Eagle herding ducks

A bald eagle looks for lunch in a raft of ducks. The ducks evade the diving raptor the way schooling fish do, by moving in unison away from the attacker. The eagle did not have success while I watched, though I imagine it eventually caught its meal.

Bolts and Washers

$1.86 in hardware fixed up a wobbly hand-me-down chair that was missing a few bits. It seems pieces of these dimensions were only offered in stainless, doubling the cost. Fortunately, we won't be kept up at night with worry about our furniture rusting away.

Creeping Floating Bridge

The replacement for the SR520 floating bridge is creeping across Lake Washington from east to west.  The existing bridge used to draw open at its midpoint to allow arbitrarily tall marine traffic through.  Openings were reasonably disruptive to vehicular traffic, requiring a 30 minute closure and a fleet of WSDOT flagging trucks.

The new bridge will limit traffic to 70 feet underneath its east navigation channel.

Sleeping Canoes

Rental canoes sleep on a dock near Husky Stadium on a cold March morning. They'll need to wait for spring for paddlers to enjoy them.

Fort George Brewery

Astoria has a brewery that on our visit was specializing in stouts and porters.  Fort George was the beginning of the British part of Oregon from 1813 to 1846, via an acquisition of what became the Hudson's Bay Company.  The Oregon Treaty resolved a territorial dispute, ceded the trading post (and the Western states) to the US, and it was renamed Astoria.

Fort George Brewery now sits a few blocks up from the river, and makes quite nice beer.

Clatskanie, OR

It's challenging to compose with a very wide field of view.  This is at 16mm on a full-frame, and very close.

Clatskanie, Oregon, just off US30.

Portland Japanese Garden

The primary image associated with the Portland Japanese Garden is a spectacular maple.  Our visit was in winter, and without any deciduous foliage around, there were better views to be found elsewhere.

Angel's Rest, Columbia Gorge

This 1800ft gain led to a lovely view over a bend in the Columbia River.  Lighting was especially dramatic, as the top of the hike was right at the boundary of a foggy cloud layer.  We spent lunch drifting in and out of sunshine.

Baby Hats

There seems to be no shortage of friends and neighbors having babies, and our household likes to present a baby hat to the new arrivals.  This one has a Cat In The Hat aesthetic, and turned out beautifully.

Up on Stilts

This house has undergone a lengthy remodel, starting with being jacked up on stilts and having a new foundation poured.  Since this photo, the siding has been removed and almost every visible surface replaced.  I wonder how much original material remains?

Sarracenia - Pitcher Plant

This trumpeter pitcher is native to North America, and traps and digests insects for food.  They're usually located in bogs where there are few other nutrients and there's little competition from other plants.

Good Night Moon

The St. Louis Children's Museum has a fantastic model of the room in Good Night Moon. One can change the time of day and position of different elements to match the pages of the book!

Good night noises everywhere.

Isa Genzken, Dallas Museum of Art

One of many pieces in Isa Genzken's installation at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Not really my thing.

Fraser Canyon

The Fraser Canyon offers low-elevation access to the British Columbia interior, and was the favored route successively for the Cariboo Wagon Road (1860s), the Canadian Pacific (1880s), the Canadian National (1900s), and eventually the Trans Canada Highway (1960s).

Automobile traffic typically prefers the more direct route offered by Highway 5, except as on this trip, when winter driving conditions on Coquihalla Pass (1244m) were hazardous.

South and North Thompson River Confluence

Kamloops BC was founded as a trading post in the valley where two branches of the Thompson river join.  The confluence is just beyond these willows, seen above Lorne St and on the "wrong side" of the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks that lie between here and the city centre.

The Canadian National Railway runs on the north side of the valley, and continues that way to Edmonton; the CPR takes a completely different route from here westward across the Rockies and on to Calgary.