Tag Archives: Aberdeen

Jul17

A Washington Adventure – The drive home (and visiting Kurt Cobain’s memorial!)

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Tuesday, 21-June-2022

It’s been a while since I’ve had an adventure like this, hasn’t it? One big adventure with a few different blog posts dedicated to it? Well… Here we go! Adventure to Seattle, solo-style!

A while back, I was granted citizenship to Austria, through an update to the Austrian Constitution allowing repatriation for descendants of those displaced by war. I compiled paperwork over six months, sent it all in, and then waited almost nine months. Then, out of the blue, I get a package in the mail – a very official package with my “Bescheid” included – my new citizenship!

Now that I have it, though, I need a passport… and the closest consulate is in Seattle. I haven’t been for a few years, and I’ve never had an opportunity to either explore the city on my own or to go backpacking in the Olympic National Forest… which happens to be right across Puget Sound from Seattle…


After backpacking Flapjack Lakes, I was planning on hiking the Quinalt Trail as a short dayhike. Just a quick mile or two, getting to see a different side of the Olympics.

But… I never actually checked distances, or driving times.

When I tossed it into my GPS… Well, the drive was quite a bit long. And Tuesday morning had gone beautifully slowly… Not a bad thing, by any means, but also not great for 7 hours of driving.

Instead, I drove to Aberdeen.

Why Aberdeen, you may ask? Well… I don’t know. I’ve been to Aberdeen in Scotland, it showed up on a map, and… you know what? I didn’t have a reason. It felt right, okay? This trip was about being flexible and doing fun things! Aberdeen seemed fun at the time!

And you know what? It absolutely was!

When I arrived, I did a quick loop through the town looking for anything interesting. When nothing caught my eye, I pulled up a map and tried to find a place to step my toes into the Pacific. Why? More important to ask – why not?

Well, I couldn’t find anywhere to dip my well-walked toes. But I did find a small park, named “Kurt Cobain Memorial Park”. Interesting… after a quick google search, I realized that I was in the hometown of none other than the original grunge artist. The birthplace of Nirvana!

Now, I’m not a huge Nirvana fan… but I do love me some good music, and I adore me some good sculpture gardens! So off I went, and onward did I explore.

It was tiny, but interesting. A small memorial with a few sculptures of note, and a shrine-like-object under the bridge where Kurt camped out before he got his break.

It was… interesting. Poignant, in some ways, thinking that someone who would make such a massive impact on the music of the world had camped out under the bridge I stood under… Definitely made me think about the role of adversity in creation.

Anyways I also ate an amazing hotdog in Aberdeen!

Yeah… bad segue, I know, but I didn’t really know how to move on from there. The rest of the drive went as quickly and smoothly as I could have asked for. The miles ground away under my wheels, and the gasoline burnt (expensively) under the hood as the Mustang carried me back to my lovely little apartment in my lovely little town.

Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Street_Bridge_(Aberdeen,_Washington)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Cobain_Memorial_Park

Mar25

A Scotland Adventure – Part 11, The journey home

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Hello, and welcome back to your annual story time of Ben and Sarah’s international adventures! Keeping with the tradition of the last few years, Sarah and I visited with her family, this year going back to Scotland.

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Saturday, 04-Jan-2020

 

The end of the adventure went a bit more smoothly than the start, though not quite as easily as we would have hoped… But that’s okay.  Sometimes a bit of a challenge comes up at the last minute – but that doesn’t undo all of the good that happened before.

We left Aberdeen bright and early on Saturday.  Or, early on Saturday, at least… it wasn’t quite late enough in the day for it to be bright out.  One of the downsides of life way up in the North of Scotland.  The weather was lovely though, and Bill and Greta had coffee and snacks waiting for us as soon as we came downstairs.  Not a bad morning, not a bad morning at all.

Our first few flights were easy; no worries and no hassles at all, except for what amazing meal to request, or what weird movie to check out.  It was nice, and gloriously relaxing.

Unfortunately, the flight from San Francisco out to Portland ran into a bit of a challenge – or more accurately, we ran into a challenge getting to the flight.  Getting into the EU from the States is beautifully simple; you walk through the gate, an automated kiosk checks you in, bing bang boom.  Getting back INTO the States, though… that’s a bit different story.

Our flight had landed a little bit later than planned, if I recall correctly, and that little bit was just enough to push it over the edge.  When Customs and Border security was slower than normal, that was the nail in the coffin, and our flight took off with us still trying to get checked back in.  Fortunately there were two more flights to Portland leaving SFO that same evening… unfortunately, they weren’t leaving for almost eight more hours.

So we waited for eight hours, then flew home.

We were excited to see our own bed by that point, I tell you what.  But you know what?  A little challenge at the end of a trip doesn’t make it any less of an excellent trip.  The good experiences we had, and the amazing photos that we took home with us more than make up for any delays in flights or airline battles.

 

Mar24

A Scotland Adventure – Part 10, Aberdeen the second

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Hello, and welcome back to your annual story time of Ben and Sarah’s international adventures! Keeping with the tradition of the last few years, Sarah and I visited with her family, this year going back to Scotland.

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Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, 01 through 03-Jan-2020

 

After returning to Skye, we ate pizza.

Seriously – we had Dominos!  It was really cool, getting to see an American staple in the UK… it was different, to be sure, but in a lot of subtle ways… different general crust styles, different names for topping sets, that sort of thing.  Overarchingly though, it wasn’t different in any major ways.  Definitely not different enough that it wasn’t the perfect food to have after a long day on the road.

 

Our last few days in Scotland were pretty low key, and extremely relaxing.  A good rest before heading back to the hectic energy of the States, you know?

We did get up to a few good adventures though – both in Aberdeen, and around the surrounding countryside!

 

In Aberdeen itself, we spent some time city-ing, walking around and seeing the sights.  Of major note were the Maritime Museum and the Tollhouse museum – both of which gave really interesting backgrounds on the history of Aberdeen, and the entire surrounding area.

The Tollhouse museum focused more on the city itself, and how it grew and flourished from feudal times into the current era.  It was really cool seeing some of the old artifacts, but one quick spoiler to anyone going to visit?  Look out for the mannequins!

 

We didn’t just spend time in Aberdeen, though – on Thursday, we headed out into the country!  We got some views in, some nice hiking, and even saw a really cool old cattle rustling hideout!  I don’t know if I should technically use that term, since it’s Scotland and not the Wild West, but the idea is the same – it was a really cool geological formation where old-timey thieves would hide their take.

A quick summary of the places we explored:

    • Queens View
    • Tomnaverie Stone Circle
    • Muir of Dinnet – Burn O’Vat area (This is the Rustling spot!)
    • Lunch at The Boat Inn – A really cool small Scottish inn, with an excellent BLT!
    • Glen Tanar & St. Lesmo’s chapel
    • Hairy Coos!
    • Cullerlie Stone Circle!