Alaska!

Last week Peter handled the posts on the blog. I was far away. How far? Alaska! Janis & I decided to give cruising a try. Princess Cruises treated us mighty fine! I ate more than I should have, took it real easy and enjoyed visiting Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway. Here's a taste of what we saw...

This picture of our boat is taken from the airtram in Juneau.

Tracy Arm was unforgettably beautiful!

We just had to take the train up to the summit from Skagway and into northern British Columbia. It was such a historic journey - right up my alley!

On the trip up to the summit I photographed these trees capturing perfectly the mood of the cold and wet day and the landscape there.

Cruising back down the coast we found the next location where there is bound to be GOLD!

I hear you have to watch out for bears in Alaska... It's true! This one snuggled up against me unexpectedly and gave me quite a fright...

Playing Favourites

From time to time we have a little bit of down time at the shop. We like to use that time to try something new - so we build samples. We also find these samples help our clients who may have some trouble visualizing just what we can do for them. The results of this experimentation line the walls of the shop and fill the studio almost to overflowing. And if you have ever visited us you can attest that it can be a little overwhelming to see it all for the first time. 

The Tri-Angle Contracting Sign is one of my favourite samples. I believe I was in the middle of a math degree when it was put together so I can't take any credit. It has just enough "cartoon" in it to keep it interesting and I particularly love the patina on the treads. Although our current projects are lots of fun I must admit I'm looking forward to our next little bit of down time. Who knows what we will come up with next?

Family Photos

I was reviewing pictures from our recent trip to Disney Sea today and it didn't take me long to find one to focus in on. These stairs where poured with two different batches of coloured concrete and the ends of the treads were hand carved to simulate broken stone. It is a nice little detail typical of the park and is fairly representative of the photos we took while in the land of the rising sun.

After a little while I noticed something else about the picture and it made me chuckle. In the top right corner stand a pair of scuffed runners. Those are my feet. As I recall I am pointing out some particular detail in the stairs as my father takes the picture. If you scan through our photos you can often see portions of my limbs or the blur of my hands or head as I gesture at this or that. Occasionally my entire body (perhaps from behind) is standing next to something to give a sense of scale. The staff at Tokyo Disney are very friendly and would see us pointing at this or that and offer to take our picture for us. We always waved them off with a smile. The pictures from our "vacations" aren't like other families - and I would't have it any other way.

- Peter