Tough Winter

This picture is for Tom....This poor fellow didn't quite make it through the winter. Actually, I saw wolf tracks all around him so I assume that's the cause of death.

Idaho Tour

I spent the past week on one of the most intense travels schedules that I've ever done. Most of my driving was done between the hours of 10pm and 2am. While I still think that the majority of the Interstate 84 corridor is one of the most boring drives ever, Idaho has some breathtaking scenery and drives. I got the chance to visit both Sun Valley and McCall, both of which are amazingly beautiful destinations.

Sadly, most of the nights I had to camp in the Subi due to inclement weather. However, I did get quite a few opportunities to explore random gravel roads. In fact, I came back to Oregon with the Subaru much dirtier than when I left.

Spring Clinics

It's been a while since I've been able to post some pictures. I would apologize to my followers, but I seriously doubt that there are that many people that faithfully follow this blog.
The past few weeks have been spent on the road, during that time I've traveled through the majority of Washington and Idaho. While it stinks being away from home, the bright side is that I get to see a lot of amazing places, places that would be amazing to travel to and vacation in. Places that I would like to visit again with Amanda...
Leavenworth has to be one of the most random towns that I've ever visited. Being a Bavarian community in the middle of the Northern Cascades, it's a town that sticks out of it's surroundings in one of the most surreal ways. The first picture is Leavenworth Mountain Sports; all of the buildings in the town have the same design. I spent the night camping up Icicle road in a little nook that I found. While I wasn't ready for the 18 degree evening, I was joyfully surprised by the view when I woke up. The last three pictures were taken from within a couple hundred yards of my campsite.

Kitesurfing in Maui

Sadly, I didn't take my kite gear with me to Maui. But we did make a visit to the North shore to watch the kiters. The water was
amazing, the wind constant, and some pretty amazing kiters...made me really wish that I had a kite and could go out and flounder in the water with everyone...
This was my first attempt at photographing kiters. It's actually really difficult to get a shot that looks decent.

More Maui

I'm finally ready for some sunny weather in the northwest. The snow is great, but after I've had my fill of winter sports, I'm ready for a change. Looking back through the photos of our glorious time in Maui has really put the itch in me for some nice weather...Until the northwest climate chooses to cooperate, I think looking at pictures will have to do...

This first photo was taken near mile post 14...one of our favorite snorkel spots. Amanda and I were on our way to a relaxing time in Lahaina and we decided to stop and watch some whales playing in the bay...




One of the best drives on Maui is the "back" way to Hana. This is a little bay that we found on our trip.


Having fun at night at the rental house. The light spots on the bottom right are from me walking by with a flashlight. It's not the most amazing photo, but it was fun experimenting for sure!


The Banyon trees in Maui are pretty incredible. This one was dead center on the trail to the falls by Hana.


Halfway up that same trail, there is the most amazing bamboo forest.

Maui!

Amanda and I have spent the last week in Maui. It has been gloriously relaxing and amazingly fun. We rent a beat-up old jeep from a little place off the beaten path in downtown Kahului. The place is like a junk yard from an old TV show--broken down jeeps everywhere and guard dogs behind a fence. We've been trying to keep ourselves off the grid for the past week from driving the back way to Hana to 4 wheeling up Polipoli. Snorkeling has been great and we have finally gotten our fill of turtles. We finally had the courage to take our little digital point and shoot into the water. We've had a great time as many pictures as possible. We also had a great time diving Molokini and the St. Anthony's Shipwreck...

The first picture is a small and well hidden Eel that we spotted this morning while snorkeling at Turtle town. The following four pictures are turtles from this morning as well.

Plenty more pictures to come!

Florida

So this post is a long time in coming. It's been over a month since I was actually in Florida. I was there on a business trip, but was able to spend a day with a good friend--Steve Shapiro. The pictures are from our canoeing adventure in search of alligators. Sadly, we didn't see any. The highlights of the trip were when we ended up "low-centered" on a tree and almost capsized the canoe--perhaps we would have seen some gators at that point. A little chumming never hurts. We canoed up a river to an old cabin that was built by Trapper Nelson. He been there since the early 1900's and mysteriously disappeared a few years back. On the way back, Steve decided to pick some of the local flora for our sustenance--he ended up getting what was first thought to be a pineapple but turned out to be a ball of spikes.