2026.8.5/7/12/19, 9.2. Art classes resume at Art Love Salon

Wednesdays 1-3pm. Charcoal Drawing with Garima Tripathi Art Love Salon studio, 8 sessions. I attended 5.

8/5 Maple. We pick one of the few printouts. Here's my result and those of my classmates.

8/12 Alder. This time, we had a selection of branches and leaves. Here's my result of a small trig.

8/19 Red Cedar. This time, we did a composition study. 6-8. Then we select one for the final drawing.

9/2 Willow. Today is from prints. Here's my 30 minute drawing.

Garima gave me quite some leftover oil paints. I hope I'll have time and mood to use them.

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Fridays 12-2pm. Gesture Drawing with Ester Ohman at Art Love Salon. I attended 2 out of 6 sessions.

8/7 and 8/21. The pose is 1 minute each. We did one set of 2 minute poses, which is minimun for me to draw. A good excercise.

2026.8.25. AWS for non-profits

Amazon hosts an half-day event to promote its AWS for nonprofits. Testmony from Brain Health of Allen Institute and Data & AI of Gates Foundation.

Afterwards, reception at the Sphere's 3rd floor. We were not allow to access other floors. More speakers shared their experience.

I didn't know that AWS has a non-profic branch. These teams get credits (storage+computing) and technical help from AWS.

2026.8.16. Mt Ellinor

8/16, Sunday. Smokey in all directions except for Olympic Peninsular. Headed to Mount Ellinor, armed with some sandwiches from yesterday.

Well maintained trail with wooden steps. Quite some Cone Plant in the wet forest.

Above the trees, quite a lot of aster, yarrow, ... still blooming. Very cloudy.

A lot of people today. I guess, we don't have much choice. Waited a long time at the summit. The clouds never left. No view.

2026.8.15. Lower Duamish boat tour + Belltown Block Party + Seattle Design Fest

8/15 Saturday. Belltown Block Party. Mural artists live painting on large wooden canvas. They were just starting when we walked to the waterfront around 1pm. By the time we came back, ~4:30pm, some were near finished. It was very lively. Vendors, visitors. One block was reserved for strange bikes and 2 unicycles. Anyone can try one of those. Looks fun.

There is also a block party at waterfront, Pier 62 and 58. Saw a K-pop dance. More vendors. My buddy bought some orange chicken.

2pm, Duwamish River boat tour. Suprised to see all the sandwiches, and spring rolls. Free. Soft drink too. There were also interpreters of ~5 languages.

Various agencies spoke of their partnership in cleaning up the river. The worst contaminants were dugged out (see the left photo where they were piled on, waiting for transport). Some were encased with gravel or other materials. With all the noise of engine, people, food, kids, hard to hear. They were around to answer questions, which I find more useful. A nice day out on the water.

Afterwards, I walked to South Lake Union Park to checkout the installations of this year's Seattle Design Festival.

2026.8.9. Gothic Basin and Del Campo

8/9, Sunday. Clear sky. After a week of haze and high temperature, this is a welcome reprise.

A lot of cars at Gothic Basin TH. Trail is straighforward, all the way to Foggy Lake. People dipped into the cold water after the sweaty hike. A lot of people though.

After lunch, I headed to Del Campo. There is a clear trail all the way to the talus field. Still a bit of snow left at the bottom, where I filled up my water bottle. This photo on the left was taken from the trail, no scramble needed yet.

I made a mistake scrambling all the way to the end of that field, because I remembered turning left there, and rounded back. A mistake. Had to back down, and scaled the peak more or less directly. There were a steady stream of folks trying to climb Del Campo. I forgot to pack a helmet. The view on the summit is stupendous. Not a lot of room. I stood on different spots to take photos so not to have other climbers in my shot.

I climbed down very slowly. Always feels more dangerous on my way down. I might be the last person off the mountain, even though 2 more went up on my way down.

On my hike out of Foggy Lake, I stumbled onto the southern shore of the lower Foggy Lake. It's a very nice detour. No one out here. New to me.

Saw a few more backpackers hiking in, on my way out.

A couple of take-aways:

• always bring a helmet, if climbing
• cannot rely on my memory