Fort Worth

On Sunday, March 1 we went for a walk over to the Museum district of Fort Worth.  On the way we saw this artwork on the edge of downtown, called Man with Briefcase, from 2002.  It's big: 50 feet tall.

We crossed over this bridge at 7th Street over the Clear Fork of the Trinity River:

This is the bridge at West Lancaster Avenue, same fork, same river:

Looking back in the direction of downtown (which is a little beyond these buildings):

A building at the Will Rogers Equestrian Center, in the Museum district:

Outside the Science Museum, were a bunch of Dr. Seuss statues, this is Horton:

We then spent a couple of hours at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art.  They had very interesting western collections.  I don't seem to have taken any photos!

Flight to Fort Worth, Texas

On February 29, we took off on our first trip of the year, which due to Covid-19, will probably also be our last trip of the year.  We almost didn't go, as the cases of Covid were just starting to spread in North America at that time, but I did the math and figured we would be almost totally safe still for a one week trip as we were going from a city with no cases to another city with no cases, and that turned out to be true.  The fact that we connected through Toronto was the only worry, but it was early enough in the pandemic (which had not yet been declared) that it wasn't a big concern.  If we had known then just how contagious Covid-19 is, we might not have gone.

But anyway ... that Saturday we took off on our flight to Toronto, and there we transferred onto the plane to take us to the Dallas/Fort Worth airport.  Here are some pictures from that second flight.

We left the land of snow ... this would be suburban Toronto as we took off:

The mouth of the St. Clair River, that is Walpole Island in the foreground:

Passing over Detroit at the other end of Lake St. Clair:

Close-up of downtown Detroit:

Airport in Detroit:

Those aren't clouds in the distance, this is where the "snow line" was on Feb. 29.  To the north the land is snow-covered, and to the south it's bare, with the fields in between covered in a dusting of probably recent snow.  Supposedly we were near Linden, Indiana at this point:

This is probably Lewisville Lake, north of Dallas:

Heading over a warehouse district north of the airport:

I am pretty sure one of these, probably the closer huge one, is an Amazon fulfilment centre according to Google maps:

Highways north of the airport:

So that was our Feb. 29 leap-year flight.  Next up, Fort Worth.

Kayaking on Stillwater Creek

Last Saturday, May 23, we went kayaking from our back yard.  We back onto Stillwater Creek, which flows through Crystal Beach in Nepean, and meets up with the Ottawa River between Dick Bell and Andrew Haydon Parks, on the wide bend of the river called Lac Deschenes.

We had to carry the kayak down the stone steps in our back yard and through a bit of brush to reach the water.  Here is Ed, on the banks of the creek before we put the kayak in the water.  The bank was pretty muddy and slippery:

On the water, looking at our house at the end of the creek bend:

Condos as we approach the parks.  They did some shoreline stabilization work last fall on the creek banks here:

Through the tunnel under Carling Ave., approaching the bridge that connects Dick Bell park on the left with Andrew Haydon Park on the right:

Heading through the marsh, and around the corner into the open Ottawa River:

Andrew Haydon Park on the right:

Around another corner, and we enter the mouth of Graham Creek:

There is a little sand beach here:

Heading towards the Graham creek bridge:

Into the big culvert under Carling Avenue:

We couldn't get any further once we were through the culvert, as the creek got too shallow there to be navigable.  We turned around, and this is coming out the park end of the Culvert:

The Ottawa river is in the distance as we come out of the creek:

We headed a little further east.  This is a condo building at Bayshore drive, where the eastern corner of the park meets the bike path:

Then back to Stillwater creek.  Here's the inside of the tunnel:

The home stretch of the creek:

We turned the corner, and used that log on the right side of the creek to steady ourselves to get out.

The weather was perfect!  Low 20's, not too windy, not humid, full sun.  I hope we get out again this year, last year we kayaked only once as I travelled so much last summer.  In this year of Covid-19 I should be around more, so if the weather cooperates we hope to do it again, either here, or driving off to another wet destination.

Flights from Amsterdam to Ottawa

On November 29, we flew from Amsterdam home to Ottawa via Newark, New Jersey.

The weather dawned really nice once we had to leave!  Here we are taxiing over a highway as the plane heads for the runway from the terminal at Schiphol Airport:

The countryside sure is flat:

The countryside north of Amsterdam, as we head out towards the North Sea:

We were in cloud after that for a while, but it opened up a bit again as we passed over England.  These are some windmills on the northern coast of England, on the North Sea:

Northern England:

Northern England or the south of Scotland:

Over Scotland now:

Then we were back into cloud again, and no more views for the rest of the transatlantic flight.

On the last leg home to Ottawa out of Newark, New Jersey, it was very clear and I got these photos of Manhattan:

And that is that.  That really is the end of the trip to Switzerland, Germany, France, and the Netherlands.