Why do immigration officials like blank pages

My passport is filling up. It’s only four years old, but has just three blank pages remaining, at least it did, until yesterday. Now it only has two, thanks to a Korean immigration official stamping one of the empty ones… right opposite a page of Korean stamps that could have fitted a few more, especially if previous officials were a bit less random.

Of course Korean’s aren’t the only offenders, I’ve a few pages with a solitary US stamp, again opposite a page with another one or two US stamps with plenty of room to spare. Japan makes things worse with a sticker on entry that takes up a quarter of a page and then of course (like most Asian immigrations) there is an exit stamp – that’s nearly half a page gone.

Time for me to apply to Global Entry so hopefully I can at least avoid US stamps…

A walk down Market Street

The day starts a little cloudy but there’s still a lot to see on Market Street if you like architecture. Perhaps like Seattle where the water makes a perfect grid impossible, streets meet at odd angles leading to non rectangular structures. I like the staggered windows on the side of the Golden Gate building.

There’s also some famous buildings like Hearst’s.

The streetcar also runs along Market, they’re not all the same though having been acquired over the years, some from other cities. It’s nice that they avoided painting them all the same way and maintaining some of their original persona.

At the end where Market meets The Embarcadero is the Ferry building, center of a huge farmers market that puts Pike Place to shame – hopefully once the viaduct comes down, the Seattle waterfront could be converted into something like this.

Up in the air

Couple nice shots on the way to the Bay Area…

Mount St Helens – you can see how the whole northern side collapsed, though hard to make out the dome rebuilding at this angle – it’s contrasting rock in the upper left below the crater wall.

And another volcanic feature – Crater Lake in Oregon – 5 by 6 miles across. The cinder cone here is the little Wizard Island near the top of the lake.