It's Almost New Year's Eve

Well I've done it, I'm going to show you some of my favorite photos of 2008. It's my blog, and I feel like doing this thing, so there. Anyway enjoy.

Dan

The Year End Question

What is the year end question? Why I'm glad you have asked, it is, will this blog reduce itself to the level of so many other publications and do a week long retropective look at the blogger's favorite photos of 2008. The answer is no, well not tonight at least. For tonight I give you Snoqualmie Falls through the years.

Wow!

Dan

Best Gift of 2008

Thanks to my wife for giving me the best gift of the year. Now my desk has a skull on it just like the old pre-revolutionary painting of Calvinist businessmen and old man Potter.

Dan

The End of a Cold Spell

Today marked the first time in two weeks that rain has fallen on our home in North Bend, but not before we received another inch or so of snow. Today's photo then is of Snoqualmie Falls, after two weeks of cold and snow. Now that Christmas is behind us, I will be getting back to the more interesting stuff, or at least dustier stuff.

Enjoy

Dan

The Night Before Christmas

Merry Christmas readers of America's Finest Blog, may your yule tide be peaceful and pleasant.

If you are looking in the skies tonight you might catch a glimpse of this fella.

And when he gets to North Bend, it will look like this...

Merry Christmas to all!

Season's Greetings

Tonight's photo is from the Cadillac Ranch, which is located just outside Amarillo, Texas, the helium capital of the world and home of the The Big Texan Steak Ranch and its' 72oz steak. Amarillo is a fine town, but that is a different story, we are more interested in the Cadillac Ranch. The Cadillac Ranch is an ever changing piece of art, the paint schemes and graffiti are always evolving on all 10 cars. I have heard people complain about the graffiti and the changing paint schemes, but I personally think the constant change in appearance is cool, and keeps the piece new and relevant. And it is cool to know that it is likely that nobody else saw all ten cars exactly as Darby and I saw them that cold December morning, so we are lucky to have seen it when we did. Anyway, blah blah blah, tonight's photo does have a seasonal flare about it.

Merry Christmas

Dan

Driving Across the Country

10 years ago this week, my that doesn't make me feel young, my friend Darby and I sent out from Kansas City, MO, to drive back to Ellensburg by Christmas. This was both the best and worst vacation ever, I hadn't left Ellensburg for about a year prior to this trip, so leaving E-burg made it a great time, but the bitter cold and snow made it rough going. Not to mention the cramped quarters within the Ford Escort we drove. Still it a grand time and I still have some vivid memories, like the news guy in Tulsa, trying to explain the difference between frost and ice and the waitress and the Oklahoma City Denny's that told us ten times, that if we went back out on the road we were going to die. And I remember the bitter cold, wind chills in Texas were in the -40's, making us look like Laplanders. All in all a road trip.

Dan

Day Labor Santa - Yet Another Tale from the Winter Celebration Zone

Sometimes you just have to wonder what Department Store Santa's other job might be. Or which overpass he lives under and if he is frustrated by Mayor Nickels' ban on fortified liquor.

Happy Holidays!

Dan

Snow Day

Thanks to the Puget Sound Convergence Zone, we had the day off, as Bellevue was pounded by snow. So we took advantage of the opportunity to go play in the snow. Here are a couple pictures from today.

Enjoy

Dan

Return of the Winter Celebration Zone

Today's installment in the Winter Celebration Zone, Child with Weird Ziggy Stardust Santa Thing. I'm not sure who the child is, or more importantly what the child is sitting next too. It is as if Santa listened to way too much crazy cosmic jive.

Happy Holidays!

Dan

Snoqualmie Falls

Today I bring my faithful readers, Snoqualmie Falls on a really cold day.

Stay warm.

Dan

Brrrrr. But No Snow

Well the snow avoided North Bend. Well not completely, it did snow Saturday night, but the dry wind that blew in behind it has dried things up rather nicely. My plan was to show pretty pictures of snowy Riverbend tonight, but that just didn't work out, so I've had to go another direction. And since it is rather boring to show photos of a 7 degree wind chill factor, the direction I've chosen is palm trees and tall cotton, and a train for my son, who is in rainy San Diego.

Enjoy

Dan