Trout Lake 2015

On June 5, 2015 By stefrobrtsIn airstream, barclay, dave, Me, navi, outdoors, photography, scenic1 Comment

Time again for the annual trip to Trout Lake to hang out with my Airstream friends. We packed up the trailer, the dogs, and it seemed like more miscellaneous ‘stuff’ than ever before. Maybe it just felt that way because the Flex is so small and the Van was so big! We headed off after work on Thursday so we could get in an extra day.

We rolled into town to find a thunderstorm hiding the mountain top and obscuring the sunset.

We got settled in, said hello to everyone, and soon after crashed for the night. As I lay in bed in the complete darkness, I thought my eyes were playing tricks as I saw flashes, but the thunder told us it was the lightening storm. Kind of cool.

The next day the Airstreams kept rolling in. All our usual friends, and a few we had missed last year. A sad trip for our friends Carolyn and Loren, as they had just lost their beautiful German Shepherd Cosmo. Cosmo had been a fixture at the rally for 7 years, where he would hang out by the campfire with them, but if Mom and Dad weren’t together, he would patrol the camp going back and forth between them, checking on them. Such a good boy. It was so sad to hear of his passing.

Soon there were enough people to stir up a card game, which Dave got in on.

Puzzles came out too …

and guitars. Camping is the life!

The dogs hung out in their dog-yard. I had started prepping the trailer a couple weeks before we left, and was happy to find everything worked. We used the fridge all weekend, and only needed to run the furnace a couple nights because the weather was so mild. With the LED lights, we didn’t even come close to running out of power.

Our friend Chris showed up with his Caravel, and his new/old Bronco.

Cory, Carolyn, Jerry, Patsy, Karen, Dave and Loren entertain themselves. I think this was shortly before they decided to ‘make it interesting’ and start playing for pennies!

Barclay can watch the activities from bed!

When we have the dogs we usually fold the dinette down into a bed all day.

Both dogs like laying in the ‘doghouse’ under the bed. Navi decided it was hers and growled furiously if Barclay tried to invade it. Which he occasionally did, just to annoy her.

Airstreams of all shapes and sizes – vintage, Interstate, and Argosy!

Greg got the fire all stirred up

Sunset over the creek behind the campground

So many friends, good food, jamming around the campfire at night (I even brought my guitar this time) – wears you out. I’ve never slept so well in my life!

The next morning we headed over to the county park to partake of their showers. You can shower in the Caravel, but why make a mess in there, when you can make a mess in someone else’s shower instead? Seemed like a good deal to me! Then we went to the Ranger Station and got a map and directions for the local attractions.

We wandered off into the woods to find the Big Lava Bed. Turns out it is indeed big, but hard to access, and I didn’t even really get any pictures of it!

Back to camp, this is the view at the porta-john – one of the prettiest in camp!

Flags were flying in the wind. All that wind blowing through the trees around camp made for a fabulous afternoon nap while Dave went and played cards.

Peanut butter kongs keep the dogs occupied.

In the evening I play guitar until my fingers were too sore to play anymore, so I packed it in, and grabbed my camera. The wind had blown away the clouds. I finally had a chance (and the equipment and know-how, to do this:

Cozy little trailer.

The next morning we headed up to see Langfield Falls. Along the way we stopped for views of Mt Adams and Beargrass.

Thanks to the dry winter, the falls was only running down one side, instead of covering the whole rock.

We saw a sign to Mosquito Lake, and decided we HAD to check that out. A whole lake of mosquitoes, how fun! (sarcasm) But alas, there were no mosquitoes. It was actually very nice. Must have hit it at just the right time of year. It made us wish we had a kayak!

On the way up there we had to stop to let a small group of Elk stroll across the road. Of course I didn’t get a picture of THAT!

On the way back, we stopped by the Big Tire. Seriously, it’s on the MAP.

Yup, that’s big alright.

Coming back we had a peek at Sleeping Beauty from a different angle. Not quite as face-like from over here.

We went back through town and headed out past the campground in the other direction looking for the biggest Ponderosa Pine in WA – known as The Big Tree.

I suppose it’s kinda big.

Pretty, delicate little flowers in this area.

Back to Trout Lake, to stop for lunch at the Café/Gas Station/Espresso/Ice Cream Shop

As you might guess, the only place in town. But actually kind of awesome.

Back to the trailer for lunch..

And Siesta. I cleaned out a drawer in the trailer and found a bunch of paperbacks. Dave started reading a Star Wars book he had tried to read on previous trips, and I found an old X Files novel. What a great way to geek out during afternoon downtime!

I take this picture every year!

I never get tired of looking at the mountain!

At sunset I took the dogs for a walk, looked up, and saw the setting sun had somehow created a rainbow in the clouds, right over Sleeping Beauty’s face! I ran the dogs all the way back to the trailer to get my camera and get a shot before the phenomenon disappeared!

I love it! And I love Sleeping Beauty.

One more night of singing around the fire, followed by a peaceful night’s sleep, and in the morning, it was time to go.

Trout Lake is always over too soon! We love visiting with our friends, catching up, singing songs, watching the campfire, sharing potlucks, playing games, taking naps, and playing music. We will get together again before summer is over, but Trout Lake is an awesome start to the season. Many thanks to our friends Janet and Gary for pulling us all together for another year.

CA Adventure Part 5–San Francisco

On May 1, 2015 By stefrobrtsIn dave, Me, scenic, travelLeave a comment

We headed out of Yosemite into the endless flat farmland of the central valley. Not much to say about that. We ended up in:

Modesto!

We stayed at a hotel right in town. ON the way in I had looked up a place for dinner, and Yelp recommended a pizza place attached to a motorcycle shop. When we checked in we mentioned it to the guy at the front desk to get a local’s opinion – ‘oh, that place, no, that’s a dive. Besides, it’s too full of kids and families. I’ll tell you where to go…’ He gave us the name of another place. When I looked it up on Yelp, people pretty much said it was a dank dive bar. We went with the pizza place, and it was good!

Not much to say about Modesto, but in the morning we had a walk around and saw this historic mansion right behind our hotel. Kind of cool. Unfortunately, not open on Mondays.

We continued the long, boring drive back to civilization.

One of the things on my to-do list was to drive over the Marin Headlands and get a picture of the bridge from up high. There were a surprising number of people doing the same thing, and the pull-offs were actually packed full! I was really happy with this shot though.

We continued up to this old battery Rathbone – McIndoe.

Back around to the bridge, we took another loop up to see if we could stop at any of the other overlooks, but they were packed. Though we had some nice views of the beaches.

There’s something about seeing that iconic bridge that is breathtaking every time. It’s so amazing to be looking at it in person!

We finally headed across it to spend some time in the city before heading to San Jose for our flight.

The Palace of Fine Arts. We walked all around the outside. They were between exhibits, so they only had a tiny inside area open to the public.

Dave found a Weeping Angel. Well, maybe not, but a bit creepy, all the same.

Down to Fisherman’s Warf…We wandered around and stopped for an In & Out burger then went and found a bench to eat at while watching the bay. We actually planned this lunch specifically to have one of those before we left CA, because we kept hearing how great they were – it was the most bland burgers we’ve had! Now I have to question the taste of anyone who tells me they thing those are awesome. They were the same quality I would expect out of your basic cafeteria – nothing to write home about.

With lunch out of the way we went and drove that steep windy road, because we hadn’t done it before, and it seems like everyone should do it at least once! Then we went and checked out the tower on the hill. But time was running out, we had to head back to San Jose.

This is how the San Jose Airport greets you. Is it just me, or are the disembodied hands kind of creepy? It’s not just me, right? Up close it was kind of a cool artwork. It was mesh panels with round white pieces – think of large pop bottle caps stuck into a chain link fence –that were the pixels to make up the image. Creative!

The airport had this crazy piece of security art. It had cameras and screens showing what it’s cameras saw, and the insect-like body rotated around as it took in everybody in the area. It was pretty fascinating.

And that was it. Well, almost. Dave missed a quarter in his pocket, causing him to get singled out for the rubber glove treatment. Once they discovered the quarter, it seemed a bit punitive to continue feeling him up, but hey, TSA’s got to do what they got to do. Soon as they were done with that, we were back on a plane identical to the one that had started our adventure, and a short time later were back on the tarmac at PDX. Picked up the dogs from Scott & Sherry, and went back to our regular lives.

It’s so hard to go back to work and sit in a cubicle after having an adventure like this. Hopefully we will squeeze a few more in before summer is over.

CA Adventure Pt 4 – Yosemite

On April 26, 2015 By stefrobrtsIn dave, Me, scenic, travel, yosemite1 Comment

The next morning we got up bright and early, packed up and piled into the rental, and headed off to spend our day at Yosemite. Because we had had a big dinner, neither of us was interested in breakfast yet, so we headed straight for the park.

First thing you see as you come into the park is this cool granite tunnel. Would an Airstream even FIT through there?!

Initially I was frustrated because I knew there was a great view of the valley, and as we followed the road in, I understood where that view was, I just couldn’t see it from our side of the loop road. It is from an overlook that you only see on the road on the way OUT of the valley! So we drove in and stopped at the sights along the way as we wound our way back there.

The first sight once you get to the main loop is El Capitan across the meadow on the other side of the river..

And Bridalveil Falls on the road side. We didn’t walk back to it, we’ll save that for when we have more time.

Lesson 1: Everything at Yosemite is bigger than you ever imagined! It’s breathtakingly HUGE, and around every corner is another jaw dropping, amazing mountain of rock rising up impossibly high. It’s just stunning.

We continued along the loop and as soon as there was a place to turn around we went back towards El Capitan Meadow, stopping there for a few minutes to look around. Now we could see Cathedral Rocks and Spires, which we couldn’t see from the other side of the loop when we were at their base! Again, they are impossibly huge and imposing.

Dave snapped a picture of me searching the walls around El Capitan for rock climbers.

Bridalveil again, but from the other side of the river…

We continued down the road and missed the turnout, had to park and walk back to it – we finally found Valley View. THAT’S what I was waiting for!

I could have looked at this all day.

Dave snapping a picture of El Capitan

We finally got going back on the loop towards the visitors center, and stopped to pull off at the Swinging Bridge with a view of Yosemite Falls and Sentinel Dome.

Grabbed a friendly stranger and had them snap a pic of Dave and I

Continuing past the visitor’s center we finally got a great view of Half Dome on the right, and Royal Arches and North Dome on the left.

Again, just so so big. So big. I don’t even have words for how impressive all this is. If I had time I would have liked to just pull out a chair and sit there all day watching the light and shadows change on the rocks as the sun moved across the sky. But this trip was just going to be a quickie.

We headed back to the visitor’s center, talked to a helpful person at the desk and decided to take the Mirror Lake trail after lunch, as a way to get off the main road and see a bit more before the day was out. We went in the visitor’s center and watched a short movie about the history of Yosemite. After watching it I felt so grateful and touched that people so long ago had worked to preserve it for us to visit today!

And here’s the other thing. I know it was partly because we were there in the off season, but it felt like we almost had the place to ourselves. There were a lot of people there, but it didn’t really feel that way at any of the stops. It wasn’t annoyingly crowded anyway. Lots of foreigners, which was interesting, it seemed like every person we heard talking was speaking a different language. But still, when we wanted to stop and just stare in wonder at something, we could do it and didn’t feel pushed to hurry up and move on.

After resting at the movie, we tried to swing by the deli and pick up lunch, but everyone had the same idea at the same time, and the place was slammed! There was a little store there and so instead we picked up some pre-packaged snacks – jerky, a muffin, chips, some drinks, etc, and jumped on the bus to get to the trailhead for Mirror Lake.

The path to Mirror Lake was beautiful. It wound through tall trees, and giant boulders. It was an easy walk, reminded me of the trails at BG Lake.

Mirror Lake was really just a wide spot in the river. There was a big stone out there, and the lake reflected the granite walls of the valley.

The river went over a little natural dam and down some rocks, and we sat on a boulder at the bottom of that and ate our lunch and watched people carefully pick their way across the log jam, waiting to see them fall in!

This was one of my favorite shots of the trip. They made it!

We headed on back, and I took a picture of Dave on the trail

Right before a giant rock fell on him – ha ha

Nah, just goofin’ around! Here I had him pause on the trail to give some scale to the boulders on either side. I couldn’t believe we were just walking through this amazing rock fall.

Along the way we stopped and watched as this couple decided to wade across the river.

Back through the tall trees on the way back.

Unfortunately, this was all the time we had, we needed to get started back towards San Jose before it got too late. We rode the shuttle back to our car and headed out, stopping at Valley View one last time for another picture now that the sun was lighting up this side of the cliffs. It’s so magnificent, it’s just amazing.

We headed out of the valley, up a long hill, and along the way we saw a couple pull offs. We stopped at the last one before it looked like we would be over the hill and gone. We looked back towards the valley and what did we see? A breathtaking view of El Capitan, Half Dome, and Cathedral just over the ridges.

The pull out had a marker with a 3D Half Dome to compare to the real thing.

And that was our last glimpse of beautiful Yosemite Valley. But we’ll be back again. I definitely did NOT see enough of Yosemite.

Beach Weekend

On March 21, 2015 By stefrobrtsIn dave, travelLeave a comment

A couple weeks ago Dave and I dropped the pups off at Scott & Sherry’s and headed for the beach. I was too lazy to de-winterize the Airstream, so we just headed over that way, and figured we’d find a place to crash for the night once we got there. By the time we got in it was about 10pm, and a nasty rainstorm was hitting the beach pretty hard. We ended up at the Surftides in Lincoln City. Conveniently close to a Casino Dave wanted to hit!

The next morning we still weren’t rich, and the weather looked like this!

Yuck! Well, it didn’t stop us from exploring. We headed down the beach towards Newport, stopping to take pictures along the way. Dave protected me and the camera with the big umbrella while I got the shots. This is one of my favorites!

I jokingly told a coworker that there is a sign 500 ft from this rock stating that all tourists are required by law to take a picture of it, or face a fine. Maybe it just seems like that. It did come out pretty nice though!

Once we got to Newport, we headed down to the waterfront. We had one destination in mind, and we could hear them barking as soon as we stepped out of the car:

They built a nice system of floats for the Sea Lions to hang out on. It seems like every Sea Lion in town had heard about it, because they were barking and fussing at each other, with everyone trying to squeeze onto the floats, knocking others off!

They are just so endearing when they are laying in giant sleepy piles all cozy with their eyes closed…

This guy in particular looked like nothing in the world could phase him.

What could be better than an afternoon nap in the sun with your buddies?

We then headed out for a walk in between downpours to get some shots of the bridge

I liked this stormy view of flags on the beach overlooking the Marina.

The Flex was our choice for this trip.

After we had enough of hiking around the bridge, it was off to The Chowder Bowl, our favorite place on the beach. We like to park at the parking lot at the bottom of the hill overlooking the beach, get our food to go and go back to the car and stuff ourselves silly while watching the beach activities, the waves, and the seagulls. Since we’re safe in our car they never even know we are there.

Oh Hi, Do you have some food in there?

Mine?

Good thing we were protected by a windshield!

I was very happy with this shot of the gulls all hanging out on the pylons.

And of course there’s always someone who comes along and starts throwing food to them, and it turns into a free-for-all.

(I particularly like the guy on the roof. Mine?)

Off to Yaquina Head Lighthouse. I just wanted to take some pictures of the lighthouse, but we got there just in time for the last tour of the day, so why not? It was SUPER WINDY out by the lighthouse. He’s not even making that up!

I didn’t get any great pictures inside the lighthouse. How about a grainy view up the iron steps

And a peek out the window in the tower on the way up. Note: That’s not converted to black and white, it was just a really grey day!

Back outside I got a classic lighthouse shot,

Followed by my favorite shot of the day, a lone tree out in a field of grass, with dark storm clouds. I love it!

On the way back to Lincoln City we swung by Fogarty Creek (I think) and actually got a little sand in our shoes.

Then we had dinner at the Surftides restaurant, which was very good, but they had a guy in the lounge playing 80s covers. He was good, but it was just too loud for the small space. Luckily they were able to move us to the farthest back corner so we could finish dinner without suffering significant hearing damage.

The next morning we had to get moving. I looked out our window at the beach and saw all these seagulls grounded. They were probably tired of fighting the storm. I thought it was funny they were all pointed in the same direction.

I walked outside to get a picture of the cool mid-century pool house at the hotel. I figured I’d walk out to the road and get a pic of the sign in front of it…

But by the time I crossed the road the most sudden drenching downpour I have ever experienced struck. It was literally like being in a shower! This shot was the best I could do with the camera mostly under my coat and getting soaked!

That was pretty much the story the rest of the way home. It was like the second coming of Noah. It was like the clouds were dumping all their rain for the whole winter at once. Maybe they were, because since then we’ve actually had super nice weather. I guess it’s nice to get it all over with!

Dave and I had a fabulous time as always. He enjoyed some Casinos, I got some pictures, we both enjoyed some good clam chowder. I good time was had by all. We enjoyed our little spontaneous beach vacation!

Bored? Games!

On December 28, 2014May 29, 2018 By stefrobrtsIn dave, mighty, TheRanchoLeave a comment

We had an awesome after-Christmas part last night, with Michelle, Scott & Sherry, and Sitka and Sake. We stuffed ourselves silly and played board games, and after discovering we were all really awful at Trivial Pursuit, we moved on to Apples to Apples, followed by a rousing game of Pictionary – a good time was had by all!

Even Mighty didn’t let the company or the pack of eskimos bother her, she spent most of the evening sitting in laps, clawing the guests, and lounging in the middle of the action with her tummy up.

So, today I felt like we needed some more board games to add to our party stash. Now that we live in town, we can have friends over more often, might as well be prepared!

We headed out to the local games store and examined all the board games. I was very temped to pick up Settlers of Catan, just because I’ve always heard great things about it, but it was pretty spendy. Instead we picked up a new card game, I’ll report back on that later. Then at the first Goodwill store we found another old card game that sounded interesting. But the last Goodwill store turned out to be the jackpot, as I not only found a used copy of Settlers of Catan for $4 (!!!), but for another $2 I brought home something really unique!

The amazing acrylic tower is a game called See-Queue – and it’s a 3-D tic-tac-toe game. It was made by a company in Salem Oregon in 1993, and designed by Mr Karol Kersh, but I can’t find out much about it on the web. It was ‘some assembly required’, but everything was there except for the marbles. We headed back out to find some marbles…

All set up and ready to play. Do you know how hard it is to find colored marbles nowdays?

The trickiest part was figuring out all the win conditions, and then trying to build them without attracting your opponents attention. It was really fun! I imagine it would be crazy with four people! You can turn the board around as you play, and you are making rows using all four levels sometimes, it’s kind of mind-bending. Cool game!

A visit to Seattle Pt 3 – We finally arrive in Seattle

On September 28, 2014 By stefrobrtsIn airstream, dave, travel1 Comment

We rolled out of the Air Museum headed for Tacoma, but before we could even get on the freeway we had to turn around and go back, when we drove by what appeared to be a giant hat and boots.

Hmmm. Yup, gonna have to confirm that one. It’s the Hat ‘n’ Boots in Oxbow Park.

Damn big boots!

Well, that was unexpected and fun – on to Seattle proper!

You can’t go to Seattle without taking lots of pictures of the Space Needle. I think there’s a law…

And of course every angle is more interesting with this monstrosity, er, I mean, creative-looking building next to it.

I does make for interesting pictures!

MONORAIL! MONORAIL!

Neat reflections!

Chihuly glass sculptures

After wandering around the Space Needle for a bit we decided to head up to Kerry Park, because I heard it was THE place to get a great shot of Seattle. We knew it would be really crowded, as it’s a tiny park, and you have to park blocks away and walk to it.

There were tons of people there already, taking pictures. We even saw foreigners taking selfies with their cameras held out on long sticks to get a better view of themselves! I guess they didn’t want to hand their phone to strangers to snap a pic for them? Anyway, we worked our way around and found a spot with a view to snap a few pics at.

Totally worth it. Seattle with Mt Rainier in the background, and sailboats and ferries on Elliot Bay.

Closer view of Seattle (with a little tweaking to make it pop!)

I wanted some sunset/night shots, so we decided to go to dinner to kill some time. Our favorite restaurant, The Keg, was not very far away, so we headed there, going over the floating bridge…which was open for boat traffic!

Well, that was fun. Don’t get to stop on a bridge, get out and walk around everyday!

Back to Seattle after dinner

Still lots of people at Kerry Park, possibly MORE than during the daytime. Or it just felt like it because now they all had tripods for night shots. I brought my tripod too, just for this! So I had to just be patient and wait for a spot to open up. I aimed for this grassy area below the main viewing rail and waited to squeeze in there.

Again..Totally worth it!

I’m really impressed with the quality I’m getting from my Nikon 5100 and kit lens. For a cheap little DSLR, I think it does pretty well. Check out the close up!

That was enough fun for one day. We had to pack it in, since when you take a weekend trip, you really only have Saturday to play. Well, Saturday, and maybe a tiny bit of Sunday. Coming up next – Sunday!

A visit to Seattle Pt 2 – The Museum of Flight

On September 27, 2014 By stefrobrtsIn dave, travel1 Comment

After finishing with the zoo we headed for our next stop. Well, first we took a meandering trip through Tacoma, admiring all the vintage houses overlooking the amazingly blue water of Commencement Bay – seriously, the most beautiful blue I’ve ever seen! Did I get a picture? Well of course not! I kept thinking we were going to stop somewhere but got caught up in traffic and swept off course onto a freeway before we had a chance. Maybe next time!

We continued north to the Museum of Flight. Knowing the museum would take most of the rest of the day, and not wanting to have to eat a museum-dog for lunch, we stopped at an amazing little thai restaurant in Sounthcenter, Bai Tong, which was fabulous! We split a Pad Thai and a Crispy Garlic Chicken and it was all amazing! This is our first major trip with a smartphone, and we never would have stumbled into this restaurant tucked away in a strip mall without it’s help!

Full and happy we continued to the museum. Now I love animals and nature, but I also love engineering and machines, and particularly airplanes! I grew up near Portland International, and it was a regular no-money-fun outing to go hang out at the fenceline and watch the planes come and go.

First thing you see as you approach from the parking lot:

Ah, who doesn’t love a B-17?

Followed by something a little more Cold War…

The engines seemed so small for what they had to do.

There was also a restored B-29 Superfortress which would have been a lot more impressive if it hadn’t been shrink-wrapped for protection from the elements.

According to the signs, this plane spent time being used as an artillery target before it was rescued and restored! I would love to see more pictures of it before the restoration started – I can’t imagine something used for target practice would even be a candidate for restoration!

We walked around the front of the building and spotted this Intruder, same type of plane one of our college professors had worked on back in the day.

A Harrier…

And looking into the gaping maw of a MiG

It was getting hot, time to head inside…

Oh…WOW…

Wow…

This may actually BE the definition of OVERLOAD!

So many planes!

And pieces of planes!

Some of our favorites:

The Blackbird

The Electra (same kind of plane as Amelia Earhart disappeared in)

Polished like a mirror!

Once we’d had our fill of eyeballing on the planes in the main display area it was time to head over the skybridge

What’s on the other side?

How about a Concorde?

They have a nice Space museum section, including the Space Shuttle Training mockup from NASA, with a very nice display showing it in use in it’s glory days. Next best thing to an actual space shuttle. Definitely gives you a feel for how big the shuttle really is.

But the good stuff is parked out on the tarmac…

Like Air Force One

Since we love Mid-century design, there was lots to love in this Airstream-like interior of wood paneling and aluminum trim.

Bunks (not for the Prez, he had his own space)

Crowded little conference room.

And the President’s office even had a little doggie door!

Back out in the hot hot sun we got to see the first 737

The Concorde

And my favorite – the first 747! I have a soft spot for 747s for some reason. I think I had a book about it’s design when I was a kid – after all, it was new then. And then it was featured in the Airport movies, and it’s so distinctive when you see one. Anyway, we couldn’t go on that one, had to admire it from the ground.

So we were hot and tired and ready for a break. Time to head to Seattle…

A visit to Seattle Pt 1–Point Defiance Zoo

On September 25, 2014 By stefrobrtsIn airstream, dave, outdoors, travel1 Comment

Last weekend we took the Airstream out. Now that the kids are back in school and summer is over, it’s the time for us cranky no-kid types to go traveling! We setup basecamp at Land Yacht Harbor in Lacey WA, a perfect place to leave our trailer behind while we ventured into the urban jungle of Seattle!

First stop: Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. It’s not Seattle, but it’s close enough for us. Everything north of Olympia and south of Vancouver BC is ‘Seattle’ as far as I’m concerned.

Point Defiance is big on the Aquarium part of their name. Starting with a beautiful stingray exhibit where you can pet the stingrays and sharks.

This one kept coming up to the edge and sticking his face out of the water. The blue dots on him were incredible!

Dave found a HUGE fish!

In the shark tank this guy kept cruising by, he was probably a couple feet long.

Then there were the sharks

After the sharks, they had a lovely display of smaller aquariums. I LOVE fish, so I was fascinated by all these displays.

Seahorses, so lovely!

This little guy came out and posed for me!

This little guy lives in a hole! Which is pretty amazing for a FISH!

Beautiful!

So beautiful!

I love this stuff! I’ve never had the guts to have a saltwater aquarium. Better to enjoy it when someone else does the maintenance.

How many eels are in there?!

This guy put on a heck of a show, crawling all over the front glass, and finally hanging out and changing color from pink to brown! Amazing!

We headed out to the Zoo portion of the show.

This big cat had no intention of coming out in the cold morning air.

Lovely.

This flower looked like a flock of flamingos!

This flower I just thought was pretty.

On to the seal/sea lion exhibit:

Dave watching seal acrobatics

zooooom! They sure look like they’re having fun!

The sea lions were enormous. I wanted to get a shot of one with people in front of the window to show how big they are. When I got home and looked at the pictures, every one had people snapping pictures with their phones.

When we went to Disneyland and we were discussing what urban photography could show that would show what it’s really like in the twenty-teens, we decided it would show this. Everybody looking at their phones all the time. So there you go.

Next stop – the Museum of Flight…

Mr Miata gets a new top!

On July 14, 2014 By stefrobrtsIn dave, miata1 Comment

My bargain Miata came with a wrecked top when I bought it, so before last winter hit I put a junkyard top on it. It wasn’t a permanent solution, but it was cheap and it kept the car dry inside. Still, the more times I put it up and down, the worse the tears on it got, and it was very hard to put up when it was cold at all. I had resigned myself to getting a bargain top for it, and learning to install it on the frame myself, because I couldn’t afford to have it professionally done.

Saturday turned into a Miata day. Dave and I went to the gym, exercised and then hit the pool, and then as we were driving home enjoying the wind in our wet hair, I mentioned that the Miata should get an oil change, and Dave said ‘why not now?’ Since we had nothing else to do we headed up to Tire Factory and had them do an oil change, and then when that was done asked them to give it an inspection to see what needed to be fixed under there. I figure if you buy a Miata as cheap as this one, there’s bound to be something needs fixing, and I thought the ride was a little rough.

Well they came back and said not only did everything look fine, but it looks like a nice aftermarket suspension under there, so the rough ride is actually normal! Well, that’s a relief! Also the brakes were practically new so nothing to fix there. Basically we got away with nothing but an oil change and good news. And that’s part of why I trust the guys at Dick’s Tire Factory in Battle Ground, WA – they could have told me I needed new struts, that’s what I came in suggesting, and instead they sent me home happy!

Saturday night I decided to check Craigslist one more time before bed and in the auto parts section under Miata someone had just posted a cloth soft top off a wrecked 2005 miata with a glass rear window – for less than I would have to pay for a bargain vinyl and plastic top new! I emailed them immediately and went to bed too excited to sleep! The next day he emailed back and lucky me, I was first in line. We picked it up that afternoon, brought it home, and Dave helped me swap it onto Mr Miata. It only took us about 4 hours, even taking breaks because it was so hot! And the result…

..is FABULOUS!!! I did not think I would get a top this nice! It looks like new, and the glass rear window is so much nicer than the old plastic window. I’ll have to run new wires for the defrost if I want to hook that up sometime, because ’90 Miatas don’t have that wiring. This is just a super find, I’m so happy I was lucky enough to get it, and that Dave helped me get it all installed.

–

Gone Campin’ for July 4th!

On July 7, 2014May 29, 2018 By stefrobrtsIn airstream, barclay, dave, navi, outdoors, pets1 Comment

Time to pull out the Airstream again and go camping. This time our friends Scott and Sherry (and their pups Sake and Sitka, who we frequently doggie-sit) invited us to join them at one of the RV Resorts they camp at – KM Resorts Ocean Breeze at Ocean City, WA.

Navi and Barclay are buckled up and ready to go!

We stopped along the way to get a pic of our handsome new rig. I’m still delighted with how the Flex tows, how maneuverable it is with the trailer (Dave has a much easier time getting the Airstream in and out of it’s home behind the house than he did with the van) and of course, how it looks. I think they make a sharp-looking pair!

We got there and they had saved us a cozy little spot in the trees. The campground is heavily wooded, and felt very private where we were. Other rows were much busier though, so this was a great spot. There were a lot of mosquitoes too, because you can’t have everything perfect!

In no time we had the dog yard set up and the dogs were barking at everyone going by – business as usual! Our friends were camped with their giant 5th wheel right next door, on the other side of the trees. Unfortunately I didn’t take many pictures because it rained so much I ended up leaving my camera safe and dry inside for most of the weekend.

They had us come join them for 4th of July, because the beach at Ocean City, and for quite a distance up and down the shore, turns into a giant party. I’ve really never seen anything like it, and I’ve lived in the NW my whole life. I’ve never even HEARD of such a thing. Of course I grew up in Oregon, where the beaches are treated like they are kind of sacred. They are preserved and kept natural for the enjoyment of all. It was kind of appalling to see people driving up and down the beach in WA, camped out, with big bonfires, car camping with windbreaks built up all around them, firing off fireworks. It was probably the closest I’ll ever get to Burning Man, I’ve just never seen anything like it.

Here in this video I took before dark to see the cars as far as you can see in both directions, several camps deep between the dunes and the driving area, and then more people parked between the driving area and the water.

//player.vimeo.com/video/100067592
beach party from Stephanie on Vimeo.

In this video after dark you can just make out fireworks off in the distance. These were BIG fireworks, being shot off probably a few miles down the beach, and then I panned over the same view as in the video before dark. Now you can see fireworks all the way up the beach to the North, as far as you can see. It was really an amazing sight!

//player.vimeo.com/video/100067593
fireworks after dark from Stephanie on Vimeo.

The next day we explored Aberdeen, WA, had some very good clam chowder, and then lazed around and rested. I love napping in the Caravel on rainy days. I just get warm fuzzy tingly all over, it makes me so happy. The Caravel is just a warm and cozy place to listen to the rain falling.

We spent a bit of time around the campfire (in and out of the rain), and had a nice dinner with our friends, and then Dave and I went to hit the nearby indian casino and dropped $40 in less than 40 minutes! Not as much fun as I’d been led to believe!

The next morning we woke up early and decided to head out early. There was something interesting we’d seen on our way to the beach that we wanted to check out on the way home.

It is an abandoned unfinished nuclear power plant near Elma, WA. Wow, seeing those cooling towers peeking over the tree-covered hills really got my attention – we had to take a detour to visit it.

This nuclear plant has been reclaimed by turning it in to a business park. It was unfinished and never had nuclear material in it, so the power plant parts of the structure just sit abandoned and taking up space. Look at the top of the unfinished containment building, the rebar is just sticking up out of the top!

Looks like they at least put a top on the other containment building before they abandoned the whole project.

There are two cooling towers. Far enough apart I couldn’t get both in one picture.

And now they sit surrounded by weeds and wildflowers.

They are really really really BIG! They sit there hollow and empty.

Well, that was pretty fun, and totally worth the side trip. We hung out there for a bit and ate breakfast before continuing the journey home.

When we got home we decontaminated the trailer – just kidding! It was time for it’s annual bath, and the weather was too lousy last time we took it out. This was a nice day, so we gave it a good scrub before putting it away under it’s carport. I can’t wait to see where we take it out to next.

Steff Does Stuff!

Category: dave