Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Chasing Sunrises
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Sunrise . . . Sunset
Those of you who know us well know that I LOVE sunsets. The sun sets at about 4:45 these days in this part of the country, hence it's dark before you know it. Every once in a while in the winter, we get a clear morning and a beautiful sunrise, but sunrise isn't until 7:50am and most mornings, I'm teaching by then. This morning, before I left, I looked at my camera bag and SERIOUSLY thought about taking it with me, but decided it was too dark outside and there was no point in dragging all that equipment out for nothing. OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!! It was the most beautiful sunrise we've had in months and I have no pictures of it! I even watched the weather last night and KNEW that this was a possibility.
So I've sat at my computer this morning, mourning and repenting for not going with the prompting to take my camera. So in my remorse, I've looked through old sunrise and sunset pictures and found something to share anyway. I'm low on sunrise pictures because I'm either busy or asleep at that time of day, but I did find a sunset picture we took last summer that I haven't shared yet. (It's part of the not yet blogged pictures between July and November.) We found a great a place for beach fires south of Waldport a couple of years ago and go back regularly. This picture was taken after roasting hot dogs and marshmellows with Jan and Amanda in August at Patterson Wayside on the Oregon coast.
Monday, January 4, 2010
All Put Away Until Next Year
I got sidetracked today as I attempted to put away our few Christmas decorations. With the family gathering being at Thanksgiving instead of Christmas, we haven't put up a Christmas tree for a few years. We've simplified Christmas a lot since the kids have married and have their own families. I have to say that I miss all the decorations, but not putting them up and taking them down. This year we sent the tree we've had for 20 years to Brad and Mel and bought a beautiful, fully lit, 4.5 foot tree complete with urn. Easy up and I think it will be easy down. I just have to stop taking pictures around it long enough to find out. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Snow? Really?
Yes, really. Out of nowhere last week we got four inches of snow in four hours. The forecast was for a little rain. . . maybe. At about 3:00 it suddenly started to snow like crazy. Dave was at work with no car and dependent on public transportation to make the thirteen mile trip home. We thought it would surely let up and I could drive in and pick him up, but it didn't and the insanity of snow in Portland took over. It took him two and a half hours to get from the office to the Expo Center Park 'n' Ride and me two hours to make the six mile drive from home to him. Northbound was a piece of cake and we were home in fifteen minutes. If we don't see another snowflake this winter, it will be fine with us.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
New Year's Resolution. . .
to post at least once a month (hopefully more than that) whether we have pictures or not, just to say hi and we're doing fine. Also, please feel free to comment. I've tried to make it easy for you and we love to hear from you too.
This resolution does not officially begin until Friday, but "HI" and we are doing fine (just very busy). Hope all is well with you.
to post at least once a month (hopefully more than that) whether we have pictures or not, just to say hi and we're doing fine. Also, please feel free to comment. I've tried to make it easy for you and we love to hear from you too.
This resolution does not officially begin until Friday, but "HI" and we are doing fine (just very busy). Hope all is well with you.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Port Townsend to Keystone
We headed for home on Thursday, but found ourselves taking a couple of sidetrips first. We went to Mt. Vernon, but rather than going through Seattle and up I-5, we took advantage of the Washington Ferry system.
From Port Townsend, you can take a ferry to Keystone on the southwest side of Whidbey Island. The skies cleared about Sequim and so the cameras were back out on the ferry. The first picture was like a flash back in time.
There on the bay in Port Townsend was a catamaran exactly like our old one. Same color hull, same color tramp, and same color sails. It brought back some sweet memories.
You can see the Admiralty Head Lighthouse as you come into Keystone. They're still working on it, but it will be one of the largest and most striking in the state of Washington when it's done.
From Port Townsend, you can take a ferry to Keystone on the southwest side of Whidbey Island. The skies cleared about Sequim and so the cameras were back out on the ferry. The first picture was like a flash back in time.
There on the bay in Port Townsend was a catamaran exactly like our old one. Same color hull, same color tramp, and same color sails. It brought back some sweet memories.
You can see the Admiralty Head Lighthouse as you come into Keystone. They're still working on it, but it will be one of the largest and most striking in the state of Washington when it's done.
Salmon Fishing on the Strait of Juan de Fuca
Finally I can move on. On Monday we traveled further west on the peninsula. The whole objective of this trip each year is to go to Seiku to go salmon fishing. Seiku is about 25 miles from the Pacific Ocean on Clallam Bay.
We do our sightseeing first so that we don't have to babysit salmon on ice while vacationing. Our three days in Seiku can be described in one word--RAINY. Other than that it was great. The water was so flat that you could have water skiied on the strait. We went out fishing in the rain anyway, but only long enough to get a couple of pink salmon. We grilled one in August and it was one of the best salmon I've ever had. Unfortunately it was too wet and rainy to have cameras out for pictures.
We do our sightseeing first so that we don't have to babysit salmon on ice while vacationing. Our three days in Seiku can be described in one word--RAINY. Other than that it was great. The water was so flat that you could have water skiied on the strait. We went out fishing in the rain anyway, but only long enough to get a couple of pink salmon. We grilled one in August and it was one of the best salmon I've ever had. Unfortunately it was too wet and rainy to have cameras out for pictures.
O Canada
For some reason I’ve had “blogger’s block” and been completely unable to write anything about our trip to Victoria, so I’m turning this one over to Dave.
Our second morning in Port Angeles, we got up early and walked a couple of blocks to the ferry terminal, where we boarded the Coho Ferry to cross the Strait of Juan De Fuca to Victoria B.C.
After the 90 minute crossing we arrived in the Victoria inner harbor to the city’s signature Empress Hotel
and the Parliament Building.
We took a tour bus to the outskirts of the city and the Butchart Gardens. Millions of flowers and only two hours in the garden severely limited Linda’s attempt to get up close and personal with every flower.
While Linda took pictures of flowers, I took a walk to the famous sunken garden that was originally a lime quarry.
We returned to the city for lunch and toured the inner harbor in a water taxi.
While on the taxi, we shared the harbor with the numerous float planes that make use of the harbor airport.
As the day ended, we again boarded the Coho Ferry to return to Port Angeles. As we left the harbor, the sun came out and shone on the Empress Hotel as if to bid us farewell and invite us to return.
Our second morning in Port Angeles, we got up early and walked a couple of blocks to the ferry terminal, where we boarded the Coho Ferry to cross the Strait of Juan De Fuca to Victoria B.C.
After the 90 minute crossing we arrived in the Victoria inner harbor to the city’s signature Empress Hotel
and the Parliament Building.
We took a tour bus to the outskirts of the city and the Butchart Gardens. Millions of flowers and only two hours in the garden severely limited Linda’s attempt to get up close and personal with every flower.
While Linda took pictures of flowers, I took a walk to the famous sunken garden that was originally a lime quarry.
We returned to the city for lunch and toured the inner harbor in a water taxi.
While on the taxi, we shared the harbor with the numerous float planes that make use of the harbor airport.
As the day ended, we again boarded the Coho Ferry to return to Port Angeles. As we left the harbor, the sun came out and shone on the Empress Hotel as if to bid us farewell and invite us to return.
