Playing with Preston

There's nothing quite like a grandchild. Having Preston stay with us for three days, reminded me why the Lord makes parents young! Our daughter Jenni is due with baby #2 in a couple of weeks, and has a hard time lifting Preston right now, so we gladly offered to take him off their hands for a few days.

Preston associates "gramma's house" with the "ocean", "beach", "sand", crabs" and things such as that. He LOVES to go to the beach and play. He has his own shovel and bucket and has a great time scooping up the sand and putting it in the bucket. Below, grandpa and Preston are exploring a "sidewalk" at English Boom.

Preston is always so good natured and happy. He was wearing his dad's baseball cap and thought he was pretty cool. Whenever he picked up a stick, he would always ask me if it was okay for him to throw it in the water.

He liked to hang onto either grandpa's or my hand, because walking on the sand is a bit unsteady. He liked to bury his sandaled feet in the warm sand too.

You certainly can't go to the beach and rest when Preston is with you! We hiked up and down the beach exploring and looking at everything. It's fun to see the world again through a child's eyes.

One day, Preston helped grandpa wash the truck and picked up the truck keys which were laying on the porch. He accidentally hit the "panic button" and started the horn blaring.....it scared him to death. After the tears dried up, he discovered the front doorbell......he would push the doorbell to make it ring, and then yell "I push the button, I push the button" and then proceeded to push the button about 3 dozen times.

Preston LOVES cars.....that is really an understatement. For a two-year old, he seems to know a LOT about cars. His favorite movie is "Cars" and he loves the characters Lightning McQueen, Mator and Doc Hudson. He has a miniature Hot Wheels version of all of them. But this week, we took Preston out to our friends Brent and Connie's house so Preston could see a REAL Hudson Hornet. He was so excited, that all day he would keep asking "see Hornet, see Hornet?" Brent has a Hudson Hornet Convertible which is an extremely rare find, as there are only a handfull in existence. He collects and restores old cars as a hobby. He takes them to Car Shows around the country....and usually wins "Best of Show" with his cars. Below, his two Hudsons in the maintainance garage getting spruced up for a car show next week.

Brent even let Preston stand in his collector's Hudson Hornet........with an anxious grandma close by, I might add.

The second Hudson is one that belonged to Brent's grandfather and that Brent grew up driving all the time. He has restored it and it looks better than new. He lets all his grandkids get in and play in this car, so Preston got to sit in the driver's seat and steer.......boy was he proud of himself!

Then we went into another car barn and Preston went into "sensory overload." There were dozens of cars just his size and Brent let him climb into anything he wanted to. Preston called the black Eldorado in this photo a "police car" because it was black like the one in the movie "Cars."

One of the most interesting cars that Brent has is what he calls a Packenburg.....it is an old Packard that was lengthened to put a Dusenburg motor in it.....definitely one of a kind. He will load up his grandkids and take this car out on the freeway and for a tour around Camano Island. Wouldn't that be fun!

On all the shelves around the car barn, are model cars of every imaginable make and color. Below is Brent showing Preston the Hudson Hornet model.

Preston refused to sleep in the portable crib that we have, so I ended up sleeping with him in the bed in our extra bedroom. He just snuggles right up to me, and very contendedly goes to sleep. I am so grateful that we have at least one (and soon to be two) grandchild that is within a short driving distance......(well, sort of short...it's still an hour and a half one way!)

On Saturday morning when grandpa had buckled Preston into his car seat, Preston looked at grandpa and said "Kiss?" That just melted grandpa's heart. Come back and visit us again soon Preston!

Preston's Grandpa

Preston LOVES to play with his grandpa.......... He and his mom were outside waiting for us to arrive at their house yesterday. As soon as he saw us pull in the driveway he took off running toward us with a big grin on his face. Boy, that does that warm your heart! He LOVES to go for a ride in Grandpa's truck.

Grandpa and Preston would stack the blocks up....."One" (grandpa), "Two" (Preston), "Three" (grandpa), "Four" (Preston)....then "Crash!!!!!!" ...Preston would knock the blocks over and say "Again!" and just giggle with a full belly laugh!

Jenni and I, relaxing on the sofa......Jen has just a couple of weeks before son number two is born. She is getting "ants in her pants" to say the least.

Ron and I drove up the North Cascades Highway today, to Diablo Lake. We arrived there around 11:30, so the light wasn't right for the shot Ron wanted....so we just scouted around for a place to come back later and take a morning shot. The water REALLY is that color.....it is all glacial runoff, and is the most magnificent color you have ever seen. It was 85 degrees at this lookout point.....not bad for pretty high up in the mountains. Sometimes we think that we live in the Garden of Eden.

Summer day at the Candian Border

Today was a day to play hookey. Life needs a bit of variety. Ron and I hadn't been up to the Canadian Border to the Peace Arch Park in several years, so we decided to drive up to Blaine, Washington on the border of the US and Canada. Things had really changed, to say the least. The most notable thing, was that Security was great increased. While we were in the park, we had a nice and interesting talk with a Border Patrol Officer, who told us a bit about his job. The wind was blowing off the bay pretty good and the sun kept coming out from behind the clouds, so our photos were just "so - so." But it is a beautiful place to visit.

The flower display on the Canadian side of the border was really bright and beautiful. One of the US gardeners, told us that the Canadian gardeners were having more "luck" with their flowers this year......I wonder if that was a way of saying that they were better gardeners.

There was a beautiful lilly pond with a cute foot bridge.

The flower displays were beautiful, but the sun kept coming out and so we didn't get any good "keepers". (the sun creates too much contrast when you are photographing flowers, etc.) But as Ron likes to say, "it was good practice for us."

Peace Arch Park is a beautiful place for a picnic.......right on Boundary Bay, and you can watch the cars come across the US-Canadian Border. It's a good day trip if you are wanting to get out for the afternoon. The flowers are beautiful!

Seattle Nightlife

Well, maybe I should clarify the title of this post.......

Ron and I visited Jenni yesterday, and took Preston for a drive to see Snoqualmie Falls, which is not too far from their house. He gets so excited to go on outings........he talks non-stop, and bounces along. We also drove into the town of Snoqualmie and saw all the old antique trains......he thought that was great. He wanted us to "turn around" and go "back" to see the trains again.

Grandpa and Preston with Snoqualmie Falls behind them.

After dropping Preston back off at his house, we drove to West Seattle and had fish and chips at the best fish and chips place in the whole area, then just explored the west side of Seattle a bit. We got to the Seattle waterfront with plenty of time to watch the sun go down.

Below: Ron, looking across Puget Sound, with a sailboat going by.

The sun just went down, and the lights of the city hadn't come on yet. Seattle is sure a busy port......there are always ships of all sizes coming and going. Below, is a photo of the ferry coming into port.

We decided to go back down to the waterfront again tonight, and try again. Just couldn't get the photos that we wanted. We didn't get home until midnight last night, and it will probably be another late night again.

Snoozing with Preston

This weekend, we had our 2 year old grandson Preston stay with us for a couple of nights. We had so much fun!.......playing cars, swinging, sliding, watching "Cars", going to the beach, bouncing balls and whatever else his little heart desired. We all got worn out having so much fun. He fell asleep on my lap while we were sitting in the rocking chair, and it wasn't long before I fell asleep too. Is that the look of complete contentment, or what?

South Oregon Coast - Highway 101

The southern part of the Oregon Coast, is a place that keeps Ron and I coming back for more. There always seems to be something new to explore and discover. With cameras in hand and the truck loaded to the hilt, we left on June 23rd, and drove all the way to Grants Pass, Oregon on Interstate 5. We pulled into a little motel around 11:30 PM that night. The next morning, we drove into Northern California to get to Brookings, Oregon where we had planned on camping (at Harris Beach State Park) for the next three days, while we photographed the beach and surrounding area.

There were lots and lots of people there, which made it difficult to get a nice beach shot. Our first night at Harris Beach was peaceful. However, the second night we got no sleep at all, because of the rowdy, profane, drunk kids that were camped there. We decided to leave a day earlier than planned, and headed up to Bandon and Bullards Beach State Park. The difference between the parks was like night and day. Bullards was so quiet, peaceful and private, and a very clean well-kept park. We loved it. (Have you noticed that Ron always wears the same shirt? He really does have more than one shirt....he just loves to wear this one everytime we go anywhere!)

(Below: Harris Beach State Park.....our first night camping.)

We drove down to Northern California, into the Redwoods again, hoping to find a good photo opportunity, but nothing felt right. We drove out onto a pier in Crescent City, across from the lighthouse there, and found a good spot to take a nap. Driving sure makes us sleepy!

Lunch, in the Redwood National Forest.

Below, Ron taking a photo on the beach......he is next to the rock in the lower left hand corner of the photo......that should tell you how huge those rocks are.

The first day that we arrived in Bandon, the wind was blowing pretty hard, even though the sun was shining. I think that we got some of our best shots on that first night.

Below: me, with my camera and tripod, photographing the surf and sunset

I got Ron in the corner of this photo with his tripod. We tried several shots before the sun went down, but our best ones were after the sun set.

The sea stacks on the beach at Bandon are extremely interesting, and HUGE.

I found a seagull that was very cooperative in letting me take his photo. He perched on the top of this sea stack for almost 15 mintues. He must have liked the view.

The sunset that evening was really beautiful. The wind died down after the sunset, so it was quite peaceful on the beach. It was pretty dark though, and I just about lost Ron a couple of times. We were photographing different things, and it got so dark that we lost track of each other for a while. That's a rather disconcerting feeling, to say the least.

Every way we turned, there was beautiful color and fascinating, huge sea stacks.

During the day, we would travel either north or south and explored different areas. We found this beautiful cliffside, just south of Humbug Mountain State Park. There were daisies everywhere.

One of the biggest things you have to deal with for photography, is the weather. Somedays it is great, but just plan on most of the days to be lousy. In the photo below of Bandon Beach, the sky was pretty bland, so I put a Singh Ray Blue and Gold filter on to give it some color.

We had fog almost every morning, but it usually burned off by midday. Below, is a photo of Ron standing on the edge of the Coquille River, next to the Lighthouse there. The Lighthouse is located in Bullards Beach State Park.

The town of Bandon is really cute. The Old Town is right on the waterfront of the Coquille River, and there are lots of nice shops.....we found one with homemade fudge and ice cream. There was also a great little place to get Fish and Chips.

Below: another view of Bandon Beach.

It's easy to get stuck in a rut when you have a camera in your hand.....it's hard to be creative all the time. So for this trip, I really wanted to try my hand at some different photo techniques. So, here are the results of a couple of different things that I tried.

This is a multiple exposure picture......it is actually 10 pictures in one. I love the look and feel that it gives....it looks like a painting. You can set your camera to take as many multiple exposures as you like...you then click the shutter, only moving the camera very slightly for each picture. The camera then processes all the pictures into one composite, and the results are very unique and interesting. There has been no Photoshop manipulation.....it was all done "in camera."

Here is another multiple exposure.....of trees this time.

We visited Shore Acres again this trip, north of Bandon, and walked through the formal flower gardens that are on the grounds. There is a pond with Lilly pads in the Japanese Garden area. This photo was taken with a Singh Ray Soft Ray filter, to give an ethereal feel to it.

The roses were in bloom, and there must have been every color under the sun. I really liked these white ones. This was taken with the Soft Ray filter again.

This is the Coquille River Lighthouse, which is at Bullards Beach State Park.

This is the Coquille River Lighthouse, taken with a multiple exposure, so it looks more like a watercolor painting.

It is always fun to try something new.......and we always learn something new everytime we go out on a photo shoot. Hopefully, one of these days we'll come back with the "killer" shot. All in all, we did pretty good for sleeping in a tent for 7 days! We discovered how stiff we can be in the morning! But by the end of the day, we were in great shape, trying to keep ahead of the incoming tide. It's a lot of fun anyway.

Ron's Blue Ribbon & Best of Show

This weekend, Ron put six of his photographs in the Spring Art Show, for the Camano Island, Stanwood, Arlington area artists. This is the first time he has ever done something like this, so he was a bit aprehensive, and not sure what to expect or how his photos would be received. He needn't have worried..........his photographs were far above the rest of the photos entered, and in a class of their own. The judges thought so as well.......One of Ron's photos entitled "Elegant Precision" received 1st place in the Photography division, and another photo entitled "Flight" received the "Best of Show" award, which was really an honor.

There were 47 other artists who had artwork on display (up to six pieces each), so for Ron to receive the "Best of Show" award, was really special.

The photo above, is Ron with the two winning photographs on the right, and behind him (on the left) is his photo entitled "Secret Garden." That particular photo is my favorite of all Ron's pictures. It is Punchbowl Falls on Eagle Creek, in the Columbia River Gorge area. It was taken last week on early Saturday morning, May 29th (Memorial Day weekend.....it was taken on our second trip to the falls that week.) Ron stood in the river for about 2 1/2 hours while it was raining, trying to keep his camera dry inbetween shots. It is about 20 photos stitched together to make a panoramic. It is going to look perfect over my piano!

Overall, Ron's photography was extremely well received, and people who talked to him were very complimentary. Even the judges were blown away by his photos. I'm really proud of him and happy that he was recognized for his talents. I can't wait for our next photography adventure!