Timing

Several times recently I have walked by the lake near sunrise and thought of photos. But it's never been quite right. I was a little early, or late. Or not enough clouds to get much color. But oh well, I didn't have my camera anyway.

Today it all came together. The perfect time, right amount of clouds. And the camera.

Stilting at RenFest

Last weekend, we discovered that Gaea poses for pictures quite readily when she's on stilts.


Here's a height comparison with Russ:


I think the guy on the left is one of her spotters. Jason says the spotters' main job is to move people out of the way if she starts to fall.

Yes, we went to the Renaissance Festival again - this time without the dog. Mostly we browsed in shops (Russ was very patient). We did see two I Arroganti plays (the second time for Two Weddings), but unfortunately they had moved the improv show from afternoon to morning, so we didn't get to see that. Jason has a mask, now:


I have to say, my favorite part of the play is Jason's line: "Wuv, twue wuv..."

Hotel Helix

Seems I'm only getting around to blogging when I go on a trip. Just got back from a trip to Virginia and DC. Our hotel in DC was very different. I really liked it - inventive, but functional. And they had free champagne or red wine every evening!


More trip photos later...

Sky with palms

One last picture from California, in honor of Skywatch Friday.

Beach adventures

Today, Russ and I had planned to go whale-watching. The concierge told us about this cool tour where they pick you up at the hotel, take you to Newport Beach, you go out on a morning boat tour for 2 1/2 hours, then they bring you back. Sounded great, and we signed up. When the bus comes, it's the "OC Cruiser" and it has this surfing theme (Beach Boy music, old surfing photos, etc.). After the last hotel stop, they tell us what's going on. It's a 3-hour circuit tour of 3 beach towns (Huntington, Newport, and Laguna) with the ability to get off, spend a few hours at one of the beaches, then get back on the next loop. For the whale-watching, we can take a noon tour instead of the morning one, and get back around 5.

Well, Russ had plans for the afternoon, so he decided to go back to the hotel. I went ahead with the trip, even though it was far from what we'd planned. The first stop was Huntington Beach - Surf City. The US Open of surfing had just finished there, and we had about a half-hour stop. So I took some photos.


Then on to Newport Beach. The driver showed me where to check in for the whale-watching and gave me his cell phone number to call when I was done, so we could figure out when he would meet me. The whale-watching people wanted some kind of card from the tour people. So I hurried back to the bus, which was on a 10-minute stop. The driver had no idea what they wanted, but filled in the slip I had gotten from the concierge and gave me a phone number to pass on if the whale-watching people had any trouble. They looked at the numbers he'd filled in and told me I was way over-charged, and lent me binoculars instead of making me rent them. I was almost 2 hours early for the noon trip. We didn't see any whales, but did see the expected pods of dolphins:


The surprise was the sea lions. They were laying in a pile on someone's boat dock on the way out, and then we saw this pile on the buoy on the way back into the harbor.


Anyway, I thought I might have to wait another 2 hours to get back on the bus. But when I called, the driver said he was headed back, so if I would spend $1 to take the ferry across, he'd pick me up on the way instead. I was glad to get back earlier. And then I could have taken the ferry for free - apparently the crew thought I was part of a different group.

So it ended up being an ok day for me. I did stop to let the concierge know about the problems, though.

Hollywood

Today I took a Grand Tour of LA. While we saw some historical sites (first street, first fire station, first mission) and some beach areas (Santa Monica Beach, Venice Beach), a lot of time was spent on things:

The above picture was taken from the Hollywood Bowl overlook off Mulholland Drive. We drove down the twisty canyon roads, and we also drove through some of the residential sections of Beverley Hills and Bel Air. We saw Aaron Spelling's 36,000 square foot, $50,000,000 house, the house where Michael Jackson died, and several others. Even in other parts of the city, we ended up talking about movies (went over the 8-layer interchange featured in Speed, saw Mel's Diner and the Rodeo Drive shop that wouldn't sell clothes to Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, etc.). We also stopped near Grauman's Chinese Theater, so I took some pictures:


Someone asked about seeing stars on the tours. The driver said that once he was stopped at a red light and the passengers started screaming. There on the sidewalk was Tom Hanks. The driver opened the door, and Tom Hanks got on the bus. He took some pictures with the passengers, then said he had to go and got off. Nothing so interesting happened on our tour - the closest I came was this:


More pictures from the tour later.

Staying cool in LA

We spent yesterday just wandering around the area and relaxing in our room. It was quite hot in the afternoon, so we got Slurpees (sorry Jason) on our way back to the hotel. Then we saw this hotel. Should have stayed there - it's obviously cooler in the Alpine Inn than in the surrounding area.
Still, our hotel has a really great view. This is from the OTHER side, looking north (our room looks south).


Yes, that's the Matterhorn, Space Mountain, and the Tower of Terror at Disneyland. Would have been nice to be on the north side - they had fireworks last night.

Livin' it up at the Hotel California

Well, actually it's the Hilton Anaheim. Got in late last night. L.A. isn't great on the street signage - we had to do a couple of U-turn maneuvers because we missed an on ramp. But all in all, it wasn't too bad. Drove right past Disneyland just before we got to the hotel. The checkin line was surprisingly long at 10:30 at night. Chatted with a couple from New Zealand about temperature conversion (70 F is about 21 C).

Nice room with 2 queen beds on the 14th floor - the Executive floor which includes some food and its own bar in the evenings. This morning we had breakfast in the room while looking out at the rather smoggy view:

Now off to check Russ in for the conference. And then? Not sure. Update later...

Milk Carton Boat Race

Today was the Milk Carton Boat Race, part of Minneapolis' annual Aquatennial festival. Jason, Gaea, Karis and Bobby all worked on a boat together. They used about 275 milk cartons. Apparently, one milk carton can support about 4 pounds, so the 200 used in the flotation portion should support 800 pounds.


The boat is "Queen of Lake Calhoun - Whey Down Yonder in New Orleans".


They had a bike frame attached to run the paddlewheel. Unfortunately, the chain kept slipping and Gaea had to try to make repairs. But they made it to the finish line!


All of us also handed out lots of beads to onlookers. For more pictures, including some of the other boats, see my web album.

Cabin with flowers

It seemed this used to be a little inn - there were a few small cabins in a semi-circle behind it. Now the wildflowers have taken over.

I believe this will be my last post from the trip to Ely. Now I'll have to make sure I take more pictures.

Wildflowers 2 - Lupines

There were drifts of lupines all along the route from Duluth to Ely. I kept looking at them on the way up and deciding not to stop. Then on the way back, I finally stopped for photos. These were taken along Highway 61. Karis took the photo above. And since I had 2 cameras with me, I also took photos - like the one below.

Lake view

This lake caught my eye on the drive between Finland and Ely. I admit I enhanced it a little - the clouds were gorgeous, but the sun wasn't fully cooperating. The result makes me think of the jigsaw puzzles I used to put together with my family.

Split Rock

The Split Rock Lighthouse from the rest area on Highway 61. The rest area was actually closed - they were doing construction there. But I parked nearby and squeezed past the barriers and climbed over the cement forms. It was worth it for this view.

Wildflowers

Taken at a lake on Route 1 north of Finland, MN.

The crane

Here's another couple of photos from my weekend trip.



He let us get quite close in the boat. When he did fly, it was just a short distance to a dock, where he posed again (but I liked the wading photos better). This picture of him taking off is a little blurry, but I was very happy to catch the moment.

Encounters with an eagle

Russ and I went to a friend's lake cabin in Wisconsin this weekend. It rained (quite hard at times) on both the drive down and the drive home. But it stopped just after we got there, and didn't start again until we were halfway back. Had a great time, and took lots of pictures. Went out on the lake in a pontoon boat three times, and once in a paddle boat. It's a nice quiet no-wake lake. And the friends actually own 2 cabins side-by-side, so Russ and I slept in the guest cabin all by ourselves.

Every day, we saw a bald eagle. The first couple of times, he was flying by and there was no chance for me to get a picture. I tried on one flyover, and couldn't even find him. Saturday evening we were out on the lake watching the sunset and found him in a tree. But it was too dark to get anything but a very blurry picture, especially as I had to use maximum telephoto length. But finally this morning we were just about to give up when he flew over us once more. He landed in a tree and posed magnificently while I took about 20 pics. Here are the best two. You can click on them to see a larger version.





I'll post more photos from the trip in the coming days. (I'm going to try to post more regularly.) Right now, I should head to bed.

May Day 2009

Went to see Jason and Gaea in the May Day parade. It was a beautiful day, and I rode up on the light rail, then walked over to the parade route. As Jason told me, it wasn't hard to find them. It's easy to spot 15-foot long stilting pigs.

Gaea and her mom are in the pig in front, and Jason's job is to make sure they have space, since they can't see very well. Gaea controls the pig's tongue, too.


Here are the stilters at the end of the parade.

More photos here.

Afterwards, I walked all around Powderhorn Lake, and finally back to the light rail. So I got a bit of exercise...

More photos

Today Bravo and I took a walk around Lake of the Isles. It's been a while since I walked there. Here's downtown from the south side of the lake:

Here's a guy who has the above as a permanent view, and the wood ducks who were ignoring it.















And finally, when we got home, Bravo played with his own duck for a while, but then decided on a nap.

This is currently his favorite toy. He knows it's called "Duck". He likes me to throw it, and then he pounces on it and makes it quack.

Out of the freezer, into the frying pan

It was very hot when I got home today. Depending on where you looked, it was 86, 89 or even 92. I took Bravo to the dog park, but he wasn't too excited about it. He did not understand why I wanted to walk out in the sun when there was a lot of nice new grass to eat in the shade under the trees. And chasing the ball was kind of fun, but he refused to bring it back to me. If I wanted to go to him (where he was lying down, usually in the shade of a tree) he would happily chase it again. But he preferred that I didn't throw it too far.

Most of all, though, he did not understand why we had gone out to the dog park before he was fed.

Thought I would include a photo of the new 35W bridge. I went down to Nicollet Island and the Stone Arch Bridge on Saturday and took quite a few pics. Maybe I'll post more in the next few days....Behind the bridge, you can see some of the University of Minnesota buildings. Just around the corner from the red brick building on the left was the lab run by one of Russ' colleagues. It got shut down after the bridge collapse, and during the construction. For a while, there was a chance the University could lose a profitable research facility. Fortunately, though, the lab found a new home on the west side of the city.

Headed home

It was almost too dark to get a decent picture, but I like the way it turned out.