Fwd: Morning at. Camp

> Morning fog at camp. A good night sleep and coffee/hot coco
> delivered to the camp site by the staff
>

Butchart gardens at night

On our recent trip to Victoria, we met up with some friends, and hit the Butchart Gardens. The gardens are all lit up with holiday cheer this time of year, and look very cool. While we were there a little over an hour, it probably snowed around 3 inches. Our van was totally covered by the time we were done. The down side was that photography while it is snowing is always a little dicey. Flash pictures usually look pretty odd with the flash reflecting off of the snowflakes. I did get some stunning long exposure photos of the lights in a couple of areas.

Off in the distance you can see the 8 maides a milking. They had different scenes from the 12 days of Christmas portrayed in lights. My favorite (it was snowing too much for a picture) was the four calling birds which were four birds with cell phones.

Here are a couple of great shots of the Sunken Garden all lit up. It's around a 5 second exposure and you might see a ghost or two of people walking through. It really looked that beautiful from the top of the ridge.

I also found out that for some reason the Canadians refer to the Madrone tree as an Arbutus. I saw several references to it in the area, and only after my friend Carl referred to it as an Arbutus did I realize what they were talking about.

Flying around Mt. Rainier

Lucas and I went flying with my brother last weekend. He's a private pilot, working on his instructors license. I'm hoping to be his practice student, and learn to fly at the same time. It's actually really cool, since I'm the older brother, and while we were growing up, I was always ahead of him in everything. This time, he's the one that is ahead of me. He gets a chance to teach me how to fly and I'm frankly enjoying the shift in roles.

This flight, we put Lucas in the front seat, and I sat in back. We met up with some of my brothers friends, who were flying down to Packwood. I managed to get some pretty cool shots around Mt. Rainier.

Lucas was a little nervous in the front seat. At first, he didn't want to do it. But a little encouragement, and he went along. My brother had him rest his hands on the controls to feel his way along. After a short while, he was maintaining level flight, and making some controlled turns. He had a blast.

My brother is actually a pretty darn good teacher, very knowledgable and patient.

Now Lucas wants to know how old he has to be to get a pilots license.

Blazing saddles - last summer camp as a Cub Scout

The boy had a lot of fun at Blazing Saddles this summer. This was his last time there as a camper, as he is a Webelos 2 this year, and next year he will transition into Boy Scouts.

He passed the swimmer test. They upped the requirements this year, making it equivalent to the BSA swimmer test, in order to get into the open water area. He really wanted to swim out to the raft, so pushed himself the extra mile to get through it. Not all of the dads that took the test were able to swim that far. He also ran through the Aquanot achievement, learning some basics of water safety and how to throw a life ring.

They had a rule that each boat had to have a Swimmer in it. It was also really cool seeing him grow up from past years. This year, he was able to take a boat out with two other boys. He was very responsible out there on the water.

After camp, we're all a little tired walking out stuff out.

Here's a great shot of the boy after camp. There is a great vista behind him in this shot, taken overlooking a valey.

Challenges as a scoutleader

Challenges as a scout leader
Camp this year just felt a little different. The Boys had a great time I think. We had one unfortunate incident where one of the boys who has a little trouble respecting boundaries had an altercation with one of the other dads. The other dad got so frustrated that he ended up grabbing the boy, trying to take away a glow stick that had been taken from one of the other kids. Adults just don't grab boys in scouts, unless safety is the concern. The result was that this dad decided it was best to leave camp, which of course made it very difficult on his son.

A very tough spot to be in, and very sad too. However he had escalated the situation too far in this day of child protection. Years ago, when I was a kid, the other boy would have been given a spanking, and that would have been the end of it. The situation kind of put a damper on the last day of camp.

Silverwood outside of Spokane

How soon they grow up... Only a year ago, he was uncertain about going in the water over his head. In July, weekend we visited my mothers in Spokane, (His friends think she's cool, since she plays World of Warcraft) and she took us to Silverwood.
Man that wave pool seems like great exercise. My legs are incredibly sore.



He really enjoyed running his grandmother through the waterfalls in the river
The boy had a great time on the water slides, and in the wave pool. Kept wanting to go back... Obviously we'll need to do this again next summer.

A new Grill for Father's Day

So I broke down today and bought a new grill. Whenver I looked at the used ones on Craigs List, I kept thinking for not too much more, I could get a new one. And when I looked at the new ones, I realized that they were painted, and I had had a lot of trouble with the paint on the last one that I had, having refinished it twice. And I also realized that they were put together rather flimsy. So for not too much more again, I could get a stainless one...

Oh well, but it sure is pretty... And I am sure that the food tastes even better off of a pretty grill than it does off of a painted grill that is flimsy and where the paint on the outside has burned or is oxidizing... Fortunately, I found a good sale price so I didn't have to go to the super duper expensive ones...

Happy Father's Day!

-Stuart-