Cork, Ireland, is a fascinating, historic, and incredibly friendly city. From early Celtic roots, verified by Og(h)am inscriptions on stones found throughout the region and now displayed in the Stone Corridor in Aula Maxima at the beautiful University College Cork, the narrow lanes of the 9th century Viking settlement that emerged on the island in the River Lee, the Victorian historic structures, to the modern shops that are nestled in between all of the rest, it is an eclectic and intriguing place! No wonder it is on Lonely Planet's short list (10 best places to visit).

The people of Cork are very friendly. Numerous times we've been offered assistance when our confusion over location and direction became apparent (new place, meandering streets, cloudy skies, no compass!). And many thanks to Brendan O'Sullivan who directs the Planning and Sustainable Development Program at University College Cork for the informal walking tour and engaging discussion over planning issues, approaches, and problems!

The planning context for Cork is influenced by a national framework (the National Spatial Strategy) that gives responsibility for spatial planning to regions, and then to the counties and five major cities, then to smaller cities (all local government plans must conform to the statutory regional planning guidelines). Planning for future growth and dealing with the inevitability of sprawl (when the ability of urban places to continue to grow when constrained by existing densities, the historic preservation imperative, and greenbelts) are major challenges here as they are in so many other places.

If and when you come here, do plan to spend a week or more as there is so much to take in. The Vision Centre, UCC, St. Finnbarre's Cathedral, the City Centre, the English Market with delicious fresh local food for your kitchen - these are just some of the major attractions!

More on Aquatic Invasive Species

I just had to post this - it was waiting in OneNote for me to do this. We've been in Oregon for the last weekand a half visiting with family and friends before we leave for Ireland on July 17th. After leaving Umatilla we travelled through the Bend-Redmond area on Hwy. 97 before heading up Century Drive (aka Cascade High Lakes Hwy.). Wow has Bend grown over the last 15 years since Gret and I last visited during winter ski trips. 80+ thousand now (larger than sweet little Missoula) with a renewed downtown, a lot of roundabouts to accommodate increased traffic volumes from new subdivisions on the way up Century Drive, and the new Hwy 97 throughpass.

Given the Idaho Aquatic Invasive Species program I mentioned in the last post, we inquired about one in OR and learned that there is a fledgling program just being implemented. Signage is up at boat launches, and permits are required for craft 10 ft or longer (these are good for a year and transferable). It will be interesting to see how effective the program will be once fully implemented - I'll research it more further to better understand what its parameters are. In the meantime, here is a pic of a boat/car/RV washing station at the Port of Siuslaw, near Old Town Florence, where we spent a nice night camping before driving up the coast to Newport (nice to be back on the Oregon coast - the most scenic in the land!).

Roundabouts, Roundabouts, and Roundabouts, Oh My!

Well my Montana friends and colleagues, Oregon has roundabouts. Lot's of them, it appears. In leaving Bend on Century Drive (the Cascade High Lakes Highway), we drove through no less than three of them (shown here in the pic from Google Earth, 2006)! No doubt they were built to accomodate heavy winter ski traffic to Mt. Bachelor and its impact on vehicle traffic coming from subdivisions. And we saw them in Eugene too, especially out on Greenhill Road to the west of town where much new development has been occurring.

The all work as well as Missoula's very own Higgins & Beckwith roundabout, but people travel them at significantly higher speeds. For any citizens, local officials, and planners who want to learn more about how well these work, I recommend contacting the public works departments of Bend and/or Eugene.

Goodbye for now - congratulations Spain on the World Cup! Leaving for Ireland on Saturday.

June 30 - Hittin' the Road

Left Mizoo around 1 pm. Kid's said it was surreal that we were finally leaving. The road through the Clark Fork Valley was green and absolutely beautiful. My heart would die if I knew I was leaving permanently. Ran into a boat check station in Idaho (checking for Aquatic Invasive Species!) just East of Cataldo Mission. Had to stop because we had three boats along for the ride - even though Gret thought the canoe and kayak shouldn't count. Awesome! So glad that Idaho has stations now - Montana's are few but hopefully increasing thanks to Caryn Miske, Senator Verdell Jackson, and the Montana 2009 Legislature! We do have the beginnings of a decent program, but we need to be so vigilant. I fear the worst, though, having lived in Michigan w/ Zeeba Mussels, Snakeheads, and Quagas!

So here's the pic for the post - our boat laden short caravan on the OREGON bank of the Great Columbia River at Umatilla. Even outside of the Hanford reach, have to dig down and say, "Roll on Columbia!"