The West Coast

I took these shots near Anacortes, WA 

while I was waiting for the ferry.

Doe Bay is an isolated corner of Orcas Island. 

Very beautiful but deserted in November when I took these shots.

I took a broom making seminar with my friend Susan's basket weaving group.

I made a hearth broom, a cobwebber and 3 whisk brooms.

Heading south, I spent a week in Portland. Norah came down too 

for a few days. We had a fun time. Portland is a very cool city. 

And not just because they have no pro football.

Astoria, OR is at the mouth of the Columbia River and a 

treacherous area for ships. There are hundreds of shipwrecks.

A little farther down the coast, Cannon Beach is a 

little coastal community with a beautiful beach.

It was windy the day I was there and the dry sand being 

blown over the wet created some interesting effects.

Really, a gorgeous beach.

These haystack formations turned out to harbor all kinds of sea 

life in tidal pools. It was low tide so I could just walk right 

up to them. Mussels, barnacles, starfish, anemones and more.

Some very unexpected things at Cannon Beach.

Driving back from the beach I stopped at a fish hatchery with a salmon stream.

Some people had been there for hours with no luck, but this old guy 

got there when I did and within a few minutes had snagged this beauty.

The forests of the coastal range are very furry and magical.

Here's a new shot of the Oregon state capitol.

I stayed one night outside of Ashland, OR 

and woke up to a couple of inches of new snow.

I followed my GPS's directions back to the main road. The route took 

me up a little mountain road. As the elevation got higher, the road got 

snowier and then icier until I came to a pickup truck in the ditch. 

I stopped to see if I could help and the guy said TURN BACK. 

I almost slid off the road turning around. Possibly the scariest driving 

experience of my life. I drove back down that road at about 5 mph. Yikes!

I finally got to southern California and stayed a night 

at El Capitan beach near Santa Barbara.

El Capitan has the picture perfect campsite.

Now I'm in Slab City. More on that later.

Westward 2012

The trip to Washington (state) this year began in Virginia, where I visited a historic, working gristmill with my friends Richard and Jessica. 

From there I arrived in Columbus on a foggy fall morning.

Then to Indianapolis later that day.

And on to Springfield, Illinois.

There's a beautiful Old Capitol in Springfield as well.

Des Moines, Iowa's capitol is one of the most ornate, with a total of five domes.

I stopped briefly in Ames, Iowa, home of Iowa State University. This tower is an iconic landmark.

Lots of harvesting was going on across the midwest.

Pierre, South Dakota has a beautiful capitol that I managed to get up at sunrise to shoot.

There's a lot of flat out there in the midwest.

In Montana, I saw a black bear (or was it Sasquatch?) run across the highway in front of me (sorry, no photos)

Seattle gave me one beautiful day so I walked downtown from Capital Hill to Pike Place.

Took a trip to Toppenish (near Yakima) with Norah.

And finally reached the far edge of the continental U.S. Friday Harbor, San Juan Island

And Orcas Island where it rains most days this time of year. But it's a gentle, pleasant rain, and when the sun does shine, the effect can be spectacular, with clouds layering and piling up like you just don't see anywhere else.

Here are a couple of recent 3D projects I've been working on.