Day at the Park

Day at the Park

One Saturday afternoon, we went to the Aerospace Museum in Balboa Park. I had never been to this museum - even though the rest of my family had been there. We had a great time of wandering through the exhibits and seeing aviation change over time.
This SR71 was given to the museum about 10 years ago. I remember seeing pictures in the paper of the transport trucks from Miramar moving the plane (in pieces) down CA 163 and into the park.

I thought that these shots were interesting - They show some of the exhibits as they are set up in the museum.

After spending some time inside - we all needed to get outside for a while. The weather had been dreary for a few days, but we were begining to see some blue sky breaking through.

Ocean Beach Sunset

Ocean Beach Pier

Sunday afternoon - the boys and I went to Ocean Beach to the city pier. It had rained and hailed here almost all the day before. I was wondering what the waves looked like after a large storm.
This is a picture of the Ocean Beach inn. I liked the shot - the skateboarders just kind of makes you feel as if you are in a beach town.
This is a picture of the pier. It was interesting when we were there. There was a photographer with a 12 inch view camera taking a picture from nearly this same view point. He was down near the water - and was lugging a big, heavy camera and tripod. I was very impressed. Digital is so much faster and easier.

This is one of the final shots that I took. This is from the Pier looking West (obviously). The boys were getting cold - but I convinced them to stay for another 5 minutes while I took a last set of shots. We then walked the length of the pier and back to the truck. Walking through Ocean Beach is 'interesting' to say the least.

Awana Games 2006

Awana Games

I have put the photos on the costco web site. Feel free to browse and print the ones you want!
Photos at Costco



Saturday, Feb 25 was the Awana Games at the Ramona High School. Many of the different Awana clubs from around the San Diego area met for a day of fun, competition and excitement. Our club from CABC made it to 2nd place. Way to go team!


Hand off that baton!


Before the games started - we all met in the same gym to hear a little about what the day would hold for all.


Our Team before we started the competition.

After one of our brief rainy periods in San Diego - we often get nice sunsets. I went out late on Saturday afternoon to an overlook at the end of our street and waited for a sunset. It was not as spectacular as I was hoping.
In this first picture - the black spot is not dust on my sensor (I first started to panic that I had a big spot on it) but is a helicopter making it's way in for a landing.


I typically don't like photos with power lines included - but since I was standing directly under the power transmission lines to the entire Eastern San Diego area - I decided to try to incorporate them into the shot.

In October, 2005 - we went on a short vacation. We drove from our home to the Los Angeles area. We spent a day in Simi Valley - visited the Reagan Library. It was very nicely done. In one section - they had period clothes that you could put on. This is a picture of Jesse when he tried on some Civil War era clothing.



We also stopped by the San Fernando Mission where we could wander around and see the California history. What a great day.

Last Saturday - we went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park for a day of seeing the animals and photographing them. We had a great turnout for the club. The day was great - cool - but with lots of sunshine. This is a picture that I never expected would turn out. I was shooting into the sun and I expected the colors to be completely washed out. As it turned out, I ended up liking it a lot. I like the contrast of the pink birds against the dark green background and the dark brown water.
What do you think?


Here is a picture of Jesse in the petting zoo. He loved the time there. He has such a tender heart for animals. He was able to feed some of the deer and I was able to get some good shots.

I recently recieved an award from work. What do you think I bought with the money? Yep - you guessed it - more photo stuff. I picked up a Canon 17-40 f4 L lens to go on my Canon 20D. While this is not the fastest lens that I could have bought - it had very good ratings on color and performance. Here is one of the first examples that I have taken with it. So far - I am very impressed.
I also had to deal with a big issue with my computer - ended up reloading windows. After that - I had the pleasure (not) of re-loading all of my applications. I think that I am about back to where I was before. I am still having performance issues and ramdom crashes. It is working better than it was a few weeks ago.

I was assigned to Jury Duty today. While I was never asked to go to a jury panel - I did have a nice time at lunch. I had the opportunity to take some pictures of downtown San Diego, CA.






This picture was taken near the San Diego Convention Center. Love that green grass in the middle of January!





This is a picture of one of the larger buildings in the downtown area.

Of course: I have to have a picture of Sam the dog. He came all the way from the twin cities area.




Here is a photo that I took of the cousins. I used this picture as our lead-in to The Short Group. While this group is not used as much as some - it keeps our small family informed of goings-on.
Yes - the two taller ones are mine. The shorter boy and the girl belong to my sister. The cousins only get together about once a year - but they have a great time when they do!




Here is a picture that I liked of my brother-in-law. He lives in the Twin Cities area. He is married to my sister and they have a law office in the area where they live.

Each Christmas - we travel from San Diego, CA to Colorado Springs, CO to visit family. I get up early one morning to take pictures of the sun rising and hitting Pike's Peak (14110 feet above sea level). This is one of the shots that I took this year. I took many - it is hard to determine which is best.

This trip - we decided to not spend the time in a hotel - and drive straight through from Colorado Springs to San Diego. The weather was great - we get fairly good gas mileage on our car - and the kids are old enough to sit for a long time in the car. We made it home in about 19 hours. I was really tired on the drive in from Yuma, AZ to San Diego.

While this is my first post on this blog - I have used other blogs in the past. The most recent one I used did not seem to capture full sized photos. Since the bulk of what I want to capture here is photos with some interesting text - I decided to make a switch to this instead of the other blog.