vacation

July 14, 2016 by Kat

The Good and the Bad

There is good and bad in coming home from a great vacation.

The good: Sleeping in my own bed, snuggling with my cats, eating my normal food, getting back into a routine.

The bad: I can’t create art or play Pokemon Go whenever I want.

I had a great time last week visiting family and friends in Colorado. We are a road-tripping family, so the drive there and back provided ample time for me to create some new art on my iPad Pro. And I had access to new things to photograph and some people who were willing to experiment with me.

Add that all together, toss with the techniques I’ve been playing with from Bob Weil’s online class, and voila! You have a new direction in my art. I call this one: She Opens Her Own Doors.

There will definitely be more in this series. You can visit me on Instagram or my newsletter to see these unfold. And if you would like to learn how to create this type of layered collage art, the special offer on iPhoneography with Bob Weil is still available until July 17. Visit here to learn more.

And yes, I am playing Pokemon Go! My son and I used to collect and play with Pokemon cards when he was little, so this is another fun way to connect with him at fifteen. With a teenager, you just can’t miss these opportunities. Yesterday I made it to Level 9 and joined a gym in the area I like to hike.

This is one more fun thing to do with the iPhone. If you haven’t played yet, consider giving it a try. It gets you out walking around, and while you play you are getting exercise and can take photographs to use in your art. See you on the streets!

August 20, 2015 by Kat

A Tale of two Ports

Travel brings you into the moment. As you see and experience new things, you are fully present in a way you aren’t often in your everday life. You can have an even stronger experience that stays with you when you seek to notice and describe the differences of a place, putting your finger on its pulse and discovering its personality. But are your really learning more about a place or about yourself in that exercise? I think it’s the latter.

At the top of the Olympic Peninsula, there are two different port towns: Port Angeles and Port Townsend. They are similar in a lot of ways — they are influenced by similar weather and geography (Strait of San Juan de Fuca and the Olympic Mountains) and they are both important transit connections (Port Townsend is a ferry port for the Washington State Ferries to Seattle and the San Juan islands, while Port Angeles’ ferry connects to Victoria). But they are different too… Port Townsend feels like an elegant, rich old lady, with a beautiful and vibrant restored downtown, while Port Angeles feels like her working class cousin, with tourism taking a second seat behind the real work that goes on in the area.

Washington State Ferry out of Port Townsend

Whether that is true or not, I don’t fully know. Port Angeles is the biggest town in the area, so it is an important center of commerce. I would need to spend more time and learn more about both places to get a true feel for their personalities and how their histories and economies have shaped them. But the perception I shared above came out loud and clear in my photographs. Since we stayed near Port Angeles, we spent more time in and around there, but I have more photographs of Port Townsend. Looking at it objectively, that says more about me than the towns. My photographic sense preferred quaint and quirky to work on this trip. I guess wanted to feel like I was on vacation. 🙂

So enjoy a few photographs from these two port towns, but take them with a grain of salt. As with any photography, they are more about my interpretation and my mood at the time of my visit than reality. But they are fun and interesting anyway!

Port Townsend’s waterfront downtown was wonderfully restored, complete with some quirky art. Want to go for a ride, anyone?

Art Installation in Port Townsend

I don’t read much on paper anymore, but a good used bookstore should never be missed. I’m happy to report Brandon did purchase a book to help keep this wonderful little bookstore alive.

William James Bookseller in Port Townsend

I like this shop owner’s priorities! The lettering on the door said “Open Nearly Everyday.” Just not the day we were there.

Closed Shop in Port Townsend

I think I will forever be a sucker for photographing potted plants on doorsteps, no matter where I travel.

Potted Plants in Port Townsend

The Port Angeles Downtown Associated had moved, but left behind a sad looking vacant storefront on a side street of the small downtown shopping area. Both towns had quite a bit of vacant property, even in high traffic tourist areas. It makes me wonder how hard the economic downturn has been on these little places. It’s such a beautiful and unique part of the country, I hope business picks up and these storefronts are filled in the near future.

Vacant Storefront in Port Angeles

One of our favorite parts of the area turned out to be the Discovery Trail, a long paved bike path along much of the northern part of the pensinsula. I ended up purchasing a new bike on this trip since I finally had time to test ride them, and going on family bike rides was a lot of fun! One day, we caught the trail near our campground and rode into Port Angeles and out to the Coast Guard Station on Ediz Hook, a sand spit which juts out into the Straight of Juan de Fuca and forms a natural harbor for Port Angeles.

It was an interesting ride, taking us past some lumberyards and through a pulp mill complex before you get out to the spit. It is a different world out there!

(If you ever have trouble with keeping the horizon straight, know that you are not alone. I can’t believe how crooked this is! My intent was for it to be straight when I took the photo.)

The northern view from Ediz Hook

Me and my new bike! I love it! It’s is fantastic to have a bike that is comfortable to ride again. It makes me realize what I was missing by having a bike I didn’t really like for the last four or more years. I decided my middle-aged body didn’t like my mountain bike geometry anymore when we were in Italy, so I bought a new bike there without a lot of test riding. My mistake. It was too big for me and hard to ride, but I’ve hung on to it since it was part of my Italy memories. Instead of making me happy, all it was doing was hanging in the garage, keeping me from riding.

Since we’ve got my new bike home I’ve kitted it out with basket and bell and mirror and all the other accoutrements that make it “mine.” I’ve ridden it around town a few times already. Happiness!

And finally, the family selfie! Couldn’t have a vacation blog post about one of these. By the way, all of the images (except for me on my bike) are processed using the Klahhane Ridge formula I shared last week. I love that formula – it’s so versatile!

That wraps up the blog posts about our Olympic Peninsula vacation. It was a ton of fun and the best kind of family vacation: Lots of interesting and varied activities we all enjoyed, time for relaxation and silliness, and some fun family stories created for the archives. We already want to go back, there was so much we didn’t get to do up there!

I think that’s the perfect feeling to have when you leave a place: Wanting just a little bit more. It gives you something to dream and plan for on your next trip.

August 12, 2014 by Kat

Do’s and Don’ts for a Successful Summer Vacation

I’m back! Did you miss me? My family and I were off last week for some fun in the sun in Leavenworth, Washington.

Before we left my son asked me if this was Travel or Vacation. You see, in our family, we have a different meaning for each word. When we Travel, we are going somewhere to enrich ourselves. We pack our days full of sightseeing and activities. Travel typically involves advance planning, tickets, timetables and lines. Vacation, however, involves sleeping in, lots of reading and loose timetables. We are flexible on what we do, or don’t do, and when. It’s more about relaxation than enrichment.

Last week was definitely Vacation, and I thought I would share a Do’s and Don’ts for a successful vacation based on our week away.

DO go someplace hot, dry and bug-free. 95+ degrees Fahrenheit is good. That way, you have no guilt about laying around reading all afternoon because it’s too hot to do anything else. Naps in air conditioning are prescribed. Visit the pool or the river or both whenever you start to overheat. Stay in your wet swimsuit and air dry all evening as things cool off. (I’m usually cold, so it was awesome to feel hot enough to want to get into the water.)

DON’T go someplace hot, dry and with extreme fire danger if you are intending to hike. There is a good chance all of the trails will be closed so that the officials don’t have to worry about rescuing stranded hikers if they wander into an existing fire area or if a new fire starts. Leave your hiking boots at home. Flip-flops are the only shoes allowed on vacation. (So much for my daily hikes!)

DO have your son, an only child, bring a friend. It is totally worth the extra money you will spend for said friend to join your family. It’s like giving your child the gift of a sibling, only one they’ve chosen, who listens to you, is polite, and willingly helps with chores. All that, and you don’t have to pay for an additional college education! It’s a bargain. With the friend along, you will get more relaxation time in, and keep the surly teenage behavior at bay. (It was lovely!)

DON’T wake anyone up early, especially teenagers. Let them sleep. Everyone will be happier. Let them stay up as late as they want, so they sleep in even later. Spend the cool hours of the morning doing your own thing… Walking the dog, reading, or sleep in yourself. (I would sleep in if I could, but I’m an early riser and enjoy my quiet morning time, even on vacation.)

DO enjoy the touristy, Bavarian-themed town you are staying near. Sample the local merchandise, wander the stores, and maybe actually even buy something for yourself (like a cute skirt). Sit in a beer garden and have a bratwurst and an imported German beer. Daily. (I finally found someone who knew what a Radler was and could make one for me – first time since the real Bavaria!)

DON’T expect fancy museums or educational activities. Visit the local Pioneer Museum with its random collection of artifacts and pioneer buildings, go miniature golfing, float in a tube down the river, visit the local candy-making factory or all of the above. Only one activity per day is allowed. More than that, and it will become Travel. (Ever heard of Aplets and Cotlets? Yes, we saw how they make them. Free samples! Yum!)

DO read lots of books. Four or five, at least. Stock up on books before you leave and enjoy the time guilt-free. Fiction only please, no non-fiction is allowed on vacation. (The best book I read last week was Visible City by Tova Mirvis.)

And here is the kicker, the biggest DON’T of them all…

DON’T, absolutely ever, set your iPhone on a stack of books on the edge of a sink. Especially not a sink with a shallow pool of soapy water in it. Especially not if you plan to leave for 15 to 20 minutes to take the dog for a walk. Because if you do, there is a good chance that when you return, you will find your iPhone in the sink, swimming in the shallow pool of soapy water, flickering ominously. Not only will you lose your phone for the rest of the trip, but you will lose your camera too. (Even after turning it off right away and keeping it in a bag of rice for 3 days, it never recovered. Luckily, we were able to stop at the Apple store in Portland on the drive home and I got my camera, er, phone, replaced. Whew!)

So there you have it, a few Do’s and Don’ts for a successful summer vacation. Do you have any to add to the list? Let’s hear them!

July 17, 2013 by Kat

Back to Life

Recognize this skyline? I’ll give you a minute to look at it closely…

Off to the left is the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower). You might recognize a few other building profiles. In the front is Lake Michigan. Got it yet?

Here’s another clue…

A city trapped in the reflection of the Cloud Gate, aka The Bean in Millenium Park. Now do you know it?

It’s Chicago.

Yeah, we just got back from a couple of weeks away from home in Chicago and various parts of Wisconsin. Chicago was a side trip, a short family vacation with just the three of us before we headed to Wisconsin for family visits and reunions. A time for taking a stroll down memory lane while making some new memories. Explaining to my son who everyone was and how they were related to us… over and over and over again. His head is swimming with first cousins once-removed, second cousins, great aunts and uncles. (To be honest, my head is swimming a bit too.)

So here I am this morning, back at home and trying to figure out where to start. Where and how I want to dive back to real life. We’ve got the dog to pick up from the kennel and library books to return. Shopping to do and mail to sort through. Oh yeah, and work, I have to be there today too.

I decided to start with laundry, and downloading my photos. You can’t go wrong with either of those. And saying hi here… I’m back! I missed you all! I’ll share more with you soon.

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