Bellingham: Taylor St Boardwalk

Taylor St Boardwalk

Bellingham, WA

I was late to a steak dinner my mother was preparing in my honor last Monday evening. The reason I arrived at my parents house later than the time in which I had earlier in the day declared I would be arriving at was due to powers beyond my control. When I finally got to my parents house that evening my mother asked, "why are you late?" I responded "Because I couldn't leave a sunset like tonights." She looked me in the eye and said "it had better have been worth it". You be the judge, was it worth it? 

(The above dialogue was based on a true story. The actual words spoken may have been exaggerated in this retelling for the purpose of dramatization)

Travel: Willkommen

Highway 2

(near) Leavenworth, WA

A week ago I went to Oktoberfest in Leavenworth, the land of lederhosen, dirndls, beer and brats. The drive on Highway 2 in the month of October is a trip worth writing home about. We only stopped once to take a few pictures and for that, I am truly sorry. Sorry for you and sorry for myself. If I was in charge and didn't need to worry about the needs of others I would have stopped on the side of the road at least 12 to 15 times. I never would have made it to Leavenworth. It would have started to get dark and I would have turned back. These pictures aren't really that great, don't tell the whole story of how beautiful it was and generally just serve to make me wish I had more accurately captured what I saw on our little weekend trek. 

Seattle: UW vs CAL

Seattle WA / Husky Stadium

UW vs Cal

The U of W won the game. And we all know that when the Huskies win, America Wins. You're welcome America.

Travel: Kettle Valley Railway

Kelowna, BC

Myra Canyon/Kettle Valley Railway

Kelowna has more than just a big lake, nice golf courses, perfect summer weather, endless outdoor activities and a vibrant touristy downtown area. It also has a hiking/biking trail converted out of an old railway line up in the hills. No trains or tracks anymore, and a few years ago the old train trestles didn't exist either. They burned down in a massive forest fire. But they were rebuilt, and we walked over them. 

Travel: Kelowna means "Grizzly Bear"

Kelowna, BC

I was in Kelowna this past weekend. A nice little tourist town on Lake Okanagan in British Columbia. We swam, boated, kayaked, hiked, bocce'd, frisbeed, Pacho'd, and generally participated in other things of that nature. The weather was as you would expect it to be in this part of the world during this time of the year; a nice and dry 32 degrees celsius. After such a nice trip, I wanted to find out a little bit more about our 4 hour away neighbors to the North-East. I did some research and found out that 18.5% of Kelowna's residents are of retirement age. Nearly 1/5th of the total population! In addition, in July of 2007, "Wakefest", a wake boarding competition and music festival was canceled due to "general rowdiness". From these facts we can assume that Kelowna has one of the highest percentages of unruly old people in North America.

The Husky

Kato

Tyrell has a dog. A dog that is a husky. A husky dog that has eyes. Husky dog eyes that are unlike any eyes you have ever seen. They make diamonds look like rusty playdough globs. 

Seriously... those eyes. 

Travel: Labor Day

Deception Pass

Whidbey Island, WA

I don't like to brag. I really don't. Sometimes to a fault. I find I don't tell people things, perhaps important life things, because I feel like I may be bragging. But I must say, my 2011 Labor Day weekend was better than yours. It just was. That's what happens when you camp at the beautiful Deception Pass on the best weather weekend of the year. But I'm sure you had a nice little weekend as well.

Bellingham: Summer Recipe

North Cove : Lake Whatcom

Bellingham, WA

Summer Recipe:

- From the North Cove (pictured above) paddle board 25 minutes South to Camp Firwood on a clear as could be August evening. Set the temp to 74 degrees. Set the timer to 7:50pm.

- Hang out at camp all evening. Watch Center stage, ET and consume a serving dish sized bowl of Lucky Charms.

- Paddle board 20 minutes North on Lake Whatcom back to the North Cove on a clear as could be, starry filled August night. Set the temp to 64 degrees. Set the time to 12:15am.

Travel: The Hike

Clatsop County, OR

Saddle Mountain State Park

Imagine with me for a moment. Imagine you work in an office building. The tallest office building around. You are considered one of the lucky ones too because your office just so happens to be on the top floor. The very tippy top. Nothing above you. When other people in the building are asked what is above them they always say you are above them. You enjoy this man-made elevated work space. Your office is expansive and is very well decorated. Lots of lush plants and flowers, hardwood flooring, a little babbling brook runs through the center. You have a big oak desk, the CEO's former chair that he gave to you for "A+" work, the freshest and most crisp air around and wonderful art adorning the walls depicting nature at it's photographic best. When it comes to office accommodations, you have almost everything going right for you ... save for one minor (editors note: Major) detail. You have no view. The entire floor is windowless. No matter which way you look in your office, you can't see a darn thing. You know you are on the top floor of a very tall building, but you have no visual proof. The only times you get to see the pristine and seemingly limitless views of the building are when you come to work and when you leave for the day. And in order to see those views you have to take the stairs. You have to climb the whole way just to get a glimpse out of the few windows shedding light into the stairwell. But once you get to the top, where the supposed best views are, you are forced to sit and wonder what it all might look like.

That's what our hike was like. It was fun, a good sweat inducing challenge, it had some nice views on the way and many beautiful plants, trees and wildflowers. Overall, it was a worthwhile and enjoyable dash up a steep and tall mountain. But hanging over the top of said mountain, where the supposed 360 degree view was, lived a floating visible mass of condensed water vapor. Yes, a cloud. A cloud that limited our summit view to nothing. I could have stayed at home, put my head in a white bag and seen as nice a view as I did from the peak of Saddle Mountain. But I wouldn't have lost any calories. Oh those calories.

Travel: The Beach

Gearhart, OR

The Battlefield

It was on this beach that some of the worlds fiercest plastic army men battles took place. Pitting green vs gray, for hours on end my Father and I would engage in military combat WWII style deep in the dunes and beach grass of the Gearhart coast. Obviously I was always the diminutive green men, aka, the United States of God Bless America. My dad was relegated to battling with the grays, the hated enemy depicting the Nazi regime. These made for History Channel epic battles consisted of brilliantly strategic set-up, well planned out and executed attack formations and edge of your seat combat. We took our time mapping out our war plans then took turns sending imaginary volleys back and forth red rover style. Plastic men went flying. Sand exploded everywhere. Grenades broke gaps within the flanks of kneeling riflemen. Kamikaze tanks rumbled across open terrain taking no prisoners. Brave men crawled there way into enemy territory. Machine gun totting jeeps burst into action from their well camouflaged sand holes. We dueled back and forth until the gray army was no more. There were two reasons the green men always won. #1: USA. #2: I had well over twice as many green men as I did gray. Even though he was the wiser strategist and more knowledgeable general, my Dad unfortunately always took to the battlefield at a sever disadvantage. And as any good 7 year old military strategist would do, I exploited that disadvantage. For it was on this beautiful Gearhart beach that my dad taught me how to valiantly hold my own as a green army-men war reenactment commander.

...

He also taught me how to dig a hole in the sand and happily pee in public.

Travel: The Trail

Gearhart, OR

The Arduous Journey

The Beach cabin we stay in at the Oregon Coast is "on the Beach". Not California "on the beach" where you can literally throw your pet rock from the porch and have it land 20ft deep in the ocean. No, Gearhart, Oregon "on the Beach" means about 1/4th of a mile lies between the house and the soft, white-ish sands and the salty, freezing waters of the Pacific Ocean. In between the glories of the ocean beaches and comfort of the cabin exists a vast expanse of overgrown beach grass, sand, a few trees and more overgrown beach grass. Little trails carved out by the flip-flop toting feet of excited beach goers pervade through the great grassy expanse connecting civilization to the front porch of Western America. As a little child this distance was frighteningly long. As a spastic teen it was annoyingly inconvenient. Now, it's just part of the overall splendid experience.

Seattle: $3.50

There exists this profound little story about how sometimes we don't always get our way in life. It centers around our protagonist, me, not getting to stay home from school due to sickness because the antagonist, my mother, out-smarted me and called my bluff. In other words, I got parented. She somehow knew I wasn't indeed sick. But instead of just calling me out for being a snotty little faking lier and a disappointment to the family, she plainly noted how if I was too sick for school I was also too sick to attend my schools annual 50's dance that evening. Mom subtly went all in and all i could do was fold. If I had my way, I would have been able to skip out on school and still attend the dance that night with my friends. Instead, I got to go to the dance but also had to endure a day of public education. Moral: sometimes we don't always get our way in life.

This brings me to the picture above. You can see it depicts somewhat of a sunset off in the distance with the majestic 520 bridge featured prominently vanishing out over Lake Washington. I was hoping the sunset would explode and cover the sky in vivid, bright colors. It tried, but in the end failed to live up to my hopes and dreams. It was descent, but it wasn't what I wanted. Good thing I learned as a young child that we don't always get our way in life.

Bellingham: Firwood Staff Break

Firwood Staff Break Cruise

Bellingham Bay

If I had hoped to provide you with a photo journal of what a Firwood staff break boat cruise looks like, I wouldn't have chosen these photos. Based on this series, you really have no better idea of what happened on the cruise than I do of what happens to old Disneyland character costumes when they are no longer needed for use at the theme parks. In fact, only one of the frames contains an actual 2011 Firwood staff member. The problem was, I didn't take a lot of photos and thus don't have an accurate digital storybook of the comings and goings of the staff as they enjoyed a beautiful evening aboard Bellingham's finest whale watching adventure vessel. These photos above were just some of the random shots I ended up with at days end. You see, for 90% of the trip my Cannon was set to HD video mode. I shot video. I don't usually shoot video. It was a mostly brand new experience for me. And one day, perhaps one day soon, the collection of these moving picture files I helped create will be systematically bound together under the guidance and direction of musical composition to form a 3 to 4 minute long telling of a wonderful story called the Staff Break Cruise.