A Spur of the Moment Adventure

Yesterday morning about 4:30, (Saturday, January 23rd) Ron poked his head out the front door and checked the weather. He was expecting socked in clouds and rain......and to his surprise, he saw stars! He came into the bedroom and announced that he wanted to go out to try to get some photographs of the Trumpeter Swans and Snow Geese and asked me if I'd like to get out of my nice warm bed to go with him. I was already awake, and that means that I'm never able to go back to sleep, so I decided to get up and go with him. (Note: Ron is the early bird.........I am a night owl, so getting up at 4:30 is not something that I look forward to!)

We quickly showered and had a fast bowl of cereal, filled up our water bottles and loaded our trusty Toyota Camry with our camera gear. We were out the door around 5:45, and headed up to Skagit Valley about 25 minutes north, to stake out our place to watch for the birds.

Each winter, thousands of Snow Geese and hundreds of Trumpeter Swans migrate south from Alaska and Northern Canada to feed and live in the Skagit Valley during the winter. (By the end of February they start heading back north.) The swans are not the easiest birds to photograph, because they usually feed in large winter wheat fields and are too far away to get really good photos. It's a little easier to photograph the Snow Geese, because there are literally thousands of them, and if you stay in your car, they will come right up to the side of the road so you can usually get a decent photo of them. There are also dozens of Bald Eagles which feed off the snow geese that the hunters miss.

Ron took the three photos of the Snow Geese below on Thursday, January 21st.

Their wings sound like a jet engine taking off when they all take to the sky at the same time. When one bird gets spooked and takes off, the entire flock follows suit. Right now, until the end of January, there is hunting allowed for the Snow Geese. So we had to manuver around the hunters as well, who bring their dogs to retrieve their kill. The Fish & Game Cops are posted all around, making sure that they only hunt the geese and not the swans, which are a protected species.

The flock below is only one of many this same size. Sometimes I wonder if the farmers will have any seeds left after the birds finish wintering here.....they eat ALL day long.

Below: my happy hubby.

On this particular morning of Saturday January 23rd, we were hoping for a great photographic opportunity like we had on Friday morning, January 22nd ...... (see the three photos below)

It was a fantastic sunrise, and we found a small flock of swans. (for these photos, I experimented with a Singh Ray Blue & Gold filter.) I never get tired of photographing Mt. Baker, which can been seen from almost any place in Skagit Valley. (there are two Trumpeter Swans in the above photo, about the level of the top of Mt. Baker....pretty tiny to see, I know)

The morning of Saturday, January 23rd had some great promise.....there were fabulous puffy cotton-like clouds near the mountains, and patches of misty fog that the swans would fly into and land. Everything had an ethereal quality to it and it was beautiful. The swans were too far away to get a good photograph in the dim light.....we would need a lot bigger telephoto lens to do the job up right.

Below, is a sample of what it looked like when it started to get light.....absolutely beautiful!

Below: before sunrise, with the misty fog and the cotton-like clouds on the mountains. There are actually swans feeding in the fog, but you can't see them in this photo.

As the sun came up, the swans were still flying in to land in the wheat fields. They nest on the water at night, and come inland to feed during the day.

We stayed there for almost three hours, and then the light wasn't as good for photography, but we didn't want to go home. We decided to go elsewhere to find the "right" photo. We were starving by then, so we stopped at McDonald's for a breakfast sandwich, then headed up Highway 20: the North Cascades Highway. It is one of the most beautiful drives up the Skagit River on Highway 20. At this time of year, you can only drive up the river about 67 miles because they close the road during the winter because of heavy snow. (this year we haven't had hardly any snow, but they still have the road closed....darn!)

We drove up to Diablo Dam and drove over the dam and got out to take some photos.

Below: Diablo Dam, built in 1929. It is curved and very deep. I love the old light posts that line each side of the road on the top of the dam.

Ron found a vantage point where he could look right down the river (and straight down the side of the dam) which made me get dizzy because of the height.

Below: Ron waving at me, from halfway across the dam.

This is as close as I could come to taking a photo over the side of the dam. It was a very beautiful old structure, and a breathtaking view looking downriver.

It was also a breathtaking view no matter which way you turned to look. The photo below is of Pyramid Peak, with a gathering of cotton-like puffy clouds. A photo just doesn't do it justice.

A close-up shot of Pyramid Peak.

We drove further around Diablo Lake.....this shot is looking west toward the dam. The water looked emerald green in places.

It was 34 degrees while we were at the dam, and my fingers and toes were frozen, but when you're having fun, it's hard to quit to get warm. (hey....it was a hat day when you get up that early and don't take time to curl your hair!)

As we drove back down the Skagit River to Skagit Valley, we decided that we still didn't want to go home, so we grabbed a quick sandwich and headed out to the fields again, hoping to catch the swans as they returned to the water for the night.

Below: a few Snow Geese flying away from the hunter's guns.

But it was the clouds that fascinated me........they were incredible! They ranged in color from bright white, to deep gray with a backdrop of a beautiful blue sky. They changed shape and position every few minutes.....even producing a rainbow, while we waited for the birds.

We waited for an hour and a half on the dike (at Skagit Bay) but the swans didn't come. We found that they like to wait until it's almost pitch black before they fly out to the water......which makes it too late to take a photo. Below, is a photo of the field where we were hoping to see the birds, from the dike. You can see our trusty Camry parked on a small road in the lower left of the photo. The warm color of the setting sun is perfect for shooting photos....but alas....no swans.

We got home that night at 5:30 pm........almost 12 hours from when we left the house that morning. We had certainly not planned to be gone that long, but we completely enjoyed the entire day, and were glad that we just decided at the last minute to load up and take off that morning. Ron and I both love to see what's over the horizon, so we love to explore. But photograpy has made our adventures even more enjoyable, because we both love to do it. One of these days, we'll get the photo of swans that we want! So stay tuned.............who knows when the next adventure will begin!

A Week with Alexander

How often do you get to spend an entire week with just one grandchild? Not very often, so we felt very happy for the opportunity to spend some "one-on-one" time with our 6-year old grandson, Alexander. (Alexander is our oldest son Michael's oldest son.) He got to fly on an airplane all by himself, from Salt Lake City, Utah. As he disembarked the plane, he came bounding out of the hallway from the plane all by himself......I got a little worried and asked him if the flight attendent let him get off all by himself. Five seconds later a panting flight attending ran up to us, saying "I'm with him!!" Our walk through the airport back to our car was similar........grandpa and I walking as fast as we could just to keep up with him! We looked at each other with a grin and said "Hmmmmm, we're going to be worn out by the end of the week!"

On the way home from the airport, we stopped at our daughter's home, (Jenni and Will Thomas) and spent about 4 hours playing with another grandson, 18 month old cousin, Preston. Jenni had to go to a meeting, and grandpa had an insurance appointment close to Jenni's house, so Alexander and I had fun playing ball with Preston. We also tried to count all the tiny crabs in Uncle Will's aquarium, watched a Winnie the Pooh movie, and shot basket balls into Preston's new hoop. Both boys were totally entertained and had a great time together, despite the difference in their ages. Except Aunt Jenni was unhappy with grandma for not putting Preston down for a nap . . . . . . .but we were having too much fun!

It didn't take us long to figure out that Alexander LOVES Legos . . . . . . . .actually "loves" is even an understatement! At 6 years old he already has the brain of a mechanical engineer! We got Uncle Stephen's old Lego set down from the storage closet, and turned him loose. The set consists of a helicopter and an 18 wheel truck and trailer. . . . . . . very complicated to say the least. (it's rated for ages 10 -16) He was entertained for hours on end trying to figure it out. He was very good about following the directions in the diagrams. He was SO proud of himself when he finally completed the set, after three days.

He only had to ask grandpa for help once or twice. (It's a good thing that grandpa is good at building things, because I would be a total loss!)

When he finally got the set completed, grandpa had to take his picture so he could remember what he had so much fun building. Grandpa did it up right . . . . .set up the backdrop and got out the studio lighting and everything. The photos below were just my snapshots of grandpa taking Alexander's picture.

Our dining room was the photograhy studio.

On Tuesday, we went to the movie, "Alvin and the Chipmunks 2", which we all enjoyed and had a good time laughing. (it was better than the first movie.) We tried a couple of times to go to the beach to find baby crabs, but the tide was extremely high this week, so we were never able to get down to the rocks where they hide. But it was fun anyway. The photo below was taken at English Boom Preseve on the north end of Camano Island.

Durng the week, I had my regular violin and piano students, and Alexander kept himself totally busy working on the lego set while I taught. Grandpa had some church meetings in the evening, so Alexander and I had a couple of "movie nights", and made cinnamon rolls.

On Friday, it was raining and very windy . . . . .that's really an understatement too. It was really windy! But we decided to go on an adventure anyway. We put together a picnic of fried chicken, corn dogs, potato salad and fruit salad and set off to see the sights. Our first stop was at Deception Pass State Park on Whidbey Island to eat our picnic. Alexander hadn't had two bites of his corn dog, when his front tooth fell out! We wrapped it up to he could take it home and put it under his pillow for the tooth fairy.

By then it had stopped raining, but the wind was still howling like crazy. We drove down to Oak Harbor (on Whidbey Island) and found our way to a little boat launch area on the west coast. Grandpa and Alexander had a blast getting chased by the huge incoming breakers. Between waves, Alexander would jump down to the beach and turn over a rock, looking for baby crabs, and then race back to the high ground as the incoming waves nipped at his heels. No crabs. . . . . . .but lots of fun! I think that grandpa had as much fun as Alexander . . . . . . . hmmmmmm, wonder who's the "kid" ?

We then worked our way down the coast a bit . . . . . . . . to Fort Ebey State Park. We had originally planned to go to Fort Casy (because we had taken Alexander's older sister Elena there before) but we decided to explore a new area and went to Fort Ebey instead. It was a beautiful place for a picnic, because it was protected by the trees. We explored the ammunition storage bunker that went clear through the hillside. . . . . . . . . . . total blackness, except for a faint glimmer of light at the other side of the hill. Grandpa would yell "hello! anyone in here?" and it would echo and echo. Alexander held grandpa's hand through the entire tunnel. The Fort used to have bug gun batteries, but they have removed the guns. Below, Alexander and I were sitting in the place where the cannons used to be mounted.

We had promised Alexander a ferry ride, so we continued driving south on Whidbey Island, until we reached the little town of Clinton. We were the second car in line to get on the ferry which crosses over to Mukilteo on the Washington mainland. Alexander had to explore the ferry from one end to the other. It was too cold on the bow of the ferry, so we spend most of the time on the rear deck.

Grandpa and Alexander, as we are leaving the port of Clinton. (notice the missing tooth?)

It was smooth sailing over to Mukilteo. We played the game "Rubberneckers" in the car on the way home, until it got too dark to see our playing cards anymore. We had fun showing Alexander around the area in which we live. There's so much to see and do here in this beautiful area . . . . . . . . and if it rains, you just do it anyway and put a raincoat on!

Thank you, Alexander, for coming to visit grandpa and grandma this past week! We love you! We hope that you had fun too!

New Years 2010

They say that you are supposed to gain wisdom with age.......well, that may or may not be true. Our adventure on New Year's Eve makes me wonder if we have really gotten any smarter. Ron and I decided to drive back up to Leavenworth to try to get some good photos of the cute little Bavarian Village while they still had their Christmas lights up.

We left our house around 9:30 PM, and started out on the 3 hour drive. It was close to 50 degrees when we left the island. Ron and I have always enjoyed driving at night......there are usually less cars on the road, and definetly not as many semi-trucks. As we turned onto Highway 2 which crosses the Cascade Mountains at Stevens Pass, we watched the temperature drop as we climbed in altitude. There were high clouds which looked more like a thin fog, because we could see the full moon during the entire drive. It was absolutely beautiful! The trees were very heavily laden with fresh snow, and everything was silent......hardly ever a car in sight. It was 22 degrees over the Pass, and the moon was so bright you almost didn't need headlights. We were wishing that we could have found a place where we could have pulled off the highway to take some pictures.....however, we were not in the mood to get stuck in the snow that night. (Our Camry thinks it's a 4-wheel drive sometimes, but that was not the night try it!)

When we arrived in Leavenworth around 12:45 AM, we pulled into a parking lot and got our cameras out and set up. Then we drove into the heart of town where we wanted to get out and take photos. It was about 1:00 AM New Year's Day, and we had figured that the party goers and fireworks watchers would all be gone by then.....boy were we wrong! Town was a zoo, filled with people who were drunker than skunks! (and a few of them smelled as bad as skunks too....) It was almost impossible to get a shot without any people in them.

There was one group of drunk people that wanted Ron to take their picture..........."we'll pay you big bucks to take our picuture" they said. They were totally shocked when Ron said that he wouldn't take their picuture! There was a couple of times that we got worried about somebody grabbing the camera. While we were there, we saw three amblulance runs.........it makes you wonder how people can be so dumb.

The photo below was taken at almost 3:00 AM.....there were still people wandering around town, and sliding down the ice hill in the town square. (they were some of the noisiest.)

Below: Ron taking a shot of the mainstreet of Leavenworth. There still wasn't very much snow, compared to what Leavenworth usually has. Maybe, just maybe we'll try to go back again before the end of January, if they get a good snow storm.

We were bundled up warm enough, that we didn't get cold......all except Ron's feet. (I think it's time to buy some good snow boots!)

We headed out of town a little after 3:00 AM, and started the drive back over the Pass. The clouds were starting to get a little thicker, so the moon was not quite as bright. We decided to pull into one of the parking lots at Stevens Pass Ski Resort to close our eyes for a few minutes....by this time it was a little after 4:00 AM. We thought that we had found an out-of-the-way corner, when very soon a car pulled up with some skiers who had been out partying. They proceeded to take their chains off and motion and yell New Year greetings to us. I guess that Ron and I are just cut from a different cloth.......New Year's Eve is just another night, and I just can't understand people who think that partying and getting drunk is cool.

Ron was still too tired to drive, so I drove for a while and let him take a nap. We switched back when we got to Monroe. We were both starving by then, so we pulled into a Denny's near Arlington for breakfast, around 6:00 AM. We got home around 7:00 AM and both of us crashed.....we slept until 11:00 AM. You would think that we'd learn that we are not as young as we used to be, and therefore can't stay up all night like we used to. (....hmmmm...lesson not learned....we still like the adventure of driving all night to get someplace!)

We still haven't gotten the shot of Leavenworth that we want, but the drive over Stevens Pass was worth it. I just wish that I could have taken a picture of the snow laden trees shimmering in the full moon. Maybe next time............

Christmastime in Leavenworth, Washington

A few days before Christmas, our daughter Jenni and her husband Will and son Preston came to visit. A couple of years ago we had gone to Leavenworth, Washington during the month of December to see all the Christmas lights, and had enjoyed it so much that we wanted to return again. Leavenworth is a small town in the Cascade Mountains of Washington, that is built and decorated in the Bavarian style.........it looks like a cute little German village. So we packed the car, and headed over the mountains at Stevens Pass.

Ron and I in front of the Danish Bakery......and it is REAL Danish pastry! Our favorite is the vinabrod. Yummmm!

I got to "play" with a good camera this time, and really had fun with it. These photos are a combination of mine and Ron's. We had gone to Leavenworth with the hopes of getting some really good "snow" pictures.........there wasn't any snow! That is very unusual for this time of year, and so that was quite disappointing. (Ron and I are going back in January to try again. We are watching the weather reports every day.)

Ron and Will went out into the village at 2:00 am in the morning, after all the people had gone. (Unfortunately they turned the lights on the trees out at 2:00, but at least they left the lights on the buildings turned on.) Ron had Will drive the car through town, with a 15 second shutter speed, and this is the shot that he got. Pretty cool, huh?

Earlier in the evening when all the cars and people were still in town.

Another shot of town, across from the gazebo in the town square.

It was just getting dark as we walked from out hotel to the town square. The light on all the stores make everything so beautiful and festive.

This is the hotel that we stayed in.....The Bavarian Lodge. It is really nice, and right across the street from the town square, so we didn't have to walk very far.

Me, in front of our hotel entrance.

Jenni, Will and Preston standing by the "Welcome to Leavenworth" sign in the town square. Behind them in the gazebo, where they have different musicians and groups preform during the holiday season. It got a bit chilly, as it was around 25 degrees that night.

Jenni and I as we venture into the village. There were lights on all the trees and every storefront in town. You can't help but get into the Christmas spirit with all the lights and decorations. There was a horsedrawn carriage that would take people on tours through town. It looked like fun, but we would have probably frozen our hind ends just sitting there!

Here we are on the steps of the gazebo. Town wasn't too busy at all, because it was a Monday evening. We had heard that over the weekend, it was like a zoo.

Our hotel had a Baldwin grand piano in the lobby, and there was a sign on it saying that anyone was welcome to play it. So we talked Jenni into playing "Carol of the Bells".....Ron and I were taking pictures of her as she played, and she kept telling us to "quit doing that ....... you are embarassing me!"

The lobby of the Bavarian Hotel is very inviting.....they have hot chocolate, hot cider and Danish butter cookies available to the guests. They also serve a breakfast that is really good.

Preston's legs were a little short to try and keep up with everyone........and he always wanted to go where we weren't going, so we'd end up chasing him. Will finally started packing him on his shoulders......Preston really liked that.......he could see everything and felt like he was right in the middle of everything. He didn't like being in a strange bed though.....the first night he wanted to sleep inbetween Jenni and Will, and would cry if he didn't. None of us got much sleep that first night. The second night was much better......we wore him out first!

Grandma and Preston

Ron, relaxing in the lobby of the hotel.










Me, getting warm in front of the fire.

If you've never been to Leavenworth, it's worth the trip. Hopefully we'll get back there next month, and be able to take some really good photos when there is more snow. It was a nice prelude to Christmas.