drive out to the Oregon coast
while i was in Portland, i took 1/2 a day to drive out to Cannon Beach and Ecola State Park. it was cloudy on the other side of the mountains, but i took many pictures, nonetheless. here’s a link to my oregon coast drive photoset on flickr, and a sampling is below.
this is cannon beach:
these are the “sea lion rocks” offshore of ecola state park:
this is one of my favorite pictures i’ve shot to date, crescent beach cove:
the rain and the sun
the rain
saturday night i stayed in portland, after a drive out to cannon beach and astoria (pictures to come, i promise!) while relaxing back at the hotel, my locally brewed organic IPA was interrupted by a roll of thunder. then it started raining.
it rained at a rate, the likes of which i’m not sure i’ve seen before; in the northeast, in the northwest. the only thing i can think of being comparable was being caught in a rain & hail storm in wisconsin when we were driving out to Seattle in ‘01.
my friend greg put an audio clip of the storm on his blog, it’s neat.
the sun
sunday, i drove back up to Seattle, via Bremerton for a dual-purpose on the peninsula. first, visiting my friend Charles at a SCCA Northwest Region Autocross event. it was cool - i got to watch the 2nd morning run, then i walked the course for the afternoon runs before departing.
my other reason for heading out on the peninsula was to enjoy lunch at Silver City Brewing in silverdale. enjoy, i surely did. it was departing Silver City when i started to notice that my forehead hurt. i forgot to bring a hat on this trip, and i guess the half-hour or so that it was actually sunny while i was at the autocross, was enough to fry me. it figures that the only time it was sunny on this trip, i got sunburned.
so if you’re in the greater seattle area today and you see a large, round, bright red orb floating at you - don’t worry. it’s just my head. say hi!
the stout scarab
while we were in maine last month, we visited the owls head transportation museum.
one of the pieces on display was a 1935 Stout Scarab. a handbuilt car of which only a handful were ever produced. it was ridiculously expensive for the time.
i finally remembered to look it up - get this. rear engine, cab-forward driving position. flexible seating with a small table that can be deployed. unit-body construction. four wheel independent suspension.
what was that year again? 1935.
bayside, east northport, maine
a panoramic photo i shot during our trip to maine last month.
Mt. Washington in Autumn
this past Sunday, we decided to partake in some recreation, New England style. we drove up to Mt. Washington, in the Presidential Range of the White Mountains.
the day started with bagels and a nice drive through Goffstown and Dunbarton. when we reached I-93, we were nearly run off the road several times by careless drivers from New Jersey. welcome to leaf-peeping season in New England!
the way up took us through Franconia Notch state park. there we were treated to a gorgeous, semi-shrouded view of Cannon Mountain/Cannon Cliffs:
the whole trip up was beautiful. the foliage in that region of NH was at peak. here’s our arrival at the Mount Washington Auto Road:
they’re not kidding. down below while you’re in the trees, it doesn’t seem so daunting. then you get above all the flora, and it looks like this:
the view from the top is astounding.
these are just a sampling; here’s the link to the full photoset of our trip to Mt. Washington at flickr.
Day 11: Lancaster NY to Manchester NH
we’re here. the last 400-ish miles were ones that we’ve trod before. this time, was uneventful. we took our new preferred, summer-only route through vermont, and stopped, as always, at McNeil’s Brewery in Brattleboro (no website - doesn’t open until 4!).
i’ll work on a synopsis of the whole trip, but first we’ve got some household-establishing duties that require more attention.
Day 10: Lancaster and Lackawanna
while it sounds like a good name for a short-line railroad, Lancaster and Lackawanna simply describe where we spent most of our time today.
first, we stopped by the local Citizens Bank branch to get some notarizations for our closing documents. then we hit the nearest FedEx Kinkos to send them out. done. house should be sold!
lunch at Panera Bread before we visited with some relatives in Lackawanna.
generally low-key. tonight we hope to sleep fast so we can wake up early, and head to Rochester to have breakfast with my brother, before continuing on to New Hampshire. Day 11 is the home stretch.
(okay, a quick stop in Brattleboro VT is probably in order, at McNeils. their beer is too good to drive through without picking up a few 22’s to enjoy later!)