northwest – PhotoKent's Musings

It’s almost Christmas here and finally, after 3-4 weeks of temps in the 70’s we get precipitation. ☔️. It should rain thru the holiday and we are tucked in.

HEALTH UPDATE: As some of you know, I was scheduled for a routine angiogram last August after our summer vacation to Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. When the cardiologist recommended this last May, I asked to postpone til then, due to our pending trips. He told me that, if I felt any chest pain, to head for the nearest ER. Though no chest pain turned up in our travels, little did I know what was in store. The angiogram turned out to be over 90 minutes on the operating table with rotational atherectomy (rotorooter), lithotripsy to breakup some calcium deposits, followed by the insertion of five (5) stents. 😳. It turns out Cardiac Heart Disease was passed on to me by both parents and so i need to be mindful of this for the future.

Needless to say I did slow down and spent a few days over in Sea Ranch on the Northern California coast with my good friends and did a little walking and easy riding.

We postponed several camping trips until 2026 but did manage to squeeze in a trip to Seattle to see some family members and tour the Dale Chihuly Exhibit, a Sraddha bucket list item.

In September i began a course of 3 days/week of cardiac rehab featuring treadmill and stationary bike riding while being monitored by the rehab team. Had a couple delays amidst the rehab due to a round of COVID and a cracked rib from a ladder fall 🙄. Memo: no one over 75 should be allowed up a ladder without adult supervision..

Rehab completed successfully in late December and now i am cleared for “easy” e-bike riding as long as the heart rate remains below 115. I do cheat a little bit, as ye olde ticker doesn’t always comply. With some dietary changes (some..) and some meds, health is great. I am planning to do the Lake Tahoe ride next June again and we are already planning trips.

December has been quiet and inward. Prepping the yard for winter, harvesting remaining fruit from trees to share with our friends. (We have 9 remaining productive trees in the yard). Hauling in firewood to stay warm and watching my beloved Seahawks as they march towards the Super Bowl.

If you missed it, here are the previous posts from this year.

Wishing you all the best for 2026!

Kent

Make sure you watch the video at the end of the blog.

Late June I took a little drive up to Portland and Seattle with a stop over in my old home area of Walla Walla. Got a chance on the return trip to stop in Olympia to see my longtime model railroad buddy Jim. Instead of running model trains we decided to go out to Steilacoom on puget sound just south of Tacoma, Washington and watch trains. Maybe even get some aerial footage with my DJI Mavic quadcopter.

Two old friends sitting in the shade watching trains

We parked near the Anderson Island ferry dock in Steilacoom and walked along the tracks to find a spot in the shade. It was warm outside.

We saw a northbound Amtrak and a coal drag. Listening to the scanner on the iphone we figured out which milepost detector was triggered when the train goes by and could mostly discern whether it was northbound or southbound. I flew around about half mile out in the sound and shot some footage of the ferry’s and the trains. Had to figure out which neutral density filter to use. Think it was ND8 most of the time which allowed me to shoot at 1/50 shutter speed.

Then we moved up to Titlow beach just south of Tacoma Narrows bridge. As we were driving along the sound I stuck my iPhone out the window to catch some video footage of a train going by. (Don’t tell my spouse I did this!)

Railfan iPhone vid snapshot — Northbound frieght out my car window

At Titlow beach we did scout a potential takeoff point, however there was just too many people for my tastes. We did catch a train go by with my iphone All this is in the video below.

Railfan iPhone vid snapshot-2 — Big BNSF coal train northbound at Titlow Beach

As the sun began to get lower in the sky we headed south to Chambers Bay, site of the 2015 US open golf tournament. Being a public links course we drove down to the driving range and decided we could launch from there.

We saw several trains and got one good long video as a northbound garbage train passed by just as i was running out of battery. Was way out over sound about 3/4 mile away when it passed and was down to less than 20% battery by end. Whew.

Aerial UP engines — Union Pacific Engines on northbound Garbage Train

Below is a link to the 10 minute video I created from footage. Some of it was speeded up to get within the 10 minute limit I set but it was still a 1.5 GB size. wow.

Oh yes, I did also see the Southern Pacific tourist steam engine in Portland. That’s in the beginning of the video below. Hope you can enjoy.

Afterwards we retired to a local pub for a bit of nourishment.

Tag: northwest

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