Picture/July 4th details....sooo late!
Ok, I know it took forever. Unfortunately the end result isn't as awesome as I had hoped. My camera is old (and sucks the life outta 4 AA batteries in about 30 seconds flat), and is only a 1.3 MegaPixel, so most of the shots I got that I thought would be functional...well...they were crap. Grr.
Rather than bombard ya with a gazillion mediocre pictures, I just picked a couple to post (see below).
As for the 4th, it was pretty sweet. I had a really great time. Aside from the times that my little sisters dog took off running down the beach, and I had to go get him. That was like a really bad cutting room floor clip from Baywatch. Not-so-skinny girl with a neon red face (sunburns suck), dayglo white legs in black shorts, and a black coal chamber tee shirt sprinting down the beach after a dog. Ugh! ha ha ha
The fireworks event on the beach was pretty cool too, but after about 10pm it got a bit chaotic. During the earlier portion of the evening it was cool because everyone was respecting everyone elses space, and we all had a good time. After 10 the alcohol really started kicking in for some of them, and it got kinda rowdy. My poor sister got hit by debris from the mortors like 5 times. None of the rest of us got hit once, but everytime she moved a hot piece of shell fell on her. One time she got it right between the eyes. That really sucked.
We also had a sand castle competition. Initially we just went down at dusk on Sunday night, and we went down by the water and raced to build our castles before the tide came in.The winner would be the last one remaining after the tide had come in. We built walls up and so on. I dunno how it happened, but I ended up making a funky version of the white house. We all (Elyse's best friend, Ashley was with us as well) agreed that if it sank first it would be because the ocean doesn't like Bush either! tee hee. And it did with exception of the very top. My sister joked that it wouldn't sink because Clinton was up there laughing his butt off. :)
So then we went back to the motel, and started laying ground rules for our legit contest the next day. We had a page of rules. Only natural items (no shovels, buckets, etc... just whatever rocks, sticks, etc we found on the beach), and so on. We agreed that the winner (to be determined by Dad & Karen) would get a buck, and the losers would have to do the chicken dance on the beach in broad daylight. ha ha ha
Well we went out there the next day and I had to fall out of the competition because I was crispy. I actually had to leave the beach early because there wasn't any shade, and I was sizzlin'. I must have had half a bottle of sunblock on, and I still fried. I never do the sun thing these days, so my skin just wasn't prepared. So the girls kinda just gave up on their holes in the sand as well. Then the next day I told them (ha ha ha, I pulled rank) that since no one won, and we agreed that two people would do the chicken dance, that they had to do it. I am evil, and that was hilarious! tee hee
I also drank for the first time in a year! I'm not supposed to drink because of the medication they have me on for my heart, but the ER Dr way back said that occasionally it wouldn't be a problem. I had one and a half screwdrivers Sunday night (That knocked me on my ass...my lips were numb) when Dad & Karen took me to the local tavern for change of scenery. The following night we went back to the tavern for a bit to spend time with Tommy & Carol. I ordered a Sierra Mist, but when I went up to the bar I noticed that they had Tarantula (citrus Tequila..it's blue, and my preference for shots, but it's strong stuff). So I ended up ording a shot of tarantula for myself, and a shot of Crown Royal for my dad. I had never done a shot with my dad. It was so weird. I kept waiting to get in trouble! ha ha ha
Anyhoo...I'm tired, so I am gonna close for now. The photos are below.
I'm planning on getting back into posting daily or at least right around there. I've just been busy, tired, scatterbrained the last little while.
I did change (YES! AGAIN) my journal layout again. I think I'm gonna keep it as is now though. It's a little bright, and a little more girlie than what I'd normally do, but I like it. I like how my Kenny Wayne Shepherd headerturned out too. ;)
More later...
Click the thumbnail images for larger versions
June 2005 Storm
Here's one of the first pix I took. I wanted to capture both the cloud patterns (very bizarre for us, at least I've never seen them quite so dramatic), and the amazing color. It was as if there were a color filter put over the sun.
Within about 10 minutes of the time when I took the shot above, this is what the sky looked like. There was a really weird, dull gray/brown tint to the appearance that the camera didn't pick up too well, but it was a trip.
Toward the end of the storm we got a double rainbow and an incredibly bold amber tint to everything. It was probably the most peculiar storm I've seen here in a while.
July 4th weekend @ the coast - 2005
This is a pic of me (painfully sunburned, even though ya can't really tell by this drowned out photo) & my little sister (who kinda fell because I was messin' with her right before the picture was taken). It was taken by my dad on the 5th right before we left to come home. Dad spent a good portion of the trip fishing with my Great Uncle Tommy, so we stopped at the beach for a few so he could spend some family time there with us before we headed back to Portland.
Using my camera I tried to get some decent fireworks pictures, but within about 20 minutes of everything kicking into gear there was so much smoke that I'm surprised half of the people on the beach didn't die of exposure.
Anyhoo, this is the only decent pic of one of dad's fireworks going off.
I took this as a reminder of the most disappointing aspect of the events on the beach.
There were several hundred people down there, and a lot of people were just trashing the place. As it turns out, they have a crew of volunteers who go and clean up the day after. I dug a small pit in the sand so that we could put all of Elyses burned up fireworks in. That way at the end of the night we could just bag them up, and take them with us. Well there were several fires along the beach, and people were burning a lot of their used up fireworks. It seemed logical to us, so we went ahead and brought ours over there too. We didn't realize that there was no one monitoring the fire (there were a lot of people over there so we figured they were keeping things up). If you look at the larger view of this image you can see the reflection of the water. That's because the tide literally swept the fire into the water....along with all that trash! I felt like a big shit, and was pretty upset that no one else seemed to care. Call me crazy, but I hardly ever get to go to the beach. I'd just think that people who actually lived there would think more about that stuff, ya know? *sigh* Oh well.
Rather than bombard ya with a gazillion mediocre pictures, I just picked a couple to post (see below).
As for the 4th, it was pretty sweet. I had a really great time. Aside from the times that my little sisters dog took off running down the beach, and I had to go get him. That was like a really bad cutting room floor clip from Baywatch. Not-so-skinny girl with a neon red face (sunburns suck), dayglo white legs in black shorts, and a black coal chamber tee shirt sprinting down the beach after a dog. Ugh! ha ha ha
The fireworks event on the beach was pretty cool too, but after about 10pm it got a bit chaotic. During the earlier portion of the evening it was cool because everyone was respecting everyone elses space, and we all had a good time. After 10 the alcohol really started kicking in for some of them, and it got kinda rowdy. My poor sister got hit by debris from the mortors like 5 times. None of the rest of us got hit once, but everytime she moved a hot piece of shell fell on her. One time she got it right between the eyes. That really sucked.
We also had a sand castle competition. Initially we just went down at dusk on Sunday night, and we went down by the water and raced to build our castles before the tide came in.The winner would be the last one remaining after the tide had come in. We built walls up and so on. I dunno how it happened, but I ended up making a funky version of the white house. We all (Elyse's best friend, Ashley was with us as well) agreed that if it sank first it would be because the ocean doesn't like Bush either! tee hee. And it did with exception of the very top. My sister joked that it wouldn't sink because Clinton was up there laughing his butt off. :)
So then we went back to the motel, and started laying ground rules for our legit contest the next day. We had a page of rules. Only natural items (no shovels, buckets, etc... just whatever rocks, sticks, etc we found on the beach), and so on. We agreed that the winner (to be determined by Dad & Karen) would get a buck, and the losers would have to do the chicken dance on the beach in broad daylight. ha ha ha
Well we went out there the next day and I had to fall out of the competition because I was crispy. I actually had to leave the beach early because there wasn't any shade, and I was sizzlin'. I must have had half a bottle of sunblock on, and I still fried. I never do the sun thing these days, so my skin just wasn't prepared. So the girls kinda just gave up on their holes in the sand as well. Then the next day I told them (ha ha ha, I pulled rank) that since no one won, and we agreed that two people would do the chicken dance, that they had to do it. I am evil, and that was hilarious! tee hee
I also drank for the first time in a year! I'm not supposed to drink because of the medication they have me on for my heart, but the ER Dr way back said that occasionally it wouldn't be a problem. I had one and a half screwdrivers Sunday night (That knocked me on my ass...my lips were numb) when Dad & Karen took me to the local tavern for change of scenery. The following night we went back to the tavern for a bit to spend time with Tommy & Carol. I ordered a Sierra Mist, but when I went up to the bar I noticed that they had Tarantula (citrus Tequila..it's blue, and my preference for shots, but it's strong stuff). So I ended up ording a shot of tarantula for myself, and a shot of Crown Royal for my dad. I had never done a shot with my dad. It was so weird. I kept waiting to get in trouble! ha ha ha
Anyhoo...I'm tired, so I am gonna close for now. The photos are below.
I'm planning on getting back into posting daily or at least right around there. I've just been busy, tired, scatterbrained the last little while.
I did change (YES! AGAIN) my journal layout again. I think I'm gonna keep it as is now though. It's a little bright, and a little more girlie than what I'd normally do, but I like it. I like how my Kenny Wayne Shepherd headerturned out too. ;)
More later...
Click the thumbnail images for larger versions
June 2005 Storm
Here's one of the first pix I took. I wanted to capture both the cloud patterns (very bizarre for us, at least I've never seen them quite so dramatic), and the amazing color. It was as if there were a color filter put over the sun.
Within about 10 minutes of the time when I took the shot above, this is what the sky looked like. There was a really weird, dull gray/brown tint to the appearance that the camera didn't pick up too well, but it was a trip.
Toward the end of the storm we got a double rainbow and an incredibly bold amber tint to everything. It was probably the most peculiar storm I've seen here in a while.
July 4th weekend @ the coast - 2005
This is a pic of me (painfully sunburned, even though ya can't really tell by this drowned out photo) & my little sister (who kinda fell because I was messin' with her right before the picture was taken). It was taken by my dad on the 5th right before we left to come home. Dad spent a good portion of the trip fishing with my Great Uncle Tommy, so we stopped at the beach for a few so he could spend some family time there with us before we headed back to Portland.
Using my camera I tried to get some decent fireworks pictures, but within about 20 minutes of everything kicking into gear there was so much smoke that I'm surprised half of the people on the beach didn't die of exposure.
Anyhoo, this is the only decent pic of one of dad's fireworks going off.
I took this as a reminder of the most disappointing aspect of the events on the beach.
There were several hundred people down there, and a lot of people were just trashing the place. As it turns out, they have a crew of volunteers who go and clean up the day after. I dug a small pit in the sand so that we could put all of Elyses burned up fireworks in. That way at the end of the night we could just bag them up, and take them with us. Well there were several fires along the beach, and people were burning a lot of their used up fireworks. It seemed logical to us, so we went ahead and brought ours over there too. We didn't realize that there was no one monitoring the fire (there were a lot of people over there so we figured they were keeping things up). If you look at the larger view of this image you can see the reflection of the water. That's because the tide literally swept the fire into the water....along with all that trash! I felt like a big shit, and was pretty upset that no one else seemed to care. Call me crazy, but I hardly ever get to go to the beach. I'd just think that people who actually lived there would think more about that stuff, ya know? *sigh* Oh well.