Launch Complex 34

A few photos of Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 34, site of the Apollo 1 fire in 1967. Our tour guide described the place as "spooky" and "haunted" before we got there, so I realize was sort of primed to see it that way. But I think there's also something innately spooky, sort of Stonehenge-like, about the place even if you have no idea what it is or what happened here. Visiting at sunset probably helped. I keep thinking it was cold and windy at the time too, although I suspect it was actually around 70 degrees, this being Florida and all.

spring 2012: daffodils & crocuses

spring 2012: cherry blossoms

Hope Memorial Bridge

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A few photos of Cleveland's Hope Memorial Bridge, previously (and better) known as the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge, which crosses the Cuyahoga River near the city's downtown. I don't have any good photos of the bridge from the side or below, unfortunately, and I didn't actually walk all the way across the thing (which is something I usually try to do with bridges). But what I do have are photos of several of the eight enormous "Guardians of Transportation" that protect the bridge from... something. (Dragons, perhaps?) If you need proof of the awesomeness -- and weirdness -- of Depression-era Art Deco, look no further; these guys are Exhibit A.



I was merely a weekend visitor to Cleveland and I wouldn't claim to be an expert on the history of the bridge, or of anything else in town really, so if you're intrigued by the bridge and its Guardians you might check out the Wikipedia page for the bridge, and a few other sites I came across with more info, historical photos, and so forth:

• Encyclopedia of Cleveland History at Case Western Reserve University
• HistoricBridges.org
• Cleveland Memory at Cleveland State University
• CSU Digital Humanities
• Cleveland Historical

Freshwater Stingrays, Greater Cleveland Aquarium

A couple of video clips of freshwater stingrays at the shiny new Greater Cleveland Aquarium. I thought I'd taken a photo of the sign so I could remember just what sort of stingrays these are, but I can't find any evidence of that actually happening. I do recall the sign pointing out these are freshwater stingrays, so we know that at least, if it helps.




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Skylab 3

A couple of photos of the Apollo capsule used in the Skylab 3 mission back in 1973. This is at the NASA Glenn Research Center's Visitor Center, which is now part of the Great Lakes Science Center in downtown Cleveland, Ohio.

From the archives: Willamette Park

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A few old photos from Willamette Park, on the river south of downtown, just north of the Sellwood Bridge. The park's home to a popular boat ramp and hosts lots of big group picnics, softball games, etc. And that's nice and all, but it doesn't offer a lot in the way of hip quirkiness, quirky hipness, or other blogworthy qualities. That's probably why these 2007 photos haven't made it into a post until now. And now I have to admit this post is mostly to fill a gaping hole in this humble blog's map of geotagged posts. Which is a pretty poor reason, and one of no probable interest to anyone other than myself. I figured I'd go hit the Oregonian Historical Archive and find some fascinating historical anecdotes, but park's generic name works against us here, and sadly I have no anecdotes of interest to share. Such tales may exist somewhere, but I'm afraid my Oregonian-fu has failed me this time around.

"TriMet" (sculpture)

Today's stop on our ongoing tour of Portland's transit mall art is a piece called simply "TriMet", by the sculptor Robert Maki. As you can probably tell from the angular Cor-Ten steel and so forth, it's yet another mid-1970s holdover from when the bus mall first went in, but this one is not in its original form. Prior to MAX construction, it was the centerpiece of the large so-called "Bathtub Fountain", one of several fountains along 5th & 6th Avenues that were permanently removed when MAX went in. Now the sculpture sits by itself in front of the Standard Plaza building. (Ring of Time is in front of the building's 6th Avenue entrance, if that rings a bell at all.)

Or I should say "sat" rather than "sits". I'm not sure when it left, but "TriMet" is gone right now. I don't know whether this is permanent or temporary, but either way it's not there, and it hasn't simply moved to another spot on the bus mall as far as I know. I mention this by way of an apology for the fair-to-middling Blackberry camera phone photos. I went back later with a Real Camera, but the thing was already gone by then.