Here We Go Again

Just a few photos from the day getting back home. Flying from Europe to west coast US always makes for a long day, but so often a very worthwhile day.

( The good part of travelling )

You thought I'd reached the end? Nope! I just had ten days or so when I spent a lot of time dealing with tax paperwork and planning permission and other things that you don't want to hear about, trust me on that (I will make a post summarising the planning permission head-desking at some point when it's all over, but that will be something else. In every sense of the phrase.)

( But first - photos! )

The next day in Iceland started with a scheduled three hour glacier hike - with a forecast for rain throughout the day. Fun!

( Another ice day )

Day four in Iceland was the day with far to go - we went from Selfoss to the far side of Diamond Beach, a four hour ten minute drive. Except we took an hour long detour each way to Gulfoss, which made it over six hours of driving. Plus the time stopping at various waterfalls along the way...
The weather continued its pattern of getting worse by the day. But at least if there's going to be a day with lots of rain, it's not so bad if you're spending most of it in the car driving anyway. I'm not a fan of phone cameras generally, but I took a lot of phone photos that day. It's hard to take photos with a real camera when the wind keeps blowing rain and spray onto the lens. There's an advantage to that tiny crappy lens in the back of your phone sometimes 😭

( Water, water everywhere )

Our second day in Iceland was a busy one, visiting a number of different spots. Yes, I've spent hours whittling down the photos from the insane number I took. Yes, I still have too many.

( Waterfalls, caves and volcanoes, oh my! )

This was my driveway this morning. Pretty!



Unfortunately, the weight of the snow on the trees had brought one down on the power lines, so the power was out. Also, I went to leave for work and someone in a rear wheel drive pickup had decided to back into our (downward sloping) driveway to turn around and then discovered that surprise! They couldn't move. So me, my spouse and a passing neighbour had to push a pickup out of the way before I could leave my house. We shoved and shoved while the wheels span, and managed to get him out onto the street where the truck promptly slid sideways down the camber and into the kerb. But at that point, he became Not My Problem. (My car with all wheel drive and winter tires drove past him effortlessly.)

I really love driving to work in the snow. The schools are closed and there's hardly any traffic, so I actually get there faster, and it's all so pretty and peaceful.

Fortunately the power came back on an hour before I got back from work. Spouse spent the day texting me photos of the cats on the cat beds which he lined up in front of the fireplace, that being the only source of heat.







He works from home remotely, so when the power's out, he gets a free day to tend the fire.

On Friday, I got down to Mount Rainier National Park, and hiked the Burroughs Loop, which is one of my favourite hikes ever. There was some haze around, so the views weren't as insanely mind-boggling as they sometimes are. This aided my determination NOT to take photos of the mountain from every possible angle as I often do when I go there.

( Burroughs Trail )

Following on from the success of last year, we went off on a five day tour with our fellow owners of crazy cars. This time we had a maximum of ten Sevens, plus a Corvette and a Miata. We went out as far as north-eastern Oregon, which... wow. I had no idea that part of Oregon was so beautiful. I learned something.

( Road trip )

I'm getting there with the photos from Canada, I am!

God's Pocket is the dive resort we went to on Hurst Island, right off the northern tip of Vancouver Island. It's primarily a dive resort, in spring and autumn, but in the summer months, when there's too much plankton in the water for good diving, it's a resort for sea kayakers. And in the winter, it's empty, because winter off the northern tip of Vancouver Island...

( God's Pocket )

I spent this last weekend out diving at the Hood Canal (the badly named fjord), and we really lucked out with the weather. When you book in July for October, you're going to get what you get.
Even when I left on Friday, the forecast was for Saturday to be lovely, and for Sunday to be cloudy with some rain. Fortunately, that delayed by a day, and Sunday remained glorious. The trip couldn't have been timed better.

( Mostly photos of water. )