The Fourth Of July, because why not?

Feeding carrots to the two horsies!  "Will, there are TWO HORSIES!  JUST TWO!"

I'm'a gonna do this mostly as a pictorial because there are a lot of pictures.  Cute ones, at that!  And some fun fireworks photos, because I sometimes enjoy just geeking out with my camera.  Whatever.  Enjoy!

Shelly had such a blast, running around on the farm!

Pelicans, on the river!

Journey to Spokane, part deux... Sprague Lake.

 Well, if you read the last post, you know that I had limitations on what I was able to photograph during this trip, due to battery constraints and forgetfulness of my part.  Damn me!  Anyway, I knew I also wanted photos of Sprague Lake.  Although... the beauty of this place is highly dependent on lighting.  It was a bit too bright for what I wanted. 

Honestly though, there have been times when I've driven through here on late afternoons in early spring, and seriously regretted not having the camera out.  Missed opportunities can be sad.  I will say... I tried, but the drama didn't spark the way it has in the past.  That said; as I walked back from the restroom, I noticed a seagull who didn't move right away as I advanced toward him.

So, I snapped a few photos of the little winged dude.  He got irritated with me after a bit, and flew off. 

My job was done, at that point, if you know my track record with birds, at all.  Hedy = 1.  Seagull = 0.  At least on the annoyance front.

Sage.  I have a funny story there, I'll add at the end.

Lady, what?  What do you want?

Go away.  You bug me.

I mean it.

Fine.  I don't have to stick around for this BS.  Screw you guys, I'm goin' home.  Gratuitous photography is where I draw the line.

Eat my dust, lady.

I wanted to eat that bird.  Why didn't you bring me that bird, Mommy?  You're dead to me.

So, the sage:  well, when I was in second grade, my babysitter asked me a question:  "Hey.  Want to hear a dirty joke?"

I thought she was pretty cool, so I told her:  "Well, yeah."

"If you eat sage, it will make you ugly."

That was the whole thing.  But, well, I thought she was really cool, so of course, I repeated it at school.  But, I chose the wrong girl to recite this little joke to, and she snitched on me before I could even tell the damn thing.  I was so disappointed.  And well?  Even more so, when the teacher dragged me out of the classroom, squeezing my arm a little too tightly for my taste, and said: "WELL?  What do you think you are doing?  And what was the joke anyway?"

"I don't want to say now."

"Nope.  You HAVE to tell me the joke.  I also want to know where you heard it.  You shouldn't even know dirty jokes at your age.  Now TELL ME."

She was really scary, and I was freaked the hell out.  "No, I don't want to say.  It wasn't that bad."

"How do you know from bad yet?  Now TELL ME THE JOKE, OR YOU WILL HAVE DETENTION AFTER SCHOOL!"

"If... if... uh..."

"COME ON. TELL THE JOKE!"

"If... uh.... if... IF YOU EAT SAGE, IT WILL MAKE YOU UGLY!"

"That was it?"

"Yeah."

"You're right.  That wasn't that bad.  It wasn't even dirty.  Go back to class."  She sort of giggled as she said this.

Yeah... I clearly had a lot to learn about the way of things.

-H

Bridge Porn on the road: Lyons Ferry Trestle

Heya, Lyons Ferry Trestle, you're lookin' pretty hot.  Wanna wrestle? 

...yeah, couldn't resist.  We traveled from Athena, to Spokane today.  We did this mostly on backroads.  I will admit to being kind of annoyed for two reasons: One, I forgot my favourite sunglasses on the bench in the park, where we had a little pit stop.  I was so inspired by the surrounding area, that I had to break out my camera, and well?  Yeah, sometimes things get forgotten.  What's most annoying about this, is that I have a large drawer full of sunglasses, but for this trip, I decided to just bring one pair.  So... I either shop, or I go without, for the remainder of the trip. 

I guess this means, I'll have to shop.

Boo.

The other annoying thing?  I forgot to charge my camera battery, so not only did I have to be very selective, I only got about 5 minutes of time to shoot, because I knew there was another spot I needed shots of.  It was also hot as fuck out there today, and my little family was pretty patient through it all... but I knew it was time to go, because the dog was showing signs of fatigue. 

One cool thing that did happen while I was shooting this trestle: as I walked up the road for a couple quick perspective shots, I heard a faint rattle off in the distance.  I knew what that was.  This, being just over the Snake River?  Pretty damn apt.

Well, without further adieu, let's get to the porn, shall we?

We had to stop a LOT on this trip.  This was actually a tributary of the Snake, near Lyons Ferry, where the park and rest area happened to be.  Sadly, my sunglasses stayed here, as well.

So beautiful.  I have a thing for this place.

Just about here, I heard a rattlesnake.  It was sort of down the hill from me, and not exactly a threat.  I had heavy boots on, too.  Yes, as tempting as it was to climb all over this thing, and really explore it, I knew better than to leave the road.

Rose Garden, and weird little things.

We were bored, so we decided to seek out the Rose Gardens in Washington Park this evening.  Lovely.  Just... lovely.

So, er, this Rosarian was apparently so noble, perfect, kind, and appropriately short-statured, that they... had him bronzed.  This just proves that being evil, as well as tall... is best.

I do love me some variegated roses.

I liked the way these petals were opening.

Palm flowers.

This reminded me of a muppet.  Apparently, a lot of things do, lately.

Well, hi there, banana tree.  What are you doing in the rose garden?

This banana leaf reminded me of a pirate ship.

Good lord, juniper bush. Way to have some enormous berries!