grazinhorn

Incredible, the preservation of things in cold water - makes me think of the Vasa. The story and timeframe also makes me think of the Fram, which successfully made it through several expeditions based on a really cool design to survive the ice pack for years, if necessary. Very cool museum in Oslo. These people that undertook these expeditions amaze me.

I didn't mind it so much, but I sure was glad I had an automatic when dealing with super narrow roads with two way traffic. Just a little too much to worry about, shifting opposite hand and all.

Lots of good advice on this thread. One suggestion I don't think I've seen - travelling around Easter and doing your couple of days in Dublin, say, Saturday-Monday and then head west. Monday after Easter is a holiday, so banks and other businesses are closed but pubs and a lot of tourist things worth visiting are open. Parking and overall getting around is so much easier than on a normal weekday. Also, there are usually a number of things going on remembering the Easter Rising. One of the best things we did was go to Glasnevin cemetery where they had special tours specifically focusing on the history of the Easter Rising - it was very well done. In our case it was somewhat accidental that we had that schedule, but having done it I would definitely go it again. You are generally ahead of the peak season and despite it being a holiday weekend crowds shouldn't be too bad. I am not going to repeat a bunch of other things already said - just one: Newgrange. Go and get there early enough to make sure you get a ticket (we were among the last to get them for that day). That stuff is old by any standard, even after seeing tons of very old stuff (by our standards).

There are three cabins - we were staying at Kapalaoa, so it went like this Having run up there a few times I was pretty comfortable with the altitude and terrain, but it was a different deal carrying gear - overnighting vs. running through. I should go back and dig up photos from running and elsewhere in the crater. It's so awesome up there. If you want to plan a stay in one of the cabins, be sure to plan over 6 months ahead so you can jump on reservations. They become available each day 6 months out, so you need to be on top of it and jump on it as fast as possible.

I have posted before about Haleakala and trail running in the crater, and while that is an amazing thing to do I finally checked off a bucket list item last trip - after several years of trying I was able to get a reservation for one of the cabins in the crater. There were more restrictions than normal (Covid), so we had a smaller group than we might have had. Still, it was unbelievable. With gear/food/water it took us a few hours to get in/out, but it was worth the effort for the time in between. I highly recommend trying to do this, but it is pretty damn difficult to get the reservation. You have to plan ahead and take what you can get. Camping sites are a little easier, but not much (plus now you need a tent and you have no stove). Our home in the crater Looking out from the front door toward the sunset. Looking forward to the night sky... Big payoff One of my favorite pics - I was lighting the stove when this was taken.

Condolences. Sounds like a good dude and great friend.

That's pretty cool

I am in Virginia and generally flying out of DC, just FYI. Our tickets were right around $340 apiece, which included upgrading to assigned seats to ensure we could sit together. In retrospect that was unnecessary because neither flight was full, but it was convenient. No checked bags but that was fine. Also, these were nonstop flights, which was a little hard to come by on this route.

Quick scan, didn't see it -

But seriously where's Bert

Ho. Lee. Shit.

Wow, what a fun trip - just got back from a long "weekend" in Bogota. We didn't have enough time to get out of the city, but we had a blast. Wife and I flew down from DC for four days - enough time to explore the city a little, hit some highlights, eat like crazy, and chill some. A few brief highlights/notable takeaways: Realizing a local guide we met was born the day Escobar was killed - she was 28 (?) and had never lived a day in Colombia with Pablo Escobar alive. Things are and have been changing so much for the better. Hearing said young lady say she could climb Monserrate in 45 minutes "with effort". I hauled my ass up there in 50 - seeing as I live at 1,000 feet I was ok with that Drinking beer in the shade on top of Monserrate on a clear day Appetizer, 2 entrees, 3 glasses of wine and 3 beers at a pretty nice restaurant for $45 Lunch for 2 on the street near the universities for $2.50 La Ciclovia (70+ miles of city streets closed for bikes, or just about anything else) Watching a cab driver manage 4 mounted cell phones in crazy traffic (dudes hustle) I'm sure I'm forgetting some other noteworthy things, but the point is - it was great. We decided on a whim - cheap flight, a few days to spare, what the hell... and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I'd also love to see more and get around to other cities and such, but even if you just have a few days and happen upon cheap tickets - think hard about going. It's safe enough, and with just a few pointers it's even more comfortable. It's a big world, but I'd like to go back someday.

Washington Team of Football makes the most sense to me. Listening to three of my coworkers every Monday - tons of "WTF" being mentioned!

Dude it's ok if someone has a legitimate concern, reaction, or side effect from a vaccine or medication. Chill. Fuck, a husband should know this.

oh yeah

I was wondering how to respond to that - this is perfect.

Next Republican Up - "tl;dr I'm busy owning libs!!!"

So much this. Dumbass w/Kids thinks he's a conservative AND that he's not wrong - like you said, a real conservative said F this shit (and probably admitted "Fuck, I was wrong")

No doubt, NOVA is the huge driver. When it comes to the margins, though, turnout matters. I would not count on ONLY the Northern Virginia area to carry the state for the next two elections at least. I wasn't actually trying to make this point, but I guess I will now - like big cities, even small cities tend to trend blue even in red seas. Roanoke City (not county) and Montgomery County (includes Va Tech/Blacksburg) have been blue in the red of SW Virginia. The difference to me is - in Houston you can drive 10s of miles and never leave the city. In a place like Roanoke you drive 10 miles and you run into:

This is pretty close. Roanoke (city) is overall pretty solid blue, but surrounding counties get Trumpier the further into the sticks you go. Some of the displays are amazing and borderline insane. I suspect polling is difficult because it ultimately depends not on sentiment/preference but on who is motivated enough to get their vote in.

Situation is a shitty deal, but I've never seen this worked into a thread - fan-fucking-tastic.

Just over 10% for us.

Agreed. This truly does suck, and hopefully the more significant awareness being generated about the crappy treatment of the asian community will be a meaningful byproduct and lead to change. Not that that is worth the lives lost.