Squamish, BC Eagle

Enjoying the start of Winter for us up at Whistler, and glad we don't have to work as hard for our dinner as this guy

Olympic Peninsula

We enjoyed a quick weekend trip to see the parents on Washington's beautiful Olympic Peninsula.


The Sol Duc river in the Olympic National Park.


Rialto Beach had some fun wave action

The color changed quickly and dramatically at Second Beach - first of 4 shots over 30 minutes


Second Beach #1


Second Beach #2


Second Beach #3


Second Beach #4

Florida Sunrise

In Hollywood, Florida for a conference. When we arrived it was raining HARD, the front end of what was briefly Tropical Storm Nicole. After the storm moved through, we enjoyed nice, warm (and humid for us) weather.

This morning's sunrise:

Fun Clouds in Seattle

Driving home from work there was a nice cloud cover with intense blue sky peeking through.

Lake Washington Stormy Rainbow

This would be the first summer we can recall in Seattle where it rained on Memorial Day, the 4th of July and Labor Day - this seemed like a fitting end to strange weather summer this year.

Okanagan BC

Having a great time in Kelowna - some hiking and wine tasting and dinner at one of the best restaurants we've come across thus far in our travels, RauDZ. Can't recommend it highly enough, everything is fresh & local, and perfectly prepared.


While they look great and taste good at this stage, they get even better at the hands of Okanagan winemakers!

Banff - Day 10

Updating the blog from Kelowna, BC. Woke up early to do the 7 hour drive, which was extended for some photo opportunities. The morning was mostly raining, at times hard, which led us to waterfall shots. Turned out to be a terrific day for those.

This likely concludes the photo portion of our trip - we hope folks enjoyed seeing glimpses of our trip as much as we enjoyed sharing!


Takakkaw Falls, 2nd largest in western Canada


Natural Bridge



Top side of Natural Bridge


A B.C. Big Horn Sheep

Banff - Day 9

Today's our last full day in the Canadian Rockies. While the weather on the last half has been mixed, we've had a blast. Today was cloudy & a bit rainy, but we still got out for a couple of mini hikes and a picnic lunch.


One more water shot - it must be cloudy!


Close up of a Aspen tree trunk that gets eaten the in winter by hungry Elk

Banff - Day 8

Yet another great day up here - we did the Gondola ride at Lake Louise hoping for a bear sighting, but the overnight snow apparently slowed down their berry search on the slopes.

After a yummy lunch, we had a very nice hike to the far end of Moraine Lake where the river feeds it from the glaciers.


Mouth of the river feeding Moraine Lake


View of Lake Louise from the ski area

Banff - Day 6

Storms are blowing through, but we had good enough weather to get out all day today. A trip up to Jasper and back included many side stops for waterfalls.


Nigel Creek



Nigel Creek


Cascading waterfalls on the side of the road

Banff - Day 4, part 2

We had a busy day with hikes at Emerald Lake and Johnston Canyon, and our first wildlife sightings. They say it may snow, so this may be the end of our bright blue skies. For those of you who always ask where the people are in the photos, we have a pic of each of us.


Emerald Lake



A rare Laurence sighting


Jennifer enjoying the hike


Part of the scenic hike up Johnston Canyon


Tough Boys!

Banff - Day 4

Sunrise photos from this morning - we'll be out and about and may have more to add to today's entry later in the day.


Pre-dawn light


First light on the grass

Banff - Day 3

Day 3 in the Canadian Rockies, and it was the most beautiful day yet. Highs in the upper 70's, and some terrific hiking. The weather is supposed to turn on us in a few days, so we are soaking in all the great weather we can.



Mirror Lake above Lake Louise


Lake Louise - a bookmark view


Upper Waterfowl Lake

Banff - Day 2

Another beautiful day up here in the Canadian Rockies - a few photos from the day

Banff - Day 1

After 2 days of travel by car from Seattle, with 2 nights along the way with great friends in Missoula, MT & Calgary, Alberta, we arrived in the Banff area in the early afternoon.

We couldn't resist the temptation to drive a bit in the park on such a beautiful day.




Castle Mountain


Lake Louise

Mount Rainier

Took advantage of the beautiful weather this weekend in Washington for some time at Mount Rainier


Shooting star!


Long exposure to alter the look of the water & foreground grass


Nice reflection


Wildflower meadow just above Paradise

Rainy Seafair

August is supposed to be prime weather in Seattle, and it usually is. Seafair, with the Navy fleet in town, Blue Angel shows and hydro races is this weekend, and it's only the 3rd time in the last 50 years that it's rained during Seafair.

At least the gloomy weather provided a chance to play around with long exposures:

Cinque Terre - Vernazza

We finished up our week in the Tuscany/Umbria region, and started heading up to our final destination of Nice, France. Along the way we stopped at Vernazza, part of Cinque Terre, a World Heritage Site.

We followed our trusty car navigation system until we found this sign:


Uh-oh

Now, neither Strada nor Chuisa were among the 3 Italian words we knew coming into this trip, but the meaning was pretty darn clear. Meanwhile, the gps was encouraging us to go straight through the road block, and letting us know we'd be at our destination in 1.3 miles.

We decided it couldn't be that bad of a hike, and besides, with the road closed, there wouldn't be traffic. So we parked the car, loaded our bags, and started hiking down the mountain to Vernazza. Not having a hotel room booked the first sunny Saturday in a month didn't discourage us, it only made us hike faster!


We were glad we made the hike


Fun colors

This morning we cheated a bit and caught a shuttle up to a parking lot along our path for 3 Euros. What a fun adventure!

Orvieto and a Wine Review

Today we went south to Orvieto, which is a medieval town perched high on cliff. It is known for it's impressive gothic Duomo (a Cathedral Church), but also has several ceramic shops, magnificant gelato, and some fine restaurants.


The Orvieto Duomo


Examples of the ceramics


Jennifer enjoying what we both have declared as the best gelato yet


We went to Zeppelin's for lunch and it was the best meal of the trip so far. We had a memorable salad, possibly the best appetizer ever, and 2 amazing pasta dishes. The food was so good that when we found out that they offer cooking classes, we decided to return tomorrow for our 3rd cooking class - so stay tuned.


Fresh pasta with wild boar meat sauce

We ordered the house red wine, which brings us to a wine review (as many people have requested):


We hope this wine is available at home

Our review is quite simple: Yummy & only 5.5 Euros. Buy all you can find.

Driving around Italy!

There is so many cool sites to take in while in Italy. We intentionally are not hitting all the big cities this trip. We will come back at some point, and make a schedule more geared toward that.

The skinny streets make for some great sites, and a little bit of uh oh as we drive a new car through. Of note the BMW 3 series is still a relatively big car by European standards. Those of us who love our large SUV's would get stuck with no ability to cruise around.




Big churches and castle-like structures are at the center of many towns. They all are slightly unique, but share the common big view ability to protect the town.


Poppies grow wild this time of year like weeds - the vivid red contrasts nicely with the lush green grass due to the unseasonable rainy weather.


This is what we had for lunch today, what did you have? Did we mention it was delicious!