A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.
It was cloudy, cool, and rainy today, the perfect day just to hang out on the island. We did just that. In fact, today was the first day since we’ve been here that I hadn’t left the island at all, whether to run into town or otherwise. Yesterday was quite the opposite, though. It was a gorgeous day. We decided to take advantage of it and travel by ferry over to San Juan Island and Friday Harbor.
It’s been a long time since I’ve lived in a place where I can look up and see the Milky Way. Our home in Greenville is in the heart of the city and light pollution is terribly. Up here on Samish Island I can step out the back door and have a clear view of our galaxy, weather permitting. With the recent clear skies I’ve been tempted each night to head out with a camera to do some night photography. The other night I gave into that urge.
I mentioned this in a previous post. Kayaking at Samish island can be tricky. Tide and weather have to be in agreement. Tuesday morning the tides were perfect, with high tide at 11:30 am. However, the weather wasn’t so great. A heavy fog had rolled in. I was seeing patches of blue overhead and knew that it would burn off eventually, so I loaded up the boat and headed over to Duff’s beach cabin for a foggy paddling trip.
I’ve been looking in papers and online to see if this part of Washington has the equivalent of the flea markets I like to visit in South Carolina. So far I’ve struck out. I know they are called “swap meets” on this side of the continent, but I still haven’t found a permanent market like the Anderson Jockey Lot or the Pickens Flea Market. Today I got pretty close. Laura and I visited the annual “World’s Greatest Garage Sale” at the Skagit County Fairgrounds.
It’s been over a month since I’ve had a boat in the water and things just didn’t seem…right. On the trek across country I had two kayaks on top of the car and we crossed many bodies of water that looked ripe for paddling. However, the rest of my paddling gear was in a shipping box making its own way across country. Plus, we had two cats with us and were on a time crunch, so stopping to paddle wasn’t an option. Finally everything aligned – the paddling gear had arrived, the weather was good, tides were favorable, and we weren’t having major appliances or septic systems installed. It was time to paddle.
Our drive from Greenville to Samish Island seemed like a whirlwind. We were constantly on the go. However, I found a way to make the 3,186 mile drive go by even quicker.
Read More “From Greenville to Samish Island in Four Minutes, Fifty Seconds” »
No words. There are really no words to describe the experience of a total solar eclipse. Doesn’t mean I’m not going to try. At least I can show a few of the photos I took (nearly 10,000, if you include the GoPro time-lapse images) and describe the events at our house leading up to and during the eclipse. It was a most excellent eclipse party, and the experience is one I wouldn’t have missed for anything.
The big event is only one week away. Next Monday, August 21, a total solar eclipse will cross the United States. Being the obsessive person I am, of course I have already been making plans for the event. The three questions I get on Facebook and other outlets are, “Where are you planning to view the eclipse?”, “How are you planning to view the eclipse?”, and “What are your photography plans?” I’ll try to answer those in this post.
This was my last Second Saturday with Lowcountry Unfiltered before we move out west. I was hoping for an epic trip for this outing, and Matt came up with a perfect venue. This particular Saturday we would be exploring the wilds of the Lynches River through Florence County. It would be one of our longer treks, and take us through areas we had not yet explored. It did turn out to be an epic, and most excellent trip.
Read More “Paddling the Lynches River with Lowcountry Unfiltered” »
It’s bad when your biggest stumbling block to writing is coming up with a post title. I didn’t want yet another post entitled “Update” or something like that. Yet, that’s what this post is. A bunch of stuff happened since the last post, but not much of it blog-worthy. The biggest thing was a trip back down to Florida, where we did see some cool new things.