Belgium - Week of August 30

During the week of August 30, Doug participated in a joint European Workshop sponsored by the BWROG and PWROG. The meeting was in Brussels. On August 31, we took a quick trip to Ghent and Bruges.

Covered shopping street built in 1847.

Belgian waffle and coffee.

Brussels Grand Place at night. According to Victor Hugo it is the most beautiful square in the world.

This building is where Marx and Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto.

Basilica of the Sacread Heart in Brussels, the world's 5th largest church.

Morning coffee in Ghent.

Your homework - why is Ghent historically important to the United States?

Our lunch, including Belgian beer, in Bruges.

Madonna and Child by Michelangelo.
The work is the only sculpture by Michelangelo to leave Italy during his lifetime. It was orginally intended for the Cathedral of Sienna. A family of wealthy cloth merchants in Bruges bought it and gave it to the 'Church of Our Lady' in Bruges.



Our boat tour of the canals of Bruges.


We couldn't pass up taking a photo of this guy from our boat. He was so asleep.


Bruges is the leading lace producer in the world. This is a lace map of Bruges.


This photo (with boat in background) may give you a better idea of the nature of the lace.

Our 2009 Alaskan Vacation

Colemans

Went Cruising!

We drove to Seattle and met up with our dear friends Ron & Laurel Smithwick and boarded the train to Vancouver. Our cruise left Vancouver for a 7-day tour through the Inside Passage ending at Seward. It was our first cruise and we loved it.

Icy Strait Point - Celebrity Millennium at tender.

The Celebrity Millennium from the waterfront in Juneau.

Christening our stateroom before leaving on the cruise.

Our elegant dinner with Ron and Laurel in "The Olympic" on the Millennium. The Olympic was the sister ship of the Titanic. The interior of the dining room from the Olympic was salvaged and installed on the Millennium.



Humpback whales in Icy Strait.

Hubbard Glacier is the largest tidewater glacier on the North American continent. It is thickening and advancing (i.e. it's not receding).

Our visit on the bridge with the Captain of the Millennium.

Doug and Ron went fishing in Seward. They both caught their limit of coho salmon. Here are some of the coho salmon and rock cod from the charter boat prior to cleaning and filleting. Many of the salmon had been removed and filetted at this point.

Evidently, cleaning and fileting is not men's work.


Our Alaska Railroad trip from Seward to Anchorage.

Beautiful sunset on Turnigan Arm (part of Cook Inlet).

Russian Orthodox Church in Kenai built in 1894.

No, this is not a statue of a priest. He's real and he's from New York.

Bear scat (the noun not the verb)

Ooooooo, pretty.

During the week of July 20, the BWR Owners' Group hosted a conference in Seattle with Japan utilities. On the final night we attended a Mariners baseball game in a hospitality suite. Lots of fun was had by all. Our son Andrew was able to travel from Portland to attend.

After the game. Mariners lost. Everyone happy though.

We finally put Andrew in a box.

Craig Nichols and Greg Holmes (both of GE-Hitachi, Program Manager for the BWR Owners' Group) chatting with the Mariners' hostess.

Our Japan colleagues celebrating a great defensive play by Ichiro.

A welcome for our Japan visitors on the Mariners scoreboard.

Oh, those garlic fries!