Getaway......Northwest Style

Stress............it can get to all of us at one time or another.

The dictionary describes stress as: constraining force or influence; physical, chemical or emotional factor that can cause bodily or mental tension; intense effort or exertion. Does that sound familiar?

I don't think that we can ever completely avoid stress or tension in our lives, but how we deal with it is important.......at least, we have found out in our lives, that if we can release some of the stress, dealing with the problems and trials of life can be much more endurable.

Friday, February 19th was a de-stress day. We just got in the car and started driving.....not really sure where we were going to end up, but it felt good to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather and countryside.

We found ourselves in Skagit Valley again, walking the dike near the Bay. The air was cool but the sun was warm. The tide was out so we walked out as far as we could along the marshy wetlands.......got pretty muddy, but we weren't trying to be "pretty" for anybody. We scared up a few Blue Herons on our little trek, along with several ducks. After we got back to the car, we decided that we wanted to take the ferry from Keystone (on Whidbey Island near Fort Casy) across Admiralty Inlet, to Port Townsend. We stopped at a Seafood restaurant and got some shrimp and chips, then parked near Deception Pass Bridge to eat our lunch. What a view! The Bridge is beautiful anytime, but today the water was a deep emerald green with several boats passing underneath, the Navy Jets were practicing their takeoff and landings and the sun sparkled on the water.

We arrived at the ferry landing, and upon paying for our ticket, we were hurridly ushered on the ferry.....and literally within 30 seconds of boarding, the ferry left the dock. That was cutting it pretty close! (We would have had to wait over an hour for the next ferry.) We arrived at Port Townsend and drove out to Fort Worden at the tip of the spit where Point Wilson Lighthouse sits.

Point Wilson Lighthouse, with Mt. Baker as a backdrop.

We didn't have a schedule to keep, or appointments that we would be late for, so it felt so nice just being able to wander around on the beach or docks with no time constraints. The temperature was around 58 degrees, but it felt warmer than that with the sun beating down on us.

The view of the Lighthouse, Mt. Baker and the docks at the Fort Worden State Park.

It was so beautiful out that day.......that's why we live in the Pacific Northwest......we NEVER get tired of the view.

Ron and I played "chicken" with the seagull behind us..........we wanted to see how close he would tolerate us. We got about 6 feet from him, and he never flew away.

After a very relaxing day (I LOVE "Island Time"!) we got back on the ferry to go home. The sun was almost at the horizon, and everything had a warm pink glow to it. There's nothing quite like the color of the sun going down.

A sailboat along the waterfront of Port Townsend, as we left the dock on the ferry, with the everpresent view of Mt. Baker.

Another shot of some docks as we were leaving Port Townsend on the ferry.

The sunset on the way home was gorgeous. It was a nice relaxing day.......not too far away, but just far enough to get away from all the stress. What more could you ask for? We live in one of the most beauitful places on earth. Just getting outside in the sunshine is the perfect "de-stresser."

The Dike at Skagit Bay Bird Refuge

We had to go out one more time to try to get photos of the swans while we had the 600mm lens. It turned out to be a fairly nice morning.......patchy fog with a few sunbreaks here and there. The wind was not blowing, and hunting season for the Snow Geese is over, so there were NO hunters. We drove out to the Dike just before sunrise and walked out along the dike for a little way. I couldn't believe how many birds are out there...........Trumpeter Swans, Eagles, Blue Herons, Mallard Ducks, Snow Geese, Crows, Hawks, Seagulls and a few that I couldn't identify. We wish that we didn't have to take the lens back.......someday we would love to buy one. The following photos are a combination of both Ron's and my photos. I gave up trying to get the birds in flight, because my ISO on my camera doesn't go as high as Ron's. All in all, there are some interesting photos, but still nothing that is exactly what we were hoping for.

Looking east toward the Cascade Mountains, (Mt. Pilchuck) over the fields near Conway, WA. I used a Singh-Ray blue and gold filter for this warm color.

Close up of a dewey spider's web on some leftover fall berries.

The noise of the Snow Geese is incredibly loud.....you have to hear it to understand how noisy they are. The following photo is looking east toward White Horse Mt. with thousands of Snow Geese flying inland to feed for the day. They always fly in large flocks, and you can hear them coming a long way away.

Everything was wet from the overnight fog and dew. It made for a very interesting photo of the dried fall berries.

This is one of my favorite photos of the day: using a Singh-Ray blue and gold filter, looking east across the farm land near Conway, with both White Horse and Three Fingers Peaks in view. The layered patchy fog was very interesting.

The tide was on it's way out, and that left the tidelands with lots of driftwood. I used the Singh-Ray blue and gold filter again for this shot. This is looking northwest towards LaConner, WA.

There aren't too many birds or animals for that matter, that are as beautiful and elegant as a Trumpeter Swan. Ron got this shot of a pair of them, paddling peacefully along the shore.

As you can see in the photo below, Ron got both a Great Blue Heron (which is the hardest of any of the birds to get a close photo of) some Trumpeter Swans, and some Ducks.

It was interesting watching this Eagle.......he sat on the log close to the swans, paying them no attention. He was looking for breakfast among the smaller birds. We noticed the other day, that the Eagles are quite intimidated by the Swans.......they won't get close to them, and the Swans could care less about the Eagle. The Swans wingspan is 9 feet plus, where the Eagle's wingspan in about 6 feet. The Swans are as big as a turkey, weighing as much as 30 pounds.




Ron, standing along the top of the dike, having fun with the 600mm lens.

This shot, looking west towards Whidbey Island, gives you an idea of what the lay of the land looks like. This is a bird refuge in this area. All the birds (Snow Geese and Swans) go out on the water to nest at night, and every morning come inland to feed in the fields. It is a cacophony of sound!




The Eagle flew overhead, so I was able to get a shot of him........his wings flap slower than the Swans, so he was easier to photograph.

Stephen called from Florida while we were on the dike. Isn't that amazing.....you can talk to someone over 3,000 miles aways even when you are in the middle of nowhere! I was telling Stephen about all the different kinds of birds.



It was a beautiful morning. Anyone who wants to go with us next time, just be at our house by 6:00 AM!

Playing with Preston

Just look at that cute little mug.............and he's ALL BOY! We "kidnapped" Preston for a day, and brought him home with us so Jenni and Will could have an evening alone. It's so much fun to have time with a grandchild, one on one, and we had a great time with Preston.

Ron rented a 600mm telephoto lens, from Glazer's Photography in Seattle, with the intent of photographing the Trumpeter Swans. Preston got to go on an adventure with grandma and grandpa out to Skagit Valley to look for the "big birds." When he saw them, he called them "ducks." He was grandpa's helper, and he had a grin on his face the entire time, because I let him loose and he could walk up and down the country road where we set up......except he did try to head for a few mud puddles a few times. He got excited when a car came by, and would call any truck a "bus."

Mount Baker is always spectacular, and this evening was no exception.

Grandpa had fun with the rented lens, while Preston and I tried to get the swans to fly...........they would squawk when we got too close and start walking the opposite direction.

We finally did get a few to take to the air.........grandpa said it was really hard to keep them in the camera frame when you are using that large of a telephoto lens, but he managed to get a few shots off. They are so beautiful when they are in flight.

Ron will put on his website the best photos he took, that he wouldn't let me have! (www.ronsouthworth.com)

Preston would laugh and giggle when he saw grandpa. After he tried to jump in the mud puddles, I decided to put him on my shoulders for a while because he only brought one pair of shoes.............I think he actually likes to get packed around.

It actually got pretty chilly out, so I was glad that we were all layered with a sweater and a fleece.

Grandpa has to put the camera on a special tripod head that swivals, when he wants to take pictures of birds.......because they move so fast, you need to be able to follow them just as fast. That lens is pretty heavy too.......I don't think you could hold the camera up without the tripod.

Preston liked looking at the swans, but didn't like the Navy Jets that flew overhead. He would look up at the sky and get real quiet, and then come over to me and say "up!" He felt a lot safer with grandma holding him.

After dinner, Preston had a bath...........his favorite thing was to take both hands high above his head and slap them down on the water, splashing everywhere. He thought it was pretty funny that he got me all wet! He's getting pretty good at communicating what he wants.......he would go over the TV and touch it, and say "Cars!" He wanted to watch the Disney movie "Cars." So he sat on my lap and watched the movie until he fell asleep. He woke up in the middle of the night with the hiccups, so we sat in the rocking chair for a while to get him back to sleep......which of course grandma LOVES........he just cuddled right up. I drove him back home today, and he slept most of the way. I'm glad that we live close enough that Preston can come stay with Grandma and Grandpa once in a while. We had as much fun as he did! Come back soon Preston!

Experimenting with Flowers

Ron was gone last night to church meetings.....he didn't get home until 11:30 PM, so I kept myself busy by playing around with the camera, and some flowers we had on hand. There is a function in our cameras that is called "Image Overlay", so I tried my hand at doing it. You take one sharp photo, and one out of focus and over-exposed, then combine the two together. The following five photos are the results of my experimenting. It gives the flowers an ethereal kind of glow.

This was a silk rose (you can see the ends of the fabric) but I thought it looked cool anyway.

Bird Hunting

Bird hunting with a camera, that is. They are pretty skittish creatures......they will tolerate a car driving by without a problem......but as soon as you stop the car and get out, they all take off. Tuesday, February 2nd, Ron and I got up early and drove out to Skagit Valley to try to get photos of the Trumpeter Swans again. We found a nice flock of them, and they actually tolerated us to a point.....but they were still a bit far away for the kind of shot that Ron wants to get. One thing I learned: it's very difficult to get a flying swan lined up in the frame, hold down the auto-focus botton, pan and shoot at the same time, all the while keeping the birds in the frame. Hmmmmmm.....this is going to take practice. Ron has a "faster" camera than I do, so I ended up taking pictures of him instead!

This was one of the few photos that I took that was any good at all. The sky was gray, so it wasn't very interesting.

Ron: "You're supposed to be taking photos of the birds, NOT ME!"

So I found other things to photograph. I loved this old barn.

The old Luthern Church at Conway is always picturesque.

When it comes to photography, it's like everything else in life: practice makes perfect. I'm definitely still practicing. But is was fun anyway.