Shortly after I posted last, the sun came back out for three days. But enough of my prescience.

I had the privilege this past weekend of witnessing the wedding of Justin and Sarah. Knowing I'm an amateur photographer and that my price would be right (will snap pics for food), Justin and I worked out a deal: I take engagement photos, he buys the milkshakes.

Congrats, Justin and Sarah!

The rain came today.

That sounds ominous, though it isn't. Ominous means "foreboding," suggesting that something worse may be imminent. We don't have to wait any longer. The clouds and rain are here.

And they came right on time, as summer officially ends this weekend. Let us pause for a moment and remember our young season that never really had a chance to mature.

In between working late, all-nighters, and the latest round of "summer" weather, I've still been able to get out and do a little hiking and/or camping. Two weekends ago, Ben and I camped along Canyon Creek Rd and hiked Canyon Ridge one day and Excelsior Pass the other day (Green Trails #13 Mount Baker).

Herewith, a few pictures from that weekend:

 
(Photo by Ben)

The remainder of that weekend's pictures are here.

Two weeks ago, a few us left work Thursday evening to get a burger.

At In-N-Out Burger in Redding, CA.

That was one fine burger. The camping was fun, too.

More pictoral evidence is here.

Road trip stats:

• cars rented: 1
• miles: 1773
• tents: 3
• times someone left a tent to sleep in the car: 2
• trips to In-N-Out: 2
• burger purchased: 3X3, Animal Style
• highest recorded temp: 102 degrees F
• minutes spent at Powell's: 30
• F-bombs dropped by the mother (to her family) from the adjacent campsite at Oak Bottom: uncountable
• circumference of largest redwood: heckuva big
• number of girls Ben waved to: 3
• number of girls who waved back: 2

In lieu of too much useful content, let me provide you with too many more pictures from my recent travels.

Filling the gaps from before, we have:

• Hawaii Day 3
• Hawaii Day 4
• Hawaii Day 7 (some pics added)
• Hawaii Day 8
• Hawaii Day 9

(All albums are publicly accessible from here.)

There are no pics from Day 5 (except for the cruise ship from the previous post). I spent most of that day napping and losing my sunglasses.

I just returned from an extended weekend road trip. Trip highlights: camping, In-N-Out Burger (twice!), and 102-degree California weather. I’ll post some details and pictures from that another day.

But for now, I hope a few pictures from my Hawaii trip(!) 2 weeks ago will suffice.

Me? In Hawaii?

Uh-huh.

My roommate was invited to go on a cruise to demonstrate Logos Bible Software to a crowd of Coral Ridge Ministries supporters. He told me I could get in for cheap, so I did.

It was my first trip to Hawaii, and Hawaii did not disappoint. Once I figured out that renting a car was often cheaper than the cruise line’s Shore Excursions, I was off the ship at each port exploring each island as much as I could.

The cruise departed from Honolulu, and we visited the big island (Hilo, Kona), Maui (overnight), and Kaua’i (overnight). My favorite was Kaua’i: the Na Pali coastline, Waimea Canyon, water falls, beaches, driving a Crossfire...

You really do have to go someday. Hawaii is often like how you see it in pictures: The water is green; the sky is blue in between puffy white clouds; the surf is up. Yep, you need to go.

If it were just me in my party, I’m not sure I’d do the cruise again. But the cruise had its benefits: the food was great. And, um... they had a few entertaining entertainers. And um... OK, so that was two things. I found that I was better off on my own schedule than I was on theirs. Different stokes for different folks, I guess.

On to the pics: Pretend this is like that time you went over to Uncle Rupert’s for what you thought was just dinner, but it turned out to be a 3 hour long slideshow of Rupert next to the pretty flowers... Mavis next to the pretty flowers... Rupert and Mavis next to the pretty flowers... Just smile and nod, and it’ll all be over soon.

• Hawaii Day 1
• Hawaii Day 2
• Hawaii Day 6
• Hawaii Day 7

Gaps in days are directly related to me not processing those days’ pictures.