I can't wait for the loggers jubilee!!

I've been waiting all summer for the loggers jubilee and it's almost here! I'll be in Morton Saturday for those events and around most of Lewis County for the rest of the weekend showing off the area to my friend Joe from San Francisco.


Friday night Sharyn called me about a possible drowning on the Cowlitz. Headed out towards Toledo with Sharyn on the phone directing me to some boat ramps. Sharyn's first guess proved to be lucky because I showed up before most of the hoopla. Turned out that it was just some drunk teenagers and one of them wandered to shore. When she got to shore, her raft floated away, and she decided that it would be a good idea to hike through the woods back to the car. Her four friends, who were each in their own small rafts, called her in missing because as they floated down river they didn't see her. She was later found out on a sandbar in the middle of the river. She was picked up by boat and reunited with one of her friends and they were both brought down river for questioning. The girl who was lost was SO drunk that she couldn't even stand up to get out of the boat. Her friend had to carry her out of the boat and up the ramp to the group of troopers waiting for them. And oh man did this girl hate me and my camera. I've never been sworn at so much while photographing. Drunk girl was crazy!


Spent the evening at a picnic hosted by the Lewis County Republicans. The picnic was a kick-off for the campaign season and also served and a venue for a lot of swollen egos and hot air. I am so sick of being shmoozed. Apparently my camera and affiliation with the newspaper is like wearing a sandwich board that says, "Come talk to me! Take up all my time while I am here and make it super awkward for me to get out of the conversation!" It's awful. Even if they were Democrats I think I'd still feel this way. I mean, don't get me wrong, they were a super nice bunch of Republicans.


Spent the morning/afternoon at the same place I spent my entire Sunday. I had googled a place to go get some clasps for a few broken necklaces and I found a place called Shipwreck Beads. The name alone was reason to check it out. As I headed back to the freeway I saw a sign that said state park so I followed it. The road took me to Tolmie State Park. Free parking! It was a totally awesome beach. When I was there yesterday the tide was really high. When I went back this morning, there were about 300 more yards of beach. It was incredible. I love exploring tide pools and shorelines so this was totally up my ally. I spent most of the morning walking around exposed beach poking at craps and chasing fish. I got a call from Nick at the office while I was there and he said to make a picture.


Nothing too exciting.


Saturday was the Yard Birds reunion/paint the big bird. Everyone in town knows that that bird looks like, so I tried to do something different than photos we've run in the past. I forget how I ended up inside the bird, because all this time I never even thought it was hollow.. I don't know why. Nothing that huge could be solid. It's gigantic! Anyways, the bird is made out of paper mache and it was in desperate need of a face lift. The store has been closed a little over 10 years, but the bird still stands. A few employees came out and a bunch of local families showed up to help paint. This woman worked there when she was 15. She had a good story about how she broke a fellow employee's arm during one of her shifts. I didn't help paint, but I bought an awesome Yard Birds shirt. Be on the lookout of a picture of me wearing that shirt standing in front of the bird.


Another photo from inside the bird.


This is the guy that let me fly his plane. What was he thinking?? No really.. he was very trusting. And said that I did really well! I had a lot of fun on this assignment. Stuff like this reminds me how lucky I am to be doing what I do.


He flew me over the steam plant since I hadn't gotten to see that yet. I always see the big plume over the city, but that's about it. It was hard to imagine just how huge of an operation it is. There are huuuuuge trucks that look so tiny from the sky. All those yellow dump trucks have wheels that are 10 feet high. These photos don't even begin to show how much area is being used. I would have loved to have made more photos from this.. but honestly, I was trying so hard not to puke in this guys' plane. Looking down while the plane was bumping up and down all over the place was like the worst car ride of my life. Needless to say I wasn't as ambitious about getting file photos as I should have been. But not I know what to expect next time I climb into a little place. And now I also know to bring some dramamine.






I got a somewhat scary demonstration on what to do in the event that the engine fails. We were suuuuper high up and then he let the engine idle. We slowed down pretty good. To further the demonstration, we floated down towards the ground and then landed in a farmer's field. (A legitimate place to land because he knows the guy who owns it.) This image is from the take off in the field.


I think I called/texted all of you about this.. but I flew the plane! I thought this guy was joking when I showed up and he was like, "You'll be getting a lesson just wait and see." Not too long into the flight was like okay you're turn. I've never been so scared. It was so much fun though! You don't even have to look out the window. Everything is on the dash in front of you. It was totally like playing a video game.


Spotted this not too long after take-off. It's Adam's house! And that big store next to us won't sell me beer because I don't have a Washington state ID. What's with that?