Waterfalls with breakfast: road trip with really bad photographer.

Iceland

RantWoman promises premium quality rant and ramble but invites readers to start out with their own media faves before RantWoman lets loose her inner child.

On the Road with Icelandair’s Bad Photographer | Icelandair US

The whole travel diary with links to a map and a bingo card must do list.

 

Let's see:

RantWoman is intrigued by the possibility to rent clothing appropriate for the climate. Waterfalls are fun to look at over breakfast when one is warm and dry; RantWoman is glad to see Blanche has scored both an insulate jacket and a proper hooded raincoat. She has clearly needed both several times even though it is JUNE, a time when people in the northern hemisphere naively expect SUMMER. 

RantWoman is glad to view the tour map on a big screen. Even though YouTube is full of videos about all the apps one might need besides Google, in RantWoman's fantasy life it would be possible to have the journey mapped out in Google if only so that people who stumble over Icelandic placenames have a frame of reference that could be navigated in more detail.

Likewise RantWoman needs a big screen to appreciate the bingo card and the "Pose at your Own Risk" warning on the side of the trip vehicle.

The video of Blanche camping out showed up in RantWoman's media streams the day after one of the hottest evenings so far in Seattle. The evening also featured a power outage. Seeing Blanche camping out made RantWoman feel much cooler and also touched some very fond memories from childhood of camping out during a big storm with siblings and cousins.

Day 2: Blanche chomped into something blue that she just pulled out of the ground. What was that? Considering all the YouTube comments along the lines of "Dear tourists, please don't do that," is anyone worried about swarms of tourists showing up to munch on the local flora?

RantWoman needs more narrative. RantWoman understands perfectly well that this excursion is about PHOTOGRAPHY. RantWoman also traffics as much in words as in pictures.

RantWoman has about a kazillion science nerd kid questions: 

--Where does all the water in the waterfalls come from?

--Do the glaciers get renewed or are they shrinking like LOTS of other glaciers around the planet?

--Is there any kind of map or info source that talks about how easy or hard the hikes to key observation points are?

--Is it common to find whalebones on the beach?

--Do people wear waterproof eye gear when soaking in the lagoons. RantWoman is twitchy about what does or does not get into her eyes but would prefer not to look like a total dork about handling her concerns. 

Sharing History from an official Emotional Support Canadian

Not Exactly a Canada Day celebration. Remembering events of July 12, 1844 but get some cool merch by June 30. 

Don't wait for Canada day. Head over to shop.todmaffin.com for organic cotton t-shirts that say "Relentless Decency," "I Stand With Canada," tees that have a cool line of trees and assorted other gear. Buy NOW, before June 30.

Now the video: 

Video content warning: violence, drunkenness, and extreme police accountability.

Language note: several quite respectable Canadianisms

Today From RantWoman's brand new Emotional Support Canadian

The Great Toronto Circus Riot

This item is honest about Canadian history, somehow a welcome relief from the overabundance of tendentious ranting RantWoman tolerates in other channels.

Enjoy!

And one more rant: for anyone from the US who might be travelling abroad and thinking of trying to pretend to be Canadian in order to duck floods of national embarrassment, just DON'T!

Small footnote: RantWoman knows how to share things just fine in Elon's Sandbox. RantWoman even managed to share with a tiny number of friends on Instagram. And for further Instagram fun, RantWoman MUST look up the swipes needed to make her phone read a lot of text--if only to read posts from one important national blindness organization.

Happy belate birthday #GrandpaSleepyhead.

RantWoman is a grown-up. RantWoman made the grown-up decision to watch this entire video. Sorry Dear Readers, though. If you want to experience the Kai Trump goes to her grandpa's birthday party at the White House, please click on the link your own selves.

I went to the UFC fight at the White House

Neither Grandpa farmer nor the Righteous Reverend Rant Grandad needed a UFC fight for their birthdays. They did not need to surround themselves with (fake) gold. 

They did not turn any rose garden into concrete.

There is NO WAY that RantChildren would have been permitted to kick a soccer ball around outside the residential areas of the White House.

If anyone in the RantFamily had the opportunity to tour the white house and the Washington monument, maybe they would have made some effort to share interesting factoids. Not Kai.

Kai and her aunt Ivanka both do breathy blond frighteningly well. RantWoman has a very good friend who is blonde and perfectly capable of exploiting people's assumptions about blondness; this friend is also a doctor with multiple published scientific papers. Apparently there is no hope of expecting anything like that from the Trump family blondes.

But anyway, Happy belated birthday Mr. President. Sorry you fell asleep at your own party though.

The reflecting pool. Oh, the reflecting pool

#TeamAlgae

The reflecting pool and algae homeland
miraculously still reflects

First a link to a Today Explained segment wherein algae experts are definitely having a moment.

The Reflecting Pool fiasco - Today, Explained - Apple Podcasts

There is a link to a transcript.

There are NUMEROUS scientists commenting about the wonders and persistence of algae. Any organism millions of years and photosynthesizes deserves respect.

RantWoman enthusiastically embraces the science and will henceforth strive to get a handle on every reflex that might prosaically be considered Trump derangement syndrome. RantWoman MAY also go look for the T-shirts that come in either "olive green" or "military green" imprinted with the words "American Flag Blue.

It is not like there are not floods of other things to doomscroll about or that President #StableGenius is going to run out of other ways to cause consternation and hopefully motivate people to rise up and GO VOTE.

Reflecting Pool’s “American Flag Blue” Turns Green Due to Algae - Washingtonian

As for "vandalism," former federal prosecutor Gleen Kirschner brings some receipts, er, evidence (?), along with a quote: "Cross examination is the greatest legal weapon for discovering the truth."

More Trump Reflecting Pool Nonsense!

Unsolicited clothing tips for Blanche, recently proclaimed Icelandair's World's Worst Photographer.

Blanche, Icelandair's "World's Worst photographer" is heading out on the promised 10-day trip around Iceland! 

RantWoman has mastered enough Instagram skills to search for specific channels, to like videos, to absorb ads for all sorts of travel giveaways (Clue: RantWoman seems to have a bit of a travel bug). RantWoman truly enjoys, for instance all the joy and energy and hope flowing from the Obama Presidential Center. RantWoman, who spends a bit of her time loathing #bikeshare vehicles also noticed someone, perhaps a Qatari "football" fan trundling around downtown Seattle on a #LimeBike. RantWoman has not really mastered sharing, reels / Threads, or how to target the floods of things one might want to share. Hence the need to offer unsolicited advice in blogland.

Back to IcelandAir and Blanche. Yesterday there was advice, mostly in Icelandic with tiny print that MAY be subtitles, for Blanche. Today both IcelandAir and Blanche posted a video that is almost to jittery and visually busy for RantWoman to appreciate. 

RantWoman did, though, notice that Blanche might need advice from one of the numerous "what to wear" / "how to pack for Iceland" videos.

Here, in case it is helpful are a couple such examples.

Rain Gear: How to Stay DRY in Iceland

There. Now RantWoman has to speak about Seattle. No need for rain gear, at least for a couple days. Temperatures have hit close to 90 F a few days in a row. RantWoman, who has lived in hotter climes, has gotten used to the need to whine about the heat anytime the temperature rises above about 80F. 

The summer temperature yo-yo in Seattle, for better or worse, does not include as much summer rain / heavy mist as was Seattle's reputation when RantWoman first moved here decades ago. The important point for tonight's ramble: weather definitely not as variable as Iceland but a young intern RantWoman knows will in fact, for the next few days, need the wrap RantWoman encouraged her to get.

Yes! A summer bus route from Ballard to Golden Gardens

#NonDriver #KingCountyMetro #GoldenGardens 

RantWoman has once or twice walked from Golden Gardens south to Ballard. Not in a few years.

RantWoman is THRILLED to read this summer bus. RantWoman will check to see whether her ORCA Card and bus pass work to pay the fare, but RantWoman is THRILLED. 

Stay tuned for more raves.

Kenyan court orders halt to construction of Ebola isolation facility that would serve only people from the US

 #Kenya #Ebola

This whole controversy is classic President #StableGenius

--pull out of international bodies

--try to manipulate individual leaders into expressing "appreciation" for all the US has done in the past.

--Bring a horrific disease into a country where it is not present and then make only promises about safeguarding the local population.

RantWoman is horrified by the US approach and hopes the Kenyan courts NEVER let it go forward.