Posted by Adrienne on April 28, 2010 under Photos | 
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The Great Lakes are in many ways like little oceans. They need lighthouses, too!
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| From Chicago, Illinois |
I didn’t realize how many lighthouses there were on the Great Lakes until we actually traveled around that region. Boy, there are a lot of them!
Posted by Adrienne on April 26, 2010 under Books | No Comments
Another fantasy series takes its place in my Book Count:
Auralia’s Colors: The Red Strand by Jeffrey Overstreet
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I originally read the first volume in the Auralia’s Colors Series in 2008. You can read my first review of that book here.
Upon this second reading, I found that I enjoyed the book more than I had the first time. I had a better sense of the scale of the world and of what to expect from the characters. I had an easier time keeping them straight as well, which was helpful. One thing I found, in this volume and the next (more on that title below), was that a character whom I thought would be a likeable character when I first met him, turned out to be an antagonist, rather than someone I should root for. I also found that the second reading went more quickly than the first.
Cyndere’s Midnight: The Blue Strand by Jeffrey Overstreet
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The second book in the Auralia’s Colors series is an interesting read. Now that Overstreet has set up his world – “The Expanse” – he can delve more deeply into the different groups of people that populate it. House Abascar and the Ale Boy return in this story, but the focus of the novel is elsewhere.
House Bel Amica, introduced in Book 1 as a rival of House Abascar is where most of the story happens. Cyndere, the heiress to the throne of Bel Amica, is struggling with the losses of her father, brother and husband. She retreats to a small outpost on the border between Bel Amica’s territory and that of the cursed house, Cent Regus. There, she finds that her husband’s death is part of a larger plot to upset the order of House Bel Amica, and all the other civilized houses in The Expanse…
I enjoyed Cyndere’s Midnight very much. I particularly appreciated how the action shifted from one character to another smoothly, but also in a way that kept my attention. Overstreet’s world is a fascinating place, and I look forward to returning there in the next book in the series.
Posted by Adrienne on April 24, 2010 under Baseball, Mariners, Soccer, Sounders | No Comments
Qwest Field, where the Sounders play, and SAFECO Field, where the Mariners play, are right next to each other. So when the Sounders and the Mariners are scheduled to play at home on the same day, it’s very easy to get to both games, as long as they aren’t scheduled for the same time. There are several such days this year, and last Saturday (April 17) was one of them. We had a great time at these Doubleheader Days last year (even though we never had a day when both the M’s and the Sounders won) and we made sure to get tickets for as many of this year’s Doubleheaders as we could.
Posted by Adrienne on April 21, 2010 under Photos | No Comments
By my count (which is very official and kept in pencil on a series of 3×5 note cards) this is our 100th Photo of the Week. How exciting! To celebrate, here’s a neat photo that we took on our recent trip to the Smith Tower Observation Deck. It features the snow-capped Olympic peaks and a Washington State Ferry making its way across Elliot Bay:
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| From Scenic Seattle |
Every once in awhile, we capture one of these lovely moments, when the weather is just right and everything lines up in the frame perfectly. For a few more of our photos that we’ve really liked, click here, here, here, here, here and here.
Posted by Adrienne on April 15, 2010 under Photos | No Comments
It may be touristy, but I’m kind of sad we didn’t ride one of these:
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| From Cincinnati, Ohio |
Cincinnati is located on the banks of the Ohio River, and when we were there, we saw many paddlewheel style boats cruising up and down. In the early 1800s, this was the best way to get from Cincinnati to just about anywhere. You may think more of New Orleans or the Mississippi river when you see one of these kinds of boats, but they were common on all of the major rivers west of the Alleghenies before the railroads really got going.
If we get a chance to go back to Cincy, I think we should ride on a paddlewheel!