chase the light

Australian eye candy from a vacation I’ve never posted photos from. Maybe someday I can go through the 1000+ photos and tell the tale of the month long adventure. This was in Trinity Beach in Far North Queensland [LINK] on the last leg of the great South Pacific trek of 2002. Jill and I rented a beach side apartment for a week on the top floor of this building. We were very tired looking out at this scene, but it was spectacular. It was hot out and we had the air conditioner on. I love Australia.

Caught this little bugger building a web inside the front door. Considering the Black Widow normally eats her mate, this little Widower is lucky. The male is small and their hour glass is yellowish. Google search: “Black Widow is considered the most venomous spider in North America. Only the female Black Widow is venomous; males and juveniles are harmless…” Ok, at least he’s ok, but crap, if he’s got a little lady friend she can’t be too far away. Man, venom is one scary ass word. I’m sleeping with one eye open tonight.

[WEDDING PHOTO GALLERY]
How unbelievable does Brigitte and her father look?!? That’s awesome. Every photo I have of her from today she looks amazing. I met and used to work with Brigitte 8 or 9 years ago when we were trying to get our feet in the door of the visual effects world. So it was great to be able to watch her walk down the aisle to Greg today. Sure she worked on the Siegfried & Roy IMAX movie “The Magic Box”, but I won’t hold that against her.

Let’s see, it was Me, Jill, Amanda, Jake, and J.D. at one table, so it was a Sony themed table. Quite a few peeps from the VFX world were there to represent. They had mashed potato martinis out on the deck. Which is a large martini glass dolloped with potatoes and some stew and then you pick your toppings. How odd, but cool. I mingled a bit then caught up with Jill and let’s see, oh she was chatting with this girl. Um, hello??! Totally hot chick, curly haired, funny, rad eyes, bitchin’ smile, arm tattoo, hella cute, and quirky and cool, and, and… she was all, Italy, and I was all, yeah, Barcelona, and she was all that’s cool, and I was all yeah, and, and then I was all wow, and then I was all WOW, and… married. Ha! Ok, so, moving on. Then the dinner began, then the music played, then I had too much wine and got way sleepy, then they cut the cake, then the rest of my photos came out blurry, then I talked about cameras with Jake, then ate my truffle, then shot another blurry photo, then hugged Brigitte and shook Greg’s hand, then I said said my goodbyes to all including the totally hot chick with the curly hair who was funny with rad eyes and bitchin’ smile and the arm tattoo who was all hella cute and quirky and cool who was all “Italy” and I was all “Barcelona” and she was all MARRIED and stuff for Christsakes, then I hopped in the car, put the top down and had a beautiful ride through the city and downtown with the tunes a blaring.

Ya know, before a wedding you do all that gift registry shopping because it just makes it easier? Well, I didn’t find out until this week that they were actually registered someplace. So I log in and all that’s left are some knives or something. So I get the knives. Because, ya know, it’s on their list and stuff, but I’m not sure I’m all that comfortable with buying newlyweds knives. Jus’ saying.

I’m actually starting to like weddings. And that my friends is frightening.

…and they lived happily ever after.

Since I’m not going to any of Sheryl’s shows that are coming up I thought I’d catch her at the “free” Tower Records gig. Last month I caught the New Pornographers at Tower [LINK] and what a difference between the two experiences. That one was great without the whole corporate vibe that surrounded Sheryl’s appearance. I actually think there were more people there associated with Sheryl than actual attendees. It was absurd. It started at 11am, but by 10:45 there was only a small line of about 60 people. That line was dwarfed by all the security, technicians, VIP’s, Tower staff, limo drivers, papprazzi, and all her handlers. She really needs to cut a lot of these hangers-on and get back to a simpler thing. What a joke. Anyway, I got there about an hour before and was 3rd in line. Hilarious, this thing was a bust. They had the whole Disneyland weaving line thing thing set up and it wasn’t even needed! So I go in and walk right up to the stage and all the security are threatening people that “If you take a flash photograph, you’re out. No warning, nothing. You’re out”. OK, no problem, I don’t take flash photos anyway. Also, no video, “If you take video, you’re out. No warning, nothing. You’re out”. Jeez, this is becoming a drag just listening to them harp about stuff.

So she comes out, and does “Where Has All the Love Gone”. A weak song on the new album. She plays keyboards. Then the keyboard is taken off stage and they play “Good is Good”. A little better song off the new album. So I’m watching and shooting a photo here and there and suddenly this idiot that was next to me, a Sheryl Crow “handler”, starts giving me all sorts of crap. He’s all frowning and and yelling above the song saying, “No more pictures with that camera!!!” “You cannot take anymore pictures with that camera!” “I mean it!” “After this, that’s it!” “No more pictures with that camera!” All I could think of was Steve Martin in “The Jerk” when he panics at the guy shooting at him. “He hates these cans!!” Except it was “He hates this camera!”

Now… since I’d already fired out about 80 shots, without flash mind you, I was actually OK with that. So as the song wraps up I shoot a couple more and put my camera away. Then the guy continues, “That’s it for you, no more!” “You cannot shoot anymore with that camera!” I looked right at him and said. Duuuuuude! It’s cool. Chill the hell out!!!! Which he didn’t really like all that much, but since I standing right in front of Sheryl he couldn’t really just grab me and throw me out. I’m not sure why he got such a bug up his ass, but whatever. Couldn’t believe it. The show ended and then I went to have Sheryl sign my CD. The prick guy who was standing next to me during the show was now standing right next to her and took my CD cover from me. Because YOU CAN’T GO ANYWHERE NEAR HER, because all fans are obviously stalking her or have leprosy! She said hello and signed it and then handed it to someone else who then handed it to me. She’s got the whole rock star in a bubble thing going on. Sheryl herself seems nice enough, it’s just the drama that’s going on around her that’s lame. Typical though.

Anyway, the whole thing was disappointing and ruined more so by the whole entourage thing. Give me humble indie band any day, who’s just damn happy you show up to their show.

No no no, of course I didn’t take that photo. Steve Bell and I were off to see Nine Inch Nails [LINK] tonight at the Hollywood Bowl. We met for dinner first at Zankou Chicken [LINK]. Which gets a namecheck in the Beck song “Debra”. “Like a fruit that’s ripe for the picking I wouldn’t do you like that Zankou Chicken” Vicki ate with us and then Steve and I drove over and parked across from the Pantages theater. The parking lot there is cheaper and then we took the metro train down to Hollywood and Highland. That way we didn’t have to deal with the insufferable parking fiasco that is the Bowl. Could that place suck any more for parking? 18,000 seats with 3000 parking spots. That’s only 6 people per car, ummm-yeah no biggie.

Anyway, got there while Queens of the Stone Age [LINK] were on stage and I’m sooo not into them. Ok, their two hits I like but that’s it. There was one 30 sec. spot where they were kinda rawkin’ but after that it was back to subparville for them.

Steve grabbed a couple of beers for us which were overfilled and spilling over so he had to take a swig of each on the way back. COMPLETELY FORGETTING HE WAS SICK WITH RABIES, SARS, OR LYME DISEASE!!! Maybe it was polio? Well, whatever was making his throat hurt! Fortunately he remembered and warned me so we could disinfect the hotzone with my shirt. I ended up drinking from the opposite side of the petrie dish. Seems to have worked.

Finally the lights went out and a low rumble started and off they went off for two hours. Trent only said about 5 words to the audience. Very personable guy. Ha. Midway through the set a curtain dropped in front and visuals came on and a whole ambient/mellow song section began. Yeah, I’d say that pretty much bummed everyone out. Lots of video of people having fun interspersed with war machine footage. Talk about a Debbie Downer [LINK].

We sat where the red star is behind their heads. Not so bad considering most of the seats forward of that are boxes. I’ll just repost my NIN remix I did for my own self indulgence. [The Hand That Feeds Remix LINK]

Tonight… The New Pornographers kicked ass. Destroyer, not so much. Immaculate Machine, way much. Things of note, they were total camera nazis and doing head to toe searches on the way in. The air outside was smoky as hell because of the massive brush fire going on over in the valley. After the show my car was covered in soot. None of that mattered though because tonight I had a date with rock and roll girlfriend .

Dear Neko,
I totally understand why you like being in the band The New Pornographers, because they freakin’ kick ass. The added bonus for me is that you come through town twice as much and I get to spend an evening with you singing to me. Don’t think I didn’t see you looking out at me in the crowd. It was great we were able to get together in Seattle recently [LINK]. What a romantic getaway that was, huh? Well, it’s no wonder seeing that we’re so compatible according to celebmatch.com [LINK]. And they’re never wrong! Check out that physical connection, in spades baby! I can still remember the day we met, you were sitting on a shelf at the Sony Style store at the Metreon in San Francisco. It was the year 2000 and you had just released the follow up to your debut album. 5 years? My oh my, has it really been that long? Your eyes were peering out of that jewel case at me while you sang Set Out Running to me. Not to get all Renee Zellweger on you but you had me at “Want…”

And that guy who kept yelling “Neko, I Love You!” all night. No, it wasn’t me, but that guy really didn’t mean it. He was all drunk and stuff and was just looking to get laid. That’s so insincere.

Next up Autolux, Queens of the Stone Age and Nine Inch Nails at the Hollywood Bowl.

[PICNIC PHOTO GALLERY]

After attendance worries and a delay due to death the picnic finally got pulled off. Having been out to Calamigos Ranch for the Disney Company picnics I figured it would be hot, boring, and filled with people I didn’t know. Turns out, it was beautiful out, I had a fun time, and it WAS filled with people I didn’t know. But that was OK because I could seek out my friends that were there and together we could wonder who the hell all these people were. Imageworks used to be on just two floors of the building I’m in and now it’s sprawled itself into about eight different buildings all within throwing distance. So attendance wasn’t a problem. After it was over it was so nice out I raced my car up and down Kanan Dume, through the tunnels, down to Malibu, and back up through Topanga. It was so James Dean of me. Except for the wrapping myself around a tree part.

[BIG PHOTO OF NICKY]
Proof that the lens is the most important part of a camera. Then of course the tripod. Then maybe the camera body. Before the trip up to the San Juans I was trying to justify the cost of this lens. I’m not sure I actually justified it in any rational way other than it’s just one of the best lenses out there [LINK]. It was funny, but when I was up at the islands and looking for Orcas, I’d pull out the camera and people would start asking me questions like I was some sort of researcher or something. Fortunately after years of reading and collecting books about them, I do know a lot more than I thought about the resident Orcas and could actually answer some questions. Hmmm… career change?

Oh, and it’s my birthday today. Just one of the 50 billion Virgos born this month because all our parents that had sex during the winter holidays. When I was in elementary school I used to get all bummed out at being a Virgo because it was so obviously a feminine sign. I wanted to be a Leo, Taurus or Aries. Come on those are cool manly animals! How come I’m stuck with some some virgin woman? What’s a virgin anyway? I was probably 5 and full of questions , but I think it was explained to me that she was virtuous. I doubt you can even go near astrology in classrooms these days let alone explaining what a virgin is. I only thought it was cool after the girl I had a little crush on, Jyll, was the only other Virgo and the teacher made each of the signs stand up together around the sides of the classroom. I was friends with Jyll the rest of the way through school due to that one little event.

A few years ago I came across Willo’s website [LINK] via a link from a link kinda thing. When I first started reading her website I always felt like I was mentally shouting while reading it because man, she used exclamation! points! like! nobody’s! business!! Everything had exclamation points! Cat! Sofa! Deadpan! I hardly ever use exclamation points, I’m more like… “Holy crap, the roof is on fire.” Period. Because that’s more like me to just sit and watch a house burn down.

Anyway, hardly a sentence of hers goes by without it being effusive! So after reading her entries over a period of years I realized it’s an accurate reflection of her personality. Which was really cool because since then I’ve chatted to her on occasion about music n’ stuff and she’s totally gung ho. She’s always a good source of info on bands that are coming through town and I’ve picked up a lot of cds based on her tastes. I got to connect the words with the actual person this weekend.

She was heading down to L.A to meet up with some friends and I caught up with her Friday night at World Cafe in Santa Monica.

So it was dinner with 3 people I didn’t know at all, and then Willo who I knew through words only and the random fish eyed lens video clip. Her friend Dee was along, another friend from high school who she hadn’t seen in 10 years, and the added bonus of Steve from thesneeze.com. If you haven’t read his series of “Steve, Dont Eat It” [LINK] do yourself a favor and have a laugh. After dinner we hopped down the street to Finn McCool’s for drinks and some more of Dee’s friends joined us and then further down we hit Shane’s.

I chatted with Renee for awhile (above picture) which was fun, because it’s more than likely I’ll never ever see her again, but she was cool and was laughing at what a random group had gotten together. Which is also funny because on Sunday I went to shoot some pictures and there were 3 pictures on my camera that Willo took. None of Willo though…

So there ya go, above is a photo of Willo’s friend Renee who I met about an hour before and may never see again! I dig the photo though, it wreaks of rich mahogany. So yeah, it was really to cool to meet her and her friends and she’s very cool. Awesome night out. Although I suppose I should Willoize it and say, Awesome night out!!

1. Merry go round / Mckenna’s tomatoes / milking the green / so it grows.
2. That girl’s face / sky writing / out da hole / pass the deodorant.
3. Caffeinated devil bees / and the hive / I hate math / seagull on rocks

More Exquisite Corpses [LINK] that have come through the cooker. First and second one I did the bottom piece. The third one, the first piece. To see the other three I’ve worked on and get the lowdown, go here [LINK].

After missing the movie I was headed to in Los Feliz by a few mintutes, I blew it off and went to La Luz de Jesus to see the new Shag show. I had told Jill we could catch it when she had time, but I was there, and nothing to do, so I buckled and went without her. I checked out the show and noticed on my way out that Shag was going to be there that night (in 4 hours) to sign copies of his new new book, The Art of Josh Agle. I left my phone at home, so I bailed with the intention of coming back and picking up the book and saying hi to Josh. I got home and called Jill, who I thought was still at work, but forgot was actually at Brigitte’s bridal shower and would be done at 5:30. Perfect. Met her there picked up some books and met Josh and had him sign them and he put a skull in mine and a monkey in Jill’s! She owns Vice Monkeys [LINK] so that was cool. It’s kinda funny because earlier this week while I was Southparking [LINK] a bunch of people (via Willo’s site), I put a skull on my shirt [LINK]. Perfect. I’m not a big autograph hound but it’s better to have it signed than not I suppose.

Let’s see, this week in history. Gas prices suck, hurricane Katrina sucks, it’s September 11th tomorrow and that sucked, my Netflix stock is going through the roof and that kicks ass, Starbucks seems to have stalled and that kinda sucks, my desk is a mess which sucks, El Coyote’s food really doesn’t suck that much.

S?ɬ?ren Ragsdale [LINK] pulled off a brilliant bit of conceptual artwork here at work. Or in his words, “A reprojection of practical photography onto low-resolution proxy geometry”. In layman’s terms that means he shot a picture of himself working at his desk, took it to Kinko’s and got it printed onto vinyl, and stitched in all the eyelets. Now he works 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Of course it got Farked [LINK], and all hell broke loose. S?ɬ?ren also stablized the transformation images on John Stone’s website [LINK]. It’s friggin’ incredible [LINK] to watch. Smart people + creative ideas = joy.

My friend Ergin [LINK] from Albania lost his childhood friend Dorian in an accident and that really sucks. There was a memorial and screening of his films at the Echo Park Film Center and it was good to see Ergin doing well. Ergin was in a lot of the films and it was cool to see their lives in Albania. That’s good and does not suck.

[PACIFIC NORTHWEST PHOTO GALLERY]
[PRETTY MUCH THE MOST BORING VIDEO OF MY SEAPLANE FLIGHT I COULD HAVE MADE]
Woke up totally late this morning and had to rush to the airport to return the car. I was 1/2 an hour late but they didn’t dock me. Had they tried to charge me I would have just taken the car for another day. Caught the bus from the airport up to the city to check out Bumbershoot, but no bands that I wanted to see were playing that day. I skipped. Just shopped around and had a Turkish Doner down by Pikes Market. Hadn’t had one of those since the Lord of the Rings days in Wellington New Zealand. So good. It rained pretty heavily on and off all day and I still had a night pass to use at the Space Needle so I headed over there. It was really beautiful up there and the clouds and rain made it pretty dramatic looking. The monorail broke down so I got screwed out of my return trip to downtown. Had to take one bus, then pick up my long haul bus back down towrds the airport. Flight leaves in the morning. Miss it already. Photos from the past ten days in the gallery above.

I had to get up early this morning to pick up the car and head out to the Gorge for tonights concert. Can’t say much for the hotel I’m at but it’s home for the next three nights and it’s cheap. Just need a place to stay while I’m out site seeing. On the way out to The Gorge amphitheatre for The Black Crowes and Tom Petty I stopped in Snoqualmie for lunch. I decided to hike down to the base of the falls. After all my waterfall trekking in Australia paid off with some beautiful sights, I figured I’d give it a go. Yeah, it was pretty much straight down. Made a stop at the Wild Horses Monument to stretch the legs and hike up another incredibly steep hill. I’m going to be soooo beat having to drive all the way back to Seattle after the concert.

Anyway, Black Crowes, finally back together and playing again. Now, I’m a pretty big Black Crowes fan, but hell if they only played like three songs I recognized. One of the reasons I wanted to catch this show was, well I missed the L.A. show and it was going to be at The Gorge which kicks ass. (of course tickets for three L.A. shows go on sale when I go home, but whatev) Also, I’ve never seen Tom Petty. One more classic rock act to cross off the list. Both the Crowes and Petty were kinda… eh. No matter though, the Gorge is pretty much the best place ever for an outdoor show.

I left a little bit before Petty ended so I could beat the traffic out to the single lane highway exit. 20,000 people exiting a concert, some drunk, and a 2.5 hour drive back to Seattle with them is not my idea of safe. I stopped once back at the Wild Horses Monument. IT WAS PITCH BLACK. Looking up you could see the Milky Way going from horizon to horizon. I spent about 1/2 an hour trying various exposures to capture it. Finally got one. Barely got back to Seattle before the head nods started happening.

Special guest Mom The Blogger…

Woke up to a few clouds which finally cleared to bright sunny skies! Had breakfast, chatted and decided we would take one last drive to “the other side” to look for — what else? WHALES! Stopped by Lime Kiln and Phil spotted them heading south!!! The whale boats hadn’t even found them yet! WOW-we really weren’t expecting to see them! They were just cruising south quite rapidly…no time to play! We saw ( Capt. Phil sez) 4 females seem to be the first ones, 1 male and a juvenile, for sure, figure there were about 20 but counting black fins can be challenging! Chris was snapping pics and we kept scouring the water for their next surface. One of the males did a spy-hop —–way out of the water! Was fun to watch them and try to figure out where they would surface next. Just pulled up a rock and watched the spectacular picture before us…they are amazing animals. Besides seeing the whales, the water was soooo blue and the skies so clear we could see the buildings on Vancouver Island….much clearer than yesterday when we “made the loop” in the boat.

Once the “parade of whales” had passed, we too, like they, headed south to South Beach to see if we could catch them down there. It is a low lying rocky beach strewn with logs of various sizes and rocks of all shapes sizes but each one rolled smooth as if they had all come out of a rock tumbler… actually guess they had as they rolled through the water. Chris headed south, Phil north and I started sifting through the rocks to find some specimens to take home…..all of us spanning the waters for the —–big black fins! The elusive whales were gone again…no where to be found. We all enjoyed the quiet time on that serene peaceful beach. Finally decided we were all hungry and would head for the boat after one last glimpse of Cattle Pass. We could tell from the beach it had some white caps and was a bit “gnarly” compared to the time we went through it yesterday…..drove over closer and it was moving quickly-the opposite direction we had passed through it yesterday. Chris snapped some more pics and headed for “The Brewery” for lunch.

Chris’ plane was to leave at 6:35, so needed to get back so he could catch his flight. Had a chance to chat some more about the incredible animals we have observed. Checked out his pics and he got a full shot of one that is cruising just the top of the water….quite striking! Gathered up Chris’ things and headed for the plane dock. His plane arrived about 6:10. Six adults and 2 dogs got off the plane..the dogs were only on leashes so had view seats on their journey!!!! One other passenger boarded, Chris got on and they left at 6:20 – 15 minutes before the scheduled departure….no wonder we missed his landing!!! …when they get their passengers they leave-time or not!! Guess with a maximum of 8 passengers one can do that!. Since we missed his landing, we we prepared for his departure. Watching one of the other planes take off about an hour earlier, looked like he would be leaving right over us for some really good pics! The plane motored away from the dock out into the San Juan Channel and took off out there without winging back our way so missed his take off as well! Did get some pics of the plane motoring away. Was sure great to have him with us this past week!!!!!! Had a wonderful time! He survived all nights sleeping “on the kitchen table”…..he will probably have a really good nights sleep tonight on a “real mattress”. He will be in Seattle for 3 nights then home Monday morning. The concert tomorrow night is at a place called Gorge Amphitheater overlooking the Columbia River.. Pics look beautiful.

Well, is cold and windy tonight….will see what tomorrow brings……….

~Mom

And thus concludes Mom The Blogger’s contribution to this weeks posts.

Special guest Mom The Blogger…

What a beautiful day on the water!!! Left the slip at 9:05 and headed south to Cattle Pass in search of – orcas! The water was calm and no fog!!!! Quite different than yesterday. Not a lot of boats out. Cattle Pass was even calm and based on our Current Chart it should have been. Passing through the pass, we headed for whale rocks just off of Lopez Island. Came upon many Stellar Sea Lions and Chris began to snap pics! Lots of activity in the water. Phil says they live there because it is named “Salmon Banks” and has an abundance of salmon there. This is also a point where the orcas are often seen. Chris caught a great pic of a sea lion catching his dinner. The sea lion had the fish in his mouth, snapped it in two and threw it in the air. Chris caught the shot with the fish in the sea lion’s mouth!!! See pic…………Phil says he sent it to “fishy heaven”! We saw seals, dolphin, and cormorants. Chris snapped a great shot of several cormorants sitting on the buoy. Started listening to the whale boat channel on the radio, but no one was responding. We headed north up the coast of San Juan. Cruised and spotted the water for whales and any other critters that we might see, however, no whales in sight today. Wonder where they go…………….?????

Once we passed the lighthouse, headed for Mosquito Pass into Roche Harbor. The current was with us and was a pretty journey that took us into Spieden Channel. Reports on the radio of a minke whale up on the east side of Waldron Island, but still few boats talking. In the channel on the way back to Friday Harbor, the water was still calm, with a few tidal currents. As we approached Friday Harbor, Phil spotted The Pardys to the port side of us. Chris got a great shot of them with Lyn looking through her binoculars. As we pulled into the slip, our neighbor Brian and a couple of his friends came over to help take our lines as we came into the slip…a welcoming party!

Phil washed the boat off and Chris and I headed for the laundry and market. Barbecued hamburgers and corn and was actually able to sit outside to eat tonight.. seems it has been too cold or rainy the last few days to eat out. After dinner, Chris went to take some pics and I went up to a marimba concert that was happening in the park. To cap the night off, (which was cold by then ) we went up to get some ice cream!!!!! Cold—but good!

Was a GREAT day on the water!! Got to see lots of wildlife and was fun this evening viewing the pics that Chris had taken. When we get the boat to CA, want to pick three or four (which will be hard) frame them and put them in the boat to remind us of the beautiful sights of San Juan Island.

~Mom

Special guest Mom The Blogger…

Woke up surrounded by FOG! ugh….spoiled our plans to head around the island. Went to check out the whale watch boat to see if it had gone out and it was still sitting in its slip. Listened to the radio for other boat calls and few were – talkin’! Those that were all complained about the fog. We decided to jump in the truck and go look over to Cattle Pass and inspect the situation. The fog begin to dissipate inland, but by the time we got to the water, it was still really foggy. Couldn’t even see Cattle Pass. The whale boats had been using their hyrdophones trying to pick up the “whale talk”, but to no avail. Went over to the Cattle Pass Lighthouse and stood on the bluff but visibility still was not good. Decided our day to be on he water was lost, so headed for Westcott Bay to get Phil some —-oysters! Along the way, stopped by the lavender farm – was not a highlight after the whales but Chris snapped some pics. Inland was bright sun, blue skies and a few white puffy clouds …hard to believe it was so foggy on the coast. Got back to the boat and actually ended up sitting, relaxing and catching a couple of nods. Phil washed the boat down and was happy to get it cleaned up some. Went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant —much better than the one we tried last week. Walked the docks a bit and back at the boat the guys became very annoyed because the computer will not stay online. Has not be very cooperative of late!!!!

~Mom

Special guest Mom The Blogger…

What an exciting day! We left Rosario at 9:30 and headed back to Friday Harbor. We could have been lost at sea, but Chris’ navigation saved and we were able to find our way around Shaw island. As we rounded the island, the hunt began for the bald eagle. Chris spotted one sitting high in a tree (without much foliage). Phil slowed the boat and Chris started snapping pics. Pass by him several times and he cooperated by just watching us – – as we were watching him! Then moved on and arrived at our slip at 11:30. Decided we were going “whale watching in the truck”. Got the radio, binoculars and my grocery list (as we needed to stop by the market) and headed for the west side. From the radio we knew they were heading south and approximately 50 whales. We went to South Beach first to no avail. We did see a large whale boat heading north and so we left to go to Lime Kiln to see if we could see them from there. The radio conversation led us to believe they were going south, so we went back to south beach and found them!!!!!

At that point they were headed north. Chris got some pics and then decided we would try to catch them further north so we went to Eagle Point and found them again and very close to shore! Was amazing to see them…so many. We could hear them vocalizing and breathing from where we stood on the rocks above the shore. Chris snapped many shots and then they begin to head north out of our sight where we stood. Soooo, back to the truck and headed to Lime Kiln to await their arrival. We could see them in the distance and then head on the radio where they all of a sudden turned left and headed offshore. We could see them moving away from the island. The radio guy said it was amazing as they “all turned at the same time and they were bookin'”! We watched them fade off into the distance.

We were all tired from our eagle and whale watching and decided to head back to Friday via Roche Harbor. Took a quick tour, snapped some pictures and as we left found the road to the mausoleum. Took a walk and found it back in the woods. Very pretty and different.

We are all tired and ready for a good night’s sleep. What a TERRIFIC and AWESOME day!!!!!

~Mom

After the flight from Seattle’s Lake Union to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands, I met up with my parents and we took their boat over to Rosario Resort on Orcas Island. I’ll let special guest Mom The Blogger fill in the rest…

We had made reservations a couple of weeks ago at the marina. The water was calm with little boat traffic. Chris snapped pictures along the way….by the end of the day he had clicked over 100 shots.

Upon our arrival at Rosario, we had to “hover” just outside the harbor to wait for them to get a sailboat in place. Is a tiny harbor with few slips thus the necessity for reservations. After lunch Chris and I went exploring up to the old Rosario Resort built by a Mr. Moran, mayor of Seattle in the early 1900’s. Found that Christopher Peacock, pianist and organist , does a concert at 6:00 nightly so will be able to see him. Roamed around the house and Chris took some photos of some special “side by side” chairs he had seen before. Not much furniture in place, but certainly had the old feel!! Checked out the restaurants and decided we would eat “in” instead of cooking on the boat.

Went back to the boat and Chris took off to take some photos and came back with shots of deer right across from the boat. So we grabbed some bread and went to feed the deer! Three of them…really tame eat right out of your hand. Black tail deer that live on the grounds. Phil and Chris saw a harbor seal, swimming around the docks and Chris got a pic of one on the way over. Went to dinner at the outside diner, but they had closed as it had started to sprinkle, soooooooo ended up inside and they opened the inside lounge a bit early..we got a lovely seat by the window with a gorgeous view of the channel! Quite lovely!

All of us a great meal, and then went to the music room for “the concert”! Phil had bought me a CD of his while he was here in January…so now I get to see him in person! He played a steinway piano built in 1900-one of the last- as well as the pipe organ. While he played he showed an early slide show of Mr. Moran’s photos and The Phantom of the Opera to highlight the contemporary music. He then showed us upstairs to where the organ is housed-it was originally put in as a organ “player piano” using the “rolls ” of music.
I bought a CD, Chris snapped some more photos and we retreated to the boat.

Chris did some cleanup for us on the computer and we looked at his photos from the day. Lots of beautiful scenes. He just got back from taking a great shot of the milky way….pretty amazing!

~Mom

And there ya go, Mom The Blogger…

Oh Neko you’re So Fine, You’re So Fine You… So, Rock n’ Roll girlfriend was playing a benefit show for the Seattle Zoo. It was a one off, so I was dying to go. The only problem was that it ended up being sold out, and the only place you can buy tickets beforehand are at the Zoo or at some markets around Seattle. Basically screwing any out-of-towners.

Hung aound Seattle most of the day seeing sights. Then caught a bus up to the Zoo knowing full well I was going to be standing on the corner ticket begging. Took the bus that the zoo website tells you to take but it doesn’t take you too the main entrance. Which I found out later had the big line to get in. So the line at this side entrance had less than 100 people and I thought I was going to be screwed. They let the line in and no one had extra tickets! DAMN! Just then three people walked up looking all around and I beg “extra tickets?” And they said yeah! Score! Fortunately I was able to squeeze my way up to the front through all the beach chairs, blankets and picnic baskets.

She opened with Favorite and right after her cover of Bob Dylan’s Buckets of Rain it started pouring. I was completely unprepared for rain in my jeans and a flannel shirt and no umbrella. Friggin’, it’s the middle of summer and it’s raining. Shame on you Seattle. Neko started laughing nervously as she was singing as everyone started scrambling for cover right in front of her. She said she wouldn’t be offended if we left. I found a tree in the back and watched from there for about 1/2 an hour until it let up a bit and then when back to front where everyone was now standing huddled together. Good time. Then it reeeeeally started to pour and my teeth were chattering so I had to leave. Caught the same bus back and had to walk a little to the hotel. Ah… warm.

[“TWIN CINEMA”]
Pop masters New Pornographers are in town for their new release “Twin Cinema”. Tonight they did an instore [LINK] at Tower Records on Sunset, then the Galaxy Theater tomorrow. The NP’s are like a big bag of Halloween candy. One song’s a Snickers, one’s Twizzlers, one a Butterfinger, another a roll of Smarties. It’s all confectionery goodness. Neko isn’t playing with them on these instore appearances. Oh Neko. Wherefore art thou Neko? Oh, you’ll be in Seattle on Sunday? Ok.