Liftoff

About a month ago I spent one night helping a hot air balloon crew at the Ballunar Liftoff Festival, an annual tradition at Johnson Space Center. I was mainly there to drive a truck, so I didn't have many duties during the actual preparation of the balloon. So I got to look around while all the people around us got ready. It's amazing how little wind becomes a problem for hot air balloons. These guys were hanging on to their balloon for dear life, hoping for a calm in which to launch. Eventually, they decided to stay on the ground.

I Wish It Was Snowing

This picture of Gavin and I skiing at Whistler last March gets the feature today. Reason? Because nothing looks better when it's 95 deg on September 27 than a picture of yourself in a knit hat standing on a ski slope with white as far as you can see. Sucks to Houston.

First Beach

Sunset at First Beach, Olympic National Park. The cool thing about this park is how varried the scenery is. Cragy mountians, beach, and rainforest in the same park! The sihloette in this picture is Sarah, she had just finished taking a picture of the same scene.

Knife-Edged Ridge

Hiking in the Olympics with Gavin, Sarah, Ian, and Jen O. One of the things I really liked is that many of the trails are on the crests of knife-edged ridges. The scenery was spectacular. These were some steep trails! Going down or up, it was tough.

Night Skyline from Gasworks

This is the view of downtown Seattle from Gasworks Park. To give credit where credit is due, Gavin took this shot. He seems to have better luck with nighttime pictures than I do, so I handed him the camera and mandated that he get a shot of downtown for me. In this one, he also got a sihloette of Ian, Anna, Irwin, and I standing around talking. I also like this picture, which also shows the Space Needle.

Gasworks Park

This is part of the old refinery that Gasworks Park is built around in Seattle. Gasworks is the park where the paintball fight was in the movie "10 Things I Hate About You". It is also about 1.5 miles down the Burke-Gilman bike trail from the University of Washington campus, and was therefore one of the places I went often when I was in school. It has a great view of downtown, which I'll feature next.