RV Travels With Huggy

No, this doesn't refer to something real recent, but last January 1st the weather here in northwest Washington State wasn't bad for mid-winter and we decided to go for a little drive. The "town" (it isn't much of a town size wise) of Edison is one of the oldest in the State although it probably hasn't grown much in the last 140 years or so, but it is not far from where we live in Mount Vernon and has a good place to eat. We arrived at the Old Edison Inn for lunch and I had taken my then new Nikon 1 camera along. I decided to play with it by taking a few photos inside, just to see how it would do in natural light. It did pretty well and here are a few of those photos:


This is a view of a part of the main area, where the large TV and the bandstand are located. On this day there were not a lot of tables set out (you can see some of them with chairs stacked on top at the left of the photo) because the night before there had been quite a party there to celebrate the new year and this space was used for dancing.


Here is the bar with the kitchen at the far left side of the photo. In the foreground is a long game table. I don't know what it is officially called but I call it shuffle board. The discs are small, about 2 1/2" in diameter. They sprinkle some sort of a powder on the surface and slide the discs from one end to the other. I think they try to get as close to the end of the slide area on the table as they can without going over the edge. Of course the opponent can and will try to knock your disc off if he/she can and try to leave their disc on the edge. From what I have seen, each player has three discs and they of course alternate as to who goes first. The speed of the discs is quite slow. I believe they have some fairly serious challenge games on a regular basis.

While we were sitting at our table waiting for our lunch order, I thought the lighting on our drink glasses was interesting so took a few photos of them. I do not regularly take still life photos but I kind of like the look of these, so here are a few from that set:


Pat's white zin wine is at the left, my Mac & Jack's ale to the right and both of our glasses of ice water nearby. The lighting is affected by the Christmas lights that were still strung around the interior.


Pat's wine is really pink or light blush in color but here it almost looks yellow or amber, due to the lights behind it.


Here is my ale with a poinsettia plant behind it. The Molson sign in the background is just a bar light. Mac & Jack's is a Seattle area ale that is very popular in this neck of the woods.

These are not spectacular photos but they do show a bit of what that little Nikon 1 camera can do. There is very little work with Photoshop, mainly just to re-size the images from their very large original size. The general feel of the place is kind of bar dark and the photos have been left that way to try to retain that feel, so I hope they will look okay on your monitor. I have been thinking about doing a post like this with these photos and finally decided to go ahead and just do it. The photos I use are hosted on my Flickr site and clicking on one of them should take you to there if you want to see them in a larger size that what is shown here.

Labels: Holidays, Photos, Small towns, Trips to see things

I really love my Nikon D200 camera and the quality of photos that I get from it. I have half a dozen different lenses, a special flash unit that works with it and some other features that make it a wonderful system. BUT, it is large and heavy to carry around so I find it tends to sit at home on a shelf unless I know that I will specifically want it to take photos, so then take it along. Sometimes I'll even take an extra lens or the flash unit, too.

So, I saw an ad on TV for a new Nikon camera, the Nikon 1, that looked good, offers some of the features of the D200 (interchangeable lenses, view finder, etc) plus a lot of things that the D200 will not do. I looked into it and found that Nikon had sale prices on the lenses that go with it that would be in effect until the end of the year. I hadn't yet bought myself a Christmas present, so went ahead and ordered the basic camera that comes with a 10 to 30mm zoom lens ($50 off on the sale) and a 30 to 110mm lens ($100 off!) from Amazon.com. They came last Thursday- the UPS guy came with it about 11:00am. I put the battery on to charge and Pat & I went out to lunch, with the quick start direction sheet.

When we got home, the battery was fully charged so I put the unit together, found an empty SD memory card, took a picture of Pat & one of our cats, Peewee

and I headed off to my local Starbucks to read the owners book, drink a mocha and learn about my new toy.

I decided to start out with it just letting it handle its own settings so took a couple of photos of one of our barista's while sitting at my table drinking my mocha and reading

This photo is totally unchanged from when it came out of the camera except to reduce its pixel count to upload to Flickr and I think the camera did a very good job on setting the best white balance, exposure and focus.

By the time I headed home at almost 17:00 it was getting dark and the homes in our park had begun turning on their outside Christmas lights. I thought that would be a good test of the automatic settings, plus it was raining so there should be some pretty good reflections on the wet pavement. Here are a couple of those shots, again with very little correcting of the image after it came from the camera.




Yesterday we went to lunch with a good friend over to La Conner, Washington. La Conner is a quaint little village on a waterway that separates Fidalgo Island from the mainland and the restaurant we went to is right on that water way. I left Pat & Barbara to place my order with theirs and went outside onto the dock to take some photos. It was a crisp, windy but sunny winter day and although it was shortly after noon, the sun in the winter this far north is waaaaay to the south in the sky so even at noon we don't have that terrible directly overhead lighting that you tend to worry about while taking photos around noon. I am just including one photo that looks across the waterway toward the Indian Reservation but I think it shows what the little camera is capable of in delivering landscape photos.


My lovely bride and I have a habit of going out to breakfast together on Saturday mornings and I have been carrying this little toy along so of course used it to take a picture of Patti B as she sat across the table from me.

There has been no image changing here, other than a very slight darkening of the image so it is almost as it came from the camera. There is a fireplace to her left providing some lighting and the lighting in this part of the restaurant is what I'd call cozy comfortable (not real bright) but the camera seems to have handled it very well.

I like the Nikon 1. There are two models, the V1 with a viewfinder and a 3" monitor screen. When you put your eye to the viewfinder, the monitor turns off. The other model (L1) just has the monitor screen. In my experience, those monitors are harder to use especially in bright light, so I spent a little more money and got the one with the viewfinder. So far I've only played with the standard lens which goes from a slight wide angle view at 10mm to a slight telephoto view at 30mm. The aspect ratio to compare to a lens length on a standard 35mm camera is 2.7, so the "normal" image size would be with this at about 18.5mm. Shorter than that would be considered a wide angle view, longer a telephoto view. At the higher 30mm setting (81mm on a 35mm camera) it is about the perfect length for people portraits. Oh, and the camera will take HD level video with sound and even has a connector for an external microphone for the audio. Some day I will get brave and give that a try but for now, I am having a lot of fun learning how to use it to take still photos.

I hope everyone who reads this had a good Christmas and will follow with a Happy New Year. Pat & I don't like to go very far from home on New Year's Eve but will be going to a party here in our park with the Singles Group. We went to events with them before we were married and they keep telling us to please continue coming as they consider us to be alumni.

Labels: Christmas, Events, Holidays, Landscapes, Our cats, Pat and I, Photo gear, Photos

I'd like to wish a Happy Mother's Day to all Mother's in Blogland. We have had a good day so far and are about ready for me to take Pat to dinner. We have a reservation for 17:00 at Taco Bell. Well, maybe it is somewhere else but I've been telling her it is T.B. all day. I suppose I could have just said Costco where two can eat for about $3 plus tax. But Mother's Day only comes once a year so I guess it is okay to spend more than that on two meals.

We are still waiting for Spring. Pat bought two tomato plants today and if the weather forecast holds for tomorrow, they will get planted. Everything up here is running late this year and I really wonder how well crops like apples will do, with this late start. I guess they'll be okay if we have a hotter than usual summer but so far that sure isn't looking like what is going to happen. Ugh.

Labels: Holidays, Pat and I, Weather

This being the last day of January it seems appropriate to welcome the month of February. Welcome! In our area we have set a record for the warmest January on record and those records go back into the late 1800s, so this is a pretty long standing thing. Our weather guessers are saying they expect February to be warmer and dryer than January was, but it normally is so I'm not sure if it will be quite a bit better than usual or what. I have noticed more hours of daylight and that I like. It will also do well for our home heating bills, although I guess what is good for us here is not so good for others in different parts of the country. Last year we had a very cold, snowy winter while the East Coast was enjoying balmy weather. This year it seems to have flip-flopped. I don't know what next year will bring but I'll vote for another El Nino year like this one, although it didn't get started until about the end of November.

February is also a month with some important birthdays for our family. It starts out with Pat's younger brother on the 4th, then Pat's on the 22nd and my brother's on the 24th. Pat and T have a fun thing of trying to outdo each other with wacky birthday cards but Pat is a little behind since if she goes too far overboard it will catch up as T's BD is first and he has almost three weeks to find an appropriate card. The 22nd also used to be the birthday of George Washington, our country's first President. Pat told her school mates the reason they got a holiday on the 22nd was to celebrate her birthday. We also used to get Abraham Lincoln's birthday off on the 12th. I guess Congress decided it was too much to allow the People to have two holidays in one month. Or there was a lot of pressure from government employees who wanted three day weekends but thought they couldn't get two of them in a month, so they canceled both birthdays and we now just celebrate an office workers holiday on the 3rd Monday. We haven't canceled or moved Pat's birthday- it will still happen on the 22nd.

I've had a few questions about how Huggy is doing. She is fine although we are still having cat wars between our three cats. Huggy and Peewee, the youngest one, have almost made it a game. Molly is still the queen of the house and she tries to just ignore both of the others although they sometimes do get her involved. There are times when they will all three be in the same room and just quietly ignore each other. That is about the best we seem to be able to have happen.

Labels: Birthdays, Holidays, Huggy, Our cats, Weather

Wow, we are already a week into the month of December! That doesn't seem possible. Although since I am not fond of winter I'll be glad when the weather improves and we start getting more daylight hours. But right now, we are in for some cold times. Tonight in Mt. Vernon it is predicted to get down to 27 degrees and tomorrow's high only 30. Those brutal temperatures are things that we are not used to.

Thanksgiving this year was good for us. We enjoyed two separate dinners, one on the Monday before and the other actually on Thanksgiving Day. The first was at the home of my youngest son and held that day due to the fact that he had to work on the actual holiday. The other was at Pat's youngest daughter's home. Both were good.

The day after Thanksgiving Day has been known for some years now as "Black Friday" because it is supposedly the day in the year when retail business' turn a good profit (a day definitely with the books "in the black") and start the run to Christmas which for some is the busiest season of the year. A couple of times in the past I participated in those early morning (middle of the night?) sale starts but this year I slept in. I drug myself out of bed about the usual time and arrived at Best Buy at the crack of 08:15. Pat did even better, arriving at Fred Meyer about 10:30. But, we both got what we were after at those special prices for the day.

Since then I have bought some more gift things online but didn't participate in the so called Cyber-Monday sales as I didn't see anything that really struck me as needing enough to turn loose my credit card number. I have been able to buy things far enough ahead of Christmas to take advantage of free shipping on most items. That is the big bugaboo for me with online buying. I hate to pay shipping charges and on small things the shipping can be as much or more than the cost of the item you have bought. That is especially a problem with eBay purchases.

I have been kind of holding back on purchases for myself. I keep hearing from She Who Should Be Obeyed that I do that too often, thus making it hard for others to buy gifts for me. So, I am still holding out in my torn, holey gloves, even in these brutally cold temperatures, as some of us walk for exercise three times a week to the hospital for coffee in the cafeteria, then back home. Now only three weeks to go.

Labels: Christmas, Family, Holidays, Weather

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the US and I'd like to wish you all a happy one. A year ago my older son was serving with the Navy Seals in Afghanistan and it is sure a relief to know that he is home this year. Our holiday has been good. We actually have had two Thanksgiving dinners, today at Pat's daughter's home and last Monday at my younger son's home. M & his family decided to do it on Monday as M has to work today. We enjoyed them both and thank our kids for the opportunity to enjoy the holiday with them.

Yesterday dawned with kind of an overcast, but since we tend to get up early I was looking out the kitchen window to the east shortly before the sun rose and saw that we were going to have a beautiful sunrise. I got my camera and proceeded to take some photos and I'll post a few of them here.


This first one is looking to the east and a bit south. The sun will come up in that area where the bright spot is behind the house across the street from us, but the sky was lit all along the horizon from far north to the south behind Little Mountain. You can just see the beginning of Little Mountain rising at the far right side of this photo.


This view is also to the east but looking almost north. The base of Mt. Baker is just visible at the horizon if you look at it over the back end of our Prius. This photo shows what I meant about the horizon being lit all the way from the far north to the south. The pink clouds are low but there is a full cloud cover above them and we didn't actually see the sun as the view of it was totally blocked by clouds.


In moving around to get different views of the sunrise I happened to look to the west between our house and the one to the south of ours. This is what I saw. Those are also low level clouds with the sunlight just breaking across them. Again, that is not blue sky above but the full cloud cover. This was amazing to me in that there was actually almost more exciting light in the sky to the west than there was to the east!


I went out into our back yard beside the sunroom and this was the view from there. The lighting is changing very rapidly. Our fence is across the bottom of the photo with the fronds and blooms of the pampas grass rising to the right side of the photo. Across the common ground behind the house is our neighbor's home and beyond it, across the street and the other houses that cannot be seen from here, is the background of fir trees. But look at the way those clouds are lit by the sun rising on the opposite side of the sky!


This view is close to the last one- see the pampas grass blooms, but here the camera is looking a bit farther to the north. You can see the arbor that rises above our back gate that goes out to the common yard.

I do not particularly like winter but we occasionally get some pretty phenomenal sunrises during this season and yesterday sure was a good example. I sent these photos to our morning DJ, Joe Flood, on our local Oldies radio station, KBRC, and will hop from here to their web site to see if he posted them there. Joe lives a bit to the east of us up in Eaglemont but he was already at work when this painting in the sky occurred. I still don't understand just how that light to the west happens, but I'll enjoy looking at it whenever it does.

Labels: Family, Holidays, Photos, Sunrises and Sunsets

I'll go ahead and add the second seven photos from a week ago at the Christmas Open House at Skagit Valley Gardens (see the link in the last post.)


This photo shows Pat signing up for a drawing for something but it also has one of the largest toads I've ever seen in the foreground. Pat is a collector of toads and things toady but I'd not be sure where we could find enough space for this one.


These two were working the Cashier counter at the time we were by. I took two photos because we knew one had blinked in this first one but I really like the expressions and feeling of this one better, even with the blink. They look like they were having fun and I think they were.


In addition to the dinner that was available through the Garden Cafe, Skagit Gardens also provided a table with cookies and coffee (I think it was coffee- as it was just after dinner for us I didn't have any.) I was good and only had one cookie and I called that my desert with dinner.


This little still life photo has had the light color corrected. Yellowish angel hair just didn't look right, nor did the yellow casts on the crystal figures. This was on a small shelf and I just liked it. It is simple with only three components but to me it is beautiful.


This scene has been setup for quite awhile and it is one of the most interesting. The bear on the left, hiding behind a fir tree, has a fishing pole and has snagged himself a very large fish which is on the top of the tree to the right. I doubt a person would ever have enough space in a home to setup something like this but it is cute and works well here. Maybe outside in one's yard?


Pat is checking out an interesting Christmas tree with Santa behind her. This photo was hand held as I had put the tripod away after the photo of the bear so it isn't quite as sharp as it ideally should be but I like it because of the subject.


I guess you almost have to include Barbie in Christmas. This is one of the largest Barbie dolls I've ever seen but it does make a very nice display. My younger granddaughter may still be young enough to like these but her favorites are something called Webkinz where she logs onto a web site to register her menagerie of them. It is more involved than just registering them but I don't try to follow it.

This annual event is fun every year and this place sure goes all out to decorate for the Christmas season. The place looks good all of the time and they do a good job with whatever season it might be. Last spring we were there with hundreds of others for an Easter egg hunt all over the 20 or so acre place. Everyone was a winner of something and it was far enough into the spring planting season that there were a lot of plants to choose from. If you live near enough to Mount Vernon, stop in and see this place. It is right alongside the I-5 freeway just a couple of miles south of town. It is fun. And don't forget to eat at the Garden Cafe.

Labels: Christmas, Events, Holidays, Pat and I, Photos

Friday November 6th we went to dinner at the Garden Cafe and I've already posted a few photos from there in my last post. Garden Cafe is located inside a large greenhouse that is the retail outlet for Skagit Valley Gardens. Skagit Valley Gardens does a fantastic job of decorating for the Christmas holidays and this open house is a perfect time to come see the displays which look even better after dark. I took many photos and had a hard time trying to limit how many I was going to post here. I think that I will actually split the post into two. I'll do one now and another in a couple of days with the rest of the photos. They let me take my tripod and most of the photos are in available light, so it is generally pretty "warm" toned light as opposed to a colder, more bluish daylight that we are more used to. I decided to not make a color shift on most of the photos but instead just leave them as the camera saw them, with some cropping, exposure and contrast corrections. You will also notice that I am posting them in a little larger format. I checked it on my system and this size is fine with it, although I do have a wide screen monitor. Please let me know it it doesn't work well on yours. Anyway, here we go:


This is a general inside scene with their cashier station and a Welcome sign.


This old truck is one of a few that are around the area. During the warmer weather there are outdoor gardens to explore and in September the local dahlia society, that grows their display garden here on the property, holds their annual viewing and it is spectacular. In addition to this greenhouse there is a large building that is heated and comfortable that contains many gift items.


The shutter speeds on these photos are not real slow but you can still see some motion showing up in many of the people who are moving. I like the juxtaposition of the tree ornaments in this photo, both those in the distance that are in sharp focus and the nearby ones that are fuzzy. There were a lot of people here and it was very hard to get photos without including some of them.


There are many already decorated Christmas trees with various themes. They can be bought already decorated or one can pick decorations off the trees to buy individually. This is a closer view of a part of the Peacock tree.


This tree in the foreground would be perfect for an apartment or other fairly small place. It is tall and skinny. And, the trunk is lighted AND it changes colors! There is a more normal Christmas tree in the background.


This display was hanging from above so I lowered the camera and turned it upward for this photo. You can actually see the glazing that makes up the roof of the greenhouse in the background here.


Musician Marcia Kester provided live entertainment during the evening. We have heard her before and she is good, kind of a country western/pop artist. Notice the tall skinny Christmas tree from the previous photo to her right in this photo. This is a flash photo so the lighting is more like what we are used to seeing.

This gets me about half way through the photos I've got ready to post so in order to keep the post from getting too large I'll close it here. Look for the second half of the photos in a couple of days. In the meantime, go check out the Skagit Valley Gardens web site as listed at the beginning of this post.

Labels: Christmas, Entertainment, Events, Holidays, Photos

I'd like to wish a Happy Easter to everyone. I hope you are all able to spend at least part of the day with family and loved ones. We had breakfast with one of Pat's daughters and the other one is coming by this afternoon with her two kids to see the new sunroom. Her husband is in sunny Arizona to watch a Mariner's Cactus League baseball game with his brother.

Speaking of the sunroom, we and the cats have been enjoying it, especially when the sun shines. Friday morning we woke up to actually see snow falling, although it didn't stick nor amount to anything. But you know it was cold. We have heat out there set for about 48 degrees so that is what the temp inside it is in the early morning. In the afternoons it has been getting up to the mid to upper 60s if overcast and mid 70s with at least some sunshine. That is with outside temps of around 50. Spring officially came this past week but you'd hardly know it from our weather and the long range projections are not much better.

Peewee, one of our cats, has been making herself very unpopular around our house by wanting to go out into the sunroom whenever she is awake. And that seems to always be from about 3am on, while we are not ready to get up until closer to 6. She is very vocal about it and is pretty loud in the middle of the night when the house is quiet. Pat has been talking to her about that, trying to get her to listen to the cuckoo clock and wait until it cuckoos six times before coming in to "talk" to us. So far that hasn't worked too well. I guess she needs more training in math so she can count to six (Peewee, not Pat.) Then too I can visualize her hearing the one cuckoo at 03:30, four at 04:00 and another at 04:30 and figuring that makes six.

We had a water leak a couple of weeks ago that had water slowly dripping from one of our kitchen lights that are recessed into the ceiling. We had a guy out to find and fix the leak but have decided it is time to re-roof the house. The house was built in 1994 but these mobile homes, even the better ones, seem to use the cheapest materials they can get away with. All of the houses in our park are within a couple of years of being the same age and there have been a lot of them re-roofed over the last couple of years. Anyway, we got a couple of bids and the work starts tomorrow. That is almost $6000 we hadn't planned to spend right now but it needs to be done. So things will be pretty noisy around here for the next four days or so. At least it will be quiet at night. If we can get Peewee to cooperate!

Labels: Holidays, House, Our cats, Sunroom, Weather

I see it has been over a week since I last posted here and still do not have any photos ready to go, but will go ahead and admit to still exchanging air daily. I have been busy wrapping packages, still buying some things, getting our Christmas cards ready to order and now addressing them, etc. And we seem to be into the Christmas party season. Last night was the one in our senior park (that Pat was the Chairman of) and tonight is the one for my YMCA exercise group. There is another YMCA one the Friday before Christmas but it is a daytime luncheon.

My former next door neighbors are heading out today with their RV for the southwest. I envy them but I'd wait at this time and not leave until after Christmas. Annie & I did leave on Dec. 9th on what was to be her last Snowbird trip and we really missed being with our kids & grandkids for the holidays. I can maybe understand it if we were heading south in mid-Oct or something like that but this close, naa, I'd wait. I do know some who go south, then store their RV and fly home for a two week "vacation" or something like that in order to be home for the holidays. I still hold out slim hope that maybe we can do it (Snowbird) for 3 or 4 weeks in Feb/Mar.

We did get a phone call this morning saying they should be here today to start installing our sunroom. That is the sunroom that was supposed to be finished before Halloween. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting but it will be interesting to see if it happens. I'll plan to take some photos of the project as it is built.

Enough for now- time to start back to my wrapper job.

Labels: Holidays, House, RVing

We went to the Elvis (Danny Vernon) show on Thursday, Dec. 21st but they have changed their policy and wouldn't allow photos to be taken. Before the show Danny's wife announced that they did not want any flash photos or video taken so I thought I would be okay as I do neither. I had taken two photos of the other "actor" appearing with Danny that night when a lady came up to me and said that there were to be no photos taken. I told her what Mrs. Danny had said, she said she would check, then came back a few minutes later and said the policy had changed and they wanted no photos taken. So I stopped taking them and have none to post here.

The show also wasn't as good as in the past, partially because there was no live band with them. It was just a big Karaoke show, with canned music. We had already gotten tickets to attend his show there next Sat. Jan 6th so I guess we will go, but not being able to take photos sucks. He did announce they would have a live band with them on the 6th so that at least will be better. And these tickets were free.

I had a wonderful Christmas. Both of my son's went to the Elvis show with us and my older one, B, went to dinner with us the Friday night before Christmas. On Christmas Eve Pat & I went to dinner at the home of my younger son, M, and his wife J. We exchanged some gifts and got to watch my 6 year old grand daughter open some of hers, before we headed back home. On Christmas day Pat's two daughters and their families came over to open presents and for dinner at Pat's home. This was a good Christmas, so much better than last year, for both of us. We both had family with us last year but having someone to personally love and spend time with is what was lacking for Christmas, 2005. We have that now.

Labels: Entertainment, Griping, Holidays

Little Mountain Estates held their annual Christmas party on Tuesday night, Dec. 12th. Pat and I attended along with many others who live in the park. The food was listed as just being "finger food" but we sure were able to make a good dinner out of it and I only ate one cookie and some fudge.


The ladies of the park do a good job of decorating for the event. This is a general scene showing a few of the tables and some of the people who were there.

Pat had a new "little black dress" that she iniated at this event and she really looked great in it. It is probably a good thing that we didn't have to walk too far to get to the clubhouse where the party was though as it is winter in the northwest and the little dress doesn't keep one very warm. But it sure looks good.


Pat and Dick at the party.


Here we are at our table. My neighbor, D. T., took these photos of the two of us with my little Sony camera. It doesn't do as good a job as the Nikon SLR but it fits easily in a pocket so is a lot easier to carry around. And it's photos look pretty darn good.


Here is my beautiful lady alone but sitting beside me.


And here is another of us taken in the library room at the clubhouse with us standing on the fireplace hearth to get closer to the big wreath behind. It really enhances the Christmas time feeling of the photo. We had quite an audience while doing this and perhaps should do it next year for all couples or individuals there who would like a photo of them. I'd take the Nikon and some better flash equipment for something like that but it might be a good idea.

We have been finishing our Christmas shopping and getting Christmas cards started. Today we mailed the first of the cards while at Starbucks for our mochas and the mail box outside the store was so full I wasn't sure we could get ours in. That was only ten minutes before the pickup time and that was ontime, so it was easy to get ours included and the first of them are enroute. I even have most of my gifts wrapped and am at home now to make this post to give Pat some time without me so she can get some gifts wrapped that she says she can't do with me there. I wonder why she can't do it with me beside her?

Labels: Holidays, Pat and I, Photos

Today my hit counter racked up the ten thousandth visit to my blog since I put the counter on last spring. There had been some hits before it was added but I have no idea how many. Thanks to all who have come to visit and I especially enjoy those who take the time to post a comment as they are really appreciated.

Once a year in my town of Mount Vernon, Washington, the Festival of Trees is held. Various people and groups do a special job of decorating Christmas trees that are then auctioned off to the highest bidder. This is a charitable fund raiser with the money going to a different group every year. This year it is going to the new cancer unit at the local hospital. Pat, her daughter C and I didn't go to the auction but for the two days after that you can visit and look at them. We did go last Saturday to do just that and I took some photos of a few of the trees. Here are some of those photos:


First is a sign that was posted there listing the sponsors.


The show is held in a local private school (note the basketball hoop) and each person who buys a ticket to view them is given a vote to select one as the People's Choice. As it turned out, Pat and I each selected the same one and this is it. It has a rock & roll theme.


This one was about princesses and I guess I took the photo mainly for my two grand daughters who like prindesses.


This is the University of Washington themed tree. It is located in Seattle and while I never attended school there my youngest son did graduate from this school. Their mascot is an Alaskan Husky dog.


Here is a closer view of part of the display that goes along with the U of W tree.


I am not sure of the theme of this one but it was attractive to me so I photographed it. The next photo is a closeup of part of this display.




This shows four of the trees and part of the display that goes along with them. The whole show is interesting and they are very well presented for viewing.


This is another closeup of one of the display scenes.


And another closeup of one of the trees with other lights and things in the background. I really enjoyed the show although I can not afford to buy a tree there. Since it is a fund raiser they go for a rather high price but I hesitate to say how much as I am not sure. I do look forward to seeing them again next year.

Labels: Holidays, Pat and I, Photos, Trips to see things

I realize the holiday is almost over but I want to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who reads here. It is one of the best of the family and friends days of the year.

Mine was very good. I was invited to Pat's daughter's home for dinner with Pat and 18 other friends and family members. I got to meet some that I hadn't met before and spend more time with some I had met previously. The dinner was great and we even brought home some left overs for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the so called Black Friday shopping day, when many stores have weird sales that start at O'Dark Thirty in the middle of the night. Pat and I will probably not participate in those events, but I am sure we will make it over for a mocha. I do have some Christmas shopping to do. Sometime.

Labels: Holidays, Pat and I