Mix-and-Match Weekend!

Rick had a 3 day weekend this weekend and, for the most part, we stayed pretty busy.  None of it had to do with the holiday pretty much but plenty to keep us going.  And it was promising weather-wise to be pretty nice.  Sunny day - cloudy day - sunny day, hey, 2 out of 3 ain't bad!

I had been planning to do my daughter-in-law's maternity portraits when the time came and she chose a "high key" style shot in trees and grass.  I told her that what she shared with me was a sunrise shot.  Then while they were garage sale shopping she and Kevin found the "perfect" place for the shoot in Enumclaw.  So part of our plans for Saturday was to go check out the spot.

I had some thoughts about certain "looks" for the photo shoot so we had to do some thrift-store shopping for the clothing and a prop or 2.  I don't think I found anything on Saturday but we still had another day to go before the big shoot.

So after lunch we hit another Goodwill, then swung out to the abandoned farm in Enumclaw and ended up talking to the neighbor.  A good turn of events because, while we would like to get permission to use these properties when we want to do a shoot, very often the owners are nearly impossible to locate.  The neighbor filled us in on the situation with this particular location and assured us that they would be OK with us using it for our intended purpose.  Great!  All we wanted was to wander around and pose in certain spots.  We hadn't intended to enter any buildings so as long as no one calls the police, etc, there won't be any problems.  

One of Rick's workmates has a tiny house on a Lake about 40 miles south of here and the lake people put on a fireworks show every year around the 4th (but not ON the 4th) and we end up there every couple years.  So we were heading out of Enumclaw southward and Rick decided to take some back roads.  We were just a couple miles out of Buckley when the traffic on the 2 lane country backroad came to a stop.  Looking up ahead we could see a large something laying in the road - dog? deer? cow?  No - PERSON!  His bike was on the left shoulder and he lay in a heap in the middle of our lane of traffic.  Someone was already tending to the man and others were already calling 911 so we chose to just turn around and leave.  That's such a hard thing to do when you witness something like that.  We wanted nothing more than to do our part to help but there's nothing that can be done, everything that can be done is already being done.  It was so creepy to see a human laying in the road.  (no news articles about a person killed on that road so he must have just been injured, but he sure didn't look good...)

So we tried a couple more back roads and kept hitting dead ends before we gave up and just drove the normal route.  It was a perfect day for sitting outside by the lake.  The lake folks had their water cannons and water balloons and as the boats did their "parade" around the lake the wars between boats and docks got people soaked.  It was great as long as you were in the sun but it would have been uncomfortable in the shade.  We stayed and visited with TJ and Debbie and her parents, eating brats and potato salad and left at dusk, 9ish.

I still wanted to collect some things for Shirley's photo shoot so suggested that Sunday, after my meeting, we go into Seattle to the HUGE Goodwill to look.  Sarah was in touch with Rick so she joined us.  We got some nice goodies including this little $100+ John Deere garden scooter for $13!  And I got the perfect gear for Shirley's shoot.

Sunrise came early after a night with nearly no sleep, my mind refusing to turn off even though I wasn't nervous or anxious about the shoot.  But we got up and picked Shirley up and drove out to the old farm, pulling around the back side of the house so as not to attract any attention that we were there on the uninhabited property.

It was a perfectly bright and sunny morning.  The grass was covered with dew which meant it would show up very nicely in pictures.  The worst thing, though, was that the grass was nearly waist high!  I wandered around a bit to see where I wanted to shoot and was soaked!  Shirley had to just hold her skirt up to her waist and her legs would have been totally wet!  We kind of broke our word and actually entered the old barn but were very respectful to not disturb anything except to rearrange some straw bales to use in the one little square of sun coming in the upper barn opening window thingy.  I peeked inside another barn, saw lots of bird droppings (we were looking for hay/straw) then something snorted!  I was listing what I was seeing "lots of bird poop, other little - - - and something alive!" as I slammed the door shut.  Later Rick peeked in too and as Shirley was warning him about the large animal we heard in there an hour earlier he noticed that the other little things that I was unable to identify were owl pellets - there was an owl in there and it made that snort?  Maybe!?!?

Our photo shoot actually went for 3 hours.  I did what I had in mind, then we did what Shirley had in mind, then Kevin and the boys joined us and we did a few family shots.  

Whew!  Glad that shoot was done!  For the rest of the day we just putsed around the house, I mowed, edged and washed cars.  Rick rotated the tires on the car that we're planning on taking on a road trip TOMORROW!  Keith put his new wheels on his car, washed it and went with friends up the hill to take pictures of their cars.

We ended the day with a nice salmon dinner.  I'm not a fish lover and kinda got a little freaked out when I saw that the fish was not filets but still had the skin and bones.  Rick didn't understand but I think he does now.  It was a good dinner and there really was no reason for me to freak, just one of those uncontrollable things that nearly all of us have, fears, phobias, etc.  Some things creep us out, freak us out and we can't stop it, we can only learn to make it a tolerable level of freaking.  I was trying to control it, but I guess I didn't do a very good job.  Sorry Dear!

So now Rick works for 2 days and then we're hitting the road for San Francisco.  I-5 to the Oregon/Cali border, then over to the coast for the drive to San Francisco on the slow, scenic route.  We'll tour the Bay area then head back up I-5 and, depending on our time, may head back over to the coast in Oregon, doing a figure 8 trip.

Stay tuned folks for the rest of the story...