BAD KREUZNACH – REMEMBER AND RETURN TO THE NAHETAL

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2018 panorama over Bad Kreuznach from the Kauzenburg.

The Nahe Canyon leading to Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg is on the right.

Bad Kreuznach – Bad “K” or just “BK” to most former Americans living here – was and is a wonderful town to be introduced into culture beyond America.  Who says you can’t go back?  I lived and worked here for three years back in the 1980’s, a time of strong US dollars and a last fling of Cold War uncertainty. 

Today’s blog is a simple chance to amble down through the mists of my time and a chance to update photographic memories of a part of Germany flying under the radar of the Viking longboat cruisers.

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LIONS VISION CLINIC IN ALBANIA

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ashraf 3 last clinic
Last morning of Lions Vision clinics at Ashraf 3, Albania.

Lionism is truly a worldwide phenomenon.  My wife and I joined a 36-member Lions In Sight team – composed of 13 doctors and 23 others from all over the US and Canada – that worked at various vision clinics Albania seeing over 7,000 patients during the first week of November 2018.

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HINDU SANCTUARY IN THE TUALATIN MOUNTAINS FOCUS ON DIFFERENT PATHS TO THE SAME GOAL

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Sunlight filters through the trees along the Shrine Path high among the Tualatin Mountains.

“BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME”

“Build it and he will come”.  So, intones the voice of Shoeless Jackson to the Iowa corn farmer played by Kevin Costner in the 1989 film Field of Dreams. The quote often remembered wrongly as “Build it and they will come”. The film was a version of W.P. Kinsella’s novel Shoeless Jackson. In this case, we will choose the more popular interpretation which better describes this Hindu sanctuary high in the Tualatin Mountains just north of Portland. A retreat pointing towards a universal message of different paths leading to the same goal.

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CELEBRATION OF LIFE ON TOP OF THE DRAGON’S MOUNTAIN

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Sunrise on top of the Amphitheatre at Royal Natal National Park – one part of the long rim of the Drakensberg.

Celebration of Life

Birthdays have a nasty habit of piling up.  As a child, they are special, looked forward to.  As an older adult, they are part of life.  I don’t celebrate my birthday in a big way, as a rule.  My wife might push for a dinner out or the like.  The start of a new decade is different, however. You have made it through another ten years, a milepost!. Something special should be done to usher in the new epoch – a true celebration of life, if you will.

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WEST POINT CLASSES IN THE GREAT WAR

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West Point classes before the Great War was the main source of officers guiding the U.S. Army.  The huge mobilization meant an equal increase in the officer corps which West Point could not begin to cover.  But the officers with West Point in their background – much as was the case during the American Civil War – did account for most of the upper leadership positions within the Army and the AEF.  Also, like the Civil War, there was a certain animosity between West Pointers and those without the pedigree in World War One, too.  I, however, want to focus on the West Pointers here.  This is a brief rundown of several who helped the American efforts during the Great War.

AEF Commander General John J. Pershing (class of 1886) and Army Chief of Staff General Peyton March (class of 1888)
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EYE CARE IN THE SRI LANKAN TSUNAMI AFTERMATH – 2005

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This optometrist provided eye care to victims on the southeast coast of Sri Lanka, one of the areas most devastated by the tsunami.

The day after Christmas 2004 was a good morning to be a little early to church. While Mr. Rasanayagan puttered away in his home in Kalmunai, Sri Lanka, his wife had already left for the nearby Assembly of God church for 9 a.m. services.

The tsunami waves hit at 8:45 a.m.

Where there were houses along the shore, the tsunami left only debris behind.
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AMERICA REMEMBERED ON ISLAY, TORPEDOED VICTIMS OF THE GREAT WAR

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America standing high on the cliffs of Islay.

The Setting

High above the cold, wind-driven waves of the Irish Sea, sitting atop rocky vertical cliffs on a southern peninsula with the odd name of the Mull of Oa on the Scottish island of Islay, a forgotten stone monument fashioned in the shape of a lighthouse.  The American Red Cross erected the monument in 1920 to honor the memory of those who died in two separate troopship sinkings – the Tuscania and the Otranto – off the coast of Islay.  Designed by a Glasgow architect as a monumental cairn recognizing the importance of those dead in the cold waters off Islay. Most who see the monument see a lighthouse peering into the dark and icy seas. America intertwined with Islay.

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THE WORLD GETS SMALLER WITH 360 CAMERAS AND DRONES

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Recent advances with the advent of 360 cameras, smartphones and drones with superb photographic and video capabilities are making it much easier to tell your story or create your epic film in more unique ways.

Enter into 360° Photography

I have been using a 360 camera for a little more than a year now.  The results are pretty cool even considering the optical disparities involved with a fisheye lens – or double fisheye lens in the case of a 360 picture.

Note: for the 360 photos, to take full advantage, click and drag your mouse to see the whole picture. This one shows two old squash players atop the magnificent Rotenfels high above the Nahe River in Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany near Bad Kreuznach.

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LITTLE MAN STILL ATOP HIS GAME ON THREE CORNER ROCK

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Cuillin taking a break by Three Corner Rock. Aged 12, still getting up there.

Sunny, springtime – time to hike – 5-23-2019

Taking advantage of a sunny day to get up into the southern Cascades of Washington. With the snow gone, I hiked to the site of the old fire lookout up on Three Corner Rock. The last time – many moons ago – I was up here was with my first little corgi, Toffee.

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HIGH ROCK and PLUMMER – TWO TIMES THE FUN – 8/6/2019

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Panorama taken from Plummer Peak over the Tatoosh Range with Mt Rainier dominating all.

Beginnings

Two hikes today – High Rock and Plummer Peak – maximizing the long drive from Portland to Rainier National Park. The day warm and cloudless. Smoke from southern Oregon, however, had drifted up smudging the long distance views.

The first hike was to a former fire lookout south of the park known as High Rock. It is a well-known hike among Puget Sounders and short – 1.6 miles one-way. The lookout is one of only five remaining in the vast Gifford Pinchot National Forest.  It is steep gaining 1365 feet with much of the height gained in the second two thirds of the way up.

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