Category Archives: Travel

Turtles at Rest

The reef by our hotel was home to some green turtles. They seemed to have developed a good schedule. Morning was feeding time. They would go out on the reef and spend their time nibbling away at the plant life growing on the rocks and coral. By early afternoon they would have pulled themselves up onto the beach in an area the hotel had fenced off to keep people away. There they would sleep all afternoon and into the night. Come by during the afternoon and you could see them. In the evening, lights on the beach would be switched on and you could still make them out a little way above the waterline.

No pictures from me of them in action. I saw plenty of them while snorkeling on the reef and sometimes they would come and check me out. You are meant to avoid disturbing them but when they come after you, it is hardly your fault. However, I did kill my GoPro while out snorkeling so the photo opportunities were lost and will have to remain as memories. Shots of them on the beach were a lot easier though so that is what we have here.

Cinder Cones

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The active volcanoes are cool to see but the landscape on the Big Island is dotted with plenty examples of where the earth has had a previous effort at disgorging its contents. The mountains of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea look exactly like you would expect a volcano to look with a nice big flat conical structure. However, the eruptions have not all come from the top of the mountain. There have been regular eruptions from weak points along the surface of the mountains and these eruptions have left their mark in more ways than just the lava flows scarring the slopes below them.

When the lava breaks out, it hardens as it reaches the surface. The deposits around the opening grow and you create a mini version of the mountain. These are called cinder cones. They are scattered all around the landscape and each was the site of a previous eruption. The center is hollow where the lava flowed out and sometimes the weakest side may have collapsed to leave the cone a little more exposed. The color of the rock can be pretty dramatic too. They look so benign now but at their most active peak, these places would have been spewing forth huge quantities of red hot molten rock. They would not have been a good place to be.

Helijet S-76s

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Our trip to Vancouver was not one for me to spend time photographing aviation. However, I did manage to sneak some shots in while I was there. Watching the floatplane operations was a lot of fun but it meant I didn’t get to go to the heliport further along the shoreline. This was fine by me but I did still see some of the Helijet S-76s as they departed and arrived since they came across the harbor albeit at a distance. I grabbed a few images for now. I guess I have multiple reasons for making a return trip to Vancouver before too long. I know Nancy won’t object to returning! Better not mention the helicopters just yet though.

Oh, a Lockheed 12!

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My visit to Port Townsend Aero Museum (which is covered in this post) was followed up by a quick walk around the ramp near the museum. There were plenty of cool types around but I was instantly drawn to a Lockheed 12 that was parked up. From a distance you could confuse this with a Beech 12 if you weren’t paying attention but, as soon as you look closer, the longer lines of the Lockheed show themselves.

Apparently this airframe is for sale. I am not familiar with the pricing of old aircraft but I believe that the Lockheed goes for an awful lot more than the similar Beech. I guess there are a lot more Beeches around. This one was tail on to the sun which was a touch inconvenient but, since they were willing to let me shoot to my heart’s content, I was hardly going to complain. A little HDR helps too.

Goat Families Stripping the Vegetation

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The Big Island has a large population of wild goats. All of the larger animals on the island were introduced by the visiting peoples at some point and the goats obviously got well established. You can come across them at all sorts of places as you travel the island. I saw them a number of times but the one time I got to get shots of them was while waiting for my helicopter trip across the island. They hang around the landing pads that Sunshine Helicopters use a lot and, according to our pilot, they are not always too enthusiastic about vacating the pads when the helicopters arrive!

While we were waiting, they were certainly not shy. There were both adult goats and some kids in the group that showed up. The kids were clearly more timid and they would not go anywhere until the adults had been there a while to show that it was safe to do so. They would stay back in the bushes for a while before coming out into the open. As soon as there was any disturbance, they would jump back to somewhere that felt safer.

It was quite interesting to see how the group behaved when they first showed up. The whole group hung back in the bushes for a while. Gradually, as they realized that the people that were hanging around were not a threat, they became more comfortable in getting out in the open. Anything that disturbed the environment would get them back out of the way but they would soon become comfortable again and come back out. Indeed, we were soon so used to them that we were a bit bored with their intrusion too and we both went about our way with little concern for the other.

Roche Harbor

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Roche Harbor used to be a lime production site. A couple of the old lime kilns are still in place although no longer operational. However, now the focus has been on transforming it in to a tourist and residential destination. There is a hotel, shops and restaurants. Plots of land are being developed into residences and there is a large marina. The place is picturesque enough but it is a bit isolated from the rest of the island. It had a bit of a feel of the sort of town in which everything is controlled by one company and the rules must be followed. Maybe I am being unfair but that is how it seemed to me. We walked around a bit to see what was on offer but we were soon on our way again.

Stanley Park Totem Poles

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The native heritage is strong in the Pacific Northwest. Stanley Park has an area at Brockton Point that displays a variety of totem poles. I am not sure of the age of these poles but they are kept in good condition and look great. I understand many are replicas as the originals have been sent for preservation but others are more recent additions to the park. Getting pictures of them is slightly tricky. Something tall and thin does not necessarily make for a dynamic picture. Instead, I focused on some of the details of the poles rather than the whole thing although getting a view of how many of them there were did seem to make sense.

Aside from the poles, there are portals to the park that welcome the visitors. These caught my eye quite a bit but seemed to get less attention from the other visitors. I guess the totem poles are iconic and so are likely to get the most interest. Supposedly this area is the most visited tourist attraction in British Columbia. I certainly have no reason to doubt that given how many people were there while we were.

Lime Kiln State Park

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Further up the coast from Grandma’s Cove was Lime Kiln State Park. The area used to be a hive of lime production – hence the name of the park – but now the focus was on the lovely shoreline and the great views. The inclusion of a lighthouse certainly did nothing to harm the view. There were also the remains of a fortification of some sort on a headland which we had seen from further away when traveling towards to the park up the coast road.

The lighthouse provided a base for a volunteer group that was tracking the wildlife in the area. They had some signs identifying which whales had been seen in the area and when. We did not time our visit there well to see the whales although we did catch some later in the day further up the coast. The volunteers had binoculars to lend out to visitors if they needed them but, with no whales to be seen, we didn’t require them this time.

Grandma’s Cove

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Take a walk from Americas Camp on San Juan Island and you are quickly down by the water. One of the trails leads to a lovely little bay called Grandma’s Cove. I don’t know who Grandma was or even whose grandma she was. Why the cove was hers is a mystery to me too. However, she obviously had pretty good taste because it is an idyllic spot. Almost no one was there when I visited. Unfortunately, a couple of guys were down on the beach and were interested in making art in the sand. This disrupted my vision of the shots a touch but, when you are somewhere so lovely, it is hard to be upset about anything for long.

Friday Harbor

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Despite spending quite a few days in Friday Harbor, I didn’t actually take many pictures of the town itself. However, when arriving and departing, we had a better view of the town laid out around the harbor. The waterfront is prime real estate and, as you come in on the ferry, you get to see some very nice places on the island in the middle of the harbor. The area surrounding the harbor is more accessible for development and so there are a lot of places that are considerably closer together that the really pricey places.

Our hotel was a little up the hill and so had a nice view across the harbor. The construction activity below us means a slight distraction from the picturesque ideal but it really was a fantastic spot to hang out for a drink in the evening or for breakfast first thing (or as close to first thing as we could manage while on vacation!).