Summer Fun

Well it's been a little while since my last post. That leaves me with a small backlog of pictures to put up so I'll start with today. We were planning on hiking but the forecast as usual didn't cooperate. With a chance for sever thunderstorms up there we decided to stay home and went to the Stratham Fair instead for lack of anything better to do. We spent a few hours wandering around and looking at the animals, which Brooke loved with the exception of the loud sheep calls, and then around noon it became so hot and humid we went home for lunch and a nap. There's some pictures here of Brooke's trip around the fair grounds if you're interested or you can just click on the picture with the cow.
After that it got even hotter, 87 and really humid, so we decided to take a ride down to the beach. The recent tropical system stirred up quite a bit of seaweed but we ended up at Jenness Beach which wasn't that bad. The water was even fairly warm so Brooke played around in it for a while until a big thunderstorm came our way so we went and got some take out at Petey's and then when the weather cleared went to a playground. It was a busy day for Brooke but she had fun and there's some more pictures of the beach here or you can click the beach picture above also.
Yesterday we went up to York's Wild Kingdom so Brooke could see some animals. We fought the traffic up there and passed some people protesting the animals being caged with signs like "See the animals in the wild" and "Born Free, Let them Be". Now I can understand not liking the animals caged but where are most people going to see a wild Zebra, Tiger, Lion, Monkey etc? Anyhow when we finally got there we got to see lots of animals in big hard to see through cages for a few hours and Brooke got to feed and pet some goats, deer and birds. We were looking forward to the "Butterfly Kingdom" thinking it would be huge and nice and filled with butterflies like the one in Niagara Falls that we have been two a few times and were disappointed by that the most I think. They had very few butterflies and Jen just pointing at one closely got us yelled at not to touch the butterflies. The place isn't exactly nice and the enclosures are small and hard to see into, but it got the job done. It might be better if she was old enough to go on the rides, then it's only $10.00 for all the rides you want. The animal rescue place in Gray Maine would get my vote over this place however. It doesn't have the exotic pairs of African animals but the enclosures and overall place is nicer (and half the price) in our opinion. I guess that will be our next stop when we want to see the animals but to see pictures from this trip click here or on the picture with the gorilla, which they don't have by the way. Finally there's a few general summer fun pictures of Brooke at Grampy Dew's and Bapcia's pool and just hanging out enjoying life. You can click here or on the pool pic to see those.

Other than that the big PCC Member Guest is this weekend so wish Uncle Dan and I luck. We got screwed out of the money last year by the rain so hopefully this year the weather cooperates and we can get back to our winning ways like my father and I dd in the Member-Member this past weekend. Thanks for looking in and check back soon.

Sunshine and Mt. Jackson

Well what do you know, there is still a sun in the sky. Finally after a month of rain the sun has returned. Finally we can get out for some hiking, walking, photography, swimming and more. We haven't wasted any time either. Saturday since it was finally sunny and warm Brooke and Jen went over to Jen's parents house to get some sun and use the pool. Brooke had a neat new float complete with sun shield to bob around in and she didn't seem to mind it at all. She loves the water anyhow, she always has. She loves to splash and play in water of all kinds from the tub to the pool to the lakes.

After that on Sunday we went and hiked another of the 4000 footers on Jen's list. Mount Jackson is one of the shorter hikes for a big mountain but the trail was fairly rough. It is 4052 feet high and the trail is only 5.2 miles round trip however it's a rocky, wet trail and that made it a little harder than the numbers would lead you to believe. We were supposed to have a brilliantly sunny day according to the weather man and the first half definitely was. It started clouding up as we neared the top and by the time we headed down around 4 o'clock it was nothing but clouds. While driving to Bill and Bob's we saw a mother and baby moose on the side of the road having dinner. Brooke got really excited to see them and didn't take her eyes off them until they left about ten minutes later. Then we went on our way to enjoy some roast beef sandwiches before heading home. Tonight we took a walk around town and took a few quick family photo's down in Swazey Parkway. Nothing special but the sunset on the town made a nice backdrop so we took a few pictures. There are a bunch of pictures from all that lumped together here so click away.
Also Chris has introduced me to HDR photography. It is really neat stuff and if done right the pictures almost come out 3D. They look like you are there and not looking at a picture. It's a process of combining three pictures of the same scene into one and it ends up giving detail in all the tones of the picture, from the shadows to the highlights. It goes like this. You take the three original pictures at different exposures and then the computer sandwiches them together into one and takes the complete range of tones and colors and turns them into one picture. A tripod and a camera that can bracket exposures are the best way to do it, either that or by manipulating a RAW image file a few stops and then doing the same thing with those. Anyhow before I bore you more with that here's an example from Stonehouse Pond I took while over in Barrington for Joanne's birthday the other night. The three original images and the final product. It's an image I couldn't have gotten without a bunch of filters before this and it was a real pain in the butt so I rarely bothered with it. This is easier and more fun so I'll probably do it a lot if the scene is right. If you thought that was as cool as I do or if you just want to see a few more of them click here and there's about a dozen more I have put together so far. Some are better than others but I'm still getting the hang of it. It doesn't work well with all pictures and sometimes the originals are more interesting anyhow but for the ones it works with it's really cool and a lot of fun to play around with. They can come it looking fake and computer generated occasionally but lots of the time they just look very real to me. I haven't done many yet but the few I have done are right here if you want to check it out for yourself. I can't wait to play around with some more.

Well that about wraps up this edition of the blog but check back soon. Brooke is really off and running now (literally) so I'll try and put up some video soon of her new and improved skills. That's all for now.

The 4th & Brooke's First Camping Trip

Well the 4th of July has come and gone again. The hiking trip we were planning was cancelled because of the thunderstorm warnings and a walk around the beach was canned because it started raining when we got there. Instead our parents and a few others joined us for an impromptu cookout at our place with lobster, chicken and some meat house burgers among other things. After that we went down to the beach for some fireworks, Brooke's first actually, to finish off the day. We had planned on getting a bit closer but the traffic wouldn't let us any closer than North Beach. We parked the car and walked almost to Little Jack's to get a good view. Other than never meeting up with my parents and the Smith's it worked out perfect. Close enough for Brooke to see and hear them but not too loud for her first time with them. After that it was a short walk to the car behind the OC suites and a quick exit avoiding all the traffic. Not a bad day for a cancelled hike and there's some pictures here if you're interested.

Then on Sunday afternoon when Jen got out of work we decided the forecast was good enough to try camping for a few days up north. We got a late start out of town but headed up to White Lake State Park in Tamworth on a beautiful afternoon for a little R & R. When we got there around 7:30 I went to set up the tent, only to find out the zippers wouldn't zip. It took a good hour of playing with them and pinching them with my leatherman key chain just to get them to the point where they would stay zipped and keep the bugs out for the night. After that it was getting dark so I started some charcoal to grill some Meat House cheddar/bacon burgers over while Jen made the bed up but because it was dark I didn't notice the grate was covered in sand for some reason. It didn't take long to figure it out. Imagine the sandiest scallop or clam you've ever had and add some more sand to that. I ate one, Jen got through a half of one and we threw the rest away. By then it was way past Brooke's bed time and she fussed and wouldn't go to sleep until about 11. Finally we passed out for the night.

After that things got much better. Jen and I woke up around 5:30 Monday morning. She had to go to the bathroom because she held it in all night, afraid to go over to them in the dark, and when she got back told me the lake was really pretty and I should go take some pictures. I wound up doing that for about an hour and a half and then went back to join them for some sleep until about 8 when happy woke up. Brooke always wakes up with a smile and in a good mood. She's really funny and will sometimes call you and then pretend she's asleep when you get there. She's just a happy funny kid most of the time which is great, especially for us. We got her breakfast and then headed into North Conway to check EMS, LL Bean and then Wal-Mart for a new tent. We wound up getting a huge one that will fit a few air mattresses and a pack and play and still have some room for gear. I guess we had out grown the other one, broken zippers or not. I set that up and then we went down to the beach and playground for the afternoon which was a perfect 75 degrees and mostly sunny. After that we went for a walk around the lake and then to dinner at the Muddy Moose, one of our favorite stops in North Conway. Then it was back to camp for the night, with thunder rumbling, lightening flashing and rain drops falling slowly we went into the tent early and got ready for a big storm, which never got any closer than that so we listened to the loons call ,which was really loud and cool, and got a good nights sleep.The next morning we awoke to light rain and since Travis decided not to drive up for a hike, well we assumed that since he never called, we got breakfast and headed home early to unpack and take a nap on a cold gray day. We went for ice cream later with Jen's family and Brooke got to see the goats and cows at Memories. So that was our little vacation. There's a lot of pictures if you want to see them. It might take a little while but if you have a few minutes and are interested click here and enjoy!

Happy 4th of July!

(You can click on this picture and enlarge it if you like)

Just thought we'd wish everyone a happy 4th since there's no big get togethers today that we know of. We're taking a short vacation, hopefully a few days up north if the weather cooperates, so there will be more pictures in a few days. Check back soon!