New Home Coming Together

Lot 32 - sold!

So the new house is coming together now. Our permit was approved last week and the builder already has the foundation poured and inspected. IT has been kind of fun seeing it go from raw dirt to this stage. Jeannette and I have spent some time going through the design stuff and adding our own touches to the plans. I think we will start seeing the framing begin this week. July 12th is the expected completion and closing date. We are holding our breath.

This is what an inspection approved foundation looks like :)

 I have taken advantage of the nice weather to go out exploring on my motorcycle. Yesterday was simply fantastic with sunny skies and temps in the low 70s. I invested in some decent riding gear because even when the temps are expected to climb into the 70s, the morning part of the ride can be very cool. Saturday was no exception. Layers and layers of clothing help, but the real savior is my heated grips and seat!

I have spent some time up on Mt Rainier, and have seen both sides of Mt St Helens, but getting a decent view of Mt Adams from the north is not easy. I rode down towards Portland Saturday morning to visit one of the dams on my list and was able to ride around the southern exposure of Mt Adams. I am constantly amazed by the dormant volcanoes here in the PNW, and they seemingly rise out of nothing to dominate the landscape. Views Saturday included My Adams (picture below), Mt Rainier, Mt St Helens and Mt Hood. On one stretch of road I could see three of the four at the same time. I want my retirement house in that spot!

Looking northwest towards Mt Adams on a sunny day.

After seeing Mt Adams, I finished my ride up to Mill Pond dam. It is nothing you will see on a map - in fact, most dams I visit on the Dam Tour are not big dams. The idea is to ride places off the beaten path. I have not rode in that area of Washington before and I thoroughly enjoyed the scenery and roads down there. The dam was a neat little run-off dam that forms a small pond with camp sites around it. The wind was calm and pictures came easy with no clouds in the sky.

Mill Pond dam on a calm day.

Dam, That Was Cold

Some of you probably have already judged me because you think I misspelled the "Dam" in the title of this post. I know, you can't help yourself. I am using the word in the correct context, however. This month kicks off my favorite summer hobby - Dam Tour! It is another excuse to go riding my bike, and in this case it is a collection of dams in Washington, Oregon and a few other states. Ride to the dam, take picture at dam, send in picture, and meet some new people along the way. I did the tour in 2009 and loved it, and I have been looking forward to it all year now. I have signed up Danny as a passenger, too. He gets his own placard. Unfortunately for him, he really needs warmer temps before we go anywhere because I can't afford to keep buying new stuff for him. The kids is growing like a weed!

My first ride this year was up to Cushman Dam near Hoodsport, WA. It is about 100 miles out and back. The weather was cold and moist, but the roads were in good shape. I have enough gear to stay warm in this weather, but I end up looking a little like the Pillsbury Dough Boy when everything is in place. Cushman Dam is just high enough to have received some snow in the last few days.

It is still to cold for longer distance riding (at least for me), and the mountain passes are not safe right now. This is about the only dam close enough until we warm up some more.

The picture used to get credit for the dam.

A stop along the way.

Need to go back when the sun is out.

Now, in other news...

Jeannette and I have decided to take advantage of low interest rates and low housing prices to buy a new house in Silverdale. We have narrowed our search to an area we like, and are trying to sift through floor plans to pick out the design we like. I am thinking we will be moving in sometime this summer, assuming everything goes well. The plan is to rent out our house we are living in now until the housing market rebounds.

Looking out at our future home. Not sure which lot, yet.

Looking for Stars

HDR rendering of a before-dawn, long exposure shot.

Danny asked me if I would take him to a dark spot before dawn this morning so he could set up his telescope and try to find Saturn. We left at around 6:30 for a dark spot near the Hood Canal Bridge. The weather has been very nice the last few days, and I suspected I could get a few good sunrise shots, too. I was not disappointed, but, unfortunately, Danny was. Plenty of stars, very few clouds, but no Saturn sighting. We will try again! The day was a success due to our follow-on trip to our favorite breakfast place - the Oak Table Cafe!

Those of us who live in the pacific Northwest know that winter normally brings clouds, rain, and very little sunshine. Every once in a while we get a nice sunny day where Mt Rainier pops out of the clouds and every mountain has a crisp layer of snow on it. This week brought us several of those days in a row.

The Hood Canal Bridge before sunrise.

Hood Canal at sunrise.

Hood Canal at sunrise.

Why PNW People are Wimps!

My truck was cold :)

We are just wrapping up "Snow-pocolyspe" here in the great Pacific Northwest, and it left me believing I that I have finally been assimilated into the PNW way of thinking about things. As background, we are one of a very few career Navy families that has lived in the fantastic state of Idaho for six consecutive years while on active duty. Don't ask me to explain because it is a source of a small amount of shame on my part. Snow? Yeah, I've seen snow. And I've driven in snow in a crappy front wheel drive car, too. This is the first storm that I have stood looking out the front windows of our house and found myself hoping for it to end. "It is far too dangerous to drive out there", and "I hope we have enough food in this joint" were thought in the privacy of my head. News coverage? You bet, non-stop and predicting catastrophe. To be fair, we in the PNW are used to inclement weather, but are much better suited to the wet form, perhaps with some wind accompanying the rain drops. Another indication of my assimilation is the number of rain coats I have. And no one who calls themselves a PNWer carries an umbrella. I mean, seriously, an umbrella is useless up here because rain almost never comes without wind.

I have come to terms with my whimpiness on this topic now. It may have been the result of my repeated efforts to keep my driveway clear even armed with the knowledge that all this snow will melt in a couple of days and the rain will return. On a related note, I have uncovered the secret to making it snow in Silverdale - walk outside with my snow shovel!

In other news - I could definitely get used to a two-day work week. I plan to pursue that schedule when I retire!

Here's a few other pictures I snapped over the past few days.

Looking at Silverdale from a local park.

Silverdale Waterfront Park

Melissa's car - snow, ice, then snow again.
Should be ready to drive in June.

Photography Hobby

I enjoy photography, although I would not venture that I am good at it, yet. I have some tools, some books and like to get out and about to places that typically tend to be photogenic. One of the interesting techniques I have recently admired is called HDR, or High Dynamic Range, photography. In its most basic form, HDR photography offers the ability to demonstrate a wider range of detail than most digital cameras can capture (simply due to sensor characteristics). The human eye is capable of seeing more than a camera can capture.

The basic approach is to take multiple pictures with the exposure bracketed so that you take under-exposed, over-exposed and normally exposed images. I use software to "compile" the images into one HDR image. You can apply additional treatments to the image with a good photo editing program, if desired.

I have a couple examples of my work that I am happy with. I recently bought a book and have read up on the technique, and I know that my earlier attempts were misguided and would not produce the desired results because my settings were wrong. Makes me excited for the results I might get with correct settings. Below is my "before" and "after" images of a nice fall setting down the street from my house. I took three photos (although at the time I was just changing exposures to try to get one decent photo). One thing to note is the additional detail in the previously shaded areas.

Any thoughts you have are appreciated.

This is the original, normal exposure I took.

This is the HDR image that was produced from three different exposures of the image.

Glad 2011 Is Over

I don't know about you, but I am glad 2011 is over and in the rear-view mirror. It has been a tumultuous year for my family and me, and I will try to capture a little bit of it in a short timeline.

My year started in San Diego as XO on USS TOPEKA. As most of you know, Jeannette and the kids stayed in Silverdale to let Melissa finish high school with her friends. It worked out but left me searching for things to do on my own. One of my first trips was to Death Valley National Park in January. I used a three day weekend to drive up, visit the park, and drive back. A couple of my favorite pictures are included below. Death Valley was awesome! I think the timeframe was a very tough target because Death Valley is not a forgiving place, especially in the summer months. Trust me - it is worth visiting, and you want to be there during the winter months.

Looking out on Death Valley from Artist's Drive.

Looking out on Death Valley from Bad Water Basin.

February found my family and I burying my brother at sea outside Long Beach harbor. It was a sobering weekend that I wish was not necessary. It still hurts.

One of my favorite trips while living in San Diego was up to Joshua Tree National Park. I rode my bike, drove my truck, and probably would have walked if that was the only way up there. I am a huge fan of our National Parks, in case you haven't noticed. There is one in your backyard no matter where you live for the most part. Joshua Tree is accesible year-round, although it does get a little warm in the summer months.

A Joshua Tree - the quintessential park marquee.

Boulders, rock climbing, desert - Joshua Tree is
Awesome!

March also included a trip home for a few days, and marked the month when Melissa found out she was accepted to several schools. She selected the University of Washington, and we are now a family of Dawg lovers :)

Melissa is a Dawg!

One of my favorite San Diego pictures - a beautiful sunrise.

I deployed from April through July of this year, and visited Lima, Peru on a port call. I wish I could have spent more time there and have marked it as a place I would like to return to one day. One of the most remarkable things, in my opinion, was the amount of junk ships moored in the area around the harbor.

Junk ships moored near Lima, Peru.

My return to San Diego was a reunion with my family. Jeannette and the kids drove down to San Diego and we stayed in a beach front condo for a couple of weeks. It was a very nice time that included visits to the beach, Sea World and a Padres game at Petco Park. I was in port for two weeks and then right back out at sea again.

Danny and Melissa at Petco Park for a Padres game.

Danny and Melissa at the Midway Museum with San Diego
skyline in the background.

Melissa and Danny enjoying the beach at our rental condo.

September finally signaled my move back home to Silverdale. Trust me when I say I could not have been happier to be home. I must admit that things have changed drastically at the Allen home since I left. We now have two kids away form home, and Danny is pretty self-sufficient and it is very quiet around the house these days. Since I came home, I have travelled out to central Washington to watch Danny run in a cross country meet, celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with the whole family, watch Stephanie graduate from college, moved Melissa off to college, and tried to get back into a routine of sorts.

Danny's cross country meet in Wenatchee.

Fall colors in the Pacific Northwest (just down the street, in fact).

Christmas lights at the Allen house.

Our beautiful daughter - a college graduate!

Merry Christmas!

I, for one, cannot wait to see what 2012 will bring! Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

We have a good time in the Allen house through the Christmas holidays. It has taken on a slightly different twist over the last couple of years with me living in San Diego and the girls moving away to college. This year was the first "normal" holiday season for us in a couple of years, and it was great. We have quite a few holiday traditions that we look forward to, including Christmas cookies baked and decorated on Christmas Eve, watching The Santa Clause, eating cookies for breakfast on Christmas morning, opening our presents one at a time Christmas morning, and a nice dinner that evening. I look forward to this time of year because I love being around my family!

Christmas cookies baked Christmas Eve.

Our Christmas morning practice is to open our presents one at a time, starting with the youngest and working our way up to the oldest - then do it again! I do not know when we started doing it this way, but it has been this way in the Allen house for as long as I can remember. You might think it takes a long time, and it does, but there has never been a complaint and it makes it seem more like we are appreciating the act of giving instead of the act of receiving because everyone is paying attention to each gift.

I hope your Christmas was as enjoyable as mine was.

As we move towards the New Year, my family is looking forward to many exciting happenings. Danny will start high school in the Fall of 2012. This marks the beginning of the end as I see it! Melissa continues her education at the UW. Stephanie completes her teaching certification and commences a job search to fulfill her dream of being a teacher. And Jeannette & I celebrate our 25th anniversary in October. We are planning an Alaskan cruise this summer to celebrate!