Granville Island, Artist Point, and Whidbey Island

So I have three albums/collections of photos from the past 2 months that I just never got around to uploading/blogging, so here they are! Pretty significant trips too...for various reasons. Below you'll find three links to three collections, along with a few of my fav's as always. NOTE: the Whidbey pictures even include some photos of the Ulstein clan (Steve, Jeanne, and granddaughter Naomi). In reverse chronological order, (most recent to oldest)...

- Granville Island/Stanley Park (all three of us) - this was a weekend trip that Julie, Brennan and I all took. It was B's first time up there so we did the market (think food, and street musicians), had fun sleeping in the hotel, enjoyed all the sights, and then on Monday we went to Stanley Park. One totally impromptu/spontaneous adventure found Julie and Brennan swimming in a cool pool/water park. Also took a train ride, and enjoyed the day.

- Artist Point - this was just a day trip, but was big because it qualified as Brennan's first real "hike" (as in he did all the walking himself). He did GREAT! The incredible thing was we managed to find a 2-hour window right in between huge rain-storms...(thanks God). The clouds lifted so we made a run for it. Brennan made it all the way to the top, and back, all on his own.

- Whidbey - these are pictures from our week-long trip to Whidbey Island all the way back in early August. Highlights as always included lots of boat rides, fishing, and playing on the beach. But perahps the biggest highlights were playing with Bapa, Aunt Traci, and Uncle David.

Granville pics here...
Artist Point pics here...
Whidbey pics here...

Brennan on a boat ride...(one of those water taxis)

Street music was a hit...esp the bagpipes

This musician was having Brennan participate with him

On the train, getting ready to leave...

B spent a lot of time digging with this toy

B and Mama sitting on top of an old fire-truck

Totally spontaneous...let's go for a swim!

It's a very large "infinity pool" in Stanley Park

B and Julie looking at stuff

Mad it all the way to the top of Artist Point

At Whidbey with Aunt Jeanie, and cousin Naomi

B learned how to ride is bike on this trip

Side trip to Coupeville

Julie and Dad trying to catch a salmon

It got quite foggy this day...very cool to see

Silver Lake - Family Camping 2013

10 adults, 5 kids, 5 families, and a whole lot of fun! Julie, Brennan and I joined the rest of the "Greene/Weston/Scheid" family and went camping at Silver Lake to celebrate the end of summer. We had a blast! Brennan did great sleeping in a tent for the first time...and all the kids seemed to enjoy spending 48 hours with each other. Oh, and so did the adults. :-)

All the pics here

Lots of memories! Favorite activities the kids did included the new playground, especially the tire swing, renting a row-boat and a paddle-boat, lots of treats and great food including s'mores, lots of time around the campfire in the evenings, exploring the trails around our campsite, and generally spending time with all their cousins and aunts and uncles and grandma and grandpa. Brennan woke up this morning and said, "are we going to camping again or not?"
The weather was great and so was the trip.

Click here for the full album, or do the lame thing and just scroll down for some highlights. :-)

Twin Lakes

Let me start by saying this is one of my favorite collections of photos in the past couple of years. Julie and I were able to get away for an overnight camping trip so we packed up our gear and headed up to Twin Lakes. It was GREAT!

Monday we hiked up to Winchester Lookout...did you know there's a lookout up there that's kept up by the Mt. Baker Hiking Club? There are two beds inside and it's first come first served for sleeping up there. Alas! We brought everything on the trip to do this but decided at the last moment not to. Oh well...save it for next time.

Highlights included the blueberries which were thick...you could smell them everywhere!
Also our evening...millions of stars out there, the milky way, and so much more.

The second day was hot, hot, hot! We did a little bit of the high-pass hike which heads out to Mt. Larrabee, but decided to head back to the Winchester trail and pick blueberries instead. All in all, it was a couple of days to remember!

For you photo geeks, all the daytime pictures were shot with my newish 15-85mm with a polarizer. The night shots were a combo of lenses, but most of the best ones were with an ultra-wide; 10-22mm. I really need a remote to activate the shutter, as my 40d only maxes at 30 sec. exposures...needed longer exposures at night.

Scroll for a few of my favorite pics...and read the captions for a little more info.

Here's a link to the entire album (worth looking at).

Our Camping Site...not a bad view!

These are the "twin lakes" - our camping spot is just above the lake on the right.

The sign at the lookout...

The lookout - lots of pics of the inside, go to my album to see them

Mt. Larrabee is the closest, followed by American Peak, and lastly Canadian Peak

The Big Dipper

Stars and Milky Way were amazing...only wish I could have done longer exposures.

Of course, everyone has this picture!

Go to the album to see a whole bunch more!!!