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I'm back from 2 weeks in AUS...stay tuned for more from this trip!

Something I've never done...

So I got to do something I've never done before the other day; I got to shooting. Went with a friend from church to a shooting range in Bellingham and after going through some safety training, I got to shoot his pistol with him, a a .40 caliber Glock. Overall, it was a whole lot harder then I thought it would be; it's a "mini-explosion" that you're trying to control. Still, my friend was impressed and thought I did very well. The pictures are, in order;

1) my very first shot (which is the one just left of the bulls-eye)
2) my 5th and final "bulls-eye" target I shot at (my best spread for sure)
3) my very last target I shot at

more bear photos?

Want to see more bear pics? Click here.

Close Encounters...Bear!

Julie and I took some friends of ours up to Mt Baker on Sunday and wouldn't you know it, on the way down Julie sees some people pulled off to the side of the road and just as we were speeding by, she yelled "Bear!" So we put the car in reverse, backed up and spent about 45 minutes watching this Bear at extremely close range. For most of the time the Bear was about 30-60 feet away, but at one point we jumped back in the car and the Bear came within about 10-15 feet of our car. If you want to see a few more pictures, click on the image and it will take you to the album.

Lost Lake: Chuckanuts

First "real" hike of the year. Julie and I hiked from the top of Hiline/Cleator Rd down to Lost Lake, and back. It was a grind...app 5 1/2 miles by our best estimation (about 4 hours). The destination was disappointing only because we didn't find a trail down to the lake, nor did we get to the trail that has an amazing lookout over the lake. Still, along the way we saw plenty of beautiful things and now that we know where the lookout it, we'll be back.

Also, there were too many pictures for me to put them all on the blog. So, if you want to see all of the pictures, simply click on any one of these and it will take you to the online album where you can see the rest, or CLICK HERE!

First up? The Chuckanuts are noted for some amazingly big hunks of rock...the first picture is some that we found, the 2nd is of the same set of rocks...just put Julie in the photo to show the scale (and because she's so pretty).




Lots of Spring flowers starting to come out!




And last, this waterfall (it was actually a very small one)


Again, to see all the pictures from this trip, just click on one of them and it will take you to the album; or CLICK HERE!

Vancouver: Granville market rocks

So I got to spend this past Monday in Vancouver with my lovely wife and my Dad. We spent most of the day in Granville Market, which is where these pictures come from. Granville is Vancouver's answer to Pike Place; probably about the same number of vendors, but laid out much better (more room to walk and places to sit and eat).




Julie and Dad enjoying lunch


Julie being tempted by some pastries


A wide shot of part of the market


This is a new kind of "berry" that none of us had seen before


Me and my Dad trying out some nice chairs


The market is on a small island called Granville Island...makes sense, huh?


Also a fun kids area

Just another night in Bellingham...

I wish we lived someplace beautiful... :-)

Sunset over Bellingham Bay

New and Old

A New Blog Post of some Old Pics. I was watching a slide show of all the pictures I've ever taken and realized that I have quite a catalogue of stuff, so I thought I'd share some of them. Note: all the pictures on this post are taken with an Olympus 2 MP (low resolution, old camera, not a great camera, but took decent pictures).


This pictures was taken from the spot that I asked Julie to marry me.


Some really cool tree bark that Julie spotted




This is arguably the best meal I've ever had. It's a picture from our honeymoon in Maui at a restaurant called "Pacific-O." The fish is called "Opakapaka," also known as "Pink Snapper." It's hard to find in Maui, but they were serving it up this week with a fresh mango salsa and it was awesome.


One more for ya: a dragonfly caught on camera at the Arboretum in Seattle. You can imagine how close I had to get to him with a camera that didn't have much of a zoom.

More to come later!

Spring?

So there we were, every day the same; rain, cool, highs in the low 50's, lows in the mid 30's, hail, sleet, gray and misty, ugh. Then, out of the blue, a jolt from the great sunny south...this mysterious yellow orb appeared in the sky casting a warmth not felt in these parts since, well, sometime in 2006 I think.

Needless to say, Julie and I were duped...we went to the market, and went on a hike thinking we were going to have a beautiful summer day. Well, we forgot that it's only early April and none of the snow had melted. Our destination? Lost Lake. Well, needless to say, the lake remained lost and we never found it. However, thanks to my wonderfully adventurous wife, we did wander around in the woods looking for the trail!


"view from the parking spot, overlooking the valley"

"one of the few spots you could actually see the trail



"View of the Canadian Mountains"

More beauty from Stimpson

The sun was out for a little today, and you can tell that Spring is knocking on the door here. The frogs were out and some new things were out too (the mushrooms on the log and the lizard). Speaking of lizard, anyone know anything about what kind of lizard that is? I didn't really know those types of things existed in our NW forests...