Happy Birthday Jake!

My second nephew, Jake, is welcomed into the world at 1:32 am at 9 lbs.

Victoria on Vancouver Island

Here is the Parliament building in downtown Victoria and a short walk to the Craigdarroch Castle; I love the wood paneled interior. Then to Butchart Gardens which provided subjects for photography for all ages.

Vancouver

Bloedel Conservatory, Stanley Park, and the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge.

Seattle Library and Art Museum

My hotel happened to be next to the Seattle Central Library. The Evergreen tour guide told me it was unique. I took a walk around and it was by far the coolest modern library I've seen. It opened in 2004. I desperately miss the library system in Denver (it misses me too, I got an email a month ago from them saying they haven't seen me in awhile), so I was happy to see this library with tons of people using it just like in Denver. They had the 'red room' and this escalator in yellow leading to the next level.



Next stop was the Seattle Art Museum which was conveniently across the street from Fran's Chocolates. I don't understand modern art but enjoy viewing it. I found this huge mouse on top of someone sleeping particularly disturbing. Next was this robe made out of dog tags. That was just impressive; I can't imagine how many hours it took to assemble.

Sights around Seattle

I took a tour of Seattle with Evergreen Escapes (they were great). This picture is from Kerry Park in Queen Anne overlooking downtown Seattle.
I took an afternoon gourmet tour with Savor Seattle. I would highly recommend it; the food was delicious. The tour encouraged taking pictures of the food, hence all the cameras out at this one. The pic is from Serious Pie (the chanterelle and crimini mushroom, truffle cheese pizza was amazing). This stop in Pike Market was fun for tasting truffle salt and balsamic vinegar.

Olympic Peninsula

Unfortunately a storm rolled through on my day on the Olympic Peninsula. I did see a beautiful rainbow on Lake Crescent and took a misty hike nearby to a waterfall.

It was pouring in the Hoh Rain Forest, unusual since it hadn't rained the past 60 days.

Seattle - Cruise

The weather was beautiful in Seattle, and I took an Argosy sunset cruise through the locks to Lake Union. We passed a band taking photographs under a bridge...and a card game on the water.

Painting do-over

Back in August 2009, I visited Canvas & Cocktails in Denver and created this. I wasn't a big fan of the pic and figured I'd paint over it some day. There are so many versions of the 'Canvas and Cocktails' idea. Pinot's Palette, Corks N Canvas, Sipping N' Painting, Paint & Sip, Sips & Strokes, Painting with a Twist, Visions and Vino, Vino & Vango, seriously...whoever came up with the idea first really got ripped off by copy-cats. They all post calendars though, so it's easy to copy the paintings. This was from Pinot's Palette; they take pics of the class throughout, so you can easily see the stages of the painting. I'm sure I'll paint over this one again sometime soon.

Seasons 52

Megan and I had dinner at Seasons 52 where the menu changes based on what food is in season and all dishes are 475 calories or less. It was excellent. Later we met up with her fam at Noche; this pic is from there.