Marc's Public Blog - Trips to other locations

Lava Beds NP is full of caves and lava tubes

The rangers in the visitor center were quite helpful at suggesting extra places to visit, and we started by doing a few caves on Cave Loop:

caves were dark, even when some light came in, this is without firesword

and lit with firesword, 4000 lumens

actually I had 2 fireswords, one set on low (1000 lumens), and one set on high (4000 lumens)

some lava tubes were quite big

sometimes the cave split up, more than once even

at times, it really looked like a tube

other times, it was triangular

Nice ceiling formations:

Some caves required a bit of hiking:

We then did a hike to and around Mammoth Crater. It wasn't the best lighting, but still nice crater to hike around:

path around the crater

We still had a bit of time, so we went to check out skull cave. a huge cave opening with ice at the bottom floor:

it was quite hot outside, and yet cool enough for ice at the bottom

We used to the rest of the time to hike up Schonchin Butte Cinder Cone for sunset views, an easy 25mn hike up:

nice plaques explaining the views

We then went back to our campsite for dinner and stargazing:

we had a nice roomy tent

We started the 2nd day with what we should have done the first day: the beginner intro mushpot cave, all lit up and full of signs, including an interpretative walk, there:

Next, we went to check out Valentine Cave, a pretty huge and interesting cave:

the roof got low eventually, Jennifer went to check it out (my light)

that was Jennifer coming back with only her light on

We then hiked to symbol bridge and big painted cave, which had indian cave pictographs:

I found a hole at the end of the cave and was able to descend to a smaller cave with ice

Jennifer was a bit worried, the path in looked like it could collapse, but she came to check it out too

more ice

the pictographs by the entrance were hard to find, but Jennifer found them

By then, we were pretty much done, so on the way out, we stopped by the Black Crater lava flow:

One the way back to Klamath Falls, we stopped by Captains Jacks Stronghold, where he basically fought and chased off the native americans who were happily there. To be honest, the trail wasn't that interesting or really worth the time:

the native americans lived in small cool caves like this one

the battle was fought here apparently

Lava Beds National Park was actually very nice. I had never heard about it, and that was a mistake. Thanks go to Arturo for recommending the place, we got to see more lava tubes than we had seen anywhere, including Hawaii. The only thing Hawaii has that Lava Beds doesn't, is fresh lava, and freshly cooled lava. Apart from that, this national park has a great variety of things to see and learn from.

Solartown, north of the airport

the rest of the year, Madras has a small racetrack and drag racing strip

when we landed on sunday morning, a few planes were there already, but many more arrived

I was able to negotiate a parking spot closer to the exit for the next morning, and we setup our camp

some amount of vendors at the airport

We then took our foldable bikes and biked to Solarfest, a few miles south:

Madras was ready for visitors

and their money :)

Nasa had a display room, but hard to get into due to crowds

lots of vendors

I then went to Solartown to meet Arturo and Louis at their RV:

It was then time to get back to the airport for sunset pictures:

We then tried to sleep in our tent, and I very much appreciated the jet that landed at 05:02 and stayed idling close to our tent for a good 5mn :)

people getting ready early

I packed up our camp and turned the plane around in the direction of 'get the f out of here' :)

I was one plane away from the last taxiway to the runway

Tim, one of my many coworkers who went to the event

In case the sun disappearance brought a big flood, some were ready :)

And then, it started:

this lucky guy landed 1mn before the runway closed

getting closer

that little sun left, is still very bright

without a filter, it was still super bright

almost there, but still way too bright to look with naked eyes

and finally!

the corona of hot plasma around the sun, only visible during an eclipse

mercury became visible

So, it's hard to explain, but it does get quite dark, and cold. The cold was really noticeable, which is surprising how quickly it changed in just a portion of a minute:

and then, after barely 2mn, it was over

Just to give a feel for what it looked like, here are 4mn starting just before totality:

Those 2mn were as cool as they went by quickly. As soon as totality was over, we rushed to the plane, and went in line for the runway, got the first spot and I was the first person to take off when the runway re-opened. While waiting over 30mn, I took a few more pictures from inside the plane before finally being able to take off:

in the 40mn I waited before taking off, the roads were filled up already

jets were the only ones allowed to take off for about 1h after I left

solarfest

a long road home

And one last shot of the partial eclipse still going on while we were flying to Klammath Falls:

We had a great time, definitely an at least once in a lifetime experience.

Here's a map that what we covered:

So, here are some random thoughts:

Driving

People

Weather

Food

Train

Misc

Locations

Last Impressions, Conclusions

Day 1 (half day)

We started early in York with a direct train to London:

Haha, no offence, but English trains are so far from matching Japanese trains

case in point...

After arriving in London we dropped our luggage and went directly to Westminster Abbey. Very nice Abbey, but not only quite expensive to get in, and then to thank you for the good money you just spent, no pictures allowed inside (they used to be allowed apparently). Needless to say that, that didn't stop me, especially with the hefty entrance fee:

We then headed to the parliament for self guided tour:

Next was the Churchill war rooms, a complex of underground rooms where most of the british high command, including Churchill, were bunkered during the war. Outside of the war, they had lots of information on Churchill's life:

Next, still, we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum, the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design. We saw half of it during a 4H visit during its extended hours (18:00 to 22:00).
It was a really interesting visit, despite half the museum being closed, which meant I had to go back a few days later. But wait, the day was not over yet, it was just about time for me to head over to the ministry of sound to go see andrew rayel who happened to be playing that night.

Day 2

After the british museum, I went to check out Tate Modern. Honestly, except for the views from the top of the building, it was a bit of a waste:

Given the Tate Modern wasn't that good, I had just enough time to go to the theatre district and go catch a Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. I had mixed feelings about it. It was interesting in some ways, but boring and too long in others:

theatre seats were also most small and uncomfortable

Jennifer spent the day with her friend Anna who came from nearby, given that they hadn't seen one another and she had already been to the british museum anyway.

Day 3

people send him letters from around the world

Next door, beatles store:

We then walked to the free Wallace Collection, a very nice building with a great collection:

After a good tour of the Wallace Collection, we headed to London War Museum, which took much longer than I had planned, it's quite out of the way, but worth it for sure.

Once done, we headed back to the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery. Barely had over an hour for both, but turned out to be just enough for me :)

Once we got kicked out at 18:00, we had just enough time to walk to Rodizio to get BBQ meats served at our table, and walk to our theatre for our evening show. That show was the play that goes wrong, a nice idea, but the theatre staff was a bunch of dicks and totally ruined our experience before we even got in, by trying to steal all the food we had in our backpacks, claiming we could not carry it in, or check the bags in, we just had to throw it out (which is actually not written anywhere in their terms and conditions):

Day 4

Next, we walked to the Tower of London, which thankfully was not too busy on a monday (some other days have stupid lines to get in). Interesting castle to visit, many displays:

got to see the other crown jewels

multiple tours and performances

they had beafeaters giving tours of the monument

Great views of the London Bridge from there:

Next, we went to the monument of the great london fire, lots of steps, but nice views from the top:

The museum of london was not far nearby, so we went there:

My plan was next to go to the British Library, which had extended opening hours on mondays, but just to screw with us, that did not include the famous room with all the manuscripts that we specifically went there to see. In other words, we went there for absolutely nothing, grr...

That evening, we then had a dinner at Google, and I got to see one of my schoolmates and friends

Day 5

More things to see that day (on separate pages):

The science museum actually took the rest of my day, and I never made it to the nearby natural science museum, which had a stupid 1H+ line outside every time I looked at it. I guess it'll be for another time (and my understanding is that it take a full day to visit anyway). I just had enough time to meet Jennifer at the theatre where we went to see Matilda, a nice musical:

City Views

City Views from bridges:

St Paul's

Day 6, trip home

light snack to order during the flight :)

We took an early train from Edinburgh to York, went to our B&B to drop our luggage, and went right away to the nearby National Railway Museum (on its own page)

not a super bad ass looking train, but it got us there

After the train museum, we went to York Minster, the local cathedral:

It was a bit of a mess getting tickets for it, but we did the climb to the top, which was fun and had good views:

We got a few views of town:

Pictures from inside:

During the day, we went to the museum by St Mary's Abbey:

We then had an early dinner and went for the evening walking tour through town (2H):

The next morning, we went early for the Jorvik Viking Center, which has nice exhibits and a nice tour/ride, but ridiculous lines, which thankfully I was able to get through with a fasttrack ticket:

Last, but not least, the poorly named "York Castle Wall", which is actually a fairly large museum of lots of things, including an old town recreation, and much more:

And it's also a bit of a museum of everything:

Once I was done with York, we could/should have just left early and gone to London, but we had a prebooked night in the B&B plus a prebooked train, so since we had time left in York one way or another, I took an uber to the nearby Yorkshire Air Museum

Days #12-14: more rain on and off. until finally, on the 14th day, UK-wide rain stopped.

We left Durham early in the morning and drove to Scotland:

We first headed out to the retired Royal Yacht Britannia, which you can enter from a shopping mall. It's the Yacht where the royal family would travel the world and "be royal" and go on vacation, with the UK taxpayer's money. Good scheme they have running... In some ways, it's not quite unlike airforce one, except much slower, and bigger of course:

onboard doctor

with so much uniform changing, because uniforms are important, a huge washing station

Nice machine room

After the boat, we drove to another Georgian House for a tour:

We then used our last few hours in the rental car and drove to Holyrood Park and hiked up to Arthur's Seat for an elevated view of the city:

the castle, and old town

never had the time to look that one up, maybe a ski slope in the winter?

We then went to drop off the car, and we walked to our B&B to drop off our luggage:

the park shortcut was scenic but not faster

We then went out for our nice dinner at Number One

Sightseeing-wise, it was kind of a short day since we only arrived in Edinburgh a bit after noon due to the longish drive.

The next morning, we started with the Palace of Holyroodhouse, where the queen stays when she's around. Sadly, no pictures in the palace:

what's left of the chapel attached to the Palace

Next, we went to the Scottish Parliament Building for a guided tour. Yes, Scotland has its own Parliament as they are given some autonomy and self rule. You can tell the parliament is recent, it's extremely well designed and with a fair system that puts broken systems like the US one to shame (with stupid things like filibusturing):

each MP gets a small pod office where tthey can work in between sessions

the parliament building has a very nice architecture, but no pictures inside

From the parliament we walked up the royal mile:

we got stopped by this in the street

oink, why don't we have an oink where we live?

A few things on the way, several churches, a museum of Edinburgh which sadly we didn't have the time to see later, and a few more things:

St. Giles Cathedral was quite nice:

National Convenant

We then ended up at the museum of scotland, a museum of everything, and that sucked the rest of the time we had that day

Since sadly this was another museum that closed as dearly as 17:00, we had another 4H of daylight left. In July/August, the whole city has a big festival with hundreds of things happening every day. I got a ticket for a student designed video game room, and then a play for an incredibly cheap price (and yet it was well acted):

this game designed on a single neopixel strip was actually brilliant

We then went to check out Camera Obscura, which had decent surrounding views from its top, and some illusions on its floors below:

Last, but not least, we headed for our play, departure lounge, which had simplistic decors, but was well acted:

The next morning, we went first thing to the Edinburgh Castle and as soon as we got in, we made a beeline for the Scottish Crown Jewels, which quickly had a 30-45mn line soon after we went (we beat everyone there and got in with no line at all). I got tickets online which while print at home ended up working fine on my phone, they scanned us and we got straight in:

line starts early

crown jewels

Nice views from the castle:

Next, we went to the national gallery (I opted to skip the portrait gallery):

The had an annex with other art :)

We then walked around town a bit to hit some waypoints Jennifer set :)

million pounds

Next was another victorian house, which honestly was a full waste of time which would have been better spent at the Edinburgh museum or the dynamic earth. Oh well...

Since everything useful was closing early again, Jennifer went to do some scotch tasting:

We then walked around town a bit, and took a bus to our anniversary dinner at The Kitchin.

Day #11: heavy rain at times

After breakfast in our B&B, we were supposed to go for a scenic loop around the lake and the hills. As a reward for trying, we got pretty bad rain, so I drove the loop quickly and may have set a lap time record for wet conditions :)

'fantastic' views

The highlight was 'surprise view' up a crappy road. I still had to take these pictures under an umbrella:

Before leaving the area, we stopped by Castlerigg Stone Circle which is another version of stonehenge, just less famous and with smaller rocks:

We then drove to Hadrian's Wall. That was quite interesting, I didno't know the Romans had invaded England all the way to Scotland, and after dealing with the crazies of the north, they figured it was easier to build a very long wall across a narrow part of England, and hold their position. Most people don't know that there is a second wall higher north, Antonine Wall which was the 2nd line the Romans built as they proceeded further north, but eventually they gave up the fight, and retreated to the Handrian Wall.

After holding the line for a few hundred years, the romans eventually decided that England didn't really have much value and wasn't worth all the effort they put into keeping it, so they just let it go. In the meantime, Hadrian's Wall was a formidable construction at the time (likely only rivalled by the Great Wall of China). I think the only problem is that they built the wall, but they didn't get Scotland to pay for it :)

The Romans had impressive positions in England

Along the wall, they had forts, and I think with the crappy british weather and the mud, many artifacts were preserved in the mud and are now being unearthed, giving lots of valueable info on the Roman Empire:

Next door was Vindolanda, a big fort:

sadly the buildings didn't really survive the passage of time

Nearby you could hike next to remaining bits of the wall:

every roman mile, there was a small fort to keep the line

And we went to see Housesteads Roman Fort, where we got poured on by the end of our visit:

the wall keeps going but is missing most of its height

After we were done, we drove to Durham to see the cathedral and castle where we slept:

city tour under the rain

the cathedral got rebuilt in legos

The next morning, we had breakfast in the great hall:

Day #10: very occasional light rain, aka a fine sunny day in Great Britain (good given the hours of hiking we did)

On the way to the lake district, we stopped by Dove Cottage/Wordsworth Museum, which while having some nice cottages, was kind of boring given that I had no idea who the former inhabitant (poet/writer) was

But this put us on the way to the hilly region around lakes, where we did a couple of hikes:

after parking our car, we took the boat across the lake

and we did that hike back (11km, 2h20-ish)

We then got back to our car, and we drove to the next lake by Keswick, and did the catbell hike to the local top. Thank god for long days, we were able to start late-ish in the afternoon when there was room in the 8 car only trailhead location. That hike was a lot more steep and gave better views:

then we hiked down around and back down to the lake

those were all over

And after close to 20km/4.5h of hiking, we drove to our gastro pub for well needed food :)

Day #9: light rain, some sun

We did a tour of Conwy in the evening and the next morning, including walking the medieval city walls which are in surprisingly good shape. Conwy castle was actually built by the British to rule the surrounding Welsh, and it was nice to visit:

only a few ways in the city

found during our walk of the city walls

Castle:

The bridge to the next town had an old bridge built to match the castle, a 2nd castle like bridge for the train, and then an uninspiring bridge for more cars:

Rest of the city:

you could play catch and release crab fishing

the seagulls didn't release as much the crabs they caught

not big indeed :)

Plas Mawr was another house from that time:

By then, it was noon-ish, so we left to go to Liverpool and started with the metropolitan cathedral, which was built recently and is definitely modern looking:

the crypt underneath is much older

We then moved our car next to our hotel and went to see the Museum of Liverpool as well as the Merseyside Maritime Museum, but sadly we had only 2 hours for both, which wasn't close to being enough:

examples of smuggling in the maritime museum

slavery section of the museum

By 18:00, we got kicked out, and we took an uber (or first one) back to the other cathedral in liverpool (the main one). It is absolutely huge

We then got tickets for a tour to the top:

And then we got to learn about the church bells and saw folks who were practising playing them. The impressive part was that they could ring the bells while having the bells not actually make sound, and then had a computer that would reproduce the exact sound the bells should make. This allowed them to practise playing without actually bothering everyone around in the city. Super nice!

We then finished the (long) day by walking to Chinatown, which outside of the big gate and a few Chinese restaurants, was not that impressive:

Day #8: Rain, and more rain that ruined our time around Snowdon, especially the ride to the top :(

After breakfast, a short-ish drive to Caernarfon's Castle, an old british fort, still in good shape:

We got to see someone play the organ in the nearby church, very cool:

We then drove to Beddgelert, which was supposed to be for a nice walk around, but it was just pouring rain:

Next, we drove back to snowdon, a mining town where slate is harvested, for our train tour to the top:

And last was going to be our mining train tour, but the weather was just bad and we didn't get to see much for more than half the trip:

diesel vs steam

poor hikers who did all this in the rain for no views

yeah coal!

great views

note the rack and pinion track

And that was it for the day, honestly it the weather ruined a lot of it.

Day #7: Rain and a bit of sun, and rain

I started the day by taking a few pictures of downtown Birmingham around our hotel:

Next, we drove to Blists Hill Victorian Town, a recreated mining town. It was not as good as Ballarat in Australia, but still decent:

And then we had a long drive to Llechwedd for its deep mine tour, which we barely got there in time, for:

and from there, more driving still, to reach Conwy, our base for the next 2 nights.