Out and About in Seattle

As most of you know by now, I've decided to punk off this summer and play. Well, mostly play. There's my job (I love my job. I love my job. Really, I love my job). There's blogging (don't have to repeat a mantra here - I actually do love blogging). There's the general stuff and nonsense we all have to do in order to keep the daily grind grinding. But on Fridays, I flip all that stuff the finger and go esplore.

Last Friday, we were at Alki Beach, and I finally got a picture of myself with the gorgeous Seattle skyline:


And an awesome silhouette of the Olympic Mountains:


Then we went for dinner, and nearly had a hot air balloon land atop us in Woodinville:


Unfortunately, it had already passed overhead by the time we dug the camera out. It's the closest I've seen a balloon since one landed in our horse pasture when I was a kid.

This Friday, we headed out to my old stomping grounds at Juanita Bay Park. It seems having large flying objects nearly behead my buddy are going to be a common occurrence, because he nearly got his noggin taken off by a great blue heron. The little fucker chose a moment when both cameras were otherwise occupied to make his entrance, so we didn't get the awesome "ZOMG this heron's gonna hit me!" shot. But we did get some good photo ops afterward.

The silhouette:



The closeup:


The "hey, the little fucker's flying again!"


It's times like this I wish I'd bought a better camera.

There was even a beaver out eating, and we did manage to catch his head popping up through the water after a dive, but good luck telling him from the lilies. I won't make you strain your eyes.

Gallivanting's wonderful and all, but it's still nice to come home, where the raging bundle of hostility that is my cat sometimes likes to prove that she really does love her mommy:


Either that, or she was cold.

My friend's got himself some panorama software, and he knows how to use it. Click to enjoy the fruits of his labor:


That's mah citeh. Isn't she luverly?