I heard that Vancouver is a beautiful city long ago. It’s actually not very far away, just 7-8 hours driving. But we need visa to enter Canada as Chinese citizens. The first time I planned a visit was in the summer of 2001. But when I tried to get a traveling signature, I couldn’t find my I-20 and then realized that I mailed it back to China for Yinan’s visa. So I had to cancel that trip. Now four years later, we finally decided to implement the visit, with Tian and Guohua.

After some preparation and research, we took off on August 18th, Thursday in the afternoon for Seattle. The traffic in Portland was quite heavy. It took us over 5 hours to get Seattle. Fortunately no one was starved to death when we arrived at around 8:30. We had a dinner together with the Seattle gang at Old Sechuan in Redmond near Microsoft. I haven’t dined there for a long time and their dishes are still so delicious. I guess I was devouring since I was so hungry.

We got up early the next morning for the visa. The Canadian consulate is very close to where Zhihong works so we had no big problem finding the place with Zhihong on board. Things went quite smoothly. The visa officer just asked several regular questions. I guess I had been sloppy for too long. When she asked me if we have any friends in Canada to visit, I replied “not really”. She seemed a little unhappy and asked “what do you mean not really”. I had to rephrase and said “sorry, I mean, not at all”. She has some French accent but generally I had no problem understanding her. Anyway, we had to wait for a couple of hours before getting the visa. We decided to walk to the Pike Place Market which isn’t too far. Well, Seattle isn’t that big anyway. It was nice to walk in the morning fresh air on the waterfront. Pike Place Market is quite busy even on a weekday. I had been to the market for so many times so I showed the two kids the original Starbucks shop and Athenian Bar where Tom Hanks and the crew resorted when shooting Sleepless in Seattle. I always liked that bar and its unspeakable romantic atmosphere.

We got the visa a little before noon. We had a lunch at Seven Star Pepper near downtown. The lunch wasn’t that good but we were lazy to drive too far. We then hit the road heading Canadian border. The traffic on I-5 between Seattle and Everett was quite heavy. It became a little better after Bellingham which is already very close to the border. There was a hell of traffic at the border too. We waited for about an hour until we finally stepped on Canadian soil. As we nearing Vancouver, we were stuck in the traffic again. Having lived in a small town for a long time, we are not used to heavy traffic. Since we were not moving too fast anyway, we took off Highway 99 and headed for Steveston, a historic fisherman’s wharf just south to Vancouver. When we arrived, there were a bunch of people sitting by the dock fishing. But I didn’t see them catching anything. Well, I guess the spirit of fishing is sitting there having nothing to do instead of catching fish. The scene in the dusk was beautiful and peaceful. Washington State’s Mountain Baker was in sight to the east with the rosy ray casting on it from the setting sun above the Pacific Ocean.

There is a famous historical fish & chip place at the wharf. The chips were terrible although the fish was good. But hey, I got several very good shots for Tian by the wall.

We headed back to Highway 99 and went to Richmond for dinner. Richmond looks like a new and clean city. There are Chinese restaurants everywhere. The restaurant we went was not bad. Better than those in Seattle, in my opinion. Vancouver has the fame of having the best Chinese food in North America, which I would later found true. But it was not cheap at all. And we have to pay 15% tax!

We hit the road for Vancouver after the dinner. The evening breeze blows into the car through the open window, brining salty air into my hair. The smell of the sea intoxicated me. It seems that no one was obeying the speed limit. I was already doing 60 miles per hour where the speed limit was 60 km per hour but I still was having problem catching up everybody. People were probably stuck in the traffic jam for too long :). Richmond is very close to Vancouver. After about 5 minutes, we were on the bridge connecting Richmond and Vancouver. The first half of the bridge was a slight uphill. After climbing all the way up, suddenly the night scene of the whole city is presented in front of us! It was all dark and the lights were up. The scene was just fantastic.

OK, this is a long overdue travel log. I had been lazy. But it’s better late then never, isn’t it?

Standing in the Cascade Range, the active volcano Mt Rainier is part of the Ring of Fire . I had been to the Mt Rainier NP a couple of times in 2001, once in March and once in August. But I haven’t really explored it too well. It’s the first time that other three companies have visited the NP. So it is intended to be a casual and easy trip.

We did some shopping and picked up the rental car on Thursday (July 21st) afternoon. It was a Taurus again :(. I really wish Hertz can give me something exciting to drive, like a Subaru. The trunk of a Taurus is too small. We had some serious headache packing everything in. We have four people this time and two sleeping bags were too big. I finally had to cram a sleeping bag under the rear window so all I see in the mirror is the sleeping bag :). We took off on Friday morning at around 10. The weather wasn’t too good in Corvallis. We had some scattered showers. There were heavy clouds all along I-5. I was worrying a little bit. We had a nice lunch at Longview and went on. We arrived at Paradise at around 4. As I expected, the weather wasn’t perfect. It was very cloudy. The peak isn’t very visible from the visitor center. So we just wondered around in the visitor center and left for the campground at Cougar Rock. We were lucky to get the last campsite with two tent pads for the two consecutive days. I had camped here four year ago. It’s really a nice and comfortable campground. My only complaint is that our campsite is a little close to the road so it’s a little noisy when vehicles pass by.

We bought some campfire log and then started setting up the tent. Things went smoothly. One tent is missing a pole but it didn’t seem to impose a serious problem. I then started setting up the campfire when Yinan was cooking. It turned out to be a big challenge setting the fire. The log just refuses to burn :(. I guess it was because it’s too wet due to the weather. We had to keep blowing air to keep the fire going.

It was already not that cold, even at this elevation. We had one night of very good sleep. I got up around 6 in the morning and cooked breakfast for everyone. It was freezing in the morning. I had to keep running and jumping to keep warm. Since we are staying at the same place for the second night, we didn’t have to break camp. That saved a lot of time and trouble. It was a sunny day. The sun shines through the trees, casting warmth on the road. We took off and headed for Whiteriver where there will be a ranger tour. It took almost 1.5 hours to get there due to the winding roads. Whiteriver is at a higher elevation. There is a big FCFS campground. The facilities look not bad. I suppose climbers who summit from the North side would camp here and leave here for Camp Shurman.

Not too many people came to the tour. The ranger is a girl who works part time in the park. She is from Cleveland and graduated from Brown. We walked a trail leading to an open area where we can have an overview of Emmon Glacier. Along the walk, she educated us with some knowledge about trees. But I guess I still can’t distinguish fir from hemlock :(. I am a total idiot when it comes to plants. There were a couple of elderly ladies in the group. I overheard them talking and learned that one of them summitted Rainier 40 years ago from the North face. The other did Mt Hood. Hmm, I guess the way I looked at them changed immediately :).

At the end of the trail, we had an overview of Emmon Glacier, which is said to be the biggest glacier in 48 states. We can clearly see the boundary between the trees and glacial moraine, where the glacier retreated over the past 150 or so years.

After the tour, we left Whiteriver for Sunrise. Sunrise is one of the two most important areas of interest in the park (the other being Paradise). Since we didn’t plan to do too much hiking, we chose a short trail, about 3 miles round trip, located to the south of the visitor center. The trail runs through very beautiful meadows. It was a blooming season. Subalpine flowers are all over the hills, dotting the green meadow. We took a wild flower guide from the visitor center. Otherwise I wouldn’t know what those flowers are called. Come to see the beauty of them here .

It was still early when we got back to the parking lot. So we hiked another trail to the Frozen Lake. It wasn’t a very interesting trail. We then shared the watermelon we brought in our cooler. A cold watermelon in a summer afternoon is really a feast.

While we drove back to Cougar Rock campground, we witnessed the sun setting below the mountains. Mt Rainier is very beautiful in the dusk. It wasn’t too dark when we arrived our campsite. After the painful experience with the campfire the day before, I decided to immediately embark working on it :). But surprisingly, the fire was up very quickly and stable. I guess it was because the weather during the day was good and dry. After dinner, we huddled around the fire and talked, nice and warm. Hmm, the simple joy of life

I slept very well that night, without waking up even once till the daylight breaks. I cooked breakfast and woke everyone up. After breakfast, we broke camp and packed all the stuffs. It would be another nice sunny day. We were going to do some casual hiking around Paradise area. But we stopped at the Reflection Lakes. The sun was already up. But we still got very good reflections in the late.

By the time we arrived Paradise, the visitor center was not open yet. But the deer already woke up for breakfast  

The trail map looks like a maze. Fortunately there are posts at all the forks. We were basically following the Skyline trail. At Glacier Vista, there was a fantastic view of Nisqually Glacier. 

Along the trail, we met a lot of people coming down, carrying crampons and ice axes. I suppose those are the people who summitted from Camp Muir that morning. Hmm, I am seriously longing for the summit of Mt Rainier now. One year of hard training and some ice and snow skills might get me there, at least from the south face :).

As the trail turns around, it splits and one fork leads to Pebble Creek, further to Camp Muir. There is an open view of that trail. We can see tons of people on the trail, leaving a string of clear footprints on the snowfield. I guess at this busy season, you don’t really a map nor compass to get to Camp Muir. We took a lunch break at Panorama point. It’s so called because there is a wide view where many peaks can be seen, including Baker, St Helens, Hood, etc. But it was kinda cloudy. We can barely recognize Hood. During our lunch, two chipmunks attracted to the smell kept annoying us. They just wouldn’t go away no matter how we tried to drive them. They would even jump to our backpacks for food. Gluttonous small guys! 

Panorama Point was the highest point on the Skyline Trail, at 6800 feet. The following trail was basically down hill, with loose gravels though. We crossed a small creek, very small, but with very lovely mosses. 

We took a shortcut when the trail meets Golden Gate Trail, which turned out to be a very beautiful trail, along which are big meadows covered with colorful blooming wild flowers. I recognized bear grass and magenta paintbrush. 

The scene was just amazing, when we returned to the parking lot, my 512MB CF card was already full! That’s at least 200 pictures :O. After a short break, we took our way out. We didn’t want to get home too late. We stopped by Narada Falls, which is just several hundred yards away from the road. Hmm, I read some good comments about the fall. But hey, we are just back from Yosimite

The rest of the trip was just driving on I-5 and having dinner at Portland. We had some good argument on the way home, which made everybody wide awake

後主的詞讀的很少，無非是”春花秋月何時了”，”垂淚對宮娥”之類的後期作品，抒發亡國之恨，感慨至深。讀得很無奈，很壓抑。特別是“林花謝了春紅，太匆匆”一句。今日讀到一些早期頗花間的詞，領略了一下這位風流才子的天真感性的一面。為人君，才華橫溢未必是福，宋徽宗，隋煬帝，李後主都是活生生的例子。

沉檀： 口紅或胭脂，可能是用檀香做的故此得名。
些兒個：口語，少許。
丁香顆：丁香也叫雞舌香，指代舌頭。
殷色：酒灑在衣服上的殷紅色。
檀郎：指潘安。後主年輕時或許是個美男子，至少他自詡如此。另一首《破陣子》裡也說“沉腰潘鬢消磨”。

這最後三句盡將該女子的嬌媚栩栩托出，嫵媚卻不輕佻，令人遐想萬分。前幾天是七夕，正是後主的生日和忌日。讀此詞憑吊一下這位風流皇帝。可謂”後主已作泉下土，千古風流在人間。”

偶然讀到一篇詞評，說起晏幾道的《臨江仙》，其中這兩句是成句，出自翁宏的《春殘》詩:”又是春殘也，如何出翠帷。落花人獨立，微雨燕雙飛。”原詩之意境顯然不如該詞雋永。最后兩句的出典是李白的兩句“只愁歌舞散，化作彩云飛。”

在MITBBS的科大版看到一篇帖子，講科大的殺手們，感觸良多，看到熟悉的名字，又懷念起那些年少輕狂的日子。文中提到的不少人物都是舊相識了。作者應是9500/19的，我當年上近世代數的時候生病，所以推遲了兩年跟9500/19上，林老師教的，那個9519的牛mm的故事至今記憶尤新，現在還時常跟人講起，我總是以很自豪的口吻跟別人講，看我們系的mm們多么有個性。一直不知道那個mm叫什么名字，現在何處，只知道學號是9519003。其實很想結識該才女。

黃鎮也記得，算是老鄉。我是南昌的，他是宜春的。后來他在科大讀研，似乎是徐森林的學生，記得他跟我說林老師以前到美國講學，也不知道美國人怎么能聽懂他福建口音的英語。我畢業的時候或者是畢業后回科大的時候還碰見過黃鎮，當時他正要出國，跟我說，不要在國內浪費青春了。

孫老師的課我當時學得也膽戰心驚，仗著自己數學基礎還湊合，僥幸拿了85分。后來我到了軟件所，她去了研究生院。因為是必修課，所以盡管本科學了，還得學一遍。她到了北京估計是心情愉快了，或者是因為所裡給壓力了，總之，大家都高高興興拿90多分。所裡另外一同學，組合數學非必修課，但是准備選，他的導師告誡說，此孫老太太，是當年我在科大的師姐，為人據說很嚴謹，你要三思而后選啊。

李百浩給我們上課的時候據說教務處專門開了個會，跟他說，李老師，不能再抓那么多人了，補考教室不夠了。于是我們僥幸脫逃，只抓了倆，跟我們一起上的9307似乎被抓的也在個位數。

說起宋老師，我還是很欣賞的，至今記得一件很對不起他的事。某次感冒了，吃了些藥，犯困，結果上課還坐在了前排，快到中午實在撐不住，頭象雞啄米。不幸被宋老師看見，語重心長的對我說，這位同學，再堅持一會兒，馬上就下課了。一直沒有機會向宋老師解釋，其實不是課講得不好聽得睡著了。我上大學的宋老師課的時候中國足球尚未商業化，文中提到的都是后事了。

陳意云就不做評論了。

該貼轉載如下。原貼在瀚海星云，我已沒有賬號，無法通知作者了，希望這位師弟/師妹不介意。
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秦觀《踏莎行.郴州旅舍》中提到魚傳尺素，以前不知出何典。原本出自東漢蔡邕《飲馬長城窟行》:

青青河邊草。綿綿思遠道。遠道不可思。宿昔夢見之。夢見在我傍。忽覺在他鄉。他鄉各異縣。展轉不可見。枯桑知天風。海水知天寒。入門各自媚。誰肯相為言。客從遠方來。遺我雙鯉魚。呼兒烹鯉魚。中有尺素書。長跪讀素書。書中竟何如。上有加餐食。下有長相憶。

驛寄梅花應取范曄“折梅逢驛使”之典。