After breakfast, we returned to walking the streets of Phuket, this time inviting Phyllis to join us. We just couldn’t stop taking pictures and being amazed by the people, the culture, and the amount of taxi drivers who would pull over to offer you a ride. It became a joke and quite funny at times. Whatever you do, don’t look at a map for more than 30 seconds or stand still and look lost…they’ll find you.

Just before lunchtime, we asked a local where a good restaurant would be. We carefully wrote down the name he gave us so that we could pronounce it again. It was only a mile or two away and an enjoyable walk. About two-thirds of the way there, we tired Phyllis out probably because we stopped a lot and took so many carefully compositioned photos that she turned back and left David and I to further explore the town on our own.

We found the street that the restaurant was on and were so excited. We actually found our own way in another country! At one point we heard a loud, “Hey there!” and turned to see a group of men playing pool. We didn’t join them, but after thinking about it for a bit, it would have been really something if we joined them in a game of pool and made some Thai friends. It’s something we still regret in not doing.

We kept walking, got to the end of the road and no restaurant by the name we had on our paper. We studied the map and here came another scooter taxi driver. He seemed different from the other taxi drivers right away; a bright smile and fantastic English. We told him the name of the restaurant and he let us know we had passed it. We got off topic for a while and chitchatted with this guy by the name of Shana. We felt like instant friends… in another country… with someone we just met. So we did what we do, asked for a picture. As David went to take a photo of him, he insisted to pose with me. This photo will make you laugh.

Before long we were off to walk back to the restaurant we had somehow passed. It was at that time that he said, “Oh by the way, in English the restaurant is called, Natural Restaurant.” We laughed as not only did we pass it, we were greeted by a host at that restaurant as we were walking down.

Shana ‘walked’ us to the restaurant by circling his bike almost in a protective and courteous manner, not wanting us to get lost.

Lunch was amazing!! David and I couldn’t help but take a few photos and, before we left an hour later, Shana returned to see if we enjoyed our lunch and offer his assistance if we ever needed a taxi. We invited him to sit with us at the table and we chatted a bit before he got a call from another customer

Once we were done eating, we went on exploring the town by foot. The shops were back to back and at times looked like carports converted to businesses. The businesses are their life and it shows. One of the shops where we stopped for a while had an owner named Senee. He was very kind and shared his life story with us He showed us his photos of when we was a monk and told us how he has a love for music as he was a guitar player. He showed us the guitar music he plays and we had a smile on our face as it was mostly music from the Beatles and Eagles. He, of course, also offered his assistance as a taxi driver. He insisted on driving us back to our hotel, which we took as a thank you for the time we’d spent talking to him. We offered him money, which he flat out refused! Instead, he just said to call him if we ever needed a ride.

GREAT! Now we have two people we connected with who want to be our driver–Shana who drove a scooter and would rent a car to taxi us around and Senee who owned a car, but it had no AC and looked like it could breakdown at any time.

We told Phillys all about our day’s experience over dinner but couldn’t wait for the fist day’s highlight… a Thai massage. We were met at the spa with a cold ginger tea and small pastry, then had our feet washed, and were escorted to our room. These tiny Thai women were going to give us our massage. They were much stronger than you’d think. At times, the massage felt more like a beating; slightly painful other times too friendly… but in the end it was an experience we’d do over if we had it to do again and we’d recommend it to anyone else.

We slept amazing that night!

View Phuket, Thailand Gallery

We were greeted with a hot, humid wind seeping through the cracks of the air-conditioned breezeway to the airport where we followed the herd of other passengers on their way to retrieve their luggage. We quickly found out there was no such things as lines and taking turns, but rather how many people could squish into a small area and get through the inspection first.

Once past customs, we went to get our luggage and watched the belt carry away suitcase after suitcase, but not ours. We searched and searched and just before complete panic set in, we noticed one of the local workers had loaded our luggage on a cart and was ready to take us to our waiting taxi.

What happened next was we acted like magnets with our main concern being to keep up with the man pulling our luggage as taxi drivers tried to sell us their services for, “Very cheap. Safe Taxi”. Before we knew it, we were standing outside where it seemed we were the only ones. As we tried to ask about or hotel’s complimentary taxi, a taxi driver was nearly packing our luggage into his “Safe taxi”. David ran down to check with the hotel checkpoint at the other end of the airport to check on the status of our taxi while Phyllis and I remained as magnets to our luggage. Being as we were passing on that taxi, the luggage carrier took us back into the airport, rechecked our baggage through the scanner having us walk back through the metal detector just to take us in a circle back outside to meet David waiting there in our hotel’s taxi. We were starting to think, “Ahh, the chaos is over,” but we had thought to soon. Just as the Thai culture treats lines and taking turns different, they are no different on the road.

We watched in shock as our driver weave through the right and left lanes, often straddling both. At this point, the fact that they drive on the left side of the road had little effect on us. Almost like flies, the drivers on scooters followed us very closely, sometimes close enough to touch if we had only had the guts to roll down our windows. There were sometimes 3 people on scooters, no helmets and going about 80 kilometers down the turnpike. At one point our driver tried to kiss the scooter in front of us with his bumper. As he steadily kept 1-2 feet from the scooter, we asked why and he responded, “They are in the wrong lane, they shouldn’t be here.” He went on to tell us how many scooter accidents there are and that they should take care of themselves. YIKES!

Finally, we were at the hotel, Sino House. We checked in, scurried to our rooms where we saw the comfortable beds and barely laid down before we were out cold. We had only been here 2 hours.

View Thailand – Getting There Gallery

Thanks everyone and have a GREAT weekend!!

A black and white filter was put on this image to bring out the clouds a bit more and a vignetting was added to finish off the look and feel.

The original HDR of this photo in the below post used three different images with different exposures – -2, 0, and +2. That caused some of the people who were moving a lot not look like people because each shot had them in different locations. This time I used one photo to create an HDR photo and the people came out much clearer. I also played with the color a bit to make it more “old time.”

No further edits were made to this image. I tried, but I just couldn’t make it better. This image was the overall favorite in the people who responded. I love the uniqueness of this photo. This shot was taken from the outside looking through a smoky-glass window into a bar/restaurant. I love how the eye sees these scenes.

Thanks to all who gave feedback. I believe I have the final two photos I want to submit to the competition, but I would, of course, love to hear any additional feedback.

If you would like to rate the photos based on the star system, please do so for each photo at my Photo Walk Gallery

View the River City Bicycle Race Gallery

David and I have always wanted to go to Vancouver, BC, so at the last minute, we decided to grab our passports and take off for Canada on a Wednesday morning.  By that evening, we were strolling down the streets of downtown Vancouver, people-watching and window-shopping.  Two things we noticed right away were that drivers were more aggressive on narrower roads and that Vancouver had more Starbucks than what we’ve seen in Portland and possibly even Seattle. (Who would have thought that was possible?)

We noticed there was a high presence of Asian culture there, so for dinner, we were urged to try Korean BBQ.  We enjoying some of the best service we ever had, being served by a young college student who prepared our meal at the table and taught us how to make our lettuce wraps.

Early the next morning, we went to the famous Stanley Park to get some pictures of the Vancouver skyline at sunrise and to enjoy the park scenery.

From Stanley Park, we went to Grouse Mountain where they have what the locals call a SkyRide, which is a gondola that goes about a mile up mountain.  I, being from the Northwest, and David, spending much of his time in Alaska, Montana, and Oregon, have had the pleasure of enjoying scenery like this compared to people from the desert southwest.  Therefore, in lieu of spending money on the gondola, we had dinner at Vancouver’s Lookout, complete with a revolving restaurant and the downtown light scene below, much like the Seattle Space Needle.  As we sipped our drinks and ate our gourmet dinner that evening, it was more than worth what we passed on.

That night, we stayed in a quiet bed & breakfast where it we were surrounded by people who were grieving.  We were greeted by a gentleman named Wayne who was staying there while his 22-year-old daughter was laying in a hospital bed with a brain injury from a fall.  The next morning, at breakfast, we spoke with a man whose son had several complications from diabetes, which he had only been diagnosed with 3 months ago.  His son was in a drug-induced coma to help prevent any further damage from happening to his brain.  David and I have and will continue to keep them in our thoughts and prayers.

For our last day, we thought we’d go to Granville Island, a small island surrounded by boats of business owners and patrons.  The Island is filled with shops of local goods, handmade items and an indoor public market, much like Pike’s Place Market in Seattle.  We almost bought my bother’s dog, Eve, a Dino Bone that was much much bigger than my arm, but we decided not to, not knowing how good, old, or safe the bone would be for Eve.  We enjoyed walking around all the shops and were tempted more than once, but left empty-handed.

The next, and last stop in Canada, was the Vancouver Aquarium.  We saw some Goliath-sized fish, but were most overwhelmed by the jellyfish.  We fell in love with the miniature monkeys they had, who were about 4 inches high with cute little faces.  They were fun to watch.  They moved so quickly that I’m surprised that David got a few good pictures of them.

After a few more exhibits, we watched the sea lions for awhile who were very hyperactive.  They would show you a perfect face close up, but not give any time nor chance for a snapshot.  The same was true for the dolphins.  The almost seemed to know we wanted their picture.

As we were leaving, we saw a few very well-fed raccoons who weren’t people shy at all.  They begged a couple of girls in a stroller for some cheerios and only faced us once or twice.  I love the few pictures David was able to get.

We completed our short trip by having Korean BBQ in Lakewood, WA for dinner and that night we were home with the weekend left to relax before heading back to work.

View the Vancouver, BC Gallery

Anyway, about our trip to Central Oregon, we decided to go to John Day Fossil Beds over a weekend.  I had never explored Central Oregon and driving through it for the first time was just beautiful.  Julie and I snapped away on the camera, taking in the beauty and feeling small and insignificant in comparison to the mountains and valleys around us.  We went to go see the Painted Hills Unit of John Day first, where the hills were just layers of yellows, golds, blacks and reds. We then went on to the Clarno Unit, which reminded us of Bryce Canyon a little bit when we took our road trip back in 2007, but instead of orange and white pillars of Bryce, Clarno had pillars of brown and red and it was a lot smaller.

We took a few more shots and then decided it was time to search for a campsite.  We asked one of the locals from the small town of Fossil where the nearest campsite was and she said, “just a little ways down the road before you get to Shanko.”  It was just past 7pm and we were sure we’d be by a warm fire by 8.

We got on the road and started driving, and that’s when we caught up to a car going VERY slow on the highway.  As part of our entertainment for the evening, we named the driver of the car “Harold” and the passenger “Esther.”  While I was driving, Julie mimicked the conversation they were having in a twangy voice, “slow down Harold, this a downhill curve!”  On came the break lights and down to 25mph Harold went although the curve was probably safe at 50mph.  When a straight-away came, we were sure they’d speed up,” Hurry Harold, there are some maniacs behind us!  They’re going to get us!”  After awhile, we pulled off at one point, thinking we’d found a place to camp, but it wasn’t a campsite afterall; it was a day-use area.  We got back on the highway and, before long, we had caught up with our source of entertainment with Esther saying, “Harold, they’re back, I’m scared!!”  Harold responds as saying,” Hold on Esther, I’m gonna take this thing up to 40!”  Julie and I were sure they’d take flight at that speed.  We were a little sad when they put on their signal and turned off the highway.

By 8:30, we had passed through two towns, never seeing the campsite the local directed us to.  We decided to just park somewhere and sleep in the back of the 4Runner.  By morning, it became very clear that if we had slept in a tent we would have been cold, miserable and possibly sick.  It dipped below 30 degree with a moist air.  We had prepared for cold, but not freezing tempatures in August.

It was Sunday morning and we decided to drive the 25 miles back to Fossil and eat at the local restaurant, get gas, and then head on back home.  After all, we saw everything we came for.  During the drive, we were stunned by the miles and miles of valleys and the rolling hills.  It almost felt impossible that a road could exist within this landscape.  On a straight-way, we spotted and drove by a barn that screamed to be photographed.  Julie bugged me until I finally turned around and snapped some photos.  I tell you, if I didn’t turn around, I would have regretted it because I ended up taking some REALLY NICE shots that I turned into HDR photos.  It was just too amazing and I thank Julie for bugging me about it.

Breakfast in Fossil was amazing!!  Nice and full, we went to the town’s only gas station, which had opened just 30 minutes prior.  In the window of the station was a sign saying, “Be back in a few minutes.”  How funny!!  We laughed at the small town atmosphere.  While we were waiting for the attendent to return, we looked at “my” nicely restored corvettes and at all the thunder eggs on display in the gas station window.  Soon a man came back, filled our tank, washed our window and described how we could spot a thunder egg.  When he was done, he handed Julie half of an egg and told her to keep it and to tell her friends all about how nice the people in Fossil are.  We then introduced ourselves and thanked Everett for his generosity.  On a buzz from what just happened, we drove on, stopping when we felt like it, taking pictures.

We stopped in Hood River, OR and had a drink at a nice coffee shop and did some window shopping.  We headed home to Portland to check out the annual Art in the Pearl, which was an art show in a park in a downtown Portland neighborhood called the Pearl District.  We were in shorts, t-shirts and sandals when Portland greeted us with a down pour.  It was much warmer than the hills of Central Oregon though.  We walked along the art booths getting soaked as we saw everyone ducking and taking cover.  We love the smell of rain.  By 4pm Sunday afternoon, we were back home, amazed of what we did over the last two days.

On Monday morning, before heading out for the day, I noticed something on the office chair.  Our tent poles were safe and sound in our apartment, the whole time we were in Central Oregon!! Oops!!

View Central Oregon Gallery

I, of course, wanted to get some good photos of the planes doing their moves and I had to be quick at the camera movement in order to catch them.  I have to say that one of my best photos of the day came with a a price.  I was following the planes through the viewfinder of my camera, I clicked the shutter as the sun was in view and it was quite bright and, from what I hear not the best for the camera (or my eyes for that matter).  When we got home, I downloaded the photo onto the computer and, using Lightroom 2, adusted some of the color and exposure of the photo.  It’s amazing what you can catch in the camera within milliseconds.

After the airshow and trebuchet bbq, we went to another bbq held by Julie’s work.  We were way too stuffed to eat anything, but we promised we would go and enjoy the activities.  When we arrived, it seemed as though a lot of people bailed out on the event; there was hardly anybody there.  We ended chatting with a very few people and then walked down to the Tualitan River, watched to ducks, and of course, took some pictures.  It was a great day to be out and about.  When we got home, we relaxed the rest of the evening and watched a movie.

View the Hillsboro Airshow and BBQs Gallery