13 January 2010 Lunchtime Caching in Dishman Hills

12 January 2010 Back in Spokane


Spokane River Centennial Trail



Spokane River



View From My Room

11 January 2010 Cleveland to Spokane


This is not my idea of a good time to fly.

I'm always a little nervous when they need to de-ice.

Dinner

In-flight Entertainment

10 January 2010 "The lights are out..."


Even though I needed to make a trip to Spokane, I really didn't feel like traveling. As we were pulling into Cleveland Hopkins, Ali said something about the lights being out. Moments later we were being told a transformer fire had taken out all power to the airport. Hmmm... guess I can't travel all day Sunday after all :-)

The airport was really strange. I try to never fly out on Sunday mornings in the winter because the airport is always packed with pleasure travelers dragging way too many bags, trying to carry on way too much stuff, and having no idea of what they are doing. It was strange to be in the airport with no flights leaving, no scanners working, no luggage being lost (oops, that never happens, does it?).




Despite the fact the airport was expected to be fully powered until 6-8, I was re-scheduled for a flight at 7:20 in the evening. We couldn't travel too far in case the flight actually happened so we settled for a pleasant walk at Mentor Lagoons. I hoped for a few more bird sightings, but that wasn't to be.




Lake Erie looks really cold.

Just before sunset (or about three hours before my flight) Northwest finally figured out that my re-scheduled flight was not going to happen either. I got another reschedule and we headed off for a fun romp at Metzenbaum with the dogs.


Cheap snow gage

9 January 2010 An Afternoon at Sunnybrook

1 January 2010 Metzenbaum


We were surprised to find the steps at Metzenbaum had been destroyed by a large tree. We had been here a week prior so the tree must have given way to the recent ice and wind.

31 December 2009 Locating a Cache


We were looking for a place to hide a cache in North Chagrin and started out at the Strawberry picnic area. The bright skies that stayed through most of December had dropped away for the last week so color on the pine trees and other evergreens were a nice diversion.



The Chagrin River was showing signs of freezing, but that didn't stop a few hardy fisherman from trying their luck. Since the low head dam at Daniel's Park was destroyed, steelhead wander much farther downstream that ever before. Now they are only stopped by the low head dam just south of Gates Mills.




We've been to the Rogers Road parking area many times but had never noticed the large holly shrubs until today. They were filled with berries.

27 December 2009 Return to Canalway



We had just been here a few weeks prior to find the last Cleveland Metroparks cache of the year. Today they were hosting an event with the promise of a dozen caches and 8-9 miles on the trails. We were both anxious to get a little exercise and I was happy at the prospect of potential photos on a long walk. I charged the batteries the night before and them left them on the kitchen counter as we left for the event. I was able to squeeze a few shots from the smaller digital before its batteries died too. It was great walking around and seeing a number of friends. We also got to spot a Coopers Hawk, but it was too far to ask for a good image.

By the time we left the park at sunset, the promised snow was starting. We finished off a wonderful day with a stop at Caribou for hot chocolate.