Although I haven’t posted in a while, I’ve certainly been busy. In between work projects, our summer included three trips (my husband Eddie went on a mission trip to Ecuador while the munchkin and I visited my parents, then Eddie taught a seminar in Washington and we came along, and finally we took an actual vacation). First, I’d like to share some of my personal photos from the summer. Late one afternoon in June, our family visited the Idaho Botanical Garden and I snapped a couple quick shots before closing:

Someday I will own a Japanese maple.

 

Of course, who can resist photographing fireworks on Independence Day? We went down to Beck-Kiwanis Park in Ontario and sat inside the baseball field. After the first few bangs, our daughter decided the noise wasn’t so bad and she enjoyed the rest of the show without fear. I was relieved because, as I child, I remember clapping my hands over my ears while watching fireworks after Kansas City Royals games with my family. I did that until I was quite a bit older than my daughter is now. Anyway, a tripod and remote shutter release helped me get some fun pictures, like this one. I like how you can still see some color in the sky.

 

Driving around in eastern Oregon, I spotted this field that looked like it could be computer desktop wallpaper. We drove past it at first but I soon asked my husband to turn around and go back. When else will we ever find a perfectly green field, blue skies, and white fluffy clouds? I didn’t do much to this photo–it was actually like that.

Not far down the road from the photo above was this lovely barn. Even though it wasn’t the best time of day to be shooting, I still wanted to remember its simple beauty, framed by the mountains.

 

Vacation Time!

We visited the Olympic peninsula during our vacation this summer. Any drive through Olympic National Park wouldn’t be complete without a stop at Ruby Beach. However, it was very crowded (early August = high tourist season), very windy, very cloudy, and not much fun. There was driftwood everywhere, so I’m glad I left the toddler in the car to nap (don’t worry, my husband stayed with her). It would have been very frustrating for her to get around. The beach was pretty in its own way, but I was disappointed.

 

A view from Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park, looking across the Straight of Juan de Fuca at Victoria, British Columbia. You can faintly see the city’s lights in the dark blue area on the horizon.

 

Lone boat tethered to a dock.

 

This, according to Wikipedia, is a fogbow. Or “fog bow” with a space between the words. I’m not going to use a space because we don’t use a space in “rainbow.” The Straight of Juan de Fuca was foggy every morning, but the sun came out during our ferry ride to Victoria. The result was a colorless rainbow in the fog: a fogbow.

The fog faded as we approached Victoria, but the fogbow was still faintly visible. In fact, I can see it better if I step farther back from my computer screen.

 

After arriving in Victoria, we headed out to see the Butchart Gardens. They were beautiful when we saw them in winter, on our honeymoon a few years ago. This was the first time Eddie and I had seen the gardens in bloom. I couldn’t help but notice that there were WAY more visitors in summer than there were in winter.

 

I could never get tired of seeing the beautiful legislative assembly buildings in Victoria.

 

This picture of a moonrise is rather dark, but I like seeing the reddish color in the sky.

 

Reflections in the water after a long ferry ride back to the US of A.