The PENguin Blog

One of the most exciting aspects of dealing in pens is the hunt, whether you are seeking a new Sheaffer’s Balance or something a bit more esoteric. What you see before you is a collection that I have been chasing for a almost a decade.  On Thursday, December 13, a lucky day for me, a huge box arrived. Of course, I immediately grabbed my knife and began carefully going into it. At the upper right, I began to get a hint of what lay within.  Things and stuff began to emerge. And finally some pens. But, in truth, nothing special here except the case itself. And more stuff What indeed? You open it! And find a huge handful of Pelikan figures. (Most of these are for sale, by the way.) I would have to wait another day for the second part of the shipment. I did not sleep much that night! Finally, Friday morning, a much smaller box, but these were the heart of the collection. In volume it is not a large collection, but b...

This is a "soft opening" announcement. The new Penguin website is open for business! Please stop by and look around the site and let us know what you like and don't like, and what you think. More Soon!!

Not just Christmas but the new website. We hope to have it up and running by the end of the week of December 7. Stay tuned for late-breaking news. This is just a teaser of some of the goodies we have in store. (So to speak.)

I realize that over the past few years this blog has dealt more with travel than with pens, but right now we are amped up about the new website. After what has seemed like ages the new site is about to come online. Right now I am estimating that you will be able to use it by mid-December, if not sooner. In the meantime I thought you might like to see how we are progressing. What has made the completion of the site possible has been the efforts of Franz Dimson, master photographer and Yuan Niu, cataloger extraordinaire. Here you see them hard at work with able assists from Freya the cat and Sharon Propas who helps fuel our efforts. Franz setting up a shot in the Penguin photo studio Yuan hard at work Sharon feeds us while we toil Freya makes sure our images are up to standards So what are we working on? Well here is what the site will look like once we are live: Please note that these are screen shots, the site itself is not yet live.  B...

  From Spokane we crossed the state of Washington in a generally southwestern direction. During the course of Thursday’s drive I wondered aloud if we had not somehow ended up in Oklahoma’s panhandle. I almost stopped to take a picture just to show why I wasn’t taking pictures. You get the idea. But at the end of it we spent pleasant late afternoon and early evening wandering along the Columbia River for a short walk and then a walk through town and early dinner. Friday saw us driving Oregon 97 from The Dalles through Bend, where we did not stop, to Klamath Falls where we did. It was a much nicer drive than the previous day, lots of scenery most of which I did not stop to photograph, but an old farmstead and then a piece of the DesChutes River did stop me. As fans of the Columbia River Gorge we were saddened to see the damage wrought by the Eagle Creek fire when we visited Mt. Hood this past summer. Today we were heartbroken to see the extent of the fire so far south...

Where to start? When Sharon began planning this trip, she informed me that we would be coming out of Glacier NP to Spokane. I was curious and suggested a second night here. Sharon reluctantly agreed. Midway through the afternoon she proclaimed herself glad that we had the day, and that was before dinner. Tuesday afternoon we checked into our hotel, The Montvale, in downtown Spokane, just behind a troupe of musicians, whose manager gave us a handout for their concert the next evening.  The Montvale began life in 1899 as a residential hotel for workers drawn to this northwestern boom town. Dinner, celebrating our 47 th wedding anniversary, was at The Steam Plant. This dining and shopping venue bwegan life providing steam heating for the entire downtown. It was a very nice meal in an amusing setting. We began Wednesday as Trip Advisor suggests with a top attraction, Manito Park. We drove through much of it until we hit the Nishinomiya Tsutakawa ...