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Staying overnight at SLAC while my Dad gets his surgery at Stanford Hospital today. TIL the camera for the big Vera Rubin telescope was designed and built here! It’s the biggest digital camera ever made. And I found the eastern terminus of the historic linear accelerator.

Back at the ancestral home. Helping my parents as my Dad gets surgery this week. It’s relatively minor, but any surgery at all when you’re 88 is scary. If all goes well I’ll be using the recovery time to work through a long list of other elder care issues that need addressing.

Playing with airplanes again today!

I must have seen the Blues do this Pitch Up Break at least 50 times over the years. And today it was just as fun and exciting as it was the very first time. I love it!

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50 years ago today SR-71 61-7958 set the absolute speed record for jet aircraft of 2,193 mph. This record still stands to this day.*

Welp, it seems the post I made a week ago never actually posted! I got my parents home safely from the Alaska cruise (No ship’s doctor visits!) and all is well. They’re so fragile and fluffy brained, yet think they’re maybe 50. Tough sledding. But precious time. Im so grateful!

I had to cancel plans for tea at Buchart Gardens tomorrow. It was just too much for my elderly parents on top of packing to fly home the next day. But we had an excellent dinner of caviar and king crab tonight! Now I’m decompressing in my stateroom before tomorrow’s challenges.

Aww, so sweet! While I was down at dinner my cabin attendant tucked in my plushie with my book to read as part of turn-down service!

I enjoyed a nice walk in the rain around Prince Rupert BC today. Getting back to the ship I warmed up with some cookies and a mocha. Apparently, in international circles, chocolate chip cookies have a different name…

Kinda a cool thing about high latitudes. We’re a bit further south now than when I took the daylight picture of me at 11:00pm. Now it’s 11:30pm, but there’s still a little sunset twilight on the horizon. And it’s not to west but due north!

High adventure! I rode on a jet boat that can go 30mph in just six inches of water up the Stikine River 35 miles into pristine wilderness to see the toe of the Shakes Glacier. On the way back to the ship we lost an engine and had to be rescued by a second boat. That was adventurous and fun too!

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11:00 pm on my veranda. I love the polar light!

It’s glacier day today! Visiting the Hubbard Glacier, a tidewater glacier fed by two of the highest mountains in North America; Mt. St. Elias and Mt. Logan. Both in excess of 5000m. The glacier is massive, miles wide, and one of the few advancing glaciers left on Earth.

North to Alaska!

Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends! Thanks for your hospitality to my American family in Vancouver yesterday too. I’m wearing my CBC hat (gift of a Canadian Foxcat) and toasting you all with a Bloody Caesar in your honour!

All aboard! It took two hours to embark the octogenarians, but we’re here. We had our choice of welcoming champagne; 1926 style or 2026 style. Then a little fresh made pasta for lunch as we settle in.

I’ve arrived in Canada! Next up, meeting the old folks when they land in a couple of hours and getting them to the hotel without injury. They’re very old, so it will involve canes, wheelchairs, and a lot of patience. Meanwhile, having Canadian lunch. Am I doing it right?

Starting my next adventure today, escorting my elderly parents on a 12 day cruise of Alaska. It begins with a short flight to Vancouver BC. And boy did I cut it close… My suitcase clocked in at 49.5 lbs.

I savored a wonderful weekend of splendid scenery and fantastic friends camping at Coyote Grove. The empathic vibes of sharing, mutual care, and just having fun together filled the air, day and night, with a thick ambrosia. It was sublime. So grateful to have been a part of it.

Here’s a fun chance to win a piece from one of my favorite furry artists, and it’s all in tribute of this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix! The grandest Grand Prix of them all.