hot day in P.A.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Today was a scorcher. I think it peaked near 90 and the inside of our non-AC cooled house was over 85. Simply unbearable. So we packed up the dog and a bunch of cupcakes and made the trek to my parent's place for an outdoor BBQ dinner.

Afterwards, the kids and animals were running around so I pulled out the cellphone and went to work!

And for those who doubt whether these are actually shot with my cellphone - in one shot you can see my shadow as I take the picture. Wholly unintentional, but makes for an interesting photo. And proves what I'm doing ;)




Megan (l) and Anneka (r) - what a cute pair of cousins!


Forgotten on the stairs...


Joey meets Mittens the cat. Mittens wasn't interested.


It's a veritable zoo...dogs and cats galore


Unintentional - shadow of me taking a pic with my phone
(for all the doubters!)


What do you want? No, I won't look at you for the shot.
I'm sleeping. Leave me alone.


hello, kitty!


Mittens in deep contemplation


Megan looks for lizards. Eeek!

dancing in the sunset

Friday, June 27, 2008

I just love sunsets. The colors that stretch across the horizon are simply breathtaking. Sunset is my favorite time of the day. I'm a night owl so it signals that I can come to life, but it's more than that. I just get a happy feeling watching the sun slowly move down and vanish as it sinks below the horizon. It's times like tonight with a crystal clear blue sky and an amazing sunset that I am just happy to be alive.

And it's even better when little kids are running around on a beach at sunset. Lots of silhouette photos of my nieces/nephew throwing rocks and just being kids. With the brilliant sunset in the background, it makes for a perfect photo opportunity. How could I resist?

But before we hit the beach, enjoy a few photos I took of the harbor from an overlooking park. The colors, ships, sunset - it all was peaceful and gorgeous.

And as always, view the entire set of photos at my Smugmug album.



A view of the Olympic Mountains as we drive to the park.


The COHO ferry coming in from Victoria, BC (seen on right of large container ship).


A view of the park that overlooks the harbor.


Downtown Port Angeles on far left - Victoria, BC on right (far horizon).


Mt Baker can be seen in the middle, far horizon.


Port Angeles harbor shot


A few ships sitting in the harbor.


More Victoria, BC on the far horizon..


Looking out toward Victoria on the far horizon.


Mt Baker can be seen toward the right - Victoria on the left horizon.


The sunset as seen from the car. The sun peeking through the trees intrigues me...


More of the sunset from the car as we drive down the road..


View from downtown Port Angeles - looking at a tanker docked for repairs.


Victoria, BC on far horizon. Looking at Strait of Juan de Fuca.


Looking west down the Strait.


Watching the waves roll in.


Other vehicles there for the sunset.


Andrew throws a rock into the water..


Nikole dances on the log.


Still dancing...


And finishing the dance.


Watching the sunset and waves.


Victoria, BC is on far horizon...looked very close tonight.

the high price of gas

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Just a few photos today.

I can remember when Joe and I moved to Virginia 11 years ago. We used to drive to a huge mall outside DC and we always stopped at this little mini-mart to get gas. We were paying $.89/gallon then. We could fill up our red mini van for something like $17.00. Those were the days!

Gas has reached $4.55/gallon for mid-grade here now. That's what we use in our car so now a typical fill up is upwards of $70. We typically put in $20 at a time since we don't do a lot of driving. That lasts a week or so.

Yesterday I saw this van in front of me as I drove to Seattle to do an airport retrieval of a sister and her kiddos. It's not terribly clear but it should be legible. Instead of the usual "powered by alternative fuel" it states "powdered by expensive gas."




And this photo shows what happens when Costco sells fuel for $.10 less than anyone else around. We waited in line for a bit before being able to finally fill up. In some lines, the cars were 6 deep.

the lonely road

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

It's great living close to family. My parents are just a short 10 minute drive away so tonight we went there for dinner. My mom made a killer pizza (Joe and son said it was great - I ate my own gluten-free version made from biscuit dough) and then we took a short walk. Knowing I would be able to shoot some photos just had me all excited. My mom is a fabulous gardener and has a vast number of flowers and bushes growing wild like an english cottage garden. Every time I'm there I just turn green with envy and wish I could have a flower garden like that. But being the original Black Thumb, that's impossible. I would need to hire a full time gardener to keep things alive. 1 month with me in charge and everything would be dead. But I digress...

I may not be able to grow anything, but I can definitely enjoy Mom's while I'm there. So our tour starts in the small garden next to the parking area. First up will be my dad's Washington Huskies mailbox surrounded by a sea of flowers. Enjoy!






















This is Rocky. He's a miniature pony and when not fenced in to eat down the tall grass, he's out running free with the dogs. He greets guests at their cars when they arrive and thinks he is one of the dog pack. It is the most adorable thing I've ever seen.






































Where old cars go to die.

Tall Ships at the Pier

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Last night, Joe and I took a twilight drive through town and discovered that some old wooden "tall" ships were docked at the Port Angeles Pier. Today was a sunny day so off we went to take a look.

There were a few private smaller ships and then there was the HMSS Bounty. It was just amazing to see it up close. (read their website for more information - HMS Bounty).

I didn't see that there were any tours available so I had to content myself with some shots from the pier. And since the pier is like 50 feet off the water, it was all I could do to get close enough to the edge to get some good shots (acrophobic much?). But overall, I think it was a successful trip and I'm very pleased with the shots I was able to get.

There were quite a few people out on the pier and looking at the boats. And since the tide was out and it was a beautiful sunny, albeit a bit chilly, day - the small beach next to the pier was just buzzing with families and their children playing in the sand.

While I was looking at the ships, the Coho ferry arrived. This ferry makes multiple trips between Port Angeles and Victoria, BC each day and is a fun adventure in itself. MV Coho Ferry. The ferry comes in head first but as it arrives at the dock, it moves past and then backs in. That also is something worth seeing.

Enjoy the photos. I wish there were a way I could include the sound of the seagulls calling as they circle around and the smell of the salt water in the slight breeze that was softly blowing in from the harbor. I just love it here.

























































Our son, being his usual self, waiting in the backseat.

sisters x 6

Monday, June 23, 2008

Since I'll be referring to my sisters in this blog, I thought I'd explain why they're being referenced by number.

I am the oldest of 6 girls. No brothers. Yeah, I know - my poor dad, right? I'm sure he's heard that a half billion times or so himself. But that doesn't change the fact that there are 6 of us girls. And we're none of us quiet and unassuming so when we're all together, it can be deafening. But that's beside the point.

I, being the oldest, would be sister #1. (At least I'm first in something. Haha!)

The sister after me is #2, the one after her is #3 and so on until the end. I think you get the general idea?

There are 18 years between me and sister #6. She is just 2 years older than my son, so that's really neat. They grew up more like brother and sister than nephew/aunt. Which is a good thing since he ended up being an only child.

Anywho, here is a photo that we took last summer when we were altogether. And for good measure, mom is in there as well.



So there you have it. Now you'll know what I'm talking about when I start calling my sisters by numbers.

new look and new focus

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Since I've discovered that my cellphone takes photos that are actually quite good, I've been busy shooting up a storm and posting them all over the place. I even opened a smugmug account (webgyrl.smugmug.com) to display them at and keep them organized. Then Joe mentioned that I should be putting them on my blog. I'd posted a few but meh, just wasn't working for me.

So I decided to overhaul the blog and give it a fresh new face. NOW I can show off my mad cellphone camera skillz.

I love to photograph things as you can see by some of the images shown here. The washer on the beach and the kid's shoes on the cabin dock are two of my faves. Now that I have this blog set up to display them better, I'll be taking more photos of my daily life as I go here, there, and everywhere.

There are interesting things to be photographed in all kinds of unique places. This is what I'll be sharing with you here.

So enjoy the new look. And let me know what you think!