Geocache

Geocaching! Tonight we downloaded geocache apps onto our phones and set out into the wild CR looking for... whatever a geocache might be. The first one was a bust, but then on the next one we struck gold:

A mini cache! Emily was not impressed, but she's not impressed by most things. Sign the log and set out for the next one...

Against a Painted Sky

While we were staying at the cabin, low clouds rolled in and the sky looked very weird. The weather stayed calm and it made for some cool night pictures. It was completely dark out, but I used a long exposure (15 sec.) to lighten it up a lot.

I recently discovered that my portrait lens takes the sharpest pictures with an F-stop of 4. Any less or much higher and I have to chase the focus a little bit, but 4 is dead on every time. Weird, huh?

Flying II

The yellow RTF Champ met an untimely death when it went out of transmitter range and plummeted at full speed into a parking lot, smashing into a million pieces against the pavement. All the king's horses and all the king's men... there was no fixing that mess. That was a bad day.

It's been replaced with a V-tail twin-engine plane that I carefully keep within range, heh. This plane actually flies better and is more maneuverable. After only a few flights I had figured out how to fly loops, figure 8s, and how to give Emily a haircut! Oops.

Yup, flying straight up.

Ok, that's all for now, but I'll post more boring airplane pictures when I get a chance.

The River

On Saturday we went to the White Star downtown and then we went to our favorite pier along the river and watched a storm come in.

Ominous! Boiling, angry-looking clouds blew in while we watched and the wind picked up as the air cooled off quickly. I under exposed this shot a little to darken the clouds and give 'em some definition.

Put the hammer down! They barely got off the river fast enough.

As soon as it started raining, we went and met up with some friends at the Irish Democrat to celebrate a birthday, but we came back to the river a couple hours later and I took some long exposures across from Quaker Oats. Or Quaker "Oars" as Emily calls it because the "t" looks a lot like an "r." She's got a point; look closely and you can see for yourself.

The Fourth!

We spent our Independence Day in... where else? Independence, IA. Cuz if you're gonna be patriotic, might as well do it right. A town with a name like that is pretty much obligated to give you all the stars and stripes you can handle every July the 4th and they didn't disappoint this year.

In the morning, we went to the parade and they even had planes flying over in formation down the main street of town. There were bands playing throughout the day and in the evening there was fireworks along the Wapsi.

Fun with sparklers while waiting for the fireworks...

Fireworks!