular and somewhat ominous.

I have always wanted to learn how to take good photos at night, but have never really tackled the challenge. But I figured that had to be the night I tried, so I set up my tripod in the yard behind the house and tried my best. Of the dozens of photos I took, only a few of them came out well and in focus. But I'm very proud of them.

Big Dipper Ranch 2009

2009-08-16T23:11:00.000-07:00

For the past couple of weeks, I have been house-sitting again at my coworker's ranch house on Skyline. (Here are the photos I took last year when I was up there.) It was beautiful up there, and a great mini-vacation. The sunrises and sunsets were spectacular. (I wasn't there too much during the day, since I had to work.)

Chicago's River Architecture Tour

2009-07-06T15:52:00.000-07:00

After seeing Barack Obama speak, my Mom and I took a river architecture tour of Chicago. There were lots of amazing buildings, but, from my vantage point on a boat with a bunch of other tourists, most of my pictures weren't that great. (For example, I was not able to get a picture of what was probably my favorite building, Chicago's old main post office, which is absolutely massive and currently abandoned.) Here are some of the best pictures I did take:

Bertrand Goldberg's Marina City and River City:

President Obama Addresses the AMA

2009-07-06T15:16:00.000-07:00

I was in Chicago to visit my Dad (an early Father's Day present). He was in Chicago, because he is one of Maine's delegates to the American Medical Association. On the Thursday before I flew out, the New York Times reported that President Obama would be giving the keynote speech at the AMA the following Monday to kick off his push for health care reform. I was very excited that I would just happen to be there, and hoped that I could see the speech. Alas, the AMA did not have enough space in the ballroom for everyone, and only delegates, state medical society ceos, and delegates' spouses could attend in the main room. They had a ballroom next door set up with a live video feed for the medical students and advocates for various issues who were attending the AMA meeting but were not delegates, and I got to watch the speech there. It was still an incredibly cool experience.

Obama's speech was excellent, and it was great to watch it with such an engaged audience. Many members of the AMA are very conservative and are apprehensive about Obama's plans (you can hear boos at a few points in the speech), but a lot of the New England delegates I spoke to really liked the speech and are hopeful about the prospect of health care reform. They certainly see the need for it. After the speech, I ended up in an elevator with a number of delegates from Virginia, who were going through a passionate play-by-play.

Outside the hotel, a small group of protesters and curious onlookers gathered, along with police, secret service, and tv news crews. There were anti-abortion people and gay rights protesters, but I only saw one person with a health care-related protest sign.

Miwestern Gothic

2009-07-06T15:04:00.000-07:00

Chicago's Lincoln Park

2009-07-06T14:42:00.000-07:00

Some pretty buildings near our hotel

2009-07-04T16:06:00.001-07:00

I took these pictures one evening as my Mom and I walked back to our hotel. I loved the complexity and visual variety of Chicago's architecture. The blue glass building with the undulating white balconies is the Aqua building, which is currently under construction. Why can't San Francisco have such interesting new architecture?

The Bean

2009-07-04T15:44:00.000-07:00

Like every other tourist in Chicago, I could not resist taking a million pictures of the bean, a reflective, kidney-shaped statue in Millennium Park:

Millenium Park

2009-06-22T17:12:00.000-07:00

These photos are of Millenium Park, which was planned in the late '90s and finished in 2004. The big metallic theatre is the Pritzker Pavillion, designed by Frank Gehry (and oh so Gehr-ish), an open air concert venue (where Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me taped from the week before I was there).

Chicago Art Institute

2009-06-22T16:32:00.001-07:00

Next we went to the Chicago Art Institute. The new Modern Wing, designed by Renzo Piano, just opened last month. It looks suspiciously like San Francisco's new California Academy of Sciences, minus the red accent colors and the living roof (though there seem to be green roofs all over Chicago). The museum itself has some amazing and famous works of art. My favorites were the photography and European surrealist wings (no surprise there!).

The view from a garden tucked away near the museum's main entrance.

A giant tissue box pierced by a culvert in a room of sculpture (and wallpaper) designed by Robert Gober. What do they have in common? The flow of tears. (Sorry, I couldn't resist the culvert sculture.)

Charles Ray sculpture: a replica of a dead tree from California.

Saturday in the Museum with George. (Anthony Ha, this one's for you.)

The main stairway of the original museum wing.

Looking out from the Modern Wing.

Interior of the Modern Wing, designed by Renzo Piano.

The view from the roof deck of the Modern Wing.

Chicago Architecture Foundation

2009-06-22T15:37:00.000-07:00

Last week, I flew to Chicago for five days to visit my parents, who were there for the annual meeting of the American Medical Association. My dad is a delegate from Maine, so he was in meetings most of the time, but my mom and I wandered around the city did the tourist thing. We would meet up with my dad and some of the other AMA folks for dinner. And I had to keep up my half marathon training, so I ran a total of 12 miles along Lake Michigan. Oh, and Barack Obama gave a 45 minute speech to the AMA about health care reform on Monday morning, which my mom and I watched, as well.

You know, just your average week. (Just kidding - it was an excellent vacation, if exhausting.)

The first place my mom took me was the Chicago Architecture Foundation, which had a brand new exhibit for the 100th anniversary of Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennet's Plan for Chicago. Published in 1909, this was one of the first large-scale urban plans, detailing transportation, parks, cultural centers, and neighborhood development. Supposedly, about half of the plan's recommendations were implemented. This was an important document in urban planning history.

To commemorate the Burnham plan, CAF has built an exhibition looking at the history of 100 years of urban and regional planning in Chicago. It is an interesting exhibit. At times, it is a very critical look at past planning decisions, examining the theories behind them and their unintended consequences. It presents how projects like the construction of Chicago O'Hare airport and the suburban highway system, as well as the "slum clearance" in Chicago's South Side in the 1940's and construction of large housing projects, led to greater suburbanization, loss of transit ridership, segregation, and a concentration of poverty within inner city neighborhoods. The exhibits end by asking what the consequences will be of future planning projects for Chicago. There is a bit of suspense here, since it acknowledges that a number of these projects have been put on hold at the moment, due to the economy. I really liked this exhibit. Rarely do you come across a critical history of urban planning as a tourist attraction!

This diorama was for the construction of a suburban highway constructed in the 1950s(?), which incorporated on old "L" line in the center median. The diorama looks optimistic for this new modern highway, but the older men next to me were saying how dingy the road looks now, and how a number of the L stations have been abandoned.

Kennedy Space Center, May 2009

2009-06-17T19:45:00.000-07:00

On our last day in Florida, I went to the Kennedy Space Center with my parents and my Uncle John. We were there the day before the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis, so we could see bleachers set up and preparations afoot. The Endeavor, which was scheduled for a June launch, was also on one of launch pads. It was impressive to see how massive the complex was. The Vehicle Assembly Building, which is in the distance in two of these photos, is several stories tall and covers 8 acres. After taking the bus tour of the complex, we saw the new Star Trek movie at the Space Center's IMAX theater! It was very cool.

My parents and I, sacrificing our dignity.

Misc

2009-06-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

The morning after Disneyworld, we held the memorial for my grandmother at a state park near Ormond Beach, Florida. We started at a different state park nearby on the site of a historic plantation, where we had a photographer take family pictures. Here are a couple of my own pictures from that morning.

My parents, Ann and Dave Simmons.

This was the land sales office, built in the 1910s, when the plantation had been subdivided for a development which never came to pass.

Epcot Center and Disneyworld, May 2009

2009-06-17T18:52:00.000-07:00

Last month, I met up with my parents and the extended Simmons family to have a memorial for my grandmother, Kathleen Simmons, who passed away in December. While we were there, we also packed in quite a bit of sight-seeing. Although the circumstances were sad, it was nice to see cousins and aunts and uncles, many of whom I hadn't seen in years. It was funny and somewhat shocking to see what we all did have in common. For example, apparently the Simmonses all have weak inner ears; only a few of us dared to go on Disneyworld's roller coasters!

Meeting in Florida was also interesting, given the current state of the economy. I kept thinking of "The Ponzi State," George Packer's New Yorker article about how Florida's speculative real estate culture and real estate-dependent tax code (there is no state income tax) made the state particularly vulnerable during the current recession. Driving around the outskirts of Orlando, we passed many ornate condo developments and strip malls that were half-finished and unoccupied. Our resort hotel was in its own "foreclosure ghetto." The streets and utilities had been built for a much larger development, but only the hotel had been built. There were not yet streetlights.

Epcot and Disneyworld also felt very empty. I don't know if this is due to the economy, or if it's just the off season, but it was striking how few cars were on the eight-lane road to the complex, and how many overflow parking lots had one or two cars. We hardly ever had to wait for a ride, but breezed past the corals that usually hold visitors in line.

Pulgas Water Temple

2009-04-15T21:49:00.001-07:00

The Pulgas Water Temple in San Carlos, CA is part of the Hetch Hetchy system that supplies water to San Francisco. It is the site of the western terminus of the aqueduct that transports water from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, near Yosemite. The temple was built in 1934 to celebrate the construction of the system. As the look implies, it was meant as an homage to the Roman empire.

Marin Headlands

2009-02-18T22:22:00.001-08:00

Last month, I ventured up to the Marin Headlands with the lovely Clevenger sisters. We hiked to the beach at Tennessee Valley, then drove along the headlands, exploring all the old, graffiti-covered military bunkers and scenic lookouts.

Campobello Island, New Brunswick

2009-02-17T14:52:00.000-08:00

Campobello Island is a small island in the Passamaquoddy Bay, just off the coast of Maine near the town of Lubec (pop. 1,000). Campobello is part of Canada, but it played a notable part in American history. The Roosevelt family had a summer "cottage" here, where Franklin D. Roosevelt spent many a summer. As a teenager (who apparently had some time on his hands), FDR designed the island's golf course, which is still open for golfers today. (My parents say it's a wonderfully designed course.) It was in Campobello that he contracted polio.

My mom and I went on search for chocolate in Lubec, and ended up crossing the border to Campobello just at sunset. We stopped at a harbor with wonderful views of Lubec, as well as some neat fishing gear, etc.

The View One Morning From My Parents' Frosty Window

2009-02-17T14:50:00.001-08:00

One Very Cold Night in Saint Andrews, New Brunswick

2009-02-17T14:43:00.000-08:00

My dad and I went Christmas shopping in Saint Andrews, a small town on the Canadian side of the Passamaquoddy Bay. It was somewhere between 0 and 10 degrees below zero that day. I don't remember exactly, except that my California-fied self was freezing.

Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge

2009-02-17T14:36:00.000-08:00

Okay, I admit it: I've really fallen behind on posting my photos. The next couple of sets of photos are from my trip home to Maine over Christmas. I arrived at the Boston airport during a blizzard, and a few days later, we got another foot and a half of snow. Once we had finished shoveling around the house, my mom and I decided to go to Moosehorn, the nearby wildlife refuge, to enjoy the fresh snow. Alas, since the days are so short in December, we only had a little bit of light left (the sun set around 3). But it was nice to trek through fresh snow - something I don't get to do too much out in California!

Dresden

2009-02-02T11:08:00.000-08:00

Jeffrey and I went along on his German class field trip to Dresden to see some beautiful architecture and wander a few particularly large, famous Weihnachtsmarkts. Dresden has a city center full of big, Baroque churches, museums, a palace, and opera house. Sadly, all of these buildings, with the rest of the city center, were destroyed in the fire-bombing of Dresden by the American and British air forces in 1945. After World War II, Dresden was part of East Germany. The Eastern German government rebuilt some structures, such as the Opera House and the Zwinger (a huge rococo palace), razed and rebuilt others (such as the Sophienkirche, a gothic cathedral), and left others as piles of rubble, a reminder of the destruction wrought upon the city. Since reunification, the city has seen a new building boom - both the reconstruction of some of those rubble piles, like the Frauenkirche completed in 2005, and of new, modern commercial buildings. Parts of the city reminded me of SOMA in San Francisco.

Views of the Zwinger, a royal palace with a large inner courtyard, built in the early 18th century, and now a museum:

A reflection in a puddle of the Hofkirche, built from 1738-1751 when the Saxon ruler, Augustus the Strong, converted to Catholicism to become King of Poland (the Frauenkirche, built at the same time, was the city's Lutheran cathedral):

Dresden's new Synagogue.

Berlin's Tiergarten

2009-01-19T21:40:00.001-08:00

The Tiergarten is a huge park in the middle of Berlin. It was originally the hunting grounds of royalty and was redesigned as a formal city park in the 19th century. It has a design of radial boulevards leading to the Victory Column, built in the 1870's to commemorate German victories in contemporary wars. It was recently the site of Barak Obama's speech from Berlin. I decided to walk across the Tiergarten, with no concept of how giant the park really is. I was exhausted and in serious need of coffee by the time I got to the other side.

Friedrichshain, Berlin

2009-01-19T20:32:00.000-08:00

Friedrichshain was one of the most important neighborhoods of East Berlin. It's most famous street is Karl-Marx Allee, known as Stalin Allee from 1949 to 1960 and Frankfurter Allee before that. Frankfurter Allee was a busy commercial street before World War II, but by the end of the war, almost 80% of the buildings along the street had been destroyed. After the war, the East German government saw in the reconstruction of Frankfurter Allee an opportunity to create showcase for the modern socialist city. The DDR held a competition and chose a team of planners and architects to design the two-mile-long street. Each block was designed by a different person, and has a unified building and landscape theme. So the street is lined by "wedding cake" style buildings (a monumental, socialist neoclassicism), identical on both sides of the street.

Der Tag, an dem die Erde Still Stand! (The Day the Earth Stood Still)

I felt cool for recognizing these columns, which were in The Lives of Others (HGW carries mail by them after reunification):

The Friedrichshain Volkspark was built in the 1840s. It was redesigned after World War II, when the DDR built two large hilltops there out of the rubble left from the war's destruction.

The Break Dance! ride at the Friedrichshain Volkspark Weihnachtsmarkt:

Pictures from my hike up one of the hills of rubble:

Berlin's Museum Island

2009-01-14T19:37:00.000-08:00

The Museum Island is a small island in the middle of Berlin with a number of museums built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to house the art and antiquities from around the world that the growing German empire had begun to collect. Probably the most famous museum in the complex is the Pergamon Museum, which houses the Altar of Pergamon, transported from modern-day Turkey and reconstructed in Berlin. When I was there, there was a giant pit nearby, where the city is building a new mall / museum of non-Western art, for an appropros (?) continuation of that legacy.

The dome of the Bode Museum, built in 1830, which houses sculptures, medieval, and Byzantine art (below), and a Byzantine frieze:

The Altes National Gallery, currently under rennovation:

The front columns of the Altes Museum, which houses ancient Greek and Egyptian art and artifacts. The neon sign reads, "All Art Has Been Contemporary."

Art-which-was-once-contemporary: Bronze helmets from ancient Greece.

A view of the Berliner Dom, built from 1895-1905, taken from the steps of the Altes Museum.

Night view of the Berliner Dom, with the Fernsehturm and the Ferris wheel at the Alexanderplatz Weihnachtsmarkt in the background.

Around Alexanderplatz

2009-01-14T18:45:00.000-08:00

Alexanderplatz was the central square of East Berlin, a place I kept coming back to in my week in the city - from wandering around on my first, jet-lagged evening, bemused at the carnival-like Weihnachtsmarkt (complete with Ferris wheel and a live, rocket-propelled Santa in a sleigh on a wire above the square), to wandering on a gray day full of Christmas shoppers and sight-seers. It is near the museum island (pictures to follow) and Unter den Linden, a historic avenue of the city that is now Berlin's other main shopping street (see the Kurfürstendamm). Alexanderplatz has its share of shopping malls now, as well, though they seem more gray and less glittery. The square is a chaotic mix of socialist architecture and large-scale commerce. There's also a fair amount of commercialized nostalgia for East Germany, such as the Ampelmannshop, which sells key chains, snowglobes, and other merchandise commemorating the iconic man from DDR traffic signals.

The Fernsehturm, a TV tower built by the DDR, is so tall, it was pretty much impossible to fit it in one picture. (It is, in fact, the second tallest building in Europe.)

The base of the Fernsehturm.

A Russian signing troupe busking in front of a department store on a busy shopping day.

Is this a lego window display of a man filming forest animals watching a television??

Woman taking picture of man looking dour with the statues of Marx and Engels.

Unter den Linden

Kreuzberg

2009-01-13T20:34:00.000-08:00

I spent a few nights and mornings in Kreuzberg, another neighborhood in southwestern Berlin. (Thanks to my jet lag, I often napped at midday.) Kreuzberg feels familiar, like Berlin's Mission or Potrero Hill -- it used to be one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city, and has a diverse ethnic population, but, because cheap, is popular with students and artists. Apparently, it's not Berlin's hippest, most happening neighborhood anymore; many of those artists have moved on to Neukölln, the next frontier. Incidentally, I had the most transcendentally delicious falafel of my life in Kreuzberg.

Because no photo album of Berlin would be complete without the gritty-yet-artful picture of graffiti.

The Kurfürstendamm

2009-01-11T17:38:00.000-08:00

The Kurfürstendamm, or Ku'damm, is the premiere shopping district of western Berlin. I wandered the street on a December night, when it was decked out for Christmas.

Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) at the foot of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which was bombed in 1943 and left damaged as a memorial to World War II.

A rather intimidating Weihnachtsmann (Santa) at the KaDeWe, a department store on the Ku'damm.

Schöneberg, Berlin

2009-01-11T16:47:00.000-08:00

I was in Berlin to visit my friend, Jeffrey, who lives in Schöneberg. Schöneberg is a neighborhood of West Berlin most famous in the US for being the site of JFK's "Ich bin ein Berliner!" speech. It's quiet and residential, but still pretty happening. It's also a central neighborhood in Berlin's gay community (and has been since the Weimar republic, in the 1920s and early 1930s). But, compared to the Castro, it seemed pretty tame to me!

The Rathaus Shöneberg Ringbahn station, behind the rathaus where Kennedy gave his speech, and near a nice city park.

The Supreme Court building in Kleistpark, a block from Jeffrey's apartment. The columns were moved here from Alexanderplatz some time around the 19th century (?).

I really liked this building, in a plaza nearby.

The next three photos are of a huge apartment building / complex near Kleistpark. The building is built over a World War II bunker that could not be demolished after the war, because the explosives needed would have flattened the neighborhood. So the apartments straddle the bunker, and a four-lane street nearby. It is absolutely massive. And somewhat perplexing, because the surrounding neighborhood is not such high density. In proper modernist style, the building abuts Kleistpark and has basketball courts, a playground, public ping-pong tables, and a skateboard park at its base.

And, for a change, a little bit of color:

Lots of Photos to Come...

2009-01-11T16:21:00.001-08:00

Hey all, just a warning: I went to Berlin last month, and had a wonderful time. Usually, I try to edit down to just a few before I post them, but I have so many photos of so many interesting places, that I may not be as photographically concise as I should. I've decided to group them mostly by neighborhood. You'll also notice that they're all gray. I did not see the sun once while I was there, and the trees were bare, so it all felt appropriately gloomy.

Enjoy!

Nature Displays

2008-11-16T21:32:00.001-08:00

From the New England Aquarium and Harvard's Museum of Natural History:

Boston Cemeteries

2008-11-16T20:45:00.001-08:00

Boston in the Fall

2008-11-15T16:39:00.001-08:00

From the Boston Arboretum and Public Gardens:

Head of the Charles 2008

2008-11-15T16:15:00.001-08:00