A Break in the Clouds

A few miles north, just off the Columbia River, is the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge. It’s several acres reserved as a bird sanctuary. There are two entrances. The north entrance is for hiking and the south entrance takes you around a thirty minute driving loop. With a brief break in the clouds and just a couple of hours before piano lessons, I decided to go out and take the driving loop. When you’re alone, it presents some challenges. Since you aren’t allowed to get out of your vehicle on the loop, all of these pictures were taken from the window of my car. There weren’t many birds out, but the sky and the leaves were beautiful.When you drive in, you drop down a hill to the river,and drive over a railroad bridge.Not long after I started my drive, a blue heron flew almost over the hood of the car. Since I wasn’t expecting such a shot, I wasn’t prepared to get it. After I went about halfway around the loop, there he was, sitting in the marsh. You may have to double click on the picture to see him.Canadian geese are every where up here in the spring and in the fall. This was just a small flock I came across.My favorite picture from my drive was of clouds and especially this one with the reflection in the water.It's taken years for me to be able to appreciate the different shades of blue and gray in the sky and the reflections of light in this area, but I've learned that there's beauty everywhere--even on a gray day--if you just look for it.

A Balmy November Night

Dave has always wanted to take pictures of the crystal towers at the Convention Center at night. A warm, breezy rainless Friday night opened the opportunity to finally go out and give it a try. With dark, rainy weather settling in for the winter, you just have to take the attitude that if you can't beat ‘em, join ‘em. I guess we'll be trying our hands at a lot of low light pictures.We got down there and found there were a lot more things in the area to take pictures of than just the crystal towers.The MAX lines run past the Convention Center and down to the Rose Garden. It was kind of fun to try taking pictures of moving trains in the dark.
We went downtown to take some pictures of signs, but the place was hoppin’ and there was NO PLACE to park, so we drove over to the east bank of the Willamette River to take pictures of the Portland skyline instead.We finished just in time, because as we were leaving, it started to rain—imagine that.

Is Rip City Back?

So in a weak moment last spring, after we went to a couple of Blazer games, we decided it was time to become NBA season ticket holders.The Portland Trail Blazers are one of the youngest teams in the NBA, full of energy, and fun to watch.The whole town is just abuzz with this young team and their potential.
We’re up in the cheap seats, of course, but every game is like a party, so it really doesn’t matter.
ESPN covered the home opener on Halloween Night, which only added to the party atmosphere.


It’s just a short walk from Dave’s office, so his parking pass comes in handy.If it’s too cold or rainy, we can just hop on the max with hundreds of our closest friends and ride back up to the Lloyd Center stop.Check ESPN on Friday to see the heart-stopping buzzer beater we saw tonight. The place was rockin'. What a way to spend rainy winter nights!!!