26 Apr 13. One more of the cherry blossoms before they paint the ground pink for another year. Now growing up in the SW area of Lake Washington in the 50s and 60s meant that you spent a fair amount of time in either Seward Park or the shoreline nearby. At the time we were in high school there was a loop road around the perimeter of the park that closely followed the shoreline. There were also plenty of intersecting roads that took you through different areas of the park as well as many pullouts. The official speed was 25 MPH, and in fact you could drive that speed, but only on weekdays and bad weather weekends during the school year. The rest of the time it was cruis'n space for every red blooded guy and gal. If you were lucky, you might hit the loop on a summer day when the speed was greater than 3 MPH, but that would have been a rare day. Showing off your wheels and girl was the primo event of every nice day, and it would be hard to say what got top billing, the wheels or the girls in them. A fun time for all, and a great time to grow up. The shoreline would be packed with cars and teenagers in them nightly to watch the "submarine races", and to be sure, more than a few "tricycle motors" got their start from such activity. But it was great fun, and a time when life was far more light hearted. A time of Elvis, the Everely Brothers, and the Beach Boys. And muscle cars!!! Tim Allen kind of power! Now the loop road is gone, and all that remains is one short leg you can traverse in just a few minutes. So to all the great musical biggies, the muscle cars, and the good make out areas, now gated with cyclone fences and physically locked. You can of course still go see the beautiful trees, but the fun stuff is, I'm afraid, gone forever. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; 1/160 sec @ f /13.
29 Apr 13. On the advice of my physical therapist, we visited the Salt Creek tide pools taking with us the cherubs. At first arrival it didn't look very promising viewing the area from the main parking area, but another camper pointed us to a different location where we were able to park right at the cliff edge, take a ladder down almost to the beach, and then travel down a bit more over a steep rocky incline, but very short in length, until reaching the rocky area comprising the tide pools. The last jump down plus a few other short "hops" to avoid water gave my shoulder a little challenge, but Jan and the cherubs had no difficulties. It was worth the visit, and we will most certainly return when we can visit at the time of a lower tide, which will occur early this year, at the end of May rather then at the beginning of June. Considering what we could see with the -0.5 tide when we were there, I'm thinking the -3.0 at the end of May will likely expose a large amount of intertidal zone life. It should be fun. The shot for today was taken at the main parking area and is a composite to provide for a better view of what is there. For those of you familiar with California's Monterey Peninsula, this area looks surprisingly similar. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/ 100 sec @ f /13.
30 Apr 13 . Off momentarily on a business trip to Utah, so likely no more images this week, it all depends on connectivity, but hopefully lots of materials from the Salt Lake City region of Utah. Weather looks to be perfect, and I have two days to play, so hopefully something nice will come out of it. The image for today was taken a couple weeks back when we went to the LaConner area for a camera club meeting/lunch/tulip shoot. It was a very cloudy day, the clouds being one of the best parts and the tulips, what there was of them, were in full display. Mostly reds and shades of red in the fields, but the display gardens had an assortment of everything. More of what was in the gardens to come shortly. In the fields were, in addition to tulips, lots of puddles and children. These two cherubs were having a good time despite mom saying stay out of the puddles. At least that's what I think I heard. Well, you can decide who heard mom and who didn't. I've enhanced the clouds just a wee bit to give you more of the feeling we had when we visited. Otherwise pretty much straight out of the camera. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f /11.
