Lava Flows.

These photos are one of five active volcanoes in the Big Island.  I'm highly recommended for everyone to take a helicopter "open door" tours when you visiting on any island of Hawaii.  At one point our pilot hovering about 100 ft. directly above the lava flows for us to feel the intense heat.  On the first picture, I have requested our pilot to take me inside the crater for closer shot, but the heat is too hot to do so.

Vancouver Island Bush Bumper...

Used bumper and grille on Ebay $223.37.

DIY bush bumper with a logs and sticks...

Priceless!

Surprise!

Lilies!

Yea, I was surprised too that I knew the name of the flower. You can thank my wife for that!

Big Island Waterfalls.

Just another sunset on the prairie

That magic hour....

When it time for cocktails!!

Guess I better post something too...

Like Ron I too have been burried in work... Now I just have to figure out how to make some money so I can afford to keep working! :)

Here's a cell phone picture of the Pacific Swift and Pacific Grace when they were in Port Hardy a few days ago.

Is it just me?

Or does work suck?

It seems it's a never ending process of work, work, work. I take a day off and then I'm working seven days a week for the next month. Time is flying by and you don't realize it until it's too late.

I think it's time to escape again, even though it may just be in photos for a while! (or not, hmmmmm)

It's just water under the bridge

Well, there may be a few fish in there!

Along the river

I'm not sure what the original use was for this little structure but now it's just a spot that you can stand in and look at the river.

I guess instead of river I should say "spring". All of this water is coming out of an underground spring that originates about 100 yards from this building. It's amazing how much water is coming up and it's a constant flow of cool/cold clear water.

A bad day of.....

...taking photos is better than any day at work.

My wife an I took another run down to Bennett Springs State Park in Missouri. It's been raining here for the last week and the sun was actually out yesterday so away we went.

I really need to by a fly rod I think!

I was trying to be smart here and took a multi-exposure shot in the camera. This is five shots in one. I was wanting to show the movement of the fly rod but I didn't anticipate the fisherman moving his head and body so much. It's not a good photo but I thought I would post it anyway.

I'm going to try this again because I think I can make it work if I'm at the proper angle. That may mean getting in the water but I don't think that will be such a bad thing when it's 100 degrees out!

Sunset on the prairie

With a moon to go with it!

On our drive back home from Minnesota I took some two lane roads just to see some scenery and I'm glad I did. I got a couple of really nice shots right around sundown (at least I think so).  

My wife kept telling me to get out of the middle of the road or I would get run over but sometimes you just got to do what you got to do to get that shot.

Big Bugs

Just a little more art work from the arboretum in Minneapolis. 

Art in progress

While in Minnesota we went to another park in Minneapolis and came across an area where the painters were busy, busy, busy. There had to be a half dozen easels set up in the area with people just painting the day away.

This is the view this particular painter was working on.

Looking for dinner

Aaron came for a visit a couple of weeks ago and had the idea of going to Bennett Springs State Park while he was here. It's only about an hour away from the house so we loaded up the gear and headed out.

Come to find out the state park is a nationally known trout fishing area. It's amazing what you can learn when you get out of the house!

They have a fish hatchery in the state park and they stock several thousand fish a day into the clear water stream for the fisherman. I took the GoPro with me to get a couple of water shots. I plan on going back with the underwater housing this summer but I may have to invest in a wet suit. The water in the stream is VERY cold, even on a hot day!

I just might have to put the camera down and try a little of this myself.

Up a creek

Looking down.

I didn't have a paddle either but in this case it didn't matter.

I was using Paul's tripod method on these photos, meaning I left it in the truck! LOL

Some of Paul's "I dunno" Flowers

You didn't really expect me to know the names did you?

More from the arboretum

I couldn't resist the skies while we were at the arboretum. They brought out a lot of texture in the photos. That, and I just like clouds!

Art on the Prairie

While in Minnesota we stopped at the University of Minnesota's Landscape Arboretum.  It's 1000 acres of plants, prairie and art.

You can take a 3.5 mile drive through the arboretum, stopping when you want to walk and look or you can walk the whole thing on trails and roads throughout the arboretum.

Being the adventurous soul that I am I chose to take the drive in the nicely air conditioned car.

What?? It was 90 degrees and humid. I may be adventurous but I'm not stupid!

We did get out and walk in several spots, constantly watching the horizon as it looked like a large storm to the west of us was going to spoil the day. The storm never got to us but it did make for some nice cloud shots.