A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.
I have failed. I came up 4.86 miles short of the 2017 Challenge proposed by the Church of the Double-Bladed Paddle. Between a bum foot, a Christmas head cold, and cold weather I just couldn’t get those last five miles done. Oh well. However, I believe in quality over quantity. I’ve hit some old favorites as well as covered some new territory. Despite not making my goal, I still think it was a successful paddling year.
Laura had to head back to South Carolina just as the weather was improving here. Over the week or so that she was gone I took the opportunity to head out and get some photos. I couldn’t do much because of my foot, but I could drive around to interesting places to shoot sunrises, sunsets, and lots and lots of birds. Here are some of the random shots from those excursions.
This past Friday was Aunt Ellen’s birthday. Since we’re now on the same coast, Laura and I decided to drive down to Coos Bay, Oregon, and celebrate it with her. We decided to take the Mini and drive down along the coast, catching some spectacular scenery along the way.
Paddling conditions have not been ideal lately. It’s been rainy and cold, not good weather for kayaking. Finally we got a forecast for clear skies with favorable tides. I knew I had to hit the water. I decided to try another fairly close venue, Padilla Bay.
This past weekend marked the 2017 Artist’s Studio Tour in Anacortes. Laura and I decided that we should check it out. We had a couple of other spots in the area that we wanted to explore, so on Sunday morning we headed in that direction.
I take a TON of photos. Sometimes these don’t fit into a cohesive blog narrative, but they still wind up in my Flickr stream. I decided that I’d just post a few of these all along with a caption. These aren’t necessarily in any order nor are they meant to convey anything. I’ll be doing these all along as I come across weird things out here.
It’s the middle of October. By this time I’ve usually headed out with either Ken, Keith, Glynda, or some combination thereof for a good meal of German cuisine and celebration of Oktoberfest. I have long complained about the dearth of good German food in Greenville, so I was hoping for more options here in Washington. I did a quick online search but, sadly, didn’t find many options. One place did hold promise, so I set of in search of the Schweinhaus in Bellingham.
NOTE: I’m about a week behind in my blogging. I’ll try to catch up on several posts over the next couple of days.
It’s been a week of tragedy. The Las Vegas shooting and the disasters in Puerto Rico weighed heavily on my mind, as well as the ineptitude of the current administration’s dealings with these. Then there were the closer, more personal tragedies. Two friends lost their spouses suddenly – one younger and one older, but age has no bearing on grief. There was the passing of a Facebook acquaintance and classmate and another friend lost her close sister. I learned that a respected colleague and mentor was quite ill and had entered hospice care. To top all of that off, we were still dealing with Laura’s mom’s estate. It seemed that death was all around us. If ever I was in need of some quiet respite in a kayak, this was that time. This was one of those days where the weather was perfect, but the tides were not cooperating. I decided to head into the mountains and explore Baker Lake.
Ghost towns in Washington State? Yes, please! With all of the settling in and touristy stuff we’ve been doing I had not taken time for a good photo ramble. Laura had some Furman work to do, the weather was perfect, so I decided that I head off in search of the ghost town of Skagit City.
Laura and I used to love watching the World Championship Punkin Chunkin each year on the Science Channel. The show was hosted by Mythbusters Cari Byron and Grant Imahara and featured some amazing catapults and trebuchets. Sadly, the event has been cancelled because of an accident in 2016 involving one of the producers of the show.
Fast forward to this year…
We were delighted to see that a “Pumpkin Pitch” would be part of the 2017 Burlington Harvest Festival. We knew we HAD to see it, so last Saturday we headed over to the Skagit River Park in Burlington to watch the festivities.