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| Papa Tom at Frying Pan Creek, Mt. Ranier National Park |
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| Mushrooms on the Summerland Trail: this picture is for you, Mya. |
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At Frying Pan Creek, near the Summerland Trail trailhead, Mt. Ranier National Park
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| It was too rainy for us to do the entire hike. Next year. |
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| Who's that peeking over the edge of the pool? Otis spent Friday night with us at the hotel. |
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| Saturday in the park with Sylphia and Otis. Otis is on the walkie-talkie with Skyler, who's back at the house. |
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| Waiting for a breeze. |
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| Skyler's sharpening darts. |
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| Otis, Skyler, Sylphia, and Wolf. |
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| LaWanda and Otis, with his battery-powered Nerf machine gun. |
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| Papa Tom at the Space Needle. The last time he was there, he was 8 years old and on a family vacation. |
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| Glass flowers at the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit |
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| The Space Needle reflected in the Chihuly Garden |
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| Real rowboats filled with glass sculpture. Dale Chihuly got the idea for this display after he released the glass balls into the ocean as an art exhibit then boys in rowboats collected them as keepsakes. The rowboats sit on a giant mirror. |
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| This glass garden takes up an entire room. The red spears are over 6 feet tall. |
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| In the Persian room, the sun shines through a ceiling covered in glass pieces. |
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| Our favorite vegan restaurant in Seattle, Plum Bistro. We ate there three or four times. |
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| Traffic signal just for cyclists. Didn't stay at the intersection long enough to figure out why a separate signal is necessary. |
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| Had to be back in the USA the evening of July 12 since my conference started July 13. Au revoir, Canada! |
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| On our way to Seattle: Statue of Liberty, U.S. Capitol, Mt. Rushmore, Golden Gate Bridge, and, yes, the Space Needle. |
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| The cliff walk at Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, Vancouver. We were there July 12; Ryder was in Vancouver for business a week later and he and a co-worker visited the park on our recommendation. Wish we could have been there at the same time, Ryder! |
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| The suspension bridge over the Capilano River is 140 meters (459 feet) long. At one end, there's a booth with a watcher who admonishes people over a loudspeaker not to jump up and down, try to make the bridge swing, lean too far over the railing, etc. The bridge sways, nevertheless. I think it would cool if the bridge floor had "windows" to the river. |
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| View from the top of Grouse Mountain. Our GPS didn't always work in Canada. Luckily, we just had to keep driving toward the mountain, easy to spot, until we saw signs. those are ships in the bay. |
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| Seriously! We had the most fresh salads ever in the restaurant at the top of the mountain. |
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| Chainsaw art. I really don't get how cuts this detailed can be made with a chainsaw. Any thoughts, Skyler? |
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| You can either hike to the top of the mountain, or ride the gondola. |
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| The white rock in White Rock, British Columbia, a few miles outside Vancouver. I mean kilometers! |
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| Papa Tom with the kite-eating tree. |
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| Sunset at White Rock beach. |
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| Swimming in ICE COLD water at White Rock beach. That's not either of us, BTW. We were standing on the dock with our jackets on! |
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| Entering Canada, on our way to Vancouver, British Columbia. Luckily car speedometers have km on them. No need to do the math! One of our favorite road signs going into Montreal a few years back was "100 km per hour does not equal 100 mph!" |
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| The babies are 1! And Sadie, on the left, will be a big sister in November, when Scott and Beka have a baby boy. |
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| Lucy, on the left, and Jake. Jake managed to slide the cupcake plate off the table onto his tray. |
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| After lunch, we picked up cupcakes from a local food truck. I wanted the salted caramel cupcake but the caramel frosting was too frozen to apply. So went for the chocolate chip cookie dough cupcake. So yummy! |
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| After Emma's performance with the Baylor University All State Choral Choir (heavenly!--kids from all over the state only had four days to learn some complex music), the Horns treated me to an early birthday celebration at Buzzard Billy's, on the Brazos River. Thanks for a great time! |
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| Turtle watchers Al, Emma, Joyce, and Papa Tom |
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| How many turtles do you see? Luckily for these guys, this Cajun restaurant doesn't serve turtle soup! |
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| Playing with one of the kittens. Columbus and Milo will be neutered on July 13; Lady Sadie will be spayed on July 18. We really, really hope they will go to happy homes. |
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| Instead of braving the crowd and traffic at Auditorium Shores, we sat up on the hill at MoPac and Lake Austin Blvd. Close enough to enjoy the show and escape the area before traffic got heavy. Stopped for ice cream on the way home. Not as good as Dad's homemade ice cream, but pretty good. Papa Tom had his favorite: Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia. |
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| Thanks, Papa Tom, for delicious homegrown tomatoes and fresh basil. Take those, add a little cheese and egg and bake in a whole wheat pie crust . . . . oh my! what a treat! |
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| Why do their eyes glow when their photo is taken with a flash? Couldn't find an answer specific to cats, but here's the fascinating explanation for dogs (and for red eyes in photos of humans):
In dogs (and many other animals, but not people), the retina has a reflective layer behind it called the tapetum lucidum, which acts like a mirror, reflecting light at the back of the eyes. The reflective layer is what helps dogs see better at night. Light is reflected outward, giving the dog's retina a second chance to absorb the rays.
This is what takes place when you snap a flash picture of your pet, and it’s why your dog’s eyes may take on a creepy glow. Individual dogs have different colored tapetum, which is why some dogs’ eyes take on a green glow, others a yellow glow, and so on.
If your dog consistently has red-eye in photos, he might not have pigment in the tapetum. This means the red is coming from blood vessels at the back of the eyeball, which is also the cause of human red-eye.
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| Emma performed as one of the Hot Box Girls in the Waco Children's Theater performance of "Guys and Dolls." At one point, she leaped up onto a table and hit high C! I think the Mae West platinum blonde works for you, Emma! |
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| During the two weeks that Fox was with Amon, she sent some artwork to her Mom. She asked us if she needed to "slobber" on the envelope to seal it and Amon told her to "Just lick it." She decided to write "Just lick it" and draw a lot of tongues on the seal. The drawing is of step-Dad Jason picking apples; Mom; and step-cousin Quinn. |
