Phew!

It's been a loooong week but a good one.  I'm glad I was able to hang out with the familia.  I was dreading it before this week, but I just let it go, lived in the present, and enjoyed myself.  I am going away with very fond memories and stronger relationships with my family.  I found out some things that I never knew about some family members which makes me love them more...warts and all.

It's late.  I fly back tomorrow, but I want to post a couple pictures I took on my last day.

I was already walking around town trying to wait for 3 pm to roll around so my brother and I could get some happy hour sushi and brewski!  82 Stewart Street near Pike's Market.  Oh, and this pigeon shot seemed really cool at the time.

My point and shoot digital camera's battery kaputed and I didn't bring my charger so I used the second best thing - my iPod.  And I was able to do fancy stuff to it.

We took the bus to the closest drop off near the baseball stadium and it landed us here.  And we walked the rest.  I must say that this part of  Seattle is not its best.  I was sketched out the entire walk but saw this fantastic view of the city.

Even though it was played at Safeco, this was not the Seattle Mariners' home game.  Mariners lost to the Marlins 4-2 tonight.  

Ryan says...

...sea otters rarely come out of the water.  And so I found one here in Port Townsend that came out of the water, dried itself in the sand, and went back in.  Silly otter.

 Okay, it's uber dark but he's in the center top third of the images.  Below, he's walking away.

The phone camera can be deceiving but I think it allowed me to come pretty close to it.
Also, Leah flew her helicopter by around 10:16 PM last night.  She confirmed it, too.

What makes a good picture?

I suppose there could be several answers to this, but for now, my answer is a good line.  Lines, lines, lines! I really like lines right now...and geometric shapes.  I don't know when this took place but the simplicity of lines fascinate me.  Take a look.

Who needs a fancy shmancy digital SLR when you have a fancy digital point and shoot!?!?

Hmmm...where am I?

For the first time in 7 years, I get a vacation longer than two or three days!

 I'll let you figure out where I took these pictures and video.  The buildings below is a new and developing interest of mine.  I've found myself being really impressed with black & white visuals of buildings in big cities.  So I've been taking a lot of big cityscapes. There's just something ridiculously astounding to me about these mighty giants.  I have an idea of what to do with all these pictures but I shan't disclose it until I finish.

Geometric shapes are fun!

Beatles cover band?? Yes.

This is the first one of its kind.  Looks like every other one, in fact.

I Heart Summertime Activities

The first tournament of the season was the Tiger Blood Beach Volleyball Tournament held during the Memorial Day Weekend.  It was quite a success.  We had two courts up in two days of competition.  Once again, my quad team reached the finals, but just could not keep it together.  Then my doubles team didn't even make it out of the first round.  However, I must say that we did lose to the eventual winners so it was a tough tournament.  It was great. Everyone had fun. Afterwards, we came back to the house and cooked out, danced and a little bit of hookah.  No big deal.  Here are more pictures...

Once again, I did not win the trophy I created.  

Cakefest '11

My buddy, JBox, just ran a trail marathon race yesterday in the DC area.  He finished well out of two hundred some competitors - he said he placed in the 40s.  Not bad for his first full marathon using the unconventional and now proven CrossFit Endurance training regimen.  The only "injury" he came out with was a silly blood blister.  As a reward to himself, he wanted to throw a cakefest and a cakefest was thrown in his honor!  Below are some of the creations.

 This big white ball of buttercream icing hides 8 layers of unicorn poop.  I didn't even bother tasting it.

I had other creations from previous cake-makings...

 I was commissioned to create this water hole cake.  Ha!

...and I can't seem to locate my armadillo cake.  I'll have to post it when I find it.