A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.
I had taken a couple of paddling trips, recently, but I was just not getting in the mileage I got on a typical trip. I was really craving an extended kayaking adventure. Duff and I had planned to do one this past Friday, but he had family plans interfere. I decided to go anyway, and decided that I’d head back up to Baker Lake. Despite it being the week of the Fourth of July, the timing turned out to be perfect, and it was a great day out on the water.
After my short jaunt on Lake Padden I wanted a longer paddling trip. I kept watching the weather and tides, things were just not working out. I got out on the water for one short trip that got cut short, and took another organized trip that also didn’t quite live up to expectations. Oh well. At least I met some neat folks and found some options for future treks. Here are the reports…
For several weeks Laura had been admiring this view from our front yard…
This is a view of Anacortes with the Olympic Mountain Range back behind. She’s been wanting to take a trip out to the Olympic Peninsula and head up into the mountains. Some friends of ours took that trip recently posted photos of fields of lavender. We decided that the time had come, so we took a spur-of the moment trip up into the Olympics.
Rampant racism, internment camps, Nazis holding rallies, and just this past weekend I saw WWII bombers flying overhead. Did I fall through some sort of wormhole into an alternate universe? Is “The Man in the High Castle” actually a documentary? Regardless, the whole space-time continuum seems to have decided to take a nap. I thought some pretty pictures of flowers might be comforting.
Read More “Random Skagit – Volume 9, Yard Flowers and Non-Linear Time” »
Since most of this takes place in Whatcom County rather than Skagit County, I couldn’t title this post “Random Skagit.” Anyway, here are a couple of the places we’ve been lately.
This past week we took the opportunity to visit Laura’s Aunt Ellen in Coos Bay, Oregon. Ostensibly we were there to help her with some tech support issues, but it also gave us a chance to reconnect, review some family history, and see some incredible scenery along the coast.
Laura and I had taken the Amtrak Cascades from Mount Vernon to Vancouver for a day trip. We spent most of (actually, all of) our day in Vancouver at the Telus Science Museum. It was now time to head back home. Since I had already described the particulars of the trip in Part 1, I’ll focus mostly on photography in this post.
Read More “Amtrak Cascades Trek – Part 3, Vancouver to Mount Vernon” »
For years I’ve observed the railroad tracks that hug the base of Chuckanut Mountain. The line crosses the Samish Flats from Mount Vernon then curves along the coast right at the waterline. From the tracks you can see across Samish Bay toward the San Juan Islands. Even more intriguing to me was the fact that Amtrak runs along these rails. I knew this was something we had to do while we were out here, and we got that chance this past Tuesday.
Read More “Amtrak Cascades Trek – Part 1, Mount Vernon to Vancouver” »
Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to…paddle.
…to paraphrase Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
I live on an island. You’d think I could just drop a boat in and take off anywhere, but it’s not that easy. The tides, wind, etc., etc., have to be just right. Plus there’s the issue of a steep cliff right in front of us with no easy access for hauling a kayak. If I’m going to put a boat in the water, I still have to load it onto the car and drive it to some access point. This past Tuesday I really wanted to get out for a longer trip but the tides were just not going to work out. I decided to try one of the local lakes instead, so I headed up to Lake Samish.
I miss a good, old-fashioned Southern flea market, the kind where you can find anything from fishing lures to knives to rusty tools to outdated medicines to questionable Confederate adoration. There’s just nothing like that up here. The western term is “swap meet”, but I haven’t even been able to find one of those. At least in this corner of the state swap meets are infrequent and are nothing like those in the South. I was eager to find some alternative.