JAPANESE GARDEN FALL 2006 A couple weeks ago I went over to the Japanese garden to try to get some different pictures. This is what I came up with.
Wide shot of the garden

Tender shoots, Lantern and Shimmering water
Sun shining over the Tea House roof.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SISTER KAREN
This is a picture of my siblings and myself visiting Santa Claus back when we were young. This is one of the few pictures of my sister Karen that I have. She was born November 17th. Just wanted to remember her on her birthday.

IT RAINS HERE It rains here in western Washington alot. Many people come here in the summertime and go back home wherever they came from and quite their job, sell their house and pack up all their stuff and move here. Then around September and October the rains start. People from California are the worsed. They seem to think that the more you complain about the weather, the more it will change to suit you. One of my old passtimes was sending Californians back to their sunshine and desert. Sometimes it will rain here for weeks without the sun ever coming out. It gets really gloomy and gray as winter progresses. After that you really learn to appreciate the sun and the greenery. Some people can't take the gloom of the wintertime and jump off the Aurora Bridge, also known as the suicide bridge. For those who are used to this climate, rain doesn't stop you from going about your regular activities. You just keep right on going and take your umbrella. Everyone knows that it rains here, but many other places have more rain. I think it rains more in Boston then it does here.
The rain doesn't bother me. I was born and raised here and have lived here most of my life, so rain is normal to mel. When Spring comes everything is beautiful again

When the rains come people around here learn to do things inside
I think I will have a cup of tea.

DAIMONJI JAPANESE RESTURANT I go to this resturant once in a while. It is located in a busy strip mall on S Michigan St in Georgetown. I try not to go there when it is very busy. Before noon or in the late afternoon is the best time. That way the waitresses are not in such a hurry.
You go in and sit down and the waitress comes over and brings you tea, boiled soy beans and miso soup.
On this particular day I had grilled mackerel on a bed of mung bean sprouts with grated daikon radish, cabbage salad and a small bowl of rice. It was great!

Click here... www.therealmikebailey.com

MY LITTLE JOURNEY FROM SEATTLE TO OLYMPIA VIA THE OLYMPIC PENINSULA AND A FEW PLACES INBETWEENYou will have to click on the map to make it larger so you can see the route I took. I planned for a long time to take this little day trip. My mother's birthday had come and gone and I wanted to give her a little gift I had gotten for her a few weeks before, so it gave me a good excuse to go on my little journey. Weeks before I took my car to the shop and told the mechanic that I was going to take this trek and wanted to make sure my car was in good running order. I didn't want to get stuck out in the middle of no-where along the way. They checked it and made sure it was in good running order, so I was ready to go on my little trip around the peninsula. Here is the account my my little trip.
I got on the ferry at Colman Dock in downtown Seattle and took it across the water to Bainbridge Island. Got off and drove down the highway and found my way off the island crossing the Hood Canal bridge onto the Olympic peninsula then found the highway after a few tries and started on my little trek to the ocean and then to Olympia and back to Seattle.

I thought I would swing over to Port Townsend which turned out to be 19 miles out of the way. Once there I decided to go to Fort Warden since my grandfather Ray Bailey was stationed there after World War 2. I had never been there and I finally got my chance. I don't think it is a working military base anymore. Mostly a place for tourists to see.
downtown Port Townsend
You can barely see the Olympic mountains in the distant haze.

Once I got into Port Angelos I was getting kind of hungry. I spotted this Japanese resturant along the side of the road and thought I would stop there and get something to eat. I had fish and chips. A good English dish.

Here's a ship in the placid waters on the Strait of Juan de Fuca in Port Angelos.
I went down a long stretch of winding road with beautiful forests on both sides and logging trucks barreling passed every few minutes. I stopped at one of the many turnouts to capture some of these awesome mountain scenes.
I stopped in the little town of Forks and got some gas.

After a fairly long drive I made it to the ocean. I stopped at a place called Ruby Beach and got out of the car and went over to the bluff overlooking the water and started taking pictures. Some old guy with all kinds of fancy camera equipment around his neck saw me taking pictures of these trees. He must have thought I didn't know what I was doing and told me I was taking pictures into the sun. I told him it was a digital camera and that the pictures would turn out.

Are there still people around that don't know about digital cameras? I like the effect of the above picture of the trees silloetted by the bright sunlight in the distance.
I spent quite a bit of time on the beach taking lots of pictures.
There are some smaller sea stacks farther out in the water

Some nearby woods
I got back on the highway. As you can see it is Highway 101. I believe this highway goes all the way to California. I wanted to go to a place called Queets which was several miles down the road. Back in the 1890's my great great grandfather Henry Sherman staked a claim there. He came with a friend of his who he had fought for the Union in the Civil War. He built a little cabin and he spent a lot of time clearing brush and chopping down trees. His cabin burnt down and he abandoned the claim and later went to Everett, Washington, and then onto Coupeville which is on Whidby Island where he lived out his days, and is buried.
I found Queets. It was about 45 minutes down the road. I had taken this same trip several years ago with my sons. Back then there was nothing in Queets except a gas station and a place to buy postcards. I think there was a private road, but they wouldn't let us drive down it bacause it was part of the reservation. It seems like there were more trees back then. Now they have cleared them away and there is a road that leads to some streets where there is a neighborhood.

Queets Indians live in this little town.
I got back on the road and continued on my journey. After a long drive through forests and alot of homesteads I made it to Hoquiam. I would have liked to have stopped to take some more pictures but I didn't have time. So I kept going. Hoquiam seemed like a nice little town.
Right next to Hoquiam is the medium sized city of Aberdeen. This is the only picture I took there. I snapped it while sitting at a red light in the middle of town. I didn't park my car and get out because it was getting late and I wanted to get to Olympia to give my mother her birthday present and get home. I continued heading in the direction of Olympia as the sun was starting to sink in the western skys. A couple hours later I reached her house. I gave her the gift. We had a nice visit and went out to eat. I made it home before midnight. Speaking of Aberdeen...

THE HOUSE KURT COBAIN BOUGHT IN SEATTLE WHEN HE MADE IT BIG A couple months ago I went down to take this picture of the house that Kurt Cobain bought when he was living in Seattle after he made if famous. I had been there once before just after his death. My younger son wanted to see it, so he and his wife and daughter came over one day when I was living in the University District and went looking for it. I had the address. After a little bit we found it and pulled into a driveway across the street. My son got out of the car and went over to the park. I stayed in the car. It was a sad time for him. He was a huge fan. The house looks a little different then it did then. I think the new owners altered the look a little bit. There is still a trickle of fans that come to the little park next door to the house and pay homage to their rock & roll idol.
At the park there are a couple of park benches. Fans come and carve their initials in the benches and write messages to Kurt. While I was there one of his fans was there. She was a young lady in her late 20's. She had come all the way from Quebec, Cananda to see the park and the house. She had been staying in Seattle for about a week and she came there every day.

I told her about the time that I had met all the members of Nirvana before they became famous. I told her about the conversation I had with Dave Grohl. Both Kurt Cobain and the bass player Chris were present but neither said anything until later. I was under the impression that Dave was the leader of the band because he was the one doing all the the talking. I also got the impression that he was a guitar player for some reason. We were talking about music. He told me that they had recorded an album in California recently, and that if it didn't work out they would have to pay the producer back all the money and time he had invested in recording their music. He also told me that they had gone to Alaska on a tour. This was in the early 1990's and rock and roll was on a wane. Nothing much was happening in the music scene at the time.

Who would have known that I was talking to the group that would be the next big thing in the world of music? I asked them what was the name of their group. Kurt Cobain stepped forward and said in a country twang, "Nirvana". He sounded like a total hick to me. A month later they were world famous. I went right out and bought their album and loved their music at first listen and was a fan ever since. My younger son was also a big fan since he was from the same generation as all the band members. We were both very sad when he took his life behind this house.