Oregon beach

As part of our Oregon trip, we spent a couple of days in Gold Beach -- an interesting little town that was starting to shut down after the tourist season when we were there. Several restaurants were closed (including, alas, the little Paul Bunyan Burger shack) but there was a really nice little cafe down at the harbor. Our place was beachfront, though it was maybe 40 meters from the actual beach. The weather was cool, but nice enough to sit out on the deck and read (when suitably bundled up, of course!)Of course, we also drove along the southern Oregon coast, a lovely part of the country; that's Arch Rock above, only one of many great views.

Visiting Crater Lake

We were in Oregon for a week earlier this month because some friends from the Northwest were giving some computer graphics content at the CCSC-NW conference in Ashland. As long as we were there, we visited Crater Lake and the coast for a couple of days each.
We were at Crater Lake Lodge just a couple of days before it closed for the winter. It was pretty nippy, as you can tell from this picture of Judy taken as we walked over to the Rim Village store to see if any Christmas stocking stuffers jumped out at us. (Did they? We'll never tell!)
Our first day there was beautiful and sunny, as you can see by this photo from the window of our lodge room. We drove around the crater rim and enjoyed the day quite a bit. We also enjoyed a really good dinner at the lodge; National Park lodges seem to have really good menus--probably to give guests the energy to get out and enjoy the parks.
The next day started out pretty, but by the middle of the day it was spitting snow and by the end of the day it was snowing pretty solidly. We went out for a walk in the morning and found these frost flowers "growing" by the side of the road, but later on the lounge chairs outside the dining room were less inviting. By the next morning it was largely clear and the lake was beautiful with snow on the island and caldera walls.

Travel and the economy

Over the last couple of weeks I've been exchanging emails with Guido Rößling, my co-chair for a program at a computer science education conference to be held in Paris next summer. Of course, this means that I'm committed to a trip to Paris in early July, and perhaps one in March as well to organize our program. (For any of my non-US friends who cannot read this, that translates to "organise our programme" in the Queen's English.) So we're committed to some travel and to the costs that will go with it. Of course, this week's economic debacle will probably make the USD even more worthless than it already is, so the cartoon below seems appropriate.But it is Paris, after all, and perhaps we'll stay at our tiny hotel just around the corner from the Café Flore and down the street from St. Germain de Prés. Life could be worse, and we'll see a number of good friends at the conference (which is really why we do these things!)

How time flies...

It's been almost a month since my last posting -- a very busy month, but that's probably not a good excuse. In that month we've come home from China and gotten back on North American time, been to some NSF panels in Washington, Steve's been to an advisory board meeting in Edmonton, and we've been out to visit family in Sacramento. This is the first weekend we've been home in about six weeks. It's about time!

A few things to share from the month, though. First, you may have an image of a suburban home in China, but unless you've visited there you probably don't think of this:These are very interesting homes with plenty of room, but they don't look much like a North American or European home.

Second, we've talked about our extended Chinese "family" of friends who Judy knew through her lab at Iowa. While we were at the NSF panels we went to visit our friends Jie and Yu and their brand-new baby Alex. Such wonderful people!


Edmonton was a very quick trip with no sightseeing time, but I did take one photo to share. Remember that I'm a mathematician at heart, so I was glad to see an example of a hypoteneuse (with a nod to Tim for the bad pun):

This morning was one of those rare August mornings when the temperature and humidity both fell, and after we went out to the Saturday farmer's market (see the earlier posting on that) I went for a long walk. The woods undergrowth is high and had some interesting flowering plants, and there were some butterflies out along with lots of birds and a few baby rabbits. A really nice day. I hope your day was lovely too!

Goodbye to Hangzhou

This morning we went out about 5:45 for a walk to say goodbye to the West Lake and Hangzhou for this trip. It was warm, but we were anything but alone -- many people come out early to walk and enjoy the day. This photo along the causeway shows something of the number of people out walking.It seems to be common for people to be out early, exercising or just enjoying the day, and it's nice to be in their company. It really doesn't feel "foreign" somehow being here, and we look forward to our next trip back to China.

Another birthday dinner

Birthdays, like other good things, are just too good to only have once. We had wanted to take Prof. Jiaoying Shi to dinner when we got to Hangzhou, but it ended up as a family dinner with our very good friends.From left to right: Prof. and Mrs. Shi, Ke Yang, Judy and me, and Mingmin Zhang and her daughter.

We went to the Kuiyuan Restaurant, a restaurant with a long history in Hangzhou, and had their specialty shrimp and fried eel noodles -- along with lotus-leaf chicken, a specially-prepared fish that we really like, and several other things. Noodles are, of course, a birthday specialty meaning long life.

Morning walk up Beishan Hill

Just north of West Lake is a hill that I believe is called Beishan Hill -- bei=north, shan=hill or mountain. It's not a very high hill, only some 200' from the lake, but it's quite picturesque and we've never walked up it on any of our other trips to Hangzhou. We did walk up this morning before the day got warm, and below are a few photos of the hillside, a temple near the top, and a view of West Lake from the hillside.We really enjoyed the walk and are sure that the exercise was good for our old knees. Tomorrow will be our last day in Hangzhou (and in China) and we hope to have one more good walk by the lake before we leave.

Hangzhou markets

When we are at home, Judy is Not A Shopper. The caps are intentional. She simply dislikes shopping and everything associated with it (except for the farmers markets, as I talked about earlier). But when we travel, things are exactly reversed -- she loves to shop, though she shops for friends and for gifts more often than for herself or for me. Me -- I like to putter around some markets, but not all.

Anyway, while here in Hangzhou we've shopped in three markets. The first was the Hefang Street market (called "History Street" on our map), where there are traditional shops and fixed kiosks, the wares are traditional and varied, and the prices usually non-negotiable (at least to westerners). The second was the Jiankang Road silk market, a long, long street of silk shops with clothes and scarves, and where the prices were negotiable but not too much, because the quality was generally very good. Our friend Yang Ke was with us and helped us greatly with questions of prices and quality -- he gave up time working on his dissertation to be with us, and we appreciate it very much The third market was the Wushan Road Night Market, a very, very crowded set of temporary tables with widely varying quality and very negotiable (read: VERY negotiable) prices and a crush of people walking up and down the street. We come to the Night Market every time we're in Hangzhou and, while its wares have changed and the growing prosperity of China means that the omigosh-it-can't be-that-inexpensive-can-it prices have changed, it remains a real treat. We bought something at each, and enjoyed each of them in its own way.

West Lake in Hangzhou

This morning we went out walking early along Hangzhou's West Lake, one of China's most famed beauty spots. This is one of the places on earth I've found where my blood pressure drops and I feel really happy and contented. It might help that I've never been here without Judy, even before we were a couple -- but I digress.

Today is sunny and hot, hot as it gets in the US midwest or south, sticky and hazy hot. So we went out early, around 6am, with the sun low and the shadows long. Almost immediately across the street from the hotel is a large patch of lotus plants that are in full bloom. The flowers are amazingly lovely, shaded from white to a dark pink, as you can see in the photo; the background is Xiling bridge to an island, linked to the city by the bridge and a long causeway.From out on the island, the view across the lake includes some islands and a pagoda on the far shore through the morning haze (though if you look a bit farther to the left, you can see the modern city).

Our hotel in Hangzhou

OK, so why on earth are we talking about something as prosaic as our hotel? Because we've stayed here several times and it's in such a lovely setting -- right across the street from the West Lake and an easy walk from many neat places. We know it as the Xinxin Hotel, but they seem to want to call themselves "Hangzhou The New Hotel." When we were here before, it always seemed to be just a little old-fashioned, just a bit like China might have been like a generation ago. We were surprised to find that it has had some remodeling done and is now very much like a standard Chinese business hotel (which is NOT the same as an American business hotel; you can find some of those in China, but why would you want to?) Some of the changes are nice -- the front desk is more efficient and the breakfast room is now in the former dining room with a wonderful lake view. Some of the changes are ... well, quirky. We have a full-sized window from the bedroom with a view of ... the inside of the shower. I've not seen anything like that since a room I once had in Las Vegas. Oh, well...

Public transportation in China

Since we've been in China we've taken many taxis and a high-speed train from Nanjing to Suzhou, and today we take a bus from Suzhou to Hangzhou. We'll also take a bus from Hangzhou to the Shanghai airport when we leave China. About the only thing we've not used is local buses; taxis are easier for us. Some things stand out about this transportation:

1. it's inexpensive. The high-speed train (up to 206 kph) cost $10 per ticket, the bus to Hangzhou costs about 50 cents more, and we've never spent more than $6 on a taxi (and all our taxi trips in Suzhou have been less than $2).

2. it's efficient. Things run on time and move pretty well. You don't always want to watch the taxi driver in traffic -- but (s)he knows how to get around in traffic. The train was one of the smoothest we have ever taken, and that includes many of the European trains including the TGV.

It doubtless helps that Judy speaks some Chinese, but between hotels and friends we have not had any problems in arranging transportation. I think the US could learn some things!

Suzhou gardens

The part of China that includes Suzhou and Hangzhou, sometimes referred to simply as Su-Hang, is famous in China for its beauty. Suzhou is sometimes called "The Venice of China" because of its many canals and lakes, and it is also known for its beautiful gardens, many of which are world heritage sites. Here is a photo of a canal we crossed on the way to one of the gardens.
The Humble Administrator's Garden is known as the most beautiful garden in south China. It includes several lakes and canals, as well as several buildings. In the early summer season, there are many lotus plants in the lakes and in large ceramic pots on the grounds. The photo shows a typical view in the garden.
Nearby is the Lion Grove Garden, a smaller garden that has smaller vistas and more buildings but is still quite lovely. This garden looks like it was part of the living areas of a home, and some of the buildings are set up for things like receiving guests. There is one lake in the garden, and the photo shows that and the fanciful stone structures that are found in all the gardens.
A third garden we visited was smaller and was near the east city moat (yes, moat -- a river flows around all four sides of the old city of Suzhou.) The Garden of a Couple is even more of a garden with a residence, and it had even more of the feel of a home. The photo is of one of the garden's main features -- an artificial "mountain" in one of the courtyards. Overall the garden is said to have the feel of the mountains.

Becoming an object

Today we visited two of the beautiful gardens of Suzhou, the Humble Administrator's Garden and the Lion Grove Garden. They merit a posting of their own, and they'll get one. But tonight's story is about what happened there.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a clown or a statue and have people stand by you and have their picture taken? That happened to us several times today. We are apparently different enough -- older, larger, whatever -- so that people want to have their picture taken standing with us, even with their arms around us. It's an interesting feeling and certainly is not offensive, but it leaves you feeling a little strange and wondering what they must see that makes them want the photo.

So your homework for tonight is to think about this: what might make a stranger want to have his/her/their photo taken with you? Please send your answer in a SASE and we'll award an appropriate prize to the winner. Neatness counts... ;^}

For shame!

Sometimes it's difficult to live up to one's principles. Forces seemingly outside one's control take over, and one does things that one really doesn't want to do. This is the story of one such situation.

We're in Suzhou, and we're out of instant coffee that we can brew in the room to start the day. Our hotel room does not include breakfast, and the daily price for breakfast is more than we want to pay. What to do, what to do?

One word: Starbucks.

We knew there was a Starbucks in Suzhou (we saw it when we visited two years ago), and we knew it was within walking distance (1/3 mile) from the hotel. And we knew that we really wanted some good coffee.

So we strayed from our principles and went to an American chain while we were out of the country. We walked right by the KFC, we turned up our nose at Pizza Hut, we didn't even give McDonald's an instant's thought. But we were led astray by Starbucks.

Be kind when you think of us, be generous, be forgiving. But damn, the coffee and scone were good this morning...

Greetings from Nanjing, China

We have been attending a conference on education and entertainment, hosted at Nanjing Normal University. We had a good trip, flying north from Chigago near the North Pole (sorry for the poor quality of my cell phone photo of the in-flight map) to Beijing and then on to Nanjing.During the conference there was a book signing for the translation of my beginning graphics textbook into Chinese, and the photo shows Prof. Jiaoying Shi (right), me (middle), and Prof. Zhigeng Pan (right); Prof. Shi led the translation team and Prof. Pan worked with him. A number of others contributed to the translation and I appreciate all their work.We expect to have other things to share from Nanjing soon.

Family weekend in the Ozarks

Last weekend we drove down to Table Rock Lake to have a visit with my siblings and their spouses. Driving down was interesting and we had to backtrack a couple of times to find the right roads. We loved the cultural ambience of the Ozarks, and one of our backtracks came when we missed a turn while admiring the local architecture.We very much enjoyed seeing everyone and catching up, and everyone was very glad to meet Judy. Here's the gang:Left to right: me, Phil and Marlene, Judy, Beth and Bob, and Andy. Phil, Andy, and Beth are my siblings, in decreasing age order. While there, we had to go to Silver Dollar City because it was one of our father's favorite places. They were having a bluegrass festival so we saw this Cajun group perform (bluegrass? Cajun? you figure it out...)Another day we rented a boat and went out for an afternoon on Table Rock Lake. We found some familiar waterbirds, like Ducks, out for a swim. We had seen a similar species in Washington DC, but their coloration was a little different.And here's a shot of the four siblings plus Judy out on the lake.

Plzen

The WSCG conference I referred to a couple of posts ago was held in Plzen, a lovely town in Western Bohemia, at the University of Western Bohemia. Plzen has a really nice open square in the center of the oldest part of the city, and the photo above is the facade of one of the buildings along the square. There are a number of these sgraffito buildings with wonderful decorations around the square and in town.

One of the most touching things I saw in the city is the monument thanking America for the US Army liberation of the city in 1945. Perhaps the US will once again find the kind of respect in the world that will inspire others to thank us. Perhaps this could even happen in the mideast. But I'm afraid it will take a great deal more than a new administration to earn this; I strongly doubt that it will happen in my lifetime. But we have marvelous young people in the family, and I truly hope they can see it.

Eating out in Prague

We enjoy travel; we must, because we do so much of it. One of the things we enjoy is finding good meals, preferably with some significant local flavor. Sometimes guidebooks or local advertisements help us do that; sometimes serendipity takes over. Two examples from last weekend in Prague...

Serendipity led us to the restaurant "U Vltavy" ("At the Vltav"; the Vltav is the river in Prague that may be better known as the Moldau). It's on the corner of Brehova and 17. listopadu, not far from the Rudolfinum and just off the Parizska street. (There are accents that I'm not including here because I just don't know how to get them or how they'd work on this site.) GREAT Czech food -- I had a wonderful half roast duck with dumplings and red and white cabbage, and Judy had a venison stew in a really cool bread bowl. But the restaurant isn't listed in any of the guides we saw. (It also has a Greek menu, but we'll stick with Czech food in Prague, thank you.)

The guidebooks, on the other hand, all include the "Hostinec U Kalicha" on Na Bojisti near the Pavlova metro stop. The main claim to fame there seems to be its link to "The Good Soldier Schweik" described in the pages linked above, and the restaurant walls are covered with drawings that were (I believe) done by the artist who illustrated the book. Look for the navigable images on the Web pages! More on the book and on Schweik later, but the bar at the restaurant is supposed to be the place where Schweik planned to meet a friend "at 6 o'clock after the war." We had roast piglet there, and again we found this Czech specialty to be really wonderful.

So -- the next time you're in Prague, these are two personal recommedations. I hope you'll enjoy them as much as we did!

Back home

We're back home from the Czech Republic after attending the WSCG 08 conference in Plzen (I was programe co-chair, though Vaclav Skala really developed the programme) and having a couple of lovely days in Prague. I'll have more to say on the trip and the travel in the next couple of days, but right now we're getting settled back home.

Winter travel can be challenging, but it was a surprise to be called at 4:30 in the morning we were leaving to be told that our flight out of Cedar Rapids had been canceled and we couldn't get out of that airport in time to make our connections to Europe. Fortunately we were able to be switched to a flight out of Moline, but that meant that we had to drive 60 miles in the snow. It worked and the rest of the trip went well. Returning things went well as far as Chicago, but another snowstorm gave us a delay getting back to Iowa and made us dig out the car at the Moline airport. Still, we're home and our bag is with us.

We did miss a lovely snowstorm while we were gone, apparently. Our back yard has at least a foot of great snow that made it fun to go out and fill the bird feeders this morning. But the streets are quite passable and we're warm, even if it's cold outside, so we're again reminded of just how lucky we are.

Happy Birthday, Wolfgang Amadeus!

Yesterday, Sunday, January 27, was Mozart's 252nd birthday. I hope everyone celebrated it in some appropriate way. We've been in Washington for the weekend after my NSF panels, and we went to a chamber music concert at the Kennedy Center that had two pieces by Mozart on the program. (There were also two pieces by Stravinsky, but it isn't his birthday.)

We went to the concert with my longtime friend, Tim Fossum. Tim's doing a rotator year at NSF in the same area I did, and it was great to spend the day with him on Saturday, visiting the National Building Museum and the National Gallery and then going to a movie in the evening. I think that contributing to the NSF review process and seeing really good ideas is only half the value of doing panels; the other half is getting to Washington to see the city. And the third half is meeting new people and seeing old friends on panels.