Spring Sailing from Seattle to Alaska with UnCruise

My friend and I arrived in Alaska after a quick, seamless run up the Inside Passage (learning cribbage and Thai partner-yoga – among other things – en route). We gawked at eagles, black bears and badass paddleboarders! And then the Northern Lights came out to play... #Uncruise

Top: paddleboarders in Misty Fjords National Monument. Above: the Northern Lights over Ketchikan, AK.  While barely visible to the naked eye, the aurora popped in-camera, even from a boat at anchor! Copyright amandacastleman.com.

From The Emerald City to the Salish Sea...

Seattle's Ballard locks and the Space Needle, viewed from Elliott Bay. Copyright www.amandacastleman.com

I lived beside Seattle's Hiram M. Chittenden Locks for eight years... and have even climbed inside the pipes while reporting. But I never sailed from Lake Union into Puget Sound until today with UnCruise Adventures. What a great start to 12 days of yoga, hikes and paddle expeditions up the Inside Passage to Juneau!

A Conversation Senator Chris McDaniel (R-MS) Can't Face

Dear Senator Chris McDaniel,
Here's my post that you deleted from Facebook, just before blocking my access to post. In the spirit of open debate, I'm just going to archive it here...

I'm going high, since you go low, patronizing us with a dismissal of "cute" and the outright lie about why 3.2 million Americans (and counting) marched in THE LARGEST DEMONSTRATION IN US HISTORY. I protested for healthcare; the environment; press freedom for the rights of women, minorities, the disabled, LGBT communities and victims of domestic violence. Condemn that if you will. History will show you are on the side of a man violating our Constitution's Emoluments Clause, among other offenses to law, tradition and morality. It will not be kind to you and yours.



Best,
Amanda Castleman

On Caesar, Christmas and Compassion Fatigue: An Essay

I've dined out on this story for years, but never understood its message until I cared for two dying relatives in the horrorshow of 2016...

My essay about holiday travel and compassion fatigue just debuted in the APEX (Airline Passenger Experience Association)...

Posted by Amanda Castleman on Wednesday, 7 December 2016

All Stranger Are Kin: Adventures in Arabic & the Arab World

Copyright amandacastleman.com

I nabbed the last autographed copy of my friend Zora O'Neill's fabulous book at Seattle's Elliott Bay Book Company this weekend. I can't wait to dig in!

Seattle Women March Against Hate

Copyright amandacastleman.com

I loved all the fellowship and fierce signs at the Seattle Women March Against Hate today, where 3,000 to 4,000 of us took to the streets of Capitol Hill. #LoveWins

• Abort the patriarchy!
• America expects clean water, clean air & clean government!
• Black lives matter!
• Build community not walls!
• Calling him president is like barfing up a yuge orange hairball!

• Can't comb over misogyny!
• Cascadia rejects the oligarchy!
• Cersei would not put up with this shit!
• Children are watching — the future deserves better!

• Consent in the sheets, dissent in the streets!
• The coolest girls stand up for each other!

• Daenerys would not put up with this shit

• Don the con!
• Don't forget pussies have nine lives!
• Don't mourn, organize!
• Elevate the art of questioning!
• Feminism — back by popular demand!
• Fierce love!

• Fuck you, Donald!
• Girls just wanna have FUN-damental rights!
• Hate is a lack of imagination!
• Hate not welcome here!
• Hate won't make us great!
• I will not go quietly back to the 1950s!
• Keep the oval office out of my oval office!
• Keep your tiny hands off my pussy!
• Keep your rosaries off my ovaries!
• Love trumps hate!
• Make love, not walls!
• Mein Drumpf!

• My favorite position? BOSS!
• Never lose your sense of outage! 
• No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA!

• Not Mein Fuhrer!
• No white supremacists in the White House!
• Only weak men fear strong women!

• Orange Voldemort!
• Predator in chief! P.S Trump, you suck!
• Pussy grabs back!
• Rape is not presidential!
• Refugees welcome, racists go home!
• Register Trump as a sex offender!

• Rise above hate!

• This pussy votes. I will not go quietly!
• This land is your land!

• Viva la vulva!
• We are all immigrants!

• We shall over comb
• A woman's place is in the revolution!
• You are loved! 

(I missed so many great signs – please let me know your favorites and I'll update this post!)

It's Like Phoenix Knew We Were Comining...

Copyright amandacastleman.com

Murals and Pomegranite-seed Guacamole in Calle 16!

Copyright amandacastleman.com