Snow Patrol

Ahhhh.....nothing like waking up to snow in the morning. The locals tell me it really does snow sometimes in the Seattle area....and this week is probably one of those few weeks of powder. I'm sure glad I brought along my snow scraper/brush from my Lake Tahoe days.

Long Thanksgiving Weekend

So there I was, back in California for a long thanksgiving weekeend. Although I didn't plan on taking any pictures, I did bring my Canon S50 to cover whatever whenever.

I spent a lot of time at my brother's house in South San Francisco. The backyard garden is pretty much my mom's domain. Lots of cactus, roses, vegetable plants, fruit trees...but this array of bouganvilla (well, I think it's bouganvilla) perched up a trellis is always a welcome sight.

On Saturday, my friends brought me along for a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium to see the latest attraction: a baby great white shark. Seeing it in that big tank with giant tuna fish was a little funny. Soon the great white will be larger and most likely attack them for food...but for now, he just swims alongside them...sometimes I wonder if tuna fish ever passed along historical information to other tuna fish....they could take on this great white now.

Anyway, there are lots of interesting items on display at the aquarium. If I ever maintained an aquarium at home, I would have used this place for tons of good ideas on how to stage the environment. I just wonder why manufacturers continue to sell the same decor (love that 'No Fishing' sign).

If you ever come to Monterey and catch them feeding the fish or doing any type of maintenance during exhibit hours, you're up for a treat and see a diver (you know, like that blue one you have floating in your tank :) ) in the big tank.

I just wonder how many janitor fish they use to keep these tanks clean :) ;).

The Sunday before the trip home, I went with my brother to join my parents at the Cache Creek casino. Our usual casino trek back in the days was Reno, Nevada. But Cache Creek casino's 2 hour distance was far less driving stress. The hotel rooms still have that new interior smell.

Down to Oregon

So my brother asked me what was the cheapest way to the northwest. I say...go to Emeryville and get on board one of the freight trains, get off at this spot in Oregon where I pick you up...and here is the photo of my brothe after he got off the train (I'm waiting in the gettaway car)......I'm kidding, of course ;). He actually flew to Seattle and we drove down to Oregon.

Our first stop was the Multnomah Falls. I'm still trying to figure out the right way to pronounce it but I think it's "mool-no-mah". It's a 600+ feet waterfall and quite a sight. Seeing that the weather was still a little cloudy, we drove farther east to find the Columbia River Gorge Interpretive Center.

On the way to the center, we had to cross the Bridge of the Gods. It's a steel bridge that goes ove the Columbia River. Crossing this bridge actually brings us back to Washington state! It's no Canadian border or anything, but I just got a kick out of crossing 2 states that easily. It's a buck to cross...and having lived in California before...that's quite a deal :)

This shot is of my brother taking a shot of the bridge (and some moving fog in the mountains).


The Interpretive Center has a museum with relics of the old livelihood at the Gorge. One of the displays was this 1921 Mack truck.

According to the sign, the thing still runs! Looking at it though, it looks like the engine had a tough time tugging all that heavy metal alone. And when you load the lumber....well, I beleive it when they said it only went no more than 17mph. Take a look at the tires!...I guess z-rated low-profile tires are ancient technology!


Outside the museum, we found old tractors, machinery, and two old trains. I enjoyed looking at this red one. I remember having one like it in one or two toy train sets I've ever had. Now I'm looking at it...the real thing!

After we left the center, we crossed the bridge again and, on the other side of the bridge (the Oregon side), we ate lunch at the Charburger Restaurant. I have to say, they served the best mashed potates and gravy and it was an excellent complement to my baked chicken (yumm!)

Back at the Multnomah Falls place, there was finally enough light to take some decent pictures. The exit to the falls is actually in the middle of the freeway so you exit to the left. After parking, you go underneath the freeway and see this entrance with an inn that's actually a gift shop.

There were a lot of tourists and quite a number of professional photographers using the falls as a backdrop for wedding photos...or photos of the couple at some informal place...or whatever you call that kind of setup.

You actually walk the hill to get this nice view. We went as far as the bridge but when we got there, the weather started to get bad again so we never really found out what was on the other side of the bridge. Who knows what we might have missed (maybe there was this isolated tribe living behind the falls!....or, as we joked on the ride back...maybe we find a machine that pushes the water to simulate the falls!....kidding!)

Aaaannywayyy.....this is my favorite shot.....the things we do to force people to visit our exhibits! :)

The Sunken Master

The Butchart Gardens in Victoria B.C. was a beautiful place. It's amazing how using the contours of the land exposes the most of a location's grandeur. There were lots of botanical subjects and wonderful details that I could have spent the whole weekend and would have still been hungry to eat through my film bag (or memory cards).

Getting to and from Victoria was half the fun of the day. On the fall schedule, we went there via the Anacortes ferry and went home on the MV Coho to Port Angeles.