Today was a very odd day.  I actually took the day off work to spend it with the family and we planned on going to the Seattle Aquarium.  We finally got James out of bed at 11am and headed off to Seattle.  It was a lovely day and we arrived in the city without issue, then we tried to park.  It appears that everybody in the Pacific Northwest decided to also drive to town and we spent over an hour trying to park.

Eventually, after much frustration we decided to just give up.  There were road works everywhere and just getting from street to street was a real pain.  So while stationary at some stop lights we talked about somewhere else to go.  As we have never been to Gas Works Park before, we thought we’d go there.  So Lisa punched that into her sat-nav and off we went.  We got to the I5 and headed north and drove right past the exit we needed.  What made things worse was that the traffic on the other side of the freeway wasn’t moving and we had to drive a few miles before we got the chance to turn around!

By now James had decided he was hungry and wanted to go to Taco Bell.  So we pulled off the freeway and started looking for some food.  Eventually we found the restaurant and went in for some lunch where I took a picture of a taco which I very nearly posted tonight!  Of course by this stage we were hysterically laughing, this was turning into a terrible day off!

On the way home I was worried about what I was going to post so Lisa suggested Carillon Point in Kirkland.  It was on our way home so off we went.

It was still really sunny and there was a great blue sky and the clouds looked fantastic.  So when we got there I made sure I captured lots of sky in all my shots.  I actually took loads of pictures and decided to post this one tonight.

This image shows the pier that wraps around the harbor.  The water was really calm and the sky looked great.  In all a nice shot.

Today Carter unboxed his new Nokia Lumia 900, he said he loves it and it’s much better than the cups and string he was playing with the other day.

A couple of days ago I found myself in Fall City taking some shots of the high street and river.  The main street is really pretty with blossom trees along the river bank and in the distance you can see the Cascade Mountain Range.  Of course having blue sky really helps make the picture but it wasn’t always like that.  When I arrived it was raining, then the sky cleared so I got this shot.  I literally walked over the road to capture a shot of a totem pole and the skies opened up again!

I guess that’s what happens when you live in the Pacific North West in April.  Today I left work and it was beautiful outside with blue skies and sun.  When i got home (8 miles away) it was hailing really heavily – it’s nuts!

Tomorrow I’m off work and going out with the family to the Seattle Aquarium so I should get some nice shots there and Saturday I’m off to Skagit County for the Tulip festival.  Of course I found out today that they haven’t bloomed yet so expect some fantastic shots of green stalks on Saturday night.

In preparation for the Olympics Carter decided to practice his pole vaulting, unfortunately it didn’t go too well.

Well spring is definitely here, all around my neighborhood are daffodils.  I took this picture outside Abi’s school on the way home from work.  I was driving by the school and saw loads of flowers across the road and parked up and grabbed the camera.  I shot these daffodils by placing the camera almost on the ground and shooting up as I didn’t really want to capture the houses behind the flowers.

As I couldn’t see through the view finder (I wasn’t going to lie in the dirt) I had to take around 20 pictures before I got one I liked.  Bizarrely behind me just across the road was James.  He saw me pull up and jump out of the car.  He was with a friend and they were (I guess) laughing at me.  I didn’t even see him until after I got back in the the car and drove off!

I really liked this picture as the daffodil is kind of a special flower for me.  My mothers name was Daphne and always loved these flowers (probably because everyone called her Daff.  She passed away very young in the mid 80’s and never got to meet Lisa or my kids.  So when I see these flowers they bring back fond memories (I know my bother and sisters still feel the same).

Anyway you should all get used to flower pictures as this Saturday I’m off to a tulip festival in Skagit County, so from this weekend you will be seeing a lot of tulip shots on my blog.

Today Abi experienced a bad makeup day – largely due to the Halo guys…

Tonight on the way home I decided to check out Fall City on the Snoqualmie River.  Now, I come from the UK and there to be called a city you must have a cathedral.  So cities in England are big (and I mean really big).  The next size down from a city is a town and smaller still is a village.  Here in the US everything is a city so when you visit somewhere like Fall City for me (or any other Brit) is seems so small. (We would call this a village).

That said Fall City is very quaint.  You drive into the city and pass the library and a huge totem pole (yes a totem pole), then there is a line of shops and a bar, finally (after around 300 yards) you reach a bridge and your on your way out!  However, the road by the shops is right next to the Snoqualmie River and all along the river bank are blossom trees.  It’s all very pretty.

The grass by the river is called the River Side Park and in the park they have some stone sculptures that I captured in this photograph.  The Snoqualmie River is rich with salmon which is actually a pain!  Why is it a pain?  Well when we get snow we aren’t allowed to put any salt on the roads as it will kill the fish.  So to celebrate the salmon the sculpture is covered with fish.

This evening our Halo hero’s were testing their new communications device – apparently it’s even better than an iPhone!

It’s been a while since I posted a plane, so tonight I’m posting another shot from the Museum of Flight.  This is the Goodyear F2G-1 a really cool plane.  I remember going to the Museum a while ago with a friend and took a picture of this plane and it looked terrible.  At the time I hadn’t learnt how to photograph HDR so the image was blown out in some places and overly dark (under exposed in others).

When I went back in January and took this picture I’d perfected a lot of the process and was able to get a much nicer picture.

This plane is positioned in the corner of the main exhibit area and is surrounded by glass (as you can see) and this makes it quite hard to get a good shot.  But thanks to a tripod and some patience I think this came out really well.  The paint color is a deep green and the light through the window really brought that out.

Tonight our Halo hero’s decided to draw around each other – no, I have no idea why either!