Grand Teton NP / Jackson Hole, Wyoming

After our stop in Livingston, we headed south through Yellowstone NP into the Jackson Hole area of Wyoming, where we spent some time venturing through Grand Teton National Park and floating several days on the Snake River. Of course, we had to be there for the first snowfall of the year... go figure.

Taking in some scenery...

Dad shows off a nice cutthroat trout caught on a gray caddis fly...

Taking a break...

Latest Asia Trip

Off the coast of Japan...

Pretty neat to see the GPS map and look out the window and see the same landmarks from 20,000 feet...

Hong Kong...

Hot and humid as usual for August, but still a fun city to visit from time to time... these two shots are from Victoria Peak...

This is a night shot from my hotel room window...
First Light...

I took this shot a couple of hours West of San Francisco... picture doesn't do the real thing justice, but still pretty beautiful.

Yellowstone River Trip

I headed over to Livingston, Montana for a few days to float the Yellowstone River with my Dad. We didn't catch a lot of fish worth bragging about. I got one 14" rainbow trout and between the two of us we got a dozen or so smaller trout. We got enough whitefish to fill the boat over twice, tho. The Jungle Fire was burning the forests/mountain just to our east, and each afternoon we could see the smoke billow up to some pretty impressive heights.

A few words of advice... definitely eat dinner at the Montana Ribs and Chop House (http://www.ultimatemontana.com/sectionpages/Section4/Livingston/mtribnchop.html) in town, and don't stay at the Livingston Best Western hotel.

You can see the smoke from the Jungle Fire behind my dad over the ridge... Dad, Mike & Shendy get ready to launch away from Mallard's Rest... that is the last view of that anchor... :( It was lost later that afternoon in a deep pool.

James Anderson, of George Anderson's Yellowstone Angler (http://www.yellowstoneangler.com/)poses with Dad and the driftboat in Livingston...

Mid-Summer's Eve Ride to Mt. St. Helens

In late July, I took a ride up to Mt. St. Helens in hopes of seeing the glow of the lava dome at night, but unfortunately, the new dome in the middle of the crater is so high now, that it is blocking the view of any new lava coming into the crater if you are looking at it from the north, but I still managed to get in some good pictures.

Me in my leathers...

Here is the sunset from Johnston Ridge... While I was there, a small earthquake caused a rock slide and steam release that I was able to take a few pictures of...

Fading lights...

Awning Project

In June and July, I finally got around to covering the cement slab in the back yard this summer with the help of my neighbor Xander... basically, its a 16'x20' cover, 2x8 beams, 5/8" plywood and 30 year roofing. Cracked a couple of ribs in the process of putting it up, but it got done. Its got two skylights offcenter to let a little light in. Its raining as I write this, and I just checked for leaks and did not find any, so I guess we did an OK job. :) Here you can see the 2x8s against the ledger that we put into the side of the house...
Here is the completed structure, without any roofing...

With the roofing paper down, and piles of shingles ready to go...

And the finished product... skylights and all...