lighting the candles

lighting the candles, originally uploaded by beverlykaytw.

happy 10th!, originally uploaded by beverlykaytw.

For A's 10th birthday dinner he wanted to go to the Beach Chalet. By the time I got around to making reservations there weren't any (it was Friday eve after all). However EOS had availability when we wanted it - and we can walk there. I remember last time we ate there around my birthday thinking that he would really enjoy eating there (and Q not so much!). I showed him the menu on-line and he was sold. Rare ahi tuna tower! Crispy skin wild salmon! Sea scallops! For dinner tonight he ordered one dish that consisted of pan roasted calamari with pork belly and another of sea scallops. Both really good. I had a Thai salad with green papaya and mango, P ordered a lamb shank, and Q went with the burger and a side of truly excellent fries. His ketchup came in a condiment dish that held maybe 5 squares of ketchup, one of a spicy aoli and one of spicy mustard. Nifty - but not quite enough ketchup for Q. A tasty birthday dinner. Tomorrow for his party he is hosting 3 friends for an overnight party. Lots of Wii and little sleep I expect.

After we finished our stay in Victoria we headed north then over the hills to the west coast of Vancouver Island to stay in Ucluelet. This photo is the "dock" at the house where we were staying (a GREAT deal - 1 or 2 bedroom apartment with lawn then beach). The owners advised me not to let the kids down there unsupervised. As soon as I saw the dock I understood why! It was juryrigged and very tippy.

A snap of Uncle C. looking out our window at Q. whose reflection you see in the bottom of the photo taking this pic.

At the end of the dock we got to enjoy watching otters dine on discarded fish scraps.

We went on a cruise with Archipelago Cruises from about 10 - 3 one day. It was an excellent boat that the proprietors lived on. They had an interesting story - they had been shrimpers for many years until there wasn't much of a market/catch left and then they crafted this new site seeing venture instead. They take a group of up to about 20 people out to the Broken Island group of islands - islands that are inhabited almost exclusively by sea lions, otters, eagles, whales etc. It was a foggy day - as all our days in Ucluelet were. That is what happens on the west coast... Here is a snap of some folks processing some thresher (?) sharks. The guy was showing off for us. We were heading out of the Ucluelet harbor. Apparently there used to be a huge fishing fleet here which was able to support several gas stations etc. Now there is just one gas station left - it was adjacent to where we stayed which was actually rather nice as there were always boats coming and going to enjoy watching.

Here is a shot of a humpback out toward one of the many many Broken Islands. We watched him for a while. There were a couple other whale watching boats doing the same thing. The nice thing about being in and around the islands is that the water is remarkably calm.

Down he goes. It was fun to watch the water pattern coming off his flukes and swirling in the water afterwards - he left behind a smooth patch on the water.

A sea lion colony - they were entertaining to watch - these bulls were busy scratching themselves - in tandem.

How often do you get to wander wherever you want and climb around on the boat? The kids had great fun. We all had good binoculars to use and thick blankets. We went with the preordered gourmet lunch option which was quite yummy.

This was when we scrambled down off the path near the Lighthouse at the Wild Pacific Trail to explore some tidepools. It was a good enough hike that we did it twice! Photos long and short.

climb the path to the sky, originally uploaded by beverlykaytw.

I'm pretty happy with this shot. The daily challenge (a couple days late as per usual for me these days) was "path". This is the path to the top of a hill at Twin Peaks - it might be the highest point you can get to in the city proper. It is extremely windy up there - I have a couple shots that were blurry from the gusting wind! I was alone for a while but was happy to see this guy come along and I hustled down to where he would appear to be near the top. This was shot with my wide angle lens and converted to black and white with my software Adobe Elements 6 using the "vivid landscape" setting - which darkens up blue sky nicely for added contrast in this kind of a shot.

I also submitted this photo for Digital Photo School's weekly assignment "contrast" and ended up runner up! I was pretty stoked about that since it is a moderated forum and usually there are some very good photos submitted. My photo linked back to my flickr account and I got a lot of visits out of it and a few more people who made me a "contact". I've stumbled on a few intriguing photographers thru these DPS assignments and made "contacts" of them myself.

after the first game

after the first game, originally uploaded by beverlykaytw.

A quick snap on the way back to the car after his first game. On the walk to the field A. asked me "why am I doing this?" which I found exasperating as he agreed (wanted) to play back when we signed him up a few months ago. His dad asked him how it went today - he said "it was fun!". He is apparently happy to be playing. They had an hour of practice followed by a game that went just shy of 2 hours. A bit boring IMO but guess not for him. Unfortunately Q didn't have as good a first game in his league. This is A's first time playing baseball in a league.

Fort Baker lighthouse, originally uploaded by beverlykaytw.

trying out blogging direct from my photo page instead of my usual direct upload. I am quite intrigued by Fort Baker - the fort in the Presidio that rests under the Golden Gate Bridge. It is no long open daily. I also didn't have either a sweater or tripod with me as this was not a planned visit but I got a few good pics before retreating to the warmth of my car and will head back another day for more. This was my submission for photochallenge.org "diptych" challenge. I shot it with my 10-22mm and 70-200mm lenses and had to crack open the software book to figure out how to make the diptych.