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!

A new Camera – jumping ship to Sony

On March 2, 2015May 29, 2018 By stefrobrtsIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

As I have gotten more advanced in my photography – I have a regular paying gig shooting the plays at Magenta, and I have my own website where I can sell prints, I’m getting ready to do another gallery show with the photo club, and I have been working on my portrait skills – I have been feeling like my Nikon is just not doing it for me. I have not been happy with my D5100 since I bought it. It just hasn’t been as easy to use as my previous Nikon was, and the picture quality has been very hit n’ miss. I switched to shooting in RAW about a year ago so I would have more control in post, and on the last trip we took I shot entirely in manual because I felt like it gave me more control to get the shots the way I wanted them. But I have not been very happy with the camera overall, and I have not been buying any lenses for it because I wasn’t sure I would stick with Nikon at all.

Yesterday, after much research, I decided to quit while I was ahead, and bought a Sony Alpha a6000. This is a mirrorless camera, so it is much smaller than the bulky D5100.

Excuse the crappy camera phone pic, but since both cameras were the subject…

Much smaller, much lighter, and yet a sensor that is just as big, and has more megapixels.The kit lenses are even equivalent – 18-55 on the Nikon, 16 -50 on the Sony, but look at the huge difference in size!

Most important is the controls and programming. Dave is always teasing that if Bigfoot ran by us on a hike, I’d have the D5100 ready to shoot sometime after he crested the next hill and disappeared! And sometimes when you push the shutter button the D5100 just second guesses you and refuses to shoot at all! So far the Sony is fast and has a fabulous auto-focus system that is quick to lock on and get the shot.

Navi with a muddy nose…

Some of my favorite test shots today have been in the aquariums. It’s usually so hard to get shots of the fish since they are constantly moving.

These are not bad for snapshots. I have shot off 15 or 20 aquarium shots with the Nikon and not gotten one worth keeping. So far the hit rate for the Sony is far superior. And I haven’t even turned on all the features yet!

I’m really excited to get to know this new camera! I’m feeling confident it will be the tool I need as I progress in building my skills towards being a pro.

So long, stephanies-mustang.com

On January 10, 2015May 29, 2018 By stefrobrtsIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Back in , oh, 1997 or 1998 I started a website to document my restoration efforts of my first 68 Mustang, Old Bloo. Back then I was a geek, no one had ever heard of ‘blogging’ yet, and making a website for fun seemed like the thing to do. And it was cool. I met a lot of great people, helped folks with their restorations, and made some friends. I also had a lasting scrapbook of pictures and descriptions of what I’d done, some of which surprises me even today.

But, it’s been hosted all this time on the same server space as our business website, which we shut down a few years ago, and we finally decided to shut it down entirely. Eventually I want to move the info over to a blog, just to keep it available, but it doesn’t seem as important now. Back then it was hard to find stuff about restoring cars on the web, now there’s tons of info. And nobody really has personal websites anymore, at least without them being leveraged for advertising space and stuff like that. This was just a plain old, here’s my stuff, write and say hi, kind of website.

So, goodbye (for now, anyway) to stephanies-mustang.com.

Oh Man, that was ugly even for 1998…and the last update was in ’09. Yeah, probably time to let it go. But the adventures of Old Bloo and Deja Bloo will be documented again somewhere, someday…

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!

New comforter on the bed = most interesting place in the house

On December 26, 2014May 29, 2018 By stefrobrtsIn barclay, mouse, naviLeave a comment

Only one cat short of a full load.

Speaking of cats, Mouse is recovering from some injury to her face. She came home with a bloody nose a few nights ago, and looked up at me and a fang dropped out and ‘tinked’ on the floor – to my shock! She seemed of, so Dave took her to the vet the next day, and the vet said two teeth were broken and scheduled surgery for this week. After surgery the vet said her teeth were quite healthy, and that the two broken teeth had been broken through some sort of trauma. Either kicked in the face or maybe got some glancing blow from a car. She also had lost part of her tongue! Either way, she is recovering well, and enjoying all the soft food and extra attention.

New (old) Wheels!

On December 6, 2014May 29, 2018 By stefrobrtsIn miataLeave a comment

Life is good…

Grand Theft Auto Update

On October 21, 2014May 29, 2018 By stefrobrtsIn xboxLeave a comment

I have been enjoying Grand Theft Auto Auto 5 for a whole year now! Crazy! I have wasted entirely too much time playing it. It’s my favorite thing to do to kill a couple hours before bed, and I don’t even want to admit how much total time it says I have played! We enjoyed it enough we finally bought a second XBox and copy of the game (found both used on CL) and setup the second console so Dave and I could team up and play together. So much fun! Here we are between missions. The masks are to protect our identity 😉

I’ve kind of maxed out what I can earn in the game, so sometimes I just go hiking around the game and exploring. It is stunningly beautiful in places.

A year later and this game can still amaze me.

One thing that wasn’t so amazing though is the kids I have run across while playing it. The other day I played with a 9 year old. This game is rated for 18+ for a reason! Do their parents not know, or not care?! The little guy had the mouth of a sailor too, I’ve never heard so many F-bombs – clearly he was trying to be a big guy to the other players. It’s just disturbing. The game is great fun, but it’s so inappropriate for a little kid to be playing it!

Wag that tail!

On October 6, 2014May 29, 2018 By stefrobrtsIn miata1 Comment

What’s happier than a Miata? How about a Miata with a tail?

Dave helped me work through a backlog of Miata projects today. I installed power mirrors, a new antenna, a new shift boot (black leather with red stitching), and best of all – a tail!

I have always wanted one of these rear spoilers on my Miatas. Finally! I got the piece from a junkyard on eBay and spray-bombed it stain black.

A couple weeks ago I finished up a couple big Miata projects as well. I pulled the crappy old radio and installed a new ipod-friendly radio, so I can finally listen to my tunes.

And since everything was apart for the radio install I decided it was time to plastidip the console and ‘tombstone’. Two cans of red plastidip did the job.

I think this looks pretty nice with my red vinyl covered door panels, especially when the red hardboot is on. Unfortunately today we had to put the hardboot up in the rafters for the winter. I sense top down days are going to be in limited supply very soon.

When we bought the car there was no pocket under the radio, so you could see wires under there, and it basically looked like someone had already stolen the stereo thanks to the gaping hole Now everything is buttoned-up and civilized looking! And of course the other big addition this year was the glass-windowed top. This is turning out to be a pretty nice Miata, especially considering the odometer just rolled over 200k! For less than $2k, I’m having a LOT of fun with this little car!

Next comes the red wheels. Soon, I hope!

A visit to Seattle Pt 4 – Nisqually Wildlife Refuge

On September 28, 2014 By stefrobrtsIn airstream, travel1 Comment

Sunday morning we only had a little energy left, and decided to spend it on a short hike at the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge, which was really close to where we had camped in Lacey, WA.

It was very pretty, but there weren’t a lot of birds to be seen, at least not in the parts we were at. We only walked in about half a mile, to the twin barns, since we had forgotten sunscreen. The part we walked was mostly on the shady boardwalk.

We saw cool trees,

Ducks,

And frogs.

Finally we got to the barns, which were pretty cool – for old barns.

For a second I thought I hadn’t gotten pictures of both of them, but they are different, just very much alike!

Once we realized the rest of the walk would be out in the open sun, we headed back via the shady walkway again. Visiting a refuge is a much more contemplative visit than running around at air museums or photographing downtown.

This was a nice way to end our vacation!

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!