Arches

Whenever I think about Arches National Park I think of fiery orange rocks against blue-er than blue skies…and those where the type of images I wanted capture. Needless to say I was bummed when I woke up to gray skies and rain on day two of our road trip. But you never know…the sun could come out. We took our time and got on the road at around 8:30 am. The drive to Moab is only about 180 miles. After the marathon day of driving we had the day before it was nice to not be pressed for time. We headed south on Highway 6 and straight into a snow storm. Grumble. Living in Washington I have gotten used to shooting the grayness of rain clouds. Snow is a whole nother animal. But like I said the sun could come out…maybe. And you know what? It did! WOOHOO!!! I was going to get the fiery orange rocks and the blue-er than blue skies. But you know how clouds can be…they are sneaky sons of bitches and creep in when you least expect them. As in Colorado the saying “if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes” also holds true in Utah. The further we went into the park the more the weather changed. You turn to the north you get one thing, and the south another. After 4 hours of hiking around through deep mud and snow we decided to call it a day. I was happy with the images I had shot and was in need of a beer. On our way out of the park good ol’ Mother Nature gave us one last photo op… If interested you can take a look at some of my favorite images here

Sneak Peak...Moab

We went to Moab on our way to Texas. I have some editing to do on the images I shot but thought I would give you a quick preview. I call it "Moab gives you the finger". Enjoy!

drive, drive, and drive some more

We left the house at 4:50 this morning for the first leg of our road trip south. We had a reservation at a hotel in Orem, Utah…a mere 900 miles from our starting point. We drove though parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah that I had never been to before. There were so many things that I saw in the quick glimpse I got as we sped by at 80 mph that I wanted to stop and take pictures of. Mostly old barns…I really have a thing for old barns. While Husband supports me getting back into photography, he really does not have the patience for me getting back into photography while we are trying to drive 900 miles in a reasonable amount of time. So only one photo was taken today and it was taken by Husband as he does not like me snapping photos while driving…go figure. This image was captured just west of the Cascades at about 6:45 this morning. Not too shabby for being taken through a cracked windshield of a vehicle traveling a tad over the posted speed limit. We did end up getting to the hotel in a reasonable amount of time, 15 hours. That includes stopping for gas, food, and at 6 different rest stops (we drink way too much water for people on a road trip). Tomorrow is an easy drive day. We are going to Moab and Arches National Park. The weather is supposed to be crappy but I am still very excited! Side note: After a year of driving in Washington, I cannot tell you how nice it was to be driving in the Rocky Mountains again…you know where driving at or above the speed limit and tailgating is not only the norm but is practically expected. Ahhhh…it is good to be heading home.

early signs of spring

I am loving the trees up here right now. It seems with the mild weather that spring has come early. Everywhere you look you see the soft pinks and whites of cherry and plum blossoms. I went for a walk this afternoon and it was like walking in a fairytale with all the petals delicately floating down around me. There are so many things that flower up here this time of year. I hope that with our upcoming trip that everything will still be in bloom when we get back.

La Conner, WA

I have had the pleasure of meeting many of Liza’s relatives. If I were to sum up this brood in one word it would be creative. Her father was a beat poet, her sister a talented painter, and Liza herself is a talented writer. So when she said she wanted to drive up to La Conner to visit her uncle, I was game. Liza’s uncle is Fred Owens, author of the Frog Hospital blog (soon to be a book by the same name) and a contributor to the La Conner Weekly News. La Conner is located about an hour north of Seattle in the Skagit Valley. The Skagit Valley is most famously know for the tulip festival in the spring (it might be known for something other than the festival, but I don’t know what that would be). We met Fred at a tiny little café called Le Crema Coffee (which has the best Chai in the world…no really…the best). It had been 10 years since the last time Liza had seen her uncle so they had a lot of catching up to do. So we sat back, drank our coffee, and they did just that. We then went on a walking tour of the village of La Conner with Fred pointing out the sights, giving us a brief history lesson, and telling us funny stories. We stopped for lunch at a little deli over looking the Swinomish Channel. Fred then took us on a driving tour of some of the local farms located along the Skagit river. We saw cows, sheep, daffodils, and cabbage. The cabbage farms up there produce seeds, not large heads of cabbage. Fred had just written an article about the farming of cabbage seeds. We learned so much about the process of farming cabbage seeds that I am confident that Liza and I now had enough knowledge that we could start our own farm. La Conner has a lot of cute little shops and boutiques, so after we said our goodbyes to Fred we did a little window shopping and then stopped at the La Conner Brewing Company for a beer. We had a really fun day and I really enjoyed meeting Fred. He was quite the character, which I had come to expect from a member of Liza’s family. It is good to know that if I am ever up that way that I have someone to have a cup of coffee with.

a day out

My oldest friend Liza has come to visit. Yesterday was her birthday so we went down town to do touristy things. I snapped a few photos while we were out.

Pluses and Minuses

You know that saying “There is never a perfect time to have a baby”? That is what ran through my head as I stood in the bathroom staring at that stick waiting for a plus or a minus to appear. I could not think of a worse time for me to find out I was pregnant...you know with Husband deploying and all. This was the first pregnancy test I have taken in 10 years where I was like please, Please, PLEASE don’t be positive. Babies. It is no secret how badly I would like to have a child. Yet no babies for me. It is not for lack of trying…believe me I have tried. I tried for years with that other guy I was married to. A woman has roughly 36 hours a month in which to get pregnant. The timing has to be pretty spot on. I was married to a guy who traveled for business and averaged only 64 days a year at home…none of which happen to be while I was ovulating. But I persisted until after two years of trying he told me he did not want kids. He told me this over the phone at 2 am while I was away on business. There is a reason I am not married to this guy anymore. Jerk. It was during that time that I became the friend that my girlfriends did not want to tell that they were pregnant. They would allude to it and give subtle clues until I would flat out ask if they were pregnant. They would then gush that yes they were, how happy they were, and that they weren’t trying to keep it from me they just didn’t want to hurt my feelings. Blah…whatever. I am genuinely happy when I find out a girlfriend is pregnant, really I am. I might be saying ‘stupid fertile bitches’ but what I really mean is ‘I am soooooo happy for you’. I am going to be 35 this year, and while Husband thinks we have all the time in the world, let’s face it I am not getting any younger. He does want to have kids though. He wants to be there for every part of the pregnancy, birth, and those first few months. If it turned out I was pregnant now he would miss all that. But like all those other tests taken in the past, this one came back negative. I walked out of the bathroom, gave Husband the thumbs down with a wink and a smile, and went on about my business. Even though I was relieved that the test came back negative, there is still a tiny part of me that wanted to see a plus sign.