Annual visit to the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe, WA. There are actually several “state fairs” in Washington, the largest of which is the Puyallup Fair. The Evergreen State Fair is more like a large County Fair – just the right size for a fun visit.
Various photos from our family trip to Wisconsin from August 2010.
Photos taken during Tuesday practice round of the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in Kohler, WI.
Photos from Minneapolis, during our summer 2010 vacation
We saw a performance by Kogen Taiko, the Japanese drumming group that Carol used to play with when we lived in the Twin Cities. Her relatives still make up a majority of the group’s members.
Finally got some nice summer weather, after a very cold, wet, and dark May and June. Time to get the camera out and start taking pictures again!
After school got out for the year, we spent a few days down in Cannon Beach, Oregon – one of our favorite spots. The weather was pretty much constant grey overcast, except for a few hours on Tuesday – but at least it was dry! Here’s some pictures from the trip – click the small photo to browse the entire photo album.
Just over 2 gigapixels, result of 192 separate pics stitched together. View of Haystack Rock on Cannon Beach, taken from our hotel room balcony. Requires Silverlight plugin to view — zoom in to see amazing detail.
For extra bonus credit, find the following:
We took a nice Mothers Day bike ride on the nearby Iron Horse Trail – a converted rail trail that runs from Rattlesnake Lake, up over Snoqualmie Pass, and across the state. We did the first 6-7 miles or so – up to the first big trestle at Change Creek. Finally, we had some beautiful weather so Carol could try out the new bike she got last fall.
To celebrate her 12th birthday, Emilie invited a bunch of friends over for a fancy tea party. She prepared all week making fancy finger sandwiches, chololate-dipped strawberries, cupcakes, scones and other treats. Here are some snapshots from the party.
Jim joined his brother Jeff for 4 days of golf in the Orlando, FL area. Played some fantastic courses – highlights included Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill, World Woods, and the Black Diamond Ranch Quarry course. The Quarry course especially was amazing – holes 13-17 play around and through a 100-ft deep former limestone quarry. We also had an enjoyable visit with our sister Paige and her daughters – who have turned into amazing young women. (Note – some pictures taken by Jeff).
An early spring this year meant lots of tulips in bloom at the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival near La Conner, WA. Weather wasn’t great, though – mostly cloudy, wet, and cold.
Started experimenting with making large-scale panoramic photos, where many individuals photos are combined into one very large image. Fun stuff! Hardware – modified Meade DS2000 telescope mount & control pad, still waiting for cable to connect to PC. Software – Microsoft ICE (Image Composite Editor) for “stitching” the photos together. Here are some samples, saved in Microsoft’s Deep Zoom format, which lets you do quick, amazing zooms & pans of huge images (may require Silverlight plugin):
FRONT YARD VIEW, 29 images stitched together
BACK YARD VIEW, 64 images stitched together
We had a great trip to Maui last week, thanks to Emilie having a week off from school for mid-winter break. Grandma Arlene came along with us from Wisconsin. She impressed us with her bravery – trying new things like snorkeling, eating sushi, and climbing mountain trails! The weather was perfect every day, just one or two passing showers in the evening, otherwise sunny and 81. One highlight was a snorkeling trip to Molokini crater, the remnants of an extinct volcano a couple miles offshore. It provides a small, crescent-shaped harbor with excellent visibility for viewing fish. Click on the small picture to view the entire album.
Between Christmas and New Year’s, we visited our families back in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Emilie got to try snowboarding for the first time, and also got to try saxophone for the firsrt time. The weather got progressively colder throughout the trip, down to minus-15 F – some 60 degrees colder than our home back in North Bend!
Emilie got to try snowboarding for the first time, here in MN – thanks to help from Uncle Brian and cousins Evan & Aaron (who are very good snowboarders):
Merry Christmas from the sunny (but cool) Pacific Northwest!
Emilie and Carol perform on Christmas Eve, part of a flute trio accompanying the congregation on “Away in a Manger”:
Flute Trio from Jim Reitz on Vimeo.
Stayed at the Suncadia Resort near Roslyn, WA this weekend along with some friends. No snow there, but still had a fun time skating, hiking and relaxing.
We spent the weekend at a resort near Roslyn, WA – the town that stood in for Cicely, Alaska in the wonderful 90’s TV series Northern Exposure. Many of the locations in the fictitious Cicely were based on real buildings in Roslyn – and still exist.
