Father's Day

This week I was reminded of a very old memory shared between my Dad and I so journey back to the 1980s for a few minutes with me...

The year is 1983 and it is a Saturday afternoon in Minnesota.

The sunshine was warm and the air had a nice cool breeze. My parents and I were out in the yard busy bringing a dream of mine to life...an orchard! Earlier in the week my Dad had taken a day off work to spend it with me and we had found several fruit trees at a discount. The original plan for the day had been to go see Superman III at the theater after having lunch at my favorite burger place, Fudruckers. That plan went out the window when we found the trees. Dad gave me a choice...the movie or my orchard. I picked the trees.  I was going to have an orchard just like Anne from the Green Gables books!  The trees were bought and we returned home to get our big red truck so we could bring the trees back to the house.  Excitement filled me until the weekend arrived and we could begin to dig the great big holes those five trees would require. I was eight years old and underfoot at every turn trying to be very helpful on that Saturday afternoon. So much so that when my Dad began to fill in a hole the shovel handle came back and caught me in the nose. Oh the pain! And the tears! And the bloody nose. Now I knew the moment it happened this was all my fault. I was eight but not dumb. I shouldn't have been standing behind Dad. He didn't know I was there. Dad being Dad helped Mom fix me up and such as well as saw my earlier excitement was dashed. Restoring that excitement became his goal and he told me he would give me anything. Do you know what I asked for in that instant? Not a toy. Not candy. I asked if he would let me go up on the roof of the house. He had let me the previous summer and I remembered from there I could see all the way to downtown Minneapolis to my favorite skyscraper, the IDS Tower, and I wanted to do it again. He got the ladder and followed me up telling me to be careful but not too careful because accidents happen that way too. There I stayed for the rest of that afternoon as I watched them finish my orchard. It was that day that I knew my Mom had to be the smartest woman ever because she married a real Superman.

I believe all these years later he still is Superman and that my Mom is the smartest woman ever for marrying him.

Happy Father's Day to Superman...my Superman.

This is the song we are dancing to in that photo above and it is one of his favorites.

Northern Girl

Terri Clark has a new song on the airwaves up here that I love.  Actually I will have to say I don't have a clue if it is getting play on American stations or not because the radio station in Beautiful British Columbia is much closer.  The song is about her childhood in Canada and I must say being a northern girl from Canada doesn't sound much different than being a northern girl from Minnesota.  This song brought back some incredible memories and made me miss home.  Yes, even though I live in an amazingly beautiful place I miss the shores of Lake Superior, the Mississippi River, the Minnesota State Fair (where you can get any food imagined on a stick), Twins games and the Twin Cities. 

 

Lets Laugh

I saw this online and it made me laugh.  Through the years I have overheard things like this and I couldn't help but roll my eyes and laugh. 

For Fun

Here is that challenge card that had my desk so messy several days ago.  It has arrived at its destination down in Alabama now.  My friend Stephanie and I are challenging each other to use certain supplies each month on cards just for fun. 

Lovely Week

The week here has been full of some real beauty.

A rainbow after a storm.

 A beautiful sunrise.

The sunrise made for such a lovely start to the day.

And one very messy scrap desk.  Proof I have been in here working on something.  Just can't show you at the moment.  It is a card...a challenge card of sorts.  A friend and I are challenging each other each month using certain supplies and then mailing the cards to each other.  I want her to see the new card first.

Parachute - Kiss Me Slowly

I have been waiting for this new Parachute CD to come out and I am not disappointed.  You see I fell in love with this song, Kiss Me Slowly, a couple of weeks ago and eager would be an understatement concerning my feelings towards the release. 

Enjoy and consider checking them out!

Amazing Days in Olympic National Park

The sunshine comes out and you cannot help but want to get in the car and drive. At least not with sights like these near. At least that is how I feel. ;)

Lake Crescent

Hwy 101 hugging the edge of the lake and lets just say it now...Should you visit the park please come very close to obeying the speed limit.  This is a national park so that means a speeding ticket is a federal offense.  In other words if you want to ignore it thinking, "Oh that was all the way up there in Washington and I am down here Florida."  Think again.  You'll get a visit from the US Marshalls and you'll have a federal warrant for your arrest.  So deal with a ticket should you get one.  Or just be really crazy and just drive the speed limit through the park.  I know what an outlandish idea!

I was so excited to see this goose!  This is the same goose from last year that I joked should not be called a Canadian Goose when it is clearly an American Goose.  Nesting here on a log in the lake.

Lake Crescent has an amazing color and clarity that is quite difficult to capture in photos.  The log jetting out allowed for me to do that.  It is almost blue you see much further south in the sea of the Caribbean.

Here we are at the destination of the day...Ruby Beach.

Destruction Island

I wish I could put on here the sound of the waves crashing on the beach and around the sea stacks. 

 

It is spring and so everything is in bloom.

Seattle, X-Band Radar, Cruise Ship and Mt. Rainier

How was that for a title to a post?  Could I have fit any more in there?  It was a beautiful day in the city yesterday and I got some great shots of the lovely Emerald City as the ferry was headed for Bainbridge Island and away from the Coleman Docks. 

Remember you may click on any of these photos to bring up a larger image. 

 Downtown

 Sapphire Princess and the Coast Guard Vessel that shadowed the ferry yesterday evening.  The announcement said it was "perfectly normal".  I would just like to add that in almost 14 years here I have never been aboard when they have done this even after 9/11.  Now we have K-9 dogs that check out our cars before board and such however I had never seen this until last evening. 

 The X-Band Radar Vessel that passed my home earlier in the week is in dock and work has begun on it.

 Mt. Rainier in the background there.

The Space Needle

The hole shebang!

As I said it was a beautiful day and a lovely evening.  On days like this you can see way we all live in the Northwest...mountains, tall green trees, blue skies and even blue water.  Doesn't get any better than this folks!

X-Band Radar Vessel

It is a beautiful May here in this part of the world. 

Do you notice that white dot out on the water though?  Yep, I did too.  I got out the binoculars and took a good look at it.  The vessel is huge!  Around it were tugs and Coast Guard Cutters.  What is it you might ask yourself?  Well it is part of our missile defense.  It is an X-Band Radar Vessel coming in for some upgrades to a shipyard near Seattle.  Not everyday you see this go by that is for certain.



Simple Sunday Afternoon Cards

Its a beautiful weekend here in my corner.  Two days in a row of sunshine.  A miracle!  The rain returns tomorrow however the sunshine and the need for sunglasses has been a joy while its lasted that is for sure.  Here are a couple of quick simple cards inspired by the sunshine.  Flowers are on the brain.