Visit the kelpforest....

Good grief, June is almost over. How did it fly by so fast?

The second week of June I had to go to a PFMC meeting in Spokane, WA. If you're wondering why a body having to do with mostly ocean-going fishing meets occasionally on the eastern side of Washington (and sometimes in Idaho), the answer is "salmon." Which I have nothing to do with, but salmon drags everything after it. My flight had a transfer in Seattle and I had a 2½ hour layover between planes. tikistitch was kind enough to come down and meet me at the airport and chat between planes; we got some dinner and I hope I didn't babble at her too much - I really didn't expect that glass of wine to be so big, especially at an airport, and it turns out I'm really a lightweight lately. I brought her a little Stitch something from Downtown Disney she'd mentioned she couldn't find, just in gratitude for all the fun I've had reading her Mythklok stories. Really great to meet you, Pam, and thanks for putting up with me!

( Boring fisheries shtufs... )

( Geocaching, whee... )

(Sackboy is officially off to visit florida_fotog today, traveling by luxurious Priority Mail - I had him much longer than I meant to. Still a few more days to post of him, though, so just scroll on by if you're tired of him.)



Out on the pier again. This time maybe we'll actually make it out to the end; last time it just got way too cold and windy. Yay, California - not all that warm and sunny after all. Well, a little sunny. After the June Gloom burns off in the morning.

Lifequard tower
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D

( Out to the end... )

I suppose this could be in honor of the world cup...

Surfboard art
Huntington City Beach
HB CA
Canon EOS 1000D
18 June 2010

( A walk downtown... )

Well, I would have written something about the torrential rain yesterday, but Wil Wheaton did it much better than I could...

moves by just like a paper boat

We didn't really venture out much yesterday as it was really pouring all day; more a day for watching that Inuyasha movie in the box we hadn't gotten around to yet, making frozen cookie dough cookies, and putting away the last of the ornaments we hadn't yet. However, Sunday afternoon Angus and I did walk out to the end of the pier in the drizzle, had a snack at Ruby's, and came back. We cheated a bit then, by driving half-way down and parking. We discovered a mural we hadn't seen before around the corner from Perq's, and discovered the antique shop in the old Helme/Worthy Buiding was still open, so we had to check that out as well. I pointed out a 40's-50's era tea set to Angus, if ever his dad needs an idea for gift-giving, ha-ha, and he asked me several times why someone would want to buy some very old Coke bottles - still with original Coke, which must be really stale by now - or another Coke bottle with its neck stretched and twisted, probably from a carnival. He seemed dubious that people would ever want to buy such things.

The day before we had walked all the way down there from home and back. Some very big surf was coming in and swells were breaking past the restrooms and bait shop, much further out than usual. I practiced shooting the surfers for a few minutes, slightly envying the woman with a much bigger telephoto lens; then Angus tapped me on the shoulder and pointed out the pigeons getting a drink from the faucet at the fish cleaning station. Large-lens lady started taking pictures of them too.

So it seems Angus is becoming my walking buddy; the other two will go as well, most of the time, but he's the one who most often bugs me about it, which is a good thing. He no longer holds my hand like he did when he was little, but often takes my elbow as we're walking. It could be he might decide soon that's not something middle school-age boys do (Gareth, almost two years younger decided that a couple of years ago already), but for now it's sweet. Maybe in twenty years or so, it'll be the other way around.

Morning Fog
Los Angeles Harbor
San Pedro CA
Canon EOS 1000D
23 October 2009

( +1 )

Since the meeting didn't start until 1 pm, I now had a working GPS and hadn't done any geocaching since last September, I spent my first morning in Spokane walking around the riverfront and downtown area, which was lovely. There are waterfalls here, and the Riverfront Park was once the site of the 1974 World Expo, which a couple of the structures in the background were part of. This rock formation in the middle of Upper Spokane Falls is an Earthcache, a type of virtual cache that gives you a little geology lesson of the area. The lesson here being that much of the area around Spokane was once volcanic, and this formation is made of the same columnar basalt that is used in building a number of structures in the area (it looks very manmade, but it's the actual stucture formed by the rock as it cooled). This was taken from one of two pedestrian footbridges that cross the Upper Falls, both connecting to an island in the middle of the river.

Upper Spokane Falls
Spokane WA
Canon EOS 1000D
12 June 2009

( and another water feature... )

Fog in Fish Harbor
Terminal Island CA
Sharp VE-CG30
7 May 2009

( +1 )

Smoke from the Santa Barabara fire. We heard later that even downtown SB was very close to a mandatory evacuation.

Oddly, I thought the horizon was tilted in this photo, but when I went to straighten it, it really wasn't that far off (less than a degree).

Wildfire smoke trail
Huntington Beach CA
Sharp VE-CG30
6 May 2009

My dad went a little crazy and bought a boat. He's been thinking about a kayak for years, but at 83, a solid one is a little difficult to handle. Sea Eagle was having a sale, so he splurged and bought this. Sort of a cross between a kayak and and a Zodiac. We took it down to one of the little sandy beaches in Huntington Harbor, blew it up - it comes with a foot pump, but we cheated and used an electric inflater plugged into the minivan - and spent a couple of hours taking turns paddling around on it. I have absolutely no upper body strength and didn't want to overdo it, so I didn't go very far; thought I'd be really sore the next day and was surprised to find I wasn't. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera while we were at the harbor (we also forgot the paddles and runsamuck had to run home and get them), so I took these while we were rinsing the saltwater off after we got home.

435ps Paddleski
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
26 April 2009

( +1 )

Two of the fry had coupons for a free meal at Ruby's that they got as a reward from school, so we walked out to the one on the end of the pier for lunch. Had to wait for 45 minutes and runsamuck was about to lose patience and leave.

Pier
HUntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D (Sorry, but that's much shorter than typing Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS - besides it sounds so pretentious)
15 March 2009

( +3 )