Saturday, January 31, 2009

Destination - Beautiful View, West Shore State Park, Flathead Lake, MT

Since it was a nice sunny afternoon, my oldest daughter and I grabbed the video and still cameras and headed out around the west shore of Flathead Lake to do some photography.

Flathead Lake is the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi, so it offers a variety of activities, even in winter.

Last weekend, we tried to shoot some video footage in Sommers (town at the north end of Flathead Lake). The sun wasn't bright enough and that was part of our reason for heading back out today. The bay near Sommers is still covered in ice. Last weekend, there was a group out playing hockey. This weekend, we saw a couple guys out on the ice in the bay with land boards. They are basically wheeled windsurf boards. I wish I'd gotten a shot or two of them, but I wanted to get to somewhere on the west shore of the lake before losing the light. It was nice and sunny, but there were a couple large white fluffy clouds. The wind was very brisk and pushed my little car around quite a bit, so the clouds were really cruising.

We were trying to find the State Park that we turned around in 2 summers ago as we thought we'd get the best light there with sun starting to crest over to the western skyline. The thought was to get some shots out over the lake with the sun at our backs. Of course, we had no luck finding the elusive park and drove almost all the way to Polson. We hadn't seen the sign we were expecting. Somewhere we missed it, even on the way back, so we stopped at the West Shore State Park instead.

It might have been a better spot to stop and we had a great time. Looking at the map, we may have been looking for Big Arm State Park, so maybe we didn't go quite far enough towards Polson. ;-)

Here's a couple shots in and around the park. Notice the ice on the shore in the pictures. We're still cold here, though it was up near 38 degrees F today.




























Even with the cold and wind, there were actually a few brave souls out fishing by the island in these photos.

As you can see from the pictures, the clouds were fairly kind to us, leaving us enough sun to work with. It's hard to beat the views near Flathead Lake!

Monday, January 26, 2009

Washington, DC - My daughter's leadership conference

When my daughter was nominated for a leadership conference in Washington, DC, my father and I decided to tag along and make certain she made it to and from the conference ok as well as spending some great one-on-one time together wandering around the Smithsonian.

I posted these photos of our trip to my parents website, though I admit, I have not updated the rest of their site in quite awhile.

We were there Mar 24th -29th, 2008 with about one day with my daughter on either end of the trip. Since we left DC when she was just 2, she really wanted to go back to the Smithsonian Zoo downtown(<-map link) as that was one of her favorite spots as a child. We went there first (after getting a Starbucks across the street of course). We pretty much wandered through the whole zoo that first day. Then we took about half a day the next morning at the Museum of Natural History. After that, it was time to drop my daughter off for her conference at the National 4H center.

Dad and I spent the next couple days wandering around the Smithsonian, including looking at more of the things in the Museum of Natural History, checking out the Museum of the American Indian, and spending a great deal of time in the Air and Space Museum. Dad and I wrapped things up by visiting Congress with a private tour from one of Denny Rehberg's aides.

I also caught up with some friends, both from when I worked for National Energy Group (main Info Tech offices were in Bethesda/Rockville even though I was in Portland, OR) as well as when I was living in DC working for the Air Staff. Dad and I had great company for a couple of our meals. Due to the meds he was taking, Dad was watching his diet while he was there, so I was "forced" to accompany him to the Cheesecake Factory several times so he could get their spinach. You'd be amazed how few places actually serve the stuff these days and to find one that also served monster slices of cheesecake was a huge plus in my book. If you ever need a laugh, ask my parents about my phase of only wanting to eat lobster and cheesecake every meal (hmmm, should have mentioned that I used two of the dinner meals in my previous Disney World post to eat a twin lobster tail dinner on two differnt nights. Maybe I'm still not out of that phase?). But I digress...

With tired feet and full bellies (and another Starbucks coffee), dad and I went back to pick up my daughter. She was elected to give the speech for her group at the end of the conference, though we didn't get to see it. The conference is about the young adults and developing their leadership abilities, not humoring the bursting with pride parents. ;-) My daughter, of course, really wanted to see the Air and Space Museum and dad and I gladly went back with her as you could probably spend a whole week in each museum if you really looked at everything.

All-in-all it was an incredible trip! You can't replace such quality time with your father and daughter. I highly recommend finding time to let the storms of your life swirl around you. Pay attention to the fact that you're really in the eye of the storm and can choose to pause and enjoy the time with your family. That's my new year's wish for any of you who read this.

I would have to say most of it wouldn't have been possible without my mother chasing down hotel reservations and coordinating with Rehberg's office for us. We often lamented that she should have been participating in the trip with all the work she put in to make it happen for us. We love you mom!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Disney World, Dec 2007

We visited Disney World with the kids in December 2007. We took 5 full days in the park and stayed at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort at the park itself. I would highly recommend the "at the park" approach to anyone headed that way. We have always stayed outside the park because we felt like it was the cheaper approach. However, being able to ride the park bus everywhere for free, and sign up for the dining plans, offset the cost savings some and certainly upped the convenience factor significantly. I ate way too well because all our meals were prepaid and the dinners came with an appetizer, main course, drink, and desert, so with all 4 of us getting an appetizer big enough that one would have done, I needed to be rolled back to the bus most nights. Unless you can find a supermarket close to your hotel, you'll pay as much or more for food anyway as the costs in and around the park when you don't have the passes are frighteningly high. One thing though, there are some of the park restaurants that book well in advance (the Steak House in the Canadian section of Epcot for example), so make certain you make reservations early, maybe even calling ahead of your trip for the popular spots. There are also special events that a travel agent, though another adder in terms of cost, is more likely to be able to point you to. We would have completely missed the Candlelight Processional dining and music special without the travel agent's assistance.

One of the special things about our trip was that we met some friends from Portland, OR at the park. After we'd been there half a week, my parents and aunt also joined us. One of my favorite photos is this one of 2 sisters and then 2 more sisters 2 generations down my family tree sitting together in front of the "The Seas with Nemo and Friends" area in Future World at Epcot. I also really liked this photo of me and my ladies in front of the Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom.

The First Post

Well, my friend Nicole has had a blog tracking her "moments in time" for quite awhile and my friend Caihlen has a site dedicated to the Zen of fly fishing, so it felt like time to develop a blog myself. I started by helping my daughter with her blog devoted to the world of Twilight. Yes, I ended up using a similar template for my site, but she chose so well I couldn't help but like the classic elegance of light text on a dark background.

I will begin by uploading my own "islands in the center of the storm", from the last couple years. These are images capturing memories of the places I've been, the things I've seen, and the experiences I've been fortunate enough to have. Everything I will post is something I've seen in the last year or two, and measured by that yardstick, I live a rich life indeed. Once I've caught up with the last couple years, I've recently started documenting my experiences here locally in Flathead Valley, Montana. I'd like to give the world a taste of the rich experiences available here in Northwestern Montana so they understand the reason to visit this part of the globe and why so many that do end up finding a way to live here.