Lotsa stuff!

It's been a bit since we've made a post here, and I'm afraid there's been a lot going on - and there are photos of nearly every thing! As I mentioned the last time, Eden and I got a chance to go on a battle sail with Nick on the 10th, but in point of fact I actually went out on the 9th to try and catch the ship. I didn't get to the ship, but I did get a few good shots of boaters on the river that day.

Once we got on the ship, the next day, we spent a very pleasant three hours or so drifting up and down the river. I got a chance to play around with people shots, and had a lot of fun with it. Since the crew was used to cameras being around, I got some great photos, although I still got some of the best shots aiming from one end of the ship to the other with full zoom. The crew did an amazing job of being exactly where they needed to be, even when half the tourists were in their way. They even made a respectable effort to let some of the kids work the lines. Later that night, we took Nick out to the new Star Trek, which we all enjoyed immensely. It's definitely a different Trek, but it's good.

We also spent the morning celebrating Mother's day with the Scheans family. Unfortunately, Suzanne could not be with us, as she is currently out on a job in northern Washington, but we kept her in our hearts at Dim Sum, and afterward when we visited the guerrilla gardening tree they had planted earlier in honor of Grandpa Dan. So far no one has objected to the planting, which is nice.

The 12th was a little interesting for me. Half an hour into my A & P lab, an "active shooter" alert got called in and the entire campus essentially shut down for 45 minutes. Shades get drawn and we're all moved away from the windows. As you can see in the photos, no one really took it seriously; it was more of an interruption than a concern. Apparently the call came in that there was a suicidal man with a gun wandering around the campus. Police found nothing, which probably means that someone just wanted to skip a test.

On the 16th we went to market to see the new site, which is actually pretty spiffy. The place was swarmed, and people were actually making a lot of money. Eden was still recovering, and so wasn't selling, but it was really good to see all of her friends there. We also got to see a mini-parade celebrating the move. Not much in the way of good shots there, as we were a bit late showing up, although I did get a few of the dancers.

We also got a chance to go see Circled by Hounds for the first time in at least a month, which was awesome. Unfortunately, the lighting in the bar was far too dim for my current camera, even at maximum sensitivity and a fairly long exposure. A couple of photos were semi-salvageable with extensive processing, but that's out of perhaps a hundred or so.

On the 17th we went up to Woodland to see the Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens. The flowers were pretty amazing, but unfortunately I forgot to reset my camera's sensitivity from the night before, which killed about half of the shots. After that, we went up to the old Cedar Creek Grist Mill and got some great shots there too. Eden had some luck there as well, from what I've seen over her shoulder.

Yesterday was an eventful day as well - we set out for the coast around noon, but were stopped by a blowout of one of Eden's tires... one of the ones that wasn't showing excessive wear. We'd been putting off replacing her tires for a while, but it was obviously time to get around to it, so we went to Costco and threw money at the problem (successfully). After that, we headed down to Manzanita beach. Wonderful views, but the wind was just too darn high - at least 30-40 mph. You can see in the photos that it was nearly blowing the sailcarter over. Given all that, we went back up to Cannon beach and tried out Eden's new kite. She had a whole lot of fun with it, and I captured a number of her smiles (which I unfortunately can't share right now). On the other hand, other subjects, such as the kite itself, were very photogenic.

Two more bits to share before I close - I stumbled across a recipe for a quick and simple ice cream analog that's really quite tasty. So far we've done strawberry (incredible... just awesome!) and peach (not quite as good - comes out as a cross between creamsicle and peach.) If you have a few moments, you should really whip up a batch to enjoy. A cherry version will be next, as soon as we have room in the freezer.

2009-05-22 Picdump [Show image locations on map] [Fullscreen slideshow]

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