Travel: Moses Lake

A Lakefront Park

April 21 . 2012

As I am sure every good red blooded American city would, the fine people of Moses Lake named their disease ridden, greenish colored body of water after a fine Biblical man. The legend goes, as Moses the man delivered an entire nation from the shackles of slavery so too did Moses the lake deliver the people of Eastern Washington from the sorrows of drought and thirst. I cannot guarantee that this legend is true, but it makes too much sense not to be. The town of Moses Lake isn't much, but to its credit, it does exist. So to celebrate the existence of this township we took a squadron of little 7th grade baseball players and competed against the finest All Star teams the state of Washington has to offer. In the end, we came up one run short of winning the championship. But as we packed up our gear and headed out of town for a 4 hour drive home, I couldn't help but think we were the winners that day. For you see, the real victory was realizing we didn't live in Moses Lake. 

Bellingham: Room with a View

Forest Ridge

April 14 . 2012

I happened upon this view by accident. Or if you believe everything happens for a reason, I happened upon this view for a reason. I was there for about 20 minutes. For about half of that twenty minutes I was calculating in my head how much I thought the houses that shared this view were valued at. The point of this exercise was to determine whether or not I could ever afford to purchase a house with a view such as this. A realist would point out that I have no idea what my future earnings will be and thus have no idea whether or not future Kile could ever afford a house on this hill. The realist makes a valid point. Realists are no fun.

Bellingham: Maritime x2

Maritime Heritage Park

April 14 . 2012

Last time I was at this park I noted how healthy the creeks water flow was. To recap: it was healthy. This time I learned about the reproductive habits of the salmon that run amuck through the fish ladders. I did that because I could. There are signs, diagrams and other educational material littered throughout the park detailing how salmon, little delicious salmon, create more little delicious salmon. I remember coming to this park as a younger version of myself on school field trips. It was always a good time. This time wasn't as good. Fish education isn't much fun anymore. 

Bellingham: Parkade x2

Parkade

April 14 . 2012

Bellingham doesn't have a lot of towers. In fact, it has no towers. There is one building that bills itself as the Bellingham Towers. But when you look at it, it only seems like a tower because you are comparing it to the other baby buildings around it. If you stuck the Bellingham Towers in Seattle, realtors would list it as a two story condo with a daylight basement. It's not a tower. It's just not. There once were plans for a building that more resembled a tower. It was going to be very glassy, have some nice condos and be situated downtown with a view to beat all views. But the people who usually whine about things here in Bellingham whined about that and succeeded in having it shut down. That or the economy did. Either way, we have no towers. Thus, no great downtown viewpoints. Save for one... maybe. It's no Space Needle, it's not even the Smith Tower (Seattle reference), but it's all we got. 

Bellingham: The Bellwether

Bellwether

Bellingham, WA

Don't call it a comeback... I've been here for years

Let's call the last month and a half blog post hiatus a direct result of the gloomy, soul destroying weather we've been experiencing recently here in the great Northwest. Also, we'll blame it on a lack of time. But recently, as in two days ago, I found myself with a little time and what amounted to be fairly nice weather. It was warmish, it was sunnyish, and dare I say it, It felt like spring. Or at least it felt like spring was on its way. So to celebrate the onset of happier days, and to make sure I didn't waste what little sun we get this time of year, I headed down to the Bellwether and did stuff. 

Bellingham: Crystalline Water Ice

James St / Bakerview

Bellingham, WA 

This most recent snow fall lasted about 4 days. We got a fair dumping of snow. In that time I built no snowmen, created no snow angels, tunneled through no snow banks, crafted no igloos, consumed no snow cones, slid down no hills on my red flyer sled, and threw one single snow ball directed at a human being. The 8 year old Kile would look at me now and drop his head in shame. I'm sorry 8 year old Kile, I failed you.

Bellingham: Rando Winter Musings

SnowNami 2012

Bellingham, WA

Bellingham: Parking Garages

Downtown Parkade

Bellingham, WA

I've been to a lot of parking garages in my day. Parking garages are not special places. They are dark, dirty & dingy concrete monstrosities that exist to be the eyesores of urban civilization. To their credit they are the most efficient means of cramming as many vehicles as possible into as little footprint as is available. But rarely is efficiency accomplished in such uninspiring and forgetful ways as parking garages.  No one designs and builds a parking garage in the hopes it will become a wonderful memory in the life of it's occupants. Yet unassumingly, a wonderful memory is exactly what the Bellingham Downtown Parkade has become.  

Living Vicariously through My Former Self: Le Cinque Terre

Le Cinque Terre, Italy

I know I said in the last post that I would want to go back to pretty much every single place I visited on my little treck across Europe. That remains true. But like any good parent who has a favorite child, I also have a favorite city. This favorite city actually isn't a city at all, but rather a little collection of villages strung together by a train track and a hiking trail. These quaint little villages make up what the locals call Le Cinque Terre. Made touristy popular by the Northwests favorite travel guide Rick Steves, these towns are tucked into ravines, crammed across hillsides and situated perfectly against beaches. If you don't ever visit Le Cinque Terre in your lifetime you are doing yourself a disservice. Plus, the pesto is delicious. Have the pesto.  

Living Vicariously through My Former Self: Rome

Rome, Italy

I was born in 1986. What else happened in 1986? McDonald's opened its largest store to date. A 425 seat behemoth in the heart of Rome was considered by many locals to be the "death of Italian Cuisine". Based on the food I ate in this fine city that apparently wasn't built in a day, I'd say Italian cuisine has survived quite nicely. I would go back to Rome in a second if someone offered me the chance to. That's not saying much though since I would go back to practically every destination I visited on my month long venture through Europe. In descending order, we have the view from the Spanish Steps, a peek inside the doorway of the Pantheon,  a cross in a public square and an old buildings front door. 

Living Vicariously through My Former Self: Vatican

St. Peters Basilica

Vatican City

Life is all about taking what was once great, remastering it and trying to improve upon that greatness by creating a new, even greater reincarnation of that original greatness. If George Lucas could do it with Star Wars and DC Talk could do it with the Free at Last EP, I can surely do it with some of my European pictures. I surely can and I surely did. I rummaged through my external hard drive and selected/re-edited some of the finest digital images I created while backpacking my way through the southern half of Europe. For a quick historical recap, I traveled overseas to Europe in the summer of 2007. I'd been given the flight discount pricing of a lifetime. $300 round trip to fly standby on Delta. $300!!! I had to take up this opportunity, and I did. I hugged the Mediterranean heading east hitting Spain, Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece and Italy once more. Due to the beauty of the sights, the historical depth and the company I kept and met, this trip was amazing. Due to my lack of planning, foresight and understanding of whether it's smart to trust strangers, this trip had some weird, crazy and generally unsafe moments. But that's bound to happen when you're travelling Europe. Below were three favorites from Rome, specifically the Vatican City. As I say often, no picture can really capture the greatness of what I was witnessing. But I did my best. 

A Very Ulysses Christmas

Bellingham Covenant Church

Bellingham, WA

Christmas came early for me this year. That, or my 25th Birthday came really, really late. I just found $50 in a birthday card from last March. I was cleaning out my room, going through old magazines and cards. The crisp bill slipped out of one of those cards and landed ever so softly on my lush, just vacuumed, carpeted floor. It didn't make a sound, but if it did make a sound, it would have been a very beautiful sound. Ulysses S. Grant just sat there staring at me in his stoic yet joyful way, almost as if to say, "Merry Christmas Kile, may your days be merry and bright." Thank you Mr. Grant and thank you sender of the birthday card. 

Bellingham: Dealing w/ Celebrity Status

Whatcom Museum of History

Bellingham, Wa

Fact: I once had a photograph displayed in a gallery at the Whatcom County Museum. Let me repeat myself, I had a picture in a Museum! Be amazed. Be proud. But before you decide how amazed and proud you are of me, know this; I was in 4th grade. Hundreds of other elementary students from the local public school system were granted the same honor as I and my feature photograph was a 4x6 affixed to the wall by a couple of rolled up pieces of scotch tape. The louvre this was not. But still, pretty amazing right? Well, let me explain further. I technically didn't even take the picture. One day in class, my teacher took each student outside one by one. He had a disposable camera. I walked out with him and he asked me where I wanted him to point the camera. I pointed, he pressed the shutter button and took a picture in that general direction. To finish the assignment, he asked me to name the picture. I hadn't even seen it yet and I was tasked with granting a name to my fresh new piece of art. I succumbed to the pressure and said, "Nature". It was a picture of a big oak tree. Oak trees are nature. I named it Nature. Turns out "Nature" was my ticket to the big time. A few weeks later I received a flyer declaring my photo a "winner", meaning it would be displayed at the great Whatcom County Museum along with hundreds of other "winners". This was clearly a socialists idea of winning. Still, my art in a museum! My mom drove me down one evening while the gallery was on display. We sauntered around, gave quizzical looks and pointed at things for no reason like good art observers do until we found "Nature". The colors were dull, the tree was poorly centered in the frame and and subject itself lacked anything of real interest. But that was my picture. My picture displayed in a public forum for all to admire, gush over and simply sit in awe of. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't that grand. But at least when my friends ask me "can you imagine what it's like to be a famous photographer?" I can respond, "yes, yes I can."

Travel: Fort Casey

Fort Casey State Park

Whidbey Island, WA

Travel: Hawaii x3

Maui, HI

Menehune Shores x2

These were all taken around the condo where we stayed. In fact, the middle picture is the condo where we stayed. Other highlights include 1. The view from the condo roof, 2. A grassy trail, 4. Some beach chairs and 5. a 15 megapixel photo of an 8 megapixel photo of the sunset. 

Travel: The Unknown

Big Beach, Makena State Park

Maui, HI

Unbeknownst to anyone in my traveling party, on the other side of this wonderful beach we attended exists a place called Little Beach. You might think they named it that because it's small and short, crammed in between two big rock formations. However, the locals might say it's called that because it's like a little slice of Europe. The Europe they would be referring to is the nudist beach part of Europe. I can confirm that the beach on the other side of the rocks is in fact a nudist beach because the stoner who offered me a joint said in order to get to the cliff jumping rocks you had to go up over the large rock mountain and around the nudist beach. After I was told this, I was also asked to not tell anyone that said person who was smoking a blunt was in fact smoking a blunt because his Dad was a famous politician on the island. Hawaii !!

Travel: Puka 'ana La

Maui, HI

Menehune Shores

If you can't take a decent sunset picture in Hawaii you shouldn't own a camera. 

Seattle: Mighty are the Memories

Husky Stadium

November 5 . 2011

(click on the picture if you believe it should be larger)

I took a shot similar to this a few weeks ago when I was at the Colorado game. I posted it a few posts ago. But this was the final game at the Husky Stadium that was the Husky Stadium before it will become the new Husky Stadium. So clearly I needed a final panorama to celebrate the occasion. Some things will change with the refurbished stadium, most notably that track will be gone. Though it will be great to have that eyesore out of the way, it will be sad to see a few other things go by the way side. The most obvious of course being the tile peeing walls in a select few men's bathrooms. Sure most of the peeing walls had already been replaced by troughs or in a few cases urinals, but the few remaining walls were special to me. Where else in the world was it not only encouraged but expected that you let it all out all over a wall. No need to aim, no need to worry about back splash up on to the rim of the bowl, no need to think really. Just pee. To the right, to the left, up, down. Sign your name in cursive. Play a quick game of tic tac toe with your neighbor. Wherever and however you wanted to pee was fine at Husky Stadium in the special walled urine depositories. It's a little kids dream to be given the freedom to pee all over a wall. Husky Stadium made my little dreams a big reality.