Wednesday, March 28, 2012
New Year's Day at the Old Edison Inn
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.
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
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Pat's new Kia Optima EX car
Earlier this month Pat started talking about maybe trading "Baby", her beloved VW New Beetle in on a new car. It was a diesel powered model and got pretty good mileage, especially out on the road. It was also a 2001 model with 69,000 miles on it and while hasn't caused any problems, she was aware that in another 11,000 miles it would be due for an expensive service call. So that started the thinking process.
We looked at the current models of the New Beetle but they have changed the car a lot. It is now bigger, almost looks fat, and they didn't seem to be able to get any diesel models in. On February 1st, we stopped again at the VW dealer, got the same message, so went to the local Kia dealer. She had watched the Kia ads (everyone must love those hamsters with the Soul model) so we decided to look at that brand. Neither of us is fond of those square looking cars like the Soul and we both appreciate the convenience of having a 4-door car, so that was what we looked at.
Some of them, the small and mid-sized models, were too low getting into to be comfortable so we looked at the one whose lines she liked best on the TV ads, the Optima. It was a car that she liked and they had one in stock that had everything she wanted it to have and then some. So, she bought it.
By this time it was dark and she didn't want to drive it home in the dark, so we went back to pick it up the next day. I have some photos of it:
Here Pat is about to get into the driver's seat for a "tour" of the dashboard, with our salesman, Mike explaining things. This car has almost everything that is available except a navigation system and we have a portable one so that isn't needed. It has the sun roof that will open just to vent or fully and there is even a sun roof for the back seat passengers. It has heated seats in both the front and rear and the front seats are even cooled. The radio system has something like eight speakers and a thing that we are really enjoying called the Jukebox where you can upload 700mb of MP3 music files for it to play. The cell phone connects through the Blue Tooth system that works like it does in the Prius for a voice call, but if she gets a text message it will ask her if she wants it to read the message. If she says "yes", it reads it in very clear English. The driver's seat is power operated and it has two memory positions. If Pat is driving, she presses #1 while if I get in to drive I press #2. The steering wheel is even heated if you want to turn it on.
The car in a frontal view. I think the lines are beautiful. Mike, our salesman, is from Germany and he told us the chief engineer on this car was hired by Kia from Audi where he worked on designing some very expensive cars. Much of what the Audi cars had has been included in this model of the Kia but it is much less expensive.
Here Pat and Mike are starting to connect her cell phone to the Blue Tooth system.
A closer view of the dash where the radio system is located as they are working with the cell phone connection. It works well and the text message reader is really amazing.
So far we both like the car. We have been driving it most of the time although the Prius does get better mileage so as gas prices are pushing up towards the $4 a gallon level, we will probably start to drive my car a bit more. But this one is very nice. Oh, and her beloved Baby is now being driven by Pat's daughter, so it is still in the family!
We looked at the current models of the New Beetle but they have changed the car a lot. It is now bigger, almost looks fat, and they didn't seem to be able to get any diesel models in. On February 1st, we stopped again at the VW dealer, got the same message, so went to the local Kia dealer. She had watched the Kia ads (everyone must love those hamsters with the Soul model) so we decided to look at that brand. Neither of us is fond of those square looking cars like the Soul and we both appreciate the convenience of having a 4-door car, so that was what we looked at.
Some of them, the small and mid-sized models, were too low getting into to be comfortable so we looked at the one whose lines she liked best on the TV ads, the Optima. It was a car that she liked and they had one in stock that had everything she wanted it to have and then some. So, she bought it.
By this time it was dark and she didn't want to drive it home in the dark, so we went back to pick it up the next day. I have some photos of it:
Here Pat is about to get into the driver's seat for a "tour" of the dashboard, with our salesman, Mike explaining things. This car has almost everything that is available except a navigation system and we have a portable one so that isn't needed. It has the sun roof that will open just to vent or fully and there is even a sun roof for the back seat passengers. It has heated seats in both the front and rear and the front seats are even cooled. The radio system has something like eight speakers and a thing that we are really enjoying called the Jukebox where you can upload 700mb of MP3 music files for it to play. The cell phone connects through the Blue Tooth system that works like it does in the Prius for a voice call, but if she gets a text message it will ask her if she wants it to read the message. If she says "yes", it reads it in very clear English. The driver's seat is power operated and it has two memory positions. If Pat is driving, she presses #1 while if I get in to drive I press #2. The steering wheel is even heated if you want to turn it on.
The car in a frontal view. I think the lines are beautiful. Mike, our salesman, is from Germany and he told us the chief engineer on this car was hired by Kia from Audi where he worked on designing some very expensive cars. Much of what the Audi cars had has been included in this model of the Kia but it is much less expensive.
Here Pat and Mike are starting to connect her cell phone to the Blue Tooth system.
A closer view of the dash where the radio system is located as they are working with the cell phone connection. It works well and the text message reader is really amazing.
So far we both like the car. We have been driving it most of the time although the Prius does get better mileage so as gas prices are pushing up towards the $4 a gallon level, we will probably start to drive my car a bit more. But this one is very nice. Oh, and her beloved Baby is now being driven by Pat's daughter, so it is still in the family!
Labels: Cars, Pat and I, Photos
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Trying out my new camera
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.
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
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Travel Signs
I've done quite a bit of traveling by roads in my life but have never seen a sign that was quite so wrong as this one:
Don't people pay attention to the signs they are putting up? You'd think those putting it up would have noticed that it was just plain wrong.
Our North Cascades Highway has now been closed at least over this next weekend due to expected snow. The forecast up there calls for at least 22 inches of snow overnight tonight and more over the next few days. The State Department of Transportation will check it on Monday for avalanche danger and assess then if it will stay closed for the winter. Last year it wasn't closed until Dec 1 and then it was a good month late on opening in the late spring/early summer.
That is a beautiful route for us to take going to Eastern Washington. It starts right in our backyard in Burlington and drops us out at the town of Winthrop in the Methow Valley. We usually actually usually come back that way, taking Stevens Pass (the US 2 Highway)when going East. The two together, along with the connecting roads, make up what is called the Cascade Loop Trip and it is a wonderful outing for a weekend (or longer) trip. The two main passes on the North Cascade Highway (Washington State Route 20) are each about a mile high- there is only one regular pass highway in the state that is higher in elevation and there is so much snowfall every winter plus a very high avalanche danger so they don't even try to keep it open. I believe I heard this past spring while they were trying to clear the roadway to make it passable that there was still something like 70 feet of snowpack up there. That is a lot of snow to have piled up.
Here is a scene taken along the Wenatchee River about eight miles west of the town of Leavenworth at The Alps, a store that all my vehicles seem to find it impossible to drive by without stopping. They have some of the best candies you can find anywhere and also a good stock of toads and other collectibles that others in my family like to look at (and buy). This is just an example of some of the fantastic scenery along the Cascade Loop Trip. You could easily spend a week making this trip and visiting all the things to see along the way. Don't forget to take your camera along.
Don't people pay attention to the signs they are putting up? You'd think those putting it up would have noticed that it was just plain wrong.
Our North Cascades Highway has now been closed at least over this next weekend due to expected snow. The forecast up there calls for at least 22 inches of snow overnight tonight and more over the next few days. The State Department of Transportation will check it on Monday for avalanche danger and assess then if it will stay closed for the winter. Last year it wasn't closed until Dec 1 and then it was a good month late on opening in the late spring/early summer.
That is a beautiful route for us to take going to Eastern Washington. It starts right in our backyard in Burlington and drops us out at the town of Winthrop in the Methow Valley. We usually actually usually come back that way, taking Stevens Pass (the US 2 Highway)when going East. The two together, along with the connecting roads, make up what is called the Cascade Loop Trip and it is a wonderful outing for a weekend (or longer) trip. The two main passes on the North Cascade Highway (Washington State Route 20) are each about a mile high- there is only one regular pass highway in the state that is higher in elevation and there is so much snowfall every winter plus a very high avalanche danger so they don't even try to keep it open. I believe I heard this past spring while they were trying to clear the roadway to make it passable that there was still something like 70 feet of snowpack up there. That is a lot of snow to have piled up.
Here is a scene taken along the Wenatchee River about eight miles west of the town of Leavenworth at The Alps, a store that all my vehicles seem to find it impossible to drive by without stopping. They have some of the best candies you can find anywhere and also a good stock of toads and other collectibles that others in my family like to look at (and buy). This is just an example of some of the fantastic scenery along the Cascade Loop Trip. You could easily spend a week making this trip and visiting all the things to see along the way. Don't forget to take your camera along.
Labels: Comedy, Landscapes, Photos, Trips to see things
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Sunshine!
Pat and I at the Enzian Inn in Leavenworth, WA last April. This was four years and a day after our wedding in 2007. Leavenworth is still a favorite place to visit for us.
We have had a real odd year weather-wise. For quite awhile it looked like summer was not going to come this year, but yet we have had one of the driest (lack of rain) summers ever. The temps rarely got above 70 until almost August and only hit 80 two or three times. Then in September, about the time school started, we had about ten days in a row of close to 80 every day. There was rain last Sunday & Monday, the first since early July, but it has been sunny and nice since then. BUT, you can tell that fall is knocking on the door.
I was out early this morning and the temp was only in the high 30s. The sky was clear so the sun came out with sunrise and the temp soon went up and will probably go up close to 70 today, which is just about perfect. The leaves are changing color and starting to fall from the trees. We've re-started the pilot lite on our gas fireplace, taken down the patio table umbrella and the outside sunshades over the windows. And now those weather gurus are talking about another La Nina year that could be even stronger than the one last year. Ugh! I do miss Snowbirding!
Labels: Photos, Trips to see things, Weather
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
About Huggy
I took Huggy to her Vet a couple of weeks ago for shots and a routine exam. They again told me that she needs to have plaque removed from her teeth so I setup an appointment for today to have that done. They have to knock her out in order to do this so she wasn't allowed to have any food after 8pm last night. She is also going to have her claws trimmed while she is in a more docile mood.
I dropped her off there about 08:30 as they requested and she will probably stay overnight as they don't want her going home until she is fully over the anesthesia. She was ticked off with me this morning and probably will be really ticked off when I finally get to pick her up to come home. I think this will be the first time since she moved in with Annie & I in June, 1998 at the age of about 8 weeks that she has been away overnight. I know that she is "just" a cat but it seemed much like it would to drop off one of my kids when I left her there. I hope she will be okay.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Another car show
This weekend is the annual Berry Dairy Days festival in Burlington, WA, another small town near us. They also have a car show as a part of it and we went over there for a Father's Day lunch and to see the cars. Many were also at the show in Sedro Woolley two weeks ago but I do have some photos of three of them from today. We've had nice weather until Friday night but today is better than yesterday so quite a few cars did come out to play. This weekend is also the annual Dirt Cup at our local Skagit Speedway which draws participants from all over the western part of the US.
Here are photos of those three cars:
This is a 1950 Crosley, with the owners in the background. I think these cars were sold back then through Popular Mechanics magazine as a kit car that the owner assembled himself. They are a very simple, basic car but I expect are worth many more times what they cost in 1950 today. This is a nicely done car.
Here is the engine compartment for the Crosley. There is a simple hood that is sitting on the rear part of the car so the engine is visible. Notice how nice and clean it is.
This is a 1939 Chevy Coupe. My last post had a 1938 Chevy Coupe and that car was also here, but they were not sitting side-by-side. This car is owned by friends of Pat.
I like hot rods. This is a nice 1927 Ford Model T Coupe hot rod that is fairly simply done. So many of them have all kinds of exotic things added to the engine, lots of chrome- basically they involve spending a lot of money. This one looks to me to be one the owner is paying for as he goes. It is also something that I'd not be afraid to take out and drive. Some of them you've spend so much money on that they probably just live in their garage.
Here is the interior of this car and as you can see, it is very basic at this point. I am sure that more upholstery will be added but I hope he stays with the idea that cleaner and simpler is best.
This is a three-quarter rear view of the Model T Coupe. Clean and simple.
These two festivals, this weekend and the one two weeks ago, are the closest ones to the town I live in other than those that happen right here. These both have pretty good car shows that I enjoy going to but the weather for the last one was certainly better. Of course the forecast calls for nice weather for the next few days, starting tomorrow. Murphy's Law works.
Here are photos of those three cars:
This is a 1950 Crosley, with the owners in the background. I think these cars were sold back then through Popular Mechanics magazine as a kit car that the owner assembled himself. They are a very simple, basic car but I expect are worth many more times what they cost in 1950 today. This is a nicely done car.
Here is the engine compartment for the Crosley. There is a simple hood that is sitting on the rear part of the car so the engine is visible. Notice how nice and clean it is.
This is a 1939 Chevy Coupe. My last post had a 1938 Chevy Coupe and that car was also here, but they were not sitting side-by-side. This car is owned by friends of Pat.
I like hot rods. This is a nice 1927 Ford Model T Coupe hot rod that is fairly simply done. So many of them have all kinds of exotic things added to the engine, lots of chrome- basically they involve spending a lot of money. This one looks to me to be one the owner is paying for as he goes. It is also something that I'd not be afraid to take out and drive. Some of them you've spend so much money on that they probably just live in their garage.
Here is the interior of this car and as you can see, it is very basic at this point. I am sure that more upholstery will be added but I hope he stays with the idea that cleaner and simpler is best.
This is a three-quarter rear view of the Model T Coupe. Clean and simple.
These two festivals, this weekend and the one two weeks ago, are the closest ones to the town I live in other than those that happen right here. These both have pretty good car shows that I enjoy going to but the weather for the last one was certainly better. Of course the forecast calls for nice weather for the next few days, starting tomorrow. Murphy's Law works.
Labels: Cars, Festivals, Photos, Small towns
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Spring has funally Sprung!
This weekend spring has finally come to the Pacific northwest. We have overcast with showers this morning but had three straight days of 70+ degree weather over the weekend and on Monday. The long range forecast, even with some clouds and showers, is showing lows that are as high or higher than the high temps we were getting just a week or two ago. Hopefully that La Nina condition in the southern Pacific Ocean that has been causing this has ended.
Last Sunday we went to the nearby town of Sedro Woolley for their Blast From the Past annual festival and its annual car show. I don't know how many cars were there but somewhere over 200 due to the great weather. Of course I do have some photos to share:
This car was one of the first we saw as we walked up to the area where they were parked along a 3 block area of town with all the parking lots and side streets included. This is a bright color and sure was a stand-out in that sunshine.
I don't know if this is a home built travel trailer or not but it is nicely done and looks good behind an early 1950s pickup.
I don't remember seeing this car before. It is from Eastern Washington but very interesting in that it shows a newer side to hot rodding. The engine is a four cylinder unit that is also unknown to me. One valve cover says "Olds Powered," the other says "225 Hp." Does anyone know what this engine is?
Here is a view of that side of the engine. The other side has two dual-barrel Weber carburetors.
I couldn't resist taking this photo! This guy is so big and the little tow car he is pulling is so small. The couple did have a toddler who is more likely the one who rides in this little car, but it makes a different juxtaposition photo.
In addition to a nice color this Ford Mustang has interesting eye lashes. I wonder if they leave them on while driving on the highway?
There were quite a few trucks including this rather unique Chevy one. I don't remember ever seeing a model like this. Pat is checking it out.
Whenever I see a 1937 - 39 Chevy I am interested in it as my first car was a 1938 Chevy two-door sedan. I rebuilt a Oldsmobile V8 engine over the winter of my senior year in high school and installed that engine into my Chevy over the following summer and early fall. It was a fun car and I think is still on the road in the Spokane, WA area although I don't know how much it gets driven as the best mileage I ever got was 12mpg. That wasn't too bad when gas cost 32 cents a gallon but with today's $4 it would be expensive to drive. And it needed Ethel (high octane) gas. Mine was a metallic blue color but the last time I saw it the color had been changed to a yellow that is about like that of the first car in this post. In the photo my favorite lady is walking up to check it out, too.
That was a fun day for us and another couple from our community that went to the show along with us. Of course we ate fair burgers for lunch at a booth there. And for at least the second year in a row, the weather cooperated. There is another local car show in two weeks in Burlington. I hope the weather will be as nice for that one- in fact I hope it will continue to be nice for all summer. This sure was a good weekend. I even got the lawn mowed!
Last Sunday we went to the nearby town of Sedro Woolley for their Blast From the Past annual festival and its annual car show. I don't know how many cars were there but somewhere over 200 due to the great weather. Of course I do have some photos to share:
This car was one of the first we saw as we walked up to the area where they were parked along a 3 block area of town with all the parking lots and side streets included. This is a bright color and sure was a stand-out in that sunshine.
I don't know if this is a home built travel trailer or not but it is nicely done and looks good behind an early 1950s pickup.
I don't remember seeing this car before. It is from Eastern Washington but very interesting in that it shows a newer side to hot rodding. The engine is a four cylinder unit that is also unknown to me. One valve cover says "Olds Powered," the other says "225 Hp." Does anyone know what this engine is?
Here is a view of that side of the engine. The other side has two dual-barrel Weber carburetors.
I couldn't resist taking this photo! This guy is so big and the little tow car he is pulling is so small. The couple did have a toddler who is more likely the one who rides in this little car, but it makes a different juxtaposition photo.
In addition to a nice color this Ford Mustang has interesting eye lashes. I wonder if they leave them on while driving on the highway?
There were quite a few trucks including this rather unique Chevy one. I don't remember ever seeing a model like this. Pat is checking it out.
Whenever I see a 1937 - 39 Chevy I am interested in it as my first car was a 1938 Chevy two-door sedan. I rebuilt a Oldsmobile V8 engine over the winter of my senior year in high school and installed that engine into my Chevy over the following summer and early fall. It was a fun car and I think is still on the road in the Spokane, WA area although I don't know how much it gets driven as the best mileage I ever got was 12mpg. That wasn't too bad when gas cost 32 cents a gallon but with today's $4 it would be expensive to drive. And it needed Ethel (high octane) gas. Mine was a metallic blue color but the last time I saw it the color had been changed to a yellow that is about like that of the first car in this post. In the photo my favorite lady is walking up to check it out, too.
That was a fun day for us and another couple from our community that went to the show along with us. Of course we ate fair burgers for lunch at a booth there. And for at least the second year in a row, the weather cooperated. There is another local car show in two weeks in Burlington. I hope the weather will be as nice for that one- in fact I hope it will continue to be nice for all summer. This sure was a good weekend. I even got the lawn mowed!
Labels: Festivals, Friends, Pat and I, Photos, RV equipment
Sunday, May 01, 2011
Our Fourth Wedding Anniversary
The day after our wedding on 28 April 2007 we went to the small Bavarian themed town on the east side of Stevens Pass called Leavenworth. It has always been a favorite place for us to visit ever since. This year to celebrate our Fourth Anniversary we spent two nights in Chelan, WA and two in Leavenworth. These towns are both on the other side of the Cascade Mountains from where we live and a bit too cold (and snowy) for us in the winter and pretty hot in the summer but they usually have wonderful weather in the spring and fall. This year it was warmer and dryer than on our wet side of the mountains but was still cooler than it should be for this time of the year. But we had a good time.
The last morning there we went to breakfast with friends at Enzian Inn and the following photos were taken of us on the fourth floor deck by my friend I've known since Kindergarten, Dave.
Here are Pat and I with some of the town and a few of the hills in the background. Other friends who actually live in the Bavarian area of Germany have told me the look and especially the setting of Leavenworth are very much like in Bavaria.
Here is another. Leavenworth is a rather magical place for us and we always enjoy our visits there. Our favorite places to stay are the Enzian Inn and the Linderhof Inn, both of which are next door to each other. They are right on the main highway, US-2, and at the entrance to the downtown village. For RVers, there is the Icicle River Campground or the KOA Campground, both of which are close in to town. If you get the chance to visit there, be sure to go.
The last morning there we went to breakfast with friends at Enzian Inn and the following photos were taken of us on the fourth floor deck by my friend I've known since Kindergarten, Dave.
Here are Pat and I with some of the town and a few of the hills in the background. Other friends who actually live in the Bavarian area of Germany have told me the look and especially the setting of Leavenworth are very much like in Bavaria.
Here is another. Leavenworth is a rather magical place for us and we always enjoy our visits there. Our favorite places to stay are the Enzian Inn and the Linderhof Inn, both of which are next door to each other. They are right on the main highway, US-2, and at the entrance to the downtown village. For RVers, there is the Icicle River Campground or the KOA Campground, both of which are close in to town. If you get the chance to visit there, be sure to go.
Labels: Pat and I, Photos, Small towns, Trips to see things
Sunday, March 06, 2011
Snow. Ugh!
On Tuesday night, Feb 22nd, it started snowing and when we got up Wednesday morning we had about six inches of the stuff. I right away got the driveway and sidewalk shoveled and it started melting. The park roads got plowed and it was looking very good by evening.
That night it started snowing again and actually dumped about 12" of the stuff in a two hour period! By Thursday morning, we had between 14 and 16" all over the place. Now I know this probably doesn't sound like a lot of snow to some people who live where it snows a lot, and I like having snow around us in the mountains, but not down here where I live. That is more snow than we usually have in at least three or four years, total. This time I have some photographic proof:
This is what our road beside the clubhouse looked like, shortly after I finished shoveling (again) but before the snow plow came by. Our two cars are both small and low to the ground and we couldn't operate them in this much snow as their wheels wouldn't even reach the ground, with the car hung up on the snow!
This is the mountain of snow I built in our yard from shoveling snow from the driveway and sidewalk. Our neighbor in the next house was doing his at the same time and I suggested that we build two snow forts, then have a snowball fight. I guess we are too old for that now.
Anyway, a week and a half after that snow fell, there is still a little of my mountain in the yard. Maybe I'll go out and throw snowballs at cars as they drive by. No, I guess most people wouldn't appreciate that and my hands would get cold.
That night it started snowing again and actually dumped about 12" of the stuff in a two hour period! By Thursday morning, we had between 14 and 16" all over the place. Now I know this probably doesn't sound like a lot of snow to some people who live where it snows a lot, and I like having snow around us in the mountains, but not down here where I live. That is more snow than we usually have in at least three or four years, total. This time I have some photographic proof:
This is what our road beside the clubhouse looked like, shortly after I finished shoveling (again) but before the snow plow came by. Our two cars are both small and low to the ground and we couldn't operate them in this much snow as their wheels wouldn't even reach the ground, with the car hung up on the snow!
This is the mountain of snow I built in our yard from shoveling snow from the driveway and sidewalk. Our neighbor in the next house was doing his at the same time and I suggested that we build two snow forts, then have a snowball fight. I guess we are too old for that now.
Anyway, a week and a half after that snow fell, there is still a little of my mountain in the yard. Maybe I'll go out and throw snowballs at cars as they drive by. No, I guess most people wouldn't appreciate that and my hands would get cold.
Labels: Griping, House, Photos, Weather
Friday, November 26, 2010
Yaquina Head Lighthouse, Newport Oregon
Hey, I am finally getting a few more of the photos from our Oregon Coast trip last May edited and ready to post. These are from the Yaquina Head Lighthouse in the town of Newport, Oregon. It was built in 1872 and is one of a series that are along the Pacific Ocean coast on the west coast of the US.
This first photo shows the lighthouse standing on a rise of land. It is a beautiful example of a traditional lighthouse and is now in the US National Park system although it is also a functioning lighthouse that is used for navigating ships at sea.
Here Pat is walking up to the lighthouse, which is 93 feet tall. The light source itself is 162 feet above sea level as the site is on a cliff well above sea level. These combine to make the light visible for about 19 miles to sea. The weather on the day we visited was perfect, sunny but not too warm and with these exciting cloud formations to keep the sky interesting.
As a part of the park system there are good signs displayed around the site. I hope you can read this but if not, click on it and you should be taken to my Flickr site where the photo is hosted and you can see it in a larger size. There is quite a bit of information available on this one sign.
This view is looking to the north from one of the windows as I was climbing the stairs. I don't remember how many steps there are but it is a pretty good climb, at least for an old guy like me. There is a photo later in this set looking down those stairs.
When you do reach the top you can only go as far as the top step. They limit that top step to one person at a time or two if one is a child. This is a working lighthouse and a necessary part of the coastal navigation system and there are things on that top floor that can be damaged. The view here is looking to the southwest.
Here is the source of the light. I am sure that when it was built in 1872 the light source was a flame of some sort but it is now electric. Notice that there are two bulbs but only one is lighting. I guess the extra is for an instantly available backup should the primary one burn out. The light is bright but not hard on the eyes although I doubt that you would want to look into it too long. The lens system that surrounds the light makes it focused and more intense outside the lighthouse. The lighthouse originally had Coast Guard attendants but it was automated in 1966.
The view from the top looking to the north. At the far right side of the photo you can see a car parked in the lot below and it looks pretty small from up here! One thing that I am not sure of is how the glass is kept clean. It had no noticeable salt spray or other things on it, even thought there are seagulls around. Maybe the wind and rain take care of that cleaning.
And here is a view looking to the south. There is a fairly large motorhome parked below in the lot. The road you see is the one visitors approach the lighthouse on. This Oregon Coast is a very beautiful area with a dramatic coastline. Here it is pretty rocky but there are also many very nice sandy beaches.
This is the stairs that wind around the inside of the lighthouse from the base to the top. It is just possible to see the floor at the bottom, way down there. There are good handrails to help but it is a fairly strenuous climb and the steps are narrow so it wouldn't be a good idea to attempt the climb if you are not sure that you can complete the trip up and BACK DOWN. But once you reach the top, it is sure worth the effort.
This is just another of the many things that we saw and did while on our trip. We spent a week down there, four days in the Depoe Bay/Newport area and could easily have spent a lot longer. If you have the chance to go, do so.
This first photo shows the lighthouse standing on a rise of land. It is a beautiful example of a traditional lighthouse and is now in the US National Park system although it is also a functioning lighthouse that is used for navigating ships at sea.
Here Pat is walking up to the lighthouse, which is 93 feet tall. The light source itself is 162 feet above sea level as the site is on a cliff well above sea level. These combine to make the light visible for about 19 miles to sea. The weather on the day we visited was perfect, sunny but not too warm and with these exciting cloud formations to keep the sky interesting.
As a part of the park system there are good signs displayed around the site. I hope you can read this but if not, click on it and you should be taken to my Flickr site where the photo is hosted and you can see it in a larger size. There is quite a bit of information available on this one sign.
This view is looking to the north from one of the windows as I was climbing the stairs. I don't remember how many steps there are but it is a pretty good climb, at least for an old guy like me. There is a photo later in this set looking down those stairs.
When you do reach the top you can only go as far as the top step. They limit that top step to one person at a time or two if one is a child. This is a working lighthouse and a necessary part of the coastal navigation system and there are things on that top floor that can be damaged. The view here is looking to the southwest.
Here is the source of the light. I am sure that when it was built in 1872 the light source was a flame of some sort but it is now electric. Notice that there are two bulbs but only one is lighting. I guess the extra is for an instantly available backup should the primary one burn out. The light is bright but not hard on the eyes although I doubt that you would want to look into it too long. The lens system that surrounds the light makes it focused and more intense outside the lighthouse. The lighthouse originally had Coast Guard attendants but it was automated in 1966.
The view from the top looking to the north. At the far right side of the photo you can see a car parked in the lot below and it looks pretty small from up here! One thing that I am not sure of is how the glass is kept clean. It had no noticeable salt spray or other things on it, even thought there are seagulls around. Maybe the wind and rain take care of that cleaning.
And here is a view looking to the south. There is a fairly large motorhome parked below in the lot. The road you see is the one visitors approach the lighthouse on. This Oregon Coast is a very beautiful area with a dramatic coastline. Here it is pretty rocky but there are also many very nice sandy beaches.
This is the stairs that wind around the inside of the lighthouse from the base to the top. It is just possible to see the floor at the bottom, way down there. There are good handrails to help but it is a fairly strenuous climb and the steps are narrow so it wouldn't be a good idea to attempt the climb if you are not sure that you can complete the trip up and BACK DOWN. But once you reach the top, it is sure worth the effort.
This is just another of the many things that we saw and did while on our trip. We spent a week down there, four days in the Depoe Bay/Newport area and could easily have spent a lot longer. If you have the chance to go, do so.
Labels: Landscapes, Pat and I, Photos, Small towns, Trips to see things
Sunday, September 26, 2010
We have a new fireplace!
We have dreamed about putting a natural gas fired fireplace into our house for some time but just were not sure where to put one in a house as small as ours (1450 sq ft). But we are hearing that the long range weather forecast for our area is calling for another nasty winter, much like the one of two years ago, so we decided to finally go ahead and just do it.
We had visited the booth of a local heating supply place at our County Fair this summer so we started with them. They had a nice unit on a special price that we liked, so we ordered it. The delay was in getting the special sized hearth made, but it finally arrived last Thursday and they came on Friday to do the installation. Of course I have some photos of that process and I hope I can get them in here as Flickr has changed the way the code is copied to put into a blog. I hope I've figured it out. Here goes.....
This first photo shows part of our living room, with the hearth about in the right place. We felt this location would provide some heat into the dining area behind the fireplace and the kitchen is then to the left in the photo from the dining area. We rarely have power outages but they do happen and we wanted to be sure this stove would work, even with the AC power off. It does although not as well as it will with the AC powered blower working.
The two installers, Tim and Jake, have carried the main unit in and are placing it on the hearth. It is by Vermont Castings and has a cast iron firebox so weighs about 200 pounds. Tim is the stove man, Jake is the carpenter.
As you know, we live in a cat house with Huggy, Molly and Peewee. Peewee is the youngest and most inquisitive, although Huggy was watching most of the process from her perch on the sofa. Except when she was asleep which was quite often. Peewee has given the area around the floor a good sniff test and is now checking out the top. Better now than later when it gets hot.
Our manufactured home requires that outside fresh air be supplied to the firebox for combustion. With a gas fired unit there isn't a lot of exhaust so they are able to use a double walled chimney, with the fresh air coming down the outer part. With a fireplace that burns wood or pellets, you have to cut a vent into the crawl space under the house that comes up to the bottom of the fireplace. Gas is a lot easier.
The chimney goes through the roof inside a box that keeps the hot parts from the combustible parts of the house. For that, a fairly large hole has to be cut into the roof and it has to be aligned with the hole in the room ceiling where the box accepts the chimney from the stove. Here Tim and Jake are checking the alignment of the drill before punching the holes out through the roof.
Pat is sitting at the dining table in the background while the fireplace is in its final position, with the chimney installed. The glass front of the firebox has been removed so that Tim could place the "logs" in their proper position. These are some sort of a ceramic that glows when the flame heats them. There are also "embers" added to the mix. The iron front that goes in front of the glass is also here on the floor. You can see some of the gas controls under the firebox. We have a remote control that runs on batteries and the receiver in the fireplace gets its electrical power from some units that generate power from the heat of the pilot lite so no household electrical power is needed to operate it, although it will distribute the heat better if AC power is available to drive the fan system.
Here is the unit operating. When Jake finished hooking it up to gas he could get the pilot lite to ignite but it wouldn't stay on even after quite a long burn-in with the button depressed. Jake isn't a stove man and Tim had gone on to another job so we called in Jesse who got it working. These have a high temperature paint on much of the unit but it does smell a bit at first so they suggested that we let it burn for a couple of hours with the doors & windows of the house open. It was 77 degrees outside so we didn't need the heat but it did get the paint smell cleared.
Here's a closer view. I have been playing with using a couple of different sizes photos from Flickr and am anxious to see how they look in the blog. Hopefully they will be okay.
Anyway, we now have a fireplace so should be all set for winter. However, the pilot lite went out yesterday and it again won't stay lit. We will have to have the stove guys back out tomorrow to get it resolved. I'm glad that we did this before winter set in.
We had visited the booth of a local heating supply place at our County Fair this summer so we started with them. They had a nice unit on a special price that we liked, so we ordered it. The delay was in getting the special sized hearth made, but it finally arrived last Thursday and they came on Friday to do the installation. Of course I have some photos of that process and I hope I can get them in here as Flickr has changed the way the code is copied to put into a blog. I hope I've figured it out. Here goes.....
This first photo shows part of our living room, with the hearth about in the right place. We felt this location would provide some heat into the dining area behind the fireplace and the kitchen is then to the left in the photo from the dining area. We rarely have power outages but they do happen and we wanted to be sure this stove would work, even with the AC power off. It does although not as well as it will with the AC powered blower working.
The two installers, Tim and Jake, have carried the main unit in and are placing it on the hearth. It is by Vermont Castings and has a cast iron firebox so weighs about 200 pounds. Tim is the stove man, Jake is the carpenter.
As you know, we live in a cat house with Huggy, Molly and Peewee. Peewee is the youngest and most inquisitive, although Huggy was watching most of the process from her perch on the sofa. Except when she was asleep which was quite often. Peewee has given the area around the floor a good sniff test and is now checking out the top. Better now than later when it gets hot.
Our manufactured home requires that outside fresh air be supplied to the firebox for combustion. With a gas fired unit there isn't a lot of exhaust so they are able to use a double walled chimney, with the fresh air coming down the outer part. With a fireplace that burns wood or pellets, you have to cut a vent into the crawl space under the house that comes up to the bottom of the fireplace. Gas is a lot easier.
The chimney goes through the roof inside a box that keeps the hot parts from the combustible parts of the house. For that, a fairly large hole has to be cut into the roof and it has to be aligned with the hole in the room ceiling where the box accepts the chimney from the stove. Here Tim and Jake are checking the alignment of the drill before punching the holes out through the roof.
Pat is sitting at the dining table in the background while the fireplace is in its final position, with the chimney installed. The glass front of the firebox has been removed so that Tim could place the "logs" in their proper position. These are some sort of a ceramic that glows when the flame heats them. There are also "embers" added to the mix. The iron front that goes in front of the glass is also here on the floor. You can see some of the gas controls under the firebox. We have a remote control that runs on batteries and the receiver in the fireplace gets its electrical power from some units that generate power from the heat of the pilot lite so no household electrical power is needed to operate it, although it will distribute the heat better if AC power is available to drive the fan system.
Here is the unit operating. When Jake finished hooking it up to gas he could get the pilot lite to ignite but it wouldn't stay on even after quite a long burn-in with the button depressed. Jake isn't a stove man and Tim had gone on to another job so we called in Jesse who got it working. These have a high temperature paint on much of the unit but it does smell a bit at first so they suggested that we let it burn for a couple of hours with the doors & windows of the house open. It was 77 degrees outside so we didn't need the heat but it did get the paint smell cleared.
Here's a closer view. I have been playing with using a couple of different sizes photos from Flickr and am anxious to see how they look in the blog. Hopefully they will be okay.
Anyway, we now have a fireplace so should be all set for winter. However, the pilot lite went out yesterday and it again won't stay lit. We will have to have the stove guys back out tomorrow to get it resolved. I'm glad that we did this before winter set in.
Labels: House, Our cats, Pat and I, Photos, Weather
