The Oregon of the East Coast

Pouring rain, taken from the deck.

I have an amazing, wonderful coworker named Mary. Being the amazing, wonderful person she is, Mary allowed Les and me to take our vacation in her cabin on the shores of Lake Champlain. It was gorgeous and, in the tradition of all our great vacations, it rained the whole time.

This led me to compare Vermont with the Pacific Northwest and I realized something, Vermont is the Oregon of the East Coast. Let's compare the two shall we?

Vermont is a lush, green state full of liberal, gay and granola people. Everywhere you look you see people with kayaks and bikes strapped to their vehicle, and bumper stickers and signs supporting legalizing marijuana and buying local food. The speed limit is lower than the states around it and the people actually drive the speed limit for the most part. The tax structure is extremely progressive. And when you say you are going on vacation there, everyone tells you to go see the place where they make that really awesome cheese.

Whereas Oregon is a lush, green state full of liberal, gay and granola people. Everywhere you look you see people with kayaks and bikes strapped to their vehicle, and bumper stickers and signs supporting legalizing marijuana and buying local food. The speed limit is lower than the states around it and the people actually drive the speed limit for the most part. The tax structure is extremely progressive. And when you say you are going on vacation there, everyone tells you to go see the place where they make that really awesome cheese.

I'm working on editing photos from this vacation now and will post more about it soon.

Lush and green, but is it Vermont or Oregon?

Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head

Thunderstorm near Entiat.

One of my favorite things to do, ever since I was a child, is to sit outside and watch a summer thunderstorm. I'm not exactly sure what it is that makes it so wonderful, but there is just something about it, the heat and the rain and that slight taste of electric charge in the air, that makes me feel peaceful. It gives me a sense of calm and apparently it puts me in a really good mood.

My windshield at a gas station near Missoula.

I say that because it seems like every time Les and I go somewhere and have, not just a great time, but an amazing time, it's raining. I can't ever remember rain ruining something we wanted to do. The only time I can remember the two of us doing something together and not liking the rain is when we moved across the country. It rained across the entire state of Montana (which is a really big-ass state) and then on and off for the rest of the Midwest. And as much as I hated driving in the rain at night through driving-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-freeway-construction, the experience wouldn't have been the same without more than 1,000 miles in the rain. It gives the story just a little bit of umph. 

Water collected in alpine lupine leaves on Devil's Spur, May 2010.

The best hiking trip I've ever been on was the Devil's Spur trail near Wenatchee. Les and I had different days off every week and we didn't often do fun things together. But he took some time off on my day off and we went hiking. It was raining the whole time and very foggy, a true northwest experience. We were both fascinated by the leaves of the alpine lupine plants and how the water collects in them. It led to a great conversation about evolution, survival and leaves. To date it is one of the best days Les and I have ever spent together. There was no thunder and lightning, pretty uncommon in Washington, but the rain and fog definitely added to the atmosphere of the experience.

Tree leaning over a cliff in the fog, Devil's Spur.

And it's not just rain at home that makes me happy, it works on vacation too. In October of 2009 Les and I went to Vancouver, B.C. We attended a U2 concert, which would have been extremely awesome regardless of the weather. But the next day we explored the city and spent a great deal of time in Stanley Park. It was drizzling the entire trip, we took the scenic route and it started just while we were on the North Cascades Highway and didn't stop until we hit Blewett Pass on the way home. It was a wonderful trip and the rain was perfect to give the park that classic Pacific Northwest (or since it was Canada I suppose it would be Southwest) feel. It was never too hot and it never really got cold, perfect vacation weather.

That's not to say that I don't like the sun, because I do. You know those really hot, dog days of summer that people complain about? I love those days! But my favorite part of summer will always be standing outside in an electrical storm. 

Les displaying Canada's claim to fame in the rain

20th Annual Buffalo Gay Pride

Last weekend Les and I decided to check out Buffalo. We're not much farther from it than we are from Rochester but we just hadn't been there. We decided to go on a Sunday, our shared day off. While Googling things to do and/or see in Buffalo, we noticed their Gay Pride Parade and Festival happened to be on a Sunday, so we decided to go that day. (Probably a good thing, because it turns out, there isn't much to do or see in Buffalo and Pride was fun.)

So this (really long) post is going to be my photos from that day. We got to Buffalo, watched the parade, wandered around town for a while and eventually made it to the waterfront for the festival. During all of this it was great weather, not too hot, so I got terribly sunburned because I didn't notice how long I had been out in the sun.

A few things about the photos; the ones from the parade are what I could get, there were a lot of people in front of me and I didn't get as many photos as I wanted. Also, at the festival, I tried shooting from the hip and I learned a few things. Shooting from the hip on a crowded street is like shooting lightning, the shots that turn out are really awesome, but for every one you get that turns out, you get at least 20 that really suck. Unlike lightning the ones that suck aren't just black shots of nothing, they're of crotches and asses. When I wasn't shooting from the hip I was focusing on taking photos of people taking photos, dogs and hunting for interesting t-shirts. So, on to the photos...

The beginning of the parade.

I focused on dogs in the parade, too.

I just thought she was cool.

One of the reasons I like the Gay Pride Parade so much more than all other parades is the stuff that gets handed out or tossed. We came away with reusable shopping bags, chips, Otter Pops, beads, water and condoms. Way better than stale Tootsie Rolls Dum-Dums.

Gotta love the fat suit.

Ribbons off the back of the Planned Parenthood RV, they threw condoms.

I was impressed by the level of talent she had, she didn't falter once that I could see.

I don't know what float this was, maybe a local nightclub,  but I liked the outfits.

Pride pug!

I really have no clue what these were, but they looked heavy.

Pride  buffalo, you can't see from this angle, but she was also wearing a g-string.

Lady Godiva.

What's a Gay Pride Parade without fundie Christian protesters?

More Christians, much cooler message, but WAY worse sign planning. 

These guys were checking out the ships in the Erie Canal.

I wish I knew what kind of dog this is, it was really cool looking.

I don't know who this is, but she must be famous because she was signing people left and right.

I'm not usually a fan of dressing dogs up, but at least she didn't spend a ton of money on dog sized clothes, he wears a men's large.

Look at that adorable face!

Tiny dogs are totally chick magnets.

Then again, maybe it wasn't the dog.

T-shirt spotting.

The woman taking surveys, she reminds me of someone I know, especially in this photo.

I like this guy's shirt and he's taking photos.

Another two-fer, cute dog and cool t-shirt, it says "Stealth Butch"

I don't know what this guy's deal was, but I took his photo anyway.

This guy took a photo of me taking a photo of him taking a photo of me. I'm pretty sure he was a reporter.

I had more fun watching the sign language interpreter than the band. She was getting into the music but having trouble understanding the words, we all were.

Another amusing t-shirt.

I didn't catch the name of this band, and it definitely wasn't my type of music. The covers they did seemed pretty crowd pleasing though.

I know I don't always hold my camera exactly the right way, it hurts my wrist, but at least I didn't blow almost $1,000 on an SLR camera and then not even use the eye piece. This guy hurt my brain.

A lucky shot, I caught them right as the band started playing their favorite song.

Not just chick magnets.

Coordinated cute t-shirts.

Another adorable face.

 hslekfjoiwnsvv  rifjarf

Lilac Festival...Kinda Sorta

HUGE lilac bush at Highland Park. I made Les stand next to it, but I don't think even that does it justice.

Highland Park in Rochester.

Last weekend Les and I decided to go to Rochester and check out the Lilac Festival we had been hearing so much about. It was raining, but When we got to the parking area the attendant told us that because of the weather the musical performances had been canceled and "some of the vendors have voluntarily closed up." We decided we weren't really there to see the music and the flowers would still be pretty and to chance it. So we went ahead and paid the lady $5 for parking and walked into the park.

Magnolia tree in the wind.

The rain started to pick up and by the time we made it to the lilacs it had gotten pretty windy. So most of my photos suck. But it was absolutely beautiful. I wish there was a way to capture the smell because it was unbelievable, rain and wet dirt and millions of flowers.

We wandered around and took several photos, most of which didn't turn out because of the wind and the rain. But the ones that did turn out were pretty cool because of the water droplets clinging to everything. The only photos I really wanted but didn't get were some close ups of lilacs. The wind was just too much.

Beautiful dark purple tulip in the rain.

But aside from not getting perfect photos, we had a great time. There were almost no people around, so no fighting to navigate umbrellas, no getting in people's way to take photos. And we were hoping no lines or crowds at the actual festival. Unfortunately the parking attendant was a bit conservative in her statement about the vendors, it wasn't that some of them had voluntarily closed down, they were ALL gone and so was there stuff. I think she had to have known that but she went on ahead and took our money anyway. The entire festival was abandoned, but it still smelled like funnel cake. Strange but true, funnel cake and lilac, two great smells that smell great together.

Abandoned festival grounds, origin of the funnel cake smell.

After we arrived at the festival area and found it empty, the wind and the rain started to pick up. So much so that we had to put the cameras away and use both hands to keep our umbrellas from flying away. By the time we got back to the car, ours was the only one in the entire lot. We were also completely soaked. Our shoes were completely full of water, our pants were completely saturated all the way up to our knees. We couldn't stop laughing about it.

But I loved the rain, I loved seeing the park without the bother of hundreds of other people, I loved how pretty the flowers were with the raindrops clinging to them, but most of all I loved tromping through the rain with Les. It was a wonderful weekend. But we will definitely try again next year for a more traditional Lilac Festival experience.

Pansy display at the festival area.

Les taking photos right before his umbrella turned inside out and we decided to put away the cameras.