(Read the intro post for background on this trip)

We spent our third day of the trip in Yellowstone National Park. This was Andrew’s (24) first time at Yellowstone, and my first time in in maybe 40 years. We entered through the north entrance at 6:45am to beat the crowds. We hit the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, Grand Prismatic Spring, and the Old Faithful area plus a few other stops when we saw something cool. Of course, the park is stunning. I didn’t remember how diverse and other-worldly the different parts of the park are – gorgeous waterfalls and canyons, alien-like steam wafting out randomly, colorful geothermal pools, and of course, wildlife like buffalo wandering around. We mostly had the park to ourselves early on, but the traffic picked up over the course of the day. We had to wait for parking at Grand Prismatic and circle a bit for parking at Old Faithful, but we managed to avoid any big traffic jams (or buffalo jams!) At Old Faithful, we hiked up to Observatory Point for a different view of the geyser than usual.

Yellowstone Falls

Old Faithful from Observation Point

Andrew blowing off steam…

We planned to stay in a lodge just outside the east entrance, but there was some mix-up with our reservations. Fortunately, they helped us find a room at the nearby Shoshone Lodge, which turned out to be a great place (and probably an upgrade). Dinner at the lodge was really good. Andrew’s “Bear Bite Burger” was a western-style burger topped with cheddar cheese, onion rings, and a spicy house-made huckleberry barbecue sauce. (The photo I took of the burger was terrible, and Andrew was too impatient to dig in for me to get a better one.) I had fried chicken for a change of pace. Both were excellent. Andrew described them as made with love. The meat was really good quality and tasted good, and the barbecue sauce was exceptional – spicy, sweet, tangy all in one.

We hung out around a campfire with some of the other guests for quite a while; some of the staff joined us later. It turns out, most of them are summer staff who found the job (and previous years’ jobs) on coolworks.com, which I had never heard of.) The other guests were interesting and from all around the country. It was a very enjoyable evening. The cabins at the lodge were basic but comfortable. The food and service are really what made it special. Andrew wants to go back.

Shoshone Lodge cabins (ours was the first)

(Read the intro post for background on this trip)

Andrew (24) got an early start today since we had about seven hours of driving today plus stops. We left Spokane and drove through Coere d’Alene, Idaho; it’s really pretty here with the mountains and big lake. We didn’t have time to stop, but I think it would be nice to come back.

We had hoped to try the Nutburger at Matt’s Place in Butte, Montana; this was one of the historical burgers we had really wanted to try. They cooked this burger on their original 1930s cast iron cooktop and topped it with chopped peanuts and Miracle Whip, which sounds odd but apparently worked. They had even won a James Beard award. Unfortunately, they’ve closed permanently. It looks like they had been for sale for a while including through June 2020; my guess is that no one wanted to buy a restaurant during the pandemic. Sad.

So, we kept driving through to Bozeman, Montana. My dad did his masters degrees at Montana State University there; it was also born there although I have no recollection since we moved away when I was two. Still, it was pretty cool to visit campus and walk around a little. It was crowded with students returning to school, so we didn’t want to brave the lines to buy a t-shirt. I’ll have to get one online.

We finished up in Gardiner, Montana. This is at the north entrance to Yellowstone Park, where we will spend the day tomorrow. After walking around a bit and checking out the Roosevelt Arch marking the entrance to Yellowstone. (Interesting connection to Seattle – the arch was initially proposed by Hiram Chittenden who also was instrumental in the design of the locks in Ballard that are named for him.)

After that we had dinner at the Iron Horse Bar & Grille. In line with our burger theme, Andrew and I tried the elk burger and the bison burger. Meh. The patties were thin but well cooked, with a little char on the outside for flavor. Both were dry and mostly similar to beef burgers, although the elk burger had a little more distinctive and gamey flavor. They listed brioche buns on the menu, but the ones that came out were more like ciabatta. The fries were commercially produced battered fries (the same ones as in one of the restaurants Andrew worked in), but I like them since they’re crispy on the outside and soft inside. Overall, the meal was ok but nothing memorable. The staff was friendly, and the outdoor deck overlooking the Yellowstone River and hills was nice (even though the air quality index was ~150, which is pretty bad and noticeable, presumably due to wildfire smoke.

Andrew with half of an elk burger and half of a bison burger at Iron Horse Bar & Grille

We hope to hit Yellowstone early tomorrow to get ahead of the crowds, so it’s an early night for us!

Andrew (24) and I started out today from Bainbridge Island this morning in our rental Mitsubishi Outlander on our burger-hunting drive to New York. We dipped our hands in the Pacific Ocean (OK, Puget Sound, but it’s part of the Pacific Ocean) before we headed out. If we remember, we’ll do the same in the Atlantic when we finish our transcontinental drive. We then picked up our traditional McDonald's “adventure meal” breakfast. (When the kids were little, whenever we’d go on an “adventure” – a day trip to hike or go to a beach or ride the ferries or something) we’d get McDonald’s hashbrowns on the way. It became a bit of a family tradition. After taking the ferry to Seattle, we started driving east.

Our first stop was Cave B Winery in Quincy, Washington, about 2.5 hours east of Seattle. This was Andrew’s first wine tasting and my first trip to Cave B. It was a really nice place, with an outdoor patio overlooking the Columbia River Gorge. They have accommodations there, and it’s right next door to The Gorge Amphitheatre – an awesome outdoor concert venue. Andrew especially liked their Viogner. I liked their Cabernet Sauvignon. After the tasting, we drove a few miles into George, WA (really, that’s the name of the town) and had super tacos at Mi Lindo Guanojuato. This is a super friendly, pretty big but spartan Mexican restaurant and bar with amazing tortillas. Andrew and the owner had a pretty long conversation in Spanish, which seemed to impress and surprise the owner. (Andrew studied Spanish in high school but really became pretty fluent working in kitchens.)

The rest of our drive to Spokane was pretty straight-forward although the air was a little smoky from wildfires. Andrew and I haven’t traveled much in eastern Washington and were impressed with the landscape. We were equally impressed by Spokane, which I haven’t been to as an adult. I think Andrew as there as a kid with Michelle, but he doesn’t remember. It’s a cute, clean city with a nice park/riverside area by the Spokane River. Riverside Park was originally the site of Expo ‘74, a world’s fair that somehow Spokane managed to land. The centerpiece the river and park are the falls and the former Expo pavilion.

We didn’t have a historical or region burger to sample in Spokane (especially since the milk bottle shaped Mary Lou’s Milk Bottle restaurant was closed on Sundays). We decided on Incrediburger and Eggs (how could we pass up a place with a name like that?!) We ordered their PB&J burger, a classic burger (both with bacon, cheese, and grilled onions), beef fat fries, and onion rings. Both burgers were smallish, bigger than a slider but smaller than you might expect (which was fine since we were still pretty full from lunch).

The PB&J burger has peanut butter sauce, jalapeno jelly, cilantro, Thai aioli, and pickled peppers. I’ve always been a fan of peanut butter on burgers – it adds a nice richness. The jalapeno jelly cut the richness but wasn’t too sweet. The patty was nothing special – no real browning or seasoning. It was fine. The classic burger was straightforward and fine. I liked the brioche buns, but Andrew pointed out that these airy buns collapsed pretty fast, resulting in the wrong meat/bun ratio.

They make all their own condiments there, which was really a highlight. We thought these burgers showed how far you get making a tasty burger with just great toppings and condiments since the meat was only ok – basically just providing texture and warmth. The beef fat fries were the highlight. Fries cooked in animal fat are just way better than those cooked in vegetable oil. The onion rings were the big disappointment of the night. They were overcooked and bland with a heavy batter. They just tasted like burned batter. (Sorry for the bad photo – need to up my game on the food photography.)

They did have wall art that seemed appropriate to start our trip. It was a good first day.

Andrew (24) has been working fulltime in restaurant kitchens for the past five years and has decided that he wants to really make this his profession, so he’s headed to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY to get a degree in Culinary Science. He and I decided to take two weeks to drive across the country from Seattle to get there. On the way we’ll visit national parks, interesting little museums, and two cities I grew up in. But, the really interesting focus of our trip will be finding historically and regionally important hamburgers. Andrew researched the trip using the book Hamburger America plus some online work.

To set up for the trip, we decided to set a baseline using the best burger in Seattle, arguably Loretta’s Northwesterner. This is a tavern near Boeing Field, south of Seattle. We had both the double Tavern Burger (their specialty) and their Deluxe burger as well as fries.

The double Tavern Burger was really fantastic, the stuff of recurring dreams since we visited. It’s a straightforward smash burger with crispy, well-browned patties. The bun-to-meat ratio is perfect and there were minimal toppings – just American cheese, pickles, chopped onions, and special sauce. It was just a super well executed burger (similar the way that In-And-Out is a just a good, well executed burger.)

Surprisingly, the Deluxe burger was nothing special, despite having lettuce, tomato, and red onion. The patty was a thicker burger (their menu calls it “restaurant-style”) vs. a smash burger; it was fine but not as flavorful. I suspect the meat was different (maybe frozen?)

The fries were very good too – fresh cut potatoes, well browned but not crunchy.

Overall, we learned that sharing burgers to try a few different ones is a good idea since the tastiness of the burgers can vary across the menu. We decided we would ask each place we go which burgers they’re famous for and try those. Loretta’s set a very high bar for our trip. I’ll definitely go back there.

Well, I sucked at writing blog posts in 2016. I'm actually cheating now and back-dating this post by a day so there's an entry in 2016. I did think about writing a lot of posts since it was an interesting year. Here's a quick recap, as much for my future reference as anything else.

We started powerboating in earnest this year. Michelle and I were sailors before we had kids, but last year we tried cruising powerboats and really enjoyed it. We chartered again in February and decided we could even enjoy winter cruising, so in June we bit the bullet and bought a 47 foot Selene trawler. After some refitting and renaming her Tonic (her former name was Eric K), we cruised her up into Canada as far as Princess Louisa Inlet (really stunning). We spent most weekends aboard through the summer and fall and look forward to more cruising. Since we're only a few years from being empty nesters, we're also using this boat to see if we could realistically downsize and live aboard. Stay tuned on that front.

Tonic in Princess Louisa Inlet

Andrew (19) scouting ahead as we cruise in Canada.

 

I also continued to race sailboats with my buddies this year aboard the J-24 Rajun' Cajun. We moved from racing in the Lake Washington J-24 fleet to the much less competitive (and more fun) Duck Dodge races in Lake Union. We've been racing together for so many years that we've lost count, but this was the first year I drove the boat for a few races (since our skipper Rico was out cruising on his new boat). We didn't do as well as usual, but it was fun and a good learning experience (except the part where I hit another boat, causing a bunch of damage to their outboard...)

 

Aside from boating, we had a quick trip in June to Chicago for my cousin Eric's wedding. It was a fun occasion and great to see family from all over the country in one place.

Me photobombing Eric and Melodie while Andrew (19) looks on. Michael (16) is on his phone, as usual.

 

Three generations of Chor boys and Michelle

 

Michael turned 16 this summer and got his drivers license. I'm not sure who is more nervous, Michelle and I or Michael (although he is a good driver). Oddly (at least to me), Andrew (19) never got his license. He's gotten back into rock climbing in a big way when he's not playing PC video games with his friends online or telling me everything is my fault.

 

Andrew (19) finished his first year at Evergreen State College. He decided to take some time off, so he's working at a nearby ramen restaurant now. We also had our first drink together in Canada, where the drinking age is 19. It was fun to hang out in a pub near the marina we were in and shoot pool together.

 

I started going to JabX Kickboxing, a nearby gym, in November of last year. I was a mess when I started; I couldn't even get through the ten minute warm-up. Here's me lying the on the ground after my first warm-up.

Despite the inauspicious start, I kept it up all year, going most weekday mornings at 6:00am for the hour-long workout. I'm much stronger now. I also lost about twenty pounds and two inches off my pant size.

I got called to jury duty again, just a little over a year from my last time. This time I had a civil trial involving a slip-and-fall outside a local grocery store. Although the plaintiff was severely injured and was really sadly impacted by his injuries, we found in favor of the defendant. Despite the inconvenience of being on jury duty again, I thought it was interesting to see a civil case and contrast that with the criminal case from the year before.

 

On the work front, I completed my third year at Amazon. I continued to lead the Detail Page team (we make the shopping pages that have the information about each product like the picture, title, price, reviews, etc.) and added the Shopping Experience Platform team (we build the user interface framework and key API platform for Amazon's shopping experience as well as ensuring the site is great for customers with disabilities.) Despite whatever reputation Amazon has for being a bad place to work, I still really love it there. A big part of my team is in Bangalore, so I went there three times this year. On one trip, I ran into a bandh (protests), trapping us at the hotel for two days and forcing us to leave the office early one day. Fortunately, we had fun on other trips. I got to catch a performance at the Hard Rock Cafe by a local band, Agam, that two of my teammates were in. The Hard Rock staff apologized about the high cover price saying there was a "famous Indian band" playing; we told them we knew the band. They were skeptical until our friends came down to welcome us. It was cool to see the crowd all singing their songs. They're really good and worth checking out.

 

I also finally left the airport in Dubai and spent a little time exploring there with some of my colleagues. We checked out the Burj Khalifa, hung out with some friends from Beijing, shopped around the old areas of Dubai, and went dune bashing in the desert (where our 4x4 got stuck and had to be rescued). Here I am in the desert, waiting for help. The Facebook caption contest returned themes Dune, Star Wars, Lawrence of Arabia, lost golf balls, new Amazon offices, and how generally dumb I was to wear black into the desert.

Of course, I was most happy to find the "pork room" in the Burj Khalifa, a big deal in a Muslim country.

In the new year I'll be starting a new job in the same division, leading the new Shopping OS team. I'll keep the platform parts of my current team and add more platformy parts. We'll be building the next generation of Amazon's shopping application platform. It should be interesting, but I'll miss the detail page part of my team.

 

Personally, I learned to enjoy my life more. I stopped commenting on politics on Facebook. It was no fun and frankly kind of stressful to get into those kinds of discussions with friends, especially in such a contentious year. I was also reminded that our time on earth is precious. Two of my former teammates lost their spouses unexpectedly and a teammate on a partner team suddenly passed away. They were all younger than I am and were apparently healthy. We need to really enjoy every day.

Here's to enjoying every day of 2017!

Andrew (17) kindly agreed to pose for photos during our recent trip to New York City. I'm biased, of course, but I think he's turning into a pretty handsome dude. Not sure when he grew up though.

 

A few weeks ago, I took my team to iFly Seattle for a little fun. iFly is billed as indoor skydiving. Rather than falling, you're in a powerful updraft. It was super fun (and got great reviews from my team members). When I told Andrew (16) about it, he wanted to go, so I took him for his birthday today along with our friend Maddi, who was also very gung ho to try it. Michael (12) wasn't interested but came along.

After some classroom instruction, an instructor goes into the chamber with you and helps you control your position and body. You're in the chamber for either a minute or two minutes, depending on which package you select, and you typically do two flights (I strongly recommend the two minute option since it takes a bit to get settled). On the second flight you have the option to do a "high flight" with the instructor, where s/he grabs onto you and flies you up into the 2-3 story chamber. It's actually not scary (at least I wasn't scared) since you don't have the falling sensation.

They have cameras in the chamber and will move you into position for a good photo (which you can buy afterwards). They'll also give you a DVD of your flight.

Andrew and Maddi had a great time. I'm sure we'll be going back.

Here's me flying at our team event.

Andrew and Maddi ready for action.

Andrew flying!

After our amazingly fun rafting trip on the Deschutes River last year, Andrew (15) and I decided to go rafting with some friends again this year. Even better, Michael (12) decided to join us this time.

Our friend and trip planner Don chose the Grande Ronde River for this year's trip. This river is in the north-eastern part of Oregon. Like the previous trips, we used the awesome Oregon Whitewater Adventures guys. We drove down to La Grande the day before and enjoyed the comforts of the Rodeway Inn motel there (a little different from the resorts we normally frequent.) The next morning, we drove to Minam and set out on our three day, two night adventure.

The Grande Ronde River was a nice change from the Deschutes. It was a little less exciting from a rafting perspective; it had fewer big rapids (it's rated 2-3 vs. the Deschutes at 3-4) and dropped more consistently (vs. the pool-and-drop Deschutes). However, the scenery and camping were more picturesque -- more green than the high desert Deschutes valley. The additional moisture meant we could have fires in the evening too - a big advantage! Plus, there were no trains to interrupt our sleep and fewer other people on the river. We went around 50 miles over the three days -- pretty easy.

Like last year, we had two boats with our friends plus two gear boats. The staff did all of the work; we only had to set up our tents. We had great water fights and nice rafting, although we swam less since the water was more shallow this late in the season. On the Grande Ronde, there were no Bureau of Land Management campgrounds, so we camped in more primitive sites; in particular, there were no outhouses, so the staff set up a tent and porta-potty (really a seat on top of a big ammo can). Our guides were excellent again, with Colby and Jeff returning from last year and the crazy and wonderful Pamela plus the owner Dave joining us this year.

We all enjoyed the trip greatly and are already looking forward to next year.

The boys and I on the river.

The kids playing cards (BS) in camp. It got pretty hardcore!

Our camp site the second night.

One day at lunch, we hiked up the nearby hill for a better view. It was quite steep, actually, but well worth it.

The views along the river were lovely. The hill in the background is the one we climbed. We made it about 2/3 the way up.

Michael enjoying a swim.

Michael enjoying some quiet time in camp, reading by the river. One of the best parts of the trip was having no electronics and no cellular signal.

Andrew (15) and I got to fly on a Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress from Boeing Field today, going with my friend Brian. This was the Collings Foundation B-17 "Nine-O-Nine", one of only ten flyable B-17s left in the United States. We actually tried to fly on this plane two years ago when they were in town, but the flight was scrapped due to rain.

This year, we really lucked out. We had a perfect Seattle summer day. When we boarded the flight, we had to sit down and buckle up. There were spots for passengers scattered throughout the plane. Andrew and I sat in the radio room.

The crew left the top hatch open, so during the flight, we could even stick our heads (or camera) outside. This is a shot from out the top hatch, looking back at Boeing Field as we climbed after takeoff.

After takeoff, we could move throughout the plane. It was pretty tight and a bit tricky to move around with my camera bag; I can't imagine how hard it would be in a bulky flight suit, wearing a parachute.

Here's Andrew in the nose, looking through the bombsight.

This is a nice view of the I-90 Bridge and Bellevue, out the starboard waist gun.

One of my favorite places was in the top turret. You get a 360 degree view, although, I'm just a little short to be a good top turret gunner. Here's the view from the turret looking forward.

The flight lasted about thirty minutes, covering fifty-four miles. We averaged about 120mph and flew at around 1650'. It was loud and a rattled quite a bit at full power on takeoff, but the flight was smooth. The pilot was a pro and nailed the landing -- smooth as silk. Here's our flight track from my GPS watch.

In addition to the B-17, they were giving flights on the last flying Consolidated B-24J Liberator as well as a North American TP-51C Mustang. I would really love to go up in a Mustang; this particular plane may be the only way to do it since it's a two-seater training variant.

This was really a rare opportunity since there are so few flyable warbirds left (and even fewer that take passengers). I'm really glad I got to do this with Andrew. (Too bad my younger son Michael wasn't interested.)

As part of our trip to the Museum of Flight today, the boys and I attended a talk by astronaut Barbara Morgan. She's quite a remarkable person. After she graduated from Stanford, Barbara taught in a variety of elementary schools from an Indian reservation to Ecuador. She was selected as the backup to Christa McAuliffe as the Teacher in Space, picked from over 11000 applicants. After the Challenger disaster and McAuliffe's death, Barbara took on the role of Teacher in Space. She later was selected by NASA as a Mission Specialist and became a full-time astronaut, NASA's first "Educator Astronaut". After years of delays due to the Challenger and Columbia accidents, she flew on STS-118 on the Endeavor in 2007, bringing parts and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS). She's now on the board for the Challenger Center and teaches at Boise State University.

She took the Stanford Alumni Association audience through her flight, from launch to docking with ISS to landing. It was fun to hear her stories about what it was like, especially the little things like how they put strips of duct tape in convenient positions ahead of time so they could use them quickly to keep things from drifting around the zero-g cabin.

It was especially neat to have her give the talk in front of the real Full Fuselage Trainer - a full sized mockup of the Space Shuttle that the astronauts like Barbara trained on. She kept gesturing at different parts of the FFT as she talked. We're fortunate to have gotten it in Seattle (although a real shuttle would have been nice too...)

It was a real treat to meet a true American hero. I hope America returns to manned space exploration again soon -- on American launch vehicles.

 

Goofy boys in front of the new Charles Simonyi Space Gallery at the Museum of Flight

The Space Shuttle Full Fuselage Trainer

Another view of the FFT

The cargo bay in the FFT. It's reasonably long but surprisingly narrow.

Astronaut Barbara Morgan presenting in front of the FFT

Barbara answering a little girl's question about the hardest thing she had to learn to be an astronaut.